In the constant sound of artillery, Gong Ren led the death squad on the front line to maintain law and order and arrest the 'traitors'. They were dressed in neat costumes and lined up in neat lines, shuttling between various war zones and trenches, which was particularly eye-catching.

There was a temporary peaceful blue sky and white clouds in the sky, and the air seemed to be particularly fresh, blowing warmly on the face, and not feeling cold, and from time to time one or two sparrows boldly flew over the muzzle of the black "hole" and "hole". In the trenches, some of the civilian soldiers were chatting with guns, some were watching the movement of the enemy's positions, and some were writing letters to their relatives. Ambulance personnel dressed in white bandage the lightly wounded and provide temporary treatment to the seriously wounded. The convoy consisted entirely of nearby peasants and citizens, who brought boxes of ammunition and ammunition, flatbread, and rice into the position, and carried the wounded away one by one.

The whole position was shrouded in the tense and dull atmosphere that preceded the 'fierce' battle.

Suddenly, a stretcher team member came over and whispered to Gong Ren that there were two suspicious people in front of him, who were asking everywhere about the situation of the military and political affairs, and they might be the enemy's 'spies'. When Gong Ren heard the news, he immediately ordered several daredevils to go and arrest him.

After a while, the daredevils caught the two people in front of Gong Ren. Gong Ren was stunned when he saw one of them, and then he was happy, although the two people were wearing light blue robes and black 'colored' top hats, but Gong Ren recognized them at a glance, and one of them was Liu Squint.

Gongren took a step forward, Xi Di glanced at Liu Slanted at his dusty face, and said, "Isn't this Liu Gaoshen from the Guangzhou Supervision Bureau!" Don't enjoy the happiness in the city of Guangzhou, and come to this place, isn't this Klang going to drill into the pit - looking for death ()? ”

Xipin squeezed up from behind, and saw that the 'traitor' was the past father-killing enemy Liu squinted, and it was really an enemy who saw each other, and his eyes were extremely red. She pounced angrily, grabbed Liu Slanyan's neck and shook it, and said, "Liu Squint, Liu Squint, you also have today, my father's revenge can be avenged today." Captain, let me kill this 'traitor' with my own hands, right? ”

Tang Qingying also squinted at Liu sarcastically: "There is a road in heaven that you don't go, and there is no 'door' in hell, you come in, Sister Xipin, you use my knife to cut him one by one." As he spoke, he 'pulled' out his bright scimitar, rubbed it on his sleeve, and handed it to Xipin.

Frightened, the guy who came with Liu Squinted was so frightened that his 'legs' were weak, and he arched his hands and said to the daredevils: "Heroes, heroes, we are not 'spies', I am Zhang Bolie of Beijing's 'fighting for the people's representative of the railway', and we have an important mission here?" ”

Gong Ren heard him say that he had an important task, and said mockingly to Zhang Bolie: "Since you are a representative of the people of the railway, you are blindly mixing with the dogs, and now it is good, and you will also get your life into it." What an important task do you have? Isn't it spying on the intelligence of the revolutionary army? Tang Qingying said boredly: "Captain, don't talk to them, just pull them out and slaughter them together." Saying that, he and a few daredevils pulled and pulled the two, and they were about to kill them.

Liu squinted his head just now, he didn't expect that the road was narrow, and he could meet these old enemies here, if he didn't speak again, I was afraid that his 'life' was already in danger, so he had to pretend to be calm, and said to Gong Ren without humility or arrogance: "We are the liaison officers sent by Yuan Gongbao." The imperial court had already used Yuan Gongbao, but Yuan Gongbao was unwilling to fight the revolutionary army and had the intention of uniting with the revolutionary army. I don't know what the revolutionary army thinks, so I sent the two of us to contact us. ”

When Gong Ren heard that the matter was important, he hurriedly stopped the execution of the two people. He squinted at Liu and said, "Since you are Yuan Shikai's liaison officer, what letters and documents do you have?" Liu squinted his eyes and said with a mysterious look: "The heavenly machine must not be revealed, and everything will be said after meeting Li Dudu." ”

Gong Ren thought to himself, since this is the case, escort him to Commander-in-Chief Huang first, so he said to Tang Qingying: "Let's escort them to Commander Huang first, and Commander Huang will naturally deal with them?" ”

As soon as Xipin heard that he was going to let Liu Squint go, he said to Gong Ren anxiously: "My revenge hasn't been avenged yet, you must not let go of Liu Squint!" Gong Ren comforted Xipin and said, "Don't panic first, stay for a while, and when you finish asking for a confession, it's not too late to kill him again." ”

Gong Ren led several daredevils to escort these two people to the headquarters. Gong Ren first reported the situation to Huang Xing, Huang Xing felt that the incident happened suddenly, if Yuan Shikai surrendered to the revolutionary army or fought passively, the situation would immediately become extremely favorable for the revolutionary army, so he hurriedly summoned Liu Squint and Zhang Bolie.

