Chapter 54: The Day of Rising (9)

  Explosions, shouts and the howling of machine guns threw all of Wuchang into chaos and turmoil. Yet who could have imagined that behind the Governor's mansion a fearful silence reigned? Neither Rui Cun nor Zhang Mei Sheng had expected to find someone waiting for them here, still less did they expect that the person waiting was none other than Yang Qiu, the great hero of the imperial court, the Brave and Loyal General!!

  Chen Delong was even more stunned, escaping through a hole in the backyard was just his temporary idea, how did he know?

  Can't tell you it's written in history books, can I? Yang Qiu's cold smile made the soldiers quickly lower their guns. The endless explosions and screams of killing made people extremely tense. Fortunately, the terrain here is complex, and there is a lack of effective command, so it has become a gap in the attack, giving him enough time to "talk" with Rui Cheng.

  "I heard that Master has been making a fortune in recent years, but recently the funds are a bit tight, I wonder...” Yang Qiu glanced at Liao Ke Yu's tightly held sandalwood box and gave Bi Wen a signal.

  When Bingwen rushed over to grab the box, Rui Cheng was so angry that he was about to scold him loudly, but was intimidated by a soldier's gun butt and retreated several steps, not daring to speak again. After opening the box, it was a thick stack of silver bills. Bingwen had never seen so much money in his life, and after excitedly counting it, he said in a low voice: "Sir, there are 400,000 yuan in total, and some gold and silver jewelry."

  "Four hundred thousand?" Yang Qiu's face turned red with rage: "Your Excellency, you are the Governor of Huguang! Outside, people say that in these years, you've earned at least 50 million! I don't want it all, just give me 30 million and take the rest away, go wherever you like, how about it?"

  Rui Cheng's face turned green, he wasn't a big corrupt official, although he had some savings, but 3 million was really terrifying! If he had that much money, he wouldn't have become the governor so early. He did have a bit of backbone, gritting his teeth and refusing to make a sound. Yang Qiu saw this and immediately turned her gaze to Zhang Meisheng, slowly pulling out her gun: "Speak up, speak up and I'll let you go."

  The cold gaze scared Zhang Mei's whole body trembling, he had given Rui Cheng many ideas over the years, and naturally knew what would happen if he was caught by the party people. He hastily said: "General Biao, I'm not very clear about this, but a few days ago, Lord Rui converted all the autumn taxes of Huguang into foreign checks, in......" After finishing speaking, he glanced at Rui Cheng's chest with his eyes.

  It turned out that Zhang Mei had sold himself out, and Rui Cun hadn't even scolded him yet when the soldier had already torn open his clothes and found a small pouch attached to his body, inside which were several checks from HSBC.

  Two million taels of silver finally allowed Yang Qiu to breathe a sigh of relief, and with an additional 400,000 taels, he could at least sustain himself for a while. As for... He glanced at the box containing valuable gold and silver treasures, thought for a moment, and then returned it to Liao Ke-yu. His gaze shifted and stopped on Chen De-long: "Chen Guan-dai."

  Chen Delong was already frightened and sweating all over, and seeing him return the floating wealth to Liao Kexiu, he thought that this time he would definitely not be able to keep anything else. Seeing the three gunboats stopping not far away, he gritted his teeth and said: "The Chu Yu, Chu Qian, Jiang Han three ships and the naval camp... are willing to listen to your command!"

  After effortlessly taking control of the three warships, the Governor's mansion was already engulfed in flames. Looking at the Wuchang city where the fierce battle was nearing its end, Yang Qiu knew more clearly than anyone else that from start to finish, it wasn't his victory, but history's victory. Being able to capture Rui Cheng and obtain the Chu Yu warships was also due to history; what he did was merely following the trend! But starting tomorrow, history would officially enter another fork in the road! That would be a chaotic, obscure, profound, and terrifying whirlpool! Would he himself be able to reach the end?

  The battle of Hankou also came to an end, with two regiments plus a defected city garrison left battalion, more than 1,000 soldiers launched a swift and fierce offensive, and the richest of the three towns, Hankou, had quietly changed hands.

  Ma stepped over the already ruined city gate, which had been bombarded by three Jiangnan-made Krupp cannons. Before his eyes were groups of captives with their hands raised high and faces full of terror. In stark contrast, the 42nd Division soldiers, still hot-blooded from battle, began to clear the battlefield. The two machine guns naturally became the most delightful spoils of war. Yue Peng smiled as he took off his military hat, patted it lightly twice, then turned his head towards the opposite bank and muttered to himself: "Hankou is ours now, but what's the next step?"

