Xinyang Movement

The war in the past few days is absolutely not beneficial to the Qing army going south.

On October 30, after gathering heavy artillery bombardment of Xiangyang City for a day and night, the new Hubei Admiral Zhang Huaizhi commanded the army to attack Xiangyang City for the second time. The war lasted one day and one night, and the loss of 2,170 people still failed to break through the Xiongcheng Xiangyang, and had to temporarily retreat and rest.

On the same day, Zhang Huaizhi's troops rushed to Guanghua County, and the army was blocked by the army in Cihe Town. The third association's heavy troops were stationed in Cihe Town. The co-organizer He Jin summoned 3,000 civilians to build it day and night, and built Cihe Town into a military center. The Qing army's strategy of advancing west was blocked.

On the same day, the Third Association's Third Association attacked Guangxu County and fought with Zou Hongming's troops in Qingyang for one day, causing damage to each other. That night, the Qing army withdrew from Qingyang and the Third Party entered Qingyang.

On the same day, he received the military order of the temporary command of the Mountain. Zhang Guoquan, the former 11th bid commander, made contributions to defending the city. He allowed two thousand new recruits from ancient city and other places to reorganize the 11th bid, and the weapons and equipment were allocated by Xiangyang!

That night, Yingshan temporary command rejected the request of Li Xiu'ang's troops, the 12th Billion Yunyang Prefecture, and ordered him to step up his preparations for war.

On the same day and night, the Qing army's Ma Jizeng troops retreated to five miles outside the pass to rest and rest to prevent the defenders from attacking the inside of the pass; at the same time, in the direction of Wusheng Pass, the Qing army continued to attack Wusheng Pass!

On October 31, Zhang Huaizhi divided his troops to attack Zaoyang, hoping to force the defenders in Xiangyang City to go out of the city to fight. Ma Rongcheng defended Xiangyang City and refused to rescue him. Zhang Huaizhi had no choice but to midnight, Zaoyang fell. Zhang Huaizhi ordered his men to kill prisoners to shock the revolutionary army. All four hundred defenders in the city were killed in battle!

On the second day, Suizhou, Yicheng and Zhongxiang stepped up their guard against the Qing army breaking out from the rest of the area and heading south.

On October 31, He Jin commanded the Third Association to attack the Qing army outside Cihe Town at dawn. In this battle, the Qing army lost one battalion and retreated to Nanzhang after losing most of the baggage.

At noon, the Qing army of Nanzhang captured Nanzhang.

On the same day, Zhang Guoquan took the initiative to ask for battle and personally led the two battalions to attack Miaozipo. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Zou Hongming took the opportunity to withdraw the troops from the county to set up defenses in the county.

On the same day, the First Associate bombarded the Qing army's troops outside the city and attacked the Qing army. The 11th Associate suffered heavy losses and then retreated ten miles to defend. The Ma Jiezeng army lost a lot of supplies and the troops were unable to continue to launch another strong attack on Pingjing Pass. On the same day, the Wusheng Pass defenders repelled the Qing army's sixth wave of attacks. The two wings of the mountain outside the pass were lost. The Qing army began to set up turrets on the hillside and prepared to bombard Wusheng Pass!

On November 1, the Qing army of Zaoyang launched a tentative attack on Suizhou. When it was dark, it failed to capture the county town and then withdrew its troops and returned to defend Zaoyang. The next day, it gave up Zaoyang and went to Xiangyang to make a round. On that day, Zhang Huaizhi received a report from the capital, and then transferred the headquarters to a Pacific Qing army to return to Nanyang to assemble.

At this point, the number of Qing soldiers outside Xiangyang City was about the same as that of Ma Rongcheng's troops in the city. Zhang Huaizhi's attempt to quickly fight and conquer Xiangyang to the south was declared a failure, and the war was in a stagnant state!

In Xinyang City, Wang Shizhen, the commander of the Second Army of Furan and the commander of the Sixth Town of Beiyang, rubbed his sore temples and looked at a letter from the adult who had just been sent by Zhang De Prescription on the table, with a wry smile. He looked at the face of an extremely ugly person.

