Out of the air force of the southerners, the Beiyang Army in Wuchang also fought the defensive line. In five days, the Nationalist Army suffered more than 10,000 casualties on the beachhead, but it failed to break through even the first line of defense deployed by the Beiyang Army.

You must know that although the National Social Army is not as good as the Beiyang Army in terms of personal quality, it is at least several times higher than the Beiyang Army in terms of individual firepower, not to mention the support of hundreds of heavy artillery pieces in the artillery positions behind. (Artillery below 120mm caliber is not qualified to be called heavy artillery, such as 105mm howitzers, many times are called 105mm light howitzers, and the 105mm cannon is simply called field artillery, and in the National Social Army, artillery with a caliber of less than 120mm occupies the vast majority... ）

More than 10,000 casualties were lost in five days, and this level of course could not be compared with the British in the Somme, who could suffer nearly 60,000 casualties in a day, and the time of five days here was less than one-fifth of a day. But this is China, not the kind of place in Europe where the two sides can come up with hundreds of divisions for battle. In Wuchang, this kind of large-scale battle between the Nationalist Army and nearly 500,000 people in Beiyang was already the largest scene in China's modern history.

However, the first line of defense was blocked for five days, and more than 10,000 casualties were paid, although Wang Yaowu and they were confident that the casualties of the Beiyang Army would definitely not be lower than them, but they also knew that if there was no accident, it would be absolutely impossible to take Wuchang in a short time, and it was not impossible to lose 50,000 people in the process of attacking the fortification...

Fortunately, accidents do exist...

Although the Beiyang Army blocked the Nationalist Army for five days in the first line of defense, and it seemed that it was no problem to block them for a few days, even the attention of the Beiyang Army in the fierce battle was mostly focused on the front line, if Wang Zhanyuan's troops, Yang Shande's troops and Jin Yunpeng's troops were directly deployed on the front line, under the supervision of Wang Zhanyuan, Jin Yunpeng and others, they would not retreat even if they paid heavy casualties.

Of course, the price of doing this is that the casualties of the Beiyang Army are quite large, but not to mention Duan Qirui, even Wang Zhanyuan and others know what the consequences of losing Wuchang are, so they didn't care about any gains and losses when they fought fiercely with the National Social Army.

It's just that just when the occupation problem, according to Duan Qirui and the others' predictions, the first line of defense could last for at least three or five days, but their rear suddenly became chaotic.

If there is anything worse than this, it is probably the only thing that is happening in the back is not a rebellion but a rebellion...

"Li Chun, Zhang Shaozeng, Meng Yuanen, they..."

After learning that all these people had defected, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

If it is just that the division of the Hubei army has rebelled, for Duan Qirui and them, the troops of the Hubei army can only be regarded as a miscellaneous army, not to mention the equipment in the army, as long as the number of people can be full, it is already a very good thing. As for the Zhili Mixed Brigade and the Mukden Mixed Brigade? Although these two troops are also considered veteran troops, they are not the core of Beiyang, not to mention that although the mixed brigade has as many as two infantry regiments in terms of establishment, the artillery, cavalry and engineers have all been downsized, if an infantry division has an artillery regiment, then the mixed brigade has an artillery battalion, so artillery, and the same is true for cavalry, so don't look at the number of two mixed brigades and regular infantry divisions, but if you really talk about combat effectiveness, two mixed brigades may not be the opponent of an infantry division.

As for the two divisions of Zhang Shaozeng and Meng Enyuan? A little troublesome, as a new army trained in the former Qing Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of Zhang Shaozeng's troops and Meng Enyuan's troops will not be much inferior to the Beiyang Army, but that's all...

The one who really dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the army was Li Chunbu of the sixth town of the six towns of Beiyang...

Among the six towns of Beiyang, although Li Chun's sixth town is not outstanding in terms of the quality of soldiers or weapons and equipment, and it can even be said that it is not ranked among the six towns of Beiyang, but as the core force of Beiyang, the six towns of Beiyang have become synonymous with Beiyang. When it comes to the army in Beiyang, the first thing people mention is the six towns of Beiyang, not those non-descendant troops like Zhang Shaozeng and Meng Enyuan...

As the sixth of the six towns in the core of Beiyang, when the other Beiyang troops learned that Li Chun led his troops to rebel, one can imagine how much impact this incident had on the Beiyang army in Wuchang.

