The battle report that even returned to Hanyang with the guards also arrived, and he learned that it was because Yue Peng was anxious to take Xiangyang and temporarily changed his plan to divide his troops, so that Ke Shao and Yu Dehai forcibly disarmed Jingshan, which led to accidental injuries, and he couldn't laugh ().

However, it is too late to say anything now, and it may not be long before the name of indiscriminate killing of revolutionary aspirants will come to the head again, so he is still determined to leave this whirlpool for the time being, and after all, soldiers must rely on artillery to speak.

His decision caused everyone's worries, Xiao Anguo persuaded with a solemn expression: "Brother, the front line is not as good as Hanyang, since Li Du is unwilling to increase his troops to win the pass, then He Xi and Wu Zhaolin alone will not be able to stop it, once the pass is broken, it will inevitably be a rout, and Dahongshan is close to the Jinghan line, and it will definitely bear the brunt." ”

Zhang Wenjing thought more, he could understand the meaning of Yang Qiu's promotion of Sun Wu to the Yangxia Branch, as long as the Right Route Army did not cooperate, this military government branch would not be able to operate at all, but if there was a problem on the front line, it would be very troublesome, so he also persuaded: "Sun Wu has coveted power for a long time, although we don't cooperate with his order and can't get out of the two towns, but once the commander you go forward, I'm afraid some people will have bad intentions ()." ”

Yang Qiu took a deep breath, he didn't know that what the two of them said was the truth, but if they continued to stay here, Sun Wu and the others would definitely bite the bullet, instead of dwelling on these things, it was better to go out and fight quickly, and after motioning for everyone to sit down, he said: "It is precisely because Wusheng can't hold the pass, so I need to go forward and personally command to block the first wave of Beiyang's attack, otherwise it will definitely be a rout." As for the rest, you don't have to worry, Dahongshan is only a day and a night away from Hankou Express, if they do it, I will be too late to rush back, if they force me to hurry! Let's go to Xiangyang and let them come alone to withstand the impact of the Beiyang! ”

Seeing that he had made up his mind, Ma Kui had no choice but to suggest: "In that case, then bring more people." ”

"The recruits haven't been trained yet, so letting them follow me is equivalent to death." Yang Qiu refused the kindness and said: "I will take the first and second battalions of the second regiment, the first and third battalions of the artillery, and the guard company, plus He Xi has four battalions over there and five battalions in Yue Peng's hands, and when Xiangyang takes it, two or three battalions can be added, and then all the 2,000 grenades made by Hanyang during this period are enough to fight a blocking battle." ”

"I'll leave this place to you for the time being when I'm gone. Wenjing! Immediately set up a military management group in the name of military management during the war, and you took the lead in giving me Hu Ruilin and these people. Brother Ma, you are in charge of logistics, Su Xiaohu and Fan Liangshan are left to be responsible for the defense of the two towns, and Bingwen also stays to lead the Chu Yu ship to cooperate with Guishan to lock the river. The training of recruits must be steady and steady, and now you can sweat more and shed less blood in battle, so you must not be in a hurry, this battle will not end so soon! We can't survive on our own, they are the key! After I leave, I immediately asked Chu Yujian to send a telegram to contact Wang Guangxiong, and once the matter is done, I will immediately let Ziqing come back to take charge. ”

With the order to go out, several battalions concentrated in Hankou began to prepare for departure, especially the 1st Artillery Battalion and the 3rd Artillery Battalion of the newly built artillery immediately pushed the heavy mountain artillery onto the train, and took the lead in driving towards Xiaogan in the gloating eyes of some people.

In the evening, when the rest of the troops were ready, the two river steamers flying the Italian flag took advantage of the cover of night, pretended to continue north to Hunan, and quietly sailed into the blockaded Hanyang Iron and Steel Wharf after making a circle around Parrot Island, and their arrival made Yang Qiu completely forget the unhappiness of the day.

The meeting was arranged directly in a guard room at the dock, in addition to Traun and the last few, Yang Qiu also met an officer in his thirties wearing a German naval uniform, Traun introduced bluntly: "This is Colonel Hakan, the captain of the Emden of the Far East Fleet of our country, and he will be with you from today until the completion of all transactions ()." ”

Yang Qiu, who had just taken a sip of tea, almost spewed out when he heard the Emden, and was a little relieved when he heard the name. Well, the famous Müller, who was said to not take over as captain until 1913, squinted at the handsome Captain Hakan and said, "Your Excellency, does this mean that I have been imprisoned?" ”

"No, it's to make sure the deal goes smoothly." Traun took out an envelope from his bag: "Your Excellency, after communicating with the country, we are sure that the information you have is exactly what our country needs, but considering that there is a war going on here, in order to ensure that the interests of the empire are not violated, from today Colonel Hakan will lead a small group of naval soldiers to temporarily retire as your personal bodyguard." Of course, he will never interfere with your private life or participate in any battle planning meetings, he is only responsible for your personal safety! ”

A few Germans standing around are really not very accustomed, which also proves that Germany has been moved by the information, and even sent a team of "bodyguards" for fear of an accident, and the famous Emden must be somewhere in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, just in case he makes a mistake, he will be immediately put on a warship and taken to Europe.

