The island in the lake, which is 3.5 kilometers long and a few hundred to 1.5 kilometers wide, is densely forested. On the island is a rolling earth slope more than 40 meters high and more than 800 meters long, running from northeast to southwest. The hillside is lush and lush.
Ponds are connected at the foot of the mountain, with Biheman waves blooming in between. If it weren't for the wild grasses and the endless lake around it, it would look a little desolate. With a little tidying up and more pavilions, it could be regarded as a paradise on earth for recuperation.
This small island is also called Daxingtan, which is probably named after the vast expanse of green reeds and lotus leaves surrounding the gentle beach.
The remnants of An Yi's division were stationed on this narrow island. They used two stolen steamboats more than 20 meters long to tow more than 200 large and small wooden boats, and slowly drove here from Dongzuijiao, where they had rested for most of the day.
, it took another four and a half hours. We walked dozens of kilometers of waterways with great fear, for fear of being discovered by enemy reconnaissance planes and leading to air strikes. When they saw land, they all breathed a sigh of relief, so they all landed and set up camp at the foot of the mountain in the north.
The hut was set up, and by the time everyone was settled in, the sun was already setting.
Gu Changfeng, who lost his beloved horse, finally grabbed more than 30 good horses and transported them here. Before he could clearly see the chosen mount, An Yi ordered five of them to be slaughtered. More than a dozen brothers used machetes and daggers to dismember them and skin them.
The other brothers randomly found some rocks to make chopping boards, chopped the horse meat, and threw it all into the only four large pots in order to stew the broth to supplement the nutrition of the sick and wounded. There were hundreds of others.
The brothers cut out wooden sticks, put all the fish on skewers, and grilled them next to more than a dozen blazing fires. Without salt or oil, they had to make do with one meal.
Xia Jian sat on the big rock at the foot of the slope, quietly watching his more than 300 brothers dig trenches and air-raid shelters in the woods at the foot of the mountain. The sweating brothers exclaimed from time to time, then gathered together and laughed, using
The long sticks picked up the big snakes that were killed one after another, making a lot of noise.
Xia Jian patted his head with some remorse. He snatched back more than two million yuan in cash, gold and silver jewelry from Taiping Town, and even brought back a lot of antiques, calligraphy and paintings. He just didn't remember to grab some medicine and salt. As a result,
After talking to each other all the way on the boat, we suddenly realized that we didn't have many basic necessities of life, but we had a lot of money that we couldn't eat or drink, which was very annoying.
Yin Jinan, An Yi and all the brothers did not blame Xia Jian. At that time, they were filled with anger and only thought about revenge. Who would remember gadgets like salt? The more things are touched every day in life, the easier it is to be ignored.
Shen Fengdao is worthy of being a master. This guy who has never been exposed to anatomy actually used two self-made clamps made of gun rods to help Lu Guang remove the right lung after the boat left Taiping Town.
He took out the bullet, washed the wound with boiled water of herbs on Dongzuijiao Island, and sutured the wound with the sewing needle and thread that the soldier carried with him.
After emergency rescue, although Li Guang did not wake up, his breathing became much more stable, and there was no sign of high fever under the careful care of his adjutant and personal bodyguards.
After Shen Fengdao showed off this unique skill, he couldn't rest anymore. Together with his apprentice Xiao Langzhong, he worked from Dongzuijiao to Daxing Beach, from the boat to the bottom of the boat. He has been busy since dawn until now. It is the only division-affiliated medical hospital that has preserved its complete organization.
The eighteen brothers in the team were all extremely tired.
The most painful thing was Gu Changfeng. As soon as he arrived at Daxingtan Island, he was ordered to dig a hole with more than 200 brothers to bury the 149 brothers who died of serious injuries on the way to escape. An Yi and Hu Hu also
Without saying a word, he waved the engineer shovel to help, while Yang Bin, whose foot injury was not healed, assisted Yin Jinan in cleaning up the corpses one after another, writing down the names of each dead brother.
After burying the dead brothers, the sun had set. All the more than 2,700 brothers who could walk lined up neatly behind An Yi and others, knelt down and kowtowed silently.
Not one of the brothers shed a tear. The continuous fierce battles and deaths made every exhausted brother's nerves become numb. There was only deep hatred, deep nostalgia and primitive desire to survive in everyone's hearts.
Someone was crying at the bottom of the north slope. She was crying very sadly. She was Cui'er, a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl who fled here with An Yi's teacher. Worried about the revenge of the remnants of the Xu family, An Yi had to put the consequences on herself and her brothers.
