Yuan Shikai's decision was correct, because the battle against Changsha had entered the stage of construction at this time, and Changsha was obviously much larger than Quanzhou Prefecture, Xinghua Prefecture, and Zhangzhou Prefecture. Therefore, at this time, anyone would make the same choice as Yuan Shikai.

After several battles, Deyou's army had only about 6 troops left, and retreated to Changsha and surrounding areas across the board. After two assistants were transferred from the southern line and one assistant from Nanjing, the total strength of Yuan's army had reached more than 120,000, which was completely enough to attack Changsha.

But just when the Yuan army gathered its troops, the Deyou court also mobilized 150,000 troops, divided into two lines, north and south. The northern line was advanced from Changde Prefecture, with a force of 70,000; the southern line was advanced from Baoqing Prefecture, with a force of 80,000 to rescue Changsha.

If these two reinforcements could reach Changsha, the total strength of the Deyou Army would reach about 210,000, almost twice that of the Yuan army. Therefore, the situation was very unfavorable to the Yuan army. Even if the Yuan army could capture Changsha before the Deyou Army's reinforcements arrived, the Deyou Army's reinforcements would have 150,000 reinforcements, and the strength would definitely be lost after the Yuan army captured Changsha. Coupled with the fatigue after continuous combat, the winning rate of the Deyou Army's reinforcements would probably not be high.

In the final analysis, it was the time when Yuan's army won consecutive victories in the early stages of the war, and the time was delayed in the decision to attack Changsha. If Yuan's army did not wait for the mobilized troops to arrive, there would be more than 90,000 troops and attack Changsha immediately, the situation would be much better, because although the defenders in Changsha had about 60,000 at that time, they all retreated from various battlefields in the early stages of the war. Not only were they low morale, but the army had not had time to reorganize them, and the defensive workers around Changsha.

No matter how much was built, so that period was the weakest day for Changsha's defense. If the Yuan army launched an attack at that time, although the advantage in military strength was not great, it was actually easier. Even if the three assistants arrived, the Yuan army could immediately obtain a battleable new force. Even if the reinforcements of the Deyou Army arrived, the three assistants could still win a 3-5-day rest time for the army, and it was not difficult to defend Changsha.

However, although Yuan Shikai built the Beiyang New Army, he actually did not experience any major wars. Therefore, he lacked practical experience and was hesitant on the battlefield and delayed the opportunity to fight.

Faced with the current dilemma, Yuan Shikai could only recruit all the generals to discuss. Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun, Zhang Xun and others all advocated a slow attack on Changsha, retreated and chose to arrange defense lines, and prepared for the Deyou army to join forces, and focus on defending and waiting for the opportunity.

Only Duan Qirui advocated that one battle could be fought, because although the Deyou army now has a large number of troops, the armies are scattered and have not yet merged into an army. Therefore, the Yuan army still has the opportunity to defeat one by one. If it can concentrate superior forces and defeat one of the two reinforcements, it can break the deadlock on the battlefield and reverse the unfavorable situation of the Yuan army. Once it gives up attacking Changsha, withdraws defense, and lets the Deyou army join forces, it will give up the initiative on the battlefield, and the situation will only become increasingly unfavorable to the Yuan army.

After thinking about it for a while, Yuan Shikai finally decided to adopt Duan Qirui's suggestion. After all, he knew that his territory and population were far higher than that of the Deyou court. His advantage was that the army had a strong combat power, but he had to fight quickly. Once it became a protracted war, Yuan Shikai would definitely not be able to use Deyou court, so he could only take a risk. Of course, Yuan Shikai also made up his mind that if the war was unfavorable, he would surrender to the East China Government and rely on the property he had accumulated to be a rich man in the second half of his life.

Then Yuan Shikai and his generals negotiated and decided to leave one town and one assistant to restrain Changsha; and arrange one town and one assistant to restrain the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's South Road; and concentrate four towns and four assistants, with about 80,000 troops to fight the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's North Road first. On the one hand, the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's North Road were relatively small, only 70,000, and Yuan's army could have a slight advantage in the strength; on the other hand, the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's North Road were advanced from Changde Prefecture, facing Dongting Lake, and the Yuan's naval fleet could play a role to assist the army in combat.

So Yuan Shikai mobilized his troops, and Feng Guozhang led his troops to restrain the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's South Road. Cao Kun led his troops to fight with Changsha. He and Duan Qirui led their troops to bypass Changsha and met the reinforcements on the Deyou Army's North Road in Changde Prefecture.

The reinforcements from Deyou Army's North Road did not expect that Yuan's army would bypass Changsha and attack him, so they could only defend and wait for assistance. With Changde Prefecture as the command center, they divided their troops to station in Longyang, Canggang, Caocha, Taoyuan and other places around Changde to face the attack of Yuan's army. At the same time, they sent people to rescue reinforcements from Deyou Army's South Road.

The two sides fought fiercely for three days and two nights, and in the end, the Yuan army's fleet bombarded Changde Prefecture, where the command center of Deyou Army was located at night, making the defenders of Changde Prefecture mistakenly think that the Yuan army was attacking Changde Prefecture and hurriedly dispatched troops to defend. So Duan Qirui took advantage of the situation to command the army to launch a fierce attack, and finally attacked the Deyou Army in Taoyuan, breaking through the front line of the Deyou Army, and eventually causing the Deyou Army to defeat.

