In the Xinuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City, the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor had no objection to Yiketang's request for additional troops, and Cixi asked Prince Gong Yixin: "Prince Gong, how many more troops do you say we should send to Fujian Province?" ”

Emperor Guangxu also looked at Prince Gong Yixin with an inquiring gaze, at present, the imperial court still has 2 towns of Wuwei Army that can be mobilized, 5 towns of the Beiyang Army, 2 towns of the Dingwu Army, and some new troops in the southern provinces can be mobilized, and the strength is still sufficient, of course, the threat of Lin Daxin's Dingbei Army cannot be considered at this time, if Lin Daxin really has the heart to wave his troops south, that is, the imperial court will concentrate the new army of the whole country in Beizhili, and it will not be able to resist the footsteps of the Dingbei Army, which the Qing court knows well.

Yi Xin thought for a moment and said: "Lafayette, the emperor, considering the grim situation in Fujian Province, the minister thinks that at least 5 more towns should be transferred from the Wuwei Army, the Beiyang Army and the Dingwu Army, and go south to join the counterinsurgency army, and use the overwhelming strength of Mount Tai to suppress the rebellion in Fujian Province, and in addition, the governors in the south can also mobilize more troops into Fujian Province to ensure that the counterinsurgency is foolproof." ”

Yi Xin's troop transfer plan also took the initiative to ignore the threat of the Northern Army under Lin Daxin's command.

Emperor Guangxu frowned and asked: "The Wuwei Army, the Beiyang Army and the Dingwu Army will transfer 5 more towns from them, how to transfer them?" ”

Yi Xin replied: "The minister is going to form an army of 5 towns from 1 town of the Wuwei Army, 3 towns of the Beiyang Army, and 1 town of the Dingwu Army. ”

Emperor Guangxu then asked: "There should be no problem with both the Wuwei Army and the Dingwu Army, but can the Beiyang Army send 3 towns by order?" ”

Yi Xin said: "The minister is going to send a telegram to Li Zhongtang in the UK, and I believe that Li Zhongtang will agree." ”

Cixi said at this time: "At this critical moment, Li Hongzhang can still be relied on, Prince Gong, in the telegram to Li Hongzhang, tell him that the mourning family believes that at this critical moment, he will be well aware of the righteousness and choose to be with the court." ”

Yi Xin nodded and said, "Yes, Lafayette." In addition, the ministers were ready to publicize the signing of the secret treaty between the Xingzhong Society and the seven countries, so that the Xingzhong Society would become the target of public criticism, and the ministers would make a stern protest against the seven countries on behalf of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Cixi and Guangxu glanced at each other, and there was no objection, as long as the matter of the Xingzhong Society signing a traitorous secret treaty with the 7 countries was shaken out, the righteousness was completely on the side of the imperial court, and sometimes the righteousness was very important.

In the end, Emperor Guangxu said: "Then let the new army of the five towns go south to support General Yiketanga, and give an order to the governors in the south, let them do their best to send troops to assist the main force of the imperial court to suppress the rebellion, and wipe out the rebels in Fujian Province, no matter what foreign forces, they cannot stop the determination of the imperial court to suppress the rebellion." ”

In the Wuyi Mountain area of Fujian Province, Yi Ketanga led the 4 towns of the new army is storming the position built by the Fujian ** Army using the mountain, although the Fujian ** Army uses the advantage of the mountain to resist desperately, but the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides still gives the attacking side an advantage, if there is no accident, it will not take a few days, the Wuyi Mountain defense line of the Fujian ** Army will be in vain.

However, at this time, Iktanga suddenly received a telegram from the imperial court, which immediately made Iketanga, who was sick, look even more ugly, and did not expect that Xingzhonghui would collude with 7 foreign powers, and a Japanese army of more than 20,000 people would join the battlefield in Fujian Province in a few days.

He is no stranger to the Japanese army Iketanga, during the first Sino-Japanese period, he led the army and the Japanese army to fight many battles, at that time the Japanese army's weapons and equipment were inferior to the Qing army, but most of the battles, the Japanese army still fought the Qing army collapsed, and he was also driven by the Japanese army from Korea all the way to the south of Shanhaiguan, and now he is going to fight with this old opponent again, but now he is not leading the Qing army at that time, and Iketanga is not afraid of the 20,000 Japanese army.

It's just that there are six countries that have signed secret treaties with the Xingzhong Society in addition to Japan, and no one can guarantee that they will not send large armies to directly participate in the war in Fujian Province like Japan, and in the face of the fact that the Japanese may continue to increase their troops, Iktang sent a telegram to the imperial court asking for reinforcements.

Subsequently, Yiketanga brought together the 3rd town of the Wuwei Army to control Liangbi, the 4th town of the Wuwei Army to control Tieliang, the 10th town of the Beiyang Army to control Wang Yingkai, and the 13th town of the Dingwu Army to control Wu Changchun, all of whom gathered together, and said that the Xingzhong Society signed a secret treaty of betrayal with the 7 countries and the fact that the Japanese 20,000 army was about to arrive in Fujian Province, which immediately made the 4 commanders excited, and the 4 towns began to invest more strength to launch a fierce attack on the Wuyishan defense line of the Fujian ** Army, and did not stop attacking even at night.

