The north wind swept in the snow and shrouded the field.

Compared with the heavy snow in the past few days, this snow is nothing, but it is a bit like a messenger of spring, Ruixue Zhaofeng year, if the battle in the south does not come to the north, maybe next year will be a good year.

This is Xinyang, Henan, the south of Runing Mansion in southern Henan, the east of Runing Mansion used to be Anhui, to the west is Nanyang Mansion, and the south is adjacent to Hubei, which can see the particularity of the geographical location of Runing Mansion.

As an important town in the south of Runing Province, Xinyang is an important passage connecting Henan and Hubei, and the Jinghan Railway runs from here to the north and south.

Xinyang is just a small town, although it is a traffic hole since ancient times, a prosperous place in southern Henan, and traders are crowded in the road, but to say that it is really prosperous, but after the opening of the Jinghan Railway, it is the so-called "train rings, gold ten thousand taels".

Xinyang's trade is prosperous in peacetime, Shanxi's ticket number, Hunan's grain number, Shanxi's leather goods number, Beijing's antique number, and even the foreigners' churches that spread faith in the land of Zhongzhou, have all planted eyeliner in Xinyang, although the flashy and flamboyant is not as good as Hankou, the thoroughfare of the nine provinces, but in this closed southern Henan area, it can also be regarded as the premier civilized area, and some things in the capital can be seen here, but the style is far from it.

Now the revolutionary army has risen in Hubei in the south, and although it has not yet reached Henan, Xinyang has been affected.

Xinyang is now the general grain station of the second army of the Qing army in the south, and the line of the minister of the Qin mission Shengyun is also located here, a few days ago, Shengyun's special train has arrived, and Shengyun's staff and subordinates have been transported, but Shengyun himself has not yet arrived, and is still in Kaifeng City to urge the governor of Henan to raise grain and grass, because the Qing court's wishful thinking is that the north road and the east road go hand in hand, and the Qing army from Sichuan is attacking Wuhan, therefore, the Xinyang Qing army is not in a hurry to advance to the south, while waiting for the grain and grass to arrive, while also waiting for the news from the Qing army on the east road.

In the past few days, one train after another full of munitions and baggage has entered Xinyang Station, and guns, bullets, military salaries, military uniforms, gowns, military blankets, and electric wires have all been painstakingly looted by the Qing court.

In order not to affect the transportation of military trains, all trains to the south were suspended, train tickets could only be bought to go to the north, and the trains to the north were only loaded with people and not goods.

Due to the suspension of trucks, some goods that could not be transported away were piled up at Xinyang Railway Station, and no one knew when Xinyang would become a battlefield, and these backlogged goods had to be sold in the shortest possible time, so as not to become trophies for the warring parties. In order to deal with these goods, the shippers and compradors had to sell on the spot, and a large number of high-quality and low-cost commodities immediately overwhelmed the Xinyang market, and the Japanese flower cloth, the American foreign oil, the leather goods outside the mouth, and the sugar from Guangdong, poured into the market, and the hawkers from all over the country who got the news also rushed to Xinyang, shoulder-picking, cart-pushing, people-on-back, and donkey-packed, showing the diligence and speculation of Chinese merchants in this era in the most primitive way...... It is not an exaggeration to call this wartime state of affairs the illusion of an unprecedented commercial boom.

In stark contrast to these cheap commodities is the price of grain; these days, the price of grain has risen day by day, and every time the revolutionary army wins a battle, this price has jumped up; last year and this year there was a drought for two consecutive years, and the price of grain in southern Henan has remained high, and now it is even more fueling the fire, and small households in many places have begun to eat chaff vegetables, and even large households do not dare to store more grain, rather than storing grain and waiting for hungry people to eat large households, it is better to cash in grain and hide in the concession with silver and gold bars.

All the people who can go want to go, so, this is more exaggerated than the price of food is the price of train tickets, when the revolutionary army just arrived in Hubei, the ticket price began to rise, and now it is even more difficult to find a ticket, on the one hand, there are too many people who want to go, on the other hand, because a large number of southbound military trains have affected the traffic of the Jinghan line, plus the passengers stranded at Xinyang Station, the whole Xinyang is full of sighing people, even the compradors with magical powers can't get tickets, where should ordinary people go to buy tickets?