Gongren knew that Huang Xing was 'quite interested' in these two people, and he didn't dare to be too rude to them, so he led the two of them into the 'door' and introduced: "These two are Liu Yanei and Zhang Bolie, this is our commander-in-chief, Mr. Huang Xing. The three of them exchanged pleasantries, and Huang Xing asked the orderlies to move their seats and serve tea.

After the two of them sat down, Huang Xing asked politely: "It's wartime, everything is simple, forgive me for not taking care of it." May I ask you two, is there any news from Yuan Gongbao? ”

Liu squinted his eyes and took a sip of tea, pursed his lips, introduced Yuan Shikai's situation, and said: "Yuan Gongbao put forward six conditions, and the court agreed to them, and immediately issued an order, one is to issue an edict for the crime, the second is to implement the constitution, the third is to pardon the party ban, and the fourth is that the royal family does not care about politics. ”

Huang Xing asked again: "I don't know what Lord Yuan Gongbao thinks about the Wuchang War?" ”

Liu squinted his eyes and said, "This is exactly what we are here for. Lord Yuan Gongbao didn't want to see the same Han people killing each other, so he came to see the movements of the revolutionary army. If there is any intention of acceptance, Yuan Gongbao should prepare early. ”

When Huang Xing heard this, he slapped his big 'legs' with joy and said, "Okay! According to Yuan Gong's talent, he is really much higher than Huang Xing and others. If Yuan Gong can establish the merits of Napoleon and Washington with the qualifications of Napoleon and Washington, smash the Yellow Dragon and eliminate the Qing Dynasty, not only the people of Hunan and Hubei will support Yuan Gong as Napoleon, but Washington, and there will be no one in the northern and southern provinces of China who will not obey his orders. ”

The more the three of them talked, the more they talked, the more excited they became, Huang Xing set up wine to entertain the two, and after the wine and food were full, Huang Xing asked Gongren to protect the two to the military and political fǔ, and met Li Yuanhong to talk again.

Before leaving, Gong Ren quietly said to Huang Xing: "Yuan Shikai betrayed the law, suppressed the Boxers, double-faced, and reversed, I know too well. Commander Huang, we should be careful to take precautions. Huang Xing smiled, and then said to Gong Ren seriously: "If Yuan Shikai personally leads the troops to fight us, we are not his opponents. If he can fight anyway or passively, God will help our Hubei military and civilians. It's all about the big picture! ”

Gong Ren "protected" the two to the military and political fǔ. Gong Ren first briefly introduced the situation to Li Yuanhong, who knew that his rights were unstable, and did not dare to talk to Yuan Shikai's negotiators 'privately', so he had to greet people in several ministries first.

Sun Wu said: "Now that Hankou has been lost, the military situation is extremely unfavorable to us, if Yuan Shikai really has the idea of going anyway, why don't we take this opportunity to talk about it?" Zhang Zhenwu objected and said: "I don't think Yuan Shikai is a good thing, now that Hankou has just been lost, Hanyang is about to start a big war again, Yuan Shikai's move, isn't it 'messing' our army's heart!" I don't think it's better to kill the envoy to strengthen my determination to defend Hanyang. ”

Li Yuanhong thought about it and decided to adopt Sun Wu's opinion. He wanted to talk to Yuan Shikai's representative first, 'touch' the bottom, so that he could know in his heart, and then he could also 'trade' with Yuan Shikai 'privately', so he said to everyone: "How about I talk to their representative first?" ”

Zhang Zhenwu thought to himself: If you talk to them yourself, we won't know if you sell us! He hurriedly objected, saying: "There is no need to hide and hide such a major matter of peace talks, and we need to discuss it together." Sun Wu also said: "Zhenwu is right, in the council room, it is safer for the governor of Li Du and relevant personnel to come forward. ”

As soon as the two obstructed, Li Yuanhong's intention to 'privately' talk with them fell through.

