Volume 1 Wuchang Vortex Chapter 64: Your Generation is Old
"Captain, I'll give you more money! Don't go to Hankou, go directly to Liujiamiao."
The rumbling sound of cannons in the distance made Jiang Yiwu's mouth blister. After being chased in Xiaochao Street on the evening of the 9th, he was so scared that he fled by boat overnight. However, when the boat was halfway there, he heard about the Wuchang Uprising. The whole city of Wuchang was filled with the sound of cannons. He immediately stamped his feet in regret and quickly got off the boat, hired a small boat and headed back.
Just when he was worried that he would be regarded as a deserter and would not be able to live with himself after returning, and might even be ostracized, the sound of artillery coming from the direction of Liujia Temple made him shudder. At this moment, there was such a large-scale battle in the three towns, which must be between the militia and the remaining enemies. As long as he seized the opportunity to lead the militia to capture Liujia Temple, he, the commander-in-chief of the uprising army, would surely be accepted by everyone.
The captain behind him turned pale, "Is there a war going on over there?"
But he didn't dare to talk back, because the man had a bulge in his waist, and it was obvious that he was carrying a gun, so he could only bite the bullet and drive towards Liujia Temple. But when he got a little closer, he was so scared that he shouted, "Stop the boat, stop the boat!"
He saw several warships flying dragon flags parked on the river not far ahead, with sailors running around on the decks, and the thick muzzles of the guns were pressing down little by little. Jiang Yiwu was also frightened. He didn't expect that the "enemy" gunboats were still cruising on the river, but if he didn't go over, he wouldn't be able to , so he gritted his teeth, pulled out his pistol, pointed it at the captain and shouted, "Go over, go over quickly!"
There were cannons in front of him and the black muzzles of guns not far from his forehead. The captain was so scared that his face turned pale. Just as he was about to kneel down and beg for mercy, he saw the dragon flag on the opposite gunboat slowly lowered, and in its place were three Flying Tiger flags that he had never seen before.
Jiang Yiwu's eyes widened immediately. He had never heard of the Qing Dynasty flying such a flag, not to mention that the other side was a navy. Before he could figure it out, the five 120mm naval guns on the three gunboats roared first. The blazing flames rushed out from the muzzles and formed a huge cannon flower. The remaining soldiers who were desperately running to the riverside suddenly screamed.
"Great, they're our people!" Jiang Yiwu was shaking with excitement. When the captain heard that the gunboat was actually in the same group as this guy who always drew his gun, he had to muster up the courage to sail forward.
"Full fire!"
Land artillery and naval artillery of the same caliber are not on the same level, let alone the larger caliber 120mm rapid-fire naval guns. The five 120mm naval guns and six L40/75mm rapid-fire guns on the three gunboats burst out with terrible lethality. In just three minutes, they threw a full 150 shells at the remnants of Zhang Biao. Some sailors even operated rapid-fire machine guns and swept all the way at the river bank. Under the unique rhythm , the remnants who were thought to be rescued were immediately knocked to the ground.
Zhang Biao's eyes almost exploded. He never thought that Ruicheng's navy would turn against him! Although he had been defending Liujia Temple, he still knew some things about the three towns. Wuchang was now leaderless. Hankou and Hanyang took the initiative to raise the right-wing army. Now the troops attacking him were all Yang Qiu's troops. This means... the three gunboats were all Yang Qiu's! Ruicheng must have been captured by him!
Behind them were thousands of enemy troops chasing them with cannons and heavy machine guns as cover, and in front of them were three gunboats blocking them. The morale of the troops had been completely crushed. Large brigades of soldiers did not even wait for the soldiers on the right wing to arrive. As soon as they heard the shouts of killing, they raised their guns above their heads.
Seeing that his guards were getting fewer and fewer, Zhang Biao knew that he was doomed to fail. He looked up to the sky and wailed, pulling out his knife and ready to cut his neck. Li Xianglin and his guards beside him quickly grabbed his arms, and Li Xianglin even shouted, "Marshal, no!"
"Don't try to persuade me. The three towns have been lost. I have no face to see the emperor again!"
"Marshal, as long as you have the green mountains, you will never worry about lack of firewood. Besides, my wife and children are still in the Japanese concession. How can I explain to them if anything happens to you?"
When Zhang Biao heard about his family, he became weak all over. He looked at the three gunboats, threw his saber hard, and sat on the ground. As the saber fell, the guards around him, who had no intention of fighting anymore, finally breathed a sigh of relief and raised their guns to surrender.
Su Xiaohu, who was fighting in a battle for the first time, walked excitedly in the front, with a dozen soldiers protecting him from behind. He would laugh foolishly when he saw the soldiers capture a prisoner. By the time he passed the station and was approaching the river, the sight of so many prisoners on the ground almost crooked the corners of his mouth.
"Captain, we have a boat."
