On the sixth day of April in the thirtieth year of Guangxu, it is the mid-spring evening, inside and outside the city of Changsha on the bank of the Xiangjiang River, there is a piece of cooking smoke and sunset, the green lights and red candles of the shops on the street are shining, the rice mill oil mill loom mill in Linjiang is grinding and the sound of oil hammer is rolling and weaving cloth is staggered and harmonious, and the goods unloaded from the wharf on the bank of the Xiangjiang River are such as foreign cloth, indigo silk, tea leaves, cold medicine, calligraphy and painting, fans, or mules or cars, ringing and ringing and miscellaneous dishes.

Along the riverside to the streets of the city, food stalls such as braised tofu, moldy tofu, stinky tofu, blood balls, wontons, and fried buns are lit with paper lanterns, which stretch along the Xiangjiang River intermittently to the city wall. The hawkers on the waiting are shouting and drinking, copying the pot and shoveling, frying in oil, green onions, ginger and garlic are not mixed with the aroma of meat, the fragrance of chili peppers is full of incense all over the streets, and the sound of chopping and chopping on the board is endless, all of them are a prosperous and peaceful appearance, for the citizens, the war outside the pass, except in the eyes of the foreign students and poor talents, what does it have to do with this Jiangnan.

The bank of the Xiangjiang River is so lively, and on the shore of Yulongzhou in the heart of the Xiangjiang River, Lan Tianwei, who is holding a telescope, has a look at the situation of Changsha City opposite, as quiet and prosperous as in the past, today it is still a place where Suo Lu lives, and tomorrow ...... "tomorrow!" Changsha will surely recover! ”

Liu Yuyi said a sentence on the side, with perseverance in his words, at this time he was no longer the polite principal, but an officer wearing a military uniform and a pistol pinned to his waist, and a major officer of the Changsha Uprising Headquarters of the Liberation Army.

On the field of Xiangtan School, the same lively scene under the sunset, a team of students from Xiangtan School dressed in tea-green military uniforms are lining up with guns, receiving ammunition, a box of ammunition with three clips of 15 rounds, each person receiving 8 boxes of 24 clips, and placing them in the three bullet boxes on the left and right.

"After the long hit, the right hit is taken by the middle hit, and the left ...... is used for the close hit"

When he led the grenade and inserted the four grenades into the grenade pouch on his waist, Li Qingyang was still there repeatedly muttering the "life and death" bullet box password song.

At a long distance, take the large ammo box on the rear belt, the action time is long, although slow but it doesn't matter, the enemy is still at a long distance. At medium distance, take the reload of the bullet box on the right, although the action distance is the shortest, but it is not always the most natural habit, but it doesn't matter, the enemy is still not in sight.

And when the enemy is in front of him and must shoot at close range, it is already a matter of life and death. At this time, the right hand is naturally obliquely cut into the left cartridge, and the left hand does not have to leave the butt, which shortens the preparation time for shooting, which is really a matter of life and death. This is what the teachers in the school have told them again and again, and mastering such details on the battlefield is directly related to everyone's life.

At this time in the Xiangtan School, these students with loaded guns, although they were excited, but they were nervous, the whole afternoon, no one could sleep peacefully, the mood of the more than 1,600 students was complicated, they were eager for the day of national recovery, but they knew what was waiting for them.

I want to compare the nervousness of the students, on the side of the field, the first company of the second battalion of the fifth regiment of the second division of the Liberation Army and more than 300 officers and soldiers of the battalion headquarters are sitting cross-legged on the grass, checking the weapons with serious expressions, over and over again, the students are excited and a little frightened, but these soldiers of the Liberation Army are obedient with a kind of resignation, with some ruthlessness in their eyes, some soldiers scratch the bayonet with whetstones again and again, and check the new bayonet that is nearly two feet long and has inverted serrations over and over again.

For a whole afternoon, in the Xiangtan School, where the gate was closed and the double whistle was raised, the atmosphere was strange with the order, everyone was strange to varying degrees, the soldiers were like this, and the students were too, compared to the silence of the soldiers, those students were first walking around the school, and every corner was carefully watched, and then everyone began to find something to do, tidy up the housekeeping, sweep the floor, and put the desks and chairs in the classroom into a line, and finally when all this was done, no one spoke, Everyone began to write suicide notes to their families.

