Sure enough, as expected by Liu Mingzhao and others, Zhang Iquan still had some thoughts about the position of governor of Guangdong in his heart, and he was completely disdainful of persuasion. But I don't know whether the threat played a role, or whether Zhang Iquan was deliberately making a false accusation, in short, he fully agreed to the condition of not destroying the Guangshao Railway, and claimed: "It took six or seven years to build this section of the railway, and the gentry of the province were exhausted. Zhang is not talented and cannot benefit the people of the province; But as a Cantonese person, he never dared to demolish the railway for his own selfishness, and became the finger of Wanfu! ”

After receiving Zhang Iquan's assurance, everyone then worked hard and waited for the situation on the Xijiang defense line in Zhaoqing to change.

Speaking of the Xijiang defense line, it is impossible not to mention Long Jiguang and his "Ji Army".

Long Jiguang was born in a Tusi family in Mengzi County, Yunnan Province, because he was the third oldest among his brothers, it was basically hopeless to inherit the position of Tusi, and he had to go to Kunming, the provincial capital, to find an opportunity to get ahead when he became an adult. After drilling the camp, he really got in touch with a big man, that is, Cen Chunxuan, the third son of Cen Yuying, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou at the time, and the relationship between the two quickly warmed up, and soon became very close. Although Cen Yuying died in office, Cen Chunxuan left Yunnan with the help of the coffin, and Long Jiguang also returned to his hometown to handle the group training, his acquaintance with Cen Chunxuan became a stepping stone for him to smoothly embark on his official career, and also achieved his brilliant but inglorious life.

Zeng Guofan trained the township soldiers in his hometown, and finally led Xiang Yong to quell the Taiping Rebellion, winning the wealth and glory before his death and his death. This vivid example inspired countless careerists in the late Qing Dynasty, including Yuan Shikai and perhaps Long Jiguang. With the help of Tusi's salary status and family resources, he also organized two battalions of township soldiers in his hometown, and patiently waited for the time to come. After a long wait, he finally waited for his own spring.

In the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu (1903), a tin miners' rebellion occurred in Gejiu, not far from Mengzi, and then spread to Lin'an, Shiping and other places. Long Jiguang took advantage of the situation, led the army to participate in the encirclement and suppression, and stationed the military plane of Counselor Mengzi. After the riots were quelled, he was promoted to the rank of registered prefect and added the rank of salt transport envoy for his meritorious service to the emperor. From a township soldier leader with no rank, he has become a department-level cadre. This also gave him the first taste of the sweetness of "peace thieves and bandits".

Shortly thereafter, Cen Chunxuan, who was a close friend of the year, was appointed by the imperial court as the acting governor of Liangguang, and strictly ordered him to quickly quell the civil unrest in Guangxi to prevent it from spreading. - After all, there are lessons from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Cen Chunxuan felt that the Guangxi official army was completely a family of soldiers and bandits, which was unreliable and had little combat power, so he agreed with the Qing court. In addition, troops from Yunnan, Guangdong and other provinces were transferred to Guangxi to suppress the army, and the Yunnan army was the main force, supplemented by the Guangdong army.

Having said that, the combat power of the Yunnan army was indeed well-known from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, which made the Yunnan warlords such as Cai Yi, Tang Jiyao, Gu Pinzhen, Long Yun, and Lu Han have the confidence and strength to argue with the central government. Moreover, Sichuan has been in a state of civil strife, and the Sichuan army has no time to look south, and at the same time, the divided Sichuan can be used as a barrier for Yunnan. Resisting the central government's control of the southwest also allowed the Yunnan warlords to blatantly disobey the king.

