In the camp of the model battalion, 167 recruits changed into brand-new military uniforms and dark green high-top military shoes, tied armed belts around their waists, and carried ordnance squads on their backs to wipe off a new varnished rifle.

For the sake of these two hundred big red flowers, Huang Yingwu, an instructor of the first company, searched the red cloth in several tailor shops in Tonggu City, and then hired the tailors in several shops to make it overnight, and the task was completed at dawn today.

In front of the big stage outside the camp gate, there was a sea of people, all looking forward to the model battalion's stunt performance.

Chen Zhibiao, the commander of the third company who was fully armed and energetic, stood on a temporary high platform by the river, raised his shell gun and pulled the trigger, and with a "pop" gunshot, 30 brothers of the seventh platoon of the third company threw themselves into the cold water of the Dingjiang River under the leadership of the platoon commander Su Tieming, swam to the copper drum formed by the boulder on the opposite bank amid the cheers of thousands of fathers and villagers, climbed ashore and quickly bypassed the stone root of the copper drum and climbed bravely, carrying three ropes more than 40 meters long on their backs and fastening them to the pile buckle buried in advance.

Amid the exclamations of the people, the three brave brothers jumped down into the river, took the rope thrown from the top, and swam desperately back to the starting point, wrapping a thick hemp rope around a large wooden stake on the shore.

At this time, 25 brothers of the police platoon, who had already been ambushed in the bushes on the mountain, rushed to the top of the bronze drum of the boulder in full gear, and in an orderly manner buckled the movable steel rings on the thick rope and slid down one by one.

This quick and accurate action took only 18 minutes in the whole process, from the armed swimming of 30 officers and men to the erection of ropes, and finally ended with a one-handed shooting of the extremely difficult volley crossing, which made more than 4,000 fathers and villagers stunned and exclaimed, and made Liu Zhi and more than a dozen other generals praise and excited.

After a long while, the sporadic applause gradually rang out and gathered, and soon overshadowed the exclamations, and finally the applause was like a tide, and there was no way to stop the applause and cheers for a long time.

With the whistle of Chen Zhibiao, the commander of the third company, the 55 members who returned to the starting place in applause lined up in two rows, boarded the big stage under Chen Zhibiao's order, saluted thousands of fathers and villagers and his own officers with great pride, ran off the stage with a high trumpet, and neatly entered the gate of the barracks on the left.

Suddenly, bursts of firecrackers came from the camp gate, and the four troupes under the stage and the villagers who were sending off the soldiers immediately sounded gongs and drums, and the commander of the first company, escorted by a row of 45 well-equipped brothers, held high the battle flag of the "model battalion" and marched neatly towards the big stage with vigorous steps.

One hundred and sixty-seven local recruits who were the first to enlist in the army, under the banner of the "model battalion", lined up in three columns to enter the field of vision of thousands of fathers and villagers, and the earth-shattering sound of firecrackers and noisy gongs and drums made the recruits extremely excited, and the big red flowers on their chests dyed their young faces red.

The fathers and villagers of the villages who sent their sons to serve as soldiers in the audience were in tears one by one, and the concern and reluctance in their hearts became stronger and stronger, intertwined with the sense of glory and pride that they had not had for decades, and reverberated and surging in everyone's hearts. A pair of parents on tiptoe looking for their son, groups of brothers and sisters happily looking for their relatives in the ranks, the young boy enviously watched his brother and uncle put on a mighty military uniform and carry a rifle, hoping that he would soon grow up and become a revolutionary army, not only extremely honorable, but also bring ten oceans to the family as soon as he entered the army, and his parents could not save so much money in a year of hard work.

The sound of firecrackers gradually stopped, the sound of drums slowly stopped, and more than 20 people, including Liu Zhi, Xu Tingyao, Jiang Dingwen, and the regiment commanders, Lieutenant General Miao Bin, director of the Political Department of the First Army, who had just sent more than 50 Huangpu Fifth Phase trainees from Pingjiang, and Major General Bribenov, adviser to the Russian army, lined up on the stage to visit the recruits wearing big red flowers on their chests one by one.

Under the watchful eyes of more than 4,000 fathers and villagers, Miao Bin, Liu Zhi, and Jiang Dingwen respectively presented pennants and 100 ocean bonuses to the three rural representatives who served the most soldiers, and Miao Bin, who had the highest policy level, delivered an enthusiastic revolutionary speech, calling on the people to unite and work hard for the new republic and new life.

