On the 21st of January, the southern Sichuan high. County, Fengyi Town.

The cold winter is not over, the grass and trees are withered and yellow, and the heavy fog after the rain is still steaming in the middle of the rain, and the rising sun shines on the ever-changing white mist, showing changing colors.

Fengyi Town is a dilapidated ancient town, located between two northeast to southwest mountain ranges, an ancient road that can parallel two horse-drawn carriages runs through the town, this ancient road is the same as the newly widened official road in Luochang Town in the east, the high road in Sichuan. The county is connected with Yanjin in Yunnan Province and has become one of the important trade routes between the two provinces.

Ma'anshan, 14 kilometers south of the town, is the traditional boundary point between Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the southern foot of Ma'anshan is ordinary in height and mountain shape, the southern foot of Ma'anshan belongs to Yunnan, the northern foot belongs to Sichuan, and the ancient road passes through the foot of the mountain at the western foot of Ma'anshan.

This two-kilometre-long road is flanked on both sides by wooded, thorny slopes, because there are no streams, no relatively flat fields and dams, and therefore not a single family. The tax collection office of the county government axe can only be set up at the entrance of the small village two kilometers to the north, and the salt office to the south. Saliva. The tax office set up by the county government axe is four kilometers away, except for the mountain people and traders who are hurrying away, this road is unusually deserted, and now the news that the Dian army is going to attack Sichuan has been widely spread, this road is even more empty, but has become a frequent passage for the Yunnan army and the Sichuan army scouts.

There is a cave with an opening facing north at the halfway point of the western foot of Ma'anshan, and outside the cave is a flat land five meters square, and a narrow mountain road hidden between the grass and trees leads to the northern foot of Ma'anshan.

At this moment, there are more than 30 Sichuan officers and soldiers crawling on the winding mountain road, and the camouflage uniforms and helmets around the rattan branches and leaves on the officers and soldiers are integrated with the surrounding environment.

In the mist that gradually dissipated, the muzzles of black holes pointed at the mountain road more than 100 meters away from the mountain, and this team was a special service company directly under the Fourth Division of the Sichuan Army.

In the cave, two officers dressed in the same clothes got together to smoke, and the officer leaning on the cave wall was about twenty-three or four years old, thin and small, with water stains on his face, while wiping the binoculars in his hand, he asked in a low voice: "Brother Yong, I went to the headquarters last night to receive a task, and I heard Staff Officer Chen say that the division seat was scolded by Mr. Xiao, is there such a thing?" ”

"I said Li Laoshuan, you are quite well-informed!"

Brother Yong, who was reclining on the dry grass, replied lazily, continued to smoke a cigarette, and wiped his gun unhurriedly. This person's name is Wang Yong, is a military backbone from more than 10,000 Sichuan Army brothers, because of the military exploits were selected to the Sichuan Army Military Academy for the first phase of further study, in the year of military school study outstanding performance, three times by the commander-in-chief Xiao Yimin to meet, after graduation Wang Yong insisted on returning to the fourth division, by the division commander Wang Jian appointed as the second lieutenant of the special service company.

Li Laozhuan smiled, put away the binoculars and asked excitedly, "Why is Shizuo scolded?" ”

Wang Yong looked at the polished pistol in his hand, slowly sat up and inserted it into his waist, raised his head, and looked at Li Laozhuan with a smile: "The reason why Shizuo was scolded was because yesterday he let go of a platoon of the Dian army that infiltrated Luochang Town to investigate, and the reason was that out of morality, he did not shoot the first shot and should not take the initiative to provoke the sinners of the war. ”

"If that's the case, there's nothing wrong with the master!" Li Laoshuo, who had studied private school for several years, was very surprised, and in his opinion, the steady handling of the division commander Wang Jian was very correct.

Wang Yong smiled and pointed to Li Laoshuan's nose:

"Wrong, wrong! Do you know what Mr. Xiao's call back is? There are only nine words: Wang Jian, do you want to go home and pick up the child? As a result, the division seat was ashamed, the chief of staff fidgeted, and regretted it vigorously, even saying that people were forced to come to your house, and you didn't shoot the first shot, but also reported the situation truthfully, shame on you! That's why we were sent here overnight, hehe! You say, since our boss Xiao established the army, when did we allow others to bully like this? When is it not us taking advantage? ”

Li Laozhuan thought about it carefully, suddenly realized, and was just about to say something about his feelings, when a crisp gunshot rang out from outside the cave, and Wang Yong, who reacted quickly, had already flown up and rushed out of the cave, and it only took a few seconds to come to the sniper who had just fired a shot, prostrate on the rock, raise the binoculars, and observe the chaotic Yunnan army reconnaissance team on the official road under the mountain through the grass: "One more shot, aim at the thigh of the guy with the French light machine gun." ”

"Smack-"

The distinctive crisp sound of the special sniper rifle rang out again, echoing through the valley for a long time, along with the screams of the machine gunners of the Yunnan army who had been hit.

