At 3 o'clock in the morning of 3 September, less than 55 hours after the fiasco of the first siege launched on the evening of 1 September, the revolutionary units of the Northern Expedition once again launched a huge night siege amid the anger of all units of the army and encouraged by the invincible and vigorous morale since the Northern Expedition.

However, the siege battle, which was carefully planned by Mr. Li Zongren and the generals of various armies, ended in only 35 minutes, which was shorter than the first 40-minute engagement, and the losses were almost double that of the last time: under the fierce fire of the enemy's artillery positions at Snake Mountain and Wangchutai, especially under the shrewd command of Chen Jiamo, the commander of the enemy's city defense, the means of resisting the siege army emerged one after another, and the results were brilliant. The besieging army, which was originally full of fighting spirit and vowed not to give up, left behind the corpses of thousands of comrades and fled in disarray, and the wide battlefield outside the seven or eight city gates was blazing with fire and chaos.

Among them, after the siege force on the left flank of the Seventh Army launched a strong attack, due to the frenzied shelling of seven enemy gunboats that were suddenly going upstream, only Tao Jun's 1st Regiment and Lu Yanxin's 2nd Regiment alone lost more than 3,000 siege officers and men under the heavy artillery fire, and the other regiments were also under the multiple blows of artillery fire, machine guns, and large-caliber naval guns on the river, and suffered heavy casualties.

The brothers of the dozens of heavy machine guns and two machine gun companies that General Li Zongren had urgently arranged on the river bank in advance to protect the left flank of the main siege force were wiped out, and in the end, even a large piece of corpse could not be found, which was unbearable.

The news of the failure of the siege reached the model battalion behind the Zhongxiao Gate that was still making a long ladder for the siege, and immediately made all the brothers stop their work.

Hundreds of brothers looked at the finished and half-finished products of the long ladder all over the ground, and their hearts were full of unspeakable pain and a heart-wrenching sense of powerlessness.

Seeing this, An Yi immediately ordered the brothers to stop all the work at hand, pack up the guys, and return to the camp to sleep under the leadership of the company commanders. After being hit by such bad news for a day and a night, even a person who was beaten with iron could not bear the huge torture of mental and physical exhaustion.

In the open space full of sawdust, hemp rope, iron wire, and broken bamboo, Hu Zi looked at An Yi silently and sighed softly. An Yi looked at Yin Jinan with concern - Yin Jinan's eyes were red and tears were shining at the moment as he looked at the sky above the smoke-billowing Wuchang City, and his body did not move.

Yin Jinan's incomparably sad and lost, extremely depressed and confused, the losses of various armies and departments are not important to him at this moment, the important thing is that he never thought that the Seventh Army, which had already been repeatedly reminded by An Yi and Huzi, did not arrange artillery fire to guard the river, this unbelievable but bloody fact finally shattered the honest quality and good and kind wishes in his heart, so that this pure land that was tightly embraced by this young soldier who was just in his early twenties and full of sincerity was shattered in the blink of an eye. Unrecognizable...... At this moment, he was sad and helpless, his eyes were misty, like a child who could not find his way home, shivering in the pungent smoke and suffocating heat.

An Yi and Hu Zi glanced at each other, waved his hand and asked Yin Jinan's orderly Zeng Changgeng to bring the beautiful jujube red war horse, and couldn't help but say, and stepped up to put Yin Jinan on the horse.

At this time, Yin Jinan suddenly fell on the horse's back, sobbed silently for a while, and fell asleep like this. Yes, he was tired, sad and tired, two days and two nights of intense work in a row did not have the heaviness and tiredness brought by the cruel fact in front of him, after returning to the camp, Yin Jinan made a swing, hot and cold, babbling, a childish face and the skin of the whole body were red and white, white and red.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, An Yi and Hu Zi watched Lao Ma, the medical officer of the division, finish injecting Yin Jinan, accepted two small bottles of expensive imported pills given by Lao Ma, and respectfully sent him away in Lao Ma's serious advice.

When the old horse got on the horse, the two guards also walked forward, and An Yi quickly took out a gold bar weighing about four taels and stuffed it into the old horse's coat pocket.

