Volume 2: Famous all over the world Chapter 4: Blood and Fire Wusheng Pass (Part 2)
After the train arrived in Xiaogan, Yang Qiu met He Xifan who was ordered to garrison there.
He is not only a member of the Tongmenghui, but also a veteran officer in the Hubei New Army. He initially served under Li Yuanhong, and was later transferred to the Eighth Regiment as a battalion commander. In a parallel world, he led the Hubei militia to fire the first shot in the Yangxia War. Although this position has now been given to Wu Zhaolin, he may have been recognized by Li Yuanhong and appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Left Route Army on the front line, which shows that he is still capable.
He Xifan also saw the Right Route Army getting off the train. They were all young officers, with bulging bullet belts, Maxim heavy machine guns pulled by mules and horses, light machine guns on shoulders, and rifles with a slightly different appearance from the Hanyang-made ones. It was the first time he saw a small wooden-handled bomb that could be hung on the waist, and the same seven-barreled five-barreled field cannon as the Beiyang! Although there were only two more battalions, compared to the Left Route Army Second Brigade, which only had a Hanyang-made one per person, ten rounds of bullets, and eight cannons, this equipment almost made the soldiers envious and jealous. Everyone really couldn't figure out what kind of connections Yang Qiu had to get so many new equipment!
After He Xifan learned from the phone call with Wuchang that Yang Qiu had resigned and led his troops to the front, he had been thinking about how to get along with him and how to position the relationship between the left and right armies. Now that he saw his equipment, he knew that he might not be able to take back the initiative. Moreover, Yang Qiu was also his superior in terms of military rank, so he simply saluted and said, "Xifan greets Commander Yang."
"Brother Shaoyue, call me Chen Hua. You are my senior." Yang Qiu smiled and greeted the officers of the Second Brigade who came to greet him, including Jiang Tai. The latter was temporarily brought in as a staff officer because Yue Peng and others were away on the expedition. Fortunately, he also learned command when he was studying in Japan, so he was familiar with the work of a staff officer. After everyone got to know each other, Yang Qiu immediately asked, "Is everything deployed here?"
He Xifan was not a pure politician like Sun Wu. Like Wu Zhaolin, he still admired Yang Qiu and the Right Route Army. If they hadn't taken action first, the Beiyang Army might have already reached Hankou. There would have been no time for them to prepare. Just for this achievement, he could be a branch government official. Moreover, the subsequent northward advance, sweeping the four fields and completely recovering Hubei proved that this young man really wanted to fight this battle well.
The most important thing is that the right-wing army is also equipped with a large number of machine guns and new-style barreled cannons. Just for the sake of these weapons, we should not be hostile. Therefore, we admire Yang Qiu's ability to ask about the deployment as soon as he arrived. He introduced: "The third battalion has advanced to Xiaochang and Doushan and blocked the Beijing-Hankou Railway Station. The fourth battalion is still in Xiaogan for the time being."
The Wuchang Left Route Army still used the new army organization, with one assistant commanding two battalions, each with three battalions. As the earliest reorganized troops, the four battalions under his and Wu Zhaolin's command not only had party members as the backbone, but most of them were also veterans of the Hubei Army, so their combat effectiveness was still guaranteed. Moreover, from the map, his deployment was all based on the Beijing-Hankou Railway Line, and he was clearly prepared to quickly move south along the railway line after the Beiyang Army broke through the customs, so he was a good officer.
"Leave the left wing of Xiaochang to us." Yang Qiu immediately gave the order after hearing this: "Zhusheng (Jiang Tai's name), the first battalion and the third artillery battalion will advance to Huaxi to protect the safety of the left wing of Xiaochang. The second battalion and the first artillery battalion will continue to move left to Fengzigang in the northeast of Yunmeng. After arriving, all units will immediately dig trenches and deploy stakes to prevent the Beiyang cavalry from moving quickly south!"
