As the largest commercial center within a radius of 50 miles, Quzhou City is naturally very lively, and from time to time there are groups of heavily armed patrol officers and soldiers walking on the clean streets.

The war did not burn this ancient town and the surrounding area, and the century-old economy of self-reliance showed a unique vitality under the stimulation of the modern capital economy, and the people in the city were in an endless stream, and all kinds of ox carts and horse-drawn carts full of local products and handicrafts were endless, and the people seemed to have adapted to the existence of the revolutionary army.

Bai Chongxi, the former commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army of the Revolutionary Army, accompanied by Liu Zhi, Xu Tingyao, Chen Cheng and others, inspected various military camps and strategic places inside and outside the city.

Bai Chongxi and his entourage came to the gate of the camp and asked where the respectful star officer An Yi was, he did not ask the star officer on duty to inform An Yi or other regimental commanders, but walked straight to the wounded barracks to the west surrounded by a group of generals.

In the intensive ward, An Yi was talking in a low voice with Priest Alfred who came to visit the clinic, and when he heard the noisy footsteps outside the door, he was quite displeased, and when he turned his head to see it, he immediately strode towards the door, and respectfully saluted and reported: "An Yi, the head of the Reading Force, is visiting the wounded soldiers, and he has missed the distance, I beg the commanders to forgive me, please give me a lecture!" ”

Bai Chongxi replied calmly, and was slightly surprised when he saw Alfred dressed as a priest, and then stepped forward to greet him with a polite smile, Alfred politely stroked his chest and saluted, Bai Chongxi's confidential secretary stepped forward quickly and communicated with the two in fluent English.

At Bai Chongxi's request, Alfred led him on a stroll and tour, briefing Bai Chongxi on the number of surgeries and the recovery of the wounded soldiers.

Bai Chongxi, who was straight, nodded slightly as he walked, and asked the wounded in a low voice from time to time about their feelings, expressing his sincere thanks and praise to Alfred for his love and superb medical skills. Bai Chongxi's modest demeanor and polite and elegant demeanor won Alfred's favor, and the conversation between the two deepened.

An Yi followed behind a group of commanders and whispered to Chen Cheng beside him: "Chief Chen, the commander-in-chief is inspecting his subordinates, why don't you notify him first, so that his subordinates can be prepared!" ”

"Extraordinary people do extraordinary things, you just go with the flow, you have been doing a good job all the time, what are you worried about? By the way, I haven't thanked you yet, if you hadn't sent someone to send five carts of grain and thousands of catties of pork the day before yesterday, a battalion of brothers in our battalion guarding the bridge in Chengdong Town would not even have enough to eat. ”

Chen Cheng patted An Yi's back affectionately to show his gratitude, because Chen Cheng was limited in height, only 1.59 meters, he wanted to pat his back but slapped An Yi's buttocks.

An Yi humbly explained: "This is mainly because my second division has lost too many personnel, the division headquarters and the main regiments are full of wounded soldiers, and the officers at all levels are too busy to take care of one or the other, so they are negligent, and the subordinates are also remedied only after being reminded by the brothers who went out to reconnoitre, please forgive the commander if he is not there!" ”

Chen Cheng stopped and glared at An Yi: "You don't have to say these polite words to me in the future, if you really want to say it, just say it to others." ”

An Yi smiled apologetically, quite grateful for Chen Cheng's frankness and kindness.

The two of them took another step and walked slowly with the flow of people, and they seemed to be accustomed to this kind of visiting and inspecting of the middle and high ranks of the army. But for some reason, An Yi always had an uneasy feeling when he saw Bai Chongxi, and he couldn't tell if it was because of Bai Chongxi's extraordinary bearing, or his deep eyes hidden behind the flash lenses, this hazy intuition made An Yi quite annoyed.

Thanks to the medicine urgently transferred from Nanchang by Commander-in-Chief Chiang in the middle of the night before, more than 400 wounded brothers under An Yi's command were basically out of danger and their condition gradually stabilized after 39 of them died in succession in the first two days.