The six representatives of the three villages have been simple and honest all their lives, trembling and dizzy with excitement in the sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers that shook the sky, and their feet were weak when they walked off the high platform with pennants and reward red envelopes, thousands of soldiers and civilians once again gave them warm cheers and overwhelming applause, and one hundred and sixty-seven glorious recruits solemnly saluted thousands of villagers on the stage, and the atmosphere of the whole venue was pushed into another **.

An Yi, who was sitting under the stage, was very satisfied with this effect, and before the commanders stepped off the high platform, An Yi had already instructed Yin Jinan to quickly lead the brothers of each company to the camp gate to pull out the big banner for recruiting soldiers, and it was estimated that six tables would be enough.

Sure enough, as soon as the local opera performed on the stage began, hundreds of men, women, and children gathered at the gate of the model camp, asking their children to join the mighty revolutionary army, and before lunchtime, more than 300 young people enthusiastically signed up to prepare for the physical examination, and more villagers demanded that Yin Jinan and others must wait for a day, saying that the villages and villages are far away, and it is too late to send their children for physical examination and serve as soldiers today.

Yin Jinan, who was so busy, and the others didn't pick up their jobs until two o'clock in the afternoon, and they had to admire An Yi's set of recruitment methods.

At the end of the morning performance, An Yi, who was hanging his left arm, took the stage again and raised his loud voice, announcing an exciting and very exciting news: starting at three o'clock in the afternoon, a military skills competition such as shooting and martial arts will be held, and heroes from all over the Tonggu are welcome to participate, and the top three winners will not only receive the award flag issued by the Second Division of the Revolutionary Army, but also receive a foreign reward of 100 to 300 yuan, and those who are willing to join the Revolutionary Army can also immediately obtain the rank of sergeant!

As soon as the news was announced, it immediately caused a burst of exclamations, sitting next to Miao Bin, Bribenov could speak more fluent official dialect, but he could not understand An Yi's more and more authentic Hunan dialect, after listening to Miao Binle's explanation, he was very surprised, he admired the Second Division's huge revolutionary propaganda activities, and said with emotion that the Second Division's unique approach was better than that of the political departments of the two parties in Changsha, but there was one shortcoming, that is, money should not be used to stimulate revolutionary enthusiasm.

Miao Bin nodded in agreement on the surface, but he was quite disapprehensive in his heart, he was well aware of the current situation in China, and he had just learned from Jiang Dingwen that the settling-in allowance paid by the An Yi Model Battalion to the recruits was not the military expenditure of the Second Division, but was spent from the model battalion's own usual "surplus" funds, which would not increase the burden on the division headquarters. As for where this "surplus" came from, Miao Bin would not ask, he knew very well that even if he asked, he would not be able to ask, each department has its own means of making money when fighting abroad, and so far no army, division, or regiment has been clean, and in comparison, his First Army is cleaner than all friendly troops who are crazy about accumulating money.

At noon, the commander of the division headquarters and Miao Bin and his entourage who were leaving all dined in the model camp, watching dozens of bosses gobble up An Yile was broken, thinking that Lao Tzu is afraid of everything else, but he is not afraid that you will eat white food, and after eating one ocean, he will definitely have to return ten oceans to Lao Tzu, as long as you are greedy for Lao Tzu, you will have a way to get it back tenfold.

At the same time, more than 40 leaders of the Nine Caves and Eighteen Villages and their masters were all gathered in Shangyuan Village, south of Shuaijiaba, eating chicken, duck, and fish meat that every household in the village respected, and loudly discussing the performance of the revolutionary army in the morning.

The noisy cottage meeting was still unfocused for an hour, and the leader of the Great Immortal Temple finally couldn't bear it anymore, he slapped his slap twice hard, quieting down dozens of people, and turned to Gu Laoer, who had been silent beside him, and said with a smile:

"Brother Changfeng, you are the second leader of Yangjiazhai, the most powerful of our copper drum within a hundred miles, if you don't speak, how dare the brothers speak? During this time, Brother Yang of our first village is not in good health, and he hasn't come down the mountain to visit our old brothers for a long time, and such a major matter today can only be subject to the opinions of Brother Changfeng, can you just talk about it? ”

Gu Lao Er put down the coarse porcelain wine glass in his hand, raised his head and arrogantly glanced at the leaders of the cottages:

"From this afternoon, the revolutionary army will be in the ring, just now I listened to the bosses talk about it, and I feel that everyone is frightened by the skills and marksmanship of the revolutionary army. It's nothing, I also think that the revolutionary army is good, and it is estimated that there are one or two people with strong martial arts in it, but as long as we fight alone, they are not our opponents. And as far as I know, the revolutionary army has no intention of embarrassing our nine caves and eighteen villages, and the new notice posted today clearly reads the following sentences: I hope that heroes from all walks of life will put the interests of the country and the nation first, inherit the legacy of the revolutionary pioneer Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and stand up to serve the party and the country and the people at this critical juncture of national crisis...... Do you understand? I just want to recruit our brothers from the Nine Caves and Eighteen Villages into the revolutionary army, and go to fight Sun Chuanfang's army together, and they will not be embarrassed by us, at least before defeating Sun Chuanfang and occupying the whole of Jiangxi, the revolutionary army will not engage in the set of bandits in Hunan and Guangdong. ”

After hearing this, the leaders of all walks of life finally relieved their hearts, and said that it was no wonder that the revolutionary army allowed us to enter and leave freely, and there was no embarrassment. The big boss of Dongjiadian is a rude man of thirty-seven or eighteen, and after listening to Gu Lao'er's words, he laughed:

"Brother Changfeng, we are not more knowledgeable than your brother, you have been learning since you were seven years old, you have followed the Zhou seniors who lived in seclusion in our bronze drum to learn art, what art of war, boxing, four books and five classics you have read, and followed the Zhou seniors to travel all over the country, well-informed, and friends in the provinces mentioned ' There is no one who doesn't give a thumbs up, although you are younger than our old brothers, but none of our old brothers disagree with you, today I will look forward to you for your horse, how do you say that our brothers do something, we can't let the revolutionary army pull out majestically, right? If it spreads, what will the friends on the road in the entire northern and western Jiangxi and even the neighboring provinces think? Where do we put the old face of the heroes of all walks of life? ”

As soon as everyone heard the excitement and high morale, Gu Lao Er picked up the wine glass reservedly, pondered for a moment and drank it all, put down the wine glass and immediately revealed his thoughts and plates.

The leaders were very excited after hearing this, and Gao Laosan, who was ranked fourth in martial arts and was selected as the pioneer of the ring, immediately stood up and said with confidence: We must let the revolutionary army, which does not know the height of the sky, taste the taste of their iron sand palms.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the three martial arts masters of the model battalion police platoon really performed boxing, knife and stick skills under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes, and their superb martial arts won the cheers of thousands of spectators, and they also saw Liu Zhi and more than a dozen generals in the audience praise loudly.

Just when the third brother put away the long stick, the tall and long-armed, domineering Gao Lao San strode to the ring, jumped into the ring in one step amid the exclamation of the crowd "Gao Lao San is coming", first greeted the villagers and the chief of the stage, and then walked to An Yi, Hu Zi and Xia Jian, who were sitting behind the two long tables on the right side of the stage, and saluted the three hosts with fists:

"Three heroes, under the Tonggu Gaoqiao Gao Jianling, brothers from all walks of life to the next bandit number Gao Laosan, today I saw the announcement of the competition in front of the yamen in the city, and I am happy to come up to meet friends from outside, now please teach the heroes!"

From the moment An Yi walked through the crowd to the ring, An Yi heard the whispered comments of the beard beside him, knew that the person who came was good, and also heard the crowd exclaim Gao Laosan, so he stood up with a smile and said hello:

"Brother Gao is good! The younger brother An Yi is the battalion commander of the model battalion, and it is a privilege to meet the eldest brother Sansheng today, haha! It can be seen that Brother Gao is a cheerful person, let's not be too polite, how about starting to compete? First of all, winning or losing must not hurt the harmony between friends, does Brother Gao agree? ”

"Of course! Please! "Gao Laosan is very refreshing.

