When facing the interviews of two reporters, Wang Zhenyu's responses were very careful and logical, directly subverting the two people's understanding that soldiers in this era are rough and uncultured. At the same time, it also made Shao Fengping and Huang Yuansheng extremely surprised by the courage and bravery of this young militia officer.

  Shao Piao Ping: "Wang Guan Dai, I'm extremely curious as to why you dared to take such a huge risk at the time, leading a lone army deep into enemy territory for this night raid."

  Wang Zhenyu: "At that time, I didn't think so much, just with the persistence of a revolutionary soldier, no matter what, to complete Commander Huang's order and destroy the enemy's heavy equipment."

  Huang Yuansheng: "What about the ambush that followed? As far as I know, you had already succeeded at that point. Why didn't you take advantage of the night to retreat instead of taking the risk of launching such an ambush?"

  Wang Zhenyu: "The fat meat delivered to our doorstep, if we don't eat it, would be an insult to the martyrs who sacrificed themselves. And it was precisely this unexpected ambush that forced the enemy army to retreat back to Yudai Gate, allowing me and my brothers to return from Zongguan Yuan Road with ease! Haha, thinking about it now, I guess we were just lucky. The two great journalists should write about this accurately, otherwise readers will think I'm some kind of fortune teller who can predict the future. Haha, maybe in the future I'll really have to set up a stall and become a fortune teller!"

  Wang Zhenyu's sincerity, humor and wit made everyone laugh. The interview activity also became relaxed and pleasant. However, when Wang Zhenyu reviewed the draft, he found that it was like reporting a military operation, which was actually a thrilling legend. (In fact, the surprise attack on Yubandmen was later reported as a serialized story.)

  At the end of the interview, Shao Fengping even grasped Wang Zhenyu's hand with some excitement and said: "Director Wang, with outstanding young military officers like you who have both courage and wisdom, the overthrow of the Qing dynasty is just around the corner!"

  Huang Yuansheng furrowed his brow and asked Wang Zhenyu, "Wang Guandai, do you think this revolution will be victorious?"

  Wang Zhenyu, however, is from a later era and naturally knows that from the perspective of the original purpose, the Xinhai Revolution was a failed revolution, and an extremely failed one at that. It merely redistributed existing political power, transferring rights from the Manchu aristocracy to the Beiyang clique and some so-called revolutionary warlords. The sky remained the same, the earth remained the same, foreign powers became even more arrogant, and the common people's lives naturally became even harder. Therefore, while the Xinhai Revolution was indeed great, for ordinary civilians, it marked the beginning of a disaster.

  But for China, this is just a pain before rebirth, and it cannot be avoided.

  These words, Wang Zhenyu naturally couldn't say to Huang Yuansheng. After all, being too familiar with someone you don't know well is taboo in any era. He just firmly grasped the hand of this famous Republic of China journalist and said: "Revolution has always been just a beginning, not an end. The road to victory is still very long, it's worth our generation devoting their lives to striving for and pursuing."

  It was this last sentence that made Huang Yuansheng savor it for a long time. Until many years later, when Huang Yuansheng was assassinated by an assassin sent by Sun Yat-sen in the United States, at the moment before his death, he suddenly remembered this sentence again, as if he had finally understood everything.

  The Shanghai Times was just a small newspaper, but at that time the Chinese press was not much larger. All of Shanghai's newspapers were concentrated on one street.

  Once the news was released, in an era without copyright protection, major newspapers reprinted the article co-authored by Shao Fengping and Huang Yuansheng, which is also the only time the two collaborated on writing an article in history.

  Wang Zhenyu's name quickly became synonymous with Wang Zhenya (later renamed Wang Zhengya), the two being touted as the militia's two greatest war gods, despite neither of them being heavyweights in the militia at present. However, with a stroke of the journalists' pens, they have now become the hopes of this revolution.

  Both were from Hunan, with similar names but unclear internal relationships, ordinary people mistakenly thought they were biological brothers, spreading the legend that the Wang family would destroy the Tartars, only to wonder who was the elder and who was the younger of the two Wangs.

