It was a few days before the news of the clash between the Left Route Army and the Beiyang Army formed by the reserve force reached the ears of Long Qian, who commanded the main force of the Right Route Army to go to Wuding Mansion day and night. When Lu Shan, who commanded the advance team composed of the intelligence department, the logistics department, and the advance cavalry company, reported a report on the preparations of the Wuding River Defense and the local government, Long Qian didn't care about that trivial matter at all.

Although he knew the consistent behavior of the government, in the absence of capable subordinates and scientific statistical methods, he could not trust any numerical things issued by the government. The information about river defense received before, on the whole, gave Long Qian a feeling that it was not serious. However, Long Qian was angry about several of the circumstances reported by Lu Shan: the rain in May and early June, the reality of the river embankments in Potai and Lijin counties, and the stockpiling of supplies along the coast. Lu Shan's report gave him the impression that Wuding Prefecture and the counties below basically did not make any preparations to fight the flood. It is still in a state of resignation, and the embankment is in danger of collapsing at any moment.

Lu Shan had already led an advance team from Potai to Qingcheng, along the river to the west, to investigate the situation of the remaining sections of the embankment on the spot. He said that he had met Chen Peiyu, the prefect of Wuding, and was looking forward to the arrival of the army day and night.

What kind of dick Chen Peiyu is Long Qian doesn't care, of course, he still needs to cooperate with this Chen Governor, even if he is a faint official, he can't leave him now. Long Qian was worried that he would take the initiative to send troops to fight the flood this time, and in that case, his game of chess would stink.

Originally, he volunteered to lead his army north to fight the flood in order to show the military presence of the Mengshan Army. When the Manchu court began to reorganize its army in full swing, it was unwise for its own well-trained army to hide in the ravines and remain unaware. The six towns of Beiyang are about to come out. I should at least occupy the number of a town, otherwise I will be sorry for everyone's efforts in the past two years. In Shandong, it is absolutely impossible to put two towns (divisions) at the same time, so if the Mengshan Army is to be organized into a town of the New Army, Feng Guozhang's thousands of soldiers must leave Shandong. If that happens, more than half of his plan to dominate Shandong will be successful.

Long Qian knew that his development in Lunan had reached a bottleneck. The area of Yizhou and Yanzhou is considered to be large among the prefectures of Shandong, especially Yizhou. But the location is not good, mainly the traffic problem. The population is also small. The population of the two states is less than 2 million. There are already signs of a shortage of labor, and the overall quality of the population is certainly not as good as that of the plains. In this case, the industrial layout of Lunan has been developed to the extreme, and it is a little unscientific for some planned industries to invest in Lunan again. That would be limited by population, transportation and resources. Especially traffic. So. Long Qiancai put the cigarette factory, which is destined to be a big money-making project, in Jinan.

The Mengshan Army will definitely walk out of Lunan, just like when it walked out of Mengshan and walked out of Zhengjiazhuang. Only to occupy the core area of Shandong militarily. Jinan, Tai'an, Qingzhou and other places, Huayuan and Zhongxing, as well as the industrial groups that will appear in the future, can continue to follow the footsteps of the army to drive the factory to the whole province. Without the protection of the military, business, especially the glamorous one, is not safe.

But how can you get out of Lunan? Of course, it was to expel Feng Guozhang's troops from Shandong. Now because of the two cash cows of Huayuan and ZTE, Zhou Fu has completely fallen to himself. If Feng made a mistake, Zhou Fu would not cover it up for him. But Feng Guozhang is a very careful person, and it is not easy to find his major mistakes.

In the two years since Feng was the governor of Shandong, he was at peace with the Mengshan army, and his subordinates never entered Lunan one step. And Long Qian buried himself in the development of Lunan, and he also urgently needed a peaceful environment, and of course he did not want to provoke the Feng family. Therefore, in the past two years, the two armies on the ground in Shandong, which are not subordinate to each other, have coexisted peacefully. Long Qian had never seen Feng since that visit, and he had never visited the door again. As the governor of Shandong, Feng nominally had full authority over Shandong's defense, but he never set foot in Lunan. However, Long Qian's posture is low, and every New Year's Day, he always has to give Feng a relatively rich gift. Feng is no better than Duan Qirui, who is honest and self-controlled, and he smiles every time he gives gifts.

Long Qian took the flood fight as an opportunity and suddenly pushed Feng Guozhang to the forefront. Although Feng was greedy, he saw through Long Qian's "sinister" intentions at a glance. He would never go to Wuding for flood control, because he knew that that section of the river was the most dangerous in the entire Shandong section. After convincing Zhou Fu to defend Wuding by the right flank of the Weisheng Army, Feng Guozhang did not relax. More than once, he scolded Long for being a mediocre person who disturbed himself and had to push the army into the fire pit.

Long Qian's intentions are clear at a glance.

In fact, the Feng family was willing to leave Shandong and return to the banner of Yuan Shikai. In his opinion, the post of Shandong Admiral is far less promising than returning to Yuan Shikai to be a new army coordinator. This has been confirmed by many parties.

