Haining City woke up, has been occupied by the An Yi Reading Force, a team of heavily armed patrol officers and soldiers neatly walked in the streets and alleys, the Wenchang Temple in the south of the city, the Xie Clan Ancestral Hall in the west of the city, the Ziyang Temple in the north of the city, and the Dongguan military camp in the east of the city are all occupied by the battalions of the Reading Force, and the regimental headquarters of the Reading Force is set up in the Tianwang Hall in the city and the adjacent Haining Academy, which is only 300 meters away from the Haining County Ya.

The reason why An Yi did not occupy the county government with better conditions this time was not that the county magistrate had already been appointed by the national political axe, but that the young county magistrate Xie Mengting was indeed an enlightened person who supported the revolution.

At half past three o'clock in the morning, the 28-year-old county magistrate Xie was shocked to hear that the revolutionary army was coming, and immediately took more than 10 attachés to ride to the Jiuliqiao wharf, 20 kilometers to the south, and respectfully welcomed An Yi's reading force group to Haining County.

At the beginning of the meeting, An Yi saw that he looked upright and talked extraordinary, without the slightest panic and resignation of the old bureaucrats when they saw the revolutionary army, and after a few polite conversations, he felt that this person had a good appetite for himself, and immediately summoned Ye Cheng, the second battalion commander from Haining, Ye Cheng hurriedly got off the boat, happily holding the hand of his old classmate Xie Mengting, and asked for warmth, his ancestral home was Haining, and Xie Mengting, who moved to Hangzhou with his family ten years ago, was surprised, sighed, and his eyes were so excited that his eyes were moist and he called for creation and transformation.

Ye Cheng hurriedly introduced his young classmates to An Yi and the brothers, and then rushed to Haining County together in the frost, and the whole regiment of 6,200 officers and soldiers quickly set up camp under Xie Mengting's Zhang Luo.

At noon, Xie Mengting set up a drink for An Yi and his old classmate Ye Cheng and his party in his yamen, and An Yi and the others followed the leader of the county police station who led the way into the county yamen and were stunned: two men wearing the uniforms of Zhejiang Military Academy officers stood neatly in the middle of the courtyard, saluting An Yi and others, with a rather uneasy look on their faces.

Xie Mengting hurriedly introduced to An Yi: "General, these two are the commanders of the Haiyan County Garrison Regiment in the east, this is the head of Cheng Zijian, this is the deputy of Gu Wanshan's regiment, after the defeat of Meng Zhaoyue, the commander of the Zhejiang Army, and the withdrawal of the army, Haiyan County officials and tax officials also brought their families and fled when they heard the news. Gu and the two regiment commanders rushed to contact and asked to discuss with the general about the annexation of Yi Zhi, and asked the general to take care of it! ”

An Yi returned a military salute, and then enthusiastically stretched out his hands: "Welcome the two to join the revolutionary team, An Yi salutes and expresses deep gratitude to the two on behalf of the soldiers of the revolutionary army!" ”

"Where, where! General Ann is overrated! ”

Cheng Zijian and Gu Wanshan hurriedly stepped forward, holding An Yi's hand tightly and being very grateful, through newspapers and rumors in the army, the two had already heard An Yi's great military exploits and the prestige of the model battalion, and knew that the half-life prestige of the generals of the Zhejiang army since the revolutionary army entered Zhejiang to fight was destroyed in the hands of the young and heroic tiger general in front of him, and he knew better the intimate relationship between An Yi and the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army Jiang.

Xie Mengting was very happy for the success of the introduction of the two old friends, and took Ye Cheng's hand and beckoned An Yi, Hu Zi, Yin Jinan, Yang Bin and others to enter the table as soon as possible.

Under the mediation of Ye Cheng and Yang Bin from Zhejiang, the guests and hosts had a polite conversation, and the atmosphere was warm, plus An Yi, Hu Zi and Yin Jinan were all open-minded and frank people, and there was no shelf or roundabout precautions and temptations, and everyone slowly let go after a few glasses of wine.

