Insufficient balance

  Huang Xing and others fled east overnight, ignoring the Wuhan battlefield, causing a very bad impact. The Hubei militia in Hanyang was already unable to withstand the fierce attack of Feng Guozhang's Beiyang First Army. Huang Xing and others' overnight escape further damaged the morale of the Hubei militia. On the second day, before dawn, the Beiyang army launched a general offensive against the remaining Hubei militia in Hanyang. The Hubei militia defending inside Hanyang suffered a large-scale collapse that day, and by nightfall, Hanyang had been occupied by the Beiyang army.

  The next morning, Feng Guozhang sent a telegram of victory to Beijing!

  On the 27th, in the morning, news of Hanyang's fall had been reported by many newspapers and almost all of China knew about it at the first time.

  "Feng Guozhang is indeed a great general!" Upon receiving the telegram, Zaifeng was overjoyed and immediately issued an edict in his capacity as regent, conferring upon Feng Guozhang the title of viscount and bestowing upon him a yellow jacket and other rewards.

  But Yuan Shikai, who was actually the superior of Feng Guozhang, received Feng's telegram and his face turned extremely gloomy: "Does he still have me in his eyes?"

  Yuan Shikai's plan in his mind was no longer a secret to several high-ranking officials in the Beiyang government. That is, give up Nanjing, put pressure on and intimidate the Qing court, exert pressure on the revolutionary party in the direction of Hubei, and prepare heavy troops in the direction of Xuzhou to prevent the Southern League Army from moving north along the Tianjin-Pukou Railway. The ultimate goal was to force the Qing court and the southern parties to negotiate a peace settlement, and then he would become the president.

  Before Feng Guozhang took down Hanyang, the situation had been going according to Yuan Shikai's plan. However, unexpectedly, Feng Guozhang didn't take Yuan's hint seriously and actually took down Hanyang. Moreover, in a telegram, he claimed that his army was ready to march towards Wuchang and would completely eliminate the Hubei militia without needing to ask for instructions from anyone.

  This made Yuan Shikai so angry that he drank three cups of tea in a row, but still couldn't suppress the fire in his heart. Afterwards, he steeled himself and didn't care about giving Feng Guozhang face as his trusted general anymore.

  He immediately said to Duan Qirui beside him: "You go to Hubei to replace Feng Guozhang. Don't need me to say more about the details, do you?"

  When Yuan Shikai suddenly said to let himself replace Feng Guozhang, it shocked Duan Qirui's heart while also secretly delighting him. Originally he thought Yuan Shikai would at most just scold Feng Guozhang, never expecting the old man to actually remove Feng and have himself take over as commander-in-chief of the First Army, this was a real surprise indeed.

  After the Wuchang Uprising, the Beiyang Army was divided into three armies. The First Army went to the Hubei front line with Feng Guozhang as its commander-in-chief. The Second Army was originally intended for use on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway and was supposed to be led by Duan Qirui, but after the Shandong disaster and Yuan Shikai's decision to abandon Nanjing, the Second Army became a hollow shell. The Third Army consisted of the Imperial Guard and other units responsible for defending the capital region, and its commander-in-chief position was left vacant.

  That is to say, currently in the Beiyang military system, only the commander-in-chief of the First Army holds a real power position, and many famous generals in the Beiyang are all eyeing it, and Duan Qirui is no exception.

  At once Duan Qirui said: "Don't worry, sir. I know what to do and won't mess up your plans!"

  He said as much and added: "Brother Feng just coming back like this isn't quite right, is it?"

  Yuan Shikai knew what he meant, and immediately said: "I'll call him back to be the commander of the Imperial Guard, guarding the capital, I'm sure he'll be happy about it!"

  "You set off today, and after arriving, you must pay attention to the measure, and give face to Hubei on that side, but also cannot be taken lightly by others!" Yuan Shikai was still very concerned about Hubei, fearing that the Beiyang Army would accidentally take down Wuchang as well, which would be difficult to deal with afterwards.

  Yuan Shikai was enraged because Feng Guozhang had taken Hanyang, and the party members in the south were also panicked by the loss of Hanyang. As for Hubei, Huang Xing and a group of revolutionaries led by him had long since fled without a trace, and Li Yuanhong had also moved out of Wuchang City to avoid the bombardment of the Beiyang Army.

  The Southern Allied Army is also in a state of panic!

  From the perspective of the Southern League, if Feng Guozhang takes down Wuchang, then the next step would naturally be to concentrate troops on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway line. At that time, the Nanjing battlefield will deteriorate to an uncontrollable extent. After all, they still do not have the confidence to confront Beiyang, and even more so, they do not know that Yuan Shikai does not want to fight with them at all, but rather wants both sides to negotiate a peace treaty so he can become the Grand President.

  Yuan Shikai's mind was unknown to the southerners, and even those who knew a little about the situation, like Chen Jingyun, were unwilling to speak out. Therefore, many high-ranking generals of the Southern Alliance Army became anxious, and Xu Shaozhen moved his command center to the front line to boost morale.

  To gain time, the more than 20,000 Southern Allied Army troops around Nanjing did not wait to form a siege and several vanguards had already started attacking Nanjing.

  The Southern Allied Army is making an all-out effort to attack the city, and the First Division of the National Army under Ma Cheng also received Xu Shaozhen's order to speed up its advance.

