Chapter Eleven: Suddenly Reversed

  The General Staff immediately convened a meeting overnight, Jiang Yu, Jiang Fangzhen, and staff members Tang Hanyuan, Zhou Zhengye, as well as several German advisors also participated in the meeting, the atmosphere was somewhat solemn.

  Jiang Yu stood up, took a deep breath, and with a hint of his usual introverted expression in his eyes, said:

  "Gentlemen, the revolution has broken out in Wuchang. At present, China is affected by the financial crisis caused by stock speculation and the railway protection movement. The southern merchant class has completely lost confidence in the Qing court. The city of Nanchang is empty of troops, and as soon as the revolutionary army in Wuchang sends a telegram, all the revolutionary groups will respond with enthusiasm, and the revolutionary wave will inevitably spread to the southern provinces at an extremely fast speed. The Manchu dynasty has only the Beiyang New Army in the north that can fight, but even if they really want to fight, the southern revolutionary army would not be their match. However, the Manchu dynasty is actually unable to control the Beiyang Army, and Yuan Shikai, who is idle at home, still firmly controls the Beiyang Army through bribery. After the revolution breaks out, Yuan Shikai will make a comeback and use the southern revolutionary party to coerce the Qing court."

  "For Yuan Shikai, this was a power seizure action. If the power seizure succeeded, his political career would be revived; if it failed, he would be defeated and his family's life and property would not be guaranteed, and the Yuan family would be completely destroyed. Therefore, Yuan Shikai had no way out, as the saying goes, 'a cunning rabbit will die, a walking dog will be cooked'. Once the revolutionary army was suppressed, Yuan Shikai would inevitably be eliminated by the Qing court. So in the near future, there will be a situation of confrontation between the north and the south. That is to say, with the strength of the southern revolutionary army, it is not enough to shake the Beiyang Army, while the Beiyang Army will not go south to suppress the southern revolutionaries."

  "What about Yuan Shikai's coercion of the Qing court?" Jiang Fangzhen asked.

  "There are only two options, one is to support the constitutional monarchy, as long as the Qing emperor is constitutionalized, power will be in Yuan Shikai's hands. The other option is to force the Qing to abdicate and have Yuan Shikai serve as the president of the new government, with power still in his hands. Yuan Shikai would initially tend towards the first option, but the southern revolutionary army would definitely demand the emperor's abdication and establish a government in the south. If Yuan Shikai insisted on taking the constitutional monarchy route, he would inevitably have to use military force to suppress the southern revolutionary army. If he adopted a republican system, Yuan Shikai could resolve the issue through negotiations. However, Yuan Shikai had no intention of sacrificing himself for the Qing, so the second option was clearly easier, and Yuan Shikai couldn't afford it because he didn't have the money."

  Jiang Yu's analysis shocked them all, and he continued: "Among the Southern Revolutionary Parties, except for a few parties like the Guangfu Hui that were not supported by the Japanese, most of the revolutionary parties were instigated by the Japanese. Especially since 1905, large numbers of students have gone to Japan to study, and as of last year, the number of people studying in Japan has reached 20,000, making this problem even more serious. Although the grassroots members of these revolutionary parties are full of passion, their high-level leaders are traitors who have surrendered to the Japanese, holding up the banner of revolution while secretly colluding with the enemy. Once China becomes stable, they will inevitably jump out and cause trouble. Moreover, they are not true revolutionaries. After the North-South peace talks, for the sake of immediate interests, they will compromise with Yuan Shikai. And when they control part of the political power in the South, there will inevitably be struggles for power and corruption, causing the people to suffer and lose faith in the revolutionary party."

  "Master, what shall we do next?" Zhou Zhengye asked excitedly, his face flushed with enthusiasm. Tang Hanyuan even suggested directly: "Master, since Yuan Shikai does not have the financial resources to launch a large-scale war, why don't we just overthrow him?"

  "Yes, we have money and a lot of it. If it comes to a fight, even if our arms imports are cut off, our munitions factories are already built. Defeating the Northern Expeditionary Army won't be a problem. But what about after defeating the Northern Expeditionary Army? With our foundation, can we swallow up all of China?" Jiang Yu asked, pounding on the table.

