Several gunboats were cruising slowly on the river in the area of Tianxinzhou in the lower reaches of Hankou, and the muzzles of the black hole pointed in unison to the direction of Qingshan on the south bank, and the dragon flags on the masts were hunting in the wind.

These are the five shallow water gunboats of the Qing army, namely "Chu Tai", "Chu Tong", "Chu Yu", "Chu You", "Chu Qian", and the "Chu Guan" of the Republican Army are the same class of ships, ordered from the Japanese shipyard by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, with a displacement of 700 tons, all of which are new ships that have not been built for a long time, the age of the ships is less than two years, and the armaments on the ships are also the same, two British-made main guns, two secondary guns, and some machine guns and machine guns.

Sa Zhenbing stood on the "Chu Qian" ship, leaned on the railing of the bridge, looked at the north bank of the Yangtze River with a telescope, and then looked in the direction of Qingshan on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

As the naval admiral urgently appointed by the Qing court, Sa Zhenbing knew very well what kind of situation he was facing now, the three towns of Wuhan had all been recovered, the Hanyang Arsenal had fallen into the hands of the revolutionary army, the Turtle Mountain in Hanyang and the Snake Mountain in Wuchang looked down on the Yangtze River condescendingly, and the revolutionary army could completely set up cannons on the mountain, relying on the mountain to make up for the lack of range of the field guns, in front of the field guns loaded with high explosives, the thin hulls of these small warships could not block a few guns at all, and the semi-enclosed gun covers could not provide comprehensive protection for the gunners, unless the large ships were transferred, to bombard at a distance, otherwise it will not be possible to have an advantage in artillery battles.

But it is unrealistic to adjust the size of the ship, now the Yangtze River is the dry season, the water level is declining, the channel is shallow and narrower, it is difficult for large warships such as cruisers to sail to the Wuhan River, and it is suitable for the Yangtze River to sail gunboats and torpedo boats, after the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court rebuilt the navy, and divided it into two fleets according to its use, one is the cruiser fleet, the main one is the large warship, the other is the river defense fleet, all of which are small warships, and the Yangtze River fleet is the most powerful in the river defense fleet, and the "Liuchu" is the main force among them, in addition to four "Jiang" gunboats, It was ordered from the Japanese shipyard by the Governor of Liangjiang, of which the "Jiang Yuan" and "Jiang Heng" ships have been completed and returned to China and stationed in Jiangning, while the "Jiang Li" and "Jiang Zhen" are still outfitting in the shipyard and have not yet returned to China.

Originally, Sa Zhenbing planned to bring all the "Jiang" and "Chu" warships to Wuhan, but because the newly appointed acting governor of Liangjiang, Chang Geng, did not agree to transfer "Jiang Yuan" and "Jiang Heng" out of Jiangsu, Sa Zhenbing could only transfer two more torpedo boats and one transport ship from the cruiser fleet to form a thief fleet and march to Wuhan.

When Sa Zhenbing led the fleet to Jiujiang, there were a total of nine warships, but when they rushed through the Jinjipo blockade line, they were attacked by the republican army field artillery and machine guns, the two torpedo boats were sunk, and the transport ship was also hit and caught fire, and retreated downstream, so that there were only six warships left, in addition to the "Wuchu", there was also a protective cruiser "Haichen", but the warship had a full load displacement of up to 2,700 tons, and it was said that it could not sail in the Yangtze River now, but the Qing court suffered the loss of Jiujiang Jinjipo. Fearing that the artillery fire of the small warship would not be fierce enough, he forced Sa Zhenbing to transfer the "Haichen" from the cruiser fleet to the Jiangfang fleet, in a vain attempt to use the ship's heavy artillery to bombard the Jinjipo fortress and the Wuhan Revolutionary Army.

But after all, the Qing court's move was a risk, after passing through the Jiujiang River, the voyage of the "Haichen" became very difficult, staggering along the way while surveying the channel, and the republican army had removed the navigation beacons along the river, which made the cruiser's navigation more difficult, and also slowed down the speed of the entire fleet, "Haichen" finally moved to the lower reaches of Hankou, but when it sailed to the lower reaches of Tianxinzhou in the Yangtze River north of Qingshan, it ran aground, and in desperation, Sa Zhenbing could only transfer to "Chu Qian" as the flagship, He led five gunboats to the upper reaches of the river, and ordered Cheng Wenbing, the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, to sit in "Haichen" and command the sailors to dismantle some of the ship's machinery and communication boats and remove excess coal, so as to reduce the draft and make the ship's hull float.