The Cui'er siblings, who were so kind to them, were evacuated together among the wounded. Until now, they didn't even have time to ask the girl if she was willing? Who else is there in the family?
The seven-year-old Zhuzi held on to the corner of his sister's clothes tightly, looked at the more than two thousand men in ragged clothes, kneeling together and kowtowed, and timidly asked in a low voice: "Sister, a lot of uncles are dead, right?"
Cui'er wiped away her tears, gently hugged Zhu Zhu's head and said, "Yes."
"Sister, when can we go home? My father and mother agreed to come to town to visit us on a certain day, and they will be anxious if they can't see us." Zhu Zhu asked with a pout.
Cui'er had tears in her almond-shaped eyes and shook her head slightly: "I'm afraid we won't be able to go back for a while. We are now more than two hundred miles away from home. Your uncle Wang is right. If we go back, we will not be able to go back with us in the city."
Mr. Xu of the Bing Dynasty will not let us off easily. Not only will he kill us to vent his anger, but he will also harm our parents."
Zhuzi looked at his sister in panic, and after a while he asked: "Sister, where are we going? If we go further, we will be farther and farther away from home."
Cui'er swept away her tear-stained hair from her face, shook her head and whispered: "Sister, I don't know, just follow the uncles for the time being. It doesn't matter where you go. They are very good to us, especially you Xiaowang."
Uncle, there is no one more considerate than him who held you and protected your sister all the way. Also, since we escaped, other uncles were reluctant to eat, so they gave us delicious food and let us take the biggest boat.
, and take a boat with General An... They are the best army, and as popular in the town say, they are the famous An family army in the country. "
"Sister, the uncles are here."
"Don't run around. I have to go to the hay shed to see the injured uncle. Your uncle Wang will come to see you later."
"Um."
On the beach more than 80 meters in front of the hut, more than a thousand men stripped naked. This was the first opportunity to take a bath in many days. The hot summer caused many scarred brothers to have suppurative wounds, almost
No one has scars on his body.
The brothers washed their heads and bodies, then washed their tattered military uniforms and shoes in the clear lake water. Then they nakedly carried the washed clothes, shoes and hats back to the campfire, eating and drying them, to be polite.
Some of the brothers put on their underwear even though their underwear was wet. After grilling, they raised their crotches and buttocks and continued grilling, but most of the brothers had no scruples and were not in the mood to scruple about anything.
Cui'er came out from the hay shed after watching the wounded and accidentally witnessed all this. Her face turned red with shame and her heart was pounding.
The only woman on the island hid behind the straw shed, sat on the grass and buried her head in her legs, not daring to lift her head for a long time. Half an hour later, she heard the painful groans of the wounded in the straw shed, and the beautiful and kind-hearted Cui
I couldn't sit still anymore, so I bit my lip and went back to the hay shed to help, even though most of the wounded here were also naked.
Beside the bonfire under the big tree, Ding Zhicheng and his brothers from the Special Forces Brigade had already prepared themselves. They were going to paddle out in small boats overnight to scout out the enemy's situation, and to get as much first aid medicine and salt as possible.
An Yi, Yin Jinan and other generals walked up to each of the brothers. The soldiers looked at each other silently, their eyes firm and fearless.
Yin Jinan kept grabbing white flowers from the big cloth bag carried by the two brothers behind him. Every time he distributed it to a brother, he said, "Strictly observe military discipline and pay for the goods." Every brother agreed in a low voice, silently
He put the money into his pocket and straightened his chest.
Late at night, the battery of the transmitter was completely exhausted, and the beeping radio finally fell silent. Zhan Huanqi and the correspondents sweated profusely for more than half an hour and finally gave up. The hand-cranked generator weighing more than 40 pounds finally gave up.
The machine has become a display.
An Yi summoned the company commander and above brothers to report on the complicated current situation, asked Zhan Huanqi to put away a large stack of messages sent from the headquarters and Lao Nanchang, and said to the brothers who looked confused and extremely sad:
"Brothers, the commander-in-chief has decided to step down... The principal said that he really can't do it anymore. The last telegram to us in the afternoon was obviously a farewell telegram, which means that from now on, no one can save us, and no one can save us.
Have the ability to save us.
From now on, we have to rely on ourselves for everything! The new government has not yet been formed, and even if it is formed, no one will dare to break through the enemy's hundreds of miles of defense to save us. Therefore, brothers, please give up the idea of relying on anyone from now on.
