Chapter 48: Independent Army

  The victory at Xigu shocked all of Shaanxi and Gansu.

  Those who knew the situation suddenly realized that the Beiziyuan camp had already surpassed the Town South Army and grown into the most elite troops in Gansu. Where else in Gansu could there be such a large group of fierce horse bandits? It was naturally only the Town South Army stationed on the north side of Xigu.

  With only two battalions, using a frontal assault approach, they cleanly and efficiently annihilated an entire banner of the Town South Army, which was an outcome that no one had expected. This was clearly different from when Chen An used the same proportion of troops to annihilate the Ma family guard unit, which lacked tactical coordination and was recklessly commanded by Ma Tingkui.

  Chen An urgently wired the Governor's Office, angrily denouncing the Ma family's crazy invasion and requesting that the Governor approve the dispatch of the Beizi Camp to annihilate the Town South Army, which had already become a bandit gang. He also attached Lin Yushan's confession from the interrogation.

  The governor's office was in an uproar. The Shaanxi-Gansu Governor, Lord Xiang, severely scolded the Hezhou Prefect, saying that with such a severe bandit problem in his jurisdiction, he was completely unaware of it. In private, however, he told his teacher, "Gansu has finally gotten a military force that can counterbalance the Ma family's power, and it's about time someone put the brakes on the Ma family's arrogance."

  As soon as the Governor-General received Chen An's telegram, he knew that the Northern Army did not really want to attack the Town South Army. He felt a great weight lifted off his mind, since there would be no ugly fight between his two elite troops. Everything was easy now; it was just a matter of getting some benefits.

  It's not that Chen An didn't want to fight, but the actual military strength in his hands was not abundant. Hezhou was the old nest of the Ma family, and who knows how many hidden forces the Ma family had laid out secretly? If one carefully calculated it, they would know that the Beizi Camp did not have the power to swallow the Town South Army.

  After communicating with several senior generals, Chen An ordered the Northern Camp to summarize and analyze the two battles, not only to solidify the fighting will of a common enemy, but also to further improve the practical application of tactics.

  As for Li Hu-chen, who suddenly showed off his exceptional skills in the Xiguan battle, Chen An humorously gave him a deputy officer title. In the commendation order issued to the entire camp, it was stipulated that as long as Li Hu-chen passed the examination for officer candidate selection, he would have the qualifications of a deputy officer, and upon graduation from the officer candidate school, he would naturally become a formal officer.

  Seeing this strange award certificate, can the agent still be a substitute? Lin Yushan and others were dumbfounded.

  Li Huchen himself was excitedly dancing with joy, not the so-called substitute agent, but this award certificate is the first award certificate issued by the Beiziying Camp to the whole camp, seeing that 001 number, he was a little dizzy. This is truly a family heirloom.

  Ma's family in Hezhou, Ma Anliang was furious and slapped the sky with a mouthful of blood. In one breath, he smashed all the bottles and jars in the study and killed two ignorant servants. Ma Anliang's heart was about to bleed, the elite of an entire banner, without three years of hard training, it would be impossible to form an army.

  They are all to blame for Ting's death. Without him causing trouble, how could such a ridiculous thing happen that they were clearly on good terms but suddenly turned hostile? However, in his heart, Ma Anliang had an even thicker murderous intention. There cannot be a more powerful force than the Pingnan Army, otherwise it will endanger the power of our Ma family in Gansu.

  Originally, I just planned to have my subordinates disguise themselves as bandits and go to the interior of Jiezhou to rob and cause trouble. Then, using the excuse that bandits are rampant in the territory, I would report Chen An's wrongdoing to the imperial court. If it succeeded, that would be best; if not, at least it would make him uncomfortable. Who would have thought that they would actually be blocked outside Xiguan? This has confirmed the Ma family's guilt and lost an entire banner of elite troops. What a mess, what a mess!

  Upon seeing the telegram from the Governor, Ma Anliang's face turned gloomy. He directly used the excuse of "leniency in governance" to brush it off and ordered someone to send the 100,000 taels of silver that were returned last time back to the Governor's office, still having to make a big concession.

  Shou received the silver, Shengyun naturally raised it high and put it down lightly, and casually used the name of dereliction of duty to punish Ma Anliang for one year's salary, and that was the end of it.

  As for the side of Jiezhou, Governor and Chen An exchanged telegrams several times, openly saying and secretly coming to haggle over prices.

  The Governor first agreed to upgrade the Beiziying to a military, Chen An was delighted and agreed, but there was another dispute over the name. The Governor's office initially gave the name of Longnan Army, Chen An thought that he was the Longnan Army, Ma Anliang was the Zhenan Army, wouldn't it be suppressed? He immediately disagreed. Later, they simply gave the name of Beizi Military, Chen An again felt it didn't sound good, and immediately proposed the suggestion of North Military, Sheng Xun thought about it for a while and still agreed.

  Promoting a battalion to an army is a big deal. The appointment of the battalion commander and lieutenant by the governor-general's office is required for the northern battalions, while the northern armies can appoint their own commanders and lieutenants and report to the governor-general's office afterwards.

  Now that it has been upgraded to the Northern Army, the Hepu Camp stationed in Huixian and Liangdang was also transferred by the Governor's Mansion, allowing Chen An to form a new camp on his own.

  The officer of the Hechi camp heard that he was going to be transferred and got drunk with his friends in a wine house, shouting "Finally escaped from the sea of suffering!" Isn't it true that now in Shaanxi and Gansu official circles, as long as you are under Chen An's command, you will definitely encounter bad luck? When the Beizi camp was first established, four officers were either dead or injured, one was dismissed, and what's even more bizarre is that all of this happened before Chen An had a chance to cause trouble for them. Now only the officer of Hechi camp remains, and he can't help but be terrified.

