Danji Town is located on the plain three kilometers away from the south bank of the Fangting River, only nine kilometers away from Daxu Town Station, the main station on the main road of the Longhai Line in the north, from Danji to Daxu Town, you must pass through the new estuary three kilometers north of the town, and take a ferry to cross the river surface of more than 60 meters wide to reach the north bank.

From Shan Ji to Daxu Town, there was a telephone line supported by uneven tree trunks, and a regiment stationed in Shan Ji to defend the enemy relied on this telephone line to communicate with the brigade headquarters in Daxu Town, but from 4 o'clock in the morning on this day, the telephone was intermittent and could not talk normally at all.

Zeng Mingyuan, the colonel of the defending army, also knew that the current situation was unclear, and if he lost contact with the outside world, he would be putting himself in danger, so he quickly sent signal troops to check the line. What makes people feel strange is that at dawn, the telephone line was still not connected, and the three signal soldiers who were ordered to leave did not hear from them, which made Zeng Mingyuan, who was already panicked, and the officers under his command even more worried.

"Tuanza, we can't wait any longer, the situation is critical! Our regiment has sent three groups of brothers in a row to the south to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, but there is still no news of it, and the telephone cannot be reached.

I think something is wrong, and the main force of the enemy must have reached the front line of Fangcun in the south, otherwise this strange phenomenon would definitely not have occurred. From last night to the news of the fierce battle in Xuzhou to the present, the whole night of the whole regiment of officers and soldiers has been spent in trembling, no one dares to close their eyes to sleep, you must know that Fangcun is only 20 kilometers away from us, and it is coming in an instant! ”

Under the dim horse lamp, the deputy of the regiment Lian Donglai suggested worriedly.

Zeng Mingyuan stroked the thick beard on his chin, glared at Lian Donglai angrily, and then asked: "Tell me, I haven't even seen the shadow of the enemy, let's flee north in a panic without firing a shot, how many heads do you and I have enough to cut off the brigade?" The artillery battalion directly under the north shore has not seen any movement so far, what are you running in a panic? Where to run? ”

"Tuanzao, I can't take care of so much at this time, to say something unpleasant, with the fall of Xuzhou, defeat is a matter of time, and our regiment being pushed to the front is tantamount to cannon fodder! We are different from the other three regiments under the brigade, they are the descendants of Zhang Dashuai brought from Shandong, we are because we left Wu Dashuai like a rootless wanderer, so we went to Zhang Dashuai's command to eat a bowl of rice, and at this critical juncture, we can't continue to work for him.

Besides, don't think that the brigade artillery battalion on the north bank is not afraid, the battalion commander named Zhang Zhibin chatted privately with his subordinates when he said that the revolutionary army was also trembling, not to mention that the enemy we are facing is likely to be An Yi's reading division who captured Si County in the blink of an eye.

Also, the small artillery battalion on the north bank is full of eight artillery, if there is really an accident, they can escape with two or three hundred horses and horses, but we can't, we have to cross this Xiaofang River more than sixty meters wide to successfully escape, which is much more dangerous than them!

If the regiment is worried about the blame of the peak, we can leave one battalion of men and horses to continue to guard the single set, and the main forces of the other two battalions will quietly drive along the Xiaofang River to Xiaodunzhuang, four kilometers to the east, which is also our defense area, and now a platoon of the Eighth Company is not guarding there? We can completely recruit civilian boats just in case, once we see that the situation is not right, immediately cross the river, and then firmly occupy the north bank defense line, and closely monitor the enemy situation in the south, so that we can attack and retreat, and we can really blame the upper peak, and we can also take the initiative to attack under the pretext of discovering the enemy situation in the east! ”

The tall and thin regiment deputy Lian Donglai sighed and enlightened Zeng Mingyuan earnestly.

Zeng Mingyuan was quite moved when he heard this, especially when the enemy he was facing at this moment might be the famous Northern Expedition powerhouse An Yi Reading Force, which made Zeng Mingyuan extremely jealous and afraid, he paced around twice, and finally stopped and sighed in a low voice:

"You're right...... I guess I can't hold Xuzhou in the west, and there is Fengguan Mountain in the middle, so running over at this moment is tantamount to a dead end. To the north is the artillery battalion of the brigade headquarters, and it can't be left, only the small dun village in the east can be used...... In this way, now that the sky is already dark, he immediately ordered all the departments to prepare, and immediately opened after breakfast, leaving Wang Mazi's battalion to guard here.

Wang Mazi is brave and kind, he doesn't have so many fancy intestines, and he is estimated to be able to fight with the other party's reading master for a while. Remember, don't let the brothers below see that we are running away, just take it as a normal exercise. ”

"Tuanza, it's dawn and time is pressing, don't eat this breakfast, right? It's not too late for us to settle down in Xiaodunzhuang and eat! Lian Donglai felt that it was inappropriate and persuaded again.

