The meeting of the Hubei military government was held in the Red Mansion, which was the governor's palace of the Hubei military government.

After the Wuchang Uprising, due to the injury of Sun Wu at that time, the initiators of the other uprisings thought that they were too young to convince the public, so they elected Li Yuanhong, the 21st Mixed Association Commander who was dragged out from under the bed, as the governor of the Hubei Military Governor's Office.

The reason why the Governor's Mansion is called the Red House is because the exterior color of the entire building is red.

At this time, although the Beiyang army was approaching the city and might attack Wuchang at any time, outside the governor's mansion, the soldiers of the New Army in Far Hubei were still standing outside neatly, waiting for the upper echelons of the military government to discuss a solution.

At this time, the guards standing outside the Governor's Mansion saw Huang Xing and Tian Tong coming from outside, and hurriedly saluted. "Commander-in-Chief."

Although hundreds of people were spilled in Hankou due to Huang Xing's command error, and they were indirectly responsible for the fall of Hanyang, the Wuchang revolutionaries still respected Huang Xing and others very much at this time.

And after seeing a few guards like this, Huang Xing also nodded hurriedly in response.

After entering the Red Mansion, Huang Xing and Tian Tong walked briskly to the conference room, where the revolutionaries of the Hubei military government had already begun to discuss future decisions.

For them, the current situation is very critical, not to mention anything else, the Beiyang Army stationed in Hanyang alone is a great threat, as long as people are willing, they can launch an attack on Wuchang at any time.

"....... we can hold along the Yangtze River, and the Beiyang Army on the opposite side is only a few thousand people. We have the Yangtze River, and we will definitely be able to defend Wuchang..."Standing up from his seat, Zhang Zhenwu, who had already begun to emerge, raised his voice.

His words also attracted the echo of many people. But then someone spoke. "But now that the Hunan army has withdrawn to Hunan, our troops are also a little insufficient, and the Yangtze River is so big...... Can it really be held? ”

As soon as the man's words fell, the man sitting next to him had already spoken loudly. "What then? Do you want to give Wuchang to the Qing army? ”

"I don't mean that, I mean, can we come up with a more practical solution?"

Seeing the noise in the conference room, Huang Xing first groaned. Then he raised his voice. "Hanyang can't hold it, and Wuchang may not be able to hold it, my personal opinion. Why don't you follow me down the river, give up Wuchang, how about we go to Nanjing? ”

Hearing Huang Xing's words, the originally noisy noise suddenly disappeared. In its place was ghostly silence.

Halfway through. Someone asked in disbelief. "Kegong, what did you just say?"

Although Huang Xing's performance in Hankou and Hanyang was disappointing, there were still many people in the Wuchang Revolutionary Party who respected him, so they somewhat suspected that they had misheard what he had just said.

However, after hesitating for a moment, Huang Xing repeated what he had just said again.

After listening to Huang Xing's words, the eyes of everyone present suddenly turned red.

Wuchang Shouyi, in order to keep this name, I don't know how many people in Ludao shed blood and sacrificed. Now Huang Xing wants to let them give up in a word, not to mention Sun Wu and Jiang Yiwu. Even Li Yuanhong would not agree.

For a while, the original respect for Huang Xing by the people present suddenly turned into anger, and Sun Wu and Jiang Yiwu directly spoke out against it, believing that Wuchang Shouyi called for the whole country, and if Wuchang lost, the army's morale would be greatly damaged.

Compared with Sun Wu and Jiang Yiwu, Zhang Zhenwu's emotions were more excited. "Wuchang is the place where the first righteousness of the national revolution is abandoned, if it is abandoned, it will definitely be the hearts of the people in the provinces of Dahan, and it is very likely that the revolution will collapse, if Wuchang is lost, the enemy is entrenched in the upper reaches, even if we capture Nanjing, what is the point, and in the end it is likely to be like Hong Xiuquan and wait to be killed." After saying that, he even took out the pistol directly from his waist and slapped the table and shouted. "Anyone who dares to say that he gives up Wuchang again is a traitor, and there is no mercy for killing."

As soon as Zhang Zhenwu's words were finished, someone suddenly stood up to support him.

