On 17 May, the military confrontation between the Nationalist Army and the Second Division of the Zhejiang Army outside Hangzhou turned into a large-scale exchange of fire, which was completely unexpected by Chen Jingyun.

Many people and many things are not under the control of a paper plan, if everything goes according to Chen Jingyun's own plan, then Chen Jingyun will not worry about it often.

When Yuan Fang, who was outside Hangzhou, sent the battle report to Fuzhou by telegram, the relevant personnel of the Fuzhou National Army Headquarters who received the telegram were shocked and did not dare to stop at all, and hurriedly informed Feng Qin's General Staff, and then Kuaima sent someone to deliver a letter to Chen Jingyun. Due to such a delay, by the time the news arrived at Liuhe Lane and was delivered to Chen Jingyun, it was already evening.

When Chen Jingyun saw Yuan Fang's telegram, he didn't bother to accompany Chen Yu's family to dinner, so he immediately hurried back to the Governor's Mansion with people, and then immediately arrived at the General Staff.

At this time, a number of important people had gathered in the headquarters.

After Chen Jingyun entered, he spoke: "What is the situation over there now?" ”

Chen Jingyun asked a little anxiously, in fact, Chen Jingyun was indeed a little anxious, and the military deployment in Hangzhou was greatly unfavorable to the Nationalist Army. Now there is only one first division, and the enemy's second division is at least more than 30,000 people, which means that the enemy army is more than three times that of the national army, and this does not include the possible Zhejiang first division and the twenty-fifth division! To put it simply, Zhu Rui's second division is the Central Army number awarded by the Nanjing Provisional Political Axe, and Zhou Chenghua's 25th Division is also the Central Army number awarded by the Nanjing Provisional Political Axe, the first division of Zhejiang is the provincial army number compiled by the Zhejiang Military and Political Axe, and the first division and the second division of the National Army are the provincial army numbers compiled by the Fujian Military and Political Axe. However, many of the units that were simply repatriated and not disbanded still maintained their numbers.

His own troops were facing the blow of the enemy's superior forces in Hangzhou, how could this not make Chen Jingyun anxious, in addition to the inferiority of troops, the national army had almost never fought a real war so far, and seriously lacked combat experience. Even during the period of recovery, there were only a few small fights, and later at most they fought bandits and the like, and there was not even a single regular large-scale war at all.

Seeing the urgency on Chen Jingyun's face, Feng Qin stepped forward and replied: "Governor don't worry, according to the battle report sent by Yuan Fang, although the troops were raided, due to full preparation, the first division is still on a solid front, and it is in a stalemate with Zhu Rui's second division!" ”

As he spoke, Feng Qin had already taken the two battle reports sent by Yuan Fang in the future.

Chen Jingyun took the battle report and read it, the battle report was not long, but in a few sentences, Yuan Fang clearly assured that the battle line was stable, and there was no large-scale rout, which made Chen Jingyun, who had been worried, feel at ease.

It can be said that the situation in Hangzhou was completely unexpected by him, according to Chen Jingyun's plan, on the one hand, the second division was transferred and a guard division was reinforced by sea to reinforce the direction of Shaoxing, and at the same time, the command team headed by Lin Zhaomin was dispatched, and then it was necessary to mobilize bullets and shells and other combat materials, and at the same time, the sixth division was also transferred north in order to replenish the personnel losses in time.

According to Chen Jingyun's own estimates, this process will take at least three to four days. After the combat preparations are complete, the time for the official launch will begin.

During this time, Chen Jingyun took advantage of various telegrams and other delays, such as telegrams to Nanjing and Yanjing requesting troops, Chen Jingyun never had the luxury of expecting Nanjing or Yanjing to allow him to send troops, as long as these two sides did not explicitly oppose it.

