In Xiaojiagang, Xiaogan County, the people who originally lived here hid in their homes, watching the soldiers passing by from time to time through the gaps between the windows.

"Dad, when can we go out to play..."

In a private house, a 7- or 8-year-old girl asked with wide eyes, holding her father's hand.

For a child of her age, being trapped in a room all the time was undoubtedly a very unbearable ordeal. At this moment, what she wants to know most is when she will be able to step out of the house, instead of being locked in the house all the time and not even being able to get out...

Hearing his daughter's words, his father hurriedly covered her mouth with his hand, and then looked outside, until he confirmed that the soldiers outside did not hear her words.

"Be quiet, don't worry, it won't be long before you're out of the city..."

In fact, the girl's father didn't know how long it would take for the soldiers outside to disappear from Xiaojiagang, and he had to say this just to appease his daughter.

The little girl didn't care so much, for the young children, the parents' words were always true—————— until they were deceived a lot, they would know that in fact, parents can also deceive people.

So when she heard her father's words, the little girl suddenly became happy and ran back to her room.

Seeing that the daughter went back to her room quietly, the father's face showed a smile, but at this time, the girl's mother came over from the side and pulled his sleeve. "Boss, you say so, in case those soldiers outside don't leave by then. What should I do if my daughter cries..."

Girls may not understand, but people of their age know very well the horror of war, which is also clearly separated by a wall. The girl's voice was not very loud just now, but the reason why her father would cover her mouth with his hand.

Hearing his wife's words, his father shook his head.

"It's better for her to cry in the future than now, and if she's lucky, maybe the soldiers outside will be gone..."

Meanwhile. Outside a mansion in Xiaojiagang, dozens of soldiers were lined up outside the wall. Not to mention that Xiaojiagang has been occupied by the army, even if there is no such situation. I'm afraid no one will pass by outside this mansion.

In the garden of the mansion, Yuan Shikai, who had just arrived half a month ago, was walking back and forth.

After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, on the eve of Yuan Shikai's recovery by the Qing court, he met with Zhu Fuhuang, a visiting revolutionary. At that time, Zhu Fuhuang advised Yuan Shikai to negotiate peace with the south in exchange for the position of president, and Yuan Shikai weighed the pros and cons. After coming to power, he adopted a strategy of suppression and appeasement. And then prepare to start negotiations with the South.

After that, Yuan Shikai also wrote letters to Li Yuanhong and Huang Xing in person, and naturally, the two also wrote back to Yuan Shikai.

The former wrote in the letter. "Can the fruit come and return? In the future presidential election of the Republic of China, the first president of the Republic of China will not be difficult to hunt calmly. ”

The latter also wrote in the letter. "Ming Gong's talent. Gao Xing and other tens of thousands, with the qualifications of Napoleon and Washington. And the deeds of Napoleon and Washington, smashing the Yellow Dragon, destroying this captivity and eating the court, not only the people of Hunan and Hubei Dai Minggong were Napoleon and Washington, that is, the northern and southern provinces, and there was no one who did not obey orders. ”

It was precisely because of the guarantees of the two that Yuan Shikai later sent Liu Chengen and adjutant Cai Tinggan of the old ministry as personal representatives to Wuchang to negotiate and negotiate peace.

Liu Chengen was Yuan Shikai's old department, and Li Yuanhong's countryman and friend, and he wrote three letters to Li Yuanhong long before Yuan Shikai came to Hubei. Cai Tinggan was Li Yuanhong's student and Li's colleague when he was in the Beiyang Naval Division, so it was undoubtedly very appropriate for these two people to serve as Yuan Shikai's personal representatives.

Originally, if this had been the case, the peace talks would have gone smoothly. However, it was at this time that Shanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Zhejiang, and Fujian became independent one after another, and Li Yuanhong sent plenipotentiary members to Wuchang to organize a provisional government.

