On the morning of 29 June, tens of thousands of people from Syria, Luzhou, and surrounding counties gathered at the foot of Cuiping Mountain in the west of Syria, and more than 8,000 officers and men of various units of the Sichuan Army stood in a solemn manner to mourn the 3,600 Sichuan Army brothers who died in the battle to recover southern Sichuan.

When Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, read out the memorial message, the high-pitched and sad voice echoed for a long time under the echo of the mountains, intersecting with the weeping of tens of thousands of people, which moved dozens of Chinese and foreign reporters who accompanied the army to cover the memorial message.

No matter who is right and who is wrong in the cruel war, it is the general public and ordinary soldiers who suffer the most, and it doesn't matter whether Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, is acting or not, the tears on his face at this moment are the same as everyone else, they are real.

In just three days, the various units of the Sichuan army under his command recovered most of the southern Sichuan army occupied by the powerful Yunnan army, and achieved the remarkable record of destroying more than 5,300 enemies and capturing more than 4,600 enemies.

This battle alone completely established the unshakable commander-in-chief position of this young general in the Sichuan army, conquered the hearts of the people, and won the heartfelt support of the people in southern Sichuan and even the whole of Sichuan.

Xiao Yimin's name spread all over the world with this major battle that shocked the whole country.

In the early morning of the 28th, the first thing Xiao Yimin did after arriving at the Syrian Mansion was not to frequently meet with officials, seniors, and celebrities from all walks of life, as he had done on the previous marches, and to gather reporters to show off his exploits, but to walk into the streets and alleys where the remnants of the enemy had not yet been cleared of the remnants as a soldier, and to pick up the weeping people one by one amid the sporadic gunfire, and to tell them that his army would work with all the fathers and villagers to completely drive out the Dian army that had done all kinds of evil and rebuild their homes.

Xiao Yimin picked up the homeless children one by one, and instructed the officers who followed him to immediately send people to gather all the children in the city to the eastern headquarters for protection; He personally lifted the corpses of soldiers and civilians, and instructed the people who followed him to be careful to restrain and identify carefully, and to bury their brothers and sisters properly, so as to recover the blood debt from the evil Dian army...... For a whole day, Xiao Yimin did not drink a sip of water, did not eat a mouthful of food, did not meet any local representatives and reporters accompanying the army, where his figure appeared, the fire there was quickly extinguished, and every wounded person he picked up with his hands was treated and resettled in time.

No matter which unit Xiao Yimin went to, all the officers and men of the unit would consciously line up, the soldiers' eyes were blazing, and they were extremely admired, and the officers respectfully asked him for instructions and reported.

Under Xiao Yimin's clear and efficient command, all the military and civilians quickly launched a more reasonable rescue and mutual aid operation.

In this way, Xiao Yimin's actions have spread to thousands of households, and this grand memorial ceremony now held at the foot of Cuiping Mountain is just another measure by Xiao Yimin to comfort the army and the people and boost their morale.

After continuous rescue, all the fires in the city of Syria have been extinguished, and the headquarters of Zhou Junsuo, the first division of the Sichuan Army, which has made outstanding achievements in battle but suffered heavy losses, has been stationed in various military camps inside and outside the city, and more than 3,000 officers and soldiers and more than 1,000 wounded have received the most replenishment and the best preferential treatment.

According to Xiao Yimin's order, all the 21 artillery pieces and more than 4,000 long and short guns captured by various units were allocated to the First Division, and more than 100 Langzhong and foreign doctors and nurses in several churches in the city were all invited by Xiao Yimin's staff officers to the barracks to treat the wounded of the First Division.

Zhou Jun, commander of the First Division, and his officers and men, who had previously been suspicious of Xiao Yimin and looked in harmony, followed Xiao Yimin into the eastern headquarters of the city after the memorial ceremony, and under the stunned gaze of the generals and colonels of various departments, they lined up in a neat formation and saluted Xiao Yimin, who had not yet sat down.