In the old horse's polite refusal, An Yi smiled and slapped the buttocks of the horse he was riding, so frightened that the old horse hurriedly bent down and tightened the reins, and ran out of more than ten meters to prevent the war horse from spreading its hooves. The old horse turned his head straight, smiled bitterly at An Yi and shook his head, and then left under the leadership of the guards who caught up.

An Yi and Hu Zi returned to the camp, Hu Zi went to inform the company platoon commanders who continued to sleep after lunch as planned, An Yi called his new military doctor Xiao Langzhong and whispered:

"You bring two brothers in a row to protect you, ride to the small courtyard on the left side of the division headquarters together, and find Commander Ma just now, he will give you a batch of medicines and gauze first-aid triangular scarves and other things back, remember to be respectful, except for Commander Ma, whoever asks you can just smile and smile, don't bother with anything, go and go back quickly."

"Understood, I'll go."

In addition to the bald but overall quiet and handsome Xiao Langzhong, he quickly ran to a platoon of long Lu Xiong, and under Lu Xiong's arrangement, he followed the two well-equipped strong brothers out of the camp.

An Yi sat on the edge of the hospital bed, silently watching the orderly Zeng Changgeng change the wet towel on Yin Jinan's forehead.

After smoking a cigarette, An Yi got up and explained and left the room gently.

Walking out of the main entrance of the small hall, An Yi came to the open space under several big trees thirty meters in front of him, at this time, a group of company platoon commander brothers were skillfully making the sand table model of Wuchang City in the sentence parameters reported by the second company commander Cai Guangqing, and it was finished in ten minutes.

Under An Yi's gaze, Hu Zi randomly picked up a long and thick stick, pointed to Wuchang City, which was one meter square, briefly told everyone the process and results of the two sieges, and then threw three thought-provoking questions to the brothers: Is our current siege method correct? What if our battalion is given the main task of Zhongxiaomen? In addition to the various assaults of the previous two times, is there any other way to siege the city?

After listening to the brothers' discussion for half an hour, without getting any of the results he wanted, An Yi was disappointed, and went to the deep stables to talk to his little black colt for a while, combing its more and more flowing mane.

The little black colt who hadn't been able to get along with An Yi for two days looked very happy, and kept hanging his head high and rubbing An Yi's arms and chest, teasing him for almost half an hour before An Yi clapped his hands and came to the cooking class.

Since the entire battalion was stationed together, the brothers of the cooking class of the three companies and the old brothers of the cooking class of the battalion headquarters were mixed together to cook, although the portion was much larger, but because of the clear division of labor of the old Han Tou, the cooking speed was also much faster.

Today's four pots of bone lotus root soup made An Yi very satisfied, tasted half a bowl and praised repeatedly, and ordered seven or eight wounded people with impaired mobility to add more meat, and walked to the brothers who were still discussing the siege in the happy smiling faces of more than 20 Huotou Army brothers.

Halfway through the camp, he heard a chaotic sound of horses' hooves outside the camp, An Yi didn't dare to slack off and immediately strode up to meet him, and sure enough, Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen had arrived at the gate of the camp under the guard of the brothers of the special agent company.

After Liu Xiao dismounted, he signaled An Yi, who was saluting, and the beard that came to take a break, pointed to a group of company platoon commanders squatting under the big tree more than 30 meters away on the left, and asked curiously, "What are you doing?" Wouldn't it be a gambling game at the beginning again? ”

An Yi laughed and shook his head: "I don't gamble today, when my surname is at stake, even if I don't gamble, I don't dare to slack off, and I am using my brains to think about how to attack the city." By the way, division seat, chief of staff, aren't you going to attend the military meeting convened by the rector? How do you have time to patrol the camp? ”

"It's still early, I haven't eaten a meal for two days, and I remembered that the food in your engineer battalion was good, so I came to eat it, haha!"

Hu Shusen smiled kindly: "Let's go, take us to see your sand table deduction." I've heard that it's been so long, but I haven't had a chance to see it, and today I just happened to catch up. ”

An Yi and Hu Zi accompanied the two bosses to the brothers, and a group of brothers who were squatting on the ground arguing saw Liu Shu and Hu Shusen, and were so frightened that they quickly stood up and saluted.

Liu Xiao motioned to everyone not to be restrained to continue the discussion, and the two little soldiers also moved two Taishi chairs and carefully placed them behind Liu Shu and Hu Shusen, Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen glanced at each other, smiled slightly and sat down one after another.