"
"Huh huh... I never expect that those stupid generals above will find a way to save us. At worst, they will continue to dominate the mountain and become the king." Gu Changfeng said nonchalantly.
Xia Jian quickly corrected him: "Hutou, you are wrong. We are now in the vast Hongze Lake, and we have no choice but to be water thieves. The ridges tens of meters high behind us are not mountains at all.
"
The brothers laughed softly, and the original solemn atmosphere was suddenly broken.
Yin Jinan raised a practical question: "It doesn't matter if anyone saves us. It's just that we don't have much ammunition in reserve now. I made a rough calculation in the afternoon. Each long and short gun has an average of less than fifty rounds of ammunition, and there are 77 light machine guns left."
The average magazine capacity is four and a half, basically it can only be used for one blitz attack, and it won't work if there are too many.
The most critical thing is: 800 injured brothers are in urgent need of medical rescue. Everyone needs to eat. They cannot live on fish and snakes all day long. They also have to scrape together clothes to fit each person, so the solution to logistical problems is the first priority.
We might as well discuss this issue more."
"I am responsible for the defense and security issues. Everyone, please focus more on logistics. We have to solve it in at least two or three days. No matter what the next step is, we need at least two or three days of rest. Otherwise, brothers will not be able to relax.
." Hu Jialin said loudly.
When everyone was almost finished discussing, An Yi continued to express his thoughts: "I think the shorter the time we stay here, the better. More than 300 seriously injured brothers need treatment, otherwise they will not survive. Everyone knows that this
More than half of the more than 300 brothers are battalion and company platoon commanders, the backbone of our independent division. No matter what, as long as you are here and those injured battalion and company platoon commander brothers are here, our independent division will never be defeated. As long as
Give us three months to breathe and we can build a great team again!"
Hundreds of brothers were sitting solemnly, looking at An Yi intently. An Yi stood up and motioned for the brothers to sit closer. After a while, he said firmly:
"Brothers, this is the most difficult day since the founding of our army. So far, no team in the revolutionary army has experienced such a cruel situation as ours, not even half of the hardships and dangers we have. However, despite this, we are now
Still holding his back straight and not lying down.
Maybe some brothers feel aggrieved and angry, or even tired of it, and don’t want to fight as soldiers anymore. I understand that very well, but if you don’t want to fight, you have to fight out until you get to a safe place. Otherwise, you can leave the army tomorrow. I, An Yi, will
Give enough money to those who leave to safely send them to the east, west and south shores.
When I say this, you can tell your brothers when you get back. If anyone wants to leave, just ask. This is not a joke, but what I, An Yi, say from my heart. I, An Yi, am ashamed of everyone, and I am ashamed of any brother.
"
"Master, what are you talking about?"
Qu Tongyuan, commander of the second battalion of the Independent Regiment, loudly expressed his dissatisfaction. Lu Xiong and other battalion company commanders also started a quarrel. Brother Bai Lai quarreled to the end and even said that An Yi looked down on them.
An Yi raised his hands to signal everyone to be quiet, smiled apologetically and said loudly: "I understand the trust of brothers, but soldiers are different from us officers. You must respect them as you respect your own brothers.
Slowly you will understand how I feel.
Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore. I’ll just talk about my plan. Don’t interrupt me! Brothers, don’t think we are as precarious as rats crossing the street now, but as long as we escape and go through this biggest life and death test,
Afterwards, we will stand up again and be stronger than in our heyday!"
An Yi's whole body exuded the confidence and firm will to win. His body stood straight and his eyes were bright and shining:
"Why do I dare to say this? Because we are not an ordinary army. Since the Northern Expedition, we have gone through many tests of blood and fire, and we have forged our own ideals and beliefs. We have a vast network of contacts and huge wealth potential. As long as we don't die, we are very capable.
We can easily grow stronger and even easily establish ten independent divisions with the spirit of a model battalion to continue to defend our homeland and our dignity. When the country and the nation need us most, we will make contributions and leave our name forever!"
"Teacher, I am determined to follow you for the rest of my life! I will tell you what is in my heart with a saying from my hometown of Guilin: If you die, your eggs will turn to the sky, but if you die, you will not die for tens of millions of years!"
Huang Hanqian, the instructor of the engineering battalion, shouted excitedly, causing the brothers to burst into laughter.
An Yi scolded angrily: "What a bastard Huang Hanqian, you interrupted me just when I got excited, so I might as well leave it to you!"
The brothers laughed again, and the depression in their hearts disappeared instantly, becoming as relaxed and confident as every routine post-war summary.