Under the pressure of the main battle faction, Li Yuanhong had to claim that he hoped that Yuan Shikai would take the lead in defecting and the Northern Expedition when he met with Liu Chengen and Cai Tinggan, and promised that "with the prestige of Xiangcheng, it will be completed in the future, and the president will be the first choice." ”

Liu Chengen and Cai Tinggan were also a little embarrassed by this, but after seeing the appearance of other revolutionaries, Liu Chengen and Cai Tinggan also figured out Li Yuanhong's attitude, so they did not say goodbye and returned to Xiaogan County directly, and told Yuan Shikai Li Yuanhong's attitude. It was this incident that gave 52-year-old Yuan Shikai a headache.

"Xingcheng, what do you think about this matter..."After taking a few steps back and forth in the room where the forced conscription came, Yuan Shikai looked up at Yang Shiqi who was standing in the corner of the room.

This time he went south, and it was naturally impossible for Yuan Shikai not to take one of his most important strategists with him.

Hearing Yuan Shikai's words, Yang Shiqi groaned. "At this moment, the imperial court is urgently telegraphing the palace to return to Beijing to form a cabinet as soon as possible, and it is not appropriate for the palace guard to continue to delay, but if you negotiate with the revolutionaries like this...... Now that the southern provinces are all independent, and the morale of the people's army is flourishing, at this time to seek peace, there is still a lack of bargaining chips, only by conquering Hanyang, can we kill the spirit of the people's army, and also allow us to occupy a favorable position in the negotiations..."

Standing beside Yang Shiqi, several other people also nodded.

Indeed, now that almost all of the southern provinces have been recovered, and some of the northern provinces have also been recovered, the revolutionary party is at the time when its morale is at its highest, and negotiating with the revolutionary party at this time will undoubtedly give up many interests that should have belonged to Beiyang, so the best solution is to hurt them, and let them understand that although the current situation is favorable to them, what is really important is to have a strong gun.

Compared with Beiyang, the barrel of the revolutionary party's gun is obviously not hard enough.

It is only when the revolutionaries understand this that they will soften their present attitude.

Yuan Shikai actually thought so in his heart, and heard Yang Shiqi's words at this moment. I immediately made up my mind. "That's good, let Huafu work harder, as long as he can conquer Hanyang as soon as possible. I can't help the revolutionary party to give in..."

"I'll do it..."

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Yuan Shikai didn't have such a high-tech thing as a wireless telegraph in his hand, and if there was a cable telegraph, Xiaojiagang didn't look like there was a telegraph office anyway, so Yuan Shikai's orders were first transmitted to Xiaogan through the communication soldiers on horseback, and then Xiaogan transmitted them to Hankou by telegraph.

"To make peace?"

After reading Yuan Shikai's telegram, Feng Guozhang quickly understood Yuan Shikai's intentions.

"What do you mean by Gong Bao, so that we can let go of the fight?" Standing beside Feng Guozhang. Li Chun asked loudly.

In that year, Yuan Shikai set up the Military and Political Department to train the standing army in Baoding, and Li Chun was promoted to the coaching office (Feng Guozhang of the General Office), because he was a fellow villager with Yuan Shikai's concubine Yang. and tried his best to welcome Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, and they were favored. After being promoted all the way, he became the co-leader of the Eleventh Association of the Sixth Town, and his future should have come to an end for the time being. If you want to be promoted, you will wait until Yuan Shikai is promoted to the president. It's time to greatly expand the Beiyang Soldiers.

After all, during this period, even in the Beiyang Army, there were only six towns, and the commander of each town was a very prestigious figure. For example, the sixth town, that is, Wu Luzhen, the commander of his town, is one of the three extremely famous non-commissioned officers.

However, Wu Luzhen was a figure who was inclined to revolution, so he was bribed by Yuan Shikai with 20,000 yuan to buy a few of his subordinates, and then, there was no more...

Wu Luzhen is dead, so naturally someone has to stand up and take over the sixth town. At this time, Li Chun, who served as the assistant commander of the Sixth Town and the Eleventh Assistant, entered Yuan Shikai's eyes. First of all, his qualifications are sufficient, and secondly, whether it is Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui or Feng Guozhang, they all favor him very much. So he naturally succeeded Wu Luzhen and became the commander of the sixth town.

Hearing Li Chun's words, Feng Guozhang raised his head and glanced at him, and shook his head secretly in his heart.

