The news of the outbreak of the war is not known to the common people, but the stakeholders are the first to know about it, and start all kinds of activities to try to survive the war or get certain benefits.

Outside Wuhan, in a courtyard on the Yangtze River, this is a secret meeting point provided by one of the opponents' officials, where Mr. Gu and others are meeting.

"What's the situation in the city of Wuhan?"

"It is not optimistic, when I came out, it seemed that someone was following behind, the treasury, the arsenal, the governor's yamen, the governor's yamen and other important places were guarded by soldiers from the eighth town, and there were also soldiers from the eighth town at the entrance of the main street. Fortunately, our armed forces have infiltrated secretly, and now they are hidden in secret mansions in Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, and have not been discovered. ”

"Now I am worried about two points, one is that the Yangtze River and the river are controlled by the people of Zhang Zhidong, and it is inconvenient for us to move back and forth; Second, the rebel party has already taken a train from Guangzhou, and it is expected to arrive in Wuhan within two days. Gu Hongming said.

"There are people defending along the railway, it should be the people of the chaotic party, we are not easy to destroy, then take down the Wuhan railway station and block the chaotic party out of the city! There are also our people in the eighth town, and there are more than 300 people under Wu Datou who can completely obey his orders, plus more than 200 people in our hands near the train station, we should be able to take the opportunity to seize the train station. The remaining more than 1,000 people are in the three towns of Wuhan to attack those important places, as long as we persist in the seventh town, the ninth town, and the third town, we will be the first merit! ”

"Well, we still have two days to go, and we must control the three towns of Wuhan before the chaos comes. Also, send 300 men to control the various ferries. Remember, don't be embarrassed for him after taking Zhang Zhidong, after all, the old man has followed him for many years, although Xiangshuai was confused for a while, but there is still the possibility of changing his mind! Gu Hongming said hypocritically, as if the matter had been successful.

The three towns of Wuhan became the focus of everyone, this thoroughfare of nine provinces attracted the army of the four routes, and to the north was the third town led by Duan Qirui, which has now crossed the border between Hubei and Henan and is marching towards Wuhan. To the west was Ding Zhenze's Nineteenth Town, but he had only sent an infantry association, and he hesitated, as if he was still waiting. This is not surprising, because the Yunnan-Guizhou region is also facing a huge threat from the national army, and Ding Zhenze has to protect himself, and he can't lose all his family wealth because of a Wuhan.

The seventh and ninth towns in the east were not satisfied with the speed of the march, and Wei Guangtao fought hard, leaving only 2,000 men each in Jiangxi and southern Zhejiang, and the rest were all thrown into the battle to attack the two lakes. The seventh town headed for Wuhan, and the ninth town set off from Jiangxi, aiming for Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan.

Constrained by the lack of logistical capabilities, Lü Liang did not take the opportunity to launch a war of liberation against Yunnan-Guizhou and the Liangjiang region. There are reasons for this due to insufficient manufacturing capacity, as well as insufficient transportation capacity. The amount of logistical materials needed for such a large-scale battle is not a small amount, and the supply in one direction is more than enough, and any more will be overwhelming.

The large amount of equipment with high-velocity weapons brings high-intensity ammunition consumption, and unlike the Northern Expedition in the original time and space, the number of logistics materials needed by more than 40,000 people of the First Army is extremely huge. Fortunately, after the opening of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, the General Staff Department formulated a strategy of first the two lakes, then Yunnan and Guizhou, and then the two rivers and Sichuan, in accordance with the conditions and environment in various aspects.

Wuhan became the focal point, and a large-scale battle would be fought in the vicinity, and the General Staff hoped to use the attraction of Wuhan to roughly wipe out the new army in the Liangjiang and Yunnan-Guizhou regions, so as to create a foundation for the subsequent liberation operation.

In this way, of course, whoever controls Wuhan first will take the initiative. Everyone was in a hurry, and at this tense moment, in the Governor's Mansion of the Two Lakes, Zhang Zhidong, Zhao Fengchang, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Si and others did not seem to be in a hurry at all.

"Director Lu, with the two thousand of you joining, I am relieved." Li Yuanhong said with a laugh. The advance brigade sent 2,000 soldiers from the railway line into the three towns of Wuhan in order to firmly control the city of Wuhan. With only more than 3,000 people in the city, Eighth Town is a bit overwhelmed to control such a large territory.

After the armed uprising of the Zhenguo Party, the imperial court ordered all localities to speed up the pace of reorganization of the new army, and the Hubei New Army was originally the left and right wings of the Hubei Standing Army, but in early 1902, it was changed to the eighth town to control Zhang Biao. There is also an independent 21st mixed association, co-commander Li Yuanhong. Among them, stationed in Wuhan was the 21st Independent Mixed Association, led by Li Yuanhong. In addition, the 32nd bid is in Changsha and other important places, and the 29th and 30th bids are in the Guangshui area, guarding against Duan Qirui's third town. The thirtieth mark was on the eastern border to defend the ninth town.

