Another round of artillery bombardment by the Qing army began, which lasted for a full five minutes, and the forward positions of the Republican Army were covered in smoke and gunfire, choking people out of breath. However, the Qing army did not take the opportunity to attack again, and Zhao Bei's hanging heart relaxed.

"Chief of Staff Lan has crossed the river, and has set up a former enemy staff office in Guiyuan Temple!" Tian Jinfu took advantage of the smoke to disperse, quickly rushed to the forward position, jumped into the foxhole, patted the soil on the collar, and said: "The balloon team has also crossed the river, it is inflating, and it will be able to carry out the school shooting task immediately." ”

"Let's go, go to the staff office!" Zhao Bei left the foxhole and marched in the direction of Guiyuan Temple with his staff officers. Although the machine guns and rifles of the Qing army no longer fire easily, for the sake of safety, they still crawled for a long time, circling around one foxhole after another.

Finding out the forward position, Zhao Bei got on his horse and galloped to Guiyuan Temple with his guards.

When he arrived at Guiyuan Temple, Lan Tianwei was getting together with a few staff officers to change the battle plan, and several square tables were placed together, on which a captured large-scale military map was spread. Seeing Zhao Bei coming, Lan Tianwei greeted him and said: "Commander-in-chief, our army's first full-scale offensive was frustrated, and neither the first echelon nor the second echelon could occupy the intended target. ”

"Where is the second echelon now?" Zhao Bei walked to the table, put down the horsewhip, and looked at the military map. In this battle of Hanyang, he personally commanded the first echelon to attack Hanyang, and Yang Wangpeng commanded the second echelon to advance to Shilipu and Xujiawan in the west of Hanyang City, protect the flank of the first echelon, and divide the troops into a unit, spread out in a fan shape, and pounced in the direction of Qintai to carry out fire reconnaissance and tactical containment.

"The second echelon failed to attack Shilipu and retreated to Qilimiao. The Qing army set up artillery positions in Montenegro and responded to Shilipu, which posed a great threat to our attacking troops, and our army was repulsed several times and failed to take Montenegro. In the final analysis, there is a lack of artillery, and now the artillery of our army is concentrated on the Hanyang line. Lan Tianwei pointed to the map and said.

"Where's the direction of the piano platform?" Zhao Bei asked again.

"No message has been returned. The artillery fire of the Beiyang Army was too fierce, although some of the shells were blown up by us, but there was still a part of the ammunition truck, and some old guns were added from the arsenal, and the artillery strength was still considerable, plus the Beiyang Army had many machine guns, and it was difficult to carry out a frontal attack, and our army suffered heavy casualties, and deserters had already appeared. ”

"There is no need to attack Qintai, immediately tell them to retreat, and take Hanyang first. How many troops of our army have crossed the river at present? ”

"About 60,000 people, of which 40,000 have new rifles, and the rest are earth cannons."

The strength of the revolutionary army has increased greatly, from 50,000 people at the time of departure to 90,000 now, although the weapons are seriously insufficient, but the morale is very high, according to Zhao Bei's order, after occupying Wuchang, those who do not have guns will stay in Wuchang City, rectify order, arrest "Manchu lackeys", crack down on profiteers, and make earth bombs, and only 60,000 people crossed the river to attack Hanyang City.

Originally, Zhao Bei also planned to take Hanyang in one go, but when he advanced to the suburbs of Hanyang City, he found that he had encountered the Beiyang Army, and all strategic points were under the control of the Qing army.

The Battle of Hanyang may have been the first tough battle the Republican Army had encountered since its formation.

"Send someone to inform the gunboat 'Chuguan' to sail back to the confluence of the Han River and the Yangtze River, bombard the Qing army barracks along the Hanyang River with artillery, mobilize the Qing army to return to defense, and pay attention to the Beiyang artillery on Guishan Mountain. When approaching Hankow, we must be extra careful, do not hit the shells into the concession, we must not give the foreign powers an excuse to intervene by force, if the enemy forces in Hankow do not fire, our ships will not fire. In addition, if those foreign ships want to interfere, don't clash with them, just avoid them. Zhao Bei said unwillingly.

Now the battle is in full swing, but the area along the Hankou River is full of civilians watching the battle, many of them are foreigners, as if in their opinion, this is a play, and whether it is the Yangtze River or the Han River, there are small foreign warships shuttling back and forth, and they have blocked the main channel several times to prevent the gunboats of the revolutionary army from sailing into the Han River to bombard the Qing army, if it were not for their existence, those Beiyang troops would not have crossed the Han River into Hanyang at all, and the battle of Hanyang would not have been so difficult.

The revolution of this era is really difficult step by step, Zhao Bei can be regarded as a thorough understanding of the concerns of those revolutionaries during the Xinhai Revolution, knowing that the country's sovereignty is being trampled on, but he is powerless about it.

"It's a tough battle, and we're underestimating the enemy. The Beiyang Tiger Ben is worthy of its name. Lan Tianwei sighed, although he had served in the military in the north, it was also the first time he had seen the actual combat ability of the Beiyang Army.

