In fact, Yuan Shikai's little thoughts were clear about Cixi's right and wrong. Isn't it just for the little military power? The Beiyang New Army was an army built by Yuan Shikai, so Yuan Shikai also regarded this army as his own private army. However, when the Qing court chose Tieliang and Liangbi to attack Henan as the commander, Yuan Shikai naturally had to give up the power of sending troops. If the Qing court gave up the plan to attack the south, the military power would naturally return to Yuan Shikai's hands. So it was natural for Yuan Shikai to take the opportunity to stop the court from taking action. Moreover, between the lines of the memorial, it was obvious that the court should not anger overseas Chinese, and it was obviously using overseas Chinese to suppress the court.

Cixi knew from the beginning that Yuan Shikai wanted to seize military power, but she still tolerated Yuan Shikai's behavior. First, Yuan Shikai was indeed capable, and the Qing court also needed this ability; second, it was the same for the Qing court to change everyone. As long as he was in that position, he would find a way to seize military power, and it might not be as good as Yuan Shikai. Moreover, Cixi believed that she could control Yuan Shikai, so she turned a blind eye to his behavior, as long as she did not do too much.

Originally, this time Cixi just wanted to hit Yuan Shikai so that he would not be too obsessed. After a while, he would still re-appoint Yuan Shikai. It was not that he would never let Yuan Shikai take charge of his troops. After all, the Qing court still needed Yuan Shikai's ability now, but he didn't expect that Yuan Shikai was really a little worried. Therefore, he actually used overseas Chinese to suppress the court for his military power, and could not even have temporary patience. It seemed that this person's mind was too narrow and it was really embarrassing.

So Cixi was quite disappointed with Yuan Shikai. Since this was the case, the court could not stop sending troops this time, because once Yuan Shikai's intimidation was effective, it was difficult to guarantee that no one would follow suit. Who would take the court seriously in the future? After all, Cixi was not worried about the victory or defeat of this battle. The main force of overseas Chinese was in the battle between Liaodong and Japan and Russia, and the court's new army had been practicing for 4 or 5 years. If even this could not defeat overseas Chinese, the court would really be over. Cixi's concern was mainly in public opinion. However, Cixi now did not care about public opinion, and the court had to show an attitude. Moreover, Cixi also made up her mind that after the end of this battle, she would not be important in Yuan Shikai, at least she could not give up military power.

In fact, Yuan Shikai is not a person who can't hold back. He also knows that this is Cixi's attack on him again. If he shows obedience, he will definitely be reused for 1 or 2 years. However, Yuan Shikai did not want to endure in his heart, because Yuan Shikai was also very clear that the consequences of forbearance were nothing more than a cycle between reuse-suppression-reuse. Therefore, he also needs to rebel against the imperial army and let the imperial court know that he cannot be played with at will. But now there is a big grasp to use. If this time it can cause the imperial court to suffer a big loss, he will eventually need to come out and clean up the mess, and he can only place the price on the ground, and the imperial court will not dare to suppress himself easily in the future.

Yuan Shikai is the Qing government official who has the most contact with the East China government. He naturally has the deepest understanding of the East China government. He has a very deep understanding of the East China government. From the fact that he has a very deep study of the military capabilities of the East China government. From the fact that he has a lot of time to study the battle between Henan and Hubei provinces and the two provinces of Henan and Hubei, Yuan Shikai spent a lot of time to study it carefully, and also recruited subordinates to discuss it. He admired the tactics adopted by the Henan Volunteer Army at that time. Although the troops of Henan and Hubei provinces were not strong at that time, the East China government was only in the early stages of Henan and did not dispatch Shandong's troops to defeat Henan and the coalition forces of Hubei provinces. It can be seen that even if the main force of the East China government is fighting fiercely in Liaodong, the court may not be able to win easily. If he interferes with it, if his old subordinates slowly advance and deliberately fail to cooperate, it will not be difficult to let the court suffer a big loss in this battle.

Yuan Shikai also knew that the Qing court and the East China government could not coexist, so sooner or later, and he would meet with soldiers. He did this undoubtedly increased the internal friction of the Qing court and was not conducive to the Qing court. Moreover, even if he had won military power, in the future, the responsibility of fighting against the East China government would fall on him. Yuan Shikai still knew that he was by no means a rival to overseas Chinese.

However, although the current competition for military power is not good for the Qing court, Yuan Shikai still decided to fight without hesitation. The reason is that Yuan Shikai believes that the Qing court and the East China government are in the future. Maybe it is 5 years or 10 years, and he should take care of the immediate interests first. In addition, Yuan Shikai is also quite resentful. The Qing Dynasty's country is not his own, so why should he sacrifice his rights and interests to protect it? Besides, if he really competes with overseas Chinese in the future, he will not be loyal to the court. At that time, he has military power and is also a capital that can be used to negotiate with overseas Chinese.

