Li Yuanhong did not expect that the rebel party in Anqing City actually decided to retreat, there was no special reason, Li Yuanhong firmly believed that those rebel parties would not leave Anqing City. With such a judgment, Li Yuanhong ordered a temporary cessation of shelling. Although Li Yuanhong watched the war being carried out in an orderly manner, in fact, there were far more puzzles and doubts in his heart than outsiders saw.

The battle to retake Anqing was not just a military operation, but also had a deeper political background. Li Yuanhong was just a soldier and knew very little about what was going on in the imperial court. He only knew that there was a life in Hubei. After the fall of Anqing, Lord Zhang Zhidong suddenly entered Beijing. Before entering Beijing, Mr. Zhang made a statement, and without Mr. Zhang's personal order, no matter whose order it was, the new army was not allowed to "act rashly." The meaning of the phrase "no matter whose order it is" is very rich. Theoretically, the Hubei New Army was the army of the imperial court and was also under the control of the Ministry of War. Both must be obeyed by the Forces nouvelles if they are given orders. But Master Zhang's meaning is clear: "If I don't give an order, the Hubei New Army will definitely not be allowed to dispatch." ”

Li Yuanhong didn't know what was going on in the court, and he didn't have the urge to want to know. The Hubei New Army is an army created by Lord Zhang Zhidong, and naturally only Lord Zhang is the first to look forward. Whether it is the imperial court or the War Department, without the order of Lord Zhang, not a single soldier of the Hubei New Army will move. After more than a month of preparation, Lord Zhang Zhidong's personal order finally arrived in Hubei, and the content was very simple, "Be cautious." To recapture Anqing and Chizhou. Do not be greedy for merit. ”

Li Yuanhong's understanding of this passage is, "Fewer dead people, don't be in a hurry, fight slowly." The only thing Li Yuanhong was puzzled about was that when the new army sent troops, the imperial court had to give money, but this time the Hubei new army sent troops and did not give a penny. But since Lord Zhang spoke, it was impossible for the Hubei New Army to make trouble because of this money. So Li Yuanhong fought step by step, and did not adopt the tactics of encircling Anqing City on all sides. He didn't know that his "conservatism" had given the rebellious parties in Anqing City a once-in-a-lifetime news. Since there were no troops of the Hubei New Army outside the north gate, Chen Duxiu set the breakthrough route in the north of the city.

Of course, even if Li Yuanhong knew that the rebel party in Anqing City was preparing to break through, he would not change his deployment. Lord Zhang Zhidong explained very clearly, "It is important to recapture Anqing and Chizhou." As for the rebellious party in the city, Li Yuanhong thinks that Master Zhang's words have been made very clear, "Don't be greedy for merit." ”

When Chen Duxiu led more than 900 core members of the Yue Wang Association to leave the north gate of Anqing, the situation was surprisingly smooth. Without hindrance, they took the remaining 100,000 taels of silver in the silver vault and more than 30,000 catties of grain in the grain warehouse out of Anqing City. There were still 200 backbone soldiers left in Anqing City, and Chang Hengfang took them to take charge of the palace. Looking at the distant Anqing City, these backbones of the Yue Wang Society all had a strong sense of loss in their hearts. When will you be able to return to this big city? These people don't have a score in their hearts. It was at this time that the artillery of the Hubei New Army reopened fire, and the rumbling cannon sound seemed to be a clarion call, inspiring these Yuewanghui personnel who had withdrawn from Anqing to turn around and go north.

Chang Hengfang was extremely indignant at the rebellion of the party, and the reason why he was ordered to be the queen of the palace was that he was very capable and prestigious, as a military commander. On the other hand, Chang Hengfang had an evil fire in his heart to vent, and he himself volunteered to be in charge of the palace.

"Commander! We can't go up to this city. The leader of the Hui Party cried and knelt down, and then hugged Chang Hengfang's leg tightly, "Commander Chang, the Hubei Yankees are so bad, it will be a death if you go to the city." If you let us go to the city, it will kill us. Commander, this city cannot be reached. ”

"Are you going to betray the revolution?" Chang Hengfang roared angrily. Behind him, two hundred armed backbones of the Yue Wang Guild glared angrily at the leaders of the Hui Party in front of him. They also knew about the escape of Diao Dezhang and Zhou Xingchen, and these soldiers were as angry as Chang Hengfang about the rebellion of the Hui Party. As long as Chang Hengfang gave an order, these soldiers would not hesitate to shoot at the party.

