Although the haze in the sky had not yet dissipated, the continuous rain that had lasted for two days finally stopped.

The muddy ground became the biggest obstacle to the march, and the sparsely trampled roadside was littered with tattered straw sandals, and now that most of the soldiers had put on rubber shoes and cotton shoes brought from the rear, the tormented feet were finally more comfortable.

Hukou Railway Station.

A unit of the Republican Army, which is taking advantage of this rare time after the rain to do gymnastics, does not have any number because they are a special force: the special operations battalion.

Zhu Daniu, commander of the special operations battalion, and Liu Gengchun, chief of the General Staff.

Hukou Railway Station is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River, the Beiyang Army left a force to garrison, but when the Battle of Hankou was launched, the Beiyang Army was transferred to Hankou by Chen Kuilong, the governor of Huguang, and was destroyed there, so when the Republican Special Operations Battalion drove to the station and set up machine guns, the French sailors who stayed at the station retreated with interest, and the two sides even exchanged souvenirs, the special operations battalion gave a few pairs of brand-new straw sandals, and the French soldiers left a few cans of French cigarettes, Because the tin jar was painted with a foreign devil holding a civilized stick, it was called "devil smoke" by the soldiers of the Republican Army.

At present, Liu Gengchun, the chief staff officer of the special operations battalion, is sitting on a Western sofa in the station manager's room, leisurely smoking a "devil's cigarette" and engrossing in studying the foreign-language newspaper in his hand.

This is a French-language newspaper, "Le Figaro" published in France, judging from the date of issue, this newspaper was printed half a year ago, and then drifted across the sea, I don't know which foreigner brought it to Wuhan, China, and finally stayed in this manager's room, and was folded up, used as a footing and stuffed under one leg of the sofa, until it was found by Liu Gengchun just now.

Liu Gengchun graduated from the Jiang ** Division Lightning School, when he chose a foreign language, he chose French, and there were rumors that the Governor of Liangjiang planned to send someone to study in France, so he learned French to work hard, but then the final destination for studying abroad was Japan, he could only honestly stay in the country and wait for the assignment, first stayed in the Qing Dynasty cruiser for a while, but because he was a native of Jiangsu, he was squeezed out by Fujian and Lu officers in the navy, and he was depressed, and he was transferred to the army in a fit of anger. In Anqing Wubei School did artillery training, and later Xiong Chengji launched an uprising, he also participated in the revolution with a hot head, Zhao Bei instigated the uprising of the new army in Qiucao, he followed, and then stayed in the republican army, and then was sent to Zhu Daniu's side to assist Zhu Battalion Commander to form a special operations battalion.

In the past few years, he has not put down his French homework, and it is not difficult to read the French newspaper, although the news in the newspaper is all half a year ago, but he still reads it with relish.

The most interesting thing in the newspaper news is the revolutionary situation of the Ottoman Empire, in the revolutionary chaos of the Near Eastern Empire, Liu Gengchun saw the shadow of the "Wushen Revolution", the same internal and external troubles, the same military strength, perhaps, this era originally belonged to the military.

Seeing Xing's head, Liu Gengchun simply lay on the couch, holding a newspaper with his head facing the door.

A moment later, a dark shadow flashed outside the door, blocking the light, and Liu Gengchun looked up to see that the battalion commander Zhu Daniu was walking into the manager's room with a team of soldiers carrying more than a dozen baskets.

"Put it here, put it here." Zhu Daniu ordered the soldiers to put the baskets in the manager's room.

"Landmines?" Liu Gengchun saw the contents of the basket clearly, hurriedly sat up, pressed the cigarette butt to the sole of his shoe and extinguished it, put down the newspaper and stood up, pointed to the bamboo basket and asked, "From yesterday to today, you have been in the arsenal for almost a day, and you got this little thing?" What about machine guns? ”

Zhu Daniu shook his arms and said: "You don't know, the arsenal is crowded with people, the Republican Army wants guns, the Revolutionary Guards want guns, and they almost dismantle Supervisor Liu, if it weren't for the commander-in-chief, I think, those people would have to dismantle the arsenal!" These mines were only received by the commander-in-chief after the commander-in-chief approved the slip, and they were all the latest type of fire-hitting mines, which exploded when they were stepped on. Don't dream about machine guns, these good things have been allocated to the machine gun battalion, and the commander-in-chief is not going to guard the mouth. ”

"Don't keep the mouth? So what is our mission? Sortie or retreat? Liu Gengchun asked.

Zhu Daniu pointed to the baskets and said, "Of course it's an attack, the commander-in-chief told us to take a small train to the back of the Tartar's ass to make trouble." As he spoke, he pulled out a piece of letterhead.

"This is the commander-in-chief's warrant, you take a closer look. In addition to the mines, they also gave us some patrol battalion coats and flags, and sent a few more papers, carried a mimeograph machine, and said that they would follow us to the north. ”

"Take the train to the north? Is that the little train at the station? But there is only the front of the car, there is no carriage, how can we sit? Liu Gengchun took the warrant and pondered carefully.

Originally, there was a train at the Hankou Railway Station, but because the special operations battalion blew up two bridges, there was still a train paralyzed on the railway, and the train at Hankou Station could not run.

