The sun was slowly falling, the sound of guns and cannons gradually stopped, the Liuquan station was crowded, the smoke was miasma, and more than 3,600 prisoners were divided into piles every 200 under the guns of the officers and men of the 3rd Regiment of the Reading Division.

With the assistance of more than 300 members of the workers' picket team, the officers and men of the 2nd Regiment and the Teaching Brigade, who were tasked with cleaning up the battlefield, were sorting and piling up a large number of seized weapons and ammunition on the second platform opposite the railway.

Bai Chongxi, accompanied by the generals of the Tenth Army and the Reading Division, walked through the heavily guarded platform, looked at the groups of prisoners and the captured weapons like a hill, smiled and nodded again and again, obviously very satisfied, and he also especially praised An Yi's Reading Division for its rapid attack and strong combat effectiveness, and praised Wang Tianpei's guard regiment for his hard work and fighting spirit in destroying the enemy's artillery positions and winning the victory of the whole army.

The original reason for the incident was that in the afternoon, when the attack and defense of the enemy and us were in full swing and the battle situation was in a stalemate, An Yi, who had long hated the artillery positions on both sides of the railway behind the enemy's position, skillfully took advantage of the eagerness of Wang Tianpei, who could not raise his head in front of Bai Chongxi, and the generals of the Tenth Army to atone for their shame, and resolutely made suggestions to Bai Chongxi, Wang Tianpei, and other generals:

Load a regiment of commandos with a train, drive through the battlefield at high speed, march six kilometers north, use the automatic fire and grenades concentrated in the hands of the commandos, annihilate these two artillery positions behind the enemy's positions in one fell swoop, and give the enemy troops at the end of the crossbow a swift blow, as long as the enemy's superior artillery fire cannot intercept the entire charge of our army, everything will be done!

Bai Chongxi weighed it slightly and gladly adopted An Yi's suggestion. However, he knew that An Yi's reading division had all opened the forward position, and only the three regiments of the Tenth Army left as reserves could maneuver, so he looked at Wang Tianpei who was hesitant with a smile, expecting him to take the initiative to stand up and receive the order.

Wang Tianpei didn't know what Bai Chongxi meant, he gritted his teeth, and even sent his most elite guard regiment up, with the great help of the railway workers, roared into the battlefield in four relatively strong iron carriages, and when the enemy army reacted, it was too late, and the roaring train crashed into three hastily erected obstacles one after another, and rushed to the artillery position behind the enemy's position, and launched a fierce attack on the enemy artillery who did not have much self-protection ability.

As the artillery position was suddenly dumbfounded, the enemy's whole line was shaken, and in a panic, he could only shrink and retreat on the whole line, and the Lu Guangli Regiment, Xia Jian's 1st Regiment, and Chen Zhibiao's 2nd Regiment, where the model battalion of the whole army were located, made a decisive attack, and broke into the enemy's position from the middle with an indomitable momentum, dividing the exhausted and demoralized enemy army into two parts, the north and the south, and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent divisions to expand their results.

On the right flank, Gu Changfeng's 3rd Regiment, the 3rd Division of the 10th Army, and the 30th Division saw that the middle was strong, and immediately followed, and quickly divided and surrounded the Sixth Army of the Zhilu Coalition Army, and the entire battlefield showed a one-sided trend in a blink of an eye.

Seeing that the victory was decided, Bai Chongxi once again decisively ordered: The enemy army was defeated like a mountain and chaotic, and all divisions of the Tenth Army only need to pursue the victory non-stop, and they will definitely be able to expand the results of the battle and recover Hanzhuang, and there is even the possibility of recovering Zaozhuang!

The battle situation was exactly the same as Bai Chongxi expected, after receiving the order, more than 36,000 soldiers of the three divisions of the Tenth Army immediately handed over the battlefield to the Reading Division, launched a fierce pursuit of the enemy who was scattered and frantically fleeing, and successfully recovered Hanzhuang at 6:20 p.m., and made persistent efforts to catch up, linking the two major towns of Zhouying and Shagou south of Zaozhuang, and the main force approached 12 kilometers south of Zaozhuang to camp in situ, waiting for the two instructors who had completed the flanking task with He Yaozu's 40th Army to arrive. Immediately, a large-scale attack will be launched on Zaozhuang, where the enemy army has not gained a firm foothold.

