Standing in front of the State Guest House with the reins of his horse, Cai Ye looked at the scene in front of him with mixed feelings, and the two sides of the street were crowded with people seeing off the troops, forming two thicker and thicker human walls, gradually blocking Cai Ye's view of the marching team in the Fifth Town. But he knew that now passing through the city to the west was the detachment directly under the Fifth Town Command, which had been stationed in the city, staff officers, communications, guard troops, and the Fifth Town Military Hospital. From ten o'clock in the morning, the troops stationed in the city began to set out in formation.

But the people took to the streets much earlier. No need to ask, they're here to see off Fifth Town. This seems to be rare, but it did appear in front of Cai's eyes. Now, it seems that all the people in Jinan City have poured into the streets, "San'er, listen to the words of the chief, remember the letter when you arrive......" "Xiaohua, Xiaohua, my mother is here......" Cai Yi's ears were full of the shouts of the people, mixed with the cries of women.

Finally, Xu Shichang agreed to accompany the fifth town south to "quell the chaos", this errand was supposed to be handed over to Hu Lan, but Hu Lan learned from Long Qian to pretend to be sick, and Xu Shichang agreed the second time after rejecting one of his requests.

Fortunately, he always had the opportunity to talk deeply with Long Qian on the way south. Cai Yi turned on his horse and galloped in the direction of the Fifth Town Headquarters.

You can't watch such a strong army quell the uprising against the Qing court! Hunan is his hometown, and it has become an important base for the anti-Qing movement. I don't know how many enthusiastic Sanxiang children rose up against the decaying Manchu Qing this time, and they faced not only the Qing army in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, but also. The well-equipped and well-trained Fifth Town is about to go south to suppress it! How is this good?

Cai Ye was worried, but he clearly knew that with his own strength, trying to block the army was simply a mantis arm. Cai Yi, who had participated in the anti-Qing uprising a few years ago, could only follow the camera of the army, but fortunately, last night Long Qian attended the banquet to receive Xu Shichang and his entourage, and Cai Ye finally met General Long Qian, the "long-admired" governor of Shandong and the commander of the fifth town. After seeing the style of the fifth town in Zhangde last month, Cai Yi's desire to see Long Qian became even more urgent. He regretted that he had accepted Yuan Shikai's invitation to go to Zhili instead of Shandong. Intuitively, Cai felt that Long Qian's Fifth Town was the platform for him to display his ambitions.

General Long Qian, who is serious about Cai Yi, fits the image in his mind very well, and he is burly. The posture is erect. A well-fitting woolen military uniform and tightly tied armed belts make him heroic, which is in stark contrast to Xu Shichang wearing an official mansion, with the contrast between morning and sunset, spring and late autumn. When these thoughts flashed through Cai's mind. I feel a little sorry for Xu Shichang. This high-ranking Han official who was highly regarded by the Qing court. The brother-in-law of Yuan Shikai, the biggest warlord of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, was actually a very cultivated literati. It is said that this person made great contributions to the recovery of Tianjin from the hands of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the creative use of the police instead of the army to take over Tianjin was also due to his "invention". Cai Ye also met Xu Shichang, an elder, through Yuan Shikai after arriving in Beijing. On the way to Shandong, Xu Shichang did not put on the posture of a military officer, which made Cai Ye have a good impression of him. But in any case, Xu Shichang always has a feeling that Long Qian is about to die.

Xu Shichang said that Long Qian was sick, but Cai Ye couldn't see that Long Qian had any sick appearance. To his surprise, Long Qian seemed to attach great importance to himself at the banquet, and when Xu Shichang introduced himself, he not only held his hand and said for a long time, but actually personally served wine to his table during the banquet and toasted himself.

Long-awaited? What does he look up to me for a long time? Cai Ye has been thinking hard, what is he worthy of the long-term admiration of this general with heavy troops? I am only twenty-four years old, and I have only been back to China for a year, what have you done that attracts attention? Just because of your reputation for studying in Japan? But it can only be explained in this way, because Long Qian asked Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Xiaozhun. Long Qian seemed extremely sorry for Jiang Fangzhen to go to Fengtian, saying that Mr. Jiang's most suitable position was a military academy, and if Mr. Jiang deigned to come, the position of principal of Shandong Military Academy would definitely be given to him.

