Chapter 9: The Xiangjiang Campaign (7)
Liu Hua saw his three elite companies enter the attacking position and immediately ordered the well-prepared artillery to open fire. Although as a postgraduate student, he didn't think much of the power of 60 mortars. But after all, the power of 16 simultaneous firings was still quite shocking.
All of a sudden, 16 shells landed near the enemy command center. Before the enemy could react, another 16 shells came pouring down.
The artillery company resolutely executed the order of Regimental Commander Liu Hua, and each gun must fire 10 rounds of shells in the shortest time possible. It's not that Liu Hua was stingy, he knew that the power of the 60 mortars lay in killing the enemy's effective forces, after 10 rounds of shells, the enemy should have hidden, then there was no need to waste precious shells, let alone these shells would soon become their own spoils of war. For the Red Third Army Regiment, which had always lacked heavy firepower, these shells could only be described as precious.
At this time, Tan Lianfang's command post was in disarray. When the first batch of shells arrived, two of them landed on the command post. If it wasn't for Tan Lianfang's bodyguards who pressed him down in time, it would have been... After a round of shelling, Tan Lianfang finally came to his senses.
"Hurry, hurry! Call in artillery for suppression, quick!" After saying that, he didn't care if others heard him or not, and hid himself.
But he could never have imagined that the artillery firing at him was his own artillery company, which had been reinforced with four more guns captured in Xing'an.
The warriors of the Red Tenth Regiment all knew that this was their own artillery fire. Looking at such intense artillery fire, they couldn't help but think of the artillery fire they had endured in the past two days. Watching the enemy running back and forth under their own artillery fire, many people revealed smiles on their faces.
However, the chief of staff who was guarding the position also stayed. At first, when he heard the sound of cannons, he thought it was another enemy attack and was about to order the soldiers to retreat to the anti-artillery cave. But the shells fell on the enemy's position, with such intense firepower, having been a Red Army for so long, he knew it couldn't be his own people.... But he forgot that Liu Hua was lurking behind the enemy.
Just as he was wondering where the artillery fire came from, the familiar and intimate bugle call sounded. He suddenly became excited.
"It's Captain Liu, Captain Liu has returned..." The wounded soldier from the Red Tenth Regiment shouted loudly beside him.
It was truly a wake-up call, as the Chief of Staff suddenly remembered his promise to Liu Hua when he left.
"Bugler, sound the charge! Everyone follow me in the charge!" As soon as he finished speaking, the first one jumped out of the trench and charged forward.
It turned out that Liu Hua had agreed that when the charge sounded, both sides would charge together and strike down the enemy at once.
Just now, the 10 rounds of cannonballs were quickly finished. Just as the Guangxi army was about to congratulate itself on escaping disaster, loud bugle calls and dense bullets and hand grenades came pouring down again.
"Charge!" The cries of "Kill!" reached their ears, and the momentum was like several groups surrounding them.
It wasn't actually that loud, Liu Hua just used those captives again.
At first, those "Red Army" men were reluctant to shout. Zhang Wangcai fired a shot at their feet and ordered: "Follow me in shouting, whoever doesn't shout will never have to shout again." One, two, three: "Charge!", "Charge!", "Comrades charge!", "Comrades charge!"... They were obedient, this was because; when under the gun, who can not lower their head. The Red Army soldiers initially hesitantly followed Zhang Wangcai's shouting, but later grew louder and more energetic, eventually showing off and trying to get credit. Because they no longer followed Zhang Wangcai's lead in shouting, but instead improvised freely. "Brothers, charge!", "Brother, go up, kill the bitch!", "Guizhou Army brothers, surrender quickly!" "Capture Qian Lianfang alive..." Hundreds of people shouted while waving flags and slowly advancing under Zhang Wangcai's command, with a grand and intimidating presence.
The Kweichow troops, who thought they were surrounded on all sides and that the center had collapsed, could hold out no longer. They had only one idea in mind: to run away, and if they couldn't get away, to surrender. In any case, their lives were at stake.
But where can we escape, although there are few people on all sides, the firepower is unprecedented. Not only does each regiment have six machine guns captured in Xing'an to supplement them, but also dozens of submachine guns and hundreds of rifles. The fire density is not weaker than a Red Army regiment, where can we escape?
At this time, a regiment led by the chief of staff also came up and soon compressed the enemy into several courtyards.
Liu Hua ordered the cessation of the attack to avoid unnecessary casualties, and instead surrounded the enemy, waiting for the mortars to be brought over. Soon, Chen Guangrong arrived with 6 mortars and arranged the firing positions.
At this time Liu Hua suddenly thought why not capture the enemy. Immediately ordered shouting.
"Commander Tan Lianfang, I am the overall commander of the Red Army this time. You have been surrounded and there are six mortars outside that can fire at any moment."
"Liu Hua paused for a moment, then continued to shout: 'General Tan, as far as I know, you are a renowned general of the Guangxi Army. Are you willing to fall on the battlefield of civil war? As a true soldier, who does not want to fight for the country and the people, and ride the sandy field? Even if you win on the battlefield of civil war, it is just a struggle between brothers, at most, it is an internal war hero. But to defeat foreign invaders, recover the great rivers and mountains of our motherland, this is what every soldier dreams of, it is an opportunity to be remembered in history!'"
"General Tan, you still have many brothers who surrendered to the Red Army. There's no shame in it, no dishonor for a soldier, because we are all Chinese. General Tan, I give you two minutes to consider."
Liu Huagang had just finished speaking and thought he needed some time to think. But as soon as he finished speaking, he heard an order.
