The Eighth Town is in turmoil.

The 1st Brigade and 1 Regiment successfully took over the positions of the engineering battalions, during which skirmishes broke out, and some officers and men who were unwilling to revolt fought for a while with those who were determined to take action, and the positions had changed hands. Ji Haogu ordered the engineering battalion to lay down its arms, and the whole battalion retreated to the Mengshan Army position under the leadership of Staff Officer Qiao, and when the other two battalions of the first regiment rushed in along the mouth of the third battalion, the 30th standard also began to be chaotic, and there were gunshots and shouts everywhere, a large number of officers and soldiers of the eighth town surrendered or fled, and the main position of the eighth town collapsed.

However, the patrol battalion led by Yu Mingyi to the position to practice courage resisted and brought casualties to the 1st Brigade and 3rd Regiment that attacked its position. Machine guns, mortars and grenades were fired at the patrol battalion, and the patrol battalion collapsed.

Zhang Biao, who had already fallen asleep, got the news and was terrified. After determining that all the three targets of the Huilongtang position had mutinied, he was annoyed and angry, and immediately ordered the eight artillery standards to fire at the Huilongtang position. But this order was not carried out. The artillery standard was also chaotic, the battalion commander Jiang Mingjing and the team officers Zhang Wending, Cai Demao, Shang Anbang, and Liu Xiangshun decided to revolt and refused to carry out Zhang Biao's order, and the soldiers responded in large numbers, and the standard commander Zhuo Zhanbiao and the battalion commander Yang Qifeng fled when they saw that the situation was not good, and nearly 900 officers and soldiers responded to the uprising. At this point, the eighth town is completely finished.

Upon hearing the news of the uprising in the eighth town of the Huilongtang front, Long Qian was extremely happy. With Situ Jun in charge of the headquarters, he doesn't actually need to stay in the combat office. Leaving the combat department, Long Qian came to the General Political Department. I saw Qiu Jin chatting with Xu Si.

"I'll tell you a great piece of news! The Eighth Town Battlefield has revolted! Long Qian smiled and said to the two ladies.

"What? They revolted? Qiu Jin understood the situation better than Xu Si, "This is really good!" ”

"Now they are taking over positions. I know that there are many anti-Qing organizations among the lower-level officers and soldiers of the Eighth Town, and they are all in the line of the League. I had been thinking about how to rebel against the Eighth Town, but I didn't expect them to start a frontline uprising! They are smart people who know how to take advantage of the situation. Speaking of which, Sun Huang and others still have a great contribution to the country! ”

"It's good if you think so." Qiu Jin smiled.

"Sister Qiu, I'm going to work hard for you next. When these rebel officers and soldiers are withdrawn, you can meet with them and talk about the political views of the Mengshan Army, I think we still have a lot of common language with the League. Isn't it? Let them stay in the Mengshan Army with peace of mind. Don't worry about anything else. ”

What is Mengshanjun's political proposition, although Qiu Jin has discussed it with Long Qian more than once, he still has not understood the essentials. However, the Eighth Town Revolt is good news anyway......

Qiu Jin saw that Long Qian was going to talk to Xu Si. Get up and go out.

"Is it possible to go straight to Wuchang now?" Xu Si asked softly.

"Of course. Li Yuanhong, who remained in Wuchang, had thousands of soldiers. Among them, there are not a few revolutionary parties. The news of the Changsha uprising has passed, and it would be good if Li Yuanhong could stabilize his troops! I didn't expect the situation to develop so quickly! ”

"There is also a Shandong ......"

"The most dangerous time is over. Shi Junyan played well, I was really excited! That's right. What were you talking about? ”

"Sister Qiu is still worried about the future, worried that the Mengshan Army will not tolerate the Alliance."

"In the future? More on the future. Let's take down the Manchus first. Long Qian sat down in front of Xu Si with a smile, "I haven't looked at you these days, are you resting?" ”

"What am I tired of? Instead, you have to pay attention to your body. Xu Si noticed that Long Qian's face was tired.

"People are in good spirits when they are happy." Long Qian smiled and took Xu Si's hand and held it in his hand.

After a great chaos until dawn, the position of the eighth town of Huilongtang collapsed, leaving behind all the officers and soldiers who agreed with the uprising, and those who fled were loyal to the Manchus. After the fall of the 30th standard position, the 31st and 32nd standard positions were in chaos without a fight, the 2nd and 3rd regiments of the 1st Brigade and the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Brigade broke through on the whole line, took over the position, and organized the withdrawal of the rebel army.

Counting the number of people, the casualties of the Mengshan army were minor and negligible. The number of officers and soldiers of the Eighth Town who participated in the uprising was as high as 4,500, and of course, many of them were "coerced" into the uprising.

