It was another sleepless night, and with the continuous feedback of intelligence, An Yi and his brothers' speculation was finally confirmed: after seven hours of rest, General Tan Daoyuan's Fifth Division quietly drove into the two small roads northwest of Yangchunqiao Town at four o'clock in the morning and then accelerated to the north, and the officers and men of the division did not carry any heavy weapons, and even the heavy machine guns remained in the temporary station of Yangchunqiao Town.

At six o'clock in the morning, General Xue Yue's 1st Division braved the light snow and drove to the north of the town, and after 3.5 kilometers, it suddenly turned to the northwest. At 6:50 a.m., General Serious's 21st Division quietly advanced in the footsteps of the 5th Division, and all disappeared into the vast wilderness just before the dawn came. At this point, the main forces of more than 22,000 troops in the three divisions commanded by General Bai Chongxi all disappeared into the lofty mountains and mountains in the northwest.

An Yi's regimental headquarters Baiyun Pavilion was 8.3 kilometers away from the front line, and like Cai Zhonghu, he only rested for two hours before getting up, finished dressing up and drank a bowl of porridge indiscriminately, and issued a series of orders to the captains under his command, and then rode to the front line side by side.

There was no dense gunfire on the front line, and in the past two days, the enemy troops who had occupied a favorable position in advance condescendingly carried out a downward fire and artillery bombardment on the revolutionary army, forcing the revolutionary army back more than 100 meters from the initial offensive position, and after nearly three hours of fighting on the first day, the two sides did not have a decent exchange of fire and charge, the enemy army was satisfied with the status quo, and the revolutionary army was helpless to look at the enemy, only a small group of warriors sent by both sides came forward from time to time to shoot cold guns, and after the battle, they ran away to make a little cheap enough to be happy for half a day.

Cai Zhonghu and An Yi, under the cover of their respective personal guards, quietly climbed up the hill that was only more than 400 meters away from the enemy's forward position, and the five of them, wrapped in white sheets, moved out of the east side of the mountainside at a height of 120 meters little by little, crouched on the snow at the base of the craggy boulder, carefully raised the binoculars, observed in detail the construction of the enemy's entire position and the arrangement of firepower, marked them one by one on the small map they carried with charcoal, and determined the target serial number to determine its approximate coordinates.

When the two returned to the headquarters of the Second Division in Yangchunqiao Town, it was already noon, 48 artillery pieces had been concentrated, nearly 1,000 artillery brothers had completed the cleaning and maintenance of the artillery, the cold muzzles were wrapped in canvas bags, the strong pack horses that spit out white mist were all full, and many well-trained horses had a premonition that the expedition was about to begin, and they kept plowing the ground with their wide hooves, and the whole town was filled with the smell of horse manure.

At the end of the short combat meeting, Liu Zhi, the commander of the 22nd Division, Chen Jiji, and Yang Bin, the staff officer of the Reading Regiment, took the lead in rushing to the front line and began to mobilize and prepare for the battle. Ye Cheng's 2nd Battalion and Cai Zhonghu's improvised two artillery regiments followed, and 48 artillery pieces slowly followed under the cover of the brothers in the 2nd Battalion.

The model battalion stationed at the North Pass, under the leadership of Yin Jinan, who had just returned from the unit, marched into the regimental headquarters of Baiyunting, and formed the general reserve of the whole division with the companies directly under the regimental headquarters, Xia Jian's first battalion, and Gu Changfeng's fourth battalion, waiting for orders to reinforce the front line 10 kilometers north at any time.

At 6 o'clock in the evening, 48 artillery pieces located under the top of the south dragon gate in Qiantan Town roared in unison without warning, and unfolded artillery fire covering the enemy's left flank position on the first line of Yanxia and Gaoping, six kilometers northwest, for 20 consecutive minutes, and more than 2,000 shells blew up the enemy's position into thick smoke and covered the sky, and more than 9,000 officers and men of the 65th Regiment and the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Division of Chen Jiji shouted in unison and rushed to the enemy's position regardless of their bodies, and the 5th and 4th regiments simultaneously launched fierce fire on the center and the enemy's right flank position. More than 9,000 officers and men on the right flank, who were tasked with the main attack, pinned down the enemy.

The battle was as An Yi expected, and for several days, the defenders who had not found the revolutionary army's artillery had suffered heavy casualties under the heavy shelling, and they had almost no time to organize resistance and reinforcements, and the defensive line was torn apart by the heroic revolutionary army soldiers.

