Chapter 25: Counter-Encirclement and Annihilation (II)

  "What are your thoughts after seeing the intelligence from the reconnaissance company?" Liu Hua asked.

  "Comrade Commander, I think we should attack one of the routes, defeat them thoroughly, and if possible, annihilate them. This way, the enemy will likely retreat. During our time in the Soviet area, several times we broke through encirclements were like this. And every time we succeeded." The newly appointed Regimental Commander Wang Nanhu spoke up first.

  "Sir, I agree with Captain Wang, let's strike the enemy decisively and take them down all at once." Gao Yuan also said.

  "Since everyone agrees, I also agree with Captain Wang's words. Let's take a look at that road." Liu Hua saw that Wang Nanhu's opinion was recognized by the majority of people, and he himself thought so too, so he made up his mind.

  "Attack the 21st Division, the 21st Division has the least number of troops, it's best to attack." Wang Nanhu grabbed first place again.

  Liu Hua didn't say a word and just smiled. He looked at the political commissar who had been silent all along, as well as Sun Xingbang, the battalion commander. "Commissar, what do you think?" Liu Hua asked.

  "Just now everyone said that one of the routes would be heavily attacked, so the other troops must retreat. I agree, but I think if we attack the 21st Division, I don't know whether Zhou Hengyuan's 1st and 3rd Divisions will retreat or not." The political commissar expressed his own thoughts.

  "Director Sun, what's your idea?"

  "Report to our superior, I agree with Commissar's opinion. I think we should attack Zhou Hengyuan's 1st Division." said Sun Battalion Commander definitely.

  "Go on, tell me."

  "Yes, sir. According to intelligence, Zhou Hunyuan's 1st Division is marching directly towards Xing'an and can then attack us directly. However, his 3rd Division cannot do so; their line of advance is along the river, clearly intending to march from Zhuzhou. In that case, they will have to take a detour of several days. This gives us enough time to attack the 1st Division. Another aspect is that the terrain from Xing'an to Chaling is very suitable for an ambush."

  "Yes, the analysis is very good. I also agree with attacking Zhou Yunyuan's 1st division. Do comrades have any other opinions?"

  Seeing the cadres below shaking their heads, Liu Hua ordered: "Well, since everyone has no opinion, I will decide to attack the 1st Division. The troops will leave three guards and all others will depart from Chaling to Xingan to hide in the vicinity of Chaling. After reconnaissance is completed, I will arrange specific tasks. The troops will eat dinner at 9 o'clock tonight and leave the city."

  "Also, the reconnaissance company was fully mobilized to inspect suitable ambush locations from Chaling to Xing'an and monitor the enemy's three routes, paying particular attention to the 1st Division, and report any situation immediately."

  After a night march, the troops had already moved more than 70 miles away from Chaling. Liu Hua ordered the troops to rest and hide in place, while he and the political commissar followed the reconnaissance company's route with several guards.

  "Superior, this is a perfect place for an ambush," the commissar sighed as he looked at the terrain.

  "Commissar, this is a good place for an ambush, but we can't set up an ambush here. If the enemy sends out scouts or search parties, we'll have nowhere to hide! We must think of a way."

  "Report to the team leader, the reconnaissance company reports that the 1st Division has set out from Xing'an, divided into three echelons, with each echelon spaced 10 li apart, and is still about 40 li away from here."

  "So fast! It seems that Old Chiang is going to fight desperately." Liu Hua did not relax his furrowed brow due to the political commissar's words, and quietly thought about the past and present examples of warfare that he knew.

  "Liu Hua suddenly blurted out a word, giving the political commissar a big fright."

  "That's right, it's a truncation." Liu Hua exclaimed happily.

  Seeing the political commissar looking at him with a curious face, Liu Hua quickly told his idea to Li Qing. After listening, Li Qing was amazed and praised the teacher for being clever, saying that this method is good.

  "Immediately order the commanders of all units to come to a meeting." Liu Hua immediately ordered the communication officer.

  Soon everyone who was supposed to be there had arrived.

  "Due to the urgency of time, I won't say more. Now assign combat tasks: Comrade Sun will lead one regiment back to a location 50 li away from Chaling, choose favorable terrain, and set up an ambush position. You must adopt a layered defense, don't engage in a fierce battle in one place, set up multiple defensive lines, the sniper company's first platoon will follow your actions, and six heavy machine guns from the heavy firepower company will be allocated to reinforce you. Act immediately."

  "Yes, sir." He then directly walked out of the command center.

  "The second and third battalions are hiding nearby, after the enemy's first two echelons pass by, we will immediately set up an ambush position. We will ambush the enemy's third echelon, and the remaining two platoons of the sniper company will be deployed to the two battalions. Remember, we must be like when we ambushed the 21st Division, we must give full play to our firepower, all heavy firepower is arranged on the first line, and machine guns and mortars are concentrated and pre-measured design angles, requiring no dead ends. We must defeat the enemy in the first time, giving them no chance to resist. Did you hear that?"

  "Got it."

  "Alright, arrange for the troops to hide immediately, the enemy will arrive soon. Remember, you must wait until after the first and second echelons have passed, and only come out to set up an ambush position after receiving notification." As he watched the cadres file out one by one, Liu Hua's tightly wound heart finally relaxed.

