After the train arrived in Xiaogan, Yang Qiu met He Xifan, who was ordered to be stationed here.

He is not only a member of the Communist Association, but also a veteran officer in the Hubei New Army, initially as a soldier under Li Yuanhong, and later transferred to the eight towns as the battalion management belt, in the parallel world he led the Hubei People's Army to fire the first shot of the Yangxia War, and now although this position is given to Wu Zhaolin, it may be recognized by Li Yuanhong and appointed as the commander-in-chief of the front line of the Left Route Army, indicating that he is still capable.

He Xifan also saw the Right Route Army that began to get off the train, all the young officers, the bulging bullet belts, the Makqin heavy machine gun pulled by the mule, the light machine fast gun on the shoulder, and the rifle with a slightly different appearance from the Hanyang-made, the small bomblet with a wooden handle that I saw for the first time that could be hung on the waist, and the same seven-life and five-barreled field gun ()! Although the number of people is only a little more than two battalions, but compared to the Second Association of the Left Route Army, which only has a Hanyang-made army, ten bullets, and eight cannons at the moment, this kind of equipment almost makes the soldiers envious and jealous to go crazy, everyone really can't understand what Yang Qiu has to do with it, and he can get so much new equipment!

After contacting Wuchang by phone before, He Xifan knew that Yang Qiu resigned and brought troops to the front line, and he had been thinking about how to get along with this person and how to position the relationship between the left and right armies. ”

"Brother Shaoyue, call me Chenhua, you are still my senior." Yang Qiu smiled slightly, and took Jiang Tai and other officers to greet the officers of the Second Association, the latter because Yue Peng and others were out on the expedition, so he was temporarily brought in as a staff officer, fortunately, he also learned command when he studied in Japan, so he was familiar with the things of staff officers, and when everyone knew each other, Yang Qiu immediately asked: "Is everything deployed here?" ”

He Xifan is not the kind of person who is purely engaged in politics like Sun Wu, he still admires Yang Qiu and the Right Route Army like Wu Zhaolin, if no one strikes first, maybe Beiyang has already killed Hankou at this moment, how can there be time for these people to prepare, just this credit is no problem to be a branch court. What's more, the subsequent northward march, sweeping the four fields, and completely recovering Hubei all proved that this young man really wanted to fight this battle.

The most important thing is that the Right Route Army is also equipped with a large number of machine guns and new barrel retreat cannons, and it should not be hostile just to the face of these ordnance, so I also admired Yang Qiu's ability to ask about the deployment as soon as he arrived, and introduced: "The third standard has already advanced out of Xiaochang and Steep Mountain, stuck at the Jinghan Line station, and the fourth standard is still in Xiaogan for the time being." ”

The Wuchang Left Route Army still uses the establishment of the new army, with one assistant under two standards, and three battalions under each standard. As the earliest reorganized troops, the four targets in his and Wu Zhaolin's hands not only have party members as backbones, but most of them are also veterans of the Hubei army, and their combat effectiveness can still be guaranteed. And judging from the map, his deployment is all based on the Jinghan railway line, and he is obviously prepared to go south along the railway line after the Beiyang customs break, and he is a good officer ().

"Hyochang's left wing will be handed over to us." After hearing this, Yang Qiu immediately ordered: "Zhusheng (Jiang Taizi), the first battalion and the third artillery battalion will go out of Huaxi to protect the safety of Xiaochang's left flank, and the second battalion and the first artillery battalion will continue to enter Fengzigang in the northeast of Yunmeng to the left, and the various units will dig trenches immediately after they arrive, and deploy Luqi to prevent the Beiyang cavalry from going south!" ”

After Jiang Tai turned around to give the order, Yang Qiu immediately turned his head and said, "Brother Shaoyue, I know that you are all thinking about whether I am here to seize power, I just want to tell everyone that if you can't win this battle, no matter how big the power is, it will be Jing Zhongyue!" So I don't want to mention this, you can listen to my movements if you want to, and if you don't want to listen to it, you can just fight well. ”

