Volume 1 Wuchang Vortex Chapter 54: The Day of Rise (Part 9)
Explosions, shouts, and the roar of machine guns plunged the entire Wuchang into a frenzy and turmoil, but no one expected that the Huguang Governor's Mansion would fall into a terrible silence. Neither Ruicheng nor Zhang Meisheng expected that someone had been waiting for them here, and they did not expect that the person waiting for them was actually the great hero of the court, the loyal and brave Baturu Yang Qiu! !
Chen Delong was even more dumbfounded. Digging a hole through the backyard and leaving was just a sudden idea on his mind. How did he know?
I can't tell you that it's written in history books, can I? With Yang Qiu's sneer, the soldiers quickly put down their guns. The endless explosions and shouts of killing made people extremely nervous. Fortunately, the complex terrain here, coupled with the lack of effective command, became a loophole in the attack, giving him enough time to "talk" with Ruicheng.
"I heard that you have been making money well in recent years, but you are a little short of money recently. I wonder..." Yang Qiu glanced at the sandalwood box that Liao Keyu was holding tightly in his arms and winked at Bingwen.
Seeing Bingwen snatch the box, Ruicheng was furious and was about to yell when he was frightened back by a soldier's rifle butt. He staggered a few steps and dared not speak again. After opening the box, there was a thick stack of silver bills. Bingwen had never seen so much money in his life. After counting it excitedly, he whispered, "Sir, a total of 400,000, and some gold and silver jewelry."
"400,000?" Yang Qiu was furious: "Sir, you are the Governor of Huguang! People say you have earned at least 5 million in these years! I don't want all of it, just 3 million, and you can take the rest and go wherever you want, how do you think?"
Ruicheng's face turned pale. He was not a corrupt official. Although he had some savings, 3 million was too shocking! If he had so much money, he would have quit being the governor long ago. He was a little bit stubborn. He gritted his teeth and said nothing. Seeing this, Yang Qiu immediately glanced at Zhang Meisheng and slowly pulled out his pistol: "Tell me, tell me and I'll let you go."
The cold look frightened Zhang Meisheng so much that he trembled all over. He had given Ruicheng a lot of advice over the years, so he naturally knew what would happen if he was caught by the party members. He hurriedly said, "Sir, I'm not sure, but a few days ago, Sir Rui cashed all the autumn taxes from Huguang into checks from foreigners, and then..." After saying that, he glanced at Ruicheng's chest.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Meisheng betrayed himself like this. Before Ruicheng could scold him, the soldiers had already torn open his clothes and found his purse. When he opened it, he found several checks from the British HSBC Bank inside.
Yang Qiu finally breathed a sigh of relief after receiving a check of 2 million yuan. With , he could at least keep going for a while. As for… he glanced at the valuable gold and silver items in the box, and after thinking about it, he returned them to Liao Keyu. Then he turned his eyes and stopped at Chen Delong: "Captain Chen."
Chen Delong was already sweating with fear, and seeing him return the floating treasure to Liao Keyu, he thought that this time he would definitely save his life but not the others. Seeing that the three gunboats were parked not far away, he simply gritted his teeth and said, "Chu Yu, Chu Qian, Jiang Han three ships and the navy camp... are willing to obey your orders!"
After Bingwen and the surrendered sailors had no difficulty controlling the three ships, the direction of the Governor's Mansion was already ablaze. Looking at the fierce battle in Wuchang City, Yang Qiu knew better than anyone that it was not his victory from the beginning to now, but the victory of history. He was able to capture Ruicheng and get the three Chuyu ships because of history. He just followed the trend! But from tomorrow, history will officially enter another fork! It will be a vortex of disorder, chaos, deep and terrible! Can he reach the end?
The battle of Hankou was also coming to an end. Under the rapid and fierce attack of more than a thousand soldiers from two battalions plus the left team of the patrol battalion that defected, Hankou, the richest of the three towns, had quietly changed its owner.
Passing the gate of the patrol camp that had been half destroyed by three Krupp guns made in Jiangnan, they saw teams of prisoners with their hands raised high and faces full of fear. In stark contrast to them, the 42nd Regiment soldiers, whose blood had not yet subsided, had already started to clean up the battlefield. The two machine guns naturally became the happiest trophies. Seeing this, Yue Peng smiled, took off his military cap and patted it twice, then turned his head to look at the other side and said to himself: "Hankou is ours, but what should we do next?"