One of them quickly crawled towards the wailing and rolling officer, grabbed the officer's belt, and dragged it into the deep ditch on the side of the road, just dragged it out a meter away, another gunshot rang out, and the bullet accurately smashed the rescuer's knee, and the burly man who acted quickly let go of the wounded, wailed loudly, hugged his wounded leg and rolled all over the ground, frightening the surrounding Yunnan officers and soldiers to scatter.

"Brothers of the Dian army, you give me a good listen, I order you all to stand in the middle of the road within a minute, lay down your arms and surrender, otherwise you will be killed! Brothers of the Dian army, you give me a good listen, I order you all to stand in the middle of the road within a minute, lay down your arms and surrender, otherwise you will be killed......"

The majestic warning was repeated three times and immediately stopped, and the demoralized Yunnan officers and soldiers looked at the three brothers in the middle of the road holding their legs and moaning in pain, dumbfounded, completely forgetting the warning to surrender within a minute.

Just after a minute, another gunshot rang out, and a leg exposed under the rocks on the side of the road was broken in response, and the wailing suddenly sounded and shook the valley, and the surviving Dian army finally lost the last bit of courage and luck, shouted and ran to the middle of the road, threw down the gun and raised his hands.

More than a dozen brothers led by Li Laozhuan quickly pounced on the surrendered Yunnan army, and four of the Sichuan officers and soldiers took out their first aid kits and quickly bandaged the four Yunnan soldiers whose legs had been broken, giggling and sarcastically as they did it.

Li Laozhuan pointed the M1912 high-powered pistol at the kneeling second lieutenant of the Yunnan army and asked a few words, and immediately ordered his subordinates to escort the second lieutenant and the other two non-commissioned officers of the Yunnan army back to the north of Gao. The county headquarters and the rest of the brothers cleaned up the battlefield and disarmed all the Dian army, not even letting go of their belts.

A few minutes later, the eight disarmed soldiers of the Dian Army were released and immediately carried the four wounded southward, and Li Laozhuan led his brothers back to the mountain with the captured weapons, ammunition and documents.

On the mountainside, the sniper turned to Wang Yong happily: "Company commander, this trick is really good, injuring one enemy is equivalent to abolishing three enemies, which is more beneficial than directly killing them." ”

"It's good to understand, Mr. Xiao once said before the war that we will never allow anyone to invade our homeland, and while resolutely cracking down, we must also be polite and courteous. Take the Dian army as an example, after all, there are a few officials, and the soldiers of the Yunnan army are still from the next door no matter what they say, unlike the rebels in Kangzang, so they will not be ruthlessly annihilated unless they are forced to do so. Wang Yong whispered a lesson to his subordinates.

"Understood, our platoon commander also said that it is enough to cripple the Yunnan army, and if it is not forced to do so, leave them a way to live, right, company commander?" The observer on the other side asked.

Wang Yong laughed, and was just about to praise it, when he suddenly heard a huge roar in the sky to the south, and Li Laozhuan, who had just walked halfway up the mountain, shouted "lie down", and all the officers and soldiers immediately prostrated down and looked nervously at the road below the mountain and the sky.

The fog had lifted, the morning sun was full of sky, a black and gray biplane roared over the top of the mountain, and the brothers who were crawling on the mountain road looked at the monsters in the sky in horror, and several of them were so frightened that they subconsciously raised their guns and pointed them at the blue sky.

Only Wang Yong, who had been to a military academy and was well-informed, kept his composure, raised his binoculars, and carefully observed the planes in the sky, until the planes flew again from the northern sky, and finally disappeared into the southern sky, Wang Yong put down the binoculars in his hand and gave an order with a nervous face: "Li Laozhuan led the team to lurk, and Xiaosi returned to the headquarters with me to report, the French who said the dog said that he had come to this pool of troubled waters......"

At noon, Yucheng, the Provisional General Headquarters of the Sichuan Army.

