On the evening of September 1st, the governor of Huguang, Rui Li, who had had dinner, was talking to Zaitao in his governor's yamen near the left side of Wenchang Gate, and the topic was naturally the battle situation in Wuchang. ”

The gunfire was at first farther away, but soon approached and seemed to be on the way. After the sound of machine-gun fire came, both of them knew that something was wrong.

The commander of the guard rushed in, "Mutiny, there are rebels storming the Governor's Mansion and the Ninth Town Headquarters. ”

"Resist, resist Lao Tzu." Ruizi's face changed drastically.

"How is this good, how is it good...... Hurry up and send troops to rescue, and transfer Li Yuanhong's soldiers to save us! Zaitao, who had experienced the Changsha Incident, was so frightened that he had already decided that the Ninth Town had rebelled.

Zaitao's judgment was right. It was the 34th Standard Army that launched the mutiny, and it was Lin Shuqing who led the mutiny. The ninth town was preparing to deploy the south of the city, and Lin Shuqing believed that it was necessary to act before the troops were dispatched, otherwise it would be difficult to get on the position. Yesterday the ammunition was issued, the 18th Association had already left the city, Lin Shuqing seized the opportunity, first gathered the second battalion, and then sent people to contact the other two battalion leaders, categorically killed the standard commander who refused to cooperate, and successfully launched the Wuchang uprising.

After the 34th standard action, the 33rd standard was also involved, and Sun Ming, the commander of the 17th Association, who had no time to escape, was detained, because like Xu Shaozhen, he was tolerant of the soldiers in peacetime, and there was no serious deduction of military salaries, and the soldiers had no grudges against them, just deducted them. Lin Shuqing personally led the second battalion to attack the governor's mansion, and the first battalion, which had been mastered by the rebel soldiers, went to attack the headquarters of the ninth town adjacent to the governor's mansion.

Wuchang City was immediately in chaos.

The location of the Doge's Palace was quite conducive to defense. There is no street on the right side and the west gate, so it is impossible to attack. The courtyard wall is more than a stretch, and the front laneway is narrow, which is good for defense and not conducive to attack. Both attacks launched by the 2nd Battalion under the command of Lin Shuqing were repelled by machine guns from the Governor's Guard, killing and wounding seven or eight soldiers.

Lin Shuqing hurriedly sent a company commander under him to adjust the cannon, and he knew that the cannon mark would also do something.

Sure enough, the two targets of the Seventeenth Association were launched one after another, and the artillery targets that were ready to open the front line after dawn also revolted, and soon, two 57mm mountain guns were dragged to the vicinity of the governor's mansion. It was drizzling at the moment. The light is getting dimmer. The artillery fired several rounds, but none of them hit the governor's house. The artillerymen suggested setting fire to illuminate the flagpole in front of the Governor's Mansion for school firing.

Lin Shuqing ordered the fire. Now the artillery has a goal. In the rain that is getting heavier. Shells fell into the Governor's compound. Scattered the Governor's Guard, who had resisted steadfastly.

Lin Shuqing had already organized a death squad of more than 50 people when the artillery was firing, and after the machine guns on the opposite side stopped firing, he personally led the team to charge and attacked the governor's palace in one fell swoop. only to find that Ruizi and the others had already dug a hole in the back wall and escaped.

At this time, the first battalion also captured the Zhentai Command, Xu Shaozhen was not in the headquarters, he went out of the city with the 18th Association to set up defenses, the guard troops of the Zhentai Command had no intention of resisting, and the first battalion took over the command structure very smoothly.

Next, Lin Shuqing launched a separate attack according to the targets he had known in advance: the domain treasury, the weapons depot, etc. By daybreak, the rebel forces had basically taken control of the main departments of Wuchang City.

Lin Shuqing urgently entered the occupied treasury and found that there were more than 200 yuan of silver, more than 1 million yuan of silver, 500,000 copper yuan, and a number of negotiable securities such as official bills.

Lin Shuqing is overjoyed, now it's easy to do. He immediately ordered one of his own companies to guard the treasury and make a thorough inventory, which was the capital of the revolution, and with this money, the next thing would be easy to do.

