Chapter 197 Out of the Province to Suppress Bandits
The Sichuan army's pursuit speed was beyond imagination. Many scattered bandits had no time to escape and were all captured alive. Qiao Yu, who had thousands of strong laborers, would not let him go. The Sichuan-Hankou Railway is notoriously difficult to repair. Now,
Under such conditions, road construction requires human lives, and there is no way around it.
Since it is unavoidable, he can only choose whose life to use. Qiao Yu's previous large-scale suppression of bandits in Sichuan has used all the tens of thousands of captured bandits as laborers to participate in the construction of roads and water conservancy facilities in Sichuan. Now these white people
The Wolf Bandit Army is no exception at all, and can even be used to death. Although some people may think this is inhumane, this is an unavoidable fact during the primitive accumulation of capital.
Sichuan, which was completely blank in industry, had to use cruel methods to complete primitive accumulation, and these labors could not only be used in Sichuan, but also the Allied Powers, which were seriously lacking in population, would definitely want them during the First World War. With this consideration in mind, Qiao Yu would definitely not
These prisoners of war will be dealt with at will, only some of the most heinous leaders will be selected and tried, and the rest will be sent to prisoner of war camps.
The Sichuan army pursued them all night, like a big net, catching all the fish. Like lost dogs, Li Hongbin and others first fled to Daning. Unexpectedly, they encountered hundreds of defeated troops before they reached Daning. The Sichuan army
The cavalry had already broken through Daning and captured most of the bandits. After Li Hongbin received the report, he flew into a rage and cursed these people as useless people.
However, it was of no use. He could only gather the remaining forces and continue to flee. In the middle of the night, there were less than a hundred people left around Li Hongbin. He now knew that things were not good. If it came during the day, the Sichuan Army would have planes to conduct reconnaissance.
, could he still run? Li Hongbin immediately decided to lead his men into the forest. Further east, this place is connected to the Hungryenjia area in Hubei Province. It has high mountains, dense forests, and crisscrossed ravines. It is a good place to hide.
Li Hongbin and others abandoned all their horses and fled into the deep mountains and forests on two legs. Fortunately, they were all experienced bandits who had suffered all kinds of hardships and suffered all kinds of crimes, so they did not take this suffering to heart.
But after entering Shennongjia, they complained endlessly. There were many poisonous insects and poisonous snakes in the jungle, and there was also miasma. Some people were injured. Without medicine, they soon rotted and suppurated, and they lost their lives.
In Shennongjia.
But they were still doing well. After all, they had hope of escaping. All the remaining bandits were captured and sent to prisoner-of-war camps.
Now Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei and other provinces are infested with bandits. Many states and counties have been conquered. When the armies in various places are helpless against these bandits, Sichuan fought a beautiful victory and wiped out tens of thousands of bandits in one fell swoop.
After clearing out the banditry in Sichuan, there was still a lot of noise, and Qiao Yu's reputation as the commander-in-chief of bandit suppression became more and more resounding.
Taking advantage of this enthusiasm, Qiao Yu hurriedly sent messages to Li Yuanhong, the governor of Hubei, Zhang Zhenfang, the governor of Henan, and Zhang Fenghui, the governor of Shaanxi, requesting the establishment of a joint headquarters to command an army and jointly be responsible for suppressing bandits.
After Li Yuanhong received the telegram, he felt very embarrassed. He was in trouble now. Although Lao Li was famous as the vice president, it was just his reputation. Without the strength to respond, his reputation was a burden. Now Li Yuanhong was
This burden weighs me down.
The two sides in the south are wrestling with each other. Not long ago, Yuan Shikai dismissed Li Liejun, the governor of Jiangxi, Bai Wenwei, the governor of Anhui, and Hu Hanmin, the governor of Guangdong. In addition, Chen Qimei, the governor of Shanghai who had been dismissed earlier, all the local officials of Sun Wen's line were eliminated.
, these people were naturally unwilling to lose their power, and gathered their old troops one after another, looking tense.
Lao Yuan did not let Li Yuanhong feel relieved. He issued an order to let Li Yuanhong concurrently serve as the governor of Jiangxi. Li Yuanhong knew that this was a fire pit and he would not jump into it. He immediately recommended Ouyang Wu as the envoy to protect the army, which was approved by Lao Yuan.