In comparison, Huang Xing is very embarrassed, what can Huang Xing's personality say, good compliment, that is, the so-called good face. Zhang Zhenwu said this, naturally, it was a big loss of face for him, not to mention that there were a large number of people around him who applauded and agreed, no wonder that the provisional government was established later, and none of those ministers and deputy ministers were the first righteous of the Wuchang family, and only one vice president gave Li Yuanhong.

If it was a normal change, I'm afraid Huang Xing would have lost his temper at this time, but on this occasion, he knew that doing this would only make the situation more and more chaotic.

At this time, Li Yuanhong also saw Huang Xing's embarrassment, stepped forward to take Huang Xing's hand with his face, and then said. "Rest, rest." The meeting was finally suspended.

After coming out of the conference room, Huang Xingchang sighed.

Things have come to this point, and it doesn't make sense for him to continue to stay in Wuchang. So not long after coming out of the conference room, Huang Xing said to Li Yuanhong. "Hankou was defeated, Hanyang was lost, and my brother continued to stay in Wuchang as the commander-in-chief with no face, and the rest of the matter was entrusted to Brother Song Qing..."

Li Yuanhong didn't think that Huang Xing's resignation as commander-in-chief was a loss, after all, the battle against Hankou under his command was really bad. But no matter what, Huang Keqiang's reputation is famous after all, so Li Yuanhong also kept it for a while, and after seeing that he couldn't keep it, he let him leave Wuchang...

In the afternoon of the same day, Huang Xing, Tian Tong and others went to Shanghai by boat, and at the same time, Li Yuanhong appointed Jiang Yiwu as the commander-in-chief during the war, and at the same time, the military government also made a decision to "stick to Wuchang, the city is in the people, and the city is dead!" ".

It's just that perhaps it was providence that Huang Xing had just left Wuchang not long before the British Consul General in Hankow, Ge Fu, received a telegram from Zhu Erdian.

After receiving the telegram, Ge Fu did not immediately contact the Wuchang Revolutionary Army according to the instructions on the telegram, but first found Feng Guozhang and showed him the telegram first.

"General Feng, should we contact the revolutionary army immediately, or wait a little..."

Like Zhu Erdian, Ge Fu also hoped that China's chaos would end sooner, so he was more polite to Feng Guozhang.

Hearing his words, Feng Guozhang thought about it and said. "Don't rush to send someone over just yet. Let me scare them first, and wear down their morale at the last bit..."

Ge Fu nodded, but still advised. "General Feng. You have to be careful, don't really take Wuchang City, if that's the case, it will ruin the big thing of your family, Mr. Yuan Shikai..."

"Don't worry..."Feng Guozhang smiled slightly, and at the same time took a sip of the teacup in his hand. I just wanted to scare them, but I didn't want to really knock Wuchang down..."

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The Guishan Fort in Hanyang, the Beiyang artillery on the fort is already a little bored.

After all, now there is only one Wuchang left in the people's army on the opposite side. And they have also learned the strength of those people's armies, and they are not their opponents at all.

"What wins with courage, wins with learning. That's it? It seems that the new army in Hubei is also gone..."With his back against a 75mm gun, an artilleryman lit a cigarette and said lightly after spitting out a smoke ring.

At that time, the people of the world once put the Beiyang New Army and the Hubei New Army side by side, and the people's army of the Wuchang Uprising was dominated by the Hubei New Army. When the Beiyang Army went south, they thought how difficult this battle would be. Who knows...

"That's it..."

"Yes, I don't know when Lu Dao will be able to give the order, if you want me to say, it won't be over if you take Wuchang directly, why do you have to wait and wait..."Hearing the words of his companion, another artilleryman also complained.

The artilleryman who spoke earlier laughed. "What, you want to go home?"

"Nonsense, who doesn't want to..."

"I don't think you want to go home. I want to embroider the little orchid of the Spring Building..."When he said this, the artilleryman's expression had become a little obscene.

The Forces nouvelles strictly ruled. Opium smoking was not allowed, both in the Beiyang New Army and in the southern provinces, but opium smoking was prohibited, but it was not said that it was forbidden to go to brothels. Therefore, these people from the new army often went to the brothel to hang out in the past.

In fact, it is not only them, but even the revolutionary army in Anhui.

