Kuang Shimin pointed out the map one by one and informed An Yi of the battle situation of the right column, which surprised An Yi, admired General Li Zongren's command ability, and had a further understanding of the strong combat power of the Fourth and Seventh Armies from Liangguang.

After the four brigades of the Seventh Army forcibly crossed the Miluo River and occupied Qinchuan, Chang'an Bridge, Lishi Bridge, and Tanjiafang on the north bank, they marched in unison without stopping, driving the fleeing enemy troops into the mountainous areas in the north, and the battle of the Seventh Army thus entered the mountain warfare.

Most of the thousands of enemy troops who were defeated came from the Zhilu-Henan Plain, and they felt very difficult when they entered the lofty mountains and small roads in the south, and it was as difficult to distinguish between the southeast and the northwest as they were walking into the Bagua Array. Most of the officers and men of the Seventh Army came from the southwestern mountains, and since they were young, they have crossed mountains and mountains barefoot, and with the morale of the world, they easily captured thousands of prisoners and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition.

Under the spur of Li Zongren, the officers and men of the Seventh Army did not stop, and all the strong troops traveled night and night, and arrived at Beigang, an important town in northern Hunan on the 23rd, where they smoothly joined forces with the officers and men of the Fourth Army and continued the attack after a little discussion.

The heroic Fourth Army also achieved fruitful results, conquered the Pingjiang River on the 19th, forced the enemy general Lu Yun to commit suicide with hatred, and the officers and men of the Fourth Army who pursued the victory almost stepped on the heels of more than 10,000 remnants of the enemy who were panicked and only cared about fleeing, and when they chased to Dashaping, they had destroyed nearly 10,000 enemies and captured countless people.

The officers and men of the Fourth Army watched the enemy's more than 10,000 living forces flee to the northwest, and did not hesitate to wave their divisions in pursuit, and even crossed their own theater of operations and entered the offensive line of the Seventh Army.

Seeing this, Li Zongren made a mistake and urgently ordered the officers and men of the Seventh Army under his command to adjust their direction and enter the theater of the Fourth Army, and the two armies passed by in the north of Dashaping, beautifully crossed and changed positions, and on the 24th of the year, both attacked the area south of the Tingsi Bridge, completely cutting off the railway and highway traffic between Hunan and Hubei, and the enemy troops in Hunan completely became a turtle in the urn.

The astonishing speed and brilliant achievements of the Fourth and Seventh Armies made the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army extremely happy, and also made all friendly troops sigh and admire themselves.

On the one hand, Li Zongren commanded the Fourth and Seventh Armies to advance steadily and steadily towards the Tingsi Bridge, and on the other hand, he reported the results of the Northern Expedition to the Northern Expedition Headquarters, and finally mentioned that the Seventh Army was too fast to capture a large number of remnants of the enemy who had escaped into the mountains, and petitioned the follow-up troops of the General Headquarters to clear them out and avoid killing innocent civilians.

So, there was this unexpected mission of An Yi Battalion.

An Yi had a little discussion with Kuang Shimin, called Hu Zi, Yin Jinan, six company deputies, and instructors, and directly hung the newly issued combat map on the tree:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the current situation has changed, and the right column commanded by General Li Zongren has captured all the areas south of the Tingsi Bridge, cutting off the communication arteries between Hunan and Hubei in one fell swoop, and will definitely be able to successfully reach the Tingsi Bridgehead within three days. The main force of our division still needs to follow the main force of the left column, the Eighth Army, to the north along both sides of the railway, attack the line from Yanglousi to Puqi, and clear the desperate remnants of the enemy. The two divisions of the Eighth Army had already taken a train north at 8 a.m., and the main force of our division would begin to set off at 2 p.m.

