Bai Wenwei's First Army of the Republic of China had only three infantry divisions of less than 10,000 men, and there was a serious shortage of light and heavy equipment, so it was almost impossible for these people to take Anhui.

So after throwing aside the telegram sent back by Wang Zhuhuai, Bai Wenwei rushed to the garrisons of several other armies by car.

At this time, a total of 5 armies were stationed in Nanjing, namely Bai Wenwei's First Army, Xu Baoshan's Second Army, Wang Zhixiang's Third Army, Yao Yuping's Fourth Army, and Zhu Rui's Fifth Army. Except for Bai Wenwei's first army, which has three divisions, the remaining four armies have only two divisions, and these more than ten divisions have a common problem, that is, they are all less than 10,000 people.

In addition to these five armies, there are many stragglers in Nanjing, which is why there are more than 200,000 people in Nanjing.

In fact, there have been many changes in history at this time, because in history, the establishment of these five armies was only established in April, and the establishment of seven infantry divisions was established along with it. And now it is only late February, and it can only be said that there have been some changes in history, but so far only these five armies have been reorganized, and the remaining stragglers have divisions, brigades, regiments and battalions, and it may take a long time to reorganize them.

"Anhui..."After hearing Bai Wenwei's intention, Xu Baoshan's eyes rolled.

The main object of Bai Wenwei's visit this time was the commanders of the other four armies in Nanjing, and now they are the strongest in Nanjing. As for some of the other stragglers, although there were quite a few of them. also hung the signs of divisions and brigades, but Bai Wenwei didn't look down on them at all.

Naturally, if you really want to fight Anhui. It is impossible for Bai Wenwei to forget these people, after all, the more people, the greater the certainty. But at that time, Bai Wenwei only needs to inform him, and there is no need to contact him in person...

"If you attack Anhui without authorization, will the government blame it?" Although he was a little moved, Xu Baoshan was still not worried.

In history, Xu Baoshan's reputation is not good, this person is burly. The arm strength is superhuman, and it is a tiger, so it is called 'Xu Laohu' (another saying: because of its great strength, it is often outnumbered. hence the nickname "Xu Laohu"). In 1893, Xu Baoshan participated in the "Fairy Temple Robbery" and fled to his hometown of Dantu, and was later arrested by the Qing court and sent to Gansu, but he successfully escaped when he passed through Shandong. Then he dived into the rivers and lakes and became a big salt lord. It is in the north of the power and the Huai River in the south to the Yangtze River. In its heyday, there were tens of thousands of party members. However, after the Xinhai Revolution, the original governor of the Yangzhou Military Government was killed by him.

It's just that the governor named Sun Tiansheng is actually an impostor, so the alliance did not pursue it, but made Xu Baoshan the commander of the second army.

It's just that after all, he was born in a bandit, and he became the governor of Yangzhou, and there are many people in the alliance who don't like him, and he doesn't want to leave a handle for others.

"You don't have to worry about this..."Seeing that Xu Baoshan was already moved, he was worried about the reaction of the provisional government. Bai Wenwei hurriedly said. "The one surnamed Yan is already angry in Anhui, and this time it was the local gentry in Anhui who invited us to Anhui. And now the situation of the military government, I believe that Brother Xu is also very clear, the empty treasury can't even feed the rats, if we don't want our brothers to drink the northwest wind with us, we can only fend for ourselves..."

"And I believe that Brother Xu also knows that Wuhu and Dangtu are both first-class rich places in China, as long as they can win either of the ends, the predicament of the provisional government can be alleviated or even solved a lot, in this case, even if the presidential palace knows the way, it will acquiesce..." …… Among the people who invited us to Anhui this time, there were..."

After hearing Li Guoyun's name, Xu Baoshan was taken aback. "Even he has..."

Looking at Xu Baoshan's surprised appearance, Bai Wenwei smiled slightly. "If it weren't for that, how could Bai come to Brother Xu..."

