The sound of artillery gradually intensified, the attacking troops had arrived on the opposite bank, and the Qing army had contacted, although the battle situation on the south bank could not be seen on the north bank, but every officer on the north bank looked south, if the assault team succeeded, then, the main force could cross the river safely, storm Jiujiang City, pull out the nail on the Yangtze River, and then send their own troops to nail here, block the Yangtze River channel with the cannons on the fort, prevent the Qing gunboats from sailing, ensure the smooth march of the western expeditionary troops, and cut off the connection between the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the lower reaches of the Qing army.

It can be said that whether Zhao Bei's strategy of westward expedition can be successfully implemented depends on this campaign.

Zhao Bei has the confidence to win this battle, and this confidence not only comes from his familiarity with history, but also from the belief in his heart: history will be written by him!

"Report!" A staff officer hurried over.

"Say!" Zhao Bei didn't look back, still standing on the boulder and looking south, in the distance, the dark sky was already flashing with red light, and the battle was even more intense.

"There's a party leader asking to see you." The staff officer walked up to the boulder and handed over a name. "He was the one who led those wooden boats to us."

Zhao Bei took the name and looked at it, and couldn't help but be stunned: "Gong Chuntai? Why is this person's name so familiar? …… Please! ”

The staff officer led a few big men to come, and the man at the head was about forty years old, and his face was delicate, not like a party leader who ran the rivers and lakes, but like a village school teacher.

"Contemptible Gong Chuntai, meet your lord." The man hugged his fist at Zhao Bei, but the anger of the rivers and lakes was full of energy.

Zhao Bei jumped off the boulder, hugged his fists, and said, "Mr. Gong's name is a little familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard it." ”

Gong Chuntai said with a wry smile: "It's not a secret, the contemptible people are the leaders of the Hongjiang Society of the Six Dragons Mountain, and in the thirty-second year of Guangxu, the Pingliuli uprising that caused a sensation in the world was instigated by the contemptible people." Gong Chuntai is just a contemptible pseudonym, formerly known as Xie Zuiying, Haoyuelou, a native of Liuyang, Hunan, in his early years, he was a firecracker worker, and later joined the Elders' Association. ”

Zhao Bei suddenly realized that the uprising was also quite famous in the history of the late Qing Dynasty. In 1906, the Yangtze River flooded, there was a famine in Hunan and other areas, and the people revolted, the League decided to take advantage of this favorable opportunity to launch an uprising in Hunan, and contacted the Jianghu Association of Elders and the Martial Arts Association in Pingxiang, Liuyang, and Liling, and launched an uprising in the winter of that year, announcing the formation of the "Chinese National Army", dividing troops and plundering land, and the momentum was huge, and the Qing court was panicked for a while, and had to mobilize new troops from various provinces to suppress it. This uprising, like other uprisings launched by the League, was quickly drowned in a pool of blood by the Qing army, ended in failure, and indirectly led to the dissolution of the Hubei New Army Revolutionary Organization, the Rizhihui.

"It turned out to be Gong Longtou, disrespectful and disrespectful." Zhao Bei was polite. "After the failure of the uprising, the governor of Hunan wantonly searched and killed revolutionary comrades, and Gong Longtou was able to retreat with his whole body, which shows that the means are clever."

"Your Excellency has won the prize." Gong Chuntai sighed. "There is a huge Hunan, there are only a few escapes, I am lucky, a disciple died for me, otherwise, my head will have to be hung on the Liuyang Gate in Changsha to show the public, where is there today?"

"Gong Longtou doesn't have to be discouraged, this time Zhao led the army to revolt, which is to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and avenge the revolutionary comrades who died." Zhao Bei motioned to his subordinates to bring a hat and handed it to Gong Chuntai. "In addition, I don't dare to take the word 'adult', let's do the revolution, that is, to sweep away the bad feudal habits, so there is no need to say the words of this 'adult' and 'villain' in the future, if you don't think I am self-exalted, call me 'commander-in-chief'."

Since leading the army to leave Huangni Port, Zhao Bei has asked everyone to change their names, and since then, he has been the "commander-in-chief" of this army.

