Compared with the Seventh Army, the Sixth Army commander He Feihu's actions are much more active, these months he has always been in the rear to inspect and deter local troops, once he has time, he will go to Longtan and Chen Wei to discuss the issue of relieving the siege, although he has been defeated by Xu Ping at the beginning of the previous attempts to relieve the siege of Chun (He Feihu and Chen Wei did not dare to go deep alone, the so-called siege relief operation is mainly multi-faceted fire reconnaissance, and at the beginning of these operations were not small losses. But the councillors have also been tempered and have learned a lot from them. Before the airship flew into Chunhua, the council division tried for the first time to attack a small fortress of the Shun army with only a few hundred people, trying to open a communication channel to cover some messengers to enter, but in front of the elite officers and soldiers of the guard battalion, the Ming army was beaten all over the field, paying the price of more than 300 soldiers killed and wounded but gaining nothing.

After the failure of that attack, He Feihu and Chen Wei concluded that even if the Shun army stayed away, it was unlikely that the Ming army would quickly destroy the fortress held by the Shun army's elite, and if such an opportunity did occur, the best way for the Ming army might be to limit the Shun army guarding the fortress to the stronghold, and then rush to Chunhua.

After using the air force to establish contact with Chunhua, He Feihu and Chen Wei would send subordinate officers to fly with the air force every time, draw the deployment of the army along the way, and conduct targeted training for this purpose. Anyway, the time is idle, and the Sixth Army also built a simulated terrain behind his camp to train troops like Xu Ping before preparing to attack Xianxia Pass, although their subordinates are not as elite as Xu Ping was at the beginning, and they can basically figure out the structure of the opponent's defense line through fire reconnaissance, but with the help of the airship, the simulated terrain built by He Feihu is more realistic. The purpose of training for the Ming army was also different from that of the Shun army, and He Feihu and Chen Wei mainly trained the sappers to familiarize themselves with the terrain in advance, and designed portable bridges in advance according to the trench obstacles of the Shun army.

Moreover, the previous many attacks also gave He Feihu and Chen Wei a first-hand experience of the combat effectiveness of the elite of the Shun army's field warfare, and since then the two of them have revised their tactical objectives from "establishing and maintaining the ground passage with Chunhua" to "seeking an opportunity to open a temporary passage, and transport in the largest amount of materials and soldiers in the shortest possible time, and rush out as many wounded as possible." ”。

In order to achieve this goal, He Feihu and Chen Wei also conducted a number of tests, the goal was how to increase the loading and unloading speed explosively in a short period of time, and also carried out a huge amount of training for this purpose.

After discovering that a large number of Shun troops were attracted away by the public servant division, He Feihu decided to put safety first, and took replenishing supplies and troops to Chunhua as the highest priority (at that time, it was not clear how the Shun army deployed the Ming army in the west, and there was a great danger in rescuing the public servant division, so He Feihu decided to devote all his strength to one task, so as not to disperse the troops and lead to chickens and eggs at both ends).

When the Constitutional Division was dispatched to cooperate with the Parliamentary Division to relieve the siege, He Feihu himself personally boarded the airship and commanded the two divisions to fight together in the sky. The Southern Ming air forces in Chunhua and Longtan were also deployed to the north to monitor the movements of the Shun army and guide the Ming ground forces. The well-trained sappers, under the guidance of the Air Force, quickly found the no-man's land on the Shun Army's defensive line and quickly opened a passage from the obstacle area for the carriages to pass through...... All the actions were as perfect as planned in advance, all the materials in the temporary warehouse were transported into Chunhua, and all the wounded of the Constitutional Division were taken away, and finally the Public Servant Division successfully broke through on its own, so that even the supplementary soldiers prepared by He Feihu for the Constitutional Division were exempted.

The officers and men of the Public Servant Division, who had fled into Chunhua, were shocked for a moment and immediately sent a joint letter to the War Department demanding that Commander Li and the two deputy division commanders Wang and Ji be held responsible.