Seeing that Li Guoyun's name came out, Xu Baoshan finally made up his mind.

"Since that's the case, then good, let's ask Brother Bai to set a time, and Xu will definitely follow at that time..."

Xu Baoshan's promise made Bai Wenwei look happy. "In this case, then Bai Mou thanked Brother Xu here first..."

In fact, Bai Wenwei doesn't think much of Xu Baoshan, because he knows very well what Xu Baoshan did in the past, Bai Wenwei was born in a scholarly family, and he was born in an orthodox soldier, and Xu Baoshan is not a person at all. It's just that this time, in the process of inviting other armies to participate in the operation, things did not go as smoothly as he imagined. Of the 5 armies, his first army naturally cannot be counted, and in addition to Xu Baoshan's second army, Wang Zhixiang of the third army is still hesitating, but Yao Yuping and Zhu Rui have clearly refused.

According to them, they would not act with Bai Wenwei unless the Nanjing government issued an order. Fortunately, there is still a large group of stragglers in the city who are restless because they can't eat, otherwise this plan can be directly declared a failure.

"But even if there is only my First Army and Xu Baoshan's Second Army, as long as I can bring a few more divisions to help, it should be enough to take Anhui." Bai Wenwei's First Army had three divisions, and although each division was less than 10,000 people, there were almost 30,000 people.

Xu Baoshan's Second Army had only two divisions, both of which were also less than 10,000 people, but they combined with Bai Wenwei's First Army also had 46,700 men. This number is already seven or eight thousand more than the regular army in Anhui, and if there are even three or four more divisions, Bai Wenwei will be able to occupy an absolute advantage in numbers.

And in Bai Wenwei's view, he has another advantage.

Yan Shao occupies the whole province of Anhui, in other words, he must be responsible for the security of the whole province. Even if there are large soldiers pressing the border, it is impossible to concentrate all the troops in one place, and it is necessary to leave some remaining troops in each place.

And Bai Wenwei doesn't have this problem, Nanjing, although now Yuan Shikai has officially become the provisional president of the Republic of China, but according to the meaning of Nanjing. Yuan Shikai should have come to Nanjing to take over the post of president, but Yuan Shikai obviously had no intention of coming, so now Nanjing is still the capital of China—————— although it is temporary.

The capital of China. In the current situation, there is obviously no need to worry that someone will come to the door, and there are almost more than 200,000 civilian troops in Nanjing now, even if there are more than 100,000 people who follow Bai Wenwei this time, there are still 100,000 troops left in Nanjing.

In other words, Bai Wenwei can directly concentrate his forces to advance to the hinterland of Anhui without worrying about the problems in the rear. Bai Wenwei is an orthodox soldier, so he naturally understands how much advantage he has.

————————————————————

After bidding farewell to Xu Baoshan, Bai Wenwei signaled his adjutant to visit the various units in Nanjing one by one. And conveyed to them the idea of his decision to enter Anhui Province and uphold justice for the local people, naturally. During the period, he also said slightly, and when he won Anhui Province, he would definitely not treat everyone badly...

Everyone knows how not to treat the law badly.

What's their biggest headache right now? Money is a problem. What's in Anhui? Money!

Needless to say, the rest will be said. It's okay to comprehend it on your own.

At present, the people's army in Nanjing is in a chaotic mess, some are based on divisions, some are brigades, some are regiments, and some are even battalions and companies. It's very troublesome to count, but the news from Bai Wenwei's side has just come out, and there are already more than a dozen messy groups signing up. Roughly counted, there are almost 10,000 people. And more and more people are signing up to participate...

There are a lot of people, but there is also a problem when there are too many people, that is, if there is anything, it is not easy to keep it secret...

Now the people of the Special Affairs Bureau are active in Nanjing, and they want to know what the matter discussed between Wang Zhuhuai and Li Guoyun is in Nanjing, but in the blink of an eye, in Nanjing, the Alliance Association is going to attack Anhui, and the news that everyone will get rich together is overwhelming.

