Smoke curls on the large sunbath in Shuanggang Village, and there are bursts of joy.

The kind and enthusiastic villagers set up a big pot of steamed rice and cooked meat, every household took out a table and bench and set up dozens of tables on the sundeck, and the children were no longer afraid of the soldiers wearing military uniforms and carrying weapons, and they were giggling and laughing around the sunbathing to their heart's content, so the scene was better than any festive celebration of the New Year.

The landlord of Qingxi and the village elders of Shuanggang gathered together contentedly and chatted with An Yi, like a family.

Lao Zeng heard that the villagers of Qingxi were about to enter the village with bacon and bacon and other local specialties, so he hurriedly ordered the two sons-in-law behind him to quickly bring in and hand over to Mr. Dong Yanzi, the accountant of the revolutionary army, and waited for his own family patriarch to stop talking to An Yi, and lost no time in interjecting a sentence:

"Virtuous nephew, why did your men redivide the captives into a team? Your adjutant's beard seems to have led people out of the captives many times, and he is very relieved to let those prisoners join your revolutionary army. ”

An Yi laughed: "Uncle Zeng, you are so careful!" These captive brothers are also children of poor families, don't look at the fact that they are all dressed the same, carefully separated there are different types of troops, there are soldiers who specialize in machine guns, there are soldiers who specialize in artillery, and there are some soldiers who have their own abilities, and we have to pick out these soldiers and reorganize them.

For example, the 30 or so veterans who walked in front of us just now, these veterans were incredible, they did not belong to Lu Ronggao's Seventh Regiment, but were selected from various units under his direct line and sent to the artillery academy opened by Chen Jiamo, a general under Wu Peifu and the overseer of Hubei, in Wuhan for special training for half a year before they became an army.

It was originally an artillery company of more than 100 people, and before the war with our revolutionary army started, it was urgently supplied to Lu Ronggao's regiment, but as soon as they met, they were beaten by our revolutionary army and lost their armor, threw down the artillery and fled for their lives, and after a few battles, the dead and wounded fled back and forth, and only these 30 or so fled to the little nephew, haha! ”

The squires sighed greatly, this praise An Yi has the capacity to accommodate all rivers, and the praise An Yi has a bright future, An Yi's heart moved, and he stood up and said affectionately:

"Uncles have won the prize! The little nephew has to thank you, the thirty-two brothers sent by the uncle to the little nephew's team, all of them are good seedlings to be soldiers, and twelve of them have studied the Four Books and the Five Classics and can write and calculate, the little nephew plans to train them well, and when they settle down a little, they will be sent to the Whampoa Military Academy where our Commander-in-Chief Jiang is the principal for further study, and they will lead the troops when they come out, haha! Two years ago, the little nephew was also a homeless and hard-working man, and it was after graduating from the Whampoa Military Academy that he became the official he is today, and there are nearly 1,000 brothers under him, haha! Don't hide it from your uncle, several of the younger nephew's senior brothers have become generals, so the younger nephew is very optimistic about these children in the village, and now it is a troubled time, and the military is reused, who can guarantee that there will not be one or two generals among the thirty-two brothers? Ha ha...... Uncles, please sit quietly, and the little nephew will come when he goes over there to have a look. ”

As soon as An Yi left, several squires hurriedly got together and hurriedly discussed, the thirty-two young village heroes they gave to An Yi were all poor children of the side branch who volunteered to join the army, although they also studied in the village private school, but they were not their own nephews, and they were not treated by their own people since they were young. What's more, these children in the village are now following An Yi, the dragon and phoenix among the people, and I have heard a lot of legendary stories about this young general in the past half a day, and he is also the proud protégé of Commander-in-Chief Jiang, who has hundreds of thousands of troops, what he said just now is not a joke!

