Bai Sheng received Deng Zixuan's order in Shaoguan, and immediately led the first division, the newly formed artillery regiment, and the cavalry regiment, a total of 15,000 people, to wave troops into Hunan from the side of Shaoguan. Due to the military junta's urgent expansion of three divisions in Guangzhou, they were the 4th, 5th, and 6th divisions of the provisional formation. The newly formed troops need to be trained and run-in, so the newly formed units will not be put into combat for the time being.

At present, Bai Sheng's First Division is also one old and two new, that is, the original First Brigade basically maintains the headquarters of the people, and the 2nd and 3rd Brigades are new brigades. The formation of new units requires a large number of veterans, so the officers and men of the original 2nd and 3rd brigades are evenly distributed among other units. The formidable 1st Brigade is the pioneer, and they are invincible all the way. Although there was resistance from the Qing army, most of them collapsed at the touch of a button and fled. At present, the Manchu court has basically lost its command ability over Jiangnan, and everywhere is a state of death and marriage, relatively speaking, it is an isolated stronghold.

In the Manchu Dynasty, Hunan and Hubei were the same region, called Huguang. There is a proverb that says: Huguang is ripe and the world is full, and it can be seen that Hunan and Hubei were rice granaries in the Qing Dynasty. Bai Sheng led his troops to march quickly, and some cities saw the figure of the Northern Expeditionary Army, so they opened the city gates and surrendered. Some cities resisted stubbornly, but after a few cannon shots, the Qing army showed a white flag and surrendered. In less than 20 days, the troops were under the city of Changsha.

At present, Changsha has 20,000 Qing troops, including 5,000 Hunan troops. The Governor of Huguang is a diehard, and this guy is determined to hold on to the city of Changsha. At this time, the situation in Jiangnan was not clear, Shanghai was advancing to Nanjing, and Hangzhou was marching to Jiangxi, so the governor of Huguang had not yet reached the point of being embattled. Changsha City has been through war, after continuous repair, the defense measures are very sound.

In the headquarters outside the city, Bai Sheng held a telescope in his hand and carefully observed the defense of the Qing army in Changsha City. Especially when he saw the appearance of the Qing soldiers on the city wall as if they were facing a great enemy, Bai Sheng shook his head with disdain. "Division commander, the troops are ready, when will they attack!" One of the subordinates asked. Bai Sheng said with a smile: "It is easy to break the city, but the people in the city will suffer. Let the Qing army be afraid for three days first, and then say, the mountain people have their own clever plan.

During the day, the siege troops entered the position, so that the Qing army thought that they were going to attack, and immediately entered a tense state. A day has passed, and there has been no movement. The same goes for Day 2. It's like a cat looking at a mouse, quietly staring at its prey and completely destroying the other party mentally, and then stepping forward to humiliate the prey and feast on it. This is just a metaphor, the Qing army is not a mouse, but this kind of spiritual tactics still makes the Qing army tremble.

On the night of the second day, a man in civilian clothes appeared inside the headquarters. "How many people are there in your city?" Bai Sheng asked. "Report to the division commander, there are 300 people in the city?" The answerer was Wan Chuan's intelligence officer. "I want to know, is there any of you in the Doge's Palace?" "There are two of our men in the Governor's Palace Guard!" Bai Sheng nodded with satisfaction and said, "You go back to the city tomorrow, I plan to ・・・・・・." When it was night, Bai Sheng selected 200 commandos from the First Brigade, and under the guidance of the guide, took advantage of the night to detour to the north of the city.

On the third day, the Qing army was worried for another day, and this invisible torture made the Qing army unbearable, so the Qing army on the defensive city wall completely slackened. As the night approached, the Qing army defense troops in the north of the city fell asleep. Due to the limited number of troops, it was impossible for Bai Sheng to surround Changsha City on all sides, so all the troops were concentrated in the south of the city, so the defensive forces of the Qing army were also concentrated in the south of the city.