What's more, in the past, the Secret Service Bureau also developed a lot of people in Nanjing, so I quickly learned the details, and learned that the traitor was Li Guoyun and others...

But just when the people from the Secret Service Bureau sent the news back to Anqing, Li Guojun had already disappeared...

"To be exact, I went to Shanghai..."Looking at Fu Xiuming and the others around the conference table, Yan Shao smiled helplessly. There's no way, who told that guy that guy is still the deputy governor of Anhui, and he can't be put under house arrest until there is conclusive evidence..."

"Then are you just letting that guy run?" Zhang Ying said angrily.

He just rushed back from Suzhou, because Li Guoyun was the leader of the constitutionalist faction in the past, so Zhang Ying has always respected Li Guoyun, who would have thought that now he actually colluded with outsiders, how could Zhang Ying not be angry.

"Naturally, it can't be counted like that." Yan Shao shook his head. "It's just that the most important thing right now is how to deal with those guys in the Alliance..."

According to the information obtained by the Special Affairs Bureau, the number of people who may be dispatched by the alliance this time is about 80,000 or 90,000, and although they are all rabble, the pressure on the nascent Anhui Revolutionary Army is undoubtedly very amazing.

When talking about this matter, Zhang Ying and Fu Xiuming's expressions also became much heavier.

As people of this era, they are not like Yan Shao, who is born with a contemptuous attitude towards the army of the Alliance.

He knew this in his heart, so Yan Shao didn't say anything, but asked after a deep sigh.

"How's the training of the troops?"

"It's almost done..."Fu Xiuming hurriedly replied. At present, the initial training of the troops has been completed, and in terms of quality, it may not be comparable with the Beiyang or Southern New Army, but it is much stronger than the ordinary civilian army. ”

"That's enough...", bowing slightly, Yan Shao's fingers tapped lightly on the table top. Now the junta has a total of three divisions plus one regiment, that is, more than 38,000 people, and the alliance will be more than twice as many as us in terms of strength, but we also have many cities that need troops to garrison, and the alliance will have an advantage over us in this regard, and they don't need to worry about the problem of Nanjing at all..."Saying that, Yan Shao looked at Fu Xiuming and Zhang Ying. "What is the junta's approach to the invading enemy?"

"Draw troops from the defense areas of Suzhou, Anqing and Huizhou to Dangtu and Wuhu and concentrate troops for defense..."Fu Xiuming smiled bitterly and glanced at Zhang Ying before facing Yan Shaodao. Now there's only one way..."

That's true. If it were in normal times, Yan Shao might still be able to play tricks to lure the enemy deep or something, but when Tu and Wuhu were important, the importance of Yan Shao was self-evident. It is the place where Yan Shao started, and it is also the Anhui military government, and even the industrial core of China in the future, whether it is the iron factory in Xiangshan or the industrial zone in Wuhu, the importance is self-evident, and if these two places are taken by the alliance, it is obvious how much help the alliance will have.

In other words, regardless of the outcome. Yan Shaodu could only choose to defend in Dangtu.

dropped Dangtu and Wuhu, which means that Yan Shao's hard work over the years has been in vain.

Standing up from his seat, Fu Xiuming explained the battle plan to Yan Shao. “…… According to the opinion of the staff officers. In addition to the two regiments originally stationed in Wuhu and Dangtu, we will also transfer two regiments from Suzhou, three regiments from Huizhou, and two regiments from Anqing. Enabled the number of defenders in Dangtu to reach 9 regiments. That is, more than 18,000 people, all these troops were concentrated on the Dangtu line. And all the artillery regiments and cavalry regiments of the divisions were organized into reserves and stationed in Wuhu ...