After Jiang Tai turned around to give orders, Yang Qiu immediately turned around and said, "Brother Shaoyue, I know you are all wondering if I am here to seize power. I just want to tell you that if you can't win this battle, no matter how powerful you are, it will be nothing! So I don't want to mention these things. If you are willing to listen to my instructions, then listen. If you don't want to listen, that's fine too. Just fight the war well."
He Xifan didn't expect Yang Qiu to be so direct. He also knew that he would not give up the initiative. As long as he really came to fight, why bother to fight for power now? So he said simply, "You are the commander, so we will listen to you."
"That's good." Yang Qiu glanced at the party officers behind him who looked a little strange, and said, "I know you don't have enough machine guns here, so I will leave a machine gun company with three Maxims and four light machine guns to help you defend the right wing. As for the cannons... I really can't spare them."
He Xifan was very happy to be able to leave three heavy machine guns and four light machine guns to help, but machine guns consume a lot of bullets. Each soldier on his side only got two rows of bullets, so he could not afford to maintain machine guns. He said anxiously: "Shaoyue, thank you for helping us regardless of past grudges, but... can you leave some more bullets? We can't afford to maintain them here."
"Bullets?" Yang Qiu frowned, glanced at the soldiers with flat belts, and asked in surprise: "Doesn't Chuwangtai have enough reserves? And I have promised Governor Li that the gun factory will provide you with 10,000 rounds of bullets every day. Could it be..."
"It's not Zhang Jingliang yet!"
Xie Yuankai, the commander of the Fourth Battalion, saw that the guards behind Yang Qiu all had bulging belts, four small wooden-handled bombs on their waists, and were also equipped with pistols. He immediately said with envy: "I went back to Liujia Temple the day before yesterday to ask him for bullets, but he insisted that the reserves were insufficient and should not be abused. He only gave each person two rows of ten rounds, and also said that giving more bullets to new recruits would only result in a waste."
"Then why don't you go find Sun Wu? He's the Minister of Military Affairs, and he's in charge of logistics."
"I went, but..." Xie Yuankai glanced at He Xifan, and closed his mouth in indignation. He was a member of the Literature Society. Because Liu Fuqi died heroically and Jiang Yiwu disappeared, the members of the Literature Society, except Hu Ying and Xiong Bingkun, were basically excluded from the military government. He was already full of anger. However, the assistant commander was a member of the Tongjin Society, and the war was imminent, so it was not appropriate to have conflicts. So the dissatisfaction that came to his mouth was finally suppressed.
He Xifan also sighed in his heart. Sun Wu was no longer the leader of the Tongjinhui who had resolutely launched the uprising. In order to cling to Li Yuanhong and gain power, he turned a blind eye to Zhang Jingliang's deliberate withholding of ammunition. Thinking of this, he felt extremely upset and said, "If Chen Hua is inconvenient, forget it. I will find a way to ensure the supply of ammunition for the machine guns myself."
"Now the two armies each take half of Hanyang's daily output. This time we have already emptied the place." Yang Qiu is not out of bullets. The pointed bullets he just got are for light machine guns and the Mauser 98, which cannot use round-headed bullets. In addition, the Hanyang-made bullets cannot use pointed bullets, so it is useless to give them to them. As for the round-headed bullets, they will be reserved for heavy machine guns and his own Hanyang-made bullets. The reserves are not much. After all, even he doesn't know how long this battle will last. So when he sees the disappointed expressions on the faces of He Xifan and others, he can only say: "Shao Yue, don't worry too much. No matter what, the brothers will guarantee the ammunition for the machine gun company. When Hanyang has more output, I will let the quartermaster replenish it for you first. "
"Shaoyue, on behalf of the soldiers of the two regiments, would like to thank the commander!" He Xifan was about to say a few more words of gratitude when he saw the lieutenant desperately running towards them. Before he even walked in, he shouted, "It's bad! The Beiyang has begun to attack Wusheng Pass. Commander Tan sent an urgent telegram asking us to rush to their aid immediately."
