In the afternoon, the East China Sea.

The wind is calm, the sea is sparkling, and it is as calm as a pond.

A black and white medium-sized passenger liner came in waves, tail facing east, head west, razor-sharp bow furiously ploughed the calm sea, leaving a long wake, and billowing black smoke erupted from the two tall chimneys, which was gently sent into the clear sky by the slight sea breeze, and gradually dissipated with a hint of helplessness.

The liner, a Nippon Yusen shipping company that runs the Yokohama-Shanghai route, is now carrying a shipload of passengers at full speed toward China.

The passenger ship was carrying a special group of passengers, all of whom were Chinese students studying in Japan, who were planning to return to their home countries. Due to the outbreak of the "Wushen Revolution", the students had no intention of continuing their studies, and the radicals were anxious to return to China to participate in the anti-Qing revolution, and the diehards also received a recall order from the Qing court to return to China to serve the imperial court.

Due to the tense situation in China, not many Japanese are willing to run to China, so there are not many passengers on this passenger ship, which makes the Chinese passengers appear abrupt, and Chinese in dialects can be heard everywhere in the bow and stern.

"What's new! What's New! The Qing army has already moved south, and the troops are attacking the Hubei Revolutionary Army in two ways! Yin Changheng ran up the bridge ramp to the foredeck, waving the telegraph in his hand at a group of Chinese students.

Li Liejun snatched the telegram, glanced at it hurriedly, slapped his thigh, and shouted: "In this way, the Qing troops stationed in various provinces will definitely be transferred to Hubei, and the ground will not be able to be suppressed!" ”

"In this way, it's time for us to return to China now, as long as the people's armies from all over the country are together, this Tartar's country will be counted! The republican army has made great contributions to the revolution and will overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future, and Zhao Zhenhua will be the first hero of the revolution! Zhang Fenghui let out a long roar of excitement.

"Don't be so optimistic first, how many troops the Qing army sent to Hubei, this telegram does not say. If all the battalions sent are defensive battalions, or even just recruited brave battalions, the civilian army in this place may not be able to turn the sky upside down. Yan Xishan took the telegram, and after reading it, he shook his head.

"Hey! You're too pessimistic, too. Yin Changheng snorted coldly.

"It's not that I'm pessimistic, it's that the hundred-legged insect is dead but not stiff. Whether the Manchu Qing Dynasty will fall or not, the key is not in the revolutionary army, but in the Beiyang Army, it depends on whether the Beiyang Army is willing to fight the revolutionary army with its dead strength. Yan Xishan handed the telegram to Liu Cunhou, glanced at Yin Changheng, and asked, "How many yen did you spend on this telegram?" ”

Yin Changheng stretched out his hand, spread his five fingers, and said, "Yen? You also underestimate the Japanese telegraph operator, and when they open their mouths, it is five pounds! ”

"That's more than forty taels of silver." Yan Xishan frowned.

"But the five pounds are worth it!" Yin Changheng smiled and put his five fingers together, clenched them into fists, raised them and waved. "Before I read this telegram, I was planning to go to Hong Kong and go to Guangdong with the Alliance, but after reading this telegram, I changed my mind, I will not go to Hong Kong after I arrive in Shanghai, I will go back to Sichuan directly and instigate the Sichuan Hui Party uprising, and the Sichuan robe brother is no weaker than the Hongmen forces in Liangguang."

"That's a good idea. For a revolution to succeed, it must be responded to everywhere. But then again, this time the Qing army attacked Wuhan, and the Yangtze River traffic was cut off, and it was not easy to return to Sichuan. Li Liejun said.

"Why don't you get around somewhere else?" Yoon Changheng calmed down. "I don't know if the foreign ships on the Yangtze River are still navigable, if you take a foreign boat, you don't have to make a detour."

"I think, you still don't want to go back to Sichuan, let's go to Guangdong with us, so we can take care of it, although there are comrades from the League in Sichuan, but after all, it is too far away, and now the situation is changing rapidly, and the republican army in Wuhan may not be able to stop the Qing army." Zhao Hengti, who had been silent, interjected.