"After all, the eighth town still has to set aside a part to defend Changsha and other important cities in the two lakes, and it is impossible to use all of them in Wuhan City. With the help of Mr. Zhao, the 2,000 soldiers had all tied red ribbons on their right arms, of which 300 controlled the railway station, 300 assisted the soldiers of the Eighth Town in defending the various ferries, and the remaining 1,400 were scattered throughout the city. Together with the original 3,000 soldiers in the Eighth Town, it was enough to control the Three Towns of Wuhan and wait until the arrival of the Nationalist Army. ”

Cai Yuanpei said: "According to the Li system, we have basically figured out the movements of Gu Hongming's people, as well as those hidden armed forces, do we need to take the initiative to attack?" If you wait for them to activate it beforehand, they will be passive against us. ”

"Heqing don't worry, when we sit here drinking tea, the soldiers have already started to move!" Speaking of this, Zhang Zhidong is even happier, after many years of his career in the sea, he still remembers the battle, and the blood when he fought with Changmao seems to have returned to him.

The ordinary people of the three towns of Wuhan were keenly aware of the tense situation, and the soldiers of the New Army patrolling the streets everywhere, as well as the fortifications piled up at the entrance of the streets, made everyone feel the clouds of war. There were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the streets, and when the first shots rang out, everyone closed their doors and windows and hid in their homes, with the father hiding behind the door with a kitchen knife and the mother shivering with her child in her arms.

"The outpost blocks the front door, the back post blocks the back door, quick!" A battalion of soldiers with two sentries blocked a house, and as soon as the sound fell, someone opened fire on the courtyard wall.

There were more than 100 people in the house, all of them were equipped with rear-loading rifles, and there were more than 200 soldiers at the two sentinels in the eighth town, and the quality of the soldiers on both sides was very different, and the militants in the house were all bandits and bandits, and had no tactics. However, the tall courtyard wall caused a lot of trouble for the soldiers of the Eighth Town, and for a while there was no way to deal with them but to shoot at each other.

At the same time, fighting broke out in more than a dozen places in the three towns of Wuhan, and the soldiers of the Gu faction (Gu Hongming's faction) were attacked by the soldiers of the eighth town and the Nationalist army without preparation, and fierce battles broke out between the two sides.

The fact that the Eighth Town was helpless in the face of the high walls and thick gates did not mean that the same was true for the soldiers of the National Army. The variety of firepower allowed the soldiers to easily break through the courtyard walls.

"Don't fire mortars, be careful of accidentally injuring people nearby. Machine gun cover, the Demoman goes to the courtyard gate to place the explosives bag! A company commander ordered. The machine gunners on both sides leaned against the improvised fortifications and raised their muzzles, aiming at the line of the courtyard wall and firing fiercely, but anyone who came up was knocked down!

A squad of infantry covered the rapid advance of the Demomen, and as they approached the gate of the courtyard, the soldiers threw grenades in their hands, which exploded over the courtyard wall and in the courtyard. Amid the screams, the Demoman quickly reached the courtyard gate, and with skillful manoeuvre, positioned the explosives pack, and then withdrew to his position under the cover of the infantry.

"Boom!" The courtyard gate and the nearby courtyard wall were blown down, and a huge gap loomed in the smoke and dust, and the same disgraced Nationalist soldiers carefully leaned up, and after passing through the smoke and dust, regardless of the situation behind them, they first strafed for a while, and then found that the courtyard was full of rubble and wounded Gu soldiers - the explosive bag exerted its maximum power in the small courtyard, which was originally used for the fortification of reinforced concrete fortifications, and the preparation was insufficient in advance, and the amount of charge was not reduced.

The battle here ended quickly, the bombed drowsy enemy surrendered spinelessly, and the biggest reliance on the courtyard wall had disappeared, all for money, there was no need to fight hard.

When the gunshots rang out, Gu Hongming knew that something was wrong, according to the plan, there should be half an hour before the time to move, how could the gunshots come in advance? As the gunfire became more and more intensive, and even accompanied by the sound of explosions, Gu Hongming's head became more and more sweaty, but he, a weak scholar, had no choice but to rely on the people below.

When Zhang Zhidong's side has a watch pair, the attack launch time is very consistent. Wu Datou miscalculated the time and led more than 500 people to attack the Wuhan Railway Station in advance, fortunately avoiding the 300 Nationalist soldiers who went to attack, but crashed headlong into the line of fire of the 300 Nationalist soldiers guarding the railway station.

"Rush forward! Rush up! Promotion and fortune are just around the corner, and the first to attack the train station will be rewarded with ten taels of silver! Wu Datou brandished the revolver in his hand and directed his soldiers to rush towards the train station.

The area of Wuhan Railway Station is not small, the three battalions and two companies guarding here are not enough to guard all directions, the direction of Wu Datou's attack is only one platoon of soldiers at this time, judging that this is the main force of the enemy's attack, the battalion commander quickly mobilized a company to come over to support, and the second company as a reserve does not join the battlefield for the time being.

Five hundred soldiers plunged headlong into the fire network of the National Army, a company with three heavy machine guns, nine light machine guns, and three mortars, not to mention that these soldiers were the main force of the main force of the National Army, the soldiers of the First Army with the longest history. They were unhurried in the face of the tide of attack, the machine guns were fast and ruthless, the mortar shells were drilled specifically into the enemy's dense areas, and the accuracy of the rifles was maintained at a very high level. The enemy fell in pieces, and soon turned around and retreated.