The morning light was empty, the smoke was curling, and the more than 500 brothers of the model battalion who woke up were in high spirits and high morale, and all companies and platoons were also sorting out their bags and distributing ammunition in preparation for the upcoming battle to attack Tonggu County.

Xia Jian and the five carefully selected soldiers from northern Jiangxi were pointing around the map, telling the brothers who were going to cooperate with the reconnaissance team about the content, purpose, and time of the mission.

Hu Jialin, deputy of the battalion in the middle of the crowd, was very satisfied with the detailed and supplemented military map; due to the appropriate measures and the efforts of the officers and men, the various units that had sneaked out of the reconnaissance brought back a large amount of detailed information and local sketches, and after gathering them, they were constantly sorted out and added; every river and every hill within a radius of 100 miles was marked on the map, and the contents of mountain streams, small villages, passes, and sheep intestine trails that were not on the map issued by the division headquarters were presented on their maps one by one, thus providing detailed and solid basic information for the formulation of the next combat plan of the model battalion.

A yellow war horse turned off the road and rushed across the 50-meter meadow, crossed the improvised wooden bridge in front of the camp gate, and the combat staff officer of the division headquarters on horseback greeted the sentry and rode into the camp.

Hearing the movement, the major staff officer took out an order from the leather briefcase on his waist and handed it to the beard, took out the handover slip and pen for the beard to sign, took the paper and pen handed by the beard to the briefcase, saluted and left.

Hu Zi took apart the order and hurriedly read it, handed it to Yin Jinan, who came to his side, returned to the big tree and told the brothers to rest temporarily if the task changed, waved his hand to drive everyone away, sat down alone, opened the file and quickly flipped through it, and the two battle briefings and a map of northwest Jiangxi in his hand showed in detail the current military situation of the enemy and us and the next direction of the second division's action.

Yin Jinan took the order and walked quickly into the ancestral hall, and saw that Xiao Langzhong was changing the dressing for An Yi's wound and hurriedly reported: "Division Order: Our department will postpone departure and wait for the next instructions." ”

An Yi raised his head in surprise: "What's the matter?" ”

"Along with the order, there was also a dossier, which the beard was reading under the big tree outside, and it was estimated that the situation had changed. At two o'clock in the morning, the fourth regiment passed by our door, and rushed to Zhangfang Town, 12 kilometers to the east, and the sixth regiment also passed at dawn, and it is estimated that the fifth regiment will soon pass through our door. ”

Yin Jinan was quite disappointed, now is the time when morale is like a rainbow, but it is too embarrassing to let the brothers stay here and do nothing.

An Yi angrily urged Xiao Langzhong to move quickly, wrapped up the wound, put on his coat, stood up and walked out of the ancestral hall: "Grandma's!" Isn't the division bullying us? We were just ransacked last night, and today we were asked to eat dust behind a few main regiments, so that we won't even be able to drink soup when we get to the copper drum......

Hu Zi saw An Yi and Yin Jinan walking briskly, and pointed to the latest situation map with a pencil in detail:

"It's amazing how much things have changed, you see...... Our right flank, the Second Army and the Third Army continued to pursue after occupying Pingxiang, and the Three Armies had already taken Yichun and were currently advancing to Xinyu and Gao'an in the east; The second army moved south from Pingxiang to occupy Lianhua, attacked Ji'an non-stop, and the defending enemy retreated without a fight.

At first, I wondered why the defending enemy gave up Ji'an, but after reading the battle report, I learned that Lai Shihuang, the defending enemy in southern Gansu, declared an uprising, led his troops to join our revolutionary army, and the Fifth Army of our army stationed on the border of Jiangxi and Guangdong flanked the two Yunnan army divisions of Yang Chisheng and Yang Ruxuan, and broke the enemy's command. If nothing else, Gannan will soon fall into the hands of our army, which will put Ji'an in the middle of the two-sided attack of the Second Army and Lai Shihuang's department, and attack Ji'an with the Second Army, no wonder the enemy in Ji'an will retreat without a fight. ”

