As Hu Zi had predicted, the defenders of the Tonggu fled long before the arrival of Chen's Fourth Regiment, and the 2nd Division of the National Revolutionary Army took the Tonggu without much effort.

Chen's fourth regiment crossed the city and was stationed at Bamutang, six kilometers east of the city, where it was the fork of the highway from Tonggu to Yifeng and Fengxin, and the strategic location was more important; Hui Dongsheng's 6th Regiment was stationed in Hot Spring Town, three kilometers north of the city, and Wen Zhiwen's 5th Regiment, which arrived one step late, was stationed in the city.

The model battalion and the divisional units were stationed in the county seat at half past six in the evening of the 13th, and on the way to the march, An Yi and his old boss in the past, and now the quartermaster Kuang Shimin, walked side by side, chatting and laughing, the two had a deep friendship and good feelings, and after separation, they did not see much more cordially, so not only Kuang Shimin alone, but also more than 500 people from the entire quartermaster logistics unit did not light a fire during the one-and-a-half-day march, and all of them ate together in the model battalion, which was famous for the quality of their food.

The funny and generous An Yi and his brothers served a group of officers and soldiers to the satisfaction of the organs, and no one in the hunting and reconnaissance team sent out overnight returned empty-handed, and Lu Xiong, the leader of the platoon who led his brothers out to search and guard, performed even better, and this fierce man who half of his brothers were from Jiangxi actually hit a wild boar weighing more than 150 catties, and carried it back together with seven newly weaned wild boars, and they were so happy that they couldn't keep their mouths together.

In the face of the delicious wild boar and the delicacies made by roe deer, hares, civets, and other prey, a group of people in the division headquarters ate with their mouths full of oil, and praised loudly, saying that they would march together with the model battalion in the future.

An Yi and his brothers always treated each other warmly, and Lao Kuang and several officials also generously allocated 50,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 shell guns, and 600 pairs of new-style high-top field shoes that had just arrived.

On the night of camping in Gaopi Village, Lao Kuang quietly distributed more than 70 new K98 rifles with original guns to the model battalion under An Yi's flickering, and took back more than 70 old Hanyang rifles from the inventory of the engineer battalion, and other office supplies, tents, short jackets and other materials were also distributed in advance.

After the model battalion entered Shuaijiaba, one kilometer east of the city, and set up camp, An Yi and Hu Zi, Yin Jinan, Xia Jian and others discussed nervously, and then took their respective adjutants and rode on horses and hurried to the Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall, where the division headquarters was located in the west of the city.

After walking into the main hall of the Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall, the three of them were immediately called to the big table by the deputy division commander Jiang Dingwen to ask about the camp, and An Yi also reported in detail the recruitment plan of his model battalion and sought Jiang Dingwen's support.

As soon as An Yi finished speaking, Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao also returned together after inspecting the camps of the three main regiments, and Jiang Dingwen told Liu Zhi and the others about the plans of the model battalion with a smile on his face:

"These three boys want to recruit troops and horses in Tonggu, and they have a whole set of detailed plans, including publicity, building a 500-meter muddy road east of the city for the people, sending instructors from various companies into the surrounding villages to do publicity, etc., ask us how many days can we give them?"

Liu Zhi pointed to a row of exquisite Taishi chairs on the left, motioned for An Yi and the three of them to sit down, and ordered the orderlies to serve tea, and after everyone sat down, Liu Zhi said kindly:

"At present, the Fourth Regiment and the Sixth Regiment have begun to recruit new recruits inside and outside the station, and the Fifth Regiment cannot take care of it for a while because of the large number of new soldiers. We agree in principle that each regiment and battalion should recruit on its own, but one thing must be strictly observed, that is, our revolutionary army must not forcibly recruit civilians like the troops of the old warlords. Again, your various units should greet each other and demarcate their own recruitment areas, so as not to let the officers and men under your command have contradictions over this. ”

"Thank you! The engineer battalion is absolutely disciplined. An Yi continued: "It's just that we don't know how long we want to stay here, if we start tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we need to adjust our plans, otherwise it will be too late for time." ”

Xu Tingyao said with a smile: "Don't worry, we can give you three days to recruit troops and buy horses, on the fourth day, our second division will attack east to attack Fengxin, from Tonggu to Fengxin, there are four big towns such as Dayuan, Xita, Shangfu, etc., it is estimated that the enemy will arrange troops to resist step by step, and maybe your engineer battalion will also go up at that time." ”

An Yi and the three of them were overjoyed when they heard this, and looked at each other for a moment, as if they were ready for a long time. Liu Zhi's three officials were a little surprised when they saw this, Jiang Dingwen thought about it for a while, and immediately guessed that An Yi must have a set of his own plans to report, he smiled, turned to Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao and whispered a few words, Liu Zhi and the two nodded suddenly in understanding, Jiang Dingwen coughed lightly, and asked unhurriedly:

"Tell me, what do you guys think about the next battle?"

