Chapter Thirteen: Approaching Transformation

  At noon, Chen Jingyun invited all officers above the team in the military camp to have lunch. For this, he specially asked a restaurant outside to prepare a banquet and send it to the South School Field. During the meal, there were inevitably words of persuasion.

  In the afternoon, Chen Jingyun inspected the military camp again and did those things that won people's hearts.

  Although these things look ordinary, when the great General Zhang leads the small soldiers by the hand and asks about their well-being, the effect is extremely good. Those ordinary soldiers do not know what it means to be loyal to the emperor and love the country, nor do they understand the great ideals of the revolutionary party's salvation of the nation and the people. They were originally illiterate peasants who came to join the army for food and clothing, and in their eyes there was only one person who gave them clothes and food - Chen Jingyun.

  This can be said to be the case for all armies at this stage, and each army is a private army of various generals. The Beiyang Army was like this, the new armies in various places were like this, and even the militia in Hubei could not escape this limitation.

  In order to gain the loyalty of soldiers in the upcoming great change, Chen Jingyun worked hard and kept wandering around the military camp. In these two days, it can be said that he had talked to every soldier in the second battalion. During this period, not only did Chen Jingyun do so in the Second Battalion, but also Xiang Qibin, Lin Wenying and others from the Tongmenghui were canvassing soldiers in the artillery camp and engineering camp, vying for people's hearts.

  Chen Jingyun's second camp, Xiao Qibin's artillery camp, Lin Wenyi's engineering camp, and Yu Shaojian's constabulary camp can be said to have basically fallen under the control of the Tongmenghui within Fuzhou city. Their main opponents in the city were the thousands of Eight Banners garrison troops, while the situation with Chen Jinkui's thousand-strong vanguard patrol camp was unclear, and the Tongmenghui was actively trying to win them over, with unknown results.

  According to this comparison of strength, the forces controlled by Chen Jingyun and others are already sufficient. Of course, there are still variables, such as the 38th Regiment's 3rd Battalion and the 37th Regiment's 2nd Battalion, which have arrived outside Fuzhou City. However, due to the insufficient campgrounds in Nanchang and Songshou's extreme suspicion of the new army over the past few days, he personally ordered these two battalions to set up camp outside the city during the day and not enter the city. The commanders of the 38th Regiment's 3rd Battalion, Li Jimin, and the 37th Regiment's 2nd Battalion, Yuan Fang, led a small team of guards into the city together in the afternoon and arrived at Nanchang to pay their respects to Chen Jingyun.

  Chen Jingyun naturally treated him with hospitality. Since the situation was unclear, he didn't do anything to win him over either. After a round of hospitality, the two men left the city.

  However, at night, Xiao Qibin found Chen Jingyun.

  "Mr. Wei just met with Li Jimin, and Li Jimin is indeed a scholar who has studied abroad, he is very supportive of our revolutionary cause, and under his leadership, he has joined the Tongmenghui." Xiao Qibin spoke with obvious excitement, it was clear that this news was extremely beneficial to the Tongmenghui.

  Looking at the current situation, the Tongmenghui has already controlled the new army in the city. If they can also win over the third battalion outside the city from the two battalions, then everything will be settled.

  "Oh, great! Mr. Wei has made a big contribution!" Chen Jingyun also felt much more at ease after hearing the news. In this situation, being able to win someone over means having one less enemy.

  "Besides, I have received news that within these two days, our allied forces will start a large-scale uprising all over the country!" Xiao Qibin continued: "So I think it's best if we also take action within these two days! Catch the imperial court off guard!"

  "Within two days? So urgent?" Chen Jingyun had been paying attention to the national situation all along, and so far, although uprisings had occurred in various places from time to time, only Hubei had succeeded, while other provinces were watching. If an uprising took place now, it was likely to attract the attention of the Northern Army, and most importantly, the new army within the city did not have many bullets in hand.

  "How will the ammunition be resolved?" Chen Jingyun asked very directly, and the ammunition was indeed the key to whether the uprising could succeed.