After the fleet sailed out of the Tianxinzhou channel, Sa Zhenbing did not dare to move forward, and the artillery forts dotted on both sides of the Yangtze River were a silent warning, especially the artillery positions on Qingshan, which posed a great threat to the Qing fleet.

Sa Zhenbing did not break through or open fire, but only led the fleet to circle around Tianxinzhou, while protecting the stranded "Haichen", while waiting for the Japanese fleet to return, the Japanese fleet had already sailed to Hankou to reconnoitre, and the Republican army did not shell, obviously also had some scruples.

"My lord, a sampan is coming towards us, waving a white flag." Tang Xiangming, a staff officer standing beside Sa Zhenbing, pointed to the other side of the ship and said.

Sa Zhenbing raised his eyes and saw a small sampan rowing from the direction of Qingshan on the south bank, in addition to the four oarsmen, there was also a man, a small hat in a green coat, holding a flagpole in his hand, holding a small white flag on his head, and there was another person next to the man, but it was a blonde foreigner.

"Dada...... Da Da ......"

The sailors of the "Chu Qian" turned their machine guns, and fired a series of short shots, and the bullets hit not far in front of the sampan route, and the sampan consciously stopped, and several sailors of the "Chu Qian" approached in the dinghy, and after inspecting the sampan, they escorted the sampan to the "Chu Qian".

Under the guns of the sailors, the man on the sampan pointed to the foreigner beside him and said, "This is Mr. Koss, a Swede, who is now the head of the Hankow Red Cross." ”

Sa Zhenbing walked to the side of the ship, looked at the badge on the foreigner's arm, and asked, "What is Mr. Koss's noble doing?" ”

The foreigner muttered and handed over a letter, Tang Xiangming opened the letter, looked at it a few times, and said to Sa Zhenbing: "This foreigner hopes that we will retreat and not fight with the revolutionary army." ”

Sa Zhenbing said solemnly: "I'm sorry, Mr. Koss, this time to attack the rebels is on the emperor's order, you can't just leave, besides, this war is our country's internal affairs, and foreigners cannot interfere." ”

After speaking, Sa Zhenbing looked at the Chinese man in a green coat and hat again, and asked, "What are the feet?" ”

The man held up an envelope in his hand and said, "Contemptible Rao Hanxiang, appointed by the revolutionary military government, has come to deliver a letter, please be sure to read it by the owner of your ship." The few sailors sent by your army to the shore to spy on the military situation just now have been captured anyway, and now they are revolutionary army soldiers, and your army's virtual reality has been mastered by our revolutionary army, and our army's artillery is ready to fight, and there are gunboats to help in the battle, Wuhan can be described as 'impregnable', and it is not easy to attack. The Manchu Qing Dynasty lived in China for more than 200 years, the people were not happy, the heavens were angry and the people were resentful, and the revolutionary army acted for the heavens and hanged the people to fight crimes, which was exactly in line with the will of the people of heaven. Now that the general trend of the revolution has risen, if it goes with it, it will prosper, and if it goes against it, it will perish, and all the officers and men of the navy are people who understand things, how can they work for the Manchu Tatars again? Our army has set up several artillery positions in Castle Peak, and the reason why our army did not fire artillery just now was only because of the weakness of the Chinese navy, and it could not bear to kill each other and sink the Chinese navy again. With that, he put his hand on the ladder and handed over the letter.

Sa Zhenbing walked down the boarding ladder, stopped the sailors who were about to receive the letter, and said coldly to Rao Hanxiang: "Since it is a letter from the rebels, it is okay not to read it." Considering that you are a scholar, it is not difficult for you, so you can quickly return and tell the rebel leaders in the city that there is a glimmer of life if you surrender immediately, otherwise the army will advance by land and water, and the jade will be burned, and there will be no distinction between good and bad. ”

"You're Sathido, aren't you? There's your Admiral's flag on that mast, and I'm afraid you can't go wrong. Rao Hanxiang held up the letter and said. This letter was written by the lower master, and you can not read other people's letters, but it is better for you to read this letter. ”

"Who is the master of the foothills?"