In fact, Zhejiang's affairs have been out of Chen Jingyun's control so far, Chen Jingyun has not taken the initiative from beginning to end, since Zhu Rui's return to Zhejiang caused turmoil in Zhejiang, he has always been cautious and cautious, for fear that something will happen in Zhejiang, and then Yuan Shikai and others will pay attention.

However, when Jiang Zunwei sent Jiang Fangzhen to ask for reinforcements, Zhu Rui was afraid that the national army would really enter Hangzhou City and threaten the survival of Zhu Rui's second division, so he took Hangzhou first, and then Chen Jingyun was involved in the battle between Zhu Rui and Jiang Zungui. Because Zhu Rui's attitude of eyeing Hangzhou after the capture of Hangzhou made Chen Jingyun very worried, he decided to increase his troops in Hangzhou and decided to completely capture Hangzhou militarily.

But Chen Jingyun's actions made Zhu Rui panic again.

At this critical moment, a military conflict broke out, the cause of which had not been understood by either side until now, and the two sides were completely at war.

At present, it is not about gathering troops to prepare to occupy northern Zhejiang, but about how to maintain the current situation before the arrival of the Second Division and the First Regiment of the Guard Division, so as not to completely deteriorate the situation.

After Chen Jingyun stepped forward to look at the map, he immediately turned around and asked, "The speed of the second division is too slow......

When I just wanted to say that I wanted the Second Division to speed up the march, I suddenly remembered that I had already set up a temporary headquarters of the First Army, and Fuzhou was too far away from the Second Division, not to mention that the remote command distance was too far, and if something went wrong because of my blind command, wouldn't I have to regret it! Immediately, he swallowed back what he wanted to say, and asked, "What is the opinion of the General Staff on this?" ”

Feng Qin said: "An hour ago, the General Staff Department had already sent a reminder message to the Second Division, asking them to speed up their journey!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded: "What about the reinforced regiment of Yu Ruofei in the guard division?" ”

Chen Jingyun, a reinforced regiment transferred from the guard division to Hangzhou to support, was commanded by Yu Ruofei, the deputy division commander, mainly to give Yu Ruofei a brush for his combat exploits, and on the other hand, he also wanted to see if this person had the ability, of course, for the sake of insurance, he transferred several other professional officers from the guard division, two of whom were also high-achieving students who graduated from the Baoding Military Academy.

The director of the Department of Communications in charge of this matter said: "According to the information we have, Deputy Division Commander Yu's troops will land in Shaoxing tomorrow morning, and then they will go to the battlefield to support!" ”

At this time, there was a humane in the staff: "It is better for the troops of the guard division to rest in the Shaoxing area now, and the soldiers will be seasick after the troops pass through the sea, and the relevant artillery and ammunition also need to be unloaded from the ship." If you rush to the battlefield without resting, you are likely to be self-defeating. ”

Feng Qin also nodded and said: "Although there has been an exchange of fire between the First Division and Zhu Rui's department now, judging from the situation reported by Yuan Fang, the attack on the First Division is not very strong at present. And with the superior firepower of our army, even if the other side is as strong as Beiyang, the first division should be able to support two to three days, and the second division can also arrive! ”

Chen Jingyun nodded, he has always been self-aware of military affairs, and he knows about general military knowledge, but if Chen Jingyun really wants to command the operation, then there will be a problem, at least Chen Jingyun himself is not confident. Whether it was in the past or now, whether it is combat or training, Chen Jingyun is good at listening to the opinions of professional staff officers.

In this way, Chen Jingyun finally just sent a telegram to Yuan Fang, "The safety of the whole army of the national army depends on you, and I hope that you will fight the enemy and resist the enemy in front of the battle." "It's just to boost morale, but it's not intervening in specific combat operations.

