Early morning. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The sun had not yet risen, and most of the residents of Beijing were still asleep, but at this very moment, the sound of military boots hitting the ground suddenly erupted in the streets, neat and dense, and some residents were awakened from their dreams. A small number of the more daring of them silently pushed open the window and cast a suspicious look into the street, and then saw the New Army soldiers in blue uniforms running through, each heavily armed, apparently not on a morning run or march.

Residents of Beijing, who have always had a keen sense of politics, immediately realized that an extremely important incident was about to take place, and that they should never be involved in, cautiously closed their windows and warned curious or worried family members not to inquire about what was going on. So they didn't see what happened next: the whole army quickly dispersed into many small groups of about a hundred men, and then rushed to the nearest alley.

In one of the alleys, a unit that had already arrived there quickly completed the formation, and then a soldier who was clearly an officer, but wearing a soldier's uniform and holding a rifle, gave the order: "First and second platoons, block the alleys, ready to support, third platoon, follow me!" ”

The soldiers got into action, some beginning to erect barriers and fortifications at the entrance to the alley, others to the other side of the alley, where they would do the same, and the rest followed the officers to a closed gate.

Instead of rushing in directly, they stopped at the doorway and stood on either side of the door, leaning against the wall. The officer made a gesture to a soldier standing opposite him with a horn rolled up in tin sheets. "Shouting."

The soldier nodded, raised his horn, and shouted in the loudest volume he could reach: "We are the Great Qing Army, we are ordered to search for traitors, everyone stay at home, don't act rashly - repeat, we are the Great Qing Army, ordered to search for traitors, everyone stay at home, don't act rashly-"

He repeated it twice, and then the officer gave a new order: "Rush in!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier standing next to the soldier, also in a soldier's uniform and armed with a rifle, but apparently also an officer, immediately made a brief addition to his order: "Remember, don't shoot at random. ”

The soldiers silently accepted the instructions that might pose a danger and proceeded according to their training: they maintained a search posture, cautiously approaching the gate from both sides, and then a very strong soldier moved slowly to the front of it, ready to knock it open. But before he could do so, the door opened on its own, and a middle-aged man with a panicked look appeared in the doorway, almost shot and killed by a highly nervous soldier.

"Ladies and gentlemen, little people ......" the middle-aged man seemed to want to ask for mercy or an explanation, but the soldier who almost shot rushed forward in a rage, grabbed him by the collar, dragged him out of the door, and gave him a resounding slap in the face.

Whatever the poor fellow wanted to say, he couldn't say a word now.

"You stupid donkey! I've already said, don't act rashly, don't act rashly, don't act rashly, I said important things three times! The soldier with the horn yelled at him angrily. But the other soldiers ignored him and simply rushed into the open gate under alternate cover and began their search.

Soon, the yard became a chicken.

The same thing happened in other alleys, or slightly better, where the soldiers' warnings were strictly followed and no one was beaten, but there were some worse, and the owners of the houses were beaten up for trying to argue pointlessly with the soldiers who broke down the door, or to block their movements, the only thing that luckily no one had ever died.

All of these situations were reported to the more senior officers, then put together, and finally sent to Zhang Shaozeng's temporary headquarters in the Qianmen Arrow Tower.

Mr. Zhang's expression became heavier and heavier: he did not want to see his troops treat civilians so harshly. He is not capable of solving it, though: Umbrella's military instructors will not teach his officers and soldiers to use a friendly attitude to deal with civilians. Even though most of the officers supported the revolution, the training they received was still working.

And they are searching for a group of armed elements with weapons of mass destruction, which is very dangerous and could break out at any time. Just thinking of this, these people instinctively think that they are on a mission in a hostile zone, and regard everyone they encounter as an enemy - according to the mercenary's teachings, if he escapes, he is an enemy, if he stands still, then a well-trained enemy - and not a civilian in their own capital.

It's a matter of mentality, and Zhang Shao knew that the situation would not improve. Moreover, the army is still searching Han-majority areas, and once the search advances to the Manchu-populated areas, the young officers who have embraced nationalist ideas will only become more ferocious and use more violent methods.

He just hoped that by that time, it wouldn't get any worse.

It's already terrible.

Zhang Shao glanced at an official standing beside him out of the corner of his eye. This man had come to complain about his soldiers, and had been in his headquarters for a long time, perhaps ten minutes, babbling on and on, like a swarm of flies circling around him, distracting him. Zhang Shao was tempted to order the guards to throw this guy out of the headquarters, but he finally gave up on the idea because he thought that the officials in Beijing would have a little bit of backlash or connections.

