Chapter 63: The Battle Inside Wuchang City Comes to an End

  "Kill..."

  "Hurry up, sir! A group of rebels is approaching from down the mountain. Let's retreat..."

  "Damn it... withdraw..."

  Wu Zhaolun and others didn't have to wait for long, the crisis of being surrounded at Chu Wang Tai was soon resolved. It turned out that Xiong Bingkun, who had been in contact with Nanhu Camp, received a message from a homing pigeon and immediately ordered several people to go to She Shan, ordering She Shan Camp to send another team to help lift the siege of Chu Wang Tai.

  At nine o'clock in the evening, Wu Zhaolin received another battle report from Cai Jimin and others who were responsible for attacking the Governor's Office and the Eighth Town Command. The report stated that the Governor's Office had been captured, and the remnants of the Eighth Town, led by Zhang Biao, broke through the siege and escaped out of Wenchang Gate towards the dock area. The Qing dynasty's governor of Hubei and Hunan, Rui Cun, had been handed over to the 29th Regiment for custody, along with a group of soldiers who had previously attempted to riot. The First Regiment had already followed Li Han in pursuit of the fleeing Eighth Town.

  Less than a moment later, Wu Xinghan and others sent another good news. The Qing soldiers in the city were discouraged because Rui Ceng was captured and Zhang Biao escaped. At present, the fires in various parts of the city have basically been extinguished. Even the two battalions of Qing soldiers who were blocked outside the Zhonghe Gate had the intention of surrendering.

  Upon receiving the battle report, the command center at Chu Wang Tai was in an uproar of joy. A group of students from the Surveying School who had just joined the revolution were especially excited, cheering and jumping for joy, unable to contain themselves as they threw their military caps into the air, cheering endlessly.

  Even Wu Zhaolin, who was acting as the commander-in-chief at the time, was extremely excited and repeatedly shouted: "Good! Good! Good!......"

  However, he was soon affected by the butterfly effect brought about by Li Han and thought of many follow-up tasks to be done. First, order all places to gather scattered soldiers. The war in Wuchang City has ended, but there are still Hankou, Hanyang, even the whole of Hubei, the south, and the whole of China. After tonight, the revolutionary army will have more and harder battles to fight, so now it is necessary to quickly strengthen the military power in the hands of the revolutionary army in order to protect the fruits of the revolution.

  There were still quite a few militia forces in the city, which had not joined the revolutionary army to rise up, and at the same time did not follow other Qing troops to suppress the revolution. There were three or four thousand of them. Compared with recruiting new soldiers from among the people, these who did not join the revolutionary army but were not die-hard loyalists to the Qing dynasty were undoubtedly better candidates. Moreover, gathering scattered soldiers also avoided the possibility that they would cause trouble everywhere afterwards.

  Apart from the 5,000 new troops who followed Duan Fang to enter Hubei, there were still more than 12,000 new troops in Wuchang City. More than 3,000 people participated in the uprising tonight, and with the She Shanying cannon camp that had turned against them earlier, they had only about 4,000 people.

  At this moment, the Qing army in the city only had one department of the provincial governor's office (the governor's yamen) left to struggle. Those who fought against the revolutionary army included the original governor's guard battalion, training battalion, constabulary battalion, eight logistics battalions, and the flag battalion of the 30th banner, as well as over a thousand police officers and patrol soldiers inside and outside the city, totaling over five thousand Qing troops. Now they have either been eliminated or taken away by Zhang Biao (the eighth logistics battalion), with most of the rest dispersed by the revolutionary army and a small number captured. In addition, there were still three to four thousand garrison troops left in the city.

  The Guards of the Provincial Governor's Office and the 30th Regiment were basically annihilated, the Constabulary Regiment was dispersed by Huyan Jie, and the "Training Team" was also called the "Doll Team". Although some had combat effectiveness, they soon surrendered and joined the revolutionary camp. Under the blocking of Cai Jimin from the 29th Regiment and Wu Xinghan from the 30th Regiment, more than a thousand policemen and patrol soldiers who came to support the Provincial Governor's Office in various parts of the city were defeated shortly after encountering a sudden attack by a group of revolutionary troops from behind.