In the Yunnan army dispatched by Cen Chunxuan, his former friend Long Jiguang was naturally indispensable, and Long Jiguang was allowed to recruit 10 battalions of 5,000 people in Yunnan to enter Guangxi to participate in the encirclement and suppression. Long Jiguang was overjoyed, and after trying his best to expand the army, he led his troops to Guangxi and began to suppress bandits on a large scale. In just a few years, he successively suppressed the Guangxi Huidang Uprising, the Zhennanguan Uprising, the Hekou Uprising and other riots. His hat was also raised from the registered prefect to the acting governor of Guangxi, the land governor of Guangdong, and the commander of the 25th town of the New Army. The "Ji Army" under his command has expanded from the initial 10 battalions to 30 battalions, with a strength of more than 15,000 troops, and has become a well-known armed force in the Liangguang region.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Guangdong was also ready to move, but Long Jiguang resisted vigorously, claiming that he had received the emperor's favor and wanted to do his duty to repay the Holy Lord, trying to kill all the revolutionaries with the Jijun and the 25th town of the New Army in his hands. Eventually, the situation in the country took a sharp turn for the worse. The general trend of the Republic of China has been achieved, and Long Jiguang had to express his approval of the revolution.

Although the revolutionaries had taken power in Guangdong, and they hated the Ji army that had bloodily suppressed the revolutionary uprising before, and they wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, the Kuomintang had no strength in its hands to match the Ji army. And continue to allocate generous food and salary to the Ji army to keep the two from conflicting. Long Jiguang also knew that the feud between the two was quite deep, and it was difficult to live in peace for a long time, and it would inevitably change over time. So he took the initiative to leave Guangzhou with the Ji army and stationed in what is now Wuzhou, Guangxi.

Long Jiguang's Ji army mainly took the Tusi Township soldiers brought from Yunnan as the backbone, these soldiers did not have strict modern military training, did not have much culture, and even were illiterate, but they had been on the battlefield for a long time, they all crawled out of the pile of dead people, each of them had three or five lives in their hands, and they were not afraid of death when they started fighting, and they were not soft when they killed people, and their combat power was really not to be underestimated. These people have followed Long Jiguang for one or two decades, and the younger ones have been seven or eight years, and they have blind superstition and strong foolish loyalty to the coach, and it is difficult to divide them.

Another point is that over the years, the Jijun army has mainly been active in Liangguang, and most of the people killed in Liangguang and Guangxi and revolutionaries have been killed, so the Jijun is notorious in Guizhou and Guangdong provinces, and "being able to stop crying" is by no means an empty word! At this moment, when I heard that the Ji army was going east, everyone from Hu Hanmin, the governor of Guangdong, to ordinary soldiers, was terrified, and it was obvious that everyone had a psychological shadow.

But if you want to say that you are most afraid, it is natural that the soldiers and people in Luoding and Zhaoqing who are on the front line of the battle between the Guangdong army and the Ji army, after all, artillery shells do not have eyes. If the Ji army kills them with red eyes to vent their anger, or wants to use this to intimidate downstream places not to resist, will they still have a way to live? It's better to take advantage of the fact that the big war has not broken out, so hurry up and run! From the rumor that the Ji army sent out to the Ji army in Deqing, the people of Luoding and Zhaoqing have fled ten rooms and nine emptiness.

Wang Daoyuan, the superintendent of the Zhaoluo Pacification Office appointed by Hu Hanmin, also knew how powerful Long Jiguang was, and knew that the patrol battalion in his hands alone could not defend against the attack of the Jiji army on land, and only by relying on the advantage of the ten warships under his command in the Xijiang waterway to crisscross freely, and to lead the area from point to point and attack the west, could he barely intercept the eastward movement of the Jiguang army. After making up his mind, he immediately asked Liang Mai, the governor of Deqing County, and Li Yaohan, the head of the First Regiment of the Zhaojun Army, to discuss the detailed strategy.

Wang Daoyuan did not hide it, and said straight to the point: "Governor Liang, Commander Li, now that the forward of the Ji army has approached Deqing, the situation is extremely critical, so Wang will make a long story short. Zhaoqing is the west gate of the provincial capital, and Deqing is the west gate of Zhaoqing, so we must fight with the Ji army in Deqing and resist the enemy in the west of the gate. I think the two of them know that the number of Ji troops is 20,000, and they have been famous for a long time; The total number of our army's patrol battalion and the first regiment of Commander Li is less than 10,000 people, and most of them are militiamen who lack training and are not fully equipped.