"Well, don't go to Hong Kong." Yin Changheng insisted on his own thoughts, pointed at Zhao Hengti, and then pointed at Yan Xishan, and said: "One of you is from Hunan, the other is from Shanxi, the Communist Association in Hunan has already revolted and responded, and Shanxi has not moved, if you don't want to go to Sichuan, you can go back to your province to instigate revolution." So many people go to Guangdong, not to see the theater, in case the Guangdong uprising does not go well, do you still want to continue to be your obedient people? The heroes of the troubled times have risen from all directions, and the current situation is the time when our generation rises recklessly, do you want to miss it? ”

"Let me think about it." Yan Xishan was a little undecided.

Zhao Hengti is also in general appearance, Yin Changheng's words made the two of them a little shaken, after all, going to Guangdong to participate in the uprising must be commanded by others, and returning to the province to instigate the uprising, it seems that he can command others, and if the revolution succeeds in the future, he is also a famous revolutionary father, not a pawn under the command of others.

But before the two of them could make up their minds, a young man in a long shirt and a top hat ran to the bow of the boat, with a braid on the back of his head, and he knew at a glance that he was a diehard among the international students.

As soon as the pigtailed man reached the bow of the boat, he stood on an anchor post and shouted to the Chinese students near the bow: "Everyone, listen! I just received a telegram from the school! The imperial court is preparing to form a Praetorian Guard, and it is also necessary to prepare the Advisory Council, which is inseparable from us! The school department has just made a charter, as long as we get off the boat, there will be a carriage sent by Shanghai Dao to pick us up, as long as we go to the Daotai Yamen to take a roll call and draw a charge, we will be the official of the imperial court! At least four products! Students, come to me and leave a name, and immediately measure your height and shoulder width, and send it back by telegram, so that the tailor can make court clothes. ……”

But before he finished shouting, he had already received a heavy blow on the head, and when he looked closely, it was a Japanese dictionary that smashed his head, and it was Yin Changheng who threw out this dictionary.

"Rong Kun, you dog minion with a yellow flag! You banner people have been jumping up for a few days, don't you honestly be a man with your tail between your legs, what kind of trouble are you here to make? If you don't take advantage of this time to smoke a few big cigarettes and get too addicted, when the revolutionary army goes to raid your kennels, it will be too late to smoke! Yin Changheng scolded the flag man for a bloody squirt.

"I don't smoke a lot! Everyone has their own aspirations, you don't want to serve the court, but don't stand in the way of others. Rong Kun sneered at each other. However, you gang of 2500 who are afraid that the world will not be chaotic, or take advantage of the fact that the reverse is not visible, and quickly turn back to the shore, otherwise, when the court army arrives, you will be destroyed! ”

These words had an immediate effect, and as soon as the words fell, Li Liejun and Lu Xiangting took the lead in rushing over, punching and kicking the flag man.

"Hit someone! Hit someone! Rong Kun was quickly knocked over on the deck, howling miserably, his shouting attracted the attention of some people on the side of the ship, so a few students with braids rushed to join the battle group, without saying a word, the two sides started a scuffle, while fighting and scolding, "Tartars" and "anti-thieves" flew all over the sky, and the foredeck of the passenger ship was suddenly in chaos.

"Squeak-squeak-"

The confusion on the foredeck caught the attention of the sailors on duty, and the whistle sounded, and a dozen sailors and ship guards rushed from the various cabins brandishing wooden sticks to try to stop the brawl, but when they rushed over, more students joined the war group, and then the screams of the Japanese accent rang out.

……

The students and the Japanese crew fought on the steamer, and at the same time, in the distant Wuhan area, a real battle was in full swing.

Hankou, Wusheng Temple.

Since dawn today, this place has become an important coordinate for the warring sides to pour out the rain of bullets and artillery fire, fortunately, no matter how fierce the artillery fire, this Wusheng Temple has not been hit by a single shell, so it has now become the former enemy headquarters of the Republican Army.

After a morning of fighting, the vanguard of the Republican Army had taken control of the Hankou bridgehead, and the artillery positions had also been moved to the Han River, where a fierce artillery battle was being fought between the Qing troops across the Han River and the direction of Hankou under the command of the observation balloon.

Because the forward position has not been completely stabilized, the forward teeth of the two warring sides are staggered, and there are retreats and advances from time to time, so the area around the Wusheng Temple is not very calm, and from time to time there are sudden Qing artillery shells falling on the nearby river embankment, raising black smoke, but under the fierce suppression of the republican artillery, they quickly retreated back.