In the case of the uncertain life and death of his brothers, An Yi will never carry forward the spirit of sacrificing himself to save others, and after receiving the precious medicines, he used them all on his brothers without hesitation, and he can only apologize for the requests of other regiments and battalions, and he can't help them, which has caused some people's unhappiness, plus the sixteen truckloads of weapons, ammunition and clothing blankets that came together with the special medicine, all of which were designated for An Yi's reading group, which naturally attracted a lot of jealousy and complaints. It is quickly forgotten in front of interests.

Because of this, An Yi has been staying in his military camp for a few days, not going anywhere, and even having a meeting has asked Hu Zi and Yang Bin to do it for him.

After Bai Chongxi finished his inspection, he politely thanked Brother Alfred and Sister Jenny, and left in a hurry after praising An Yi in a low voice.

An Yi, Hu Zi and others sent a group of commanders to beat their horses and leave, and before they sat down at the regiment headquarters, they immediately received a notice: An Yi was asked to go to the division headquarters for a meeting within 20 minutes. Under An Yi's inquiry, the herald didn't know what the meeting was, but he only knew that it was an order issued by Chief Bai himself, and the heads of each regiment were required to attend.

An Yi didn't dare to slack off, and took two guards to ride to the division headquarters on the East Gate Inner Street, and Tan Fulie, the acting head of the Sixth Regiment, saw An Yi coming, and hurriedly stepped forward to thank him in a low voice.

An Yi knew that it was not easy for the Sixth Regiment, which was almost completely annihilated, to go to Jiangshan County as a whole to rest on the second day of retreat, and he was deeply sympathetic to the difficult situation of this twenty-four-year-old senior brother.

The two talked in a low voice, climbed the bluestone steps side by side and walked into the lobby, saluted and reported to Bai Chongxi and others who were sitting on the main seat of the long table in the center and on the left and right, and sat in the middle of the right side of the long table under the guidance of the staff officer of the division headquarters. After a while, Li Yannian, the head of the fifth regiment, also arrived in a hurry, and after finishing the report, he walked to An Yi and sat down side by side, straightening his waist and being meticulous.

Liu Zhi stood up and presided over the meeting, first reviewed the gains and losses of the "Tanglan Campaign", and his tone was heavy and full of self-blame, and then politely handed over the right to speak to Bai Chongxi, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy and commander of the third column.

Bai Chongxi silently glanced at the general and colonel of the hall, summarized a few words lightly, and then looked at An Yi unexpectedly:

"In this battle, Regiment Commander An's Reading Force Regiment performed quite well, the tactics were appropriate, the officers and men used their lives, fought resolutely and resolutely, bravely and tenaciously, not only could rationally deploy troops, but also could give full play to their own firepower superiority, and the active defense of taking the initiative to attack while blocking the attack was even more commendable.

However, looking at the whole battle, I found that Regiment Commander An seemed to anticipate the enemy first, and had already judged the enemy's intentions, otherwise, it would not have been possible to take the initiative to lead three battalions and four companies of the headquarters to rush to the aid without military orders, and make such a beautiful response.

Chief An, can you tell us how you made that decision? And on what basis? ”

An Yi was sad now, he never thought that Bai Chongxi would raise this fatal question at the first military meeting here. An Yi stood up slowly, anxious, his brain was spinning quickly and nervous, how could he tell all the facts in this situation? Do you want to be honest and straightforward, and your own reconnaissance detachment warned the division headquarters and the regiments again and again before the war? Do you want to say that you had privately expressed your objections to Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao more than once before the war?

If everything is said as it is true, it is tantamount to sprinkling a handful of salt on the already bloody wounds of the commanders at all levels of the Second Division, which will make the whole division suffer a lot, and then the credit of sacrificing his life to rescue will not only be not remembered, but on the contrary, it will arouse everyone's anger and jealousy. If you don't get it right, I'm afraid that even your own private transfer of the department will become a handle for collective attack, who will do such a stupid thing?

However, the question has already been raised, and it will not work if he does not answer, Commander Bai has always been famous in the army for his strict management of the army, and his eyes have never been able to tolerate half a grain of sand, and if one is not good, maybe he is not a person on the left and right, and his future will be greatly affected.