Especially after Yan Shao raised the salary of the revolutionary army to 10 yuan, the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army spent a lot more money when they were in a brothel.

Of course, Yan Shao knew about this kind of thing, but he didn't prohibit it. On the one hand, it is difficult to prohibit it, after all, as long as the existence of brothels is legal, it is impossible for you to ban where the soldiers go. Secondly, and most importantly, the people who are in the army these years are usually healthy and energetic young men, and if they are locked up in the barracks for several years in a row, something will happen sooner or later, even if they become GYA.

So Yan Shao would rather them go to a brothel than hope that one day in the future, something suddenly happens that will disgrace the military government...

On the battery, those idle and bored soldiers were frolicking with each other, and several officers suddenly walked onto the Turtle Hill Battery. "What are you all doing, you don't even have a bit of a proper shape, what kind of system is it." Looking at the frolicking soldiers, one of the officers at the head shouted loudly.

Seeing that it was the commander who came, the soldiers hurriedly stood in a neat row, and they didn't dare to come out, let alone refute.

The officers were quite satisfied with this attitude of the soldiers, and their attitudes were much more relaxed.

"Now I'll give you a task, the commander ordered to carry out an artillery bombardment of Wuchang for two consecutive days, remember, don't save shells..."

Of course, the soldiers below didn't know what Feng Guozhang meant, and when they heard the commander say that they wanted them to shell Wuchang, they thought that the above had made up their minds to launch the most rear-end offensive against Wuchang.

Unlike other arms, this group of artillery does not have any psychological burden on fighting. After all, with the strength of the Beiyang Army today, there are very few people who can threaten the artillery, in other words, they only need to be responsible for firing artillery under the protection of their infantry brothers, how can they not be happy about such a simple thing?

Moreover, it is important to know that the current Beiyang Army and the new armies of other provinces need a promotion fee when they go out to fight, and they can also make some money by fighting.

After receiving the order, the officers and men of the Guishan Fort began to reload the artillery.

However, after a while, dozens of artillery pieces have been loaded, and they can strike at Wuchang with fire just waiting for the order to be issued.

————————————————————

At this time, there were not many pedestrians on the streets of Wuchang City.

Due to the fall of Hanyang and Hankou, rumors spread in the city of Wuchang, and many people said that the Beiyang Army would soon fight—————— although 2 or 3 days had passed since the fall of Hanyang, and the Beiyang Army had no intention of fighting.

Anyway. Because of this rumor, most of the people in the city withdrew from the city, and only a small number of people who did not want to leave remained in the city.

"Alas. I don't know when the road will end..."Hiding in the room, looking through the window at a group of patrol soldiers who had just walked by, an old man with white hair sighed.

Although he also wanted to escape from the city like everyone else, if he really left everything in the house, he was afraid that he would soon starve to death outside, so after thinking about it for a long time, the old man finally decided to stay at home. "I'm so old anyway. Even if something really happened, it would have been just a few days earlier, on the contrary. I can also take this opportunity to go down to meet my wife..."

As long as he thought of this, the old man's mood would become calm.

Just as the old man was about to go back to his room and pour himself a cup of tea, he suddenly noticed that the soldiers of the People's Army outside the window suddenly fell to the ground. Then came a series of explosions.

People are old. There was always something wrong with his ears, so the old man didn't hear the whistling sound of the shells falling, but he couldn't hear it, but the people could hear it. When they were in Hanyang and Hankow, they often heard the whistling sound of this kind of cannonball when it landed, so as soon as they heard this sound in their ears, they instinctively fell to the ground.

The power of the 75mm gun was not very great, but it was okay to destroy a few houses. So just the first wave of shelling. A large number of houses in the city have been destroyed, and many people have been buried underneath them.

A sudden artillery attack from the Kameyama Battery. The people in the city thought that the Beiyang Army was coming, and soon some of the people who did not escape from the city packed up their things and fled, and there were also some opportunists in the military government who escaped with them—————— people will always be keen on power, and the morale of the people's army was at its peak, so naturally there will be many people who want to take a tailwind.

Now that the ship is sinking, it is only natural that they will leave.

Most of the civilian troops who are still in the city are diehards.

