At five o'clock in the morning, everything was still in silence, three kilometers east of the village, in the low house in the north of the railway track in Loujia Village, the old man Lou Huaiqing opened the door with half-open eyes and peed, he looked at the waning moon and the stars on the horizon, took a deep breath, tied the fine hemp rope on the top of his wide trousers and was just about to go back to the house to make up for sleep, when he suddenly heard a burst of metal crashing sound from the railway dozens of meters away.

The old man thought for a moment, felt that the sound was a little strange, turned around and walked behind the low wall of the courtyard to identify it carefully, only to see that there were many phantoms on the hundreds of meters long railway, all shaking but not making much noise.

The old man rubbed his eyes full of in surprise, and saw a dozen vague figures carrying a pryed out railroad track down the south side of the roadbed, and he immediately trembled with fright. He had already heard the rumors that the revolutionary army was going to fight with the northern army in the past two days, but he didn't expect someone to pry the railroad tracks in front of his house, so he hurriedly turned around and ran back to the house in fright, wanting to wake up his wife and his son and daughter-in-law who were sleepy, and the family discussed whether to move the family out to hide.

As soon as the old man pushed the door open, he was held by a pair of strong arms, the old man was so frightened that his whole body stiffened, and he just wanted to shout for his life, but his mouth was covered by a big hand: "Uncle Qing, don't shout!" I'm Huai Wu of Nian Zhuang! Wait a while, the little nephew let go, don't shout! ”

The old man nodded desperately, and when his body was free and his mouth could speak, he saw clearly that standing in front of him was the famous second-rate son Huai Wu of Nian Zhuang, who was wearing a revolutionary army uniform at this time, with a spear hanging on his back, and two large leather boxes on his belt.

The old man reacted slowly, looked back, pointed to the dense figures on the railway line, and asked in a trembling voice: "Old Five, those people are ...... Are they all your revolutionary army? ”

Huai Wu nodded, took out eight oceans and stuffed them into the old man's hand: "Uncle Qing, you take the money and take your family to the north quickly, and avoid it for a while!" In a little while, there will be a war here, and Zhang Zongchang's army will soon come by train from the west of the mill, and we will set up an ambush here to beat him up as a bitch. Because I was worried that Uncle Qing's family would be injured by mistake when the battle started, the battalion commander and I came together to let Uncle Qing's family leave quickly, and Uncle Shangkuan's family in the west half a mile also took the money and left. ”

When the old man heard this, his face turned pale with fright, and he immediately staggered into the house, quickly woke up the family, and after a while, he dragged the family to the depression and forest in a panic, and Uncle Qing's son and daughter-in-law supported the old lady and sighed while running, saying that it is estimated that our house cannot be saved, but the wife said anxiously that the pigs at home have not been fed. Uncle Qing, who was walking in front, hurriedly stopped and scolded and said, Shut your beaks, the revolutionary army has given us eight oceans, which is enough for you to build two homes again.

…… At 5:40 a.m., the rumbling sound of the train came from the west, and the eighteen open-top iron columns that drove out of the village gradually accelerated, carrying more than 8,000 officers and soldiers of the Zhilu alliance with full confidence, and killed Pixian violently, their task was to drive to the east bank of the canal bridge in the west of the city and get off, and outflank the revolutionary army in the city along the canal to the south as fast as possible, and encircle Pixian with Chu Yupu's army, and annihilate the An Yi division that brought countless shameful memories to Sun Chuanfang and the Zhilu coalition army in one fell swoop.

The train whistle sounded for a long time, whistling all the way, and suddenly lost control when entering the low slope line where Lou's house was located, the heavy locomotive suddenly rubbed and collided on the sleepers and gravel that lost the right track, and in the piercing sharp friction sound and the sparks aroused, the carriage behind plunged into the low-lying waterhole on the right, splashing up to more than ten meters of water column, and made a huge impact sound.

The huge habit of the train moving forward brought the second and third wagons off the roadbed in an instant, and the violent collision and screams shook all directions, and the carriages behind violently collided with each other under the action of strong resistance and torque, and then overturned the low roadbed on the right, until the eighth carriage overturned, and the long train could be stopped.

The enemy, who had suffered heavy casualties, had not yet recovered from the twisted train, and the explosion of grenades flying from the low slope on the left side of the railway overshadowed all exclamations and roars in the blink of an eye, and the hundreds of meters long railway line was filled with the fire and dying wails caused by the explosion.