Huilongtang has been broken, even the artillery mark of the eighth town has completely fallen into the hands of the first division, Feng Guozhu no longer asks for orders, and continuously gives the pursuit order to the department, and must annihilate the rest of the eighth town outside Changsha City. The six regiments of the 1st and 2nd Brigades broke through the Longtang Mountains, and despite fatigue and unfamiliarity with the terrain, they swooped down on Changsha by separate routes.

Zhang Biao and Yu Mingyi, who lost control of the troops, fled back to Changsha City with Pegasus under the protection of a small group of guards, bringing the bad news of Zaitao and Cen Chunbei, who were sitting in Changsha. Cen Chunbei, who was still full of confidence in guarding Changsha a few days ago, immediately fainted, and Zaitao also panicked, unable to think of any effective countermeasures.

The eighth town is in turmoil, and it is a dream to rely on more than 10,000 patrol battalions in Hunan Province to guard the huge Changsha City! Hengyang is also a strong city, but it was also destroyed by a cannon bombardment, so there is a layout of the eighth town to set up a mountain south of the city to control Changheng Avenue. Now that the barrier outside the city is gone, the city will be difficult to defend. On the morning of the 20th, with the return of Zhang Biao and Yu Mingyi to the city, a large number of soldiers from the Eighth Town fled into the city, adding to the fear of the already panicked residents. Immediately, a rumor began to spread - the Mengshan army was about to slaughter the city!

Rumors are always easier to believe than truth. At noon on the 20th, when several giants in the yamen of the governor's yamen, who served as the headquarters, were still discussing the strategy of war and defense, Changsha was on fire, and the Changsha City, where the houses were mostly wooden structures, soon became full of smoke, and the flames were blazing, and the people cried and fled for their lives outside the city, and no one organized to extinguish the fire.

Zaitao and Cen Chunbei were the last to have a little courage dispelled, and it was useless to even prepare a luncheon, and withdrew from Changsha from the east gate under the protection of the governor's standard camp and Zhang Biao's guards. Leaving Yu Mingyi to "preside over the overall situation". The governor's car drove out of the city to intensify the panic of the residents, and Changsha became an undefended city with flames rising. Residents cried and fled for their lives, and trampled on several places.

The first Mengshan Army unit to enter the city was still a brigade and a regiment, and Ji Haogu strictly ordered that no prisoners should be captured, and what he wanted was Changsha City. But the tragic situation in front of him made the meritorious regiment commander forget his idea of capturing Cen Chunbei alive, "Quick, immediately launch the company as a unit to put out the fire!" Save! ”

Subsequently, the troops of the 1st Division who entered the city consciously joined the ranks of firefighting.

The Changsha fire burned down most of the houses in Xicheng, and it was not until noon the next day that the fire was completely extinguished. Six Mengshan officers and soldiers died in the fire (suffocation), all of whom were officers and soldiers of the 1st Regiment. It is impossible to count how many people died in the fire.

The fire brought great disaster to the residents of Changsha. But it bought time for Zaitao and others to escape. They managed to get rid of their pursuers and fled north back to Wuchang. After counting the soldiers, there were less than 4,000 officers and soldiers left in the Eighth Town who fled to Wuchang with Zaitao, Zhang Biao, and Cen Chunbei, and they were basically intact except for the cavalry. The rest are in disarray. It was hard to fight.

Fortunately, Xu Shaozhen's Ninth Town Forward Biao had arrived in Wuchang under the escort of the navy. Coupled with Li Yuanhong's troops, the defenders of Wuchang still have more than 10,000 people, but how much will they have. God knows.

Receiving Long Qian's order, the 1st Division stopped in Changsha. Although Long Qian knew that Lu Dao was at this moment, regardless of the fatigue of the troops, he could chase after Wuchang in one go. However, he believed that the Eighth Town had been destroyed, and that Li Yuanhong's Mixed Association might have revolted, and that there was no need to let the two brigades of the exhausted First Division go out alone. It's best to wait for the left and right roads to meet Changsha and then slowly suppress Wuchang, it is very likely that Wuchang is a real bloodless soldier! Therefore, he vetoed Situ Jun's suggestion and did not let Feng Guozhu's capable detachment take advantage of the situation to go straight to Wuchang.

As it turned out, Situ Jun's suggestion was correct. But almost all the senior officers at the headquarters at that time agreed with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's suggestion to rest the troops. Because since the north out of Shaoguan, the southern army has been tired from continuous high-intensity marching operations. The thousands of captives in the eighth town needed to be digested and resettled, and the city of Changsha after the fire needed to be reorganized and resettled with refugees, which did not allow the troops to continue to advance with high intensity.

The key is that after the end of the Eighth Town, Long Qian did not think that the Manchus still had the strength to fight in Wuchang.

Long Qian met with Jiang Mingjing, Wu Zhaolin, Xiong Bingkun and other heroes of the uprising, and highly praised their meritorious contributions to overthrowing the corrupt Manchu regime.

