At five o'clock in the afternoon, a convoy of 17 brand-new Ford trucks, laden with officers and shells, towed 14 Krupp 75 field guns, and drove from south to north into Yanjiawan, followed by more than 100 cavalry and two battalions of infantry.

After receiving the report, An Yi put down the rice bowl he had just picked up and rushed to the bridgehead, and stood and waited in front of the newly set up guard post dozens of meters away from the bridgehead.

The first truck slowly drove to a stop in front of the inspection crossbar, and a thin black captain in his early thirties in the front of the car opened the door and jumped out of the car, without looking at An Yi and Beard in front of the roadside sentry, and ran to the sentry holding up the red pennant and ordered loudly:

"Give way to Lao Tzu immediately, delay the military plane, only you ask!"

The ruffian sentries in the platoon had long been hung under the special training of the beard, although they were only a corporal, but they were unmoved by the captain's orders, put down the pennant and moved the flower machine gun on his back to his chest, and said coldly to the captain:

"Received an order from the command of the right column that any department crossing the bridge must show its documents. Sir, please show your army transfer order, otherwise, our department will not let you go! ”

"Lose your mother......"

The captain was annoyed, but when he saw the two heavy machine guns and the six machine gunners on the improvised forts on the high ground to the left and right of the road, he could only turn around and run to the back to report to the larger commander.

An Yi and Hu Zi in front of the outpost already knew from the nameplate and accent of the unit that they were Huang Qixiang's 36th Regiment under Zhang Fakui's division of the 12th Division of the Fourth Army, and they also knew that Li Jishen's Fourth Army had the best relationship with his own First Army, and that many division commanders and regimental commanders in the Fourth Army had served as instructors in various sections of the Whampoa Military Academy, and many graduates of the first to fourth phases of the military academy also served as battalion and company commanders in the Fourth Army. But the grumpy captain battalion deputy An Yi and the beard in front of him had never seen it, and he wanted to step forward and explain it kindly, but after hearing his foul words, he was annoyed and didn't care about him, he wanted to see what kind of bull this guy was.

After a while, seven or eight captains and officers riding tall horses crossed the convoy and quickly dismounted in front of the crossbar, and the middle-sized and energetic colonel looked around, and walked towards An Yi surrounded by several dusty captains.

The sharp-eyed An Yi saw the nameplate on the colonel's chest clearly, and quickly stepped forward to salute: "Hello Captain Huang!" The engineer battalion of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army was ordered to repair the broken bridge, and after completion, in accordance with the order of the command of the right column, the bridge was guarded and a card was set up to check the passing pedestrians and troops. ”

"An Yi? Haha......"

Head Huang Qixiang, who had thick eyebrows and big ears and a handsome square face, returned the salute, then stretched out his hand to An Yi and shook it tightly, and asked in Cantonese kindly: "I didn't expect to see you here, how about it?" How has this time been? ”

An Yi was quite surprised in his heart, he didn't know why Huang Qixiang, who met for the first time, was so enthusiastic about him, smiled slightly and replied politely in Cantonese:

"I've been following the butts of the Eighth Army, and I can't get a single rifle bullet, haha...... Sir Huang, didn't you go to Da Li Ling via Huangsha Lake? How did you get into the theater of operations of the Seventh Army? ”

"The north of Da Li Ling is full of lakes and swamps and water and cannot be advanced, so it can only converge with the Seventh Army, concentrate artillery fire, and storm Tingsi Bridge with superior forces." Huang Qixiang laughed: "In the morning, I received an order to go to Guantang Station, and at ten o'clock I personally came here to survey a broken bridge, and saw that it was impassable and could only return to the Huangsha garrison in the south, and asked the division headquarters to send an engineer battalion to repair it as soon as possible, but the engineer battalion of our division was still more than 50 kilometers away from the rear and could not come, so I reported the situation to the command, and the command called back at one o'clock at noon, telling us that it was passable at about six o'clock in the afternoon, and I was anxious to drive over in advance, haha!" How long have you been here? When was the bridge in front of it repaired? ”

An Yi replied: "Arrived at 12:40 p.m., repaired at 4:50 p.m., we just had lunch ten minutes before you came." ”

"So fast?" Huang Qixiang looked at An Yi in surprise: "Let's go, take me to see." ”

"Okay."

