It was three o'clock in the morning when An Yi rode his horse into the south of the city, and he had been thinking about a question all the way: why did Hu Zi insist on sending more than 600 wounded prisoners of the enemy's 11th Division to the special train, and these prisoners all changed into military uniforms with his own reading division logo, was this the nostalgia that Hu Zi couldn't give up in his heart, or was there something else?

"General Yu Jishi of the headquarters, General Hu Zongnan, commander of the First Division, and his entourage arrived in the city at 6:10 in the evening, saying that they came to congratulate and express condolences on the order of the commander-in-chief."

Lu Xiong, the commander of the first battalion of the Reading Force Regiment who guarded the south city gate, reported loudly.

An Yi said "hard work, old Lu", and galloped into the city, followed by the 36th Guards, Lu Xiong looked at the horse team in the distance and grinned, patted the dust on the lieutenant colonel's nameplate on his chest, and then inspected the light and dark posts. This veteran ruffian, who wanted to give the young commander An Yi a dismount from the beginning of the formation of the army in the West Battalion of Guangzhou, has now known more than 1,300 words, and has grown step by step into a brave and experienced middle-level commander, who is deeply respected and loved by the officers and soldiers under his command. He, like Qu Tongyuan, the commander of the second battalion of the Reading Force, and Chang Baofang, the commander of the quartermaster unit, are all ordinary soldiers, and they are of great representative significance among the reading divisions who use only talents.

In the main hall of the county government, Yu Jishi, Hu Zongnan and others, who heard the sound of horses' hooves, put down their teacups and looked out of the door, and saw An Yi turn over and dismount and run up the steps, and hurriedly greeted them.

Yin Jinan waited for An Yi to greet more than ten generals of the condolence group, quietly walked to An Yi's side, pointed to his dirty and damp clothes, and signaled him to wash quickly.

An Yi looked down at the mud-stained clothes and pants and was immediately happy, and hurriedly apologized to everyone, returned to the backyard and took a hot shower, and quickly changed into clean clothes with the help of the orderlies and returned to the front main hall.

The brothers humbled each other and sat down successively, as the hosts, An Yi, Yin Jinan, and Yang Bin raised their wine glasses and toasted the guests three times, and Hu Zongnan returned three glasses on behalf of Yu Jishi, who was not good at drinking, and the banquet was officially started.

An Yi had just sat down, and Yu Jishi, whose face was flushed, took out a handwritten letter from Principal Jiang from his pocket and solemnly handed it to An Yi: "The principal is very happy, I couldn't sleep after receiving your second message the night before, so I wrote this letter overnight for Brother Yu to bring to you." ”

An Yi quickly stood up when he heard this, stretched out his hands and respectfully accepted the letter, and just wanted to open it when he saw Yu Jishi shaking his head slightly, and immediately put the envelope in his pocket, raised the wine glass and slowly handed it to Hu Zongnan:

"Senior brother, the younger brother toasts you alone, tomorrow at noon the younger brother's more than 2,000 wounded and a batch of supplies will arrive in Pukou, where the senior brother is stationed, and you have to trouble the senior brother to take care of it, if it is convenient, I will charter a boat for the younger brother and send the brothers who have stabilized their injuries to Nanchang, where the conditions are better, which is conducive to the recovery of the wounded."

Hu Zongnan stood up and raised his glass to touch, drank a glass and motioned for An Yi to sit down: "Your brother doesn't need to be polite, Xiao Yi's demeanor of loving soldiers like a son has always been praised in the army, today you and I will beg me to take care of your wounded soldiers when I see that I have nothing else to say, just by virtue of this, I admire you, big brother, come, big brother toasts you!" ”

"What loves soldiers like sons? Ugly! How old am I? After An Yi finished speaking, he raised his head and ate a cup, put down the cup and ate the food, he was really hungry.

When the brothers heard An Yi's words, they burst into laughter, and Hu Zongnan also realized the problem in his words and couldn't help laughing. In the middle of the road, Yang Chang's Sixth Army took Xuyi Keyu and attacked Hongze; Li Delin's commander Li Delin's Third Route Army was non-stop, and the Third Route forced Xuzhou and so on, and even the news of the Northern Expeditionary Army Liu Xing and Zhang Fakui's troops in Wuhan after the hard battle was very detailed, so that An Yi and the generals under his command had a clear and intuitive understanding of the current progress of the Northern Expedition.

