An Yi's model battalion, together with the headquarters of the Second Division, arrived at Gao'an County early at 2 p.m. on 3 October.

At this time, the General Headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army, the headquarters of General Zhu Peide's Third Army, and many directly subordinate units were all crowded into Gao'an County, and all the major villages and towns within 10 kilometers of the surrounding area were occupied by the main combat divisions and regiments, and in desperation, the Model Battalion could only go to the General Temple, 3.5 kilometers north of the county seat, to station on the basis of the terrain information provided by its own reconnaissance team.

The dilapidated General Temple is located at the foot of the hill that is more than 80 meters high at 3.5 kilometers north of the city, the collapsed roof, the ground overgrown with wild grasses, and the messy gravel look desolate, and under the mountain is the dry river, a tributary of the Jinjiang River that flows from north to south, the terrain in the north and west is undulating, the hills are extended, and the green bamboo trees in the east are strong, and there are four villages within a radius of ten miles.

As soon as the companies of the model battalion arrived here, there was no need for An Yi and other commanders to order, the commanders of each company gathered together for a little discussion, and immediately demarcated their own garrison areas, set up guard posts, and more than 1,000 people threw off their arms and got busy.

Three hours later, the wide platform in front of the General's Temple had been cleaned, even the loose soil brought up by cutting down small trees and pulling out weeds had been tamped, the dilapidated temple and the east and west wings of the backyard had been cleaned up, all the roofs were cleverly covered with canvas tents, and a total of thirteen large and small houses were sorted out for the use of the camp headquarters. The camp within a kilometer has undergone earth-shaking changes, and as far as the eye can see, there are many huts and tents, and the order is in order, where is there still a little bit of desolation and decay?

Yang Bin stood on the platform in front of the temple and watched everything in front of them, and sighed at the excellent quality and fighting style of the officers and men of the model battalion, saying that this was the first time they had seen the model battalion camped in the wilderness, and the first time they had seen such a rapid and efficient construction of the camp.

"Boom...... Boom ......"

At this time, six dull explosions came from the north, and Ye Cheng and Qu Muchen, who were as careful as a hair, immediately called Chen Kan, the commander of the fifth company, who was on guard duty at the battalion headquarters, to inquire.

Chen Kan trotted over, saluted and said with a smile: "This is the police platoon brothers in the river bay one and five kilometers upstream of the dry river, I heard from them at noon that there are pieces of fish, a grenade can go down to at least dozens of fish, tonight our whole camp brothers have fish to eat." ”

Ye Cheng and the others looked at each other, and Yang Bin stepped forward and asked: "On the way to the march, each company has carried out a long period of live-fire training, I have made a rough count, from the beginning of Fengxin's rest to the present, the shooting training of the whole battalion has consumed at least 170,000 rounds of ammunition and about 500 rounds of shells, how can such a large consumption be afforded?" ”

"The commanders have been overly concerned, since the establishment of our battalion, there has never been a shortage of ammunition, no matter how we consume it, we will maintain a base number of ammunition, and it will not affect the possible sudden war."

Chen Kan explained with a smile: "The ammunition consumed by the uninterrupted live-fire training in the past ten days benefited from the efforts of more than 100 siege brothers led by our battalion guard company and subordinates in the Battle of Fengxin. Two days later, according to the opinions of the officers and men of the artillery company, the battalion commander exchanged two of the original eight artillery pieces of our battalion artillery company for 50,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition and 600 rounds of artillery shells to the division headquarters, thus satisfying the brothers' sufficient training needs. ”

After listening to Chen Kan's introduction, Yang Bin nodded several times, Qu Muchen thought for a while and asked in a low voice: "Are the expensive materials you are talking about those opium tobacco that the guard company secretly sent out the night before departure?" ”

Chen Kan nodded with a smile and said: "Exactly, together with the tobacco and soil we captured in the Battle of Shangfu, we sent it out, and exchanged a total of 20,000 yuan for foreign money, and added another 20,000 yuan to our battalion's provident fund account." According to the figures announced by Staff Officer Yin at the battalion meeting, the total amount of the self-owned provident fund of the officers and men of our battalion has reached 56,000 yuan, and this is still the balance after the frequent payment of bonuses and the increase in the welfare of officers and men over the past few months. ”

