At nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, 11,000 officers and men of the Second Division of the First Army drove again to the Hunan Army's lecture hall where they were stationed before departure.

Thinking that his third company of engineers was driven out of this comfortable nest and sent to a remote suburb to build his own camp, Hu Zi and Yin Jinan beside An Yi also sighed frequently, deeply feeling that the banner of the "model battalion" of the whole army that he is carrying now is indeed hard-won, and even the brothers of the main regiment are deeply jealous of the preferential treatment they have received.

After the whole camp was settled, the bearded man who had returned from walking his horse immediately ordered that all the brothers must cut their hair short and shave their faces before dinner!

At this order, the camp was suddenly busy, and Chang Chang happily moved out of the stool, took out the scissors and razor, and prepared to show off his skills.

The brothers who were waiting under the big tree quickly lined up, but fortunately, Dong Yanzi also learned the trade of barbering, and the two of them worked hard together, and the progress was not too slow.

By lunchtime, nearly one-third of the brothers had finished their appearance and looked in good spirits.

Hearing the sound of the meal coming from the room, more than 500 brothers dispersed in a hurry, and all of them happily came to the long table under the simple shed, and looked at the fragrant delicacies such as chili back pot meat, pork vermicelli, pork ribs and roasted potatoes, and couldn't help swallowing their saliva, and quickly sat down in rows, ready to feast.

Not long after the start, a dusty Ford military truck slowly drove in from the gate of the camp. The sharp-eyed brothers saw Xia Jian sitting on the roof of the Mandangdang carriage, and they were so excited that they shouted loudly, and more than 100 veteran brothers rushed to put down their jobs and quickly surrounded them.

Before the car had completely stopped, Xia Jian, who was quite good at kung fu and covered in dust, jumped off the roof of the three-meter-high car, rushed forward a few steps to grab the oncoming Lu Xiong, and happily pointed back: "Old Lu, brothers, see who is coming?" ”

When all the brothers heard this, they all looked at each other, and saw that the sturdy Wu Liheng was shouting at a dozen strange brothers in military uniforms on the trunk to get out of the car.

Wu Liheng saw hundreds of brothers coming up, and excitedly told the dozen or so brothers he brought to wait, and trotted a few steps to Lu Xiong and Qu Tongyuan, who had been reunited for a long time. At this time, he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly ordered Xia Jian to greet the two brothers of the military transportation regiment who were driving hard to eat, and accidentally saw the warrant officer badges on the chests of Lu Xiong, Qu Tongyuan, Li Shunping, and Su Tieming, and couldn't help but be startled:

"This ...... You dogs, you can't get it yourself, do you? When I was in Guangzhou, Xia Jian gave Sergeant Lao Tzu a badge and Lao Tzu was very excited, but now you ......"

The real Li Shunping was just about to tell the truth, but he was stopped by the old Sichuan Qu Tongyuan with a sinister face, the old Sichuan turned to Wu Liheng, slowly raised his chin, and coaxed to elongate his tone and play an official tone:

"Sergeant Wu Liheng, why didn't you take the initiative to salute when you saw the commander? You've been a soldier for eight years, don't you even know these rules...... Look, what to see? You must know that this is no longer your original warlord army, this is the engineer battalion directly under the Second Division of the First Army, and it is the model battalion of the whole army erected by Commander-in-Chief Chiang himself! Do you understand...... Attention! Take a break – stand upright! It's pretty much the same, like a pig for a few months, and it looks like your brain isn't bad yet, but you have to ......."

Wu Liheng, who was reluctant to salute, was extremely painful, thinking that Lao Tzu had been sick for three months, if it weren't for Xia Jian, who said that he couldn't do without his newlywed wife's **, he just found such and such an excuse to delay for half a month, maybe Lao Tzu could also catch up with a few big battles and be promoted to the title, what was Lao Tzu worse than you dogs? At the beginning, you all listened to Lao Tzu! Alas, now this group of non-bullshit things have picked up cheap, and they are all ahead of Lao Tzu!

Wu Liheng put down his saluting hand in frustration, the brothers immediately laughed when they saw it, and they almost fell to the ground with joy, the old Sichuan Qu Tongyuan had finally made a cheap deal with Wu Da in the past few years, and his heart was empty, and he took advantage of the fact that the tyrannical Wu Da had not yet figured out what was going on, and quietly slipped away, walked towards the twelve strange brothers who looked at Wu Liheng with envy, and enthusiastically led these brothers to eat together.