Li Chun is a mercenary person who sees the wind and steers the rudder, which is a shortcoming, but he also has the advantage of being shrewd and capable, but in Feng Guozhang's opinion, he is too far behind the original Sixth Town system.

However, at this time, Li Chun was already under the control of the sixth town after all, and the six towns of Beiyang, even in the Beiyang Army, there were only six towns, in other words, Li Chun was no longer a character who could be easily teased in the past, so after shaking his head in his heart, Feng Guozhang spoke.

"Gong Bao means to beat them up, but he must not beat them to death."

"If it hurts, we can make them understand our strength, but if we die, it will be empty if we want to use this to intimidate the court, so when we do this, we must be moderate..."

Hearing this, Li Chun nodded and immediately said that he understood.

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Now that Yuan Shikai's intentions have been understood, the next matter will naturally be solved.

After conveying the order to Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai also returned to Beijing and began to form his own Yuan Shikai cabinet. It's just that this cabinet doesn't matter to him at all, what really matters is another thing.

Knowing Yuan Shikai's intentions, Feng Guozhang also began to prepare for his troops to storm Hanyang.

Unlike other southern new armies, the Beiyang New Army has quite heavy firepower equipment, especially in terms of artillery, the artillery standards of each town are full, that is to say, each town has 54 75mm guns, unlike the new army in the south, although it has the establishment of a town, but at most there is only an artillery equivalent to a battalion, and some artillery standards even have only one company of artillery.

With hundreds of new artillery pieces in his hands, Feng Guozhang did not believe that he would fail at all.

In fact, he did not fail.

However, what he didn't expect was that he had not yet launched an attack on Hanyang, but the civilian army in Hanyang City had already taken the lead in launching a counteroffensive to recapture Hankou from his hands.

It is not surprising that at that time, the entire south plus some northern provinces were recovered one after another, announcing the establishment of an independent military government from the Qing court, and the situation became favorable to the Hubei military government.

At the same time, the revolutionaries in Hunan also freed up their strength and sent a large number of people to Hubei to support, and the front of Hanyang gradually gathered tens of thousands of troops in Hunan and Hubei, and Huang Xing also felt that his eyes were gradually becoming brighter.

"Hankow. Although it was not lost from me, I must take it back..."When ordering his subordinate people's army to carry out counteroffensive work, Huang Xing confidently said to Jiang Yi.

"But..."Although Huang Xing seemed very confident. But Jiang Yiwu was a little hesitant, in fact, it was not just him, even Sun Wu and others. "Wouldn't it be too risky?" After walking a few steps back and forth in the room, Jiang Yiwu looked up at Huang Xing. "Now that peace negotiations have begun, this is somewhat of a problem..."

"Hey..."Hearing Jiang Yiwu's words, Huang Xing waved his hand. Now the revolutionary situation in the whole country is very good, and the fall of the Qing court is imminent. Even tomorrow is not surprising, it is not impossible to enter Hankou and incorporate the Beiyang Army into a revolutionary army. Sooner rather than later, there has never been a more opportune time..."

Although Huang Xing is indeed very inclined to Yuan Shikai, if he can win, who would think about defeat? And if this battle can be won. There are also many benefits. First of all, the revolutionary situation in the whole country will be stimulated by this, as soon as Hankow wins, Beijing will be recovered, and secondly, it can also add some bargaining chips to the negotiating table, so that Yuan Shikai has to make some concessions, or even simply abandon Yuan Shikai, and let them revolutionaries themselves be president—————— if it is not forced to do so, who will let the president be done by someone else?

Jiang Yiwu was a little uneasy in his heart. But looking at the explosion of self-confidence, there are other people who are also confident in the revolutionary situation. In the end, he could only close his mouth and sigh.

Jiang Yiwu's silence means that the Hubei Revolutionary Army has no objection to this.

So after there was no opposition, Huang Xing began to order his troops to prepare for a counteroffensive against Hankow.

At this time, the situation in the whole country was very good, and there were countless people who were as hot-headed as Huang Xing, although they were beaten to the ground by the people of the Beiyang Army some time ago, at this time they felt that it was not impossible to defeat the Beiyang Army.

