Chapter 8: The Xiangjiang Campaign (6)

  Guanghua Pu is only 6 miles away from Xing'an County, but due to the detour and the mountain path, the journey undoubtedly doubled. When Liu Hua arrived outside Xing'an City, it had already taken more than an hour, just in time for dinner.

  At the city gate, two sentries stood guard, perhaps thinking this was a big rear area and there wouldn't be any "enemies". The two of them were leaning against their rifles at an angle, chatting away, without any sense of vigilance.

  Liu Hua saw an opportunity that could not be missed and thought of Liu Xiaogang from earlier. He immediately ordered him to bring two people to take out the sentry.

  This time, Liu Xiaogang fully demonstrated his extraordinary martial arts skills. Under the cover of night, he stealthily approached the city gate and took out the sentry behind him. After taking care of the sentry, he signaled to Liu Hua with a hand gesture and continued to sneak into the city.

  Liu Hua gave an order, commanding Lao Sun to lead two companies to surround the enemy who were having a meal, and Chen Revolution led his own company to ambush at the city gate to prevent any escape. He himself led the guard platoon directly towards the county government building.

  The garrison in Xing'an was a logistics battalion of the 24th Division of the Guangxi Army. They never dreamed that the Red Army would fly over the heavy defenses with wings and come to Xing'an. At this moment, except for the sentry, everyone was drinking and having fun.

  The sentry at the county government gate felt a flash in his eyes, and was pressed by an icy knife. Liu Hua led his troops into the conference room, where all the officers of the logistics regiment were chatting together. Suddenly, they saw a group of soldiers with guns rushing in, and the regimental commander, who was about to scold someone, was pressed against his waist by a handgun, which was held by Liu Hua himself.

  A group of Communist soldiers surrounded them, and several officers in the conference room had their legs trembling with fear.

  "What's going on? What are you all discussing? I'd like to ask for your help, what do you think? Will you give the Red Army some face?" Liu Hua said with a smile.

  The battalion commander who was listening to Liu Hua's words also relaxed his tense heart and smiled in response.

  The KMT army camp. The KMT soldiers, who were drinking and having a great time, saw their superiors bring in a large group of people and stood up to greet them. When they realized something was off, the Red Army soldiers had already surged in from all sides of the drill ground. Facing the dense gun barrels, those holding chopsticks and lamb legs couldn't muster any resistance. The KMT army quickly gathered to one side under their commander's orders, showing off their good training. At this time, a gunshot was heard from outside, followed by shouts of "Surrender and we won't kill you!" After a while, Li Xiaolong walked in, giving a thumbs up. The earlier gunshot was fired by him, as he had preemptively killed a KMT sentry who tried to resist.

  When Liu Hua and others saw the classroom full of ammunition, they were shocked and exclaimed "Ah!". Box after box of hand grenades, box after box of bullets, box after box of artillery shells, and several boxes of Zhongzheng rifles, several boxes of machine guns, made Chen Geming and others who had never seen the world before, laugh with joy. So much ammunition, even if each person took a box, they couldn't move it all away, let alone having more important things to do. Liu Hua looked at Jiang Dafu, who was holding his head in shame, an idea popped up, and he couldn't help but smile. While the nervous Jiang Dafu found Liu Hua smiling at him, his calm heart became tense again, looking at Liu Hua with a guilty conscience.

  Liu Hua hastily ordered the whole regiment to gather those who could operate heavy machine guns and artillery. Soon, more than a dozen people were found, and upon inquiry, it was discovered that many of them had been purged during the rectification campaign.

  Liu Hua immediately ordered: "Use the captured four 60mm mortars to form a mortar platoon, and use the captured six heavy machine guns to form a heavy machine gun platoon. Add the original light machine gun platoon to form a firepower company, with Chen Guangrong as the company commander. For those who are not enough, all soldiers were selected from the prisoners of war with a clear background, but they can only carry ammunition and not issue weapons. Execute immediately."

  Soon, the troops were formed. Old Sun next to him looked at Liu Hua's string of orders and stared at the newly formed firepower company with wide eyes. To know that the entire Red Army, even regimental units are hard to enjoy firepower companies, this is a brigade.

  Liu Hua looked at Old Sun's drooling appearance and couldn't help but walk over, patting his shoulder and saying: "Don't think about it anymore, our firepower will be strengthened in the future, striving for each class to have a machine gun, we should get to work..." After finishing speaking, he walked away with a smile.

  Old Sun quickly reacted and followed him.

  At this time, a large team of people came out from Xing'an City and rushed to Guanghua Pulu. The strange thing about this team was that they were wearing two kinds of uniforms. In the front were troops wearing yellow military uniforms and carrying the flag of the 24th Heavy Battalion of the Gui Army, led by Jiang Dafu, the commander of the Jiang battalion. In the middle were Red Army troops wearing earth-colored military uniforms and red five-star hats on their heads. Each Red Army soldier had his left hand tied behind his back, either shouldering or lifting a box, with some Gui Army soldiers following alongside to supervise them. Behind the Red Army troops was another group of Gui Army soldiers. Had there been an earth-shaking change, with the Red Army becoming prisoners of the Gui Army?

