Chapter 45: Capture of Chu Wang Tai 3

  "Drip... drip... drop"

  "Wooooo... Wooooo..."

  Chu Wang Tai, located on the left hillside of Mei Ting Mountain (also known as Chu Wang Mountain) in Wuchang. Mei Ting Mountain, along with Snake Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain, was one of the "three mountains" that guarded the city of Wuchang, with a strategic location and great military significance. In the late Qing dynasty, after the Hubei New Army was formed, the army's arsenal was moved from Sanfo Temple in Wuchang to here. Under the governance of Zhang Zhidong and others, Hubei Province became one of the wealthiest provinces in southern China. History has proven that the success of the revolution was directly related to the occupation of Chu Wang Tai Arsenal by the new army. The warehouse inside the arsenal contained not only guns, cannons, and bullets manufactured by the Hanyang Arsenal over the past twenty years but also foreign firearms and ammunition purchased over the years. By October 10, the eve of the uprising, the arsenal had stored 59,000 German, Japanese, and Hanyang-made firearms, as well as 124 large-caliber cannons and a massive amount of ammunition, making it one of the largest military armories in China at that time.

  Such an important place, the city defense cannot be underestimated. After two terms of Huguang Governor's appropriation, it took eight months to build a small castle on the left hillside of Meiting Mountain, surrounding the Chuwangtai arsenal, which was only slightly smaller than the ancient city of Wuchang. Its thick and solid walls could withstand cannon attacks for some time.

  In addition, since the legendary revolutionary party's uprising in autumn, Hubei Governor Rui Zeng naturally did not dare to take Chu Wangtai lightly. He repeatedly ordered Zhang Biao to strictly protect Chu Wangtai and considered dispatching his loyal flag soldiers to guard it. However, during a military meeting, he was persuaded by Li Yuanhong's words about not provoking the Han soldiers, so he didn't replace the soldiers. Still uneasy, he sent trusted officers Li Keguo, Ji Kanren, and Cheng Huanrong to supervise the Han soldiers and ensure that Chu Wangtai would be completely secure. At this time, at the south gate of Chu Wangtai, a loud military bugle call echoed outside the city gate, accompanied by the sound of trumpets. Xiong Bingkun and others commanded the swarming new army soldiers beside them, taking advantage of the previously hidden soldiers inside the arsenal who opened the gates, fearlessly charging towards the arsenal!

  "Boom!"

  One shell landed near the city gate, and although it was only a small-caliber cannon, the explosive force of the shell still instantly took its toll on two revolutionary soldiers who failed to dodge in time, one seriously injured and the other already lost his life. The power of the cannon clearly intimidated the insurgent troops outside the city gate, so that after the explosion, it wasn't until half a minute later that the charge bugle sounded again.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang~~~~"

  "Hurry up... hurry up and charge forward, they don't have many people left, as long as we break through the enemy's defense line, inside is the armory, they absolutely won't have anywhere else to set up defenses..."

  Gunfire and shouting filled the air near the city gate, with bullets whizzing through the night sky in a continuous "whooshing" sound. Under the command of Xiong Bingkun and others, who had clearly already taken on their roles, hundreds of rebel troops outside the city, with red eyes, raised their long guns and launched wave after wave of deadly attacks. However, the effect was not great. The reason was that no one expected Wu Zhaolun to persuade Li Keguo, the supervisor of the military arsenal, to push out six 60mm caliber rapid-fire cannons and set up four machine guns to build a defensive line. With less than one-tenth of the rebel army's strength, they managed to hold off Xiong Bingkun and others for nearly ten minutes.

  "Does this damn thing deserve to be used by those Manchu dog bastards to bully and oppress us?"

  He suddenly grabbed a piece of broken stone beside him and threw it out. Xiong Bingkun was furious at this time, and he originally thought that Wu Zhaolun, who was guarding the arsenal, would put down his weapons after seeing the trend. Who would have thought that he actually pushed several large cannons to block the city gate and built the first line of defense? The cannon fire was loud, although it was a small cannon, but it was still a big cannon, even if its lethality was not great, it also caused significant damage to the revolutionary army that had been unable to break through this line of defense.

  At this time, he finally put down the arrogance in his heart and thought that under this great reputation, there was no false hero. Wu Zhaolin would not have been relegated to being a left team officer in their engineering eighth camp if he had not offended that official back then, despite having been the top student in his year.

  But admiration is one thing, and the annoyance in her heart was piling up bit by bit.

  "What about the decoy troops at the city gate? Why can't we hear any movement from their side yet?"

  Most of Wu Zhaolin's troops were tied up here, and it was estimated that there were only a dozen or twenty guards at the North Gate. Seeing the fierce cannons in front of him, he had already given up his mind to rush in from here. Suddenly, Xiong Bingkun thought of Li Han and others who were arranged to attack the North Gate!

  "Cough, cough... I don't know, the people we sent were also blocked there. There are two machine guns over there. Luckily, they just arrived in time. I forgot to push those four small cannons inside the city up... otherwise, it wouldn't have been so passive..."

  Cheng Zhengying, who was beside him, looked even more disheveled. His left arm had just been hit by a stray bullet and although the bleeding had stopped, his face and body were covered in black soot from the cannon fire. "I've already sent someone to fetch the big guns... It's not good to say about Li's side, could it be that the prisoners are causing trouble?"

  "Be careful..."

  As they spoke, another shell came flying in, and a man beside him hastily pulled an unsuspecting Cheng Zhengying to safety, narrowly avoiding a shrapnel fragment that pierced the earth mound in front of them.

  Just as this group of suppressed revolutionaries were discussing Li Han's situation at the city gate, cannon fire erupted from the direction of the North Gate...

  "Boom~~~~"

  The four small cannons were lined up in a row and fired simultaneously. Although the gunners who fired the cannons seemed a bit rusty, after one round of shooting, the angle and accuracy were adjusted very well. As expected, in the next round of simultaneous firing, they hit a machine gun mounted on the city wall.

  Another adjustment of the angle, before the second machine gun had time to escape, a shell suddenly exploded and exposed a gap in the wall. The city below immediately responded with a sparse gunfire, a stray bullet killed the soldier who was carrying the machine gun, but unexpectedly, as he fell from the city tower, he also brought the machine gun down with him.

  "Cannons ready, third salvo, angle correction 25 degrees, fire..."

  "Boom!"

  Four consecutive shells surprisingly hit the gate at the same time, directly blasting that iron-plated city gate into smithereens.

  "Report to the superior, the current situation is very good, the artillery brothers have destroyed the city head machine gun and the city gate, are we going to enter the city?"

  This group of people is Li Han and that group of captives who are now called the "Iron First Regiment" by him.

  Originally, after Xiong Bingkun and others led the team away, Yan Zhongzhi hesitated for a while, but eventually followed him to bid farewell. He himself was also aware of the situation in the 29th Division, and he feared that it would not be like other troops in the city, coming to gather at Chu Wangtai. The garrison of the 29th Division is close to the Huguang Governor's Office, and it is adjacent to Zhang Biao's Eighth Town Command Department. Due to yesterday's incident being exposed, a large number of Qing soldiers gathered in these two places in the city. Therefore, if there was no one to guard against it, and the Qing soldiers in the city were reflected back, it would be disastrous!