Twenty-four artillery pieces were dragged by a group of sturdy horses, and they "gurgled" onto the wooden bridge, followed closely by 260 strong pack horses carrying boxes of shells, and 1,200 officers and men of the artillery battalion successively drove across the Sanzhuang Bridge to the west of Xinji Town and entered Daying Town, which was only 24 kilometers away from Chuzhou City.

An Yi rode a black horse, climbed to the top of the hillside east of the bridgehead, and silently looked at his marching troops, Liu Shoujiang, the party representative of the major general of the Reading Division, Hu Jialin, Yin Jinan, Yang Bin, and Zhan Huanqi, the newly promoted colonel, also rode on horseback, overlooking the continuous westward march under the mountain.

Yesterday afternoon, An Yi's reading division was represented by Cai Zhonghu's artillery command part of the general headquarters artillery command part of most of the artillery, Cai Zhongwat was also very righteous, led the elite under his command to select the best 24 artillery pieces for An Yi to stay, solemnly promised to pull the 28 artillery back to Nanjing, and then issued an order to the artillery regiment stationed in the west of Nanchang City, six of the miscellaneous guns were sent to the old Nanchang non-commissioned officer base for training, and the 17 guns of various types stored in the Nanchang warehouse were damaged and scrapped, All of them were sent to the Ordnance Repair Office for the Ordnance Technicians to practice dismantling and repairing.

The Battle of Yangzhou and the Battle of Taizhou were included in the "Jiangbei Campaign" by the Nanjing National Political Axe and the General Headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Dozens of Chinese and foreign reporters flocked to Yangzhou to cover the news, but An Yi quietly led his troops to completely evacuate the logistics barracks in Zhenjiang, Jiangdu, and the south of Yangzhou at this time, and drove almost parallel to Chuzhou with the main force of the Third Division, leaving Gu Zhutong to meet reporters in Yangzhou and publish his Northern Expedition testimonials and look forward to the future.

An Yi is very uncomfortable now, he saw the statements in the newspapers that did not belong to him, and saw the so-called Northern Expedition Declaration of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, in which the firm [***] position and loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek were clear at a glance, which made An Yi very angry in his heart, but he was helpless. He clearly knew that the impact of this illusory statement would bring unforeseen changes to his military and career in the future, so he felt very passive and depressed in his heart, but despite this, An Yi did not dare to show the slightest dissatisfaction on his face.

When I left Nanjing yesterday morning, Chen Shuming, Liu Wendao, Ge Jingen, Chen Lifu, He Yushu, Jiang Guangding, and other important figures gathered together to bid farewell and packed the parking lot of the Central Political Axe Compound. The commanders handed over to An Yi the documents on the appointment of generals by Hu Jialin and others and the complete set of generals' collar badges and nameplates supervised by the Ministry of Military Affairs, and on behalf of Commander-in-Chief Chiang, they gave earnest advice and deep encouragement to An Yi. An Yi cheered up and accepted all this respectfully—he knew very well in his heart that if he showed the slightest dissatisfaction, all his previous efforts would likely be in vain, and his ideals and ambitions would become even more distant.

The advantage of enduring this was that He Yushu and Jiang Guangding, on behalf of the military headquarters of the First Army, decided to fully agree with An Yi to promote the chief and deputy commanders of his four main regiments, divisional engineer battalions, guard battalions, teaching teams, and artillery battalions to the rank of colonel, and the commanders of all levels of the battalion, company, and platoon in the army were promoted to the rank of first-class, and gave a cash reward of 80,000 yuan to the reading division at one time.

An Yi respectfully accepted this generous gift with a grateful smile, and together with the check for 200,000 yuan that President Jiang had privately rewarded, it was all deposited in the HSBC bank in Xiaguan before leaving Nanjing City, which could somewhat make up for the injured self-esteem.

The headquarters of the Second Route Army was set up in Pukou, opposite the city of Nanjing, and although Commander-in-Chief Chiang was named the commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army, he had actually handed over all command to General Bai Chongxi, deputy chief of the General Staff, and General Bai Chongxi was fully responsible for commanding General He Yaozu's 40th Army, General Chen Tiaoyuan's 37th Army, General Yang Jie's new Sixth Army, and the Reading Division, First Division, and Third Division of the First Army. This time, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of the Second Route Army, and jointly commanded all units of the Central Route Army together with his student Bai Chongxi.

Pukou is just north of Nanjing City, across the Yangtze River and Nanjing, is the starting point of the southern line of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, 40 kilometers away from Chuzhou, only 33 kilometers away from Daying Town, where An Yi's reading division is located, General Bai Chongxi selected Pukou as the headquarters, quite profound.

An Yi, who had completed the deployment of troops, did not dare to slack off, and immediately led Yin Jinan, Hu Jialin, and Yang Bin to rush to Pukou on horseback, reported to Bai Chongxi, the acting commander-in-chief, and handed over the defense and front-line command of Daying Town to Liu Shoujiang, the party representative, and the commanders of each regiment and battalion.