It was silent, and on the north wall of the city, four patrol sentries were responsible for patrolling within a range of 100 meters. The Qing army sentries were divided into groups of two. The Qing army sentries each had a lantern in their hands, and as they walked, they stretched out their heads to look out of the city, and their task was to observe the movements outside the city. Just when the Qing army sentry passed a few steps away, four black shadows suddenly jumped up, and the Qing army sentry was killed without any defense, and then the four people took the lantern and continued to patrol, as if nothing had happened.

Then several black shadows appeared in the darkness, and they signaled to the outside of the city. Then several large ropes were lowered from the city walls, and the commando soldiers who had been lying in ambush outside the city appeared under the city walls. Without giving any orders, the commando soldiers climbed the city wall quickly and agilely, which is enough to see that the soldiers have excellent military qualities. After meeting up with the intelligence officers who received them, they quickly disappeared into the darkness. The streets of the city today are worlds apart from the brilliant lights of later generations. The city was pitch black, and it was very haode to cover the commando movements.

Several horse lanterns in the division headquarters echoed each other, and under the shadow of the lights, Bai Sheng faced several chief officers and said: "Our operation is called the decapitation operation, and the task of the commando team is to attack the governor's palace, knock out the command organ of the Qing army, and let the Qing army create a situation where the dragons are leaderless." As soon as the guns rang out in the city, it was an order, and the troops launched a strong attack in an instant. I asked for a forced breakthrough at point A, and then spread along the walls to both sides, so that the large forces could quickly break into the city. Remember that the troops will attack as soon as the artillery fire begins, so prepare separately. ”

In a mule and horse compound about 500 meters away from the Governor's Palace, the assault team met with intelligence officers in the city. At this time, the brother who broke into the Governor's Palace Guard was introducing the situation, "The Governor's Palace Internal Guard is 320 people, and the main personnel are concentrated in the front yard, and their security is very lax. The commando captain said, "In a while, we will attack in front, and you will follow behind." I ordered the grenades to open the way, to punch and rush without giving the Qing army time to react. As soon as our guns go out, the main forces will launch a strong attack and start moving! ”

At this time, Bai Sheng was waiting anxiously, he looked at the pocket watch from time to time, and the hour and minute hands had already passed the hour. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire pierced the silent night sky, and it was very crisp. Then came the violent explosion of a grenade. At this time, a large number of torches appeared on the city wall, and the Qing officers and soldiers were stunned, why did a fierce battle break out in the city? This kung fu Bai Sheng ordered an artillery bombardment, and immediately all 30 guns of the artillery regiment bombarded point A, and the attacking troops also launched an assault.

The dense shells smashed on point A, forming a sea of fire, and the scene was not only spectacular but also terrifying. The situation inside the city was unknown, and a fierce attack was launched outside the city. The Qing army was in chaos. To be precise, the Qing army had never experienced such a battle and did not know how to defend it. Soon the attacking troops rushed under the city walls, and at this time the artillery fire was still under fire. As the artillery fire extended, swarms of grenades were thrown onto the walls, and ladders were erected on the walls with the sound of explosions.

At this time, the Qing army seemed to react and began to resist stubbornly. The soldiers jumped on the city wall and the shelling stopped, and the Qing army began to counterattack, but it was too late. The Qing army relied on the large number of people to launch the tactics of crowds, but in the close battle, the power of the grenade was exerted to the extreme, and the Qing army could not parry a blow. The area of Point A is constantly expanding, and when a regiment of soldiers climbs the city walls, there is no suspense in the battle.

The east showed the white of the fish's belly, and all the officers and men of the first brigade entered the city, and two new brigades followed. Bai Sheng put down the binoculars and said, "Order the cavalry regiment to attack along both sides!" I'll sleep for a while and wake me up an hour later. "After the battle for the Governor's Palace began, the commandos rushed to the gate of the Governor's Palace as fast as they could. Soldiers threw grenades inside through the wall and then stormed into the governor's palace through the smoke.

After the battle began, the Qing troops near the governor's palace rushed to support, some of the team members stayed in front of the door to block the Qing army, and some of them stormed inside. Many Qing Guards retreated into the governor's room and resisted stubbornly. Grenades were thrown into the room, and after a few minutes the people inside shouted, "Stop fighting!" Don't fight, the Governor was blown up and we surrendered. The Qing army, which rushed to support outside, was shocked to hear that an attack had been launched outside the city, and immediately collapsed.

