At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the Marines who had been busy all morning could finally rest for a while.

Xiao Weiran walked back to the position with a kettle in one hand and a scone wrapped in lotus leaves in the other. Around him, shirtless and sturdy men were snorting and nibbling on flatbread, and the construction site of thousands of square meters was filled with the sound of chewing bread.

Sitting on the sandbag, he bit the lid of the pot with his teeth and poured a large mouthful of light salt water on his head. Xiao Weiran frowned and swallowed a few bites, and spit out the rest. After digging the soil on the official road for several hours, the originally flat and solid ground was dug up unsightly, and there was no bird smell in the mouth when I sweated. It's as if there's a bottomless pit in the stomach, and you can swallow up as much water as you drink into it.

The cake in his hand was still steaming, but Xiao Weiran really had no desire to eat. Turning his head slightly, Bao Xinyi and Bao Da Platoon Leader were eating flatbread in a big gulp, and when he saw Xiao Weiran looking at him, he glared at him: "What are you doing, you don't want to eat cakes, then give me food." As he spoke, he reached over and prepared to exploit his men.

Xiao Weiran hurriedly brought the cake to the other side of her body: "No, no, I'll eat it." ”

Under pressure from the platoon leader, he had no choice but to open the lotus leaf wrap, revealing a cake sprinkled with spices. In order to whet the appetite of the soldiers, the ship's cooks did not hesitate to pour a thick layer of pepper and cumin on top of the dough, and added chili powder mixed with the flour. When baked at a high temperature of hundreds of degrees, the aroma of spices blends into every corner of the dough, exuding an attractive aroma all the time.

"If the people of the Ming Kingdom want to eat such good cakes, they have to be a big family." While hypnotizing herself, Xiao Weiran tried hard to nibble on the scones, and used willpower to force herself to swallow the food in her mouth.

"Salute!" The voice of his friend Shen Le sounded behind him, Xiao Weiran subconsciously stood upright, turned around and looked behind.

The object of Shen Le's salute was his own regiment leader, and he was smiling and saluting Shen Le, and then patted Shen Le's shoulder: "How are you eating?" ”

Shen Le grabbed the cake with one hand, and didn't know where to put it with the other, and after the salute, he was a little overwhelmed and carried it behind his back. Hearing Liu Chaoen's words, he replied in a daze: "Report, my mouth is too dry to eat." ”

Liu Chaoen and a young man in an army uniform beside him laughed. Xiao Weiran wrapped the cake in lotus leaves and put it on the ground, while quietly looking at the army.

The army—Xiao Weiran found out that it was actually a lieutenant colonel, with a higher rank than Commander Liu—and said to Shen Le with a smile: "The mung bean syrup has been boiled on the ship, and it will be able to be brought down soon." ”

After speaking, the lieutenant colonel turned to Xiao Weiran again, looked at him with a slight frown for a while, and then smiled: "You are Xiao Weiran?" ”

Xiao Weiran hurriedly saluted: "Hello sir, I'm Xiao Weiran." ”

"Oh, hello." The lieutenant colonel stretched out his hand and shook hands with Xiao Weiran, "I didn't dare to confirm that it was you just now, I haven't seen you for a long time, has the matter of your sister's school been resolved?" ”

"Report, my sister went to school in Keelung when school started in the spring." Xiao Weiran bowed slightly with some emotion. As he was talking, Bao Xinyi's loud voice suddenly came from behind: "Hey, Weiran, do you still have water?" ”

Xiao Weiran hurriedly raised his head and found that the lieutenant colonel in front of him had a playful smile on his face. He tilted his head to the right, crossed Xiao Weiran's head and looked at Bao Xinyi who was walking behind, and said with a smile: "Hey, isn't this Captain Bao Xinyi?" ”

Bao Xinyi, who was walking over with a big grin, was stunned, his hands that were still pulling his belt after the water were frozen on his waist, his grinning mouth trembled a few times, and he squeezed out a sentence: "I'm not Bao Xinyi, you admit it..."

Xiao Weiran laughed out loud, and the lieutenant colonel in front of him was also happy, and slowly walked towards Bao Xinyi: "What, even the name has to be changed when you see me?" ”

Bao Xinyi laughed dryly a few times, and looked at the lieutenant colonel who slapped his hand on his shoulder without smiling: "You were the platoon commander when I left, why did I come back this time to see that you are still the platoon commander?" ”

Liu Chaoen stood by and watched the joke, and added: "In April, Bao Xinyi was promoted to company commander, but he failed in the company test (Note 1) and was beaten back as a platoon commander. ”

The lieutenant colonel sighed: "You are really a talent, Bao Xinyi." Twenty-seven or twenty-eight this year, I remember that your battalion commander Lin Yiming only turned twenty-eight this fall, right? You're not older than him, are you? I said can you fight for some energy, you are still a platoon commander at such an age, and you regiment commander Liu have no light on his face. When I was in Japan, I heard that there was a man who was mixed up as a captain in the naval and land wars and was still a platoon commander, and at first I was a little unconvinced, until I heard that you had been promoted to captain, and now I believe it. ”

Bao Xinyi's face flushed, and he looked left and right and was speechless. Fortunately, the lieutenant colonel did not continue to train him, leaving a sentence: "I will be in southern Liaoning for the rest of the year, you had better become a company commander within this year, don't stay where you are at the age of 30 and stay where you are." After that, the lieutenant colonel and Liu Chaoen left briskly together, walking towards the artillery that had been dragged into the position.

