Chapter 429 Wang Zhanyuan in Northern Zhejiang

The offensive of the Second Army in Shanghai exceeded the expectation of the battle office. Less than five days after the launch, they successively captured the Shanghai Fort and Shanghai China, and then successively captured a series of important towns in Jiaxing, Suzhou and other important towns in southern Jiangsu, not only expanding the strategy of the Second Army of the Feng Army. As large as hundreds of kilometers, it has completely controlled this area, which is crucial to the finances of Anhui.

Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division, which was highly expected by Duan Qirui, although he joined the Anhui army to fight against Zhao Dongyun because of his cold lips, he was not stupid and would not go directly to Shanghai to fight directly with the main force of the Second Army of the Feng Army. In addition, Wang Zhanyuan has his own purpose, which is to take the opportunity to control the northern part of Zhejiang.

With the outbreak of the war between the two armies of Feng and Anhui on the front line of the Yangtze River, Duan Qirui continued to transfer troops from all over the country. The troops originally deployed in Zhejiang were transferred to the front line of the Yangtze River one after another, resulting in a short military vacuum here. Wang Zhanyuan took this opportunity to directly enter the east to control the northern Zhejiang region led by Hangzhou.

Now Wang Zhanyuan is busy collecting money and conscription to expand the army. In a short period of time, as long as the Feng army does not take the initiative to go south to northern Zhejiang, he will not fight to the death with the second army of the Feng army on a large scale.

After all, this opportunity is very rare for Wang Zhanyuan. Since the defeat of the Feng army in the summer of 1907, Wang Zhanyuan has been wandering around with the 7th Division, wandering thousands of miles from north to south, and briefly stopping in northern Henan, Anhui and southern Anhui. However, he stayed in the above-mentioned areas. They are all unstable and can only be regarded as a passer-by. Although they don't go to any place to search for money to supplement military strength, these places are not rich areas. Even if they control the whole province, it is impossible to develop much, not to mention that he is only temporarily stationed in a few prefectures and counties.

However, the northern Zhejiang region he went to now is different. Although Zhejiang was not as developed as southern Jiangsu, Guangdong and other regions in the late Qing Dynasty, it was barely a province with sufficient wealth, at least much stronger than Fengtian before Zhao Dongyun's large-scale development.

And Zhejiang is very similar to Jiangsu and Guangdong, that is, its financial income is quite concentrated in some prefectures and counties. Jiangsu has southern Jiangsu, Guangdong has Guangzhou, and Zhejiang is naturally northern Zhejiang.

A large Zhejiang Province, its central and southern areas are hilly and mountainous areas, which is not much different from Fujian in the south. However, northern Zhejiang is a plain area, which is the main agricultural area of the plains within the Yangtze River Delta. In addition, it is close to Suzhou, Shanghai and other places, which also leads to the relatively developed silk industry.

Jiaxing, Hangzhou and Shaoxing in northern Zhejiang, together with the taxes contributed by Ningbo, account for more than 80% of Zhejiang Province. Although Jiaxing has been controlled by the Feng army, other areas of northern Zhejiang controlled by Wang Zhanyuan can still contribute a lot of taxes to him.

In addition, it is worth noting that Wang Zhanyuan and Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun are even different from Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen. The latter warlords have a deep foundation and have risen to become the leaders of a party in 1906. They are all people with hegemonic ambitions, so it is relatively normal to search for territory. It is mainly to develop, collect normal taxes, and win the support of local industrial and commercial landlords.

However, Wang Zhanyuan has a shallow foundation and has not had a stable territory for a long time, so he raided money everywhere, and even blackmailed the local landlords and gentry industrial and commercial class for military expenses. He would not say that he was afraid to leave. In the future, the local What will happen? He is even more fearless about the evaluation of him by the mainstream social class. Compared with Duan Qirui of Anhui and Zhao Dongyun of the Soviet system, he is more like a standard warlord in the early Ming Dynasty.

After coming to northern Zhejiang, Wang Zhanyuan also knew that no matter who won the victory of the two armies of Feng and Anhui, it was difficult for him to have a voice with only one seventh division. The chance of completely controlling Zhejiang in the future was very small, so what he did in northern Zhejiang was very realistic. As soon as he arrived in Zhejiang, he rudely took the local government. Ku was searched and did not even leave the administrative funds of the local government. Then he summoned the rich businessmen in Hangzhou and other places and claimed that he had led a long way to defend the safety of the people of Zhejiang. However, the military expenditure was scarce, and the soldiers did not even have rations. He hoped that the vast number of rich businessmen and landlords could enthusiastically finance military food and other materials.

In a word, to put it bluntly, it is to ask for money!

In the face of Wang Zhanyuan's forced demand for money, those rich businessmen were naturally unwilling. On the spot, those people only gave hundreds to thousands, and the total amount was less than 20,000. After all, although everyone's money is blown by the wind, even the money can't be given casually.

However, although Wang Zhanyuan did not say anything on the spot, the next day, the soldiers of the 7th Division directly broke out in a riot in the city. The soldiers rushed into the homes of several rich businessmen, which not only robbed these rich businessmen, but also killed a river of blood!

