In the winter, it gets dark very early. The area around the station is quiet except for the occasional distant sound of gunfire. Zhou Kui'an, the battalion commander in charge of guarding the Yudai Gate Station of the Northern Yangtze Army's Sixth Garrison, was busy gambling with several squad leaders, and the sound of shuffling cards came from within the barracks.

  "Damn it, the militia is really useless! As soon as Ma Junmen led the brothers out, they were completely defeated. Unfortunately, we were assigned to this crappy task. Guarding this broken train station, we can't even get any credit for our work, it's so frustrating!" Zhou Kuian was having a bad hand tonight, firing cannon after cannon, and couldn't help but complain again.

  At this time, the squad on duty tonight rushed in: "Director Zhou, more than 200 people came from outside and said they were sent by the Fourth Town to support our Ma Cooperative. As a result, they arrived late and didn't get anything. Now it's dark, and they can't hurry back, shouting that they want to enter the station and spend the night with us, and then take the early train tomorrow morning."

  If it were usual, Zhou Kui'an would definitely come out to take a look at the situation. With just one glance, he could see through the flaws from his years of military experience. This so-called friendly army, whether in terms of attire, accent or password, even their equipment, any one of these could easily reveal flaws. But history had an unexpected twist at this time, and Zhou Kui'an, who was usually cautious, did not choose to do so. Firstly, Zhou Kui'an was still fuming from losing money and was planning how to make it back, and he had no interest in anything else. Secondly, the militia had been defeated during the day, and in his opinion, there were definitely no militia left on the Hankou side that dared to stay, even if there were, they would just be scattered soldiers, and these people probably wouldn't dare to approach the station with heavy troops, let alone disguise themselves as Beiyang army and launch a night raid on the station.

  "What did they gain? I haven't gained anything either. Go, let them spend the night on the platform, I don't want to see these sons who came to steal credit. Also, don't let them go to the warehouse to start a fire, those explosives will get us all killed if ignited. Just arrange some people to pay attention, ah, my mood tonight! Damn it!"

  Zhou Kui'an thus easily gave the worst possible order, and Wang Zhenyu and Xu Yuanquan led more than 200 student soldiers into the heavily guarded Yudai Gate Station with a swagger, where they lit a fire on the platform to warm themselves up as required by the officer on duty.

  The cold wind at night was indeed piercing, and Wang Zhenyu relied on his good night vision to quickly see the situation around him with the weak firelight. From the conversation with the officer on duty earlier, it can be inferred that there is only one battalion of Tartar soldiers in this station. At this time, the sky had already completely darkened, the cold wind was biting, and except for the hundred or so people who were on guard, everyone else had retreated into their quilts. Seeing how lax the station's defenses were, Wang Zhenyu felt a surge of excitement in his heart, thinking that things would be much easier from now on.

  Wang Zhenyu was roasting a fire while giving Zhao Dongsheng and others a signal. Zhao Dongsheng and others took the several packs of cigarettes that Ma Xicheng had thrown to them, pretending to be bored, and slipped away to several key points they had previously identified.

  Among them, Tao Zongyue and Song Haomin, who spoke Mandarin, and Zhao Dongsheng's target was the machine gun position at the entrance of the station. The four Qing soldiers guarding this machine gun position had three people leaning against sandbags chatting around a fire pit, while only one person endured the cold and shrank beside the Maxim machine gun, occasionally looking out at the situation outside. Because they saw that the three approaching friendly troops were unarmed, they did not stop them from approaching.

  "Hey, brother, lend me a light. This damned weather is freezing people to death." Tao Yunyue leaned in, as if it was the most natural thing to do.

  "Hey buddy, what's that thing you're smoking?" The big guy at the end, a Beiyang soldier, quickly discovered that Tao Zongyue had something unusual in his hand.

  Tao Zongyue generously pulled out a cigarette from the pack and handed it over. At this time, the Beiyang soldier who was shrinking his neck to watch the machine gun happened to see it and shouted in a Northeastern accent: "Ah, brother, isn't that a foreign cigarette? That's a rare thing. How did you get it?"