A few days ago, heavy snow fell, the road in Xinyang has been everywhere, although the good church, the church dug a few thousand people pit, but can not catch up with the speed of the temperature drop, the county order has posted a notice, ordering all parts of the armor to recruit strong men in the shortest possible time, rushed to Xinyang to dig a pit to bury the body, so as not to be ravaged by the epidemic in the coming year.

Zhuang Ding rushed to Xinyang, not after digging the pit can be dispersed, the court edict said, all over the country to start a regiment, so, these strong men are ready-made regimental brave, if the war does not go well in the future, the revolutionary army goes north, these people must pick up swords and guns to be loyal to the king.

The strong men who entered the city, the passengers who rushed to the city from the station to stay overnight, the hawkers from all over the country, and the imperial court officials and soldiers who came from the north, this small Xinyang county town was so crowded that it was overwhelmed, and the shouts and scolding of the south and the north could be heard in all the hotels and restaurants, and it was simply breathless to stay in the city.

There are heavily armed defense soldiers standing at the gate of the city, and they must be inspected and blackmailed by them no matter whether they enter or leave the city, and there are some heads hanging on the tower of the city gate, which are all suspected of being revolutionary, and whoever dares to say half a "no" to the search of the soldiers must also hang their heads to blow the wind.

The wind finally stopped, but the snow did not.

Braving the snow, four young people dressed up in the east city from the east gate into the city, the four of them are carrying willow boxes, it looks like they are going to go out for a long journey, now the new policy of the imperial court, there are a lot of new-style schools around the country, and the students are running on the road is also a rare beautiful scenery in the last days.

It's just that these four people are not ordinary students, they are indeed related to the new school, but in addition to this background, they also have another unknown identity: members of the League.

Although the uprisings launched by the League over the years have ended in failure, the influence has become more and more day by day, like a magnet, attracting the most progressive intellectuals of this era, and Henan, which enjoys the reputation of "Zhongzhou of China", will inevitably have the shadow of the League.

The branch of the Henan League was established in Tokyo, Japan two years ago, but the organization in the province was just established this year, although the foundation is too shallow, but from the beginning of its establishment has established the goal of armed opposition to the Qing Dynasty, but because the east-west north-south railway in Henan has been built, the army is easy to maneuver, considering that it is not easy to rise in central and eastern Henan, the Henan League decided to focus its main attention on the western and southern Shaanxi areas, and instigated the Jianghu Hui Party and the old and new armies there.

After the outbreak of the "Wushen Revolution", the republican army swept through Jiangxi and Hubei under the leadership of Zhao Bei, and the news reached Kaifeng, and the Henan League was greatly encouraged, and received an order from the Tokyo headquarters, so it was decided to respond to the uprising in Henan, but because there was no foundation in the new army, it was finally decided to send the main forces to western Henan to instigate the armed uprising of the party and the green forest.

Considering that the revolution in various places could not be separated from cooperation, the Henan League also decided to send people south to Hubei, to Wuhan to contact the Republican Army, and if possible, to obtain weapons support from the Republican-controlled arsenal and bring back the Henan Armed People's Army.

After careful consideration, Tyrant Shibin, Liu Cuixuan, Liu Zhenhua, and Yang Yuanmao were entrusted with the important task of rushing to Wuhan not only as representatives of the Henan League, but also as liaison officers of the headquarters of the League, to hold the first official meeting with the Republican Army on behalf of the League.

The four of them packed up and took the train from Kaifeng, passing through Zhengzhou to Xinyang in the south, originally planned to rush to the south from Xinyang, but when they arrived in Xinyang, the train was requisitioned as a military train, and turned around to the north to transport the army, but the four were driven off the train like other passengers, and they did not find a relationship that could be used for a long time in the station, so they had to rush to the city.

When they arrived at the county office, the same year he took Zhuang Ding to dig a pit outside the city, but he didn't touch it, so the four of them couldn't even enter the yamen, so they had to leave their names, find a wine shop on the street opposite the yamen, and choose a table by the window to rest.

Violent Shibin ordered wine, and ordered a few dishes of side dishes, the four of them muttered quietly over the wine, the wine shop was full of people, and they didn't dare to talk about confidential matters, and after talking a few words, they lost interest, and they drank their heads, but they couldn't taste anything.