The Southern Rebellion took advantage of his unpreparedness to capture Wusheng Pass and ambushed the elite new army of Li Chunyi who went south. Not to mention the southern rebellion, even if he achieved such a great victory, there is no reason not to promote it. Sure enough, he wanted to block all the Qing army's mouths that fled back in a panic, and be able to suppress the news for a few days, and then take advantage of these days to capture Wusheng Pass and attack the Hubei Central Army! Unexpectedly, in less than two days, the news that "the Qing army went south was ambushed outside Wusheng Pass, and thousands of elite new army were almost killed or injured" had spread all over the country. I heard that even foreigners and the court were alarmed!

The adult was very dissatisfied with the news that he had concealed the ambush of Wu Shengguan, and scolded him severely in the letter.

Looking at Li Chun sitting on one side of the hall, in just a few days, he had changed from a strong middle-aged man before to what he is now. His originally dark braids on his head are now white, and his face is full of oldness. After a while, he had sighed several times. It was obvious that he had not yet recovered from the defeat of "ambushed outside Wusheng Pass".

Wang Shizhen was somewhat concerned about this confidant general in his early years, otherwise he would not have been allowed to form the new 21st mixed association with the former 6th Town of the Beiyang New Army as a backbone. On the contrary, Ma Jizeng, the newly appointed 11th Army of the imperial court, only assigned a new army recruited by Zhili and Shandong provinces to form the 11th Association with him. In addition, he also handed over the important task of the first pioneer of the south to the First Association, and blocked the mouths of the crowd after he was ambushed, forcing the news of the defeat for two days without being leaked. For this old subordinate in his early years, although Li Chun had never visited Yuan Shikai, who had been wronged in the past three years, he had given enough respect to Wang Shizhen, the old superior who was also idle at home, and had sent some things to his mansion during the past three years.

Sighing, Wang Shizhen knew that this time he wanted to protect him, so he had to say, "Xiushan, with the propaganda of the Southern Rebellion Party in the past two days, the news of your ambush at Wusheng Pass has spread all over the world. Now even the noisy people and foreigners in the capital know that they are under great pressure. The Regent in the capital has often talked about you, and Lord Yuan has no choice but to send someone to send an urgent telegram to dismiss you first. But don't worry, I have reported to the adults and ask you to be a free staff officer. When I arrange for you during the war, after destroying the Southern Rebellion Party, you may also clear your guilt!"

Li Chun smiled bitterly, stood up and bowed to him, and said, "Thank you, Wang Shuai... The criminals no longer dared to have any extravagant hopes, but they were angry that they were not careful. They won the first contribution for our army and let Wang Shuai down for nothing!"

His current embarrassment looks really sad.

Wang Shizhen couldn't bear to see his old subordinate decline, but he was defeated by this and was unable to cover up his protection. He had to say it a few times. Finally, he hesitated for a long time and turned into a sigh, "Get up, you are all your own people!"

He stretched out his left hand and held it in a support, signaling him to get up and speak.

There were only four fingers on his left hand, and the ring finger on his left hand had been broken. It was during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The Qing garrison invaded Korea and Japan in four directions to attack Pyongyang. He led the artillery team and students to stand firm on the city. Later, when there was insufficient staff, he personally used artillery to bombard the Japanese army. He lost it in that battle. In addition, the upper left part of his forehead was also injured by shrapnel in that battle, leaving more than an inch of wounds, and can still see faint scars!

However, he was never afraid that others would leave his disabled left hand. Instead, no one would pay attention to it. He would proudly talk about the battle with others in detail. Among the three heroes of Beiyang, he was the most hostile to the Japanese, followed by Duan Qirui!

The moment Li Chun stood up, he looked up and happened to see the broken finger on Wang Shizhen's left hand. He seemed to have thought of something, and his throat rolled, but in the end he endured it and didn't speak.