At sunset, the generals stood at the top of the command post of the Reading Division, looking at the flat battlefield several kilometers ahead, carefully watching the lakes and ponds, the small rivers and streams, the corpses of the enemy soldiers had not yet been collected and buried, the weeds and bushes burning everywhere were still emitting wisps of smoke and fire, and the few houses that had been scattered had been razed to the ground in this battle.

Although most of the trenches along the way were blown up by enemy artillery, the well-protected anti-artillery holes that went several meters deep into the ground were almost intact, and the generals knew why the officers and men of the Reading Division suffered minor casualties under the fierce blows of the enemy's artillery fire, Bai Chongxi and the generals were full of praise for this exemplary division born out of the engineering army.

General Wang Tianpei, the commander of the Tenth Army, was in high spirits after the victory, and from time to time he whispered with An Yi beside him, and when he went up to the top of the hill to stand still, he told An Yi very generously:

"Tomorrow morning, I will send the captured artillery to your barracks in twelve pieces, so that your artillery will have nothing to do."

"Thank you so much to the seniors, many of the brothers in the artillery battalion under the command of the juniors are still crying on the bombed-out positions, and this can solve my urgent need."

An Yi's thanks provoked a burst of good-natured laughter, but what An Yi was most grateful for was that Wang Tianpei sent his most elite guard regiment at a critical moment, bravely undertook the extremely dangerous train raid mission, and swept the enemy's two artillery positions at the cost of nearly half of the casualties.

Along the way, An Yi kept weighing in his heart, if Wang Tianpei didn't take the initiative to take on this task at that time, would he grit his teeth and send Ding Zhicheng's special brigade and Chen Kan's teaching brigade? Until now, he still has no answer, so he can only thank Wang Tianpei for taking the initiative to ask for battle.

Before returning, Bai Chongxi called An Yi to his side and carefully inquired about the construction methods and workload of the fortifications and trenches of various shapes and depths along the way.

An Yi knew that everything was endless, and there was no intention of concealing it, and even the corresponding auxiliary traffic trench excavation principles and standards were said one by one, Bai Chongxi and the generals listened to it with relish and nodded frequently, feeling a lot, and they all said that they wanted to promote the advanced experience of An Yi's reading division, and the next stage of fighting on the plains, the survey of the terrain, the construction of fortifications and the excavation of trenches were more important.

However, Bai Chongxi and the generals all ignored one of the key issues, that is, they must have well-trained officers and men and suitable and efficient tools, and they must have a good grasp of the basic techniques such as the firmness of the soil layer, the stress and bearing capacity, and the depth of excavation.

Bai Chongxi didn't even bother to eat dinner, and immediately rushed back to the Xuzhou camp, he wanted to hurry up and formulate a huge counteroffensive plan to ease the current tense situation.

Through the two days of fighting, Bai Chongxi keenly saw that although Sun Chuanfang and Zhang Zongchang's 250,000 troops were menacing, they lacked contact with each other, and there were loopholes, so Bai Chongxi secretly made up his mind to quickly launch a counterattack on the whole front, and the First Route Army that contacted the eastern front suddenly turned around and advanced, taking advantage of the enemy's reaction to give the enemy a head-on attack, and did not dare to say how many enemies were annihilated, at least to make the opponent retreat in difficulty, or wait and see.

After all, at present, after nearly half of the main force of the Nanjing Political Axe Third Route Army was transferred south to deal with the Wuhan army, the troops remaining on the front line were stretched thin, and the pressure increased greatly.

An Yi, who sent Bai Chongxi and the generals of the headquarters, said goodbye to Wang Tianpei, returned to his division headquarters and grabbed two big steamed buns, listened carefully to the report while nibbling, and gave specific opinions on a certain issue from time to time. After the aftermath work was arranged, a summary meeting was held to study the consumption supplement and pension rewards of various ministries.

At 8:40 a.m., An Yi, Hu Zi and Yang Bin stood naked under the railway water supply tower to take a bath, while a circle of guards on the side was closely protecting and blocking the exposed spring light.

