Chapter 32 of the Fourth Part 4: Nothing is the most shameless

The total of 30,000 armed forces in Hangzhou City were chaotic, which was a provincial capital city at least. At the same time, Liu Kun ordered the troops from all over the country gathered in Hangzhou in scattered ways.

Hangzhou Governor Wang Debang is an old general of the Hunan Army and was once a comrade-in-arms of Chen Congyun on the Vietnam battlefield. Wang Debang was very confused about Liu Kunyi's orders. Chen Congyun jumped out to do something as soon as he started his army. Can't he wait and see? Wang Debang also understood that Liu Kunyi was gambling. Since Zeng Guofan stepped down, the Hunan Army was gradually replaced by the Huai Army and was no longer as powerful as before. The saying "No Hunan can become an army" seems to be about to be forgotten. Liu Kun's mood to revive the Hunan Army is understandable. However, this time the opponent is too strong.

What’s bad is that the troops that Wang Debang pieced together were not actually the Hunan Army in the true sense, but just a group of local regiments. The old team that followed Wang Debang in Vietnam was still following Liu Kunyi in Fuzhou. Liu Mingchuan died of illness, and his original subordinates didn’t buy Liu Kunyi’s account, but Liu Kunyi needed a team to support the formation.

The arrival of more than 30,000 troops directly led to a lot of order in Hangzhou. These soldiers were not very capable, but they were very good at disturbing the people. They didn’t pay for meals, fought, and teased the little girls, forcing them to jump into the river. These smoky bird matters made Wang Debang faint for two days after handling them. Fortunately, Chen Congyun’s new army was also in Jiading, and not to mention the distance from Hangzhou, the troops were only more than 3,000. There were 30,000 people in Hangzhou, and Liang did not dare to fight with this little force, which made Wang Debang feel a little relieved.

35-year-old Clawson was originally a captain who was not very proud of the German Army. He was irritable and a little arrogant. He contradicted his boss several times in Germany and caused a regular army captain to be transferred to the warehouse. In anger, Kze happened to be back to Germany for vacation, so he followed Kze to China.

When he arrived in China, Chen Congyun, who was short of talents, naturally used him in an unconventional manner. He found that although this guy had a bit of personality, he did have a good way to lead troops, so Clawson quickly left the General Staff and became a major general brigade commander. Chen Congyun's army had a characteristic, that is, there were almost few officers over 40 years old among the officers above the brigade commander. Youngness is the characteristic of the New Army of the South China Sea.

Clawson was also very confused. Although his brigade was called a mixed brigade, he actually added a heavy mortar battalion and a cavalry company for reconnaissance. The total number of troops was only more than 4,000. However, Chen Congyun actually ordered him to attack Hangzhou. This was undoubtedly a bit ridiculous order. The capital of Zhejiang Province usually has about 10,000 troops. Recently, several people have entered Hangzhou, and there are tens of thousands of people.

Although he did not understand Chen Congyun's order, as a soldier, he was a soldier from the German army. His obedience nature had penetrated into every cell. He could tactfully doubt his boss, and he could raise his opinions, but he had to execute the order. Clawson sent a telegram to the General Staff to express his doubts, but after being rejected by the call back, Clawson resolutely executed this very ridiculous order.

After a day of rapid march, when the troops arrived outside Hangzhou, Clawson saw not his opponent's army, but a large number of refugees rushing out of the city.

The scouts sent back came back to report that there are now more than 30,000 troops in Hangzhou, with order in chaos, and a rumor circulating everywhere that the 100,000 troops of the New Southwestern Army were fighting.

Clawson couldn't help but smile bitterly, 100,000! The gap is a bit big. Which irresponsible friend can look at a mixed brigade like this? Unfortunately, these irresponsible friends are just the guys from Hangzhou, the Military Intelligence Bureau.

The 4,000 people from the Third Mixed Brigade guarded Jiading, and Clawson was sure that even if 30,000 enemy troops came to siege, he could defend it. After all, the combat effectiveness of the Qing army was very average, but if he attacked a city with a tall city wall and 30,000 troops, Clawson would have no confidence.