"Dare to ask the commander-in-chief, are you going to fight Guangdong or Hunan?" Gong Chuntai put on a hat and said: "When the alliance invited us to the Liulong Mountain Hongjiang Society, it was said that if Hunan suffered a defeat, we would run to Guangdong, and there were their people over there to pick it up, but it was really not good, so we got on the ship and withdrew to Vietnam, but at that time, we were broken up before we left Hunan and did not go to Guangdong. ”

Zhao Bei touched the corner of his forehead and said: "Whether we can fight Guangdong or not, we will wait until Jiujiang City is conquered, as for Hunan, if the march goes well, we will definitely go." But for now, we have to take Jiujiang first. ”

Hearing this, Gong Chuntai's eyebrows danced, and said: "In this way, I will send people to collect ships, and when we take Jiujiang, we will take a boat to the south, first enter Poyang Lake, and then go south along the Ganjiang River, and then go south along the Ganjiang River, and then go south, turn into the Jinjiang River, go west to Shanggao, abandon the ship and land on the shore, divide the troops into two routes, all the way to Guangdong, one way to Hunan by land, I will first send someone to sneak back to Liuyang, and wait for the army to arrive, capture Liuyang, seize the Pingli Railway, and then kill to the west in one go, as long as Changsha is occupied, this Hunan is our world." ”

Zhao Bei was not interested in Gong Chuntai's offensive plan, except for the Pingli Railway and coal mines, Hunan in this era had almost nothing, far less important than Hubei, so even if Hunan needed to be included in the entire strategic plan, it could only be left until after Hubei was recovered, however, another piece of information revealed in Gong Chuntai's words attracted Zhao Bei's attention.

"How many ships can you collect?" Zhao Bei asked.

"The commander-in-chief doesn't know, five or six out of ten of the people who run boats on the rivers in this area are our Hunan gang, although the contemptible people are not running boats, but they have been running for a long time, and the boat gangs in the three mountains and five mountains in the Huguang and Jiangxi areas also know a lot, and the elders' association is also very powerful in the boat gangs, as long as I give an order, it is no problem to gather thousands of boats within a few days." Gong Chuntai said proudly.

Zhao Bei paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, stood still and asked, "Do you elder brothers have any power in the Qing Army's water division?" ”

Gong Chuntai was slightly stunned, then nodded, and said: "We don't know about the sailors in other places, but there are indeed our people in the sailor ships cruising and mooring along the river. The Commander-in-Chief means ......"

"Can you instigate an uprising of the sailors' gunboats? If you can't instigate, you will find a way to sink the gunboat! Zhao Bei waved his fist.

Gong Chuntai groaned: "This is not easy. But you can try. ”

Zhao Bei instructed a staff officer to bring a pen and paper, spread it on the ammunition box, and wrote a letter of appointment under an oil-paper umbrella:

"Gong Chuntai is hereby appointed as the Yangtze River patrol envoy, in charge of all water military affairs on the Yangtze River!"

Covering his own "vanguard officer" guard, Zhao Bei picked up the letter of appointment, blew it, handed it to Gong Chuntai, and said: "Then wronged Brother Gong to run along the riverside, if you see the Qing gunboats, try to rebel, if you succeed, you have made a great contribution to the revolution." ”

Gong Chuntai hesitated for a moment, accepted the letter of appointment, patted his chest and said: "Commander-in-chief, rest assured, even if the contemptible people can't rebel against the gunboats, they will definitely sink a few of them." ”

Zhao Bei took off his pistol, solemnly handed it to Gong Chuntai, and said: "Brother Gong has a good temperament, and Zhao only hates to meet too late, and he can't fight side by side with his eldest brother in Hunan. This pistol was seized during the Anqing Uprising, and it was a good time to use it, so I will give it to Brother Gong, when you set off, I will send some people to go with you, and then give you some guns and ammunition. ”

"In this way, Gong is welcome." Gong Chuntai put away the pistol and hugged his fists. "The commander-in-chief's great achievements are enough to leave a name in history, if you want to join the club, Gong is willing to be a guarantor and give up the position of the leader."

"No, no!" Zhao Bei waved his hand again and again. "I can't sit well in the position of the leading brother, so it's better for Brother Gong to sit down. In the future, the situation in Hunan will be maintained by Brother Gong, and I am convinced of Brother Gong's prestige, and as for the matter of convening civilian ships, I will have to rely on Brother Gong more. ”

Gong Chuntai was eager to make meritorious contributions, and soon took his subordinates to leave.

"It's still useful to know the party." Looking at Gong Chuntai's distant back, Zhao Bei was thoughtful.