After the split of the Tokyo League on August 10, Tan Renfeng, Song Jiaoren and other leaders of the League who were deeply disappointed with Sun Wen felt that time was pressed in view of the rapidly changing situation in the country, and quickly returned to China and planned to plan an uprising in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Tan, Song and others did not want to respond to the Northern Expedition of the Southern Army of the Mengshan Army, but focused on their own interests, trying to have their own territory in the future political map after the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty.

There is no doubt that the anti-Qing Dynasty is undoubted, and now everyone is standing on the position of opposing the Qing Dynasty, but the Mengshan Army has soldiers, guns and industry, while the League has no money and no soldiers, only a lot of blood.

In fact, the alliance will still have influence in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, at least stronger than the Mengshan army. Except for an intelligence station in Wuchang that is not very good, the Mengshan Army basically has little strength.

After the failure of the Hunan and Jiangxi uprisings in the winter of 1906, some leaders of the League realized the importance of the army, and they focused their work on the new army in Hubei and began to infiltrate the new army.

The biggest difference between the Hubei New Army (including the Ninth Town of Jiangning) and the Beiyang New Army is that the Hubei New Army attaches more importance to recruiting returnees and intellectuals from studying abroad. Perhaps it is because of the personal character of Zhang Zhidong, who created the Hubei New Army, that the proportion of intellectuals in the Hubei New Army is quite high.

This poses a problem. That is, the Hubei New Army pays more attention to the current situation and is more likely to awaken national consciousness. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty's domestic and foreign policies failed one after another, it inevitably led to disillusionment and even despair of the new officers and soldiers towards the imperial court, so they accepted the idea of Pai Manchu in order to seek a way to save the country.

By 1909, two secret organizations had emerged in the Hubei New Army—the Literary Society and the Gongjin Society. The members were basically soldiers of the Forces nouvelles, as well as a small number of junior officers. Although it was not a subordinate organization under the direct leadership of the League, it basically accepted the anti-Manchu ideology of the League, established the Ministry of Secrets, Communications, and General Affairs, and was determined to overthrow the Manchus and rebuild the country by revolutionary means.

Organizations need activities, and activities need funds. Almost all of the money for the Literary Society and the Communal Association came from the soldiers' salaries. What is admirable is that these lowest-level soldiers receive the lowest salaries, but there is no lack of enthusiasm for paying "dues". The Literary Society stipulated that members were required to pay one-tenth of their military salary, and those soldiers from poor families preferred to send less money to their families. He also never owes or underpays his "membership dues". The Kyojin Council adopts the method of voluntary contributions. Funds were a little tight, but there were some touching cases of member Liu Xiangou being a cloth dealer who donated all his assets and went bankrupt. Liu Zhenwu sold his hometown's land, Zhushan, to finance the revolution. Juzheng is in order to raise funds. went to steal a golden Buddha in Guangji Temple with Sun Wu and others, Zou Shuicheng found that his aunt had some valuable jewelry, and asked for it to no avail, and begged the military doctor to dispense medicine and fascinated his aunt. Steal it and sell it.

But there is a lack of cooperation and even hostility between the two organizations. This is not only due to the contradictions caused by the competition for members, but also due to the smooring between leaders. The two anti-Qing organizations, which share the same general direction, have not cooperated effectively with each other.

The senior officers of the Eighth Town and the Twenty-first Mixed Association were not ignorant, but they had all along turned a blind eye to the soldiers' tandem secret meetings and had not taken very drastic and thorough measures against the soldiers' tandem meetings. In particular, Li Yuanhong, the 21st Mixed Association Commander who was called Li Bodhisattva by the soldiers, was even more tolerant. A few years ago, when he was still very concerned about cutting braids, Li Yuanhong only fired his soldiers for cutting braids, and did not investigate them deeply.

