At night, the 21st Division and the 2nd Division of the National Revolutionary Army quietly withdrew back to Quzhou City in the heavy snow, and the 21st Division, which basically maintained its structure, was divided into a part and stationed in Xiazhang Town, six kilometers east of Quzhou City, to guard the Dongji Bridge on the Wuxi River, a natural barrier east of Quzhou. The second division, which suffered heavy casualties, withdrew into the city, and the division headquarters continued to be stationed in the Quzhou Mansion on the inner street of the East Gate, and the magnificent Confucian Temple across the wall from the government became the division hospital, where thousands of wounded soldiers wailed and could be heard for ten miles, and the barking dogs in the whole city smelled the rich bloody smell in the air, and gradually stopped, clamping their tails in terror and hiding in the province, and no longer dared to make a sound.

The 354 dead brothers have been buried at the foot of Taoyuan Mountain on the battlefield, and more than 480 lightly and seriously wounded have all been thoughtfully escorted back to the camp and placed in a row of classrooms vacated in advance.

Lieutenant military doctor Xiao Langzhong and Shen Fengdao led more than a dozen brothers who knew a little about medical skills to sweat profusely, and the dirty clothes and pants that were peeled off from the injured brothers were stained with blood, and together with the changed strapping gauze, they were gathered together, and a basket was carried out outside and piled up like a hill.

More than ten war horses braved the heavy snow and galloped into the gate of the academy quickly, and stopped in front of the barracks where the injured brothers were housed.

The three men, who were wrapped in black robes, were Bishop Lockheed of Quzhou of the Chengnan Christian Gospel Church, American missionary Alfred, and Sister Jenny, who had been missionary in Quzhou for 11 years and had been persevering in opening church schools, relief societies, and other social welfare institutions to spread the "gospel of God" in war-torn China and the lack of livelihood.

After withdrawing, the shrewd An Yi returned to the city and immediately went to the church, and moved the missionary Alfred and Sister Jenny in broken English, and with the permission of Bishop Lockheed, the kind and knowledgeable middle-aged priest Alfred and the nun Jenny, who was proficient in nursing, immediately took the best medicine and equipment, and followed An Yi to do good missions.

The tall and thin Alfred saw the rows of wounded people lying on the bunks in the room, and without saying a word, he quickly took off his black robe, revealing a linen-colored monk's civilian clothes, strode to Shen Fengdao's side, asked him to take him to see the most seriously injured wounded, and asked to immediately piece together a simple operating table in the open space next to the podium.

Shen Fengdao, a Taoist heir, successfully stopped the bleeding for a brother who was pierced by a bullet in the right chest beside him, and looked up in surprise at the white man who was half a head taller than himself and had a beard, and heard that his mouth full of English did not know how to communicate, but fortunately, Ye Cheng, who could speak some English, had already arrived, and even worked hard to translate for the two of them, Shen Fengdao understood what Alfred meant, and hurriedly led him to the innermost row of shops.

In the face of the gunshot wound with the surname of Open, Shen Fengdao, who is proficient in traditional Chinese medicine, has no choice, except for using his superb kung fu to stop the bleeding of the injured and connect the broken bones, what he can do is very limited.

Jenny, who was slender and elegant-looking, was shocked to see nearly a hundred seriously wounded people in the room, raised her hand to draw a cross on her chest and prayed with her hands, then took off her robe and put it on a stool, lifted the emergency box on the ground and walked to Alfred's side.

Alfred ordered the two soldiers to carefully lift Chang Baogen, the dying commander of the machine gun company, and carry him to the military blanket spread on three desks, and immediately operated on Chang Baogen, whose abdomen was pierced by shrapnel.

Bishop Lockheed, who was over 50 years old, was respectfully accompanied by An Yi to inspect classrooms full of wounded people, and every time he met an officer or soldier who died before he could be treated, he folded his hands and prayed sincerely.

Lockheed slowly sat down under An Yi's entreaty, while An Yi stood aside and listened to the reports of his subordinates, and issued orders one after another in time.

Lockheed took the hot tea offered by the orderlies and held it in the palm of his hand, looked at An Yi's young face blackened by gunpowder with kindness, and nodded continuously.

An Yi turned around and sat beside him, Lockheed finally saw the only clean chest nameplate in front of An Yi's tattered military uniform, raised his head in great surprise and stared at An Yi's bloodshot eyes, sighed, and said to An Yi in proficient Chinese:

"Kid, I didn't expect you to be a colonel at such a young age, amazing! I was deeply touched by your piety and fraternity, and by your deep affection for your soldiers, and God bless you, a man of pure and noble soul that I have rarely seen in my twenty-five years of missionary work in China. ”

An Yi was surprised, quite embarrassed, thinking that you guy is really his grandmother's cunning, Lao Tzu compensated you for walking for most of the night, saying this and that in stammering English, you didn't even say a word and always nodded, and only now did you speak such a proficient Chinese.

