Chapter Twenty-Two: A Great Victory

  "Captain, the enemy has no scouting troops. A regiment is advancing in two columns at a running pace, and the vanguard is still two miles away from our ambush circle." The latest intelligence came from the reconnaissance company.

  "The vanguard of the enemy army has entered the ambush circle, but the rearguard hasn't yet."

  .............................................................

  As the scouting party gradually informed Liu Hua of the situation, the vanguard of the enemy army had already entered his line of sight. Liu Hua picked up a rifle beside him and took aim at an officer on horseback.

  "Squad leader, the enemy has completely entered the ambush circle."

  As soon as the words were spoken, "bang" Liu Hua's long-aimed gunshot rang out. Through the telescope, he saw the officer fall down with an expression of disbelief on his face.

  The sound of the gun was the order, and the heavy machine guns immediately opened fire from behind the cover in front of the armored vehicle. 24 heavy machine guns immediately sprayed deadly bullets everywhere, reaping the lives of enemy soldiers. The well-prepared soldiers of the second battalion, after hearing the commander's gunshot, simultaneously opened fire with all their firepower. After the riflemen fired a shot, they picked up the hand grenades prepared next to them and threw them down. The new recruits also threw out the hand grenades that had been tightly gripped for half a day due to tension after hearing the commander's gunshot.

  The commander of the 2nd column of the 24th Division, upon learning that he was going to annihilate less than a regiment's worth of remnants, hastily ordered his troops to assemble and left behind the logistics battalion to defend Anren. He then led all his troops to rush towards Chaling.

  He thought that by eliminating this group, he could immediately use this military achievement to promote his own rank. Just as he was feeling pleased with himself, a sudden gunshot shattered his beautiful dream. His bodyguard suddenly pushed him off the horse, and just as he was being pushed off the horse, a bullet with a scorching heat grazed his ear and hit his bodyguard, splashing a red and white brain pulp onto his face. The one who fired the shot was none other than Luo Wenhua, who had just been appointed as the company commander.

  The brigade commander buried his head in the ground, just pulled out his own pistol, and when he looked up, he saw a row of twenty or so heavy machine guns lined up on the mountain opposite him, suddenly spewing fire tongues. The brigade commander quickly buried his head under the body of the guard who had just died for him. At this time, the gunfire became even more intense, as a professional soldier who had risen step by step through military merit, he estimated that the troops attacking him had at least twenty or so heavy machine guns and forty or fifty light machine guns. My god, this is even more fierce than our own firepower.

  Master, Master, didn't you say the Communist Army only had less than a regiment? How can they have such strong firepower? This is not just one division, my entire brigade... it's all over...

  Just as he was lost in thought, a series of whirring sounds reached his ears, and he knew it was the sound of a cluster of grenades falling. It's all over, it's all over... As soon as he thought this, an explosion sounded beside him, and he immediately lost consciousness.

  As the enemy troops below were caught in a hail of fire, soldiers on both sides fell one by one under the sweep of light and heavy machine guns. Many people did not know what was happening and were killed instantly. Those soldiers who came to their senses just managed to lie down on the ground, preparing to return fire, when another wave of hand grenades rained down.

  Those machine gunners and artillerymen were even more miserable, under the special care of Lovelace's sniper unit. Those machine gunners and artillerymen felt better, all soldiers who tried to approach the heavy machine guns and mortars were accurately sniped by the snipers without exception. Watching their comrades being shot in the head, those people no longer dared to approach those heavy weapons, they could only lie on the ground obediently and pray.

  Perhaps Chen Guangrong couldn't bear to part with those equipment, and the technical troops were not allowed to get close, all the heavy firepower seemed to have bypassed them, allowing their prayers to take effect.

  Looking at the battlefield littered with corpses after repeated sweeps and rounds of bombing, Liu Hua ordered the bugle to sound the charge. The soldiers shouted loudly "Charge..." But all they had to do was sweep the battlefield, gather prisoners, because the remaining enemy troops who had been tested by fierce fire no longer dared to resist, could only use their trembling hands to raise the guns in their hands and surrender to the Red Army they had always looked down on.

  Liu Hua did not charge forward. He knew that what was left was just mopping up the battlefield, and stood smiling on the spot as he watched the soldiers charge forward.

  Looking at the standing instructor, Gao Yuan, Li Qing..... staring incredulously at the battlefield in front of him, an enemy elite brigade was defeated in just a few minutes. Since the Long March, he had never seen such a victory before. They shouted loudly and rushed towards their instructor.

  "Teacher, teacher, we won, we succeeded..."

  Seeing several men excitedly shedding tears, Liu Hua was also moved, walked over, hugged them and said, "Yes! We won!"

  The results of the battle were quickly tallied.

