The coolies soon learned from the mouth of the two heads that this army loaded with stuffy jars was the second town of the Beiyang New Army, and the commander was Wang Yingkai, and this train only carried the forward, two target troops, and the main force was still behind, they were here to press the ground and defend the provincial wall, and if the revolutionary army was blocked in Hubei, they would go down the river and sweep away the revolutionary forces along the river.

"This Beiyang Army is really not bad, the military appearance is neat, the guns and ammunition are excellent, and it looks much more powerful than our Hubei New Army."

"That's a pile of silver, and our Hubei New Army can't compare. Do you see the foreign guns in their hands? That's a color of Manlixia five-sub steel, authentic foreign goods. Didn't you hear from anyone? When the Beiyang Army buys guns, it is 'if you don't choose a good one, you will buy an expensive one'. ”

"This shell box is heavy, and the shells in it are all big ones, and if you pass through the shells, you won't be able to blow up half of the street?"

"I think, the revolutionary army in Jiujiang is afraid that they can't beat them."

"Isn't it strange that you say, didn't the revolutionary army electrify Yuan Gongbao as the commander of the republic? Why is the Beiyang Army still driving over now? Could it be that Yuan Gongbao doesn't appreciate it? ”

"What do you know about a Liba? The more times like this, the more Yuan Gongbao has to send troops, only in this way can he show his loyalty. ”

"Forget it, he doesn't understand, and you don't understand. Although the Beiyang Army is said to be trained by Yuan Gongbao, this is not the Yuan family's private soldier, and where to transfer it has to listen to the imperial court. Since Yuan Gongbao bought the military aircraft last year, the six towns of Beiyang have been under the control of the War Department, and the current Beiyang Army is only afraid that it was sent by the War Department. ”

"Nonsense! Yuan Gongbao is now also the Minister of the Army, which was only mentioned in the newspaper two days ago. ”

"Cut! This is called 'rising and descending'. Are you really relieved to be a Hanchen when the imperial court? ”

"Shh――――――h Silence! Don't say it again, let's talk about the head drop. ”

……

The coolies chattered as they carried their goods, unaware that a dozen sneaky men had climbed over the wall to sneak into the platform in the fog, and were lying on the roof of the warehouse, looking at the munitions on the platform, and although they were dressed similarly to coolies, the look in their eyes showed that they were much more interested in the ammunition than the average coolie.

"Brother Niu, it seems that we are a step late, and the Beiyang Army has already arrived." A young man said to another young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes beside him.

"Call me battalion commander." The young man waved his hand, whispered a few words with another person beside him, motioned his subordinates to slip down the warehouse, squatted down behind a pile of cotton bales, and then whispered: "I counted just now, and there are not many people, maybe two or three thousand, and we don't care about those people." See those shell boxes? If you blow them up, the Beiyang Army will become a toothless tiger, and then we will wait to skin the tiger. You say yes, staff officer? ”

The man next to him nodded and said, "When the army fights, arms are the first priority, and without arms, it is a rabble." The Beiyang Army is equipped with the latest weapons, and the guns, shells and shells made in the Hanyang Arsenal may not be usable by the Beiyang Army. Battalion Commander Zhu, if we blow up this batch of munitions, we won't be able to run away from our credit. Just now I walked around with a cotton bag and counted, there were not many sentries on the station, only a platoon, and they were scattered, and now the fog was heavy, and it would not be a problem to kill them. After blowing up the munitions, it's not too late for us to blow up the bridge. ”

These people discussed for a while, then dispersed, picked up cotton bales, and touched the platform with ammunition boxes from several directions, and with a few muffled snorts, several Beiyang Army sentries standing guard nearby were quietly killed, and their military uniforms were quickly stripped off, and they were quickly replaced by these young people.

After just over ten minutes, the coolies who were still carrying the arms and baggage were surprised to find that they had become prisoners.

"Don't be afraid, everyone! We are the Republican Army! The thick-eyed young man stood on top of the ammunition box and brandished a pistol. Now I'm tired of everyone carrying these shells back to the car and getting on the train with us! ”

The gun-wielding youths carried the ammunition boxes on the platform back to the train, and the train driver and station master quickly joined the coolies, and the dispatch room also fell into the hands of these youths, and with the assistance of the railway workers, several switches were pulled. Half of the shells on the platform were quickly removed, and the young man in the lead shouted: "Okay, the remaining shells will be left here to explode, the staff officer will stay, command the first team to blow up the munitions, and the people of the second team will follow me." ”

With a whistle, the train restarted, dragging dozens of wagons out of the train station.