Xiao Yimin hurriedly returned the salute, politely invited everyone to sit down, and instructed Adjutant Zheng Changze to bring a stack of reports, quickly flip through them, slowly raise his head, and scan everyone:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we take this opportunity to have a meeting, although the enemy army has not completely withdrawn from southern Sichuan, it is still entrenched in the front line of Yanjin, Xuyong, and Gulin to confront the various units of our army

"However, after this battle, the vitality of the Yunnan army has been greatly damaged, unless they devote all the strength of the whole province of Yunnan to fight to the death, there is only one way to go, not to mention the tremendous pressure from all walks of life in the country and the Beiyang political axe, only to say that the many prisoners captured by our hands, including Dai Huan, the commander of the Guizhou Army appointed by Cai Yi, more than 4,600 Yunnan officers and men, are an important factor in promoting the negotiations."

"Commander-in-chief, the two mixed brigades of the Yunnan Army have left Zhaotong and headed north, and it seems that they are very likely not to give up." Peng Guanglie, the commander of the Second Division, reminded loudly, and many generals echoed him, with worried expressions on their faces.

Xiao Yimin smiled slightly:

"They are just bluffing, making an angry look, showing the powerful people from all walks of life in Yunnan behind them, proving that they are not afraid of death, but they stopped when they arrived in Yanjin, why? Why did the two mixed brigades of the Yunnan army, equipped with more than 20 Krupp artillery pieces and 13,000 well-trained officers and men, not dare to rush up to fight to the death, but instead squatted in the small county town of Yanjin and shouted?

"Here, I can tell you frankly that I have sent a handwritten letter to the Yunnan army, ordering the Yunnan army to withdraw unconditionally from all places in southern Sichuan, as long as they dare to provoke war again, I will take all 4,600 prisoners to the front of the two armies, cut off more than 4,600 heads without hesitation, and then go into battle shirtless, and fight to the death!"

The school was full of generals and gasped, looking at the murderous Xiao Yimin speechless, if this is the case, I am afraid it will be an endless ending, and one party must be completely killed by the other.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Dian army has nothing to be afraid of, their generals are above the top, pretentious, in fact, it's just like that, they think that they will become military strategists when they go to a few pheasant military academies in this book and come back, in recent years, the Yunnan army and the major newspapers in Yunnan have boasted about themselves, and they dare to say that the Beiyang Army is not as good as them, isn't it a joke?

"Let's think about it, including the group of instructors in the famous Yunnan Army Martial Arts Hall, how many of them have led soldiers to fight? How many of the 100,000-strong Dian army have been on the battlefield? You have all seen the battle that has just ended, how did the elite performance of the Yunnan army you faced?

"Haha, after this battle, we have beaten their eggs into the stomach, I put my words here today, as long as the two Yunnan army brigades squatting in Yanjin County dare to go north, Lao Tzu doesn't mind beating them again!" Xiao Yimin laughed with great confidence.

The generals thought about it carefully, it was really like this, and their confidence immediately returned to everyone, and smiles bloomed on everyone's faces again.

Xiao Yimin glanced around at the generals and schools, waved his hand and said:

"Okay, let's talk about how the various departments sort out and supplement the problem General Zhou, can the new barracks that the First Division began to establish in Leshan last year quickly replenish the current shortage of your troops?"

Zhou Jun blushed, smiled awkwardly, and replied: "Reluctantly, my subordinates have already ordered the four thousand recruits of the Leshan battalion to come with their bare hands, and the commander-in-chief has allocated so many weapons, ammunition and materials to my division, and the brothers are grateful!" ”

Xiao Yimin nodded: "In this battle, the first division performed bravely and tenaciously, the whole division was not afraid of death, made brilliant achievements, and also made great sacrifices, so I suggest that the first division's station be changed to the relatively wealthy Neijiang, responsible for the defense of nine counties, including the artesian well area, what do you think?" ”

Zhou Jun and his generals were pleasantly surprised, this is a great thing! Occupying nearly half of the tax source area in Sichuan and putting Neijiang and the surrounding counties under their jurisdiction is something they can't hope for, but they didn't expect their dream to come true today, and even Zhou Jun can't believe it's true.