As soon as the case came out, Hangzhou was shocked and directly scared the rich businessmen. At this time, they knew that they, who bullied ordinary people at will in the past, were not even fart in front of these warlords who controlled the army.

This is an organized and planned riot plan, and the specific person responsible is naturally Wang Zhanyuan.

The next day, a large number of rich businessmen in Hangzhou came in person, or sent their confidants, housekeepers and so on to send some cash and bank promissory notes to Wang Zhanyuan.

"These people don't want to die without seeing the Yellow River. They don't give them a look. They think we are beggars!" Wang Zhanyuan did not hide his contempt for these businessmen and rich businessmen.

"Most of the people who have changed it have already sent it, and the discount contract is about 3 million yuan!" The adjutant beside Wang Zhanyuan flattered.

"This number is still small. It's only three million yuan, which is not enough for us to spend a few months. No one knows how long we can stay in northern Zhejiang. We can make as much as we can now, otherwise it will be too late to regret leaving in the future!" Wang Zhanyuan thought for a moment and then said, "If you move with them again, of course, don't make too much trouble. If you send a message to those businessmen properly, it's not enough. If you don't make enough five million, I, Wang, won't leave!"

Speaking of this, he thought for a moment and then said, "You can contact a few more foreign banks and deposit the money. It's inconvenient to bring so much money to the army these days!"

Of course, Wang Zhanyuan did not say that he was going to deposit this money in foreign banks in order to prepare himself for a way out. These days, the risk of warlords playing hegemony was too high, and he was accidentally defeated. After being defeated, his life should be safe and sound. Beiyang people are still relatively traditional. In addition, the current Beiyang army In the early years, Valve was all colleagues and friends, and they were all people who had drunk and brag together.

Generally speaking, as long as you announce that you are out of the opposition, whether it is Zhao Dongyun or Duan Qirui, most will not say that they will kill you directly. At most, you will be placed under house arrest at the beginning, and then drive you to the concession, that is, that is, you will be sent out of the country as a gift.

Basically, you can go to the concession to be a free and comfortable apartment, and what does the apartment have to be rich!

Although Wang Zhanyuan is ambitious, he is also a rational person. He also feels that he has many opportunities to succeed in hegemony. Nine out of ten will fail. What should he do after failure? If he is lucky, he may turn to Duan Qirui or Zhao Dongyun, and then get an uninsignificant official position. Tragedy, he will run directly. The concession went to the apartment.

Wang Zhanyuan's experience and practices in the past two years are actually more like the practices of warlords in the early days of the People's Republic of China. However, now it is not the beginning of the People's Republic of China. Nowadays, although the major warlords are fighting in China, they are not too scattered. Counting it down to Duan Qirui of Anhui, Zhao Dongyun of the Soviet Union, the Southern Federation, and Wu Fengling and Wang. Shizhen, coupled with such a Wang Zhanyuan, other warlords can't actually be regarded as warlords, but can only be said to be generals under the command of major warlords.

Wang Zhanyuan collected a lot in the area of Hangzhou, so naturally he had no time to take the initiative to go north to fight with Fengjun in Jiaxing and Shanghai.

Although Zhao Dongyun has already set Wang Zhanyuan as a goal that must be eliminated, the biggest goal of the Soviet Feng army now is not to deal with Wang Zhanyuan, but to try their best to clean up Duan Qirui. Specifically, it is to solve the Jinling war, take Jinling and annihilate the fourth division.

For the Feng army, as long as Jinling is captured and the fourth division of Duan Qirui's direct force is annihilated, it is equivalent to laying the foundation for Jiangnan's strategic victory. In the future, most of southern China will no longer find an army that can stop the Feng army from going south.

The other remnants of the Anhui army can't do it, and Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division can't do it either!

The strategic focus of the Feng army can be seen from the dispatch of the second army of the Feng army. What they sent to Jiaxing was the relatively weaker new unit of the 15th Division, and the 10th Division was sent to Suzhou.

It can be clearly seen that the Second Army of the Feng Army did not intend to continue to go south on a large scale, but planned to continue westward along Wuxi, Changzhou, Jiangyin and Zhenjiang all the way to Jinling.

When the 15th Division stopped its steps to go south in Jiaxing and began to build a defense line, the 10th Division did not stop after taking Suzhou, but continued to march west and go straight to Wuxi.

At the same time, the naval fleet led by Cheng Biguang also continued to march along Jiangxi under the strict order of Zhao Dongyun to maintain naval gun support for the 10th Division at any time.

From Suzhou's defeat, the Ninth Division of Liangjiang, which retreated to Wuxi, unexpectedly failed to resist the fierce attack of the 10th Division. After retreated in Wuxi, the 10th Division was able to continue to march westward and divide into two ways to continue to chase the Ninth Division of the two rivers to Changzhou, while the other brigade went to Jiangyin.

What to do in Jiangyin is naturally to take down the Jiangyin battery and open the way for the naval fleet.