Northeast, Dunhua, General Staff of the Revival Army.

A first officer's map of Hangzhou was spread out in the war room, and Zhou Sixu, a staff officer of the military department, was about to introduce the situation of Hangzhou City to everyone present.

"Comrades, because I am worried that the map is wrong, I will introduce some of the situation in Hangzhou City." Zhou Sixu opened like this, "according to the record of the Unification of the Qing Dynasty......"

Zhou Sixu is considered to be a middle-to-lower qualification among many classmates in the special class, and he rarely has the opportunity to show his face, this time he finally came out because of the Battle of Hangzhou, but he didn't say a word yet, everyone in the audience laughed, he thought it was inappropriate for him to say it, but after thinking about it, he realized that it was the "Unification of the Qing Dynasty" he quoted that provoked it, and he laughed himself. is also unified, hum, it will be semi-unified soon.

"What I read is indeed "The Unification of the Qing Dynasty," Zhou Sixu said again, and everyone laughed again, but at this time, the head of the General Staff Bei Shoutong shouted, and the scene quieted down, "It is recorded that the circumference of Hangzhou is thirty-five miles, the shape is rectangular, the longest is about ten miles from north to south, and the shortest is about seven miles from east to west. City High... If it is left over from the Song Dynasty, it is three zhang and eight feet thick; The part repaired in the Ming and Qing dynasties is two zhang high and one zhang and two feet thick. There are ten city gates and six water gates in the whole city, if the north and south are the axis, if they are divided in half, the east half has a moat, and the west half has no moat, although there is no moat, but there is a city god mountain (Ziyang Mountain) in the southwest corner. There is the West Lake to the west, which is also the barrier of the city's defense.

There are two important places outside the city, one is the Jianqiao military camp in the north of the city. the second is the Mantou Mountain military camp outside the Fengshan Gate in the south of the city; There are four important places in the city, one is the Futai Yamen in the southeast corner, the second is the Baoguo Temple Ordnance Bureau in the middle of the east city wall, the third is the city god mountain ring cui building in the southwest corner, here is the commanding height of the whole city, and the fourth is the full city of the banner people - the full city is in the middle of the west city wall, and is set up according to the city wall. There are five small gates in a radius of about nine miles, excluding the outer city gates. The city is one foot high and six feet thick. Speaking of this, he pointed to the two outer city gates on the west side and said, "The Qiantang Gate is inside the city." And the Yongjin Gate and the Yongjin Water Gate are on the side of the city, which means that if the attack is not fast, then the Manchu people can completely defend the inner city. And in the absence of gunboats in the 1st and 2nd regiments. They can also get out of Qiantang Gate and escape to West Lake.

The number of troops in Hangzhou, the first is the Manchurian Eight Banners, according to statistics, there are about 5,000 people, all of whom are stationed in Manchuria; The second is the Green Battalion, which has more than 13,000 people in the whole of Zhejiang, more than 2,000 people stationed in Hangzhou, and more than 1,000 people stationed in the Mantoushan Barracks outside the city. the rest were stationed in Futai Yamen; The patrol team has a total of five roads and eleven battalions in the province. There are 160 people in each battalion, and more than 500 people in three battalions are stationed in Hangzhou, stationed in Jianqiao; More than 900 members of the new army were stationed in Futai Yamen. ”

Zhou Sixu marked the number of enemy troops as he spoke, and then introduced the situation of our army, "The first and second regiments of the independent brigade attacked Hangzhou, with a number of 2,152 people, except for more than 200 soldiers who served in the original Liaoxi guerrillas, the rest were recruits who had been trained for less than four months, and the guns were not enough, the two regiments combined, there were only 700 rifles, and there were also some single-shot guns and fire systems that were temporarily collected; There are no heavy weapons at all, only some mortar training shells, and a few flying mines that have been temporarily made in the past few days.