An Yi, who was discussing with Hu Zi and Yin Jinan in a low voice, raised his head in surprise, and when he saw Jiang Dingwen's shining thief eyes, he knew that he couldn't hide the matter, so he simply stood up and pointed to the large map on the right wall of the main hall, and said loudly: "If the chief is interested, the three subordinates are very willing to report in detail the superficial opinions discussed in the past two days, please correct the chiefs." Sir, please move ......"

Jiang Dingwen, Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao also privately summarized the performance of the model battalion after the siege of Wuchang and the battle of Suozi Valley, recalling that An Yi and the three of them began to establish an engineer company, experienced the initial brawl and wounding people, the skill competition in the north of Guangzhou City immediately after the hurried training, the smooth development of the border road between Hunan and Guangdong after the Northern Expedition, the military court incident in Changsha City, the siege and seizure in the east of Yueyang City, and the outstanding integration action in the mountainous areas of northern Xiangbei, etc., and deeply felt that An Yi and his model battalion were growing rapidly. The three commanders are all top performers in military training, cooperating with tacit understanding to make up for each other, brave and resourceful, courageous, and almost all of the actions they participate in are exchanged for the greatest effect at the minimum cost, faintly revealing a cunning and ruthlessness beyond their age and normal ability.

What is particularly rare is that the unity and mutual assistance and extraordinary cohesion of the model battalion are very different from the current regiments in many aspects of action plan and military training, and it is just a hastily launched siege operation in Suozi Valley that shows their unique training results and strong combat effectiveness -- concealed and efficient reconnaissance, the choice of timing and positions, the mutual trust and coordination with friendly forces, the arrangement of firepower points, and a series of performances before and after the battle, all of which made Liu Zhi and the three of them deeply surprised, and they had to look at them differently.

At this time, seeing An Yi and the three of them walking towards the map in their chests, Liu Zhi paid special attention to it, they knew that the plan that An Yi and the three of them came up with must have merit, maybe one of them would be the same as several big gains since the Northern Expedition, so that their second division would benefit a lot and return with a full load.

"Sir, please look at Fengxin, my subordinates don't know the number and number of Fengxin's defenders, but from the location of Fengxin in the north with De'an, Gao'an in the south, and Nanchang at the back, it is undoubtedly the western barrier of Nanchang City, and the enemy will not be less than one division, plus Tonggu, Yifeng defenders' retreat and Sun Chuanfang's reinforcements continue to move south, De'an in the north and Gao'an in the south are strategic towns that the defenders cannot give up, according to the previous battle report, the enemy troops gathered in the two places are not less than 30,000 people, so the enemy in Fengxin City has no worries about the enemy in the north and south."

An Yi paused slightly, and was secretly satisfied when he saw the solemn expressions of Liu Zhi and the others: "After repeated speculation, the three subordinates put themselves in the position of the defenders for consideration-if I have more than one division of troops in my hands, I can give up the two towns in front, but I will not give up Shangfu Town, a transportation hub forty kilometers east of Fengxin, at least I will put up some resistance there to consume the attacker's strength and sharpness, and even set up ambushes in that complex valley and hills to act at an opportune time. If you have the opportunity, you will suddenly hit the invading enemy with a single blow, and if you don't have a chance, you will immediately retreat and rearrange it, and you must not let the invading enemy easily attack the city. Therefore, we expect a tough battle in the area of Shangfu Town. ”

Liu Zhi and the three of them glanced at each other, and they all came to their senses.

Xu Tingyao took the baton handed by the chief of the operations section and walked to the map: "Okay, let's deduce it together, you are the defender, we will attack." Shangfu is like a crossroads of 90 square kilometers, the Luan River crosses from west to east, 12 kilometers from Zaoxi Town in the north, and 21 kilometers from Tong'an Town in the south, if your judgment is true, our three main regiments will flank Shangfu without a city wall from the west, south, and north, and according to the defect that the area east and north of Shangfu Town cannot arrange artillery positions due to the steep terrain and many ravines, our division can set up artillery positions in Puping Village, four kilometers west of Shangfu, to cover the attack of the attacking troops. After the artillery salvo, the general attack on three sides was launched at the same time, how did you resist? ”

