On 5 October, after receiving a notice from Jiang Guodong, Xiao Zhenlei took two battalions with a total of 800 men to Qingfu to join Jiang Guodong's two patrol battalions. ⊙ Top Novel, www.

It is really a bit difficult for 800 people to be organized into two battalions, but they can only reduce the number of establishments, reduce the original squad of 14 people to a squad of 10 people, omit unnecessary military bands, and reduce the baggage battalion into a baggage company, and the whole standard has two infantry battalions, an artillery company (with two Krupp 75-mm mountain guns), a machine gun platoon (four Makqin heavy machine guns), a baggage company, a guard platoon, and a reconnaissance platoon, and an infantry battalion has two infantry companies under its jurisdiction, an infantry company has three infantry platoons, and a platoon has three squadsEach infantry was given a rifle, fifty rounds, and three grenades, which barely turned eight hundred men into a regiment.

The two artillery pieces were dragged by two mules and horses, the four heavy machine guns were pulled by two carriages, the baggage company had more than 30 carriages, most of which were empty, a small number of them were loaded with shell boxes, bullet boxes and grenade boxes, and a few carriages were pulling grain, but only 800 people ate a day, Xiao Zhenlei did not plan to bring too much grain at one time, and the grain was purchased locally at any time on the way.

At nine o'clock in the morning, he rushed to Qingfu Town, the main general of this expedition, Jiang Guodong, had already waited outside the town with the two battalions he brought for a long time, and the two patrol battalions he brought were only more than 600 people, which was more than 100 people less than Xiao Zhenlei's two battalions, of course, his subordinates were patrol battalions, not new troops, and they could not be compared in terms of establishment and strength, and the two battalions had a total of more than 600 people in the patrol battalions.

When Xiao Zhenlei arrived with his men and horses, he saw hundreds of people lying in the sun in the field outside the entrance of the town, and some were in groups of three and five together to play dice and gamble for money. Some are idle together, where is this army? Where is this army going to war? It looks like it's all about playing.

I saw Xiao Zhenlei's team of people and horses driving over in four neat teams. The old soldiers of the patrol battalion who were still lying in the sun in the field just now all stood up in unison, looking at each other's neat ranks and their snow-white and shiny bayonets. Listening to the other party shouting neatly and loudly, the old soldiers of these patrol battalions were a little ashamed of themselves, and when the other party gradually approached, the uniform movements had a strong sense of shock, which made these old soldiers a little frightened, and couldn't help but take a few steps back.

When the team approached, Xiao Zhenlei, who was walking in front on a war horse, stopped by the reins, raised his palms and shouted: "Stop advancing, herald?" ”

"Here!" A young soldier on a war horse rode a few steps over and agreed.

"Pass my orders. The whole army sat down in formation to rest, and ordered the reconnaissance platoon to be on guard within a radius of five miles around! ”

"Yes!"

Then Xiao Zhenlei instructed his orderlys, Xiaoma: "Go and ask the soldiers of the patrol battalion where Jiang Guodong is!" ”

The pony immediately rode over to inquire, and soon turned around, it turned out that the two patrol battalions arrived here yesterday afternoon, and Jiang Guodong rested in the town last night, and he hasn't come over yet, Xiao Zhenlei knew with his ass that Jiang Guodong must have spent the night in the green building in the town last night, and he couldn't get up from the weakness of his legs and feet.

Xiao Zhenlei didn't get angry when he heard it, patrol the battalion. You can't expect such a local army to abide by military discipline at all, and don't expect these soldiers to be able to fight. Not to mention the officers and soldiers below.

It's not okay to wait here like this, who knows when Jiang Guodong will sleep until he gets up, if he sleeps until the afternoon. Wouldn't it be impossible to leave today? After thinking about it, Xiao Zhenlei said to Xiao Ma: "You go and find the person with the highest rank here to meet me!" ”

"Yes!"

It didn't take long for a man in his forties to be a little rough. The middle-aged strong man with a crooked hat walked over with a few soldiers, and was a little puzzled after seeing Xiao Zhenlei wearing the same uniform as that behind him. When Xiao Zhenlei saw him like this, he spoke: "This official is Xiao Zhenlei, the standard commander of the patrol battalion appointed by Lord Cai of Daotai, who are you?" ”

"It turned out to be Lord Xiao, and the fifth patrol battalion was marked to take He Hongsheng to meet your lord!" Although He Hongsheng saluted, he had a look of disdain on his face, just because Xiao Zhenlei was only temporarily appointed by the Daotai, not an official of the imperial court, so he looked down on him.

Xiao Zhenlei didn't care either, and asked, "I heard that Commander Jiang hasn't come yet?" You send someone into the town to look for him, ask him if he has set out for camp today, and if he doesn't go, give a reply earlier, and I can let my brothers set up camp and set up tents to shade the sun, and no one can stand this for a long time under the sun! ”

It's now more than nine o'clock in the morning, although it has now entered October, but the October weather in the south of the Yangtze River is still hot, and the autumn tiger is the time to exert its power, and there will be problems after a long time in the sun.

This He Hongsheng was also uncomfortably hot, and when he saw Xiao Zhenlei say this, he agreed: "Okay, Lord Xiao, please take a moment, and wait for the standard to send someone into the town to ask Commander Jiang!" Then he turned and walked away.