  The Qing garrison defending the provincial government office was only a few guards and armed fire brigades, with little combat effectiveness. They could be taken down with one push. Previously, the revolutionary army had not been able to spare the manpower, which is why they were still holding on until now. Upon receiving the battle report from Cai Jiemin's unit, Wu Zhaolin had already ordered him to leave a portion of his troops to guard the provincial government office, while the main force would attack the provincial government office, and must capture it in one battle, ensuring that the treasury was not lost.

  Perhaps because he knew that Li Han had a force of over a thousand men. Now, the battle within the city can be said to have been basically settled, Wu Chao-lin not only sent troops to gather scattered soldiers in the city but also came up with the idea of using those three or four thousand new soldiers who did not participate in the uprising. After all, these forces, although they did not join the revolutionary army, were not particularly loyal to the Qing court and did not want to be enemies of the revolutionary army. In that original time and space, most of these remaining soldiers dispersed, which was a pity, except for a small part, such as the remnants of the 11th Artillery Regiment, who surrendered to the revolutionary army under the leadership of Zhang Zhengji.

  These garrison troops also included two battalions of the 29th Infantry Regiment stationed in Youqi, two battalions of the 30th Infantry Regiment, some soldiers of the 31st Infantry Regiment stationed in Zuoqi, and the left and right wings of the second battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment stationed in Nanhu. Mastering this force, the revolutionary army's fighting strength will reach 8,000 men.

  Zhang Zhengji Department, Wu Zhaolin has already ordered Li Pengsheng's department to surrender at She Mountain, and he dares to confirm that Li Pengsheng and his party will surely go smoothly.

  "Shoutīng (Xú Wànnián zì) brother, just received news from the south lake side, saying that in the 32nd battalion's second regiment there are still some remaining troops who have not participated in the battle. Now that the fighting within our city has basically ended, please lead your team to go and persuade them to surrender, so as to strengthen our military power, is this okay?"

  After Li Pengsheng left, Wu Zhaolun asked the orderly to invite Xue Wannian over.

  "Yes!" Xu Wannian was a man of few words and directly accepted the order and left.

  Look, Xiong Bingkun, who led the team back to Chu Wangtai to replenish military supplies, was staring at the map of the city's situation on the wall. Wu Zhaolun knew what he was worried about, "Dai Qian brother, don't worry, you see..."

  His finger pointed to the place on the map where Zhang Biao's eighth town should have been marked, and he picked up two red arrow-shaped cutouts from the table next to him, which his assistant had just made, stuck some paste on the back, and pasted them on the map.

  "Here... Wen Chang Gate has already been declared lost, the remaining two thousand or so men of Zhang Biao's Eighth Garrison... um, maybe even more have broken through Wen Chang Gate and are fleeing in the direction of that dock..."

  Xiong Bingkun looked in the direction his shoulder was pointing and furrowed his brow even more.

  It is Hanyang...

  He muttered to himself, his face growing increasingly gloomy. Since the incident yesterday, the dock had been sealed off by order of the Huguang Governor's Office, with strict checks on people coming and going between the three towns. Except for foreigners and official cargo ships, whether they were ordinary citizens or traveling soldiers, if they seemed even slightly suspicious during this critical period, they would be taken down on the spot, and any resistance would result in being shot dead on the spot. If Li Han hadn't spent money to sneak onto that American cargo ship earlier, he probably wouldn't have made it through the checkpoint either.

  After the incident yesterday, Wuchang's connection with the other two towns was suddenly cut off. The soldiers who were preparing to rise up had sent out several waves of liaison officers from noon onwards in an attempt to contact the remaining two towns, but either they were arrested by the Qing army midway or they returned without success, gazing at the vast expanse of the Yangtze River and sighing at the difficulty of their journey. As a result, this uprising has not yet been reported to the new revolutionary armies in Hanyang and Hankou.