What's more, the defense line of the Beiyang Army in Wuchang is all external rather than internal, and the four divisions and two brigades that were incorporated by Yan Guang, except for the two mixed brigades and one division of the Hubei Army, the remaining three are all in the rear position...

When they attacked the front, the Beiyang Army in front did not have time to react at all. And when the Beiyang Army in front wanted to recapture the lost positions in the rear, they had to face those strong fortifications, not to mention the rebellion of Li Chun and other troops, they had no intention of attacking back at all. Many Beiyang officers and soldiers surrendered directly when Li Chun and other troops captured the defense line and position, and it was obvious that Li Chun and other troops had no confidence in resisting the southern army when they betrayed it...

As for the four infantry divisions that are still on the beachhead? Originally, they had no way to take the Beiyang Army on the defensive line, but they took this opportunity to take the first two lines of defense, and formed a flanking attack with Li Chun and other troops in the back against Duan Qirui and other troops in the center.

After the resistance of the assembled troops was ineffective, there were only three roads in front of Duan Qirui and others.

One was to abandon the troops, break through to the river with a small number of guards, and then flee to Shanghai on Liu Guanxiong's naval ships.

In this way, Duan Qirui's life can definitely be saved, but the more than 100,000 troops in Wuchang are...

The second is to resist on the spot, but because of the rebellion of Li Chun and others, now the Beiyang Army has no fighting spirit and its morale has plummeted, and even if it resists on the spot, I am afraid it will not last long.

As for the last road? With the troops that could still go, retreat in the direction of Huarong Road, and then retreat to Anhui, and then let Lei Zhenchun, who was still in Jiangsu, respond...

If you're lucky, you might be able to escape some troops, not much, but at least it's better than annihilating them all. As the commander of the whole army, Duan Qirui chose the third one.

――――――――――

When they heard Duan Qirui say that he was going to retreat to Huarong Dao, Feng Guozhang and Wang Zhanyuan had already understood Duan Qirui's thoughts.

"That's it..."Wang Zhanyuan nodded. In that case, I'll go down and see how many more troops I can pull out. ”

Yang Shande, Jin Yunpeng and others also nodded, they were all smart people, and they knew that even if they ran away on a warship, Beiyang would definitely be defeated without troops. In this case, the best outcome for them is to sweep away the softening and then run to Tianjin or Shanghai on loan to become a rich man.

However, if you can escape the pursuit of the Beiyang Army with your troops, then you can at least have the strength to fight―――――― and if you have soldiers in your hands, you can also learn from Li Chun, sit in Nanjing and wait for the price to sell...

Duan Qirui didn't know what Yang Shande was thinking in their minds at the moment, or he knew, but he didn't have time to care about that, for him, the withdrawal of troops now was the most important thing.

Therefore, under Duan Qirui's order, Wang Zhanyuan and the others quickly left the headquarters and gathered those troops that could still be commanded in their respective troops that were already in chaos to break through in the direction of Huarong Dao.

Seeing that Duan Qirui and they wanted to break through, it was impossible for either the Nationalist Army in front or Li Chun and other troops in the back to let them go, so after leaving a few divisions of troops to clean up the remnants of the Beiyang Army, they sent the second, third, fourth, and fifth divisions, the four strongest combat units of the Nationalist Army, to pursue them.

However, although the entire Beiyang Army was chaotic because of the defection of Li Chun and others, there were still fifty or sixty thousand people who were brought out by Duan Qirui in the end, which is not much but not a lot, plus Duan Qirui will leave one or two troops to block from time to time, and Liu Guanxiong's Beiyang Navy will support along the riverside, so the National Social Army behind is chasing very hard.

Fortunately, the Sichuan Navy Division soon caught up and fought with the Beiyang Navy, which was supporting by the river, so that Liu Guanxiong could not take care of Duan Qirui's defeated army at all.

――――――――――

"Thanks to Master Li's deep understanding of righteousness, we can take Wuchang at such a small price..."

After sending the second, third, fourth, and fifth infantry divisions to pursue the fleeing Duan Qirui, Wang Yaowu, Zhu Qinglan and others who stayed behind let the remaining troops clean up the battlefield, and at the same time, they also walked in front of Li Chun and others under the escort of a group of guards.