Jiang Fangzhen is suitable for running a military school? Well, he's really bookish. How did Long Qian learn about their personalities?

However, as soon as the autumn exercise ended, Cai Ye heard the news of Xiang Jiangxi's move. He didn't know who it was that started this move, Sun Wen or Huang Xing? Whoever it was, the news was heartening to him. Following Yuan Shikai back to Beijing, he immediately heard the news that the imperial court had sent the fifth town south to quell the rebellion. He immediately found Xu Shichang through Yuan Shikai and joined Xu Shichang's team to come to Shandong.

He once fantasized about meeting Long Qian in person, and persuaded Long Qian to make troops and take Xu Shichang hostage in response to the righteous act of Hunan and Jiangxi. He believed that as long as the fifth town rebelled, the situation in the whole country would change greatly, and even the eighth and ninth towns would be involved in the uprising of several southern provincial capitals.

However, as soon as he entered Jinan, he did not have time to find an opportunity to meet Long Qian, the general Long Qian, whom he had pinned infinite hopes on, accepted the imperial court's counterinsurgency order after bargaining with Xu Shichang, and the movement was so swift that the troops were quickly assembled, and just yesterday, on the afternoon of November 9, the artillery stationed outside the city had left the barracks.

I'm just naïve and ridiculous! Why do you think that Long Qian, who has an overseas background, will definitely oppose the Qing Dynasty? Why would he accept his own lobbying, obey the leadership of the revolutionary party, and join the anti-Qing camp? He is already the governor of a province, a dignified second-class martial artist, and more importantly, he still has a town of soldiers in his hands. The Manchu court can give him glory and wealth, what can it give him? It's Huang Keqiang who came in person, what did he do to impress people?

The crowd became more and more crowded, and Cai Ye, who had walked on horseback, had to dismount, squeeze through the crowd, enter the main road, and follow the advancing troops, which should be logistics troops, and the cart full of supplies and covered with tarpaulins could not be seen at a glance.

"Counselor Cai, Counselor Cai, I can be regarded as finding you." Ouyang Zhong finally saw Cai Yi leading the horse, "Staff Officer Cai, my family is looking for you." ”

"General Lao is worried." Cai Ye replied lightly. His eyes fell on the marching column of an infantry detachment, and he was surprised to find that this infantry detachment was actually equipped with four extremely rare light machine guns! That's right, it must be a light machine gun, and a soldier can carry a marching burst of fire. What even the Japanese army was not equipped with, it actually appeared in the troops of the Fifth Town!

"Adjutant Ouyang, which part of your army is this force? Can this be sued? ”

"Ah, of course. This is the second company of the guard battalion. ”

Internally, it is not called a team but a company, which is obviously a study of the Western military system.

"Ah, your ministry is equipped with light machine guns. Was it bought from the West? ”

"No, the second company is equipped with products of Huayuan Company. Although the performance cannot fully reach the level of imports, it has met the design indicators. The gap is mainly in the life of the barrel. The commander said that the main thing is that the quality of the steel is not good. ”

"Oh, Shandong can actually imitate light machine guns?" Cai Ye was taken aback.

"It's not a copy. This gun was originally the invention of our commander! The Germans paid a lot of money for the patent ......"

Cai Ye finally came to the gate of the headquarters, and Long Qian, who had changed into a cotton military uniform, was talking about something surrounded by a group of subordinates. Surrounded by dozens of guards, armed and waiting with horses. Long Qian saw Cai Yi coming, "How about Staff Officer Cai march with me?" ”

"I don't dare to ask for it." Cai Yi dropped the sentence.