In order to avoid unnecessary suspicion and misunderstanding among friendly forces and to ensure that the left column can deter and strike at more than 30,000 remnants of the enemy on the front line of the Yanglou Division with strong strength, the division and the commanders decided after studying the favorable opportunity that our battalion had just sorted out to give the officers and men of the first and second companies of our battalion an opportunity to exercise, and quickly interspersed along the junction of the left and right columns to clear out the scattered remnants of the enemy. Due to baggage and other reasons, the Third Company still needs to act together with the organs directly under the division headquarters under the leadership of Instructor Yin Jinan. ”

When the brothers heard this, they were immediately overjoyed, and only a few brothers in the third company had sad faces.

Yin Jinan stepped forward to carefully examine the map, and sat on the stone in front of the map quite reluctantly. He clearly knew that the division headquarters had let his third engineer company march with the organs directly under it, which was completely a cover to cover up people's ears and eyes, and he could say in a high-profile manner to the outside world that our division headquarters did not take any unauthorized actions, and that the use of the bold An Yi to lead the brothers of the two companies to clear out the remnants of the enemy was also aimed at the purpose of collecting as many prisoners of war as possible and strengthening themselves.

After pondering for a moment, Yin Jinan instructed his company deputy Chen Zhibiao and instructor Yang Fei to immediately lead the brothers back to the camp to bury the pot and make all the preparations before departure.

An Yi also sent several company deputies and instructors of the first and second companies to lead the team back to prepare, and sat around with Kuang Shimin, Hu Zi and Yin Jinan to discuss in a low voice.

Ten minutes later, Kuang Shimin, who was responsible for leading the Third Company to follow the division headquarters, happily went to the Third Company with Yin Jinan, and An Yi and Hu Zi rode horses to the division headquarters, and soon met Liu Xiao, Hu Shusen, Xu Tingyao and others who were inspecting the preparations for departure.

Several bosses squatted in the open space, listened to An Yi's suggestions and requirements, agreed to them all after a little discussion, and gave An Yi's task force the right to "dispose of it on the spot".

Don't underestimate this "impromptu disposal", although it sounds nothing unusual, but the empowerment of this power means that An Yi can make decisions with confidence, and can even kill any local armed forces that hinder his actions.

At one o'clock at noon, An Yi and Hu Zi led two hundred and four officers and soldiers of the first and second companies to quietly leave the camp and set off north.

Due to the complicated road and the need to cross mountains and mountains, An Yi and his entourage can only march on foot, which will be a huge test for this army that has just been sorted out and has not yet run in.

At night, the task force marched rapidly eastward, passing through Taolin and crossing Yashan to camp in Qingxi Village, northeast of Zhongzhen.

After eating a full meal at the landlord's house in the village, the brothers all went to sleep under the wide verandah in front of the landlord's house.

The honest middle-aged guide said that he didn't want anything, and kept saying that sir, your troops were stationed in our village for a few days without committing any crimes, and also helped our village widen two paths and build a wooden bridge, we have nothing to give you, and we must not charge you a penny to lead a road easily, otherwise the conscience will not be good, and the people in the village will poke the backbone.

An Yi insisted that he accept it, saying that if you pass by Taolin Town, you will buy some sugar cakes for the children in the village and go back, which can be regarded as bringing some fun to the children in the village. The guide, who spoke plainly, was speechless, took the money and turned away with tears in his eyes.

The landlord surnamed Zeng saw everything in his eyes, and when the guide left, he instructed the maid to bring tea and snacks, and politely invited An Yi and Huzi to the main hall to talk.