This news immediately caused an uproar around him, and Yang Qiu's heart sank. He had always believed that Yuan Shikai would wait until he came out of retirement and officially became Prime Minister before working hard, but he didn't expect that he would take action nearly ten days in advance.
"Assistant Commander, I'll take the three standards with me."
"The Third Battalion must defend Xiaochang firmly and not move. In my opinion, it is better for the Fourth Battalion to go and provide support!"
"No, the Fourth Battalion is guarding Xiaogan. This is the last gate! In my opinion, we should immediately ask Wuchang to transfer the Fourth Brigade to the north to ensure the safety of Wusheng Pass."
"It's too late!" When the officers were discussing and no good ideas were available, Yang Qiu waved his hand to interrupt all the voices, squatted down and asked Lei Meng to fetch the map, spread it out on the spot and looked at it carefully, and immediately said: "The Fourth Association is still in the south, and it will take two days to get back to Wusheng Pass. It's too late! I think it's better to do this, Shaoyue and Zhusheng, you two cooperate to defend Xiaochang, and I will lead the guard company to support. If we take the train now, we can arrive tomorrow morning at the latest. I believe He Xi and Wu Zhaolin can still hold it tonight."
"Just take one team?" He Xifan waved his hand quickly: "Commander, don't be careless. I know Wei San's character. He would never ask for help if it wasn't a crisis. So the Beiyang army must have already sent out a large army at this moment. If only one team goes..."
"It's not one team, it's three battalions." Yang Qiu didn't notice that He Xifan changed the name again, and swept his finger to the left: "Zhu Sheng, send someone to Anlu immediately. Ke Shao and his men should have arrived there after taking over Jingshan. After finding them, immediately let them go north and meet me halfway. Send someone to Xiangyang to inform Yue Peng that after taking Xiangyang, immediately march to Suizhou to ensure that the Beiyang cannot go through Dahongshan and bypass Hanchuan!"
All the officers present saw two troops appear on the left wing when Yang Qiu waved his hand on the map. They instantly understood why he had to forcibly recruit the Liu brothers from Jingshan. Without this recruitment, how could he have assembled two troops that could be mobilized in Dahongshan on the left wing in advance? So everyone was dissatisfied with Sun Wu forcing him to resign by using this matter.
Yang Qiu didn't know that his move actually aroused the association of He Xifan and others. He looked up and glanced at everyone: "I don't know how long I can hold on this time. If the pass is breached, Wei San and I must avoid its sharp edge and adjust first, so it depends on you to block the attack of Beiyang! I hope you all remember that you must not let Beiyang rush. No matter what, you must defend Xiaochang and block the first wave!"
"Don't worry, Commander. Even if Shaoyue dies, we will definitely stop this wave!" Regardless of whether He Xifan's guarantee counted or not, Yang Qiu had no other choice. He immediately called on the guard company to get back on the train and prepare to set off. However, just as he was about to get on the train, he was blocked by Hakan.
Yang Qiu is now the hope of the German Navy. How can Hakan let him take risks? But Yang Qiu refused to give in: "Colonel Hakan, I am a soldier. Soldiers should be on the front line instead of being protected like women. If you think you can't even protect an officer, then I think this deal is unnecessary!"
Hakan really wanted to force this guy onto the warship and immediately return to Europe. Seeing his unfriendly expression, Yang Qiu could only say softly: "I will not joke with my life, nor will I take reckless risks."
Hearing what he said, Hakan had no choice but to let him go and accompany him on the train. This scene confused He Xifan and others who could not understand German. They never thought that Yang Qiu could actually mobilize foreigners.
Night fell quickly, and as the train rushed towards Wusheng Pass, the pass was already filled with shouts of killing. The pass that was so majestic during the day was now in ruins, and teams of Beiyang soldiers continued to charge under the cover of machine guns and cannons, with red dots of light from bullets flying back and forth between the two sides.