  Xiao Qibin said, "We've already started operating on the side of Ping Mountain Arsenal, but the effect is not great. In the past two days, we've managed to get several thousand rounds of ammunition, but Li Jimin's troops have enough ammunition! He has promised to allocate more than half of his troops' ammunition and prepare to secretly transport it into the city!"

  Chen Jingyun nodded: "Specifically how much?"

  "About 30,000 rounds!" The third battalion had enough ammunition when they set out for Fuzhou, at least 500,000 to 600,000 rounds.

  Hearing this, Chen Jingyun slapped the table: "Good! With these bullets, taking down Ping Mountain Arsenal is no problem. After taking down the arsenal, everything will be settled!"

  At this time, Xiao Qibin was also beaming with joy: "Exactly, so as soon as I got the news, I came to you immediately!"

  The next morning, Li Jimin disguised himself and entered the city to meet Chen Jingyun. Unlike yesterday, when Li Jimin met Chen Jingyun today, he was no longer called "adult", but "Commander-in-Chief". It is clear that Wei Shengtian may have already told him about the formation of the Tongmenghui uprising army command center.

  "Brother Li, we've known each other for many years, no need to be polite. Come, sit down first!" Li Jimin was very tall and big, over 1.85 meters, and his voice was extremely loud and clear.

  "Thanks, Commander!" After that, the two sat down.

  Xiao Qibin, Lin Wenyi and Lin Zaomin arrived one after another. This secret meeting was mainly to discuss the military arrangements for the uprising. After discussing for two hours, the four men finally decided on a preliminary plan of action.

  The initial plan is to launch the uprising tomorrow evening, during which Li Jimin's bullets will be delivered in batches this afternoon and tomorrow morning. At that time, Chen Jingyun will lead the second battalion as the main force, first occupying the Ping Mountain Arsenal, a key location. The success of the uprising depends on whether Chen Jingyun can capture the arsenal. After capturing the arsenal, the rebel army will have ammunition for subsequent battles. Xiao Qibin will lead the artillery battalion and logistics battalion, as well as Peng Shousong's Huizhou Party, to occupy Yushan, a strategic high ground in Fuzhou. After occupying Yushan, they can overlook the entire city and build an artillery position to directly attack the city and the General's Office. Lin Wenying will lead the engineering battalion to occupy the Governor's Mansion and Telegraph Office, while Li Jimin's third battalion will remain stationed at its original location to defend against and monitor Yuan Fang's 37th Regiment, 2nd Battalion.

  "Gentlemen, the situation is basically settled. Next, it's up to Brother Li!" Chen Jingyun took a sip of tea and then looked at Li Jimin.

  Li Jimin immediately stood up: "Commander, rest assured, I, Li Jimin, will definitely deliver the ammunition on time!"

  "Alright! For the next two days, everyone take good care of our comrades below! Let's rise up together tomorrow night!" After Chen Jingyun finished speaking, he looked at the few people below and saw that they all had excited expressions on their faces, and he couldn't help but reveal a smile.

  After the meeting, Li Jimin and Lin Zaomin left one after another. Xiao Qibin and Lin Wenyin also went out to contact their subordinates and prepare for the uprising.

  Chen Jingyun also called Lin Chengkun in and instructed him to arrange for reliable people to receive the bullets that evening. Lin Chengkun listened and knew that the day of the uprising was approaching, his face flushed with excitement.

  After instructing Lin Chengkun, Chen Jingyun continued to wander around the military camp. As the uprising drew near, this matter of winning over soldiers could not be stopped.

  In the late afternoon, Chen Jingyun saw that it was almost 5 o'clock in the evening, but Lin Chengkun, who had gone to pick up the bullets, still hadn't returned, and he couldn't help but feel worried.

  As time ticked by bit by bit, he became increasingly restless. After half past five, Chen Jingyun, who had not seen Lin Chengkun return, sent a personal soldier to check the situation again.