In the morning artillery battle, the republican army took the lead, there were observation balloons in the air to guide the direction, there were two gunboats cruising back and forth on the river, from time to time with the ship's cannon bombardment of the flank and depth of the Qing army's position, in this era when artillery decided everything, the Qing army could not launch a strong counterattack at all, and could only passively shrink on the position, waiting for the impact of the republican infantry.

In the sound of artillery, mixed with the sound of dense machine gun shooting, judging from the unique gunshot, many of them are old-fashioned hand-cranked machine guns, this kind of automatic weapons that should have entered the museum a long time ago is the common equipment of the ** team in this era, although it cannot be used to attack, but it can also play some residual heat in defensive operations.

On the two pontoon bridges across the Han River, a large number of troops still passed through, and they were moving from Hanyang to Hankow, and since the density of firepower could not keep up, the only way to achieve a breakthrough in the key direction was to strengthen the density of troops.

Among these reinforcements to Hankow, Zhao Bei and his guards were mixed and also crossed the river on foot.

When he arrived in Hankou, Zhao Bei led his guards to the Wusheng Temple, just in time for the staff to have dinner.

"Commander-in-chief, how did you cross the river? Now the Qing army is still firing artillery here, this is the front line! Chief of Staff Lan Tianwei was taken aback, and dropping the steamed bun was a reproach.

"I'll take a look, and by the way, I'll send you some machine guns. This is just repaired by the workers of the arsenal, all of which were urgently purchased from foreign countries during the First Sino-Japanese War, piled up in the warehouse for I don't know how many years they have been rusted, and the barrels are rotten, so they have to replace them with steel pipes. ”

Zhao Bei pointed to the hand-cranked machine guns carried by the guards, took a steamed bun handed over by the guard captain Tian Jinfu, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed, pulled Lan Tianwei to the table, and studied the location of the enemy position on the map together.

In less than ten minutes, the simple battlefield lunch was over, and the new breakthrough point had been chosen, because Hankou was along the Yangtze River along the concessions of various countries, so the choice of the breakthrough point was tied, but fortunately, the Qing army also had scruples, and did not dare to arrange positions next to the concession, otherwise this battle would have to be more cautious.

A staff officer rushed into the Wusheng Temple, stood up and saluted, handed over a new battlefield situation map, and gave a briefing on the battle situation.

"At present, our army has occupied Juren Gate and Youyi Gate, and cut off the Qing army guarding the Yudai Gate and Xunli Gate, and the Longwang Temple and Siguandian Wharf have also fallen into the hands of our army. Due to the fire caused by the artillery battle, black smoke billowed over Hankow, and it was inconvenient to observe, and our gunboats could no longer suppress firepower, which affected the deployment of troops. Moreover, according to pre-war intelligence, the headquarters of the Qing army was set up in the Manchun Tea Garden, but according to the analysis of the battle just now, the Qing army has moved the headquarters out of the Manchun Tea Garden, and as for where it will be moved, further reconnaissance is needed. In addition, the first special operations battalion stranded in Hankou has sent people to contact us, but so far, no news has been returned. ……”

After listening to the briefing, Zhao Bei and Lan Tianwei walked out of the Wusheng Temple and looked north, but saw black smoke billowing from Hankou and the sound of artillery was more dense than just now.

"This battle is over, but I'm afraid that Hankou will also be in ruins." Lan Tianwei sighed.

"Before the war, we were playing propaganda bombs, and most of the people had withdrawn to the suburbs, and as long as the people were still there, Hankou would always be rebuilt one day, and if we wanted to complain, we would complain about the stubbornness of the Manchu officials." Zhao Bei gritted his teeth and said.

From Anqing all the way to Wuhan, accustomed to seeing the big scene, Zhao Bei not only learned war in the war, but also gradually became numb, in the history of the "Xinhai Revolution", Hankou was burned to the scorched earth by the Beiyang Army, but now it is trembling in the artillery battle between the Republican Army and the Qing Army, a different beginning, but the ending is almost the same.

Perhaps, this is the most apt footnote to the revolution.

A few cold raindrops fell on Zhao Bei's face, pulling his thoughts back all at once.

"It's raining?" Lan Tianwei also raised his head.

The already gloomy sky had turned a leaden gray, and it was impossible to distinguish between the tumbling clouds and the black smoke from the combustion. The wind is getting stronger and stronger, and a drizzle is blowing obliquely.

Soon, the drizzle turned into teardrops and fell to the ground with a whimper.

It's getting darker.