Volume 2: Famous all over the world Chapter 7 Fresh Blood
The pen has two ends.
While blood and flesh were raging in front of Wusheng Pass, the Chinese land was also experiencing the beginnings of turmoil.
Hunan is liberated! Jiujiang is liberated! Shaanxi is in battle!
Thirteen days ago, a gunshot woke up the whole of China. People from all walks of life took the stage, and the hot wind began to spread around with Wuchang as the center. The famous Wangsheng Street was like an engine with enough fuel. One front page, commentary, and shouting after another set off countless waves. Countless people with lofty ideals who ran around and shouted were recorded in words. After reading the reports and comments, the passionate young people dropped their books and rushed to the battlefield, just to overthrow the corrupt dynasty that had been oppressing their heads for more than two hundred years.
In this frenzy, Huang Keqiang, also with an unquenchable heartbeat, rushed to Shanghai from Hong Kong with his newlywed wife Xu Hanzong. When he saw Song Jiaoren and Chen Qimei coming to greet him, he kept asking, "How is it going? How is Hubei doing?"
Song Jiaoren got to the point without delay: "Sun Wu and others have basically controlled the situation, but the Beiyang suddenly began to attack Wushengguan from the day before yesterday. News came from Henan that the Qing court mobilized 30,000 elite Beiyang troops from two regiments and three associations. Yesterday, Yuan Shikai also went to Zaifeng to organize 25 battalions to patrol Hubei and move south. He also transferred part of the Beiyang Third Regiment to Shandong. It seems that he is determined to strangle Hubei! Strangle the revolution! There is not much news from there yet, but I think the situation must be very difficult. However, Changsha, Jiujiang and Shaanxi have received good news. National linkage is inevitable."
"Changsha and Shaanxi alone are not enough!" Huang Xing was the most anxious. He was disheartened by the loss of the elite members of the Tongmenghui in Huanghuagang. The last time he came to Shanghai, he thought Sichuan could make some achievements. However, Zhao Erfeng had been fighting for so long and still had a firm grasp of the overall situation. So after waiting for a few days and seeing no movement, he had to return to Hong Kong temporarily. Unexpectedly, he heard the news of the success of the Wuchang uprising as soon as he returned. He was so excited that he couldn't sleep well for several days and nights. He contacted Hu Hanmin in Guangzhou and asked him to start the uprising as soon as possible. He rushed here with his wife Xu Hanzong overnight. So when he heard that the situation over there was not good, he stamped his feet and said, "We must instigate Lianghuai as soon as possible. Yingshi, you must also start it in Shanghai as soon as possible. Sun Wu and others are under too much pressure. We must start an uprising downstream as soon as possible to relieve the pressure over there."
"Sun Wu is Sun Wu, what does he have to do with Shanghai? Besides, that group of people now often send telegrams to the whole country as the central government, obviously trying to blackmail the whole country." Chen Qimei secretly complained in his heart. He was not very satisfied with Huang Keqiang's meddling in other people's affairs as soon as he arrived. It seemed as if he was the one who truly served the country and the people, and he became a whining villain.
"By the way, have you found a boat? I want to go to Wuchang as soon as possible."
"The navy and the river defense camp are very strict. Now only foreign river boats can pass. I heard that Zhang Zhujun is discussing with the British Jardine Matheson Company to charter a river boat to take the Red Cross rescue team to Wuchang."
Zhang Zhujun was Xu Hanzong's best friend. When he heard that she was about to leave, he immediately said goodbye to Song Jiaoren and others and went to discuss the trip to Wuchang with his best friend. Seeing that everyone was busy preparing to go to Wuchang, Song Jiaoren pulled Chen Qimei and Huang Keqiang to a coffee shop, found an empty corner and asked, "Keqiang, how are you going to deal with Yang Qiu?"
Huang Keqiang then remembered that Yang Qiu was the one who announced the recovery of Yangxia before Wuchang, and he was already a well-known figure in the country. However, thinking of his past, he felt a little uneasy, so he asked, "Did Dunchu have any news about him?"
"It was sent to me by Ju Zheng." Song Jiaoren roughly recounted what had happened in Hubei in the past few days. When he talked about the death and injury of Liu Ying brothers and Sun Wu's excuse to force Yang Qiu to resign from the post of Yangxia Branch Office Director and Deputy Minister of Military Affairs, his face became solemn. He knew Liu Ying brothers when he was in Japan. They were rare military talents. Unexpectedly, they were wiped out by Yang Qiu when he took the opportunity to advance north to recover the entire Hubei territory. It can be seen that Hubei is not as simple as imagined.