An Yi finished rinsing his head full of soap bubbles, and before he had time to scrub his body, he heard Dou Fang come to report urgently: I heard that the third brother of the Tenth Army, who had sent twelve artillery pieces, pleaded urgently, saying that the Political Department and the Military Judge Office of the Tenth Army, which were preparing to march to Zaozhuang, were holding a trial meeting at the North Station, and they wanted to behead the two regiment commanders who led the troubles to show the public.

An Yi was taken aback when he heard this, after a few days of contact An Yi also knew that the third division was originally the instructor of the Ninth Army who wandered around after being beheaded by Tang Shengzhi and the commander was disbanded, after the Ninth Army was divided up by various forces, the instructor who had no father and no mother was scattered by a third, and the two regiment commanders had to take refuge in the Tenth Army, which was also the Guizhou Army, in order not to be annexed and annihilated by the warlords, and searched for lost brothers everywhere, and finally kept the establishment of the two regiments, Wang Tianpei transferred another regiment to form the third instructor of the Tenth Army, The division commander and deputy division commander were both close associates of Wang Tianpei, and they extremely despised the two regiments that had defected, and they restrained and squeezed out the two regiment commanders everywhere, suppressed the two regiment commanders, and were greedy for military salaries, and they also forced the officers and men of the two regiments to do the hardest, most tiring, and most dangerous work from time to time.

However, these two regiments performed well in the two days of fighting, they were able to fight, fight and endure hardships, and Gu Changfeng's three regiments cooperated with each other, took care of each other, and established a deep friendship with each other.

"I have to take care of this, and I can't let the warriors shed tears and blood. Dou Fang, you hurry up and ride to General Wang, ask him to keep people under the sword, and I will be there immediately. ”

An Yi hurriedly rinsed his body and hurriedly wiped the water stains all over his body: "Xiao Jiu, go and prepare the horse!" Chen Mian prepared my general uniform ......"

Hu Jialin, Yin Jinan and Yang Bin also quickly cleaned up, and followed An Yi across the railway to jump onto the freight platform and run into the division headquarters, and the adjutant guard captains of each of them had already prepared their uniforms.

Hu Jialin asked An Yi while getting dressed: "The brothers of these two regiments originally went to the battlefield with a stomach full of grievances, and the position was on the right side of the three regiments of the tiger head, this battle was fought well from beginning to end, and the two regiment commanders also had blood surnames, so it was a pity to kill them so easily!" What do you want to do? ”

Yang Bin interjected: "Is it that Commander Wang is shirking responsibility and taking the opportunity to get rid of dissidents?" If you go like this, won't the bad guys do good things abruptly? ”

An Yi tied his shoelaces and stomped his feet: "You have to go, where is the reason to kill a general after winning a battle?" With the excellent performance of these two regiments on the battlefield, we cannot see death without help, not to mention that at this moment, it is the time to employ people, the heads of the two regiment commanders have moved, and the more than 3,000 officers and soldiers under their command are afraid that they will disperse immediately. ”

"Simply, give Lao Wang a sum of money and let him sell these two groups to us." Yang Bin suggested with a smile.

"If you don't say it, I forgot...... Jinan, hurry up and ask the logistics unit to load the 40,000 oceans captured on the battlefield yesterday, plus 10,000 to make up 50,000 and immediately send them to the north station. ”

An Yi saw Yin Jinan nodding and going out while getting dressed, so he turned to Yang Bin and said solemnly: "I also want to accept these two regiments!" Just by virtue of their realization on the battlefield, it is worth my money, but in this way, we have completely offended the Tenth Army, and the friendly relations that we have established with great difficulty will definitely be gone, so this time I would rather be good people than let people think that we are taking advantage of others, not to mention that they also sent us twelve cannons, so that our artillery can be used again, it can be regarded as a courtesy, don't be greedy. ”

Yang Bin nodded with relief: "Don't you say that I haven't thought of this layer yet, if you accept those two regiments at this juncture, our reading division is certainly full, but it is extremely unfavorable to future operations, or you think far!" By the way, didn't Commander-in-Chief Bai promise to send 100,000 cash to the Tenth Army yesterday, which should solve their urgent needs, right? ”

"I said that it was sent later, but I don't know how long this 'subsequent' was, according to the above efficiency, even if it drags on for ten days, half a month, or even three or two months, it is a common thing, they are not as rich as the commander-in-chief of our First Army, especially two months ago, the logistics and munitions regulations were significantly revised, and the money and materials were directly allocated to the division level, so many brothers thought that other friendly armies were the same, but they didn't know the difficulties, I was very clear.

