Even though there was a terrible massacre in West Lake, the number of tourists here is still undiminished, and no matter how much blood is in the rippling water, no matter how much blood will eventually sink to the bottom of the lake, there is no trace. Nanping Mountain Leifeng Pagoda is one of the ten views of West Lake, whenever the sunset, there are many visitors who come here to play, the Xizhao Temple next to the Leifeng Pagoda is full of visitors, and the Baiyun Nunnery next to the Xizhao Temple is also very lively. This place is the imperial garden of the Southern Song Dynasty, at the end of the Ming Dynasty by the Baiyun Shangren to build a nunnery, and in the past few years, here is added a month under the old man's pavilion, set up the statue of the old man, the couplet in front of its door: May there be lovers in the world, all become dependents; It's a predestined thing in the previous life, don't miss the marriage, it's very intoxicating to those crazy men and women. Yuelao Pavilion is in the West Lake, and the young men and women of Hangzhou have come here to burn incense and ask for signs, in order to seek a good marriage, but every day in the evening, there are very few people here.

Before the evening class, the abbot Elder Zhiliang was resting quietly in the meditation room, but the apprentice Yizhou hurriedly pushed the door in, Zhiliang did not blame, only asked, "Is anyone coming?" ”

"Yes, master. People are coming. Yi Zhou clasped his palms together and bowed down and said.

"Hmm. Then let's start the evening class. Zhiliang got up and said, "The door of the nunnery can also be closed, and idlers are not allowed to enter." ”

The abbot and apprentice talked in detail in the inner room, but Yu Mengchun outside was very strange, he came to Hangzhou from the base to contact the underground organization in Hangzhou this time, but he didn't want to be brought to Baiyun Nunnery, but he knew Zhu Jiajun, who was connected with him, and both of them were students of the Wubei Academy earlier, and they had a good relationship with each other.

"Mei Huan, are you going to counterattack Hangzhou this time?" Even if he is an underground worker, Zhu Jiajun is still young. As soon as he sat down, he was anxious to ask about the war, and in Hangzhou he saw more Manchu Tatar behavior, and he was very anxious.

"I don't know." Yu Mengchun's words were not enthusiastic. Although he was happy to see his former classmates, he had already been reborn in the base for a long time, "How many things does the big shopkeeper have to explain to you?" ”

"What?" Zhu Jiajun said, there are people from the mountains on purpose, but there is something important, especially now that the Manchu Qing Dynasty is preparing for the next encirclement and suppression. He did not believe that the revolutionary army would not respond.

"Cut off Hangzhou's telegraph lines to the outside world." Yu Mengchun said: "The telegraph office should also be completely destroyed, so that the telegraph here will be completely paralyzed within at least five days." ”

It is not difficult to cut the telegraph line, nor is it difficult to destroy the telegraph office. But if Hangzhou can't send a telegram within five days, then the matter is not so simple. "Five days is too difficult, only two or three days at most, that is, to cut more lines. The telegraph office will still send someone to check the line. Zhu Jiajun didn't dare to pack the ticket. I'm afraid that I will miss a big thing.

"This is not only done here in Hangzhou, but also in Jiaxing, Jiashan, Songjiang and other places, and the entire line is completely destroyed, and it always takes five or six days to restore it." Yu Mengchun said. "There is also a way to stop the Tanma sent out by Hangzhou, and the north and south are not allowed to pass through Guò. Do you know the roads that Kuaima Detective takes? ”

"There are only a few paths that can be walked." Zhu Jiajun said. "But I'm afraid that these people are not one person, but a group of people."

"Whether it's one person or a group of people, they all have to be stopped. As long as the hands and feet are clean, Hangzhou doesn't know that the fast horse is blocked, and then the time can be pushed back. I brought someone. When the time comes, I can help you stop the enemy. ”

"That's good!" Zhu Jiajun was overjoyed, although there were revolutionary parties in Hangzhou and other places. But he is not familiar with the battle formation, and now that there are people in the mountains, then he can rest assured. "Mei Huan, is this time going to be a big one?"

"Hmm." Yu Mengchun smiled, "It's going to be a big one!" ”

"Okay, I'll go and prepare the arrangement!" Zhu Jiajun heard that it was really going to be a big counterattack, and when he slapped his thigh, he was very excited. After he finished speaking, he said: "You just rest here first, Master Zhiliang, the abbot here, is a descendant of Shaoxing Lu Liuliang (the father of Lu Siniang), and he is very reliable." I'll arrange it now, and I'll come back at this time tomorrow. After speaking, he got up and said goodbye and went back to Hangzhou. As soon as Zhu Jiajun left, Yu Mengchun instructed the accompanying correspondent to send a report to Tonglu to inform him that the former commander was in place in Hangzhou.