Chen Qimei fanned the flames and said, "This Yang Qiu is too ambitious! He sent troops northwards to take over most of Hubei and took over the restorative Hubei. Now, he is not only obeying his orders but also colluding with constitutionalists like Hu Ruilin and Tang Hualong to hand over the civil rights in various places to them. In my opinion, this red man is just a dog raised by the constitutionalists!"
Song Jiaoren waved his hand and said, "You can't say that. After all, he is the commander. He was the first to capture Liujia Temple and Wusheng Pass. Now he has personally gone to Wuchang to command the army. His blood and sweat can be considered as hard work and great achievements."
"No matter what he is thinking, Hubei is in such a mess now! Every time the whole country receives electricity, it is the central government that issues the bill. It seems that we have become marginal figures. Li Keqiang, you must find a way to seize power when you go there. No matter whether it is Yang Qiu or Li Yuanhong, they are not our own people. Relying on them... is always unsafe."
Huang Keqiang nodded and said to Chen Qimei: "Yingshi is right. No matter what, we must take control of the matter when we return."
Song Jiaoren also agreed, took out a piece of letter paper and said: "Keqiang, let's write a letter to Yuan Shikai together. It's not a good idea to continue fighting like this. After all, he is a Han Chinese, and the Qing court almost killed him before. I think there is still hope of persuading him."
Seeing the two men begin to draft a telegram to persuade Yuan Shikai to turn against the regime, Chen Qimei sneered in his heart. If Yuan Shikai came to his side, who could control him? So he didn't want to get involved and simply left first on the pretext of having something to do.
…
While the two big men were about to set off for Hubei, Yang Qiu was leaning against the stone wall watching the third sunset at Wusheng Pass. Compared with the previous two days, the Beiyang force had obviously weakened a lot today in terms of attack intensity and investment. For three consecutive days, a total of nearly two thousand corpses were left in front of the pass. Any troop would have to make adjustments, and the soldiers on his side had gradually matured, without the panic they had when they first went to the battlefield, so today was the first time that a normal casualty ratio between defense and offense was achieved.
After a day of fighting, the soldiers had no time to rest. They needed to clear the positions before tomorrow morning. As for cleaning up the city gates and transporting corpses and supplies, they were all handed over to the hired soldiers. According to Zhang Wenjing's statistics, the total number of soldiers recruited by the Right Route Army alone exceeded 20,000, with more than 100 large and small ships. It was their efforts that made the logistics run.
Soldiers have their own ways of relieving pressure. For example, the Commission M1888, known as the Mauser 88, dropped by the Beiyang Army would always be greeted with laughter and scrambles. The swords were also very popular. Lei Dagundaorou had one in his hand. No one knew who he had snatched it from, but he attracted countless jealous eyes.
Yang Qiu would not disturb this kind of relaxation. In fact, he was happy to see this kind of scene. It not only reminded him of his life in the army in the future, but also subtly influenced Wu Zhaolin in this way. If they could leave alive, these veterans would become priceless treasures. So after arriving, he immediately ordered the same supply of military supplies.
Shi Xiaolou sat on a big rock and carefully cleaned the gun. This was the Mauser 98 that Yang Qiu brought. Yang Qiu walked over and asked, "How do you like this gun?"
"Good gun! Better than Beiyang's Mauser 88 and Hanyang, with high accuracy and great power, but..." After saluting, Shi Xiaolou rubbed his shoulders: "The recoil is too strong, it's not suitable for us." He was right. The recoil of the Mauser 98 was too great for Chinese soldiers, so after Yang Qiu got this batch of guns, he temporarily only equipped three battalions and the guard company.
"What have you learned after fighting for a few days?" Yang Qiu sat down next to him. Shi Xiaolou loaded his gun and said, "The artillery is incomparable. The infantry is very strong but not to the point where we can't win. The officers are quite different. The grassroots officers are very good. Many times when they were clearly unable to raise their heads in the battle, they were the ones who organized the troops to attack."
"anything else?"
"besides?"
Seeing him shaking his head, Yang Qiu immediately picked up a branch from the ground and wrote: "In the past three days, they launched seven assaults, and they were very standard from the first time. They spread out their formation at 500 meters, then spread out again at 400 meters, and immediately lie down or find cover after 300 meters. When they enter about 150 meters, they start to fight back, and then look for opportunities to charge. All the heavy machine guns are pressed in the front, and the infantry must stop when charging to avoid accidental injuries. Exactly the same, seven times exactly the same! Do you know what this means?"
Shi Xiaolou didn't expect Yang Qiu to observe so carefully. After thinking about it, he said, "It shows that they train hard and cooperate well. They are not much worse than the Japanese Army, and..."
