The night is dark and profound...

  The 2,000-kilometer-long Yuanjiang River rushes into the territory of Yuanzhou and is already considered to be in the lower reaches. The water area here is relatively wider than that in the upper reaches, so the turbulent river flow becomes gentle.

  The Yuanjiang River, which had been flowing northward all along, suddenly turned east at a place called Yangjiawan and flowed eastward from here, marking the beginning of Changde's territory.

  This bay is the actual dividing line between the two major forces of Xiangxi Town Guardian Mansion and Lixian Town Guardian Mansion.

  Wang Zhengya, although a scholar leading troops, was well-versed in military strategy. He attached great importance to these key transportation routes. Although he couldn't station large numbers of soldiers to defend them, he understood the logic of setting up sentry posts.

  From Yangjiawan to Taoyuan, in this hundred-mile waterway, the waterway patrol camp directly under the jurisdiction of Lixian Town Guardian Mansion is responsible for the work of inspection. Due to the tight military source, Wang Zhengya was also a priority to expand the combat troops, so the construction of this waterway patrol camp was seriously delayed.

  First of all, the soldiers, a team of less than three hundred people, mostly from the Qing dynasty's Tangxin Army. The biggest feature of these Tangxin soldiers is that they are quite old, with low income and severe malnutrition. Moreover, what is even more serious is that since the Qing dynasty, **, there has been a severe shortage of personnel, with only about 100 people in a team of nominally 300 people.

  After Wang Zhengya led the team to take office, he also spent a lot of thought on rectifying this rotten team. He relied on collecting fines from passing merchant ships to make up for the shortage of funds and expanded the whole camp to more than 200 people. Moreover, every five miles set up a jǐng message point, each point stationed a five-person jǐng message class, each class equipped with a fast boat, which facilitated the transmission of messages.

  It can be said that such a practice is diligent and responsible, but unfortunately, this situation has long been investigated by the military personnel under He Jian. Moreover, the practice of collecting fines from past merchant ships has also led to an unexpected result, which is to drive private ship owners other than those flying the British flag to desperation. These ship owners had no choice but to join the Xiangjiang Shipping Company, and some unemployed people even became opponents of Wang Zhengya. Under the instigation of He Shidao and Gu Hu, these people actually became a force to be reckoned with, formed a team, and openly raised a rebellion in the area under the jurisdiction of the Zhenzhou Town Guardian's Office, which gave Wang Zhengya a headache.

  As for the southern neighbor, since the founding of the Republic of China, there have been no conflicts between the two sides. Over time, even the officers and soldiers of the waterway patrol camp at the forefront have become psychologically slack, let alone Wang Zhengya 200 miles away.

  Yangjiawan's first sentry point was pitch black at this moment. A veteran in his forties, wearing a military uniform and carrying a lantern, walked out of the house, cursing as he went: "Damn it! So late at night, what kind of merchant ship wouldn't be flying a foreign flag? The mosquitoes outside are biting to death, and they're bullying me into standing guard. Damn it!"

  Since Hu Li led the engineering troops to blow up the reefs in the Yuanjiang River a year ago, the safety of shipping in the upper and middle reaches of the river has been greatly improved, and more ships have started to travel. However, most of the ships that sail at night are those British-flagged ones from the Yuanjiang Shipping Company. After a while, these soldiers also figured out the pattern: there's no oil to be smuggled at night, so nobody wants to take the night shift anymore, and it usually gets pushed onto the most unlucky person in the class.

  Middle-aged Jing just walked out a dozen steps, had just hung up the horse lantern, and was about to take off his pants. Suddenly, a tall black shadow appeared behind him, and then his head was severely hit, and he immediately fainted.

  Li Dachao, the captain of the first reconnaissance company of the mountain troops, walked over, sniffed his nose, and immediately covered his nose, saying in a low voice: "Huang Detu, you're really lacking in virtue. Can't you wait for people to finish urinating before you start smashing? Look at me, I'm all wet."

  Huang Dexiu looked at Lian Chang with a surprised face, not knowing what to say. As a result, he was kicked immediately: "What are you staring at? Tie up the man for me. There are four more people inside the house. Try not to shoot, they're all soldiers who eat military rations. If you can avoid killing, don't kill randomly."

  Then, the squad leader in charge of taking down Yangjiawan No. 1 Police Station led six soldiers to kick open the door and rush in. The dark gun barrels were aimed at four sleepy police officers, and Li Dachao, with a smile on his face, said in a Henan accent: "Brothers, sorry about this, we'll just tie you up for one night, and tomorrow you'll be free, okay? I see you're all obedient, so let's tie them all up."

  The same scene was staged at the 20 monitoring points on this section of the Yangtze River, and Wang Zhengya's waterway inspection camp was easily solved.

  803 Jingzhou Feishan new recruit base assigned new recruit Huang Dexiu, at this moment holding a horse lamp standing on a wooden tower by the river, according to the squad leader's request, swinging regularly. After a while, the rumbling engine sound started, the steamer sounded its whistle, and then a huge fleet appeared at the bend...

  When Li Zongren's feet landed on the dock of Taoyuan, he was very satisfied with his subordinates' high efficiency and speed in completing this long-distance waterway raid mission. He even gave a face-to-face handshake to the officer who came to greet him at the dock, making the other person feel honored.

  Just at dawn today, when the officers and men of the First Division of Xiangxi Mountain with white tiger flags jumped down from the ship's side, a group of soldiers from Zhang Changde who were patrolling the dock at night were stunned on the spot.

  Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Am I seeing things wrong? What are these people? Enemies? Should I open fire?