  The Governor's office then clearly stated that Gansu and Shaanxi would also establish new armies, and the military supplies used would be uniformly purchased from Chen An at market prices. The idea is that since you've been given a title, you should be given some real benefits too, so you should be satisfied now.

  Chen An still felt a great loss and continued to drag his feet with the Governor's office.

  Sheng Rong was also driven mad by him, so he simply sent a strange telegram: "Chen An, don't be so nagging, in one sentence, I know you want to repair the railway, and give you another Longnan Railway Supervisor, if not, take it away, or break up."

  Seeing the Governor's telegram, which was clearly furious, Chen An was also frightened. He wiped his forehead, where there was no cold sweat, and quickly replied in agreement. It was winter, the weather was very cold, what sweat?

  The aftermath of the Western Solidarity War has finally been temporarily calmed, and troops have been redeployed for garrison duty. First, Lin Yushan's rear camp was replenished with losses, Zhao Si's left camp was transferred to the northeast of Jiezhou for garrison duty, Chenjiazhuang's main force had only an understrength middle camp and Hu Zi's right camp, which also had to garrison Biku, making its strength somewhat thin. Chen An decided that next summer, he would recruit a third batch of 700 new soldiers, not only to build a new camp and replenish battle losses but also to establish a supplementary camp.

  It was Old Master Chen who, after hearing about the situation of the Xiguan Battle, suggested to Chen An that each outpost should be equipped with medical officers to reduce personnel deaths. In those years, the Gansu Army had at least two or more medical officers for every small camp of around 500 people. Dr. Gao was one of the medical officers in Old Master Chen's camp back then.

  Chen An had seen the level of Western doctors in Shanghai, and Dr. Gao had also said that Western medicine was good at treating injuries, while Chinese medicine was better at treating illnesses. It seemed that they needed to invite a Western doctor to help train medical personnel for the Northern Army, Chen An thought to himself. This battle at Xi'an had fully demonstrated that in future wars, the excessively sharp artillery and machine guns would inevitably cause massive casualties, and it was indeed necessary to establish an independent medical system.

  However, the matter of inviting foreign doctors is not urgent for the time being. Several offices have been suspended during this period. Now that the New Year is approaching, people like Klauser have chosen to return to Chenjiazhuang for the New Year because it's lively here. Even the three foreign technicians who were hired earliest have moved their families over and have become somewhat Sinicized.

  With more people, there are more children, and private schools need to be expanded, medical services also need to be expanded, and there will be many things to do after the new year.

  What surprised Chen An was that Yin Weijun's little girl also came to Chenjiazhuang with Klauser, but it was unclear whether she had come to see Lin Yushan or to find Chen An for something important.

  It seems that both are true. Yin Weijun found Chen An, handed over Xu Bohui's secret letter, and after being crazy with Yu'er for a day, he followed the personnel sent by Lin Yushan to pick him up, and slipped away to Jiezhou with a smile.

  In order to be on the safe side and set an example for all Northern officers and soldiers, Chen An ordered that the three detachments stationed outside would have to spend the New Year locally, and only allowed one-tenth of his subordinates to take turns going home on leave.

  Chen An said to Yue'er who helped him tidy up his study, "It seems that your sister-in-law is a done deal."

  Yue'er gave him a white eye, and said reluctantly, "Then when are we going to get married?" Chen An was stunned, and had to be careful not to let Yin Wei Jun spoil Yue'er.

  He coughed a few times, and Chen An hehe smiled foolishly for a while, "Or, let's pick a good day next year?"

  The moon suddenly rushed over, excitedly hugged Chen An and kissed him once.

  Looking at the delighted Moon, Chen An couldn't help but smile. Immediately, his eyes rolled over and he opened a new topic, "Moon, it seems that Wei Jun's daughter is a revolutionary party member, will your old man agree?"

  Lin Yue'er glared at Chen An fiercely, "You're not a royalist either."

  Chen An could only hehe smile a few times, it seemed that he was still the dark stake of Guangfu Hui, although he had never heard of their instructions.

  After the moon came out, Chen An took out Xu Bohui's secret letter and read it carefully.

  The failure of the Ping-Liu-Li Uprising was a heavy blow to the revolutionaries, with thousands of soldiers and civilians who participated in the uprising being killed, and many Tongmenghui members sacrificing their lives during the Qing government's frantic pursuit.

  The high-level Kuomintang believed that one of the main reasons for the failure of the revolutionary army's uprising was the lack of military equipment and ammunition.

  Xu Bohui wrote a secret letter for this purpose, and Yin Weijun personally delivered it to Chen An, hoping that he would secretly help the Guangfu Society to collect another 1,000 rifles and corresponding ammunition. Tao Chengzhang had already rushed to Nanyang again to raise funds. In order to prevent the secret letter from being leaked, Xu Bohui wrote without a heading or signature, and was very vague.

  After reading the secret letter, Chen An quietly lit it on fire and burned it to ashes.

  It's easy to get ammunition, as long as you're willing to pay for it. Sending a few dozen is no big deal, but if you send too many, others might think you're trying to curry favor. Transporting the ammunition is even easier. After Klausner threw down several large red envelopes, the British Yangtze Transport Company almost revered the North Industries Corporation as an ancestor, and even dispatched a British warship patrolling the Yangtze River to escort it.

  One thousand rifles made in Hanyang, plus one million rounds of ammunition, would cost at least thirty-seven thousand taels of silver. Chen An muttered to himself, wondering if they could raise such a large sum.