  No sooner had these guards gone out than they turned back in less than two minutes, and Lin Chengkun was still with them.

  Before Chen Jingyun could ask anything, Lin Chengkun hastily stepped forward and urgently said: "Sir, something's gone wrong!"

  Upon hearing the two words "not good", Chen Jingyun felt a surge of blood rushing up, and indeed, what he feared most had happened. He immediately suppressed his panic and took two steps forward: "What's going on? What's happening?"

  Lin Chengkun was apparently running too fast and panted: "Ammunition, ammunition has been intercepted!"

  When he heard this, Chen Jingyun almost stumbled and staggered, and his personal soldier rushed forward to support him. However, Chen Jingyun didn't care about himself and continued to ask, "Tell me in detail!"

  At this moment, Lin Chengkun also seemed to have caught his breath: "I've been waiting at the tea house by the South City Gate since this morning, and I waited until dusk. The third battalion was indeed preparing to send bullets into the city, and the gatekeepers had also made arrangements. However, just after entering the city, before I could even respond, the horse pulling the carriage was startled, and in the chaos, the ammunition box fell to the ground. The passing patrol team immediately surrounded them, and now more than a dozen people from the third battalion are trapped in a small alley.

  Lin Chengkun replied briefly, and Chen Jingyun continued to ask a few more questions, such as how many people were in the surrounding patrol camp, who was leading them, etc. It turned out that before Lin Chengkun returned, the patrol camp surrounding the third battalion's ammunition transport soldiers was not large, with only a sentry officer leading them, totaling no more than 40 or 50 people.

  At this time, Chen Jingyun's mind quickly flashed through various possibilities and solutions. It was not feasible to drag on. As long as the people from the third camp were captured, Li Jimin would also be exposed, and it would also implicate other Tongmenghui members. More crucially, once Zhang Suo and others found out about this matter, they would definitely launch a massive manhunt for revolutionaries, and even imposing martial law was not impossible. By then, tomorrow night's uprising would become a joke.

  Just after counting his breaths, Chen Jingyun had already made up his mind and immediately said: "Call Lin Wenyin, Xiao Qibin, Huang Anyuan, Ma Cheng to come over quickly!"

  Having said that, Chen Jingyun sat down again and began to think about what was going to happen next.

  Lin Chengkun had already personally gone out to call Lin Wenyin, Xiao Qibin, Huang Anyuan and Ma Cheng.

  In less than a minute, Lin Wenyin and others rushed to the scene after receiving Lin Chengkun's urgent notification. Chen Jingyun didn't waste any words and let Lin Chengkun brief him on the situation. Ma Cheng was initially surprised that they were openly discussing the rebellion, but without needing Chen Jingyun's orders, he spoke up first: "In my humble opinion, we should immediately dispatch troops to the South City Gate, retrieve the ammunition, and launch the uprising ahead of schedule!"

  As for Ma Cheng's reaction, Chen Jingyun had expected it. After all, he had indirectly revealed some ideas about the uprising over the past few days, and Ma Cheng was not a pedantic person who felt grateful to the imperial court. After weighing the pros and cons, he would naturally have the current attitude.

  Xiao Qibin also said, "I agree to advance the event. Although we had planned for tomorrow night, all departments have already made preparations. The bullets in our hands are not many, but there are several thousand rounds that have been secretly transported from the Ping Mountain Arsenal over the past few days, which is enough for now."

  Lim Boon Eng also said: "Anyway, it's all going to be opposed, whether it's one day earlier or later is the same thing!"

  Seeing that the two had no objection, Chen Jingyun said in a deep voice: "Alright, since that's the case, we'll launch ahead of schedule. Each department will act according to the previous plan. And Brother Huang, you take the lead and immediately bring the cavalry to meet up with the third battalion. You must ensure the safety of the ammunition. My second battalion will follow right after!"

  Huang Anyuan immediately stood up: "Don't worry, Commander! I, Huang Anyuan, swear to get the ammunition back!"