Insufficient balance

  October in Fuzhou is usually a time of high winds and refreshing air, but recently there had been several heavy rains, and the air still seemed to carry the scent of rain. Riding horseback against the wind at full gallop, one could even feel a hint of coolness!

  Chen Jingyun and Ma Guan Dai, Lin Chengkun three people riding three horses went to the south school field. Chen Jingyun wore a new-style green military uniform, black long boots on his feet, shoulder badges with yellow and red crossed as the base color, with three dragon-patterned gold buttons, collar badges were three gold edges wrapped around the golden dragon spitting blue beads. According to the Qing dynasty's new army rank system, it belonged to the middle first-class, equivalent to Zheng Canling rank, Zheng Sanpin. This is equivalent to a senior colonel in Western military ranks! The Qing dynasty had strict control over the new army ranks, implementing one official and one position, with only a few people in all of Fujian having higher ranks than Chen Jingyun! This was completely different from the situation in the following decades of the Republic of China where generals were everywhere.

  Riding a horse on the main street, looking at the buildings with obvious historical flavor, and then looking at the pedestrians on the road, Chen Jingyun felt both strange and familiar. For these things that he should have felt strange about, but his own memories made him feel familiar. He was even confused as to whether he had occupied Chen Jingyun's body or Chen Jingyun had swallowed his soul.

  With a sigh, his eyes swept across and suddenly thought of it. The new army had only about 50 war horses, which were formed into a team, and the horses ridden by Ma Guandai and Lin Chengkun should still be borrowed from the horse team.

  Perhaps sensing Chen Jingyun's gaze, Ma Guandai smiled at him with a slight smile!

  Ma Cheng, whose surname is Ma and given name means "to achieve success through the horse", was formerly a sentry officer in the old army. Later, he was selected from various camps of the old army to join the new army as a strong and brave soldier. He managed to squeeze into the opportunity to enter the new army and became a regular soldier in the 2nd battalion of the 38th Regiment. When Chen Jingyun took over as the commander of the 2nd battalion, he gradually promoted Ma Cheng to be a team officer, thus becoming one of Chen's trusted men. At the beginning of the year, when Chen temporarily took over as the commander of the 38th Regiment, he naturally promoted Ma again to be the commander of the 2nd battalion.

  Lin Chengkun was a relative of Chen Jingyun, whose sister married Lin's elder brother. After this relationship, Lin, who had just graduated from the Beiyang Military Academy this year, returned to Fuzhou and was recruited by Chen. He is now serving as the supervisor of the 2nd battalion of the 38th regiment, and also serves as the commander of Chen's personal bodyguard.

  These two can be said to have been personally promoted and recruited by Chen Jingyun, naturally being the most trusted among the trusted, both of whom were entrusted with important tasks.

  It was precisely because of this relationship that the two men immediately informed Chen Jingyun as soon as they received news of the Wuchang Uprising.

  The South Campus is a bit far from Liuhe Lane, but after riding a horse for a short while, I arrived. As soon as I entered the South Campus, someone came to lead the horse, and after dismounting, Chen Jingyun went straight to the 38th Brigade Commander's office along the memory of his mind. After entering the door, Chen Jingyun took a glance at the commander's office of the 38th Brigade and found that it was almost the same as what he remembered.

  At this time, there were several people in the command center. Chen Jingyun took a closer look and compared them with the memories in his mind, and he immediately knew their identities.

  The man in casual clothes, about forty years old, was the coach of the 38th Battalion, Feng Qin, deputy commander. He was not tall and looked slightly weak, but don't look at him like that, when it comes to a real fight, three or five strong men can't get close to his body. Feng Qin is Chen Jingyun's successor, when Chen Jingyun was transferred from the 38th Battalion coach to the second battalion commander, Feng Qin took over his position. For the past two years, he has been doing things without any mistakes, not biased, and people can't find any fault with him.

  When Chen Jingyun took over the 38th Division at the beginning of the year, he originally wanted to install this coach as his own person, but unfortunately, he couldn't find any fault with Feng Qin for the time being, and could only let him be. After all, in the new army at that time, the chief officer held great power, while the deputy officer was a very embarrassing position, with high status but little actual power, and usually just made some suggestions.