In a hurry, Lao Zeng stared at his in-law Lao Yao, and asked Lao Yao to immediately slaughter the ten big pigs in the backyard and salt them, and give them to the thirty-two children in the village after eating at noon. Lao Yao was distressed and uncertain, Lao Zeng was furious and promised to send five big pigs before the end of the year, which was half of his own, so Lao Yao gritted his teeth and agreed, and trotted back to call someone to kill the pig. Several other wealthy squires could not sit still, and returned home one after another to ask their subordinates to quickly put the strings of bacon and bacon hanging from the house into baskets, write their names on red paper and send them to the revolutionary army.

Nearly 1,000 soldiers and civilians finished eating a huge lunch, wiped their beards and blew the assembly whistle, and more than 500 officers and men who had been initially harmonious were quickly assembled, and the "machine gun detachment" composed of more than 30 artillery guns without artillery and more than a dozen machine gunners was formed in groups of four, carrying 12 heavy Makqin water-cooled heavy machine guns, standing in the middle of the ranks with high spirits, and the machine gunners of the other three platoons of a company also carried 34 light machine guns captured in the morning on their shoulders, standing tall and majestic. Hundreds of captive brothers with red scarves tied around their necks also mixed in the middle of the neat ranks with solemn faces, looking at the hundreds of villagers, girls and daughters-in-law who were watching in front of them, they were extremely proud, and they all cheered up to show their most heroic side.

Accompanied by a beard, An Yi walked to the front of the team with the standard steps of a soldier, and glanced at his more than 700 brothers, both old and new, with satisfaction, and was surprised as soon as he spoke:

Thirty-two brothers from Qingxi Village and Shuanggang Village were listed...... Attention! Salute to your relatives and to your fathers and fellow villagers who care for you—"

Thirty-two newly recruited brothers wearing revolutionary army uniforms and carrying spears on their backs saluted neatly, seeing their parents constantly wiping away tears accompanied by village elders, and the faces of each brother and sister and villager were full of reluctance and expectation.

An Yi's big voice sounded again: "All of them!" Salute to the virtuous gentry of the village, to the fathers and villagers, brothers and sisters-"

After Lao Zeng and five or six squires finished talking with An Yi and Huzi, Lao Zeng walked to the thirty-two village children standing in a row, wiping tears and earnestly exhorting the children of the children to let the children and nephews rest assured that they would make contributions to the army, and that the family would always take care of them in the village, and they would not have to worry about food and clothing.

Thirty-two simple and honest children cried so much, shouting that this uncle and that master were very grateful.

Hu Zi and An Yi nodded to each other and waved their hands back, and the ten brothers of the Second Company stepped forward quickly, placing ten half-new and old "Hanyang-made" rifles and a box of bullets in front of the squires.

The squires and the villagers gathered around saw this unexpected gift and slowly put away their weeping. An Yi and Hu Zi both saluted solemnly to the squires and the surrounding villagers at this time, turned around and led the team to set off in turn, leaving a group of squires and hundreds of villagers waving with tears in a long sigh.

"Parrot, let the brethren sing!"

Walking out of the village, An Yi saw that the atmosphere of the whole team was depressed, so he gave a loud order to Huang Yingwu, the instructor in the middle of the team.

Huang Yingwu thought about how the brothers would sing two songs in total, so he asked loudly: "Deputy battalion commander, sing our song or sing "Xiaofang"?" ”

"Let's sing "Xiao Fang"."

"Yes!"

Huang Yingwu ran out of the team and climbed to the roadside high hill: "Brothers, all those who can sing are roaring, and those who can't sing are listening, listen to it a few times, and prepare - there is a girl named Xiaofang in the village - sing!" ”

"There is a girl named Xiaofang in the village, who is good-looking and kind......"

The veterans all opened their mouths to sing, and after singing all the sorrows in their hearts were gone, the more they sang, the more they sang, the more proud they became, the new brothers were very surprised when they heard such a smooth and interesting song, and soon opened their mouths and hummed along with Huang Yingwu's incessant agitation, and they slowly became proficient after humming a few times, and the singing became louder and louder, more and more neat, and the heroic and witty singing echoed everywhere in the mountains.

