Beginning after lunch, the streets of the old county town were full of revolutionary officers and soldiers, and these officers and men who strictly observed military discipline and had kind faces cleaned the streets, cleared obstacles and cleared dredging under the leadership of their respective commanders, and under the astonished gaze of more than 18,000 people, they began the activities of "caring for one party everywhere" that the "model battalion" had always adhered to.

On the left side of the county yamen gate, more than 30 engineers of a platoon, under the command of Captain Huang Yingwu, an instructor of the first battalion, successfully erected three straight cypress flagpoles up eight meters high, and after filling the foundation piles with mud and stones, they tied two wide military flags and a huge party flag to the hemp rope on the flagpole, and slowly raised the three flags to the top of the flagpole in the solemn salute of the officers and men.

The raising of the flag means that this place is already an important place for the party and the army, and it has a solemnity and majesty that is different from the past.

As soon as the flag was raised, two small policemen came to the notice board on the right side of the gate of the county government, and skillfully pasted a large notice stamped with the seal of the Second Division of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the signing of An Yi's name. He ordered his brothers to return to the camp in the west of the city, and he took his adjutant Le Haha into the county government to prepare to cooperate with An Yi in the trial.

When the residents saw the notice posted, they slowly rushed forward, and one of the small policemen stood on the stone pier in the corner of the notice wall and read the contents of the notice aloud, and the news of "pardon all political prisoners and criminals under five years, and give lenient trials to criminals of more than five years" immediately grew wings and flew to the streets and alleys of the old county town, and then spread to ten miles and eight villages.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, there were groups of armed revolutionary officers and soldiers standing inside and outside the county government hall, hundreds of curious people, and relatives and friends of the prisoners. The people trembled into the four open yamen, and under the vigilant gaze of the officers and soldiers on guard, they nervously walked through the wide courtyard, gathered under the steps in front of the lobby and looked down at the wide and solemn hall, and did not dare to take a step forward.

After a while, an officer with black-rimmed short-sighted glasses and a good-looking man came to the high platform and loudly announced that the old and famous people of the village, representatives of the people, and people of insight could enter and sit in peace.

The crowd at the foot of the stairs was suddenly surprised and noisy, and the two bold elementary school teachers and several elderly people immediately climbed the stairs and politely greeted the officers who announced the news, and were immediately ushered into the lobby.

On the high platform, An Yi casually put down a file, complaining in his heart, although these hundreds of files were simple cases carefully selected by Secretary Chao, An Yi still felt a headache. He didn't know what to say to Yin Jinan and Hu Zi, who were sitting on both sides, which made the two grin, Yin Jinan put down the file in his hand and whispered a few words, An Yi and Hu Zi nodded frequently, as if they had made up their minds.

At the bottom right of the high platform, the police chief Chao Guoqing was sitting behind a large table with Gu Lao Er and chatting in a low voice, and behind the large table at the bottom left of the high platform were Shi Lejun, the quartermaster who served as a record, and Zhan Huanqi, the commander of the communications company, who were also talking in a low voice. There are two rows of chairs on the left back two sides of the middle of the lobby for the squires and celebrities and representatives of the people to sit, and behind the two rows of chairs stand two squads of guard company brothers.

As the herald Huang Yingwu shouted, Datong and the outside suddenly quieted down, Yin Jinan on the trial seat stood up and said a few words about the scene, and read out more than 50 names in a row, and the officers and soldiers of the police and guard companies who had already been prepared were in groups of two, and took the prisoners one by one from the passage on the left side of the lobby to the lobby, Yin Jinan asked the names of the prisoners in the audience, and then after Secretary Chao Guoqing verified that it was correct, he immediately announced his acquittal.

In less than half an hour, fifty-seven prisoners saluted gratefully and weptly, shouting "Lord Qingtian" and left, several of them knelt down on their legs, kowtowed before wiping away from tears, and ran out of the gate one by one in rags and weakness to call relatives and friends, hugging their wives and children, and crying, which made An Yi and Huzi on the stage sigh.

After the departure of the fifty-seven people who were wronged or who were framed by the exploitation of only a small mistake, the thorny case fell into the hands of An Yi, because Yin Jinan repeatedly explained that in order to show prudence, it must be announced by the chief officer, An Yi had to pick up the list and give a loud order to "bring it up", and eleven [***] members and people from the peasant association and women's association were politely led into the lobby.

These eleven people were completely different from the group just now, all of them held their heads high and were fearless, silently walked to the center of the lobby and consciously lined up in two rows, raised their heads and quietly looked at An Yi, Yin Jinan and Hu Zi above.

An Yi stood up and motioned to the little policeman standing on the side to take a sack to the eleven people and put it down, turned to everyone in the audience, and said kindly:

"You have suffered! The files transferred from the county political axes held by the warlords show that none of you are from this county, and almost all of them are comrades from the counties of western Jiangxi and eastern Hunan and comrades of the peasant associations. Go back and bring these records with you. The sack contains the items you have been stolen from, as well as some entanglements given by the headquarters, which is not a tribute. ”

The eleven people in the audience looked at each other in surprise for a moment, and the thirty-seven or eighteen-year-old middle-aged man standing in the middle of the back row took two steps forward and asked excitedly:

"Excuse me, comrade, what is your surname? Which unit is it? ”

"My name is An Yi, ...... of the National Revolutionary Army"

"Camp Commander! The commander of the model battalion...... You don't remember me? I am the old Fang of the Liuyang County Peasant Association! Xiao Yin, do you still know me? The middle-aged man shouted excitedly.