A staff officer of the Beiyang Army, who was buying cigarettes at the exit of the station, heard the whistle, subconsciously ran back to the platform, and watched the train leave the station in amazement.

The bewildered Beiyang staff officer didn't bother to pick up his military hat, turned around and ran towards the exit of the station, but was stopped by a gun-wielding sentry a few steps away from the gate.

"You...... What are you stopping me for? The staff officer asked with a grim face.

He was answered only by a heavy butt of his rifle, and he fainted, and before he could fall, another soldier had already grabbed the hapless staff officer and dragged him aside.

The soldier who hit the staff officer with the butt of his rifle turned around, glared at the old man selling cigarettes, grinned, and said in Anhui dialect: "The Beiyang Army is strictly disciplined, and all soldiers who do not wear military caps will be knocked unconscious. ”

The old man trembled and couldn't speak, and when the soldier turned around, he immediately cleaned up the cigarette stall and fled.

……

At the same time, several young people who stayed at the train station quickly stuffed several heavy zha medicine bags into the pile of ammunition, and a short fuse was quickly ignited.

Soon after, two loud noises were heard in the northern suburbs of Hankou.

After the news of the bombing of the Liujiamiao arms was confirmed, another piece of terrified news came: the three bridges not far from Hukou and the two bridges in the south were all blown up, and a train with dozens of wagons also overturned on the track leading to a bridge from the second bridge, and the locomotive was blown to shreds. And they also pulled away many railway workers.

In addition, the gunboats of the great powers also sent a telegram that the Jiujiang Revolutionary Army had entered the river near Wuchang and was landing and assembling.

……

There are all kinds of signs that the three towns of Wuhan have become the next target of the Republican Army, and war is inevitable.

Chen Kuilong was anxious to lead people to Hankou, and personally visited Wang Zhanyuan and Lu Yongxiang, the standard commanders who led the advance of the second town of the Beiyang Army to the south, and urged them to quickly lead the army across the river to defend Wuchang, and divide the army to Hanyang to defend the arsenal and iron factory.

Wang Lu and the others were worried about the loss of arms, but the Hanyang Arsenal was very important, the two did not dare to slack off, waited for the dense fog to dissipate a little, and hurriedly led the army to cross the river by boat, but when their troops sailed into the middle of the river, they were suddenly intercepted by a gunboat flying the dragon flag, refused to stop the ship and were bombarded again, and suffered heavy losses.

Just as the officers and men of Beiyang were scolding, the gunboat with the nameplate of "Chuguan" quickly lowered the dragon flag, and in the sound of the cannon, a red flag was raised, with four golden characters on it: Iron and Blood Republic.

It was only then that the officers and men of the Beiyang Army realized that it was the warships of the Jiujiang Rebel Army that were bombarding them.

Before they could come back to their senses, they heard the rumbling sound of cannons coming from Wuchang City again.

The western expeditionary force of the Republican Army, which was heading upstream from Jiujiang, had been stationed in Tianxinzhou last night, and took advantage of today's dense fog to land and assemble in the area of Xujiapeng on the south bank of the Yangtze River at dawn, and then quickly moved to the southeast, and soon advanced to the city of Wuchang, crushing the patrol battalions outside the city, and then erecting cannons in the new army barracks in Tangjiao, bombarding the Wuchang city wall, and fiercely exchanging fire with the flag soldiers guarding the provincial wall.

……

Before the "Chuguan" launched its attack, the Republican Special Operations Battalion, under the leadership of the battalion commander Zhu Daniu, landed four hours ahead of schedule on the British-flagged "Republic" substitute gunboat, and immediately cut off all telegraph and telephone lines near Hankou, officially kicking off the war with their special warfare.

Since the special operations battalion had successfully destroyed two bridges on the railway line, the railway traffic on the Jinghan line was interrupted, and if Wuhan was to be reinforced, the Qing army had to march more than 100 miles on foot, and all the heavy artillery had to slow down its advance.