Chapter Twenty-Four: Heart-to-Heart Talk

  Chen Haisong was now facing enemies on both sides, he let out a short knife, lifted his leg and kicked, Ma Xiu barely blocked the kick with his body, but tightly hugged Chen's leg without letting go, while behind him, Ma Yuanhai had turned around, a fist as big as a bowl came with a whistling sound, rushing straight at Chen Haisong's back.

  Chen Haisong exerted himself to move forward, Ma Xiu used force to charge forward. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chen Haisong borrowed the strength of Ma Xiu and jumped up, standing on Ma Xiu's waist, with his hind legs swinging outwards and kicking backwards, hitting Ma Yuanhai's huge head right in the middle. Ma Yuanhai, who was charging forward with concentrated force, immediately fell backwards.

  Ma Xiang hastily let go, swinging his knife to stab Chen Haisong's abdomen. The knife had only stabbed halfway when the leg that kicked Ma Yuanhai down returned in front of Ma Xiang. With a crisp sound, Ma Xiang's chin was kicked by the foot, and he violently leaned back, his body sent flying out.

  Chen Haisong was in mid-air, took a step to the right, landed behind three guards who were attacking a warrior, swung his palm and cut down, the three immediately fell.

  Two guards were attacking a warrior, who was forced to retreat repeatedly and then charged forward, swinging his hands and kicking his legs in a flurry of motion, sending the two guards flying several meters away.

  At this moment, a sudden killing intent struck, and he hastily dodged to the right, avoiding Ma Yuanhai's incoming short knife. He counterattacked towards Ma Yuanhai's back, but Ma Yuanhai turned around and kicked him. Their legs collided, and they both retreated.

  Ma Yuanhai's eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at Chen Haisong. This man had a venomous gaze, was full of treacherous plots, and his military power was invisible. He was ruthless in his methods, making him the greatest enemy of our army. He must be eliminated immediately, otherwise, he will definitely become a great threat to us.

  He hated the red bandit leader extremely, and did not dare to confront him openly. Instead, he repeatedly launched sneak attacks from behind, annihilating one of my militia units and two regular regiments. He also deceived me into trusting him, seized our main base, cut off our army's food and ammunition supplies, and now has even invaded the headquarters of my vanguard command post. This made him, who had always regarded himself as a war god, seethe with hatred and determined to destroy him utterly.

  He took a few deep breaths, spitting out a mouthful of blood foam. With a stamp of his foot, his left leg whipped around in a kick, and the dagger in his right hand stabbed out again.

  A warrior engaging in a duel fears getting angry or flustered, for at that moment he has sunk to the level of a raging bull.

  Chen Haisong did not retreat but instead advanced, and just as he was about to kick, he suddenly crouched down, his hands supporting the ground, with his left foot as the axis, his right leg swept out a "back sweep hall leg".

  Ma Yuanhai, who was in a daze, didn't even have time to react before his sturdy body fell backwards again, kicking up a cloud of dust.

  The battle in the courtyard ended with Ma Yuanhai's fall, after all, the scouts were selected from old soldiers with martial arts skills, and there were not many guards in the command post, and Chen Haisong had knocked down a few of the most capable ones, leaving not enough for the warriors to share.

  Apart from the guards who were knocked to the ground, all others who had no combat capability and were unarmed were pushed aside and raised their hands under the muzzles of the rifles.

  Chen Haisong did not take the opportunity to subdue Ma Yuanhai, but instead slowly walked up to him and kicked away the short knife beside his hand. This was the seven-inch safety knife that Ma Xiao had used earlier, which had been dropped on the ground after being injured and then picked up by Ma Yuanhai. It looked very exquisite.

  Chen Haisong squatted in front of Ma Yuanhai and said softly, "General Ma is not convinced? Then get up, let's continue fighting."

  Ma Yuanhai twisted his body, propped himself up with both hands, and sat up to look at the situation of his subordinates. He sighed, shook his head, and said helplessly: "Can't beat you, not fighting anymore."

  Chen Haisong saw a glimmer of expectation in his unwilling eyes and asked, "Are you waiting for the four battalions of soldiers to come and rescue you?"

  "I think you'd better give up now, since there hasn't been a single gunshot sound until now. I reckon my troops have already finished the battle."

  Ma Yuanhai looked disbelieving, and continued: "I brought a logistics battalion to deliver supplies, at this moment they should have already taken care of the guards in your company."

  Also bring a guard battalion and a reconnaissance company to help you defend, I have dispatched one company for each of your battalions. By now, you should also be in control of your subordinates. The results will come soon."

  "A whole company can take down a battalion without even firing a shot? You think I'm an idiot?"

  "Otherwise I'd say your military quality is low, don't you know that seizing the opportunity is key in battle?"

  All of your people go to the courtyard for worship, without taking guns or bringing knives. My soldiers only need to go to the barracks to collect their weapons and then wait with their guns until they return.

  "A whole battalion armed to the teeth can't even subdue a few hundred unarmed farmers, I'd rather surrender directly to you."

  Ma Yuanhai was hesitant and uncertain when Zhang Zhenyu led thirty or forty people into the temple from outside, and the accompanying guards quickly dispersed to carry out their vigilance duties.

  Radio personnel entered the radio room under the guidance of scouts from the reconnaissance company.