According to the plan pointed out above, the first regiment and the second regiment have marched at night in the past few days, and now they have reached the outside of Hangzhou, and at about four o'clock in the morning tomorrow, the first regiment will send a small number of troops to raid the Jianqiao barracks, and at the same time, a large army will break through the Wulin Gate and enter the city directly; The second regiment also divided part of the troops to raid the Mantou Mountain military station, and the rest of the troops will enter the city from Hou Chaomen, and then divide the troops into three places to occupy the Huancui Building of Chenghuang Mountain, Futai Yamen, and Baoguo Temple Ordnance Bureau. ”

Zhou Sixu finished introducing the battlefield situation and the situation of the enemy and the enemy, and Bei Shoutong continued to add the situation: "This uprising, the work of the new army has been partially done, but because of the short time, there is not much effect, but the work of the military academy is relatively good, and they will be responsible for cooperating and leading the way after the troops enter the city." As for the flag battalion and the green battalion, the combat effectiveness can be considered in half and then in half, so let's consider the plan referred to earlier. ”

After the briefing was over, the staff officers began to talk about it, and after a while, some people suggested that the first and second regiments were not strong enough in the first place, and that it was really unwise to divide the troops during the attack......

However, some staff officers said that if they did not raid the barracks outside the city and capture enough rifles, then even if these soldiers entered the city, it would be useless, and the raid on the barracks outside the city must be fast, preferably to end the battle in half an hour......

There are also staff officers who said that the key outside the city is to capture or destroy the artillery of the Qing army, even if they do not disperse the Qing army and there is no artillery, they have no way to attack the city of Hangzhou......

Some staff officers were worried about whether the Second Regiment would be able to cross the Qiantang River......

After two hours of hustle and bustle in the war room, the General Staff made certain corrections to the battle plan of the previous finger, but in fact, they were all minor repairs, and the most critical place to win the battle of Hangzhou was to take it by surprise and to achieve a quick victory, especially if their own side was in a weak situation, and they did not solve the battle before dawn, so when the Qing soldiers came to their senses, once the two armies were stuck, there would be no hope of victory. Therefore, the time of the attack pointed out by the General Staff should be as early as 12 o'clock in the morning, and if it is really too late, then it should also be advanced as soon as possible, because it is too late to delay until 4 o'clock in the morning.

The telegram sent by the General Staff to the front of the command, Zhong Mei read all these opinions, and he also deeply agreed with the request for advance combat time, but the reason why the Second Regiment had to cross the Qiantang River to reach the south of Hangzhou was because the water defense battalion on the Qiantang River would patrol from time to time, and there was an early tide, and it was not so easy for a 1,000-strong force to cross the river.

"Where is the second regiment?" Zhong Mei said this and looked at his watch, it was now ten fifty o'clock, but the second regiment was not yet in place.

"When I sent the report just now, I said that I was in Xiaoshan, and now I should be preparing to cross the river." The adjutant has also been paying attention to the location of the second regiment, and after Cai Yuanpei issued the battle order, he estimated that he could not fully take the bell in Hangzhou with his own regiment. He also ordered the second regiment to immediately march to Hangzhou, and the two regiments, one south and one north, flanked Hangzhou.

Zhong Mei kept looking at his watch. Mi Zhanyuan in Shanghai also kept looking at his watch, at this time he was no longer in prison, but in a high-end inn in Shanghai County, he stood outside the door and kept looking at his watch, and then waited for the lobbying in the house to succeed - today Yeats's family is here, Wang Jeff moved Yeats to this inn, so that their mother, son, and brother hugged their heads and suffered a few times. Then he entertained Yeats's family. In the evening, he went to Yeats's room again to lobby.

Time passed little by little, and it was only late in time. Wang Jiefu just went out, Mi Zhanyuan immediately looked at him, only to hear Wang Jiefu spit out and say, "It's Hangzhou!" ”

"Hangzhou?" Mi Zhanyuan exclaimed. He originally thought it was Suzhou or Anqing.

"Yes. Before Yeats was arrested, he had heard that Zhejiang was going to do something. And if you want to do something, you must be in Hangzhou. Wang Jiefu was actually not very sure, and said: "It's either Hangzhou or Shaoxing." ”

In fact, for Mi Zhanyuan, there is a place to do, he bowed his hand to Wang Jeff, and walked quickly to the telegraph office, he must immediately send this news to Lord Duanfang, although it is late, it must not be delayed.

