This night of the estuary is destined to be an extraordinary night, most of the people in the city do not know what is happening, only feel very chaotic, even in the early morning, few families dare to go out of the house easily.

In the second half of the night, the new barracks and the follow-up team escorted the goods and Huang Mingtang and others had also rushed to Hekou County, and they had all been initially settled under the coordination of Liao Zhongyi.

This night, Huang Zhongting rested quite well, although he woke up early in the morning and only slept for four hours, he still felt refreshed.

Immediately organized a meeting of all the officers, and this time even Huang Mingtang, who was still very weak and didn't care about military affairs, came, but on the spot he explained that he was just coming to listen.

First of all, Huang Zhongyuan reported on the details of the battle. "In this battle, a total of 476 Qing troops stationed in Hekou were annihilated, none of our troops were killed, 582 people were captured, about 3,000 quintals of grain were captured in two warehouses, 1,000 taels of broken silver for military salaries, 400 old sleeve rifles, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 20 guns, 300 bullets, 2 rifled steel cannons made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and 50 shells. Other weapons are not counted, as for the 582 people who were captured, we have also carefully looked at them below, and 500 people can stay directly and be incorporated into our army. ”

Huang Zhongyuan has begun to become familiar with Huang Zhongting's routines, and it can be seen from letting the young and powerful bandits fill the army that he, the young army commander, wants to be eager to expand his strength, and the direct recruitment of prisoners is a good means to quickly increase his strength.

Huang Zhongyuan, who studied at the German Army University, is naturally familiar with weapons and equipment, and gave a detailed introduction to the two weapons of the Qing army's equipment, the carrying gun and the rifled steel cannon made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

Lifting the gun, it is a heavy bird gun in the Qing Dynasty, about 1 zhang long and weighs more than 30 catties.

Its structure is exactly the same as that of ordinary soldier shotguns, but the charge, range and lethality are far greater than those of soldier shotguns, and they are also far greater than the power of ordinary rifles. Two people must be in charge of the launch, one of whom acts as a gun mount in front of him, resting the gun on his shoulder, and the other aiming and firing.

Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau made rifled steel cannons, with a length of 2.15 meters, a caliber of 7.5 centimeters, and a maximum firing range of about 4,000 meters. Much more powerful than ordinary small steel cannons, but also very heavy and unable to be disassembled properly, it usually requires two horses to pull it.

After listening to Huang Zhongyuan's detailed report, Huang Zhongting felt that the battle to take the estuary was of great significance, not only because he had a foothold, but also captured a large number of weapons, equipment and materials so far, and many prisoners could directly fill the army.

Huang Zhongting pondered for a long time, and already had a preliminary plan in his heart, to take the estuary, learn the lessons of the failure of the last uprising, and did not intend to rush to the north to attack Kunming, first stabilize the estuary and then slowly figure it out, so he directly issued an order: "The army continued to expand, and the original first company was reorganized into the first battalion of the revolutionary insurrectionary army, with two full companies under its jurisdiction, a total of 180 people, the battalion commander Huang Zhongyuan, and the subordinate officers were responsible for the battalion commander; The original second company was reorganized into the second battalion of the Revolutionary Rebel Army, with a full company under its jurisdiction, with a total of 90 people, and Xu Guichuan served as the battalion commander; The original third company was reorganized into the third battalion of the revolutionary rebel army, with a full company under its jurisdiction, with a total of 90 people, and Liao Zhongyi served as the battalion commander; The guard company of the headquarters of the revolutionary insurrectionary army was established, with two platoons under its jurisdiction and a total of 60 people, and Li De was qualified as the company commander. The recruit battalion was handed over to Li Shaoyang to be in charge, and the personnel were not enough to be supplemented by the recruit battalion, and the specific operation was up to you, I only asked for one point, the new battalion was supplemented to each battalion, company and platoon, and the veteran soldiers must be mixed and assigned. ”

After a simple adjustment and expansion of the troops, Huang Zhongting planned to set up a general staff, and continued: "The General Staff Department of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army was established, with Lieberthal as the chief of staff, and the General Staff Department was first set up, which was responsible for the registration of military personnel, the evaluation of officers, the evaluation of battles, and the formulation of all military action plans, conscription, etc. ”

Huang Zhongting attaches great importance to the army, and tries his best to improve the system construction of the army in his hands, although the system is still relatively rough, but it can be regarded as a reluctant framework, and it will be slowly improved in the future.