The friendly soldiers said that they had a very hard time, they were exploited by their superiors at all levels, and they were often owed a pitiful salary, and many friendly soldiers could not eat meat once a month, but they had to risk their lives to fight against a strong enemy, and every time I thought about it, I felt sad! ”

An Yi sighed loudly, and then urged everyone to leave quickly.

There were only more than two kilometers between the north and south stations, and An Yi and his three brothers arrived on horseback in brand-new and crisp general's uniforms, surrounded by dozens of well-equipped guards, and the officers and soldiers of the Tenth Army immediately gave way to the wide freight yard.

An Yi flew off his horse more than 30 meters away from the waiting generals of the Tenth Army, Wang Tianpei, and trotted in front of more than a dozen generals and saluted respectfully, and the beard and other three brothers behind him were also the same, giving enough face to the generals of the Tenth Army.

After An Yi finished saluting, he stepped forward and begged earnestly: "Senior, please forgive An Yi for being reckless!" I heard that the seniors wanted to take advantage of a big victory to implement military law, but the juniors remembered the heroic tenacity of the two regiment commanders and the soldiers under their command in yesterday's battle, and they couldn't bear to come to ask the seniors for a favor!

Seniors, commanders, after the big victory, the morale is greatly boosted, even if these two regiment commanders deserve death, they also have a slight military exploits, not to mention that the next battle is difficult, and there is a need for warriors to fill in the gaps everywhere. ”

Yin Jinan also stepped forward and asked politely: "Senior, I got the twelve artillery pieces presented by the soldiers under the command of my predecessors early this morning, and all the brothers of the junior and other reading masters are grateful, knowing that many of the soldiers of the Tenth Army have been on the front line for a long time and are in urgent need of money, the younger generations will send 50,000 yuan to the ocean to reward the brothers of the Tenth Army. ”

Wang Tianpei and the others looked at each other, not knowing which one An Yi and the others were singing? Then they all looked at Yin Jinan, who spoke sincerely, in surprise, and An Yi who was smiling, and felt that it was extremely unwise for the other party to risk offending the generals of the Tenth Army to save two unrelated regimental commanders, and they even suspected that the reader had ulterior motives.

Yin Jinan waved his hand backwards, fifteen pack horses came with heavy money bags, and dozens of brothers from the logistics department of the reading division worked in pairs to carry the money bags to the side of the circle surrounded by many officers and soldiers.

Wang Tianpei looked at the two regiment leaders in the field, and his expression was extremely complicated. He looked at the two young regiment commanders who were held down and kneeling on the ground with angry faces, and then at An Yi and the others whose faces were full of concern and unbearable, shook his head and turned behind him, and discussed in a low voice with Gao Guanwu, chief of staff, Zhou Zhongliang, party representative, and Gan Jiayi, director of the Political Department and chief of the Military Justice Division.

The officers and men were silent, and more than 3,000 disarmed officers and men under the command of the two regiment commanders stood in the distance, nervously waiting, and the atmosphere was extremely depressing and dull.

A few minutes later, the military judge Gan Jiayi, who had obtained the final result of the discussion, walked to the two regiment commanders who were kneeling on the ground, waved to the law enforcement gendarmes, and signaled his subordinates to order the loosening, Wang Tianpei and Zhou Zhongliang walked up to An Yi and smiled heartily:

"These two guilty generals can get the generals to intercede on their behalf, which is a blessing they have cultivated in their previous lives! Ha ha...... Xiao Yi, you took great pains to come to intercede, do you know these two people? ”

An Yi looked at the bearded and tall head who was turning his numb legs and feet to turn to him, nodded with satisfaction, and explained to Wang Tianpei:

"Seriously, the juniors don't know the two of them, Gu Changfeng, the commander of the third regiment of my division, fought side by side with these two two days ago, and they are very familiar.