Shi Xiaolou pressed his head down and ran towards the command post, stepping on the rubble-like tower with one foot deep and one foot shallow. He could see broken limbs everywhere along the way. No one expected that the Beiyang army would be so terrible when it got angry. In just a few hours, nearly a thousand soldiers of the garrison died, and most of them were killed by artillery shells.
When he walked to a machine gun bunker built with thick sandbags and stones, a loud shout suddenly came from inside. "It's jammed! Cover me..."
Looking over, he saw the heavy machine gunner jumping and shouting. It turned out that due to his lack of experience and continuous high-speed shooting, a piece of canvas belt was torn and blocked the gun magazine. The anxious machine gunner hurriedly pulled the Maxim heavy machine gun away from the firing hole. A Madsen light machine gun for emergency protection immediately occupied the firing hole and continued to fire at the hillside.
Without paying attention to the hot receiver, several soldiers in the machine gun squad began to clean up the remaining canvas belts in a hurry.
This was a very annoying job. In addition, there were no experienced heavy machine gunners in the Hubei Army, and Yang Qiu himself had never played with this antique, so the "Machine Gun Tactics Manual" he compiled and made the machine gunners of the whole army learn it could only help soldiers learn tactics, but it was of no help at all in terms of technology. In addition, the Maxim machine gun had hundreds of parts, and it was a headache for those who had just learned to disassemble the receiver even during normal training, let alone at this critical moment, so the machine gun bunker was in a mess.
Seeing that the most important machine gun had stopped, Shi Xiaolou suddenly thought to himself that it was not good. The only reason they had been able to hold out against the Beiyang attack was because of these unfamiliar machine guns. The heavy machine guns in particular had become a powerful weapon for blockade. Two of them had been hit and destroyed by artillery fire during the day, and now the third one had stopped. Suddenly, half of the firepower on the pass was lost, and a large gap immediately appeared on the left.
The experienced Beiyang soldiers immediately noticed this side. Reminded by the whistles, hundreds of Beiyang infantrymen crawled towards this side under the bullets. Shi Xiaolou knew very well that it would be a big trouble if they crawled to a hundred meters and launched a charge. When he was thinking about whether to launch a counterattack from a high position, he saw Wu Zhaolin and his soldiers pushing two ten-barreled hand-cranked 12.7mm Gatling cannons onto the battlements.
The Gatling gun was the first heavy machine gun equipped by domestic troops. The old Beiyang army was equipped with many of them, and Zhang Zhidong also transferred dozens of them from China when preparing for the new army. The round self-dropping magazine was inserted into the top of the rapid-fire gun. The machine gunner grabbed the handle and started to rotate it. The two assistant machine gunners were responsible for controlling the angle, and the loader and feeder kept changing the magazines.
Compared with the Maxim, which is simpler to operate, this machine gun has a strong firepower, but the shooting angle depends entirely on the precise coordination of the soldiers in the machine gun squad. Since the Left Route Army lacked machine guns, in order to strengthen the firepower, they had to move this old-fashioned machine gun from Chuwangtai to equip the troops. In the end, Li Yuanhong specially invited several retired veterans to teach the soldiers how to use it.
Although the Green gun was much inferior to the Maxim gun, the two ten-barreled guns could still fire hundreds of bullets per minute, and the 12.7mm bullets were extremely powerful, and any hit would kill the target, so they temporarily filled the gap of the heavy machine gun squad. Seeing that the firepower at Wusheng Pass was still so fierce, the Beiyang army had to call off the battle after fighting for several hours.
As the last Beiyang soldier disappeared into the darkness, dense artillery shells fell again. Shi Xiaolou smiled bitterly. These crazy Beiyang soldiers really didn't give anyone a chance to breathe.
The fierce fighting on the first day finally stopped . When the soldiers stood up, rubbing their sore shoulders, they found that Wusheng Pass was almost unrecognizable from its former appearance. Blood and corpses covered the entire hillside in front of the pass.
It's only been one day, and there are only seven days left of the twenty days promised to the commander! How can we really hold on?
