It turns out that although Zhao Hengti is two years older, Cheng Qian's foundation is much deeper. To say nothing of others, the second division Lin Xiuyi, the third division Gan Xintian, and the fourth division Wang Longzhong stationed in Changsha all have a good relationship with Cheng Qian. The three are all old subordinates of Chen Zuoxin. After Chen Zuoxin's death, everyone consciously or unconsciously leaned towards Cheng Qian, who was still in power. Firstly, they had all studied in Japan together, and secondly, Cheng Qian was the chief of staff appointed by Huang Xing, so naturally he could represent the organization and Huang Xing in their hearts. In comparison, Zhao Hengti is a bit insignificant. Before the revolution, he served in the Guangxi New Army, and to say that his connections are indeed a bit pitiful.

  As a result, Cheng Qian, who was originally only invited by Tan Yankai to assist him, became a heavyweight figure in Changsha overnight. Every time Tan Yankai saw the ambitious and burning desire in Cheng Qian's eyes, he felt very uncomfortable.

  So although Tan Yankai still consulted with Cheng Qian on major and minor matters, the relationship between the two had become distant from their initial closeness.

  Zhao Hengyi's arrival gave Tan Yankai another option, and he felt that he finally had a reliable military force under his command. So he immediately allocated funds and asked Huang Xing for help to re-establish the 16th Brigade, with Zhao Hengyi still as its commander. Although it was called a brigade, in reality, from personnel to equipment, it was almost equivalent to a division. With such favoritism, this army naturally became Tan's imperial guard.

  In addition, both Cheng Qian and Zhao Hengyu have set their sights on the position of commander of the First Division. As a result, open and secret struggles have increased, and contradictions have become more pronounced, which is exactly what Tan Yankai hopes to see. However, if something really happens, he still hopes that the two can join hands to help him.

  Zhao Hengyi did not directly respond to Tan Yankai's words, but instead brought up another matter: "Governor, the troop reduction issue probably needs to be put on the agenda. At present, just in Changsha there are five divisions of troops, and other places' military forces are not included. Relying solely on Hunan Province's finances is probably unsustainable."

  Tan Yanen nodded, then turned his head to look at Cheng Qian. Cheng Qian knew which one Tan Yanen was asking about, but pretended not to understand. He calmly said to Tan Yanen: "Governor, as Commander Zhao said, Changsha is still the gathering place of the five divisions, so it doesn't matter if there's another division."

  Tan Yanqian gave Cheng Qian a glance, hastily picked up his teacup and took another sip, evading the topic: "And what about Song Yun, younger brother, how do you view this troop reduction at noon today?"

  "General, downsizing is a must, but how to downsize, how much to downsize, who to cut and who not to cut, that's for you to decide."

  After hearing Cheng Qian's words, Tan Yanxin felt a lump in his throat, but for now, he still needed to rely on Cheng to maintain the situation in Changsha. Moreover, Tan's greatest characteristic was his ability to endure, so he immediately smiled: "Hehe, Congyun is teasing me again, isn't it? Where did we discuss anything about being autocratic or making decisions alone? Now that the Qing dynasty has fallen and everything needs to be rebuilt, I still need Congyun, Yiwu, and all of you comrades to work together with me to build my Hunan province."

  Cheng Qian suppressed his dissatisfaction and said, "The governor's words are reasonable. Just now, I was indeed too impulsive. However, in my opinion, what the governor should do at present is not to reduce the army, but to first control Changsha alone. For now, let's not talk about other things, and it would be better to withdraw troops outside of one division from Changsha and then take the opportunity to disband them."

  Tan's wife nodded repeatedly: "What Congyun said is really to the point, but how can we adjust it now? You all know that Tan's position as a marshal is really suffocating! I dare not offend any of these military officers, hehe"

  The conversation continued, but Zhao Hengyu did not interrupt again. He figured it out, Cheng Qian and Tan Yanqing were already at odds with each other in both appearance and heart. That made things easier, the first division commander's position was definitely his for the taking.

  At first, when I returned from Nanjing, I was troubled by the lack of funds and brought back 16 troops of Hunan officers and soldiers. At that time, if I had gritted my teeth and brought them all together, it would not have been a problem to form a separate division now. Now it seems that those three hundred Guangxi student soldiers were a big gift for Wang Zhenyu, this sworn brother.

  Zhao Heng suddenly remembered something, wasn't the commander of the 9th Regiment that made Tan Yanqing so anxious his own righteous and eager younger sworn brother Wang Zhenyu?

  He suddenly felt a strange sense of relief in his heart, the things in Nanjing he still remembered vividly to this day, never seen anyone as eager to do good deeds as Wang Zhenyu, otherwise he wouldn't have sworn brotherhood with him.

  Wang Zhenyu can be considered his own man now. Thinking of himself, Zhao Hengyi realized that what he lacked in the Xiang Army was connections. This was also a result of serving in Guangxi for many years. Didn't this sworn brother's arrival give him an opportunity to establish connections?