"Our purpose is the same, we are all for the future of this country, this nation." Long Qian said to the delegates of the uprising, "I know that it doesn't matter if you are either members of the League, or members of the Communist Association, the Literary Society, or those who are passionate about the revolution. Because we have a common language in overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty and establishing a republican New China, we can sit down and discuss what state system and what form of government this country will adopt in the future, and after we have conquered Wuchang and basically defeated the Manchu Qing Dynasty's military strength and Beiyang Army. I will tell you the good news that Beiyang's attack on our Shandong base area has completely failed, and they have not captured Texas and suffered heavy losses. The first town, which penetrated deep into the hinterland of Shandong, was mainly the banner people, all of which were wiped out, and Yin Chang committed suicide. Yuan Shikai has retreated to Hengshui, and outside the pass, our army's northern army has occupied Mukden, and the officers and soldiers of the twentieth town of Beiyang have revolted, forcing Duan Qirui's sixth town to return to Jinzhou, and he can no longer return to Zhili, because the large roundabout detachment of my northern army has cut off the retreat of the sixth town, and Jinzhou is already an isolated city, perhaps in two days, the news from Jinzhou will come. ”

Jiang Mingjing is the pipe band (battalion commander), Wu Zhaolin is the team officer, he still pays attention to the war situation in the north, and when he heard the news disclosed by Long Qian, he couldn't help but be excited, he couldn't imagine that the situation in the country had changed so quickly in the past half a month, and he was glad that he had taken the right path, otherwise he would fight with the Mengshan army, even if he held Changsha, what would he do?

"Ha Luha, you must not have expected the battle to develop so quickly, right? To be honest, I didn't expect it either. Let's talk about the present, what are your plans? Are you willing to stay in the Mengshan Army and complete the historical task of marching into the whole country together? Long Qian didn't wait for them to answer, "I personally welcome you to stay!" You are all good young people with courage and ideals, and the Mengshan Army needs young officers like you. I have an immature idea, and before I have time to discuss with Chief of General Staff Situ, I am going to organize the soldiers of the Eighth Town Uprising into another brigade, which will be under the command of the Southern Army of the Mengshan Army, and you will all assume important responsibilities in this brigade. What do you think? ”

Jiang Mingjing immediately expressed his willingness to join the Mengshan Army, and Wu Zhaolin hesitated a little and expressed the same meaning.

Although Xiong Bingkun, a key figure in the Huilongtang Uprising, was only a squad leader, he was quite bold, and in the face of the commander of the Mengshan Army who was threatening Huaxia, he actually asked, "Commander-in-Chief Long, how are you going to cooperate with the Alliance?" ”

Wu Zhaolin was shocked, thinking that others had already reached this situation, where was there any cooperation? It would be nice to be able to give the League a bowl of rice to eat.

Long Qian smiled slightly, "Brother Xiong is quick to talk, I like it very much." Although I once commanded the Old Five Towns to fight the Alliance, at this time, at that time, you may be able to understand my difficulties at that time. In fact, I personally have great respect for the leaders of the League, such as Mr. Sun Wen and Mr. Huang Xing, and I personally welcome the League if it is willing to join the new government dominated by the Mengshan Army. Is this answer satisfying? ”

Long Qian clearly used the word "Lord", there is no need to conceal it, that would be hypocrisy. Even if Long Qian had the bearing, the generals of the Mengshan Army would not agree to give up the dominance.

Xiong Bingkun didn't say anything. Perhaps he realized that the question was too abrupt, and lowered his head and stopped talking.

"The League's determination to oppose the Qing Dynasty has inspired countless people with lofty ideals who are interested in overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty and rebuilding the country, but the League's path is not necessarily right, at least the results are not obvious. If you can get in touch with the leaders of the Alliance, you can convey to them a word, I, Long Qian, on behalf of hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Mengshan Army, welcome them to stand up, just like you. We will fight the last few battles together, and then build our new China together. Long Qian said to the delegates with a smile.

Most of the officers of the Eighth Town Uprising chose to remain in the Mengshan Army. They were organized into the 9th Brigade of the 3rd Division and placed under the command of Wang Mingyuan, whose division headquarters was still in Guangdong. At present, the 3rd Division has only two brigades, and there is still an empty number of the 9th Brigade. The officers of the uprising were basically promoted to the next rank, and they were all happy. The 8th Town Artillery Regiment was separated by Long Qian and incorporated into the 2nd Division, because the artillery of the 2nd Division was relatively weak.

Long Qian ordered Situ Jun and Cao Minzhong to take charge of the formation of the Ninth Brigade, and transferred more than 100 officers from the General Staff, the First Division, and the Fourth Brigade of the Second Division to augment the Ninth Brigade.

The Southern Army rested near Changsha for half a month, and after the two armies on the left and right met their divisions, Long Qian ordered Feng Guozhu to be the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, and the three brigades of the first division began to march to Wuchang.

But in this half a month, Long Qian suddenly fell ill, and the situation in Wuchang also changed dramatically. (To be continued......)