After yesterday's two rounds of elimination, the model battalion's military skills contest began to enter the crucial final stage; after four competitions, namely, 6 kilometers and 20 kilograms of armed cross-country, 100 meters of chest target shooting, individual bomb crater excavation, and fully armed 600-meter obstacles, the whole battalion, including the newly assigned 300 prisoners and the more than 140 defeated soldiers who had been sporadically attached, completed yesterday's two rounds of preliminaries under the whip of the platoon commander of the fierce veteran company, whether they liked it or not. In the end, there are 367 people left to qualify for the rematch this afternoon.

At half past eight o'clock in the morning, in addition to the more than 100 officers and men of the machine gun company who were on guard in the camp and the 60 officers and men of the guard company who went out to reconnoitre, all the 1,410 new and old officers and men of the battalion gathered outside the gate of the academy and lined up in a neat line in the company to live in the southeast, west, and west of the field, quietly waiting for the arrival of the battalion commander An Yi to issue the order for the competition.

As the loud command of the officer on duty sounded, all the officers and soldiers in the audience were silent, standing majestically, and An Yi, who put on a straight military uniform and hung his left arm, strode into the field accompanied by Hu Jialin, Yin Jinan, Gu Changfeng and other captains.

The warm morning sun gilded An Yi's pale face with golden soft light, his upright body, firm steps and sharp eyes made all the officers and soldiers ignore An Yi's age and forget his injuries, the eyes of the veterans flashed eagerly, and the faces of the recruits were surprised and in awe.

An Yi quietly glanced at the audience, nodded with satisfaction and praised Hu Zi and Yin Jinan's organizational ability in a low voice, and then straightened up his still weak body and walked to inspect it, and everywhere he went, the officers and soldiers stood upright, raised their guns and saluted, and the sonorous spirit unique to the majestic army was unobstructed, and the entire late autumn space suddenly became hot.

An Yi and his lieutenants stopped in unison every time they arrived in front of a formation, listened to the loud report of the commander-in-chief, and solemnly saluted the officers and soldiers.

Returning to the wide high platform in the north, An Yi glanced at the dozen or so stubborn captive officers on the side of the high platform, stopped and ordered Hu Zi and Yin Jinan to be in charge of presiding, and told Lao Chang to move seven or eight more tables and a dozen chairs to the high platform for observation, and then walked to the sixteen captured enemy officers with different expressions, and secretly laughed in his heart that this group of arrogant or restless grandsons did not know the times.

It turned out that the sixteen stubborn and lucky lieutenants hurriedly changed into the clothes of small soldiers when the city was broken, mixed in the middle of the two thousand prisoners, and after being captured, they were not screened out by the guys at the headquarters of the second division after two investigations, and were assigned to the model battalion again. But as soon as he arrived at the model camp, it was completely different, not to mention that the entire camp was heavily guarded, as soon as he entered, he led dozens of veteran ruffians to pull out the sixteen captains one by one, and then interrogated them separately, and then checked them one by one, and soon let these unlucky people have nothing to hide, and sorted out the identities, ranks, and brief resumes of the unlucky ones and reported them to An Yi. In desperation, these unlucky people also showed their prestige when they were officials, regained their lost dignity, and were relatively uncooperative with cold eyes.

Although An Yi was not happy in his heart, he had a smile on his face, stopped, glanced at the group of fanatics who did not want to join his team under the eaves of the corridor one by one, and issued an invitation very politely and sincerely:

"Everyone, how much you have offended in the past few days, please Haihan! I know that many of you are not low in military rank, seniority is deeper than mine, and military age, ability and knowledge are far above mine, so I would like to take this rare opportunity to humbly ask you for advice, please come up and sit down together, observe the military skills competition that our battalion has been planning for a long time and have been able to hold in the past two days, and we will discuss other things after the afternoon competition, please! ”

In the end, in An Yi's sincere smile, Yang Bin, the deputy of the regiment with the highest rank, reached an agreement with his colleagues, followed An Yi and several people fearlessly walked up to the high platform, and stood arrogantly behind the tables and chairs neatly arranged on the stage.

Yang Bin, who was about thirty years old and had thick eyebrows and big eyes, was quite surprised by An Yi's courtesy, hesitated slightly, and led his fifteen brothers to sit down, picked up the tea on the table and drank it unceremoniously, several of them were reluctant to swallow the fragrant and warm tea for a long time, closed their eyes and raised their heads to look extremely intoxicated, and it took a while to swallow this long-lost fragrant tea and sigh in a low voice: I want to drink tea these days and want to go crazy!

