A glimmer of afterglow on the horizon gradually faded, and the town of Huangnigang finally quieted down, and there was hardly a single figure in the streets except for the soldiers on patrol, not only the soldiers returned to the barracks, but even the people in the town closed the doors tightly, and there was no need to go out.

When the last glimmer of light faded, the barracks outside the town were completely shrouded in darkness, and the whole valley was lifeless and oppressive, and the occasional dog barking was quickly suppressed by the oppressive atmosphere.

After the whole day's bombing, the soldiers of the 11th Town of the Hubei New Army and the 9th Town of the Jiangsu New Army temporarily restored order and discipline, most of them had returned to their respective barracks, only a few were still wandering outside the camp, and the vigilant eyes swept over from time to time, occasionally stopping for a moment on the heads of those hanging from the trees, and then quickly moved away with a hint of hatred.

In order to suppress the soldiers, Yin Chang, the deputy minister of the school review and autumn exercise, did not hesitate to kill, led the guards to arrest hundreds of rebels in one go, killed half of them, and hung their heads on the treetops as a warning.

Not every soldier will be intimidated by this kind of madness of the outside strong and the middle of the middle, just when Duan Fang and Yin Chang were toasting each other's fine wines, a tense military meeting was being held in a humble tavern on the side of the road outside the town of Huangnigang.

The meeting was held by more than 50 soldiers of the 41st Standard of the 21st Mixed Association of the Hubei New Army, all of whom were members of the "Qunzhi Society", and the leader was Yang Wangpeng, a native of Hunan, who was originally a Xiucai, but a few years ago the Qing court canceled the imperial examination, and he had no way to climb the ladder, and the source of food was cut off, so he had to go to the Hunan New Army as a soldier, because the propaganda revolution was opened, and he could not get along in Hunan, so he ran to Hubei and joined the Hubei New Army under a pseudonym to continue revolutionary propaganda. There are not a few people like him, and this kind of scholar with new ideas and full of complaints is running around the world, and many of them have joined the new army, and this situation has aroused the vigilance of the Qing court, and it has to order the "indigenous people to defend the territory", and the new army in all provinces is not allowed to recruit soldiers from other provinces, but in such an era of concealment, this regulation of the Qing court has finally become written, and there are quite a few scholars from other provinces in the new army in all provinces, especially the Hubei New Army.

Many of the members of the Qunzhi Society were not from Hubei, and they relied on connections and backdoors to join the Hubei New Army, which gradually became the source of the revolution in the late Qing Dynasty.

The night before yesterday, the news of the success of the Anqing uprising spread in the army, at the beginning, everyone would still be skeptical, but soon they firmly believed in the news, because judging from the performance of those panicked senior officers, there must have been some major changes in Anqing, otherwise, Duanfang, Yinchang and others would not be in a hurry to jump up and down, judging from their series of small actions, the scale of the Anqing uprising must not be small, otherwise, this group of Manchu ministers would not be so nervous, and the rumors were loud.

The atmosphere of the meeting was very solemn, the "Three Forts" cigarette cans on the table were empty, the whole room was filled with smoke, and people were smoking cigarettes one after another, but they could not taste anything.

Now that no one was speaking, the quarrel had set fire in the hearts of all of them, and the meeting was faced with a fruitless situation because of serious disagreements over the crucial question of whether to continue to respond to the uprising according to the original plan.

As early as a few years ago during the Russo-Japanese War, the Hubei New Army had set up a "scientific cram school" to carry out secret anti-Qing activities, and was later replaced by the "Japanese Notification Society", and Liu Jing'an was responsible for presiding over the affairs of the meeting, although it was not directly led by the Alliance, but it agreed with the Alliance's proposition, but due to the poor planning of the League in the Hunan Pingliuli Uprising two years ago, it affected the Hubei Daily Notification Society, which led to the forced dissolution of the Association, and Liu Jing'an was also imprisoned. The revolutionary forces in the Hubei New Army were depressed for a while, and it was not until not long ago that this "Qunzhi Society" was proclaimed, and it continued to engage in the anti-Qing revolutionary cause and learned the lessons of the Japanese Notification Society, and the Qunzhi Society decided not to accept officers to join them easily, but to focus on mobilizing soldiers.

Originally, according to the plan drawn up yesterday, the Qunzhi Society would take advantage of the success of the Anqing uprising to incite the Hubei New Army to change banners, declare an uprising on the spot, and then coerce the Ninth Town of the Jiangsu New Army to respond to the revolutionary comrades in Anqing, kill Anqing in one go, and cooperate with the rebel army in Anqing. To this end, at the risk of being exposed, the Qunzhi Society began to agitate in tandem among the units of the New Army in the Autumn Exercise, using the identities of fellow villagers, classmates, and even the party to contact the soldiers and junior officers in each unit and instigate them to revolt.