"Fortunately, the Deqing waterway is vertical and horizontal, with the Xijiang River running through the east and west, and the Maxu Water and the Nanjiang River flowing into the north and south, which is most suitable for water warfare. As for the Ji army, forgive Wang is lonely and unheard, and he has never heard of any gunboats they have, at most they are just a few small wooden boats. In this way, we have won on the water. In addition, we can also use the waterway to facilitate the cross-cutting and unpreparedness. If the army is stubborn, we can avoid it without fighting; If the army advances, we can cut off its grain routes, attack its baggage, and cause them to collapse without a fight. This is the way to win! What do you think? ”

Liang Mai and Li Yaohan glanced at each other, and then asked cautiously: "Lord Supervisor, the plan is a good plan, but what should I do in Deqing County?" ”

Wang Daoyuan waved his sleeves: "Don't you understand what I mean?" Let's let go of the land route, focus on the waterway, and as for Deqing County, we will give it to Long Jiguang if we don't bother. If Governor Liang feels that it is suspected of being an enemy to give the county seat to Long Jiguang for no reason, we can learn from Zhuge Liang to burn Xinye and burn Deqing City to the ground. Right! Even if we don't want it, we can't cheapen Long Jiguang's puppet. ”

Hearing that Wang Daoyuan planned to burn Deqing, Liang Mai and Li Yaohan were so frightened that their souls flew apart: Wang Daoyuan is a foreigner, and he has no relatives and no reason in Deqing, so he can naturally let go of his hands and feet regardless of it, but both of them are locals, and their wives and children, property and family business are all nearby, how dare they burn it and walk away? Besides, Long Jiguang's nickname of "butcher" is not called in vain, it is light to provoke him, killing people and setting fires!

Liang Mai said: "The enemy army destroyed the city before it arrived, leaving the people homeless, and the soldiers were resentful, but I am afraid that something is wrong, right?" ”

Wang Daoyuan replied: "This is also out of necessity! This battle is related to the gains and losses of Zhaoqing and the safety of the provincial capital, and the far is related to the survival of the republic and the victory or defeat of the revolution. In order to win, one cannot care about the gains and losses of one city or one place. As long as the revolution is victorious and the Republic of China succeeds, the country will inevitably compensate at that time! Therefore, Governor Liang must explain to the people. ”

Liang Mai said: How can this explanation be explained to the people? What Zhaoqing gains and losses, the safety of the provincial capital, the people of Deqing do not care at all; As for the survival of the republic and the victory or defeat of the revolution, ordinary people could not even dream of it; The victory of the revolution and the success of the Republic of China, who knows that it is the Year of the Monkey? In contrast, the property is the real thing.

Li Yaohan also said: "It is not easy to convince the people, and the advance of the Ji army is near, I am afraid that burning the city is not the best policy." Why don't you supervise the adults and see if there is any other way? ”

Wang Daoyuan said: "Only in this way is the best policy!" The two of them did not seek refuge in everything, thinking that the Qing court was authoritative, and we and other revolutionary aspirants were not afraid of death, and went forward to launch revolutions one after another, and finally overthrew the Manchu Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. Even though Long Jiguang killed countless revolutionaries, didn't he bow to us in the end? So as long as you are not afraid of death, everything can be done. The same is true of this battle of Deqing! ”

Li Yaohan and Liang Mai glanced at each other again, and then replied: "Yes, the subordinates obey the order!" ”

————

Note: Due to some well-known reasons, the editor informed Uncle He that he must dismiss Zhu Daizhen. His arms couldn't twist his thighs, so Uncle He had no choice but to let classmate Zhu be honorably laid off and go home to recuperate. Originally, there was a side story about Zhu's past and present life, but it could only be stopped. The vacant position of classmate Zhu was replaced by Yang Bojian, a brute general, and let him work with the crystal monkey Deng Xihou, which can be regarded as a good story. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. For mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian. )

PS: Keep asking for tickets for "2013 Best Work of the Year"!!