The 11,000 officers and men of the 5th and 4th regiments shouted in unison under Liu Zhi's personal supervision, braved the enemy's bullets to launch a group charge, and soon rushed to the enemy's position to launch a thrilling hand-to-hand combat. Quickly weave your way to the middle to defend behind the enemy.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the enemy commander immediately ordered the entire line to retreat, and soon the defeated troops retreated to the last circular defense line one kilometer outside Tonglu City, and the Jinshan Heights five kilometers south of Tonglu City and the Yuzhao Village line on the west bank of the Fuchun River fell into the hands of the revolutionary army.

The ecstatic Liu Zhi immediately called General Bai Chongxi in Jiande City, Bai Chongxi praised him greatly, encouraged him repeatedly, and finally told Liu Zhi two good news: Li Mingyang's Fifth Division had successfully captured Panling, and was taking advantage of the victory to pursue the line of Xiaoling to the east of Tonglu City; The 8,000 rounds of artillery shells urgently allocated from the Lanxi military station are being sent to your headquarters to hold the position, and after dawn they will again launch a fierce attack on the enemy's position, striving to destroy the enemy's outlying positions, smoothly meeting with the Fifth Division, and forming a flanking attack.

Although Liu Zhi was worried about Ming Yue's attack, he was also overjoyed to see the unexpectedly good performance of the three regiments under his command, and immediately summoned the commanders of each regiment to the division headquarters that had been relocated to Wool Dock Village to commend them and make meritorious contributions one by one.

The regiment commanders and regiment deputies were not only excited, but also very satisfied with the super-level performance of the recruits under their command, and expressed to Liu Zhi that they would never live up to their expectations and would move forward! Only An Yi sat very seriously and listened without saying a word. However, everyone's gaze at An Yi was completely different from the past, a little more admiration, a little less contempt, a little more fear, and a little less jealousy.

Li Yannian, who has a good relationship with An Yi, thanked An Yi on the spot, which made An Yi quickly stand up and keep waving his hand, the left sentence of the senior brother won the award and the right sentence of the younger brother did not dare to be, reproducing the magnanimous and easy-going style of the hippie smiling face in the past, which attracted everyone's laughter and made Liu Zhi and Chen Jiji feel much more relaxed.

Since Liu Zhi had moved the division headquarters forward to the wool dock, which was only six kilometers away from the front line, An Yi was embarrassed to continue to stay in the comfortable old landlord's manor in Baiyunting, so he could only order all the divisions to immediately go north and enter the line of Qintang Town, Shijia Village, and Xiaomen Bay on the west bank of the Fuchun River within three kilometers behind the division headquarters, and transfer the model battalion of the main battalion to Jiangjiabu in front of the division headquarters as a barrier to protect the division headquarters, holding the water and land key points leading to Tonglu City, and the four captured steamboats also dragged more than 20 large wooden boats full of grain, frozen meat, and pickled fish down the river. Moored at the Xiaomen Wharf on the east side of the model battalion station.

As a result, within a radius of five kilometers, the City God, the Land Lord, the Guanyin Temple, the Guandi Temple, and the ancestral halls of various villages and towns were damaged, and An Yi's regimental headquarters was also unceremoniously stationed in the wide and clean Shi family ancestral hall, which covers an area of more than four acres, and more than 50 large and small rooms in the front and back yards were crowded with all the regimental departments.

By the time An Yi returned from a meeting at the division headquarters two kilometers to the north, Lao Han Tou, who had been promoted to lieutenant and deputy commander, had already set up four large tables of fragrant fish-head hot pot in the spacious ancestral hall, which made Cai Zhonghu and his regimental deputy and two adjutants drool.

An Yi, who was confident, made an exception and asked Lao Hantou to serve two jars of cherished Jiangxi Jinxian mellow brew, instructed the brothers to drink a few glasses and sleep well tonight, and quietly suggested that Xia Jian and Gu Changfeng: After going back, distribute a pound of local soju to each brother under his command, and cook all the stored meat in the camp at noon tomorrow, so that the brothers can eat with their bellies open and sleep well.

Xia Jian and Gu Lao Er couldn't hold back when they heard this, they both stood up and gave three toasts to Cai Zhongwat and the four of them, and then walked together to Yin Jinan, who had not long returned, to toast them.

Yin Jinan, who couldn't catch up with the big battle, laughed and scolded, causing the brothers to laugh for a while, Xia Jian and Gu Lao Er dried up a bowl of wine, saluted An Yi and left satisfied.