In any case, the General Staff’s orders must be executed. If you don’t fight, you will win, and if you don’t execute the order, it’s another matter. If you don’t execute the order, it’s another matter.

Clawson carefully occupied a small town outside Hangzhou city, and then put in a lot of effort and spent half a night to let the soldiers wield small shovels to build a decent line of defense. Then he ordered the troops to rest and discuss the attack tomorrow.

God knows what the defenders in Hangzhou were thinking. There was no movement in the night and there was no intention of bullying the few. Clawson didn't sleep much all night. At dawn, he watched with his blood-covered eyes for a long time. The flags were waving at the top of Hangzhou, and he looked very imposing. No soldier came out, and the residents nearby ran away.

Although the third mixed brigade had not many troops, Shen Congyun was generously equipped with a heavy artillery battalion, and a 75mm field cannon was rigged outside the city. Clawson ordered a regiment to prepare and go around the city and scare the people inside. But he didn't really plan to enter the city, just scare it.

A heavy artillery attack was made by Ping Pong. The walls of Hangzhou were blown up and the flags on the walls were blown upside down and smoked. On the head of the city in the telescope, a group of soldiers were running around in vain, which made Clawson very puzzled. Especially the old iron cannons on the city were rumbling, irrespective of whether they hit the target or not.

Soon, a scary regiment was sent out and approached the city carefully, and raised heavy mortars and bombed them. After more than ten minutes, they were about to go back to sleep and get back to sleep, the Hangzhou city gate suddenly opened.

This scared Clawson and hurriedly ordered the artillery to be suppressed and the machine gun was ready to receive the troops that were tested to retreat. As a result, the battle flags on the top of the Hangzhou city were quickly removed. Not only did a white flag be hung, a soldier came out of the city gate, waving a white inner trunk, shouting loudly: "Don't shoot, we lord said, we surrender."

Clawson was not willing to believe it. He would rather believe it was a scam. The Chinese had long put forward the view that "soldiers never get tired of deceitfulness". During the Three Kingdoms, a guy named Cao also said, "Soldiers! It's a devil!"

But what happened next made Clawson think he had misread. One soldier after another came out with a variety of weapons in his hands. He threw the weapons to the ground after leaving the city gate, and then he was so at ease that he walked towards the town in a messy line.

In fact, when Clawson was terrified and careful last night, Wang Debang made an amazing decision. The 30,000-bit army was really a team that could not be trusted, and Wang Debang didn't want to fight with Chen Congyun Zhen. He simply took more than 20,000 people to Fuzhou overnight. The Zhejiang Provincial Administration Officer who stayed in the city was a civil servant. He heard that Wang Debang had flickered people, so he packed up a car of fine and soft things overnight, and also flicked people with his wife. Before leaving, the guy still swears to the Hangzhou garrison general that he was going to retaliate.

The Hangzhou garrison who stayed behind was a master who was not close to his uncle. Otherwise, how could he take such a big blame? This guy was too impressed. The city was full of flags. If the new army didn't come to fight, he would surrender immediately. So, when Clawson fired the artillery, the guy had already ordered the city to quickly take off the flag and hang the white flag.

When Clawson was still a little dizzy, a regiment that came out was already daring and rushed into the city. Before Clawson could figure out what was going on, he had sent someone back to report that Hangzhou City had been taken down. Clawson felt a little dreamy, and soon thought of something. When he was in Germany, he heard that some old-style armies of the Chinese government had no combat power at all. Now it seems that he is not wrong at all.

He took down Hangzhou City without any blood. Clawson immediately became very enthusiastic and said in the telegram sent to the General Staff that he was willing to take Fuzhou directly with the Mixed Brigade. As a result, the General Staff called back and stayed in Hangzhou honestly.

Clawson accepted the order with infinite regret!

