The next morning, Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, sent a telegram of commendation to Tang Shengzhi's breakfast table, in addition to praising the brilliant achievements of the Left Column and the Eighth Army, he left the following sentence at the end of the telegram:

The Seventh Army said that the hard fighting was very costly, and after the headquarters repeatedly weighed the plan to transfer Liu Xiao's division to the reserve of the Seventh Army, I hoped that my brother would take advantage of the victory to attack, and he would lead his troops to the predetermined battlefield south of Tingsi Bridge as soon as possible, and he would be able to defeat the enemy.

Before Tang Shengzhi could figure out the deep meaning of Lao Chiang's telegram, his staff officers urgently came to report: A call from the headquarters that the inspection group led by General Gallen, the head of the advisory group, would arrive at our army's garrison by special train at noon to offer condolences. In addition, the special train dispatched by the headquarters of the right column from Puqi is about to arrive at the Chengdong Station, and Liu Xiao, commander of the Second Division of the First Army, has led Chief of Staff Hu Shusen to the front hall, saying that he has received an urgent order from the headquarters to pull out the camp and go north, urgently support General Li Delin's headquarters, and have come to bid farewell to the military seat!

Tang Shengzhi took the telegram and looked at it again and again, handed it to Liu Wendao on the opposite side and asked in a low voice: "What does Brother Yongqing think of this matter?" ”

Liu Wendao handed the finished telegram to the staff officer, waved his hand to let the staff officer step back, gently wiped the corners of his mouth with a snow-white napkin, and explained slowly:

"It's very simple, our unit has been saying that due to the scarcity of boats and the difficulty of crossing the river, the progress of the whole army has been delayed by one and a half days than the established time, and the Seventh and Fourth Armies under the command of Li Delin have made rapid progress since the start of the war, and none of them have not fought. The 7th and 4th armies were by this point exhausted divisions, and could no longer advance under the powerful artillery fire of the Northern Army.

It is estimated that the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army was anxious in his eyes, so he sent such an important person as Gallen to urge our army to rush to the battlefield as soon as possible in the name of condolences. As for the urgent transfer of Liu Xiao's second division to the battlefield, there can only be two explanations: one is that Li Delin's Seventh Army, which is relatively weak, really needs the support of Liu Xiao's division, and the other is that Commander-in-Chief Jiang has lost patience when he sees that his descendants are doing nothing behind our army, or a combination of the above two points, but everyone is unwilling to delve into them. ”

"It makes sense, then let's go out to meet Liu Xiao together, we have worked together for a long time, we should start and finish well, haha!" Tang Shengzhi laughed, slowly stood up and motioned to the adjutant to hand over the special general's hat.

At the Yanglousi Railway Station, the engineer battalion of the Second Division, which had just been full and had no time to rest, was arranged to take the second train to the station together with the divisional departments.

Since the first extended train carrying the three main divisions had already departed 20 minutes earlier, and the meagre artillery unit had also gone north by land with the automobile company, the 500 officers and men of the An Yi battalion, 25 horses, and engineer baggage had successfully boarded a special train with 13 wagons and headed for Guantangyi, 60 kilometers to the northeast.

An Yi had just chatted with the staff officer of the division headquarters on the platform and learned that Liu Xiao, the division seat, had called the principal overnight last night, bitterly complaining about the despicable behavior of the insatiable Eighth Army in attempting to rob halfway, and the principal called back an hour later, telling the Second Division to prepare for departure, so he had an order to go north before dawn.

An Yi also heard that the headquarters of General Li Zongren of the right column was located in Guantangyi, which was only nine kilometers away from Tingsi Bridge, the second railway bridge on the Hanchang Railway.

The steam train crawls like a snail, like an elderly asthma patient, and it took four hours to cover the 56-kilometre journey.

The train arrived at Quanhongsi Station and stopped, the division headquarters ordered the staff officer to blow a hurried whistle to get off the train, and An Yi, who jumped off the train, took out the map and carefully checked it to know that this place was still 4.2 kilometers away from the original destination station Guantangyi Station, and 13 kilometers away from the main battlefield of Tingsi Bridge, where the sound of gunfire kept coming.

After everyone got off the bus and assembled, deputy division commander Xu Tingyao came to An Yi's side with several operational staff officers, and ordered An Yi to lead his troops to Yanjiawan, five kilometers to the east, to set up camp, and asked the engineer battalion to repair the broken bridge 800 meters north of Yanjiawan before 6:30 in the evening, so as to restore the road traffic between the Seventh Army and the Fourth Army.

The lieutenant colonel's chief of staff handed An Yi a leather cylinder with a diameter of about 10 centimeters and a length of about 90 centimeters, which contained a detailed map of the new combat area and order documents. The lieutenant colonel told An Yi kindly: Pay attention to the enemy's long-range artillery attacks at any time, the highway bridge of more than 30 meters in Yanjiawan was blown up by the enemy's heavy artillery, and the straight-line distance between Yanjiawan and the enemy's artillery position north of the Tingsi Bridge is less than 10 kilometers.