A group of lieutenants and sergeants dared to be casual in front of the two bosses, standing straight all the time, and they didn't even dare to come out.

Liu Xiao and the two of them sat in the position of Zhongxiaomen, who was assisted by the second division, carefully looked at the one-meter-square sand table, nodded with satisfaction, and saw the nervous appearance of the two dozen people around them, so they ordered An Yi to preside over the offensive and defensive deduction.

An Yi saluted and turned to the brothers: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is rare for the master and the chief of staff to come and guide today, and the brothers must seize the opportunity to perform well. Just as the division seat and the chief of staff hoped, you should not be restrained, although you can speak freely, if you can't let go, just treat it as our usual routine discussion...... Hey, why are you stupid? Cai Guangqing is out of the ranks, the blasting method you just proposed is very insightful, please report to the division and the chief of staff. ”

"Yes!"

Cai Guangqing, the commander of the second company, nervously stepped into the three-meter-square sand table, stepped on the offensive cover in the sand table and shrank back in panic, and took the small bamboo stick handed by Hu Zi to feel more relieved:

"Subordinate...... In this way, after the attack is launched, in the early stage of the artillery battle between the enemy and our army, eight to ten commandos of forty or fifty people will be sent to the corner of the city wall to bury the explosives, and each detachment will carry ten packets of 40 catties of explosives surnamed Lie, and place them on the 100-meter line to detonate them in a unified manner.

This is the experience we have gained in the previous blasting construction, but we have never tried on such a large scale, and I don't know if the follow-up troops can keep up smoothly, I originally planned to consult Staff Officer Yin for an estimate, but unfortunately Staff Officer Yin fell ill after not closing his eyes for a few days and nights, so his subordinates are not sure ...... at all."

Liu Xiao nodded: "This idea looks good, but under the premise of the artillery battle between the two armies, there is almost no possibility of unfolding, because our artillery fire cannot resist the strong firepower of the defenders, and it cannot suppress the heavy troops on the defenders' city walls." It can be seen that you have used your brains, if this method can be used in the attack on Huizhou City during the Eastern Crusade, we will reduce a lot of casualties. ”

Cai Guangqing, who was praised by Liu Xiao, was much more relaxed, and the next few platoon commanders also expressed their ideas one after another, and found that it was not feasible under the detailed guidance of Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen, and even the methods of engineering excavation could not be implemented, but they were also frequently praised and highly praised by Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen.

When dinner time came, Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen encouraged the brothers, praised the achievements and hard work of the officers and men of the battalion in the preparations for the siege of the city, and kindly asked everyone to take a break and go back to dinner.

Around the Eight Immortals table under the big tree, there were only Liu Xiao, An Yi and Hu Zi, and a few small dishes specially made by the cooking class were deeply liked by the two bigwigs.

Hu Shusen took down two large bowls of rice and drank a large bowl of soup, then wiped his mouth with satisfaction, and looked at An Yi who had just put down the rice bowl opposite with half-closed eyes:

"You kid must have your own ghost idea, and so does Hu Jialin, although the two of you have pretended to be stupid from the beginning to the present, you can't hide it from me and Shizuo. We have already heard some discussions from the top brass of the Seventh Army behind the scenes, saying that the two of you had foreseen defeat at the beginning of the siege, and had warned the Seventh Army of the enemy ships on the left flank of the Yangtze River early on.

In the early hours of this morning, the ladders and other tools you improved were highly praised by the siege officers and men of the four armies, and the officers and men who withdrew even said that if you had not built a large number of small wooden bridges that could be folded in one direction and were easy to carry, I am afraid that half of the brothers would not have been able to escape back from the city. Now that there are no outsiders, let's talk about the siege. ”

"Division, chief of staff, there are really no subordinates to attack the city, in the humble opinion of the subordinates, in the face of such a strong city, it is better to besiege but not attack, let the follow-up two divisions of the Eighth Army with a large number of people go upriver along the Yangtze River, first seize Hanyang Hankou, which has no strong city defense and few defenders, and at the same time order the Seventh Army and the Fourth Army to completely cut off the waterways and highways and railways in the lower reaches of Wuchang, so that Wuchang will completely become an isolated city, surround him for a month or two, and see how long he can survive? I don't believe that Chen Jiamo's old thing dares to take his concubine and share it with his subordinates, haha! ”