Zeng Mingyuan glared at him with disdain: "! Before the enemy arrives, you are scared like this, where is there still a little bit of a group of vice-presidents? No matter how fast An Yi Reader runs, he won't hit us right under our noses with a meal...... Huh, what's the sound? What was that? ”

"It's over! It's over, the enemy is really coming, no one wants to run now......" Lian Donglai suddenly collapsed on the chair.

There were faint dense gunshots and grenade explosions in the north, and Zeng Mingyuan, who was so frightened that he thought of himself very highly, turned pale, he stabilized his mind, strode to the door and shouted, and the entire courtyard suddenly became a mess.

A horse rushed to the gate of the courtyard in the misty rain, and the captain officer with blood on his back and shoulders flew down, holding his arm that had been broken by a bullet and rushed to Zeng Mingyuan and shouted:

"Tuanza, no! The small dun village to the east of us was occupied by a large army of the revolutionary army...... The subordinates desperately escaped to call the police, and along the way saw that the north bank was also occupied by the revolutionary army......"

"Huh!?" Zeng Mingyuan stumbled and almost fell in fright, hugged the pillar and ordered loudly: "Hurry!" Assemble the team for Lao Tzu, hurry up......"

At this time, there was a sudden dense sound of gunfire from the south, and after a while, hundreds of routed soldiers fled one after another to the courtyard of the regiment headquarters, and everywhere there were frightened shouts and the bitter scolding of the officers, and the chaotic team was completely out of control, and it was impossible to distinguish their respective companies, only Wang Mazi, a battalion commander who was tall and burly and born in the green forest, viciously beat the deserters, but also asked him to build three simple sandbag fortifications at the entrance of the regimental headquarters, and set up a heavy machine gun and two light machine guns.

Zeng Mingyuan was in a state of confusion, and ran into the house to discuss it with Lian Dong, the deputy of the regiment, but saw that his regiment deputy was colorless, holding the telephone receiver trembling all over, and he couldn't say a word when he opened his mouth.

Zeng Mingyuan was overjoyed when he saw this, and walked over quickly and asked loudly, "The phone is connected?" It's just right, ask for reinforcements from the brigade......"

Lian Donglai stuffed the microphone into Zeng Mingyuan's hand, still shaking: "Tuan...... Tuanza, this ...... This is...... Look for...... Looking for your ......"

Zeng Mingyuan did not hesitate, and shouted into the phone: "Hey, hey! I'm Zeng Mingyuan of the Fourth Regiment......"

"Don't be so loud, Commander Zeng, I can hear it clearly here." A deep and calm Henan accent came from the microphone.

Zeng Mingyuan couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the unfamiliar accent, and immediately asked, "Who are you?" ”

"Listening to the accent of the head of the regiment, it should be from Luoyang, right? Brother, my surname is Ding, from Song County, let's be half a fellow countryman. Brother is the colonel and battalion commander of the Reading Division of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and he is talking to Brother Zeng in the headquarters on the edge of the artillery battalion position on the north bank at this time...... Brother Zhang, please! ”

Ding Zhicheng handed the microphone to Zhang Zhibin, the commander of the artillery battalion, who was sweating profusely and panicking.

Zhang Zhibin, who was held against his vest by a machine gun, could only answer the phone and said tremblingly: "Commander Zeng, little brother...... Fortunately, after putting down the gun, the revolutionary army did not kill any of our brothers, they are General An Yi's readers, and like the legend, they treat prisoners preferentially, and there are ...... There is another thing, the brigade has already led the troops to retreat to the north, Li Zongren's troops have captured Xuzhou, one of the divisions along the railway to kill, because the telephone is not connected, the brigade seat also sent a herald to ride a fast horse to inform us before leaving, just ...... It's just too late, and the herald hasn't been able to escape......"

Zeng Mingyuan gasped, thought for a while and said, "Let the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army surnamed Ding just now talk to me, quick!" ”

Ding Zhicheng's voice came again: "Brother Zeng, if you don't order all your subordinates to lay down their arms and surrender within ten minutes, brother, I will be offended, and I will order Brother Zhang Zhibin's artillery battalion to fire at your department." As soon as the artillery sounds on my side, thirty-six mortars will sound from your two artillery positions to the south and east, and all your retreats will be blocked by our army, and no one will try to run, otherwise you will die unjustly, and you have to hurry up and make a decision. ”

"Don't! Don't! I already know the current situation, there is no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth! Brother Ding, I surrender, I will order surrender......"

