At nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, a yellow-green Ford military truck, escorted by the 12-member guards of the General Headquarters, came to the intersection in front of the camp of the third company in Triangle Pond.

A thirty-five or sixteen-year-old lieutenant colonel from the quartermaster department got out of the front of the car, smiled at An Yi, who was saluting him, smiled back, took out the handover list and handed it to An Yi.

An Yi took the list with both hands and took a closer look, happily pulled out his pen and signed quickly.

The quartermaster gave an order, and the escorting guards lifted the tarpaulin covering the carriage, picked up five brand-new Browning M1918 light machine guns with supporting tripods in turn, and handed them to the brothers of the third company under the car, and then unloaded wooden boxes with flower machine guns and boxes of heavy bullets.

"Xiao An, you can count again." The lieutenant colonel was very amiable.

An Yi smiled politely at the lieutenant colonel who met for the first time: "The count is over, thank you, sir!" Hard-working chiefs and brothers, let's go into the camp and have a cup of tea, I just bought half a catty of Junshan hairy tips here, and it tastes very good. ”

The lieutenant colonel with Yu Jiasheng on the nameplate on his chest pointed at An Yi and smiled, and said in an official dialect with an obvious Jiangsu and Zhejiang accent:

"No wonder the principal takes such care of you, your mind is smart, you are really a handsome man! An hour and a half ago, our minister received a call from the principal himself, and everyone wondered who was so face-saving that the principal could make a call for five machine guns and fifty machine guns? Later, it was issued to the third company of the engineer battalion of the second division, and we learned that it was for you An Yi, and the principal really cares about you! ”

As soon as An Yi heard this, he guessed the origin, smiled at Yu Jiasheng, and shook his head humbly:

"It is estimated that it is the reason why our third company has just been designated as a demonstration company of engineers in the whole army, and the subordinates have a deep sense of expectation for the principal, and they dare not have a trace of contempt! Sir Yu, I will pay you off in the future and take care of you. ”

"No problem, we are all under the command of the principal, serving the party-state! This time, the two models of 70,000 rounds of ammunition equipped for you are already our largest distribution standard, and there is no way to get more for you. With this signboard of the 'All-Army Engineer Demonstration Company', you and I are easy to talk to, haha! I'm ready to go on the expedition, I'm also very busy, I won't talk to you today, we'll sit down again when I'm free, I'm leaving, goodbye! ”

Yu Jiasheng hurriedly raised his hand to salute and say goodbye, and quickly got into the front of the car that had turned around and left quickly.

Hu Zi came to An Yi's side and watched the truck go away: "This Chief Yu is really interesting, it seems that he is also the principal's personal entourage, otherwise he would not be so enthusiastic when they met for the first time, the grandsons of the Quartermaster Department and the Quartermaster Department are not so easy to talk to, or your face is big!" ”

"It's wrong, it's the principal's face!"

An Yi lightly punched the beard: "Go back and see the newly-haired baby, take it to the river beach and try it, and then talk about how to distribute it after you have fun." ”

The beard laughed: "I can't wait, grandma's, this time you have to enjoy it, I haven't fought this new machine gun yet!" ”

At eight o'clock in the morning of the 17th, the long-awaited order to open the gang was finally issued, and the nerves that had been tense before the war were finally relieved. Although the officers and men did not say anything, the hard march was much more comfortable than the long and restless wait, and at least the physical exertion could relieve the heavy psychological pressure.

According to the second-phase battle plan formulated by the Northern Expeditionary Command, the entire Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into three routes and advanced northward.

The Middle Route Army is the Fourth Army of the Guangdong Army under the deputy commander of Chen Keyu, the Seventh Army of the Gui Army of General Li Zongren and the Eighth Army of the Hunan Army of Tang Shengzhi, and the Central Route Army will undertake the main attack mission; The Right Route Army was the Second Army of the Hunan Army of General Tan Yanmin and the Third Army of the Yunnan Army of General Zhu Depei, which were assembled on the line from Liling to Youxian in eastern Hunan Province, and their main task was to closely monitor Sun Chuanfang's troops in Jiangxi Province and protect the safety of the flank and back of the Middle Route Army.