The guest and the host sat down humbly, and the landlord Zeng, who had a ruddy face and three long wisps of literati beard, asked kindly: "Two sir, how did you come to our remote ravine?" ”

An Yi put down the teacup, briefly informed him of the defeat of the direct army by the Fourth and Seventh armies, and then told him the purpose of his delegation:

“…… We can't let those remnants of the defeated army harm the place, so our department was ordered to go into the mountains to clear it, which is also a good act to ensure the peace of the party, and I also ask Uncle Zeng to support more. ”

Lao Zeng was in a good mood when he heard An Yi call himself an uncle: "It's rare for you to be so uplifted, but the old man is disrespectful, haha!" Virtuous nephew, since the year of Kangxi to the present, there has never been an army within a hundred miles of our area, and even the pervasive Taiping Heavenly Kingdom bandits have not spread to us, this is the first time you have suffered, and there are many of our Hunan children among your subordinates, so I have the courage to leave you behind today. It's just that I don't know how long the virtuous nephew will be stationed here, and how to suppress the bandits? If you need grain and grass taxes, the old man will gather 500 villagers to work together early tomorrow morning, but we have many mountains and few fields here, and the output is really limited! ”

An Yi and Hu Zi looked at each other and smiled: "Uncle Zeng, you misunderstood, the little nephew's team is a revolutionary team founded by Mr. Zhongshan and led by General Jiang Zhongzheng, we are different from the old warlords, we will not let you and the villagers pay taxes and donate grain, and we will pay for the meal we are entertained by you today, please Uncle Zeng will call the people to cook a dry meal before dawn tomorrow morning, it would be better to add some meat, if it is convenient, we will see which one has bacon and bacon for the little nephew and the brothers, and we will pay the money in full after sending it, and never let the villagers suffer." We will leave immediately after these things are done, and we can't stay for long because of the urgency of time! ”

Lao Zeng was surprised: "This ...... Everything is easy to say, I will immediately order my subordinates to collect some cured meat from house to house, but I want to ask, where are you going to start tomorrow? ”

"Don't hide it from Uncle Zeng, we have to hire a guide tomorrow, and we plan to go northeast, first to Shuanggang and then east to Daping, where is the edge of the battlefield of my right army, and it is estimated that the scattered enemy army is in that area." An Yi said truthfully.

Lao Zeng shook his head, raised his hand and waved it a few times: "Two virtuous nephews, please forgive the old man for saying bluntly, you can't reach Daping Town even if you walk like this for a month, because the east of Shuanggang is full of mountains and mountains that stretch for hundreds of miles and are inaccessible. If you are not afraid of the mountain high road danger, there is another trail, this road in addition to the local villagers, the outside world knows little, is from our village to the north of the east of Shuanggang Village, do not enter the village, has been to the north and then ten miles, there is a trail of more than 30 zhang on the left, enter the trail for a few miles to climb over a low mountain, you will see a clear 100 acres of mountain pond, there is a small village of more than ten families in the north of the pond, it is easy to do there, from there there is a little-known sheep intestine trail to Daping, it only takes an hour to reach the town, Ha ha! I don't know which way the virtuous nephew wants to go? ”

An Yi and Hu Zi were overjoyed, and immediately took out the map from their briefcase, Lao Zeng loudly ordered the maid to light another oil lamp, and the three of them whispered around the Eight Immortals table.

After reading the map, Lao Zeng sighed and said that the map was good, but unfortunately many roads were not marked.

An Yi immediately took out a pen, unscrewed it and handed it to Lao Zeng, Lao Zeng was not polite, while saying that he was too playful when he was young, he was everywhere in a hundred miles, and he was beaten countless times by the old man for this, and on the other hand, he seriously drew a trail and wrote the names of seven or eight small villages, so that An Yi and Hu Zi were grateful, and finally realized the benefits of treating the people well and relying on the people.

The three of them happily continued to talk, and the young butler suddenly rushed in, ran to Lao Zeng's side, and whispered anxiously close to his ear.

Lao Zeng was taken aback after hearing this, stood up and walked slowly towards An Yi and his beard, who were full of doubts: "Virtuous nephew, it's terrible, Beicun was ransacked by the rogues......"

An Yi and Hu Zi were also taken aback: "Uncle Zeng, don't worry, where are you talking about Beicun?" When was it robbed? ”

"Beicun is Shuanggang Village, ten miles to the north! My little girl only got married last month......"

(To be continued)