Half-drunk, Hu Zongnan sighed: "This time, the 11th Army and the 4th Army of the Northern Expedition on the Wuhan side have suffered heavy losses!" Every county in the Central Plains has ancient and strong city walls, Zhang Fakui and Tang Shengzhi are still using the original way of attacking Wuchang, my Huangpu Xueyou entered the Central Plains with the army after each battle is the main force, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other famous cities are still far away, hundreds of comrades will return to the soul of nine days, many siblings and smiles are still in the mind, but since then the yin and yang are separated, it is really sad! ”

The banquet immediately fell silent, Yu Jishi smiled reluctantly, and led the topic to the first army of the Huangpu lineage:

"Brother Shoushan doesn't need to be too depressed, looking back at the east, you may be even more gloomy, although my first army is Lianke Hai'an, Qionggang, Jiangyan, Xinghua and other places, but which battle is not extremely tragic? If it weren't for Sun Chuanfang's main force being unable to sustain in mutual attrition, it would be difficult for our First Army to make rapid progress today, especially Liu Jingfu's Second Division, where Xiao Yi was originally located, was basically disabled, and the principal's two priority replenishment regiments of recruits were exhausted.

The younger brother heard that the second division went up to the two generals Jingfu and Yuexiang, to the regimental battalion commander served by my fellow Huangpu classmates, and down to the only more than 1,000 soldiers left in a hundred battles, and there was no one who did not miss Xiao Yi. Everyone at the headquarters privately discussed that the Second Division began to reuse Xiao Yi in the Battle of Quzhou, and fought successively, with low losses, but since Xiao Yi became the first division and separated from the Second Division, the Second Division is now getting worse, with constant setbacks, and the gains outweigh the losses! ”

An Yi hurriedly explained: "Senior brother, you are too much of a junior brother, take the battle of the Five Rivers that just ended, the junior brother's troops also lost one-third of the battle, which made my heart hurt so much that I was about to drip blood." Outsiders only saw how many enemies our division soldiers had annihilated, but few people saw the blood, sweat and lives they had paid in every battle. It's still the same sentence, the little brother's star is all exchanged for a life, although this is suspected of being pedantic, but the little brother is still haunted in his heart, and he can't let go! ”

Hu Zongnan saw that the atmosphere was a little wrong, so he hurriedly laughed and raised his wine glass, drank a glass and asked An Yi in a low voice: "Xiao Yi, do you know the new nickname that the army has given you now?" ”

"Wouldn't it? Nicknames again? The bandit is still in his ears, and this time there won't be a more ugly one, right? ”

An Yi looked at Hu Zongnan in surprise, and the brothers at the two tables next to him listened interestingly, and they all put down their wine glasses and chopsticks and looked over.

Hu Zongnan nodded matter-of-factly: "This is what I heard yesterday when I crossed the river and returned to Nanjing on a business trip, and gathered with Liangzhen (Yu Jishizi) and other brothers, saying that the headquarters generals have been studying many examples of your battles starting from the Fengxin War, and after receiving your third battle report the night before, the headquarters generals focused on analysis and discussion, and finally everyone admired and admired them one by one, and they all thought that your reading force master came and went like the wind, and there was no trace to be found, so General Yin Zusheng was the first to call out' General Fei's reputation, but Minister Chen of the Ministry of Military Affairs thought it was inappropriate, jokingly saying that you are as tough and strong as a wolf, and as fast and cunning as a fox, so what kind of nickname does everyone want to give you? You can't be called a 'little fox' or a 'wolf', can you? ”

Brother Mantang laughed again, An Yi couldn't help but laugh, Hu Zongnan continued to laugh and talk: "It happened that the next morning, General Bai Jiansheng, the commander-in-chief of my second route, rushed to the headquarters to submit the second phase of the action plan...... It's a very chic nickname, it's called 'Flying Fox'! ”

When the brothers heard this, they thought for a while, and applauded continuously, Yang Bin, who was hanging on one arm, said happily that it was very appropriate, and the good-natured Yin Jinan smiled from ear to ear, saying that this nickname is not very nice but can be summarized. Only An Yi was very unhappy, and said loudly that so many generals' nicknames are well-known, what "tiger" and "leopard" are so imposing, even if they are called "wolf", they are better than "fox", let's look at how good is the title of "little Zhuge of Chief Bai"? Why did Chief Bai give me this nickname that is neither male nor female? As a result, the words were again filled with laughter from the brothers.

The banquet dispersed, Yu Jishi and Hu Zongnan entered the large bedroom vacated by An Yi in the backyard, and the personal guards brought by the two stood outside the door in an orderly manner, two of them seemed to have walked out of the north window to smoke intentionally or unintentionally, and An Yi, who had drunk to seven points, saw this scene and quietly ordered Xiao Jiu to go out and be on strict guard, cheering up and drinking tea with the two senior brothers.