More than a dozen strange brothers dressed in small soldier clothes saw the warrant officer of old Sichuan coming, and hurriedly stood up and saluted, and Lao Sichuan waved his hand generously and said that your brother is welcome, you are the brother of Wu Da, and you are my brother Qu.

Under the guidance of Xia Jian, several young company commanders took a group of brothers to unload the car, and several platoon commanders of Lu Xiong ran into the pergola with Wu Liheng in their arms, and respectfully reported to An Yi and the three who were eating.

Wu Liheng saw that An Yi was injured, and hurriedly stepped forward and asked with concern: "Company commander, why are you injured?" Is the injury serious? ”

"It's okay, it'll be fine after a while, come on, come on, sit together, this table is spacious enough for the three of us."

An Yile looked at Wu Da, who had been hospitalized for three months and was slightly fat, and saw that his expression was quite restrained, and he didn't mean to sit down or reluctantly, nodded and asked kindly: "How are your legs and feet recovering?" ”

Wu Liheng replied gratefully: "It's all right...... Company commander, no, no! Battalion commander, his subordinates have long been cured, but they have to follow Xia Jian's kid to Guangzhou City every day to purchase military supplies, and everything is done, and the doctors in the military academy hospital delayed us for another week, and it was not until last night that they followed the truck of the military department to escort our supplies to Changsha.

Originally, the driver was impatient to let us unload the car, but Xia Jian learned that the team didn't want to unload the car and cause trouble today, so he gave more compensation, and the car waited until this morning. The battalion commander, Deputy Hu Ying, and Staff Officer Yin, their subordinates were grateful to the commanders, and they didn't help at all, and they raised the rank of two ranks to become sergeants out of thin air, and their monthly salary was a lot more than the captains of other units who were hospitalized together, and their subordinates ...... in their hearts."

"If you don't say this, just take it as compensation for you." The bearded man who was in a good mood also made a joke, causing laughter from the brothers around him.

An Yi pointed to the brothers who were eating ten meters away accompanied by Qu Tongyuan, and asked curiously: "Big one, those brothers don't look bad, they are all full of energy, where did you get them?" ”

Wu Liheng replied truthfully: "They are all new brothers who met when their subordinates were hospitalized, a total of twelve, it turned out to be brothers from the Third Army and the Fifth Army, including Henan, Anhui and Jiangxi. After the end of the Eastern Crusade, they have been ordered to suppress bandits in the Beijiang area, and they have known each other since they were injured and hospitalized.

Those people in the three armies are not very authentic, and they just throw hundreds of wounded brothers to the hospital and ignore them, but the five armies are better, and there is a petty officer who comes to see and give some military pay every month. It was not easy for these brothers, seeing that their subordinates were taken care of so well and received such a high salary, they sighed all day long, and quietly let their subordinates lead them to join the commander.

Originally, there were more than 50 brothers who wanted to come, but their subordinates didn't dare to take so many people away at once, so they chose and picked and picked, and brought back these 12 people hard. These brothers are all veterans of more than five years, and they all have their own unique skills, so after discussing with Xia Jian, the subordinates will cut them first, grit their teeth and bring them, please accept them. ”

"That's a good thing! Not only are you right, but you should also be credited...... Old Han, give two bottles of wine to the new brother at that table! ”

After instructing the Huotou Army, An Yile turned to Wu Liheng hehehehe: "Let's go eat first!" I won't force you to eat with me, so as to save you embarrassment, but it is better to eat with your new brother. By the way, let me tell you one thing first, tomorrow our camp will start to fight Jiangxi, so pay attention to control the amount of alcohol, don't let you and your new brother have a good drink, and I will make up for you later. Also, put these twelve brothers in your third row, and use your own ideas to go! ”

Wu Liheng's eyes widened and he looked at An Yi in surprise: "My third row? I...... Battalion commander, I don't have three platoons! If it weren't for a few commanders who could afford their subordinates, where would their subordinates get this sergeant rank now? This ......"

A group of brothers on the side finally couldn't help it, watching Wu Da Da who was in the dark laugh again, Li Shunping and Lu Xiong couldn't hold back their laughter, and hurriedly said goodbye to An Yi and the others, turned around and pulled Wu Da into the distance to explain to him one by one, telling him that now he is also a warrant officer platoon leader, and the position of the third platoon leader has always written his name Wu Liheng.