Deyou's army was defeated and stationed in Yongding County, Lizhou, with only less than 30,000 troops left. At this time, the reinforcements from Deyou's South Road were dragged by the army led by Feng Guozhang, and then they rushed to the border of Zijiang River. When they learned that the reinforcements from Deyou's North Road had been defeated by Yuan's army, the reinforcements from Deyou's South Road did not dare to advance again and immediately retreated to Chenzhou Prefecture to station.

After defeating Deyou's army, more than 6,000 casualties were also killed or killed. However, after Yuan Shikai and Feng Guozhang's army merged, they immediately launched an attack on Changsha again. Due to the defeat of reinforcements, the morale of the Deyou's army guarding Changsha fell sharply. At the same time, the Yuan army also concentrated a large number of artillery to bombard the Changsha defense line. After three days of resistance, the remaining 30,000 Deyou's army withdrew from Changsha and joined with the Deyou's army stationed in Chenzhou Prefecture.

After occupying Changsha, Yuan Shikai did not stop, but left only one to guard Changsha, leading about 100,000 troops to launch an attack on Chenzhou Prefecture. Because after the retreating Deyou army joined forces at this time, it still had about 140,000 troops, and in terms of force alone, it was still above the Yuan army, so it still poses a great threat to the Yuan army. It is necessary to advance while the Deyou army is not yet stable. If it can severely damage the Deyou army, it is naturally the best. Even if it cannot severely damage the Deyou army, it must drive the Deyou army further to ensure the safety of Changsha.

Although the Deyou Army had more troops than the Yuan army, its advantage was not great. Moreover, after the new defeat, the Deyou Army's morale was low and there was no time to build defensive fortifications. The Yuan army came with the victory and was in full swing. Therefore, the chief general of the Deyou Army knew very well that he could not be the opponent of the Yuan army at all, but he could not give up Chenzhou Prefecture to the Yuan army. This would only allow the Yuan army to advance step by step. So the Deyou Army distributed troops and left more than 100,000 people to station in Chenzhou Prefecture, with the goal of dragging the Yuan army, while the remaining 40,000 retreated to Qianzhou and the Phoenix area in the westernmost part of Hunan to build defensive fortifications, ready to stabilize the position here and resist the Yuan army.

After several days of fighting between the two sides, Deyou's army was indeed no match. They lost cities and land in succession, losing more than 30,000 people in total, and eventually lost Chenzhou Prefecture. However, at this time, Deyou's army was in Ganzhou, and the fortifications in the Phoenix area had been built, so Deyou's army retreated to Ganzhou and the Phoenix line.

However, Yuan Shikai did not attack Ganzhou and the Phoenix front line. First, the Deyou army had built fortifications and attacked rashly, which would cause major losses. Although the war has gone through, the Yuan army has achieved a major victory and annihilated Deyou army has nearly 100,000 people, but its own casualties have exceeded 20,000. However, now the Deyou court has nearly 400,000 troops, which can afford the losses, but the Yuan army cannot withstand major losses. Second, after capturing Chenzhou Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture also has a strategic barrier. Therefore, the Yuan army is not urgent to capture Ganzhou, so naturally there is no need to rush to attack.

So Yuan Shikai stationed troops in Luxi and Chenxi areas of Chenzhou Prefecture, and fought against the Ganzhou and Fenghuang lines of Deyou Army. At the same time, he divided his troops and sent generals to attack Lizhou north and Baoqing Prefecture, Yongzhou Prefecture, Guiyang Prefecture, Hengzhou Prefecture and other places to the south. Since the Deyou Army had few troops in this area, the Yuan army could occupy these places more easily, expand its territory, and also attack the Deyou Army's defense line from the flanks.

Sure enough, the Yuan army's attack went very smoothly. They successively captured Lizhou, Baoqing Prefecture, Yongzhou Prefecture, Guiyang Prefecture, Hengzhou Prefecture and other places. In addition, Hengyang Prefecture, Yueyang Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture and other places that had been occupied before, basically occupied more than 80% of Hunan Province, and only the west was still under the control of Deyou Army.

However, at this moment, the reinforcements of the Deyou Army arrived again, with more than 80,000 troops this time. In total, the total strength of the Deyou Army reached nearly 200,000. So they divided their troops to garrison Yongshun Prefecture, Yuanzhou Prefecture, Jingzhou and other places, defending only the last places in Hunan Province. Moreover, after the garrison arrived, they were not in a hurry to launch a counterattack on the Yuan army, but like Ganzhou and Phoenix front lines, they built fortifications and guarded themselves first.

It turns out that at this point in the war, Britain, France and other countries also understood that the combat effectiveness and officer command ability of the Deyou army were much worse than that of the Yuan army. Therefore, it is basically difficult to get anything easy when fighting head-on on the battlefield. Compared with Yuan Shikai, the only advantage of the Deyou court now is that it is large territory, large population, and strong overall strength, so it can only fight with the Yuan army. So after the Deyou army sent reinforcements, Britain, France and other countries suggested to the Deyou court not to rush to attack, defend their own defense line first, and slowly consume the Yuan army.
Chapter completed!