The first battle was successful, and Huang Xing's mood was naturally very good. He immediately gave orders to the three corps of the Aid-Ezhou Army, which was the main force in this counterattack, requiring each unit not to stop and to advance rapidly towards Yutai Gate. Then he himself led the headquarters' direct troops and the armed forces composed of nearly 4,000 members of the Society to set off towards Yutai Gate.

  At around 3 pm, the militia in the advancing army again clashed with a small number of Qing troops in several small skirmishes. The Qing troops were outnumbered and lacked clear combat intentions, so they were quickly defeated by the militia. Although the officers of the infantry regiment responsible for defending the Zongguan direction under the Beiyang Army's Sixth Division had not received any clear reports, the clearly audible gunfire still led them to make a clear judgment that the militia was attacking from their flank and rear. The regimental commander immediately decided to concentrate the 400-500 men who could be assembled around the Boai Academy, where the regimental headquarters was located, to block the militia on the spot, while sending someone to rush to report to Ma Yuanyi at the Yubao Gate.

  At around 5 pm, when the news of the people's army appearing on the side of Hankou finally reached Feng Guozhang, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army. After reading the report, he only slightly furrowed his brow: These damned rebels, I won't go looking for trouble with you, and yet you come knocking on my door asking to die. Since you're all eager to die, then I'll fulfill your wish. I'll wipe you out completely, let's see what Yuan Palace Guard has to say about me then.

  Feng Guozhang called over his deputy officer: "Immediately send a telegram to Beijing, let Premier Yuan know our situation. Also, give an order to Li Chun of the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division, have him lead those rascals towards Zongguan in a flanking maneuver. If the rebels continue to attack without regard for their lives, annihilate them! If the rebels retreat, he shouldn't return either, just say it's pursuing the retreating rebels and relocating to Xiaogan, then wait for my further orders there!"

  "Yes." The deputy officer saluted and turned to attend to his duties.

  Send troops to Xiaogan, downstream of Caidian, and capture Hanyang was a move that Feng Guozhang had planned for a long time. However, because Old Yuan had different ideas from the imperial court, he ordered Feng Guozhang to stay in Hankou and not act rashly, so this plan was never adopted.

  This time, taking advantage of the Revolutionary Party's offensive, he sent Li Chun's men to Xiaogan. This way, when Old Yuan agreed to attack Hanyang, things would be much easier on his own side. Feng Guozhang stroked his small mustache, thinking very complacently.

  Then he shook his head and walked a few more steps, sat down, lay on the recliner and hummed the famous Peking Opera excerpt "Zhuo Fang Cao": "Listening to him scared me out of my wits..."

  On the side of the militia, at around 4 pm, at the Boai Academy, due to the lack of heavy artillery support, the militia troops were forcibly blocked by the Qing army. The commander of the Beiyang camp brought out three Maxim machine guns and lined them up in front of the main gate of the academy. The attacking militia couldn't even lift their heads, and the Aid-Hunan Army's first brigade, which was responsible for attacking the academy, launched a few charges but were easily repelled by the Qing army.

  Huang Xing had already rushed to the outside of Boai Academy, where the militia's attacking formation was launched. Wang Longzhong was holding a telescope, observing the situation on the other side. The first battalion of Liang Xikui's unit had just attacked again, but the result was still that they lost dozens of brothers and retreated back without even reaching the enemy's position. Wang Longzhong was so angry that he slapped his thigh and scolded Liang Xikui, saying that he was a good-for-nothing who only bragged in normal times but became useless at critical moments.

  Huang Xing came over and shouted: "Wang Zhaoyuan, you must organize the troops to take down this academy immediately. We can't delay any longer. Once the Beiyang Army is on guard, it will be difficult to attack the Yudaomen railway station."

  Wang Longzhong also lost his temper: "Do you think I don't know? My TMD has been attacked several times, and the losses of my brothers are all over a hundred. Unless Commander Huang leads the team himself?"

  Huang Xing was choked for a moment but didn't get angry, instead he stood beside Wang Longzhong and also looked ahead with binoculars, not moving or speaking, just standing there. After a while, Wang Longzhong couldn't hold on anymore: "Xing Xing Xing, Lu Diping, you lead the third battalion up, if you can't break in don't come back, Wang Zhenyu your battalion will be the reserve team."

  "Yes."

  Lu Diping and Wang Zhenyu stood nearby, heard the order and responded immediately, then ran back to their respective units.

  Lu Diping is a clever person, he's not as rigid as Liang Xizhu. More than 700 people marched towards the enemy's firepower with military music. The way of fighting was indeed in line with the German instructor's military textbook, but it seemed that there was no such powerful killing machine as heavy machine guns on the defensive side of the textbook. Now they encountered this powerful killing machine, and continuing to fight like this would not work.

  He's also a clever ghost, having clearly seen the location of the Qing army's heavy machine guns, thinking that it was just a bit more firepower and didn't form an angle, with insufficient radiation surface. Since they couldn't rush in through the front door, they might as well change to a side face and climb over the wall. Lu Diping led his troops around two hundred meters to the left of the academy, barely avoiding the front, and launched an attack from the dead angle of the Qing army's heavy machine gun position. Almost without encountering effective resistance, they leaned against the side wall of the academy, and the soldiers together pushed the wall of the academy (what quality is this?) and then killed their way in. This made Wang Zhenyu, who was left behind as a reserve team, stare with wide eyes, thinking "this is also possible", it's too clever. It also made Wang Longzhong exclaim "good job", and Huang Xing let out a long sigh of relief.

