Liu Xiao and more than a dozen other officers and commanders stood on the high platform in front of the command department of the enemy's artillery array, overlooking the officers and men of the Fourth and Sixth Regiments who were cleaning the battlefield below the position, happily scanning the artillery pieces on the wide position, and constantly praising An Yi beside him.

Xu Tingyao excitedly told everyone: "At least nearly 10,000 enemies were annihilated in this battle, especially Huang Qixiang's 36th Regiment achieved brilliant results, all occupied the east and west artillery positions, captured more than 400 enemies, captured no less than 140 artillery pieces of various types, and more than 1,000 officers and soldiers who participated in the night attack achieved great results but lost less than 40 people, which was really the biggest victory since the Northern Expedition, and there was also a great contribution of our Second Division!" ”

After counting the results of the battle, Hu Zi strode in front of Liu Xiao, put his legs together and saluted vigorously: "Report to the division, the position occupied by our department has captured a total of 46 French mountain guns, 24 German-made Krupp 03 field guns, and 26 Hanyang imitation mountain guns, after entering this position, more than 360 enemies have been annihilated, including seven enemy generals, all kinds of shells, guns and other captured have been handed over to the brothers of the fifth regiment for counting, over!" ”

"Excellent! It's remarkable! ”

Liu Xiao rarely used two very words, and looked at the beard covered with gunsmoke and enemy blood stains with appreciation: "Take a break...... You fought very well, and thirty brothers killed countless enemies without any casualties, and you occupied the main artillery position in one fell swoop before the friendly troops, creating the first major capture of our army since its establishment. Halfway through the road just now, Zhang Fakui, commander of the 12th Division of the friendly army, not only did not blame you for changing the target of the attack without authorization, but also said with great appreciation that you fought well and intelligently, which made the brothers of the 12th Division and the 36th Regiment very impressed, and they had to reevaluate the combat strength of our 2nd Division. This battle has brought out the military prestige of our second division, and the confidence and confidence of our 5,200 brothers. ”

At this time, Jiang Dingwenle, the commander of the fifth regiment, ran over: "All the counts have been completed, a total of more than 5,400 shells of all kinds, and 471 long and short guns have been captured. ”

Everyone happily pointed and laughed, but An Yi motioned to Lao Sichuan and several brothers to bring two large boxes of silver dollars, a tiger head general seal, seven loads of opium cigarette paste, four special opium smoking guns inlaid with gold and jade, two Beiyang general swords, several large military maps and a basket of documents:

"Division, this is what we captured in the enemy headquarters, please take a look. It is a pity that the important generals of the enemy army and the two armored trains have all run away, if the subordinates and others are lucky, they can take the two armored trains, and the large-caliber guns equipped with one or two hundred millimeters on them will be able to blast a bloody road for our division all the way north. ”

The chiefs shouted happily, and Liu Xiao, Hu Shusen, and the others glanced at each other, all satisfied and relieved by An Yi's honesty and discipline.

The two saw Jiang Dingwen come forward and pick up a few opium smoking guns worth thousands of gold and couldn't put them down, and several regimental and battalion commanders surrounded the saber and two boxes of oceans, smiled helplessly, and after a little discussion, Hu Shusen ordered loudly:

"Everyone, slow down, bring me those two official knives first."

Hu Shusen took the knife handed by the adjutant, looked at it with pity, handed it to Liu Xiao and Xu Tingyao, who liked swords, respectively, and ordered several staff officers to put away the seals, maps and documents, and pointed to other items and said loudly: "Two boxes of oceans will be handed over to the division headquarters for disposal, and other items will be temporarily kept by the Fifth Regiment, and Regiment Commander Jiang will ......."

"To ......"

Jiang Dingwen knew that the cigarette paste and a few cigarette guns were his own, so he was not happy, and he was so happy that the big cap on his head shook one after another.

Hu Shusen said solemnly: "All artillery, ammunition, and light and heavy weapons must be evenly distributed among the regiments, and you must not eat more than you occupy." After the brothers of the fourth and sixth regiments finished cleaning up the battlefield, they were immediately distributed, and then rushed to the predetermined camp in Xianning. ”

"My subordinates understand! Haha......"