An Yi pointed to his left arm and said apologetically: "The junior brother's gunshot wound has not healed, and I can't ask Brother Gao for advice, please forgive me, so how about letting my brother Xia Jianxia, the platoon commander, ask Brother Gao for advice?" ”

Xia Jian immediately stood up and saluted Gao Laosan with a fist: "Is Brother Gao a bare hand or an optional weapon?" ”

Gao Laosan laughed, and saw that although Xia Jian was tall and strong, he did not have the arrogance of a martial artist between his eyebrows, so he said very happily: "Friends with martial arts don't need weapons, Gao will use a pair of meat palms that have been practicing hard for 20 years to play with Brother Xia." ”

Xia Jian has always been respectful and respectful in front of An Yi and Huzi, so his expression is naturally humble and low-key, and at this moment, he was secretly annoyed when he heard Gao Laosan's words so big, and he didn't speak, and strode to the middle of the high platform to stand still.

Thousands of people in the audience saw it in their eyes, knowing that the tense struggle was about to begin, and the noisy venue became silent.

Liu Zhi, who was sitting in the center of the front row in the audience, and Xu Tingyao, Jiang Dingwen, and Hui Dongsheng next to him communicated in a low voice, and they didn't know the depth of Xia Jian, the platoon leader of the police platoon of the model battalion, but several people thought that since Xia Jian could sit on the stage around An Yi, he must not be an incompetent person.

Jiang Dingwen's gambling started again, and immediately issued a gambling contract to Hui Dongsheng and Chen Jiji, and said that he bought Xia Jiansheng and paid two for one, and Chen Jiji and Hui Dongsheng paid it back when they heard this? In the end, Xu Tingyao also joined in, and the three of them each invested 500 yuan to buy Gao Lao's three wins, Jiang Dingwen did not hesitate to happily follow, and said "At most, Lao Tzu will accompany 3,000 in this game, and the next few games will be earned back immediately."

With the bet, everyone is full of energy, and a group of generals on the side are itching in their eyes, and they are all thinking about betting on the next game to be enjoyable, after all, such a gamble is difficult to encounter.

Where did Gao Laosan on the stage know Xia Jian's ruthlessness, and immediately opened his palms after saluting each other, the left yang and the right yin were slowly placed in front of him, Xia Jian unceremoniously flew out of his right foot, kicked to the height of his waist, and his waist half-turned and landed with his right foot, making Gao Laosan's left palm slashed down quickly.

Gao Laosan was shocked in his heart, his right palm moved horizontally to his chest and immediately took a step back, who knew that Xia Jian had moved quickly and had already pasted up, swung out his left fist and hit Gao Laosan's face, and his right foot was silently inserted between Gao Laosan's legs, and his right hand turned into a palm from bottom to top and quickly picked up, and a "snap" hit Gao Laosan's left elbow joint, which made Gao Laosan's left hand shake and his body immediately unbalanced, Xia Jian's left fist had already turned into a fist and tightly clasped Gao Laosan's right wrist joint, and his shoulder followed up and hit Gao Laosan's open chest. Bending down and turning around to carry the one-meter-eighty-five tall Gao Laosan, he turned sharply in place for half a circle and suddenly exerted force, and Gao Laosan's sturdy body immediately flew out of the left front of the ring, and fell firmly on the sand pile more than one meter high with a "bang".

Fortunately, the soft sand pile unloaded most of the strength, and the breathless Gao Laosan only dropped his mouth full of sand without any major problems, and the earth-shattering exclamations in the audience sounded at this time, which shows how quickly Xia Jian defeated Gao Laosan with a single look.

Hidden in the crowd of nine holes and eighteen village heroes are all shocked like earth, has always been good at fighting tough battles, strong and stronger known for the high old three, a face by a small platoon commander knocked out of the ring, this is dozens of confident leaders absolutely unexpected, the ambition when they came suddenly disappeared, many people are thinking about how to leave to be decent, originally discussed the second formation, the third formation of the two leaders simply can not even find the figure.

The performance of thousands of spectators was different, and the eye-opening fathers and villagers were excited, full of praise for the bravery of the revolutionary army, and asked who the mighty young officer on the stage was? Someone in the crowd shouted that the majestic officer was from Hunan, which immediately made the people marvel again, and countless girls and sisters-in-law looked at Xia Jian's heroic posture and their eyes straightened.

Liu Zhi and the others in the audience have not yet reacted from their surprise, Jiang Dingwen's happy laughter has already sounded, and he has already opened the odds of one to four in the second game.

