The cold wind howled and blew away the mist, but it was still cloudy, and the moisture from the south had moved over, and if it was still so cloudy for a few more days, it would probably be a storm.

This is Huangnigang Town, a small town in the middle reaches of the Luoma River, less than 150 miles away from Anqing City.

The Luoma River is a small tributary of the north bank of the Yangtze River, also known as the Taihu River and the Anhui River, originating from the southern foot of the Yinghuo Mountains (Dabie Mountain), the river flows from northwest to southeast, and enters the river twenty miles west of Anqing City. This obscure town has become bustling with troops, and heavy vehicles pass through the town from time to time.

Now, this town has actually been taken over by the new army, and it is the "Minister of the Qin Order to Review the Autumn Exercise" Duan Fang and Yin Chang who issued the takeover order, at this moment, the two are sitting in the hall of a large family in the center of the town, relatively speechless, Yin Chang raised his hand from time to time, scratching the slippery head, and Duan Fang is sad face, and kept sighing.

Since receiving the news of the death of Emperor Guangxu, the Taihu Lake Autumn Exercise has actually stopped, just as Duan Fang and Yin Chang led a group of officials to cry at the Guangxu Emperor's divine throne, the news of the death of the Empress Dowager Cixi came one after another, and stopped everyone's crying at once, regardless of the size of the official position, almost all people have such a question in their hearts: Why did the emperor and the queen mother die in two days one after another? Especially Emperor Guangxu, who is not yet forty years old and in the prime of life, how can he say that he will die if he dies? What happened in the capital?

Everyone was talking about it, suspicious and suspicious, if it wasn't for the end side trying its best to suppress it, I am afraid that it would have been rumors. In fact, don't talk about others, even Duan Fang himself, and I don't believe that Emperor Guangxu really died of illness, someone must have murdered the emperor, who is this person? Linked to the political situation after Wuxu, the murderer is almost ready to come out. But this kind of heart-wrenching words only circled in the heart, and then quietly buried it.

Regardless of whether the murderer is the person who Duan Fang guessed in his heart, the fact is that the current Qing Empire is ruled by a three-year-old Huangkou child, if it is counted from the early years of Tongzhi, then there have been three emperors in a row, and everyone knows the truth of "the country depends on the long monarch", but the country's luck is like this, and Duan Fang really has nothing to say.

The only thing that can make Duan Fang and others a little reassured is that the current regent of the Great Qing Kingdom is none other than the new emperor's biological father and Guangxu's younger brother Xiaochu Wang Zaifeng, as the saying goes, "father and son are connected", and the regent will act as the ruler of the court, no matter what, it is always better than the queen mother's arbitrary decision.

But Duan Fang and the others didn't rejoice for long, and a news that made them even more stunned came over:

The Anqing New Army mutinied, brazenly bombarded the provincial wall, burned the Xiantai, and it only took a little midnight for the rebels to capture the provincial wall and officially pull the flag and rebel!

The funny thing is that this news was not conveyed by the center of the imperial court, but by the radio station of the autumn exercise troops received a clear code telegram, which was sent by a British ** ship moored on the Yangtze River outside Anqing City, obviously, the news of the British is far better than the imperial court, of course, it may also be because the imperial court has scruples, so it is not the first time to notify the new army troops of the autumn exercise, so as not to cause a chain reaction.

The house leak coincided with even the rain, and now it is an eventful autumn, the imperial court is really taking care of one and losing the other, and the rebellion is the Anqing New Army, which is the army of the tiger that the imperial court has painstakingly built with national funds, with high salaries and sufficient food, and generous treatment, even such troops can turn against each other, who can guarantee the loyalty of the Taihu Autumn Cao New Army?

At least Duanfang and Yinchang did not dare to guarantee the loyalty of the new army in these two towns, especially the ninth town of the Jiangsu New Army, many officers in the town graduated from the Anqing Military Academy, and also studied in the Anhui New Army, and the officers in the Anhui New Army were either classmates or teachers and students, and the relationship between the two sides was quite delicate.