  The big soldier immediately took it from Tao Zhuoyue's hand, and didn't forget to turn his head and scold the Northeastern soldier: "Want to eat a military stick? Behave yourself and watch your gun, when the squad leader comes, you'll be in for it."

  The Northeastern soldiers were so frightened that they didn't dare speak again.

  Tao Yunyue was delighted: "Don't worry, brothers, I still have some here. Everyone take one, we all ran from the north to this place and suffered together, it's not easy for anyone. Let's all try some, this is the stuff we got from Hankou Concession."

  He said, handing another one to Da Gezi. Da Gezi was both delighted and envious: "Your fourth town is really good, relying on the concession, brother, we're guarding this broken train station, can't even get a fart."

  Just as the student army and the camp department were approaching their respective target points, Wang Zhenyu and Xu Yuanquan were huddled together roasting fire.

  "Xu Dui Zheng, I heard you're already twenty-five"

  "How did you know that? Originally, I was still a instructor at the military school in Nanjing two months ago. As a result, they were arresting revolutionaries there and the school was closed. So I returned to Wuhan, unexpectedly becoming a revolutionary in the end, haha!" Xu Yuanquan is an optimistic and talkative person.

  "Then I'll call you Big Brother Xu, brother, I'm only 21."

  "What's with the 'big brother' and 'not big brother', calling each other like that makes us seem distant, we're all revolutionary comrades." Xu Yuanquan felt that Wang Zhenyu was a very sincere person.

  Wang Zhenyu smiled and said: "Xu brother, have you ever killed someone with your own hands?"

  "This is really none of your business, why ask?"

  "I've got an idea, but I don't know if Big Brother Xu is willing to do it with me?" Wang Zhenyu deliberately paused for a moment, looked at Xu Yuanquan, and continued: "We're the two team leaders now. Later, we'll go see their superiors with the officer on duty. Once we get in, we can control them all, and this station will be taken down directly, won't it?"

  Xu Yuanquan raised an eyebrow, discovering that his new superior was quite fond of taking risks. This wasn't something you'd find in military textbooks!

  "Xu Ge, you're scared," Wang Zhenyu deliberately provoked him.

  "Come on, let's go all in! What am I afraid of?" Xu Yuanquan was also a young man after all, and Wang Zhenyu's provocation naturally made his blood boil.

  Wang Zhenyu chose Xu Yuanquan to go on an adventure with him, the reason is very simple, because there are twenty rounds of shotgun shells on them. It's worth noting that during the late Qing dynasty, only military officers and high-ranking generals' personal bodyguards had this stuff.

  The two of them said they would do it, and Wang Zhenyu simply exchanged a few words with Ma Xicheng. Without caring how shocked Ma Xicheng was, he directly went to find the officer on duty, not even leaving time for Ma Xicheng to dissuade him. As for Xu Yuanquan, he really had never killed anyone before. However, since he had promised Wang Zhenyu, he could only try his best to control his nervousness and followed Wang Zhenyu's example by putting two pistols in his waistband and walking out with him.

  "The officer on duty found Wang Zhenyu's actions strange: 'Wang Zhengyu, where are you going?'"

  Wang Zhenyu smiled: "Exactly, when we arrive at the temple, how can we not burn incense? You have to take us to see your leader. Otherwise, tomorrow when I go back home, my leader will ask me about it, and if I say I didn't visit, he'll think that we lower-level people don't understand etiquette. So, please trouble yourself to show us the way."

  The officer on duty felt that it wasn't quite right, but also thought Wang Zhenyu was reasonable and couldn't bring himself to refuse, so he reluctantly took them there. As they walked, he didn't forget to remind them: "Our Captain Zhou is not in a good mood tonight, his temper is a bit short, please forgive him, actually he's usually okay."

  Masicheng saw that it was too late to stop them, and could only do so. However, he still didn't feel at ease, so he followed the three guards under the pretext of going to the toilet, quietly trailing behind the trio by about a dozen meters.

