It was noon. The trumpet of the first army sounded "tick-tock". This is the opening call of the Republican Army, and it is now lunchtime.

This is Yuezhou in the north of Hunan, the northwest suburb of the city, Huangniugang.

Due to the high terrain here and its close proximity to the mouth of Dongting Lake, it is very suitable for controlling water transportation, so the First Concubine Division of the Republican Army has an artillery company stationed in Huangniugang, equipped with six mountain guns, to control this small strategic point and defend the Yangtze River and the Dongting Lake wharf.

Only one artillery battery seems to be a little thin. However, in fact, since the Hunan Rebellion, the patrol army and naval division of Dongting Lake have all been disarmed and dismissed by the republican naval forces, and the military strength of the Hunan army is basically invisible in Dongting Lake now. There were only a few sporadic bandits, so this artillery battery was not so much defending the docks as it was showing a military presence.

After the opening call for lunch sounded, the officers and men of the artillery company stationed at Huangniugang took turns to eat in the open-air canteen of the cooking squad according to the order, but before the first group of people could finish eating, a group of cavalry had already galloped in on horseback. The person at the head was none other than Wu Zhenhan, the commander of the Fifth Division.

Wu Zhenhan rushed over from the troops in the east of Yuezhou City, and he went out of the city to inspect the troops before dawn today, and at noon he happened to inspect the Huangniugang Artillery Company, so he had lunch here by the way.

The division commander arrived, and the artillery company did not dare to slack off. The company commander personally brought the bowl over, but Wu Zhenhan didn't put any division commander's shelf, one end of the coarse porcelain bowl, squatting under a tree, talking to the company commander while eating, and the staff adjutants who came with Wu Division Commander were also treated the same, but it was the political propagandist of the artillery company who accompanied them to eat.

Now that the regular units of the Republican Army have been reorganized, according to the regulations, each company of Division A is assigned two political propagandists, and each company of Division B is assigned one political propagandist, and these literate and hyphenated officers are all directly sent down by the Republican Army's Political Propaganda Commissar and are only responsible to the Political Propaganda Commissar. However, since political propagandists are dispatched by the Political Propaganda Commission, they hold part of the power to report and commend the meritorious service of grassroots officers and men, and they are also responsible for the literacy eradication work of grassroots companies, so political propagandists are also very authoritative in grassroots units.

In the words of some officers, this political propagandist is the "supervising army" in the republican army, and this supervising army is still organized layer by layer, and there are company representatives in the company, and the battalion and above are the battalion representatives, and the battalion and above are the regimental representatives, but there are no representatives above the regiment. At the brigade level, there is a "four-member committee" composed of two political commissars, brigade commanders, and division commanders, who have full authority to supervise the work of political propagandists at all levels and prevent them from dereliction of duty.

This system of political propagandists is still in the exploration stage. However, very obvious positive results have been achieved, the regular troops of the Republican Army have completely shaken off the shadow of the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, and the era when officers regarded soldiers as slaves and private property is gone forever, and the current Republican Army, that is, a completely new army, organizationally speaking, this force is as solid as a rock.

The artillery company stationed in Huangniugang also has a political propagandist, named Qin Ling, who was originally a supervisor of the Jiangxi New Army, joined the republican army in Jiujiang after the outbreak of the revolution, and later followed Wu Zhenhan to Jiangxi and Hunan. However, due to the outbreak of the Hunan and Guizhou Incident, this episode of scraping plans can only be postponed.

Qin Ling is good at talking, although he rarely meets with these staff officers and adjutants of the division headquarters, but this moment of eating has already been hotly fought with these officers, through the mouths of these people, he learned that his unit is about to change the guard, and this scalper post will be taken over by the Revolutionary GuardsAs for whether to fight Changsha or transfer back to Hubei after the change of defense, those officers are also very strict-mouthed.

Qin Ling knew the truth of what was enough, so he didn't ask any more questions, and took the last few bites of rice in the bowl into his mouth, and didn't swallow it yet. I saw several men wearing straw hats and carrying foreign guns on their shoulders being taken to the cooking class by the sentries.

Judging from the dress, those people were officers and soldiers of the Xiangbei Revolutionary Army, and when they arrived at the cooking class, most of them went to eat, and only the leader walked up to Wu Zhenhan.

"Senior Commander Wu, I've finally found you."

The man sighed, took the bowl handed over by an adjutant, drank the cold boiled water in it in one go, wiped his mouth, took off his straw hat, took out a note from it, handed it to Wu Zhenhan, and said: "Our department has been ordered to drive to Yuezhou City, just wait for the commander-in-chief to give an order, and we can go straight to Changsha." ”

"Are you Commander Gong back?" Wu Zhenhan took the note and glanced at it hurriedly.