After the Left Route Army responded to the revolution of the Guizhou Yuan Zuming Army, Yuan Zuming was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Guizhou Army, and the team under his command was immediately named the Ninth Army and the Tenth Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

I don't know whether he was worried about Yuan Zuming's vacillation, or worried about the hidden dangers after the large number of Guizhou troops entered Hunan, Tang Shengzhi, the commander of the Eighth Army, was quite jealous of Yuan Zuming, and sent his elite instructors to join the Left Route Army, planning to leave the front line of Changde and Lixian and enter Jingzhou and Shashi. However, the Guizhou army seemed to be very reluctant to fight side by side with the Hunan army, and stopped advancing when it reached the Jishou area on the border of Guizhou and Hunan provinces, which made the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army very anxious.

The Second Division of the First Army and Cheng Qian's Sixth Army, as the general reserve of the Central Route Army, received the order to set off, and the First Division led by Deputy Commander Wang Bailing was responsible for defending the security of the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army and responding to all parties.

Because of the vastness of the frontal battlefield, the Central Route Army was divided into two columns, the left and right, and General Tang Shengzhi, who was full of revolutionary enthusiasm, was appointed commander-in-chief of the former enemy and concurrently served as the commander of the left column, commanding the Eighth Army, which he said was growing stronger.

General Li Zongren, who took the lead in Hunan with a shout, defeated Ye Kaixin, the commander-in-chief of the direct Hunan army, and stabilized the position of Tang Shengzhi, who was defeated all the way, and then occupied Hengyang in one fell swoop, served as the commander-in-chief of the right column, commanding the Fourth Army and the Seventh Army.

For the sake of Tang Shengzhi's title as the former enemy commander-in-chief of the Middle Route Army, General Gui Jun was very uncomfortable, and said that if it weren't for the Zhong Group Training Brigade and follow-up troops of our Seventh Army under Tang Shengzhi's repeated begging, they set off lightly across the Huangsha River into Hunan to support, and Tang Shengzhi, who was beaten by Ye Kaixin and lost his armor and fled all the way to Yongzhou, how could he stop the decline? How can Hengyang be recovered? How can there be such a good situation as today?

The magnanimous Li Zongren patiently persuaded his generals to ask everyone to put the revolutionary cause first and everything to the victory of the Northern Expedition as the goal, and General Li Zongren also revealed to his generals that he had made a bet with General Gallen, the head of the advisory group, and General Gallen said that it would be smooth to conquer Wuhan in 40 days, but he thought that 20 days would solve the problem, and the two of them each made two dozen brandy bets for this.

General Li Zongren said meaningfully to the generals under his command: This is not a question of two dozen brandies, but a question of the military prestige of our Seventh Army! As a result, all the dissatisfaction was immediately subsided, and all the generals and colonels immediately returned to the camp to wait for the commander, swearing to earn this face for the commander and the Gui army.

At noon on the 18th, the main forces of the Central Route Army successfully arrived at the line of the Miluo River, confronted the enemy across the river, and prepared to launch a general attack.

The reserves of the left and right columns were divided into three on the bank of the Laodao River north of Changsha City, the Sixth Army rushed east to Liuyang to assist the Fourth Army, An Yi's second division followed the Eighth Army to attack Yuezhou, and the first division guarded the headquarters and slowly advanced northward.

Seven or eight battalion commanders from the first phase of the first division, including Zeng Kuoqing from the headquarters, Hu Zongnan and Sun Yuanliang from the first division, and six or seven brothers from the first two phases of the second division gathered together. The brothers rode their horses up the gentle hill and looked down at the long procession on both sides of the river, and they had a heroic spirit in their hearts that they were born with a high and distant vision.

"Look, isn't that who Xiao Yi is? This kid is a good mix! The dark horse under the crotch is so good, and even the horses ridden by the two deputies are better than ours, this guy is really rich! ”

Li Shaoliang, commander of the special service company of the 1st Division, looked at An Yi, who was riding on a horse 100 meters away and watching his subordinates crossing the river, and sighed for a while.

The brothers opened their mouths and shouted, An Yi turned around, and was overjoyed to see so many bosses on the slope, and explained to Hu Zi and Yin Jinan that he turned the horse's head, and the black steed under his crotch with his legs clamped, immediately raised his hooves and rushed up the hill.

