"Ready—Start!"

Iron picks are flying, smoke and dust are billowing, and another earthwork competition of the second district team begins in the cold north wind. This is the sixth day of such a competition, and the two teams participating today are the first group led by An Yi and the second group led by Zhang Tianyi, with 20 people in each group, the third group has a bye to do some assistance and referee work today, and the remaining 15 people are scattered within two kilometers of the surrounding area to be responsible for observation and vigilance tasks. Because the An Yi group lost to Zhang Tianyi's group in the game three days ago, the whole group will let go of this opportunity to turn over today, so it is like going crazy to work.

Since entering the school, it has been a basic military skills training, and this group of young soldiers who are vigorous and vigorous have not had the opportunity to receive professional education as engineers, but they have basically mastered most of the professional knowledge in the lesson plan by virtue of their own consciousness and specialized research spirit, and what they lack is in-depth understanding and practice.

After An Yi led the team to Zhuxikou, he convened everyone to discuss and reach an agreement, immediately borrowed a pickaxe and shovel from the village, and began to test his theoretical knowledge with practice on the third day of stationing.

After repeated surveys and discussions, and after obtaining the consent of Lin Xudong, the head of Lin Village, An Yi immediately designed a set of through-type fortifications around the central soil slope, with two rectangular trenches about 30 meters apart with a total length of more than 850 meters, including nine anti-artillery bunkers, six machine-gun positions, and two command posts in the south and north, each of which can accommodate 12 people. After six days of hard work, 80 percent of the work has been completed, and today's competition will dig two zigzag trenches 55 meters long, 1 meter 5 meters wide, and 1 meter 2 deep, completely connecting the upper and lower trenches, and the rest of the work is to pile up sandbags and carry out the final camouflage.

At the top of the mountain bag, more than a dozen brothers from the third group of byes cheered loudly for the brothers in the north and south, cheering and scolding and laughing endlessly, and several of them took off their military uniforms in excitement, and like most of the brothers who were in the game, they danced with their hands, urging this scolding and scolding that seemed to be more anxious than the sweaty contestants at the moment.

Outsiders will be puzzled and even laugh when they see this scene, but the brothers of the second district team not only did not have a joke but devoted themselves to it, the reason is that An Yi set up a gambling game, betting on who wins and who loses in the two groups of participants every day, everyone can gamble if they want, no money can be owed first, and the bet will be cashed out immediately, which greatly mobilizes the active surnames of the brothers, and even the brothers who participated in the competition are not lagging behind to bet on themselves, as for how big they like to bet, it is very simple to bet on who wins, just let a resting brother write it down in a notebook.

"Toot-"

A whistle sounded at the end of the game, from the shouting and laughter of the dozen brothers on the top of the mountain, the brothers of the An Yi group knew that they had won, twenty people threw down the pickaxe and shovel, shouted excitedly, a pair of big hands with blood bubbles and blood were raised high, and the ** bodies full of sweat and cement jumped excitedly to celebrate this hard-won victory.

Jin Hongmo, a burly Korean brother with a square face and a big mouth, pounced on An Yi, who was half tired to death, and hugged him tightly: "Xiao Yi, we won!" I'm back next month's pay......"

An Yi finally pushed him away and climbed into the trench: "Okay, good...... Lao Tzu also won, grandma's ...... Lao Tzu is happy! It is estimated that Lao Zhang lost so much that he didn't even have the money to buy handsome paper next month, let him continue to shave his asshole with a wooden stick every day, haha......"

At the head of the Zhuxikou bridge, a group of men in the village were dumbfounded when they saw the unscrupulous young soldiers in the north wind, they really couldn't believe that this group of young soldiers dared to toss so much in the cold winter, and they did it for six days, and they just repaired this hill bag overgrown with weeds and thorny trees like this, and when An Yi, who was the leader of the village, paid money to buy old sacks from the village a few days ago, everyone was still very puzzled, and seeing the standard defensive position taking shape day by day, everyone knew the purpose of this group of Whampoa soldiers.

Lin Xudong admires this group of soldiers very much, since the first day of contact, none of these soldiers have walked across the wooden bridge, and they all smiled and refused the warm gifts of the fishermen on the simple wharf by the river, and the transportation boat of the military academy sent oil, salt, vegetables and about 30 catties of pork once every three days, all of which the villagers could see, and felt that they could not meet the physical exertion of these dozens of soldiers desperately digging and cutting bamboo and wood every day, but they survived with great self-esteem, and there were also smiles and sweetness.

"Fourth brother, I seem to know the leader." The young man with short and big smart eyes walked up to Lin Xudong and pointed to An Yi, who had ordered the assembly of the team.

Lin Xudong asked in surprise, "Shrimp boy, how do you know him?" ”

"Last time I and Brother Biao grabbed land at the fishing wharf in the south of the city, we were caught by the revolutionary army patrol and handed over to the police, it was he who helped to intercede and we were able to get out, Brother Biao said that this person is his boss, very righteous, it turned out that he also worked with Brother Biao in 'Taichang', and was fired from the Chen shopkeeper who hated him and went to the military academy, and also said that this person helped the revolutionary army fight and would drive and repair cars...... By the way, he also said that he was the best at repairing imported sewing machines and other machinery, and foreigners could not compare to him. ”

Shrimp Boy looked at the shirtless An Yi and led the brothers to the river to wash, and unconsciously shivered, and tightened the collar of his cotton coat casually.

"I remember, the whole city of Guangzhou knows that 'Taichang' has a master of repairing machinery, it turns out that he is ...... Shrimp boy, see clearly, don't make a mistake. Lin Xudong is very cautious.

