The next day, at the review, Wang Zhenyu's second battalion was standing neatly on the far right of the entire army. When Commander-in-Chief Huang Xing arrived at the drill ground, Wang Zhenyu, as the officer on duty, would be the first to see and report to him. Just thinking about meeting the famous Huang Xing in history soon made Wang Zhenyu feel his breathing a bit uneven, and he began to get excited.

  No matter how later generations vilify this revolutionary pioneer, there are two points that cannot be questioned: one is his loyalty to the revolution, from beginning to end, Huang Xing never sought any personal gain for himself in the revolution; another point is Huang Xing's indomitable revolutionary spirit, although he repeatedly failed, but he repeatedly fought and never gave up. This persistent spirit is precisely what our ancient nation lacks most.

  But all of this is unimportant now, what's important is that Wang Zhenyu will soon meet Huang Xing, one of the three great ancestors of the Kuomintang. If he were to put this in his later years, it would be enough for him to brag about for a lifetime, even if he had danced the rumba with Lin Chi-ling, it wouldn't be as thrilling as seeing Huang Xing in person.

  In the distance, two cavalrymen came galloping on horseback. These two fully armed soldiers rode their horses in front of the entire army and then turned around without stopping, so now everyone knows that General Huang is coming.

  After a few minutes, a line of people riding horses appeared in the field of vision. Wang Zhenyu had very good eyesight and soon he saw clearly that at the front of this line was a middle-aged man with a slightly fat figure wearing a blue general's uniform. This shouldn't be Huang Xing, right? Looking at his beard, it was exactly the same as in history textbooks, this should be Huang Xing.

  It's getting closer and closer, Wang Zhenyu made an effort to straighten his chest, with both shoulders leaning back and clenching tightly. This military posture is the only result of Wang Zhenyu's multiple military trainings in the past, and it is absolutely standard wherever he goes.

  "The vanguard officer of the 2nd battalion, Wang Zhenyu, reported to the commander-in-chief" When Huang Xing was three meters away from him, Wang Zhenyu took a big step forward, turned his body to the right, and shouted loudly with a standard military salute.

  Huang Xing rode on horseback and returned a military salute to the officer in front of him, without saying a word. His gaze quickly shifted from Wang Zhenyu to the entire reviewing troops.

  Wang Zhenyu had already learned the rules and continued: "The entire officers and men of the First Division, First Brigade of the Hubei-Hunan Relief Army are in position. Please, Commander Huang, inspect them."

  Huang Xing nodded and said with a gentle expression: "Hard work, take a rest." Wang Zhenyu tried his best to control the excitement in his heart, saluted, turned right and returned to his team. He was overjoyed again that Commander Huang had spoken to him. Although this was just a routine matter, it was still better than being told to scram by the landlord in Lu Xun's writing.

  Huang Xing and his men did not move quickly, they really looked at the queue one by one. Until the end of the leftmost queue, Huang Xing turned his horse's head, drew out his sword, pointed forward, and then rushed towards the right side of the entire queue. While rushing, he shouted loudly: "Drive out the Tartars, restore China."

  The spectacular scene that was originally intended to be witnessed by tens of thousands of people had already stirred up the heroic spirit in everyone's chest, and with Huang Xing's mobilization, the morale of the entire army was immediately ignited. All the officers and soldiers first excitedly raised their weapons and shouted loudly, "Hurray! Hurray!", then they shouted in unison: "Expel the Tartars, restore China."

  Wang Zhenyu also shouted loudly with all his might.

  War is always full of drama and contingency.

  On the afternoon of November 16, when tens of thousands of militia crossed the Han River, something shocking happened. In the face of such a large-scale military mobilization by the militia, the Beiyang Army was completely unaware, and they were enjoying this strange war that could be won but was not allowed to be fought.

  Feng Guozhang, the commander-in-chief of the First Army responsible for suppressing the Wuchang Uprising, deployed his troops from the Beiyang Fourth and Sixth Divisions, a total of eight brigades, along the line from Yudaomen Railway Station to Nan'anmen, with their cannons pointing directly at Hanyang. As for areas outside this region, the Beiyang Army did not deploy too many troops, which was not because Feng Guozhang was overconfident, but rather a necessary choice. With his current strength, if it were not for Yuan Shikai's repeated strict orders not to start another war, he could have taken Hanyang within three days with just one order. The military strength of the Revolutionary Army was really nothing to be concerned about after the Battle of Hankou.

  But last time, I took the initiative to attack Hankou, and although I was rewarded with a title by the king after the fact, I also received a scolding from Old Yuan. If I were to attack Hanyang again without Old Yuan's orders, it's likely that the scolding would turn into a dismissal. However, since we're not allowed to fight, I have to make preparations for battle, so the Beiyang Army has focused its efforts on the Nan'an mouth line, maintaining pressure on the opposing army across the river. As for my flank and rear, due to underestimating the enemy and considering this region to be empty and without military value, Feng Guozhang indeed didn't pay much attention to it. Of course, the biggest reason is that he wouldn't have thought that the enemy would violate common military sense and attack his flank against the current of the Han River, which is unscientific.

  Under numerous factors, the people's army launched a counterattack on Hankou with a dreamy start. They successfully appeared in the flank and rear of the Northern Army, while the enemy was completely unaware.

  Later historians have been critical of Huang Xing's decision to launch a counterattack on Hankou during the Battle of Yangxia, and have published numerous academic papers on this topic, swindling a large sum of research funds from the State Council (these cultural swindlers are not afraid of having no sons).