When Mi Zhanyuan sent the report. It was already late at night, when the staff woke up Duan Fang with a telegram. The time was almost ticking, but the end of the party, who knew that the revolutionary party was in danger, still asked people to send the telegram to Hangzhou, but when he was waiting for Hangzhou's reply, the servant who did the service actually said that the telegram from Hangzhou had not been accessible since an hour ago.

"How can it not work, is it ......" Duan Fang has always been very shrewd, so he does not think that this is a technical failure, but that it should be a precursor to the attack of the revolutionaries.

"Dong Weng, what this revolutionary party wants to seize should indeed be Hangzhou." Lao Naixuan pinched his beard on the side and thought about it several times.

"Oh. So why Hangzhou? It must be said that the revolutionary party really wants to raise righteousness, and Duanfang's original tiredness suddenly dissipated without a trace, and he only felt that this time the revolutionary party was one step ahead.

"Hangzhou is an important town in the southeast, and if Hangzhou is in place, I am afraid that the entire southeast will be shaken. And the Revival Society, looking at its internal text these days, should be planning to rebel, what Liu Guanghan said about 'regimental training revolution', the intentions are also extremely sinister. In Zhejiang, Jiaxing, Lishui and other places have been cracking down on bandits and running regiments in the past few months, and I am afraid that this revival society already has several thousand troops, so I dare to do something directly in Hangzhou. "Liu Guanghan is one of the representatives of Jiangsu, although he is not clear about the affairs of the headquarters, but he is completely aware of the things arranged by the headquarters. The rebellion on his side not only exposed a large number of organizations in Jiangsu, but also leaked the entire revolutionary plan of the Revival Society.

"Hmm. This revival will be the leader of the revolutionary party. "Duan Fang thought of the 'regimental training revolution', and also felt that the imperial court would really be fooled if he was not careful, especially now that all parts of the country are talking about autonomy, and the revolutionary party is mixed in the gentry, it is really impossible to prevent it. However, at the juncture when everyone advocated the opening of the Congress, he did not dare to report the plan of the Revival Society to Emperor Guangxu, but sent these news to the governors in various places, so that the governors could strictly control the newly added regimental training and autonomous offices, for fear of being exploited by the Revival Society.

"Dong Weng, Zhejiang has been abolishing the green battalion regiment training earlier, but the new army has not been built, so I am afraid of Hangzhou...... No, it's not guaranteed. Lao Naixuan didn't mention any flag camp, he only felt that since Fuxing would dare to attack Hangzhou under this unfavorable situation, it must be a sure success, there are not many troops in Zhejiang, and most of the subordinates are unbearable to fight, so now what to do after Hangzhou is lost.

Hearing that Lao Naixuan said that Hangzhou is not guaranteed, Duan Fang laughed after thinking about it, and said: "If Hangzhou is not guaranteed, then Jiangsu must transfer troops to suppress it, not to mention Jiangsu's troop transfer, I think Hubei Zhang Nanpi is afraid that he can't sit still, and if there is no ammunition supply in Hangzhou, even if the revolutionary party occupies Hangzhou, it is just a temporary itch." In this case, then the Congress will be decided. The more Duan Fang talked, the happier he became, and Yu Jie, who couldn't contact Hangzhou just now, suddenly disappeared without a trace.

"Dong Weng, even if the telegram can't reach Hangzhou, it's better to inform Lord Zhang Nanpi about this matter." Duanfang actually has a good relationship with various factions, of course, because Zai Ze, Zai Feng and others did not come out before, his friends are mainly Qingliu and Qingyuan and others, especially with Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, and his close staff Chen Qingnian was Zhang Zhidong's staff before.

"Good. Good. Then someone will fight. Duan Fang nodded and said, "There is also a telegram to Mi Zhanyuan and others in Shanghai." Let them leave for Hangzhou immediately, it is best to save the life of Lord Zhang. ”

The telegraph line to Hangzhou was cut by Zhong Mei at ten o'clock in the evening, and this was not a cut. Rather, there were three places, and he expected that even if someone checked the line, it would not be possible to get through until tomorrow morning, and by any time he would have already entered the telegraph office in the city to control the city.