In the end, Xu Tingyao pulled An Yi aside and whispered to him: From now on, the division will face a real fierce battle, and logistics support and ammunition transportation are more important than ever, and Kuang Shimin, commander of the engineer battalion, has received an order to report to the division headquarters yesterday afternoon, and entered the quartermaster department to carry out intense military allocation and connection work, and will no longer serve as the commander of the engineer battalion. At this critical juncture, the division headquarters could not spare time to hold a meeting for this follow-up, and the post of engineer battalion commander was represented by An Yi, and when the war stopped for a while, the division headquarters will confirm the following, hoping that An Yi and the two assistants will not live up to the ardent expectations of the peak.

An Yi thanked and saluted in a low voice, and ordered Hu Zi to lead the brothers of the first and second platoons of the company to take the lead in setting off in the hustle and bustle of the station, clean up the traffic along the way, do a good job of reconnaissance and security, and determine the camping point of the whole camp in Yanjiawan and arrange a guard post.

Hu Zi was ordered to leave, and An Yi turned his horse amid the rumbling cannon sound from the north, and together with Yin Jinan, he led his brothers to set off and quickly marched towards Yanjiawan along the field path on the east side of Quanhong Temple.

In the procession, the veterans were unaware of the rumbling cannonball, and kept joking about the panicked recruits, and finally told the anxious recruits that they should not listen to the rumbling explosions and the screaming sound of cannonballs breaking through the air, but in fact, the landing point of this cannonball is at least three kilometers away from us, and there is nothing to worry about.

An Yi was happy in his eyes, and he was very satisfied with the more than 100 new veterans in his army. These people who have survived countless vicious battles and rely on their rich experience, strong will to survive, excellent physical fitness, and excellent military skills will bring invaluable experience to the entire battalion, greatly enhance the overall combat effectiveness of the headquarters, and play a very good role in passing on the help and guidance.

However, for some stubborn concepts in the hearts of the new veterans and the blind sense of superiority that arises when they enter the battlefield, An Yi feels that it is necessary to make them realize their own shortcomings, and also let the more than 300 brothers who have not been on the real battlefield brought out by himself not to be arrogant, and to establish the confidence of these brothers with practical actions, and show their true skills to these awesome new veterans, so that the new and old brothers in the battalion can learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses and get along more harmoniously.

After making up his mind, An Yi reined in his horse and waited for Yin Jinan, who was behind the team, to catch up, and elaborated on his thoughts, and immediately obtained Yin Jinan's consent.

An hour later, the brothers of the whole battalion came to the north of Yanjiawan Village to camp at the mountain and river bay, and the brothers of the cooking class quickly unloaded their belongings and buried the pot to make rice, Yin Jinan immediately gathered the team without saying a word, and issued an urgent order to the engineer brothers of the second and third companies: the deputy of the second and third companies immediately led their respective squad leaders to rush to the broken bridge in front of them, and measured the damage to the broken bridge and the required workload as quickly as possible, and the rest of the brothers put down their bags and prepared tools under the leadership of their respective instructors, and rushed to the broken bridge within ten minutes to make full construction.

The more than 120 new veterans who had not yet been determined which company to join were dumbfounded, and they did not expect that the commander would give such an urgent order before they had just arrived at their destination and had not eaten their late lunch.

The more than 120 brothers saw that the brothers of the second and third companies had completed their preparations in the blink of an eye, carrying all kinds of strange-shaped tools on their shoulders, and running to the north in a neat line shouting majestic slogans.

An Yi walked up to everyone happily at this time, and easily invited more than 100 brothers to take a look, anyway, there was still more than an hour before the meal, and they all went to see how our second and third brothers worked, which would also be beneficial to the brothers in the future.

Yanjiawan Highway Bridge is a north-south direction of reinforced concrete bridge, the bridge deck is only four meters wide, about 36 meters of span, respectively in the river and the north and south banks of the distribution of three support piers, this is the direct Hubei Province political axe was built a year ago, two days ago in the fierce artillery fire of the two armies was hit by an unexpected large-caliber shell, close to the south bank of the bridge deck was blown up and appeared more than five meters wide irregular fracture, the support pier did not have any damage or looseness.

After on-site investigation and analysis, the company platoon commander led by Yin Jinan was very confident that he would repair the logs and the steel fasteners and connectors carried by the headquarters within three hours. The acquisition of logs is very convenient, the north bank of the hill of more than 300 meters upstream of the small river grows a piece of thick cypress trees, after cutting down and throwing into the river and down the river to reach the broken bridge can be constructed, due to the drought, the depth of the river is only about one meter four, the sandy and gravel riverbed provides the convenience of stable support for the construction, with the bridge deck supported by logs with a diameter of more than 30 centimeters, it can fully withstand the safe driving of five tons of trucks, and the safe use period of at least one year is not accidental.