Therefore, after learning of this news, the end side immediately ordered to keep secrets and absolutely not spread it, so as not to lose control of the army's morale. But there are a few Japanese instructors in charge of the radio station, and there are many foreign military attachés who watch the exercises, and the end side can't control them, so the news is still leaked out, but in half a day, it spreads loudly, and various improved versions have also come out, the most exaggerated rumor is that the rebel troops have captured Jiangning, and later, even the end side itself is suspicious, for those old army combat effectiveness, the end side is very clear, those troops are not only complex weapons, but also outdated tactics, In the era of machine guns, this kind of army was simply vulnerable to the new army, and if the new army in Anqing could really capture enough ships and artillery, it might not be able to go down the river and capture Jiangning in one fell swoop.

The key point is that the imperial court has been silent, even if they sent a telegram to inquire about it, they did not get a clear answer, how can this not shake the morale of the army?

As a last resort, Duanfang had to order the whole army to quickly withdraw from Taihu County, while sending a telegram to the imperial court, while marching to Huangnigang Town, which is located in the main traffic road, a road to the east can return to Anqing, and the road to the west can go straight to Huangzhou, which is the only place to go to Hubei, where the new army in Hubei came, if the rebels in Anqing want to attack Hubei, this is the only place to pass, there is no gunboat cover, the Yangtze River is the imperial court, and the rebels can only go from here.

At midnight the day before yesterday, the Hubei New Army and the Jiangsu New Army all arrived at Huangnigang, but the reply from the imperial court had not yet come, and the Duan side did not dare to make decisions on its own, so it ignored the persuasion of Lang Yinchang, the vice minister of reading and cao, and the right attendant of the War Department, and ordered the whole army to be stationed in Huangnigang Town and wait for the imperial court's decree. Duan Fang is afraid, he is afraid that the rebel army will be too strong, and the Qiu Cao troops will rebel together, in case the army mutinies halfway, "living up to the grace" is a trivial matter, and losing his head is a major matter.

Now the world has changed, and the grass people at the bottom do not put the court officials in their eyes, especially the chaotic party that clamored to be full of Xinghan, it is even more rampant, and it makes people tremble, and the assassination team they formed is like a ghost, killing officials everywhere and rebelling ―――――― Guangxu 26 years, the chaotic party history is as strong as plotting to bomb the governor of Liangguang Deshou, Guangxu 30 years, the chaotic party Wan Fuhua shot Guangxi Governor Wang Zhichun in Shanghai, Guangxu 31 years, the chaotic party Wang Han shot the household department Lang Tieliang at the Zhangde Railway Station in Henan, In the thirty-third year of Guangxu, Liu Sifu, a rebellious party, plotted to bomb Li Zhun, the commander of the Guangdong Navy Division......

At that time, he was one of the five ministers who went abroad to "inspect the constitution", under the leadership of Zhenguo Gong Zaize, he embarked on the journey at the railway station outside the front gate of the capital in high spirits, but before the train started, there was a loud bang, and only half of the carriage that the five ministers were in was left. It was later found out that the bomb was carried by the revolutionary Wu Yue, who disguised himself as a soap official on duty, and got into the car with the help of Nei Ying, and wanted to drop the bomb after the train started, but the bomb was too sensitive, and exploded in advance, blowing Wu Yue to pieces.

As a banner man and nobleman with brocade clothes and jade food, Duan Fang really can't understand the behavior of these revolutionaries, take that Wu Yue as an example, his Wu family was originally a giant clan in Tongcheng, a scholarly family, and he himself should have passed the imperial examination, and he also had a dream of being a champion, but he was such a person, but he resolutely joined the revolution after Gengzi, and desperately added a "wood" to the name after his death, and also wanted to oppose the Qing Revolution, and he did not hesitate to sacrifice his life for the revolution and die with the court officials...... What kind of people are these, they don't even want their lives in order to fill the line.