After the grenade exploded for more than three minutes, the dense gunfire composed of rifles, light and heavy machine guns, and pistols suddenly rang out, and thousands of enemies who were stunned screamed and fled for their lives, and the officers and men of the Zhilu Coalition fell in a large area in the blink of an eye in the dense rain of bullets, and the wagons emitting thick smoke were still blown up by the grenades that kept flying, and they couldn't stop shaking, and more than 8,000 frightened officers and soldiers of the Zhilu Coalition were damaged more than half of them under the merciless blows of nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Reading Division, and they had no power to fight back. Piles of devastated officers and soldiers risked their lives to lie down at the bottom of the train, holding their heads tightly on the gravel and sleepers, just hoping to save their lives, but the grenades that flew accurately caused heavy casualties to the dense crowd under the train, and soaked in blood, and immediately dyed all the hundreds of meters of roadbed red, and before the remnants could escape from the bottom of the train, thousands of revolutionary army officers and men who were lying in ambush on the left side of the railway had already issued an earth-shattering cry and launched a charge.

Violent explosions, fierce gunshots and helpless wails spread to the north of the city, and more than 20,000 officers and soldiers of the 15th Army of the Zhilu Coalition Army, which was rapidly advancing towards the county seat of Pixian County, were taken aback, and the army commander Yuan Zhenqing led more than 10 generals under his command to quickly climb the high ground of Daijiapo next to the road, and looked westward, anxious but helpless, although they knew that the main division of Wang Dongjun's army and An Yi's division were connected with the fire, but they could only look at the fiery battle site four kilometers away to the west. Unable to report to the commander Chu Yupu for instructions, a group of panicked generals discussed for a while, and finally made a decision: the main force of the whole army continued to carry out the task of encircling the county town, and the 1st Mixed Brigade of the 2nd Division immediately divided its troops to the east, crossed the canal and iron bridge at the fastest speed, and galloped to the aid of friendly troops.

However, a flurry of deliberations took more than 10 minutes of the most precious time, and it took another 10 minutes for a brigade of reinforcements to break away from the main force and assemble to the west, and when more than 4,000 officers and men rushing to the railway bridge panting, they ushered in a dense baptism of bullets.

In the early light, hundreds of officers and men crowded on the bridge deck became the best live targets for the teaching team and sniper detachment of the revolutionary army on the west bank, and the mortar shells that flew from time to time exploded in the dense crowd, killing and wounding hundreds of people in the support brigade, leaving behind pieces of corpses and wounded soldiers who retreated in panic, and did not dare to rush to the iron bridge for half an hour again, and waited for army commander Yuan Zhenqing to urgently bring in artillery assistance, and the enemy, who had been blocked for nearly an hour, had already withdrawn southward and disappeared without a trace, leaving only the railway bridge and its east bank densely packed with corpses and hundreds of dying remnantsThe blood that flowed down like rain fell on the surface of the river.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Chu Yupu, commander of the Seventh Army of the Zhilu Allied Army, who had traveled to Guanhu Town, a few kilometers north of Pixian County, received an urgent report and was furious.

More than 6,000 officers and soldiers of Wang Dongjun's main division were stranded on both sides of the railway, and a large number of new German-made weapons and ammunition were looted, and only more than 1,000 remnants of the army rushed to the west at the risk of death and fled to Nianzhuang to survive, most of them had no weapons in their hands, and this was the main ace division of the Zhilu Allied Army, which had eliminated the second division of the 10th Army of the revolutionary army Wang Tianpei a few days ago, and took the lead in rushing into Xuzhou City, and thus was rewarded by the commander Zhang Zongchang's telegram, and never did anything again. Even the number was canceled by the angry Zhang Zongchang.

Temporarily set up in the marching tent on the side of the canal, Qin Shanhu and the other old handsome lost his temper, and hurriedly stepped forward to persuade: "Yushuai, please calm your anger!" Now the county seat of Pixian County is under the control of our army, the main forces of the five divisions of our two armies are all over the county and beyond, and each division is sending elites to strictly reconnoitre, and when Yushuai enters the city and settles down, he will definitely be able to know the whereabouts of An Yi's division, and it will not be too late to make plans when the time comes. ”

A group of generals also echoed the voice, admonishing in a low voice, and Chu Yupu, who had calmed down, sighed, looked at the south and shook his head frequently:

"Alas, last night you also swore to report to Ben Shuai, saying that An Yishi was digging trenches everywhere outside the city and building strong fortifications, judging that he was determined to defend Pi County, and all the troops only needed to approach slowly to realize the intention of encircling the siege! But now all the people have evacuated the county seat, thrown us an empty city, and completely annihilated the main division of Wang Dongjun's army, which rushed to help, and made me lose face.

