Chapter 29: Pre-War Military Training

  "Comrades, today we have called everyone together to inform you of some matters and to arrange the combat tasks for our independent regiment in the near future. Seeing that all of your moods are so good, Commissar, please make the announcement!" Liu Hua said to the battalion-level cadres in front of him.

  "Yes, sir." The political commissar stood up with a draft reorganization plan already prepared.

  "Comrades, after being approved by the Military Commission of the Revolutionary Committee, the division commander proposed to conduct a unified reorganization of the entire division. Now I will read out the reorganization plan:"

  One: The Heavy Firepower Regiment was disbanded, and 36 mortars captured this time were used to form three mortar companies, which were formed into an artillery regiment. Chen Guangrong was appointed as the regiment commander. Under the artillery regiment, there was a logistics company responsible for transporting shells, all equipped with light weapons, with a total of 500 people in the whole regiment. The missing personnel were supplemented by captured soldiers and Red Army soldiers who could fire cannons from Jinggangshan.

  Second: Formed a heavy machine gun battalion, under which there were three companies with 12 heavy machine guns each. The original deputy commander of the Heavy Firepower Battalion, Zhu Ping, served as the battalion commander, and the entire battalion had a total of 300 people.

  Three: The new recruit camp was changed to a new recruit regiment, under the jurisdiction of three camps. 150 soldiers who came from Jinggangshan formed the backbone, supplemented by 850 captured soldiers and the original 500 people, forming a new recruit regiment with 1,500 people under its jurisdiction, equipped with light weapons, each camp set up a machine gun platoon with 4 heavy machine guns. He Tie served as the regiment commander, and Comrade Peng Qing served as the deputy regiment commander.

  Four: Require each of the first, second and third regiments to establish an artillery company with 8 mortars, a logistics company directly under the regiment, a guard company, a reconnaissance company, and a sniper platoon. Each battalion establishes a machine gun platoon with 4 heavy machine guns, a guard platoon, and a reconnaissance platoon. In other words, each regiment needs to expand its troops to reach the division commander's requirement of 3,000 people, with 500 soldiers from the Red Army's First Regiment in Jinggangshan supplementing the first regiment, and the second and third regiments each supplemented by 300 soldiers, with the remaining vacancies filled by captured soldiers.

  Five: The instructor's direct guard company was promoted to a guard regiment, with Li Xiaolong as the regimental commander, and the reconnaissance company was promoted to a reconnaissance regiment, with Liu Xiaogang as the regimental commander. Each of them had 300 people under their command, and the personnel shortage was mainly made up by selecting soldiers from the Red Army in Jinggangshan.

  Six: The remaining captives are all handed over to the logistics camp for management, and the logistics camp is not limited in number. The sniper company remains unchanged.

  That's all

  Looking at the officials below with a surprised face, the political commissar reminded them.

  "Commander, Political Commissar, if so, how many people are there in the whole division?" Regiment Commander Sun Xingbang asked with his mouth agape.

  "Not many, in total there are over 12,000 people," Liu Hua said with a smile as he looked at their shocked expressions.

  "My goodness, this is already a lot, it's almost as many as the main force of an army corps. My mother, I'm still just a regiment commander, but I'm more powerful than a division commander." Gaoyuan sighed.

  Seeing the surprised faces, Liu Hua reminded: "Comrades, don't be stunned, lift your spirits. Do you have confidence in leading your own troops well? If not, I'll withdraw you directly today. My independent division has many people who can lead troops."

  Everyone's spirits lifted as they watched their squad leader gaze at them with a serious expression.

  "Alright, since everyone has confidence in me, I believe in you all. I declare that during this period of time, our independent regiment will not have any combat tasks. However, you must train the troops well within this timeframe, especially those newly recruited prisoners of war who have just joined the Red Army. From today on, we no longer have prisoner soldiers; they are all our comrades. I give you one day to complete the troop's organization and personnel. Choose people and equipment as needed. In short, starting from tomorrow morning, I require the entire regiment, except for the reconnaissance battalion which will be on high alert, to begin a ten-day intensive training period by company units. During this time, each soldier is allowed to fire ten rounds of ammunition. I will conduct surprise inspections with the political commissar at various troops during this period, so you must train the troops seriously and complete combat tasks."

  "Comrades, the instructor has already said what needs to be said. You must organize your troops and start training as soon as possible. We currently have no shortage of weapons or ammunition, but what we lack is rich combat experience and qualified soldiers. We cannot let our instructor down, nor can we let the Party Central Committee down. Comrades, do you have confidence?" The political commissar continued to say.

  Exist

  "Well, we await the good news from our comrades, meeting adjourned."

  "Master, I feel like I'm dreaming! There are so many people under my command?" Seeing the cadres all walking out of the conference room, the political commissar patted his own head and said.

  "Haha, Commissar, you're not dreaming. In the future, our troops will continue to grow and develop, and only then will you realize that you were indeed dreaming!" Liu Hua said with a smile to the shocked-looking commissar.