Peng Guanglie and Chen Jing and other generals were red-eyed, but they knew that their catties and two pounds, and their brothers had less than 5,000 men and horses after this battle, although they occupied Luzhou Mansion with the cooperation of the border army guard regiment, and the losses were the smallest, but the credit was definitely not as great as the two brigades of the border army, and the casualties were not as good as the first division that held its breath and let go, so although they were red-eyed, they would not object, but they had ardent expectations for the kind-hearted and generous Xiao Yimin.

Xiao Yimin really turned to Peng Guanglie and others:

"The second division performed prominently in this battle, successfully completed the heavy task of containing the left flank, was good at grasping the fighter plane, decisively waved the division to force the crossing, occupied the capital city of Luzhou in one fell swoop, and successfully intercepted two more battalions of the 19th Regiment of the Yunnan Army with the troops directly under the border army, annihilated more than 800 enemies and captured more than 2,000 enemies, making great contributions to the decisive victory of the entire campaign!

"I suggest that the Second Division continue to stay on the front line of Luzhou, take a short rest, and work with the two brigades of the border army to guard against a possible attack by the Yunnan Army in the south, and when the negotiations are over, the Second Division will move to Leshan, take over the defense area of the original First Division, and make up for the shortage as soon as possible, I don't know what your opinion is?"

"Totally agree with the commander-in-chief's decision!"

Peng Guanglie stood up excitedly, and the generals around him stood up one after another, obviously extremely satisfied with this decision. There are a large number of salt wells and iron mines in the six counties around Leshan, and the land is fertile and the grain is abundant, which is definitely the best place for the soldiers.

At Xiao Yimin's signal, the generals sat down with joy and excitement, looked around and suddenly found that the border army under the command of Xiao didn't seem to have any benefits, and couldn't help but put away their smugness and looked at Xiao Yimin quietly.

Zhou Jun was moved, stood up and asked with concern:

"Commander-in-chief, did our division leave a brigade first to assist the border army brothers to defend southern Sichuan? When the negotiations are completed and the overall situation has been decided, it will not be too late for us to go! ”

"Thank you, General Zhou! Your sacrifice is too great, and the brothers are very tired, so let's go to Neijiang to rest! ”

Xiao Yimin politely invited Zhou Jun to sit down, glanced around to ask for everyone's opinions:

"I plan to request the provincial government and the metropolitan governor to reorganize the First Mixed Brigade of the Frontier Army into the Fourth Division of the Sichuan Army, and garrison our southern gate of Bashu for a long time, I don't know if you support it?"

"Agreed!"

"It's long overdue."

"The First Brigade of the Border Army has made outstanding merits and has made the greatest contributions, and it deserves this treatment!"

"The First Brigade has a psychological advantage in the face of the Yunnan army, and it is the best choice to guard the south gate!"

…… All of them were voices of support, there was not a single objection, and the exchange of interests between various ministries was completed very smoothly in Xiao Yimin's skillful overturning.

The First Brigade from Wang Jian down to Wang Jian was overjoyed, and there was no reward, which made them more satisfied than the rapid growth of the rank above the official promotion, and most importantly, they were no longer entrenched in the narrow and relatively barren western Sichuan, and realized the dream of "rushing out of western Sichuan and carrying it forward" that their ancestors had dreamed of for generations.

At the end of this battle, he will officially take up the post of lieutenant general and division commander of the First Division of the Frontier Army, and sit on an equal footing with the commanders of the divisions of the Sichuan Army, and the four main regiments with the most advanced equipment and the most powerful training in the Sichuan Army will all be assigned to him, which is enough to allow him to show his talent to the fullest.

The Sichuan Frontier Army will soon abolish the brigade-level establishment and build another army division in order to reduce the command link and strengthen the control and command power of the headquarters; all of this is the result of Xiao Yimin and his think tank thinking hard day and night, and from now on, the six most effective divisions in the Sichuan Army will be completely brought under Xiao Yimin's control.

(To be continued)