But he still underestimated Wang Shizhen's eyesight. He kept staring at Li Chun and naturally saw the change of expression on his face. Thinking of the many accusations in the army over the past few days, Li Chun accepted his fate and let him curse and mock him behind his back. He never explained the situation when he was ambushed that day. And he also asked a few soldiers under his command, but unfortunately he had no rules and didn't ask anything he wanted to know. Now that he finally had a thought, he naturally took the opportunity to ask: "Well, take this opportunity today, Xiushan, there are no outsiders here, tell me your impression of the Southern Rebellion! The army heading south was blocked in the past two days without any achievements, so I don't have any explanation to you!"

Li Chun sighed, "Reply to the general's words, the criminal minister should not have said this, because it is inevitable that he will be suspected of waived himself. However, since the general asked, the criminal minister was not vague, so he reported his shallowness to the general's truthfully!"

He paused slightly and pondered for a moment, "Master General, I don't know what the loss of Wusheng Pass was. In the past two days, I realized that it was the capricious villain Sun Guoan who stole the city and Xian Pass, which led to the loss of Wusheng Pass. The prisoner was captured that day. Although he was indeed caught off guard by the rebel party at the beginning, he was not powerless to resist. He was all elite. After the initial chaos, the prisoner quickly organized various departments to counterattack and once attacked the mountains on both sides. However, the rebel party was not as poor as the intelligence showed, and even more automatic small cannon equipment than my Beiyang elite. The soldiers dared to act as a result. I knew that thousands of people under my subordinates attacked the top of the mountain, but they were all damaged under the machine gun. The rebel party recruited dozens of machine guns and placed them on the mountains on both sides to ambush, which caused the rebel minister to be defeated! Alas... I regret it..."

Wang Shizhen nodded. In the past two days, a lot of news came from the front. When the defenders in the pass were all described as well-equipped and numerous artillery, they didn't know where the E Zhong Army, which developed under his nose, got such excellent equipment. Could it be that Li Han, who was passed down by the world, had infinite magical powers, and Li Yizhi, who was chanted by the three heads and six arms, had infinite magical powers, were really good at immortal arts as sang by folk children?

The two of them were thinking about their own thoughts. At this time, there was a burst of rapid footsteps outside the house, a little messy, and it seemed that there was not only one person.

Wang Shizhen soon came to his senses. When he looked up, he saw three people appearing at the entrance of the courtyard. Judging from his outfit, he was a guard from other places in his mansion.

"What happened?"

"When the general was on guard outside, the brothers found that the man fell from the war horse and kept shouting to meet the general! But he had fainted now and was only holding this thing in his hand!"

The guard replied.

The man who was set in the middle by two guards had fainted.

One of the guards forced out a letter from the man who fainted and handed it to Wang Shizhen.

He frowned slightly, and a few drops of blood were stained with the envelope, and it was obvious that the way he sent it was not smooth.

When he opened it, he found a slightly crumpled cigarette bag. After seeing the word *** on the eye bag, he was about to frown and suddenly turned the cigarette bag wrapping paper to the second page and found a line of small words written on the back. He looked at it and suddenly changed his face and shouted, "Hurry up, pour him a glass of water and wake him up!"

"yes!"

When the guard got the order, he immediately brought a glass of water to wake the man who had fainted. After he woke up, he opened his weak eyes, looked around for a few seconds, and then his attention fell on Wang Shizhen. Suddenly, his expression changed. He struggled to push away the guard who helped him and knelt on the ground! Unfortunately, he was so weak that he could not do it at all.

"No need to see Li, are you Zhou Li's subordinate? Where are the Zhou Li people? Is this information reliable?"

"Sir, I will report to you, the scouts under the command of Zhou Li, and you... I have all had an accident with them. Only the villain broke out and brought you the information I finally got! As for the authenticity of the information, the price is not clear. I only know that shortly after I got the information, Yingcheng seemed to have discovered it. He sent hundreds of patrols and searched the city. Many brothers were caught and shot directly after being shot!"

The spy said weakly.

Wang Shizhen frowned, "Take him down and rest!"

"yes!"

"Come here, prepare the pen and ink for me immediately..."

"yes!"

Although some people don't want it, news of the uprising in Yunnan, the largest province in the southwest, eventually came to Henan.

With the news of the Yunnan uprising, there is also the news that the revolutionary army, which was suppressed by Wang Shizhen for several days and was unwilling to spread, achieved the "Wusheng Pass Victory".