  Feng Qin's opponent was a military officer in his thirties, with the title of Associate Commander. His name was Xiao Qibin, and he was the commander of the artillery battalion. Although Chen Jingyun knew him, the artillery battalion was directly under the jurisdiction of the garrison commander, and it could be said that they were not in the same system as the infantry battalion. The relationship between them was naturally inferior to that with Ma Cheng.

  Apart from these two, there were also several clerks and military attaches at headquarters!

  The people in the house, including Chen Jingyun and others, came in. Naturally, they hurriedly stood up to greet them. Feng Qin even took a step forward: "Mr. Chen, you've arrived!"

  Chen Jingyun nodded and said: "Uh-huh!"

  After responding, Chen Jingyun turned his head and said to a secretary: "Quickly go and invite all the main officers above the team leader to come over for discussion!"

  Without saying that the secretary went to invite people, Chen Jingyun turned his head and said to Feng Qin, Ma Cheng, Xiao Qibin, Lin Chengkun and others: "Everyone come into the conference hall!"

  Compared to Ma Cheng and Lin Chengkun who knew about the Wuchang Uprising, Feng Qin and Xiao Qibin were in a fog. They had not yet received news of the Wuchang Revolution, after all, there was no direct telegraph line on this side of Nanxiao Field, so the news would not have been transmitted for some time.

  After these people sat down, without being ordered, the duty soldier at the headquarters brought tea. Since not everyone was present, Chen Jingyun naturally wouldn't be in a hurry to talk about the Wuchang Uprising news. He just spoke according to his memory and talked with the crowd: "Mr. Feng, how have things been in the military camp these past few days when I wasn't here?"

  Feng Qin immediately put down his teacup, with a respectful expression: "Don't worry, sir. These past few days, I have been following your previous orders to take care of the camp's affairs, and nothing has gone wrong!"

  Feng Qin's appearance of respectfulness, combined with his impeccable work, was the means by which he had maintained his position as coach for many years. Of course, this was just a superficial matter; beneath the surface, there were naturally many underhanded tactics at play.

  Chen Jingyun nodded, this Nanxiao field is not only the headquarters of the 38th Division, but also garrisoned other town-affiliated troops. All the new armies in Fuzhou city are stationed here. Such an important place cannot be chaotic at this time.

  Then Chen Jingyun turned his gaze to Xiao Qibin: "At the meeting, I heard that Tongzhi Daren said that six new Krupp 75mm quick-firing guns were purchased for the artillery battalion. I suppose they should have arrived in these few days?" In the south drill ground, except for the second battalion, other troops did not belong to Chen Jingyun's direct jurisdiction. However, there was only one commander of the 38th banner, and that was Chen Jingyun. According to custom, on ordinary days, he could also take charge of some military affairs such as artillery teams, logistics battalions, cavalry units, etc.

  Xiao Qibin was apparently more generous than Feng Qinhao: "Thanks to Chen Biao's recommendation in front of the governor, we were able to bring back these six cannons! My brothers are intensifying their training and will be ready soon!"

  Xiao Qibin's speech was full of emotion. The 10th Division is located in Fujian, and since its early days, it has always lacked funds. Over the years, although they have trained ten battalions of infantry, other branches such as artillery and cavalry have always been undermanned. The original plan to train a thousand-strong cavalry unit only managed to train 50 horses, while the artillery only managed to train one battalion with two companies, totaling 12 guns. Half of these were domestically produced 57mm mountain guns, while the other half were Krupp 75mm mountain guns. After the outbreak of unrest in Guangzhou at the beginning of the year, Governor-General Song Shou of Fujian and Zhejiang was worried that Fujian would be invaded by the rebel army from Guangdong, so he urgently ordered six 75mm field guns from a foreign firm to prepare for one battalion of artillery. Originally, these guns were supposed to arrive after being shipped from abroad, but Xiao Qibin found out that there were six field guns in stock at the Yihe Foreign Firm, so he and Chen Jingyun persuaded Sun Daoren to say that ordering from abroad would take too long. Later, Sun Daoren told Song Shou about this, and they managed to get the six guns back after adding 20% to the price, which were originally ordered by other provinces.