An Yi and Huang Qixiang walked side by side to the bridge, a group of surprised captains followed behind and kept talking, saying that they had come to see the broken bridge in the morning, and they felt that it was difficult to repair it in a day, and the command notified that the passage could be resumed at six o'clock in the afternoon, and everyone was not sure in their hearts, but they didn't expect An Yi's engineer battalion to be repaired in only four hours, and it was indeed a model company of the whole army personally taught by Commander-in-Chief Jiang, it seems that there is not much exaggeration in the rumors of An Yi's third company in the army.

Walking on the repaired bridge deck, the meticulous Huang Qixiang carefully inspected each of the main connections at both ends, and also leaned down on the edge of the thick and flat bridge deck to look down, carefully inspected the stress point at the bottom of the bridge and the support beam with the thickness of eight buckets, and got up and praised An Yi loudly:

"Remarkable! Sure enough, it is a model company of the whole army, such quality, such speed, it is really amazing! No wonder Uncle Li appreciates you a lot, and has told our subordinates about your pioneering and innovative spirit several times, which is really worthy of your name! Xiao Yi, just come to our Fourth Army, we will be expanding soon, and it is more than enough to be a regiment commander with your ability, how about it? ”

An Yi only knew at this time that the reason why Huang Qixiang was so good to him was because of his relationship with Li Jishen. Almost all the generals and colonels in the four armies affectionately call the army commander Li Jishen Uncle Li, and Li Jishen treats An Yi like a nephew, so it is not surprising that the generals of the four armies regard An Yi as their brother.

Listening to Huang Qixiang's half-joking and half-serious words, An Yi laughed, and also replied affectionately with a snake-beating stick: "Thank you, Brother Xiang, look up to the little brother, one day the little brother can't get mixed up in the first army, I will definitely go to you, and Brother Xiang will not forget today's words at that time." ”

Huang Qixiang laughed, and then shook his head helplessly: "Forget it, who doesn't know that you are the proud protégé of Commander-in-Chief Jiang?" In a few years, I'm afraid that my brother's official will be bigger than my eldest brother, haha! Needless to say, I'll ask the adjutant to show you the telegram, and we'll set off, and arrive at the destination early to have more time to prepare. ”

An Yi carefully checked the telegram handed over by Adjutant Huang Qixiang as he walked, and after reading it, he politely went back and asked Huang Qixiang: "Brother Xiang, how come you have so many brand-new Krupp 75 field guns?" Normally, each artillery company is equipped with three to four guns, and you have 14 guns in a regiment, which can be regarded as a full artillery battalion. ”

He said that our 12th Division had fought well all the way, and was praised as an iron army by a group of advisers and a group of bosses at the headquarters, so he transferred the newly arrived German original cargo and 20 American trucks to our 12th Division as a reward for our division. The division felt that our artillery had no advantage, so they were all assigned to my vanguard regiment to concentrate on use, hoping to suppress the enemy's artillery fire north of the Tingsi Bridge. ”

Huang Qixiang, who was invincible in Wu Peifu's three major mixed brigades, was quite emotional, and under the current conditions of only one artillery regiment in one army and only one artillery company in a division, it was really difficult to expand one's artillery superiority.

An Yi and his entourage returned to the bridgehead and began to let go, the first truck without towing artillery slowly drove over the repaired wooden bridge deck, and passed smoothly and safely under the nervous gaze of many officers and soldiers, and the sturdy repair part easily withstood the crush of the truck with a load of nearly five tons, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the faces of the brothers in the engineer battalion were full of proud smiles.

