The day after Feng Guozhang was appointed, he officially took the train and the relevant personnel of the Second Army Headquarters with a large ticket to Xuzhou, and at the same time, Lu Rongting, who received Chen Jingyun's telegram urging the troops, did not care about anything else.

Now Lu Rongting thinks very simply, I don't care about the contradiction between you Chen Jingyun and the Beiyang Army, and I can't control it, but Wuzhou is the boundary of my Guangxi, and Long Jiguang, who occupies Wuzhou, is my enemy, no matter what the situation in the north is, Lu Rongting still follows his own plan.

Just as Feng Guozhang was still on the way south, the third division of Guangzhou City and Long Jiguang's troops were fighting, and Lu Rongting had already hit the troops of two divisions, and then launched a surprise attack on Wuzhou.

Although Long Jiguang's troops left in Wuzhou claimed to have a brigade, there were only more than 3,000 people, and in the face of more than 10,000 and nearly 20,000 Gui troops, they did not resist at all, and only one day's effort, the troops left behind by Long Jiguang in Wuzhou had collapsed, and then the remnants quickly withdrew from Wuzhou, and went along the Pearl River to the direction of Long Jiguang's main force, that is, Guangzhou.

Obviously, even Lu Rongting didn't expect that the capture of Wuzhou would be so fast, and he didn't expect that the local people would welcome the arrival of the Gui army.

During the time that Long Jiguang stayed in Wuzhou, he was ruthless, and before leaving, he searched the local rich landlords, so that the local people in Wuzhou, especially the upper-class gentry, hated Long Jiguang very much, and this taking away people's wealth was comparable to killing his parents.

Originally, Lu Rongting's looting in Guangxi's own territory was also ruthless, but after Lu Rongting heard about what happened in Wuzhou, he found out for the first time that he was a relatively good warlord, at least he had never kidnapped the gentry and rich tycoons in the city, and asked them to hand over a lot of family wealth to save their lives, and if they didn't give it, they would be shot directly.

With such a strong contrast as Long Jiguang, Lu Rongting was in a good mood, in the past, he was still a little guilty about receiving the tax from the Republic of China for several years, but now after comparing with Long Jiguang, this guilt is completely gone, and he is still thinking about whether to continue to collect taxes after ten years in the Republic of China.

And the fiasco of Long Jiguang's troops in Wuzhou made Lu Rongting think that Long Jiguang's troops were vulnerable, so at this time it should be the realization of the agreement with Chen Jingyun.

As soon as Wuzhou was captured, Lu Rongting ordered the troops to send a division to continue to march east along the Pearl River in the direction of Guangzhou. In addition to this army to flank Long Jiguang's department with the Nationalist Army, more importantly, Lu Rongting also wants to occupy a place in Guangdong, and the area east of Guangzhou is estimated to be hopeless, but the area west of Guangzhou can still be obtained, if it can occupy a small half of Guangdong, then it will be a great boost to the financial revenue of the Gui army.

You must know that Lu Rongting does not have the support of Yunnan-Guizhou tobacco like Cai Yi, nor does he have the customs and salt administration and the loans provided by the United States like Chen Jingyun. He Lu Rongting is a beggar compared to Cai Yi and Chen Jingyun, and if he can occupy half of Guangdong, it will be very effective in relieving the serious financial pressure of the Gui army.

After Lu Rongting sent troops to occupy Wuzhou, it immediately caused a series of repercussions, which Lu Rongting himself had never expected.

First of all, Long Jiguang, who is one of the parties, almost shocked his jaw when he learned that more than 3,000 of his people didn't even resist for a day, although the more than 3,000 people he put in Wuzhou are not troops here, most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, but they are more than 3,000 people, even if it is 3,000 pigs, it will take a long time to kill, not to mention more than 3,000 soldiers, well, even if they are old, weak, sick and disabled, they are also soldiers, they have guns in their hands, and they are called a Lisuo when they burn and loot in Pingshuo. Why did this fail in Wuzhou?

Long Jiguang was a little puzzled.

The main force led by himself also encountered great trouble in Guangzhou, and in several battles with the third division of the national army in the past few days, his own troops did not have the upper hand, and even surrounded a regiment by the third division of the national army the day before yesterday, but Long Jiguang later personally organized troops to relieve the siege, although the encircled regiment only escaped more than a thousand points, but it was said that it was not completely annihilated, and it was regarded as saving the last bit of face.

In the past few days, they have fought so hard in the city of Guangzhou, but Long Jiguang's troops have not had a large-scale rout so far, and there has not been a situation in Wuzhou where they collapsed in less than a day.

In fact, there is a reason for this, the 3,000 old, weak, sick and disabled on the Wuzhou side against the main force carefully prepared by nearly 20,000 Lu Rongting, it is normal to fail, but it is really fast in one day. On the Guangzhou side, Long Jiguang has a military advantage, and the more than 20,000 main troops he brought are twice as many as the 10,000 people of the Third Division of the Nationalist Army. In addition, in addition to the field battles, there were some street battles on the Guangzhou side, and there was a stalemate in the fighting, and it was unlikely that a large-scale collapse would occur in a short period of time.

However, Wuzhou has been lost, and Long Jiguang can only admit the reality, now is not the time to be sad for the loss of Wuzhou. If you just lose Wuzhou, it's nothing, and now the key thing is that Long Jiguang has received the news that the Gui army is moving east along the Pearl River.

