In fact, it is not uncommon to impersonate overseas Chinese. After all, the reputation of overseas Chinese is at its peak now, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that overseas Chinese do not take the Qing court seriously at all. Therefore, many bandits and robbers pretend to be overseas Chinese. Because of these revolutionary parties, they like to impersonate overseas Chinese to discuss matters. Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun issued a document to the East China government under this name.

After receiving the official document, the East China Government of course understood the meaning of these two people, because the development of river and lake bases has threatened the rule of local officials in Henan and Hubei. However, there have been reports of relevant information in Beijing, so it is very likely that the two local officials hope to resolve the problem within their own authority. Of course, this depends on the attitude of the East China Government. If the East China Government wants to interfere and protect the river and lake bases, Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun naturally dare not take action. The two would not think that they could compete with the East China Government and could only inform the Qing court. On the contrary, if the East China Government stated that they would not interfere, then the two would probably have a gamble and cleared the river and lake bases within their authority.

After consultation by the Executive Yuan, the East China government believed that once the two informed the Qing court, the East China government would likely have a broken-out with the Qing court. The Qing court could tolerate the East China government's step by step self-control, but the premise was that the power of the East China government could only be in the scope of Shandong, and the East China government established a river and lake base, which undoubtedly broke through this scope, and the Qing court could never tolerate it anymore.

But now is not the time for the East China government and the Qing court to completely turn against each other. After all, the Russo-Japanese War is about to start, and the East China government's main energy must be focused on this direction. If the East China government stated that the river and lake bases have nothing to do with it and does not interfere with the Qing court's expedition and suppression, even if Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun failed to expedition and suppression, and eventually alarmed the Qing Dynasty, at least there is still this fig leaf and it will not completely tear the face. Of course, the East China government cannot really ignore the river and lake bases, but it is just secretly supporting it. However, the premise is that the river and lake bases now have enough self-protection capabilities.

The East China government immediately contacted the government agencies of the river and lake base areas to ask whether the current military forces in the base area could resist the attacks from Henan and Hubei. It was soon received a reply from the river and lake base area government, saying that it was fully capable of defeating the Qing army's expedition and suppression and defending the security of the base area. At the same time, it also suggested to take advantage of the Qing army's expedition and suppression to expand the area of ​​the base area and occupy big cities. After discussion and consultation, the East China government believed that the river and lake base areas could no longer be concealed. Since this was the case, it would be better to let go and do a big fight. Therefore, it agreed to the requirements of the base area government and would immediately support a batch of weapons and ammunition in the base area. After the war, a group of personnel would be dispatched to support the management of the base area government.

So the East China government replied to Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun, saying that the bandits in Henan, Hubei and other places had nothing to do with it. If Henan and Hubei were to send troops to fight, Shandong could provide help.

After receiving the reply from the East China government, Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun were relieved. It seemed that overseas Chinese were still a little concerned. Of course, both of them were not stupid. It is not ruled out that overseas Chinese would secretly support the bandits, but such support was much smaller. So the two responded to the East China government and expressed their gratitude, while discussing the plan to suppress the bandits.

At this time, the two had already found out that the army of this bandit was about 7-8,000, and Henan and Hubei could dispatch troops between 15,000 and 20,000, and there was also an ace army - Hubei New Army, which was the confidence of the two.

In the old time and space, when it comes to the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, they usually refer to the new Beiyang army organized by Yuan Shikai, but in fact, there is also a new army organized by Hubei, usually called the new army in Hubei.

Like the Beiyang New Army, the Hubei New Army was also established after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Zhang Zhidong insisted on establishing the Hubei New Army. Of course, the Qing court established the Hubei New Army, which also had the consideration of balancing the Beiyang New Army. Although the Beiyang New Army had advantages that the Hubei New Army could not match in many aspects. For example, the Beiyang New Army could receive national financial support, while the Hubei New Army could only rely on the support of the Hubei Province, which was not wealthy. Therefore, in history, the Hubei New Army's fame and influence were far less than that of the Beiyang New Army. However, the Hubei New Army had a historical achievement that the Beiyang New Army could not compare with, that is, the Xinhai Revolution that broke out in the old time and space was launched by the Hubei New Army.

In 1903, the Qing court established a military training office, and planned to train 36 towns (equivalent to divisions) and 18 new troops across the country, and Hubei allocated indicators for two towns and one mixed associations. Now, only one town and one mixed associations were organized, which is the 8th town. The commander was the commander Zhang Biao, with 10,502 soldiers and 702 officers; the 21st mixed association, with Li Yuanhong, the commander was the commander of the association, with 4,612 soldiers and 288 officers. In terms of force, it was second only to the Beiyang New Army.