Before finding Zhang Biao, the soldiers pointed to the riverside and saw a young man wearing the old uniform of the Eight Regiments Army jumping off the boat with a revolver in his hand. When he saw them, he waved his arms and seemed very happy.
"Who among you knows him?"
The soldiers nearby all shook their heads. Su Xiaohu was puzzled: "Why is this stupid bird waving his arms? And he's smiling like a chicken thief?"
"In my opinion, they must admire your wisdom and bravery, and your unrivalled bravery."
"Get lost...haha."
Several familiar soldiers burst into laughter as soon as he finished speaking. Su Xiaohu scratched his head shyly. But then again, he had been at the front since the beginning. Does this count as... a great achievement?
When Su Xiaohu was thinking excitedly, Jiang Yiwu had already arrived in front of him. Since he was still holding a gun, all the soldiers pointed their guns at him. He was so scared that he shouted, "I am Jiang Yiwu from the 41st Regiment."
"Jiang Yiwu?" Su Xiaohu scratched his head , feeling as if he had heard this name somewhere before. A company commander beside him immediately nudged him and said, "Captain, didn't Lei Dazui say last night that those members of the Yangtze River Gang..."
Su Xiaohu also remembered that when Lei Meng came to the regiment to convey the order last night, he said that several of Jin Laili's captured men had confessed. In addition to Jin Laili, there were two other party members who assassinated the commander that night, and one of them was the guy in front of him!
Jiang Yiwu didn't notice that Su Xiaohu's expression had changed. He put away his gun and asked excitedly, "Which unit are you from?"
"Right Route Army...42nd Regiment." The soldier almost let it slip.
"Right Route Army?" Jiang Yiwu was stunned. How could a Right Route Army suddenly appear? But it didn't matter. He was familiar with the 42nd Battalion, so he continued: "Where is Qiu Wenbin? Is he in charge? Go find him and tell him that Jiang Yiwu wants to see him."
The tone of command made the soldiers look gloomy. Not to mention that Qiu Wenbin had violated military regulations and was locked up, even if he hadn't done that, he was just a lieutenant. There were not only regiment commanders but also battalion commanders here, so how could an outsider give orders? Seeing that the soldiers continued to hold their guns and treat him coldly, Jiang Yiwu was very dissatisfied and shouted, "I am the commander-in-chief of the uprising army, Jiang Yiwu! What's your attitude?"
"What the hell is this commander-in-chief?"
"Yes, wait until all three towns are recovered before you come to command. You must be bored from being idle."
The soldiers' mocking remarks made Jiang Yiwu's face suddenly darken. He glared at Su Xiaohu and said, "You are an officer? That's it..." "Are you Jiang Yiwu who assassinated Yang Qiu together with Jin Lai Li?" Su Xiaohu interrupted him with a glare before he could finish.
"How did you know?" Jiang Yiwu glanced at the unfamiliar Su Xiaohu, thinking that Qiu Wenbin or Jin Lai Li had told him, and said quickly: "Did you kill Yang Qiu? Great! I am Jiang Yiwu, but unfortunately that night..."
"What a pity you, grandma!"
Before he could finish his words, a rifle butt hit him hard from the side. Several soldiers pinned him to the ground, searched for his gun, and cursed him, "What are you looking at? You even dared to kill our commander! You're courting death!"
If it was the soldiers from the 42nd Battalion, this might not have happened, but this time it was a young man from the security team who had just been recruited. Since Yang Qiu's camp incorporated them into the regular army, this army composed entirely of workers' children regarded Yang Qiu as the "boss", so they would not allow the assassin to be arrogant. Jiang Yiwu's mind was also blank, and he had no idea how this could happen. A foot had already stepped on his face, and the soldiers next to him were punching and kicking him. In the blink of an eye, this "commander-in-chief" had a swollen nose and face, and his body was bruised.
“Drag him away!”
Su Xiaohu waved his hand and said, "Keep your mouth shut! Go, take this 'prisoner' to see the commander!"
The word "captured" determined the fate of the unfortunate commander-in-chief. Yang Qiu, who was in the warehouse by the Liujia Temple River, didn't know that Su Xiaohu had already captured the "commander-in-chief". He looked coldly at Zhang Biao and his Japanese advisor Teranishi Hidetake, who were tied up by the soldiers, and said, "Admiral, long time no see."
Teranishi Hidetake was just a Japanese ronin who had spent half a year in a military academy. Seeing the guns everywhere, he was already trembling with fear. Zhang Biao, on the other hand, glared at Yang Qiu and said angrily, "You are so bold, Yang Qiu, don't be so complacent! You are committing treason and causing chaos in the three towns! This is an unforgivable crime! The imperial army is heading south overnight. You should release me quickly and make meritorious contributions while serving your sentence. Perhaps I can even say a few good words for you."
Zhang Biao had been rude during his years as admiral, and was not as magnanimous as Li Yuanhong in treating his soldiers. More than a hundred soldiers had been beaten and punished by him, and his notoriety had long spread throughout the three towns. Seeing that he dared to speak wildly even while tied up, the soldiers around him all started to curse him.