  The crowd was still somewhat puzzled, and Jiang Yu continued:

  "What we want to establish is a new social system, the times have changed, it's no longer the ancient way of thinking about conquering the world. To establish a new social order, we first need sufficient military strength, but our military strength is obviously very tense. Even if we spend money to conquer the world, what happens after we take over? Do we have enough administrative personnel? What if not? Can only continue to use the corrupt Qing officials, still unchanged. And what about the revolutionary parties in the south? Are we going to openly fire on them? In the end, we'll be fighting in the front and the revolutionaries will be picking peaches from behind, only to make a wedding dress for others. Moreover, our industrial development will be forced to stagnate in order to launch the war, which is not worth it."

  "So what we need to do is to follow the trend and find a balance between the north and south. First, let's seize a piece of land from others and stabilize our foothold. Once we digest this piece of land clearly, we will expand outward and swallow up one province after another. With our industrialization route, no warlord can stop our footsteps, and eventually all of China will be under our control."

  "This is also our first step, but absolutely not the last step. Everyone looks at the map, we want to develop industry, and most importantly, we must have coal and iron resources. Anhui happens to have coal and iron resources, so in this transformation, we must first occupy the entire Anhui. Looking at Jiangsu again, Subei is a must-win for us, but Sunan is a place of dispute, because Nanjing will be the central area of the entire Southern Revolutionary Party, so we don't want to touch it for now. The areas we need to occupy are just two: one Anhui and one Subei. In addition, in Shanghai, we have another camp, and we can make a fortune in Shanghai, but we don't need to occupy it for long."

  ……

  On October 11th, at the Huaiyin Conference, a group of people led by Jiang Yu determined the guiding principle for operations with 'seizing territory' and 'striking autumn wind' as its core.

  On the same day, the "Huaiyin Battle Command Headquarters" was quickly established, and troops were secretly dispatched, and a secret battle plan was issued.

  On the night of October 13th, after three days of preparation, all troops reached their designated attack positions and launched a formal attack at 11 o'clock in the evening.

  The troops were scattered throughout the northern Jiangsu region, with each regiment as a unit, advancing through tunnels to Huai'an, Suqian, Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Yancheng, Nantong, Taizhou and Yangzhou.

  The troops concentrated on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Anhui, with relatively light combat tasks, and launched attacks on Wuhu, Ma'anshan, Xuancheng, Chizhou, Tongling, and Anqing.

  Shanghai's independent battalion launched an attack on Shanghai County.

  That night, battles broke out almost simultaneously in various places. Except for Sunan in the Huai River region, which was not captured by the Restoration Army, all other major cities were filled with gunfire.

  To capture Xuzhou, a key city in northern Jiangsu, Jiang Yu assembled three battalions to attack the city. To capture Anqing, Jiang Yu also assembled three battalions of troops.

  The Xiang Army entered the city through tunnels, and when the battle broke out, the Qing army was still asleep. When they responded to the battle, it was extremely hasty. The Qing soldiers heard gunfire everywhere, and one by one, they panicked, and soon they were defeated by the Xiang Army who had rushed into the city.

  The Fuxing Army was equipped with a large number of submachine guns and light machine guns, which were very suitable for urban warfare. At such close range, one burst could sweep away a large area, and the Qing army inside the city, even if it was a new army, had no power to resist the ferocious Fuxing Army.

  Moreover, the Beiyang Army was equipped with a large number of heavy machine guns, while the Southern New Army did not have such weapons at all, so they could not defeat the Beiyang Army which had heavy machine guns.

  After the Revival Army occupied a street, they would set up heavy machine guns there and immediately seal off the entire street. No matter how hard the Qing army fought back, they could only leave behind layers of corpses.

  In the alley battles, the Xiang Army, despite being outnumbered by their enemies, had the upper hand due to many Qing soldiers being scattered and unable to organize, coupled with their advantage in weaponry. As a result, the Qing soldiers inside the city were successively annihilated or captured by the Xiang Army.

  The Revival Army, which entered the city, attacked the military camp while also sending troops to occupy key locations such as government offices and treasuries, with previously drawn maps playing an important role.