Think about it, how confidential is the information that Wang Dongjun's main division quietly came over to participate in the war? How did An Yi get it? And why did we dig up the railroad tracks and set up an ambush in advance under our noses? Doesn't any of this cause you to be alarmed?

The opponent's intelligence, rapid assembly, firepower allocation, combat effectiveness and will to fight are far above our estimates, but we have no knowledge of others, and it is very terrible to go on like this!

Ben Shuai dared to conclude that An Yi's division would definitely not easily evacuate the territory of Pixian, but would attack us incessantly, taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain and being good at sports warfare, and using surprise attacks, sneak attacks, and harassment methods to nail us here to the death.

Many of you have fought against An Yi in the Five Rivers region to the south, so you should know something about his strange and cunning tactics. From now on, you all have to use your brains and think about what are we going to do next? How can we fight this battle well? A military meeting will be held in the city at three o'clock in the afternoon, and if the various ministries still can't come up with a countermeasure by then, Hugh blames the commander for not being merciful, and the military law is engaged! ”

The faces of the generals changed dramatically and said yes, Qin Shanhu and several other generals had dealt with An Yi, thinking of the fiasco of the Battle of Wuhe and the shocking battle this morning, and then thinking of the many outstanding troops and famous commanders in their army who were defeated by An Yi and discredited, the sweaty generals suddenly felt a chill down their spines.

…… At noon, 25 kilometers southeast of Pixian City, the swallowtail beach at the mouth of Luoma Lake.

An Yi and his brothers inspected the large number of seized weapons placed in different categories on the lake beach, greeting and joking with the excited officers and soldiers from time to time, and the joy of victory was everywhere.

Liu Shoujiang, the party representative, and the three leaders of the newly established Huangdun Township People's League stood in front of the land temple 100 meters away to smoke and laugh; more than 100 brothers from the political and engineering department distributed some of the seized semi-new and old weapons to the local villagers; countless adults and children watched the revolutionary officers and soldiers on the lake beach and the seized weapons from afar, and their eyes were full of envy and admiration; the men in the army who had just won a great victory were full of energy in the admiring eyes of the big girls and little daughters-in-law around them, and their walking postures were very different from usual.

After the results of the battle were counted, An Yi instructed the communications staff officer to send a telegram to the general headquarters, summoning the generals under his command to arrange the next combat mission, and a strange and vicious battle began.

…… At 3:10 p.m., Bengbu, the General Headquarters of the Revolutionary Army Front.

More than 30 generals above the division level gathered together to listen carefully to Commander-in-Chief Chiang's passionate pre-war mobilization, Bai Chongxi, who was sitting at the bottom left of Commander-in-Chief Chiang, was as calm as ever, on the surface, he was concentrating on listening to Commander-in-Chief Chiang's revolutionary teachings, but in his heart he was thinking about the overall situation, and finally thought of An Yi's division that he had arranged in Pixian to fight against Chu Yupu's army, and a cold smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

The colonel intelligence officer of the general headquarters quietly walked to the column on the side, slowly raised the telegram in his hand, and shook it slightly to Zhang Dingfan, the chief of staff, Zhang Dingfan, who was sitting at the head of Bai Chongxi, nodded and signaled him to send it, looked at the two lines and was surprised, quickly read it, raised his head and let out a long breath, and slowly put the message in front of Bai Chongxi.

Commander-in-Chief Jiang, who was giving a passionate speech, was quite unhappy when he saw the performance of Zhang Dingfan and Bai Chongxi, and the corner of Bai Chongxi's eyes had already taken in the expression of Commander-in-Chief Jiang, and after reading the message, he slowly stood up, and said with a smile:

"Commander-in-chief, please allow your subordinates to submit a good report that boosts the morale and morale of our whole army, An Yi's reading division withdrew from Pixian in the early morning of this day, and concentrated its forces to meet the 14th Division of the enemy's Fifth Army, which rushed from Xuzhou to Pixian to participate in the battle by special train, and it took only two and a half hours to achieve a great victory in destroying more than 6,500 enemy troops, killing more than 10 generals including Zhuang Zeliang, deputy commander of the enemy's 14th Division, and capturing a large number of weapons and ammunition.

His subordinates sincerely admired General An Yi and the outstanding performance of his officers. ”

The generals in the audience exclaimed, Commander-in-Chief Jiang could no longer care about the content of the speech, took the telegram handed by Bai Chongxi with trembling hands and hurriedly read it, and after reading it, he looked at the generals and took a deep breath:

"An Yi is worthy of being my student and a model in the revolutionary army! I'm going to reward him, I'm going to reward him heavily......"

(To be continued)