The Russian adviser sitting next to Xu Tingyao called out a few "incredible" and asked Xu Tingyao in a low voice where he found a capable low-level officer like Xia Jian? Xu Tingyao didn't know the specific experience, so he could only regretfully tell Major General Bribenov: There are more powerful martial arts masters in the model battalion who have not appeared, and even Lieutenant Colonel An Yi is also a well-known sharpshooter in the whole army, and the shooting level of pistols and rifles far exceeds that of the top shooters of various armies, among them, the shooting instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy Liushenkov, who returned to Russia in the first half of the year, is also one of An Yi's two main instructors, and there is also an instructor who taught An Yi pistol shooting is now in Guangzhou. He has become a special instructor of the action department of the Central Party Department.

Bribenov immediately remembered the incident, which had been introduced to him by several of his Russian colleagues who were still serving as advisers in the armies, and when his interest was greatly increased, Bribenov's maroon eyes immediately looked at An Yi on the stage.

An Yi waited on the stage for ten minutes in a row and didn't see anyone come up to the ring, thinking about walking to the front of the stage for a moment and wanting to encourage loudly, he suddenly saw Gu Lao Er and Xiaodouzi hidden in the crowd about forty meters in front of the right, and his mind quickly turned to his heart, he wanted to completely defeat the local heroes to be competitive and competitive, in order to avoid the possible next series of vicious fights, after all, his elite will soon shoulder the heavy responsibility of secret attack, and whoever is injured is a big loss, so under the gaze of thousands of soldiers and civilians, he saluted Liu Zhi upright, Loud Request:

"Shizuo, my subordinates want to perform a shooting game to cheer up today's event, so I ask Shizuo for approval."

Liu Zhi has always admired An Yi's good marksmanship, and when he heard An Yi's request, he also understood An Yi's thoughts, so he stood up very calmly and ordered loudly: "Approval." ”

"Yes!"

An Yi saluted and walked to the side of the stage to say a few words to his adjutant Dong Yanzi, who turned around and left, quickly took out two celadon wine bottles from behind the ring, and ran to the high platform built on the shore on the edge of the ring to stand and wait.

The eyes of thousands of spectators moved back and forth between An Yi in the ring and Dong Yanzi on the high platform forty meters away on the left, and as An Yi pulled out the shell gun on his waist and gave an order, everyone knew An Yi's purpose.

"Ready—Start!"

Dong Yanzi threw a celadon wine bottle into the air, An Yi did not wait for the porcelain bottle that flew to a height of twenty meters to fall and raised his hand to shoot, the porcelain bottle burst in the air, making a crisp sound, and the fragments fell on the river surface one after another, causing thousands of soldiers and civilians to cheer loudly.

The bosses of the nine holes and eighteen villages in the crowd were terrified, thinking that the young battalion commander with only one arm hanging was like this, who would dare to come to the stage to make fun of himself?

Who knew that An Yi's next order caused a burst of exclamations, and the winter man on the high platform actually took off his big cap, buttoned his collar, and put the celadon bottle more than half a foot high with his fist firmly on top of his head, and faced An Yi with a fearless smile.

An Yi nodded and slowly raised the muzzle of the black hole, and pulled the trigger before people could catch their breath and see clearly.

"Smack-"

The porcelain vase above the door of Dong Yanzi's head shattered in response, scaring thousands of soldiers and civilians into a daze, and the Russian advisers exclaimed that it was too crazy, but Liu Zhi and more than a dozen other generals immediately stood up and applauded loudly, and the thousands of soldiers and civilians who reacted cheered at this time, and the applause that soared to the sky lasted for a long time, spreading the prestige of the model battalion of the revolutionary army to all directions.

The leaders of the nine caves and eighteen villages in the crowd were frightened and sweated like rain, they had seen such a strong and lifeless army for the first time, and the officers and soldiers up and down were all hard and hard, and there was no good class, and not only could not get any benefits from opposing such an army, but might cause a disaster because of this, so they simply left and forgot it, and if they stayed any longer, they would not be able to see people at all. As a result, a group of bosses who have dominated the bronze drum for many years left quietly without saying hello to anyone, and no longer dared to move the idea of being competitive.

Only Gu Lao'er, Gu Changfeng, and his little brother Xiaodouzi Dou Fang did not leave, Xiaodouzi's eyes were full of shock and yearning, but Gu Lao'er's face was cloudy, looking at An Yi, Hu Zi and Xia Jian who were walking off the high platform, and there was an indescribable taste in their hearts as if they had knocked over a five-flavor bottle.

(To be continued)