The dense clouds of black pressure swirled over the river, the air with water mist was almost stagnant, everyone could not feel the flow of the wind, the kind of depression that could not be penetrated made many people unable to sleep peacefully, and only the squeaks of wooden beds were left in the barracks after the lights were turned off and rolled by the soldiers.

In the baggage camp outside the Baoding Gate, Ma Kui and Xiao Anguo kept lifting the black curtain to look out, but the chaotic night made it impossible for them to see through the outside. The two glanced at each other and found a problem, once upon a time, they both began to regard Yang Qiu, who was still inconspicuous before entering Sichuan, as the backbone.

"Ma Kui, do you think you won't come? I heard that the river is blocked, and the Chu Yu ship is on the river, how can he come over? ”

"Don't worry, I've already lined up a few brothers to go to the patrol river to wait, they will report something by themselves, not to mention that Brother Yang has a lot of eyes, maybe he can find a way, wait, wait." Ma Kui said this, but he was actually beating a drum in his heart, after all, the outside inspection was very strict tonight, and all battalions were forbidden to go out, not to mention that he was still a standard, once he was found to go out without authorization, I am afraid that it would be a big trouble.

Xiao Anguo also knew that he couldn't be in a hurry, but he didn't see that Yang Qiu's heart was always empty, so he simply squatted in the corner of the wall and lit a dry cigarette. Seeing this, Ma Kui smiled and said: "I said Brother Xiao, you are all flat and you are also taking standard silver, why can't you change the habit of squatting in the corner." ”

"I'm a mud leg, unlike Brother Yang, who is knowledgeable, and I feel more down-to-earth when I squat." Xiao Anguo smiled, took out the foreign fire and lit it, Mei Zizi took a sip and continued: "Ma Kui, what do you say Brother Yang is paying attention to? I don't like to mess with the party, and I don't want to work for the Tartars, but I always feel unreliable when we don't rely on each other. ”

"I didn't say no." Before Ma Kui could answer, a voice suddenly came from outside the house, and the two of them hurriedly opened the door excitedly after hearing it, only to see Yang Qiu walking in with two young officers, and they were stunned.

"My own people." After Yang Qiu signaled the two of them to rest assured with his eyes, he introduced: "Yue Peng and Zhang Wenjing are both adjutants of our 42 targets, and they are now temporarily acting as the camp management belt ()." ”

"Yue Peng (Zhang Wenjing) has seen Lord Xiao and Ma Guandao."

Xiao Anguo and Ma Kui quietly glanced at each other, and it was only a month to be able to get the two henchmen, and they also secretly sighed at Yang Qiu's methods, and hurriedly greeted each other a few times.

"You're welcome, you're welcome, there will be time in the future." The baggage battalion is Yang Qiu's "maiden home", so he immediately sat down unceremoniously and said: "I won't say anything about the situation outside, and everyone knows that tomorrow morning the patrol camp will start to collect the bullets of each battalion, and the resistance in the army will definitely become more and more intense, so I conclude that there will be big changes in half a month." ”

Regarding Yang Qiu's assertion, Yue Peng's feeling is the most direct, he just said yesterday that something would happen in the Nanhu Artillery Battalion, and it really happened today, Zhang Wenjing also doubted it, from his own eyes to see the Third Artillery Battalion, the current situation in the army has indeed reached the crater, and when the bullets start to be collected early tomorrow morning, the soldiers will definitely be even more dissatisfied.

Although Xiao Anguo and Ma Kui are still a little suspicious, they are more aware of the mentality of the soldiers when they were born at the bottom, they don't trust them so much, they are like thieves, and they are in arrears, and they have no intention to become thoughtful, if it weren't for Yang Qiu, they wouldn't want to do it.

"Just now, Brother Xiao said that we can't rely on each other, and I'm a little worried." Yang Qiu glanced at the four of them and smiled: "This is actually very true, unless we rebel, otherwise we really need to step aside." ”

Yue Peng faintly guessed Yang Qiu's thoughts, and said, "My lord, are you going to rely on those party members to obtain righteousness?" ”

Yang Qiu nodded: "If it is really expected by my assertion, once the mutiny, those party members will inevitably take the opportunity to come out and incite the soldiers, I said, it is impossible for the soldiers to riot in a hurry, and they also need to find a reason for themselves, plus the soldiers are mostly sympathetic to the party members and praise their anti-Qing ideas, so the two phases need to hit it off."