Unfortunately, although he strictly ordered the broadcast of the news, he still underestimated the strength of many media in the south and the common people. To be precise, the sensitivity of the intellectual class and gentry in Henan Province to southern news.

If the former Yunnan Uprising had little impact on Henan Province thousands of miles away, then it would be a great victory for the revolutionaries, but it would be an absolute disaster for the Qing army. Thousands of elite new troops were lost before the Wusheng Pass, which would be a disaster for the Qing army!

At some point, the news that the revolutionary army was about to march straight into Henan was like a cold north wind blowing in November, carrying the endless cold blizzard, sweeping across Henan, Zhili, and Shandong, and swallowing the three provinces that protected the capital.

Now the most panicked part in Henan Province is Xinyang, Henan, which is closest to the front line!

Xinyang, Henan is located in the southern part of Runing Prefecture in southern Henan. Anhui is the east of Runing Prefecture, Nanyang Prefecture goes west, and Hubei is the south of it. This shows the special nature of Runing Prefecture's geographical location.

As an important town in the southern part of Runing Prefecture, Xinyang is an important channel connecting Henan and Hubei, and the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway runs across the north and south from here.

Decades ago, Xinyang was just a small town. Although it has been a transportation channel since ancient times, and a prosperous place in southern Henan, vendors have been rushing to the road, but to say that it is truly prosperous, it is because of the opening of the Beijing-Han Railway, which represents the force of the Great Industrial Revolution, that the rolling crowds and wealth have benefited the rolling crowds and wealth here in recent years.

Nowadays, Piaohao, the grain shops of the two lakes, the furs of the northeast, the girl from the south of the Yangtze River, and even the gambling shops, brothels, tobacco shops, and foreign companies selling weapons have arranged branches in Xinyang. Although the convenient transportation is not as good as Hankou, the thoroughfare of nine provinces, it is also considered a top-notch prosperous place in this closed southern Henan area. No wonder the merchants from the south and wealthy families rushed to buy land here and built branch collaterals. Some of them simply built houses here and wanted to resettle that family here.

Now revolutionary troops have emerged in Hubei to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Shanxi. Even the 20th town of Zhang Zhaozeng, Zhili to the north, tends to rebel. Although the war has not yet reached Henan, Xinyang has been affected.

Especially after the Revolutionary Army won the Great Victory of Wusheng Pass and the news that an elite new army had almost destroyed the entire army, the tension in the city could no longer be suppressed!

Of course, no matter what, the villagers working at the station in the city have not even had a half-day rest in the past few days.

Some time ago, trains, bullets, military pay, military uniforms, jackets, blankets, and wires were launched in the city station. These military supplies were plundered by the Qing court with all his efforts. Not only were the military reserves in the northern provinces empty, but even the warehouses of the foreign companies in Tianjin were empty. In order to strangle the revolution, the Qing court had tried its best to solve it.

However, the busy men at the station had been busy for half a month and had only been idle for two days. They thought they could have a rest, but now they had to move countless bullets, military pay, military uniforms, military jackets, military blankets, and wires back to the train. The front of the car that was waiting for the supply to arrive and bring the goods filled with trucks back north. To be precise, Shijiazhuang.

Because, after Wang Shizhen insisted on the orders of the court for a few days, he still failed to break through Wusheng Pass and Pingjing Pass went south. As a result, not only did he lose troops and generals on the borders of the two provinces, but he also delayed a lot of time.

As a result, with the Qing court's more severe letters of order, and several telegrams from Yuan Shikai. Seeing that it was impossible to break through the northern defense line of the central Hubei military government within five days, he had to choose to surrender. He temporarily transferred about 9,000 soldiers from the Three Alliances and carried their bags again. Among them, Xinyang had already dispatched nearly 6,000 people to go north to Shijiazhuang for rest, and accepted the command of Wu Luzhen, who was appointed as the governor of Shanxi by the Qing court, and was preparing to go to Shanxi to quell the Shanxi rebellion! After Zhang Huaizhi's command arrived, Xinyang would have to transfer another Alliance to go north to the capital to protect the capital!

