Chapter 60: Leniency and Severity (Complete)

  Wang Wenren and others were already pale, it was true that they had fallen into Li Han's trap. From the beginning, Li Han had dug a hole for them, and according to military discipline, it was indeed not allowed to privately use the seized materials and money. However, this rule has never been truly observed by Chinese military leaders since ancient times. Nevertheless, he left himself no excuse, as he didn't touch the money seized from Rui Ceng, but instead used it to benefit his soldiers and officers under the banner of considering their welfare, constantly winning their hearts. Even if he wanted to refute, he couldn't open his mouth!

  "Hmm!"

  He snorted, seeing that the soldiers beside him had obviously already leaned towards him. Li Han knew that his deliberate and unintentional calculations this time were successful. In order not to get himself into internal strife before his strength had grown strong enough, he had decided from the very beginning to eliminate all the gang members under his command. After all, although most of the gang members had received a good education, it was precisely because of this that they had long since developed their own worldview, making it difficult for them to follow Li Han together.

  "I must say I'm quite curious about you all. Who would have thought that at this time, there are still people with ulterior motives lurking in our revolutionary ranks... Come forth..."

  It is...

  "Bring me all those who have evil intentions and infiltrated my revolutionary army, and after the uprising is over, send them to the commander-in-chief for severe punishment. Hmph, causing trouble in my revolutionary army, I want to see who sent you!"

  It is...

  Seeing that the military's heart can be used, Li Han naturally would not have a good impression of these people who dared to slap him in the face, and directly ordered the soldiers beside him to take down Wang Wenren and his gang.

  "Put down the gun... put it down quickly..."

  "I dare anyone..."

  Look at the soldiers surrounding us with their guns drawn. Those gang members are clearly panicked, shouting repeatedly.

  "If there is resistance, kill on the spot. I want to see what you bunch of troublemakers inside, who dare to stir up unrest in my revolutionary army, are really after..."

  The machine gun next to it was loaded, and Li Donglai next to him had already ordered the soldiers to tie up Wang Wenren, who was still struggling. "Let me go, let me go... I'm from Gongjin Hui, we're all revolutionary troops..."

  "Hum, the revolutionary army will point its guns at its own people, the revolutionary army will provoke its own comrades to riot. Very well... Come on, take him away to Chu Wang Tai, Li Dong, you send two people over to clarify things..."

  It is...

  It seems that things have gotten a bit out of hand, and it's clear that if they don't follow the orders of this already offended commander, they can't guarantee whether the other side will actually open fire or not... Although he was extremely indignant, in the end, after Li Han ordered the machine gunner to load the bullets, the atmosphere became tense again for a while before finally putting down their guns. With a hateful glance at him, he was taken away by a group of soldiers.

  "Adult... you..."

  After everyone was taken away, Li Dong came to his side with a somewhat ugly face. "You've really offended the Gongjin Association this time..."

  He was a clever man, and at first Li Han's idea wasn't clear to him. It wasn't until the final result came out that he suddenly realized that this new master had a remarkable strategy. He had not only eliminated the influence of the Hui Party on this armed force but also bought people's hearts and grasped this power. Moreover, he implicitly warned his subordinates not to get involved with the Hui Party, which was a clever move. However, he also had some doubts in his heart. Although it was important to grasp a powerful force in the face of the chaotic situation in the city, the main force of this uprising was still the Hui Party and other armed forces directly or indirectly under their command. The master's actions would inevitably offend the extremely xenophobic Hui Party crowd. If this uprising succeeded, he would have trouble staying in Hubei in the future... Could it be that this master...

  "Hehe, Donglai, you're a clever person. You know what to say if someone asks, right? Go do your thing..."

  Look at the young man beside him, who is only two or three years younger than himself, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He, who has learned to observe facial expressions, also smiled and did not answer. This reserve officer named Li Donglai was able to be transferred to his side for two reasons: firstly, when Li Han evaluated him earlier, he heard that he had studied in Japan for four years, but what major he didn't say, only saying that he was foolish, and finally graduated with the second-to-last score in his class.