  "Comrade commander, the enemy has arrived." The political commissar reminded him, at this time Liu Hua was lying on a mountain slope two miles away from the highway. Liu Hua raised his binoculars and indeed, the enemy was very cautious, with scouts sent out one mile away from the highway. The vanguard of the enemy army, about 4,000 men, marched in two columns in an orderly manner, and it took them half an hour to disappear from Liu Hua's line of sight.

  Liu Hua saw that the enemy army had gone far away and sat down: "Commissar, you said we won this time after breaking through the siege. What should we do now?"

  "If we win, I think we'll drive the enemy back to the Soviet area and rebuild our base. What do you think?" The political commissar smiled in response, seeing that Liu Hua was already thinking about what would happen after victory.

  Liu Hua listened and didn't say a word, just smiled. Because he knew that in the future war of resistance, the Red Army troops in the south would be reorganized into the New Fourth Army, and finally, under the leadership of Xiang Ying, they were almost completely annihilated by the Nationalist Party. Liu Hua did not want to see his hard-earned troops destroyed there, so he had to think of a way to get to Shaanbei. For several days, Liu Hua had been thinking about this problem, and following the main force was definitely impossible. Finally, Liu Hua thought of the 26th Army Corps, which was active in western Hunan.

  The commissar didn't know what Liu Hua was thinking, and seeing him so absorbed in thought, he said nothing more and walked towards the hidden troops, leaving Liu Hua alone to think quietly.

  "Commander, the enemy's second echelon is coming." The guard next to him pulled Liu Hua, who was in a trance.

  Looking at the enemy's second echelon through the telescope, a smile appeared on Liu Hua's mouth. Because the enemy in his eyes not only did not send out scouts but also didn't have vanguard troops, how could Liu Hua not smile?

  The political commissar of the patrol team quietly came to Liu Hua's side, saw the scene in front of him, and gave Liu Hua a thumbs up. Liu Hua nodded after seeing it.

  The waiting time passed so slowly, and finally the second echelon of enemy troops left Liu Hua's line of sight. After hearing the scout's signal that it was safe, Liu Hua immediately ordered his troops to build an ambush position.

  After all troops lay quietly on the array, scouts brought back the latest intelligence that the enemy would enter the ambush circle in 20 minutes. Liu Hua immediately ordered the troops to prepare for battle.

  As time passed minute by minute, the enemy finally appeared in sight. Looking at the approaching enemy, Liu Hua quietly loaded his rifle and aimed at the first enemy soldier.

  "Commander, rear guard reporting, enemy troops have all entered the ambush circle." Due to several consecutive victories, Liu Hua's troops had already set up field telephones for communication.

  "Liu Hua" fired the first shot of the ambush, and with the sound of gunfire, the artillery position that had been prepared for a long time immediately fired the first round of 24 shells. All the heavy machine guns and light machine guns spewed out tongues of fire that reaped lives.

  The shells landed accurately in the marching column, instantly stirring up waves of blood rain. The dense marching column had 24 large holes, and the sound of light and heavy machine guns made the soldiers on both sides fall down row by row. The division commander was even more unlucky, and before he saw his enemy, he was torn apart by the first round of artillery fire.

  Machine guns kept spitting out tongues of fire, mortars continuously fired deadly shells. As the number of mobile soldiers below decreased, the long-awaited charge sounded, and the warriors roared out of the trenches, charging towards the enemy.

  This battle was a foregone conclusion for Liu Hua's independent division, and soon the results were counted: "The enemy army was completely annihilated, with more than 4,300 people killed or wounded in one regiment and another division, and more than 800 people captured. A large number of weapons and ammunition were seized, and statistics are being compiled. In addition, more than 40 vehicles from the enemy's logistics department were seized. Our side suffered more than 150 casualties, including 80 deaths."

  Hearing such a result, Liu Hua did not say anything, but ordered the troops to speed up the cleanup of the battlefield, and all prisoners were handed over to the new barracks for management.

  "Reporting to superiors, the enemy's second echelon is reinforcing and is still 8 li away from here."

  "Good, just in time. Order the 3rd battalion of the 3rd regiment to stay behind and clean up the battlefield. All troops advance two miles forward to ambush the enemy's second echelon. Make haste."

  "Immediately send a telegram to Comrade Sun, telling him that no matter what he must hold up the enemy's first echelon and not allow them to reinforce their second echelon."

  Upon hearing the commander's order, the political commissar was shocked. "My goodness! The commander is going to annihilate an entire enemy division!" However, he didn't raise any objections to the commander's order because he knew that his young commander was someone who only took advantage of opportunities and never took risks.

  Just as Liu Hua launched the ambush, Colonel Sun also saw the enemy's vanguard and ordered the sniper squad to take out the enemy scouts before his own regiment entered the blocking position.

  The commander of the enemy vanguard regiment saw that one of his platoons was instantly knocked down by a burst of machine gun fire, and immediately ordered his troops to stop advancing and build artillery and heavy machine gun positions. Because through analysis of the bodies of the soldiers who had been killed in the sword fight, he knew that he must have encountered a strong enemy. However, he did not expect that when Old Sun saw the enemy and did not attack but instead stopped to prepare for an artillery bombardment, he immediately ordered his troops to withdraw from their positions, leaving behind only a few squads to observe, and ordered his heavy firepower company's 4 mortars to target the enemy artillery position.