  They thought that launching a counterattack on Hankou in the face of enemy strength and our weakness was, from a military perspective, an inevitably doomed adventure. And yet, knowing they would fail, they still wanted to do it, which also forcefully proved, from one side, the basic fact that Huang Xing lacked military talent. It felt like if those guys were in charge, things would be different! A bunch of armchair strategists.

  However, the bricklayers have one thing absolutely right: Huang Xing's decision to launch a counterattack on Hankou, where troops are concentrated, is indeed an adventure. Because the situation has developed to the point where it is necessary to take risks and can no longer continue in a steady and stable manner.

  After a bloody battle for more than a month, the loss of Hankou was a huge blow to the morale of the revolutionaries, and also severely shook the prestige of Huang Xing, the commander-in-chief at that time.

  Within the Hubei military government, there were also strong objections to Huang Xing, an outsider, coming to take command of the army. However, due to Huang Xing's great revolutionary reputation, everyone was not convenient to openly oppose him, but behind-the-scenes sabotage would naturally not be lacking. Now that Hankou has been lost, everyone is no longer restrained, and the public demand for the removal of the wartime commander-in-chief is rising in Wuchang, and the situation is already on the verge of losing control.

  In such a situation of internal and external difficulties, if we cannot reverse the situation with a victory to boost morale, then the next step may lead to the Wuchang Uprising ending in failure like the previous ten uprisings by the Tongmenghui.

  Everyone else didn't realize that Huang Xing wasn't a time-traveler, he fundamentally couldn't know what would happen next in history. How could he have thought that Yuan Shikai was currently playing the chess move of nurturing bandits to control himself, and that he only needed to guard Hanyang and not make any rash moves to wait for the revolutionary victory?

  Standing tall and speaking out can be fearless of waist pain, but as the commander-in-chief of the war, Huang Xing must take responsibility for the entire revolution. So even if he knows that the enemy is strong and we are weak, even if he knows that counterattacking Hankou may fail, Huang Xing still has to go all out with a sense of justice, this is the great fearless spirit of revolution.

  Of course, although it was an adventurous gamble, it didn't mean going to play brainless and launch a suicidal attack like the Japanese. The basic fact that the enemy is strong and we are weak cannot be ignored, so the decision to counterattack Hankou was made by Huang Xing after careful consideration, rather than a casual decision made with a slap on the thigh in later generations.

  One of the factors that made Huang Xing determined was based on accurate intelligence sent back by revolutionary comrades lurking in Hankou, although the main force of the Qing army in Hankou was concentrated on the Nan'an mouth line, but most of its logistics and supplies were stored at Yudai Gate Station. Every day, there would be trains going south, transporting various materials from the north to unload here, and then distributing them according to the needs of the front-line troops. If it were put in the context of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this station would be the "Wu's Nest" of Yuan Shao's army in the Battle of Guandu, and taking this place would necessarily turn the tide of battle.

  Intelligence also says that the garrison of this Yudaomen railway station is a brigade of the Beiyang Sixth Division, and the commander of the brigade is called Ma Jizeng. Hmm, nothing to do with Chun Yuqiong...

  Huang Xing, holding the intelligence that was risked by the revolutionary party to be returned, thought repeatedly and determined that only by attacking Yudai Gate and cutting off the Qing army's rear route and material supply could they heavily strike the enemy's morale and truly effectively turn the tide of the battle in Hubei and even the whole country.

  Huang Xing was well aware of the importance of defending Hankou, but at this moment he had no choice and could only make a desperate gamble. Various factors forced Huang Xing to finally decide to counterattack Hankou.

  The 8,000-strong relief troops from Hubei and Hunan arrived at the front line smoothly, and Huang Xing finally made up his mind to attack after acquiring a batch of fresh troops. The outcome would be decided in this one move.

  At around one o'clock in the afternoon, looking at the Zongguan in front of him which was not majestic and even had a few broken parts, Huang Xing put down his binoculars, gritted his teeth and said to several main officers of the Eyu army standing beside him: "Let the boys attack!"

  "Right!" Wang Longzhong, Liu Yutang and others stood at attention and saluted, turned around and returned to their respective units to issue combat orders.

  "Charge, kill!" At 3 pm, the river fog had already dispersed. The reinforcements from Hubei and Hunan, who had been hiding for half a day, took turns as the vanguard of the entire army, with the first battalion of Li Xiqiu's unit under Wang Longzhong's command and the second battalion of Hu Zhaopeng's unit under Liu Yutang's command. After a brief mobilization, the two battalions launched an attack on Zongguan together.

  The two battalions did not form infantry squares according to the drill manual, but instead emphasized speed and agility. The two camps of soldiers formed a long snake shape and charged straight at the Qing army, striving to rush into the defensive fortifications of the Zongguan garrison in the first instance.

  The guards at the Zongguan Pass were a battalion of infantry from the Qing army's Northern Navy Sixth Garrison, with only over a hundred men. Their main role was to serve as sentries, so they did not have any heavy defensive weapons like Maxim machine guns. Moreover, they did not expect the revolutionary army to dare to sneak up under their noses, so although they had built simple defensive fortifications, they were completely unprepared. In the chaos, they were naturally caught off guard and killed by the revolutionary army, and this battalion of Qing soldiers was unable to put up any effective resistance, simply staring blankly as the revolutionary army suddenly appeared beside them, with the dark mouths of their guns pointed at them. At this point, even if one's brain wasn't working properly, they would know to raise their own guns high above their heads with both hands. In almost the blink of an eye, the Zongguan Pass had changed hands.