  "It's only right, after all, if there's a war and we have the support of the artillery brothers, us infantrymen can achieve twice the results with half the effort!" Chen Jingyun had already begun to win over Xiao Qibin, not for any other reason, but for the eighteen cannons in his hands!

  Not long after that, the door of the conference hall was pushed open, and a group of military officers walked in one after another. These officers were naturally the heads of various departments within the Nanying Military Camp.

  Chen Jingyun looked at each of them in turn, meanwhile rummaging through the memories in his mind, trying to find out who among them were so-called revolutionary party elements.

  The first to enter were the four team officers of the second battalion, all of whom had been personally promoted by Chen Jingyun from below. Although it was not certain whether they were members of the Revolutionary Party or not, their relationship with him was naturally good, and like Ma Cheng, they belonged to his inner circle. Next came Huang An-yuan, the team officer of Ma's team, Lin Wenying of the Engineering Battalion, and two team officers under him. Behind them, officers from the Logistics Battalion, Military Band, and others entered one after another.

  Before long, all officers above the rank of squad leader had arrived at the South Drill Ground!

  Obviously, like Feng Qin and others, these people were still unclear about Chen Jingyun's intention to gather everyone to discuss matters, and naturally showed a puzzled expression on their faces.

  After everyone sat down, Chen Jingyun didn't waste any time: "Lin Chengkun, you tell us about what happened last night!"

  Lin Chengkun said: "Yes!" He immediately stood up and looked around before saying: "According to telegraph messages, a military mutiny broke out in the new army on the Wuchang side last night. The rebels have now occupied Wuchang City, Wu Zhaolin and Xiong Bingkun and other officers support Li Yuanhong as the commander-in-chief, and issued a proclamation to the whole nation!"

  As soon as this was said, the faces of all the people present changed greatly! And Chen Jingyun, who was sitting at the top, carefully observed the reactions of the military officers below and secretly gave a verdict to the military officers below: this one can be won over, that one cannot be won over, this one is loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and that one is inclined towards revolution.

  The reaction of the four officers in the second camp was better than Chen Jingyun had imagined. They looked at Chen Jingyun with surprise, clearly taking him as the mainstay and waiting for his orders at critical moments. Feng Qin, as always, had no expression on his face, narrowing his eyes as if he hadn't heard anything. Huang An-yuan, the officer of the Ma camp, flashed a hint of joy after being surprised, while Lin Wenying, the commander of the Engineering Camp, and his two officers also showed joy, although it was very light, but Chen Jingyun still noticed it.

  As for Xiao Qi Bin, the artillery battalion commander who was valued by Chen Jing Yun, he was surprised and then fell into deep thought. This made Chen Jing Yun feel a bit strange, as it was not normal to be neither angry nor happy. The two team officers under him looked at Xiao Qi Bin in unison.

  In this brief moment, Chen Jingyun saw the reactions of everyone and even slightly guessed their identities. However, Chen Jingyun did not find it strange or angry that so many military officers were inclined to revolution, after all, Chen Jingyun himself was planning to contact the revolutionary party.

  "This news hasn't spread yet, but it will eventually get out. I'm sure by tonight the whole city of Fuzhou will know about it. At this critical moment, I don't care what happens outside, but here in Nanxiao Field, I only have one requirement: 'stability'!" Chen Jingyun's words were gradually laced with a cold tone: "In the past few days, each department has strictly ordered soldiers not to leave their camps and not to cause trouble. Those who disobey will be severely punished!"

  He then ordered Feng Qin: "Later, pass down the order, close the camp gate tightly, and don't let anyone in or out!"

  But as soon as he finished speaking, a gunshot was heard from outside the door!

  The crisp gunfire was like a tidal wave, stirring up a storm of shock and horror in the hearts of the crowd: "Has something gone wrong?"