When they said this, whether it was Fu Xiuming or Zhang Ying, they were a little helpless. Although the three divisions of the Anhui Revolutionary Army are now fully staffed, the artillery imported from abroad has not yet arrived, so the artillery regiment can only be used as an infantry regiment, and the cavalry regiment is even more miserable. The cavalry battalion, however, did not even have a horse, because the horses purchased from Europe had not yet arrived. Although there are some Mongolian horses, they are seriously undernumerous.

The most important thing is that the attacking side is Bai Wenwei now, and Yan Shao is the defensive side. Moreover, the distance between Dangtu and Nanjing is only more than 50 kilometers, and sending cavalry to attack and disturb the back road at such a distance is definitely a dead act, so since there are no horses, it is better to turn them into infantry to use.

3 artillery regiments plus 3 cavalry regiments, almost 10,000 people, in other words, Yan Shao can probably gather nearly 30,000 troops on the front line of Dangtu and Wuhu, although it is still a lot less than Bai Wenwei, but at least it will not be desperate...

"But if all the troops are transferred over and only this few troops are left, will there be insufficient troops in other directions? What if Yuan Shikai or the alliance will find trouble from other directions? ”

After listening to Fu Xiuming's troop allocation, Zong Wu said with some concern.

In fact, two regiments were left in Suzhou, one each in Anqing and Huizhou, in order to guard against attacks from other directions by Beiyang and the Alliance. It's just that in Zong Wu's opinion, such a small number of troops is obviously a bit too thin.

"Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has not implemented the ID card, household registration system and reserve system in Suzhou and Huizhou very smoothly..."Seeing Zongwu's worried look, Fu Xiuming hurriedly explained. Therefore, we decided to mobilize a certain number of civilians from the local area as reserves to assist the regular army in the defense work, and as long as there is a certain reserve as a supplement, unless it is Beiyang south, the garrison should have no problem withstanding the attack of the League in other directions..."

"Beiyang doesn't need to worry...", Yan Shao interjected at this time. Even if the Beiyang side wants to take advantage of the fire to rob, there is one thing missing, money, Nanjing has already given the soldiers no salary, so it will make so many people run to Anhui, anyway, the distance between Nanjing and Dangtu is not far, as long as they are told that when Tu has money, there is no need to do any mobilization, but Beiyang is different, Beiyang is a regular army, and a lot of preparations need to be made when acting, especially important...... Extraction fee..."

Beiyang's military salary is 7 yuan per month, which is considered a high salary in this era, after all, many workers in this era only have a dime a day, or even less than a dime, and it is only 3 yuan a month.

However, the military can be said to be a high-risk job in this era, so such a high salary has become a matter of course. It's just that in China in this era, the army is not responsible for the food of the soldiers, that is, if you want to eat, you pay for yourself ...

Therefore, before the army is dispatched, a promotion fee must be paid first.

Although Beiyang's financial situation is stronger than Nanjing's, but it is also limited, this development fee Beiyang will never be able to come out, naturally there is no need to worry about the problem of Beiyang going south, as for Nanjing's alliance—————— they are poor and about to starve to death, this time they came to Anhui to find a way to live, naturally there is no need to pay any opening fees.

"The poor are dying of starvation..."Thinking of the financial situation in Nanjing, a thought suddenly popped up in Yan Shao's heart. But soon he got his attention back to business. "How's it going on with weapons? Machine guns have been deployed to every unit ...

"Please rest assured that although the machine guns of the Germans have not yet arrived, the existing troops that have arrived are all fine, and now the divisions have been fully equipped with 432 light machine guns and 144 heavy machine guns, a total of 576..."

These were all smashed down with money, 576 in one division, more than 1,700 in three divisions, and the Germans seemed to have only deployed more than 400 machine guns in the Somme back then...

"What about artillery?"

"This..."Fu Xiuming coughed awkwardly. Because the artillery imported from Germany has not yet arrived, the whole army is now equipped with artillery...... 6 doors..."(To be continued......)