Since that assassination, Duan Fang has fallen into a problem, he can't hear the sound of firecrackers, and he always hides in the study, closing the doors and windows tightly, for fear that a bomb will fly in the sound of firecrackers. According to the foreign doctor who treated Duanfang, this is called "bullet shock", which first appeared during the Russo-Japanese War, usually only those soldiers who survived the shelling will get sick, this is a heart disease, it is difficult to cure, in fact, not only Duanfang got bullet shock, each of the five ministers who went abroad for the expedition had different degrees of bullet shock, forcing the imperial court to adjust the list of ministers who went abroad to investigate, even those officials who were not bombed, they were also panicked, suspicious, and always had to explain to their families before going out, Lest you be killed by a bullet or a bomb while walking on the road, and you won't have time to leave the aftermath arranged. The court is noisy, the officials are silent, looking at the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty today, which one is not talking about the tiger's color change? All this is due to the dead soldiers of the revolutionary party.

For the rise of this country, in order to wake up the sleeping people, they are willing to pay any price, even if it is their own lives, in this era of thousands of horses, only the light of their lives from time to time across the dark night sky, the brilliance that blooms is short-lived, but it is so dazzling.

After stationing in Huangnigang Town, for a whole day and a night, Duanfang and Yinchang were not touching their heads and eyes, and their anxious and hesitant emotions made them unable to sleep, and they were very dissatisfied with the slow response of the imperial court center, but they were helpless, and like them, the new officers and soldiers of the two towns did not sleep for a day, because Duanfang suspected that there might be a commotion in the ninth town of the Jiangsu New Army, so they ordered the collection of bullets, bayonets, especially artillery shells in the town, and a lot of them were moved to the baggage boats, and ordered the Hubei New Army to watch the Jiangsu New Army, And the most unreliable Jiangsu New Army 33 standards were transferred to the south, let them camp close to the Yangtze River, and then ordered Wang Shizhen, the Jiangbei Admiral who was watching the exercise, to sit in the camp and suppress the bullets, and transferred a few gunboats from Jiujiang overnight to monitor nearby, because the standard soldiers were not recruited, but recruited according to the new soldier system, which was tantamount to pulling strong Ding, so the military spirit was the most unstable.

Later, for the sake of safety, the Duan side simply confiscated the bullets and shells of the Hubei New Army, leaving only bayonets, and let them and their guards continue to monitor the ninth town of Jiangsu.

The hall was eerily quiet for a while, Duan Fang stopped sighing, closed his eyes, and looked like an old monk, but Yin Chang was still scratching his head, the two discussed all night, but they didn't even prepare a battle plan, but this is no wonder to others, only blame Duan Fang for being suspicious, no one can believe it, let the staff team of the new army don't need it, but pull Yin Chang here to point at the map, Yin Chang certainly understands military affairs, but he is not an all-rounder, modern warfare, not only to make a battle plan, logistics, baggage, supply, Many aspects can not be ignored, this is what the staff officers do, Duan Fang asked Yin Chang to take charge alone, but he was powerless, and wanted to call the staff to discuss, only then did he remember that the two of them came to watch the exercise, and they didn't bring a few staff members at all.

"If the first town of Beiyang is in my hands, it will be easy to do." Yin Chang said coldly. The predecessor of the first town of the Beiyang Army was the Beijing Banner Standing Army, one of the world-famous "Beiyang Six Towns", the town's soldiers were mostly banner people, and the equipment was well-equipped, it could be called the first Beiyang New Army, in fact, it played the role of the Praetorian Guard, responsible for watching Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Five Towns.

Of course, this is nonsense, the first town is far away in the north, and it is necessary to defend the capital, it is impossible to transfer the south far away, and if you want to transfer, you can only transfer Yuan Shikai's five towns to the Beiyang New Army.