"Your Excellency is in prison, but your temper is still so hot." Yang Qiu waved his hand to quiet down the room before walking to the window. He looked at the river outside and then pierced Zhang Biao with his eyes: "I know that the little emperor you are loyally protecting has sent Yin Chang as the military commander, and Feng Guozhang has helped him. He has mobilized the 4th Regiment, the 5th Regiment, the 3rd Mixed Brigade, the 11th Mixed Brigade, and the 39th Mixed Brigade. Zaitao also personally led the First Regiment Imperial Guard to guard Beijing, right?"
Zhang Biao was shocked by these words. He had only learned about this matter this morning after he sent someone to the Japanese Concession to send a telegram to contact Beijing. He did not expect Yang Qiu to reveal it so clearly, and he also knew the number of the army heading south so clearly, as if the mobilization was done by him. How could this be possible? Could it be that Yang Qiu had someone in Beijing? !
"How did you know that?" Although Zhang Biao's tone remained the same, Yue Peng and the others could hear the shock and trembling in his words. They were even more shocked than Zhang Biao. You know, Yang Qiu had never left the camp in the past few days and had not received any telegrams. How could he know so much about the military deployment of the Qing Dynasty? !
"You don't have to glare at me, sir. You don't have to ask me how I know this." Yang Qiu walked over and smiled slightly, "Two towns and three associations of the Beiyang Army, this is really a big deal, but it's a pity..."
Zhang Biao was also attracted by his words, and asked unconsciously: "What's a pity?"
"It's a pity, they are not Yinwulou's army... It's hard to say whether they can be mobilized." Yang Qiu's face suddenly turned cold: "Poor guy, I really feel sorry for him. He has tens of thousands of elite soldiers and generals, strong ships and powerful weapons, but unfortunately only a few can be mobilized. He wants to rely on such an army to attack Wuchang, where everyone is united... Humph! He is courting death!"
Being able to hold the position of the Eighth Regiment of the Hubei Army for so many years, Zhang Biao is certainly no ordinary person. Maybe he is not good at fighting, but he has fought with Rui Cheng for so many years that he has already mastered all the strategies. How could he not hear the hidden meaning of Yang Qiu? After listening to his detailed analysis of several troops, his face suddenly changed.
Although he and Yuan Shikai were not close friends, he knew how powerful that man was. How could he be willing to continue to stay in his little mountain den at this critical moment? So he would definitely use this opportunity to make trouble! If he couldn't suppress this dragon, retaking Wuchang would be just a matter of talking on paper.
Yang Qiu walked up to Teranishi Hidetake and said with a smile: "Mr. Teranishi Hidetake, you should have been in China for many years, right? I think you should understand what we are saying. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that you are a samurai of the Emperor of the Great Japanese Empire, and I dare not kill you? Right?"
Hidetake Teranishi's rat eyes had shrunk into cold stars, and a foul odor came from his crotch.
"It's a pity that you will never know one thing..." Yang Qiu slowly pulled out the pistol. Xiao Anguo's face changed when he saw this and he was about to speak but was stopped by Song Ziqing.
"You took advantage of our students studying in Japan and the enthusiastic people who were eager to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. You pretended to provide financial support, but in fact you wanted to mess us up and cripple us, so that you could swallow up Manchuria and even the whole of China! You used traitorous merchants like Sheng Xuanhuai to control cotton yarn! Control Hanyeping! You can get hundreds of thousands of tons of iron ore concentrate every year, and the tens of thousands of tons of steel produced by Hanyang Steel Plant are mostly shipped back to Japan every year! Without Hanyeping's coal and iron, your army would not have enough cannons! The navy will always be a castle in the air! Am I right? It's a very good plan, a very good peaceful evolution, but unfortunately you miscalculated one thing, that is... In my life, the thing I hate most is Japan... Bang!"
Yang Qiu did not kill Teranishi Hidetake, but just shot him in the toes, scaring him so much that he knelt down on the spot.
Song Ziqing and others sighed and nodded secretly. This analysis of Japan's infiltration into China was indeed eye-opening, and the fact that he resisted the urge to kill Teranishi Hidetake for the time being showed that he was not a reckless person. It was not that killing this Japanese was troublesome, but to completely silence him, he needed to kill Zhang Biao as well, otherwise it would be very troublesome if Zhang Biao spread the news. Killing the commander seemed to be very refreshing, but it was not good for reputation. For Yang Qiu and the Right Route Army, who were just starting out, this was not worth the loss. But this Teranishi Hidetake... looked at Yue Peng, and the two smiled at each other, and they still had to work hard.
"Admiral... let go if you can. Going overseas may be a good choice. Your generation... is already old!" Looking at Zhang Biao, whose face was as pale as the ground, Yang Qiu put away his gun and said proudly: "Notify the troops and prepare to return to the city! Let everyone see clearly that this era... belongs to us!"