However, with the bloody suppression of Yin Chang and others, the soldiers of the New Army, who were already a little ready to move, were suddenly shocked, and the good situation was about to be lost.

For this reason, Yang Wangpeng urgently convened this plenary meeting, although the number of people present at the meeting was less than half of the total number, but there were two opposing opinions; one faction headed by Yang Wangpeng insisted on continuing the original plan of the uprising, seeking survival from the death, and launching an uprising at night, while the other faction held that the current morale and military spirit had been lost, and it was not appropriate to move lightly, but should continue to lurk in the army, and as for those comrades who had been exposed, they should retreat overnight and go to Anqing to participate in the uprising. As the two factions held their own opinions, a stalemate was formed at the meeting.

Yang Wangpeng threw the cigarette butt in his hand, stepped on it with his foot, turned the horse lamp on the table darker, cleared his throat, and said: "Everyone, you can't hesitate any longer, now the Hubei New Army is unstable, and there are cadres of the League in the army to instigate, and the ninth town of Jiangsu is even more violent, many officers in the town have graduated from the Anqing Military Academy, and most of the officers of the Anqing New Army are classmates, and it is the Anqing New Army that launched an uprising in Anqing, even the bayonet has been taken away, and now the ninth town is holding its breath, and yesterday it sent people to talk to us, the military heart is available, as long as we launch, the new army in Jiangsu will definitely make a move. ”

"We have too few people, I'm afraid it won't help. It's just that we were too timid at the beginning, and we didn't dare to do anything for a whole year, if the school was established a year earlier, it wouldn't be what it is now, at least, the eighth town can also be controlled by us to control part of the troops. Zhang Yukun sat in the corner and sighed.

"It's useless to say that now! The problem is that the thief in Yinchang is murderous, and he has the support of the end party, the banner people are the same and hateful to the revolution, and we don't have any bullets in our hands, but we can't do anything with them. I still insist on my opinion, to respond to all changes unchanged, to continue to lurk and continue to lurk, and to go to Anqing as soon as possible if it has been exposed, no matter where it goes, it is all doing revolution, why do you have to take such a risk? Zhong Wei, who was sitting in the other corner, said.

"I think that the situation in Anqing is very critical, the city is on the edge of the Yangtze River, the Qing gunboats can come and go freely, if the ship is bombarded with huge cannons, Anqing will not be defended. Therefore, I think that it is either necessary to launch an uprising immediately and respond to Anqing, or to dismiss the meeting immediately and return to the base camp to preserve the revolutionary forces and wait for the opportune moment. In a word, we can't be so hesitant, and if we delay for one more minute, the comrades of the Qunzhi Society will be more dangerous. I just counted, and among the more than 200 heads, there are at least a dozen of them from the Qunzhi Society, all of whom are comrades who are in contact with various battalions, and yesterday we were still discussing the great cause of the anti-Qing revolution, but now we have been separated by yin and yang. Deng Gang, another cadre of the society, said, and then raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes.

Yang Wangpeng pondered for a moment, touched the table, but found that the cigarette was gone, so he coughed, stood up, and was about to speak, but suddenly heard a few sounds from the closed door of the store.

Everyone was shocked, and they took out the bayonets they carried with them, holding them in their hands, once the Qing soldiers came to take people, they would fight to the death, and the jade would be burned.

The knocking sound is very regular, four long and five short.

"It's your own people!" Yang Wangpeng walked behind the door and asked in a low voice, "Who is it?" ”

"It's me, Pan Kangshi (the word is right)." The man outside the door replied.

"Officer Pan?" Yang Wangpeng and others were stunned. This Pan Kangshi is the only senior officer of the Qunzhi Society, and is now the officer of the left team of the 41st Battalion, and Yang Wangpeng is his secretary, and it is precisely by his cover that the Qunzhi Society has been able to develop in a short period of time.

Yang Wangpeng hesitated, but still opened the door, but saw Pan Kangshi standing outside the door with a few people, all of them dressed as ordinary people, and there were no weapons in their hands.

"Zhang Licheng? Where did you go? I thought you were sacrificed too......" Yang Wangpeng saw the person behind Pan Kangshi clearly, but when he turned his eyes, he found that the other three were all unfamiliar faces, and he immediately became vigilant. "Who are the three of them?"

"Let's go inside." Pan Kangshi stepped through the door, and the others followed.

Yang Wangpeng closed the door and sent a few more people out to keep guard, only then did he turn back to the table and carefully look at the three strangers.

"My name is Tian Jinfu, an officer of the Anqing Rebel Army, and the two of them are my subordinates. We have come from Anqing to invite you to join us in the uprising! One of the young men with a national character face introduced himself very boldly.