"It's not that exaggerated, the Beiyang Army is just better equipped and the quality of the grassroots officers is higher." Zhao Bei shook his head. "In the final analysis, we are short of ammunition, the expansion of the troops is too fast, and the training cannot keep up, especially the quality of grassroots officers is very problematic, and many people do not know how to fight a war at all."

The staff officers were silent, many of the grassroots officers of the republican army were promoted from soldiers, and their revolutionary enthusiasm was sufficient, but most of them did not know anything about military command, and they could not carry out and carry out the orders conveyed by the officers at higher levels very well, and the war was fought entirely by a courage, and in addition, the Beiyang Army crossed the river an hour earlier than the republican army, and most of the strategic points were controlled by them, so this battle was of course difficult to fight. The ammunition problem was more serious, although Wuchang was supplemented with some rifles and cannons after taking it, but there were not many bullets, with an average of only a few dozen bullets per gun, which could only be used in the most intense battles.

Zhao Bei picked up a pencil and drew a line on the map, and said: "Change the original attack plan, transfer some field artillery from the Hanyang artillery position to Qili Temple, establish an artillery position, dig fortifications in the second echelon on the spot, set up a blocking position in Qili Temple, leave half of the troops to guard, and the other troops will be transferred back to the east, rendezvous with the first echelon, concentrate forces to attack Hanyang, make full use of the firepower advantage of our gunboats, strive to occupy Hanyang before dark, and then launch a night attack to attack the artillery position of the Beiyang Army in Guishan, Take the Chengbei Campus and Qintai, strive to annihilate the Beiyang Army outside the arsenal, and protect the factory equipment to the greatest extent. ”

Orders were passed down one by one, staff officers rode in different directions, some had to change ships, and the lack of communications equipment directly affected the full display of combat effectiveness.

At this time, the balloon team has lifted a huge hydrogen balloon into the sky, relying on two tethered ropes to control, floating in the air more than 100 meters, and the entire battlefield can be seen.

This is a British-made hydrogen balloon, the only balloon currently in the IRA balloon, used for artillery school shooting, and the basket under the balloon can carry six people. This was originally the equipment of the Beiyang Army, Taihu Lake was specially transferred to the Hubei New Army during the autumn exercise, so that the commander of the Southern New Army could see it, and after the Huangnigang Uprising, it became the trophy of the Republican Army, but because there were not many hydrogen tanks, so it has not come in handy, the Hanyang offensive began, in order to indicate the target to the artillery and correct the trajectory, it was only approved by Zhao Bei that it was allowed to fight in the air, in order to improve efficiency, Zhao Bei specially equipped it with a field telephone, and the telephone line was directly connected to the General Staff.

Zhao Bei and Lan Tianwei raised their heads, looked at the balloon, and did not speak. If there is long-range heavy artillery, the artillery position can be located under the balloon nearby, and the coordinates can be communicated to the artillery commander in time, so that the casualties of the infantry can be minimized.

"When the battle is over, we first have to get a few heavy artillery, long-range heavy artillery. Secondly, there are radio stations, the more the better, and it is better to be able to equip them to units at the regimental and battalion levels. After a long time, Zhao Bei said what he thought in his heart.

"Then we can only buy from foreign countries, we can't make them ourselves." Lan Tianwei sighed.

At this time, the staff officers who gave the order returned to the headquarters one after another, and the various departments had received new orders and began to regroup, gathered into a fist, and prepared to strike a fatal blow at Hanyang City.

But the news from the direction of Qintai was delayed, and just as Zhao Bei was going to go to Qintai to see it in person, the staff officer who went to give the order returned to the headquarters in embarrassment, with gunsmoke on his face and a clear slap print on his cheek.

"Commander-in-Chief. The forward troops of our army, which has implemented tactical containment of Qintai, refuse to retreat, and are concentrating their forces to attack the Qing army in Qintai, vowing to take Qintai in one fell swoop! The staff officer covered his face and said.

"What? Refusal to retreat? "Zhao Bei was quite unhappy." The direction of the piano platform is just fire reconnaissance! Hanyang didn't take it, Qintai was attacked by the enemy on the back of the abdomen, and now attacking Qintai is a joke with the lives of soldiers! Who is the commander of the Kotodai? How many troops? ”

Lan Tianwei glanced at a staff officer, who opened his notebook and looked at it, and said, "The one who commanded the attack on Qintai was Deng Gang, with two thousand troops. ”

"Deng Gang?" Zhao Bei snorted, raised his finger and pointed to the slap print on the staff officer's face, and asked, "What the hell is going on?" This slap was made by Deng Gang? ”

The staff officer touched his cheek and said: "The staff department went to convey the retreat order, but Deng Gang thought that there were not many defenders in Qintai and could take it in one fell swoop. ”

"Humph! is a good sentence of 'greedy for life and afraid of death', as if he is a big hero and hero in the Republican Army! Zhao Bei picked up the horsewhip from the table, and straightened his military hat with a blue face. I'll go to the piano stand and have a look. Xiuhao, you stay here to coordinate the overall situation. Tian Jinfu, assemble the guards! Leaving this sentence, he strode out of Guiyuan Temple and galloped in the direction of Qintai under the escort of the guards.