An Yi walked to the wall and picked up a baton, and confidently pointed to Rouge Stone Village, which is 3.7 kilometers north of Shangfu Town: "There is a bend close to 180 degrees here, this narrow bend of 400 meters can only pass an ox cart, and it needs to climb uphill, and within a few kilometers on both sides are all slopes that cannot be climbed...... Looking at the direction of Tong'an Town in the south, the only place where an artillery position can be set up is the Crossroad Village at 5.7 kilometers, even if your shells can cross a few high mountains in the north of the village, they will not be able to hit me, I only need to arrange a battalion on both sides of the two-kilometer road between Dongtian and the Cross Road, and use the high ground in the middle of the narrow terrain to block the offensive road of a regiment. Therefore, the north-south flanking is almost useless for us...... Now turn to Puping Village, four kilometers west of Shangfu, even if you occupy Puping Village and successfully build an artillery position, I only need to urgently send a battalion along the path on the north bank to occupy the Mabeiling on the other side of the Luan River in the west of Puping Village, and take advantage of the high mountains and dense forests to set up a few machine guns to attack Puping Village at a distance of 400 meters on the south bank. Unless you can transfer those Russian planes from Xianning Airport to help in the battle, it will be difficult for you to break through our defense line under the condition of losing our geographical advantage. ”

Xu Tingyao stared at the large map for a long time, and asked in disbelief, "How can you know the terrain of the Shangfu area so well?" Why don't we know the 180-degree bend of the rouge stone and the horseback ridge on the other side of Puping Village...... Section Chief Li! ”

"Here!"

The twenty-nine-year-old colonel of the Operations Section had cold sweat on his head.

Xu Tingyao shook her head helplessly when she saw Section Chief Li's nervous appearance: "How do you and the spy company work?" Look at this map, what's the use of drawing it so big? You...... Go down and remember this lesson. ”

"Yes......"

Liu Zhi turned around from the map: "An Yi, how did you figure out so many situations?" ”

An Yi replied solemnly: "Yesterday, before dawn, we received an order from the division headquarters to let our battalion rest and stand by, and we discussed it for a long time, and sent 16 three-person reconnaissance teams to set off ahead of schedule at 9 o'clock in the morning.

By the time we entered Tonggu City and set up camp, 12 groups had successfully returned and brought back more than 20 young people who were willing to join our army, and these 20 young people were all young people from various villages along the Tonggu to Shangfu line, and they were naturally extremely familiar with the place where they lived. ”

Without waiting for Liu Zhi to speak, An Yi added again: "Divisional seat, deputy division commander, chief of staff, subordinates think that the defects of our combat map cannot be blamed on the combat section and the special service company: first of all, the time is too short, from Liuyang to Tonggu all the way fast, it is difficult for the special service company and each regiment to grasp detailed information, and it is very difficult for the combat section to make a map of this area, almost all of them are summarized and verified according to the information provided by the reconnaissance companies of each regiment, and then quickly make a map, and it is inevitable that there will be no mistakes.

In addition, there is not a single local person among the brothers of the special service company of the division headquarters, most of them are old members of the team before the Northern Expedition, and it is difficult for them to get the help of the local people, and our reconnaissance team has passed by the brothers of the special service company on the road more than once, which is enough to prove that it is difficult to carry out reconnaissance work without the support of the local people in an unfamiliar environment.

The subordinate engineer battalion was different, at the beginning of its establishment, there were dozens of brothers whose ancestral home was Jiangxi, and the rest of the brothers whose ancestral home was Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan, and other places. ”

Qiao Shijie, the new company commander of the special agent company, and a group of staff officers from the Operations Section all looked at An Yi gratefully, and Liu Zhi and the three of them looked at each other and smiled, secretly praising An Yi's intelligence and tactfulness in their hearts.

Liu Zhi instructed An Yi and the others to submit a detailed reconnaissance report before ten o'clock tonight, and then turned to the map to signal An Yi to approach: "If the intelligence can confirm that Shangfu is indeed the enemy's key blocking area, how do you plan to fight?" ”

"Or the way of fighting that the chief of staff said, just add some materials, that is, come from behind the enemy by surprise, and the enemy whose retreat is cut off is under the attack of the three main regiments, where is there who is not timid? And as long as we are faster than him and more ruthless than him, we will be able to take the lead in occupying favorable terrain, and the enemy will have no way to survive on all sides with deep mountains and dense forests, and there is no choice but to surrender. ”

As soon as An Yi said this, Xu Tingyao and Jiang Dingwen immediately stepped forward, and several operational staff officers also surrounded them.

An Yi picked up the baton and pointed to Luoshi Town, ten kilometers east of Shangfu: "Starting from Tonggu City, where we are located, follow the path to the south through Tong'an, take the Shanshuling and climb over the low winding mountain, you can reach Hualin Village, which is about twelve kilometers south of Luoshi, and then launch a surprise attack on Luoshi within the agreed time to cut off the enemy's retreat."