Seeing Wang Yaowu, Li Chun and the others didn't dare to hold it up, and they didn't dare to say it after hearing Wang Yaowu say this.

However, like Li Yannian, Wang Yaowu also looked down on Li Chun a little, so after just being polite, Wang Yaowu walked into Wuchang City surrounded by everyone.

In Wuchang City, there is another person who makes Wang Yaowu quite interested.

"Li Yuanhong..."

Because Li Chun and the others rose suddenly, when Feng Guozhang broke out of Wuchang City under the protection of the guards, Li Yuanhong and Feng Guozhang were not in the same place. So when Feng Guozhang broke through, he couldn't take Li Yuanhong with him, and when Li Yuanhong reacted and was about to leave Wuchang, the Hu army, which was originally Li Yuanhong's department, had already found Li Yuanhong in the city and locked him up in Li Yuanhong's scolding...

"Brother Song Qing, look up for a long time..."

After entering the Hubei Military Governor's Mansion, where Li Yuanhong was being held, Wang Yaowu said to Li Yuanhong, who was being detained by more than a dozen Hubei soldiers.

Li Yuanhong was born in 1864 and is 50 years old this year, plus Li Yuanhong was once the commander of the 21st Mixed Association, and then served as the governor of Hubei and the vice president of the Republic of China surrounded by revolutionaries.

Even if Wang Yaowu doesn't call Li Yuanhong vice president, he still has to call Mr. Li, but since he is a king and a loser...

As the winner, calling Li Yuanhong "Brother Song Qing" is already a very face-saving thing.

was called so by Wang Yaowu, Li Yuanhong didn't get angry, or he didn't dare to be angry, so when facing Wang Yaowu, he just smiled awkwardly.

"But Minister Wang Yaowu?"

Wang Yaowu nodded, and said bluntly after sitting down on the seat next to Li Yuanhong.

"Brother has something to trouble Brother Song Qing, I hope Brother Song Qing can help Brother Song with this..."

Under the eaves of others, I had to bow my head. Seeing that Wang Yaowu, who is only in his 20s and is probably much younger than his son, actually called himself a brother and sister, Li Yuanhong's heart had nothing but a wry smile.

However, at present, his family members are in Wuchang City, and Li Yuanhong does not dare to disobey Wang Yaowu's intentions, you must know that although the reputation of the National Social Army in these aspects has always been very good, it may not be that it will not taste it on his body, so after hearing that Wang Yaowu asked him to help, Li Yuanhong immediately nodded.

"Minister Wang, please tell me if you have any help from your brother, as long as your brother can help, he will never refuse."

"That's good."

Wang Yaowu needed Li Yuanhong's help not for anything else, but for him to use his status as the governor of the Hubei army, which had not yet expired, to make the small number of Hubei soldiers on the battlefield who had not stopped resisting stop resisting and surrender.

Of course, Li Yuanhong, the governor of the Hubei army, can only be used once in the end.

Although Yan Guang has always been kind to those who surrendered, such as the county magistrates of Badong and Jingzhou, they obviously remained in their positions. However, such an important position as the governor of Hubei, Yan Guang could no longer let Li Yuanhong continue to hold it, after all, Li Yuanhong is different from others, not only has great prestige in Hubei, but also has been the head snake who has been staying here for many years...

And at this time, it would be very good to be able to keep the surname of himself and his relatives, and Li Yuanhong didn't dare to force anything else, so after listening to Wang Yaowu's words, without saying a word, he called a few cronies who were also detained in the Governor's Mansion to his side, and then looked at Wang Yaowudao.

"Minister Wang, these are all my cronies, as long as they go over and say something, there will definitely be no one to resist on the battlefield..."

Wang Yaowu nodded, and then sent some people to follow Li Yuanhong's cronies―――――― he was not afraid that Li Yuanhong would play tricks, but now there is still gunfire outside Wuchang City, at this time, if Li Yuanhong's cronies run out in a military uniform, there is an 800% chance that they will definitely be stopped by the Guoshe Army outside, so the few people sent to follow are also passes.

It's just that just as Li Yuanhong's cronies left, an officer suddenly walked in quickly.

"Minister Wang, something has happened..."

As he spoke, the officer glanced at Li Chun and the others as if he were nothing.

――――――――――

In a house in Wuchang City, more than a dozen gendarmes were dragging out five or six guys wearing Beiyang military uniforms who had only a white strip of cloth on their arms, and a few frightened civilians came out with them.

