Chapter 192: Ordering the Second Division

After hearing that the Second Division of the Revolutionary Guangdong Army was about to go out of the province to fight, some members of the Congregation fled that night. However, the new army soldiers who were responsible for searching in the city captured the deserters overnight.

Huang Xing was very worried about this incident. He knew that the Society was unreliable. These people were the backbone of the anti-Qing forces before the uprising, but once the uprising was successful, they immediately regained their nature as gangsters. The Second Division had big quarrels and fusses almost every night, all of which were members of the Society Gambling and drinking and having fun. Now that the Second Division has not yet set out, there have been deserters. How can this revolutionary cause continue?

As for Wu Shaoting's first division, everything was normal. After the last combat meeting ended, he had formulated a plan to attack Zhaoqing and Xin'an at the same time. It is necessary to restore Zhaoqing and Xin'an within two days, and then gather troops to attack Shaoguan with all their might. As long as Shaoguan is opened, the Second Division will be able to leave the province smoothly and head north to attack Jiangxi.

According to reports, the current situation in Jiangxi is very critical, of course this crisis is for the government.

The congregational parties in Jiangxi Province frequently made chaos, fanning the flames everywhere, laying a solid foundation for the revolutionary Guangdong army to arrive in Jiangxi. At the same time, Li Liejun returned to Nanchang on January 4th, gathered with the old subordinates and young military officers from the military school, ready to respond to the revolution at any time and launched an uprising in Nanchang. Li Liejun even drew out the map of the old army's defenses on the border between Jiangxi and Guangdong and sent people to send them to Guangzhou in an expedition.

The attack on Zhaoqing and Xin'an was set on January 9. The Second Regiment of the First Division attacked Zhaoqing, and the First Regiment and the Artillery Regiment attacked Xin'an at night. Before sending troops, Wu Shaoting did not take any confidential measures, but instead made a big announcement that the revolutionary Guangdong army was going to attack Zhaoqing and Xin'an. There are two purposes for this. One is to prepare the revolutionaries in Zhaoqing and Xin'an, and the other is to deter the stubborn resistance forces in these two places.

Who knew that on the morning of January 8, Long Liangguang, the general battalion of the New Security Army, sent a telegram, leading more than 1,500 officers and soldiers of the General battalion of the Defense Army, to revolt, and conquered Xin'an County Government at noon and arrested Xin'an County Magistrate. In the afternoon, Long Liangguang sent people to escort Xin'an County Magistrate and other officials to Guangzhou.

In the evening of that day, a mutiny occurred in Zhaoqing. Li Yaohan led the Green Camp Army to overthrow Zhaoqing County and issued a telephone call to respond to the revolutionary government.

Faced with these two places of surrender without fighting, the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government was very happy and believed that the restoration of the entire province of Guangdong was almost done.

But Wu Shaoting was not happy at all. Neither Long Jingguang nor Li Yaohan were simple people. The former echoed each other with his younger brother Long Jiguang, and was an accomplice in the rule of Guangdong after the Second Revolution; the latter was the founder of the Zhaojun and one of the small warlords of Zhaoqing's Guangdong faction for a long time.

The reason why he wanted to take the action of restoration by force was to clear these small warlords in the area and achieve real centralization of the province. However, now it seems that since Long Jingguang and Li Yaohan are both right, it is impossible for him to send troops to attack, otherwise it will only arouse public outrage at home and abroad.

That night, Wu Shaoting held the second combat meeting temporarily and formulated a plan for the next attack on Shaoguan.

However, at this time, his strategy had undergone a complete change. It was obviously inappropriate to unify Guangdong Province by force, so it became very negative to send troops to Shaoguan. Although he was still discussing the attack on Shaoguan at this meeting, he basically made a bluff in his deployment, hoping to force Wu Xiangda to surrender himself.

In fact, Zhaoqing and Xin'an's surrender without fighting has already made a flaunt to the whole province.

Especially in Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan, southwest of Guangzhou, they already felt the pressure doubled. These three small counties did not have much military force, and now even Zhaoqing and Xin'an, which are more powerful, are there any reason for them to stick to it? The three counties sent another telegram in the early morning of January 9 to express their surrender to the revolutionary government.

Wu Shaoting never cared about these three small counties. To deal with them, they just sent a cruiser from the Guangdong Navy to walk around the Pearl River, and the three counties would automatically surrender.

However, the successive revival did not shake Shaoguan.

Wu Xiangda neither sent a telegram to surrender to the revolutionary government nor expressed his opposition to the revolutionary government. It is obvious that he was still hesitating because whether the restoration of Guangdong Province alone could affect the changes in the country, and as a martial artist, he had no prediction at all. Therefore, he maintained the status quo and waited for further changes.