  Just then, from the other side of the room came Cheng Qian's voice: "As far as I know, the 9th Brigade was formed relatively late and has only recently been established. At the beginning of the year when I went to deliver orders from the Ministry of War, there were only about a thousand people in that department, not even nine hundred. Now it's just three or four thousand people. The brigade commander Wang Zhenyu is the nephew of Wang Longzhong. This Wang Zhenyu is still young and although he was lucky enough to make some achievements at Hankou Yudai Gate, his experience is limited. My suggestion is that the governor can transfer him to another position and promote him to major general. As for the brigade commander position, my idea is to choose a better person. If this army were in your hands, it would be extremely beneficial for you, Governor."

  Actually, Cheng Qian was thinking of his own interests. Although he and Wang Longzhong belonged to the same Tongmenghui faction and had a good private relationship, the current situation was that Wang Longzhong had lost effective control over his troops. The two brigades of the 4th Division in Changsha at the time, one had defected to Cheng Qian's side, and the other had defected to Tan Yankai's side; to put it bluntly, Wang Longzhong had become a mere figurehead. This person, no matter how good their relationship was, once they lost their exploitable value, there was no need to have any scruples.

  For the ninth brigade that suddenly emerged, Cheng Qian's plan was to replace the brigade commander and take control of this force. In this way, when the army is downsized in the future, the fourth division will be eliminated first, and the troops under the name of the fourth division can be directly incorporated into their own first division. Of course, all these plans are based on the premise that they can become the commander of the first division. If not, everything is off the table.

  Cheng Qian can calculate, how could Tan Popo not know? Tan Yan's brain turned around immediately, and everyone thought he was a bit silly, but in fact, the most clear-headed one is him.

  Tan Yanqian pretended to be unclear and asked: "Does the eulogy have a suitable candidate?"

  Cheng Qianzhen thought that Tan Yankai was hooked, and hastily said: "This is naturally available, Zhang Xiaozhun is a good candidate, although he is somewhat talented, but temporarily appointed, these are not counted."

  Tan Yanqian's brain turned around, and it was also a person who could accept each other. However, he was very cunning and did not express his attitude immediately, but instead asked Zhao Hengyu for his opinion again.

  Zhao Heng was shocked in his heart, Cheng Qian's move was clearly taking the opportunity to expand his power. With his understanding of Tan Yanxin, although Tan Yanxin understood Cheng Qian's plan, he would inevitably take a wait-and-see attitude and choose to sit back and watch the two tigers fight each other, which made the situation even more unfavorable.

  He naturally made a few perfunctory remarks, but had already made up his mind to find an opportunity to secretly meet with this sworn brother of his and give him a heads-up. After all, this was one of his own people, and for someone like himself whose foundation was also unstable at the moment, having more friends and more paths to take was essential; he couldn't let this sworn younger brother of his suffer this loss.

  They roughly had a way, and Tan Yanqing was no longer in a hurry. He warmly invited Cheng and Zhao to have dinner with him, and the two of them reluctantly accepted after declining several times.

  On March 29, 1912, at 10:00 am, the heroic troops of the Xinhai Revolution, the meritorious forces of the Hankou Counterattack War, and the brave sons of Hunan, the Ninth Brigade of the Hubei Army, entered Changsha under the command of Tan Yankai, the military governor of Hunan Province, and held an unprecedented grand ceremony.

  This is an honor, to know that when the first batch of troops returned to Changsha, no one came to welcome them, let alone hold a welcoming ceremony. Of course, there was a reason for this, at that time Wang Longzhong was full of murderous intent and came back in a hurry, how could Tan Yankai go to welcome him, it would be good if he could deal with the past without any trouble.

  This time's entry ceremony caused a sensation in the provincial capital, with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in Changsha.

  This has a historical allusion. In 1895, Liu Kunyi led the Xiang Army of 60,000 to Liaodong and fought against the Japanese invaders, but after several months of bloody battles, they were defeated. The loss was not only about losing face, but also forced the famous Qing diplomat Li Hongzhang to sign the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki, which would bring disaster to future generations. When the news spread back to Hunan, the people of Xiang, who had been proud and arrogant since Zeng Guofan's revival of the Qing dynasty, were shocked and dismayed. Everywhere, people could be seen hanging their heads in shame, beating their chests and crying out loud, all wailing: "Fighting against Japan was a mistake made by us Hunanese."

  In a China that was then in a state of stagnation, the people of Hunan were indeed an anomaly. Even Liang Qichao wrote that Hunan is to China what Sammo is to Japan; if China were to perish, it would not be until the people of Hunan had perished.

  Perhaps it was this inexplicable pride that made the people of Hunan in that era take on the world as their own responsibility, and the country could not be without Hunan. It's absolutely not boasting. In China's thousands of years of history, Hunan had always been quietly existing as a part of Hubei and Jiangxi. However, at the critical moment of chaos at the end of the Qing dynasty, the people of Hunan suddenly burst forth and became the focus of the world. All we can do is sigh that "the landscape nurtures the people".

  Wang Zhenyu seemed to have returned to the summer of 2006 in Hunan, and the entire city of Changsha was just as crowded. Everywhere was filled with the energetic spirit of the people of Xiang, all striving to move forward, hoping to catch a glimpse of the proud appearance of the heroic Tiger Troop of the Xiang Army. Even the excited children were imitating them, walking back and forth in military style, and the entire city of Changsha was boiling over with excitement.