  The Qing army guarding the academy did not expect that the civilian army would not fight according to the rules, and in a panic, they were unable to organize their absolute strength to drive out the people who had occupied the academy. Rudi Ping took advantage of his numerical superiority and quickly defeated the four or five hundred Qing soldiers, capturing the entire academy. The commander of the Qing army guarding the academy was a Han Chinese, who ordered his subordinates to surrender to the civilian army before taking his own life in a heroic manner.

  Ma Jizeng, although he lost a regiment in the Boai Academy, effectively slowed down the attacking speed of the militia. At the same time, the reinforcements he sent to Yudai Gate had already taken their positions, and the weak point had become a strong fortress.

  At around 5 pm, Huang Xing stood behind a small mound about 400 meters away from the Qing army's position near Yudaomen, holding binoculars and looking at the Qing army already in formation in the distance, his brow furrowed again.

  As the officers and men of the First Cooperation had just gone through a hard battle in taking down the Boai Academy and suffered not insignificant casualties, Huang Xing planned to let the officers and men of the First Cooperation rest on the spot at the Boai Academy and serve as the reserve team for the whole army. He himself led the Second Cooperation, Third Cooperation, Hubei Huiguan armed forces, and the military school students to launch an attack on Yubaomen Station, with time pressing, they had to take down Yubaomen Station before nightfall.

  Wang Longzhong didn't buy Huang Xing's account at all. He let Wang Zhenyu lead the second battalion to guard the Boai Academy, and then he led Lu Diping and Liang Xiqiu's two battalions to participate in the attack on Yudaomen. Old Wang was also a knowledgeable person about military affairs, and Huang Xing's plan was clear at a glance. The key to this battle lay in the Yudaomen railway station. Taking down the station, destroying the Qing army's supplies, cutting off their rear route and supply lines could save the entire situation. Moreover, all of this had to be done before nightfall; otherwise, even a fool would know how the Qing army would react tomorrow, and once the enemy's reinforcements arrived, there would be no hope left. Therefore, Wang Longzhong thought, such a huge adventurous action, at this last step, why wait any longer?

  "Commander Huang, don't worry, I, Liu, will definitely lead the brothers of the Second Brigade to capture the enemy's position. Just wait for good news!" After saluting Commander Huang Xing, Liu Yutang, the commander of the Second Brigade of the Hunan Relief Army, immediately organized his troops to launch a desperate attack.

  Yudaomen has no city wall in the strict sense, because when the railway was built, this gate and the city wall were demolished. Only the place name is retained. Ma Jicheng, the commander of the Beiyang Fourth Division who was responsible for defending this strategic location, carefully examined the terrain after receiving the order to defend Yudaomen Station. Although he did not think that the revolutionary army would come here, from a cautious old soldier's perspective, he still ordered one battalion under his command to build basic defensive fortifications and defense firepower points in a place about three miles away from Yudaomen Station, relying on the railway embankment. Usually, two teams of Beiyang soldiers were left to guard this 300-meter-wide and 50-meter-deep defensive position.

  This position fully utilized the characteristics of the railway embankment being higher than the flat ground. Below the railway embankment line was a trench for infantry shooting, and above it was a heavy machine gun position, forming a three-dimensional radiating surface that could effectively control the vast plain on both sides of the railway line within several miles. The militia couldn't possibly bypass this position to directly attack Yudaomen because even if they didn't delay their attack time by detouring for several miles, attempting to force their way through would only expose their flanks and rear, and the speed of their detour would definitely be slower than that of the Qing army's local counterattack.

  Huang Xing pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth and circled around, but there was no other way out. He could only force his way through. He had to try to capture the Yudai Gate railway station before the Qing army in Hankou reacted with reinforcements.

  Ma Jixiang was right now in the temporary command center behind this position, and his main force of one brigade was still on its way. Now guarding here, apart from the usual team of Beiyang soldiers, there were also a battalion of infantry who followed Ma Jixiang to rush over temporarily. However, what he could rely on was not just these nearly thousand Beiyang soldiers, but also several Maxim heavy machine guns and sufficient ammunition stored at the Yudaomen Railway Station not far behind. To strengthen firepower, Ma Jixiang also forcibly sent people to take out thirty Maxims from the military arsenal at Yudaomen Railway Station, despite the dissatisfaction of the staff officer responsible for logistics distribution in this area. But Old Ma didn't care about that much; in his view, if these things weren't used now, wouldn't they be left as spoils of war when the enemy broke in?

  More than sixty temporary infantrymen were familiarizing themselves with the new machine guns under the guidance of old machine gunners, and this scene also gave Ma Jizeng some confidence.

  Ma Jizeng looked at the militia on the opposite side who were lining up to organize an offensive formation and let out a big sigh of relief. He looked at the militia with great disdain and muttered to himself: "It seems that these rebels are also a bunch of useless people."

  Ma Jizeng's deputy was his younger brother-in-law, who listened to his sister's husband and was taken aback for a moment: "Sister's husband, I see that their formation is very neat and tidy, it doesn't seem like a temporary army at all, but rather a regular one. Can't find any weaknesses?"

  "Haha, you, if only you'd read more books in your free time. These militiamen are actually lining up in formation, they're all idiots! I've got over 30 German-made heavy machine guns here, the denser the crowd, the more they'll die. Don't you know that?"

  The young deputy officer heard this and thought for a moment, then exclaimed with great joy: "Congratulations, brother-in-law! This is a great achievement! With this victory, you will definitely be promoted and become rich!"

  Ma Ji's heart was also relieved, but his face remained serious as he said: "Go and tell the brothers not to fire randomly. Wait until the militia gets closer before opening fire. Also, for eliminating this group of bandits, each person will be rewarded with five dollars."