Xinyang transportation is convenient, there are many merchants from the south to the north, the war in Hubei is flourishing, many people who originally did business in Hankou have returned to the north by car, some people go slower, catch up with the Qing court to transfer troops to the south, and also delay in Xinyang, these days the train ticket is not easy to buy, everyone is helpless, can only borrow wine to pour out their sorrows, this wine is too much, it is inevitable to say more, the result of this small wine shop is particularly lively.

"I said, big brother, have you ever seen what that row of cannons is like, the rumbling of the winter is like thunder, the cannon bursting out of the muzzle is a sound, the landing is another sound, smashing on the roof is a sound, and the explosion under the river is another sound, we can't stop the sound of the cannon if we plug the cotton in our ears. Fortunately, I am clever, when the revolutionary army was still in Huangzhou, the shop was sold cheaply, and some silver was lost, and those who were reluctant to sell the shop were miserable, Hanyang fell, and the shop couldn't turn if it wanted to, as soon as Hankou started a war, there were rows of artillery on both sides, and the cannonballs exploded and burned the house, half of Hankou black smoke was billowing out, and the shop was burning a piece, and the shopkeepers and guys who were hiding in the concession looked at the black smoke and cried and wiped their tears, kneeling in front of the fire brigade and asking them to put out the fire, but the artillery was so bad that even the foreigners did not dare to rent out the world, and later, The French concession also received a few shells, and I don't know which side hit them. Originally, I planned to wait for the peace to settle down and stay in Hankou, but Hankou burned like this, and it is difficult to say when it will be able to slow down, so ah, I don't have nostalgia anymore, I packed up my baggage, spent 20 oceans to buy a station, and followed the officers and soldiers who retreated north to Xinyang. It's not easy to do business these days, so it's better to go back to your hometown to buy some good land and be a landlord comfortably. ”

"Zhili doesn't have any good fields, if you want to buy good fields, you have to go to the northeast, that place is all black mud, and you can pinch it with your hands and get oily. Thanks to you walking fast, otherwise, you are trapped in Wuhan now, and you can't leave if you want to. A few days ago, the last few locomotives on the south road were also transferred to Xinyang, and now there are only two tracks left on the south railway, and the people of Wuhan can only take the waterway if they want to go back to the north, but the waterway is not very flat, and the water bandits have been extraordinarily many in the past two years. ”

"The land is not very peaceful, not to mention the bandits in western Henan, now I heard that there are also bandits in eastern Henan, and the big families in various places are asking the government for official photos, buying foreign guns to protect the village, as for buying back to prevent bandits or fight other Zhuangzi, then I don't know."

"As soon as the patrol teams from all over the country are opened, this place can't be suppressed, and I don't know what this court thinks?"

"What do you think? What else can you think? The revolutionary army in Hubei is the trouble of the henchmen, if it is not drawn one day earlier, the chaotic parties in various places will follow suit, and there will be no chaos in this world? When the time comes, it will still be our people. ”

……

A few men with a straight accent gathered at the table, and if no one was around, they talked loudly, and when they said that, they simply slapped the table and scolded, scolding this era, scolding those foreigners, scolding soldiers, scolding yabeetles, scolding Hui merchants, and scolding Jin merchants.

In recent years, everyone has been holding their breath in their hearts, and now the government is too busy to take care of itself, and if they don't take advantage of this moment to scold, they are afraid that they will not have the opportunity to scold in the future.

Hearing the gang of vendors from the Zhili Merchant Gang scolding the street, Violent Shibin sighed and said, "Xing, the people are bitter; Death, the people suffer. The ancients did not deceive me. ”

Yang Yuanmao shook his head and said, "No, no." Today's break is for tomorrow's establishment, the so-called not broken, not standing, breaking and standing, this is the truth. Wasn't that the same with the French Revolution? But now? France was already a great power, with colonies all over the world. ”

The words are so straightforward, and the next words don't need to be said by everyone, but how many victims are needed between the breaks? Anhui and Hubei have risen up under the leadership of the Guangfu Society, but Henan is still a dead state, and the backbone of the Henan Provincial League who understands military affairs is either in Japan or cannot be contacted, so they rely on a group of talented people to run around, but the revolutionary situation is not so optimistic.

The four of them drank with their heads bored, and gradually became a little drunk, and when they were having fun, they suddenly found that the people on the street were running, and some people were still shouting.

"What happened?" The four of them stood up and walked out of the liquor store, only to see that the people in the street were running to the west.