  As the city garrison was breached, the dense gunfire in the sky above Hankou gradually thinned out. The results of the battle were quickly tallied: over 500 prisoners of various kinds were captured, more than 300 surrendered, and the most important government offices, customs house, and treasury were all preserved. In addition, three Hotchkiss machine guns and ten brand-new Krupp 75mm mountain guns were seized, finally giving the 42nd Division some decent heavy firepower.

  Of course, there are some things that will never appear on the statistical table. As soon as they returned to their base, Yue Peng immediately gulped down a mouthful of cool tea and asked, "How's the situation in Hanyang? Won't He Xi be unable to take it down?"

  "It's over already. No, it should be that they didn't even fight." Zhang Wenjing smiled and said: "When He Xi led his men to the Han Yang city wall garrison, as soon as they set up their machine guns and swept through, the enemy surrendered. At the time, he was also surprised at how easy it was. Later, when they went in to take a look, there were only over 200 people left in the entire garrison, and one of the machine guns was missing."

  "Oh? How come it's like this, what about others?"

  "They were all called back by Li Xianglin, the 29th target, to protect Rui Cheng, and He Xi took advantage of it. We're stuck here gnawing on bones." Zhang Wenjing chuckled: "We'll have to ask for more reward money from the adults later."

  "Alright, what's the point of this stubbornness? We don't even have a decent army. I was thinking, if we were in Wuchang...” Yue Penggang said, before Zhang Wenjing interrupted with a laugh: “I'm not as ambitious as you, let's put off dealing with that muddy water in Wuchang for as long as possible, no need to force it.”

  Yue Peng understood what he meant. Wuchang was not comparable to Hanyang and Hankou, the latter of which had almost no decent armed forces, let alone a complete 42nd Division, even if they sent a regiment it would be a sure win. But Wuchang was different, even if many troops were transferred away, there were still over 10,000 people in total, and both the National Party and the Royalists took it as their center, the water was too deep!

  Judging purely from a military perspective, with the current strength of 42 troops participating in it, I'm afraid there won't be many bones left! Just as he was about to say another two sentences, he saw Ke Shao leading two horse-drawn carriages walking in, and quickly jumped up: "Why did you bring these things here?"

  "Don't worry, those things have already been transported back to Hanyang and handed over to General Xiao. This is what Zhang Tong let us take from He Shengyuan." Yueshan heard that it wasn't those things and felt relieved. Since Yang Qiu had specifically instructed He Shengyuan before they left, he hastily opened the boxes. Inside the dozen or so boxes were all notices for pacifying the people. The remaining two boxes contained arm badges shaped like European shields, with a tiger head embroidered on them that looked extremely ferocious. What was strange was that there were also two cloud-shaped wings on either side of the tiger's head, slanting upwards.

  Zhang Wenjing also opened one of the bundles of cloth, and after the soldiers unfolded it, they were stunned to find that it was a flag. On the flag was painted a tiger with its wings spread wide, its head held high and its four legs standing in a sea of blood, with white bones scattered all over the ground. The painting was so vivid that it gave people a sense of ferocity and bloodiness.

  Just as the two were savoring the meaning of "Flying Tiger with Wings" and "Flag", a voice came from behind: "Mighty tiger with wings, ambition in the sky, whistling through the vast expanse, shaking the four fields! Hehe... it seems that your leader's ambitions are not small!"

  The command post was set up in the big camp of the three battalion barracks, and now the outside was completely controlled, so ordinary people couldn't get in. Therefore, the two of them quickly turned their heads to look, waiting for a clear view of the approaching person. As soon as they saw clearly, their eyes lit up with joy: "Zi Qing, how did you...".

  Song Ziqing sighed, took off his hat and hooked it on his finger, smiling bitterly: "It's annoying to fight over there, I originally wanted to come over and have tea with you, but I didn't expect it to be even more lively here." As he spoke, he walked up to the flag and looked at it for a long time before saying: "Good military flag, who designed it?"

  Zhang Wenjing and Yue Peng looked at each other with a smile, saying in unison: "Besides our lord, who else... could anticipate the enemy's plan and prepare these things so early?"

  Song Ziqing was stunned by the two men's unanimous words, and just as he was about to ask in detail, another urgent report came: "General, the dock reports that three warships are heading this way!"

  Gunboat?! Don't even mention Zhang Wenjing and Yue Peng, even Song Ziqing, who wasn't clear about the details, had a sinking face. Although the gunboats on the Wuchang side were not large, the ship's guns were not army cannons, and three gunboats could change many things!

  "Pull all the cannons over, each battalion and team be careful of the artillery fire on the river! Contact Hanyang and ask if the Guishan battery has been taken down, prepare to support us!" Yue Peng's command was urgent and clear, making Song Ziqing secretly admire him. Seeing that the two had already rushed out, he also chased after them with a few quick steps.