An Yi stood up for a long time and didn't speak, and everyone raised their heads and looked at him nervously.

Beads of sweat poured out of An Yi's forehead, he raised his head slightly, and replied calmly: "Intuition...... It's the intuition of subordinates! There was no previous intelligence or indication that all this was the enemy's plan to lure the enemy in, and his subordinates were just driven by the subconscious to lead most of the men and horses of the headquarters to follow, originally wanting to follow behind the large army and take advantage of the opportunity to check the cheapness, but I didn't expect it to be a vicious battle. Although the subordinates inadvertently contributed to the withdrawal of the main regiments and brother troops, the subordinates are inevitably responsible for the crime of violating discipline by transferring troops without authorization, and the commander is requested to punish him! ”

Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao were grateful to An Yi in their hearts, and the commanders of the division's subordinate departments and the commanders of each regiment were grateful, but they also sincerely admired An Yi's sharp and resourceful changes - An Yi, who had raised doubts about the enemy's deployment many times before the war and was not taken seriously, fought bravely and tenaciously during the outbreak of war, rescued the entire Second Division and made the only meritorious service, said this, which was tantamount to completely exonerating the Second Division present, and skillfully put itThe charge of "unauthorized transfer" was brought to his head, which made Bai Chongxi, the former commander-in-chief, Zhang Dingfan, the former chief of staff of the enemy headquarters, and Pan Yizhi, director of the Political Department, helpless. Although An Yi's move violated the order, it had been recognized and privately praised by Commander-in-Chief Jiang, no matter how selfless Bai Chongxi and the three of them were, they couldn't do anything to An Yi! Such a smart move, how can you not let the full house of generals admire and appreciate?

Bai Chongxi was slightly surprised, and then nodded slightly, he didn't expect that his nine-ten-strong discordant strategy would allow An Yi to deal with the past so easily, and also won the gratitude of the second division, which was completely different from Bai Chongxi's original intention, which surprised him very much but was helpless, and even better was An Yi's initiative to take responsibility, this kind of maturity and wit beyond his age made Bai Chongxi secretly admire. He smiled and nodded, waved his hand to signal An Yi to sit down, and asked Liu Zhi kindly: "Brother Jingfu, the 50,000 yuan bonus that the commander-in-chief rewarded An Yi's reading group has arrived, has it been all distributed?" ”

Liu Zhi's face changed, and he replied stubbornly: "Due to the busy military affairs, the quartermaster officers of the headquarters have all shuttled between the two cities and three places, and they have not yet had time to issue them. ”

Li Yannian, who was beside An Yi, was anxious, and quietly stretched out his foot and lightly stepped on the surface of An Yi's foot a few times, but his head was upright, calmly looking ahead.

An Yi immediately understood the mystery, stood up again and explained with a smile: "Report to Chief Bai, this matter has been mentioned in the principal's letter of encouragement to his subordinates, and Director Kuang of the Quartermaster Department of the division headquarters has also informed his subordinates in advance that he has come to collect it...... Divisional seats, chiefs of staff, subordinates request that this money be handed over to the division headquarters for unified deployment and use, our reading regiment has received sufficient supplies and ammunition replenishment, compared to other regiments are much more miserable than us, most of the regimental commanders are subordinate comrades, subordinates can't forget all the brothers because they are better, please be the division and the chief of staff! ”

After An Yi finished speaking, he quickly sat down, and the generals in the hall were stunned and inexplicable, the whole hall was lonely and silent, and the needle drop could be heard.

Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao, who had their heads wrapped, glanced at each other, and they both saw a trace of comfort and gratitude in each other's eyes.

Bai Chongxi's heart sank again, but his face was full of smiles: "Captain An is really high-spirited!" Ha ha...... This is a family matter for your second division, so it's okay to decide on your own. This is the end of today's meeting, and the five new regiments from Guangdong and Nanchang will arrive tomorrow to replenish all departments, and I implore you to get a good grasp of the reorganization of the army, and train strictly, and the time will not wait......

(To be continued)