  How could this be? At this time, Liu Hua saw that Gui Jun had many military uniforms and thought of disguising himself as a logistics soldier to sneak up on Tan Lianfang. But he was also afraid that the logistics soldiers would cause trouble, so he had no choice but to bring them along, and it would also be convenient to bring some ammunition.

  Li Xiaolong soon returned from his reconnaissance mission.

  "Squad leader, guess what we've found?" Little Dragon said with a grin to Liu Hua.

  "Hurry up, you rabbit, or I'll kick your butt..." Liu Hua said, lifting his foot.

  "I say, I say, Captain, we've found the Guangzhou Army's artillery company, and there's only one infantry company protecting it. Shouldn't we..." He looked at Liu Hua as he finished speaking.

  Following Liu Hua for a long time, everyone has learned to take advantage of him.

  At this time, Chen Guangrong, who had just been promoted to the position of fire company commander, heard that there was an artillery company and his eyes widened. He hurriedly said, "Commander, let's take it down, that's the equipment of an artillery company, the enemy has sent it over, can't we accept it? Is that right, Commander?" After finishing speaking, he also smiled at Liu Hua.

  They all knew Liu Hua was a cheapskate and would definitely agree.

  As expected, "I ordered. Three companies immediately surrounded and attacked, using the baggage train as cover, striving to resolve the enemy infantry company with bayonets, and it's best if all the artillery company soldiers are captured, we're short of artillerymen after all, this is a treasure."

  Several battalion commanders who heard the order immediately went to execute it, while Chen Guangrong, who was standing next to him, smiled and stared at the artillery company that kept firing in the distance, because he knew that an artillery company would be equipped soon, how could he not be happy?

  Liu Hua looked at his silly appearance, almost laughing out loud, and immediately ordered: "After capturing the enemy artillery battalion later, immediately build a position, wait for my order to open fire, if any prisoner does not listen, immediately execute battlefield discipline."

  "Yes" Hearing that he had a task, Chen Guangrong immediately saluted smartly.

  The battle was smoother than expected, the enemy had no idea that their comrades wearing military uniforms would be the Red Army, and by the time they realized it, it was too late. All those who resisted were stabbed with bayonets. The remaining enemies all surrendered obediently as prisoners.

  Liu Hua immediately arranged for the firepower company's warriors to urge the artillery company to build a position. However, this is really resistant.

  Comrade Chen Guangrong said to the captured artillery company: "Comrades, welcome to join the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. You are now Red Army soldiers."

  At this time, there were still people who didn't accept it. The artillery company commander of the Guangxi army stood up and shouted: "Damn! You want me to be a turtle, fart talk, I'm specialized in hitting turtles, you guys wait until next life!" After finishing speaking, he stood out with a strong momentum.

  "Haha... and you're not afraid of death, then I'll fulfill your wish." After finishing speaking, he raised his pistol, "Bang" a gunshot sounded, the enemy company commander couldn't believe it, covering his chest, fell to the ground. Although the Red Army had a policy of treating prisoners well, Chen Guangrong's worship of the regiment commander made him carry out Liu Hua's orders completely, and besides, the regiment commander was executed on the battlefield for disobeying orders and killing an enemy company commander, which was not the same as shooting a prisoner.

  The remaining captives stared blankly at the corpses of their comrades, unable to believe that the Red Army, which had always treated them well, would actually kill people. In the end, they all compromised under the threat of guns.

  Liu Hua watched as the artillery formation began to operate in an orderly manner, nodded his head in satisfaction, and after briefing Chen Guangrong on some matters of attention, he led his troops towards the enemy command post.

  It's neither fast nor slow, half an hour later, the headquarters of Gui 24th Division came into view. The headquarters of Gui 24th Division was in a mountain village more than 1000 meters away from the front line, and there were only a few houses in the village. At this time, the sound of guns and artillery was dense, and the flames were flashing continuously, obviously the battle was intense.

  Liu Hua called over Zhang Wangcai, who led his squad of soldiers, escorting the "Red Army" troops who had put down their boxes, to set off first; then he called over Chen Geming, gave him some whispered instructions, and Chen Geming led two squads away; finally, he arranged for a group of soldiers to guard the military supplies hidden in the woods on the roadside slope. After making these arrangements, he made a pre-battle mobilization speech:

  "Comrades, act on my command. After the shot, split into three arrows and give the enemy a through-and-through wound. Be swift and decisive, don't hesitate, wounded comrades must learn to protect themselves, remember, we'll meet after victory."

  "Yes, see you after victory!" The warrior replied in a low voice.