However, no matter whether he was embarrassed or embarrassed, An Yi was still deeply grateful for the kindness and assistance of the three Lockheeds: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Bishop, thank you to Priest Alfred and the beautiful and kind Jenny, they saved my three company commanders and five deputy company commanders, I don't know what words to use to express my gratitude." ”

The bishop smiled slightly, and then said sadly: "Son, we don't need anything in return, but only thank God for his grace and love from the bottom of our hearts." It's just that some of your hundreds of soldiers may not be able to save and die one after another, which is a very sad thing, and the medicine prepared in our church is extremely limited, and it is difficult to heal all these many seriously injured soldiers, and everything can only be arranged by God. May the flames of war soon be extinguished, and everyone will be blessed with the redemption of God Almighty! ”

"Mr. Bishop, I and my officers and men are very grateful to you, we really can't save it, and we have no choice but to bury our sorrow deep in our hearts. Our country is very backward, and the warlord wars have killed countless officers and soldiers and innocent people for many years, but to end this long suffering, we soldiers must fight, and in the era of warlord division, there is no other choice but to fight violence with violence.

Therefore, the war that has swept most of China from the south to the north will continue, and without this war, China will never be at peace. As much as I am also in great pain and do not want to fight, for the sake of tomorrow's peace I have to go to war, and casualties like today will continue to occur, and it is inevitable that it will be like ...... Just like the American Civil War, without that long and painful bloody war, there would be no tranquility and development for the American people today. ”

An Yi was keenly aware of the meaning of Lockheed's words, so it was natural for him to make his position clear.

Lockheed put down his teacup in surprise, he really didn't expect that the young and handsome colonel officer in front of him would have such vision and strong conviction, and he was so frank and down-to-earth, without the politeness and hypocrisy of the [***] general.

At this time, Yin Jinan, who had thick gauze wrapped around his head and hanging from his injured right arm, hurriedly came, nodded to Lockheed, and whispered in An Yi's ear.

An Yi stood up and said apologetically to Lockheed: "I'm sorry, Mr. Bishop, some soldiers who lost their minds due to injuries broke the glass of your church, and now they have been stopped by one of my company officers and soldiers, your church and the relief society next to it are all under the protection of the soldiers of my reading group, and no one has been harmed or criticized, please rest assured!" If you need to go back, I will send another platoon of officers and men to escort you back. ”

Lockheed stood up nervously: "Please send me back immediately!" I want to protect the lives of the lonely old people in the church and all the monks...... Thank you, Mr. Colonel, and please send me back at once! ”

"Yes!"

An Yi sent the anxious Lockheed on the horse, and instructed Dou Fang, who led the escort, to ensure the safety of Lockheed and the church personnel and make every effort to defend the church, and never let the people who wholeheartedly and unceasingly treat our brothers and their partners suffer any harm, otherwise I am sorry for my conscience. Regardless of their beliefs, they should not violate anyone's life safety at this time, otherwise, this act of revenge will attract angry accusations from the outside world.

Back in the house, Alfred and Jenny, who had been operating continuously for more than eight hours, were still busy, An Yi called the orderlies when he saw this, and whispered to him to inform the logistics department to prepare breakfast and tea for the two church doctors, then shook his head apologetically and turned to leave, and returned to the regimental headquarters in the front row to sit around the fire with Yin Jinan, Hu Zi and Yang Bin, and listen to Qu Muchen's detailed report.

Qu Muchen opened the folder and said in a low voice: "I just came back from the division headquarters, and the rough statistics have come out, yesterday was the first battle, the total number of officers and soldiers killed in the division was more than 5,700, the total number of wounded officers and soldiers who lost combat strength was more than 4,600, and more than 700 people were still judged missing, and the total number of casualties has exceeded two-thirds. Among them, there are more than 1,400 officers and men left in the fourth regiment, more than 2,100 officers and men left in the fifth regiment, and more than 760 officers and men left in the sixth regiment.