"Fifteen thousand Mauser 98s, three million pointed bullets, five tons of **, its recipe and manufacturing materials, and the first batch of five radios are all already on board, the total price is 1.7 million, cash must be paid, and the ship must leave before dawn!" As soon as Traun finished speaking, Yang Qiu nodded in agreement, after all, Germany was still limited by the principle of unity of action of the countries in China promoted by the British, and could not be too presumptuous when the legation was about to blackmail the Qing government to let Yuan Shikai out of the mountain, which can be seen from his use of the Italian flag and the pretext of going around from the upstream to add coal.

As for the price, they are also relatively satisfied, excluding bullets and other things, the calculation of Mauser 98 is only 80 yuan a piece, compared to Hanyang to 50 yuan, and they can make up so many ordnance in a short period of time, and there is no sky-high asking price, which shows that they are really moved by what they have in their hands.

Traun continued: "The rest of the deals, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the government, have also agreed, but for some reason all deals must wait for the end of this war and then proceed in the form of commercial trade ()!" We will pay you £2 million, all in US dollars, and the machinery and equipment you need will arrive within the next two months. ”

Cutting 1 million pounds at once still shows Germany's arrogance, which makes Yang Qiu, who just had a good feeling, very unhappy, but before he could bargain, Traun had already narrowed his eyes and said: "There are also twenty engineers to help you install the equipment and teach your workers how to use it!" ”

This sentence hit Yang Qiu's soft underbelly, a large number of new equipment really needs special human training, originally he was going to get the equipment and find someone through civil channels, but he didn't expect Traun to send it directly to the door, but it was really distressing to lose so much at once, and said: "2.5 million pounds!" In addition, you know that I am short of raw materials, so add another 100,000 tons of scrap steel, preferably abandoned warships or rails, and help me recruit 200 Austro-Khatronic skilled workers, who will have to work for me for three years. Give me 24 Maxims at once, and buy me 300 Madsen machine guns, but this time you need a model that can use Russian 7.62*54R bottom edge bullets. ”

"Austro-Hungarian workers?" Traun glanced at Yang Qiu with a strange expression.

Scrap steel is not a problem, 10,000 tons of new steel in Shanghai is only 30,000 pounds, and the price of scrap steel is at least halved, not to mention that now Europe is full of warships to be dismantled, and there are many battleships...... Who doesn't know that the best workers in the world are in Germany, so they are quite surprised by this condition. But he didn't think much about it, hundreds of Hungarian skilled workers were not a problem for Germany, there were too many imprisoned political prisoners in the neighbor's house, many of them were excellent skilled workers, maybe Austria-Hungary would thank His Majesty Wilhelm for helping them solve their troubles, so he promised: "There is no problem with the workers and scrap steel, and the machine guns can be ordered according to the requirements, but we don't have them in stock at Maxim." ”

Traun wasn't lying, Germany was out of stock. This time, the rifle and bullets had already killed him, because Yang Qiu asked for Mauser 98 by name, but Germany sold all the M1888 in the Far East, and in the end, the chief of the general staff of Moltke Jr. personally ordered the use of the reserves of the Qingdao garrison. Yang Qiu also felt that there was no need for the other party to tell lies, after all, only half of the 144 Makqin publicly ordered by Beiyang had been delivered, so he thought about it and said: "Your Excellency, as far as I know, machine guns should be installed on your ** ship, and now there are three or four (). After glancing at Hakan, Yang Qiu continued: "The warships are on the Yangtze River, if there are 3 warships each, you should be able to make up some first, right?" ”

Traun didn't expect Yang Qiu to actually fight the idea of the equipment of the German Far East Fleet, and hurriedly looked at Hakan with his eyes, the latter was a little impulsive, but in order to say that he could completely help Germany suppress the British information, he suppressed his anger and nodded: "12 Makqin, all of them will be sent here tomorrow morning." ”

"Deal!"

After getting the check for 1.7 million, Traun left quickly, Hakan learned that Yang Qiu was about to leave and rushed back to the concession to make preparations, with the baggage battalion and the two recruit battalions secretly transferred all dispatched to move this batch of equipment into the warehouse of the gun factory, Zhang Wenjing, who had been trying to restrain himself, finally waved his arm fiercely without holding back.

Fifteen thousand of the best Mauser 98 rifles! 3,000,000 rounds of pointed bullets and 12 Maxim machine guns are enough to equip a town! Five tons of more powerful ** can be used immediately for the filling of grenades and shells, not to mention all the recipes and manufacturing techniques! The first batch of raw materials purchased by Shen Shukai has arrived one after another, and the steel pharmaceutical factory has also recovered due to the injection of funds, and it will not be long before the whole army can use more powerful self-produced explosives! Not to mention that two months later, there will be a full 2.5 million pounds in the account, which is more than 20 million taels of silver!

Zhang Wenjing eased his mood and turned his head to look at Yang Qiu who was standing in the night, only to find that unconsciously, this young man had laid a solid foundation for the future, and what he had to do now was to win this battle!

"Let's go."

After the guard company and the two main battalions that went out together took the lead in replacing the new Mauser 98, Yang Qiu glanced at Wuchang City at night and slowly put on his military hat.

Tomorrow, after the recovery of Hunan, the dominoes will continue to collapse, and South China will completely become the world of the party! At that time, will he, who had just exterminated the Liu brothers, become a public enemy again? There is also the one in the north who has not made a move so far, will he take Wusheng Pass first to put pressure or continue to wait?

After smiling, he quietly walked into the northern night.