He could only pretend not to see the man, not to hear his voice, and try to focus on the progress of the troops.

"How's it going?" He approached several staff officers and military advisers who were standing next to the map and whispered discussions, and asked in a pretentious manner.

A staff officer turned around and repeated an old message that had been reported to him a few minutes earlier. "The troops have completed the search of ten alleys, and no attackers from the League have been found so far."

"It's too slow." Zhang Shaozeng straightened his face. His expression wasn't entirely disguised - there were many hutongs in Beijing, and it would take a lot of time to conduct a thorough search, and what he and Liangbi lacked was time. Although he did not understand that the people of the League had not launched an attack or abandoned their plans until now, he knew very well that these people would not always remain silent, and if they still decided to carry out the operation, the attack could happen at any time.

And the emperor and the rest of the auxiliary ministers will not allow his search to last long, here is Beijing, the political center of the empire, as well as diplomats in the United States and Europe, any little thing can be infinitely magnified, if the search does not end soon, no one can predict what the impact will be.

But one thing is for sure, the emperor and the rest of the auxiliary ministers will not like it.

Sooner or later, they will ask him to end the search.

Zhang Shao had expected that the search would only last for three days at most, without taking into account the actions that the alliance would take, and that he would have to complete all the work by the deadline.

"Order the troops to pick up the pace." He told the staff officer, "Let the officers who lead the team pay attention to the fact that they should use their brains more and not only know how to use violence." ”

"Yes, sir."

"Send non-combatants too."

The staff officer was stunned for a moment and reminded: "Sir, they haven't received much combat training. ”

"But they have basic training, and they have guns." Zhang Shaozeng's attitude was very resolute, "Send them up ......"

"You can't do this, Deputy Zhang." Liangbi's voice came from behind him - he had received many complaints against Zhang Shaozeng's soldiers, and hurried over to check on the situation.

He's figured out what's wrong.

"You should find some police officers and ask them to lead your soldiers to each alley and interrogate the local residents to find out if there have been outsiders in the local area in recent times, especially southerners." Liangbi cautiously expressed his displeasure to Zhang Shaozeng, "You shouldn't order your soldiers to directly break into the homes of locals to conduct searches, doing so will waste a lot of troops and delay your speed." ”

"Please forgive me for my mistake, Your Excellency." Zhang Shao once bowed his head to express his apology, but it was only an apology. He also does not intend to let the troops change their course of action, because even if he does give orders, the officers and soldiers on the mission will not fully obey.

He had to tell Liangbi: "Until the maximum level of alert is lifted, my troops will still act according to the predetermined plan." ”

Liangbi knew what he meant. He furrowed his eyebrows. "No news yet?"

"Not yet." Zhang Shao reluctantly admitted. Tao Chengzhang hasn't received a reply from Qin Lang yet, maybe it's because of the time difference, maybe it's because the transmission of information has been delayed, or maybe it's just that Tao Chengzhang doesn't know where he is.

After thinking about it for a while, he made a request to Liangbi: "Should I ......?"

"Yes." Liangbi didn't wait for him to finish speaking, he already knew what his request was, and without a little hesitation, he agreed, but reminded Zhang Shaozeng to pay attention: "Remember, Deputy Zhang Dutong, you must be careful." ”

However, he immediately realized that this reminder was superfluous: like his junior officers who were leading the soldiers in the search, Zhang Shaozeng also wore a soldier's uniform, without his pistol and command knife, and as long as he touched his appearance a little, or blocked it with something, and then took a rifle, the secret agents sent by the emperor and the rest of the auxiliary ministers to keep an eye on him would not recognize his identity.

They would not have guessed that a high-ranking officer commanding a division would disguise himself as an ordinary soldier.

Liangbi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Please take over the command of my troops for the time being." Zhang Shao gave him a military salute, took the rifle handed to him by a guard, and hurriedly walked out of the headquarters.

Liangbi watched his figure disappear, then turned his gaze to the local official who was still in the headquarters. At this moment, the man had quieted down, busy moistening his throat with tea, but Liangbi had heard the noises he made before he even entered the command, and was as reluctant to hear them as Zhang Shaozeng.

"Who is he?" Ryobi looked around, but not for verification, but to give instructions to the guards. "Get him out! This is a military stronghold, and idlers are not allowed to enter! ”

"Lord Orthodox, Lord Orthodox ......," the official began to scream, but several guards who had also had enough to bear him had already pounced on him with lightning speed, dragging him out of the headquarters.

The flies are gone.

Liangbi nodded with satisfaction, walked over to Zhang Shaozeng's staff and military advisers, and began to listen to the latest progress of the search operation. (To be continued.) )