Although the regiment was in the best condition, with 2,370 officers and men in good health, the total number of casualties also reached 830, of whom more than 130 brothers were killed and wounded, all of whom were grassroots squads, platoons, company commanders, and military backbones of our regiment. More than half of the casualties of the model battalion, the casualties of the first battalion and the regimental units were not small, and even the 60-man communications company also suffered 17 casualties, and only the second battalion, which remained in Quzhou City, was unscathed. ”

The brothers lamented continuously, and An Yi nodded indifferently: "Twenty-one division? ”

"In addition to the division headquarters and the two battalions directly under the division that remained in Quzhou, all units of the division withdrew to Changshan overnight to rest and recuperate, and according to the logistics chief of the division headquarters, the 21st Division was relatively lucky to have more than 2,000 killed and wounded more than 3,000."

Qu Muchen closed the folder and continued to report: "After the division returned to the city, he immediately sent a review telegram to the General Headquarters of the Eastern Route Army and the Nanchang Headquarters, but until I came back from the meeting, the two headquarters did not call back. ”

An Yi sighed: "Miserable! Such a fiasco is all caused by the rash advance of the enemy, and it is not worth it! ”

"Fortunately, our regiment did a good job in other aspects except for the heavy casualties, and the battle annihilated more than 3,500 enemies, not only basically ensuring the integrity of weapons and equipment, but also the capture of more than 400 long and short guns and 16 light and heavy machine guns. Before we withdrew, Lao Ye had quietly brought back 3,000 sets of winter clothes from the two military warehouses of the Zhejiang army in the city, as well as 5,000 pairs of black cloth cotton shoes, more than 1,000 quilts, and a batch of grain and meat supplies, which basically ensured that the officers and men of our regiment would not be frozen and starved. Qu Muchen said happily.

Yang Bin saw An Yi pondering, thought about it and suggested in a low voice: "Xiao Yi, why don't you take this opportunity to ask for a sign from the teacher?" ”

"What brand?" An Yi asked puzzled.

"I want a sign of 'Nanchang Recruitment Office of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army'." Yang Bin looked at An Yi meaningfully.

An Yi's eyes lit up, and he suddenly realized: "That's right! How did Lao Tzu forget this verse? The sign of our First Army's 'Changsha Recruitment Office' is still hanging in Changsha, and it is in the hands of Lao He's cousin of the Quartermaster Department of the Military Department...... Done! After a while, take a shower and change clothes, Lao Tzu will go to find the master's seat, he has almost become the commander of the light pole now, can you not be in a hurry? As long as we set up a recruitment office in old Nanchang, we can take the more than 100 acres wide public land in the north of Chengbi Lake without spending a penny, and I will report to the principal again, begging him to give a sum of money to build a recruit training camp, recruit a large number of recruits and military industry, medicine and other talents, and build a training base and non-commissioned officer school in that picturesque and convenient transportation place after it is done, and by the way to defend our industry, as long as there is money and brains, who can't recruit anyone? I'm not afraid to fight anywhere in the future...... Lao Yang, high! ”

Hu Zi and Yin Jinan warmly agreed, and Hu Zi immediately suggested: "Simply, let the model battalion instructor Huang Yingwu be in charge, this guy is a talent, experienced, calculating, and a famous iron rooster, and he will never suffer a loss when he sees people talking about people, and then select more than a dozen lieutenants from Jiangxi from among the injured brothers this time to go together, and form an instructor corps to train recruits, so as to replenish the departments of our second division at any time, so that the name is justified, and it is estimated that the principal will also support it." ”

An Yi nodded heavily: "There is no problem in the division, not to mention that Deputy Division Commander Jiang is still recuperating in Nanchang, I wrote a letter to him and he will understand when he sees it, and he will definitely help us open up all the joints of the General Headquarters, as long as we have this brand, no one will be able to help us in the future."

Ji Nan, wait a while, you can choose from among the brothers, try to use the old brothers of our model battalion, and at least one company of old brothers to go back...... Don't feel distressed, they will bring us a hundredfold reward, and they will allow these elderly brothers to start a family as soon as possible, and fulfill the promise that our brothers have made to the brothers since they formed a team.

These veteran brothers have been battle-hardened, have a strong will, and have accepted our ideas and military technology, and the soldiers they bring out will forever be branded as a 'model battalion'. After taking out the preliminary list, everyone discussed it together, as much as possible to have both ability and political integrity, make up for each other, and after the Lao Tzu is finished, he will give them credit, so that they can be promoted to the next level and go back to work in a down-to-earth manner! ”

After An Yi finished speaking, he immediately stood up, quickly took off his clothes and pants despite the cold, and rushed into the one-foot-thick snow outside the door with only one pair of pants and rolled around, shouting excitedly while rolling: "Xiao Du, what do you kid look at?" Come over and help me rub my back! ”

The young herald Xiao Du shuddered, then came to his senses, and hurriedly ran over to pick up a large handful of snow, and vigorously rubbed the smoke and dirt on An Yi's body......

(To be continued)