  As the English newspaper with the longest history in China, the editors of "The Chinese Times" would not ignore it and naturally reprinted the news of the civilian army's great victory in the Jade Belt Bridge surprise attack.

  November 25, 1911, the capital of the Qing Empire, Beijing, was already in winter. The cold wind was raging, and the earth had long been covered with a thick layer of silver. There were few pedestrians on the street, and the dark red walls of the Forbidden City still stood tall, standing out starkly against the vast expanse of whiteness. The entire imperial city looked as grand and majestic as ever, but the hint of decline was something that even the boundless snow could not conceal.

  The war in the south was going very badly, and Yuan Shikai, who had taken command in a crisis, was monopolizing power like Cao Cao of the Three Kingdoms, nurturing his own strength. Although there were many princes, nobles, and high-ranking officials in the Qing Empire, few of them still had the ability and intention to defend the 200-year-old foundation established by their ancestors; some loyal officials could only sit in the government office all day, sighing and complaining, but couldn't come up with a good plan; many Confucian scholars who claimed to be students of Confucius and Mencius shouted slogans about being loyal to the country at the palace gate every day, but few had the courage to go south to fight against the rebels. The entire empire was like a wooden warship with holes everywhere, taking in large amounts of water, which would certainly sink eventually, it's just unknown when that would happen.

  Zhongnanhai, Yuan Shikai's eldest son Yuan Keding was dragging a lame leg, trudging through the snow to find his father. Upon closer inspection, this young master Yuan was holding the latest issue of "The Times".

  "Father, come quick and see, the newspaper says that Lord Feng and his men have suffered a defeat in Hankou." Yuen K'ding shouted as soon as he entered the door.

  Yuan Shikai was sitting upright in the hall at this moment, and had just finished discussing several important matters with Xu Shichang and others.

  The current situation in Beijing is also very unstable, with all sorts of chaotic forces at work. Especially the banner people who know that the trend has already passed seem to be unwilling to give up, they are all afraid that after this change, their iron rice bowl will not be preserved, and some kings like Liangbiyu who know how to fight have even come up with something called the "Zongshu Party", saying that they want to defend the Qing dynasty to the death. They even publicly declared that Yuan Shikai is the living Cao Cao of today.

  These minor disturbances may not be worth worrying about for now, but what really concerns Old Yuan is the First Division guarding Beijing. Most of its officers and soldiers are bannermen who only recognize Yuan as their lord. This problem has been troubling him since his comeback, and no one would want an unreliable armed force that could threaten their life to exist under their nose! As for disbanding or transferring them by force, it's not practical; if Yuan really did this, those spineless princes from the Imperial Clan Party might actually go crazy. These second-generation nobles have no other skills except for causing trouble and stirring up chaos in Beijing, which would greatly impact their own plans to usurp the throne.

  However, now this problem that made Yuan Shikai sleepless at night has been thoroughly solved. Yang Du, the military advisor with a dog's head, has come up with a clever plan for him. The method is simple and straightforward: just have someone secretly transfer the weapons and ammunition of the First Division. Without their weapons, these banner people are no different from ordinary civilians, so naturally there's nothing to fear about them causing any more trouble.

  With this clever move, the big stone that had been weighing on Yuan Shikai's heart finally fell to the ground. He had just instructed his subordinates to take action and hadn't even had time to feel pleased with himself when his son burst in, shouting, and ruined the good mood he had been enjoying for days.

  But as it concerns the Hubei front line, Yuan Shikai had to pay attention, he waved his hand and signaled others to withdraw.

  "What defeat? I haven't received any report, what are you yelling about, Keding'er?" Yuan Shikai had been an official for a long time, and even when he was losing his temper, his words were still calm and composed.

  Yuan Keding, who was familiar with Old Yuan's temperament, knew that his father was really angry as soon as he heard the news. He shrunk his neck and hastily said in a low voice, "The newspaper says that the Yudaomen railway station in Hankou was blown up by the rebels, our army at the Hubei front line has lost its supplies, and it's estimated that the war will be delayed again."