He Xifan didn't expect Yang Qiu to be so direct, and he knew that the dominant family would definitely not let him go, as long as he really came to fight, why bother to fight for power and profit now? So he said very simply: "You are the commander, we will naturally listen to you." ”

"That's good." Yang Qiu swept away several party officers behind him who looked a little wrong, and said: "I know that you don't have enough machine guns here, so I will leave a machine gun company, with three Makqin and four light machine fast guns to cooperate with you to stick to the right flank, as for the cannon brothers, they really can't be transferred." ”

He Xifan was already very happy to be able to leave three heavy machine guns and four light machine guns to help, but machine guns are big eaters of bullets, and each soldier on his side only got two rows of bullets, and he could afford to raise machine guns there, so he said anxiously: "Shaoyue, thank you Commander for helping regardless of previous suspicions, but can you leave some more bullets, we can't afford to raise them here." ”

"Bullets?" Yang Qiuyi frowned, glanced at the soldiers around him with flat bullet belts, and said in surprise: "Doesn't Chuwangtai have enough reserves?" And I've promised Li Du that the gun factory will provide you with 10,000 rounds of ammunition a day, right? ”

"It's not Zhang Jingliang yet!"

Xie Yuankai, the commander of the four standards, saw that the guards behind Yang Qiu were all drummed, with four small bombs with wooden handles in their waists, and short guns were distributed, and he immediately said enviously: "I went back to Liujiamiao the day before yesterday to ask him for bullets, and he insisted that the reserves were insufficient and could not be abused, and only gave each person two rows of ten rounds, and also said that the recruits could only cause waste if they gave more bullets." ”

"Then why don't you go to Sun Wu? He was the Minister of War, and he was in charge of logistics. ”

"Yes, but." Xie Yuankai glanced at He Xifan and closed his mouth angrily. He is a member of the society, because Liu Fuji is generous and righteous, Jiang Yiwu is missing, and the society is basically excluded from the military government except for Hu Ying and Xiong Bingkun, and he is already full of anger. It's just that the co-ordinator is a member of the Communist Party, and it is really not appropriate to have any more contradictions when the war is imminent, so the dissatisfaction on the lips finally suffocated.

He Xifan also sighed in his heart, Sun Wu was no longer the leader of the Communist Association who decisively launched the uprising, in order to cling to Li Yuanhong's grasp of power, he ignored Zhang Jingliang's deliberate withholding of ammunition, thinking of this, he felt extremely upset, and arched his hand: "If Chenhua is inconvenient, forget it, I will find a way to ensure the supply of ammunition for the machine gun." ”

"Now Hanyang takes half of the daily output of the two armies, and we have emptied it this time." Yang Qiu is not out of bullets, the pointed bullets that have just arrived are to be reserved for light machine guns and Mauser 98 who cannot use round-headed bullets, and Hanyang-made cannot use pointed bullets, so it is useless to give them to them. As for the round-headed bullets, they have to be left for the heavy machine gun and Hanyang on his side, and there are not many reserves, after all, even he doesn't know how long this battle will last, so seeing the disappointed expressions on the faces of He Xifan and the others, he can only say: "Shaoyue doesn't have to worry too much, no matter what, brother will ensure the ammunition of the machine gun company, and when Hanyang has another output, he will definitely let the quartermaster replenish it for you first." ”

"Shaoyue and the two associations, thank you, Commander!" He Xifan was just about to say a few more words of gratitude, when he saw the adjutant running towards this side desperately, and shouted without waiting to walk in: "Oh no! Beiyang began to attack Wusheng Pass, and Tan Xietong sent an urgent telegram asking us to rush to help immediately. ”

This news suddenly made the surrounding explode, and Yang Qiu's heart sank, he always thought that Yuan Shikai would not work hard until he officially became the prime minister, but he didn't expect to make a death move nearly ten days in advance.