After a few old brothers explained, they repeatedly begged Wu Da not to be angry with the old Sichuan dog, if he really beat him, it wouldn't look good, now you and I are all warrant officer platoon commanders, all of them are people with status and status, you have to pay attention to the impact!

Not wanting a few old brothers to misestimate Wu Liheng's reaction, Wu Liheng did not jump like thunder as before, but stood in place and looked at the sky, trying his best to hold back his tears. He exhaled heavily, quickly raised his sleeves and wiped away the sweat beads on his head and the tears that were about to fall, laughed, strode towards his new brother, sat down and grabbed the wine bottle to refill everyone, and said with a big grin: Brothers, don't be polite, coming here is equivalent to arriving home, tomorrow we have to go to the battlefield in Jiangxi, if you can trust the eldest brother, I will stay, and if there is something at home, I will squeak, and I will send some plates to the brothers who have left to express their hearts.

As soon as these words came out, all the twelve brothers stood up, picked up the wine bowl and immediately said: As long as Brother Wu says a word, the brothers will point to where to fight, and there is no ambiguity! The brothers are all out of the pile of dead and are afraid of war? Not to mention Sun Chuanfang, who has plagued Jiangxi for many years, even if the old chief is standing in front of him, Lao Tzu will not be mistaken!

An Yi enjoyed watching it, and laughed: "Grandma's Wu is big, and he has grown up in the hospital for a few days, and he knows how to win people's hearts, not bad, not bad!" It seems that our brother didn't believe him wrong. ”

Hu Zi nodded in satisfaction, but Yin Jinan said with some worry: "These twelve brothers all came from the military academy hospital secretly, if we meet the old army one day and be recognized, it is estimated that we will have to spend some words." ”

"Ji Nan, you put 10,000 hearts, this Republic of China is even more chaotic than his mother's Three Kingdoms, after these battles, thousands of officers and soldiers have fled to death, who is in a hurry for this? Take the newly reorganized 24th Division of General Ye Ting of the Fourth Army as an example, I am sure that at least a few hundred people in it ran from various friendly forces, and most of the other armies did the same. This kind of is normal, and I haven't seen anyone in a hurry until now, right? Ha ha! He picked up a piece of stewed lamb and stuffed it into his mouth, which was very chic.

Yin Jinan thought about it for a while, and nodded with relief: "This is also true, it seems that the younger brother is too worried, grandma!" I still can't let go of ......."

An Yi and Hu Zi laughed, and when they saw Xia Jian coming, An Yi beckoned him to sit opposite: "Let's eat a little more...... Those 100 sets of all-in-one combat plug-ins got back? ”

Xia Jian hurriedly put down the bowl he had just picked up: "Get it back, Mr. Ou told him to send him a telegram if you want it again, and he will give you the production as soon as possible." That day, I took the 100 sets of samples back to Renji Road's house in Mr. Ou's warehouse, and as soon as my eldest brother said, my second aunt and my mother-in-law immediately went to buy dye, and dyed them the next day.

A week before leaving Guangzhou, Mr. Ou also made a special trip to send 2,000 pairs of the latest thick-soled high-top field rubber shoes, as well as two portable German sewing machines, saying that these could be used by our troops. The field shoes were so good, sturdy and non-slip, light foot protection, Lao Wu and I tried it and almost didn't want to take it off. In addition, the eldest brother entrusted Ah Biao to help customize all the connection accessories, ten pairs of the latest German binoculars and 300 folding shovels all pulled back this time......

Speaking of this, Xia Jian took out a large stack of envelopes from his satchel: "Well, here are all letters from the eldest brother, including Brother Biao's, Mr. Hans's, as well as Uncle Lao and Dongzi, this is the letter that Miss Ou told me to pass on to the eldest brother...... By the way, big brother, Dongzi said that their fifth Huangpu students are likely to all go north after taking Wuhan, and I don't know what happened. ”

An Yi took the letter and put it in his pocket: "It is very likely that what Dongzi said is that now all armies are desperately expanding, and we are no exception." After eating, you immediately go to a few platoon commanders of the first company, and first pick twenty to enter your police platoon, and the other ten assaults we have already selected for you from the machine gun platoon, all of them are veterans and brothers with very good comprehensive ability.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, lead your 30 men to follow the brothers of the second company to the quartermaster department to get new equipment, and when you come back, you will pick all the equipment, including the equipment in the arsenal of the battalion headquarters, but each company of light machine guns will need it, and your platoon will be equipped with five light machine guns for the time being.