The whole journey was about 86 kilometers, and there were a few shortcuts that could shorten the distance by more than 20 kilometers, but it was not easy to walk, and it took 19 hours for the brothers of our battalion police platoon to carry about 15 kilograms of equipment on their backs, and when they came back, because the road was already familiar and did not need to be too hidden, it only took 13 hours, and they could rest for 6 hours on the way.

The subordinates believed that only one company of troops could cut off the enemy's retreat, and the main reason for this was that there was a five-hole stone bridge about 45 meters in the east of Luoshi Town, and the river was three to five meters deep, and as long as one of the bridge holes near the river bank at any end of the stone bridge was blown up, a breach of more than five meters would be blown up, and with more than 20 light machine guns to block it, the enemy would be caught in an urn. ”

"Good strategy!"

Xu Tingyao praised and pointed to Fengxincheng, thirty-three kilometers west of Luo City, with a smile: "If the defending enemy resists stubbornly, and the enemy of Fengxin rushes to help, the surprise attack troops are likely to fall into the situation of being attacked on both sides, what should I do?" ”

An Yi replied embarrassedly: "My subordinates also thought of this problem, but there was no way to solve it, so I could only hope for the attack speed of the three main regiments." I beg your pardon for being bold and blunt, but after repeated analysis, the three subordinates believe that judging from the current mountain marching speed of the regiments of our division, only the first company of the engineer battalion and the two platoons directly under the battalion headquarters can handle such a difficult long-distance mission, and they cannot bring heavy machine guns, otherwise it is difficult to ensure the stealth speed and concealment. ”

Liu Zhi, Xu Tingyao and Jiang Dingwen looked at each other for a moment, and they had to admire An Yi's ability.

Liu Zhi pondered for a moment and walked to the Eight Immortals table in the hall, and called Xu Tingyao and Jiang Dingwen to whisper. Xu Tingyao and Jiang Dingwen discussed slightly, and nodded to Liu Zhi together.

Liu Zhi called An Yi and the others: "After you go back, stay quiet, let the brothers of your first company and two battalion platoons rest well, and secretly prepare to leave at any time." From tomorrow onwards, the food and meat of your model battalion will be supplied by the logistics office of the division headquarters, and there is no problem with how you recruit new soldiers, we all support it, and there is only one request: make the recruitment as loud as possible, and it is best to let everyone know that we are resting and replenishing the troops, understand? ”

"Understood!"

An Yi and the three replied in unison.

Liu Zhi nodded with satisfaction and signaled that the three of them could go back. Jiang Dingwen sent An Yi and the others out of the main hall and into the courtyard, and instructed the adjutant to go to the logistics office to get a box of cigarettes and give them to Camp Commander An. An Yi smiled gratefully, and asked puzzledly why the whole division stayed in the copper drum for so long?

Jiang Dingwen reluctantly explained: "General Li Zongren's Seventh Army is still stuck in Daye and has not advanced eastward as scheduled, and the principal personally rushed to the military headquarters of the Seventh Army in Nanhu, Wuchang, and sent 100,000 Xianyang as military funds, so that they can start again, and at least three days later can approach the Ruichang line." In the past few days, they have complained from time to time that the weather is cold, and the officers and soldiers have not yet had winter clothes, ammunition, and food to make ends meet. Our 1st Division and 6th Army also stopped attacking the Xiushui Solid Front, waiting for friendly forces on the south route and the 7th Army on the north route to advance in tandem, otherwise the lone army would be in danger of being surrounded on three sides. ”

"I see...... Boss, it seems that we have to find some way to make some money, otherwise we won't be able to move one day when we are penniless? An Yi said with emotion.

Jiang Dingwen laughed: "Don't worry, our Huangpu family will not be short of money, I'm worried that you won't be able to recruit enough soldiers in this place." ”

An Yi smiled: "If the junior brother recruits back 1,800, you bosses are not allowed to set up a name to divide it again, okay?" ”

"Okay! As long as you have the ability, we won't be blushing no matter how many recruits you make, but at least you can score a company for the division headquarters to deploy, and you are not allowed to bargain, how about it? ”

Jiang Dingwen asked casually.

An Yi laughed heartily: "What am I worried about with the boss?" Aren't there just one or two hundred people? It's simple, haha! ”

Jiang Dingwen laughed, and Hu Zi and Yin Jinan also laughed happily.

An Yi saw Jiang Dingwen smiling so deceitfully and proudly, and suddenly felt deceived in his heart, but after thinking about it, he still felt that he had made a lot of money, so he also laughed happily.

(To be continued)