When the night was falling, the telegrams that were ready in various places had already been sent to Tonglu in front of the finger, and the communications officer Yu Fen was walking to the war room with this stack of telegrams, and a meeting was going on in the war room, and staff officer Zhou Sixu was introducing the shape of the enemy and our army, he knocked on the door gently, and the door opened gently, and the army staff officer Liu Yaoxun came out, and he reported: "The teams in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Songjiang, Shaoxing and other places have been notified, and if you give an order, then you can immediately destroy the entire telegraph line." ”

Liu Yaoxun nodded and took the telegram in his hand, saluted and then opened the door and went in. At this time, Zhou Sixu was talking about the important point, so he could only be silent for the first time, waiting for Zhou Sixu to finish speaking.

“…… At present, our army is mainly held against the Qing army in Yaolin, Taiping (now Luzhu Town), and Narrow Creek, of which Yaolin and Taiping are garrisoned in the tenth town, and Xindeng County (now Xindeng Town) is its headquarters. Narrow Creek is on the east side of the river, and is garrisoned by a liaison of the Sixth Town, because this place is relatively flat, and there is no road in the rear, mainly by water transportation and supply, so this side of the defense is the tightest, and reconnaissance found that this place not only dug trenches, but also barbed wire. Moreover, this line of defense echoes the Taiping on the other side of the river, and the artillery positions on the sandbar at the mouth of the Luzhu River can be regarded as an impregnable wall. The rear of Narrow Creek Changkou Town, since ancient times, has been a place where commerce and trade gather, now it is mainly where the headquarters of the six towns is located, another association of the sixth town is stationed here, and a large amount of baggage of the Qing army's encirclement and suppression is also hoarded here, and because our army has always had the habit of mountain detours, Chang'an on the east side of the field is also stationed a lot of Qing troops, the number is probably not less than one regiment, there are new troops, there are patrol teams.

According to the intelligence, the Qing army's attack is imminent, ships are being requisitioned everywhere along the river, all units of the new army are about to be rested and replenished, and the patrol team and the people are also gathering in large numbers, and our attack this time will completely disrupt the Qing army's advance plan, but because the enemy's materials and personnel have been replenished in place, once the war is stalemate, it will not be beneficial to our army, so if we want to quickly break through the Qing army's defense line, we must quickly break through those barbed wire, trenches, machine guns, and artillery. of the stubborn line of defense.

According to the experience of the Russo-Japanese War, such a line of defense was dealt with in addition to civil engineering imminent operations. The other was artillery bombardment to destroy the barbed wire fence in front of the enemy's trenches. This time, our army's offensive emphasized a quick victory, and the civil engineering imminent operation could not be carried out, and the number of artillery in the artillery unit was very limited, and there were only four companies of field artillery, and there were not enough shells, so. A small number of breaches can be blown up, but if you want to break the barbed wire on a large scale, you can only use blasters to break the barriers......"

Zhejiang Front at the beginning of the war. Artillery was extremely limited, and even the Krupp 75mm mountain guns and field guns of the Qing army, which had captured more than 30 pieces, were rarely fired because the shells could not be supplied. Only after the air supply was established last year. There were only a little more artillery shells, but under normal circumstances, the 60 and 80 mortars were still used as the main artillery, and with a large number of curved guns, the revolutionary army drove the Qing army out of Tonglu and once again expanded the entire base area.

Mortars are easy to use in encounters, often catching the Qing army by surprise, but positional warfare. These guns were of little use, especially under the construction of Japanese officers. The Qing army everywhere began to use barbed wire as protection, the emergence of this defensive weapon, making the mortar more useless, even if it can blow up the Qing soldiers, but can not break through the enemy's position defense, fortunately now the revolution does not want to blindly fight a war of annihilation as before, in order to obtain arms replenishment, otherwise this turtle formation is really difficult to start. This time to take the initiative to attack the Qing army, most of the artillery in the army were mobilized to Tonglu, and because there are not many field artillery, but also deliberately transferred two field artillery companies from outside the pass, in addition to enhancing the offensive firepower, there is also the meaning of suppressing the Manchu artillery, the maximum range of the Russian 76mm field artillery can reach 8,000 meters, far greater than the range of the 75mm Krupp field artillery of six kilometers. However, the Qing army had 36 field artillery pieces and 18 mountain artillery pieces in one town, while the revolutionary army had 48 artillery pieces, but nearly half of them were mountain artillery.