Soon after the request of the public servant division was delivered, some newspapers in Nanming were sent to Chunhua, and after seeing Commander Li's boasting on it, Chunhua Town suddenly burst into scolding. After some time, Yi Meng did not receive an approval from the War Department for the request, but instead received a commendation order and medal from the War Department, saying that it was awarded to Yi Meng because of the victory in Huangchi. The letter also hinted that Yi Meng should not continue to mess around, and the officers sent by the War Department told Yi Meng that due to the long-term failure, the rear urgently needed a big victory to boost the morale of the army, and now the people also believed that Huangchi was a great victory brought about by the flexibility of the Ming army, so the War Department hoped that the public servant division would poke the basket at this juncture, and at the same time sent a lot of medals for the officers and soldiers of other public servant divisions.

Yi Meng threw the medal given to him on the ground and shouted angrily: "The soldiers deserve to receive the medal, but it will never be because of the defeat of Huangchi, but because they risked their lives to fight their way out of the siege after the defeat. ”

The rank of the officer of the War Department was lower than Yi Meng, so he could only look at Tang Desheng next to him for help, but the latter also shook his head again and again when he heard it: "How can you keep silent about this kind of thing?" I have heard all about the Seventh Army, and if the War Department does not handle it impartially, how many soldiers will shed their blood for it? ”

"But the people have come to believe that this is a great victory......" said the officer who was ordered to pass the order, which was a secret order from the War Department that he had conveyed, and neither the chief nor the deputy minister was willing to explain the difficulty in writing, so he could only convey it verbally.

"I don't know the difficulties of the Constituent Assembly, but as an army officer, I have to think about the safety of the soldiers, and this is more important to Commander Yi, how can they still serve under Commander Li?" Compared with Yi Meng, Tang Desheng seemed calmer: "At the beginning, the new army was blindly covering up, turning defeat into victory for the sake of the so-called 'overall situation', excusing the generals of the defeated army, and finally pushing all the people who dared to speak to the side of the army, and they did not reflect and review; They have already lost most of China to Li Shun, do we still want to lose the remaining half? ”

In front of the two generals, the officer who gave the order looked very cramped and speechless, and finally only repeatedly stated that the War Department also had concerns, fearing that telling the truth would undermine the confidence of the people in victory.

"Is this something that needs to be considered by the War Department?" I don't know why Ren Hongcheng also walked in, he didn't hide his surprise, and asked the officer of the War Department: "When does the War Department need to consider the people's will?" Isn't what you have to think about is how to weed out the weak and retain the strong, and how to win the war? ”

"Doctor Ren."

Yi Meng and Tang Desheng saluted the delegates to the Constituent Assembly.

"I'm not going to interfere in any military affairs, but if there's a military person discussing how to deceive the people, I'm going to interrogate." Ren Hongcheng looked at the pale officer of the War Department and carefully inquired about him and the two division commanders about the ins and outs of the matter.

"Since there is no written order from the War Department, and neither Division Commander Yi nor Division Commander Tang agreed, then I will not report this matter to the War Department, and I will make a mistake by thinking that the War Department issued a medal and commendation order prematurely before they could figure out the course of the Battle of Huangchi." Ren Hongcheng thought about it for a while, and felt that it was better not to persecute it too much, so he told the envoy of the War Department: "But if I hear about similar behavior in the War Department in the future, or because Division Commander Tang and Division Commander Yi were treated unfairly because they did not want to keep their mouths, I will definitely ask for the impeachment of the Provisional War Department at the Constituent Assembly." ”

The officers of the War Department saluted and retreated, Tang Desheng and Yi Meng were about to express their gratitude to Ren Hongcheng, but Ren Hongcheng preemptively said: "Don't thank me, paper can't hold the fire, this matter will be known to the media sooner or later, and if everyone finds out that I have a share in deceiving the people, then my future will be ruined." Division Commander Yi didn't want to die in vain under Commander Li, and I didn't want to carry the black pot for him. ”

For Ren Hongcheng, the power of the Huangshi Group did not have a decisive impact on his career, and there was no need for him to curry favor with Li Yunrui, so Ren Hongcheng found a reporter who was still in Chunhua, and asked Yi Meng to meet the reporter with him: "I have a scoop for you." ”

……

When the people of Nanming were still immersed in the joy of the victory in Huangchi, Quanzhou Xinbao suddenly issued a bulletin, and a war correspondent who rushed back from Chunhua accused the War Department of blatantly lying to all the people (Ren Hongcheng had not told him that the War Department had tried to buy Yi Meng), trying to beautify a fiasco into a great victory, and at the same time trying to make more volunteer soldiers be taken to death by incompetent officers.

