Chapter Seventy: The Persistence on Wusheng Pass

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  In the hazy night color, the brown-red flames kept rising from the city gate, and under the cover of artillery fire, more than 2,000 Henan Xun Chengying infantrymen rushed to the city gate. This unit, which was reorganized from the early Yi Army, had been declining day by day, but with the shouting of the Beiyang cavalry behind them, the officers could only grit their teeth and launch a charge.

  "Hold on! Hold on here, it's holding on to our old home behind us!" Amidst the cannon fire and smoke, young Shi Xiaolou pressed down his military cap, running along the city wall while constantly cheering up the soldiers.

  In the midst of a loud explosion, a shell landed beside him, and the scorching airwave sent him tumbling to the ground. After rolling several times, he slid behind a nearby parapet. Several soldiers rushed over to support him, shouting: "Squad leader, are you okay?"

  "Don't worry, I won't die before you guys!"

  As soon as they saw him, everyone immediately turned around and hid behind the city wall, continuously firing outwards. The bullets flew back and forth, whizzing past their ears, and from time to time, soldiers were hit and fell down.

  Shi Xiaolou panted and climbed up to the gap between the battlements, looking outwards. The dense enemy army made his heart skip a beat.

  The Wusheng Pass under his feet is one of the nine major passes in the world, locking in Ezhou in the south and screening the Central Plains in the north. Together with the Jiuli Pass in the east and the Pingjiang Pass in the southwest, it is called the Xinyang Three Passes. The nearby mountains are intersecting, and the peaks are surrounded by a city wall, which was built into a narrow pass. A section of the Beijing-Hankou Railway also passes directly under the pass. Since ancient times, it has been a place where military strategists must contend for control. Therefore, since Zhang Zhidong established the New Army, this place has always been managed by the Hubei Army.

  But even the most dangerous passes need soldiers to guard them! He was just a team leader of the 15th Regiment of the 8th Town, who had studied command for two years at the Japanese Military Academy. Because the original garrison unit, the 42nd Battalion's 3rd Company, had gone to Hanyang for training with their new battalion commander, he was ordered to garrison here. Seeing such a large pass but only one company of less than 200 men, and heavy artillery being only two Type 05 cannons, how could he not be anxious!

  What's more serious is that the news of Wuchang Uprising arrived here on the second day early in the morning, and the sudden change from his hometown made him and the soldiers somewhat at a loss, no one knew whether to continue defending this strategic pass of Hubei or give up and go home.

  As an officer, he knew better than the soldiers that if they let the Qing army take the pass and head south, it would be very difficult to defend the three towns of Wuchang, which were flat and had no natural defenses. So in the end, he gritted his teeth and ordered them to continue defending. Originally, he thought that even if they couldn't hold out, they could at least delay for a while, and their brother units would definitely arrive soon. But it was already the fourth night, and still there was no sign of supporting troops, and in his heart, dark clouds were gradually gathering, knowing that this small unit of his was probably completely forgotten.

  No one likes the feeling of being forgotten, especially soldiers stationed far away from home. This makes everyone very sad. Just as he and the soldiers were considering their next move, a banner from the Henan-based Xun Chengying arrived at the pass, perhaps due to years of military duty, the battle suddenly broke out.

  If in the past, he wouldn't have given a second glance to a trash unit like the City Garrison, but at this moment, with few soldiers on hand and lacking heavy weapons, as one by one his comrades fell, the expected reinforcements didn't appear, and the anger of being abandoned that had been building up inside him gradually erupted, the soldiers' will to fight began to rapidly decline.

  Should we continue to hold on? Shi Xiaolou was unwilling to let the Beiyang army occupy this place for nothing, but as he swept his gaze over the soldiers who were resisting, he saw that they would look at him every time they fired a shot. His heart suddenly cried out in alarm, because this was an omen of the troops' collapse! He hastily raised his gun and shouted: "Brothers! Wushengguan is the soul of our Hubei, without the soul, can we preserve our lives? Down there are just some city garrison troops, as long as we hold out tonight, tomorrow morning we can go back to ask for reinforcements!"

  "Commander, brothers are probably......" The deputy commander rushed to Shi Xiaolou's side and said anxiously: "It's not worth it! With just us guarding, we can't hold on. It's better to withdraw to Wuchang and coordinate with the main force to defend Hankou."

  "If we don't hold on to Wushengguan, what can we use to defend? Shi Xiaolou looked at the deputy officer coldly and said firmly: "If we can't even guard Wushengguan, how can we stop the Manchu's southbound train? What's the point of fighting?"

  "I'd hit you if I wanted to, but I won't." The deputy commander gathered a dozen or so soldiers and prepared to leave without another word.

  Shi Xiaolou kicked his deputy officer, who was blinded by his own self-interest, and shouted at his back: "Get out of here! Don't think I don't know what you're thinking! I don't care who you are, since I'm ordered to guard Wusheng Pass, I won't let it fall! Whoever wants to leave can leave, as long as I live for one more day, Wusheng Pass will not be lost from my hands!"

  After finishing speaking, he turned his head and lay down on the ground, aiming at a Qing soldier and pulling the trigger.

  The crisp gunfire was lonely and fierce, each bullet could take away a rushing Qing soldier. Looking at the explosion firelight, his young and determined face, some soldiers hesitated for a moment before re-entering the battle, but some also retreated with the deputy officer from the pass.

  "We'll fight it out, you and I!"