This made Wu Shaoting feel unhappy. If Wu Xiangda refused to surrender for a long time, he would have to send troops to Shaoguan to take a trip.

In the afternoon, Chen Jiongming came to the military headquarters of the East School to find Wu Shaoting. Wu Shaoting met Chen Jiongming in his simple office. Chen Jiongming was wearing a newly customized military uniform, with a shiny revolutionary medal and a badge on his chest.

He looked quite arrogant, but his face was very calm, which weakened his spirit a lot.

"Jingcun, sit down. If you are all your own people, you don't have to be polite." Wu Shaoting greeted with a smile.

Chen Jiongming sat down, and he went straight to the topic and said, "Zhenzhi, there are two main things to come to see you today. One is the business of our Second Division, that is, the matter of arms and money. Zhenzhi, you should know that the guns of our Second Division are not unified, and the supply of bullets is difficult, especially the batch of American rifles. Recently, we asked several armories, but we could not find matching bullets at all."

Wu Shaoting nodded thoughtfully and said, "I understand. Because that batch of arms is the latest rifle of the United States, we cannot imitate bullets in our country. However, the last time I ordered the US side, it was transported in two batches. The second batch should have arrived. It was just that the incident of the Guangzhou City Uprising made these foreigners look very alert, so they did not hand it over to me."

"Even if there is a second batch of arms, if the bullet problem cannot be completely solved, it will not be a long-term solution." Chen Jiongming said worriedly.

"Well, you're right. I'll let the Guangdong Arsenal take over this matter. I've been too busy recently and the Arsenal has not resumed work yet. I'll make arrangements tonight. If the Arsenal can imitate the bullets of American rifles, then this matter will be easy to solve. If it cannot imitate in a short period of time, I will find another way." Wu Shaoting said.

"Shocked, our Second Division is about to go out of the market. If the supply of arms is insufficient, it will be a big trouble." Chen Jiongming said seriously.

"Don't worry, even if our First Division changes guns with your Second Division, it will ensure that you will succeed in getting out of the army." Wu Shaoting said solemnly.

Hearing this, Chen Jiongming finally felt relieved. He nodded and then said: "As for the money and silver, our army is making a big fuss. Before the uprising, we promised these civilian brothers that they would illuminate the revenge after the uprising. During the Huizhou uprising, we had already sent all the officials in Huizhou Prefecture's treasury, but the officials in Huizhou didn't have much money, and many brothers had not received the revenge. In addition, Li Fulin, Guan Renfu, and Huang Mingtang and his subordinates have also clamored to illuminate the revenge. If this matter is not resolved, there will be a mutiny!"

Wu Shaoting knew that many provinces and regions used the resurrection as bait to stimulate the uprising of the army, but when he launched the rebellion of the new army, he did not mention this matter at all. Although the salary of the new army soldiers was not much, fortunately, the general's mansion had never been cut off. On the one hand, the soldiers were willing to revolt because of the revolutionary exaggeration and hatred of the Qing court, and on the other hand, it was because of his prestige. Now Chen Jiongming came to ask for the resurrection of the civilian army to appease the civilian army. How did he explain to the new army soldiers?

"I have never known about the resumption of the salary. This is a promise made by you Huizhou. We in Guangzhou have never talked about it with money. What's more, even if you want to resumption of the salary, you should ask the Ministry of Finance for it!" Wu Shaoting said angrily.

"Shocking, do you have to let me say it thoroughly?" Chen Jiongming took a deep breath and his expression became rigorous. "I went to find Shan Gong before. Shan Gong said that at the beginning of the Guangzhou New Army Uprising, the Governor's Office and the Provincial Government's bank treasury were occupied by the new army, and these bank treasurys should be in your hands."

Wu Shaoting's face changed. When the uprising was launched on January 1, he did emphasize that he occupied the official treasury after entering the city, but until today he has not received a single silver from the official treasury. He originally thought that the silver was transferred by Yuan Shuxun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, or was robbed by scattered soldiers and the failure of the revolution, so he never asked about it. Now Chen Jiongming came to ask him about this matter, which clearly believed that he had embezzled the official treasury silver.

He tried his best to control his emotions and said calmly: "Jing Guan, whether you believe it or not, I don't know where the money in the Guangzhou government treasury went. Maybe it was robbed during the uprising, or someone else occupied it. But I can swear that I have never touched this money. I still have hundreds of thousands of deposits in Tongfu Yinzhuang, which are all the money I earned from starting a company. If you want to give the second division a repaid, I can go and give it to you tomorrow!"

Chen Jiongming looked at Wu Shaoting's extremely serious expression and suddenly felt that he had misunderstood the other party.
Chapter completed!