"Co-ordinator, I'll take the three standards with me."

"The three standards stick to Xiaochang and cannot be moved, in my opinion, it is still up to us to support the four standards!"

"No, the four standards are filial piety, this is the last gate! In my opinion, Wuchang should immediately transfer the Sixie to the north to ensure that Wushengguan is safe and sound. ”

"It's too late!" When the officers couldn't come up with any good ideas, Yang Qiu interrupted all the voices with a wave of his hand, squatted down and asked Lei Meng to take the map, spread it out on the spot and said immediately after reading it in detail: "The four associations are still in the south, and now it will take two days for the reinforcements to arrive at Wusheng Pass, so it's too late!" I don't think it's as good as this, Shaoyue and Zhusheng, the two of you cooperate to stick to Xiaochang, I will take the guard company to support, if you get on the train now, you can arrive tomorrow morning at the latest, I believe that He Xi and Wu Zhaolin can still hold it tonight. ”

"Just a team?" He Xifan hurriedly waved his hand: "Commander, don't be careless, I know the temperament of fear, if it weren't for the crisis, I would never ask for help, so at this moment, Beiyang must already be a big army, and I am afraid that a team will go." ”

"Not one team, it's three battalions." Yang Qiu didn't notice that He Xifan had changed his name again, and his finger swept to the left: "Zhusheng, you immediately send someone to Anlu, Ke Shao and they should have arrived there after they took over Jingshan, and after finding it, immediately let them go north to join me halfway." Then send someone to Xiangyang to inform Yue Peng, and immediately march to Suizhou after taking Xiangyang, to ensure that Beiyang cannot take Dahongshan to bypass Hanchuan! ”

The people present were all officers, and when they saw Yang Qiu waving the map, two troops appeared on the left flank, and they instantly understood why he wanted to forcibly incorporate the Liu brothers in Jingshan, if there was no such incorporation, how could it be possible to assemble two troops that could be mobilized in Dahongshan on the left flank in advance! So everyone was more dissatisfied with Sun Wu for using this matter to force him to resign.

Yang Qiu didn't know that his transfer had actually attracted the association of He Xifan and others, so he raised his head and glanced at everyone: "I don't know how long I can hold it when I go, if the pass is broken, I and Wusan must first avoid its sharp adjustment, so it is up to you to block the impact of Beiyang!" I hope you will remember that you must not let Beiyang rush up, and you must hold Xiaochang to block the first wave no matter what! ”

"Commander, rest assured, even if Shaoyue dies, he will definitely block this wave!" Regardless of whether He Xifan's guarantee counted, Yang Qiu had no second choice, and immediately beckoned the guard company to re-board the train and prepare to leave, but as soon as he was about to get on the train, he was blocked by Hakan.

Yang Qiu is now the hope of the German Navy, how can Hakan let him take risks! But Yang Qiu didn't give an inch: "Colonel Hakan, I am a soldier, soldiers should be protected on the front line instead of being protected like women, if you think you can't even protect an officer, then I think this transaction is not necessary ()!" ”

Hakan really hated that he couldn't forcibly take this guy onto a warship and then go back to Europe immediately, seeing that his face was not good, Yang Qiu could only say softly: "I won't joke with my life, and I won't take fearless risks." ”

Hearing him say this, Hakan had no choice but to let him go and accompany him on the train, this scene made He Xifan and others, who couldn't understand German, confused, and couldn't imagine that Yang Qiu could still mobilize foreigners.

Night soon fell, and while the train was speeding towards Wusheng Pass, the sound of killing was already shaking the sky on the pass. The pass, which was still majestic during the day, was already in tatters, and groups of Beiyang soldiers continued to charge under the cover of machine guns and artillery, and the red points of light carried by bullets shuttled back and forth between the two sides.