Lin Shuqing convened the core personnel of the rebel army to discuss the establishment of the general headquarters of the revolutionary army, Lin Shuqing temporarily acted as the commander-in-chief, and the current task was to urgently contact the 18th Association in the south of the city, strive for the uprising of the 18th Association and promote the uprising of the commander Xu. Lin Shuqing thinks that Xu Shaozhen is open-minded and proficient in military affairs, and if he is in charge of the overall situation, the following things will be much easier. The second was the 21st Association of Li Yuanhong, who was stationed in Hanyang and Hankow, and if they revolted, of course, it would be fine, but if they resisted, they would need to fight a few battles to destroy them.

Soon, someone came to report, and someone from the 21st Association came to contact, and they also made a move!

Lin Shuqing was overjoyed, and hurriedly invited in, and the person who came claimed to be Xie Guochao, the commander of Li Yuanhong's 41st standard battalion, said that the troops had raised their righteousness, held the co-commander Li Yuanhong hostage, and the Chuwangtai armory had been lowered, and asked the comrades of the ninth town to go to Li Yuanhong's mansion to discuss major matters.

Xie Guochao said that Tan Renfeng and Song Jiaoren of the League were both in Wuchang and had been invited to the Li Mansion by Jiang Yiwu of the Literary Society.

"Are Mr. Tan and Mr. Song here? That's great! Lin Shuqing was even more happy.

Tan Renfeng and Song Jiaoren didn't expect the situation to suddenly change dramatically. They were originally concentrating on the work of the 21st Association, but through Sun Wu, they had already contacted Jiang Yiwu. Under the mediation of Song Jiaoren, the two factions agreed to accept the leadership of the League to launch an uprising.

Tan and Song did not understand military affairs, so they naturally cared about whether the uprising could succeed. Jiang Yiwu said that the defeat of the Eighth Town in Changsha was a great shock to the 21st Association, and the morale of the army fluctuated, and it was a good time for the uprising. The second concern is that the naval ships anchored on the river have a large caliber and long range, and if the navy opens fire to resist, the rebels will suffer heavy losses. The second is the Ninth Town, we have no contact with it, it is said that the Ninth Town is about to go outside the city, and it is also said that the 21st Association will also accept the command of the Ninth Town, and time is not waiting, if you want to do something, you should kill or capture the high-ranking officials of Wuchang, but they are all in Wuchang City, our department cannot move beyond the Ninth Town, and if you want to resist the Ninth Town alone with the rebel troops, it is useless.

That's a real problem. After the ninth town was transferred to Wuchang, the troops occupied the original eighth town camp, and the main force was concentrated in Wuchang City, and Wuchang was the political center of gravity in Hubei, and the governor's mansion and the feudal treasury were all in Wuchang.

Wuhan is divided into three towns by the Yangtze River and the Han River, with Wuchang as the political center, Hankou as the commercial center, and Hanyang to the west as the industrial center.

If they don't control the military and political leaders of Hubei, if they control the Ninth Town to fight back against the rebel army, the big thing will go.

In the past two days, Tan Song, Liu Gong, Sun Wu, Jiang Yiwu and others have been discussing how to do things. Sun Wu thought it would be best to do things when the Ninth Town had left but the Twenty-First Association had not yet moved. This opinion was accepted by the head of the League. There's also an ammunition problem here, after the chaos in Eighth Town. The 21st Association also took precautions, and all the ammunition in the hands of the soldiers was taken away.

Jiang Yiwu pointed out that the Chuwangtai arsenal, which was guarded by the troops of the Eighth Town, was the largest weapons depot in Hubei, and there was a huge amount of weapons and ammunition in stock. After the transfer of the eighth town, the Chuwangtai arsenal was guarded by the 21st Association Engineering Team, and if it could persuade the team to revolt, it would solve the problem of ammunition urgently needed by the troops.

Song Jiaoren immediately instructed Jiang Yiwu and Sun Wu to take charge of this matter, and to obtain contact with the guarding troops through various connections, no matter what method was used, Wen Zhiwu would be fine. Be sure to keep the Chuwangtai Armory in your own hands.