"Then, let's go." Long Qian smiled. Turn around and look back. The crowd dispersed. A young woman came forward with a child in her arms and a child in her hand, and Long Qian hugged the child in the woman's hand and kissed it. He handed it back to the woman, and crouched down again to say a few words to the older child. Cai Yi estimated that it must be Long Qian's wife and son.

In just a minute or two, Long Qian said goodbye to his wife and children, and with a wave of his hand, a guard pulled over a tall horse with a pitch-black body, and Long Qian recognized the saddle and jumped up. Long Qian, who was riding on a horse, raised his hand and saluted everyone standing in front of the gate of the headquarters, "Everyone, don't leave it at that." After saying that, the big black horse neighed and ran westward. The staff guards followed closely behind, following the column on foot towards the west gate.

On the morning of November 10, 1906, the Fifth Town Headquarters and its directly subordinate troops left Jinan Mansion under the leadership of Long Qian and embarked on a journey south.

According to the marching route and marching echelon drawn up by the General Staff, the Fifth Town was divided into three echelons southward. The first echelon was led by Feng Guozhu, the deputy commander of the Ninth Association, and led the cavalry standard and the seventeenth standard directly under the fifth town and the baggage and engineer detachments led by Lian Shupeng as the advance force, and left the Yanzhou garrison on November 7, the day after Long Qian and Xu Shichang negotiated the dispatch of troops, and set off as the pioneer of the army.

The second echelon was led by Wang Mingyuan, who rushed back to Lunan, and led the troops directly under the Ninth Association and the 18th Standard to follow the first echelon.

The rest of the troops are the third echelon - all of the 10th Association and most of the troops directly under Zhentai - artillery, engineers, cavalry and Zhentai logistics support troops, which are directly commanded by Long Qian.

According to the route map drawn up by the General Staff Office, the divisions of the Fifth Town first assembled in Guide Prefecture, Henan, and then marched south along the roads of Chenzhou, Yingzhou, Lu'an, and Anqing, and crossed the Yangtze River into Jiangxi at the south of Jiujiang. According to the will of the Ministry of War, after entering Jiangxi, the Fifth Town will be subject to the control of Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang. It is said that Jiangxi is under the jurisdiction of Liangjiang, and the governor of Liangjiang has the right to command this guest army, but the order of the imperial court is like this, probably considering Zhang Zhidong's outstanding prestige.

Outside the west gate of Jinan, I don't know when a color door was built with silk ribbons, and the three big characters of "Zhu Jie Gate" were written on it. There is a table under the door, which is full of delicacies and wine, and there are gongs and drums on both sides, seeing that Long Qian and his party went out of the city gate, the gongs and drums immediately beat up noisily, and the leaders of the Jinan government and the chamber of commerce have been waiting under the color gate, Long Qian saw this, and dismounted from a distance and walked over.

"Ladies and gentlemen, how can this be deserved." Long Qian stood in front of the gentry representatives who were sending off, raised his hand and saluted.

Zhou Xuexi, who was wearing a new sauce-colored robe, waved his hand, and the gongs, drums, and suona were temporarily rested. Ding Weiji, the prefect of Jinan, took two steps forward, "The dragon army is governed by Lu, and the achievements are outstanding, and we represent the officials and people of Jinan, and send the general to the general with thin wine, and I hope that the general will go south this time to quell the chaos, and the flag will be victorious, and the horse will succeed!" As he spoke, he took a thin white porcelain bowl and held it to Long Qian with both hands.

Long Qian took the wine bowl, "Fellow villagers, Long Qian is here to thank the elders of his hometown on behalf of the Shandong soldiers of the fifth town." Please rest assured that the fifth town will live up to the high expectations of the elders of Shandong! As he spoke, he raised his neck and drank it all.

The gongs, drums, and suona were played again, and Cai Ye led the horse and stood in the distance, watching Long Qian and the officials and gentry laughing and laughing, and his mood was extremely complicated. It's hard to say that the scene in front of you is acting, maybe it's the gentry's heartfelt farewell to the soldiers of the Fifth Town. What is certain is that these people inside and outside the city are definitely not sent out by the government, so it is enough to prove that the fifth town is quite popular in Shandong. It seemed to be getting harder and harder to convince Long Qian to do the opposite, but he decided that no matter what, he couldn't watch this army of tigers and wolves crush the biggest uprising in years.