The year before (1901), Yuan Shikai took over as the governor of Zhili and couldn't wait to set up three associations (brigades) of the New Army, which were handed over to Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and Liu Yongqing respectively. Feng Guozhang was in a mood. This year, the Qing court set up the Central Military Training Department, with Yixuan, a big corrupt official, as the general office, and Yuan Shikai as his deputy, and set up three divisions of military orders, military science, and military administration, with Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen, and Liu Yongqing as the chief envoys, and figures such as Lu Jianzhang and Lu Jiagu also ascended to the position of deputy envoys, which made Feng Guozhang even more angry. In Feng's view, there is no more suitable person than him to be in charge of the Military Science Department, Wang Shizhen is suitable for the Military Administration Department rather than the Military Science Department, as for Liu Yongqing, compared to the so-called "three masters", his ability is even worse.

At the beginning, Yuan Shikai left Feng in the main army in Shandong, of course, the purpose was to contain the Mengshan army and not make it big, but Feng Guozhang obviously couldn't do it. If you can't use force, there are very few other options. The reason why he can't use force is, of course, that he has no capital, Yuan Shikai only left him three incomplete battalions, and capable generals such as Cao Kun and Li Chun were all taken to Zhili by Yuan Shikai, and the only outstanding general left was Chen Guangyuan, who graduated from the martial arts academy. How can you go against the Mengshan army? It's good if people don't look for bad luck.

Expansion? That needs a lot of money, Feng Guozhang obviously doesn't have the skills of Long Qian in this regard, he didn't think about the source of funds for Mengshan Army, those so-called rumors such as American capital and Shanxi ticket numbers Feng has always been suspicious. But he also did not think that the money to support the expansion of the Mengshan Army, the purchase of a large number of weapons and the establishment of a large industry was stolen from the Beijing Division. For a time, Feng Guozhang suspected that it was Shandong Fantai who transferred a large amount of silver to Lunan, so he also looked for Zhou Fu theory. However, Zhou Fu swore that the province only gave Long Qian's troops an annual military expenditure of 500,000 yuan, which was only the amount set by the imperial court. Long Qian has a way to scrape out the silver from the two states of Lunan, which is his ability, but there is no additional support in the province, and there is no money to support it.

Even so, in the past two years, Feng Guozhang still managed to expand his troops into seven battalions (including one in Caozhou), and in terms of weapons, Yuan Shikai supported him, and he also bought a batch from the Germans. Funds are mainly paid by the province. exceeded the budget for military spending. It is estimated that Yuan Shikai put pressure on Zhou Fu. While dealing with the Germans with weapons, Feng Guozhang discovered that the Germans had sold weapons to the Mengshan Army in large quantities. And it was clearly felt that the Germans preferred to cooperate with the Mengshan army. This worries him greatly. Germans, British, Japanese, and barbarians who only see interests. Where did Long Qian get the money to buy weapons? Do you rely on Lunan's industry?

Mention Lunan's industry. Feng Guozhang wanted to go to Lunan several times to inspect in person. But I can't pull it down. So all the news is hearsay. But one thing is for sure. No matter how good his business is, he is still a spender at the beginning, and it is impossible to provide support for his military spending. So. Still didn't solve his doubts about Long Qian's source of funds. In the end, it can only be thought that the Americans and the Shanxi ticket number helped Long Qian.

Feng wanted to know how many guns Long Qian had bought from the Germans, but he never got the go. It's just that the department of Zhilu Dao Longqian is already a fully staffed association, with cavalry, artillery, engineering, and baggage. He also set up a camp school and invited German instructors to train his officers, and everything was the same as when he was a small station. It is already a powerful force, with an estimated total strength of 7000~8000, and its equipment exceeds that of the Shandong New Army, which will not be inferior to the main force of Beiyang. As for the combat effectiveness, just looking at how many dozen bandits entrenched in Lunan were swept away in just a few months, how bad can their combat effectiveness be? In fact, there is no need to doubt that the Beiyang Army has fought with it many times, which time has the upper hand? At the beginning, with those few people and weapons, he was still able to resist the three-way siege presided over by Yuan Shikai himself, but now his strength has more than doubled, and the seven battalions in his hands are really not the opponents of others.

If they squat in Lunan and claim to be the king, it would be a good thing. However, Feng Guozhang always believed that Long Qian would never be satisfied with a two-state town guard. Now, he has finally come out and taken advantage of the so-called flood fight.

This opportunity is even more of a bad move in Feng Guozhang's view. After Feng Shi got Chen Guangyuan's report on Gushanyi, he suppressed the anger in his heart, and now he can't care about theorizing with the Mengshan Army, because the river defense problem from Tai'an to Jinan that he manages himself is also very big.