An Yi was taken aback, hurriedly stepped off the high platform, came to the middle-aged man to look carefully, and smiled apologetically for a while: "I'm sorry, Brother Fang, on the day when the Jiangxi campaign passed through the dock of Liuyang County, the younger brother didn't get off the boat due to injury, and it was several company commanders in the battalion who went down to thank you, so I can't recognize it for a while, please forgive me...... Ji Nan? ”

Yin Jinan, who had already come to An Yi's side, warmly shook hands with Lao Fang: "Know, of course I know!" Ah...... Brother Fang has such an unkempt head and black face, I didn't pay attention to it for a while, I didn't expect to meet here, it was so unexpected! Captain Huang Yingwu-"

"Here!"

Huang Yingwu strode over.

Yin Jinan advised: "This is Comrade Lao Fang, the captain of the Red Guards of Liuyang County, we passed through Liuyang a few months ago, and you also went ashore with me, haven't you forgotten?" There were more than 300 brothers from Liuyang County in the fourth regiment of our division who enlisted in the army at that time, and they were very brave in several battles, and many brothers died, so we are sorry for the villagers! Go quickly, take Lao Fang and his comrades to the backyard to wash and rest, let the cooking class cook a table of meals immediately, and then tell Lao Chang to let him go out and buy some clothes, shoes and hats and come back to change them for the comrades...... Brother Fang, everyone, go down and rest for a while, and then go and talk with you when we let go of all the wronged people. ”

"Thank you, Xiao Yin, thank you, Camp Commander! On behalf of the Xiangdong Party Committee, the Liuyang Party Branch and the villagers, thank you! Lao Fang thanked him gratefully and led his comrades to follow Huang Yingwu to the backyard.

An Yi secretly exhaled and returned to the high platform with Yin Jinan.

An Yi, who was preoccupied, handed over the following thirty cases of fighting and disabling people due to the competition for the mountain and forest land boundary to Yin Jinan, and was not in the mood to pay attention to the representatives and village elders in the auditorium, so he turned to his beard and whispered.

Hu Zi nodded again and again, but his eyes were fixed on the two teachers who had left their seats in the hall, and after thinking about it, he knew that these two people were specially here for Lao Fang's gang.

More than 30 prisoners in the hall were strictly ordered by Yin Jinan to compensate the injured, and warned everyone that the party group of the headquarters would go to inspect it, and if they did not compensate, they would be severely punished, and then released more than 30 people in the hall, and the strict and fair verdict won the cheers and applause of the people who were watching inside and outside the hall.

Police Chief Chao Guoqing stood up when he saw the opportunity, saluted Yin Jinan, turned to the crowd and announced loudly: "This is the end of the trial, and the trial will continue at three o'clock in the afternoon!" ”

Hundreds of people and more than a dozen villagers and representatives from all walks of life returned satisfied with the gifts of An Yi and others, and returned to the compound, An Yi and Secretary Chao discussed a few words in a low voice, and Secretary Chao nodded and turned to leave.

Hu Zi didn't want to deal with the local people, so he led a few adjutant guards to leave under the pretext of inspecting the military affairs of each battalion, and Gu Lao Er said that he was going to the back barracks to meet the dozens of captured officers, and he also led his subordinates to leave. An Yi shook his head with a smile, walked to the backyard with Yin Jinan and Huang Yingwu, and accompanied the eleven distinguished guests who had finished bathing and combing and changed into new clothes to gather together for dinner.

At the end of the banquet, An Yi, who was smiling, put down his chopsticks and asked puzzledly:

"Brother Fang, the record in the case is that you are accused of gathering a crowd to rebel and so on, which is nothing, but there is a vague but very fatal charge that makes me very puzzled, how could you break into the military stronghold of Deng Ruzhuo's Yang Chisheng Brigade with a gun?"

The old man shook his head sadly, put down his chopsticks and sighed: "We are both revolutionary teams, and I won't hide this from you, it's infuriating!"

Twenty-five days ago, more than a dozen townships and towns in the two counties south of Liuyang had diarrhea, and more than 30 frail old and young women, women, and children died within a few days; even the three members of the provincial party committee who personally led the medical team from Changsha to inspect and provide disaster relief also fell ill one after another; the comrades in Guangdong finally managed to get two boxes of quinine, which were urgently transported together with a batch of supplies to support our counties in eastern Hunan Province; along the way, under the strict protection of the comrades in various provinces and counties, this batch of materials traveled from Guangdong to Guidong in Hunan Province for eight days without incident. Who knew that when we went to Youxian County, we had entered our own territory but something happened, and a lone thief set a series of traps, and suddenly attacked in front of and behind the small stone bridge more than ten miles north of Youxian County, letting go of three truckloads of foreign cloth and other materials walking in front, silently stunned the thirteen escorts of our rear team, and robbed the huge amount of aid funds and a box of quinine sent by Guangdong.