The suicide note silenced the people again, and it was only at this time, when the ammunition was distributed, that this silence was broken, and after receiving the ammunition, the new nervousness made them silent and anxious, and the soldiers took obedience to orders as their duty, and could not have the slightest hesitation and retreat, not to mention that this was a war for national recovery.

But...... After all, it came too suddenly, and the suddenness was almost unbearable. Everyone bit their lips again and sat there dumbfounded.

At dinner, Lan Tianwei looked at these students and soldiers in front of him, the soldiers' reactions were expected, but the reactions of these students were unexpected, could it be that when the moment of national recovery came, they were not excited! Not excited?

He and Liu Hua glanced at each other, he coughed, and picked up the lunch box in his hand, which contained rice wine that was not intoxicating.

"Comrades!"

Patrolling the surrounding students and soldiers, Lan Tianwei's voice was full of passion.

"Two hundred and sixty years have passed since then! For exactly two hundred and sixty years, I Han people have been slaves of Suo Lu for two hundred and sixty years! ”

Lan Tianwei's voice resounded in the field, this roar, this words just shocked the students' hearts.

"Today, we are going to raise troops to fight for the glory of the nation, to resist those who use us as slaves, this ...... It's our glory! It's our mission! ”

After a pause, Lan Tianwei looked around at the students, and finally turned her gaze to the soldiers.

"Today, it will be the moment to decide whether we and our compatriots are human beings or slaves, and I swear here: with my blood, I will restore the nation, and with my soul, awaken the nation!"

"With my blood, I will restore the nation, and with my soul, I will awaken the nation!"

The students stood up, and so did the soldiers, accustomed to obedience, shouting the oath with all their might.

"Good! Comrades! ”

Lan Tianwei held the bowl with his left hand and gave a military salute to everyone with his right hand.

"I won't say much about it, it's a Han family here, so I'll dry this bowl of wine!" After speaking, he raised his head and drank it all, looking at the nearly two thousand officers and soldiers with red eyes.

"Use our bayonets to let that Suo Lu remember: two hundred and sixty years of blood debt, this time it is time to pay off!"

"Blood debt and blood repayment, pay off blood debt!"

The students and soldiers roared and picked up their lunch boxes, and a bowl of unintoxicating rice wine went down to their stomachs, but it warmed up their chests, their brains, and the atmosphere was lively.

"The flag of the nation, the blood-stained flag, wrapped the corpses of the warriors. The corpse was still cold, and the blood stained the flag red, and the blood-stained blood flag was raised to the sky. ”

In the middle of the atmosphere, there was a sudden sound of singing, which seemed to be tragic, and the tragic singing poured out from the hoarse voices of the soldiers and students.

“…… We make a solemn oath that the cowards who are afraid of death will go, and we will protect the flag of this nation to the death. In the bloody battle with the enemy, who threw down the bloody flag, who was tempted by money and official position, they who were filthy and despicable, the blood-stained blood flag was raised to the sky, and a solemn oath was made, and the cowards who were afraid of death should go ......"

The battle song merged in the field, the tragic song echoed in the air, and everyone's faces were completely gone, and the previous excitement was gone, and there was only the kind of decision that came from the heart.

“…… We will defend the flag of this nation to the death. The blood-stained battle flag is raised to the sky, and we swear the way forward, come! Prison, guillotine, this is our farewell song, blood-stained blood flags raised to the sky, a solemn oath. Afraid of death cowards go though, we swear to protect the flag of this nation...... "Changde City, the inn of the five provinces, although it is night, there are few pedestrians on the street, but there are several night stalls outside the inn of the five provinces, there are some people sitting by the stall, boxing, drinking, eating meat, although these people are drunk on their faces, but occasionally they will still look at the passers-by on the street, if someone stops outside the inn in the five provinces, the drinkers who are drinking often look at each other, and the close ones will reach out under the wine table, and there are knives and guns hanging under the table after people leave, It will return to normal again.

This in the lobby of the inn in the five provinces more than a dozen wine glasses thick candles are brilliantly reflected, leaning against the table on the inner wall with a statue of Hong Wuye hanging, and on both sides of the hanging statue is hung a couplet of "righteousness with a glass of wine, driving Hu Fu rivers and mountains", at this time the lobby is crowded, wearing black, green short dress of the party, black shirts and folding shirts, green battalion soldiers with the word "brave" on their chests, officers and soldiers in green uniforms, a small teahouse crowded so many people The scene seems a little weird.