In order not to affect the military transportation, all the trains from Xinyang to Shijiazhuang have been requisitioned by the court. The army of the three associations, plus thousands of tons of supplies, and the court urged them and rushed, had to work hard to transport the goods into the truck. The rest was waiting for the Qing army in Nanyang to arrive, and then took the train north together!

Since the chaos in the three towns in Wuchang began a month ago, the court decisively ordered the stop of the trains going south, and now the train journey to the north have been cut off. For a while, too many supplies carried by merchants from south to north were gathered in Xinyang City.

Now that the Qing army is not in good condition, no one knows when Xinyang will become a battlefield. These backlogs of goods must be sold out in the shortest time to avoid becoming spoils of both sides of the war.

In order to deal with these goods, the cargo owner and comprador had to sell them on the spot. A large number of affordable and cheap goods immediately destroyed the Xinyang market. The most popular floral cloth, American foreign oil, Northeast fur goods, and South China sugar were pouring into the market. Hawkers from all over the world who received the news also rushed to Xinyang, carrying on shoulders, pushing cars, carrying people, and carrying donkeys, showing the hard work and speculation of Chinese merchants in this era in the most primitive way... This extraordinary state of wartime caused an unprecedented illusion of business prosperity!

In sharp contrast to these cheap commodities, the price of grain is rising every day. During these days, the price of grain is rising every day, and even a turbulent day is often turbulent, and the price rises. In addition, in recent years, Henan and other places have been severe droughts year by year, and the price of grain in southern Henan has remained high, and now it is adding fuel to the fire. Many small households in places have begun to eat braised vegetables, and even wealthy households dare not store more grain. Instead of storing hungry people to eat large households, it is better to cash out the grain and hide in the concession with silver bars.

Everyone who could leave had escaped. Now Xinyang is full of people sighing everywhere, and the remaining people are poor people, which have left them with their homeland that they have lived for half their lives. I really don’t know where to go, so I had to stay honestly and wait for the legendary revolutionary party that eats people without spitting out bones and kills without blinking!

In the past two days, several fully armed soldiers have been added at the gates of the city in Xinyang, saying that they want to investigate the people entering the city, so as not to let the southern rebels take the opportunity to sneak into the city!

Now, no matter whether you go into the city or leave the city, you have to undergo their inspection and blackmail. There are heads hanging on the city gate tower, including men, women, old and young. People who cannot afford to prove their identity cannot be used to prove their status. They were charged with the crime of rebel spies and hang their heads on the city gate to warn a group of people with resentment.

But on this day, three young men dressed in students entered the city from the East City Gate. The three of them were carrying waxed suitcases, looking like they were about to go out for a long journey. Now, the court's new policies have established many new schools in various places. Students running around the road can be regarded as a rare and beautiful scenery in the late Qing Dynasty.

However, now that the war is happening, most of the revolutionary parties in the south come from new schools. I believe the officials who have been instructed to investigate this matter have also given instructions. Therefore, facing these three people, the Qing soldiers guarding the gate tightened their weapons and came up to blame them.

Fortunately, the leader was excited and immediately took out a few silver dollars from his body and handed them to the Qing army. After getting the benefits, he turned a blind eye to the city gate and simply stopped searching his body and directly sent the three of them into the city.

The Qing army at the door didn't care, and the three of them were relieved. You should know that these three were not ordinary students. Although they dressed up like this, they still had another unknown identity: personnel lurking in Xinyang by the Intelligence Department of the Central Hubei Military Government.

Seeing that the Qing army's gaze was farther away from the city gate, one of the three wiped a cold sweat from his forehead and whispered: "The guards have become more and more tight in the past two days. It was really dangerous just now, and I almost thought I had exposed it!"

The other two people next to him were relieved. When they heard him speak, they nodded. One of them said, "No, if the boss hadn't figured out them, it would be hard for us to get in again. What did the south think? That person would really come to Xinyang to meet us?"

"Don't think about it. There will be no trouble at the headquarters. Be smart... Don't make a mistake at this critical moment. Our group of six brothers came to Xinyang together. Now there are only three of us left. Let me be more energetic!"
Chapter completed!