However, the forces of those party members in the army are all middle and lower classes, and it may be feasible to lead the troops to riot, but after that, they need one person to come out to stabilize tens of thousands of soldiers, so a person with prestige will definitely be selected from our army.

Rui Cheng is a banner man, it is no longer possible, although Admiral Zhang Biao and Rui Cheng do not agree, but they have been suppressing the party for many years, and it is impossible to cooperate with him, so (). ”

"Your Excellency, do you want to be this collaborator?" Zhang Wenjing frowned and hurriedly asked.

"Me? Hehe. Yang Qiu smiled, pointed to his nose and said, "If Wenjing is a member of the party, would you be willing to find a man who killed their leader, a Manchu loyal and brave Baturu in the eyes of others, to cooperate?" ”

Zhang Wenjing shook his head and put his mind at ease, in fact, he asked this because he was afraid that Yang Qiu would go to that seat now, after all, he had a short time leading the troops and his reputation was not very good, so he was afraid that he would become more chaotic after the soldiers were not convinced.

"They will definitely find Li Xietong!" Yang Qiu "asserted" again: "Except for those two, the most prestigious person in the army is only Li Xietong, plus Lord Xietong usually treats people leniently and treats his brothers well, so there is no second choice other than him." ”

"Your Excellency, you mean, us."

"Once there is a change, we will immediately control the two towns of Hankou and Hanyang, and then wait for news from Wuchang." Yang Qiu said: "If they support Li Xietong, everyone will be fine, but if they really want to act rashly, then I will not let them mess up the three towns!" ”

"My lord, forgive me for taking the liberty of it." Zhang Wenjing asked: "My lord has been talking about defending the three towns, why is this?" ”

Yang Qiu sighed: "The Manchu Qing has come to an end, this is the general trend, but I am not optimistic about the Kuomintang, even if they can succeed in overthrowing the Manchus, but there is no precedent for a republic in China for thousands of years, not that the republic is bad, but under the people's literacy rate, the people do not understand the republic, and the rash republican can only lead to more chaos in the country."

Beiyang has a heavy army, Yuan Shikai has been dormant for a long time, the internal forces of the party are complicated, the good and the bad are uneven, and the contradictions and war disasters cannot be reconciled at all.

The importance of the three towns you all know, Lord Zhang's life's hard work has laid an industrial precedent, but also laid the foundation for the future of the country, once the Beiyang army will definitely come to fight, it will definitely be a disaster ()!

So I'm going to fight for it once and keep it! I don't know where I'm going, but I know that I'm not going to destroy the foundations of this country, let alone plunge its people into decades of war! If the party or the north can stabilize the country and lead tens of thousands of Chinese sons and daughters to prosperity and strength, then I will definitely hand over everything and go overseas and never return! And I also want you to monitor me, and if I disobey the word of the day, then anyone can shoot me in the back! ”

Yang Qiu's words are true and false, but they resonate with several people, they are all Hubei soldiers, loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty early in the morning, but the idea of protecting the family as a soldier is deep-rooted, just.

"Counting the baggage battalion of the security team and the horse pipe belt, we only have five battalions, less than 4,000 guns at most, and we lack heavy weapons such as machine guns and cannons. The level of equipment and training in Beiyang is far superior to ours, and there are sailors who can be mobilized to come, if they really come, they must go south along the railway line to take Hankou first, and they are afraid to block it. As soon as Yue Peng expressed his concern, Xiao Anguo immediately said: "Beiyang equipment is far superior to us, but we are not bad, Brother Yang has already ordered hundreds of machine guns and 300,000 rounds of ammunition, which will arrive in a few days!" ”

"Really!"

Yue Peng and Zhang Wenjing glanced at each other, and were shocked again, although foreigners are wantonly selling arms in China, it is really difficult for individuals to get such things as machine guns, not to mention hundreds in one breath! How many secrets does this young Lord Biao have yet!

Seeing that the two of them didn't seem to believe it, Ma Kui hurriedly told Yang Qiu about exchanging technical drawings for equipment, and Yue Peng and Zhang Wenjing immediately understood why he wanted to protect the three towns.

"I took out the technology they wanted in a deal, and they gave me what they wanted." Yang Qiu didn't want to say more on this issue for the time being, he couldn't resist Beiyang, everything was false if Hanyang was destroyed, so he immediately became serious: "Machine guns and bullets are just foreign aid, it's hard to say whether we can get there or not, we have to rely on ourselves!" ”

"My lord, it's no problem to control Hanyang, but Hankou has Yang Kaijia's 30 bids, I'm afraid ()."