When the wine was half-drunk, Cheng Zijian stood up again, took out an envelope from his coat pocket and presented it to An Yi with both hands:

"General An, the lower official is entrusted by the gentry and celebrities from all walks of life in Haiyan city and countryside to reward the general and your soldiers with this meager gift, and the mere salute is not a tribute, and I hope the general will accept it with a smile!"

An Yi stood up and took it generously, handed it to Xiao Du, the herald behind him, raised his glass and smiled at Cheng Zijian:

"On behalf of the more than 6,000 soldiers of the headquarters, I would like to thank the elders and villagers of Haiyan for their love and Brother Cheng's hospitality! The younger brother borrowed flowers to offer Buddha, saluted Brother Cheng with a cup, and after drinking, how about we? ”

"Dare not obey orders, haha!"

Cheng Zijian saw An Yi accept the check for 100,000 yuan so happily, and felt even more at ease, raised his glass and happily saluted An Yi politely, and drank it all.

An Yi motioned for Cheng Zijian to sit down: "Brother Cheng, everyone, if you want, tonight the junior brother will introduce you to a person, this person is about to serve as the commander of the Eastern Zhejiang Garrison of our National Revolutionary Army within half a month, and before our army occupies Jiangsu and Shanghai, he is fully responsible for the security and defense of the coastal areas of Zhejiang Province, army formation, civil affairs, the formation of local political axes at the county and town levels, the appointment and removal of officials, and the reorganization of the police force to maintain local law and order. I don't think there will be any obstacle to communicating with you. ”

Xie Mengting and Cheng Zijian still couldn't understand the deep meaning of An Yi's words, so they were so excited that they stood up and walked quickly to An Yi's side, saluting and saluting, thanking him repeatedly, and almost hugged An Yi and kissed him.

Hu Zi and Yin Jinan looked at each other for a moment, and then smiled, and admired An Yi's more and more mature and spicy methods.

Yang Bin approached Hu Zi and Yin Jinan and laughed in a low voice: "It's difficult for the boss to get rich this time, the landlords, salt merchants and old government officials from more than 20 townships in the five surrounding coastal counties must have heard the wind and rushed over, begging the boss to introduce them on their behalf, you just wait to see how the boss receives gifts!" ”

Yin Jinan suddenly realized: "No wonder! I heard my eldest brother say that he had been wondering for a long time after resting in Haining for three days, it turned out that he had already planned it! It must have been conspired with Deputy Division Commander Jiang at Baita in Hangzhou at noon yesterday, such an all-pervasive means of collecting money...... Tsk, I'm convinced of them! ”

"Don't say that, not a single cent of the money Xiao Yi got back was put into his own pocket, it was all for the sake of our great cause, not to mention that this was sent to the door by someone else, and it was not to steal and rob, it was well deserved." Hu Zi said in a low voice, Yin Jinan and Yang Bin laughed and stopped talking.

An Yi repeatedly begged everyone to sit down, talked and laughed for a while, and when he saw that the time was almost there, he smiled and said that he couldn't drink anymore, otherwise General Jiang wouldn't be able to accompany him when he arrived at night, and he drank a lot of alcohol! Everyone smiled, then withdrew the banquet for tea, and after chatting for a while, they sent An Yi and his party far away from the door.

Xie Mengting returned to the county hall and immediately called the master to whisper a few words, the master nodded and left in a hurry to make arrangements, Cheng Zijian pulled the deputy Gu Wanshan aside and ordered in a low voice:

"You immediately return to Haiyan to inform the fourth uncle of the situation, and then ask the fourth uncle to write a cash check for 500,000 yuan from Citibank and bring it immediately, General An's hospitality can't help but repay! Tonight, we only need a few kind words from him, and we can change our clothes and continue to guard Haiyan! ”

"Ah, half a million...... That's a little too much, isn't it? Gu Wanshan asked reluctantly.