Shrimp Boy looked at it again for a while: "It's him!" That's right, he looks very recognizable, he has a good figure and is a pretty boy, if it weren't for his muddy head just now, I could see it at a glance. ”

Lin Xudong nodded: "Where is Ah Biao?" ”

"At Aunt Seven's house in the city, I heard that I offended the people of the Four Seas Gang with a few brothers in the village, and I didn't dare to go back to the village to tell you, for fear of being punished by you and the patriarch, I had to come back because I had a cold." In front of Lin Xudong, who has high prestige, the shrimp boy will never dare to lie.

"You go into the city immediately, call Ah Biao and the others back to me, if you don't come back before dark, don't come back in the future!" Lin Xudong said coldly.

When the shrimp boy hears it, where do they dare to stay for a while? Fei also ran into the village and asked people to go into the city together. Lin Xudong motioned to a man in his early thirties to come over: "Ah Shen, you go back to the village to find a few brothers to knock two big dogs, clean up and tell my dad to stew immediately, put more ingredients, stew and move here, I will invite these Whampoa soldiers to have a drink tonight." Ah Biao is our third brother's brother-in-law, although the third brother died early, but we can't help his family, since Xiao An helped Ah Biao, it is equivalent to helping our people, we can't lack righteousness. Again, they can't do this for a long time, their bodies are already at the end of their strong crossbows for so many days in a row, if they don't have a full meal tonight and a few sips of wine, they will be sick at least twenty tomorrow, go ahead. ”

"Okay."

The brothers who put on their clothes began to sit down in twos and threes to drink water and chat, An Yi tightened his armed belt, put on his half-old rifle on his back, walked to the temporary sentry post more than 20 meters away from the river, and saluted each other with the brothers who were on guard, after the change of guard, An Yi stood on the sentry post and stared at the vast river, thinking in his mind that he would have to go into the village early tomorrow morning to buy some pork ointment or something, and the money in his pocket would be used.

He knew that most of the brothers did not have such a good physique as himself, and it was already a super-level performance to survive until now, but fortunately, the workload would be doubled from tomorrow, and the final work of the entire position would be completed the day after tomorrow.

"Please stay, Brother Lin, you can't cross the crossbar under your feet, there is a military restricted area within the crossbar, forgive me!"

An Yi, who had just been laid off after standing for four hours, stopped Lin Xudong from entering the forbidden area with a smile, and took the initiative to meet him and ask if there was anything wrong.

Lin Xudong smiled generously: "It is said that the Huangpu Army is strictly disciplined, and sure enough, I am not allowed to enter even if I borrow my territory, amazing!" ”

An Yi laughed: "I'm sorry, Brother Lin, the responsibility of the younger brother can't help but be like this, thank you and the villagers for taking care of you during this time, we remember this love." ”

"I'm just kidding, don't care." Lin Xudong said kindly.

An Yi was quite puzzled when he saw that his attitude was so kind today, and after thinking about it, he asked, "Brother Lin, if you have something to do, just say it." ”

"Nope! You guys are doing a great job. ”

Lin Xudong, who is strong and energetic, has the demeanor of a big brother: "Xiao An, I want to ask you something, do you know a person named Chen Biao?" ”

"Ah Biao? There are a lot of people named Chen Biao, is the Chen Biao you are talking about who used to work in the 'Taichang' trading house in the city? An Yi asked carefully.

Lin Xudong nodded: "It's him." ”

An Yi looked at Lin Xudong in surprise: "Ah Biao is my brother...... What's the matter, Brother Lin knows him? ”

"Ah Biao is also my brother." Lin Xudong smiled and explained: "The Lin family in our village is the big surname, followed by the surname Chen, Liang and Zheng, and many people in the village have gone out to do business for decades and settled in the city when they make money, so there are many of our clansmen in the city." There are not many people in my generation, I am the fourth in the clan, and the third brother in the third row was hit and sunk by a British gunboat while fishing in the river mouth a few years ago, and he could not retrieve his body when he died, leaving his third sister-in-law and four children to take care of him. The third sister-in-law's surname is Chen, and she is Ah Biao's eldest sister, and Ah Biao's father and my father are sworn brothers, so Ah Biao is also my brother. He will do some martial arts but the surname is too wild, a few years ago to the city to find something to do we are very happy, A Biao has a lot of shortcomings, but he is very righteous and filial, every New Year's holiday will buy things back to honor his parents, distributed to a few nephews and his eldest sister, these months he did not come back, I heard the people in the city say that he is not in 'Taichang' to do, I also want to ask him. ”

"I see...... I'm also worried about Ah Biao, but it's hard for me to get out of school for more than three months, I don't know how he's doing, and I really want to ask him. An Yi sighed.

Lin Xudong replied with a happy smile: "It is estimated that he is coming back, you can ask casually when you meet, haha!" Since we're all brothers, how about I treat you to dinner tonight? ”

"Thank you! Don't bother Brother Lin, just talk when you see Ah Biao. I accepted your generous gift on the first day I came, and I still don't know how to repay it, and besides, our military discipline does not allow it. An Yi politely declined.

Lin Xudong pointed to the wooden bridge to the east: "Look, I also killed the dog, the stew is all stewed, and the brothers have also carried it over, so you can't ask me to carry it back again, right?" ”

An Yi half-turned around and looked up, more than 30 men from the village were carrying round tables and stools, carrying five or six steaming big baskets, and Ah Biao, who was full of meat in the team, saw An Yi from a distance, shouted "boss" excitedly, and ran over quickly.

When the brothers of the second district team heard the shouting, they all followed the voice, and when they saw this scene, everyone's eyes were full of doubts.