When we found out, he had escaped half a mile, just when I came from the north with a team of men and horses to meet him, and immediately chased to the east in a frightened way, who knew that this person had good legs and feet, carrying a money bag weighing more than 60 catties and a box of quinine was still walking like flying, among us there were also a few masters who practiced martial arts since childhood, and they had been chasing this person tightly behind him for three consecutive days, and the comrades from all over the country along the way got the urgent notice from their superiors and came out to intercept him, and thousands of people blocked him in the mountains several times and almost caught him, But he still let this cunning beast with strong martial arts escape, but instead injured more than a dozen good hands under the attack of this person's vicious secret weapon. ”

"Oh my God...... What kind of thief is this? An Yi was taken aback.

Lao Fang sighed: "Judging from my experience in practicing martial arts for twenty-three years, this person is definitely a master of the inner family, otherwise it would be impossible to carry something weighing nearly 100 catties and still be so strong, until now I still haven't seen his face, only analyze that this person is a famous Wudang outcast in the north and south of the country, and even the major warlords want to put Shen Xiang, a lone thief to death."

However, when we passed through the defense area of the Second Army of the Revolutionary Army stationed in Yongfeng and Le'an on the way to pursuit, no matter how much we begged Zhang Huizan, he would not help, and when he saw the thieves fleeing from the junction of his 4th and 6th divisions into the camphor area occupied by the enemy, he still used every excuse and was indifferent.

We received all the death orders, can only grit their teeth to chase, how do we know that when we chased to the Maling Temple in the south of Fengcheng, we suddenly encountered a battalion of the enemy Yang Chisheng, the giant thief threw everything and ran up the tree, moving quickly like a ghost between the dense canopy, but he did a lot of evil and hit the end, no matter how high the kung fu was, he could not escape the gun, three light machine guns and dozens of rifles chased him, after a few rounds he planted the tree, and finally we don't know whether he is dead or alive.

There were many of us who couldn't escape, and we sacrificed four comrades, and all the rest were imprisoned in Fengcheng Prison, and later the revolutionary army fought Fengcheng, and we were transferred to Lao Nanchang. ”

An Yi, Yin Jinan and Huang Yingwu looked at each other, feeling as if they were listening to a story, if it weren't for the dejected faces of all the guests at the table who put down their chopsticks, An Yi really couldn't believe that there was such a master.

After comforting the guests, An Yi left for a while and returned again, bringing two captured Hanyang-made barge guns, two small packets of bullets and a hundred oceans and handing them to the old party:

"Take these two guns and a little money Fang, you can use them on the road. I wanted to leave everyone to rest for a few days, but I heard you say that you were going to leave overnight, and it is estimated that you are also anxious, so the younger brother will not leave you. When I return to Liuyang, if I see Uncle Yang, the chairman of the Gugang Town Peasant Association, say hello to him for me, and then give him this gun...... Don't worry, this is the night before yesterday the younger brother led the troops to attack Jiang Zhenchen's department and captured, I remember a few months ago when I left Changsha and just got off the ship at the dock of Gugang Town, Uncle Yang always stared at the barge gun on our body, at that time the little brother was too poor to send, now a little captured is also more generous, if it is not for the fact that there are still more than 4,000 prisoners under his command to be reorganized into a revolutionary army, and you have to ask your superiors for equipment replenishment, Ji Nan and I will definitely send a gun to each of you. ”

Lao Fang stood up excitedly, not knowing how to thank him, and the others also stood up and thanked in unison, and at the same time, they were deeply shocked by the record of more than 4,000 enemies captured by An Yi's department.

Lao Fang handed the two guns and a hundred oceans to his companions, took the shell gun entrusted by An Yi to Lao Yang and inserted it into his waist, stretched out his hands and held An Yi's hand tightly:

"Xiao An, we have such a deep friendship in our hearts! Now whether it is the revolutionary army or the local revolutionary team, they all know that you have a model battalion with great achievements, and they all know that there is a brave and good fighting battalion commander An Yi, I really hope that we can fight side by side in the future, if one day you pass through Liuyang and pass through all parts of Xiangdong, you must not forget to communicate with us, if the army needs soldiers, just open your mouth, there is no one in Hunan who is unwilling to enter your model battalion. ”

"Thank you, Brother Fang! Thank you! Come, sit down, have a cup of tea...... Ji Nan, you take care of the eldest sister around you, the eldest sister can follow Brother Fang and his gang to chase here, she is by no means a mortal, it is estimated that she is embarrassed to open her mouth when she sees our table of big men, you say a few more good words to the eldest sister, maybe the eldest sister will be happy, and she will immediately help you say a beautiful daughter-in-law after going back. ”

Everyone laughed, Yin Jinan smiled sincerely at the eldest sister with a flushed face and a heroic face, and warmly greeted the guests with An Yi to sit down and chat, Huang Yingwu had already picked up the teapot and served tea to everyone with a smile.

(To be continued)