  The First Division did not rush to advance after arriving in Wenzhou, but instead rested on the spot for several days. Ma Cheng even reorganized the original patrol battalion and a small number of new troops in Wenzhou into two guard battalions according to Chen Jingyun's instructions. After dawdling for many days, the First Division officially set off, passing through Taizhou Prefecture along the way. According to the old rules, Ma Cheng did not openly move against the local military government, but relied on the powerful military force to reorganize the local patrol battalion and other troops under the name of the Southern Allied Army.

  When Chen Jingyun, Chen Qimei and Tang Shouqian formed the Southern Allied Army, they organized several parts according to the composition of each unit. The First Division of Fujian National Army was naturally organized separately. After getting this name, Ma Cheng didn't hesitate to incorporate all the old troops such as Zhejiang's patrol battalions along the way north.

  Ma Cheng dared to do so, apart from relying on the name of the Southern Allied Army, also because the main military force in Zhejiang Province, the 21st Division, was not in the province. Now most of the 21st Division is around Nanjing, and only some old troops such as the patrol battalion are left in Zhejiang Province. The revolutionaries have always been distrustful of these old troops, if they were not afraid of them causing trouble, they would have disbanded them long ago.

  In this case, Ma Cheng encountered no actual obstacles in the process of absorbing these old troops.

  After these old troops were reorganized, they were mixed with the old troops of the First Brigade and then formed separate infantry regiments. By the time they arrived in Shaoxing, they had already reorganized more than half of Zhejiang's old troops into six guard battalions. Two guard brigades were established within Zhejiang for this purpose. Chen Jingyun sent his trusted generals from Fuzhou to command and strengthen their training, so that they could become a combat-ready army as soon as possible.

  When Ma Cheng's first division arrived in Shaoxing, they stopped and rested. On the surface, it was said that the soldiers were tired and needed to rest after walking for so long, but the real reason was that if they continued to move forward, the next step would be Hangzhou. And Hangzhou is the provincial capital of Zhejiang Province, where the revolutionary party members, gentry, merchants and other forces are powerful, it's not easy to go there. If you don't pay attention to Hangzhou, continuing northward will enter Jiangsu territory.

  To be honest, that place is too far and too dangerous. Chen Jingyun was worried that his first trip would not return, so he ordered Ma Cheng to camp on the spot.

  Ma Cheng's northward advance as the first division, although it did not clear and incorporate all local governments along the way into the Fuzhou military government, Ma Cheng did absorb the old troops along the way. From a purely military perspective, most of southern Zhejiang's coastal areas had already fallen under the control of the Nationalist Army.

  This behavior of occupying land in the name of revolution was done so blatantly by only one person, Chen Jingyun, before the Xinhai Revolution!

  "Now Zhejiang seems to be a bit thinner!" In the Fuzhou headquarters, Feng Qin was discussing strategic plans for Zhejiang with Chen Jingyun and a few other high-ranking military officers. Pointing at the map, Feng Qin continued: "Now the main force of the First Division is stationed in Shaoxing, only a hundred miles away from Hangzhou, which can be reached within a day or two. According to our understanding, the strength inside Hangzhou City is not small, with the 21st Regiment's limited troops and the old military forces inside the city expanding daily, currently reaching a scale of over 10,000 people."

  Feng Qin's words clearly regarded the troops in Hangzhou as enemies! He had such thoughts thanks to Chen Jingyun. Since the military government was established, Chen Jingyun led his troops to recover the province and quickly advanced towards Guangdong and Zhejiang. By observing what Yuan Fang did in Chaozhou and Ma Cheng did in Zhejiang, it's not hard to see that Chen Jingyun wanted to occupy territory. As for this idea of his own, Chen Jingyun didn't hide it from high-ranking generals like Feng Qin, Lin Chengkun, and Ma Cheng; otherwise, Ma Cheng wouldn't have followed Chen Jingyun's instructions to reorganize the old troops in southern Zhejiang.

  Feng Qin continued: "Moreover, Shaoxing is close to Jiangsu, and the battle in Nanjing is currently at a stalemate. If things don't go well on the Nanjing front, the Northern Army will launch a large-scale attack southward, and relying solely on the Second Brigade won't be enough!"

  Lin Chengkun on the other side also nodded and said, "Director Feng's words are not wrong. Now our National Army in Zhejiang has the First Brigade and two guard battalions, but those two guard battalions were just reorganized recently, and their firearms are all old-fashioned goods. Although their combat effectiveness is slightly better than that of new recruits, it is still extremely limited. Moreover, these two battalions are scattered in Taizhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo and other places for garrison, when the war really breaks out, only one First Brigade can really fight!"

  As for the insufficient troops in Zhejiang, Chen Jingyun was clear in his mind. However, as the commander-in-chief of the National Army, he did not only look at Zhejiang, but also had to pay attention to the situation in Fujian Province, Guangdong and Jiangxi. Fujian originally had limited troops, and having to take care of so many directions naturally led to a shortage of troops.

  Chen Jingyun didn't know if things would really go as they did in his past life, with the Southern Allied Army taking Nanjing City and then negotiating a peace treaty between north and south. But since he had already appeared here, the historical Suzhou-Zhejiang Allied Army had become the Southern Allied Army, and his Nationalist Army not only recovered Fujian but also sent troops to Guangdong and Zhejiang, creating too many variables, making it difficult for him to grasp how the future strategic situation would develop at this time.

  After a moment of contemplation in front of the map, he said: "How are the various garrison battalions within the province organized?"