It was on this day that when the northern battlefield troops were still gathering and mobilizing, Li Yaozu, who was threatening to Guangzhou, expressed his majesty and called the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Cen Yuying, saying: "My 50,000 new troops are waiting for the battle and are about to head towards Kunming."

Cen Yuying reacted very quickly this time and replied: "Tong and Guangxi, Yun and Guizhou are in harmony, and Lord Li sent troops to Kunming, why? The war was together, and the creatures were in trouble, so Cen didn't want to see him. Moreover, Cen and Lord Shen were old friends, and they raised their hands to agree with Lord Shen's righteous act of going north."

Cen Yuying was not worried about the safety of the people of Yunnan. What he was worried about was that if Chen Congyun called over, he would have to move. Moving was small, and moving to a remote village was not a trivial matter. Besides, if the empress dowager accidentally died after moving, the position of the governor might have to be replaced. There is another problem even more serious. If Chen Congyun accidentally forced the emperor and the empress dowager to death, the world was in chaos, and Cen Yuying's possibility of separating one side was not without. To separating one side, you must have an army. If you have an army, you must have time to recruit soldiers. At this time, it is obviously unwise to compete with Chen Congyun.

After Cen Yuying played this trick, Zhang Zhidong from Huguang became even more silent. However, Hunan Governor Chen Baozhen jumped out and sent a telegram across the country, expressing that the people of Hunan support Chen Congyun's "righteous act of serving the king".

After the people of Hunan expressed their support for Chen Congyun, Cen Yuying, the representative of Yunnan people, finally sent a shy voice to the whole country, saying, "The people of Yunnan and Guizhou decided to remain neutral!" Tan Zhonglin was already shameless, and Cen Yuying was undoubtedly even more shameless. There was no shamest, only more shameless. While shameless, Tan Zhonglin from Guangzhou quickly made a sum of silver and planned to expand the new army in two towns in succession. Cen Yuying from Yunnan and Guizhou was not idle either, and directly sent a telegram to Chen Congyun: "The people in Yunnan and Guizhou are fierce, and the natives are quite interested in changing. Yuying was deeply worried and decided to form a new army town. He also hoped that the governor Chen would provide strong assistance and sell some imitation m1888 for emergency response."

When Hangzhou City was knocked down, Liu Kunyi's mouth became harder. He called the whole country and said: "Chen Congyun is a rebel. Now Liu led 50,000 elite troops in Fuzhou and will go north to serve the king soon." He shouted loudly, but our Governor Liu Kunyi privately issued an order to the army, "Defend strictly and protect the country and the people!"

It is no wonder that Shen Congyun reads many kinds of faces in history books. After the establishment of the Republic of China in history, it brought about more than 20 years of warlord melee. Until the Japanese came to the door and the Chinese people burst out with unprecedented enthusiasm for national salvation, the disputes in the civil war ended on the surface and continued secretly.

Chen Congyun naturally would not make the same mistake. The Beiyang soldiers in history must be eliminated and the central axis from the Northeast to the Liangjiang River must be opened.

To achieve this, the first problem to be solved is that a division of Carmondo must land in Shanhaiguan in time and cut off Yuan Shikai's way to escape to the northeast. If Yuan Shikai really wants to get to the northeast, according to this king's character, it is absolutely possible to get together with Japanese or Russians, which is really a big deal.

The smoke was rolling in the Bohai Bay. The Nanyang Fleet led by Liu Buchan was equipped with four cruisers, blocking the Beiyang Navy in the port of Weihaiwei. The new Beiyang Navy chief Cha Haowei and the Admiral Niu Xubing were not a loyal minister. Although the Beiyang Navy had four newly purchased cruisers from the UK, plus the old-style warships such as Ding, Zhen, and Zhi, they still had the power to fight, but when the two saw the two giant battleships of the Nanyang Navy, they refused to go out and fight desperately. Ronglu called them to fight continuously. After discussing, they decided to call back and said, "It is really an unwise plan for our Beiyang Navy to venture out to sea. It is better to deal with the enemy with the fort."
Chapter completed!