An Yi and Yin Jinan were greatly excited, An Yi picked up the battle report and read it in detail, and then pointed to the direction of Xiushui in the north and sighed in surprise:

"General Cheng Qian's Sixth Army suddenly arrived to the north of us, so fast! The 17th Division had already conquered Longmen, a key place in northwest Jiangxi, yesterday morning, and occupied Zhajin, and the 18th Division and the 1st Division of our army also rushed to converge, and it was estimated that it would only be a matter of three or two days to take the repair, and then conquer Wuning as planned and go straight to De'an, the middle section of the Nanxun Line (Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway). No wonder the division headquarters is in such a hurry, if we don't play the copper drum, we will be a big step behind. ”

Hu Zi nodded and pointed to Daye on the border of Hubei and Jiangxi: "General Li Zongren's Seventh Army has arrived in Daye on the 11th, that is, yesterday, and the battle report shows that the Seventh Army will pass through Yangxin and Wuxue to Ruichang within three days, and finally attack Sun Chuanfang's Jiujiang, Jiangxi's old nest." Judging from the current situation of the entire battlefield in Jiangxi, the center of gravity of the battle has shifted to the central and northern regions, with 180,000 men and horses on both sides crowded into Zhangshu, Fuzhou, and the line from Nanchang to Jiujiang south of Nanchang. ”

Yin Jinan and An Yi agreed with Hu Zi's judgment, and the pencil in Hu Zi's hand slowly pointed to Tonggu County: "According to our reconnaissance, there is only one regiment of Deng Ruzhuo's division of Sun Chuanfang's division here, and the regiment is stationed in hot spring town and Bamutang in three places, so it will definitely not be able to stop the attack of several regiments of our division, plus the main force in the north of our division is forcing Xiushui, and the defending enemy is likely to take the initiative to withdraw because they cannot help each other, and retreat to Fengxincheng, which is 130 kilometers to the east, so our plan to cut off the retreat of the enemy in Tonggu has also failed." ”

An Yi thought about it and smiled: "It's okay, wouldn't it be better to occupy the copper drum without fighting?" Just now I was wondering, if our plan is approved by the division headquarters, and thus successfully cut off the retreat of one of the enemy's regiments, will we have a share of the more than 1,000 prisoners? Now looking at the inevitable hanging patterns of several main regiments, I know that even if we work hard to successfully cut off the enemy's retreat, in the end we will definitely make wedding clothes for others again, it is better to follow the logistics personnel of the division headquarters to move forward slowly, anyway, the brothers have been tired and tired for more than a month, and it is appropriate to rest for two more days. ”

The beard grinned, Yin Jinan pondered for a moment and pointed to Yifeng on the map: "I don't know if they will divide a regiment to go straight to Yifeng after the division seat captures the copper drum and make some cheap money from the side of the Third Army?" ”

"I don't think so, I'm afraid that tonight the Third Army will be able to take Shanggaocheng south of Yifeng, and the enemy in Yifeng can only retreat to the Gao'an line, otherwise they will immediately fall into the middle of the two armies, and at the speed of the Third Army under General Zhu Peide, they will not let go of the opportunity to occupy Yifeng twenty kilometers north."

An Yi continued: "Again, the division seat is loyal and rigorous, has always been honest and decent, and will never always want to make cheap like us, so the main force of our division is likely to continue to move eastward to Fengxin, which is more than 130 kilometers away, as long as Fengxin, which is 60 kilometers away from Nanchang, the task of the first phase of our division will be successfully completed, and then it will be transferred to the second stage of the campaign, and the main force of the attack will not necessarily be our second division." ”

Yin Jinan echoed casually: "What the eldest brother said is, it's just that we can't be idle all the way behind the butt of the main regiment, we have to think of a way to expand our team, the reason why the fifth regiment falls behind the fourth regiment and the sixth regiment is all because of a large number of recruits in the area of Liuyang County and Gugang, I went to the highway in the early morning to greet the brothers of the sixth regiment who passed by, and I heard the third phase of Lao Zhao say that the fifth regiment has increased at least 700 recruits, and the fourth regiment has also collected 600 prisoners in the battle of Suozi Valley, and each regiment has increased the strength of more than one battalion than the original, Only one of us can't get it, it's not a problem to go on like this! ”

An Yi reluctantly lit a cigarette: "What can I do?" I thought that I could get some benefits from playing the copper drum this time, but who knew that all of them were in the soup, and I could only wait for the next opportunity. ”

"You can't forcibly recruit people!" Yin Jinan hurriedly reminded.