  "That's right..."

  Wu Zhaolin's face also turned solemn, and he handed a cigarette to Da Yanqiang Xiong Bingkun, lit one himself, "If we let him go to Hanyang, we're probably in danger..."

  Two thick smoke spurted out between his nostrils, Xiong Bingkun nodded, and the three words in his mind were 'Hanyang Made'.

  "The 42nd Division is the new army division that our Literary Society has been focusing on, and there are many of our comrades inside. However, we have lost contact with them until now. The representatives of the 4th Regiment, Qiu Wenbin, Zhao Chengwu, Liu Huaou, and Hu Yuzhen, have all gone missing... I previously sent two liaison officers to make contact, but when they arrived at the dock, they found that there were soldiers setting up roadblocks and defense lines, and they didn't dare to get close... If they were able to cross the river to Hanyang, it would be a big problem..."

  Wu Zhaolin nodded, but his face didn't look worried at all, instead he seemed a bit...

  "Don't worry, things will turn for the better"

  He let out a sigh and took two more cut-out papers from the staff officer beside him, pasting them onto the situation map with flour paste.

  Xiong Bingkun was stunned for a moment, and the cigarette in his mouth also fell to the ground, "This..."

  He pointed to the blue arrow behind him, frowning: "I know that this unit must be Li Han's one regiment pursuing the Eighth Town, but what about the unit guarding the dock? Isn't it the Qing army?"

  But it was Wu Zhaolun who took the blue small flag representing the revolutionary army to the dock, so that Xiong Bingkun did not understand for a while.

  Wu Zhaolin sighed, "It's Li Han's men. The battle report just sent back from the 29th Regiment of Cai Jimin's unit said that before the battle, Li Han divided his troops into three groups. One group of artillery and infantry supported the 29th and 30th Regiments in attacking Zhang Biao's unit and bombarding the Governor's Office; while he himself led a small group of ambushers, and ordered Cai Jimin's unit to cooperate afterwards, forcing the timid Rui Cheng to flee from the Governor's Office, and was captured by him at Wenchang Gate, greatly enhancing the prestige of our revolutionary army. And this third group is here..."

  He pointed to the direction of the dock, "One battalion and one department have already taken over a section of the dock, and in the name of our revolutionary army headquarters, they have ordered all ships not to dock today. I suppose it should be able to block him for some time. The liaison officer sent by the first battalion to contact the comrades of the 42nd Regiment has almost landed on shore... Maybe he has already contacted the comrades of the 42nd Regiment."

  He paused for a moment, unaware that Li Han was a reborn person, and sighed: "His strategy is above mine, such a dense layout, anticipating the enemy before the battle... Wu Mou is not as good..."

  His face turned somewhat gloomy and he stopped talking...

  Xiong Bingkun knew that he must still have a knot in his heart about Huang Guoyun's death, but he had the intention to open his mouth and persuade him for a while. However, thinking of what Cheng Zhengying and others secretly told him before, he opened his mouth, but didn't say anything, and his face turned gloomy.

  "Brother Dai Qian, your five battalions are currently coordinating with the Eighth Artillery Battalion of Nanhu Lake to fight against the Zhonghe Gate. Later, you can send someone to contact the 31st battalion on the side to coordinate the battle and persuade them to go and surrender the remaining troops at the Left Flag garrison. Is that okay? The revolution in Wuchang is just beginning, but the cruel Manchu rulers will not wait for our revolutionary army to gain momentum. Compared to the future when we will have to fight against millions of soldiers, it's better to grasp more power now and increase our chances of success in the future!" Wu Zhaolun was not an ordinary person after all, and he quickly came back to his senses from his thoughts, affirming that Xiong Bingkun would help persuade the remaining troops of the 31st battalion.

  "Yes, I'll arrange for someone to go right away!"

  Xiong Bingkun's Fifth Regiment is now fighting shoulder to shoulder with a battalion of the Thirty-first Division, and this task is indeed most suitable for him.