  After finishing speaking, he handed the newspaper to his father, Yuan Shikai, across the table with both hands. Yuan Shikai took it over and looked at it carefully, but the result was different from what Yuan Keding had expected. Not only did he not get angry, but after a while, he even laughed.

  Yuan Kedding was somewhat surprised: "Why is Father laughing? Could it be that this news is false?"

  Yuan Shikai waved his hand and said, "The news should be true. A few days ago, Hua Fu sent a telegram to me saying that the Revolutionary Army had counterattacked Hankou, although they were defeated, but the ammunition stored at Yubaomen was almost all used up, asking me to allocate another batch to him. I thought it was strange at the time, but now that I think about it, it shouldn't be fake. Your loyal and patriotic uncle seems to have suffered a great loss in Hankou! Haha!"

  "Ah, then Lord Feng is intentionally deceiving Father. How can this be?" Yuan Keding suddenly understood, but thought of another aspect of the problem.

  Yuan Shikai smiled and shook his head: "Come here, my foolish son, do you know the four most important words for being an official?"

  Yuan Keding stood inside the table, standing beside his father and thought for a moment before saying: "Loyal and dedicated? Promotion and wealth?"

  Yuan Shikai's eyes slanted, and he gently patted Yuan Keding's head: "Wrong, it's deceiving the superior and fooling the inferior."

  "I've already told him that Feng Guofeng is in charge, and now the supplies in Beijing are also tight, so it's impossible to transfer them. Hehe, good, isn't he eager to eliminate the rebellion and protect the Qing dynasty? Without supplies, I wonder what he will use to eliminate those rebels." Yuan Shikai's original intention was to pretend to fight, nurture the bandits, and force the Qing emperor to abdicate. But this Feng Guozhang wanted to learn from Zeng Guofan and actually fought, defeating the people's army in Hankou without authorization. At that time, Yuan Shikai was really afraid that Feng Guozhang would accidentally wipe out the people's army, so after severely reprimanding him for his reckless advance, he immediately sent Duan Qirui to take over Feng Guozhang's military power overnight. As for Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai issued an order appointing him as the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard. The order is now in Duan Qirui's hands, and I wonder if Duan Qirui should have arrived in Xinyang by now? Old Yuan thought to himself."

  However, the key is not here. Yuan Shikai looked at the newspaper and thought of another problem: "Foolish child, take a closer look, this newspaper is indeed a Westerner's plaything, but it's a good thing. Compared to those self-proclaimed gentlemen who don't do practical things, the censors are much more useful. With these newspapers, you can know what people below are thinking and doing, and you can also bypass the lower-level officials to know the truth of the matter. In this way, we who are in high positions will not be deceived by those below, and national affairs can be handled well."

  "But Father, would those below dare to deceive us? Are they not afraid of being exposed and dismissed from office?"

  Looking at Yuan Keding, this foolish son seems to really not understand. Old Yuan sighed and thought that he had been clever all his life, but somehow raised such a mediocre child.

  "In this world, there is no true or false, only what the superior wants to hear and what they don't. When you're in a position of power, the promotion and demotion of those below you all depend on your whim. Unless absolutely necessary, they wouldn't dare tell lies, but they also wouldn't dare tell the truth. All they can do is try to please you, flatter you, and say what you want to hear. If you want to hear the truth, they'll say it's true; if you want to hear a lie, they'll say that too. The problem is that while lies won't kill you, if you really believe them, disaster will strike. But with this newspaper, things are different - they don't rely on us for food, so they can say whatever they see. That's the truth. This is why I've always told you to read more books and newspapers, it's all about understanding this."

  Yuan Keding's eyes rolled around and seemed to have grasped the key point.

  "Alright, go ahead and instruct them to send me a copy of the Xizheng Times every issue from now on." Yuan Shikai felt that he had successfully taught his son, and his mood improved greatly. However, he did not expect that several years later, his own son would come up with a clever trick to deceive him, this old father, by creating fake newspapers, truly playing a trick on him.