Of course, there are some sane people in the people's army, but at such times the sane people are not welcomed, so they have no say in the people's army.

On November 16, after some preparations, the revolutionary army stationed in Hanyang bypassed the Qing army's defense on the south bank, crossed the Han River by pontoon bridge from the Qinduankou, and ambushed the north bank of the Han River.

At that time, the western suburbs of Hankou were wild and flat, sparsely populated, and there were large swamps, so Huang Xing led his troops to cross the river and was not discovered by the Beiyang Army. On the 17th, Huang Xing personally led the counteroffensive force to launch a counteroffensive against Hankou, but because Huang Xing himself did not know much about the military aspect, and the way of launching the attack was too hasty, he was attacked head-on by the Beiyang New Army...

To be honest, in fact, the Beiyang Army stationed in Hankou was also taken aback by Huang Xing, after all, such a reckless blow was something they did not expect, and it was completely out of line with conventional military thinking.

However, compared with the people's army, the quality of the Beiyang Army is naturally much better, so after being attacked suddenly, the Beiyang Army quickly gained a firm foothold, and at the same time, reinforcements arrived in large numbers, blocking on both sides in the face of the coming momentum of the revolutionary army, still artillery covering the infantry, and light and heavy weapons were fired together.

After being counterattacked, the people's army on the northern flank was heavily damaged and retreated, and the people's army on the southern flank also retreated. Although Huang Xing shouted at that time, "no retreat", he couldn't command these guys at all, and the result was that the army was defeated, and Huang Xing was forced to retreat on the same day after losing more than 600 people, and it was also because of this defeat that it affected the fighting spirit of the Hanyang defenders.

At the same time, another Beiyang army from Xiaogan to Xingou, crossed the Han River to occupy Caidian, on November 20, from Caidian to the Sanyan Bridge, Huang Xing mobilized the army to the west to meet the enemy, on November 21, the two sides launched a fierce battle at the Sanyan Bridge.

On this day, Feng Guozhang commanded the Qing army in Hankou to cross the river from the rudder pass, break through the defense line of Miliangshan, and cooperate with the Qing army rushing from the direction of Caidian to attack Miliangshan, forming an angle to the revolutionary army.

The area between Hanyang Sanyan Bridge and Wangjiawan belongs to the Ganglong landform, with dense hills and hills, like a basin circle surrounding the ancient city of Hanyang at the foot of Guishan Mountain. Break through this circle of mountains, from Biandan Mountain to Yuehu Guqintai, spread out a flat lake, from west to east, Tantan swings without shelter, Hanyang will have no danger to defend.

Although Huang Xing is not a military master, he still understands this minimum military knowledge very well, and ordered the Hanyang defenders to defend the Sanyan Bridge and the Fairy Mountain to the east to block the Beiyang Army's access to the city.

It's just that if you want to block, you need to have strength. On the 23rd and 24th of November, Miliang Mountain and Fairy Mountain were lost one after another, and the people's army had to retreat to Guodi Mountain and Biandan Mountain—————— ancient people were really simple, and the name of the mountain was related to life.

On the 25th, the Beiyang Army once again captured Guodi Mountain and Biandan Mountain, and drove straight into it from Wangjiawan and Shilipu, approaching Guiyuan Temple (a famous temple in Zhongnan, Guangxu building in the Qing Dynasty) and Hanyang Iron Works.

The battle for several mountains has greatly damaged the vitality of the people's army, and the people's army, which has paid huge casualties, can no longer organize a defensive line on the plain. And the Hanshui is not the Yangtze River, although it is not easy to cross, but at least it is simpler than crossing the Yangtze River, plus the Beiyang Army is divided into several roads, and the people's army cannot intercept it at all, so soon the Hanshui defense line collapsed, and the Beiyang Army landed along the river from Qinduankou, Shilipu, Wulidun, Guqintai, and Nan'anzui, and the people's army could only be trapped in Hanyang City...

On November 26, the Hunan reinforcements retreated across the Yangtze River and returned to Hunan via Dongting Lake, and the Hubei army also crossed the river to Wuchang by boat.

At this point, the fate of Hanyang seems to be already imaginable... (To be continued......)