At the foot of the mountain, more than 1,300 officers and men in ragged and disorderly clothes were neatly arranged in five squares, and more than 10 formal or temporary platoon commanders quickly returned to the team after sorting out their ranks. Forty-six heavy machine guns and sixty-seven light machine guns were neatly placed in front of the team, An Yi and Hu Zi stood in front of the team, and four company deputies and instructors who had been tested were lined up, standing behind the two, their young faces were full of gunsmoke and dust, but they could not hide their inner perseverance and pride.

The commander and the brothers of the 6th and 4th regiments who came one after another were smiling and flocking to greet them, and almost all of them were happy and surprised by An Yi's great harvest when they saw this huge team and the many light and heavy weapons in front of the team.

At this moment, An Yi was as excited as the two hundred and three brothers in his first and second companies, and the cordiality, grievances, and pride in his heart were intertwined, which was indescribable.

"Report to the division and report to the commanders: The 1st and 2nd Companies of the Engineer Battalion have basically completed the tasks assigned by the division headquarters and returned smoothly, and none of the 204 people who carried out the task were casualties, and a total of 1,143 scattered brothers from the 6th and 7th Mixed Brigades of the direct line of the Engineer Battalion, the 7th and 9th Regiments of the Hunan and Hubei Frontier Regiments, 32 new recruits, a total of 1,379 people, 46 heavy machine guns, 62 light machine guns, 491 long and short guns of various kinds, and 360 rounds of 75 mountain artillery shells were captured. After the report, please give me instructions! ”

An Yi made a detailed report with his head held high.

Liu Xiao led the commanders to return the salute happily, looking at the more than 1,300 people in front of him, a group of commanders were overjoyed, and also felt deeply ashamed, from Yueyang all the way north to arrive here, the entire second division under the strict defense of Tang Shengzhi's troops, only obtained more than 800 prisoners, captured more than 300 long and short guns, did not get a light and heavy machine gun and a cannon, compared with the achievements of the An Yi Department in front of him, the heart is indeed not a taste.

Liu Xiao stepped forward to arrange An Yi's collar, patted the bearded shoulder affectionately, and saw that only three or two of the six buttons of the sweat-stained shirts of the two bearded people were left, Liu Xiao felt sad for a while, and whispered to the two:

"I have instructed the battalion to prepare dinner and enough new uniforms for the brothers, you two should lead the team back first, and after eating and taking a shower, we will report slowly to the division headquarters."

"Yes!"

An Yi and Hu Zi replied in unison, the two saluted and turned around to issue a series of passwords, more than 1,300 brothers all moved, and more than 60 people of the temporary machine gun detachment led hundreds of brothers who had lost their weapons, and in groups of four, they carried dozens of heavy machine guns into the team in an orderly manner, and marched mightily under the leadership of various ministers.

The newly attached brothers were all wearing red belts, although the expressions on everyone's faces were panicked, numb and joyful, but none of them spoke, all of them honestly obeyed the order, and followed the team in the orders of more than ten company deputies and platoon commanders.

When he walked across the small stone bridge, An Yi ordered loudly: "Instructor Huang Yingwu come over for a while...... In front of us is the garrison of He Jianshi of the Eighth Army, let the brothers raise the banner and roar, sing all the way without stopping, until the camp of our division headquarters, let the grandchildren of the Eighth Army see the spirit of our second division brothers! ”

"Yes!"

Huang Yingwu strode to the middle of the group, tore his throat and shouted: "Brothers, take out our majesty and sing with Lao Tzu!" Preparation—there's a girl in the village named Xiaofang—singing—"

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

The earth-shattering singing of more than 1,000 people spread to all directions, echoing endlessly, and the long procession slowly increased its speed under the astonished gaze of more than 2,000 officers and men of the Second Division, and every officer and soldier in the ranks sang with their heads held high, and their fatigue disappeared in an instant, and they became confident and proud.