Zhou Sixu said that those newly issued blasting canisters, everyone here is suspicious, barbed wire everyone has been taught, mortars are constantly bombed, big knives are also constantly chopped, really annoying, every time you encounter this kind of position, the troops are commonly used are sapper shovels, through guò urgent operations to eat the enemy, of course, this is only in the case of plenty of time, but under normal circumstances, their own side has no time, this time I saw so many artillery was transferred to Tonglu, everyone still wanted to use artillery to break the barrier, who knew that the artillery could not be counted, Instead, you have to use the blaster canister that you haven't played before.

"Is that thing okay? Staff Officer Zhou. Zhang Gong, the commander of the second brigade, asked, before he raised the incident in Hangzhou, he was the commander of the third regiment of the independent brigade, and was responsible for the attack of Jinhua and Quzhou when he moved the incident, and after the incident, he had been defending the Qing army from Jiangxi in Quzhou, after the defeat of Hangzhou, the troops withdrew from Jinhua from Yanzhou, and at the beginning of the reorganization of the base area, the number was changed to the third regiment to the second regiment, and then the army was expanded to the second brigade of the Zhejiang Front Army. He himself was born as a person, but he was very chivalrous and chivalrous, and later became the president of the Longhua Association, and when he was training troops in Zhejiang and incorporated the party, he joined the revolution.

The blaster is the latest offensive weapon promoted by the General Staff, the idea of which came from Yang Rui, and after the test in the northeast, it was pushed to the Zhejiang Front, hoping to use it to break the barbed wire fence of the Manchu Dynasty. Because it was the first time to equip the troops, Zhang Gong's question Zhou Si was unimpressed, and he smiled: "It's completely doable." This weapon has been completely tested, and the demomen drawn from various departments have been intensively training in the past two days, and they will definitely be able to break through the obstacles as planned during the attack. ”

Zhang Gong's department had suffered a big loss from barbed wire, and when he heard this, he glanced at Lin Wenqian, the military governor next to him, and asked: "Staff Officer Zhou, there is no joke in the army. ”

"Of course, there is no joke in the army. Although the blasting canister is new, it has been completely realized, and as long as it is used properly, it can completely break through the enemy barrier in actual combat. It's just that the blasting canister equipped now seems to be too long, and it is not very convenient to carry. Zhou Sixu still smiled, and then continued to introduce the battle plan this time.

"Because the battlefield is on both sides of the Fuchun River, our troop deployment is also one brigade on one side, the first brigade is responsible for the west bank of the river, and the second brigade is responsible for the east bank of the river. As for the specific tactics, Yaolin, Taiping and other places on the west bank of the Jiangxi are all mountainous, so they still follow the tactics of the previous mountain warfare, with small groups and multiple roads, avoiding the real and making the virtual; On the east bank of the river, this four-kilometer-long defensive line on the side of Narrow Creek, in order to be able to quickly break through, in addition to sending a regiment to make a roundabout attack, this section of the defense line is ready to force a breakthrough from the front. To do this, all artillery in the army will be concentrated here. In order to facilitate the rapid breakthrough of our troops to the enemy position, but these artillery pieces did not only take care of the narrow stream, but also the peace on the other side of the narrow stream. It is also an area of support for artillery. "The artillery in the army is limited, how to maximize the use of artillery is very important, artillery deployment in Narrow Creek, and can take into account the peace on the other side of the river, it is a complete choice. Of course, this also means that one or two brigades do not suffer, and the previous two brigades in order to obtain artillery support. But I have looked for Lin Wenqian many times.

Hearing that all the artillery in the army was arranged in Narrow Creek, Zhang Gong was very happy, but He Zhaoxian of the 1st Brigade was not unhappy about this. There are not many artillery on their own side, and if they do not use it in a centralized manner, the Qing army will have a greater advantage in firepower. After Zhou Sixu finished speaking, he asked, "Then how to deal with those Qing gunboats in the river?" As long as these gunboats are cruising back and forth in the river, Taiping and Narrow Creek will not be easy to fight. ”

"This time the counteroffensive will be launched at dawn. There has been no fighting in the line lately. Usually only two or three gunboats patrol the river, and the rest of the gunboats are repaired on the shore. When the time comes, once the attack is launched, the steam engines of these gunboats will be warmed up, and there is not an hour that cannot be driven on the battlefield, that is, in the first hour of the battle, we are faced with only two or three gunboats. We can deal with these two or three gunboats, and the military industry has assembled two ironclad ships. There were also artillery on it, once the gunboats of the Qing army appeared. You can destroy it, and then when the other gunboat fleets of the Manchus come up, then the artillery on the shore will no longer support the infantry attack, and will be aimed at the gunboats in the river with all their might, even if they can't destroy them, they can prevent them from attacking our army. Zhou Sixu said. The gunboats were the top priority of this offensive, and they were also the main considerations of the General Staff in formulating this counteroffensive.