Long Qian suddenly made an incident in Guangdong, and Shandong and Guanwai responded quickly, and the great cause of opposing the Qing Dynasty, which had no hope before, suddenly showed a brilliant dawn. The revolutionary organizing spirit in the New Army was shaken and felt that their opportunity had come. Although these lower-level officers and soldiers could not know the military plans of the imperial court and even the Mengshan Army, the news that the Mengshan Army had entered Hunan had already spread throughout the two lakes, and they knew that the goal of the Mengshan Army must be Wuchang.

Then do it! When the Mengshan army approached Wuchang, he made a move and captured Wuchang City in one fell swoop! As for how to cooperate with the Mengshan army and how to form a new government, they did not have a plan.

As soon as the "survey and telegram" came out, Wuchang was shocked, and the situation suddenly became tense. On July 30, Liu Gong, a member of the League and the premier of the Communist Advancement Association, who had participated in the Hunan and Jiangxi Uprising in 1906, realized that the Eighth Town might be transferred to the front line to resist Long Qian's Mengshan army, so he proposed to Sun Wu, the "minister" in charge of military affairs in the association, to immediately unite with colleagues in the Literary Society, give up their previous suspicions, and jointly deal with the current situation. Liu Gong said to Sun Wu that the Mengshan Army was in the Northern Expedition, and the Qing court would definitely use the Hubei New Army to fight against it, although Long Qian had killed our comrades, but the Mengshan Army was the best time to overthrow the Qing court. The Literary Society is quite powerful in the army, and we should join them to discuss major matters.

Sun Wu agreed with Liu Gong's opinion. He is also a member of the Alliance, but he is less senior than Liu Gong, and he thinks that the top management of the Alliance should be contacted immediately, and it is better to let the leaders have one or two people to preside over the overall situation. Liu Gong agreed, so Sun Wu prepared to leave for Shanghai to contact the Alliance. After another two days, the whole town of the eighth town was assembled, and soon it was heading south to Changsha, and a large number of officers and soldiers who were aspiring to do things were dragged to the battlefield.

Probably the righteousness is yellow.

Liu Gong was unwilling, he was not a soldier, so he naturally stayed in Wuchang, and found that Li Yuanhong's troops were not transferred south, so he found Jiang Yiwu, the president of the Literary Society, who was a soldier in the 41st standard, and once again expressed his intention to take the opportunity to raise righteousness, and obtained Jiang Yiwu's approval. Before the two factions could discuss a specific action plan, the battle of Changsha had already begun.

Since the eighth town is the main force, of course, it has to undertake the most difficult tasks. There are mountains to the south and west of Changsha as a barrier, and it is judged that the main force of the Mengshan Army will attack Changsha along the bank of the Xiangjiang River, so Zhang Biao discussed with Cen Chunbei and Yu Mingyi to guard the commanding heights west of Changsha Yuelu Mountain with the 29th standard, and go out of Changsha with the main force of the eighth town to occupy the high ground on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River in the south of the city.

Zhang Biao, the commander of the eighth town, is a mediocre talent, and he has no talent for commanding the army to fight, but he is not as good as Yu Mingyi, a half-man, and the specific defense plans are all from Yu Mingyi's hands. By the time the First Division of Fengguozhu was deployed on the front line of Huilongtang on August 18, the Eighth Town had already built quite complete fortifications, and Yu Mingyi, who was almost living in the front-line position, said to Zhang Biao with confidence, let the Cantonese bandits come. Come and die!

Han Ziying led the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division and the 1st Brigade directly under the 2nd Division to march to Xiangtan, preparing to attack Changsha from the west. Jiang Yiliu, chief of staff of the First Division, commanded the Third Brigade and a large number of subordinate units to make a detour back to Changsha from the East Road to complete the task of cutting off the enemy's rear route set by the Lukou Conference. In order to cover the progress of the left and right roads, Feng Guozhu restricted the attack on the high ground south of Changsha, not only to attract the enemy's main force to the south of the city, but also not to attack too fiercely, so as to drive the eighth town out of Changsha.

