The Qing court finally decided to send troops, but the happiest person was Yuan Shikai in Tianjin. His plan finally succeeded. Of course, this was just the first step. To be able to succeed completely, further efforts are needed. Yuan Shikai's this time was a big gamble. It can be said that he betted all his capital. If he wins, he can win everything, and if he loses, he has nothing.

Of course, it is not enough for Yuan Shikai to work alone. Bi Jing was fighting against the Qing army on the battlefield with the army of the East China government. If the East China government is not strong, all the efforts made by Yuan Shikai will be useless. Therefore, Yuan Shikai, who was idle by the Qing court during this period, was very busy and frequently met with the heads of the Tianjin New District Government to understand the preparations for the East China government and be able to have a clear mind.

However, the East China government cannot fully trust Yuan Shikai. Firstly, Yuan Shikai's reputation in the old time and space was too bad. Although the historical community's evaluation of Yuan Shikai changed during the time travel, because he was in the Internet world, he even whitewasted Lao Yuan into a historical great man. To be fair, Yuan Shikai is indeed a capable and made considerable achievements in a certain historical stage. But there is one thing that Lao Yuan could not be emptied, which was later called emperor. Therefore, it is not wrong to steal the reputation of the thief of the country to put Yuan Shikai on it. This also determines that the East China government cannot fully trust Yuan Shikai; secondly, eliminate the historical factors of the old time and space. Now Yuan Shikai is still an official of the Qing court after all. Although he said that he was helping the East China government for the sake of the political struggle of the Qing court, who knows whether it is true or false? What if Lao Yuan plays in the infernal Affairs? Naturally, he cannot give his own details to Yuan Shikai.

But one thing I have made clear to Yuan Shikai, that is, the river and lake bases are also the territory of the East China government. The East China government will never easily let the Qing court take it away, so it will definitely do its best to defend it so that Yuan Shikai can rest assured.

Yuan Shikai also knew that the East China government could not hand over the truth to him, but this statement was still very reasonable. He just wanted to do his best to help the East China government win this battle.

Before the Qing court sent troops, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and Wu Fengling, the commanders of the 2, 3, and 4 towns of the Beiyang New Army, came to Tianjin together to ask Yuan Shikai how to fight this battle.

These three are both Yuan Shikai's old subordinates and confidants. It can be said that the three of them are all promoted by Yuan Shikai, so the three are also grateful to Yuan Shikai. However, now the three can only be considered middle-level generals, and they don't have much understanding of the intrigue in the court. It can be seen that Yuan Shikai is suppressed by the court, and they are also quite indignant of Yuan Shikai. Moreover, Tieliang and Liangbi, who went to the leadership of the army this time, are both Yuan Shikai's political enemies. Naturally, the three of them regard him as enemies. This time, they are fighting under the command of the enemy, and of course they have to come to ask Yuan Shikai for advice. How should they fight this time?

Yuan Shikai was also very happy about the visit of the three, which shows that the three were quite loyal to him, which is naturally a good thing. So Yuan Shikai set up a feast in Tianjin to entertain the three of them, and spent a lot of money to invite a movie screening team from Tianjin New District to show the three of them a movie. All of them were watching a movie for the first time, of course they had heard of it before, but today they finally opened their eyes and naturally praised the movie.

After entertaining the three, Yuan Shikai had a formal secret talk with the three. Regarding this war, Yuan Shikai only told the three that overseas Chinese should not underestimate the enemy, so they should not make a quick move. In everything, it is best to preserve strength and preserve the army. Do not fight hard with overseas Chinese troops.

But these words made the three of them confused and felt that they had said a lot, but they were still confused about how to do it. After all, the transaction between Yuan Shikai and the East China government was carried out in secret, so the fewer people knew, the better. Even if the three of them were their confidants, they could not hand over all the bottom to them. They could only say this vaguely. And these three people are still a little tender and cannot understand the implicit meaning of this.

However, Yuan Shikai also knew the understanding of these three people, so he arranged for Xu Shichang to meet the three people that night and first gave each of them 10,000 taels of silver to show his kindness, and Xu Shichang taught the three people all the things he was inconvenient to say.

Xu Shichang told the three that Yuan Shikai was suppressed by the Manchus and had lost his military power. Moreover, the plan of the Manchus' powerful people was not to suppress Yuan Shikai alone, but to take over all the six towns in Beiyang and replace all the commanders of the six towns with Manchus. However, the war is imminent and it is time to hire people, so three people have to be appointed. Once the war is over, the three people will inevitably be assigned to them, or a void position will be idle, just like Yuan Shikai now.