Jiang Dingwen smiled with satisfaction, thinking that he couldn't occupy all of them according to the routine, but now that my fifth regiment occupies the opportunity of the near water, and has collected dozens of French goods that are new, with a much better rate of fire and surname, it will be useless even if the other two regiments are talking nonsense.

Who knew that Hu Shusen was very shrewd, and led a few operational staff officers to let Jiang Dingwen lead him to see all kinds of artillery, and said that it should be distributed according to the principles of reasonableness, unity, and convenient logistics supply, which immediately messed up Jiang Dingwen's wishful thinking.

Liu Xiao saw An Yi and Hu Jialin beside him smiling with no sense of loss, and he was very relieved to the two tiger generals who were open-minded and took care of the overall situation. Liu Xiao thought for a while, turned to An Yi and whispered:

"I have arranged the station of your engineer battalion at Shuanghe Bridge, which is more than a kilometer southwest of Xianning, where there is a hot spring, which is very suitable for you to rest. After two consecutive days of fighting, your officers and men suffered considerable losses from exhaustion, so your wounded soldiers should stay in the logistics hospital at Guantangyi for treatment and recuperation, and the other companies and platoons followed the division headquarters north after an hour. When you arrive at the Xianning camp, you immediately send the war report to you, and we will reward you with the more than 1,000 brothers and a large number of weapons you brought back last time, and I will personally issue a new appointment to you and Hu Jialin, and reward you with 10,000 yuan at a time. Your merits are seen by the whole master, and no one is jealous. ”

"Thank you for the cultivation of the master!"

An Yi excitedly held his head high and saluted respectfully.

Liu Xiao patted An Yi's shoulder: "You lead your troops to go with me." ”

"Yes!"

After An Yi finished answering, he took advantage of Liu Xiao's walk to the position, looked nervously at the left side of the headquarters, and saw Lao Sichuan and Lu Xiongle running out of the corner of the house, squatting next to the two enemy corpses, pulling up the deceased's clothes and wiping the blood on his hands.

An Yi was very satisfied with these two veteran platoon commanders who were loyal and brave in battle, but full of stealing chickens and dogs, and secretly made up his mind that no matter what, he would let his two illiterate fierce generals be promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, otherwise I don't know when similar promotion opportunities will come again in the future.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, more than 400 brothers in the Anyi camp lived in the best hot spring camp under the envious eyes of the whole division, and they were together with the division headquarters, giving priority to everything, and the brothers who enjoyed the rich food and many preferential treatment for the first time were deeply proud.

After eating the belated lunch, An Yi and Hu Zi led more than 20 platoon commanders, company deputies, instructors, and eight meritorious soldiers to soak in the hot spring next to the barracks, smoking comfortably while discussing how to repay the merits.

The conscientious Yin Jinan soaked half of his body in warm water, and his upper body lay on the stone slab by the pool, recording everyone's opinions one by one.

After An Yi asked Shi Junren and Chang Baogen, the two new brothers who participated in the night attack, he made a decisive decision after a little thought:

In view of the fact that the 12 brothers who participated in the night attack were all soldiers of no less than two years, and that they were brave and tenacious in this battle, and that they had made outstanding achievements, and that the 12 light machine guns were so old that they could fight smartly, they should all be added to the existing foundation, and the second class should be promoted to the first class, and the first class should be promoted to the first class. Anyway, before that, no one knew what the military rank of these twelve brothers was, so they should report to the division headquarters as high as possible; Another one, Shi Junren, Chang Baogen and Zhan Junze, the three brothers, are now acting platoon commanders, if they don't take the opportunity to be promoted to warrant officer this time, how will they lead troops to fight in the future?

An Yi's words were unanimously agreed by the brothers, Shi Junren and Chang Baogen were moved to tears, the two of them were stupid and didn't know how to express themselves, they stood up and wanted to say a few words of gratitude but didn't know how to say it, but let the brothers point to the dangling eggs and laugh.

The two squatted into the water, so excited that their hands and feet were at a loss and their faces were flushed, and they almost didn't cut open their chests on the spot to let An Yi see their brave loyalty to the death.