Qu Muchen and others were impressed, the figure of 50,000 yuan is equivalent to a year's salary for a battalion of the Anhui army, An Yi and his brothers really dare to think and dare to make money, no wonder the officers and men of the model battalion have meat to eat every day, and they are much better than other friendly troops in terms of clothing and equipment, and they can dig out their hearts to get back a large amount of ammunition for the training of officers and soldiers, so that the combat capability of officers and soldiers has been rapidly improved, especially the newly established artillery company in the battalion, which has basically formed combat effectiveness after a large number of live ammunition training, Such a large-scale training method, regardless of consumption, is something that other troops simply dare not imagine.

Under the gentle slope in the south, the sound of horses' hooves is getting closer and closer, and An Yi, who was summoned by the principal, rode back accompanied by seven adjutants and guards, and after a while, they came to the high platform in front of the temple and turned over and dismounted.

An Yi glanced at the observation post on the top of the mountain, nodded happily, and then strode towards everyone: "Chen Kan, you guys are doing a good job, as soon as Lao Tzu left the city, he saw the sentry post on the top of the mountain, the location and disguise are very satisfactory, it seems that you have to be rewarded well...... Ji Nan, give Chen Kan the short sword award we got back from Lao Zeng, he and Chen Zhibiao saw the short sword on our waist with red eyes and hot eyes, and said that they were raised by a little lady in the same Huangpu series as their Chaozhou branch, this time I see what else they say. ”

Everyone laughed, Yin Jinan smiled and took off two short swords from his waist and handed them to Chen Kan: "You send one to Zhibiao, these two short swords were snatched back by the eldest brother from several bosses of the Huangpu Alumni Association, the workmanship and quality are much better than the batch we wear, and the name of the principal is also engraved on it, I heard that it is ready to be awarded to the Huangpu generals who have made meritorious contributions to the Northern Expedition." ”

Chen Kan was overjoyed, took the short sword and thanked him repeatedly, saluted and hurriedly went to find Chen Zhibiao, the commander of the sixth company.

An Yi laughed and told Yang Bin: "This time we went to meet the commander-in-chief and gained a lot, the commander-in-chief has a very high evaluation of the achievements of our model battalion since the Northern Expedition, what about the three of us, we took this opportunity to cry poor, the principal informed the headquarters quartermaster department on the spot, and once the surname was distributed to our model battalion twelve French-made Brandt 81 mm mortars, plus 1,200 shells, as well as 150 German-made machine guns and 100,000 rounds of various bullets, 2,000 sets of new military raincoats produced in Mr. Ou Yaoting's factory in Nanyang will be delivered by the Quartermaster Department tomorrow morning, haha! ”

Yang Bin said happily: "The twelve mortars can completely form a mortar company on their own, and the one hundred and fifty flower machine guns with powerful melee combat power can also form a light machine gun company, and the combat strength of our battalion will definitely be greatly enhanced." ”

An Yi waved his hand: "The mortar company must be established, but the establishment of a light machine gun company is not necessary, the three of us briefly discussed on the way back, and initially decided to gather the original 130 or so flower machine guns of the whole battalion, and then distribute them to each of the chief and deputy platoon commanders, and strive to distribute them to each of the chief and deputy squad leaders in the future, so as to enhance the combat firepower of the grassroots squad and platoon and the sense of honor of officers and soldiers." The one hundred and fifty new arrivals were arranged in this way, and seventy-six were equipped with the guard company, together with the six French mortars that the second regiment had exchanged for us. The other sixteen are at the disposal of the adjutants and guards of our gang, and the remaining forty-eight platoons of escorts equipped with mortar and artillery companies, what do you think? ”

"I agree, especially for the artillery company, their escort platoon has only one light machine gun among the 35 officers and men of the escort platoon, and the firepower is indeed a little thinner, and the addition of 24 flower machine guns can greatly strengthen the artillery company's escort capability." Lu Mingdi was very satisfied with this, and Yang Bin and Ye Cheng also agreed to this configuration plan.

An Yi looked at the slowly falling sunset, and was in a good mood for a while, and loudly ordered the elders of the logistics unit standing at the gate of the temple to call Shen Jianping and Tao Xun to have a meeting together, and then walked to the high platform alone and shouted loudly to Yang Fei, the commander of the second company in the distance.