On the afternoon of the 18th, the 1st Brigade began fire reconnaissance with the 1st and 2nd regiments. In order to find out the firepower of the defenders. This is where the Mengshan Army is superior to the Beiyang New Army. In particular, the First Brigade, with the Fifth Town and the Ninth Association as its old foundation, has the highest combat quality in the whole army.

On the morning of the 19th, the 1st Brigade of Yan Shulin, which had initially figured out the defenders' defense, began a formal attack on the high ground north of Huilongtang, and the 1st Regiment of Ji Haogu faced the 30th standard of the 8th Town. The self-proclaimed First Regiment of the Mengshan Army seems to have forgotten the requirements of the division commander. The attack was extremely fierce. Under the cover of artillery, they seized three positions at 30 targets in one fell swoop, and the battle was fierce, and the 1st Regiment, which had the highest proportion of veterans in the army, was deeply stimulated by the 6th Division of Texas. Determined to defend their honor with practical actions. In addition, the 1st Regiment's equipment was superior to that of its opponents, and its mortars that fired at close range without dead ends successively destroyed the 32 standard heavy machine gun fire points, which brought great pressure to the 30 th Standard, and its second battalion was crushed, and for a time it faced the collapse of the entire front.

The sharp attack of the 1st Regiment forced the 16th Association to urgently mobilize reserves to counterattack, fearing that the opponent would achieve a breakthrough in depth. The two sides fought repeatedly and suffered heavy casualties. Brigade Commander Yan Shulin told Ji Haogu several times to stop attacking and consolidating his position, but Ji Haogu turned a deaf ear, but instead said to the three battalion commanders under him, continue to fight, let the top see, our first regiment is the first in the whole army!

Feng Guozhu, who came urgently, inspected the front line and ordered Ji Haogu to stop the attack and consolidate the vested position. Ji Haogu was deeply dissatisfied, and was severely reprimanded by Feng Guozhu, "Didn't you participate in the Lukou meeting?" Idiot! If you fight like this, not to mention the excessive casualties, driving the eighth town out of Changsha will miss the commander's big event! Ji Haogu remembered that Long Qian's plan was to fight a war of annihilation in Changsha.

"Good ancient, I know that you have to compare with the Sixth Division. The first regiment is the old foundation of the Mengshan Army, and it is right not to be left behind, but we must learn to keep the overall situation in mind. Feng Guozhu patted Ji Haogu on the shoulder, and was very satisfied with this regiment leader.

"Divisional commander, the eighth town is just like that, just bragging. I am confident that I will break through the enemy in one go. ”

Indeed, the Eighth Town Force was not at all like the legendary elite division.

Zhang Biao and Yu Mingyi were surprised by the sharp attack power of the Mengshan army. After the 1st Regiment seized 30 Biao 3 positions, it shook the defense of the entire line of the 8th Town, which was equivalent to being wedged in the middle. Fortunately, the enemy stopped the attack, otherwise it would have been broken through in half a day.

That night, the officers of the Eighth Town, who had studied the situation, unanimously decided that they had to fight back and drive their opponents down the hill. But the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Standard seemed to be unable to fight, and this battalion performed extremely poorly in the morning battle. Zhang Biao decided to temporarily replace the position of the 30th Standard 2nd Battalion with the Engineer Battalion of the old army of the 8th Town, and first reorganize the 30th Standard 2nd Battalion.

But that night there was a mutiny in the eighth town, and the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.