So in the council chamber of the Governor's Mansion, Li Yuanhong publicly summoned Liu Slanyan and Zhang Bolie. According to the meeting procedures, Li Yuanhong and all the ministers attended, and after the guests and hosts the ceremony, they took their seats at the oval conference table. Liu squinted, Zhang Bolie and the others originally thought that when they arrived at the military and political affairs, they would just have a 'private' and 'handed' talk with Li Yuanhong, but they didn't expect to hold a public meeting with the ministers in the council hall, so the two of them looked extremely embarrassed.

Li Yuanhong presided over the meeting, and he first stood up and said: "First of all, on behalf of the Wuchang military and political government, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the negotiators sent by Yuan Gongbao, everyone is welcome!" There was a sparse round of applause at the conference table. Li Yuanhong said: "Now I will invite the representative of the Northern Army to speak!" ”

The ministers of the military and political fǔ all looked at Liu Slanting and Zhang Bolie. Liu squinted his eyes and pushed the ball to Zhang Bolie and said, "Or Mr. Zhang said?" Zhang Bolie pushed the ball to Liu Slanyan again and said, "Or Mr. Liu said?" The two of them pushed over and pushed over, and finally Zhang Bolie had to come forward to speak. He stammered: "Now that the Yangxia War is going on 'fiercely', my commander of the Beiyang Army, Yuan Gongbao, is really unwilling to solve political problems by force, and the solution of political problems must be determined according to China's special national conditions, and cannot be generalized. And what about the opinion of Lord Yuan Gongbao? The first step can only be to achieve a constitutional monarchy, and if your government is in favor of a constitutional monarchy, the following things are easy to say. ”

Liu squinted his eyes and took over the topic and said: "We are just pawns who work with the battalion, and now we are under the order of Lord Yuan Gongbao to contact the Governor of Li Du to make peace. Yuan Gongbao said that if everyone is in favor of a constitutional monarchy, the two sides can stop the war so that lives will not be ruined. ”

After the two of them finished expressing their opinions, Tang Hualong expressed his opinion and said: "After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionary army had a purpose, that is, the League's 'expulsion of the Tartars, restoration of China, establishment of the Republic of China, and equal land rights', this constitutional monarchy is inconsistent with the purpose of the League, not to mention the military and political fǔ, I am afraid that the soldiers and people of Wuchang will not be able to agree to the constitutional monarchy." This is a matter of principle and is not negotiable at all. Hu Ruilin and others also talked about some republican truths.

Zhang Zhenwu suddenly scolded and shouted loudly: "You can't compromise with Yuan Shikai like Zhu Wen, what kind of thing is he!" Assassinated our revolutionary Wu Luzhen, and he hasn't settled accounts with him yet! Why did he send a representative here to sell his mouth again, we must not be fooled by him! ”

I don't know who 'revealed' the news, and told some ordinary people in Wuchang, and some citizens stood at the 'gate' of the Governor's Mansion to demonstrate, and bursts of shouts continued to reach the meeting hall: "Down with Yuan Shikai!" "I want to avenge Wu Luzhen!" "Eliminate the Qing government and support the revolutionary army!"

Wu Luzhen was originally an old-timer of the Hubei Revolutionary Party. After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, Wu Luzhen responded positively in Shijiazhuang, contacting Zhang Shaozeng, the commander of the 20 towns stationed in Luanzhou, and the Shanxi People's Army to form the "Yanjin Alliance", and Wu Luzhen was promoted to the governor of the capital.

The uprising was scheduled for the early morning of November 7 when the Jin army and the six towns met in Shijiazhuang, and then attacked the north and south with the twenty towns to take the Beijing division. Unfortunately, at 1 a.m. on November 7, Wu Luzhen was assassinated by a hitman sent by Yuan Shikai at Shijiazhuang Station, and the uprising was declared a failure.

The revolutionary party of the whole country hated Yuan Shikai to the core, and when they heard that Yuan Shikai had sent representatives to Hubei Military and Political Fǔ, the nearby revolutionaries gathered around the Military and Political Fǔ and denounced Yuan Shikai in unison.

The situation in the military and political council hall was almost one-sided, and no one was facing Yuan Shikai. Everyone finished speaking, and finally it was Li Yuanhong's turn to make a statement. He had a gentle attitude, squinted at Liu, and Zhang Bolie said politely: "We hope that Yuan Gongbao will lead the army and return to the north to recover the capital and Hebei in one fell swoop." In that case, with the prestige of Xiangcheng, it will be completed in the future, and the president will be elected, and who will be elected if you don't choose the city! I hope you both go back and convey my opinions. ”

Liu Squint and Zhang Bolie were submissive, and just nodded yes. After the meeting, Li Yuanhong asked for a good reception for the two of them, rested, and then returned to the front line in Hankou.