The cold wind was howling, the sky was full of snow, and the fields were wrapped in silver.

In the wind and snow, an iron bridge stands across the Yellow River, and two cold railroad tracks cross the bridge, connecting the north and south banks.

Here is Taohuayu, the railway bridge is called Taohuayu Bridge, also known as the Yellow River Iron Bridge, is the most important bridge on the Jinghan railway line, the north bank of the bridge is Henan Huaiqing Mansion, the south bank of the bridge is Henan Kaifeng Mansion, and other bridges on the Jinghan line, this railway bridge is also built by the Belgian company, and after completion, it is also managed and maintained by the Belgians.

On the south bank of the bridge, there is a row of grey bungalows under the approach, where the bridge manager's office is located, and Belgian workers and security guards live here to keep the bridge safe and keep the railway open.

The snowstorm had been going on all night, and the snow on the ground had been several inches thick, and the temperature had dropped rapidly as the snow thickened.

In a duty room, workers gathered around the fire, while roasting the fire, while talking about next year's harvest, Ruixue trillion harvest year, drought for almost half a year, finally a blizzard, after the beginning of spring, the moisture of the land at least will not make people despair, but people also pray that this blizzard will stop in moderation, not to turn the snow into a snow disaster.

Just as the workers were looking forward to next year's good harvest, the door of the duty room was suddenly pushed open, and the cold wind mixed with snow flakes poured into the house, making everyone subconsciously shrink their necks, and before they could turn their heads to look, they had heard a piercing shout.

"You slackers! The train is about to go to the bridge, get out and signal! ”

The cry was made by a blonde foreigner named Melinado, an Italian who was the assistant to the Belgian engineer who had presided over the construction of the railway bridge, and who stayed after the bridge was repaired to manage the bridge as a manager hired by a Belgian company.

Melinado has a strong sense of responsibility, but he is arrogant, never smiling, has been in China for several years, and has learned a lot of broken Chinese.

Before Merinado could raise his cane and strike, all the people in the house had fled and went to the bridge with their signal lights.

"These slackers! I never knew what 'dedication' was, and I never had any self-motivation. Melinado waved his cane and complained a few words to the "two devils" interpreter next to him.

"Mr. Mak is right, these people are farmers in the first place, and in their opinion, using the accumulated wages to buy a few hectares of dry land and become a landlord is far more profitable than being an apprentice." The translator chimed in.

"Without technology, this country will not be rich and strong!" Melinado glared at the interpreter as if the other party had caused the country's poverty and backwardness.

The translator immediately shut his mouth, for the sake of the generous treatment, there is no need to be as knowledgeable as this foreign devil, not to mention that Merinado is not wrong, this country is indeed technologically backward.

"Ignorant Orientals! I have always despised technology, and for you, it is better to learn technology than to learn to be an official! If you can divide half of your enthusiasm for being an official into technology, we don't have to brave the wind and snow to go to the bridge to make a signal! Merinado waved his cane angrily, then turned his head and walked out of the room, and the interpreter hurriedly followed, and the two of them walked up the approach bridge together, listening intently to the distant whistle.

The whistle sounded a few times, and then the roar of the steam engine was heard, and a huge black shadow in the wind and snow began to slow down under the command of the signal light, and then got on the bridge from the north bank, slowly passed the bridge, and drove towards the south bank, and under the watchful eyes of Melinado and the interpreter, he got off the bridge from the south bank and headed southeast.

"Two locomotives." Melinado was a little surprised, the train that passed just now had two locomotives, one pulling forward and one pushing backwards, apparently to increase traction, because there were many carriages, and one locomotive could not be pulled.

Due to the lack of modern dispatching means and equipment, the current Jinghan railway capacity is limited, in order to improve transportation efficiency, the only way to adopt multiple trailers, and this method is usually limited to military use. Although the Belgians controlled the railway, their minds were mainly focused on extracting profits, and in the eyes of the company's management, it seemed a waste to use advanced European railway technology in the country, after all, the introduction of technology required funds.

"The situation in the south of the empire must be tense, and with those trains yesterday, nine military trains have already crossed the bridge." Merinado remembered the telegram he had received yesterday, but his main task was to manage the bridge, not train scheduling, so he did not know the details of the transportation, only that there had been many military trains heading for Wuhan in the past two days.