The 2nd Battalion of the 30th Standard withdrew its position after dark. A squad leader named Yang Hongsheng was a traffic officer of the Literary Society, he was a native of Xiangyang, Hubei, and participated in the defensive battle on the 19th, but fortunately did not die in battle. When the troops withdrew from their positions after dark, they quietly said to the platoon commander Zhang Tingfu, "It can't be like this, it doesn't matter if we die, but wouldn't it be too unjust to die for the Manchu Dynasty?" ”

Zhang Tingfu is also a revolutionary party, and he witnessed the bloody battle scene in the morning, and he deeply understood Yang Hongsheng's words, "There are many members of my standard literary society, and I will contact this side." You go and tell the people in the engineering battalion that it's better to let them be clever and don't die easily. ”

Yang Hongsheng found an excuse and returned to the position, found Xiong Bingkun he knew, and told him what he meant, and immediately got the approval of the Xiong squad leader, "Good brother, let's think of it together." Never give your life to the Manchu Tartars. ”

Zhang Biao ignored the "instability" of his own troops. This engineer battalion was extremely problematic, and the "latent" revolutionary party accounted for a large proportion. Xiong Bingkun found Luo Ziqing, the officer of the rear team, and said what he meant, it happened that Wu Zhaolin, the officer of the left team, was present, and Xiong Bingkun did not avoid Wu Zhaolin, who was not from the same party, "Two chiefs, we can't work hard for the Manchu Qing Dynasty!" How many people died in one morning? Tomorrow the Mengshan army will definitely fight. Are we going to die here in a daze? ”

Wu Zhaolin graduated from the Hubei Staff School, and his military literacy was impressed by the soldiers, but he was not a member of the Communist Association, and he was surprised when he heard this, "Then what do you say?" Xiong Bingkun's heart was horizontal, "We can't fight if we fight, we will revolt in the line of fire, first vote for the Mengshan army, anyway, they are iron-hearted and anti-Qing." ”

Luo Ziqing looked at Wu Zhaolin, and his hand was already touching the holster. If Wu Zhaolin is against it. He decided to kill Wu Zhaolin first so as not to expose the news. Wu Zhaolin seemed to notice the nervousness of Team Officer Luo, "Brother is not a diehard Manchu Qing loyalist, but the line of fire uprising is not easy to say!" The other party must be contacted. He pointed to the south side of the darkness. Without their cooperation. It's definitely a dead end. ”

Xiong Bingkun immediately said that he was willing to touch the opponent.

Luo Ziqing was a little worried, "I fought hard in the morning." The other side has killed a lot of people, what if they rely on their strong forces and ignore us? ”

Wu Zhaolin thinks that Xiong Bingkun's idea is very good, "It's too late for them to rejoice." If we take the initiative to contact and open this opening for them to break in, the front of Eighth Town will collapse! However, we need to be assured by them. ”

Xiong Bingkun said, "It's a big deal to kill me!" I'll get in touch! If they want to, let them send someone to tell them in person. ”

Young people are impulsive, and when the two armies face each other, how can it be so easy to revolt in the line of fire? But Xiong Bingkun said that he would do it, and asked Luo Ziqing to organize the rear team, and he didn't bring a gun himself, so he found his position and crawled towards the opposite side.

The positions of the two armies were not far apart, and the terrain was complicated, and the trees and weeds covered Xiong Bingkun's movements, until he approached about 20 meters of the Mengshan army's position, Xiong Bingkun shouted, "Don't shoot, I'm here to contact the uprising!" ”

Yu Hailong, the commander of the eighth company of the third battalion of the first regiment, saw clearly that there was only one enemy soldier, and urgently stopped his subordinates, "Don't shoot, take him in." ”

Xiong Bingkun entered the position of the Eighth Company, "Which one is the officer?" I was sent by the engineering battalion to contact the uprising! In fact, Xiong Bingkun is not sure whether the engineering battalion agrees to the uprising, even Luo Ziqing's rear team has the loyalty of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

"What? Isn't there thirty bids on the other side? Yu Hailong was taken aback.

"The second battalion has been replaced, and the above has asked our battalion to come up and strengthen the position and take over the defense of the second battalion." Xiong Bingkun gasped and said, "Most of our battalion are revolutionaries, and they are unwilling to fight with your army, so the commander asked me to contact your army and decided to let go of the front and let your army pass." ”

Yu Hailong was even more surprised, and there was such a thing? He thought for a moment, "You come with me." "handed over the troops to the deputy company commander and took Xiong Bingkun to the battalion headquarters. The battalion headquarters did not dare to slack off, and immediately notified the regiment headquarters, and Ji Haogu hurried over—but twenty minutes later.