  So many soldiers left, the defensive strength on the pass suddenly dropped a lot. Many enemy troops had already climbed up from the low slopes on both sides. Shi Xiaolou's eyes turned red and he shouted loudly: "Brothers, either way is death, let's fight to the end!"

  "Draw swords!"

  Snow-bright bayonets flew swiftly to the muzzle, and less than a hundred soldiers followed Shi Xiaolou to charge towards the low slope on both sides. A Qing soldier who had just come up hadn't reacted yet, was stabbed through the chest by a bayonet and fell down, also knocking down his companions behind him.

  "We can't lose Wushengguan! We absolutely cannot lose!"

  Shi Xiaolou kept shouting, leading a small number of soldiers to fight the enemy in close combat. Just as he had just stabbed a Northern Cavalryman who had fallen off his horse and become an infantryman, a bright cavalry saber was already swinging towards him from beside him.

  "It was worth it!" A glance around at the dense, packed enemy corpses, he subconsciously blocked. Just as the horse knife was about to land on him, a sudden burst of gunfire sounded in his ear, and then...

  "It's reinforcements, it's our reinforcements!"

  A soldier next to him had already cried out and pointed, following his finger, countless soldiers wearing yellow new-style military uniforms began to rush past him, the Northern Cavalry who dismounted and followed the infantry to fight and prepared to chop him down had already been shot through the head by bullets.

  "Charge!"

  "Machine gun, machine gun stand up......"

  The most critical moment, He Xi finally arrived, the light machine gun once again showed its lethality and good mobility in the chaotic scene, even for newbies who had just learned to use it, they could quickly deploy. The Madsen M50 used German-made pointed bullets, which were even more lethal!

  The Qing army in the city was originally low in morale, if not for the Beiyang Army pressing from behind, they would have run away early. Now, seeing several machine guns suddenly appearing on the city gate, they were frightened and ran back with their feet open.

  A moment later, the Maxim heavy machine gun squad also followed, panting, and as soon as they set up their tripod, the gunner pulled the bolt handle and triggered the trigger. The long canvas belt flew rapidly shortened, and a terrible metal storm unfolded. When the first Maxim machine gun opened fire at full speed, the night sky in front of Wushengguan was suddenly sprinkled with countless flashing fireflies, and countless sparks formed beautiful and terrifying fireworks.

  The power of the heavy machine gun was really too terrible, and Wushengguan was a must-pass place for the Hankou Railway. The railway passed through the tunnel in the middle of the pass, with slopes on both sides that were over ten meters high and impossible to escape from. The environment of being at a height overlooking the target made the Maxim gun play its maximum destructive power.

  7.92mm bullets kept flying back and forth in the crowd, stirring up a burst of blood and flesh, connecting into pieces, sprinkling like rain. The light machine gun also took advantage of the momentum to chase and shoot fiercely, forming more than a dozen death-crossing lines that instantly covered the entire area in front of the pass. Those city garrison infantrymen who had just shouted loudly, thinking they had achieved the first merit, could only desperately run backwards, regretting that they were born without wings. Only the Beiyang cavalry at the back saw that the situation was not good and retreated in a hurry.

  The battle did not last long, and the city defense troops who had brought a large number of weapons from Henan to support Liujiatun Zhang Biao's remnants overnight were already suppressed by machine guns. The infantry battalion that came to support didn't even look at the survivors trembling among the piles of bodies, but instead rushed towards the Qing army's train and artillery positions in the distance. It wasn't until the water tank connected to the machine gun started spewing out steam that the inexperienced machine gunners realized they had already fired two boxes of bullets under tension, and the area that was swept over was full of wounds.

  Shi Xiaolou was also completely stunned. In Europe, such firepower might not be surprising, but at this moment in the country, equipping each battalion with three Maxim machine gun squads was already considered luxurious! Not to mention there were also light machine guns assisting! No wonder he and the surviving soldiers stared blankly at the bloody scene, even when He Xi walked up beside him, they didn't notice.

  "This brother, I am He Xi, the commander of the first battalion of the Right Route Army. I have been ordered to come and support you. You have worked hard! Thank you for holding onto Wusheng Pass!" After finishing speaking, He Xi led all the officers and nearby soldiers in a salute to the garrisoned troops.

  The soldier's courtesy and warm words made Shi Xiaolou and everyone else red-eyed. Before they could react, a box full of silver coins was stuffed into their palms: "This is the salary that Zhang Biao, the traitor, deducted from everyone last month. Commander Yang knows that all the brothers are struggling financially, so he said that even if it's hard, we can't let the soldiers who have shed blood suffer. So I brought the owed salary and this month's together. Five yuan for each soldier, ten yuan for each officer, and twenty yuan will be sent to the families of the deceased soldiers."

  They had just encountered some soldiers escaping, and were about to die when they suddenly turned the tables. Then, in a beautiful yet cruel display, it was almost a one-sided massacre. Before they could even process what had happened, a box of warm, shiny coins was thrust into their hands, leaving Shi Xiaolou and all the remaining soldiers stunned, unable to even register the words "Right Route Army" and "Commander". They simply stared blankly at the glittering coins, tears streaming down their faces.

  Looking at the distant flames still in battle, He Xi chuckled and patted Shi Xiaolou's shoulder: "Get up, we haven't finished fighting yet! Jiuli Guan and Pingjing Guan must also be taken back as soon as possible."

  Shi Xiaolou slowly stood up, wiped away her tears with one hand, and stared at him with red eyes, nodding vigorously.