Liu Xiao, Hu Shusen and the others looked at each other in surprise for a moment, and they all shook their heads and laughed, everyone realized that An Yi was provoking He Jianshi, and at the same time, they also discovered An Yi's unique way of leading troops, and realized An Yi's stubborn surname and irreproducible personality charm.

In the Chutian Pavilion in the Yanglou Division, Tang Shengzhi angrily scolded He Jian in front of him: "Your two regiments of more than 7,000 people are almost twice as many as the entire Second Division, and you can't stop more than 1,000 stragglers, where do you let Lao Tzu's face go?" ”

"Military seat, the subordinates didn't expect An Yi's kid to dare to resist stubbornly, they took advantage of the convenience of approaching Shuangshan, quickly seized the commanding heights of more than 200 meters wide on the mountain, set up dozens of light and heavy machine guns, and condescendingly blocked the only three offensive routes of the two regiments of our division, and the subordinates were worried that the matter would be too big and unnecessary casualties, so they did not order the attack. Military seat, subordinates think that such a low-key handling is really the best policy, now our division is equal to their army, for the sake of future development, it is better to tolerate it for the time being. ”

Although He Jian lowered his head, his words seemed very rational and confident.

Tang Shengzhi shook his head and waved He Jian away, drank the fragrant tea and put down the cup, and heard bursts of singing from the south of the city, and it was getting closer and louder.

Tang Shengzhi, who was surprised, quickly walked to the window, pushed open the delicate mahogany carved window and took a closer look, and four or five senior staff members, including Liu Wendao, party representative and senior staff member, and Zhang Yipeng, deputy chief of staff, also walked quickly to the window to the south to look.

"Brother Yongqing, you heard it, this is a demonstration to Lao Tzu!"

Tang Shengzhi looked at the team that was constantly driving towards the battalion of the Second Division three hundred meters to the southeast, his face was full of displeasure, and he didn't know whether he was angry or disappointed.

Liu Wendao lifted his glasses and sighed slightly: "No wonder the military seat attaches so much importance to this more than 1,000 stragglers, there is still such spirit and courage at this time, the formation is not chaotic at all, and they all raise their heads, they are really the elite of the rest of their lives!" In this case, there is still such momentum, which is indeed beyond the ordinary troops, and we have never seen such a submission team along the way...... Look, there are dozens of water machine guns on their backs! ”

Tang Shengzhi left the window, wiped his upturned thick beard, and shook his head: "What are dozens of machine guns?" The arsenal we captured and occupied along the way is enough to equip a team of 60,000 people, and there are more than 300 artillery pieces of various types alone, so where do I care about dozens of machine guns? I regret these veterans!

Our left column is different from the enemy army faced by the right column led by Li Delin, and the local army we deal with is basically a temporary patchwork, although there are many people but there is no combat power, only the more than 8,000 people of Zhang Hongluan, the second division of the original Hunan Army, belong to the direct main force, but the more than 8,000 people would rather die than surrender and finally break through the encirclement, not only the encirclement troops of one division after another of our army were disabled, but the more than 3,000 people who broke through the encirclement were also annexed by Liu Xiao's second division, and now they have been reorganized into the main force of the first division of the first army.

Again, the Fourth Army of the Guangdong Army captured a large number of prisoners, the harvest is quite large, all kinds of intelligence has been confirmed, the regiments of the Fourth Army after the direct departments of the main force to surrender, immediately dispersed into the various regiments and battalions, the strength of the Fourth Army has also doubled, only to ask Lao Jiang for a number can be organized into two armies to use, only Li Delin's Gui Army Seventh Army captured the least, but also obtained a large number of equipment and ammunition supplies, in contrast, although our army has benefited the most but the improvement of combat power is quite limited, which is quite unfavorable to the Northern Expedition that goes down, If you don't have the combat power, you don't dare to say a word! ”

The staff nodded in agreement, and Zhang Yipeng, the deputy chief of staff, was the last to leave the window and walk to the crowd, and after sitting down, he said in a rather disappointed manner:

"Junzao, are we also like the Fourth Army, asking Commander-in-Chief Chiang to come back as a trainee officer? The grassroots officers who came out of the Whampoa Military Academy are very good, and I heard that the Fourth Army has benefited a lot from this! The hard battles that started from Pingjiang, and the people who rushed to the front were all the lower-level officers who were graduates of the first four phases of Huangpu, especially An Yi, who was recited by the armies of the Northern Expedition, and he was the one who did bad things for us twice, and this person was scheming, and his luck was extraordinarily good, if he could ...... it"

"Yi Peng, don't be delusional, who is An Yi? Who in the military generals didn't know that he was Lao Jiang's protégé? It is said that this person was the first of the more than 2,600 graduates of the fourth phase of Whampoa to be promoted to major, and it is said that this person was easy-going and dissolute on the outside, but in fact he was extraordinary, courageous, and resourceful, loyal to Lao Chiang, and respectful to Liu Xiao, Hu Shusen, and other superiors.

At the end of last month, I had dinner with General Li Jishen, Chief of the General Staff and Vice President of the Whampoa Military Academy, and General Li Renchao in Guangzhou. It can be seen from this that a person like An Yi who can be appreciated by so many middle and high-level people in the army, looking at how many difficulties there are in each army, if the time comes, he will definitely be able to take charge alone, is such a talented old Jiang willing to let go? Let's think about how to vigorously tap and cultivate our own talents! ”

Liu Wendao smiled after speaking, picked up the exquisite gold-painted porcelain cup and tasted the tea comfortably.

Tang Shengzhi stood up and walked a few steps, turned to Liu Wendao and asked with a smile: "Brother Yongqing, how about the two of us take some time to inspect the East Daying?" ”

Liu Wendao looked at the burly Tang Shengzhi in surprise, and saw the familiar smile on the corner of his mouth pulling two upturned thick beards, and immediately understood Tang Shengzhi's thoughts, knowing that his old friend would show a smile to An Yi and sacrifice that set of high-ranking officials' best magic weapons.

According to the thoughts of his old friend Tang Shengzhi and most of his colleagues, judging from An Yi's current status as a deputy battalion major, if he is given the position of colonel or even deputy division commander, it may not be that the young and vigorous An Yi will not be able to remain unmoved. But Liu Wendao, who has been in officialdom for a long time and has been trained in honesty and benevolence, did not say what he really thought, but asked with a smile on his face as if he was quite surprised: "The meaning of the military seat is ......"

Tang Shengzhi smiled: "How can I say that I am also the former commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and I am also the supreme commander of the left column, so it is natural to take time out of my busy schedule to visit my subordinates and go deep into the grassroots to observe the situation, haha!" ”

The surrounding generals immediately laughed, and Liu Wendao also laughed, but he didn't have the confidence that everyone had to catch it, but he had a deeper worry, and even had a premonition that it was basically useless for a talent like An Yi to come to this set, otherwise the bottomless Commander-in-Chief Jiang would not be so relieved to leave such a proud protégé in an unappreciated grassroots engineer battalion for training, and even a bull like Li Jishen was deeply sorry for not getting An Yi. I am afraid that it will be even more difficult for my old friend, who belongs to the discredited revolutionary backwards, to achieve his wish.

Just when Tang Shengzhi was chatting freely with his subordinates Wenwu, Liu Xiao and other colleagues were also gathering with An Yi, Hu Jialin, and Yin Jinan.

After listening to An Yi and Hu Jialin's report on the whole trip, Liu Xiao and others were pleasantly surprised, and spoke highly of it, especially for An Yi's experience of subduing the Seventh Regiment of the Hunan and Hubei Frontier Regiment, and immediately asked An Yi to submit the list of meritorious personnel, and the division headquarters will commend and reward each person according to their merits.