This is almost a clear statement that he wants to attack himself with the Third Division of the National Army! On the one hand, he organized the defeated army that could only retreat in Wuzhou, and on the other hand, he transferred a regiment from the direction of Guangzhou to the west, trying to establish a defensive line outside the city of Guangzhou to block the Gui army.

However, at this time, the news of the eastward advance of the Gui army had already reached Shen Gang's ears, and in the face of such a situation, Shen Gang directly ordered to increase the intensity of the attack, so that Long Jiguang's troops could not draw troops from Guangzhou. The artillery regiment that had been saving shells before had also been given the order to fire with all its might, and those shells smashed on the position of Long Jiguang's troops as if they didn't want money, which made Long Jiguang's troops feel more pressure than a few days ago.

Long Jiguang was also dissatisfied with the sweat on his forehead in the face of the continuous reports for help sent by his subordinates.

"What about the president's reinforcements, didn't he say that he would send warships to help us?" An officer next to him complained about the Navy's inaction.

Long Jiguang said: "In these two days, yesterday the fleet of the navy had already set off from Shanghai with a fire!" It doesn't take two days to get there! ”

Originally, the fleet on the navy's side had already received orders from Long Jiguang to go south to support Guangdong, but the fleet had not moved, and the main reason for this was that the Admiralty could not come up with money to pay the officers and men of the ships, let alone any subsidies and the like. In addition, the high-quality coal and ammunition used by the warships had to be replenished, and the Admiralty took out the last savings of the Admiralty in order to prepare these warships for war.

This fleet was led by Rear Admiral Li Dingxin, who was personally recommended by Liu Guanxiong, and was composed of China's largest warship at present, the Haiqi, one of the three Haizi cruisers, the destroyer Feiying, and the gunboat Fu'an. After replenishing supplies in Shanghai, we set off for Guangdong.

And Long Jiguang and Yuan Shikai are Liu Guanxiong and other naval bigwigs, but what they don't know is that Wen Tinghe and other officers and men of this fleet are already plotting to defect to Fuzhou.

In the days of waiting for departure, Wen Tinghe not only discussed the defection with the officers on his Haiqi, but also discussed the matter of defection with the main officers of the Haiqiao, Feiying, and Fu'an.

The officers and men of the Navy have long been dissatisfied with the arrears of military salaries from the Admiralty, and even if some officers do not care about their own salaries, they always have to consider the livelihood of the officers and sailors under their command, as well as the maintenance and repair of the ships themselves. This large group of people has long been dissatisfied with the Beiyang political axe in the north, and as soon as Wen Tinghe took the lead, this group of people immediately agreed.

When the fleet sailed to the Taiwan Strait, Wen Tinghe and the other ships agreed to revolt at the same time, and Wen Tinghe led the sailors to detain the fleet commander Li Dingxin, and then sent a telegram of the fleet's defection to the naval department in Fuzhou through a secret telegram. Even without waiting for the response from Fuzhou, Wen Tinghe led the fleet to look in the direction of Fuzhou.

The news of the defection of this fleet reached Sa Zhenbing's ears, and he was also stunned, this navy is going to defect? And it's not easy to think about Fuzhou. There are many stakes involved. For example, the Fuzhou Navy Department and the Admiralty will completely tear their faces, and even stimulate greater contradictions between the National Army and the Beiyang Army, etc., in the face of such a major matter, Sa Zhenbing complained that Wen Tinghe did not discuss it with him earlier, and at the same time, he also hurriedly went to the Governor's Mansion and urgently asked to see Chen Jingyun.

Chen Jingyun will be playing cards with Lin Yun and Luo Li, although the situation in Guangzhou is chaotic and troublesome in southern Jiangsu, but those big things are not something that can be done in a day or two, although politics and military are important, but his personal life is also important, no, after a little leisure, he just went back to the backyard to accompany Lin Yun, and let people make a special deck of cards, ready to teach Luo Li and Lin Yun to fight the landlord

When he was playing, he heard Sa Zhenbing urgently ask to see him, and in this situation, Chen Jingyun could only get up with an apologetic wry smile to the two girls, and then went to the front hall.

"Commander, look!" As soon as Sa Zhenbing saw Chen Jingyun coming, he hurriedly handed Chen Jingyun a telegram: "This is a secret message from the Haiqi!" ”

There is not much content on the telegram, probably that means that Haiqi and Haichip, Feiying is good, Fu'an has defected, ready to take refuge in Fuzhou, and will be able to come to Fuzhou Port in a short time, hoping that Fuzhou can do a good job in reception!

Chen Jingyun looked at this telegram, and his feelings were a little complicated, on the one hand, he was happy because Wen Ting and them were able to take the initiative to take refuge in him, which showed that his influence had become bigger and bigger, and in the eyes of outsiders, he was already a political figure of the same class as Sun Wen and Yuan Shikai, and the arrival of these naval ships would undoubtedly greatly enhance the maritime power of the National Army, at least in the future, there would be no need to worry that the navy of the Beiyang Army would suddenly give Fuzhou a sea landing or something like that.

But on the other hand, the defection of ships such as the Haiqi will also bring a lot of trouble, especially the contradiction between himself and Yuan Shikai. Now because of the matter in Guangzhou, the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army have already improved their combat readiness, and they will fight at any time.

This matter is really not good to do it openly, Chen Jingyun was silent for a while and said: "You call Wen Tinghe, just say that the fleet Haiqi and other ships have broken down, and they must not come to the Mawei shipyard to repair them nearby." As for the apostasy, let's not talk about it for now! ”

Although this kind of practice cannot hide from the real power figures, it is an excuse at best, and it is better to have an excuse than no excuse.