"Our gunboats can also block shells?" He Zhaoxian had never seen his gunboat, and asked again in disbelief.

"Absolutely! It will be seen on the day of the attack. Zhou Sixu said. After he finished speaking, he glanced around at the people in the room, and then looked at Lin Wenqian again, and when he saw him nodding, he said: "Now order ......" As soon as he said this, he only heard the sound of a chair in the room, and all the generals and colonels present stood upright, "The 1st Brigade He Zhaoxian should make every effort to break through the two Qing army positions in Yaolin and Taiping, and capture Xindeng County, while capturing or destroying the enemy's baggage, hold the main road from Xindeng to Fuyang, so that the tenth town will be dispersed and finally annihilated; Zhang Gong of the 2nd Brigade should quickly break through the Qing army's Narrow Creek defense line in order to quickly capture the town of Changkou behind the enemy, and in order to prevent the enemy from fully supporting the defenders of Narrow Creek, it should attack Chang'an from the east side of Narrow Creek with the strength of one regiment, so as to contain the enemy army to reinforce Narrow Creek; When the whole army launches an attack, the gunboat unit should resolutely annihilate the invading enemy ships to ensure the safety of both flanks of our army. All of the above are limited to the beginning of the movement at 7 p.m. on March 2, the beginning of the offensive at dawn on March 4, and the capture of it before noon on March 4. ”

As soon as Zhou Si read the entire order, the officers in the room shouted, "Yes." At this time, Lin Wenqian, the military governor, stood up and pressed his hand to let everyone sit down, "This operation is the first time that our Zhejiang Front Army has taken the initiative to attack, and why it is attacking, everyone should know the reason, what are the difficulties of the attack, and what are our own shortcomings, you are all clear." If this attack does not defeat all the Qing troops and make it impossible to recover its vitality within a year, then the base area will not be able to survive next year. Fast, accurate, fierce, and ruthless -- this is the highest criterion for this operation, and all commanders and fighters must reverse the previous habit of calculating small victories into big victories in mountain warfare, and must bring out the momentum of the revival army.

The Yanzhou base area can no longer be kept in obscurity, all the Manchu Tartars are now staring at this place, this time it is 150,000 people to encircle and suppress, then next time it may be 25 people to encircle and suppress, and we are not as good as him in fighting with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, we can only fight more wars of annihilation, and eliminate the Qing army in a systematic way, especially the elimination of the new army, in order to persist in Yanzhou until a few years later. The sixth and twelfth towns were crippled by us many times, but they were not completely wiped out, and they became vigorous after several replenishments. This time, we are fighting for a remnant victory, and we will also wipe out these two towns into a system, so that there will be no new army on the eastern front of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. ”

Lin Wenqian didn't say that it was okay, as soon as he said it, he only raised the temperature in the room by ten degrees, after he finished speaking, the brigade battalion commander who was doing it was all red on his face, and his heart was beating wildly, just waiting for him to ask if he could do it, everyone shouted loudly: "It can be done!" "The sound only shook the house.

Seeing that everyone's energy was up, Lin Wenqian didn't say much, but just saluted the officers neatly, and everyone saluted back when they saw him. Then he went out.

As soon as more than 20 people left, Zhou Sixun took a telegram and said to him: "The telegraph sabotage teams in various places are ready, just wait for the war to start and cut off the telegraph lines in the whole of Zhejiang." ”

"Good!" Lin Wenqian said: "Is there any change in the Qing army in other places?" ”

"There was no change. The 21st Mixed Association of the Hubei New Army on the Huizhou side has just arrived, and it is resting on the spot and waiting for follow-up military supplies. Zhou Sixu said, "There are a lot of the 21st Mixed Association Revolutionary Party, and there are many of us in it. ”

Hearing that the new army actually had a lot of his own people, Lin Wenqian smiled and said, "Can you raise righteousness before the battle?" ”