The headquarters of the Second Route Army was set up in the Pukou camp, in which a division of General He Yaozu and General Bai Chongxi's guard battalion were stationed. At that time, Bai Chongxi, Chen Tiaoyuan, He Yaozu and others were holding a military planning meeting, the chief of staff was still Zhang Dingfan, the director of the Political Department was still Pan Yizhi, and the generals and marshals heard the news that An Yi had come to report, and smiled at each other, Bai Chongxi smiled slightly and whispered that it was very fast, Chen Tiaoyuan and He Yaozu said with interest, let's go out to greet them, and see what our young generals who are famous in the whole army look like?

An Yi and the others, who were waiting in the courtyard of the headquarters, did not expect that so many generals would come out in person, so they immediately stood side by side and reported loudly, Bai Chongxi returned a salute and politely introduced Chen Tiaoyuan and He Yaozu and others to An Yi.

An Yi respectfully greeted the two seniors in the army, and his thoughtful courtesy and humble attitude won the great favor of the two generals.

Especially He Yaozu, during the Battle of Fengxin, He Yaozu was the commander of the Reading Division, and the division and the second division were stationed next to each other, and the relationship between them was very good, and the relationship between An Yi and the various departments of the Hunan Army has always been very good, and many Xiaoxiang children in the department served as the battalion commander, so that He Yaozu's invisible sense of identity arose, and he was also very enthusiastic about An Yi and others.

Forty-one-year-old Chen Tiaoyuan has big ears and a majestic bearing, and a neat black mustache on his lips. This veteran of the battlefield who began his military career at the age of 14 started from an ordinary pawn, and after more than 20 years, he became the army general of the Beiyang political axe, and belonged to the real meritorious generals who had experienced a hundred battles, before the Righteous Revolution, he had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet Army and commander of the Front Army, and after the Supplementary Revolution, he was appointed as the general of the 37th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and served as the commander-in-chief of the North Road of the Northern Expeditionary Army and the chairman of Anhui Province.

Chen Tiaoyuan gently held An Yi's hand, looked him up and down, and nodded: "Not bad, not bad, people are as their name suggests!" This time, you and Gu Mosan launched a series of battles in Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Gaoyou, which mobilized our army's middle and east roads, and those veterans who have been in the army for twenty or thirty years have been invincible by you, and my old friend Bai Baoshan was cornered, and finally had to surrender to the revolution, which saved a lot of trouble for General He Jingzhi on the East Road, and fought very well! ”

"The seniors praised it falsely! Yangzhou Taizhou World War I younger generations are purely opportunistic, if it were not for our Northern Expedition of all roads of the army to oppress Jiangbei, so that the enemy army cares about one and the other, the rumors are loud, once in contact with the retreat without a fight, with the ability of thousands of brothers in the younger generation can not capture Taizhou at all, and now I still feel lucky to think of the younger generation. An Yi replied humbly.

Chen Tiaoyuan smiled, pointed at An Yi and said, "Sure enough, it's as Jiansheng said!" Yes, not arrogant or impatient, humble and easy-going, he is a young man with grace, haha! I remember you're only twenty years old, aren't you? ”

An Yi respectfully reported: "The younger generation was born in the 32nd year of Guangxu, the zodiac belongs to the horse, and he will be 21 years old in June this year. ”

Chen Tiaoyuan's eyes lit up: "It's amazing, a twenty-year-old major general division commander is extremely rare in the whole country." Huangpu is really a talent! ”

An Yi smiled and didn't answer, but said in his heart What is this, in a few years, a large number of young generals will emerge in the red tide that will sweep the country, and there are not a few who become division commanders at the age of twenty, such as General Li Tianyou, the commander of the 38th Army of the People's Liberation Army, who was often hung up by his father before the crossing, became the commander of the Fifth Division of the Red Third Army at the age of nineteen.

He Yaozu was a little disdainful: "I don't think it's Huangpu that produces talents, it's the Northern Expedition that produces talents!" Look at the current departments of the Northern Expeditionary Army, how many generals are really trained by Whampoa? The Seventh Army, which is well-known throughout the country, does not have a single Whampoa student, isn't it still invincible? ”

Bai Chongxi was born in the Gui family, and he was closely related to the Seventh Army, he smiled slightly when he heard this, waved his hand to signal everyone to enter together, walked into the lobby Bai Chongxi paused slightly, and asked in a low voice when An Yi followed: "An Yi, how is your reading teacher doing?" ”

"Report to the commander, the 1st and 3rd regiments of our division yesterday arrived at the predetermined combat positions on the eastern front and launched a comprehensive alert against the enemy in Chuzhou, and the Reading Regiment and the 2nd Regiment all entered the predetermined battlefield this morning, and all the division's subordinate units were stationed in Daying Town three hours ago, and reconnaissance of the enemy began three days ago, and all kinds of intelligence materials are being compiled at present, and the attack on the whole front can be launched only after the commander's order." An Yi replied in a low voice.