After having some dinner at will, An Yi, Hu Zi and Yin Jinan, who were wandering around the camp with cigarettes, suddenly received a report from the sentry that a friendly general led seven or eight captains on horseback to visit, and was waiting in front of the camp gate at this time.

An Yi thought about it for a while, didn't know who it was, took his beard and walked through the grove with Yin Jinan to the camp gate to greet him, and saw Huang Qixiang, who was talking to his subordinates with his back hand, changed into a brand-new general uniform, and immediately understood that this old brother had been promoted to the rank of firing line:

"Brother Xiang, it turned out to be you, haha...... Little brother salutes you! Come on, beard, Jinan, let's salute the general together! ”

Huang Qixiang and the brothers who were all promoted to the next level laughed, and said that An Yi was really as quirky and witty as the legend, and had the experience of fighting side by side with An Yi, and the brothers naturally felt extremely cordial when they met at this time, not to mention that An Yi and the boss of his four armies still had such a deep relationship, and gradually everyone naturally regarded An Yi as their own brother.

Huang Qixiang stepped forward and gave An Yi a punch, laughed and scolded, and asked the adjutant to send a heavy small sack:

"Xiao Yi, you have made outstanding achievements in the battle of Tingsi Bridge, although the entire battle plan was formulated by me, and the main force of the night attack was mainly based on our 36th Regiment, but all your suggestions and the heroic performance of your unit in the battle have been written and submitted in detail in the report, and the contributions of you and your second division have been recorded by the headquarters and will be commended. Due to the urgency of the war in his department, the foolish brother couldn't have a good chat with you, so he made a special trip to show his gratitude before pulling out the camp and sent some captured military funds. ”

Without waiting for An Yi to be modest, Li Hansoul, deputy of the 36th Regiment, laughed: "Xiao Yi, you guy is really a ghost!" It was said that your troops would attack the enemy's left flank artillery position, but as a result, your kid actually lost his hair halfway and killed the main position of Sunjialing like crazy, causing Lao Tzu to temporarily turn around and only occupy the left flank artillery position. If it weren't for the fact that this trip was quite captured and all of them were good guns, Lao Tzu would not be finished with you. ”

The brothers laughed, and An Yi hurriedly defended: "Brother Li, forgive me!" When the fight was confused, the younger brother suddenly heard his platoon commander shouting, saying that the artillery fire that shelled our Luogang position at noon yesterday and caused more than 600 casualties was fired from the Sunjialing position.

Fortunately, most of the more than 2,000 defenders in the Sunjialing position fled when they heard such fierce gunfire and roars, otherwise the junior brother was only thirty people, and he would not even be enough to plug the teeth of the people, and it is estimated that he would have died a long time ago, where would he have the opportunity to stand here and meet with your bosses? Fortunately, not long after occupying the position, the brothers of the 5th Regiment of our division quickly came to help, so nothing went wrong. The little brother was scared when he calmed down, and he didn't know how he rushed up after thinking about it, and he didn't even bother to care about how many things were seized, until he entered the camp and soaked in the hot spring water for more than an hour, the little brother's heart was really stable, and the past was unbearable! ”

The brothers listened interestingly and laughed, Huang Qixiang approached An Yi and whispered an explanation, shook hands with Hu Zi and Yin Jinan and hurriedly said goodbye, leaving three thousand oceans and a heroic "See you in Wuhan", and then led his confident brothers to turn over and go.

An Yi watched Huang Qixiang and his entourage leave, and Le Hehe called two company deputies to carry them up to the ocean to follow Yin Jinan back to count, ready to distribute them to the brothers overnight.

At this moment, An Yi saw Liu Xiao's adjutant striding towards the camp gate, and hurriedly greeted him.

Listening to the adjutant's words, An Yi was slightly startled, and hurriedly pulled his beard and called Yin Jinan to hurry to the division headquarters in the east with the adjutant.