"Li Songqing. When he was in the Sailor Academy, you were his mentor. Now he is sitting in the Qingshan fort, maybe he is holding a telescope to meet the teacher in God. ”

Sa Zhenbing was slightly stunned, and subconsciously glanced in the direction of Qingshan. Li Yuanhong became the "speaker" of the rebels, and he also knew this big news, although he felt that Li Yuanhong's move was a bit incredible, but everyone had their own ambitions, and it was difficult for others to say anything.

Sa Zhenbing turned his head, waved his hand, and said, "Since Li Songqing is already a rebel, this letter must be a letter of persuasion for the rebels. As an official of the imperial court, how can Sa have a personal relationship with the rebels? Go back, tell Li Songqing, and persuade him to repent as soon as possible and not to be an enemy of the imperial court. ”

"Then ask Sati to write a reply, so that I can bring back my life."

"Now that Li Songqing and I are our own masters, the friendship between teachers and students is no longer possible, so there is no need to write this letter."

Seeing Sa Zhenbing's resolute attitude, Rao Hanxiang had no choice but to put the letter back on his cuff and instructed the oarsman to turn the bow of the boat, but before he could open it, he heard someone shouting from the gunboat.

"Dare to ask Mr. Rao, since you are Li Songqing's underneath, do you know the recent situation of Mr. Tang Jiwu (Tang Hualong)?"

Rao Hanxiang turned around, glanced at the man, and said, "Mr. Tang is now in the British Concession, and I was ordered by Li Songqing to send a letter to Mr. Tang a few days ago. ”

The man on the gunboat arched his hand as a thank-you.

When the sampan was far away, Sa Zhenbing said to Tang Xiangming: "Since Brother Ling is in the concession, everything must be safe, don't worry, assist the court with your heart." You studied in England and France for a few years, and as soon as you returned to China, you caught up with this war, and transferred you to the navy, just to make your learning useful. ”

"That's a military lift. The letter sent by the foreigner said that the consular corps of the concession did not want us to open fire, and was worried that the shells would fall on the concession, and the artillery position of the revolutionary army was set up on the side of the concession. Tang Xiangming handed the letter to Sa Zhenbing.

Although both the Republican Army and the Qing Army were cautious, the shells did not look long, and a few shells still fell in the British Concession and the French Concession during the Battle of Hankow, which aroused strong dissatisfaction among the consuls of the two countries, and they had lodged verbal protests to the Qing court and the Republican Army respectively.

Sa Zhenbing took the letter and looked at it, sighed, and said, "It's useless to fire the cannon now, let's wait for the army to come over." I won't hide it from you, what the imperial court means is that if the Japanese warships open fire, we will fire them together, and the great powers can't even disarm the Japanese warships, right? Now what I'm worried about is the morale of the army, and those sailors have not returned for a long time after they have gone ashore, I am afraid that they have really joined the rebels as Rao Hanxiang said. After Gengzi, the dynasty was sluggish, the foreign powers were rampant, the people's hearts gradually changed, the navy was not as good as the army, many officers stayed abroad, and they had seen the world, I was afraid that they would be instigated by the rebels, and the ships with the word "Chu" were stationed in Wuhan for many years, and many of the ship's members were from Hubei, and the military spirit was the most easily shaken. ”

"The point is that the Army is also moving too slowly, and I don't know when it will arrive. Yesterday, Jiujiang went down without a fight, and the troops were not tired, so why should they stop to rest? ”

"Liangbi called just now, saying that the army's morale is a little unstable, and he wants to stay in Jiujiang for a few more days."

"If the army doesn't arrive, the Japanese warships will open fire, can we fire?"

Sa Zhenbing hesitated for a moment and said, "Don't open it!" ”

After speaking, the two of them looked at the upstream river, and saw a few wisps of black smoke, although they could not see the Japanese gunboat, but the two could also imagine the appearance of the sunburst flag at the stern of the ship.

(Keep canvassing, keep canvassing.) ）