The war correspondents' accounts of interviews with Yi Meng and many other officers of the Public Servant Division were at odds with previous Army claims, which of course caused an immediate uproar. The War Office was also reluctant to answer the questions of the media reporters in a clear manner, which was of course all the more suspicious, and soon the Constituent Assembly began to intervene and ask the Army Department officers to appear in Parliament for public consultation.

An officer of the War Department was ordered to deal with the advice of the Constituent Assembly, and the Provisional Secretary of the War ordered the officer to be sure to clear his department. In the final analysis, this is not the fault of the War Department, the chief and deputy ministers all feel that what Ren Hongcheng said is good, and the people do not need their concern, and the main reason for appointing this army commander is that he has an uncle-in-law of the Duke of Qi, and the War Department believes that the people can understand their difficulties; But if it continues to be concealed, it will not be easy to explain in the future (the War Department believes that it is unlikely to be concealed, first of all, Ren Hongcheng already knows, and it is impossible for the War Department to order the Chunhua Army to kill people and exterminate the mouth; secondly, after the interest of the media is mobilized, sooner or later it will come to light; In the end, Yi Meng refused to cooperate with the cover-up). If it was just a favor, the War Department didn't want to offend Qi Guogong, but now that the matter has become bigger, the War Department believes that Qi Guogong will definitely be able to understand his difficulties: this is indeed not something that the War Department can help his wife and nephew cover up.

Therefore, when questioned by the Constituent Assembly, in front of many parliamentarians and reporters, although the officer still insisted that the authenticity of Huangchi's victory might exist, he was full of words: how and how Commander Li claimed to be there, and how and how did Commander Li report; And these claims and reports to the War Department are still in the process of verification - because they have not been verified clearly, the War Department has not denied that the Huangchi victory did not happen.

When asked what the reaction of the Seventh Army was, the War Department representative also claimed that Yi Meng's 13th Division and Zhao Ning's 14th Division had both submitted reports, and they both insisted on breaking away from the command of Commander Li.

Soon more and more news came from the front line, and there was more than one war correspondent who was confused by the rear report, and the news they found at the front was obviously inconsistent with the report from the rear, and the news sent back by these reporters also came from the Shun army channel.

Seeing that things are becoming clearer and clearer, the party leaders of the Constituent Assembly are also restless, and continuing to let Commander Li continue to do it will obviously lead to a threat to their own future, but if they clean up Qi Guogong's wife and nephew just for the sake of votes, it may make Qi Guogong feel that they are grabbing power - the leaders of the three major parties all feel that it has not been long since the provinces have taken back the power of military justice, and it seems a little too rampant to deprive Qi Guogong's close relatives of military power.

So the leaders of the three major parties took turns to go to the mansion of Qi Guogong to ask for a meeting, the intention was nothing more than to get an understanding with Qi Guogong, hoping that Qi Guogong would relentlessly agree that his wife and nephew could move his position first, and go to other posts to serve first when the rumors were getting tighter day by day - all the party leaders were going to agree to any request of Qi Guogong, as long as he agreed that Commander Li would leave the army no longer and everything would be negotiable.

But Qi Guogong obviously didn't like to discuss with them, no matter how several party leaders took turns to ask for a meeting, Qi Guogong just said that he would not see anything. As more news came against Huang Chi – and finally even Xu Ping was resurrected, popular anger began to shift from the military to the Constituent Assembly, and the media began to accuse the Constituent Assembly doctors of watching the young men of Nanming die.

For the sake of their own future, most of the members of the Constituent Assembly drafted and issued a statement of strong condemnation of the War Department overnight, promising the voters that they would investigate the War Department and investigate the reasons for their inefficient work and the lives of the soldiers.