After a delay of about a quarter of an hour in front of the color gate, the tables and chairs blocking the main road were removed. Long Qian mounted his horse again amid the cheers of the people, and led the retinue of the Fifth Town Headquarters to ride forward, and soon overtook the baggage troops and caught up with the infantry column advancing on foot.

Cai finally got the chance to get a closer look at the Fifth Town's troops, even though he had already seen the Fifth Town in Zhangde. Compared with other troops, Cai Yi cares more about the infantry of the king of the army.

I saw that each of the infantrymen who had entered the army had at least thirty-five pounds of clothing: a Mauser rifle tied horizontally to a neatly bandaged rucksack, a short-handled sapper shovel stuck in the back of the rucksack, a set of grass-green painted iron cutlery, a bulging satchel, and a canvas grenade belt collapsed on either side, and the canvas bag contained four wooden-handled grenades. The soldier carried four leather cartridges around his waist, and Cai estimated that he should have carried about 100 rounds of ammunition.

The soldiers wore khaki cotton uniforms, khaki bandages on their legs, and khaki rubber-soled suede boots on their feet.

"Adjutant Ouyang, the Fifth Town is well-equipped, and it is no longer inferior to the Japanese Army." Cai Ye couldn't help but praise.

"Staff Officer Cai is well-informed, and he needs a lot of advice." Ouyang Zhong was modest, "Don't hide it from Staff Officer Cai, the individual soldier equipment is something that the commander of my family attaches great importance to, he often says that it is a soldier is not a soldier, and he has thirty catties on his body." It is a major task that requires constant research and improvement to allow soldiers to carry the necessary equipment to march and fight, and to maintain the physical strength of soldiers and facilitate their lives. ”

"General Long has such insight, no wonder, no wonder." Cai Ye stared at the marching infantry procession, and he knew that it would not be easy to carry these things on his body and keep the necessary silence on the march. However, Cai Ye immediately found that the speed of the infantry was not slow, and it was estimated that it should be about ten miles an hour, but no soldiers were found who had fallen behind and sorted out their equipment. Only the officers with German-made box guns on their backs ran forward and backward to manage and inspect their infantry teams.

"Staff Officer Cai, Commander, they're far away, let's catch up." Ouyang Zhong urged, because Cai Yi slowed down his horse pace and kept following the queue of a company, Long Qian and they had already walked a long way.

"Good, good, worthy of defeating the elite soldiers of Beiyang." Cai Ye nodded, knocked the horse's belly, and chased forward at a faster speed.

Constantly overtaking the infantry column, Cai Ye constantly checked the equipment of the Fifth Town, and found that they had already equipped the light machine guns to the infantry team, each infantry team was generally equipped with two light machine guns, which surprised Cai Ye when calculated. This is a huge number, and the Beiyang Army does not have such equipment. When Cai Ye saw the equipment of the machine gun company, he felt a chill. Six mortars and six Maxim heavy machine guns formed the heavy fire of the machine gun battery......

"Adjutant Ouyang, how is such a fire support team organized? Is there a mark for each? Cai Yi turned his head and asked Ouyang Zhong.

Ouyang Zhong smiled but did not answer.

"Brother Cai," Long Qian Lerma waited for Cai Ye, "what do you think my troops are better than the Japanese army in terms of firepower?" ”

"Dare to ask General Long, has such equipment been popularized throughout the army?" He asked, pointing to a cannon company on his right.

"Each infantry standard is equipped with such a cannon battery."

"The Japanese army is not as good as you! At least their light machine guns and mortars were not equipped with their wing level. ”

"Skill determines tactics, and in addition to individual combat skills, if you want to win a war with Japan in the future, it is very important to have a leading position in equipment."

"The general's imaginary enemy is the Japanese army?"

"And who else? With such weapons to slaughter the rioting peasants? (To be continued......)