After a while, the officers and men of a platoon of the second company rushed to the high platform with tools and planks, and worked hard under the tall camphor tree in the west, and in less than ten minutes, they made a simple long table and bench that were enough for 30 people to sit around.

"Come on, let's all sit down, let's have a small meeting first, and then call all the company commanders together for a meal and assign tasks. Xiaolangzhong, come over for a while......"

An Yi instructed Xiao Langzhong to inform the kitchen to add vegetables, sat down and said to the brothers: "According to the instructions of the commander-in-chief, within a week, all units of our revolutionary army will launch the Nanchang Campaign, yesterday the Third Army won a great victory in the Wanshou Palace, which is 30 kilometers away from Nanchang in the east of Gao'an, defeating a division of the enemy, annihilating more than 3,000 people of the Yang Zhendong Brigade, and eliminating one of the biggest obstacles to our army's advance to Nanchang, the commander-in-chief is happy!" Otherwise, we wouldn't have gotten so many good things today. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and they all said that An Yi was in a good time, Yang Bin, who was sitting at the bottom left of An Yi, immediately realized the task content of the model battalion after laughing, and he leaned forward to look at the beard on the opposite side: "Do you ask our model battalion to rush to the edge of the Ganjiang River in advance to erect a pontoon bridge?" ”

Hu Zi greatly admired Yang Bin's sensitive foresight: "Exactly, and the requirements are very high, and the difficulty is also very great, these days our four engineer companies must go to Zuojiadu, southwest of Gao'an City, to carry out pontoon bridge erection training on the water surface of the Jinjiang River, and Ji Nan is responsible for commanding it." In the early hours of tomorrow morning, I will lead the first, third, and fourth platoons of the guard company to reconnoitre. However, Lao Qu, you have a heavy responsibility on your shoulders, you can't go out with us, and the training class and teaching team still have to rely on you to teach. ”

Yang Bin and Lu Mingdi followed several platoons of bearded people, striving to select four to six pontoon bridge erection sites. Ye Cheng and Zhang Xiangong followed Yin Jinan to observe the actual combat training of the engineers, and together with several non-commissioned officers, they were responsible for supervising the production of the fixed connecting steel parts of the pontoon bridge undertaken by the three blacksmith shops in Gao'an City.

Qu Muchen, who was only twenty-eight years old and well-mannered, deeply regretted, he turned to An Yi quite dissatisfied, frowned and said loudly: "Xiao Yi, you are injured, just teach the training class and the teaching team for me, I better follow the beard and them out for a walk." ”

An Yi smiled: "Do you know that in addition to surveying the construction site, Hu Zi has to do something?" ”

"What else can you do?" Qu Muchen asked curiously.

Yin Jinan saw that An Yi shut up and didn't answer the guanzi, smiled and said to Qu Muchen beside him:

"In the afternoon, when we were waiting for the principal to be summoned in the attendant room of the General Headquarters, Deputy Division Commander Jiang said with great emotion that Jing Yanzong, the commander of the enemy brigade guarding the pontoon bridge eight kilometers southwest of Nanchang City, was his classmate.

After the eldest brother heard about it, he discussed it with Hu Zi and me, and then made a bet with Deputy Division Commander Jiang, saying that he would be able to invite Deputy Division Commander Jiang's old classmates to him within three days, where would Deputy Division Commander Jiang believe it? I immediately made a bet with my eldest brother that as long as he could do it, he was willing to pay 5,000 oceans, and if he couldn't, he would pay him 1,000 oceans.

You also know my eldest brother's surname, speaking of Jinli hidden needles, quite exciting, a few jokes provoked the deputy division commander to annoyance, he immediately asked the division seat and Chief of Staff Xu as witnesses, who knew that the chief of staff and the head of the sixth regiment Hui also came to the heart, and also bet with my eldest brother according to the conditions of the deputy division commander, my eldest brother immediately took the bet of the three and wrote the bet.