Looking to the west, I saw black smoke billowing in the distance, as if there was a fire somewhere.

The four of them met the account, and rushed over with the willow box, and when they arrived at the place, they saw that the fire was a Jin merchant warehouse outside the city, which had now been requisitioned as an official warehouse, and there were military reserves that had just been transported inside, mostly cotton clothes.

At this moment, the warehouse was already in flames, and although the soldiers shouted and shouted to put out the fire, it was obviously to no avail, and they could only watch the army's winter clothes turn to ashes.

The ground near the official warehouse was sprinkled with small pieces of paper, and the people were scrambling, and the soldiers were shouting at the people to take the pieces of paper.

In the chaos, Violent Shibin grabbed a few pieces of paper, put them in his sleeve, and glanced at his companions, and the four of them rushed back with the wicker box, and went into the city to choose a remote alley and walk over, and passed the few colorful pieces of paper.

A few slogans were printed on the scraps of paper.

"Down with the Manchus! Restore China! ”

"The four people are equal! Create a Republic! ”

"Abolish excesses and miscellaneous taxes! Defend the rights of the people! ”

"Comrades from all provinces, act quickly!"

"The revolution of the North and the South is going on at the same time!"

……

These were leaflets from the Revolutionary Party, and all the leaflets were written with the words "Advance Guerrillas of the Northern Expedition of the Republican Army", which, apparently, was printed by the Republican Army.

"It's a flyer from the IRA!" Yang Yuanmao said excitedly.

"Did they kill southern Henan?" Violent Shibin was just as excited.

The four of them were excited for a moment, hid the leaflet, and Yang Yuanmao said: "Time is running out, we should go south immediately, even if there is no train, we have to walk to Wuhan with our legs!" If you follow the railway, you will definitely be able to meet the Northern Expeditionary forces. ”

"I'll go with you!" Violent Shibin said.

Liu Zhenhua said: "I thought about it, or go to southern Shaanxi as well, I have been there at the beginning of the year, got acquainted with several leaders of the Elders' Association, now the revolution in western Henan is ready to start, once the uprising, can not be without a response, I went to southern Shaanxi to contact the Elders' Association, when the time comes, western Henan, southern Shaanxi at the same time, are you afraid that the revolution will not succeed?" ”

Yang Yuanmao nodded and said, "I'll go to Wuhan with my husband, and the two of you will go to southern Shaanxi, so it's decided, the train ticket is not easy to buy, I'll leave you a letter to see if my one can help in the same year." After the uprising in western Henan and southern Shaanxi, if the Qing army was too strong to hold on, they would pull the team to southern Henan, and then march north and south, and join forces with the republican army in northern Hubei! ”

Violent Shibin said: "Now that the advance team has arrived, the main force of the republican army may be behind, and as soon as the Northern Expedition army arrives, our Henan will be recovered!" ”

"Therefore, our comrades in Henan can't wait, we have to act as soon as possible, launch an uprising, and respond to the Republican Army!" Liu Cuixuan, who had been silent, flashed his fist.

……

These members of the alliance did not know that the main forces of the Republican Army were still gathering around Wuhan, preparing to meet the Qing army on the East Road, and the main force had not gone north, and the so-called "Republican Army's Northern Expedition Advance Guerrillas" was nothing but a gimmick, and it was the special operations battalion directly under the General Headquarters of the Republican Army that played the role of this "Northern Expeditionary Army."

Since the Hanyang Province and De'an Province in Hubei Province were both recovered by the Hui Party, and the Jinghan Railway in the territory was in the hands of the revolutionaries, the railway line hundreds of miles south of Xinyang had become very dangerous for the Qing army. The special operations battalion of the Republican Army took a small train all the way north, dismantled all the way to the railroad tracks, and with the assistance of the armed forces of the local congresses, it reached the territory of Henan, and then divided into small teams, and fired a shot in the east and a cannon in the west around Xinyang, burning the military reserves, ambushing the officers and soldiers, and bluffing...... The magistrate of Xinyang is already anxious.

In order to ensure railway transportation, the Qing army had to divide its troops to encircle and suppress, but in the face of the soldiers of the special operations battalion whose whereabouts were uncertain and scattered, they were like fists hitting fleas and could not use their strength.

As a decaying and declining dynasty, the Manchu dynasty was an early adopter of the power of special operations.