"Revolution? Can a revolution save the country? The country needs not revolutionaries, but mechanics! Revolution can only bring destruction, only technology can bring construction. ”

With this in mind, Merinado walked back to the manager's room, and took out a piece of hard French bread from the drawer, and was about to put it on the stove to heat it up, but before he could lift the iron kettle, the door of the manager's room was pushed open by the interpreter.

The translator said with a frightened face: "Mr. Mai, go and have a look!" The company's convoy was disarmed by the army! ”

"What?" Melinado was a little surprised, although the Iron Bridge Escort was hired by Chinese, but the leader was a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, a real "foreign devil", this identity was enough to scare all Chinese officials.

The interpreter said: "The train that passed just now stopped after not going far, and a group of officers and soldiers came down from above, walked back along the railway, met the escort, and disarmed without saying a word, and even the gun of the leader was also confiscated. ”

"What do they want to do? Haven't the negotiations on the resumption of Jinghan Road been temporarily terminated? Melinado put the bread back in the drawer, grabbed a small French pistol and put it in his coat pocket.

"They said that they were ordered to take over the bridge, and the leading officer was not small, and he was a general soldier."

"Commander-in-chief? Does he know how to manage a railway bridge? Does he know how to signal a train? Every screw on Jinghan Road is the property of a Belgian company! No one has the right to take over! Angrily lifting his cane, picking up his top hat, he walked out of the office in a rage, and led the interpreter to the south of the railroad.

I didn't go far when I met a few soldiers, wearing green cloth and red coats, who were running to the approach bridge with their guns. I want to see your sir! ”

The soldiers ignored them, scolded, pushed away their canes, and ran towards the bridge with their guns on their own shoulders, and one of them even staggered by Melina.

"Bastard! You bandits! Melinado roared and tried to get over, but was pulled by the interpreter.

The translator whispered: "Mr. Mai, they are the Wuwei Left Army, no better than the New Army, and they are unreasonable. ”

"Wuwei Left Army?" Although Merinado has been in China for many years, he has not been able to distinguish the various names of the Qing army.

"It's the former Yi Army, the team of Ma Yukun and Jiang Guidi, and they were among the officers and soldiers who fought with the coalition army in the year of Gengzi." The translator explained tremblingly.

In 1900, he was in China exploring the railroad and was fortunate enough to catch the chaos, and the Boxer made such a deep impression on him that his view of the ancient country of the East had changed completely, from sympathy to contempt, just as he had seen the uncivilized tribes of Africa.

"Barbarians." Melinado cursed in French, then waved his cane, returned the same way with the interpreter, and went on to bake his bread.

Merinado no longer had a problem with the "barbarians", but the leader of the "barbarians" came to him on his own initiative.

The "barbarian leader" is named Zhao Wei, a native of Ruyang, Henan, an apprentice in a pharmacy, joined the army at the age of nineteen, and did a clerical work under Ma Yukun, the commander of the Yi Army, and fought with the Japanese army and the Eight-Nation Alliance, and was promoted to the registered general soldier after accumulating merit.

A few days ago, Zhao Wei also took his subordinates to encircle and suppress the Taoshi Taomeng bandits in Rehe, after the outbreak of the "Wushen Revolution", the Yi army received an order, and successively went south to attack the Xiong Chengji rebel army, Zhao Wei's team is cavalry, and there is a task of suppressing bandits, so the south is late, until Hanyang is recovered by the republican army, they only received the order, so they hurriedly went south from Rehe, crossed the Great Wall, but just went to the ground of Zhili and received an order from the War Department, not to go to Anhui, to Hubei to fight Zhaobei, so they got on the train from Baoding, was loaded into stuffy jars and transported to Zhangde, Henan, It was incorporated into the second army of the Qing army and was under the command of the minister of Qincha Shengyun.

Although the Qing court's edict on the southern expedition has been issued, but the Qing army is requisitioned from the northern provinces, the distance is different, and the time to arrive at the Zhangde assembly place is also before and after, coupled with the limited capacity of the Jinghan line, and the military situation in the south is urgent, so the Zhao Wei department who arrived in Zhangde in advance did not wait for the arrival of other troops, and after receiving the salary, he got on the train first, and continued to march to Hubei. He rushed to Xinyang, Henan Province to prepare for the Second Army's general grain station, which was also the starting point of the Qing army's attack.