Bai Chongxi nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, compared to Gu Mosan's third division, the progress is much faster, we are analyzing the intelligence information obtained today, you can also participate." ”

"Yes!"

After everyone sat down, the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Zhang Dingfan, walked to the large map and began to report on the battle situation and briefly analyze the battlefield:

"The latest news, the fourth and eleventh armies of the right wing of Wuhan participating in the Northern Expedition have successfully occupied Runan, and the left wing army went north to Zhumadian, took advantage of the victory to attack, and fought fiercely with Zhang Xueliang's troops on the line of Queshan and Suiping, and it is estimated that it can be conquered without saying anything.

On the Nanjing side of our country, the 44th Army of General Li Delin's Xia Wei Division and General Ye Jingqiu (Ye Kaixin) of the Third Route was attacking the Zhilu Allied Army in Chaoxian County, and the commander of the First Road, He Jingzhi, led his troops to fight fiercely with Sun's Army on the Hai'an line, and the Sixth Army of General Yang Gengguang (Yang Jiezi) of our Second Route Army had advanced from south to north against the defending enemy in Chuzhou, and the officers and men of General Chen's 37th Army attacked Hanshan, and the occupation of Hanshan was a matter of waiting.

It can be said that the current development of the entire war situation is more favorable to the armies of our Northern Expedition, and at present the distribution of the strength of our Second Route Army is relatively scattered, the First Division of the First Army is still stranded on the other side of the river at the boundary of Xiaguan and has not yet crossed the river, and only half of General Gu Mosan's Third Division has arrived in the southeast of Chuzhou, but fortunately, General An Yi's Reading Division has made rapid progress and has completed the pressure on the eastern front of the enemy defending Chuzhou ahead of schedule, so as long as the Third Division enters the southeast battlefield again, our Second Route Army can launch a comprehensive attack on the defending enemy in Chuzhou City. Next, I asked Chief Bai to arrange combat missions. ”

Bai Chongxi glanced at An Yi, who looked puzzled, and instead of going straight to the point, he asked in a low voice, "Does General An have any questions?" ”

"Oh? Subordinate...... I'm sorry, my subordinates are distracted. ”

An Yi straightened his waist and answered truthfully: "My subordinates have two questions, first, I don't know when General Ye Kaixin, who was reorganized into the 44th Army after the Toucheng Revolution, will arrive in Chao County?" Secondly, according to the news in the newspaper, General Feng Yuxiang has already left Shaanxi, and after arriving at Tongguan, it has stagnated, and the outside world speculates that General Feng Yuxiang is secretly compromising with Zhang Zuolin of the Feng army, if this is the case, his subordinates are very worried that the Feng army in Xuzhou will go south to Bengbu, and the enemy of Bengbu will go south to reinforce Hefei and Chuzhou, which will bring great trouble to our next operation. ”

The generals looked at An Yi with a smile, Chen Tiaoyuan's eyes were full of appreciation, thinking that it was indeed very rare for An Yi to have such a broad vision at such an age.

Zhang Dingfan, under Bai Chongxi's signal, explained loudly: "On this issue, we have discussed it just now, and we unanimously agreed that General Feng Yuxiang will not secretly collude with the Feng army, at least not during this period, because General Feng Yuxiang has made a public commitment to Wuhan and our Nanjing political axe at the same time that he will not retreat from the Northern Expedition, and Commander-in-Chief Chiang has also given a positive response to General Feng Yuxiang's request for military assistance.

In fact, it is not General Feng Yuxiang, who is openly responding to the revolution, but the Jin Sui army under the command of General Yan Xishan, but according to the latest intelligence, the main forces under General Yan Xishan have been quietly mobilized to coerce the front line in North China, which has greatly restrained the southward strength of the Feng army, so General An does not need to be distracted by this.

Secondly, General Ye Kaixin has been stationed in Hubei since the surrender revolution, and the reason why he suddenly transferred from Wuhan to our Nanjing camp is that General Tang Shengzhi and General Ye Kaixin have a long-cherished wish, and General Ye Kaixin saw that General Tang Shengzhi's headquarters was about to encircle and disarm him, so he could only quickly break away from Wuhan and hurriedly come east to join our Nanjing Northern Expedition camp, and then was incorporated into our Third Route Army and fought side by side with General Li Zongren. ”

"My subordinates understand, thank you for your explanation." Only then did An Yi know what had happened.

Bai Chongxi kindly asked everyone if they had any doubts, and seeing that everyone had no opinion, he first saluted the teacher Chen Tiaoyuan slightly, and then slowly stood up, strode to the map, and issued orders to the various departments in his calm voice.