An Yi sat very naturally between Yang Bin and the slightly emaciated major named Ye Cheng, Gu Lao Er stood quietly behind An Yi, a pair of slender Dan Feng eyes half open and half closed, as if overlooking the stage of the stage, in fact, he was vigilantly watching the every move of everyone around An Yi, if anyone dared to attack An Yi, I am afraid that just standing up would be cut off by Gu Lao Er, who was extraordinarily martial artistic.

On the field, 80 officers and men selected by each of the four newly formed engineer companies stood solemnly in the center of the four sides of the field, shouldering the heavy task of winning the 500 oceans bonus for their own companies, and all kinds of materials and tools prepared in advance were neatly placed in front of the four teams.

At this moment, the officers and men were all like a taut bowstring and a sharp arrow about to be fired, and they watched intently as their respective company commanders reported to the beard standing in the middle of the field, and only waited for the beard to give the order to launch immediately.

Yang Bin touched his resolute chin full of broken stubble, looked at it again and again, couldn't figure out what was going on, and finally put down his reserve and asked An Yi beside him in a low voice: "May I ask Battalion Commander An, what are the officers and soldiers of the four teams on the field going to do?" ”

An Yi replied in a low voice: "I heard that the Baoding Military Academy, where Lieutenant Colonel Yang studied, has a training ground with a circumference of 450 meters, on which there are obstacles such as runways, deep pits, high walls and narrow three-meter high platforms, so I also want to build a similar simple training ground to see what kind of shape it will be, and I have a good idea in my heart, and if I talk to others about this matter in the future, I will not seem to be lonely." ”

Yang Bin looked at the barbecue field below in surprise, and then turned to An Yi: "The circumference of this barbecue is at least 500 meters, how long does it take to build so many facilities?" ”

An Yi calmly replied: "I don't know the bottom of my heart now, because of the tough battle with you a few days ago, more than half of the engineers of my two companies were killed or wounded, and these four teams of participants are the top ones selected by the four new engineer companies, and among the one hundred and fifty officers and soldiers of each new company, about fifty of them are the surviving veterans brought out by me, and the others are all recruits who have just undergone a few days of basic training, so they are restricted in terms of cooperation and coordination. If my estimate is correct, the game will be over in two and a half hours, and we will have two earthen pits four meters long, three meters wide and two meters deep, two wooden walls three meters wide and two meters high, two single-plank bridges two meters high and six meters long, and two barbed wire fences 70 centimeters long and 5 meters wide from the ground. ”

"It can't be!" Yang Bin said loudly.

An Yi smiled: "Nothing is impossible, or ...... I'll make a bet with you, how? ”

Yang Bin was stunned, looked at An Yi's cunning eyes, and was stunned, snorted and looked at the field in front of him noncommittally.

In less than five minutes, 320 engineer brothers were scattered around the 500-meter-long field, and the sound of flying dust and clanging hammers became loud, and the cheers and laughter of more than 1,000 officers and men watching the battle around the battle shook the sky.

Among the 30 members of the referee team, more than half of them either had white gauze wrapped around their heads or wounded officers and soldiers with their arms hanging from their chests, and each of them was a lucky person who had been going from the establishment of the engineer company to today, and they were experienced and skilled, and they were all the best among the engineers, and they naturally had enough authority to judge the judgment of this kind of small construction in front of them.

Huang Yingwu, the new company commander and instructor of the first company who commanded the construction in the east, was very devoted, he shouted and scolded in the flying dust and gusts of noise, scolded for a long time, licked his dry lips and looked at the third company to the west, when he saw that the figure of the dozen brothers digging the deep pit in the third company was getting shorter and shorter, and the single-plank bridge in front of the deep pit was erected almost at the same time as the single-plank bridge on his side, and in a hurry rushed to the front of the hundreds of brothers watching the battle on the side, begging and pleading, begging for help, and obtaining the consent of nearly 100 of the old brothers, I couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately started singing, dancing and beating the beat, the war song sung by the engineer battalion on the barren mountains and mountains on the border of Hunan and Guangdong in the early days of its fortune sounded again, and more and more brothers joined in the singing, even the officers and soldiers of the machine gun company who were distributed around the guard and the logistics brothers of the battalion headquarters around the high platform could not help but open their mouths and sing loudly, the singing became more and more neat, louder and louder, and the loud and heroic song of the witty and helpless lyrics instantly shook the sky and spread to all directions.