Many things went smoothly at night, including the martial arts academy that was responsible for opening the door, and the only thing to wait for now was that the second regiment had all crossed the river. But the problem is that it starts at 11 o'clock in the evening and now it is one o'clock. The second regiment has not yet crossed the river, Zhong Mei is in a hurry, and Zhong Guanghe, Wang Jinfa, and Zhu Shaokang at the Qijiazha ferry on the Qiantang River are also very anxious. At ten o'clock, I finally waited for the water camp to pass over the river, and the tide of Qiantang came as scheduled. But by one o'clock, the tide did not stop, but became more and more violent. A tide head will rise more than a foot high.

According to the rules. This Qiantang tide is there every day, twice a day in the morning and evening, the year is the most prosperous in July and August, and now it is only May, according to the reason that the current morning tide should not be violent, and even if there is a tide will soon stop, but today is really strange. Most of the wooden boats that crossed the river this time were hired by Shaoxing with a lot of money, and some of the boatmen were apprehensive when they saw this scene. However, I also know that this group of Qiu Ba is loaded with live ammunition, and they dare not talk nonsense.

Zhong Guanghe looked at his pocket watch anxiously. Constantly measuring time. The number of boats to cross the river is limited, and it takes three times for a 1,000-strong army, more than 100 migrant workers, and more than 10 boats to cross the river, so it takes at least two and a half hours; Coupled with the assembly after crossing the river and the seven-mile road to the city gate, it would take at least three and a half hours to launch the attack, and now it is 1.17 minutes, which means that even if the attack time is not advanced, then it will be delayed on your side.

When Zhong Guang was calculating the time, he saw a voice in the queue in the distance shouting, "Niang Xipi, Ge can't believe it." "The figure is holding a white horse, and at a glance you know that it is the Shengxian robber Wang Jinfa, this person will never be intimidated in battle, even the beard of the Northeast also admires it very much, this horse is given by a beard. But he's all about the rest, but he's very intense, and he often messes around a lot of the time. Especially now, starting at ten o'clock, he waited by the river for three hours, but he still couldn't get by, seeing that the morale was really anxious, Wang Jinfa really couldn't help it, he didn't count when he got on the boat himself, and led the horse up.

As soon as Wang Jinfa got on the boat, many soldiers from his battalion also jumped on the boat, and when they got on the boat, they were about to call the boat away, but how could the boatman dare to drive such a big wave. Zhong Guanghe was about to let people go over to stop him, when he saw a black wave rushing in, and the boat was shaken, and the soldiers standing on it were washed into the water. When everyone was startled and about to go to the rescue, the waves passed, and the people who fell into the water came out again. In the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a man can water, and these people don't have too much weight on them, so they quickly climbed ashore. The white horse is the Russian Don hippopotamus, tall and strong, the center of gravity is also high, a wave opens and goes into the water, regardless of whether it is a bank or a river, but swims to the center of the river, and then a wave opens, the white horse is invisible. Wang Jinfa felt sorry for his horse in the water, and was about to save it, but before he could go over, he found that the horse was gone, so he had to give up.

After this trouble, the morale of the second regiment was a little unstable, especially when it lurked for a few days and arrived at the Qiantang River, but it could not cross the river, and there was no morale that hurt morale more than this. Zhong Guanghe looked at the time again, at 1:25, and was about to call the adjutant to send a report to Zhong Mei, a boatman shouted, "The tide is receding!" The tide is low! As soon as he shouted, the other boatmen also looked at the river, and found that the tide was indeed small, and for a time the first soldiers who crossed the river were on board.

Zhong Guanghe hurriedly scrapped the drafted telegram, and then ordered: "The fighters of all departments must cross the river in the first two batches. ”

As soon as the regiment commander gave the order, the adjutant immediately conveyed that the boat that originally contained thirty people was almost forty people in an instant, and some people were eager to see that the boat could not be stuffed, so they jumped into the water for a while, and then let the boat cross the river like this. Although Haichao went, it was also very dangerous, but Zhong Guanghe couldn't take care of it, and time was limited, so he could only mobilize the first two groups of soldiers to participate in the battle.

"Sail!" He stood on the boat and shouted as he watched the soldiers in the water with their heads held high.

In the dark classroom of the Martial Arts Academy, a group of mobilized students were waiting for orders from outside the city, and in the first half of the night, they received the news that the uprising might be advanced, so that everyone could wait, and everyone was very excited about it, but they waited until more than three o'clock in the morning, and there was no news.

