The next day was another painfully sunny day, An Yi, who drank two bowls of dog bone vegetable leaf soup, raised his head, looked at the cloudless sky through the gap in the canopy, and shook his head helplessly, thinking in his heart that he would have to advance forty or fifty kilometers today, otherwise the longer the road dragged on, the more he would suffer.

The seven-hour march was even worse than An Yi had imagined, and the more than 200 brothers just drank a few large bowls of salted gruel in a roadside restaurant in Leiyang City without a trace of meaty smell, swallowed a few pieces of mustered cabbage, and immediately set out on the journey. The weeds and trees on both sides of the road seem to have been baked by high temperatures, listlessly hanging low and curling, the convex parts of the ditches on the highway that have been crushed by heavy vehicles have long been solidified, there is no drop of water in the shallow ditches, and they are all whitened by the sun, which seems to be getting bigger and bigger in the air like a fireball, and the whole Xiaoxiang land is like a raging and suffocating furnace, and even the breath is a hot flow that burns the throat.

The brothers' clothes and pants were dry and wet and dried, and the top and bottom were covered with strangely shaped white salt crystal maps, and every time there was a small ditch or stream where water flowed, the brothers could no longer remember An Yi's repeated warnings for several days that there might be parasitic locusts, bloodsucking eggs and other harmful microorganisms in the water, and they all rushed to the ditch and drank water with their dirty hands.

Driven by the instinctive sense of survival, no one cares about any health, including An Yi himself, but none of these tough men are left behind under the leadership of the three tenacious chiefs, but since they drank gruel at noon, they have never heard a word of stubbornness - everyone is afraid that a foul word will burst out, and the only remaining will in their chest will dissipate.

Yin Jinan, who has always been rigorous, loosened the top wind and discipline button and two buttons, his chest was burned red by the sun, and his beard had already been pulled to reveal his lush chest hair. The two saw An Yi put down the delicate binoculars and nodded, knowing that the place to camp tonight had arrived.

The two took out their binoculars and raised them in front of them, and saw that the two brothers of the fifth row who went out to investigate were standing at the entrance of the trail between the two mountains on the side of the river bay in front, and the left side of the road was more than 50 meters deep into a relatively gentle grassland, this place was very good, the two sides of the mountain had a wide field of vision, there were mountain wings, water and trees, and it was easy to defend and difficult to attack compared to other terrains.

"One platoon, two platoons, and two groups of cooking squads, within two minutes, crossed the highway and crawled in the ditch, and fired rapidly at the white tree about 120 meters in front of the right side in a lying position, requiring rapid reloading, and everyone finished fifteen shots!"

The beard standing on the high hill by the side of the road roared loudly, as was the usual order to shoot every time the brothers were at their most tired, so strict that there was no room for negotiation. Due to the extremely limited training time, Beard can only use every opportunity to implement the established training plan, so that his subordinates can accumulate as much experience as possible and master shooting skills in different situations.

The exhausted dozens of brothers seemed to reflexively obey orders, stumbling over more than 50 meters of uneven grass, crossing the highway into a dry ditch, mechanically pulling the bolt of their guns and reloading them nervously, even with the four cooks. An Yi took the special rifle handed by Dong Yanzi and rushed over, almost with his eyes closed, quickly loading the bullet, kneeling with the gun aimed at the target.

"Hit!"

The crackling gunshots and the sound of pulling the bolt rang out, and the beard standing on a high place raised the "Zeiss telescope" sent by An Yi before setting off to observe the impact point, and suddenly issued a loud order:

"Stop shooting—"

After the sound of the beard's command, which echoed in the mountains, the neighing of frightened horses was heard in the dense forest around the white trees a hundred meters away, and then seven tall horses carrying seven riders in direct military uniforms suddenly rushed out of the woods, jumped into the dry barren rice fields, and fled in the northwest direction.

The beard shouted "don't hit the horse" and jumped off the high hill, pulled out the two guns on his waist and quickly chased after him, the three guards two hundred meters in front reacted and immediately turned around and raised their guns, shooting at the seven horsemen who rushed towards him, the three gunshots rang out in the past, the rider who hit the head of the horse fell off the horse, overwhelmed the horse and rolled forward, the third galloping white horse crashed into the second yellow horse that suddenly changed direction, let out a desolate neigh, flew out several meters and rolled violently, and the riders on the two horses were all thrown into the air as soon as they took off their pistols.

An Yi stood up and fired continuously and rapidly, two accurate shots to hit the two riders, and the beard and three well-trained sentries quickly approached the target and opened fire repeatedly, also knocking the two people away. The remaining two were taken aback and tightened their reins, and the two horses rose several meters high, neighing in pain, and then turned around and rushed into the woods under the great control of their masters.

An Yi's gunfire rang out again, and the rider who had fled in front of him dismounted, and the other rider shouted "don't shoot" in horror, then reined in his horse and slowed down, skillfully turning back and finally stopped.

An Yi was satisfied with the gun handed over to the winter man who came to his side, pulled out the shell gun and rushed into the rice field, the brothers of the two platoons also quickly closed around under the leadership of their respective platoon commanders, and the brothers of the fifth platoon took turns to leave the camp under the organization of the corporal squad leader Xia Jian, and quickly scattered in all directions to guard in all directions.

The six horses were obviously well-trained, and the master gradually stopped after falling, and was soon grabbed by the brethren and led aside, and the remaining brethren surrounded the wounded on the ground in groups and pointed their guns at them, An Yi and Beard looked at each other and walked to the last survivor with their guns, silently staring at the big man who was in dirty clothes and had a full beard but a straight back.