"Come on, hehe, hehe......, hehe

The sixteen officers and prisoners on the stage stared at everything in front of them in great amazement, listening to such a vulgar but very similar song of the labor trumpet, dumbfounded, but An Yi, who was sitting in the middle, laughed happily, scolded one by one, and several brothers who served as orderlies happily came up to add tea, and immediately put down the teapot and squeezed to the front of the side of the high platform to look excitedly in all directions.

Ye Cheng, the staff officer of the captured major sitting on the left side of An Yi, was shocked and sighed, the 27-year-old Ye Cheng graduated from Nankai University with a major in liberal arts education, and was recommended by Chen Yi, the commander of Sun Chuanfang's department, to enter the Anhui Army Officers' Crash Course before going to Yueben for further study, and after graduation, he was assigned to Sun Chuanfang's Zheng Junyan Division as the deputy company deputy of the Reading Regiment, and after three years of hard work, he was just promoted to the staff officer of the Reading Regiment, and in less than a month, he was ordered to come to Fengxin to garrison to assist the Fengxin garrison Lin Tongjiang Brigade in fighting against the revolutionary army.

In the early stage of the previous Shangfu War, only Ye Cheng questioned the defense plan of Shangfu Town of the Lin Tongjiang Brigade, and then fiercely opposed the plan of the deputy brigade commander Zhang Yerong to lead his troops to help, but he could only grit his teeth and shut up, watching the friendly troops of a brigade being eaten away by the Second Division of the Revolutionary Army step by step but could not do anything. In the fierce battle of Fengxin, Ye Cheng served as the former enemy commander in the south of the city, and it was Ye Cheng's command that caused the second division and the fifth regiment to return with heavy casualties and no success, if the north of the city was not breached, he would not have become An Yi's guest today.

Seeing that the blueprint drawn by An Yi was showing its prototype little by little, Ye Cheng, who was open-minded and had always had a sense of identity with Sanming Cooking, pondered for a long time, and finally lowered his arrogant head like Yang Bin, who was fluctuating, and turned his face and asked kindly: "Camp Commander An, can I ask you two questions?" ”

"Don't ask for anything, I'm going to ask you for advice, haha! Although Major Ye said it bluntly, the younger brother knew everything. An Yi, who was in a good mood, looked at Ye Cheng with a smile on his face.

Ye Cheng smiled awkwardly and asked, "In the past two days, I heard that your skill competition is for the purpose of selecting top soldiers, I want to know what your engineer battalion is doing to select top soldiers?" In addition, I heard that it was the model battalion of the revolutionary army that attacked our city, and there was a banner of the model battalion planted on the high platform in the center of the field. ”

After Ye Cheng finished speaking, the surrounding officers and prisoners should all come over, and Yang Bin was also curious.

An Yi laughed: "First of all, I have to explain to you that the battle flag of the 'Model Battalion' and the title of the Model Battalion on the high platform were proposed by the Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army Jiang, approved by the Military Committee of the National Political Axe and the General Headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army, and jointly awarded to us by the General Political Department of the Revolutionary Army and the First Army of the Revolutionary Army. ”

Looking at the stunned faces around him, the proud An Yi continued: "Now I answer your other question, the reason why this competition is held to select top soldiers is because our model battalion will soon be expanded into a regiment, and the combat troops will occupy two-thirds of the entire regiment at that time, and my engineer battalion not only has professional skills, but also has combat effectiveness that is not inferior to the main regiment. For example, in the previous battle of Shangfu, it was our battalion that was born out of the guard platoon, machine gun company and infantry company of the engineer company that launched first, cutting off the rear road of the Lin Tongjiang brigade in one fell swoop and winning the overall initiative, even General Lin Tongjiang was captured by my brothers, our division is righteous, and has sent General Lin Tongjiang and his party away, but his belt has become the trophy of my brothers, and at this time it is on the waist of the brothers behind me, everyone is probably familiar with this general's belt, you might as well turn your head and take a look...... Under the painful and shocked gaze of Yang Bin and others, Gu Lao Er behind An Yi deliberately straightened his stomach, letting the bright sunlight reflect the luster on the exquisite general's lanyard around his waist, shaking Yang Bin and Ye Cheng, who were closest to each other, extremely sad and depressed.