"It's back. But it also hung the lottery, but fortunately it was only a flesh wound. The man nodded.

Wu Zhenhan stood up, put the note in his military uniform pocket, and left the artillery company with the staff officer and adjutant.

The company commander straightened his military uniform and walked up to Qin Ling. said: "Lao Qin, bring a rifle and hurry with me to the division headquarters for a meeting." ”

"Meeting?" Qin Ling was stunned.

"At the pre-war mobilization meeting, the division commander said that the commander-in-chief had decided to solve the Hunan diehards by force, and our Fifth Division was the vanguard. When the Revolutionary Guards arrived, we set off. ”

The words of the company commander made Qin Lingchang sigh, in fact, since the coup d'état in Hunan, the Fifth Division has been holding its breath from top to bottom, and the petition of the grassroots troops has not been missing, but because they have been waiting for the Revolutionary Guards to take over from Hubei, the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division have been a little anxious these days. Starting

Knowing that the commander-in-chief had made up his mind to deal with the Hunan Junxian faction by force, the more than 100 people in the artillery company were suddenly shaken up, and without waiting for the company commander's orders, they began to wipe their guns and guns and check the horseshoe.

Huangniugang is not far from Yuezhou City, Qin Ling and the company commander each carried a rifle, entered the city on foot, entered the city from the Yueyang Tower at the West Gate, and just in time for a unit of the Xiangbei Revolutionary Army to go out of the city, all the officers and soldiers sang

Song.

"The clothes are torn, the rice bowls are empty, and China is poor everywhere. Why poor? Corrupt officials are ruthless, local tyrants are vicious, and they brutally oppress our people! , swords and guns. The battle flag is red, and the crusade is fierce and stubborn! When you open your eyes, the rebel army is majestic, the national fighting spirit is high, and you will not fight back the fierce and stubborn vow.

The company commander was surprised: "The Xiangbei Revolutionary Army can sing this song?" Those idiots we even have still can't sing. ”

Qin Ling said with a smile: "I heard the staff officers of those divisions just now say that the Xiangbei Revolutionary Army has also sent political propagandists, presumably they taught this song." It is said that the commander of the Xiangbei Revolutionary Army intended to accept the adaptation of the Communist Party. or numbered as the Republican Army, Dugu was numbered as the Revolutionary Guard Corps VI

"Hasn't Gong Chūn always wanted to go back to his hometown? What's the matter, now it's turned xìnger? "There's something strange about the company commander.

"Hit back home? Now Hunan is in this posture. Without the support of the Republican Army, the Northern Hunan Revolutionary Army would have been defeated by the Junxian patrol army long ago. ”

Qin Ling and the company commander muttered a few times, and after the revolutionary army drove out of the city, they entered Yuezhou City and rushed to the division headquarters.

The two rushed to the division headquarters to take a look, only to find that they had come too early, the conference room had not yet opened, and there were more than a dozen officers waiting outside the door, just setting up the dragon door to chat, and when they were talking, a staff officer hurriedly came, and all the literate officers present ordered "Zhuangding" and pulled them to help, as a political propagandist, Qin Ling also followed.

When he arrived at the place, Qin Ling understood that his task was to assist the staff officers of the division headquarters in registering the roster.

The people who came to register were all revolutionaries led by Gong Chūntai, commander of the Northern Hunan Revolutionary Army, from southern Hunan and eastern Hunan to the east, most of these people were under the screen of the original Communist Association, after the Hunan Revolution, the military and political sub-offices of the Communist Party in various places collapsed, and the Junxian faction held the real power in various places, and implemented the policy of cutting grass and eradicating the roots of the people of the Communist Association, many cadres and soldiers of the Communist Association were planted and killed on the charge of "bandits", and those who were lucky enough to escape could only hide in the mountains, and some people simply fell into the grass and became real bandits. The situation in Hunan is even more volatile.

Gong Chūntai himself was the leader of the Hunan Hui Party. There was a strong appeal in southern Hunan and eastern Xiangdong, and after the Hunan change, he was stunned to know that the Junxian party in southern Hunan and eastern Hunan had wiped out the Hui Party, and Gong Chūn Tai was very anxious, so the spirit of the rivers and lakes broke out, and he sneaked to the places around Xiangnan and Xiangdong in disguise with a small number of cronies, and used the remnants of the Hui Party to gather those scattered revolutionaries and prepare to launch an uprising in the local area, but later he changed his mind considering that the balance of forces between the enemy and us was too great. He gave up the plan of the uprising and decided to lead the scattered revolutionaries to sneak back to northern Hunan and join the republic.