At four o'clock tomorrow morning, the whole battalion will have to take four atmospheric boats to Yonghe Town, 25 kilometers northwest of Liuyang, where the two small wooden bridges cannot allow the artillery of our main regiment to pass, and they must all be repaired within one day, so you have no time to train the troops. ”

"Yes!"

At 9 o'clock that night, the garrison of the Second Division was heavily guarded, and all 574 officers and men of the engineer battalion formed four neat squares, all draped in armor and loaded with live ammunition, standing solemnly on the ground in front of the division headquarters building.

After the review, Liu Xiao, who returned to the high platform, looked at the elite battalion under his command and was very satisfied, and in the afternoon he was surprised after reading the "Special Training Plan for the Police Platoon of the Engineer Battalion" submitted by Yin Jinan, so just now he and Xu Tingyao and Jiang Dingwen specially inspected the police platoon of the engineer battalion hastily formed by 32 officers and soldiers, and sighed with emotion at the fierce and unique temperament of the elite soldiers with respectful faces. After only half of the reading, Liu Xiao was keenly aware that this small elite unit had a huge harmful surname and destructive power, compared with the plainly worded and rigorous report handed over by Yin Jinan, these thirty-two living and cold officers and soldiers were more interesting to Liu Xiao and his two assistants, although the three of them have not exchanged opinions, but they all felt a slight shock from each other, which had never been seen in Liu Xiao's military career, so he was very impressed, and he was extremely optimistic about the future of this small army.

After the three bosses successively gave some encouragement and encouragement, the review ended, and the more than 500 officers and soldiers of the An Yi battalion left almost silently after saluting, which formed a sharp contrast with the noisy and messy officers and soldiers of the other three main regiments, which made Liu Xiao and the three people who were still on the high platform shake their heads and sigh frequently.

Xu Tingyao retracted his gaze and said in a low voice: "I have always ignored their combat effectiveness, and always thought that the engineer battalion only had the advantage of leading the whole army in terms of professionalism, today I saw their strong side, I don't know how these three boys were trained, in addition to the lack of heavy firepower, they are much stronger than several main regiments in terms of weapons and equipment, training level, and mental outlook, especially they have almost half of the elite veterans, and the combat effectiveness of the entire battalion has virtually increased several times." It seems that I have been deceived by the usual low-key appearance of these three boys, and from today's review, I feel that there is not a day when they are not preparing for war! ”

Liu Xiao smiled bitterly: "Not only you, but I also ignore them." At noon, I sent Shusen to the car, and he told me that he was optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the An Yi battalion, and he had a hunch that the An Yi battalion would bring good results and good luck to our entire division, and quietly told me to give An Yi and the three more support and trust. Now it seems that Shusen is more careful than us...... Ming San, what else do you look at when everyone is gone? Let's go back, let's go to the dock to see them off tomorrow morning. ”

Jiang Dingwen turned around and shook his head quite annoyedly: "An Yi, this kid, actually secretly trained such elite soldiers, even Lao Tzu He dared to hide it, see how Lao Tzu cleaned him up, annoyed us to simply dismantle his model battalion, it's a big deal to allocate three to five thousand people to him as a regiment commander, let this insidious kid help our main regiments train every day!" ”

Liu Xiao and Xu Tingyao listened interestingly, laughed happily, and suddenly stopped laughing and turned to Jiang Dingwen in unison. Xu Tingyao nodded heavily: "Ming San, your strategy is absolutely high, I almost forgot about this layer thanks to your reminder!" ”

Liu Xiao also nodded: "It's worth a try, at least in terms of engineers, An Yi's two engineer companies will give one to any of the main regiments, which will greatly benefit the regiment and smile so much that they can't close their mouths." Ming San, I guess you've been thinking about it for a long time, right? ”

Jiang Dingwen sighed: "Actually, I made up my mind on the day I won the sapper competition, and before I had time to do it, I found that the fourth and sixth regiments had already been eyeing each other in the dark, and after thinking about it, I didn't dare to move in the end, otherwise I wouldn't have become the target of public criticism......

(To be continued)