Hu Zongnan's heart moved, turned over and dismounted, and called for the brothers to dismount and meet, and everyone dismounted and greeted An Yi who was approaching quickly.

An Yi lightly "shouted-" and flew off the horse, stepped forward to meet the brothers warmly, looked at this, hammered that, was very happy, and regretted after asking everyone in different directions.

An Yi saw Hu Zongnan striding up to him, and lightly punched the colonel's nameplate on his chest: "It's amazing!" After this battle, I don't know how many generals will come out of our gang of old brothers, and the little brother is really envious! ”

Sun Yuanliang pointed to the K98 rifle on An Yi's back and asked curiously, "Why are you still carrying a rifle?" ”

Zeng Guangqing saw that An Yi didn't answer, so he told everyone the truth: "Xiao Yi's marksmanship is very good, it is estimated that none of our brothers has his level, this kid carries a spear on his back as long as he goes out on a mission, and the brothers who led the soldiers in the second division were not convinced at first, and they lost to Xiao Yi several times by almost a thousand oceans, and now none of them dare to speak loudly." ”

"Where, where? It's all taken care of by the big brothers, hehe! The younger brother still has to learn from the bosses, and strive to become a school official as soon as possible......"

An Yi started a haha, which caused the brothers to laugh and scold.

"Come on, you're not satisfied with being a captain just a few months ago? You have to take a bite to eat, you know...... Give me the binoculars, I want to see where the headmaster is? Don't get down to business. ”

Hu Zongnan set up a pergola in his hand and looked to the south, and the brothers also looked over, Hu Zongnan saw An Yi slowly and methodically open the lid of the telescope box, grabbed it impatiently, and even grabbed the box together: "Swallow it slowly, how will you be a general in the future?" Really! ”

An Yi laughed and looked to the south, but no matter how he looked at it, he didn't see the big flag of the General Headquarters.

The brothers looked and looked, and turned around without seeing anything, and suddenly found that Hu Zongnan had already grasped the reins of An Yi's black horse, and his short body jumped up with great agility, stepped on the beautiful stirrup and turned over quickly, and rushed down the hill with his legs between the horses, and ran a few meters away before turning back and laughing loudly:

"Xiao Yi, big brother, thank you for the telescope and BMW, haha......"

An Yi came to his senses at this time, and quickly unloaded his rifle in a hurry.

Brothers, what else can you do when you see this? Qi Qi persuaded An Yi and scolded Lao Hu for being a bandit and robber.

An Yi watched Hu Zongnan gallop dozens of meters below and startled two egrets, and the sound of happy laughter was still coming, and he couldn't help beating his chest and lungs, regretting that he didn't do it at the beginning, but it caused the brothers to laugh loudly.

An Yi was so angry that he took advantage of the two brothers who stopped him to relax their vigilance, suddenly pulled the bolt, raised the rifle, and with a gunshot, the egret flying in the sky in the distance fell in response to the sound and almost fell on Hu Zongnan's head, but Hu Zongnan was not shocked at all, but looked up to the sky and roared, hitting the horse away.

The brothers around An Yi looked at the egret corpse on the path more than 100 meters away, and then looked at An Yi who scolded and put away his gun, and they all applauded his accurate marksmanship in unison.

An Yi walked step by step to the bantam yellow horse left by Hu Zongnan, but smiled in anger, raised his legs and stepped on the yellow horse and said to the brothers:

"Guys, did you see it today? Lao Hu's grandson is really unkind! But he is older than the younger brother, and he is my eldest brother, so I can't repay this revenge in this life, alas...... There are three major hates in life, and the last hate is carelessness in making friends! Goodbye, big brothers, you must learn the lesson of your little brother! ”

The brothers laughed, who knew that An Yi on the horse leaned down, gently stroked the head of the yellow horse, and said to the horse affectionately in front of everyone:

"Huang Ma, Huang Ma, I know that you are happy that you have finally gotten rid of that scoundrel surnamed Hu, but I am not in a good mood with you! In this way, in order to leave some thoughts, in the future, I will simply call you Lao Hu! Drive-"

The yellow horse meekly carried An Yi down the hill, but the brothers on the slope could not stop laughing.

(To be continued)