Chapter 19 of Part I

  The battle of Jing'an ended in a calm manner, and I immediately ordered Yang Kun and others to follow the regulations for treating prisoners of war. Although we didn't subject him to severe punishment, we still assigned over a dozen soldiers to 'protect' him. Our supply line has been extended quite far now. Originally, supplies from the headquarters would arrive within 10 days or so, but now the headquarters is facing several tens of thousands of Mingzhou's army, watching them with great vigilance. After receiving a telegram assuring us of their safety, they didn't mention anything about supplies again. The only thing we received was some machinery and equipment for building military factories. In this situation, I could only send a telegram to Lei Feng, asking him to quickly occupy the Yichun area and connect with our side. Our troops have already retreated outside Jing'an city, and my guard battalion is temporarily in charge of maintaining order in Jing'an. We are also governing this area according to the old Tonggu pattern. At first, the common people didn't dare believe that we would let them elect their own 'parent officials'. After they elected a five-member management committee, I began to focus on developing Jing'an, especially its porcelain production, which has reached 50 million tons. I considered creating another Jingdezhen here. I only said a few words to them: "Now you are all common people who have been elected by the common people themselves, which means that the common people highly respect and trust you. However, you must remember that you are not the 'parent officials' of the common people; you are serving the common people." Those who were elected immediately expressed their determination to do a good job for the common people, and I smiled and said: "You don't need to say such things in front of me; we have a strict supervisory committee. If there is any corruption, you will have to come and apologize to the common people with your heads bowed." Those few people instinctively touched their own heads. I continued: "Your salary, which was previously called 'official stipend', is 30 taels of silver per month. This is the monthly stipend of a county official in the Qing dynasty; our local officials are considered well-paid. The highest salary among our military officers is only 5 taels of silver." Those people looked at me and hastily said: "We don't dare to accept such a high stipend." I smiled and said: "This matter needs to be resolved first, so that you can solve the difficulties in your own families. How else can you focus on doing things for the common people?" Those few people nodded and said: "Yes, yes." I stood up and said: "Let's talk about this later; you go back and focus on completing the tasks I assigned to you earlier. As for how to implement policies in the future, it's up to you to think about it." Those few people stood up and said: "Please rest assured, sir; we will not betray the trust of the common people."

  Here is the translation:

  The people of Jiangxi are still very opposed to the Qing dynasty. In the past, General Jin Xingheng of Jiangxi surrendered to the Qing within half a year but rebelled against them within half a month and occupied more than ten cities in Jiangxi. Later, he was suppressed, but if it is said that there is no foundation in Jiangxi, it would be impossible to occupy so many cities in such a short period. It seems that the people of Jiangxi still have no good feelings towards the Qing dynasty.

  This has brought great convenience to our occupation and consolidation of power in Jiangxi after we occupied it. Now, the land revolution is being carried out smoothly in some areas of our occupied territory in Jiangxi. The enthusiasm of the peasants has risen to an unprecedented level.

  At this time, Zhou Lun excitedly ran in and said, "Ah Xiao, good news! Good news!" I asked, "What's the good news? You're so excited." Zhou Lun handed me two telegrams and said, "Look."

  I took the first telegram from his hand, which read: "Telegram to Ah Xiao, Alun, Xu Jin. I am Xiao Ying. How are you recently? Are your bodies healthy? I heard that you have achieved great success in Hunan, and I envy you. Let's talk about official business. I have a piece of good news to report. I have established a division in Sichuan, with Yue Yulon as the commander and me as the political commissar. The number of people and organization are roughly the same as yours. Our army has defeated Wu Sangui's general, Feng Quan, and Hu Guodong's 30,000 Qing soldiers, temporarily repelling the enemy's attack. Now, western Sichuan is in our hands. Unfortunately, Wu Sangui was eaten by you. What a pity! Next time, I will catch Hong Chengchou or Li Dingguo. Xu Jin, September 5th."

  I read the two telegrams in one breath and said, "Alun, unexpectedly, this Xu Jin is really capable of managing things. I think his plan can be implemented. In this way, we will occupy the granary of the two lakes, and the Qing dynasty's occupied territory will only be the Jiangnan region. The grain production in the Jiangnan region has been severely affected by Shunzhi's cruel policies, so the output is not very high. Soon, the Qing army will fall into a state of no grain, and our logistics supply can keep up with them. At that time, we can directly send troops to recover the rivers and mountains, which is imminent."