Since the fourth month of the lunar calendar, heavy rain has fallen on the land of Qilu one after another, and the provincial capital Jinan has collapsed houses, and it is not his duty as the governor of Shandong to collapse the houses and waterlogging, but Feng Guozhang has constantly received news from other channels about Jinan and Wuding about the emergency of the Yellow River, which makes him nervous. If the Yellow River breaks near Jinan Province, no one can say how much harm it will cause. If something like that happened, Zhou Fuding and other magistrates couldn't eat and walk, even he, the supreme general of the garrison, could not escape the blame, and even if he escaped punishment, his future would be greatly shadowed. So Zhou Fu came back from Lunan and proposed to use the army to protect the berm, but Feng Guozhang only chose the location, but did not object. Preserving the levee became a common interest.

The Mengshan army has been dispatched thousands of miles and marched at a rapid pace. The assembly of Feng's officers and soldiers did not go well. The battalion in Caozhou was assigned to the command of the Mengshan Army, and Feng Guozhang didn't care about it. The six battalions of the main force were divided into two, the three battalions in Tai'an were handed over to Chen Guangyuan, and the three battalions in Jinan, plus some auxiliary troops, were directly commanded by themselves. It is obviously unrealistic for thousands of people to defend hundreds of miles of the river, and it is more important to rely on the people. The two prefectures of Tai'an and Jinan have requisitioned tens of thousands of people to protect the berms. Feng's method is actually the same as Long Qian's, the army guards the dangerous area, divides the responsibilities, and each is responsible.

However, from the time the order was issued, it had not been fully assembled in two days, and only a battalion from Jinan Prefecture had been able to defend the river, which made Feng Guozhang very dissatisfied. Then he sent his cronies and staff officers to personally set off to urge the troops to go up the embankment, and he himself set off from Jinan, all the way to the west, whenever he saw the troops, he must tell him like this, "This time I am competing with the Mengshan Army, and I will make it clear to you, no one can lose my face in Beiyang!" ”

Face is the most important thing. Of course, Feng Guozhang couldn't imagine that many years later, Beiyang would compete with the Mengshan Army, which would not be a fight for face, but the right to survive of the group.

On the first day of inspection, Feng walked west from the Yellow River embankment in the northern suburbs of Jinan, walking about 20 miles of river defense, and the most worrying thing was that the strength of the embankment was obviously worse than he imagined, the width of the embankment was enough, but the height seemed to be not good, because the water level was only about two feet from the top of the embankment, and the turbid Yellow River water with dead branches and rotten leaves flowed silently to the northeast. Looking further down, the water level is more than a foot higher than the ground!

Due to the rising water level upstream, the embankment overhanging the riverbed feels a little soft after continuous immersion. Although the prefect of Ding has organized a large number of people to pick up soil and strengthen the embankment, I am afraid that it will not help. In the event of a levee break...... Feng Guozhang didn't dare to think about it anymore.

This day was June 23, 1903, and Feng Guozhang received an autograph written by Long Qian with a Western fountain pen, which was also a coincidence, and Long Qian mentioned the problem of the embankment failure straight to the point:

"Admiral Feng Daren Xunjian: Inspect the river embankment around Wuding, the situation is extremely dangerous. Due to the poor material of the embankment, even if there is no heavy rain in recent days, there is a risk of the embankment collapsing. It is speculated that the areas of Jinan and Tai'an that the adults are protecting, or the situation is the same. For today's plan, we must prepare a plan to build a backup embankment behind the most dangerous area, just in case it ......" Feng Guozhang, who read this letter, was shocked, and Long Qian, who was in Wuding, was ready to collapse the embankment?

How should this plan be done?

Contrary to Feng Guozhang, Wuding Mansion has already taken action. After looking at the embankment, Long Qian made the worst plan, that is, to take the initiative to break the embankment! When this method was proposed, it immediately shocked Governor Chen.

"This must not be done...... Chen Peiyu thought about it, and he really couldn't bear the responsibility.

"Lord Chen, the river embankment is soft, and it really can't withstand the blows of one or two flood peaks," Long Qian said coldly to Chen Peiyu, who was colorless, "Taking the initiative to flood can minimize the harm." The method is to choose a place where there are few people and low land, and take the initiative to open the embankment when it is in danger to reduce the pressure elsewhere......"

This plan was immediately endorsed by the two old river workers who attended the meeting.

"Of course, we also have to do a good job. That is to hold the levee from breaking. The first is to God to give face, and the second is our business. Now that we need more sandbags, stones, wood, and other supplies, the list is already available, so please hand over the required supplies to our army immediately.

"After dividing the work, Lord Chen and Chief of Staff Ning chose a good flood area, dispersed the households, and chose a location to establish a reserve defense line. Shi Jun, the first-line troops are mainly Lushan's headquarters and engineer battalions, and the rest are second-line troops, which are handed over to you to lead, mainly to prepare for the flood area. (To be continued......)

PS: Things are going on at home, and the pneumonia is not getting better. My friend, who is a doctor, dragged me to a check-up this afternoon and dragged me back to the hospital. The Spring Festival is approaching, and there are many things in the unit. The manuscript is a bit messy, please forgive me.