"I threw away the carbine, and the short gun on my waist, slowly dismounted, and walked over step by step." Beard coldly ordered.

The rider with a beard on his face obediently threw his gun and dismounted, walked step by step to about four meters in front of An Yi and the two and slowly stopped, his round red eyes couldn't help but look at An Yi and his beard, and finally turned to An Yi's face and said fearlessly: "I didn't expect your marksmanship to be so good...... And you, listening to the accent, are you from Cangzhou? ”

Beard recognized the rank of lieutenant colonel on his shoulder, and stared into his eyes expressionlessly: "The officer is not small, which part?" ”

"The contemptible surname Zhang is called Zhang Chengzhu, the word Zhenbei, Baoding, last month from Wu Dashuai's third division transferred to Ye Kaixin Ye Division commander of the cavalry battalion, the attack on the Hengnan Iron Bridge was done by me led the people, after being broken up by the two regiments of Tang Shengzhi's department, we fled here, originally wanted to cross the northern suburbs of Leiyang to the northeast and retreat into Jiangxi, and found that you drove over and hid in the forest to avoid it, but I didn't expect to be discovered by you...... You guys are very good, much stronger than Tang Shengzhi's troops. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Chengzhu smiled bitterly: "If the two of you are gracious, please let go of the brothers, the mountains will not turn around, and I will repay the brothers." ”

Seeing that Hu Zi was looking at him, An Yi smiled and turned to his brothers and ordered loudly: "The brothers of the fifth platoon will stay, and the rest will be led by the platoon commander to return to the firing point and continue to complete the interrupted training...... Iron head, lift up the men on the ground with your brethren, and put away their weapons to examine their wounds. ”

"Yes!"

The three squads answered loudly and performed separately.

Zhang Chengzhu looked at An Yi in surprise, with a little appreciation in his eyes, and then strode towards his brothers, and shook his head sadly after seeing everyone's injuries: the two company commanders were shot four or five times and were no longer alive, his three guards were already out of breath after being shot through the head by accurate bullets, and his adjutant broke his right arm and fainted. Zhang Chengzhu pinched the adjutant's broken arm, tore off the corners of his clothes and expertly fixed them.

An Yi walked up to him and said apologetically, "Brother Wu, I'm sorry!" If you don't run away, we won't shoot, maybe you don't believe it, as long as you come out and put down your guns, none of this will happen, to be honest, I really don't want to kill people, especially my own countrymen. ”

"I believe that your eyes tell me the truth. Alas...... I don't blame anyone, since I eat this bowl of rice, I will be shot the same when I am shot......"

Zhang Chengzhu stood up and looked at An Yi quietly, pointing to the dozens of brothers who were shooting into the forest: "Don't tell me, you just trained and didn't find us, right?" ”

Hu Zi and An Yi smiled helplessly at the same time, and Hu Zi replied embarrassedly: "As the elder brother said, I didn't find you at all, just conducting routine training, these brothers under us have just been recruited for more than two months, and they have not learned to shoot properly, so they can only seize every opportunity to practice well, so that the brothers can go to the battlefield and live for as many days as possible." ”

Zhang Chengzhu closed the tiger's eyes painfully, wiped off the sweat stains on a pair of thick eyebrows and red cheeks with his big fan-like hands, shook his head frequently and sighed, looked at the nameplate on the chests of the two and asked calmly: "Providence, providence...... What do you call the two brothers? ”

An Yi glanced at the nameplate on his chest, which was already very confused: "My name is An Yi, the newly promoted company commander, this is Hu Jialin Brother Hu, who was originally an equestrian instructor when the younger brother was studying at the Whampoa Military Academy, and now he is the company deputy of the younger brother." We are all small people, and like most of our brothers, we don't have a size, so please forgive us! I don't know what Brother Zhang's plans are? Do you want to go now, or do you want to have a meal with us and then go? We will bury the dead a few well, but the neck of the horse on the ground is broken, we have to slaughter it as soon as possible, and now we only have more than 70 catties of rice and some oil, salt, sauce and vinegar left, this horse can give us more than 200 brothers who have walked for three days in a row to eat a full meal, I hope Brother Zhang will not be surprised. ”

Zhang Chengzhu looked at the white horse that was still twitching, and the heavy bag of mud-stained ocean on the side, slowly walked over and squatted on the side of the horse's head, gently stroked the white horse's forehead, and suddenly pulled out a sharp dagger from the riding boots and stabbed it quickly, and a stream of bloody arrows shot out from above the horse's neck, which made An Yi and the beard sad.

Zhang Chengzhu put away the dagger and returned to the two of them, pointing to the bag of ocean on the ground and the leather bag on the back of the black horse not far away:

"There are nearly two thousand oceans in the bag, and there are a few gold bars and some jewelry in the leather bag, and the soldiers of the two elder brothers have not touched a finger for so long, it is enough to see that the two elder brothers are leading the troops in a good way, and they are by no means ordinary people. Moreover, it is rare for you to tell me the truth without deception, without suspicion at all...... Well, it's better to be respectful than to obey, I'll stay for a meal, and by the way, I'll have to take the bones of my brother who survived. ”

An Yi leaned sideways and said, "Brother Zhang, please, I have some Yunnan Baiyao from the Dian Army, as well as some Panax notoginseng powder and anti-inflammatory straps, maybe this injured eldest brother can use it...... Tietou, bring everything underground and bring the horse back to the camp, and then call the old Han Tou to come over and peel and cut the meat, the sooner the better. ”

"Yes!"

(To be continued)