Half an hour later, Gu Changfeng led the three regiments to surround from the east, Xia Jian led a regiment and three battalions to slowly open from the direction of Fengguan Mountain in the west, and more than 1,800 brothers from Chen Zhibiao's second regiment closed the encirclement from the south.

The Reading Force led by Yin Jinan didn't care about anything around them, and quickly passed through the town and headed for the Xinhe estuary in the north, where they would cross the Xiaofang River and join up with the guards and the division's machine-gun company led by Ding Zhicheng to defend and guard on the spot.

Surrounded by the guards, An Yi rode his horse into the town, and was immediately attracted by the large circle of thousands of soldiers and a large number of prisoners outside the compound of the enemy regimental headquarters.

Hu Jialin saw An Yi dismount, strode to his side, pointed to Wang Mazi, who was shirtless in the field, and Gu Changfeng, who was armed with a gun and a big knife, and laughed in a low voice:

The commander of the captured battalion in the field was very angry when he saw the tiger's head, his fiery eyes were as big as a cow's egg, and he was about to fight hard when he was taunted by the tiger's head. As a result, the tiger head was interested in letting him come over, and the two of them picked it up in a few words, no, the enemy and our armies were watching the excitement. ”

"Haha! Grandma's, this pock-faced brother in the field is also a man, tall and well-proportioned tendon meat, estimated to be less than thirty years old...... Beard, you see, if this guy is not infected with smallpox, he still looks quite heroic, tell me, how many rounds can he withstand the tiger's head? ”

An Yi was also interested at this time, but Chen Mian, the deputy captain of the guard, was not as leisurely as the commander, not only immediately ordered the brothers to pay attention to protection, but also quickly found the battalion and company commanders of several regiments and ordered to strengthen the supervision of prisoners.

Hu Jialin laughed: "I guess it's just two or three face-to-face matters, and it depends on whether the tiger head is in a good mood." ”

As soon as the words stopped, there was a fight in the field, Wang Mazi, who was much stronger than Gu Changfeng, took the initiative to attack, his left leg rushed into his right hand as a straight fist in his chest, and then his left hand hooked up to follow, and his right leg "whew" to take care of Changfeng's abdomen and kick out quickly, Gu Changfeng's body turned slightly and retreated half a step, raising his leg and kicking the right leg and stomach kicked by Wang Mazi.

There was a crisp sound of "pop", Wang Mazi screamed, and the whole person flew upside down more than two meters high, seeing that his head was down and his heavy body was about to hit the ground, Gu Changfeng quickly caught up, hugged his thick waist and spun around, and with a "whew" threw Wang Mazi, who was more than 180 catties, nearly four meters away, and fell heavily on the grass pile next to the horse stake in front of him, and the cheers of the onlookers rang out at this time.

Gu Changfeng stared at Wang Mazi who was struggling to stand up, thought about it and slowly walked in front of him, the officers and soldiers on all sides thought that the two sides would fight a few more moves, and they were so frightened that they closed their mouths and watched steadily, but Gu Changfeng smiled at Wang Mazi:

"Agreed! Brother Wang, brother, I respect you as a man, if you are willing to stay and continue to be a battalion commander in the third regiment of the younger brother? How about continuing to lead these 450 brothers under your command to follow our General An Yi to make meritorious contributions together? ”

Wang Mazi, whose face was flushed, looked at Gu Changfeng in surprise, and when he saw Gu Changfeng's sincere smile, he couldn't help but nod vigorously: "Lao Tzu admires you!" As soon as I made a move, I knew that I couldn't beat you, I thought that if I didn't die, I would be crippled, but I didn't expect you to save Lao Tzu's life. ”

Gu Changfeng smiled slightly: "It seems that you are also a person on the road, don't hide it from you, my name is Gu Changfeng, I used to mix in northern Jiangxi, and later met my boss, so I followed him in the army." ”

Wang Mazi was taken aback: "Gu Changfeng? Ganbei Tiger Head ...... Oops, oops! Brother, I'm disrespectful, disrespectful! Please ask Senior Brother Gu to enter Wang Huanyan after receiving the end of the Northern Hubei Cross Gate......"

"I can't help it!"

Gu Changfeng stepped forward to support Wang Mazi, and said with a smile: "It's all my own family, haha!" If Brother Huan Yan wants to leave, brother, I will send ten miles and present a gun and coil. ”

Wang Mazi was stunned for a moment, and then asked, "Who said Lao Tzu is leaving?" Didn't you just allow me to continue to be the battalion commander? Repented? ”

Gu Changfeng smiled: "I, Gu Changfeng, stand up to the sky and never do anything to regret it, I'm afraid that you kid will regret it!" Come, Lao Tzu will take you to meet the boss of my family, and Senior Brother Hu of Cangzhou Baguamen, who is the deputy head of our Reading Division......"

(To be continued)