"Hear me, all brothers of the Guangxi Army! I am Tan Liangfang. I order you to lay down your arms and cease resistance."
Soon, all enemies surrendered and troops began clearing the battlefield.
Tan Lianfang was soon brought before Liu Hua.
Just as Qin Lianfang was turning things over in her mind, Liu Hua was also sizing up this tiger general of the Guangxi army who had become a prisoner. This man, who had followed Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi on their southern and northern campaigns, and had risen from an ordinary soldier to become a renowned division commander in the Guangxi clique, now sat on the ground with a grey face, looking dispirited and pale, his complexion changing from red to white. Liu Hua smiled and asked:
"Tan Lianfang is Tan Master's senior, right?"
Qin Lianfang's train of thought was interrupted, and he quickly composed himself, looking in the direction of the voice. He saw a young Red Army officer smiling at him. He replied:
"Yes, I am Qin Lianfang. I wish to see your highest official, I have a matter to consult with him."
Li Xiaolong beside him suddenly burst out laughing and said: "You really don't know a good thing when you see it, he is our captain."
"Are you... the captain? Forgive me, forgive me, I'm guilty. What's your surname, sir?" Qian Lianfang looked at Liu Hua with half-belief and half-doubt. Because Liu Hua was too young.
"My name is Liu Hua, what instructions does Master Qian have?" Liu Hua also said politely.
"Liu Hua?" He racked his brains for half a day but couldn't recall anyone with this name among the Red Army cadres. Of course, from today on, the name "Liu Hua" would be etched in his mind, becoming his eternal nightmare.
"I don't dare, I don't dare. Commander Liu's words just now made me speechless, how could I possibly have any advice? It's just these soldiers... Commander Liu is preparing..." He said, looking at Liu Hua.
"They? Ha ha... That depends on their will! If they want to stay and join the Red Army, I absolutely welcome them. If they don't want to stay, we must release them."
Tan Lianfang secretly rejoiced, because he knew that the discipline of the Gui army was the strictest among all armies, and there was no embezzlement of military pay. But he didn't know how formidable the Red Army's political commissars were.
Because the battle had just ended, Liu Hua informed the troops to do ideological work on the captives as much as possible, striving to get some of them to join the Red Army. You know, these captives were all trained soldiers, and with guidance, they would definitely become elite forces.
By dawn, all the spoils of war had been counted, with 12 mortars, 12 heavy machine guns, a large number of rifles and light machine guns, and countless ammunition captured.
What made Liu Hua most happy was that after mobilization, the artillery company joined the Red Army as a whole, and the logistics battalion had been in contact with the Red Army for the longest time. Nearly 300 people participated in the Red Army to avoid punishment from their superiors. Only a few dozen were captured at night, but this was enough to make Liu Hua happy, because in this way, the Red Tenth Regiment restored some of its strength. If it added up the weapons and ammunition, it would already be the best unit in the Third Red Army Corps.
Liu Hua was delighted, but Tan Lianfang was stunned. He had thought he could still bring back nearly a thousand people, but unexpectedly the Communist Party was so powerful that they took away nearly five hundred people (including an artillery company).
At this time, the chief of staff who had arrived by his side was overjoyed. With a battalion's strength, they annihilated four enemy battalions and captured a large amount of equipment. This was a great victory that had never been seen before! Just thinking about how to distribute the spoils of war, Liu Hua walked over with a smile.
The Chief of Staff hastily stopped his daydreaming and looked at Liu Hua, wondering what kind of trick he had up his sleeve this time.
"Chief of Staff, I plan to leave six mortars and six heavy machine guns behind. The rest will be handed over to the divisional headquarters. What do you think?" The Chief of Staff hastily agreed, knowing that in the Red Army, a division rarely had artillery support.
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After being recognized by the Chief of Staff, Liu Hua began to organize his troops again. Although there were less than a thousand people, in terms of firepower, they had already become two regiments of other Red Army main forces.
The whole division has six companies, five infantry companies, one machine gun company, as well as a guard platoon, sniper platoon and reconnaissance platoon. Each combat squad is equipped with a light machine gun. The machine gun company has six mortars and six heavy machine guns. Ammunition is sufficient. It can be said that the Red Tenth Regiment is the main force of the Red Third Army Corps.
At this time, General Peng of the Military Department was anxiously urging the telephone operator to contact the Red Tenth Regiment. Perhaps because he was too excited at the time, the Chief of Staff didn't leave anyone in the regiment headquarters, which made General Peng angry for a while.
At last, it connected, and Mr. Peng snatched the phone away, shouting loudly.
"Is it the Chief of Staff? What's going on? What was that sudden alarm just now?"
"Report to General Peng, I am Liu Hua, the Chief of Staff is giving a speech to the captives." Liu Hua replied hastily.
"What prisoners? I'm asking you what's going on with the charge just now?"
"What? Captives? Who did you capture and what's going on, speak quickly."
"Report to Comrade Peng, just now the Red Tenth Regiment and a reinforcement battalion annihilated the 24th Division of the Guangxi Army, capturing over 1,000 people including Division Commander Tan Lianfang. Nearly 500 of them are willing to join the Red Army, and countless materials have been seized."
"What? You annihilated the enemy with less than a full battalion, speak quickly, what's going on, hurry up." From the phone, you can hear how excited General Peng is. After all, everywhere is almost defeated, finally hearing about a victory, how can he not be excited?
"Yes, General Peng..." Liu Hua began his detailed report, which lasted for over ten minutes. Throughout the report, General Peng kept exclaiming: "Good, good job..."