Chang Hengfang stared at the trembling leaders of the Hui Party, "In the past month or so, each of you has earned at least fifty taels in our place." When it's time for you to go into battle, why don't you have the strength to swear at that time? Was everything you said at the time fart? ”

The leaders of the party did not dare to speak one by one, the loud noise and violent vibration of the shell explosion completely deprived these people of courage, they did not dare to go to the city no matter what, but these people also did not dare to refuse in the face of the angry Chang Hengfang and the angry Anqing Revolutionary Army soldiers behind Chang Hengfang.

Chang Hengfang originally wanted to reprimand the party again, but at this time, he really didn't have the extra time. "If you refuse to go up to the west city, you can now guard the east and south cities for me. There are no Hubei Yankees under the east and south cities. ”

Hearing Chang Hengfang's kindness, the gang nodded one by one. Chang Hengfang didn't say much more, he ordered the soldiers to watch over the gang and let them take their men to the walls of the south and east cities. Under the city, Chang Hengfang called the leaders of the Hui Party together again, "We have now gone around from the north of the city to the back of the Hubei Yankees, and this is to fight to the death with the Hubei Yankees." You must defend the east and south of the city for us. Hear no. ”

"Commander Chang, we will definitely be able to hold it, we will definitely be able to hold it." No matter what they thought in their hearts, the leaders of the party kept talking.

"When we come back from victory, if you are not in the city, don't say that I am polite." Chang Hengfang made a final threat, and then led his troops towards the north gate.

In the middle of the night, Chang Hengfang finally caught up with Chen Duxiu and the others, who had already left the city, and the more than 1,100 people who had gathered together didn't care so much, marching overnight with torches. Everyone knows that the Hubei New Army has cavalry, and if it can't get out of the cavalry's attack range as soon as possible, there will be more than 1,100 people, which is really not enough for the cavalry battalion of the New Army. Urged by fear, and with a clear destination, the troops burst out of their ability to march forward in the air, and actually walked more than 40 miles in one night.

Li Yuanhong learned that Anqing was already an empty city that night, and several gentry who ran out of Anqing City cried and asked Li Yuanhong to enter the city. After the Hui party who stayed in Anqing City found that Yue Wanghui had run away, some of them began to retreat, and the other part of them had begun to loot in Anqing City. These gentry came to Li Yuanhong for help.

Whether it was torture or amicable questioning, since the gentry were telling the truth, they naturally would not ask for other results. Li Yuanhong also happily sent a horse to explore. Tanma soon came back to report that the situation in Anqing City was indeed as the gentry said. Li Yuanhong left the standard guard camp for Zhang Biao, and sent two of his own targets to "rescue the people of Anqing". This is a big fat difference, since Anqing is already an empty city, then everything left in this city can be taken by these Hubei new troops at will. Especially those who will be in the party, there must be something valuable in them. If these rebels are killed, firstly, they can exchange their heads for rewards, and secondly, the property of these rebels will be completely owned by the new army.

There were no defenders on the city wall for a long time, and Li Yuanhong's troops did not lose their minds because of the huge gains in front of them. They first went up the city walls, and then quickly occupied the gates. At this time, I looked down condescendingly, and saw that the fire and wailing were already rising in the city. After guarding the gates and walls, these rebels in the city could not fly. Some soldiers of the Hubei New Army watched the party looting and were anxious to go down and kill these "rebellious parties" who were doing mischief. The officers calmly stopped the soldiers' impulses, "What's the hurry, let them grab it again." ”

The soldiers didn't figure it out, but the officers knew it. As long as these rebels are annihilated, the property carried by the rebels will be obtained by the new army. In such a situation, the more chaotic parties grab, the better. The Hubei New Army has no reason to save money for the Anhui people.

The backbone troops of King Yue's escape to Hefei were lucky, and the choice of the new army in Hubei gave them a night's time. And the good fortune of the Yue Wang Society continues. After dawn, the Hubei New Army went down from the city and wiped out the Hui Party. Although the captured Hui did not know where King Yue had gone, they knew where the other Hui had gone. The cavalry of the Hubei New Army immediately went out and began to pursue the fleeing Hui Dang. In order to survive, the party told the truth, and the cavalry battalion of the Hubei New Army made great gains. In order to get more money, the cavalry of the Hubei New Army adopted a mode of killing all the parties on the road. The belongings found from the Hui Party made the cavalry ecstatic one by one.