However, on the second day, that is, on December 1, the cannonballs from Guishan fell into the advisory bureau as the governor's office, and even Li Yuanhong, who was the governor, could not hold on.

"What to do, Governor?"

Looking at the craters that appeared on the surface outside the Governor's Mansion, Li Yuanhong's cronies looked quite ugly.

In fact, as long as this shell goes more than ten meters further, it can explode into the Red Mansion of the Governor's Mansion.

"Do you want us to do it anyway?" Glancing at the crater, another cronie also spoke.

However, as soon as his words fell, his former cronies had already spoken. "I really don't know what you think, do we all have a chance anyway?"

Indeed, as the governor of the Hubei Military Government, the Qing court even wanted to cut him with a thousand knives, in other words, everyone had the possibility of being right, but he didn't. Now, if he is anyway, the final result can only be death.

Sure enough, hearing the words of his cronies, Li Yuanhong shook his head and said. "Anyway, it's impossible, don't look at the Beiyang Army outside, it's so bad, but the fall of the imperial court is actually certain, now like this, at most, it can be regarded as a return to the light, not to mention whether it is really like this is still undecided, Yuan Shikai's ambition is not small, what will be the final result..."

Speaking of this, Li Yuanhong shook his head and shifted the topic back to his original position. "Revolution, it must continue to revolutionize, although the situation of the Beiyang Army is very good now, but the southern provinces have become independent, and the imperial court has not long lived, but now Wuchang is also a dangerous city, and continuing to stay here will only increase the risk, so I decided to leave Wuchang first and see the situation..."

"The name of the governor is Yingming..."Hearing that Li Yuanhong wanted to run, several cronies said from the heart.

After all, no one wants to fight for their lives for a city that is destined to fall, and in this case, running is obviously the most normal option.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Yuanhong hastily led a few cronies to sneak out of Wuchang City and run to Gedian, ninety miles downstream of Wuchang. Tang Hualong, the leader of the constitutional gentlemen, had already fled to Shanghai when Hanyang was lost.

The constitutionalists ran away, Li Yuanhong, who was the governor of the capital, and the last to stand up for the Wuchang situation was Jiang Yiwu, the wartime commander-in-chief who succeeded Huang Xing.

In the name of the Governor Liu Gong, they issued a proclamation announcing that Liu Gong would act as the governor, and at the same time began to deploy defenses outside Wuchang City.

On the other hand, seeing that it seemed to be almost frightened, Feng Guozhang also ordered the Guishan Fort to stop the shelling. After consulting with Feng Guozhang, Ge Fu also asked a British merchant to come to Wuchang on the evening of December 1 with the terms of the armistice.

At this time, Li Yuanhong had already run away and was not in Wuchang at all, Liu Gong, Sun Wu, Jiang Yiwu and others thought that the terms of the armistice were acceptable, so they stamped the armistice treaty in the name of the governor Li Yuanhong in accordance with the requirements of the British, that is, the requirements of Yuan Shikai. The treaty provided for a three-day armistice, during which both sides were to remain unmoved, and it also stipulated that during this period, the ships of the civilian army "shall not sail and shall be unloaded and handed over to the officers of the naval division stationed in Han for storage," and the trains of the Beiyang army "shall not be allowed to travel for military movements, and shall be supervised by the officers of the naval divisions stationed in Han."

Li Yuanhong was very satisfied with the armistice agreement. Both the British and Yuan Shikai identified him as an opponent in the establishment of the peace treaty, which greatly strengthened his position not only in the Wuchang government, but also in the revolutionary camp as a whole. Although some people in the revolutionary faction in Wuchang believed that Li Yuanhong should be condemned for leaving his post without permission in an emergency, this opinion was rejected.

The revolutionaries did not have the courage not to want Li Yuanhong, because losing Li Yuanhong would mean that they had to continue fighting with Yuan Shikai. They invited Li Yuanhong into Wuchang City again. As many of the constitutionalists ran away, there was a reshuffle of the junta's personnel. The Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Finance, and others were replaced by the candidates predetermined by the revolutionaries before the uprising.

On the other hand, when Wuhan was stopping and fighting, Huang Xing docked the ship in Anqing and visited Yan Shao, wanting to get some support from him. (To be continued......)