At dawn, Bai Sheng rode a high-headed horse into the city from the south gate, and at this time, there were still sporadic gunshots in the city, which was that the search force was cleaning up the remnants of the enemy. The outside of the city is also very spectacular, and after the cavalry regiment attacked, it naturally encountered the fleeing Qing officers and soldiers. They drove the captives back to the city in waves, as if they were herding cattle. The streets of the city were empty, and the people were so frightened that they closed their doors. At about noon, Bai Sheng came to the original Qing army camp, and the playground was densely packed with Qing prisoners. Of the 20,000 Qing troops, only about 2,000 escaped, and the rest became prisoners.

In the face of such a large number of captives, it is natural to divide and disintegrate them. Bai Sheng said a few words to an officer. The officer picked up a tin microphone and climbed onto the reviewing stand and shouted, "Attention! Attention! The Hunan soldiers stood to the right, and the green battalion soldiers stood to the left. After a while, the officer shouted loudly: "If you are willing to join the Northern Expeditionary Army, please raise your hand?" Very surprised, all the captured Qing soldiers raised their hands. The city was broken overnight, and the Northern Expeditionary Army was unmatched. Serving as a soldier may be the only option.

Of course, it is impossible for everyone to accept them all, especially the Green Battalion soldiers, who are full of old, weak, sick and disabled. The following is naturally a strict selection, and the Hunan army is young and strong on the whole, and the quality of the soldiers is good. Nearly 4,000 Hunan troops were eliminated, and about 500 people were eliminated. The Green Battalion was depressing, with only 5,000 qualified soldiers selected out of 13,000 men. The selected soldiers remained in the barracks. Those who were not selected were taken to the outside of the city to be held in a centralized manner, and the next step was to carefully divide them to see what they were suitable for.

For the captured Qing officers and soldiers, Deng Zixuan ordered that they could not be dismissed. If dismissed, these veterans will cause social instability, and they will do business of robbing homes in order to survive. Some of them will jump out to form transport troops, and the rest will have to wait for the arrival of new administrative officials. Changsha temporarily implemented military management, and all the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army were stationed outside the city, and the city of Changsha resumed its previous order that night.

Early the next morning, Bai Sheng had just finished breakfast in the division headquarters outside the city, when the combat staff officer came in and reported: "Division commander! We have seized a lot of money, ・・・・・・ of them. "The governor of Huguang has hoarded a large amount of food in the city, at least there is no need to worry about the problem of eating for so many people for the time being. After the combat staff officer finished reporting and leaving, another report was heard outside. Bai Sheng saw that the officer who came in was the commander of a battalion of the first brigade and asked, "What are you looking for me?" "Report to the division commander, I want to take half a day off to go home and have a look?"

This battalion commander is a cadet of the third class of the Shanghai Military Academy, and his family lives in Changsha City. Bai Sheng smiled: "It's my negligence, give you a day off, and return to the team tomorrow morning." The battalion commander's family in Changsha is a big family, when he went to Xiushui Town to visit relatives, I heard that the Shanghai Education School recruited students, so that his cousin could go to Shanghai curiously. He didn't say hello to his family, which Cheng wanted to enter the school and got on the "thief ship", a few years have passed, and the family is afraid that he is no longer alive. His cousin is currently a battalion commander in He Meng's army in Yunnan.

The battalion commander appeared at the door of his house wearing a military uniform and riding a tall horse, feeling like he had returned to his hometown. The family is still the same, the battalion commander is a little nervous to pull the door knocker, and soon the door flashes open, and an old man dressed as a family member sticks out his head, and sees an officer hurriedly saying: "Master, what do you have to do, we are good citizens!" "Uncle! Who do you think I am? Lao Ding looked carefully in confusion, suddenly opened his mouth wide, turned around and ran inside, shouting as he ran.

After a while, the door opened, and a crowd of men and women poured out of it.