Tan Song was extremely excited. It is believed that the situation in Wuchang is sliding in the direction of success. This is a good situation that has never been done before, and this time it is not the Hui Party, but the highly trained army, if the League can control this part of the army. The latter problem is much easier to solve.

Just the night before the Ninth Town uprising. Tan and Song also secretly discussed their behavior after the uprising. The biggest threat is the Mengshan army squatting in Changsha that has not yet advanced northward! No matter how Wuchang changes, the Mengshan army will definitely march north to seize Wuchang, resist by force or negotiate with the Mengshan army? If negotiated. What is the position?

Tan Renfeng advocated negotiations with Mengshanjun. Since Long Qian's "survey and telegram" statement is that as long as those who advocate the overthrow of the Manchus and the reconstruction of the country are like-minded, there is a basis for negotiations. Fighting is certainly not the way to go. Tan Renfeng made such a reasoning: The main force of the Mengshan Army is the fifth town, which is now in Changsha. Since its miscellaneous troops left in Shandong were able to defeat the main force of Beiyang and hold Dezhou, the combat power of the Fifth Town was extremely terrifying. Fighting is self-defeating, maybe Long Qian's guy wants us to resist, and he can justifiably solve the Wuchang problem by force.

Song Jiaoren wanted to contact the other leaders of the League immediately, and it was best to invite Huang Xing to preside over the overall situation. Song Tan and Tan are both from Hunan, and Huang Xing is the same township, Song Jiaoren thinks that his and Tan Renfeng's prestige in your two lakes is not as good as Huang Xing, if Huang Xing comes to preside over military affairs, Long Qian must have concerns, he can't be an enemy of the two lakes military and civilians, right?

Tan Renfeng did not agree to find Huang Xinglai. He was already disappointed in Sun Wen, and Huang Xing was always concerned about the unity of the League and supported Sun Wen unprincipledly. What if he comes? And Huang Xing is still in Japan now, and it is already a desperate situation in front of him, where can he wait?

So it was agreed that the uprising should be started first.

As a result, Wuchang City was in chaos on the second night. At dawn, Jiang Yiwu sent someone to report that the 21st Association had taken advantage of the situation to revolt, Chuwangtai had been occupied, and the troops of the Ninth Town had already taken action and captured the Governor's Mansion and the Domain, and Ruizi and others had fled. The Ninth Town Rebel Force has been contacted, and they are willing to accept the leadership of Tan Song and other leaders of the Alliance.

It's just great! Tan Renfeng and Song Jiaoren were overjoyed. Now it is not a twenty-one association, but a town and another association, and the army in his hands has more than doubled, whether it is wrestling with the Manchu Qing or wrestling with Long Qian, the capital is a lot.

Although the joint meeting of the rebel forces held on the afternoon of September 2 unanimously agreed to accept the leadership of the League, serious differences arose over the specific course of action. The Ninth Town Rebel Army, represented by Lin Shuqing, did not agree with Song Jiaoren's proposal to unite the Mengshan Army. Lin Shuqing said excitedly, "Long Qian is the murderer who killed Zhao Boxian!" He was the culprit of several repressions of revolutions! The Manchu Tartars are our enemies, and the Mengshan Army is our enemy as well! How can you unite with the enemy? How can those comrades who died tragically in Hunan and Jiangxi and western Guangdong forgive us?! You must not unite with the Mengshan Army! The comrades of the eighth town are so confused! They were right to start an uprising, but how could they surrender Long Qian's army? What we have to do now is to first purge the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the three towns of Wuhan, especially to seize the Hanyang Arsenal for our use, and then prepare to fight with the Mengshan army! ”

Tan Renfeng was stunned, feeling that these young rebels (Tan Renfeng is very old with a big beard, in fact, he is not yet fifty years old) is too naïve, "Since you are willing to accept the leadership of the League, well, now I am the prime minister of the Central Association, I order you, you can't fight with the Mengshan army, we must persuade Long Qian to accept the political proposition of the League, first completely kill the Manchu Qing, and then discuss the establishment of the Republic ......of China."

Lin Shuqing didn't buy Tan Renfeng's account, "I don't know when the Central General Assembly was established." If Mr. Nakayama comes in person, we should accept his command. "The implication is that you Tan Renfeng can't do it, and we don't recognize the central part of the country you said.