With Yin Jinan's orders issued one by one, 250 brothers from the 2nd and 3rd companies went to various construction sites and logging sites under the leadership of the squad platoon leader.

Suddenly, several large-caliber shells whistled and fell 500 meters to the northeast, and the huge explosion shook the ground and deafened, and the mud and rocks set off by the explosion shot up and fell overwhelmingly, frightening the 250 construction brothers who were terrified and fled back to the broken bridgehead without their lives, provoking the ridicule of the new veterans who were sitting at the bridgehead majestically.

The explosion was so close and so destructive, it was the first time An Yi faced it, and in fact, he was not lightly frightened, but under the ridicule of the veteran ruffian, An Yi strode onto the broken bridge, pulled out the shell gun, walked to the broken hole, and fired three shots into the sky, finally stopping the brothers who fled back in a panic by the waterside on the shore.

The sound of the explosion was far away, and the three gunshots also made the more than 100 new veterans who were laughing at the bridgehead shut up, and the officers and soldiers of the whole battalion, including the brothers who were on guard on all sides, looked at An Yi in panic.

An Yi put away his gun and shouted at the depressed sappers: "Brothers, you are all brought out by Lao Tzu, from the establishment of our engineer battalion to the present, you have made one after another impressive achievements for the whole army, becoming the pride and model of the whole army, and becoming an example for the whole army to learn!" But look at you now, where do you have a little bit of a revolutionary army? A few shells scared your soul away? You see, the more than 100 old ruffians sitting at the head of the bridge are standing still, and they are laughing at you with their mouths wide open, laughing at your cowardice, laughing at you for being scared by a few shells and losing your eggs! Don't you feel ashamed? In contrast, you are a bunch of soldiers, rice buckets! As soon as I arrived on the battlefield, I was scared of eggs! ”

The brothers were all scolded stupidly by the cruel words that An Yi had never scolded, standing there at a loss, An Yi viciously glanced at the ashamed faces, saw that it was almost there, and then shouted loudly:

"From now until the end of the construction, Lao Tzu will stand on this broken bridge, stay with the brothers, if God does not let the cannonballs fly over, he will blow up Lao Tzu first, but before Lao Tzu dies, the brothers will show Lao Tzu the appearance of a model company of the whole army, so that all the brothers can see your ability, see if you still have eggs! Commencement—"

The guilt-filled brothers no longer had any fear, they all turned around and rushed to the construction sites one by one, and worked lifelessly, one by one the big trees fell under the stunned gaze of more than 100 veterans at the bridge, and the thick ropes flew to break the two ends of the bridge, and a group of components were quickly transported to the bridge deck...... When the first thick log more than six meters long was pushed down the river to the bottom of the broken bridge, An Yi took off his belt and put a gun, threw it to the winter boy on the shore, flew off the five-meter-high broken bridge, and got out of the water to catch the rope thrown by the brothers on the broken bridge and quickly tied the log, and the other brother also jumped off the broken bridge desperately, holding the hammer in one hand and grasping the special steel nails in the other hand and beating it hard.

With An Yi's shout, the brothers on the broken bridge held the rope head and exerted their strength in unison, and the six-meter-long thick log weighing nearly one ton was quickly erected under the concerted efforts of more than 20 brothers, and then was firmly fixed by the brothers on the broken bridge with a special steel sleeve, and the more than 100 veterans at the head of the bridge were stunned and ashamed.

Instructor Huang Yingwu ran on the broken bridge excitedly, opened his voice and led the singing loudly: "Come on, hehe, hehe, if you die, hehe, if you don't do it, I won't do it, he won't do it, fuck off......"

All the fear, shame, remorse and uneasiness were transformed into great strength and pride in a blink of an eye, and the heroic singing of hundreds of people covered up the rumbling explosions not far away, shaking the ups and downs of the river, shaking the hearts of more than 100 new brothers at the bridge, and shaking the hearts of more than 100 new brothers in Yanjiawan, and shaking more than 100 families in Yanjiawan to open the closed doors, and one by one involuntarily walked towards the broken bridge...... Shi Junren, the newly appointed machine gun platoon commander who was deeply moved, stood up with a "whew", stripped off his clothes a few times, and shouted loudly to the more than 100 brothers around him: "Brothers, if you have eggs, go with Lao Tzu-"

In less than a minute, more than 100 new brothers rushed down the embankment and jumped into the water.

Panting, An Yi climbed onto the base of the bridge pier in the middle, wiped the water from his head, and laughed insolently......

(To be continued)