Liu Xiao walked to An Yi and the three of them in full view of everyone, and took out three letters of appointment to read out the instructions one by one: An Yi officially became the commander of the engineer battalion of the Second Division, and his military rank was promoted to lieutenant colonel; Hu Jialin was promoted to battalion deputy and his rank was promoted to colonel; Yin Jinan was promoted to battalion staff officer and political instructor, and his military rank was also promoted to colonel. It was also announced that all officers and men of the battalion had been promoted to the first rank, and that the posts of platoon commander and above would be approved in accordance with the battle report and sorting recommendations of the engineer battalion.

After Liu Xiao issued the letter of appointment, Chief of Staff Hu Shusen stepped forward and announced: "The engineer company will be given a second-class meritorious service, and 30 night raid warriors will be given a first-class meritorious service, that is, 10,000 yuan in cash will be issued as an encouragement!" ”

The series of rewards made An Yi and the three satisfied, and the three of them frequently saluted and thanked loudly, and made a brief statement respectively: live up to the expectations of the commanders, and must make persistent efforts to move forward bravely for the revolutionary cause!

Commander-in-Chief Jiang on the sofa was happy in his eyes, and he admired the three young generals from his own lineage very much. He waved his hand under the eager anticipation of more than thirty subordinate generals, and motioned for An Yi and the three of them standing in the center to take a break, but An Yi and the three of them stood up straighter when they saw that the principal was about to give a lecture.

Commander-in-Chief Jiang nodded slightly with satisfaction, and asked left and right in his unhurried official words: "From this point of view, there are many fierce generals in the second division of our army, but they have never had the opportunity to show them. Since the Northern Expedition, the Second Division has been following behind Tang Mengxiao's Eighth Army, and it is always controlled by others and unable to exert itself. ”

The subordinates even claimed that Jiang Dingwen, Hui Dongsheng and other commanders and generals scolded Tang Shengzhi for not being a thing, and everything was hindered and said that he was on guard, so that the second division followed behind the Eighth Army and couldn't take a sip of the residual soup, if it weren't for An Yi in the east of Yueyang City to find that the whole division of the 4,000 defeated army rose up to suppress it, and the division headquarters adjusted in time and decisively sent An Yi, a strange army, to sneak into the mountains to collect the remnants, I am afraid that none of the second division would have been captured.

Commander-in-Chief Jiang nodded frequently, stood up and walked towards An Yi and the others: "Just now, I discussed with Deputy Army Commander Wang Bailing and the commanders of various departments of the military department, in view of your military exploits and contributions since the Northern Expedition, especially your outstanding performance in the Battle of Tingsi Bridge, it has been decided that from now on, your engineer battalion will be named 'Model Battalion', awarded the banner of the model battalion, and give priority to replenishing equipment and personnel within three days, and notify the whole army to commend it. I hope that you will guard against arrogance and rashness, self-denial and hard work, and make new contributions to our army and our revolutionary cause! ”

Bursts of applause rang out, and An Yi and the three of them saluted respectfully and loudly said that they would never live up to the expectations of the principal and the trust and encouragement of the commanders in the army.

The applause stopped, and Hu Shusen, who was deeply satisfied, motioned for An Yi and the three to retreat, but An Yi shook his head slightly, strode to the principal and raised his head to ask for instructions:

"Principal, the students feel that the current battle flags of various armies are different in style and variety, and if they follow the usual rules, they will not be able to reflect the majesty of our army at all, and the students feel that it is better to write a few more words on the flags awarded by the military department."

"Oh? You kid always has a ghost idea, I'll listen to it, and if it makes sense, I'll satisfy you. Commander-in-Chief Jiang looked at An Yi with interest.

An Yi replied loudly: "The students feel that the new flag of the headquarters should follow the colors and styles of the battle flag of our First Army, and add the six big characters of 'Second Division of the First Army' in a conspicuous position of the battle flag. ”

The surrounding generals applauded loudly, and the commander-in-chief nodded frequently with great satisfaction.

An Yi's sentence of "never forget the roots" made the generals in the hall extremely comfortable, and also brought huge benefits to An Yi's department in the future battle, even many old foxes in the hall who have been immersed in silver officialdom for many years were also amazed by An Yi's statement, but seeing An Yi's frankness and purity, he couldn't tell for a while whether this guy was unintentionally planting willows or intentionally planting flowers......

(To be continued)