"And it's too dogmatic! Too rigid!" Seeing that Shi Xiaolou didn't get to the point, Yang Qiu interrupted and said, "Do you know what the biggest problem between us and Beiyang is right now? It's ideology! Tactical ideology! Our biggest mistake was to imitate an army that sacrificed 100,000 of the country's elite young talents to barely defeat second-rate Russia! We need to learn from Japan's spirit, but we need to be more open-minded."
Shi Xiaolou frowned and savored these words carefully. Yang Qiu did not interrupt him because there were some things that he needed to understand for himself. He stood up and prepared to ask when the ammunition team would arrive, when he saw Lei Meng coming over with Qiu Wenbin, who was kicked back to Wuchang by him, followed by more than a hundred young people dressed as students.
Seeing Yang Qiu, Qiu Wenbin looked a little embarrassed. He gritted his teeth and immediately took out the letter Zhang Wenjing gave him: "Director Zhang has written down the situation. He was afraid that the news would be leaked by telegram, so he asked me to come overnight to report to the commander."
The letter was written in great detail. Zhang Wenjing elaborated on the situation in Wuchang, and also talked about the trick of sending new soldiers outside, and also talked about Qiu Wenbin's initiative to report the news. After reading it, Yang Qiu smiled coldly in his heart, stood quietly for a while, and then put the letter into his pocket, as if nothing had happened, and glanced at Qiu Wenbin who was still waiting: "Join the guard company for the time being."
"Yes, Commander!" Unexpectedly, he was assigned to the guard company as soon as he came back. Qiu Wenbin even forgot about the trouble in Hanyang. He pointed at the students behind him and said, "Commander, they said they came from Nanjing. They met us on the road and insisted on joining our right-wing army."
The young people had already seen Yang Qiu. No one expected that this commander who sent a telegram to the whole country earlier than Wuchang and made a name for the national defense army was so young. Moreover, the officers around him were not very old, and it was obvious that he attached great importance to the training of young officers. So they wanted to surround him immediately. Now that Qiu Wenbin introduced them, they could not help but squeeze over. One of the young people with a camera on his back rushed to the front: "Commander Yang, I am Dai Tianchou, a reporter from Shanghai Tianduo Newspaper. Can I write an interview with you?"
"Dai Tianchou?"
"Yes! I just came from Shanghai. These are friends I met on the way. They are all students of Nanjing Army Academy. We heard that you personally led the troops to fight to the death at Wusheng Pass, so we changed boats from Chenjiaji and came here. This is their captain. Commander Yang, please let us join!" Dai Tianchou excitedly pointed at the students behind him, and three young men immediately came out: "My name is Wang Zhuo, Chen Meng, and Chen Zutao!"
Dai Tianchou, Chen Zuxi... Yang Qiu had an urge to laugh. There were more than a hundred students from the Nanjing Army Academy. He was unwilling to let these young people go just for this reason. But he did not agree immediately. He tried to keep a kind tone and said slowly: "War is very cruel, not what you think. Look around you. The longest time the soldiers have been stationed here has been almost three months, and the shortest has been two days. We fought with the Henan Patrol Camp and the Beiyang. Shells fell on our heads every day, and comrades died every moment. Look at these stones, bloodstains, and perhaps there are broken limbs under the stones!... Are you sure you are ready?... We are not an old army, but a young, strict, and hardworking army that will one day support the entire country's national defense army!"
The slow pace of speech at first and the terrifying battlefield scenes around them gradually calmed down these young people, but later on, their emotions were aroused again. Wang Zhuo, who was tall, thin-faced, but with delicate eyebrows, was the first to stand up and said, "We are students of the Army Normal School in Nanjing. We are ready."
"Wenbin, tell them about the military regulations of our national defense army, and then take a squad to protect them and go to the front position to have a look." Yang Qiu said, and then he glanced at them and said, "I will arrange for you to live with the veterans tonight. They will tell you about the military regulations, war and death in detail! Tomorrow morning, you can tell me your choice. If you are still willing to stay then, then! You will be a member of our national defense army."
Yang Qiu turned and walked into the commander's office. The smile on the corner of his mouth was caught by He Xi and Shi Xiaolou. The two were very envious of these young people who were eager to try. The former even began to consider whether to dig a few of these little guys over to enrich the next group after they enter the front line.
Only Wu Zhaolin sighed in his heart, holding the canned beef distributed by the Left Route Army, which was said to be bought from the Shanghai people, and looking at these future army officers who were mobilized by a few words, he felt bitter and uncomfortable. Two days of getting along with him also made him understand Yang Qiu a little bit. He was very straightforward, very good to soldiers and officers, his military talent was better than his own, and he often spoke with a charm that made people fall into it unconsciously.
Unfortunately, there was a former mentor between him and Yang Qiu! So after taking a look at the can of beef in his hand, he sighed silently.