As the patrol camp was breached, the dense gunfire over Hankou began to gradually become sparse, and the results of the battle were quickly counted. More than 500 prisoners of all kinds were captured and more than 300 surrendered. The most important government offices, customs and provincial treasuries were all preserved. Three Hotchkiss machine guns and ten brand new 75mm Krupp mountain cannons were also seized, giving the 42nd Regiment finally some decent heavy firepower.
Of course, there are some things that will never appear on the statistics table again. After returning to the base, Yue Peng immediately took a sip of herbal tea and asked, "How is Hanyang going? I wonder if He Xi can't take it down."
"They took it down a long time ago. No, they didn't fight at all." Zhang Wenjing laughed, "After He Xi led his men to the Hanyang Patrol Camp, they just set up a machine gun and fired a few shots and the people surrendered. At that time, he was also surprised how it could be so simple. Later, when he went in, he saw that there were only more than 200 people left in the camp, and one machine gun was missing."
"Oh? How could this happen? Where are the others?"
"They were all called back by Li Xianglin of the 29th batch to protect Ruicheng, so He Xi got the advantage while we are left here gnawing on the bones." Zhang Wenjing laughed and said, "I'll ask the adults for more reward money later."
"Come on, this is nothing but a tough job. We don't even have a decent army. I was thinking, if we were in Wuchang..." Just as Yue Peng said this, Zhang Wenjing interrupted and said with a smile: "I don't have such great ambitions as you. The more time we can put off dealing with the troubled waters in Wuchang, the better. There's no need to fight to the death."
Yue Peng understood what he meant. Wuchang was not like Hanyang and Hankou. The latter had almost no decent armed forces, let alone the complete 42nd Battalion. Even if they sent a battalion, they would be almost certain to win. But Wuchang was different. Even if many troops were transferred away, the total number exceeded 10,000. Both the Kuomintang and the Royalists regarded it as their center. The water was too muddy!
Judging from the military strength, with the current strength of the 42nd Battalion, there may not be many bones left! Just as he was about to say a few more words, he saw Ke Shao escorting two carriages in, and he jumped up quickly: "Why did you bring the things here?"
"Don't worry, those things have been shipped back to Hanyang and handed over to Lord Xiao. These are the things that the commander asked us to get from Heshengyuan." Yue Peng was relieved to hear that it was not those things. In addition, Yang Qiu had specifically instructed Heshengyuan before coming out, so he hurriedly opened the boxes. He saw that more than a dozen boxes were full of notices to reassure the people, and the remaining two were armbands that looked like European shields. On the armbands were embroidered a grinning tiger head that looked very ferocious. The strange thing was that there were two cloud wings diagonally above the sides of the tiger head.
Zhang Wenjing had already opened one of the rolls of cloth at this moment, and the soldiers were stunned when they saw it unfold. The cloth roll turned out to be a flag. On the flag was a tiger with wings, head raised and roaring. The tiger was standing in a sea of blood with its four feet, and there were piles of bones on it. It was not only lifelike, but also gave people a sense of fierceness and bloodiness.
Just as the two were contemplating the meaning of the flying tiger and the flag, a voice came from behind them: "The tiger has wings, its ambition is to reach the sky, it roars in the sky, and its voice shakes the four fields! Haha... It seems that your flag commander has great ambitions!"
The command post was set up in the main camp of the Third Battalion. Now everything outside was under control and ordinary people could not get in. So the two of them turned their heads and looked over. After seeing who was coming, their eyes lit up at the same time: "Ziqing, why are you..."
Song Ziqing sighed, took off his hat and hooked it on his finger, then smiled bitterly, "The fighting over there is so annoying, I wanted to come over to have tea and chat with you, but I didn't expect it to be more lively over there." As he spoke, he walked to the flag, looked at it for a long time, and then said, "What a nice flag, who designed it?"
Zhang Wenjing and Yue Peng smiled at each other and said in unison: "Apart from our Lord, who else could... anticipate the enemy's moves and prepare these things so early?"
Song Ziqing was stunned by the two people's words. Just as he was about to ask for details, he heard another urgent report: "Captain, report from the dock, three gunboats are heading this way!"
Gunboat?! Not to mention Zhang Wenjing and Yue Peng, even Song Ziqing, who didn't know the details, looked depressed. Although the gunboats in Wuchang were not big, the ship guns were not the army guns. Three gunboats were enough to change a lot of things!
"Pull all the cannons over, and all battalions and teams be careful of the artillery fire on the river! Contact Hanyang and ask if the Guishan Fort has been taken, and be prepared to support us!" Yue Peng's orders were urgent and clear, which made Song Ziqing secretly admire him. When he saw that the two had rushed out, he stomped his feet and chased after them.