Shi Zuo was itching to bet on the sidelines, but who knew that the commander-in-chief happened to come out, and when he saw everyone so excited, he even asked why. The deputy division commander is the commander-in-chief's brother, and he has no scruples, so he immediately told the commander-in-chief about the bet with my eldest brother, and the commander-in-chief laughed and said to my eldest brother, if I can really do it, he will reward my eldest brother with 10,000 yuan, so I have the task assignment just now, understand? ”

Qu Muchen and Yang Bin were taken aback, feeling that the task was very tricky, but Ye Cheng immediately thought of the perverted drill of the seven fierce officers and soldiers of the guard company that day, and felt that An Yi's plan had a very high chance of success, so he immediately explained the usual garrison and vigilance methods of the Anhui army, and Yang Bin also woke up, made additions one by one, actively offered advice, and told the age, appearance, hobbies and habits of Jing Yanzong, the target of the arrest, in detail.

Hearing this, the beard's eyebrows fluttered, and his heart fluttered, thinking that such lax military discipline and flawed vigilance methods could not be better, and he had added a little more certainty to the task.

Qu Muchen saw that Yang Bin and Lu Mingdi had been given the opportunity to participate in the secret operation, and Ye Cheng and Zhang Xiangong had also been given the errand to learn and observe the actual combat of the engineers, so he was indignant in his heart, and asked An Yi again: "Xiao Yi, you are idle anyway, why don't you want to teach me for a few days?" ”

An Yi smiled: "Who said I was idle?" Brethren fighting, fighting, training, training, I, the battalion commander, am embarrassed to lie down under the pretext of this little injury? I've got to do some business and get some money for a few of us and the whole camp to spend it, haha! ”

Qu Muchen was shocked: "When is it, are you still in the mood to do business?" Lao Tzu has convinced you! ”

An Yi laughed: "If you don't do it, you can't do it!" As long as you seize the opportunity this year, you can't let it go, otherwise there will be no store in this village, haha! ”

"In these days, there is a shortage of soldiers, what business can be done?" Ye Cheng asked strangely.

An Yi lowered his voice and said: "This year's drought in Hunan, another half a year of fighting, the stock of grain began to be tight, plus General Tang Shengzhi's 60,000 horses and more than 40,000 officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army kept transporting grain from Hunan to Wuhan, I estimate that the price of grain in Changsha will at least double in a month."

It just so happened that in the afternoon, when I went to look for Elder He of the Quartermaster Department with the principal's approval, I saw that all the cars of our army's transport regiment were empty and returned to Guangdong and Changsha. Gao'an, Shanggao, Zhangshu these three counties have always been the land of fish and rice in drought and flood to ensure harvest, this year because of the war, the businessmen can not sell thousands of tons of grain in their hands, the price is only more than half of last year, we have to take advantage of the news in Hunan has not yet come to preemptively start, pay tens of thousands of deposits to buy a large number of grain in the hands of the merchants in one fell swoop, only need to transport out one or two hundred tons, the vast majority of the remaining grain is sold to rice merchants in various places at a starting price.

We have soldiers and guns in our hands, and those mercenary grain merchants will not dare to go back as long as they take our deposit, haha! If you do a good job, Lao Tzu can get at least 50,000 oceans, haha...... Brothers, where are you going to find 50,000 oceans these days? You are all busy with your own going, at the latest in a week Lao Tzu will give each of you a thousand oceans, and the rest will be put into my battalion's provident fund account, and when Nanchang is laid, we have to buy a piece of land of more than 100 acres in the east or north of the city, start to build our factory, and sell our military kettles, all kinds of equipment, engineering equipment, compressed military rations, military uniforms, steel helmets, and so on to the whole army.

I have thought about it, all kinds of machinery and equipment and large diesel generator sets in our factory are using the latest products from Europe and the United States, and then it can be ordered with only a telegram, and it can be shipped to Guangzhou within two months, and the products can be shipped after a year. The things we produce are definitely the most needed things for all armies, during this time, Lao Tzu can squat next to the commander-in-chief every day, and he has to race against time to work hard, and he has the opportunity to go up, and he has no chance to create opportunities, and he must bring my deputy division commander brother and even the commander-in-chief into the gang together, and then the brothers and the chief officers of each company here have a share, Lao Tzu doesn't believe in making a fortune, and you will wait for the dividends after a year, haha! ”

Yang Bin and the others were dumbfounded when they heard this, and they couldn't react for a long time.

(To be continued)