Chen Jingyun then directly asked the secretariat to draw up a telegram, saying that Zhu Rui, the leader of the rebel army who mutined in Zhejiang, the scum of the League, the public enemy of the people, and the great warlord Zhu Rui, disregarded the lives of the people of Zhejiang, the friendship of his revolutionary colleagues, and the overall situation of China's reunification, rashly attacked the Nationalist Army in Zhejiang this afternoon with five times the strength of the army, and imposed brutal rule on the ordinary people of Zhejiang.

This kind of electricity said three points, the first point was to accuse Zhu Rui of being a bad person, and the second point was to say that the second division was a rebel. The third is the national army that Zhu Rui fought first.

On the one hand, it was to win sympathy, and on the other hand, it was more important to make Nanjing and Yanjing, as well as the southern governors, think that the Nationalist Army was the victim and had no intention of taking the initiative to annex northern Zhejiang.

As for whether others believe it or not, that's another matter.

Chen Jingyun sent a telegram to win sympathy, and Zhu Rui was not stupid, and he also issued a telegram that night, accusing Chen Jingyun, a great warlord who reads talents, conniving at his Nationalist Army to harm the people of Zhejiang, and shielding the counter-revolutionary Chen Yi, the military genius leader Jiang Zungui, and the Han annihilation of Jiang Fangzhen. And together with these people, they attacked the Zhejiang Provincial Army this afternoon, but were resolutely repelled by the Zhejiang Provincial Army.

That's not all, that night, Fuzhou and Hangzhou successively issued seven or eight telegrams, and each of them was a long one, so that the telegraphers in each telegraph room hated and scolded their mothers, if they have the ability to beat you, why do you quarrel with telegrams, you are not tired, I am too tired.

However, in view of the high cost of sending and transmitting electricity, the telegraph office did not care about the hard work of the telegraph operators below. You know, this year's hair is not a small amount. The first is the length, the telegram that counts the money according to the word is quite expensive, the above Chen Jingyun's first telegram is an example, the number of words is about 1,000 words, and then it is widely distributed to major newspapers and cities and other important areas throughout the country, and it takes about 15,000 yuan to send this telegram, which is still half the price of the political axe, and if it is sent privately, it will cost 30,000 yuan. Subsequently, Fuzhou distributed three telegrams in a row, the number of words was more than one, and four telegrams were connected in one night, and the cost was as high as 70,000 or 80,000 yuan, and this money could buy a medium-sized textile factory.

This is also the reason why Zhu Rui did not continue to follow Chen Jingyun in the second half of the night to continue to use electricity to start a scolding war, not because he didn't want to scold, but because he couldn't afford to scold!

On this night, Chen Jingyun and Zhu Rui sent a total of 7 telegrams, which was regarded as an unprecedented example in the history of telegraphy in the Republic of China.

These energies are lively in the eyes of ordinary people, but they are doorways in the eyes of insiders. As soon as the war between the two sides began, almost everyone knew that Zhejiang and Fujian had started a war, to be precise, Chen Jingyun and Zhu Rui had started a war, and almost all the headlines in the major newspapers across the country were printed: The war between Fujian and Zhejiang has begun.

For example, some newspapers in the north have a clear mocking tone: Yesterday there was a civil war in the Alliance, and the two warlords scolded each other

The newspapers in the south are not so unified, some support Chen Jingyun, some support Zhu Rui, and some call for a truce, but in the final analysis, they are just talking about it, no matter what the comments are, you can find the same point of view if you look deeper: it's about us!

As for Fujian, under the active propaganda of the military and political axes, almost all surnames supported the Nationalist Army and Chen Jingyun, and the members of the Kuomintang even organized several marches, calling on all sectors of society to donate money and buy more guns and cannons to 'liberate' the people of Zhejiang, who were suffering from the brutal rule of the warlords!

When the war was going on, Lin Zhaomin also arrived in Shaoxing on a high-speed passenger ship with the headquarters team of the Provisional First Army, and then Chen Jingyun officially ordered the First Division, the Second Division, and the First Regiment of the Guard Division of the Nationalist Army to be under the command of the Provisional First Army.