Shi Xiaolou pressed his head deep, shallow and stepped on the rubble-like city tower and ran towards the command post, stumps and broken arms could be seen everywhere along the way. No one thought that Beiyang's ruthless attack would be so terrifying, and nearly 1,000 people died in just a few hours, and most of them were killed by shells.

When he came to a machine-gun fort made of thick sandbags and stones, there was a sudden loud shouting from inside. "It's stuck! Cover me. ”

Looking at the probe, the heavy machine gunner jumped and screamed, it turned out that because of inexperience in continuous high-speed shooting, a canvas cartridge belt was torn and blocked the gun magazine, the anxious machine gunner hurriedly pulled the Maxim heavy machine gun away from the shooting hole, and a Madsen light machine gun for emergency protection immediately occupied the shooting hole and continued to strafe the hillside.

Ignoring the hot receiver, several soldiers from the machine gun squad began to scramble to clean up the remaining canvas cartridge belts.

This is a very annoying job, and there are no experienced heavy machine gunners in the Hubei army, and Yang Qiu himself has never played with this kind of antique goods, so the "Machine Gun Tactics Manual" he wrote and let the machine gunners of the whole army learn only to help soldiers learn tactics, but it does not help at all technically. In addition, there are hundreds of parts for the Makqin machine gun, and people who have just learned it have a headache even if they want to disassemble the receiver even if they are usually training, not to mention that it is now at this critical moment, so the machine gun fort is simply busy and becomes a pot of porridge.

Seeing that the most important machine gun stopped, Shi Xiaolou suddenly said that it was not good, and he could fight under the impact of Beiyang until now, relying entirely on these unfamiliar machine guns, especially the heavy machine gun has become a blockade weapon, and two of them have been damaged by artillery fire during the day, and now the third one has stopped, and half of the firepower on the pass is suddenly missing, and a large gap immediately appeared on the left side ().

The experienced Beiyang soldiers immediately saw this, under the reminder of the three long and two short copper whistles, hundreds of Beiyang infantry crawled to this side with bullets, Shi Xiaolou knew very well that if they climbed to 100 meters to launch a charge, it would be a big trouble, and when he was thinking about whether to launch a counter-charge condescendingly, he saw Wu Zhaolin leading the soldiers to push two ten-barreled hand-cranked 12.7mm Green fast guns onto the battlements.

The Green fast artillery is the first heavy machine gun to equip the domestic troops in the real sense, and the old Beiyang has been equipped with a lot of them, and Zhang Zhidong has also transferred dozens of them from China in the preparation of the new army. The round, self-falling magazine** is placed above the gun, the Heavy grabs the handle and starts spinning, the two sub-Heavy control the angle, and the loader and loser constantly change magazines.

Compared with the more simple operation, although the firepower of this machine gun is not weak, the firing angle depends entirely on the precise cooperation of the soldiers of the machine gun squad. Due to the lack of machine guns in the Left Route Army, in order to strengthen the firepower, this kind of old man had to be moved out of Chuwangtai to equip the troops, and in the end, Li Yuanhong specially invited a few retired veterans to reluctantly teach the soldiers to use it.

Although the Green fast gun is much worse than Makqin, the two ten-barreled fast guns can still shoot hundreds of bullets per minute, and the 12.7 mm bullet is extremely powerful, as long as it hits, it will die, so it makes up for the gap in the heavy machine gun squad for the time being.

As the last Beiyang soldier disappeared into the darkness, and the dense cannonballs fell again, Shi Xiaolou smiled bitterly, these crazy Beiyang really didn't leave people the slightest chance to breathe.

The fierce battle of the first day did not finally stop until midnight, and when the soldiers rubbed their sore shoulders and got up, they found that Wusheng Pass could hardly see what it used to be, and blood and corpses were lying all over the hillside in front of the pass.

It's only been one day, and there are still seven days left in the twenty days promised to the commander! How can you really hold it?