After some laughter, Liu Xiao finally put away his smile and solemnly explained to An Yi under the frequent hints of Hu Shusen, Xu Tingyao and others:

"An Yi, in view of the current actual situation of our division, it is necessary to replenish most of the more than 1,000 Guishun veterans you brought back to replenish the main regiments, and replenish most of the captured light and heavy machine guns and all the 75 artillery shells to the machine gun companies and artillery companies of each regiment. Of course, the division headquarters has not forgotten its previous promise to allow your engineer battalion to give priority to replenishing the shortage, that is, to first let your battalion have a full strength of 500 personnel, and allow you to leave three heavy machine guns and nine light machine guns from the capture, hoping that you can understand the difficulties of the division headquarters and the regiments, and carry out the orders of the division headquarters to the letter. ”

"Yes!"

An Yi's decisive answer surprised Liu Xiao, Hu Shusen, Xu Tingyao, Yan Erai and the heads of the regiments, who were full of worries, everyone didn't expect An Yi to think so openly, and there was not a word of bargaining as usual. I only heard An Yi say with a smile: "The subordinates and others resolutely obey the orders of the division headquarters, and are ready to divert the source of troops at any time." ”

Jiang Dingwen looked at An Yi in surprise: "Xiao Yi, why do you think like this kid this time?" Don't take the opportunity to rip us off? ”

An Yi said helplessly and sincerely: "The subordinates don't dare, through this action, the subordinates really understand the difficulty of leading the troops, with the current ability of the subordinates and others, they can't lead so many brothers at all." Along the way, I saw a group of defeated soldiers who did not cover their bodies and did not have enough to eat, saw them trembling out of the mountains, listened to their reports of disastrous defeats and complaints about one official after another, and my subordinates felt a lot of heavy feelings.

Along the way, I have been wondering, if one day the brothers under my leadership also fall into such a miserable situation, will I still have the face to see my own brothers? Do you have the face to meet the chief who has great trust in you? After thinking about it, I finally understood that with my current ability, I couldn't make so many brothers feel down-to-earth and safe, and to be honest, even if I led the current battalion, my subordinates also felt very difficult. ”

This sincere and honest statement made all the officers look at each other, and finally shut their mouths.

Hu Shusen said emotionally: "Xiao Yi, you have progressed, you have made rapid progress!" We are very pleased and deeply touched by those of us who are officials, which is very good! You did not disappoint us, did not disappoint the principal, we are very confident in you, and hope that you will make persistent efforts to become a model for the younger generation of our army! ”

An Yi stood up with emotion and thanked him, and said earnestly: "Master, chiefs, my subordinates think it is better to mobilize the more than 1,000 brothers as soon as possible, and it is best to complete the diversion tonight, otherwise they will be reluctant to rely on each other after getting along for a long time, or they will bargain in groups and threes, which is very unfavorable to future management." ”

Liu Xiao nodded with satisfaction: "Okay!" Your suggestion is very good, and the division headquarters and regiments are also planning to do so. You will return at once to make preparations, and a few of us and the commanders of the regiments will arrive shortly. ”

"Yes!"

An Yi, Hu Zi and Yin Jinan finished saluting and walked out of the small building of the division headquarters quickly, and strode towards the south of the camp.

Hu Zi asked An Yi in a surprised whisper: "Your answer just now startled me, I didn't expect you to promise so happily, I feel distressed here!" What the hell is going on? ”

An Yi explained sadly as he walked: "As soon as Lao Tzu entered the camp, Ji Nan told me all the rumors he heard from Lao He of the Quartermaster Department when he went to get his clothes, I knew that I couldn't keep people as soon as I heard it. It's not our turn to speak at this time! Beard, don't show any dissatisfaction after a while, you guy has clear grievances, a pair of cold eyes can't hide likes and dislikes, you have to change in the future, and you will get used to patience! ”

"I see! him, uncle......"

Beard kicked the pebbles on the ground in annoyance.

Yin Jinan hurriedly persuaded: "Huzi, the eldest brother is right, instead of being thankless, it is better to take a step back, didn't you see the reaction of the division just now?" There are also those group leaders, all of them are grateful, as if they owe us a great favor, what result is better than this result? Let me tell you the truth, Lao He, deputy director of the Quartermaster Department, will soon be transferred to the military department, Battalion Commander Kuang has been jumping up and down a lot in the past few days to find the division's seat, if nothing else, Battalion Commander Kuang has a great possibility to take over Lao He's position as he wishes and sit upright, and the position of the battalion commander of our engineer battalion will be vacant, this point will be understood as soon as I say that the eldest brother in the evening, the reason why I didn't tell you is that I am worried that you can't hide it on your face, understand? ”

Hu Zi stopped in surprise: "His uncle, no wonder you two are so calm, it seems that Lao Tzu has to learn from you two to do it, otherwise when will he be promoted......"