Cheng Zijian's eyes widened angrily, and he scolded angrily: "You are really a mouse-eyed!" 500,000 is a fraction of our annual income, if there is no gun, you drink the northwest wind? What's more, now that the dynasty has changed, the fourth uncle is imminent to determine the tax of their 10,000 mu of salt fields, and they are even more anxious! Go quickly, pick up the fourth uncle and them together, if you miss a big thing, Lao Tzu is the only one who asks! ”

"Yes! I hurried back at once. ”

General Jiang Dingwen, who was "modest and generous and sympathetic to the people's feelings," arrived from Hangzhou at night, and at the grand welcome banquet held by local dignitaries, he thanked the elders and villagers for their open-mindedness, and praised the officers and men of Cheng Zijian's Reserve Regiment on the Haining and Haiyan fronts for their "strong support for the revolutionary cause" and their exemplary role in "making outstanding contributions" to the great cause of the Northern Expedition.

The next day, General Jiang Dingwen, who was about to serve as the commander of the garrison in eastern Zhejiang, and more than 10 members of his entourage inspected and inspected the people's livelihood conditions, public facilities, schools, and medical and health care in Haining County. The heartfelt "revolutionary speech" won thunderous applause from the "people of insight" and "patriotic industrialists" in the hall.

After the happy dinner, General Jiang Dingwen and his entourage, under the congratulations of An Yi, Hu Zi, Yin Jinan and other favorite generals, boarded the German cargo ship specially invited for An Yi by the Shanghai headquarters of the German Lu Lin & Co., and returned to Nanchang with more than 400 tons of "military supplies" on board.

At the time of parting, Jiang Dingwen put his arm around An Yi's shoulder, took the envelope that had been prepared from the adjutant's hand, and slowly stuffed it into An Yi's pocket:

"Inside are eleven cash checks, a total of 900,000 yuan, all of which are British and American bank exchange notes, of which 750,000 are paid to you, and the other 150,000 is the hard money paid to you by the eldest brother!

You kid is clever, without you to Haining to thread the needle, I don't know how to start, tens of thousands of acres of salt fields in this area produce amazing, every year to supply Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Henan need one-third of the amount of salt, from this can be seen its wealth, not to mention anything else, just say that a small county-level anti-drug director, a year can also have 1.8 million income into their own pockets, you didn't expect it, right? Ha ha!

Also, this time, thanks to your thoughtful invitation to this German cargo ship, saving the eldest brother a lot of trouble, waiting for the ship to enter Wusongkou, unloading the goods at the private dock of Boss Du upstream, even if the business is successfully completed, I will help you get everything done as soon as possible when you return to Nanchang, you can rest assured that you will lead the troops to fight Shanghai, I will send you a report after I arrive, and you can contact me by telegram at any time if there is anything. ”

"Big brother, you gave too much!" An Yi said gratefully.

Jiang Dingwen laughed arrogantly: "You don't have too much money?" It can be seen that you haven't cultivated yet, haha! I guess it's not enough for you to build a hospital in Lao Nanchang, take it! The stall you have set up in Nanchang is not small, if you are short of money, tell your eldest brother, and you dare not say that you can still get it at any time.

You can't be stupid anymore, the construction of the recruitment office and training base in old Nanchang should be paid in full by the General Headquarters, you don't have to invest your own money in it, now the main project and the surrounding gate walls have been completed, and the remaining facilities and auxiliary buildings can be completed in May at the latest, and the money you have saved is still reserved for a few big projects in the investment plan, and then let the eldest brother and I follow a little light, the bigger our business is, the more we can get the respect of others, remember? ”

An Yi nodded: "Remember!" The boat is about to leave, big brother, take care! ”

"Take care! Fight another beautiful battle to win glory for the eldest brother! ”

"Great!"

(To be continued)