Who knew that An Yi didn't know, and continued to state his exploits: "Don't hide it from you, Fengxincheng is the first two companies under the command of the younger brother to break through the northwest city wall, but unfortunately the killing was too deep at that time, and my brother was killed and wounded two or three hundred before the siege, so the brothers were ruthless, and under the hard fighting, more than ten captains and officers of your army guarding the north direction of the west of the city were all killed, otherwise one or two may recognize me, at that time I commanded the fire at the head of the city to suppress and expand the results, for which my lower abdomen was pierced by a bullet that did not have long eyes, So I'm going to sit here today and watch with you, or you might see me wielding a shovel and a hammer. Our engineer battalion not only has mastered the specialized skills that the infantry lacks, but also has its own set of strict systems in terms of military skills and combat training. ”

Yang Bin and his hapless colleagues were dejected, and An Yi's words deeply stung them, and also deeply touched their ideals and ambitions that were about to fall silent. They felt a strong confidence from An Yi's words, a kind of heroism of free enmity and hatred, and Ye Cheng, who was emotionally delicate, could even feel the heart-pounding and blood-boiling heroism in An Yi's words.

"Camp Commander, do you mean that everything in front of us is just a warm-up before the official game?" Yang Bin, who admired the combat effectiveness of the model battalion, asked.

An Yi smiled and nodded: "It can be considered that the competition held now is not a competition for us to select elite soldiers, but to take this opportunity to test how much combat power is left after more than half of my sappers are lost?" It is also necessary to test the command level and military skills of a group of temporary company platoon commanders of the four newly formed engineer companies, so that the officers and men who have lost their comrades-in-arms and brothers can boost their morale and build up their confidence in victory, and at the same time, show the unique spirit created and maintained by our 'model battalion', so that the newly joined brothers can feel it, and then integrate into it well, so as to make full preparations for the upcoming battle as best possible. ”

Yang Bin sighed slightly: "It turns out that Camp Commander An is planning for the future...... The head of the camp is prepared for danger in times of peace and leads step by step, which is admirable! As far as I know, coupled with my own experience and experience, in the current era of war and turmoil, when the powerful are surrounded by internal and external troubles and all kinds of isms are flying in the sky, the generals always cannot understand what kind of army they want to have, what kind of opponent they will face, and what kind of goal they will achieve. ”

An Yi shook his head helplessly: "Actually, I don't understand it either, since Lieutenant Colonel Yang mentioned it, I can only talk about a little superficial feeling in my heart...... As for the ideal army for generals, I think it is very simple, that is, an army that always has the interests of the motherland and the people in mind, has advanced concepts and equipment, scientific training methods, and more importantly, has an iron-blooded spirit of not being arrogant in victory and not being discouraged in defeat! This seems to be far away, but in fact, I am close by, and I am not afraid that you will laugh at my eyes and be delusional, all I am doing now is to work in that direction...... Look at the shitground below, how are my sappers...... Almost half of the work is done, don't you think? ”

Seeing everyone's stunned looks, An Yi increased his persuasion according to the predetermined strategy: "Regarding the opponent's question, this is more difficult to answer, let's put it this way, the war between us makes me very uncomfortable, I really don't want to fight with my compatriots, no matter what you believe, as long as it is Chinese, I don't want to pick up a gun, but I can't fight it!" If I retreat, I may die, so I can only fight until everyone is willing to turn their guns in unison.

I can tell you unequivocally that all the alien races that occupy our Chinese territory are my opponents, such as the British, French, Portuguese, and American powers, as well as the three eastern provinces that have been quietly encroaching on our territory, ravaging our fathers, elders, villagers, brothers and sisters, and frantically plundering our country's resources to prepare for its greater aggression, as well as the new Tsarist Russia, which is determined to die and continues to occupy a large part of our territory, these are my opponents! And you, including Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zuolin, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Yang Sen, Liu Xiang, Long Yun and other local forces of the warlords, strictly speaking, are all your own people, and fighting with you is called the same room, and the relatives and enemies are fast, but under the current situation, you can't help but fight, and if you don't say that China will unify with the outside world as soon as possible, our country and nation will be in great trouble!

Maybe I shouldn't say these words, many people will think they are alarmist, but I saw it, I have to say it, otherwise it will be very uncomfortable to keep pressing on my heart...... What I'm doing now, including the battles I've fought with you, is actually a warm-up for the real battle that is coming, and I hope that I will have time to have an indomitable, never-say-die army. ”

An Yi's words deeply touched the hearts of Yang Bin, Ye Cheng, Lu Mingdi and others, who looked at An Yi with faint sad eyes, and then turned to the hot competition scene in front of the audience, and couldn't help but fall into contemplation......

(To be continued)