Hu Zi didn't wait for An Yi to answer and laughed: "Ji Nan, don't worry, our rules have always been followed, the brothers have never dared to force the common people, even our cooking class went out to buy vegetables and food, it is fair and reasonable, and the people praise them everywhere, and the brothers below have now developed this good habit, whether it is training or discipline, they are stronger than several main groups, and they will never do that kind of thing to rob the people, but ...... If the people facing it are not ordinary people, it should be a different matter, haha! ”

An Yi looked at the beard suspiciously: "It seems that you haven't finished speaking, right?" ”

Beard nodded: "Remember yesterday morning's Suozi Valley?" More than 800 bandits inside came to rob the road, so that the four regiments left more than half and dismissed a small half, and those who were dismissed heard that they were all thrown into the nine caves and eighteen villages in the Tonggu area in the east, just now Xia Jian and a group of brothers from northwest Jiangxi talked about the bandits, I paid attention to it, and I heard them say that the bandits of all sizes in the nine caves and eighteen villages add up to no less than two thousand, if we can recruit four or five hundred people in it, won't it grow stronger? What's more, the bandits in this area have strong feet, climbing mountains and wading through rivers are commonplace, and they can fight better than honest croppers, as long as they are not heinous and opium smokers, they can be brought in, and put under the hands of Lu Xiong, Qu Tongyuan and Wu Liheng, a group of veteran ruffians, to be disciplined well, no matter how angry the bandits are, they will have to be honest in less than half a month. ”

An Yi was overjoyed, he and Yin Jinan looked at each other and nodded to each other, and the three of them happily ordered breakfast together, and at the same time called Xia Jian, Shi Junren and all the company platoon commanders from the battalion headquarters, and twenty or thirty people gathered around the long table while drinking rice porridge and eating steamed buns, while discussing recruitment matters in a low voice.

After discussing for more than ten minutes, An Yi saw that most of the brothers had a difficult face, put down his chopsticks and said happily:

"Brothers, to tell you the truth, the military seat in northern Guangdong and southern Fujian has been expanded into two divisions and one regiment, during this time you have also seen that several main regiments of this division are desperately expanding their strength, and now the soldiers of a division are almost becoming two divisions, therefore, after the battle in Nanchang, our army may have to be expanded into two armies, and when the time comes, our model battalion will still have more than 500 guns now, and there is no place to put hundreds of old faces, so you can only stand aside and listen to people's jokes and watch people get promoted and get rich! Are you willing?

If we double or even double or triple the size, Lao Tzu dares to say how to get back a regiment leader, and when Lao Tzu becomes the regiment leader, can you forget what you dogs said? But you have so many people under him, how can Lao Tzu promote you? Today, the three of us thought about it for a long time before I came to talk to you, but I didn't expect that your dog's faces were wrinkled more than the egg skin under the crotch of your pants, it's really fucking useless! Adjourn the meeting, get out! ”

Feeling that it was quite difficult to recruit bandits, the company platoon commanders hesitated and reluctantly stood up, seeing the beard with his head tilted back and smoking, Yin Jinan was looking down and laughing, and immediately understood that An Yi was not really driving himself away, and looked at each other and realized the meaning of An Yi's words.

A group of men who were still hesitant just now rushed to sit down, and the three of them immediately discussed enthusiastically around An Yi, and made suggestions, one more enthusiastic and one more positive, sneaking and abducting tricks frequently, everyone's eyes glowed with green light, and they all seemed to see their tall image after being promoted to the next level.

(To be continued)