Seven or eight miles to the north, the brothers were tired of singing, and the rugged mountain road did not allow the brothers to be distracted, and the long line of marches gradually slowed down.

An Yi, who walked in the middle of the team, still looked excited, humming a tune similar to Peking Opera in his mouth, except for the lyrics of "Lao Tzu's team is going to open", the other tunes and tunes were all "humming" all the way over.

Dong Yanzi, who was walking beside An Yi, listened to it a few times and asked curiously: "Brother, why do you hum all the lyrics of this song except for one lyric?" ”

An Yi sighed and explained: "This is a newly written Peking Opera, it seems to be a story of a warlord named Diao Deyi pulling up the troops, I can't remember all the lyrics, I can only hum the tune...... I've sung it at karaoke before, but I remember a line or two now. ”

Dong Yanzi asked, "Brother, what is karaoke?" ”

An Yi was stunned for a moment, and then said nonsense: "It's just a group of people who are full of food and have nothing to do, and find a place to gather around and shout blindly...... Alright, winter boy, go to the front and ask the bearded man, and see what news the brothers who went out to investigate bring back. ”

In the evening, the team climbed the 16-kilometer sheep intestine trail with great difficulty, passed through the village of Aobeiwan, where there were only a few dozen poor families, and then walked the 7-kilometer winding mountain trail over Beacon Hill to a small mountain village called Hengxi and set up camp.

Since the brothers who went out to investigate learned from the villagers about the gunshots heard in the nearby mountains, An Yi and Hu Zi did not dare to slack off, concentrated the baggage company in the center of the village, and sent four platoons of brothers from the first and second companies to lurk on the high ground around the village, and set up a very light and heavy machine gun to keep a strict guard.

More than 100 veterans who had no weapons and were responsible for carrying supplies naturally took on the task of cooking soldiers, and set up a cauldron and began to cook together with dozens of yellow-skinned villagers in the village.

Just when the rice was cooked and the pork was cooked, two gunshots were heard about two kilometers southeast of the village, and An Yi loudly ordered several company deputy platoon commanders and the backbone of the captured soldiers to take on the task of guarding the village, grabbed the rifle and caught up with the beard of the leading soldiers, and soon rushed to the shooting site, and when they got there, they were all stunned:

More than 50 ragged and dirty rogues have been surrounded by more than 40 brothers led by Su Tieming, two light machine guns are set up on the cornfields on the mountainside on both sides, more than 40 rogues who have all laid down their weapons are watching the revolutionary army around them in horror, and the wild boars who have been shot several times in the middle of the rogues are still struggling.

An Yi walked to the stone hill, looked at the captives in the hollow below, pointed to the big man who looked like the leader in the middle and asked, "You, tell me which part you are?" ”

"Report to the sir, we are from the 4th Regiment of the 7th Mixed Brigade, and we have fled all the way here from Tongcheng...... Sir, we didn't mean to attack you, we didn't even notice you lying in ambush...... Our brothers came after this boar, and we didn't know that the commander's army was stationed here......"

The big man pointed to the mountain to the east in a panic, and then to the wild boar on the ground that was about to die, fearing that An Yi and Beard would not believe it, and hurriedly added:

"Sir, what my subordinates said is true, I don't believe you ask the brothers, we have been running in the mountains for a long time in order to chase this beast, and we only hit it when we chased here, and the brothers have survived by eating wild fruits on the mountain for a few days, and there are more than 200 brothers from various parts on the other side of the mountain, and everyone is almost unable to hold on......"