Because Chen Kuilong, the governor of Huguang, deliberately pointed out the details of the revolutionary army's operation to destroy the bridge and capsize the train in the telegram to the military aircraft department, Zai Ze was reminded by the center before leaving Beijing, and paid special attention to the safety of the bridge on the Jinghan line.

Zhao Wei did not dare to slack off, first let the soldiers get off the car, and ran to the iron bridge on foot, while he himself ordered his subordinates to unload the war horses from the carriage, and then carried a handwritten letter from Zai Ze to the bridge manager to ask for forgiveness from the foreigner manager.

"I lodge a strong protest with that Mr. Zhen Guogong! This bridge belongs to the Belgian consortium and you cannot take it without the permission of the head office! In front of the translator and Zhao Wei, the Italian manager Melinado threw Zai Ze's letter on the table, without even looking at it, if it weren't for Zhao Qi's gloomy face, he would definitely tear the letter to shreds.

Zhao Wei squinted at Merinado, and said coldly to the translator: "The letter has been delivered, and Lao Tzu can't take care of other things." Zhen Guogong just said clearly, when the sky falls, there are all the bigwigs of the Military Aircraft Department, if this iron bridge is blown up by the chaotic party, Lao Tzu will have to go to see him with his head, so whether the foreigners want to or not, Lao Tzu will take over this bridge! From now on, no one is allowed to go on the bridge without Lao Tzu's warrant! ”

After speaking, Zhao left the office without looking back.

Melinado was furious, but he had no choice but to run to the telegraph room and report to the headquarters on Jinghan Road.

Just as Merinado was angry about the takeover of the iron bridge, in the wilderness not far from the approach bridge, two young men dressed as beggars looked at the railway bridge in the snow and sighed.

"There are so many soldiers, we can't go up the bridge." A "beggar" said. "It's a pity that there is no zha medicine, otherwise, if this bridge is blown up, the Tartars will not be able to go to Hubei to fight our people."

"There are steel bars embedded in the piers, and if you don't dig holes in the piers, you can't blow up any zha medicine. The two bridges that Zhu Daniu fried were both small bridges, and they used a lot of zha medicine, which couldn't be compared. Another "beggar" shook his head. "Besides, the commander-in-chief didn't send us to blow up the bridge, our task is to go north along the Jinghan Road and set up an intelligence station in Tianjin, otherwise, what do you want us to do with braids?"

"But we are all from Jiangxi, the accent is not clear, this way pretending to be dumb, I can't even ask a road, and now Jinghan Road is no longer going to the north, is it really two legs to Tianjin? You say, the commander-in-chief's vision is too long-term, right? Hubei has not recovered, so I actually thought of sending people to the north to lurk. ”

"It's called planning ahead. Anyway, we've all gone to the surveying and mapping school, you don't even understand this? ”

"Forget it, you are a cultural teacher of 'Yizhi Society', and you are a showman, I can't talk about you. Fortunately, we still have some silver tickets, otherwise, we would really have to go all the way to Tianjin. ”

"Who do you think you are now? Since you pretend to be called Hanako, you have to have the appearance of being called Hanako. The basket is ready, let's go, let's go over the bridge. ”

"Don't! Be careful, let's hire a small boat downstream to cross it. ”

"Call Hanako to hire a boat? You can figure it out! ”

"Wasn't it your idea to disguise yourself as Hanako?"

"At least it's better than your idea, disguise yourself as a coolie, and you're not afraid of being pulled into a strong man."

……

The two argued for a while, and finally did not dare to go to the bridge, beating dogs with sticks in their hands, hanging bamboo baskets on their arms, and walking along the bank towards the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Little did the two of them know that a few years later, MI5 in the Far East would solemnly replicate two dog-beating sticks and display them in an internal exhibition hall, and every new intelligence officer would have to be educated in the history and tradition of these two dog-beating sticks, which was also their first lesson.

The reason is simple, because these two "beggars" are the first two intelligence officers of the IRA MI5.

History has not left their real names, only their code names: Peachtree, Iron Bridge.