The first one on the left is a middle-aged man in his forties, a roasted silk single gown and a blue market cloth robe, a hooked nose on his face, a pair of triangular eyes under the thick eyebrows that flash green and faint light from time to time, and a leather gun box with a cow belt on his left shoulder, but a big knife behind his back.

Next to him stood a shirtless strong man, sweating on his forehead, his braid coiled around his neck motionless, also looking ahead, with his gun behind his back, and a cotton elastic belt coiled around his waist. Sitting on the opposite side of the west seemed to be a merchant, but he stood leisurely, his right hand was pressed against the holster of a green canvas gun hanging from the leather belt of the cowhide at his waist.

On the right side stood a strong man in his fifties, compared to others, he seemed a little reserved, one hand sometimes stroked the oily forehead in front of the forehead, and the other hand was holding the handle of the Taiping knife standing between his legs, looking at Song Jiaoren in the center.

This will suddenly a rooster crow, a young man in short dress, with a red cloth towel on his head, walked into the lobby with a rooster first, first knocked on the ground, and then raised the chicken with both hands, and wore tube pants on the lower body, but he was wearing a green military uniform of the Liberation Army.

"Worship Hong Ye!"

A long hiss, everyone worshiped the statue of Hong Ye on their foreheads, the whole process was completely in accordance with the rules of the Elders' Association, although it was a scholar, but in the afternoon Song Jiaoren specially asked for advice on this process, which will take everyone to worship incense, but it is not unfamiliar.

After worshipping the incense, Song Jiaoren took a step forward and picked up the blood wine on the table, holding it with his right hand, and when everyone picked up the blood wine one after another, he held the wine above his head with both hands.

"All the brothers of the Han family, today I say that my children of Xiangtan are gathered here to regain the nation, and I will not talk nonsense!"

With his eyes around the crowd, he once again held the wine bowl.

"Tie the righteous with a glass of wine, drive Hu Fu rivers and mountains...... Dry! ”

"!"

Roaring, the cup spilled down, the wine bowl fell to the ground at the same time, and for a while the hall was full of the sound of porcelain bowls breaking, and some of the faces that were overwhelmed by alcohol suddenly turned red, and everyone's faces showed a bit of generosity, and Ma Fuyi was even red-faced, red-eyed, and short of breath.

"What our Han brothers are doing today is to rejuvenate the Han Dynasty and capture them, and it is definitely not a rebellion, please restrain the team of all brothers, and do not disturb my compatriots, and now it is under the law of the Liberation Army!"

Looking around at the people in the hall, Song Jiaoren's expression became serious.

"If you don't obey the order, you will be disobedient to the army and beheaded! Violating the deadline is not to be called a slow army, cut it! Angry with its main general, he doesn't listen to the constraints, he is called building an army, and he is beheaded! Abusing the people and silver women, it is called annihilating the army, beheading it! Stealing the people's wealth is called stealing the army, and beheading ......"

One after another, they spit out from Song Jiaoren's mouth, only to startle everyone and look at the white-faced scholar in shock, while the row of recovered officers and soldiers and those foreign students standing next to them were calm.

"Brothers, you need to know that the military order is like a mountain, if there is a criminal, don't blame the sect for being ruthless, and please don't advise you at the time, so as not to be ruthless in military discipline, bear the sin of building the army and slandering the army, and make the sect of the people cry and behead!"

"Military orders are like mountains, and they should be like this!"

Ma Fuyi hugged his fist and bowed.

"If a brother violates the order, Fuyi will never embarrass Mr."

After saying that, Ma Fuyi's voice sank.

"Listen to the brothers, the law of the gentleman is greater than the rules of the party, the brothers should obey the order, if the order is violated, the military law is not allowed, and the ancestor is not allowed!"

In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, Tang Cai often organized a self-reliant army, and after the death of Wang Shufang, the leader of the Yangtze River Basin, he took over as the leader of the party and became one of the most influential leaders of the party in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. As soon as he said this, others immediately bowed down and said yes.

And the name of the old man Ma Fuyi is precisely because he refuses to bend the rules and shakes the rivers and lakes, nods his head for Jiang Song Jiaoren, and retreats back.