  As he walked to the front of the two-story foreign-style building where the battalion headquarters was located, Wang Zhenyu took a look at the surrounding situation and felt another wave of excitement in his heart. The Qing army was really too careless, and there were no sentries at the entrance of Zhou Kui'an's battalion headquarters. When Wang Zhenyu walked in, the four military officers inside were busy playing mahjong, and their personal defensive weapons were hung on the wall as a burden.

  The team leader was just about to speak when Wang Zhenyu kicked him in the butt, causing him to lose his balance and fall straight onto the mahjong table, knocking over all the tiles. Zhou Kui'an was startled and leaned back, only then noticing that there were two unfamiliar military officers in the room, each holding a rifle with the dark muzzle pointing at them.

  What's going on? In the spark of fire, Zhou Kui, who was still relatively clever, suddenly understood that TMD was a chaotic party. He immediately jumped up and reached for the gun on the wall.

  Wang Zhenyu originally wanted to sign up, but he saw Zhou Kui'an being dishonest and even getting up to grab the gun. In a hurry, he aimed at Zhou Kui'an's body and pulled the trigger. The shotgun's reputation of firing 20 rounds was not exaggerated, and with a casual shot, seven or eight bullets were fired, six of which accurately hit Zhou Kui'an's body. Zhou Kui'an ultimately failed to get the gun, his tall body lost control, and he fell directly onto the bed.

  Xu Yuanquan was also very nervous, and as soon as Wang Zhenyu fired his gun, he immediately fired both guns continuously. The other four Beiyang officers did not even have time to surrender before Xu Yuanquan shot them all dead, their bodies stacked on top of each other. This magnificent scene made Wang Zhenyu forget his disgust at killing people, and with his blood vessels bursting, he reflexively fired his gun at the pile of corpses until he ran out of bullets in both guns.

  Everyone was killed, and Maxi Cheng brought three people to rush in. Wang Zhenyu saw them and returned to normal, although he felt a bit nauseous, but his heart wasn't as tense as before. He suppressed the discomfort in his heart, pointed his gun at the wall: "Maxi Cheng, you guys go change rifles, follow me."

  Just a few steps away, Wang Zhenyu suddenly turned back to Ma Xicheng, who was picking up the gun in the corner of the wall: "You collect all the silver coins on the ground, understand? From now on, all spoils of war from our battalion will be handed over to me for distribution, no private hoarding is allowed."

  When the gunshot rang out, the four Beiyang soldiers on Tao Ruiyue's side were stunned for a moment, clearly still confused about the situation. They dropped their guns and tried to get up, but ended up grabbing nothing. Turning around, they saw Zhao Dongsheng and Song Haomin pointing their guns at them. The big Beiyang soldier suddenly understood: "Damn it, you're rebels!" He was about to stand up when Zhao Dongsheng shot him without hesitation. The big soldier's body flew backward like a kite with its string cut off. Tao Ruiyue remained calm and patted his sleeve: "Heh heh, let me tell you, it's best if all of you squat down. We don't kill people indiscriminately."

  Another three Beiyang soldiers looked at each other in dismay, they didn't have the same political awareness to die together, and finally chose to obey and squat on the ground.

  At the same time, several places in the station were performing the same good show. Several big Northern Government soldiers who were responsible for guarding their comrades on the platform had not reacted when they heard the sound of gunfire, and were immediately pinned down by a pair of large hands that grasped their necks tightly.

  In just a few minutes, the student army controlled the entire station. Many Beiyang soldiers who were still in their quilts were blocked inside the barracks. Although there were guns in the barracks, there was no ammunition. A few bold ones tried to rush out, but ended up lying straight at the door of the barracks, becoming corpses.

  More than 700 Beiyang soldiers guarding the station were captured except for more than 30 who were killed.

  When Yang Wangu and his men rushed in, there was nothing they could do. At this moment, they were both surprised and admired, all stunned on the platform, not knowing what to do next.

  "What are you still dazing about? Go to the warehouse, grab food, grab bullets, take as much as possible, and then blow it up!" Wang Zhenyu shouted as soon as he saw Yang Wanguo.