After all, the scale is there, three combat battalions, a guard company is less than 500 people, and the new battalion plus the prisoners this time is only more than 800 people, and the total number of more than 1,300 people is stronger than some bandits.

Subsequently, Huang Zhongting pointed to the sketches of Yunnan Province hanging on the wall and arranged the garrison of the three battalions.

"Order, the second battalion stationed in Nanxi Town in the north to guard against the Qing army in Wenshan Prefecture, and the third battalion stationed in Longyan Shugou in the northwest to guard against the Qing army in Honghe Prefecture, and immediately sent investigators to reconnoiter in the two directions of Wenshan Prefecture and Honghe Prefecture after arriving at the station. The first battalion was stationed in the former Qing army camp in Hekou County, and was responsible for the defense and public security of Hekou County. ”

The main purpose of the two battalions sent out by Huang Zhongting was to further defend Hekou County, which was regarded as two bridgeheads to form a triangular defensive line, and the distance between the three places was only 20 miles, and mutual support would be relatively fast, as long as the enemy did not have the strength to crush him, Hekou County would not be able to break for a while.

These two places are the only way from the interior to the mouth of the river, with the border on the south side and the mountains on both sides.

Huang Zhongting knew that the Qing army would inevitably take action to take Hekou, so he had to prepare for defensive battles in advance.

Although the revolutionary rebel army once again took the estuary, as long as it did not directly hit Kunming, the attention of the Qing court would not be concentrated, and the strength of the Yunnan Governor's Office was naturally limited, coupled with the gradual turmoil of the current situation, all localities needed to strengthen their defenses, and there should not be many troops that could be deployed to encircle and suppress the estuary, and Huang Zhongting knew this very well.

After the meeting, Huang Zhongting left Li Kan of the General Staff Department, Li Desheng, commander of the guard company, and Huang Zhongyuan, commander of the first battalion, alone, and explained that Li Kan should select and transfer some knowledgeable and educated personnel to the staff department as soon as possible, and that he did not necessarily understand military affairs, after all, he planned to set up some non-military departments in the staff department, and asked the three to cooperate with each other to do a good job in propaganda and recruitment work in the city.

The most important of these was conscription, and Huang Zhongting demanded that conscription should not be compulsory, and that they should be allowed to join voluntarily.

Hekou County is so big, the population of the city is only tens of thousands, and it is still a little difficult to recruit soldiers, but fortunately, the troops are not many now, and some silver money has been seized to meet the normal distribution of military salaries, and Huang Zhongting also plans to improve the army's food, get some new military uniforms and other treatment issues, so as to attract more people to join the revolutionary rebel army.

Huang Mingtang, the former commander of the Hekou Revolutionary Rebel Army, that is, Huang Zhongting's old son, saw everything in his eyes and nodded with satisfaction, although his health was still very poor, but after this period of relatively stable days and careful care, he has recovered a lot.

He began to feel comfortable that his son would take over his place and break new ground. But I also have to sigh that my son has changed too much during this time and has grown up too fast.

Half a day later, Li Desheng, the commander of the guard company, hurriedly found Huang Zhongting, who was accompanying Wu Ruolan to wander around the back garden of the county government, and said with some surprise: "Young army commander, just now the guard company caught a foreigner at the door, who can speak our words, and now he is shouting to see the army commander and ask us to escort him to Lao Cai in Vietnam."