"Second Army Commander Dai urgently telegraphed."

The confidential staff officer stood at the door of the empty command room and handed the telegram to Chief of Staff Zhang Dingfan.

Zhang Dingfan took the telegram and nodded, turned around and walked to Bai Chongxi, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, who was immersed in writing the battle plan behind the big table by the window, stopped suddenly halfway through, looked at the telegram in his hand again and took a deep breath:

"Brother Jiansheng, Dai Xipeng (Dai Yuezi) called, after the Second Army suddenly launched an attack by the An Yi Regiment that rushed to the rescue, it fought against the water and fought a counterattack, and the An Yi Regiment in the east of the battlefield attacked on both sides, and worked together to defeat the encirclement of the strong enemy, and achieved a record of destroying more than 900 enemies, capturing more than 600 enemies, and capturing more than 1,000 long and short guns, and the 17th and 18th regiments of the Sixth Division pursued the victory and occupied Wenchang Town north of Chun'an in one fell swoop and defended it."

Bai Chongxi looked at the gilded Western table clock on the table, the time was 11:20 in the morning, turned his head in surprise and asked, "When will the battle start?" When will it end? ”

"There is no launch time on the message, and the end time of the battle is 10:35."

"What? It's over at 10:35? ”

Bai Chongxi stood up in shock, took the telegram handed by Zhang Dingfan and read it carefully: "...... At 10:50, An Yi led his troops back to Jiande by water...... What a speed! In this way, it seems that An Yi fought very smartly, and did not launch a fierce attack as soon as he entered the battlefield as we expected, but skillfully drove the enemy to flee north, thus lifting the siege of the two armies in one fell swoop, otherwise the battle would never have ended so early.

There are more than 14,000 officers and soldiers in the two divisions of the enemy's Fifth Army, plus more than 3,000 people in the enemy's 19th Division, these more than 17,000 people are not paper-paste, even if they are lined up one meter at a time, they can be connected by 17 kilometers, I am sure that the enemy must have fallen into An Yi's suspicious strategy, otherwise two regiments can be transferred from the reserve, An Yi's headquarters can be blocked from the battlefield, and the two divisions of the Second Army in the encirclement will be freed up to storm the two divisions of the Second Army that are fighting against the water. The only way to avoid being annihilated by the superior forces was to flee, but now the enemy fled without a fight. This An Yi is brave, resourceful, and courageous! ”

Zhang Dingfan sat down opposite Bai Chongxi and praised sincerely: "Blue is better than blue!" Looking at all the departments of the First Army, there is no one in the younger generation who surpasses them, and such talents are really rare. ”

Bai Chongxi put down the telegram and sat down slowly: "Don't talk about the younger generation, count all the divisions and schools in front of you, and compare them with An Yi, it is clear which is better and which is inferior, but An Yi is still young and has a lower position, and he was buried intentionally or unintentionally." Just in terms of this battle, it happened suddenly, and it ended quietly, if ordinary people don't dig deeper, they don't pay attention to it at all, if you have any doubts, you can announce at the meeting that the siege of the two armies has been lifted, and how many can you see the mystery in the hall? But this battle made me see the other side of An Yi, that is, this person is not conformist, he is more self-aware, Zhang Chi has a way to judge the situation, compared with the Nanchang Battle period a few months ago, he has improved more than one level, and the future is terrifying! ”

Zhang Dingfan nodded in admiration: "With such an excellent performance of the An Yi Regiment, it should be used well in the upcoming battle of Tonglu, and it can be used well to be worthy of a division." ”

Bai Chongxi smiled slightly: "We definitely have to use it, but this time we don't need to go past Liu Jingfu to use him directly, otherwise we will definitely see the clue with An Yi's exquisite heart." This time, we asked Liu Jingfu to use him, which is justified. An Yi's subordinates should even take a short break from the trek, and then let him and Liu Jingfu's second division take on the task of attacking head-on, and the heavy task of the rest of the roundabout attacks and outflanking divisions should be handed over to the other divisions. ”

"Wonderful! Haha......"

Zhang Dingfan thought about it for a while, and then understood the meaning of his old classmate, and couldn't help but admire.