After learning that the condemnation resolution had been almost unanimously passed, the War Department also knew that something was wrong, and the high-ranking officials of the War Department had also gone to the concierge of Qi Guogong in the past few days, hoping to get instructions—if not explicitly, then implicitly. But they also have nothing to do, and they are full of food and closed doors like the doctors.

Like those doctors, the War Department is now able to take care of the first day of the first month, and the Qi State Guild will not be angry, that is a matter of the future, but if you don't give an explanation to the Constituent Assembly now, everyone will be in a blink of an eye. In order to prove to the Constituent Assembly that it was not only efficient in its work but also had no intention of recklessly killing soldiers, the War Department immediately issued a report on the investigation that had been prepared long ago, scolded Commander Li and the two deputy commanders of the 13th and 14th Divisions, and announced that they would be immediately dismissed from all their posts in the army.

Almost at the same time, the War Department also ordered the transfer of the 13th Division to the Sixth Army, and when this arrangement reached Chunhua, Yi Meng was very satisfied, he didn't know if Commander Li could really escape punishment with his powerful uncle, but even if he was still okay in the end, Yi Meng was no longer his subordinate.

At the end of this incident, it was their old enemy Admiralty who really saved the life of the War Department, and when the Nanming media were outraged, the Provisional Admiralty suddenly triumphantly announced that they had captured Dengzhou, an important port in Shandong.

The last time the Air Force was in the limelight in the media, the Admiralty was very jealous, so they had already prepared all kinds of materials about the ironclad ship, and specially invited a painter to paint the ironclad ship, and painted a lot of majestic pictures of the appearance of the ironclad ship, which was definitely much more powerful than the real thing. Immediately after informing the Constituent Assembly of the news of the great victory, the Admiralty Department held a press conference, and the Secretary of the Navy personally went into battle to boast to the reporters about the great significance of the Navy's victory, and drew the attention of the media to the fact that it was the Navy that first entered Shandong, and finally of course did not forget to introduce their star weapon, the ironclad ship.

However, this time, the reporters of Nanming were much more cautious, and they did not immediately cheer for the entry of Wang Shi into Shandong as the Admiralty expected, but asked one after another whether the news was true or false, and whether the navy would abandon this stronghold, etc., and some reporters asked to go to Dengzhou to see it with their own eyes, and it was obvious that the battle of Huangchi caused these reporters to doubt the credibility of the Admiralty. The Admiralty declared that the Wang Division would defend the territory, and that they welcomed reporters to Shandong, and that the Ming Navy would escort them to see the recovered Shandong territory with their own eyes.

The news of the Ming army's counterattack on Shandong finally relieved the embarrassment of the Constituent Assembly and the War Department a little, and the grateful Constituent Assembly generously agreed to allocate funds to the Navy to build new ironclad ships (of course, it was not the original super luxury version of the Admiralty, and the Constituent Assembly agreed to build two more ones of similar size, and also had to use the multi-layer steel plate protection mode, so that the cost could be less). In a rare case, the War Department did not oppose this proposal. As for the hero of the Battle of Dengzhou, he first personally commanded the ironclad ships to anchor dozens of meters in front of the Shunjun fortress again and again, and bombarded the opponent's wall with nearly 300-pound cannons; Later, Shi Tianyu, a double hero who led the landing of the Marine Corps and captured the port in one fell swoop, would also return to Fujian to personally report the whole process of this great victory to the Constituent Assembly.

When Shi Tianyu embarked on the return journey, Huang Naiming also left the Jiangxi army and returned to Fujian, and after going home to meet his father, Huang Naiming asked for someone: "Father, the child wants to transfer He Feihu, Tang Desheng and Yi Meng to Jiangxi." After thinking about it, Huang Naiming added: "I want Chen Wei too." ”

"Oh?" Huangshi looked a little strange: "Why? ”

Huang Naiming didn't understand why his father looked strange, after watching the battle of Huangchi, he also lost his appetite, and then thought of the people around him who praised his cousin's military talent Huang Naiming felt a burst of weakness, and even almost to the point of shuddering: "The child has to find a few people with real talent and learning to help." ”

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