With such good fortune, King Yue would get another day of marching time. Li Yuanhong did not have the idea of catching up with King Yue and killing them all, of course, if King Yue would be only thirty or fifty miles away from Anqing, Li Yuanhong would not easily let go of the remnants of King Yue. But when the Hubei New Army began to search for Yue Wanghui's whereabouts, Yue Wanghui was finally out of the Hubei New Army's attack range.

On the one hand, Li Yuanhong triumphantly ordered to send back to Wuhan the news that Anqing had been recaptured, and on the other hand, he gathered his forces and began to attack Chizhou. When he arrived in Chizhou, he found that the gentry in Chizhou had been respectfully waiting at the door to greet him. The Liberation Society followed Lu Zhengping's advice, and before they retreated, they specially organized the Chizhou gentry to maintain order in Chizhou and prevent the Hubei New Army from rushing into Chizhou and plundering.

The so-called stretching out his hand and not hitting people with smiling faces, not to mention that there are quite a few of these gentry who are from a good background, and Li Yuanhong is not too much to do it. The whole of Chizhou finally escaped.

The news that Li Yuanhong, the 21st assistant commander of the Hubei New Army, led his troops to recover Anqing and Chizhou on the 2nd soon reached Beijing, which should have been good news for the Qing government, but at the end of a dynasty, the effect of any good news was negative. The political dispute that had begun to intensify did not subside, on the contrary, the struggle in the capital intensified.

Yuan Shikai respectfully knelt down and kowtowed in front of the ranking of the mourning hall, as a filial son, Wang Shizhen also knelt down and returned the salute with filial piety. Wang Shizhen's great-grandfather Wang Chaozheng, proficient in medical skills, long in calligraphy, grandfather Wang Lu'an is a show talent, in addition to engineering and medicine, long in martial arts, known as a scholar of Rong Ma, Wang Shizhen's father and uncle died early, he and his widowed mother depended on each other, living in the east gate of Zhengding City, his aunt's house, relying on his mother to do needlework for others to survive. Wang Shizhen overlooked two rooms, at the age of 9 into a private school to study poetry, because of the intelligence and studiousness, Wang Shizhen was 15 years old, was Zhengding Town Tai Ye Zhichao fancied, accepted under the subordinate as a soldier. This is when the military path was embarked.

And his biological mother died a few days ago, and Wang Shizhen immediately applied for filial piety at home. Keeping filial piety was originally a must for officials, and even if Yuan Shikai was now caught in the midst of party struggle, he could not force Wang Shizhen to continue to work. So after Yuan Shikai learned the news, he immediately rushed to pay his filial piety. With such an identity, after the worship is completed, Wang Shizhen must invite him to sit in the back.

The two of them had just sat down, and Yuan Shikai spoke, "Hiring the secretary is mourning and changing." Lingtang has worked so hard to raise you, and you have to take care of your aunt. Today, as the governor of Jiangbei, Lingtang can also rest assured. ”

Wang Shizhen knew that the purpose of Yuan Shikai's trip was by no means a simple filial piety, although he was very sad in his heart, but Wang Shizhen was always by his side when his mother was seriously ill, and he was not completely overwhelmed by grief at this time. "Thank you Gong Yuan. Yuan Gong is here, I think there are other things. ”

"Hiring Qing, Li Yuanhong of the Hubei New Army recaptured Anqing and Chizhou in two days. This incident shook the government and the opposition. Yuan Shikai introduced the latest changes in the situation.

Wang Shizhen listened quietly, since the fall of Anqing, although Wang Shizhen was also serving his seriously ill mother, he still immediately sent someone to investigate the situation in detail. The news that came back really surprised Yuan Shikai and Wang Shizhen. The Yue Wang Society and the Restoration Society have already made their banners clear, and there is nothing difficult to check about this. However, the spies reported that the People's Party, which had disappeared in Shanghai, had appeared in the area of Fengyang Prefecture, and not only that, but from Fuyang to Hefei, the People's Party had quietly occupied a vast territory in northern Anhui. Moreover, it was the People's Party that conquered Anqing and Chizhou, not the Yue Wanghui and the Guangfu Society.