Seventeen trucks passed smoothly, the follow-up infantry followed closely, and the platoon commanders of more than a dozen battalions and companies in the team who knew An Yi warmly greeted An Yi when they passed by the bridgehead outpost, and the brothers of the engineer battalion were surprised when they saw this, and they didn't expect their battalion commander to have such a good popularity.

Huang Qixiang looked at the machine gun positions on both sides of the road, and said with appreciation: "You are not only good at building bridges, but also have very strong vigilance capabilities, the selection of points is just right, and the distribution is also very reasonable, if you really fight, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the two battalions to take you, more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns are about to catch up with my main battalion, it seems that Commander-in-Chief Jiang is not thin on Xiao Yi!" ”

"Brother Xiang, don't get me wrong! Except for the five light machine guns, all of these 16 light and heavy machine guns were captured by the younger brother in the mountainous area south of Yanglou Division two days ago, and even the 500 artificial barracks of the younger brother was transferred to more than 100 people last night to be full, and the younger brother has not had time to divide these more than 100 people into three companies. ”

An Yi hurriedly explained that he didn't want people to think that he had received much benefit from Commander-in-Chief Chiang, which was unfair to himself and to his brothers.

Huang Qixiang looked at An Yi in surprise, and only then did he believe when he saw An Yi nodding honestly: "His old mother...... When I get to the headquarters, big brother, I must ask your battalion to be my reserve, anyway, these trucks and these guns of mine need the assistance of engineers, if Shangfeng agrees, Xiao Yi, you can't refuse. ”

An Yi laughed: "Brother Xiang has seen the outside, such a good thing the little brother can't ask for!" It's definitely the luck of the little brother to be able to learn after you! ”

Huang Qixiang laughed happily, said that he would not regret it, and hurriedly got on the horse, leading a group of adjutant lieutenants to beat the horse north.

An Yi watched Huang Qixiang and his entourage speed away after crossing the wooden bridge, and smiled at Hu Zi and Yin Jinan beside him: "Brother Xiang is estimated to have taken a fancy to our engineer battalion, but if you want to persuade our division to let us serve as his reserve, it is probably hopeless, first of all, our second division is here as the reserve of General Li Zongren's Seventh Army, and it is impossible to follow the Fourth Army, which has grown rapidly." Secondly, the Seventh Army and the Fourth Army are fighting together, and there is no need to let our engineer battalion stand behind their butts, the three main regiments of our Second Division have long been in full battle, it seems that we have to continue to follow behind the large army, this battle has not much to do with us, it is too far away from us, haha! ”

Hu Zi also agreed with An Yi's analysis, Yin Jinan thought for a while and said: "Big brother is right, the Fourth Army is indeed strong, especially Brother Xiang's 36th Regiment, which battle will not rush to the front?" It is estimated that it is dangerous to follow behind their buttocks, and if they want to go, the other main regiments of our division will follow. However, I saw so many trucks and artillery just now, and it is more convenient to need the assistance of engineers in this lake and marsh area, and I am worried that if the headquarters and our division seat really make Commander Huang moved......"

"It's not so much, let's hurry up and eat, Lao Tzu is hungry for a day and just takes a few bites to get busy at this time. After eating, the three brothers had a good discussion, and also called a few brothers from each company to see how to distribute the men and horses. ”

After An Yi finished speaking, he walked quickly across the road to the camp, he was indeed hungry.

An hour later, An Yi, who had finished eating lunch and dinner together, gathered the platoon commanders of each company to discuss, and as soon as he divided more than 100 new brothers into two combat platoons and an engineer platoon, and elected the platoon leaders and squad leaders of each platoon, the two heralds of the division headquarters came galloping on horseback, handed over to An Yi a copy of the order signed by Liu Xiao from the general headquarters, and hurriedly returned with a salute.

An Yi bathed in the sunset and read the order, and immediately wailed in pain:

"Ji Nan, your crow's mouth, it's all right for your stinky mouth, I'm afraid you will have to shed your skin if you don't die this time......"

(To be continued)