After hearing this, the three of them became nervous. Although they did not have the great ambitions of Yuan Shikai, they still had the idea of ​​making a name for themselves and glorious ancestors. Now they finally got to this point and naturally they were unwilling to lose their current official positions and power. Because they are now so purely because of political battles, the three of them are just middle-level military officers and have no background. The biggest backer is Yuan Shikai. But now even Yuan Shikai is idle, what else can the three of them have?

Seeing that the three of them were anxious, Xu Shichang told the three people calmly that there was still a way to let Yuan Shikai take power again. Only when Yuan Shikai regained military power can the current power of the three people be preserved. In order to let Yuan Shikai take power again, the only way is to let the Qing court be defeated in this war, so that the first town controlled by Tieliang and Liangbi will be defeated, the more miserable the defeat, the better. Only in this way can the court allow Yuan Shikai to regain military power, and the power of the three people can be preserved. Of course, his own military strength must be preserved. In this era, only with soldiers in his hands can everything be found. In addition, if you take any action, you should report to Yuan Shikai more and follow Yuan Shikai's instructions.

After hearing Xu Shichang's words, the three of them suddenly realized and understood what Yuan Shikai said. This trip to Tianjin did not come in vain. They learned a lot and opened a new window for the three of them, understanding that struggle is not just on the battlefield.

The next morning, the three of them said goodbye to Yuan Shikai and returned to their respective troops with the silver. At this time, the Qing court also ordered that the troops start to act and enter their respective battlefields. With just one order, the three groups advanced together and launched an attack on the river and lake base areas. Yuan Shikai was very

Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and Wu Fengling also told Yuan Shikai in detail the arrangement, force dispatch and offensive plan of the Qing army in accordance with Yuan Shikai's instructions, making Yuan Shikai know the arrangement of the Qing army very well. Yuan Shikai did not dare to neglect it, and immediately handed over all the information to the East China government, and also told the East China government that the 2, 3 and 4 towns of Beiyang had been persuaded by themselves and would not fight hard on the battlefield. Therefore, the East China government only had to guard against the Beiyang town.

After receiving this information, the river and lake base areas certainly did not dare to believe it completely, but they could instruct the reconnaissance personnel to conduct reconnaissance according to this information. Sure enough, they found that there were signs of large-scale military dispatch in Baoding, Taiyuan, Luoyang, Hubei and other places. It was impossible to completely conceal the mobilization of tens of thousands of troops in Bijin. Moreover, the Qing army had never thought of concealing it.

The direction of the Qing army's march was consistent with the information provided by Yuan Shikai, so that the preparations for the river and lake bases would be targeted. First, it can be determined that the Hubei army is the weakest among the four Qing troops and the farthest. Even if this army is eliminated, it will not have a great impact on the overall situation. Therefore, there is no need to focus on the Hubei direction, and only one regiment will restrain them. The focus of the Genhu base is still from the northwest, with the Qing army mainly powered by the six towns in Beiyang.

Although Yuan Shikai promised that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th towns of the Beiyang New Army would not do their best to fight, the base government could not fully believe it. It could only be said when the battle started. The Beiyang Army mentioned by Yuan Shikai would not do its best to fight, and you will know after the battle started.

However, Yuan Shikai provided the correct information after all, so the information he provided cannot be ignored. If the Beiyang 2, 3, and 4 towns really do not work hard, it will certainly be beneficial to the base. So the base command finally formulated two combat plans. One is that if it is true that as Yuan Shikai said, Beiyang 2, 3, and 4 towns do not work hard, then the Volunteer Army will concentrate its troops to deal with the first town in Beiyang. However, this cannot be taken lightly by the other three towns, and must be prevented. Maybe Yuan Shikai is playing the trick of killing people with a knife, using the Volunteer Army to annihilate a Beiyang town, and then the other three towns work together to defeat the Volunteer Army. In short, Yuan Shikai must never trust or despise Yuan Shikai.

Another plan is that if the other three towns in Beiyang did not fight against what Yuan Shikai said, but were all working hard to make progress, then the Volunteer Army would give priority to Duan Qirui's troops coming from the north and then attack other Qing troops, because Duan Qirui's troops' march route was basically along the border between Hebei and Shandong, then the Volunteer Army could make full use of Shandong's boundary for detours. Moreover, the East China government also decided to send a division of troops to garrison in Shandong and the border area of ​​Hebei after the war began, mainly to capture the Qing army to prevent the Qing army from invading Shandong. Of course, when necessary, it could also help the river and lake base areas, so naturally annihilation of Duan Qirui's troops was put first.
Chapter completed!