  Jiang Yu, who was in charge of Huaiyin, personally led his men to storm into the county seat of Huaiyin and dragged County Magistrate Zhang Binglong out from under his bed. Zhang Binglong's face was filled with terror as he pointed at Jiang Yu and shouted: "You, you, you dare to rebel? Aren't you afraid of being punished and having your family exterminated?"

  "The Qing court's luck has run out, what is there for us to fear?" Jiang Yu said with a smile, ignoring Zhang Binglong, and waved his hand to have him taken away.

  When the battle on this side of Huaiyin came to an end, telegrams poured into headquarters like snowflakes, and troops responsible for attacking various county towns successively sent back their battle reports.

  According to reports from various departments, most of them reported that they found a lot of silver in the treasury.

  At 1:30, a telegram was received from Shanghai, and the telegraph operator hastily handed it to Jiang Yu, reporting: "Commander, the Shanghai Independent Regiment has captured the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, where a large amount of silver was found inside, and is currently being counted."

  "Alright, assemble the ships immediately and transfer the silver to Huaiyin right away. Also, move all the machinery and equipment that can be moved from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to me, and leave what cannot be moved there unattended." Jiang Yu made up his mind to make a surprise attack on Shanghai and immediately issued an order.

  ……

  Shanghai, after receiving the order from the Huaiying Command, the Shanghai Garrison launched a mutiny and attacked the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau that night.

  The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was the Qing government's most important arsenal, with the ability to replicate machine guns and many other machines, involving a wide range of industrial manufacturing projects.

  For this reason, the Qing government deployed heavy troops and two heavy machine guns at the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

  Historically, due to the existence of those heavy machine guns, Chen Qimei and his group from the Forward Command Post suffered heavy casualties, and Chen Qimei himself was captured.

  However, this time the Qing army faced by the Manufacturing Bureau was the well-equipped Shanghai Reinforced Regiment, which used to be disguised as a business group, but its strength was far beyond that of the Shanghai Business Group.

  As soon as the battle began, the Qing dynasty's heavy machine guns were ruthlessly attacked by mortars, and the Qing army's firepower was directly paralyzed. The Shanghai reinforcement battalion used only one platoon of troops to launch a surprise attack, completely disintegrating the will of the Qing army inside the manufacturing bureau, successfully occupying the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau.

  Jiang Yu's actions in the two Huai regions were well-prepared and premeditated.

  The Qing garrison in various places was caught off guard, and on October 14th at 4:00 am, Xuzhou announced its capture. At 4:30 am, Anqing also announced its capture.

  The county seats of Northern Jiangsu and Southern Anhui were also captured one after another. After a night's fierce fighting, the Revival Army achieved brilliant results.

  Then each camp started to get busy, first concentrating the spoils of war and transporting them to the headquarters in Huaiyin. At this time, it was autumn harvest season, and local governments had collected a large amount of taxes, which all fell into the hands of the Revival Army.

  At the same time, each garrison left some troops to maintain law and order in the county seat, while the rest of the troops quickly concentrated. Those counties that were attacked also immediately arranged for administrative personnel to be sent to establish "temporary county governments" to carry out administrative work locally.

  China has long been a mode of governance with small centralization and large decentralization, which is characterized by centralized power and local autonomy. The advantage lies in its low cost, but the disadvantage is that it lacks control over local areas.

  The local towns and villages didn't care whether the government was Manchu or whatever, they just cared about fulfilling their own duties. Therefore, after the Xingye Party's administrative personnel arrived at the local area, with the cooperation of the military, they established a security team, which basically stabilized the local situation.

  On October 6, after two days of mobilization, the 1st Division of Subei Fuxing Army launched a comprehensive western campaign, attacking Wanbei. The 2nd Division of Wannan Fuxing Army also gathered in Anqing and attacked Wanbei.

  At this time, various counties in northern Anhui were still unaware that the Restoration Army had turned against the Qing. The Restoration Army was equipped with a large number of cars and had strong mobility. Before news could reach northern Anhui, they had already arrived at the city gates.

  ————

  It's Sunday, maybe many classmates are reading books, today Xiaoxiao's collection surged a bit, thanks.

  Maybe two updates another day, let's see! Recently busy with classmates opening a store and starting a business, just coding at night, but I'll work hard to update twice a day!