The news that the French plane flew over the Sichuan-Yunnan border area caused an uproar among the generals and colonels of the headquarters, and after the indignation, the generals immediately launched a tense discussion on the impact of the plane's participation in the war; with the help of the German instructors, some estimated the range and take-off and landing points of the planes, and some considered the hidden surnames of the marching troops, thus showing good military quality and comprehension.

Commander-in-Chief Xiao Yimin was also shocked in his heart, he never expected the French to have this guts, let alone the French plane would appear over Sichuan, after repeated calculations, Xiao Yimin, who understood the level of development of the aircraft, came to two inferences:

The Yunnan army received the support of the French, with the help of French planes to reconnoiter the battlefield, and it is likely that airfields have been built around Kunming or in southern Yunnan; Secondly, if the plane takes off from Annam, it means that the French have made a breakthrough in aircraft manufacturing technology, and the range of the aircraft is no longer limited by five hundred kilometers, but has reached eight hundred kilometers or even more. Over the prefecture!

Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji, who had returned to Chongqing from Chengdu and Wanxian, had a long discussion in a low voice, and Wang Lingji felt that the situation was serious and immediately made a suggestion to Xiao Yimin: "Commander-in-Chief, do you want to make an appointment with the French consul in Yucheng?" ”

Xiao Yimin has already made up his mind: "The appointment is definitely yes, but before we find out the situation, we must block this news, as if nothing happened without any evidence, the cunning French will definitely deny it, and the appointment can only play the role of knocking the mountain and shocking the tiger."

"It seems that I have to meet Mr. Clark of the US Commercial Liaison Office in Sichuan first, and he told me at a reception early last month that the American-made 10-wheeled trucks and advanced aircraft have been purchased in large quantities by Britain and France, and have shown great superiority in the European theater. Although Clark's words meant to show off, but more importantly, the Americans wanted to sell to us, in that case, we might as well put forward the intention of cooperation, first buy ten planes and come back to try.

"Fortunately, the current planes are not expensive, and we can afford to buy a small biplane reconnaissance plane for more than $3,000, a high-power long-range plane for less than $10,000, and an aircraft that can take off and land on the surface for more than $7,000."

Bao Jiqing shook his head helplessly: "If this is the case, it is equivalent to starting the Air Force training plan three years ahead of schedule, and it is another huge expense!" ”

Xiao Yimin nodded solemnly: "At this time, it's better to do it early than late, start now, and strive to have our own flight team within three years!" Within this year, we will build two airports in Chengdu and Chongqing, and we will allocate a certain amount of money to build our own aviation school in Chengdu, and we must also make plans as soon as possible for the selection of pilots, and strive to invite a number of flight instructors from the United States before the end of the year......

After Xiao Yimin finished speaking, he walked to the large map, staring at Annan and Kunming on the map and was silent for a long time.

Wang Lingji pointed to Xiao Yimin, who was thinking hard with his back to everyone: "Yiming seems to be very worried, I haven't seen him so solemn in the past few years." ”

Bao Jiqing said with a smile: "He was stimulated, but I agree with his point of view, the extensive use of aircraft on the European battlefield proves that his point of view is well-founded, maybe he is the only one in the whole of China who has this kind of foresight." ”

"Report to the Chief of Staff, the Dai Rong Department and Liu Cunhou Department of the Yunnan-Guizhou Allied Army have been found!" The chief of the communications section arrived in a hurry.

Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji immediately extinguished the cigarette butts, analyzed the information sent in time together, the two discussed a little, and walked side by side to the large map, Wang Lingji picked up the red paintbrush and skillfully marked the location of the three regiments of Dai Jian and Liu Cunhou on the map.

Xiao Yimin was taken aback and turned to Wang Lingji and Bao Jiqing: "Are you sure?" ”

"Sure! Dai Huanbu and Liu Cunhou's new regiment can only appear here, plus Liu Cunhou, who is familiar with the terrain of southern Sichuan, they create a series of illusions, so that we can't find them, and then make a noise, which is completely reasonable. Wang Lingji replied.

Xiao Yimin nodded heavily: "Since you're here, don't think that we let them go back, don't give them something ruthless, I'm afraid they will have to get an inch." ”

"Then hit him!"

Bao Jiqing completely agreed, Wang Lingji also nodded with a smile, and the three of them quickly calculated in front of the map, and a battle to decide the surname soon began.

(To be continued)