Set the time back to one day ago.
Xu Rui walked along an underground corridor that could only accommodate one person bending down, and walked forward for almost five hundred meters. Suddenly, his eyes opened up, and he walked into a huge underground space. The entire space was more than ten meters high, with a radius of nearly 100 meters. Hundreds of meters away, the degraded stalactites hanging down from the top of the cave indicate that this is a dead cave.
This cave was discovered seven days ago. At that time, Mei Jiuling led an excavation team to dig a branch road from the south side of the main tunnel under Meizhen to connect to the Grand Canyon. Mei Jiuling's intention was to prevent flooding. Because the terrain of the Dameishan Basin is relatively flat, if the Japanese use water to backfill the tunnels, drainage will be more difficult.
So Mei Jiuling thought of digging a branch road between the main tunnel and the grand canyon outside the town. With this branch road serving as a drainage channel, there would be no need to worry about the Japanese flooding.
As a result, this cave was discovered when digging this drainage branch channel.
This was unexpected, because the cave was large enough to hide tens of thousands of people.
At this time, the bottom of the cave has been flattened, and the cave walls are covered with torches, illuminating the entire cave as bright as day.
Seeing Xu Rui, Mei Jiuling and several youth training team students who were discussing something around a level immediately came up to Xu Rui and stood at attention and saluted.
"Captain!"
Several students saluted.
Xu Rui returned the greeting and asked, "Jiu Ling, what's going on?"
Mei Jiuling said with some embarrassment: "Captain, I may have made a mistake."
"Error?" Xu Rui frowned and asked, "What error?"
Mei Jiuling talked a lot about the drawings and the level. Anyone else would probably not be able to understand it, but Xu Rui is a time traveler and can easily understand it. To put it simply, Mei Jiuling is now My calculations were wrong, because this drainage branch has a downward inclination. If the inclination calculation was wrong, this branch might be dug to the bottom of the Grand Canyon outside the town, but not to the cliff of the Grand Canyon. .
To put it more bluntly, if we continue digging at the current angle, this branch road will be dug deep into the ground, and there will never be an end.
Xu Rui realized the seriousness of the problem. If this drainage branch could not be dug, there would be a fatal hidden danger in the entire underground network of the Dameishan Basin. Once the Japanese soldiers invaded the territory and adopted a flood strategy, the consequences would be disastrous. , Xu Rui said in a deep voice: "Is there any other way to remedy this?"
Mei Jiuling said: "It's definitely too late to dig a new branch road. If we repair it from a certain node in the middle, I'm afraid it will be half the result with twice the result. For now, I'm afraid there is only one way."
As Mei Jiuling spoke, he picked up a pencil and drew a straight line on the drawing, then thickened it.
Xu Rui understood it immediately and said, "You mean, dig up from the end of the branch road that has been dug, and directly dig through the bed of the Mei River that flows through the Grand Canyon?"
"Yes." Mei Jiuling nodded and said, "I have already calculated the distance. From the end of the branch road upward, it should be the bed of the Mei River. The error will not exceed twenty meters. Since the height of the entire tunnel network is higher than The riverbed of the Meihe River, so even if the outlet of the drainage branch is opened under the riverbed of the Meihe River, it still has the function of drainage.”
Xu Rui nodded slightly when he heard this. This is actually the same principle as a fountain.
Mei Jiuling paused and then said: "The only bad thing is that this branch road cannot be used as a backup escape channel as originally designed."
If the tunnel exit is opened under the river bed, except for a very small number of people with high water resistance, ordinary people, even soldiers of the Dameishan Independent Brigade, may not be able to pass through. The function of this branch road as a backup escape channel has indeed been lost. , but everything has disadvantages and advantages. In this way, this drainage outlet is even more hidden.
Xu Rui immediately said: "Okay, let's speed up the construction according to your idea just now."
After receiving Xu Ruiken, Mei Jiuling immediately left happily with the excavation team.
Xu Rui left the cave and returned to the ground, when he saw Sai Hongfu walking over in a hurry.
An evil smile appeared at the corner of Xu Rui's mouth. He was about to tease Sai Hongfu a few words, but suddenly he noticed that there was something different in the expression on Sai Hongfu's pretty face. He immediately swallowed back the witty words that came to his mouth. in stomach.
"Captain Xu, the 18th Division is calling!" Sai Hongfu rarely used a formal title for Xu Rui, instead of addressing Xu Rui as a beast like before. Xu Rui suddenly felt a shiver in his heart. Something must have happened to the 18th Division.
Sure enough, when he took the telegram and looked at it, it was a farewell message sent by Xiang Tianhu half an hour ago.
Strictly speaking, this telegram was not actually sent to Xu Rui, but from Xiang Tianhu to Tiegang. It had only one meaning, for Tiegang to follow Xu Rui and work well.
Obviously, Xiang Tianhu had foreseen the outcome of the 18o Division before sending the telegram.
Moreover, Xiang Tianhu was not willing to return Tiegang's cavalry battalion, because Xiang Tianhu had understood that after he died in battle and after the entire 18th Division was destroyed, Tiegang's cavalry battalion would be returned to build the 59th Division. The army can only be a poor stepmother's child, with no benefits. If there is any hard work or tiring work, the cavalry battalion will be the first to do it.