"Next, please ask Major Zheng Chengying to belong to the tasks of each department!"

The thick candle of the wine glass reflected the hall, Zheng Chengying, who was standing next to the map, pointed to the task of arranging the map team by team, this Changde is not Dafu County, only the Yamen of the Governor's Mansion, the Telegraph Bureau, the Green Camp, the Ordnance Institute and other important places, the atmosphere in the inn of the five provinces was tense, and the congregation who received the order immediately left the inn and went to other places in the city.

An hour later, the people in the hall of the inn in the five provinces, which were originally crowded, dispersed, leaving only a dozen people, sitting on a chair and taking out their watches from their arms to look at them, Song Jiaoren's brows furrowed.

"Mr. Song, I don't know where Zhang Dalong's head started!"

Ma Fuyi asked recently.

This Guangfuhui uprising was different from the Xingzhonghui and the Self-Reliance Association in those years, and it was the head of the Huilongshan Mountain, but it was not until half a month ago that it received an order to gather the people, and a few days before the gathering gathered about the first eight yuan in the camp to pay for the eight yuan, and received 1,000 foreign guns and dozens of boxes of bullets. The planning of this uprising was far more elaborate than the original Xingzhong Society and the Self-Reliance Association.

"Yuezhou!"

When Song Jiaoren spit out two words, he took out his pocket watch and looked at it again, but at this moment, Zheng Chengying was holding a telegram and hurriedly walked in. Seeing his appearance, Song Jiaoren's heart chuckled, and something bad happened.

"Major Zheng, you are ......"

"Telegram!"

Unlike Yuezhou, Hengyang, Baoqing, and Changde, where the Hui Party was the main force, in Changsha, the main force was the students of the Xiangtan School and more than 300 officers and men of the Guangfu Army.

In the Xiangtan School, six 75-mm Krupp guns have been parked in the field, the muzzle of the black hole is pointing straight ahead, and more than a dozen students who are only thirteen or fourteen years old next to the gun position are struggling to wipe the butter on the shells, and the yellow and clear shells are placed on the straw mats one by one, but there are dozens of ammunition boxes stacked behind the scattered shells, and each cannon is equipped with hundreds of shells.

Under an electric light, an artillery officer was lying on a bullet box, plotting data on a map, and the sergeants and gunners were scattered to the gun emplacement.

"Three hundred rulers, forty-two to forty degrees on the goniometer! Two degrees to the left! ”

After the artillery officer's issuance, the artillery platoon commander immediately began to check the aiming, and the aiming hand of the first gun had already bowed down to the gauge after listening to the command, and began to adjust the firing gauge according to the commander's order, and the gun body shook and shook with it.

"A row is ready!"

"The second row is ready!"

"Three rows ready"

With the command, the bolt operator opened the bolt with a bang, while the loader held a shell in both hands, crouched at the tail of the gun to prepare for loading, and the ammunition man also held the shell, and the position of gunners 1 to 7 at this time was no different from that in the textbook.

"Click!"

As soon as he pressed the stopwatch, Yue Shaopeng nodded with satisfaction, and from calculation to launch, it was thirty seconds faster than the training passing result.

"Sir, there's no need to be so prepared! In Changsha City, there are thirty-six targets, all of which have been aimed at the shooting table, as long as the signal is followed, it will not be missed! ”

Luo Weijiang, who had completed the calculation, asked with a smile, but only got a roll of Yue Shaopeng's eyes.

"Don't think the enemy just stays there waiting for you to boom! Keep training! ”

The tone was calm, and Yue Shaopeng reported a target location again, Luo Weijiang began to calculate the shooting data there again, and the gunners began to prepare for the next round of "shelling" again.

The night was silent, and at nearly midnight, Yulongzhou on the Xiangjiang River could only faintly hear the sound of the river hitting the shore, and there was no other sound, just when the students on the shore felt that time was about to expire, and their left and right hands couldn't help but touch the dinghy and wait anxiously for orders.

Suddenly, the silence of the night was broken, and there was first a gunshot in Changsha City, followed by several dense gunshots, and in their astonishment, several explosions rang out.

Listening to the gunshots coming from the city and looking at the pocket watch, Lan Tianwei's expression changed.

"What's going on! Give ...... immediately"

"Sir, there's a call from the city!"

(To be continued)