Although the Hubei New Army was founded by Zhang Zhidong, and the two commanders Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong were also promoted by Zhang Zhidong, the difference between Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai was that he did not build the Hubei New Army into his own private army. Therefore, after Zhang Zhidong entered Beijing, the Hubei New Army obeyed the order of Zhao Erxun, the governor of Huguang who replaced him.

Before deciding to send troops to suppress river and lake bases, Zhao Erxun made a special trip to recruit Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong. Because the Hubei New Army had the responsibility to suppress local bandits, the two were not responsible for this expedition and suppression operation. So after the two negotiated, they said that they could dispatch about 5,000 new troops to participate in the war, and with other local troops, the total number of more than 10,000 troops could be dispatched.

In comparison, Henan is much shabby. Among the 36 towns and 18 new mixed associations planned by the Qing court, Henan had two towns and one alliance, but it has not yet begun to form it. Because Henan is close to Beijing and the Beiyang New Army is nearby, the Qing court can quickly send troops to reinforce, so it ranks the organization of the new army in Henan behind. Of course, in the old time and space, Henan finally only organized one mixed association. But now there is no new army in Henan, so it can only mobilize local troops to collect, and about 7,000 troops can be recruited.

After negotiations between Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun, it was decided to take the Hubei army as the main force and Henan army as the auxiliary force. Hubei army sent troops from Xiangyang Prefecture to advance from south to north to Tang County in Nanyang Prefecture; while Henan army sent troops from Kaifeng Prefecture to attack Linying County in Xuzhou from north to south, of course, it was mainly to restrain the forces of rivers and lakes. Part of the military expenditure was funded by local gentry and powerful people, and part of it was extracted from local taxes. After the Westernization Movement, the tax interception and payment of local taxes had become normalized. The Qing court's finances were mainly maintained by customs and commercial taxes. Therefore, there was nothing wrong with Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun intercepting taxes as military expenditures.

In fact, the preparations for the expedition and suppression had already begun. Therefore, after Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun made up their minds, the army quickly assembled, and it took only more than 20 days to set off from the north and south lines respectively.

Although the river and lake base governments are confident in defeating the Qing army, they dare not be careless. After all, this is the first time since the base was established, they faced a full-scale attack from the Qing court. If they win this battle, not only will the base area achieve great development, but the time travelers in the base area will also obtain sufficient political capital. However, if they lose this battle, although they can escape back to Shandong, the future development space will be limited, but the opponent's troops are far above the Volunteers, so this battle is not easy to fight.

Although the Volunteers now have three regiments, each regiment lacks heavy weapons and fire support weapons. They are only equipped with a 60 mortar company with a total of 18 60 mortars, and each combat platoon is equipped with two grenade launchers; in addition, a firepower reinforcement battalion is organized separately, with a 75mm field artillery company with 6 artillery pieces; a 100 mortar company with 9 100mm mortars; and a machine gun company with 9 Maxim machine guns. Whether it is equipment or troop, compared with the Qing army, it does not have any advantage compared with the Hubei New Army.

When the base was first established, there were only 7 military officers responsible for military affairs, Li Wenfei, and as the base expanded, the army increased. Now the crossing army has reached 16, mainly serving as the first-level or above military officers, while the first-level officers at the battalion were all locals.

After receiving the distribution of troops and directions from the Qing army, Li Wenfei immediately recruited group-level officers to negotiate tactics for response. Everyone agreed that although the number of Qing army was large, its strength was divided into two routes, north and south, which was a taboo of dispersing troops, because with the communication technology of this era, the Qing army could not maintain a smooth connection. The volunteer army could fully utilize the advantages of the inside line, mobilize the troops quickly, concentrate the superior forces, and defeat them one by one, but what we need to determine is to fight the Qing army in Hubei first or the Qing army in Henan first.

In terms of the distribution and strength of the Qing army, the Qing army in Hubei is of course far stronger than the Qing army in Henan. Therefore, some of the soldiers who traveled through time advocated that they should fight the Qing army in Hubei first. As long as they defeated the Qing army in Hubei, the Qing army in Henan will naturally be no opponent and might retreat without fighting.

However, after detailed analysis, it is believed that the Qing army in Hubei still has a certain combat power and is the first time to fight, so the morale will not be too bad. In addition, the large number of troops cannot be underestimated. If you fight with the Qing army in Hubei first, even if you can win, the losses will not be small. It is better to avoid the peak for the time being, restrain it with a small amount of troops, and mobilize the Qing army in Hubei to concentrate the main force and defeat the Qing army in Henan first.
Chapter completed!