Du Zhikuan's choice is the same as what he said to the people of Hexi County and Hetai County at the beginning, if you don't come to save Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu will surrender directly.

He didn't just say it, he did it!

And Du Zhikuan's surrender, Guang'an County also fell into the control of Lin Ziran, which greatly affected the situation in Nanhai Prefecture.

Let's not talk about other places, at least Hexi County is scared.

Before the Southern Navy could kill him, Hu Shiming of Hexi County had already sent someone to say that Hexi County recognized Lin Ziran's status as the governor of Nanhai Prefecture, and Hu Shiming also said that he could publicly declare his allegiance to Lin Ziran.

But Lin Ziran rejected his surrender!

Because Hu Shiming's surrender was conditional, he hoped that Hexi County would continue to maintain a semi-independent state, handle internal affairs on its own, and continue to maintain financial independence and retain a large number of troops.

Even Hu Shiming said that the Hexi cavalry in the future would obey Lin Ziran's dispatch.

But Lin Ziran still rejected him!

He didn't want nominal surrender or allegiance, he wanted the entire Hexi County to be under his control.

He would never allow a semi-independent feudal town to appear on his territory!

Lin Ziran gave Hu Shiming two choices, one was to announce his surrender, Hu Shiming could continue to be the county guard of Hexi County, but only the county guard, the internal affairs of the entire Hexi County must be subject to the unified management of the state government, the financial management of the unified management, and the most important thing is that the Hexi Army will be reorganized and completely integrated into the southern naval system.

There was no accident, Hu Shiming rejected Lin Ziran's conditions.

Since they all refused, then war is inevitable.

In fact, this time the Northern Expedition originally included the attack on Hexi County, and the troops who marched into Guang'an County simply rested for a few days before directly marching westward.

At the same time, the 3rd Division, which was in the northwest of Luo'an County, also crossed the northwest defense line and launched an attack on Hexi County.

This time, Lin Ziran concentrated three cavalry brigades, three infantry divisions, and numerous artillery units to attack at the same time.

Considering that the opponent's cavalry troops were numerous and their mobility was relatively strong, they did not adopt the mode of rapid attack, but instead fought positional warfare and a war of attrition.

Attack the opponent's defense line, inflict a certain amount of damage on the enemy's army, but not directly break the enemy's defense line, but let the enemy see the hope of holding the defense line, so as to continuously increase the number of troops.

Only five days later, Hu Shiming, the county shou of Hexi County, announced his surrender in desperation.

At the beginning of the battle, although the defense line on the east and that side had not been lost, the casualties of the Hexi Army were extremely large, and such heavy casualties directly led to the reluctance of the Hexi front troops to continue fighting.

Unlike many of the feudal troops who surrendered to Lin Ziran in the past, when they couldn't see the hope of victory, and at the same time the casualties were relatively large, they didn't care about Hu Shiming's thoughts, and the front-line troops directly surrendered to Cheng themselves.

Within five days, 30,000 Hexi troops, most of whom were cavalry troops, announced their surrender.

In fact, when Hu Shiming announced his surrender, he was still loyal to his troops, and there were already more than 100 guards left in the county guard in Hexi County.

At that time, in fact, there were more than 3,000 garrisons in the city, but these more than 3,000 garrisons had already surrendered directly to Cheng anyway, and in order to present Lin Ziran with a certificate of surrender, they attacked the county guard on the spot and tried to capture Hu Shiming.

So Hu Shiming actually did not surrender to the Southern Navy, but to the garrison of Hexi County, which betrayed him!

At this time, Hu Shiming ended up worse than Du Zhikuan!

Du Zhikuan managed to the end, but he still controlled part of the troops, and in the end he was forced to surrender directly to Lin Ziran, not to the rebels who betrayed him, so it was a relatively decent ending.

Lin Ziran gave him a vacant position as a senior adviser, and allowed him to keep a part of his private property, and now he has already brought his family to Luohai City, living a low-key and comfortable life as a rich man.

Even Du Zhikuan at this time was already planning a recovery.

It's not that he rebelled, and then became a feudal town or something, but he wanted to recover in the current Southern Navy system, and it was estimated that there was no hope of continuing to serve in the army, but being a civil official, for example, continuing to be a county guard or something, he thought he was okay.

As for Hu Shiming, when he surrendered to the rebels, Lin Ziran's army was still dozens of kilometers away.

He was captured by his betrayed subordinates and forced to surrender.

For Hu Shiming, Lin Ziran didn't have too special feelings, strictly speaking, he didn't even have a close connection with this Hu Shiming.

Although most of the other feudal towns that were defeated under him before had not seen them, they had communicated and dealt with them through letters, and Hu Shiming and Lin Ziran had never been in contact with this person before.

So he didn't even see this person, but just ordered people to put him under house arrest and take him into custody.

At this time, Hu Shiming was no longer important to the Southern Navy or even to Hexi County.

After taking Hexi County, several other county towns did not need to attack, and directly passed down, but even so, Lin Ziran still sent troops to control these areas one after another, laying the foundation for the subsequent establishment of administrative institutions in Hexi County.

Some of these local administrators can continue to be used, and some of them can't.

In addition, it is more important to continue to purge the remnants of the local armed forces, whether it is the remnants of the regular army in the Hexi Army or those militia groups, all of them are in the process of cleaning up and rectifying.

The South China Navy has done this kind of thing many times, and it is very familiar with it.

In the early stage, some relatively large militia groups and remnants were defeated, and then administrative rule was established with each county town as the center, and at the same time, armed patrols were established to suppress the localities.

This was followed by the formation of garrison divisions and engineer divisions on the spot.

When he was in the Liangluo area before, Lin Ziran had already tasted the sweetness of forming a garrison division, which could be equipped with captured Fuyuan rear-loading rifles and smoothbore field guns, which could not only consume these captured weapons that the regular army could not use, but also save weapons expenses, and the salary was relatively low.

To put it bluntly, it's to save money!

Later an attempt was made to form an engineer division.

This engineer division bears the name of an engineer, but in fact it is a construction force under militarized management, which is used to repair infrastructure, water conservancy facilities, and even railroads.

The main purpose of engaging this engineer is not for anything else, but purely for the placement of a large number of troops.

Many of the surrendered troops wanted to continue to serve in the army, and now the regular army of the South China Navy has been very strict in selecting personnel, even in the garrison division.

However, many of the surrendered soldiers could not be selected to continue in the army. However, if they were to be let go, many of them would not be able to find jobs and would not be able to return home to farm, and it would be very easy for them to cause local riots when they returned.

The Southern Navy has always been very cautious in dealing with these soldiers who have not and cannot continue to serve in the army, but have nowhere to go.

Turned them into a construction team in military uniforms with hoes and shovels!

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