  "Reporting to the political commissar, our army has completely taken over Dongshilipu Village. All positions and barracks have been cleared, with no one escaping. The exact number of personnel and weapons is being counted."

  Chen Haisong took a look at Ma Yuanhai, who was shocked, and said to Zhang Zhenyu: "First, order the troops to take stock of all items in the warehouses and barracks, load them onto vehicles and take them away.

  Two, gather three regiments of militia to enter the village and assist the front-line headquarters in moving to Zhangye City.

  Third, send a telegram to Xining and the front line troops, stating that there are more bandits in the southeastern part of Zhangye, for safety reasons, the Front Line Command will move to Zhangye City from this afternoon, and the defense of Zhangye City will be jointly undertaken by the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of Hainan and Ma Quanyi's division.

  Dong Shili Pu Village was defended by the Xunhua Militia.

  Ma Yuanhai sat on the ground, listening to Chen Haisong setting up the maze array. He estimated that many troops would suffer losses later on, and his nose was crooked with anger, but what could he do? He could only sigh long and short.

  Chen Haisong stretched out his hand, grabbed Ma Yuanhai's arm and pulled him up from the ground, dusting off the dirt for him, and supported him as he walked into the command post office to sit down.

  Pouring tea, handing over a towel, muttering in his mouth: "Old people are not capable of tendons and bones, you're good, almost 50 years old and still comparing fists and feet with me, a 23-year-old young man, getting injured and having to be served by me, it's really!"

  Chen Haisong also ignored Ma Yuanhai's murderous gaze and shouted outside: "Zhenyu, come in with Zhang Shizhi, the chief of staff."

  He plopped himself down beside Ma Yuanhai, lifted up his quilted pants to examine his leg, and began complaining again: "You say you've lost, just admit defeat, but no, you're not willing to concede, and now you're looking for someone to fight to the death. Look at my leg, it's all bruised even through the quilted pants! At your age, you still have such a bad temper, honestly!"

  Chen Haisheng nodded and the two people who came in sat down. Zhang Zhenyu reported: "After summarizing the data from each unit, and verifying with Chief of Staff Zhang, the battle results are as follows:"

  The entire personnel of the Hainan Garrison Cavalry Second Brigade and Ma Jiajun's frontline command post were captured, with no one escaping, totaling 1,483 people. Twelve machine guns, more than 600 rifles, a shotgun, 200 pistols, 1,300 war horses, 300 pack horses, food, ammunition, radio stations, and other materials were seized. There were no deaths on either side, only dozens of people were injured.

  Chen Haisong complained to Ma Yuanhai, "You're a frontline commander-in-chief and a majestic brigade leader, how come you only have this few people under your command? Did they all hide because they knew I was coming?"

  "Director Chen is unaware that although the Hainan Garrison Brigade has a two-regiment configuration, it is located in a remote area and lacks military rations. The First Regiment was originally composed of Mongolian flag soldiers and was usually an empty shell. This time, they didn't even bother to replenish it, leaving only the regimental commander Guo Huanrou and a dozen or so people from the regimental headquarters. The Second Regiment, led by Regimental Commander Li Zengyin, has four battalions with over 1,300 men. Adding the frontline command post and logistics company, that's all there is."

  Chen Haisong nodded and said to Ma Yuanhai: "I say, General Ma, our Red Army and your Ma's army don't have any deep grudges or hatred towards each other. We are all Chinese people, we are all Chinese soldiers. It's just that we happened to pass by and meet each other, but not even a greeting was exchanged before you started firing at us. We've been fighting for three months now, and we've lost five or six thousand men. I'm sure your side isn't doing much better either."

  "It's exhausting the people and draining their wealth, bringing harm to innocent lives. It's a huge loss for both sides, for the common people, and for the country. What are we doing?"

  Ma Yuanhai said gruffly, "You people from the south don't stay in your own place, you don't go to northern Shaanxi, but come to our territory to grab a share. If we don't drive you away, should we treat you with Huangjiu instead?"

  "Older brother, it's not right to say that. Those who use military force to conquer and violently suppress others to get a piece of land are warlords."

  All warlords are only themselves, without a country, only an army, and no civilians. As the times develop and society progresses, more and more people have come to realize that the root cause of China's poverty and backwardness since the Republic of China is that the government has been unable to stop the warlords' division and wars between them.

  All human and material resources were used to fight each other, unable to develop education, unable to develop industry, unable to solve rural poverty, unable to build military industry, unable to build a modernized powerful army, resulting in national weakness, decline of national prestige, and the covetous gaze of foreign powers.

  So, since the Northern Expedition, the purpose of the Chinese Revolution has been to eliminate warlords, eliminate all states within a state, implement unified political, economic and diplomatic policies, establish an army and government that are not controlled by private individuals or small groups, achieve equality among regions and ethnicities, and allow people across the country to live and work in peace and contentment.

  This is the general trend and will be a major feature of China in the future.

  So, considering Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia as your group's forbidden territory, not allowing others to intervene, the practice of who hits whom is really selfish and very dangerous.

  Once a country has a strong government, will it still allow you to monopolize one side?

  Will you also be allowed to maintain large private armies in order to maintain control over local areas?

  "Will you still allow yourselves to cruelly oppress various ethnic groups in order to maintain your army?"

  The second update is here. Many friends are not familiar with the Western Road Army, and there are some different understandings. The introduction of Ice Snow will be interspersed in later chapters. Thank you for everyone's attention.