However, Lao Yuan was also worried about Jiangxi's instability, and sent Li Chun, commander of the Sixth Division, to lead his troops south to Hubei to jointly monitor the Jiangxi People's Army...
Under such circumstances, Li Yuanhong would never send troops to the remote northwest of Hubei to suppress the bandits. However, Li Yuanhong was also an experienced strategist and was best at flattering all parties. Li Chun, sent by Beiyang, arrived in Hubei. Although he was monitoring Li Liejun,
But maybe he was supervising Li Yuanhong. If Li Bodhisattva made any slight changes, he would definitely be captured by Lao Yuan.
Under this situation, if the Sichuan army can be drawn into Hubei, it will be absolutely beneficial to Li Yuanhong's balance of Beiyang's influence. Therefore, Li Yuanhong thought over and over again and decided to send Xia Douyin to lead a regiment of troops to northwest Hubei, saying that they would all obey Qiao Yu's dispatch.
Work together to kill the bandits.
After receiving a reply from Li Yuanhong, Qiao Yu did not wait for a reply from Shaanxi and Henan and urged the army to enter Hubei. The Sichuan army did not go to Shennongjia. That kind of mountainous terrain was not suitable for marching at all. Qiao Yu directly led the army by boat down the river.
Next, head straight to Yichang. Yichang was called Yiling in ancient times. It is located at the exit of the Three Gorges. It is an important town in the southwest of Hubei and its geographical location is very important.
It is also an important node of the planned Sichuan-Hankou Railway. It can be said that this is the gateway from Sichuan to Hubei. Qiao Yu has been coveting this place for a long time. After arriving in Yichang, he was not in a hurry to go north to deal with the bandits.
Instead, they invited all the local gentry in Yichang.
At night, when the lanterns came on, all the gentry in Yichang came to the mansion where Qiao Yu was staying with the invitation cards in their hands. They were complaining in their hearts. These soldiers were definitely not doing anything good for them. As the saying goes, soldiers are bandits, and bandits are soldiers.
, the soldiers and bandits are one family.
Now that the White Wolf bandit army has not met, it is impossible to go through a military disaster first, but no one dares not to come. What is the identity of the other party? The Sichuan patrol envoy is even higher than the governor.
He is the ruler of Sichuan, and now he is the commander-in-chief of bandit suppression. If the corner of his mouth is crooked, you will become a bandit and you will not be able to run away even if you want to, so you must not neglect him.
Before seven o'clock, all these gentry gathered in the living room. There were sixty or seventy people, sitting in a dark place. At half past seven, Qiao Yu appeared on time. He was wearing a gray robe and a golden belt.
Wearing silk tortoise shell glasses, he looked elegant, with a smile on his face, and he kept nodding at everyone.
This group of people secretly screamed, this person might be the Smiling Tiger, and he might be bleeding profusely!
"Dear sages, although you are from Hubei, Hubei and Sichuan are connected by mountains and rivers, and their exchanges have been very close since ancient times. In the early Qing Dynasty, there was a matter of crossing Huguang to fill Sichuan. It can be said that we are all connected by blood. For five hundred years
We were a family before. In addition to eradicating the White Wolf banditry when I led troops to Sichuan this time, I also had an important idea, which was to close economic and trade exchanges between the two provinces. I believe everyone has heard that the Sichuan-Hankou Railway has been
Construction has started, and the Chengdu-Chongqing line will be opened to traffic soon. The next step is to build a railway to Hubei. As long as this railway artery can be unblocked, the exchanges between our two provinces will be closer, and the benefits to the people of the two provinces will be huge!"
When everyone present heard that Qiao Yu started talking about the cooperation between the two provinces, they all had questions in their hearts. Isn't this person trying to make money and food? Some well-informed people contacted Qiao Yu's actions in Sichuan and secretly thought that this person is really
Simply developing business will not work!
"Everyone, you must be familiar with our policies in Sichuan. We have always encouraged industry and commerce. Industrialization is the general trend of the times. We in China must catch up and must not fall behind. Therefore, Sichuan welcomes everyone to invest and set up factories in Sichuan. The Sichuan government guarantees this for three years
It will be tax-free within five years and half-tax within five years, and it will also provide help with technical and financial information!”