Cai Zhonghu, who drank heavily, was very envious of An Yi's close and sibling relationship, and saw the two members put down the wine bowl and hurriedly left, knowing that An Yi had made a certain decision, he didn't ask after thinking about it, raised the wine bowl to return a bowl to all the brothers, and ate it with relish after sitting down, praising while eating, so that the old Han Tou and the warrant officer Chunsheng of the Huotou Army on the side were very happy. In the minds of the two, there is nothing happier than having their own dishes praised by the chiefs.

The next morning, the sky cleared, and the long-lost sun shone on the earth, An Yi and Cai Zhongwat went to the two newly constructed artillery positions together to complete the inspection, and rushed to the front line to watch the battle with satisfaction.

Liu Zhi and other generals were already standing in the bunker of the front-line command post, looking at the front position filled with gunpowder with binoculars, and seeing An Yi and Cai Zhonghu bypassing the trenches and entering the command post, Liu Zhi put down the binoculars and motioned for the two to sit down:

"The enemy fired artillery for almost half an hour, and there was no big impact on the left and right positions of our army, the central position at the foot of the mountain was blown up dozens of meters, and the units launched fierce fire at the enemy's positions according to the original plan, and it is estimated that 300,000 rounds of various bullets were consumed in this half morning, and I have never fought such a rich battle in more than ten years!"

Everyone smiled when they heard this, and they all knew that this was An Yi's advice, and he didn't have any consumption at all to overcome the dangerous pass of Yang Chunqiao, and at the same time, the huge seizure also made the warehouses of each department full, and they were naturally not afraid of consumption in the war. An Yi whispered and comforted: "Division, if so many captured bullets are not fired, it will take several times more manpower and animal power to carry them on their backs, it is better to take them out for actual combat training for the recruits of each regiment, I dare to guarantee that after this battle, nearly 10,000 recruits of each regiment will have different degrees of progress, at least they know how to shoot without fear of guns." ”

Everyone smiled happily again, but no one mentioned why it was just a non-stop shooting, and did not launch a charge, which was not so much to use the fierce firepower to misjudge the size of the enemy siege force defending Tonglu City, but rather a response to the former enemy headquarters, the purpose of which was naturally to preserve strength and avoid unnecessary casualties.

At this time, Liu Zhi, in the face of the unexpected tricks and ingenious pressure of the commander-in-chief Bai Chongxi, was palpitating, and he still remembered several tragic consumptions.

Cai Zhonghu raised his wrist and looked at his watch, stood up and walked to the communications staff officer, and said arrogantly: "Give me the command post of the artillery regiment, it's our turn to perform, this time let the one hundred and fifty brothers sent to me by your regimental commander An to study have a good time, and let them master the essentials in actual combat, but this time our salvo will definitely be able to destroy the enemy's four forward positions, the new first regiment will withdraw and change positions after the battle, and then let the new second regiment continue to fight, create momentum, if you are lucky, you may be able to beat the enemy's artillery array, haha!" ”

The communications staff officer connected the artillery regiment, and Cai Zhonghu took the microphone to make a slight inquiry, and then immediately gave the order to shoot.

In less than a minute, the rumbling sound of cannon was heard, and everyone in front of the observation mouth raised their binoculars to take a closer look. The five-minute artillery bombardment stopped, and the enemy formation, which had cleared from the smoke of gunpowder, was already unrecognizable and in a mess, and everyone admired the combat effectiveness and accurate strike ability of Cai Zhonghu's artillery regiment.

After a while, the enemy's artillery shells flew over with a screech, and Cai Zhonghu immediately walked to the telephone after observing for a moment and reported a series of parameters to his regimental deputy.

Seven minutes later, as soon as the enemy's artillery fire stopped, the twenty-four artillery pieces hidden in the bamboo forest in the right rear suddenly roared, and An Yi hurriedly raised his binoculars and aimed at a low mountain five kilometers to the northeast.

Around the hundred-meter-long low mountain, thick gunpowder smoke flickered with pieces of firelight, followed by a violent explosion, earth, rocks and thick smoke suddenly stirred up, covering the entire low mountain, obviously the enemy's artillery position was caught up by Cai Zhonghu's artillery fire before it had time to move. The explosion caused by the bomb being hit was earth-shattering, blowing up the 100-meter low mountain into thick smoke and flames.

As the smoke slowly dissipated, the original low mountain had been divided into two sections, and the smoke was like two burnt steamed buns.

(To be continued)