Zhou Sixu shook his head when he heard this: "It's difficult. It can only be estimated for the day to put the gun. ”

"It is estimated that there are other arrangements for the General Staff." Lin Wenqian still said with a smile, many of the new troops who fought with the Yanzhou Revolutionary Army had their own people. However, the General Staff has never allowed these troops to raise their positions in front of the formation, and the reason for this should be after the layout. These own people are not of much help to Yanzhou. Not only was it not very helpful, but Yanzhou even had to help them, that is, if the officer was too loyal to the Manchus, then the revolutionary party in the new army would collude with the revolutionary army. Only the extermination of their men or their men. As for their own team, they have a lot of help, advancing and retreating when fighting, like Westerners dancing, very cooperative, and their purpose is to make their own people meritorious and promoted. Unfamiliar with the terrain, insufficient training, and digging pits in the same team, only made the Qing army officers afraid when they talked about going to the battlefield, for fear that the bullets would crack their heads.

"What about the Qing army on the other side? Has the situation changed? "After asking the Qing army in other places. Lin Wenqian turned his attention to the enemy on the opposite side again, and he had fought positional warfare in the northeast. But these people under his command were all from mountain warfare, and he was afraid that if the situation changed, the attack on Narrow Creek would fail.

"For now, nothing has changed." Zhou Sixu said that there is no revolutionary party in the sixth town, but there are spies at the entrance of the field and narrow stream, plus wireless telegraphy, and any news from that side will be transmitted immediately.

"Well, I'll be notified as soon as there's anything happening." Lin Wenqian advised. "This battle is not trivial."

When Lin Wenqian lamented that this battle was not trivial, Zhao Guoxian, the commander of the sixth town, stood in the artillery camp and sighed to Ma Liang, the standard commander of the sixth standard of the artillery team, "This battle is not trivial. ”

Since Liangbi was defeated by the rebels as the commander of the sixth town, the War Department dismissed him, and then Zhao Guoxian took over as the commander. Although there was no large-scale war after taking office, in the small-scale confrontation, Zhao Guoxian still found that the confrontation between the battalion and below the battalion, his side was completely pressed and beaten by the other side, and only at the level of the standard association, relying on the firepower advantage of the artillery team, his side could win, however, this victory only repelled the rebellious party, and could not annihilate them. For this vast mountain, I will never be able to outrun the chaotic party. The artillery team is the victory against the chaotic party, and on the eve of the attack, Zhao Guoxian has to come here to see it in person.

The artillery team is so valued by adults, and Ma Liang, the standard commander, is very pleased. "Your Excellency, please rest assured. As long as I point out the muzzle, the rebellious party will definitely be wiped out. ”

"Hey. A year ago, the various ministries took care of their own selfish interests and were ineffective in strangulation, but now the chaos has become a success, and they are not afraid of death, and their tactics are still extremely outstanding, so I have to worry about it. "Zhao Guoxian can't say that Yuan Shikai is suspected of fornicating with the chaotic party, but he is not angry that when the chaotic party was at its weakest, the fourth and eighth towns did not fight to the death with the chaotic party, but raised his own respect, which really made him resentful.

"My lord, don't worry too much, the chaos is the power of that kind of small cannon, and now our department has also equipped this kind of small cannon, and where the wild artillery mountain cannon can't hit it, this kind of small cannon can defeat the enemy." The adults were resentful, and Ma Liang couldn't add fuel to the fire, so he could only move some new weapons out to make Zhao Guoxian feel relieved.

Sure enough, Zhao Guoxian heard the words and said: "How powerful is this kind of artillery?" ”

"My lord, since it is a small cannon, its power is naturally not as good as that of a cannon, but it can hit places that can't be hit by cannons, so it can increase a lot of combat power." Ma Liang said, holding a wooden cannon tightly wrapped around a rope. This kind of gun, like the barbed wire, was also built and equipped by Japanese officers, and it was exactly the same as the one used by the Japanese army in the northeast a few years ago - the sturdy short wood was hollowed out in the middle, and then wound with layers of ropes, but the shells were based on those of the revolutionary army, and the tail of the gun had a tail to ensure the accuracy of the shelling.

"The rebels are also such artillery?" Looking at the wooden cannon in Ma Liang's hand, Zhao Guoxian was very puzzled and doubted the power of this cannon.

"Your Excellency, although the artillery of the rebel party has not been captured, they also learned it from the Russo-Japanese War, and since they learned it at that time, it is almost the same as this." Ma Liang said with a smile. (To be continued......)