Chapter 19: The Texas War (Part One)

  When the Xingye Party is in a political and diplomatic predicament, the only solution left is military means, and only the victor can walk out of the predicament!

  The First Division of the National Revolutionary Army quickly annihilated the Second Brigade of the Northern Warlord's Fifth Division, and then the whole army swiftly moved to Dezhou. The armed police troops sent from the rear carried out a persuasion campaign against the garrison in Jinan.

  The garrison in Jinan lost their will and confidence to resist after learning that the Second Brigade of the Northern Ocean Fifth Division had been annihilated, and opened the city gate at noon on the same day. A battalion of armed police entered Jinan City.

  Jinan has been captured!

  The news of the annihilation of the Fifth Division's Second Brigade soon reached Beijing, infuriating Yuan Shikai to the point of pounding his fist on the table. However, he also suddenly realized that this Revival Army seemed not to be so easily dealt with after all.

  But this idea was just a flash and did not linger in his mind.

  At this time, Yuan Shikai still believed that the Forbidden City Guard and the Queue Army could deal with the Restoration Army, after all, there was still the Nanjing Provisional Government making trouble in the rear of the Restoration Army.

  Attacked from both north and south, how can one not be defeated?

  Yuan Shikai currently has no money in his hands, after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, he squeezed out 8 million taels of silver to buy arms from foreign firms.

  Although these munitions have arrived, Yuan Shikai has little silver that can be used.

  The Qing left him a super mess. If it wasn't for this mess, the Qing wouldn't have collapsed either.

  ……

  Texas, since the arrival of the bandits, the undisciplined bandits, as if they have pulled this city into a world of terror, the bandits robbing citizens on the streets is a common occurrence.

  However, the people of Texas have no way to deal with the braided army. Nowadays, the situation is turbulent and nobody is in charge.

  General Zhang Xun, still indulging in the title of Governor-General of Liangjiang conferred by the Qing court, had not yet warmed his seat when he was driven out of Nanjing.

  Zhang Xun ordered that the Republic of China flag not be flown in the city, only the Qing dynasty's yellow dragon flag. Similarly, he encouraged civilians to keep their queues, and those with queues could watch plays or take a ride without paying a ticket.

  Upon receiving Yuan Shikai's order, Zhang Xun angrily threw the telegram aside, picked it up again after a while, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.

  Damn the Revival Army!

  Zhang Xun, who had originally fled from Nanjing to Xuzhou, found that Xuzhou had been occupied by the Restoration Army and had no choice but to flee to Heze, Shandong.

  As a result, Heze was occupied by the National Revolutionary Army again a month ago.

  At this time, the Restoration Army was about to swallow the entire Shandong Province. Zhang Xun had already retreated to Shandong, and if he retreated further, where could he go?

  It's just that the Imperial Guard is about to head south, why not join forces and drive out the Restoration Army from Shandong, then occupy the place and become a warlord?

  Zhang Xun quickly united with Feng Guozhang's Imperial Guard Division.

  These two armies were both Manchu's loyal troops, as soon as they came into contact with each other, they immediately merged together, and there was a tendency to collude with each other.

  However, just as Zhang Xun was about to make a big move, the Restoration Army quickly marched into Dezhou, and General Zhang Xun had not yet reacted when the four city gates of Dezhou were surrounded.

  The Restoration Army surrounding the city of Dezhou blasted more than 20 outdated old-style fort cannons in the city after a round of artillery fire, while Zhang Xun fled from Nanjing City in a hurry. The queue army didn't have many big guns at all, and after a round of artillery fire, the guns were beaten to pieces.

  The Revival Army then set up barbed wire outside the city and dug a number of curved trenches, while also setting up machine guns.

  These trenches are only 500 meters away from the city gate, and the soldiers of the Revival Army are still relying on the trenches to continue advancing. The current Revival Army is extremely skilled in earthwork, and there are professional civil engineers in the army who provide on-site guidance.

  However, the trenches surrounding Texas were not up to some standards because the defenders inside the city did not have many artillery pieces. Although there were still a few hidden ones, as soon as they dared to use them on horseback, they would be knocked down by the artillery outside the city, so the defensive requirements for shells were not high.

  The Revival Army soldiers were stationed outside the four city gates, building three lines of defense. However, the Revival Army only besieged and did not attack, with a total of five battalions responsible for the siege, each battalion responsible for one city gate, and one battalion as a reserve battalion.

  It's clear that the Revival Army intends to trap and starve the 16,000-strong Queue Army in Dezhou City. With just five regiments totaling over 2,000 men, they've managed to tie down eight times their number, clearly a profitable move.

  There is another intention - besiege and relieve!

  Braided army discovered that Texas City was surrounded, Zhang Xun ordered the soldiers to shoot down at the city, wanting to kill and injure the Fuxing Army soldiers, but as a result, they were beaten by the Fuxing Army soldiers and did not dare to show their heads on the city wall.

  The Revival Army's marksmanship was too accurate, this army had been formed for almost two years, and the proportion of first-class soldiers with precise shooting skills had reached 23% in the whole army. The soldiers of the Revival Army fired at the queue troops on the city wall with rifles, sniper rifles, and light machine guns, and the queue troops were almost shot in the head as soon as they emerged.

  Zhang Heng had no cannons in his hands, and for the time being, he couldn't do anything about the Fuxing Army outside the city. He could only send a telegram to urge Feng Guozhang's Imperial Guard to join forces with him to launch a pincer attack on the Fuxing Army inside and outside the city.

  However, it coincided with the military intention of Fuxing Army's siege and relief.

  After the railway from Tianjin to Dezhou was blown up in dozens of places, Feng Guozhang immediately ordered the Imperial Guard Corps to advance on foot. However, this march was relatively smooth, and the only problem the Imperial Guard encountered was a severe reconnaissance problem.

  After the reconnaissance units of the Imperial Guard were dispatched, they often went out in groups of ten and only two or three came back.

  The vanguard of the Restoration Army targeted the Imperial Guard, and the two corps struck at Feng Guozhang's Imperial Guard reconnaissance unit.

  The scouts of the Imperial Guard had just emerged when a bullet came from nowhere, and in the end Feng Guozhang sent out cavalry troops to conduct reconnaissance in groups of 100, which solved this problem.

  Although the scouting camp was elite, the plain area lacked hidden terrain, and the scattered scouting camps were not enough to contend with the cavalry.

  As it was a native battle, the reconnaissance camp did not lay landmines to avoid mistakenly injuring civilians after the war, so the Imperial Guard still managed to rush straight to Dezhou.

  The Revival Army, after surrounding Dezhou, redeployed its main force and finally encountered the enemy in the vicinity of Sihuang Temple. At that time, the river was almost as dry as a desert, but one of the dry riverbeds became the only geographical obstacle for both sides to advance.

  A skirmish broke out!

  This war will be the largest military battle since the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution.

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