  Li Han didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but just now he realized that the troops who came with Cai Jizhong's banner to take away the Governor of Huguang, Rui Cheng, were somewhat abnormal. It was because of his previous actions that Li Han had a few more concerns about him, so he specially kept him as his deputy officer and thought about cultivating him in the end.

  Actually, Li Han's move to deal with Wang Wenren can't be called a conspiracy, it's just intimidation. I believe that the other party will only realize it later if they are not truly brainless, after some reflection. Although most of his opponent's direct accusations were skillfully avoided in his previous statement, his opponent would have discovered at least two loopholes in his words as soon as he came to his senses and thought about it again.

  "It's settled then, I'll go make arrangements..."

  After saying that, he slightly lowered his head to avoid his gaze, saluted him with a military salute, and then turned around to make arrangements!

  After dispersing a group of rioting soldiers, the remaining tasks were simple. This only reminded some excited soldiers to follow his orders and receive the new officer's unexpectedly issued silver pay in an orderly manner!

  "It's almost there, at least most of the soldiers have gathered around by now... I believe that as long as you haven't done anything morally wrong, most of the soldiers should follow you."

  Looking around at the soldiers who were neatly receiving their pay under Li Dong's command, Li Han finally let out a breath of relief. Although he had offended the Tongmenghui revolutionaries, for someone who understood the intricacies between the southern forces in later generations, he didn't have any intention of getting mixed up with them anyway. Offending them was just offending them - wasn't he now in control of the Iron First Battalion?

  "Shouldn't the artillery over there be ready by now?"

  In his heart, he secretly thought that Zhang Biao could become a giant in the new Hubei army. His commanding ability and vision were among the best in the country. Otherwise, he would not have been favored by Zhang Zhidong and the imperial court one after another, and he would not have fought with Rui Cong for several years without falling behind. After the continuous cannon fire gradually subsided, Li Han heard the shouting and killing sounds from that side even more intense, obviously Zhang Biao, who was skilled in battle, was preparing to break through!

  "Those who have received Republican subsidies should quickly withdraw..."

  "Your orders, Commander!" everyone shouted in unison.

  "Chen Mu Kun!"

  "Marked below!"

  "Your command of the first artillery company is good, so I officially appoint you as the company commander of the first artillery company, commanding a whole company of artillery troops!"

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Zhang Bingqian!"

  "Marked below!"

  "Although you have some problems, I still appoint you as the second company commander. Pay attention to strengthening the management of your subordinates and don't let others mix in again!"

  "Yes, sir!"

  ……

  "You are all the elites of my revolution, and naturally, your future prospects will be boundless. For the sake of the revolution, we should exert our utmost efforts, and after the event, I will report to the General Commander to promote you to higher positions, so go ahead with your work..."

  "Work hard... Work hard"

  The revolutionary soldiers who had benefited greatly cheered loudly, and soon this newly formed rebel army under Li Han's command was even more spirited and determined after he made some slight adjustments.

  "Zheng Fu (Chen Mu Kun's courtesy name), how many more shells do we have? Enough to hold on for fifteen minutes?" Li Han asked, looking up and scanning around, only to find that several soldiers from the first company were pushing a cannon back down, clearly having run out of shells.

  "In response to the commander's words, Zhang Bingjun said that there were originally five boxes of shells, but now there might not be even two boxes left. Adding to that, the cannons have been firing for a long time and the barrels are extremely hot, they can probably hold on for only three to five more minutes... Chen Muke replied, his hands shaking slightly as he was facing such a situation with less than one-third of the professional artillerymen."

  "Besides, the 29th Brigade had previously sent someone to inform us that the 8th Artillery Regiment had defected and was now setting up big guns at Chuwangtai, but due to the darkness of night, they were unable to assist in the battle..."

  There were not many small mobile cannons inside the Chu Wang Tai, and after Li Han pushed out twelve of them, there were even fewer, so they could only set up those cumbersome large-caliber artillery on Mount Chu Wang.