At the summary meeting last night, the juniors learned about the excellent performance of the two regiment commanders under the command of the seniors and the more than 3,000 brothers under their command, and felt that it was a pity to kill them like this, and it was better to let them follow the seniors and the commanders to the front line to atone for their sins, and I believe that they would be grateful to the seniors for not killing them. ”

Wang Tianpei's face softened, and then he laughed. Through these words, he knew that An Yi did not mean to plan these two groups, and the big stone in his heart also landed:

"Xiao Yi, you brothers are really righteous! No wonder the officers and soldiers under your command swore to serve the death and fought bravely to move forward, it seems that your way of governing the army is really unique! Good! Very good! ”

An Yi shook his head with a smile, approached Wang Tianpei and whispered, "Thank you seniors for the compliment!" In fact, the younger generation also has a hard time doing this, and nearly seventy percent of the brothers under the command of the younger generation are sincere on the battlefield, so the younger generation knows their thoughts very well, and tries to take care of the places that can be taken care of, otherwise the younger generation will not be able to fight this battle. ”

Wang Tianpei was stunned for a moment, and laughed heartily again, and the generals on the side also laughed happily.

An Yi raised his wrist to look at the time, and found that the time for the start of the march had come, and the Tenth Army was about to go north, so he hurriedly patted his chest and asked Wang Tianpei to rest assured, and the general of the reading division did his best to help the wounded soldiers and logistics brothers who stayed in the North Station, and gave Wang Tianpei two hundred tons of rice in the warehouse of the South Station to Wang Tianpei, once again winning the great favor of Wang Tianpei and the generals of the Tenth Army.

An Yi, Yin Jinan, and others then respectfully sent Wang Tianpei and others onto the train, and only then did they say goodbye to Zhou Zhongliang and other generals of the 10th Army who had temporarily stayed in the rear.

When the two regiment commanders who were saved lives rushed to the platform after changing their clothes, An Yi and the officers and soldiers of the Reading Division had already left without a trace, and the two reported to Zhou Zhongliang and accepted a reprimand, and immediately after leaving, they went to the town to find the familiar commanders of the Third Regiment of the Reading Division, Gu Changfeng and Dou Fang.

Dou Fang and Gu Changfeng walked out of the third regiment station, and saw the two regiment commanders arriving in a hurry, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet them affectionately: "Brother Shi, Brother Mo, come out to do something?" ”

Shi Zhen, the tall and sturdy bearded regiment leader, stepped forward and hugged his fists to thank him: "It's a lot of Brother Gu, Brother Dou and General An!" If it weren't for your righteous rescue, it is estimated that we would have already landed on the ground at this moment....... Shi and Rong Gao would be extremely grateful! ”

Gu Changfeng hurriedly returned the salute: "Don't say that, the junior brother and Dou Fang just reported the matter to the division in time, he and Deputy Division Commander Hu, Deputy Division Commander Yin and Chief of Staff Yang immediately ordered the younger brother to go and beg Commander Wang and the others as soon as they heard it, if you really want to say thank you, the two brothers should be even more grateful to the brothers under their command, it is the brave fighting of the two brothers and the more than 3,000 brothers under their command that won the respect of my reading division and brought them as their own brothers, which is what follows, haha, this is the so-called fate!" ”

"Brother Gu, Brother Dou, can you lead us to meet General An and several other generals?"

Mo Ronggao tried hard to suppress his excitement, approached Gu Changfeng and pleaded in a low voice, and Shi Zhen also echoed, both of them eager to thank An Yi for saving his life in person.

Gu Changfeng smiled, and Dou Fang explained in a low voice: "Our division just told the junior brother to tell the two elder brothers, saying that trivial matters do not need to be so polite, he and the boss of the division are unwilling to cause misunderstanding among others because of this matter, and it is not too late to meet again after the battle."

Two brothers, please go back, if there is any difficulty, please come here to find me and Brother Gu, we will not leave within two days, but after two days, we don't know, and even we don't know where we will be next...... Take care, two dudes! ”

Shi Zhen and Mo Ronggao glanced at each other, sighed after saying goodbye to Gu Changfeng and Dou Fang, and bowed their heads and left with great reluctance.

(To be continued)