  Just as the Changde soldiers responsible for patrolling at night were still hesitating and unclear about the situation, the mountain troops' soldiers unceremoniously disarmed them. Then, according to the battle plan formulated by the staff based on the military map of Taoyuan provided by the Military Affairs Department, they completed the assembly in an orderly manner and rushed towards their respective targets.

  In this way, without firing a single shot or bullet, the entire Taoyuan fell into Li Zongren's hands, and the long-distance waterway raid plan was successfully completed.

  Li Zongren then loudly instructed his deputy: "Immediately send a telegram to the general staff, my first division has successfully captured the enemy's stronghold Taoyuan without any casualties."

  On the morning of July 27, Wang Zhengya got out of bed on time and practiced Tai Chi for a while, which was his habit for many years. Just as he sat down to enjoy his breakfast, he saw his deputy officer rush in with an urgent telegram: "Sir, something has happened..."

  Unlike Wang Zhengyu, although he became the town's guardian, he always remembered that he was a scholar, so he did not allow others to call him "General", but instead used the former Qing Dynasty's title, "Sir".

  Looking at the deputy officer's appearance, Wang Zhengya involuntarily frowned: "What's the panic, the sky won't fall, what thing, recite."

  The deputy officer stopped awkwardly, then read out the content according to orders. It turned out that Wang Zhenyu, the garrison commander of Xiangxi, announced that in order to defend the dignity of the National Constitution, he would openly condemn and attack Wang Zhengya, the garrison commander of Lixian, who followed the fake Beijing Central Government.

  Wang Zhengya's mind went blank: "What the hell does defending the dignity of the Republic's constitution have to do with rebelling against my old man?"

  Wang Zhengya took the telegram and looked at it carefully, suddenly slapping the table and saying: "Damn, this is clearly an attempt to seize territory! The commander of the Xiangxi Anti-Yuan Army appointed by Sun Dapao, Zhang Xueji, didn't even sign his name, but he dared to shout 'Down with Yuan' - this kid is clearly trying to take advantage of us! Quick, immediately pass down the order, all units along the Xiangxi direction must enter combat readiness at once, and let Wang Yuying immediately mobilize troops to prepare for battle."

  Zhang Xueji, the commander of the Hunan Army against Yuan Shikai mentioned by Wang Zhengya, was from Zhijiang, Guizhou Prefecture. In 1902, he went to Japan with a recommendation from Xiong Xiling and entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy to study military affairs. During this period, he met Sun Yat-sen and joined the Tongmenghui in 1905. After returning to China, he served as the director of the Guangdong Salt Administration Bureau and then organized the Guangyi Book Bureau in Shanghai as a secret revolutionary organization. He also set up the "Yangtze Daily" in Hankou. He participated in revolutionary activities led by Sun Yat-sen. In 1911, during the Wuchang Uprising, Hu Chong was appointed governor of Shandong and he served as chief of staff and commander of the First Mixed Brigade. After the Xinhai Revolution, he served as inspector of Hunan Province but was soon dismissed by Yuan Shikai.

  After the outbreak of the Second Revolution, Sun Yat-sen occasionally paid attention to the Xiangxi region, which was an area that Hunan Governor Tan Yanqing could not control, in order to integrate the resources of this region. With his understanding of Xiangxi still limited to maps, Sun appointed Zhang Xueji, a native of Xiangxi, as commander-in-chief of the Xiangxi Army for Punishing Yuan, with jurisdiction over all armed forces within Xiangxi.

  So, bureaucracy can be deadly. The current Xiangxi is not like the late Qing and early Republic of China when various factions were vying for power. Zhang Xueji came here at the beginning of the year to make arrangements for Song Jiaoren's visit. At that time, he was surprised by the changes in the situation, but since it was a short stay and Anjiang Model City had not yet taken shape, he didn't pay much attention to this change. Moreover, he did not meet Wang Zhenyu, only having dinner with Tian Yingkui, the deputy commander of Xiangxi Garrison, so he left a Kuomintang membership card for Wang Zhenyu and left.

  This time, Zhang Xueji only knew that Wang Zhenyu's power had developed to what extent. Throughout the western Hunan region, except for Wang Zhenyu, there was no second armed force. In this way, the strategy of horizontal and vertical alliances could not be used anymore. But how to complete the task entrusted by Sun Yat-sen?

  But Wang Zhenyu didn't think much about it and directly had Zhang Xueji put under house arrest, providing him with good food and drink, but not allowing him to contact the outside world. Zhang Xueji wasn't stupid either, immediately understanding what Wang was planning, he sighed and settled in calmly.

  On the other hand, Wang Zhengya didn't see Zhang Xueji's signature, so he felt that the problem was not big. A fellow town guard like himself coming to attack him, what's there to be afraid of? Moreover, the Changde area under his control was much more prosperous than Xiangxi, so he analyzed that Wang Zhenyu's power should be limited.

  Just as he was trying to comfort himself, his son Wang Yu-yin rushed in hastily: "Father, something terrible has happened..."

  Wang Zhengya was annoyed and said in a very bad tone: "You rascal, what are you panicking about?"

  Wang Yu-yin took a deep breath and said: "Taoyuan, Taoyuan was taken by the troops of Wang Zhenyu, the garrison commander of Xiangxi. I just received the news that our battalion stationed in Taoyuan had been disarmed..."

  Wang Zhengya glared at her son with bulging eyes, as if she was going to devour him. Wang Yuyin was so frightened that he didn't dare say another word. Suddenly, Wang Zhengya spat out a mouthful of blood and fell back onto the bed.

  Wang Yu Yin and his deputy were so frightened that they hastily supported their father, and after a while, Wang Zheng Ya finally came to himself, only saying one sentence: "Shameless to the extreme..."