An Yi smiled perfunctorily, and when he saw Liu Xiao's eyes puffing out angrily, he could only put away his smiling face and begged in a low voice: "Okay, division seat, chief of staff, if what your subordinates say is of some use for the siege of the city later, please agree to a small request from your subordinates, otherwise your subordinates will not dare to say it." ”

Hu Shusen and Liu Xiao glanced at each other and nodded slightly. Liu Xiao said solemnly: "Let's talk about your requirements first. ”

An Yi said in a low voice: "If you adopt the offensive methods of your subordinates, please have mercy on the surnames of hundreds of brothers in our battalion and don't send our engineer battalion to attack the city, because my battalion has just been expanded, and I don't have a real battlefield experience, and I will die in vain if I go up!" ”

Liu Xiao looked at An Yi in surprise: "What...... Are you afraid of death? ”

"Afraid! The subordinates are really afraid! I'm even more afraid of dying like the nearly 10,000 brothers who besieged the city twice, if I die like this, my subordinates will not be happy to be ghosts! ”

An Yi showed a look of a street scoundrel who was sincerely frightened, looking very painful and helpless.

Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen couldn't help laughing, and after laughing, they glared at An Yi with hatred and hatred, and shook their heads again and again.

Hu Shusen sighed, thought about it, and said happily: "Don't worry, you don't need your sappers to attack the city, otherwise where will the faces of so many main forces go?" Today, every unit received hundreds of letters of request for war, especially the Ye Ting Reading Regiment, which had just been transferred after resting and recuperating, and the 2,800 officers and men of the regiment jointly wrote to the headquarters, asking them to serve as commandos to undertake the main attack task, of which more than 700 officers and men of [***] officers and men also signed the blood petition for war, and more than 360 Kuomintang officers and men were not far behind to submit blood letters and suicide notes.

At the military and political meeting in the afternoon, the principal took a blood letter and a suicide note to read to the hundreds of generals, several times moved to tears, speechless, the generals were all moved to tears and passion, and asked the principal to order an immediate siege of the city, the sound shook the sky, the momentum was like a rainbow...... Where is it like you An Yi, where is there a little bit of revolutionary fearlessness? You...... I can't wait to slap you twice! ”

An Yi, who was promised to save his life, no matter how noble and great you are, he immediately leaned forward and whispered the strategy that he had thought of for two days, and it was too dangerous to be more dangerous, but it was very tempting.

After Liu Xiao and Hu Shusen listened, they were surprised and difficult to choose, Hu Shusen whispered a few words in Liu Xiao's ear, Liu Shu nodded frequently and immediately ordered An Yi and Hu Zi: Never reveal the half word you just said, otherwise military law will be engaged! Then he immediately stood up and gave the order to return, strode out of the camp gate, and galloped away surrounded by a group of guards, presumably in a hurry to report to the commander-in-chief.

At the gate of the camp, the beard waved away the oncoming wisps of dust, and sighed in a low voice: "Xiao Yi, this is a good plan and a desperate plan, no wonder you don't dare to say it for so long, if it succeeds, this plan will be a great contribution, if it fails, but there are corpses everywhere......"

An Yi shook his head helplessly: "Didn't you see that Lao Tzu was also forced?" What's more, I also said a remedial strategy, even if I fail and turn around and flee for my life, it's a big deal to lose some broken copper and iron and a hundred and ten people. What worries me the most is that the brothers in the various departments who have now been burned out by their blood will not stop showing their revolutionary heroism...... Hu Zi, tell me, the principal fought from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Fujian, and then led 100,000 people from Guangzhou to the east for two expeditions, and there were two defeats in the past three days to attack the city in front of him, why should he still stimulate the revolutionary fighting spirit of all departments and want to attack the city? Under repeated defeats, could it be that such a wise person as the headmaster was also encouraged by a group of brave and unscrupulous martial artists below? Is there anything worth scrutinizing about this? ”

"I knew I couldn't do it, and I guess I lost in a hurry. Xiao Yi, you're tired these days, don't think about it so much, wash and sleep, I don't want you to be tired and fall down......"

(To be continued)