Xiao Zhenlei's two battalions are sitting neatly on the grass to rest, in order not to let the soldiers be idle, under the leadership and organization of the officers, some soldiers got up and showed their skills and skills to amuse other soldiers, and some companies sang folk songs, and even soldiers who could sing Peking Opera played Hua Dan, who could sing songs in this era of lack of entertainment is very popular, although the soldier didn't sing well, but he didn't want to play Hua Dan, but he was funny, making the soldiers laugh, Even many of the veteran soldiers in the patrol battalion couldn't help but come over to watch.

After waiting for two hours, it was already close to noon, and Xiao Zhenlei saw that Jiang Guodong was still not coming, so he ordered the troops to rest in the nearby woods, and at this time, most of the soldiers of the two patrol battalions had already entered the town to play.

After the troops were lighting a fire and cooking, Jiang Guodong sent someone to inform Xiao Zhenlei and asked him to bring two battalion officers into the town to discuss combat matters. Xiao Zhenlei sent away the herald and began to eat with the soldiers, since Jiang Guodong's guy slept until noon and didn't get up, he asked the guy to wait, anyway, he couldn't go today, it was better to rest for another day, and set off on the road tomorrow.

After lunch, Xiao Zhenlei ordered the troops to camp outside the woods to arrange defenses, and he lay under a big tree and slept until more than three o'clock in the afternoon, and Jiang Guodong, who was waiting in the town's autonomous office, was already impatient.

He Hongsheng picked up a piece of watermelon and took a big bite, and said vaguely to Jiang Guodong, who was sitting at the top: "My lord, it's been nearly two hours, and I haven't seen Xiao Zhenlei's shadow yet, I look at Xiao Zhenlei and don't take you in my eyes at all, he is just a temporary standard, and the court has not issued a formal appointment, he dragged it like two hundred and fifty eighty thousand, and I want to slap him two ears when I look at his proud appearance!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Jiang Shuiqing, another patrol battalion leader, also said: "My lord, we can't be so used to him, if you ignore and ignore this matter, then he will not be allowed to ride on your head to and pee in the future?" ”

Jiang Guodong's face became more and more ugly the more he listened, and he couldn't help but raise his hand and pat the table and said coldly: "Hmph, it's really unreasonable!" Someone comes, and then send someone to urge him, and tell him, if he can't come within a quarter of an hour, the commander will punish him for delaying the warplane! ”

Before the herald next to him could agree, a soldier ran in from outside and knelt down on one knee and reported: "Your Excellency, Xiao Zhenlei and the others have arrived!" ”

He Hongsheng immediately pointed outside and said, "My lord, look, look, I'm only here now, and everyone is so scared!" ”

Jiang Guodong's face was provoked, and he snorted coldly: "Let them in!" ”

Soon, Xiao Zhenlei and the others walked out of the lobby of the public office in brand-new and straight factory guard uniforms, and Xiao Zhenlei arched his hand: "Presumably this is Commander Jiang, right?" Humble Xiao Zhenlei to meet! ”

Jiang Guodong looked at Xiao Zhenlei, and said with an unkind face: "You are Xiao Zhenlei?" ”

"It's a lowly position!"

"Hmph, this commander sent someone to ask you to bring your subordinates over to discuss matters, why are you late? Because your arrival delayed the warplane, what do you think you should be guilty of? ”

Xiao Zhenlei was "startled": "No, my lord, the person you sent didn't say that I should come immediately, at that time, the whole army under the lowly rank was having dinner, since the commander didn't rush over immediately, of course the lowly post will come after eating!" ”

"You have to eat for two hours at a meal?" Jiang Guodong's face turned black with anger.

Xiao Zhenlei said with a "bitter" face: "My lord, there are hundreds of people under the lowly position, of course, the lowly duty can only be eaten when they are all eaten, otherwise how can the lowly job get a reputation of loving soldiers like a son?" ”

Jiang Guodong and the other three still haven't seen that Xiao Zhenlei is pretending to be forced and teasing them, so He Hongsheng couldn't help but sarcastically say: "Love soldiers like sons? I think that's what you think yourself, right? ”

"Forget it, forget it!" Jiang Guodong waved his hand impatiently, he knew that it was useless to make trouble with Xiao Zhenlei like this, it was better to go directly to the topic and make trouble for Xiao Zhenlei, "Since you are all here, then we will discuss the matter of suppressing bandits, come here, bring the map!" ”

Soon, a map two meters long and one meter wide was opened, which was drawn on a piece of linen cloth, and was nailed to the wall by two Qing soldiers after the map was opened.

Jiang Guodong walked to the map and pointed to a green piece and said, "According to the government's spies, there is a group of bandits entrenched in Su? In the western part of the state near the Tai and Lake in this mountain forest, they occupy the mountain as the king here, often go down the mountain to rob the passing merchants, and often loot the nearby towns, the government has repeatedly conquered and suppressed, but they have returned in vain, as long as the reason is that this mountain forest is close to Tai and Lake, they have boats anchored by the lake, as long as the government enters and suppresses, they will run away by boat after getting the news, and they don't know which island to hide on in the lake, even Tai? There is nothing the lake division can do with them, there are about 100 of them, twenty or thirty muskets, and the leader of the bandit is named Yang Fei, who is very brave." (To be continued......) R527