Although the League has been established for more than four years, it has always been scattered internally, and its leaders are divided into several factions. There is also a lack of arduous and meticulous work that goes down to the grassroots level. Although Tan Renfeng and Song Jiaoren are famous in Hunan, they are not as good as Huang Xing. This is the reason why Song Jiaoren advocated inviting Huang Xing to preside over the overall situation. And Lin Shuqing, who has been stationed in Jiangsu, has a much worse understanding of Tan Song, and he doesn't buy Tan Song's face at all.

"You're going to bury the revolution! Long Qian's elite soldiers are tens of thousands, Beiyang has suffered successive defeats in Shandong and Guanwai, and the national victory of the Mengshan Army is just around the corner," Song Jiaoren shouted loudly, "The revolutionary army that keeps Wuchang can bargain with Long Qian, if it starts a war with Long Qian, the alliance will have more than ten years of hard work in vain!" ”

Lin Shuqing said. "You are the ones who will bury the revolution! What is negotiation? It's better to say surrender directly! Long Qian has been my enemy several times. The suppression of the Hunan and Jiangxi uprisings was in the front, and the killing of Zhao Bo was before the west of Guangdong, and he was the sworn enemy of our revolutionary party! Now that the army is in hand, you have to negotiate with him?! What kind of heart does Ann have? Tell you. The revolutionary comrades of the Ninth Town will never negotiate with Long Qian! The Mengshan army is not three-headed and six-armed. We can take Wuchang. You can defeat Long Qian and avenge the sacrificed martyrs! After speaking, Lin Shuqing took the people of the ninth town and left.

"It's really self-sufficient, self-sufficient!" Tan Renfeng was so angry that he fainted. But it couldn't stop the leader of the Ninth Town Uprising from making his own decisions.

Originally, this meeting was to coordinate the actions of the Ninth Town and the Twenty-first Association, discuss the establishment of a general headquarters, and combine the two military forces, but Lin Shuqing did not pay attention to Tan Song's status at all and insisted on fighting with the Mengshan army.

It's not even time to talk about money. The Hubei Domain Treasury was located in Wuchang, which undoubtedly fell into the hands of the Ninth Town, and it was originally going to talk to the Ninth Town about how to divide the money, but I didn't expect the discussion to collapse on the issue of war and peace. The 21st Association is also preparing to issue a "recovery salary", where will the money come from?

"What now? What about the 21st Association? Song Jiaoren was in trouble.

Jiang Yiwu glanced at Sun Wu and said, "I am unable to command the 21st Association, if you want to use the 21st Association, you must fight for Li Yuanhong's uprising." He has prestige in the army, cherishes his soldiers, and does not withhold military salaries, so he can use the 21st Association to fight when he stands up. ”

Sun Wu nodded, "That's true." In addition, Sa Zhenbing's naval fleet is on the Yangtze River, and his attitude is unknown. Li Yuanhong was born in the navy and had a teacher-student friendship with Sa Zhenbing, so he might be able to persuade the navy to revolt, at least to remain neutral. Otherwise, Wuchang and Hankou will be cut off from communications, and the army's materials cannot be transferred, so how can we resist the enemy? ”

"Where is Li Yuanhong now?" Song Jiaoren asked urgently.

"Detention at his home." Jiang Yi martial arts.

"Okay, let's go find this Li Xietong." Song Jiaoren made up his mind. The great changes in the past two days have made Song Jiaoren feel the huge problems within the Alliance, first, the high-level has no name and no real power; Second, those who supported and launched the uprising were all lower-level officers and soldiers, and their vision was seriously limited. There is a real need for a military leader with prestige.

The 21st Association was launched, Li Yuanhong was not harmed, and his main willingness was to treat his subordinates well in peacetime, leaving a way out for himself at the critical moment, and the rebel officers and soldiers just put him under house arrest at home. When Song Jiaoren and others came to persuade him to surrender, Li Yuanhong was reluctant to revolt at first, although he had clearly seen that the general trend of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was gone, but he was unwilling to participate in the rebel army. Jiang Yiwu became impatient and scolded, if you obey, you will be our officials, if you don't obey, then you will be loyal to the Tartars, then good, I will fulfill you! As he spoke, he loaded the bullet and aimed at Li Yuanhong.