An Yi and Yin Jinan laughed, pulled their beards and walked quickly to their camp: "Huzi, you have to check again, we must ensure that our gun detachment is left in full, including the thirty-two recruits who enlisted in Shuanggang Village, and let Lao Shi quickly pick out the best three heavy machine guns and nine light machine guns, and leave all the remaining bullets for Lao Tzu!" ”

"Got it!"

The beard replied firmly, and after taking a few steps, he suddenly asked, "In this case, do we still give two oceans to each of the departing brothers according to the original custom?" ”

An Yi immediately refused: "Not this time!" It's not that we feel sorry for one or two thousand oceans, but we have to take into account the feelings of the regimental commanders and battalion commanders. I don't know if we also say that we are ambitious, and we will be guarded against everywhere in the future, and this kind of stupid thing of spending money to buy wrongs must not be done! Since we have endured it in front of the division seat and a group of superiors, why are we doing these stupid things about taking off our pants and farting? ”

"Makes sense! Why didn't Lao Tzu think of this layer? Beard admired.

Yin Jinan smiled: "If we both want to get such a sophisticated and smooth thing, my eldest brother may be the head of the regiment now, haha!" ”

An Yi and Hu Zi laughed when they heard this, and at the same time gave Yin Jinan a punch, which made Yin Jinan grin and hum in pain.

An hour later, the brothers who had been shunted to the three main regiments gathered in a large open space in front of the low barracks of the engineer battalion, and a very light and heavy machine gun was evenly placed in front of the three squares. Liu Xiao saw that almost a thousand captives were looking at An Yi and Hu Zi and others at the door of the barracks behind him with reluctance, and after thinking about it, he turned to Hu Shusen beside him and whispered a few words.

Hu Shusen nodded and walked towards An Yi, asking him to say a few reassuring words to the brothers who were going to be divided into various regiments, An Yi looked left and right and thought for a long time before nodding and telling Dong Yanzi to bring his little black horse.

An Yi led the horse to the middle of the three teams, and said loudly to the puzzled brothers: "Brothers, I remember that along the way, everyone doubted whether I knew the hero Zhang Chengzhu Zhang in your mind. After returning to the camp for dinner just now, some of the brothers recognized this little black horse and believed that I was not lying, but many of you don't know about it, and now I will lead this horse to tell the brothers that this horse is the son of Zhang Chengzhu's eldest brother's beloved horse 'Sable', and 'Sable' was originally together, but when he left Changsha, he was snatched away by my senior brother Hu Zongnan, who was the head of the first division, and everyone will see it in the future. ”

There was a low exclamation from the crowd, Liu Xiao and the others were quite surprised that they didn't know the reason, An Yi in the audience paused, and said loudly again:

"Brothers, the reason why I rushed to lead this horse out at this time is not just to prove that I, An Yi, am a sincere person and did not lie to the brothers, but to have a more important thing to say to all the brothers, that is: Our revolutionary army is by no means different from other warlords, we are a new army with strict discipline, rigor and truth-seeking!

All the officers and commanders here are my teachers and brothers when I was studying at the Whampoa Military Academy, and they told me as soon as I entered Whampoa that I should be honest, be strict with myself and be lenient with others, and love soldiers like sons to do what I say.

Here, I wish the brothers a comfortable and down-to-earth life in the new team, and live a personal life for the revolutionary army, for our heroic First Army and Second Division, and for yourselves! ”

Amid the thunderous applause, An Yi saluted in a formal manner, and then pulled his horse to the stable behind the barracks, leaving thousands of brothers and a group of officials there to sigh.

(To be continued)