Outside, dozens of Beiyang soldiers, who also had strips of cloth on their arms, were trying to break through the blockade of another group of Nationalist Socialists with a similar number of them, and save those Beiyang soldiers who had been dragged out by the gendarmes...

Merely...

At first, those Beiyang soldiers just wanted to save people, and the surrounding soldiers of the National Social Army just wanted to stop them. However, with the increase of time, the two sides have also had some verbal disputes, and at this time, coupled with some physical friction, more than 100 people on both sides will soon be on fire.

And gradually, more and more soldiers from both sides gathered here...

The National Social Army may not have looked down on these Beiyang Army with white strips of cloth on their arms, but as Beiyang "rebels", these Beiyang soldiers looked down on themselves, and when they clashed with the National Social Army, they also felt that they were a head lower than others.

It's just that looking at those few companions who are still struggling, plus there are more and more people on their side, not to mention that they have become "rebels" for some reason, these Beiyang soldiers are also full of anger in their hearts, so it didn't take long for this anger to erupt...

By the time Wang Yaowu and the others arrived, more than 300 soldiers from both sides had gathered at the scene, and many soldiers had also pulled out their guns, and as the atmosphere became more and more enthusiastic, the number of possible guns and misfires was also increasing...

Seeing such a scene, Wang Yaowu also knew that shouting in his voice would definitely not be useful, so he directly took out his pistol and fired three shots into the sky.

"Put the guns down for me!"

The people of the National Social Army recognized Wang Yaowu as the commander, and those people in the Beiyang Army also recognized Li Chun and others who followed Wang Yaowu, so although Wang Yaowu's firing just now almost caused many soldiers to go away, the soldiers at the scene hurriedly put down their guns.

Seeing that everyone at the scene put down their guns, Wang Yaowu also breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, but then he still said sharply.

"What the hell is going on?"

There was no need for Wang Yaowu to ask, and soon someone had already informed Wang Yaowu of the reason for the incident.

It turned out that after entering the city, because the National Social Army had repeatedly ordered that it was absolutely not allowed to disturb the people, let alone do anything that violated military discipline. So after entering the city, the soldiers of the National Social Army arrived very quietly. Coupled with the strict military law, many tired soldiers did not even dare to enter the houses next to them, but just sat down against the walls under the eaves of the houses.

However, Li Chun and other Beiyang Army...

It turns out that Li Yuanhong's Hubei army is still good to say, they are all from Hubei, and it is impossible for anyone to harm their own villagers, right? But Li Chun's Beiyang Army didn't have this concern, plus Feng Guozhang had been restricting them in order to avoid conflicts between the Beiyang Army and the Hubei Army when they were there, so after entering the city, the Beiyang Army, which had been holding back for a long time, would inevitably do something out of the ordinary―――――― Li Chun and the others were just uprising troops, and Li Yannian and they were only busy with incidents, and no one thought to tell Li Chun about the military discipline of their Nationalist Army.

And when they saw that some people in the Beiyang Army trespassed into people's houses, robbed their finances and even wanted to force people's daughters, the soldiers of the National Social Army consciously stood up to stop the actions of the Beiyang Army, and even many people even ran to inform the gendarmes, because dealing with soldiers who violated military discipline was a matter for the gendarmerie and the Military Judge Advocate General's Office...

Of course, the people of the National Social Army will come forward to stop the Beiyang Army, not because the quality of the soldiers of the National Social Army has reached a certain level, but just out of the psychology of "you are sitting under the foot of the wall, why can you find a big girl to sleep with...", but in any case, the National Social Army stopped many robberies and forced annihilations or added a lot of goodwill to the hearts of the people of Wuchang.

However, the problem in front of Wang Yaowu at this time was how to deal with those Beiyang soldiers who were making trouble.

That's right, according to the military law of the National Social Army, anyone who dares to commit the crime of robbery and forcible annihilation must have the consciousness of losing their heads, but these attempted guys don't know the military law of the National Social Army, not to mention that they are only troops who have just started an incident...

And just when Wang Yaowu was still having a headache about how to deal with these criminal Beiyang soldiers, Yuan Shikai, who was bedridden in Yanjing, was also about to die after learning that Li Chun and others had rebelled and Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui were defeated in Wuchang...

(To be continued)