Asking about the situation, Ji Haogu said to Xiong Bingkun, "Didn't you want us to send someone over?" I'm the head of the regiment, I'll go with you! ”

Xiong Bingkun was greatly moved.

But the officers of the first regiment did not do it, discussed it, and after discussing the countermeasures, they sent Qiao Yugou, a staff officer of the regiment headquarters, to follow Xiong Bingkun back to the opposite position. About half an hour later, Xiong Bingkun and Qiao Yugou came back again, and this time, Luo Ziqing's team officer also came over.

At this moment, Brigade Commander Yan Shulin, who hurried over after hearing the news, went to the position of the third battalion and learned about the situation of the engineer battalion from Luo Ziqing in detail, believing that this was a golden opportunity.

"Immediately report to the division commander and transfer to headquarters, but you can't wait. Act now. The eighth company was the leader, and all three battalions were dispatched to take over the positions of the engineer battalion, and not to shoot as much as possible! Captain Ji, you personally lead the team. ”

Yan Shulin held Luo Ziqing and Xiong Bingkun's hands, "Two brothers, you have made great contributions!" I thank you, on behalf of Commander Long! ”

It's a bit of a farce.

The Eighth Company acted urgently, and under the leadership of Xiong Bingkun and Luo Ziqing, quietly moved towards the opponent's position, and when the Eighth Company disappeared into the darkness, there was no gunfire for a long time, and Yan Shulin knew that the matter was done.

That night, the headquarters of the Southern Army was excited about the victory of Lin Jiaqiao. The victory on the battlefield in Shandong has laid the foundation for victory in this war! Long Qian, Situ Jun, Feng Guozhu and others did not stop the excited shouts of the staff officers of the headquarters, drafted a commendation telegram to the Shandong Army, and were discussing the situation of the war situation in the north that had taken a turn for the worse. Situ Jun judged that the main force of Yuan Shikai Dezhou would withdraw to Zhili, but it was no longer relevant to the overall situation, and it was likely that they were no longer able to take care of the south.

The first brigade suddenly came with the news that the opponent had contacted the uprising, which made Situ Jun and Feng Guozhu look at each other, not knowing what to say.

Feng Guozhu smiled, "What day is today?" Check it out. It just went so well. ”

Situ Jun hesitated, "Commander, did the Eighth Town hear the news from Shandong?" ”

Long Qian smiled, "It's not the top of the Eighth Town!" Rather, it is the actions of lower-ranking officers and soldiers. There are many revolutionary parties in the eighth town, and they are very knowledgeable about current affairs and are very good. Guozhu, you hurry up and arrange, you have to change the plan, you can't miss the opportunity, immediately let Yan Shulin move, the thirty standard position, the other two standards will also be chaotic, we don't wait for the left and right roads, let's directly attack Changsha. Situ, immediately draw up an order and send it out! The first division is all moving, don't give Zhang Biao a chance to stabilize the interior! ”

"Commander, are you waiting? How do I think there's a deception? ”

"No, you don't know. This eighth town is special. Long Qian smiled, "Guozhu, you go and bring all the officers and soldiers who are righteous, and I will meet them in person." Ha Luha, it's a good day. ”

Feng Guozhu rushed to the 1st Brigade with his own guards, the front line was already in chaos, and there were gunfire everywhere, but there was no cannonball. Based on experience, Feng Guozhu judged that the opposite side was already in chaos, not organized resistance but disorderly scuffle.

Note: Xiong Bingkun, Wu Zhaolin, Luo Ziqing, Zhang Hongsheng and the artillery officers all have their own people. His deeds were revealed two years later. Best regards.

Another: I saw a photo of Xiong Bingkun and Pu Yi in a book, and the two old men smiled and smiled, as if they were old friends who had no worries, which was emotional. (To be continued......)