  From the second day on, the independent regiment's camps began to bustle with activity. Some were shouting slogans and practicing bayonet drills, while others practiced grenade throwing... Watching the soldiers of the first battalion train with such ferocity, Liu Hua couldn't help but want to join in on the action. After consulting with the political commissar, he picked up a rifle and started practicing bayonet drills as well. It's worth noting that the bayonet drills Liu Hua was practicing were no ordinary drills - they were the culmination of years of battlefield experience distilled into their most essential form by the Liberation Army. The battalion commander and regimental commander present at the scene immediately recognized the power behind them, their eyes widening in surprise.

  "Master, where did you learn this embroidery technique?"

  "Hehe, you say that, hehe... This is the experience I summed up after fighting with the enemy many times." Liu Hua said hesitantly.

  "Master, can you tell us the key points of the movement? I saw that your method of wielding a dagger is quite different, but very lethal."

  Liu Hua broke out in a cold sweat, "When can..."

  Under Liu Hua's leadership, the entire battalion began to follow their instructor and practice spear fighting. Soon, most of the soldiers had mastered the techniques and started training each other. Seeing how seriously the soldiers took their spear fighting, Liu Hua decided to teach them the "Three Threes" tactics summarized by later military gods.

  "The so-called 3-3 tactics is to adopt a triangular formation of three people in a group when charging or attacking; three groups as one team... Listening to the regimental commander and battalion commander, etc., they all exclaimed "good". After finishing speaking, he ordered the training to begin. The soldiers were not the original old guards of the Red Tenth Regiment, but they quickly learned it. Seeing that the soldiers' enthusiasm was so high, Liu Hua nodded in approval."

  "Director Sun, go to the first camp and find some soldiers with a good foundation. Promote the tactics of bayonet fighting and charging to the entire division. Make sure that the independent division masters it." Liu Hua said.

  "Yes, Captain, I will definitely complete the task." Liu Hua nodded.

  Watching the warriors train with great enthusiasm, some of them even took off their cotton-padded uniforms, Liu Hua almost shed tears "What good warriors, for their own dreams, abandoning their families, training to the death."

  "By the way, Commissar, with such a large amount of training for the soldiers, how is their food?" Liu Hua asked, turning his head to ask the commissar as he thought of the soldiers' hard work.

  "Master, it's great. There is enough rice every day, which is much better than when we were in the Soviet Union."

  "No, Commissar, the soldiers' training load is too heavy, just eating rice won't do, Commissar, approve a portion of foreign currency and hand it over to the cooking squad, let them buy more fat pigs in the nearby area, require the soldiers to have two meals of pork every day."

  "Yes, sir, I'll go and take care of it right away." Liu Hua nodded in satisfaction.

  "That's right, Commissar, we should have a lot of ocean now!" Liu Hua suddenly thought of something.

  "Yes, sir. Last time we seized several hundred million, but so far only a few tens of thousands have been used." The political commissar looked at Liu Hua with puzzled eyes, not knowing what his partner was thinking again.

  "There are still so many, Commissar, think of a way to exchange all these taels for gold, even small goldfish would do, isn't there a money house in Chaling? If it can't be exchanged here, then go to another county town, the key is to hurry up, leave 1.5 million taels for the division and exchange the rest away." Liu Hua thought of the future Long March, the fiat currency that was about to be issued, knowing that only gold and silver were the most valuable, unfortunately, silver was too heavy, it's more convenient to exchange for gold.

  "Commander, why must we exchange for gold!" The political commissar still didn't understand what his commander was thinking.

  "Commissar, we won't be able to stay here for long and will have to transfer. How can we fight with so many oceans in the way? Gold is different, it's convenient." Liu Hua said quietly to the commissar, because the meeting between the whole army and the 26th Army Corps had not been made public.

  The political commissar nodded his head and admired his superior even more, thinking that he had thought of everything.

  "Moreover, Commissar, now each regiment has a logistics company. You can allocate 10,000 yuan to each regiment and require them to stockpile 2,000 sets of cotton military uniforms and bedding. Additionally, Hunan is rich in cured meat, so we request that each regiment's logistics company stock up as much as possible. The division's logistics battalion should also do the same, requiring them to stockpile 5,000 sets of cotton military uniforms and bedding before our action, while also collecting a large amount of cured meat and other food." Liu Hua thought back to the harsh orders of the Red Army crossing the grasslands and the 26th Corps.

  "Yes, sir," The political commissar, although he didn't know why his superior gave such an order, believed that the order must be correct and resolutely carried it out.

  In this way, under the stimulation of pork every day, each warrior trained with a loud cry. Now the combat effectiveness of the entire division can be said to have made a qualitative leap. Looking at the continuously strengthening bodies of his subordinates and the improved quality of the soldiers, Liu Hua was delighted from the bottom of his heart.

  The logistics preparation of the troops made Liu Hua even more delighted. After nearly ten days of preparation, the division had prepared over 6,000 sets of winter clothing and a large amount of cured meat, enough to fill several large carts. Now Liu Hua's logistics battalion was rich, with full funding support, all the horses were replaced with mules, totaling 600 head in the entire battalion. Each regiment's logistics company also had nearly 100 head. In addition, the artillery battalion now had its own logistics company, so all the artillery shells no longer needed to be transported by the logistics battalion. Therefore, Battalion Commander Li was busy purchasing supplies, which made Liu Hua very happy.

  Watching the increasingly powerful Independent Regiment, Liu Hua prepared to take the next step.