Yuan Shikai couldn't believe it at all after getting the news. But these spies were personally trained by Wang Shizhen, and it is absolutely impossible to make some false information to fool himself. Chen Ke, who disappeared without a trace for a while, made such a big deal in Anhui without saying a word, and Yuan Shikai still can't believe it.

But that's not all. In 1905, Zai Ze, Duan Fang and other five ministers went abroad to investigate, and returned to China the following year, Zai Ze wrote "Song Qing Announces the Secret Folds of the Constitution", pointing out that the monarchy can make "the throne permanent", "external troubles gradually lighten", and "internal strife can be eliminated". As soon as this fold came out, the government and the opposition shook. On September 1, 1906, the Qing court finally promulgated the edict of "Preparatory Constitution". Since the imperial court has made up its mind to "establish a constitution", Yuan Shikai feels that this is a good opportunity for him to show his ambitions, and Yuan Shikai, who has always advocated "reform", has been working hard to promote the "constitution" led by the Beiyang group.

Beginning in September 1906, Yuan Shikai gradually handed over some of his power to form alliances with the Manchu nobles in the imperial court and to alleviate Cixi's suspicion of him. On the other hand, Yuan Shikai presided over the compilation of the "Outline of the Constitution" in an attempt to occupy the theoretical guidance for the future constitution. For this reason, Yuan Shikai also thought of summoning Yan Fu, a well-known idealistic figure, and Chen Ke, Yan Fu's "disciple," to Beijing to participate in the editing of the "Constitutional Outline."

Chen Ke has proved with practical actions that he is a complete thief. Yan Fu and his entire family are nowhere to be found, and they either want to avoid trouble, or Yan Fu is the commander behind Chen Ke at all. Yuan Shikai didn't have the idea of understanding the relationship between the two at all at this time. The threat he is facing now is not from Yan Fu and Chen Ke at all, but another extremely powerful force within the court.

As the minister of Beiyang, the Beiyang clique led by Yuan Shikai himself developed from 1895 to a huge bureaucratic group unprecedented in the history of the Manchu Qing Dynasty from a simple military bloc that rapidly expanded from a simple military bloc to a political, economic, military, and diplomatic encompassing. The power of the monarch and the power of the subjects are a natural contradiction between the two and the other. Under the support of Cixi intentionally or unintentionally, three forces appeared in the Manchu court to compete with Yuan Shikai's Beiyang clique.

Among these three forces, which launched an attack on Yuan Shikai, they firmly supported the constitution as much as Yuan Shikai, but denounced Yuan Shikai's Beiyang clique as a "turbid current" and another "New Deal constitutional clique" that regarded itself as a "clear stream." The leaders of this group were Cen Chunxuan, the "official slaughter" who was known as the last Qing official of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister of the New Deal.

Wang Shizhen had a clear view of these things in the Manchu court, whether it was the Beiyang clique led by Yuan Shikai or the "clear stream" that was ready to completely oust Yuan Shikai from power, and their attitude towards "constitutionalism" was completely identical, and they all believed that only through "reform" and "constitutionalization" could China's crisis situation be saved and the Manchu court could be saved. If these two forces can work together, they can absolutely overwhelm all conservative forces and completely dominate the "constitution" of the imperial court. However, these two forces have no idea of cooperating, at least the forces that are "clear streams" have no intention of cooperating with Yuan Shikai. Not only that, but the "Qingliu" tried their best to defeat Yuan Shikai and then seize the dominance of the "constitution". This fact cannot but make Wang Shizhen feel sincerely regretful.

Unlike Yuan Shikai, Wang Shizhen had no idea of getting involved in this matter at all. Wang Shizhen first wanted to be loyal to the Manchu court, so Wang Shizhen's mind fell on the latest situation in Anhui. He asked, "After recapturing Anqing and Chizhou, what did Lord Zhang Zhidong say?" ”

Yuan Shikai sneered, "What do you say?" Zhang Zhidong immediately impeached Enming for dereliction of duty, which actually caused a collective rebellion of the Anhui New Army. ”

Enming doesn't know his whereabouts now, and the only thing that can be determined is that Enming did not defect to the rebellious party. Zhang Zhidong's impeachment of Enming at this time directly refers to Enming's father-in-law, Prince Qing Yixuan. Everyone in the court knew that Yixuan and Yuan Shikai had formed a strong alliance. Zhang Zhidong's impeachment is simply a statement against Yuan Shikai.