Xiang Tianhu didn't want the last remaining seeds of the 18th Division to disappear, so he sent this telegram to Tiegang and asked Tiegang and the cavalry battalion to follow Xu Rui. He used the cavalry battalion to repay the favor. After all, he still owed Xu Rui three hundred tons of supplies. Secondly, Xiang Tianhu also believed that Xu Rui would not treat the cavalry battalion badly.
Although he didn't have much contact with him, Xiang Tianhu could tell that Xu Rui was an upright person.
Moreover, the sectarianism in the mountain tops of the ** troops is much less severe than that of the **. Xiang Tianhu believes that Xu Rui will never treat the cavalry battalion as his stepmother. Without benefits, there is no hard work and tiring work. Leave it all to the cavalry battalion. Xiang Tianhu is more willing to believe that Xu Rui will use the cavalry battalion as a treasure.
It has to be said that Xiang Tianhu really knew Xu Rui's pulse.
Xu Rui immediately sent people to notify the commanders of each army to come to Shaqiao Pier for a meeting.
Xu Rui deliberately did not inform Tiegang because he did not want Tiegang to know so early.
Soon, Wan Zhongshan, Leng Tiefeng, Xiao Yanyue, Wang Husheng, Li Hai, Hei Pi, Cui Jiu, Niu Dazhuang, Xu Dekun and others arrived one after another. Everyone circulated the telegram, and the atmosphere in the conference room became a little solemn. Regardless of No matter how you put it, this is not a good thing for the Chinese. Another elite division capable of conquering and fighting was eaten by the Japanese.
Wang Husheng sighed: "What a good army, just let the little devils eat it up."
Leng Tiefeng said solemnly: "Old Xu, we must not watch the 18th Division being eaten by the Japanese."
Wan Zhongshan said coldly: "The hundreds of thousands of **** on the Huaihe battlefield have been defeated by the Japs. What can our mere brigade do? If we have to move forward, it is nothing more than hundreds of more martyrs."
"Then we can't just ignore it." Leng Tiefeng said, "We must do something."
As he spoke, Leng Tiefeng's eyes turned red. He recalled the tragic scene during the Battle of Songhu, when the officers of the Eight-Country Bank Tax Police Corps fell one by one under Japanese artillery fire. At that time, he wished that a troop would come. To support them, but not even a single regiment of reinforcements came up until the end.
Xiao Yanyue, who was sitting next to Leng Tiefeng, immediately reached out and gently held Leng Tiefeng's big hand.
Leng Tiefeng turned around and saw Xiao Yanyue's tender eyes. The blood in his pupils faded slightly, but the expression on his face was still intense.
Wang Husheng advised: "Comrade Tiefeng, don't get excited. In any case, the 18th Division is our friendly army. Besides, Commander Xiang Tianhu has a good relationship with our captain, so we have to help both publicly and privately." Hand in hand, the question now is how to rescue us. Reckless actions will definitely not work. If we don’t save Commander Xiang and the soldiers of the 18th Division, we will be in vain with more than 800 brothers from our independent brigade, don’t you think so? ?”
Leng Tiefeng finally calmed down because what Wang Husheng said made sense.
If it comes to hard work, the 800 or so people in the Dameishan Independent Brigade are simply not enough for the Japanese to fill their teeth.
As a result, everyone's eyes were focused on Xu Rui, waiting for Xu Rui to make his final decision.
Xu Rui stood up and said calmly but firmly: "There is no need for the main force of the brigade to go. It is useless. I will personally lead the special operations team to Linhuai overnight."
Xu Rui knew very well that with the Battle of Huaihe reaching this point, it was simply impossible to bring out the entire 18o Division. The only thing he could do now was to lead the special operations unit quietly under the cover of night. Crossed the Japanese blockade and rescued Xiang Tianhu and the senior officials of the 18th Division.
Of course, Xu Rui also knew very well that Xiang Tianhu might not follow him by then.
However, then again, whether Xiang Tianhu can leave or not is his business, but whether he can save him or not is his Xu Rui's business. After all, they are brothers, and Xu Rui can't do anything if he refuses to save him. come out.
At this moment, the door of the conference room was pushed open hard.
Immediately, a burly figure strode in.
"Why didn't you inform me? Why did you hide it from me?" Tiegang's expression was extremely ferocious, and his eyes were bloodshot. Half of them were tired from digging tunnels, and the other half were angry because of the sudden bad news, "Brother Xu Rui , since we are going to rescue the division, how can we not have our cavalry battalion? I will take the cavalry battalion with you!"
Xu Rui stared at Tiegang and said solemnly: "You can go, but not the cavalry camp!"
"Why?" Tie Gang roared, "Why can't the cavalry battalion work? Why not?"
"Give him the telegram to Brother Xiang." Xu Rui cooed. Leng Tiefeng immediately picked up the telegram on the table and handed it to Tiegang. After Tiegang read the telegram, he immediately withered because he understood Xiang Tian. Hu's intentions, Xiang Tianhu clearly wanted to keep the cavalry battalion as the seed of the Northwest Army. How could he lead the cavalry battalion to die
With a sigh, Tiegang said miserably: "Then I will go with you alone."
"That's okay." Xu Rui nodded, "Take care of yourself and leave in five minutes!"
Tie Gang stood at attention, saluted, then turned around and hurried away. (To be continued.)