The four captured steamboats and 20 large wooden boats that had just arrived from the mouth of the Xin'an River were close to the wharf, and more than 10 hired crew members were under the supervision of the officers and men of Gu Changfeng's Fourth Battalion Machine Gun Company.

The hall on the first floor of the Chinese-style building in the center of the barracks was bustling, and An Yi and more than a dozen brothers circled around the ocean of gold bars that had just been counted and packed into rows of ammunition boxes, all with green eyes and no tiredness.

"Because the quantity is too large and the variety is large, the subordinates converted the ocean, gold bars, gold and silver products, and 272 boxes of opium into the ocean, and the total amount is about 2.75 million yuan. Among them, 1,650 catties of high-quality opium tobacco soil will be converted into 216,000 yuan per 28 yuan at the current supply price; Gold and silver products are converted by weight to about $920,000. The rest is a good calculation for cash and gold bars, that is...... It's too much to keep! ”

Shi Lejun led 20 brothers from the quartermaster unit to count for more than four hours, and they were so busy that they couldn't afford to eat dinner.

The brothers laughed when they heard this, and Mu Chaiyi, who robbed the two major tobacco houses in Chun'an City, was excited, and only he led a company of brothers to grab more than 210,000 yuan of opium smoke, and then confiscated more than 300,000 cigarettes and a pure gold Guan Gong statue from the two tobacco houses. Xia Jian was even more excited, not only led his troops to rob six officials and big households, but also brought back more than 120 good horses from these official eunuchs and big households, if it weren't for An Yi's strict military discipline, several young and beautiful women would be carried back by this energetic guy as trophies as trophies.

Ye Cheng sighed with regret: "Our battalion also disarmed the homes of several large households and official eunuchs, and thoroughly searched them, and obtained more than 370 shell guns and other various pistols, which have been handed over to the ordnance institute for storage. It's a pity that I didn't bring back so many antiques, calligraphy and paintings, jade and porcelain, and I feel distressed! If you bring it back and sell it at a discount, I'm afraid it will be able to add hundreds of thousands of yuan. ”

"I pay attention to what you usually like, and before retreating, I saw that there was still time for me to take a platoon of brothers to run three houses in a row, and brought back two sacks of ancient books and calligraphy and paintings, those jade ceramics are fragile I didn't load, but I have no research on ancient books and calligraphy and paintings, I don't know if they are valuable, they are all thrown on the edge of the pile of pockets on the back of the door, you can take a look." Yang Fei pointed to the door on the left and said with a smile on his back to Ye Cheng.

When Ye Cheng heard this, he immediately ran to the pile of broken bags, found two bulging sacks and immediately asked someone to help carry them out, where is the usual elegance of that monkey look? The brothers burst into laughter.

"Report to the regiment commander, the division headquarters is in an emergency!"

Zhan Huanqi hurriedly walked into the heavily guarded lobby and handed the message to An Yi with both hands.

An Yi took the telegram and approached the hanging lantern, read it carefully, and ordered loudly: "Lao Ding, you lead the brothers of the guard company and Lejun's quartermaster unit to immediately seal and nail all the money and opium boxes, and then carry them to the quartermaster unit for storage, and then send a platoon of brothers to station in the quartermaster unit, and from now on, you will protect the whole process and never leave!" ”

"Yes!" Ding Zhicheng turned and left.

"Xia Jian?"

"Here!"

An Yi solemnly advised: "You immediately return to the headquarters to prepare for the camp, bring all the horses you captured today to transport ammunition and baggage, and enter the third battalion garrison in the north before twelve o'clock tonight, I will order Chen Zhibiao to prepare the barracks for your department, no matter how tired you are, you have to rest there." Tomorrow continue to rest and recuperate, no need to go out and train, the war is imminent, we must let the brothers eat and sleep well, do not be reluctant to spend money, from now until the end of the battle of Tonglu, we must ensure the logistics supply, every meal must be filled with oil and water. ”

"Understood!"

Xia Jian saluted and left.

Ye Cheng had already thrown everything down and came to An Yi's side: "Is there any arrangement for my battalion?" ”

An Yi shook his head: "Not for the time being, you stay in a meeting to discuss it together." ”

"Yes."