The Fujian ** army guarding the Wuyi Mountain defense line has 3 towns, but 2 towns have suffered a lot of losses in the previous Pucheng battle, so that the Fujian ** army in 3 towns has only 66,000 troops, most of them are recruits who have just joined the army, and in the face of the onslaught of the new army in 4 towns, some can not bear it, and then there are rumors in the army that Xingzhong will betray the country, which suddenly makes the military spirit of the Fujian ** army more unstable, and there are constantly deserters.

Wang Heshun, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian ** Army, has nothing to do in the face of this situation, he already knows that the Xingzhong Society has signed a secret agreement with 7 countries, and even he, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian ** Army, thinks that this matter Xingzhong will do inappropriately, and it can even be said that it is too cheap.

However, Wang Heshun still stubbornly took the unstable Fujian ** army in the Wuyi Mountain area, resisted the 4 towns of the new army for 3 days, and let the 4 towns of the new army completely break through the Wuyi Mountain defense line on May 1, Wang Heshun took the Fujian ** army of less than 10,000 people all the way to the south of Fujian Province.

At this time, the 6th Division of the Japanese Army had already entered Fujian Province and built fortifications inside and outside Nanping City, preparing to resist the main force of the Qing Dynasty's counterinsurgency army in Nanping. Of course, most of the people who repaired the fortifications were the ordinary people of Nanping City, who were forced by the Japanese army with bayonets, and some of them did not work hard, and the soldiers of the Japanese army would never hesitate, basically solving the problem with a bayonet, and at the same time deterring other Nanping people.

In addition, the military discipline of the Japanese army is not good, and robberies and disasters of women occur from time to time, which makes the people of Nanping itch the roots of their hatred for the Japanese army, and at the same time hate the Fujian ** army and the Xingzhong Association that led the wolf into the house.

The Qing court announced that the Xingzhong Society and the 7 countries signed a secret treaty to sell the country, so that this secret treaty has become an open secret, and now the attitude of the people in Fujian Province is definitely 180 degrees of rotation, and I don't know how many Fujian people scold the Xingzhong Society and the Fujian ** army.

Waiting for Wang Heshun to retreat to Nanping with less than 6,000 Fujian ** Army, on the way to retreat, some of the officers and soldiers of the Fujian ** Army broke up by themselves, and found that the inside and outside of Nanping City had been received by the Japanese army, and the Fujian ** Army originally stationed in Nanping 1 Association had been evacuated to support the Fujian ** Army in the area of Fuding County, Wang Heshun thought for a moment, and even did not enter Nanping City, so he continued to retreat to Fuzhou City with the remnants of the army.

After Wang Heshun retreated all the way to Fuzhou City, he saw Sun Wen who had added a little gray hair in a secret room, and couldn't help complaining: "President, the matter of signing a secret treaty with 7 countries is really not considered enough, and now the whole world knows about this matter, our Xingzhong Association has almost become a thousand people's fingers, and the military morale of the Fujian ** army has also been greatly affected, and a large number of deserters have appeared in Wuyi Mountain, and finally I retreated from Wuyi Mountain with nearly 10,000 people, and now there are less than 4,000 people who follow me to Fuzhou City." ”

From Nanping to Fuzhou, more than 2,000 people were dispersed, and Wang Heshun was very aggrieved.

Sun Wen didn't know the current situation, he was under more pressure, otherwise he wouldn't have grown white hair in a few days, Sun Wen said with a wry smile: "At that time, I just thought that I didn't want to be wiped out by the Manchu army, so I took an expedient measure and signed a secret agreement with 7 countries, but I didn't expect that just after the secret agreement was signed, the Manchu Qing Dynasty got the details of the secret agreement, so that we Xingzhong will be passive all of a sudden, which is really not what we want!" ”

Sun Wen already regretted signing a secret agreement with 7 countries in his heart, even if it was the failure of Fujian Province this time, his Xingzhong Society still had the ability to organize similar uprisings again and again, but now that the secret agreement was announced to the public, all of a sudden Xingzhong would be put on fire, and the reputation would be a little bad, if the uprising in Fujian Province was still exterminated by the Qing army, the blow to the Xingzhong Society would simply be ruined, even the country was sold, and it had not yet stood up, so that Xingzhong would have no hope of re-rising.

The secret agreement was made public so quickly, which Sun Wen did not expect, which made the signing of the secret agreement more than worth the loss.

Wang Heshun opened his mouth, and originally wanted to continue to complain about the signing of secret treaties with the 7 countries, but looking at Sun Wen with a sad face, Wang Heshun changed his tone and asked: "President, how is the situation in the area of Fuding County and Zhangzhou?" ”

Sun Wen said with a wry smile: "The situation is not optimistic, as soon as the matter of the secret agreement is made public, the military morale in those two places is also unstable, I have coordinated the two of Ningde and Nanping to two places, and at present I can only barely resist the attack of the Qing army." ”

Wang Heshun frowned and asked, "Then what happened to our newly formed Fujian ** Army?" ”

Sun Wen said helplessly: "Don't mention it, since our secret agreement with the 7 countries was announced, it has been difficult to recruit mutinies, and many of the original recruits have escaped, and at present, under the training of 100 British instructors and 100 French instructors, there are only less than 15,000 new troops." ”

Wang Heshun's brows furrowed even tighter, when he left, he hadn't recruited nearly 20,000 recruits, but he didn't expect that after so many days, the recruits not only did not increase, but decreased a lot. R1152