As soon as Yue Peng said this, Yang Qiu stretched out his hand to interrupt him: "I have already received an order that the three towns will immediately change the defense of the whole army, and my 42nd bid will take over the Liujiamiao Station of the Hanyang, Hankou and Jinghan Railways, and Guo Erxing and Chen Shanyou will come back tomorrow, but I will continue to arrange for the two of you to serve as adjutants, as for whether you can control it." ”

"Hehe, it looks like God is helping us!" Yue Peng had nothing to say about Yang Qiu's "luck" and "prophecy", he glanced at Zhang Wenjing and said with a smile: "One is mean and bitter, the other is full of tartars, if the two of us can't even compete with them, we won't be able to see adults." ”

After speaking, he turned his head to Xiao Anguo: "Now it's up to Xiao Guan." ”

His words made all eyes converge on Xiao Anguo's face, and after the bullets were collected tomorrow, only the soldiers on duty could get three rounds, and it was impossible to protect themselves once something happened, so how many bullets could be made from Chu Wangtai became the key.

Xiao Anguo glanced at Ma Kui, and said confidently: "Chuwangtai is on the side of Meiting Mountain, and there is a big road leading directly to the Xunsi River, which can be arrived at the moment of departure from my baggage camp, and we can also solve it by boat, and I also have a general understanding of the warehouse."

Although Wu Zhaolin and Li Keguo led the left team of the engineering battalion to be responsible for the defense, the middle and lower ranks of the army were basically party members, or sympathetic soldiers, and once something happened, they would definitely go straight to the warehouse to grab the arms, so we had to rush ahead of them, as long as we could bring out the arms before we could, and we could go directly into the river to reach Hanyang by patrolling the Si River. ”

"It's not good for us to fight in the baggage battalion, but the people are united, and there are no banner soldiers, except for a few people, everyone is not willing to do it for the Mantars! When the time comes, I can forge an appointment order and go to Chuwangtai to load the goods in advance, and it shouldn't be a big problem to have Brother Xiao to do the internal response, so it's all left now. After Ma Kui finished speaking, his eyes looked at Yang Qiu.

Eyes suddenly focused on Yang Qiu, no matter how much everyone believed his "assertion", they were all nervous at the moment, this is not a trivial matter, if there is no mutiny or riot, then their arrangements may be in vain.

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to give my head to the Tartars to chop off." Yang Qiu took a deep breath, suddenly took out the two pistols that everyone was familiar with, removed the magazines and put them on the table one by one, and then took out five silver tickets and ferry tickets from his pocket: "This is my final choice for you!" A 10,000 yuan, take a ferry ticket to Shanghai, go to Shanghai to Hesheng Yuan to report my name, and someone will arrange a ship to the United States. ”

The sudden choice made the four people present in a daze, you look at me, I see you haven't spoken for a long time, although 10,000 taels is not much, but it is a windfall for ordinary people, and it is a very good choice not to get involved in this quagmire.

In the silent room, Yang Qiu's palms were sweating, people's hearts have been unpredictable since ancient times, and personal strength cannot intervene in this whirlpool, so he needs help! And when things come to this point, the showdown is undoubtedly the best choice! The success or failure of the future may lie in this trade-off!

Yue Peng took the lead in pushing the silver ticket back to Yang Qiu, grabbed his ticket and tore it to pieces: "Soldier, fight!" Twenty years behind, I am not reconciled! ”

"The adults give too little, and the Tartars don't do good, but the gun factory spends nearly 10 million, and I don't want to see it all fall into your pocket." Zhang Wenjing smiled and tore off the ticket.

Ma Kui and Xiao Anguo looked at each other and smiled, and also tore the ticket to pieces: "Brother Yang, you can't take all the good things!" Do it yourself to defend the Three Towns and expel the big heroes full of Tartars, but you want to drive us away and lick the foreigners' butts! No, Lao Tzu must at least be a little hero. ”

Seeing the confetti on the table, Yang Qiu's eyes suddenly turned red, and he said that this was the last heroic era in Chinese history, and today he finally saw it, for a dream that was still hazy, for a belief that overthrew the Manchu Tartars, he did not hesitate to go to the soup.

"Then we'll fight for our lives! Tell everyone that there are more than two ways to strengthen the country and enrich the people! After a few clicks to put away the gun, Yang Qiu said heavily: "On the night of August 19 (lunar calendar), we will listen to the guns!" ”

[There is something to do at night, so I will change it first].