Yu Jishi smiled and motioned An Yi to open President Jiang's handwritten letter and take a look, An Yi remembered the letter in his pocket, took out the envelope, opened the seal, and pulled out the letterhead full of two and a half pages, saw the check of 500,000 yuan, looked at Yu Jishi and Hu Zongnan in surprise, and then saw that both of them nodded with a smile and put the check on the table, opened the letter and read it attentively.

After reading it three times, An Yi understood the true meaning of President Jiang's letter, and leaned forward with a little hesitation:

"Two senior brothers, in that case, why don't you simply transfer the junior brother's reading teacher back to the command of the commander of our first army? Unexpectedly, the little brother was confused and fought for so long? Judging from the development of the current war situation, there is no need to gather the strength of the four armies in the middle of the road, and the battlefields on the east and west roads are vast, and we need to enrich the troops! ”

"That's right, we have all seen this, Chief He and General Liu Jingfu called the principal three times, requesting that your reading division be transferred back to the First Route Army, and General Liu Jingfu, who had just been appointed as the acting commander of the First Army for the second time, even suggested that you be appointed as the chief of staff or deputy commander of the First Army, and the commander-in-chief He Jingzhi also agreed with General Liu's opinion, but the principal was very embarrassed!

The commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army, Chief Bai, just did not let go, and quietly transferred your Reading Division to the left flank of the middle road, adjacent to General Li Delin's Third Route Army.

The principal saw this very clearly, so he sent Brother Fool and Brother Shoushan to remind you not to fall into the trap of the Gui family! Yu Jishi made his words very clear.

Hu Zongnan struck while the iron was hot: "Xiao Yi must know, now the armies of the Northern Expedition on the Nanjing side seem to have the same hatred and hatred, but in fact, they are wary of each other and calculate each other. At this juncture, do you think the principal can not be worried?

You kid didn't say anything about the war, Lao Tzu thinks that he is not as good as half of you, but you are extremely lacking in experience, since the Northern Expedition, you An Yi is polite everywhere, willing to suffer, silently endure and work hard, seize a fleeting opportunity to show your superb military talent and command ability, this is why you have the position of major general and division commander today, all of this is your An Yi step by step to fight, no one dares to blush you. With your outstanding military exploits, even if you are appointed as the commander of the first army, it is impeccable, which is why several bosses of our first army have to value your fundamentals, knowing that no one can suppress your talent, it is better to use you well.

From this, you can imagine that other heroes from all walks of life covet you, right? Even Wuhan Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Fakui are full of praise for you, and they can't wait for you to join their camp tomorrow, not to mention Li Delin, who hides but does not reveal it, secretly accumulates strength and quietly develops and grows? You say, in such a situation, can the principal not worry about you? Can we, brothers, not worry about you? ”

An Yi was stunned for a while, and finally shook his head with a dumb smile: "Two senior brothers, you also look down on your little brother too much, right?" Is the little brother the kind of person who shakes his head and tail?

Not bad! The younger brother admires and respects Li Delin and Bai Jiancheng very much, and privately sorts out and studies all the battles commanded by the two of them since the Northern Expedition, but this is only a military study, not any political worship and ideological recognition of the younger brother, and the two senior brothers don't have to worry about the younger brother.

Presumably you also know that the younger brother is not short of money or people, what he lacks is just constant training and experience accumulation, how can he rely on local warlords for the sake of fame? Even if someone else gives him a commander-in-chief, the younger brother will not be tempted, how comfortable is it to fight side by side with the senior brothers?

Besides, people have feelings, and feelings can't be built in a day or two, you two ...... Are you here to disgust me? ”

Hu Zongnan and Yu Jishi looked at each other, then laughed, and the worries in their hearts were swept away, they saw that their little junior brother was still the same little junior brother, and he was still so persistent and arrogant in his bones.

"Report, Bengbu Li Delin Chief called." Yin Jinan didn't know when he came to the door.

"Jinan comes in!"

Hu Zongnan beckoned with a smile: "You said you would come back to take a shower, why is it so long?" ”

Yin Jinan handed the message to An Yi, sat next to Hu Zongnan and explained in a low voice: "I'm sorry, I made my senior brother wait for a long time, and the younger brother took a turn around the group after taking a bath, and the habit can't be changed." ”

An Yi handed the telegram to Yu Jishi: "Chief Li asked me to go to Bengbu? Didn't Chief Bai get over there? If there is any battle plan, just telegraph to my department, and what kind of meeting do I need to go to in person? It's also written in the way of commands, so strange......"

(To be continued)