Ten minutes later, An Yi opened the folder and read Liu Zhi's call, and then put forward his request and opinion:

"This is a telegram sent to us by the division before the departure of Lanxi, telling us that the 4th Regiment has arrived in Lanxi at 4 o'clock in the afternoon as the vanguard and will arrive at us at about 3 o'clock in the morning, so I asked Xia Jian's 3rd Battalion to vacate the barracks for them. In addition, Lao Qu, you will send a company of brothers in the teaching team tomorrow morning to bomb away all the county magistrates in the county yali in the city, regardless of whether they belong to the revolution or not, and vacate the county yali for the division headquarters to be stationed.

Lao Ye, your second battalion has no impact on the tea plantation, where the supply is sufficient, you will live first, and before the action, you will be able to requisition civilian boats down the river and soon be able to join up with other battalions. There is no need to move the Baisha Battalion, where our regimental headquarters is located, and tomorrow the Fifth and Sixth Regiments will arrive, and they can be arranged to be stationed in the vicinity of Xiaya Town in the north. What I can't figure out now is that most of the regiments of our division are untrained recruits, and our regiment is also in a state of extreme exhaustion at the moment due to the rapid march and tossing hundreds of miles to help the Second Army. It should be the other way around, everyone look at ......."

An Yi walked to the hanging large map: "Yangchun Bridge, which is nine and a half kilometers north of our Xiaya Town, is the enemy's heavily guarded front point, and Meicheng, which is eight kilometers to the east, and Sandu, which is fifteen kilometers away, are each other's horns, respectively guarding the intersection of the Xin'an River, Fuchun River and Lanjiang River, the west bank of the confluence of the three rivers is Meicheng, and the east bank is Sandu, these three important towns are located on the north bank of the Xin'an River from west to east, locking the water and land transportation arteries leading to Tonglu, and it is also the place where the enemy is heavily guarded, and among the three important towns, As long as our army breaks through the Yangchun Bridge, which is surrounded by mountains on both sides and has a natural barrier, it is equivalent to clearing the last obstacle to attacking Tonglu, placing Tonglu City under the overlook of our army, and also cutting off the retreat of the enemy in Meicheng, so I think that the most arduous task on the whole line is the Yangchun Bridge faced by our Second Division, not Sandu directly north of the First Division, let alone the watershed town faced by the Second Army.

The defenders on the passes on the east and west sides of the Yangchun Bridge will never have 10,000 enemies, and with the current equipment and combat strength of our division, how can they rush through the passage between the east and west passes, which is only 2.8 kilometers wide and 4.6 kilometers long? The reason why Shizuo sent a telegram to tell us the task is to let us brainstorm and think of more solutions, but in the face of such a situation, what can we think of? Isn't that forcing us to hit the knife edge? ”

Yang Bin nodded: "Yes, except for these two limited passages, the area south of Tonglu is full of lofty mountains and inaccessible dense forests, there is no way to go at all, let alone waterways, as long as a few artillery pieces are placed in front of the narrow part of the river, you can be called to have no return." The task assigned to my division is quite difficult, and I wonder what the other divisions and the friendly forces on the left and right are doing? It is difficult to make an accurate judgment about this until the direction of the attack of the other armies is not known. ”

"You can basically tell."

Ye Cheng stood up and walked to the map: "Look, there are only three ways to attack Tonglu from south to north, and these three roads are all sandwiched between the mountains and hills that stretch for hundreds of miles, and the other areas are all high mountains and dense forests that cannot be walked, so no matter which direction the friendly forces of all roads attack, the middle road Yangchun Bridge we are facing must be captured, this is the closest road to Tonglu, and it is also the most strategically important key point, so I think that they have also seen this, and they are all helpless and unsure, Only then did we hurriedly send us a telegram so that we could prepare in advance.

In my opinion, we can't avoid this battle, as Xiao Yi just said, most of the entire Second Division are untrained recruits, except for letting us read the regiment to attack the fortifications, what better choice can the division seat and the chief of staff have? Therefore, this battle is imperative, if we don't want to find a way, we will be greeted by a terrible situation of corpse mountains and sea of blood! ”

When the brothers heard these warning words, they once again focused their eyes on the map, and after reading them, they all sighed with sad faces.

(To be continued)