When Yuan Shikai learned that the court might have cancelled the plan to attack Henan because the East China government won the victory of the Battle of Vladivostok, he was also very anxious. If this battle was really cancelled, it was hard to say whether he could restore his military power. Even if it was restored, it would be possible to be removed at any time. Therefore, the court should not cancel the plan to attack Henan. So Yuan Shikai thought about it and finally came up with a solution, which was to oppose sending troops. Yuan Shikai believed that Cixi would immediately decide to send troops when she saw this letter.

The result was indeed as Yuan Shikai expected. After the letter was handed over, Cixi immediately strengthened her determination to send troops, but she didn't know that she was just a little bit distorted by Yuan Shikai. This was also Cixi's age and had no idea that she was a little too late to react. If it were 10 years ago, she would think about it more, with Yuan Shikai's caution, why did she give such a reckless comment?

In fact, the Qing court did spend a lot of money on the attack on Henan this time, because Tieliang and Liangbi wanted to become famous through this battle and completely seize Yuan Shikai's military power, so naturally they did not dare to be careless. The Qing court also responded to the two of them with all their requests and supported them with all their strength. It can be said that the whole country fought together.

The six towns in Beiyang dispatched four towns, the 1st-4th town, and the attack on Henan was divided into three routes. Duan Qirui, the commander of the third town in Beiyang, led the army to advance from Baoding and attack Henan from Hebei. At the same time, it also threatened Shandong, so that Shandong could not reinforce Henan; the fourth town led Wu Fengling as the right wing, Luoyang sent troops to attack Nanyang, and restrained the People's Army's forces; Tieliang and Liangbi personally led the first, the second town was the middle route, and Taiyuan sent troops to attack from Shanxi to Henan, and attacked Kaifeng Prefecture. The three groups of men and horses advanced together and attacked together.

The Beiyang Army's "town" is equivalent to the "division" of modern army. Each town has approved a basic army of about 12,000 people, but the company is different. With the logistics personnel, the total number is about 15,000 to 20,000. Each route is equipped with at least 10,000 local troops as a support. Therefore, the total strength of these three routes is about 100,000.

Except for the first town of the Beijing Banner Standing Army, which is the main source of soldiers, the soldiers were selected by Tieliang himself. The commander was Fengshan, a native of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han army. He was considered his own people, the commanders and troops of the other five towns were Yuan Shikai's confidants. For example, Wang Yingkai, the commander of the second town, joined Yuan Shikai's new army as early as 1895 and was the early backbone of Yuan Shikai's formation of the Beiyang Army. Duan Qirui, the commander of the third town, followed him at the beginning of the training station of Yuan Shikai. His second wife was Zhang Peiheng, the adopted daughter of Yuan Shikai, and Wu Fengling, the commander of the fourth town, was the son of Yuan Shikai's servant. He grew up in the Yuan family and was brought out by Yuan Shikai himself.

Tieliang and Liangbi made this arrangement, firstly, there was no one or no army available in the Qing court except the six towns in Beiyang, and secondly, they used this battle to test the attitudes of these towns towards the Qing court. If they all worked hard, they would forget it. If anyone dared to fight passively, they would just take it down and replace it with their own people.

Moreover, Tieliang and Liangbi have also carefully calculated that among the three armies, the middle route has the strongest military strength, with a total strength of nearly 60,000, and there is the most reliable Beiyang No. 1 Town. In addition, Tieliang and Liangbi personally supervised, and the second town of Beiyang may not dare not do anything. The other two armies are all restrained, so they don’t need to work harder. The two thought it was enough to rely on the middle route army, and they still hoped that these two armies would be more negative, so they would have an excuse to replace people and completely recapture the Beiyang army from Yuan Shikai.

In addition, the two decided to let the Hubei new army attack and attack Xiangyang to restrain the overseas Chinese.

Two years ago, Zhao Erxun, the governor of Huguang, and Zhang Renjun, the governor of Henan, jointly sent troops to suppress the river and lake bases that were first established at that time. As a result, they were defeated by the volunteers. Even the governor of Henan Xie Baosheng was killed. Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun had to apologize to the court.

The Qing court argued endlessly about what crimes should be convicted of the two. As a result, it delayed for several months, and the Russo-Japanese War broke out. The Qing court was worried about how to deal with the war between Japan and Russia. Therefore, the punishment for the two had to be hasty and punished them. As a result, not only did both of them save their official positions, but even Zhang Biao, the commander of the Hubei New Army, and Li Yuanhong, who was defeated on the battlefield, were not removed from office.

A year later, Zhang Renjun was renamed as governor of Shanxi, while Zhao Erxun remained. However, at this time, the river and lake bases had great development, occupying most of Henan, and even the capital of Henan Kaifeng Prefecture. Therefore, after Zhang Renjun left office, the Qing court did not appoint the governor of Henan and changed the provincial capital of Henan to Luoyang. The remaining few prefectures in Henan were also assigned to the Luoyang Prefecture.
Chapter completed!