  Alun nodded and said, "Yes, the Yangzhou massacre on the 10th has lost the hearts of the people in the Jiangnan region. As long as we can fight past it, I think it will be easy to recover soon." Zhou Lun said, "Since the Fourth Field Army has been established, I think we can let Yi Tianxing go to the Fourth Army as the commander, and the political commissar is still the original third team's political commissar. We can leave the chief of staff behind and have Xu Jin find a suitable person on his side. In this way, we can form an army, which will be the First Army."

  I said, "This matter will be announced tomorrow. Today, let's discuss some specific details. I think it is possible to recruit soldiers in Jiangxi and Hunan again. Now we have the ability to support these soldiers. The military factories in Changsha and Yueyang are also working day and night to manufacture weapons. I think we can use them."

  Zhou Lun thought for a moment and said, "Then let the Fourth Field Army be an independent division and let Xu Jin establish an army based on this. We will establish an army based on the First Division here. Lei Feng is very happy about it. The other day, he sent me a telegram saying that many people in Xiangxiang wanted to join the army but were rejected by him." I nodded and said, "Yes, let's do it according to your plan. However, there is one more thing: ask the logistics department to prepare the things we need here, and also mobilize the merchants in Yueyang to go outside to purchase a large amount of grain as our logistical support. If not, the soldiers will have no food, which would be a waste."

  New orders were quickly issued, and Yi Tianxing and his political commissar Wu Shuang had already gone to Changsha to take up their posts. The new regimental commander was the original deputy regimental commander Zhang Lian Sheng. The political commissar was Li Ke Ming, a battalion commander from the second term of the Yueyang Military Academy. The chief of staff was still He Lan Xing.

  After our recruitment notice was posted, the people of Tonggu and Jing'an gave us great support, and many sent their children to join us, including some girls. Our soldiers had to pretend to consider whether they could enter the propaganda team.

  Refugees from Guizhou and Sichuan who had suffered greatly in the war also came to sign up, because at least in the army they would have food to eat. After more than ten days of strict examination and selection at over 30 recruitment centers in Tonggu, Jing'an, Xiushui, Mubishan, and Yueyang, the first and second regiments were now full, and the third regiment had recruited over 10,000 people.

  The soldiers were distributed to the newly established military camps outside Jing'an City, with the principle of pairing old and new soldiers together. This way, new soldiers could receive more ideological education from the old soldiers.

  According to our investigation, most of the participants were illiterate, so we had to spend some time teaching them to read and write. After a long period of training and combat, we summarized a practical method of drill, and the combat effectiveness of the new soldiers was also improved. Although they were not as strong as the former elite troops, overall they were no longer easily defeated.

  I formally sent a telegram to the headquarters requesting the establishment of the First Army, and the headquarters replied in the first instance, but with one principle: the headquarters currently had no supplies to provide.

  The situation with Lei Feng was also good. In Pingxiang, apart from the necessary miners, they recruited over 10,000 new soldiers and established a new division, the Wild Field Second Division. Wang Hu was appointed as the division commander and political commissar. They merged with the Wild Field Fourth Division in Changsha to form the Chinese People's Liberation Army Wild Field Second Army, with Lei Feng as the army commander and Wu Shuang as the political commissar.

  Yi Tianxing was appointed as the army chief of staff, and Wang Hu was appointed as the deputy army commander. On our side, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Wild Field First Army was established, with me as the army commander and concurrently as the commander of the First Army Group composed of the first and second armies.

  I was awarded the rank of major general, Zhou Lun was appointed as the group political commissar and concurrently as the first army political commissar, and Xiao Ran was appointed as the army chief of staff. Other military officers were promoted one level in their original units, and a new system of military ranks was implemented.

  The soldiers looked at the new military ranks and compared them with each other to see who could get the rank of Xiao Ran. I smiled and said, "Let's go out and hold a grand ceremony for the whole army."

  Looking at the sea of people below, I suppressed my emotions and said, "Comrades, today I don't need to say much more. Let me just repeat one thing: our army is called the Chinese People's Liberation Army, what does it mean? It means that we are a military force established for the liberation of all China from the oppression of the Nationalist Party.

  We must strive for the goal of driving out the Nationalists and restoring China. Have you heard?" The voices below responded loudly, "Drive out the Nationalists, restore China!"

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