After the two walked away, Xiao Weiran cautiously inquired with Bao Xinyi: "Platoon commander, who is that lieutenant colonel?" ”

Bao Xinyi turned his head viciously, lowered his voice and shouted: "It's the previous head of the regiment, the former boss of Liu Tuan!" ”

Xiao Weiran let out an "oh" and hurriedly sneaked away while Bao Xinyi was not paying attention. Bao Xinyi was criticized by his old boss and his current boss, and it is estimated that he has suffered a psychological blow, so he should not be caught by him as a punching bag.

The picture turned to the other side, and after I finished training Bao Xinyi's hob meat, I went to the artillery position a few hundred meters away with Liu Chaoen.

This time, the artillery position was set up directly west of the new golden city. Jiannu did not continue the offensive after the Mongol cavalry was annihilated, a large number of baggage troops outside the city withdrew to Xinjin, and the baggage troops on the north and south flanks fled for their lives in the direction of moving away from us, among which Jiannu who fled south would be annihilated in the field by the two battalions that broke through Shiheyi.

The heavy artillery battalion attached to the 1st Regiment was transferred from Taiwan to be responsible for the shelling of Xinjin, and this battalion was specially incorporated into the regiment for the guillotine operation. It is noteworthy that the heavy artillery battalion was temporarily equipped with an experimental 75-mm howitzer, a type of artillery that was formalized only last month and produced only in early June, firing flowering shells filled with yellow explosives.

When Liu Chaoen and I walked to the artillery position, Yang Tianjing, the battalion commander of the regiment's field artillery battalion, was communicating with the gunners of the heavy artillery battalion. As they spoke, they aimed the howitzer, which had been dragged down the sand track to land, at Xinjin, a kilometer away – a distance far away in the days of breech guns, and solid shells would lose their accuracy and kinetic energy after flying so far.

However, since Miss 75 (Note 2) is a howitzer that uses chemical energy to kill targets, this is completely unnecessary. As a result, the Jiannu on the Xinjin City Wall could only watch the heavy artillery battalion build positions in places they couldn't hit, and they measured the distance and adjusted the elevation angle of the artillery without hurry.

Seeing us coming, Yang Tianjing greeted us and said, "Regiment commander, this kind of artillery is too powerful. ”

"yes, I know." I thought to myself, I know it's powerful, and I don't need to say more, "Do you understand how howitzers work?" ”

He paused for a moment and replied: "I basically understand, the structure is not complicated, it is still a smoothbore gun." The main difficulty is in the shells, I only heard a rough idea, as long as I have a model of the shells to show me, I should be able to figure it out in a day or two. ”

As we were talking, the commander of the heavy artillery battalion, Major Zhou Xun, came over and saluted us: "Sir, the artillery is ready, do you want to fire?" ”

"Let's shoot." I glanced down at my watch, and the time was 10:57. Looking up into the distance, flags fluttered on the Xinjin City Wall, "Battalion commander, pull up your Aosong cannon." ”

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At 13 o'clock in the afternoon, Shiheyi. Chen Shangqi came out of the house with a rifle on his back. Half of the wooden house was destroyed by shelling, and the remaining half of the structure was still in flames. In order to get out of the dilapidated house, he had to carefully lower his body and nimbly walk through the doorway that had been burned into charcoal.

On the street outside the house, the whole team of troops had finished resting, and the battalion commander rode on his horse to inspect the officers and soldiers. The 4th Battalion of the Army, which broke through Shiheyi, was assembled as a company, with more than 200 Baoyi and Jiannu prisoners in between. They were tied together by ropes, and stood together under the watchful eye of the Ao-Song soldiers.

"Lao Chen, did you find anything good?" Seeing Chen Shangqi coming out of the house with a head of charcoal ashes, his instructor asked him with a grin.

"Find a hammer." Chen Shangqi said angrily, "I turned it out for less than two taels of silver, and I blinded Lao Tzu's eyes, and the white armor didn't wear silver on my body." ”

The company that was close to him burst into laughter, Chen Shangqi smiled bitterly and waved his hand, standing at the front of the team. The battalion commander riding a tall horse rode over and said loudly: "Comrades, the Jiannu under the new golden city are fleeing to us!" Let's talk about it, do we want to send this head to the door? ”

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The Jiannu who were caught in the middle raised their heads in horror and looked at the Australian and Song soldiers around them who raised their hands and cheered. It took less than two hours for these young people to completely annihilate more than 700 Jiannu in Shiheyi, and their fighting spirits were high, and their eyes showed a desire for military exploits.

Note 1: This is the abbreviation of "Company Officer Examination".

Note 2: This is the nickname given to the Type 1630 75mm howitzer in the army, and it was later used to refer to her improved version, the Type 1640 75mm rapid-fire gun.