Under the threat of death, Li Yuanhong had no choice but to compromise, expressing his willingness to lead the original 21st Association troops, and also intended to contact Sa Zhenbing, but Li Yuanhong raised a fundamental problem, that is, Wuchang was originally a place of four wars, and now Long Qian's troops are pressing the border but not attacking, and there must be the idea of peacefully resolving Wuchang. If you want me to control the 21st Association, there is no problem, if you want me to fight hard with the Mengshan Army, then choose another Gao Ming. I had dealt with the Mengshan Army three years ago, and I knew that the department was well-disciplined, well-trained and well-equipped, and it was really a first-class elite soldier in China! Now Wuchang nominally has a town and a association, the total number is less than 20,000, the team has just undergone great changes, the morale of the army is unstable, and the machine guns and artillery are less than the opponent. And the Southern Army under the command of Long Qian has already had three divisions, and our army is not an opponent in any case! You must know that Lu Dao's division is not our town, otherwise how could Ye Yanbing resist the elite soldiers of the three towns of Beiyang with one division?

Just one word, peace talks!

This coincides with Tan Song. But what to talk about? Who will talk, but there is no decision. The top priority was the naval fleet anchored on the Wuhan River. While everyone was discussing, someone came to report that there had been a clash between the troops of the 21st Association and the navy, and that the warship had shelled Liujiamiao and caused a fire.

Song Jiaoren hurriedly led Li Yuanhong to Liujiamiao, but it was not as serious as reported, the navy did open fire, but the damage was very limited. Li Yuanhong hurriedly controlled the troops and did not return fire. He hurriedly wrote a letter to Sa Zhenbing, asking Sa Zhenbing to at least remain neutral.

Don't talk about righteousness, Li Yuanhong said to Song Jiaoren, I, the teacher of the Sailor Academy, know better than anyone else, otherwise, I would have blown up Liujiamiao a long time ago. Before Li Yuanhong's private message could reach the river, the navy had already pulled anchor and set sail downstream.

This scene immediately made the rebels on the shore cheer.

It turned out that Sa Zhenbing had already left the fleet. As Li Yuanhong said, the commander-in-chief of the Manchu navy was reluctant to intervene in the civil war, and it was better to walk away than to be in a dilemma. So he left a letter for his subordinates, under the pretext of going to Shanghai for medical treatment, boarded a British steamer, and left the fleet. The subordinates accurately guessed Sa Zhenbing's true meaning, and due to the strict orders of the imperial court, they symbolically fired a few shots at Liujiamiao, pulled anchor and set sail, retreated to Jiujiang, and left Wuchang, a place of right and wrong.

The threat to the Navy has been lifted. But the Ninth Town did not buy Tan and Song's accounts at all, and they persuaded the Eighteenth Association to go out of the city, expelled or killed the officials who did not want to revolt, claimed to be the Chinese Revolutionary Army, and after collecting all the Wuchang arms (except Chuwangtai), treasury silver, and grain and straw, they pulled out the camp and went south to fight against the Mengshan army.

Knowing that the Ninth Town was leaving without saying goodbye with two silver weapons, Tan Renfeng scolded, and Li Yuanhong, who had just stood up, was also deeply dissatisfied. The rebel troops are still waiting for a glowing repayment!

After reading the letter sent by Lin Shuqing, Song Jiaoren smiled bitterly. The army did not have a unified command, and it completely ignored the transfer of grain, grass, and ammunition. What to do? Let the Twenty-One Association accompany him to death? Or is it despite this rebel army, which is still armed by the Alliance in nature? However, if you take all the silver taels from the treasury, what kind of person is you? No wonder Li Yuanhong is dissatisfied.

Tan Renfeng and Song Jiaoren, who initially controlled the three towns of Wuhan, "brilliantly" achieved their strategic goals when they returned to China, and how good the situation is now, with the army and the territory, a wall has been erected south of Wuchang. But calmly analyzing the current situation, the mountain of problems pressed up, so that they did not have the joy of victory. (To be continued......)