It was not easy to come all the way, and it was all thanks to the organizational ability of the Hui Party and the relationship accumulated by Gong Chūn Tai over the years, which brought those more than 2,000 people back to Yuezhou in several batches.

Gong Chūntai's Xiangbei Revolutionary Army relied entirely on the republican army's salary, and the troops were financially constrained and could not accommodate these people brought over, so they were led to the Fifth Division, hoping that Wu Zhenhan would take them in, considering the current situation in Hunan, Wu Zhenhan agreed to take these people in, but they could not be placed in the army casually, and this necessary screening measure was still indispensable, so Qin Ling's group of literate officers were temporarily transferred over to help register.

Name? Qin Ling sat behind the table, holding a pen, and looked up at the person standing in front of the table.

"Zhou Haishan." As the man spoke, he took out a strip of cloth and showed it to Qin Ling, which was the military rank symbol of the Recommendation Society.

"You've done it before?"

Qin Ling glanced at the piece of cloth, but he was not surprised, he had also registered an association just now. It was an officer equivalent to a brigade commander of the Republican Army, and even such a large officer had no troops, so he could only escape with Gong Chūntai, which shows that the Communist Association had suffered heavy losses in Hunan, and basically the rule of the Communist Party in Hunan had collapsed.

"Standard, equivalent to the commander of your army.

Zhou Haishan paused and added: "The contempt is a fellow villager of the Guizhou Army, and he also knows the commander of the Guizhou Army, Wu. ”

Qin Ling nodded, wrote down the person's name on a piece of paper, and asked, "Do you know how to write?" What did you do before joining the army? ”

"Contemptible people can write, before joining the army, contemptible people worked as errand in the Hunan army patrol camp and worked as a pipe band." Zhou Haishan said with a smile.

But before the words fell, he heard someone scolding him behind him.

"Zhou Haishan! Your lie is coming with your mouth open! You used to be a cloth seller, when did you become an officer in the patrol battalion? I don't care what you say in the Communists, but now that you're going to defect to the Republican Army, you have to be careful when you speak in the future! ”

Zhou Haishan turned his head to look, saw the person's appearance clearly, and was suddenly startled, and he didn't dare to speak for a long time.

"Master Wu." Qin Ling also saw the man clearly, and hurriedly stood up and saluted.

It was Wu Zhenhan, the commander of the Fifth Division, who exposed Zhou Haishan's lies, and he was accompanied by Deputy Division Commander Pan

Time.

Wu Zhenhan nodded Zhou Haishan's nose and said unceremoniously: "Do you know why you will be defeated together?" It's because there are too many people like you! Deceive and deceive, full of big words, how can you not be defeated? It was because the CCP was also a revolutionary organization that I agreed to take you in. If you bring the tricks of the CCP to the IRA, don't blame me for being unkind! ”

Zhou Haishan blushed, only a few words, but he didn't dare to be disrespectful, when he was ordered to lead more than 1,000 troops to the Yanglou Division to take over the defense, he had learned this Wu division commander to say the same thing, at this time, under the fence, there is no capital to resist.

"In my opinion, you are not fit to stay in the army. You'd better be your own cloth vendor. When you go to command your subordinates to fight, you don't give your own life. It is to send the lives of his subordinates. People like you. I won't take it in, if it weren't for Commander Gong's face, I'd have driven you away now!" ”

Wu Zhenhan's face was blue, and after a few words. Turning his eyes, he looked at Qin Ling and said, "Qin Ling, you immediately go back to Huangniugang with your company commander, load all the artillery and ammunition, and wait for the troops of the Xiangbei Revolutionary Army to rush to Huangniugang, and you will immediately pull the troops to the campus in the east of the city!" ”

"Yes!"

Qin Ling put down his pen, saluted and retreated, walked out of the division hall quickly, and glanced back when he walked to the door, only to see that Wu Zhenhan was still teaching Zhou Haishan's nose to scratch.

"Division Commander Wu told me to go back and pull the team together, is it about to start?"

With this thought, Qin Ling and the company commander hurriedly returned to the Huangniugang garrison, gathered troops, loaded artillery and ammunition, and a northern Hunan revolutionary army then arrived to take over the defense, and the artillery company immediately evacuated Huangniugang and drove to the Chengdong University Yard.

Throughout the afternoon, the garrison near Yuezhou City was frequently moved, and a large number of dysprosium vehicles were reloaded, and the atmosphere in the city suddenly became tense.

At five and a half episodes in the afternoon of the same day, division commander Wu Zhenhan officially issued an order to the Fifth Division to be drawn out, and the content was very simple

：

"The whole army set off and made a quick assault to the south! Target: Changsha. ”