Wu Yuanzhi, the general manager of the Martial Arts Academy, asked Tao Chengzhang in a low voice: "Huanqing, is there any accident?" Why don't you have a letter yet? ”

Tao Chengzhang was actually impatient to wait, and went to the communication office several times and was told that there was no call, if he hadn't seen this thing in the capital before, he would have thought that the radio station was broken.

"Even if there is an accident, it is only a little later, the last call said that the second regiment was blocked by the tide, as long as they cross the river, then we can act." Tao Chengzhang was anxious, but he was afraid that Wu Yuanzhi would lose confidence, so he had to comfort him in turn.

Wu Yuanzhi is a soldier, when he knows that no military action is perfect, and both the enemy and us are chaotic, but the current shape is that the enemy is outnumbered, and the surprise attack is the victory, so I am afraid that the second regiment will cross the river and it will be dawn. He smiled bitterly: "Find the reason, the tide god Wu Zixu should be on our side, I think he took revenge back then, and we are now reviving China." ”

Tao Chengzhang also smiled bitterly, he was recorded once in the party because of his righteousness, and he basically had a bit of a meaning to stay in the party to check, but he didn't want people to be counted as good as the sky, and he stopped doing it, but the Qiantang River couldn't pass. If you can't get over, there will only be a lump in the north, and these more than 1,000 people don't know how to fight. Do you want to enter the city first, or do you knock down the Futai Yamen and the Ordnance Bureau first? While he was thinking about it, a report was shouted outside, saying, "Most of the Second Regiment has crossed the river, and the time for the uprising is set at four o'clock." ”

"Four?" Wu Yuanzhi hurriedly looked at his watch, there were still more than twenty minutes. He was busy calling a few students, "Quick, tell the people at the city gate, and blow the door open at four o'clock." There are also various squads that will set fires everywhere when the time is up to disrupt the situation in the city. "In order to raise righteousness, the city still made some arrangements, at least the telephone line is still laid to the north of the Wulin Gate and the south of the Hou Chao Gate, although the Qing soldiers of the city tower line are slack, but one is not good for them to guard the door, then it will be a big deal. After some consideration, the two gates were still well integrated inside and outside, and as long as the revolutionary army outside the city entered the city, the situation would be clear.

When the order to blow up the door reached the Wulin Gate, Zhou Yawei, who was lying on the roof closest to the city gate, couldn't wait, it was dawn at five o'clock, and the courage of the Qing soldiers was strong as soon as the day dawned, and now he finally came to the order, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief - the task of the second regiment was also very clear, that is, to go straight into the city from the Wulin Gate and wipe out the five thousand and eight banner soldiers.

The mechanism for throwing the explosive bag was ready, and seeing that the time was approaching little by little, everyone's hearts were raised, so that after twenty minutes, when the hour hand pointed to four o'clock, the rope at the mechanism was cut, and the twisted machine was flicked, and the explosive bag flew straight towards the city gate, and when it hit the city gate with a bang, a ball of fire exploded.

At the same time as the explosion of the Wulin Gate, the Hou Chaomen in the south of the city was also a fire, and after two consecutive explosions, the Hou Chaomen fell completely, and only half of the Wulin Gate was left. As soon as the city gate was broken, only a loud shout was heard outside the city, a team of people dressed in colorful clothes rushed in from all over the city gate, more than 60 Qing soldiers guarding the city gate have been blown up under the city tower, and the city tower does not know what is going on, just wait for the forward of this team to enter the city, and the president upstairs shouted, "Anti... Anti-thief..., anti-thief has entered the city! The thieves have entered the city! After shouting a few words, he came back to his senses and said, "Go and report to your lord, go and report to your lord!" ”

When the anti-thieves entered the city, it was too late to report and everyone had nothing to do, but a sober soldier grabbed the mallet and beat the gong and drum of the early warning, which played an early warning role.

When Wulinmen rushed in, Yu Mengting's regiment and battalion, he fully understood his mission - after entering the city, he didn't care about anything, and went straight to the city to eliminate the Eight Banners. It's just that there are three or four miles from this martial arts gate to the city, and the Manchurians who rushed over there really won't be defenseless, can this task be completed? (To be continued......)