"The sappers have already thought of transporting a dozen flatbed trucks over, and now they are being installed, and when they are installed, we can take the train to the north." Zhu Daniu picked up a mine and said: "The commander-in-chief told me, let's start immediately, take a small train along the railway to the north, how to fight this battle is up to us to figure it out, whether it is to dismantle the railway or lay mines, anyway, it is still the same sentence: special operations." ”

"Special operations, special operations." Liu Gengchun smacked his lips, reminiscing about the word. When Zhao Bei sent him out of the army, he mentioned this "special operation", and he talked about it at a glance, which made Liu Gengchun's eyes shine and at the same time made him confused, not knowing how to fight this kind of battle, but through the lurking and operation a few days ago, he seems to have grasped a little trick, that is, to avoid the real and attack the weak, attack the enemy unprepared, take the greatest risk and achieve the greatest result at the lowest cost, in this kind of battle, the special combat battalion does not have to stick to the traditional combat rules, and even does not have to fully abide by the combat plan of the superiors, As long as the final combat objective is achieved, then the mission is completed.

Before Liu Gengchun finished reminiscing, Zhu Daniu had already handed a booklet to him, and said: "The Propaganda Committee has edited a smooth mouth, dozens of copies have just been printed, and I have been asked to secretly order a copy, and you will teach me in the future." ”

Liu Gengchun took the pamphlet and flipped through it, this is a literacy textbook, compiled by the Current Affairs Propaganda Committee, which is very suitable for an illiterate person like Zhu Daniu, but he obviously didn't plan to teach this Bai Ding personally, so he smiled and said: "I'm still sorting out those special warfare training textbooks compiled by the commander-in-chief, where can I have time to teach you literacy?" But I can send you two teachers. ”

After saying that, he shouted a few words to the guard outside the door, and the guard hurried away, and after a moment rushed back with two soldiers.

The two soldiers stood up in front of Zhu Daniu and saluted, Liu Gengchun pointed at the two and said: "One of these two recruits is Liu Fuji, and the other is Jiang Yiwu, they are both cultural people, Jiang Yiwu also went to Hunan Normal School, they are more suitable as your cultural teachers than me." ”

"Why do you look so familiar?" Zhu Daniu patted his head. "I remember! They joined the army yesterday, but they can't swim, so I confiscated them as soldiers. Staff officer, where did you pick them up from? ”

This was very rude, and although Liu Jiang and the others were annoyed, they did not refute it, but just turned their heads to look at Staff Officer Liu.

"The note approved by the commander-in-chief, you have to accept it if you don't accept it. Yesterday, as soon as you left on the front foot, they reported on the back foot, and the commander-in-chief was their backstage, so I didn't have the courage not to accept it. Liu Gengchun took out two notes and shook them at Zhu Daniu, but he didn't hand them in front of him, anyway, the illiterate battalion commander couldn't read it.

Zhu Daniu took a step forward, stared at the recruits specially approved by the two commanders-in-chief in front of him, and snorted coldly: "It's okay if you can't swim, fine skin and tender meat, this can also be a soldier?" ”

The two still didn't speak, they had already inquired about the temper of the battalion commander, and the more you confronted him, the more he wanted to fight you, so the best way was to be silent.

"No! I have to go to the commander-in-chief and send these two young masters back to the headquarters, the commander-in-chief is willing to accept them as soldiers, so stay in the guard camp, not my special operations battalion. Zhu Daniu walked out the door. Don't blame Battalion Commander Zhu for being picky, his subordinates are all burly soldiers except for the staff officers, reaching out calluses, speaking aggressively, Liu Jiang and the others look sven, plus they can't swim, it is really difficult to satisfy Zhu Daniu.

Liu Jiang and the others were in a hurry, and they all glanced at Liu Gengchun.

Liu Gengchun caught up in a few steps, grabbed Zhu Daniu and said, "You have to let them try, right?" If you want to talk about fine skin and tender meat, the commander-in-chief is no worse than the two of them, but if you still beat the Manchus all over the ground to find teeth, you can guarantee that they can't grind their skin rough in the future? Besides, the railway is not working, go to the headquarters once and again, at least a few hours, the commander-in-chief orders us to leave immediately, where are you allowed to retire the recruits? As soon as the recruits were sent to you, you rushed back, and at the small said that this is called looking down on people, and at the big one, this is called disobeying military orders, but the commander-in-chief is a person who does not rub sand in his eyes, don't forget that Deng Gang. ”

Zhu Daniu had no choice but to turn around and walk back, staring at the two of them and said, "If you want to stay, from now on, you have to learn to swim, and I will be your master." ”

"Now?" Liu Jiang and the others looked at each other, but the latter sentence was swallowed back.

It's winter!

"Don't do it?" Zhu Daniu glared.

"!" The two had no choice but to nod, no way, in order to oppose the Qing Revolution, they let it go!

"Okay, now you go and get the little train off the platform, let's hang up the flatbed and go." Zhu Daniu said.

"But we won't drive the train." The two of them completely lost their tempers.

"It's not going to be school! It's a shame that you still went to school! Zhu Daniu shook off his sentence and walked out of the door angrily, obviously forgetting what Staff Officer Liu had called these two people to do.

"Officer Liu, what should I do? We really don't know how to drive a train. The two had no choice but to ask Liu Gengchun for advice again.

Liu Gengchun put on his military hat, folded the "Le Figaro" that he hadn't finished reading, and said to the two of them seriously: "Don't be afraid, the little train has a driver, so you can be the stoker." Battalion Commander Zhu has such a stinky temper, and he looks down on landlubbers the most, but he doesn't dare to disobey military orders, but the commander-in-chief values him very much, so it doesn't matter if you can't learn to drive a train, but if you can't swim, then it's better to be a guard for the commander-in-chief. ”

(Reward a few more recommended votes, the point push ratio doesn't look very pleasing to the eye.) ）