An Yi and Hu Zi glanced at each other, turned to the little leader and asked loudly: "Over there is the line of Longyuan, Longtan and Shimen, the occupied areas of our friendly Seventh Army, why don't you surrender to them?" There is food there, what is worth it for you to flee into the mountains and not want to go out? ”

The little leader didn't answer, and a veteran ruffian behind him spoke: "Sir, you don't know, our brothers have already surrendered, but the Gui army really can't stay there, so they escaped again, and now they are annoyed, as long as they see us in the clothes of the Northern Army, they will shoot, where do you say that our brothers dare to provoke those southern barbarians who dare to fight and dare to charge at the machine guns?" ”

An Yi looked at this group of unlucky people in surprise: "Surrendered and ran out?" You tell Lao Tzu clearly, what is going on? But there is a lie, Lao Tzu will never be spared! ”

"Sir, Daikin is telling the truth."

The little leader took two steps forward, and said with a face full of grievances: "More than 500 brothers from our direct departments surrendered to the Gui army in Tongcheng, and they rushed all the way to Dagang Town, drank a bowl of gruel and sat in the camp anxiously waiting for two days, first a group of captains and officers of the Gui army came to question, we didn't understand what they said, they couldn't understand what we said, we didn't understand what we said, our more than 500 brothers only knew that their brigade commander was called Zhong Zupei, and the other more than 2,000 people didn't know any of them, and we were mixed among them as if we were in a foreign country. Even trivial things such as begging for some rice and cooking rice have to be compared and compared to be done, bitter!

The brothers really can't get by, no one can stand drinking gruel every day, most of us are from the Central Plains, and we are used to eating pasta...... There was no choice but to sneak out after the discussion, but the officers and soldiers of Gui got angry, chased after our brothers and beat them for more than ten miles, almost killing half of our brothers and turning back when they saw that they couldn't catch up. The remaining nearly 300 of us are hiding in the mountains every day, not knowing the road and unable to distinguish the direction, walking for three days and still wandering around in the mountains, if we toss like this for a few more days, I am afraid that few will be able to get out alive. ”

After the little leader finished speaking, the partners around him also complained repeatedly, and several people simply sat on the ground and couldn't get up, obviously tired and hungry, and they really couldn't support it.

An Yi and Hu Zi smiled helplessly, ordered the brothers to go down and collect all the weapons, and instructed the brothers to carry the wild boar and lead the forty-seven unlucky eggs back to satisfy their hunger.

Halfway through, An Yi suddenly remembered something, and called the little leader who was almost unstable at the station: "You didn't tell the truth to Lao Tzu, it stands to reason that General Li Zongren's Gui Army doesn't have such a big temper, and Lao Tzu also knows that the brothers of the Seventh Army don't have a lot of money at hand, and they don't bring much food at all. ”

The little leader sighed: "Sir, you are really easy to talk and I don't dare to hide it from you, our company is a heavy machine gun company, equipped with seventeen water machine guns and thirty-two hand machine guns, the hand gun was snatched away by the Gui army, but the water machine gun they few people will run out of bullets, so let our brothers carry it with them, when we escaped, we also brought out seventeen Maximin water machine guns, and secretly took back six Browning machine guns, but they were chased by them soon after escaping, Fortunately, I led the brothers carrying seventeen water machine guns to the front and quickly fled into the mountains, and the other brothers who were cut off were not so lucky, and it took more than 300 people to escape back halfway, alas......"

"Are those water machine guns still there?" An Yi asked nervously.

The little leader nodded: "Yes, there are four other machine guns that have also been brought back, but they are all out of bullets, and those who originally wanted to get back to the north, the worst of them can be exchanged for some food on the road, but now the brothers on the other side of the mountain are unwilling to carry it, at this moment, I am afraid that more than 200 brothers are still waiting for our dozens of people to get the wild boar back, and they are all too hungry to walk!" ”

An Yi and Hu Zi were overjoyed, and immediately led this group of unlucky eggs back to the village to give priority to eating, and after grabbing the little leader and another soldier with a better physique to lead the way, Hu Zi led more than 80 brothers in the second and third rows, and set off quickly with a few large bags of rice and dozens of cooked salted pork.

(To be continued)