  This battle annihilated an enemy brigade, with no one escaping, and captured over 500 people, mainly artillerymen and heavy machine gunners.

  Captured 12 mortars, 12 heavy machine guns, 72 light machine guns, more than 2,000 rifles, pistols and submachine guns, more than 15,000 hand grenades, countless ammunition. Also seized a radio station.

  Among them, Zhang was shot dead.

  Our side has no deaths, 43 people were injured, with no serious injuries.

  Everyone went mad when they heard the battle results reported by Wang Nanhu, the chief of staff of the Second Regiment. They cheered wildly and some even fired their guns into the sky to celebrate. Liu Hua did not stop them because he knew that these soldiers had seen their comrades fall under enemy fire throughout the Long March, and today they finally won a victory and could vent their discontent. Besides, they now had plenty of ammunition, so there was no reason to stop the soldiers.

  Everyone's face was filled with excitement, while Liu Hua was calmly thinking about something. The Chief of Staff Wang Nanhu said again:

  "Commander, there's another situation. Just now, I interrogated a regimental commander, he said that the only ones defending Anren are an enemy logistics battalion, and there are still large quantities of ammunition stored in Anren, should we..."

  Looking at the slyly smiling Chief of Staff Liu Hua, he couldn't help but laugh. After being with him for so long, all his subordinates had become sly and took advantage of every opportunity to gain an advantage.

  Liu Hua nodded, "Director Wang, take the 1st and 2nd battalions into Anren in disguise as Central Army defeated troops. Annihilate the enemy's logistics camp, seize their weapons and ammunition, and transport them back immediately. We can't stay in Anren for too long, so directly escort the seized materials to Chaling. When you arrive, we'll be waiting for your triumphant return."

  "Yes, sir, I will definitely complete the task."

  "Orderly troops, quickly sweep the battlefield and enter Chaling."

  "Liu Xiaogang, immediately pass on the order to the troops, launch a general attack on Chaling."

  At this time, Old Sun was holding a telescope, watching the enemy on the city wall running back and forth under his own artillery fire, waiting for the commander's order.

  "Director Sun, the commander has ordered a general offensive,"

  After hearing the order, Old Sun smiled, finally came, it's time for Laozi to show his power.

  "Order the artillery to fire five rounds quickly, blast two cannons for me to collapse the city gate, and then launch a full-scale attack on Chaling."

  "Boom, boom, boom......" The attack of the Communist Party began. Looking at the fierce artillery fire, the swarming Red Army, and the rain-like bullets, the Central Army soldiers who had already lost more than half of their men could no longer withstand it. They threw down their guns and ran towards the city, no longer caring about their officers' shouts.

  Thus, the regiment took Chaling with slight casualties and captured countless ammunition. Looking at the regimental commander standing on the city wall to welcome them, Liu Hua and all his men went crazy again.

  Wang Nanhu led the Central Army to easily enter Anren County, and two regiments of nearly a thousand people quickly annihilated the almost powerless logistics regiment, capturing all the reserve supplies of an enemy division. With all the captured supplies, they escorted the prisoners towards Chaling.

  After a day of fierce fighting, all cadres of the Independent Regiment sat in the conference room of the original enemy army division headquarters, summarizing today's battle.

  "Below is a report by Commissar of our battle results and casualties." Liu Hua said as he saw that everyone had arrived.

  "Comrades, after our one-day battle, we annihilated a total of 6,000 enemy troops, including an entire division and a regiment, with over 1,800 taken prisoner."

  Captured countless weapons and ammunition, including 16 mortars, of which 12 were captured in the ambush battle at Ma Wei Jiang, and 4 reserve guns were captured from the enemy's logistics camp.

  Three heavy machine gun companies with a total of 24 guns

  Light machine guns: 110; Rifles, pistols, and submachine guns: over 3,000

  Hand grenades, shells and bullets everywhere.

  "Our army suffered 55 deaths and over 120 injuries, with 12 serious injuries, the rest were all minor injuries, which did not affect our march."

  After listening to the political commissar's report, everyone below had a smile on their face. Yes, such a big victory, of course, they should be happy.

  "Just now, seeing everyone so happy, I'll let everyone be happy again. After consulting with the political commissar, we decided to use these captives to expand an army regiment. That is, the third regiment of the independent division, Wang Nanhu as the regiment commander, Chen Geming as the political commissar, and report back to headquarters tonight for filing. From now on, the regiment commanders and political commissars will no longer concurrently serve as battalion commanders, but rather the deputy battalion commanders will directly take charge of the battalions."

  The new Independent Brigade's Third Regiment was composed of the First Regiment's Second Battalion, the Second Regiment's Second Battalion and a New Soldier Battalion. All cadres in the New Soldier Battalion were retained to continue serving as the backbone of the battalion. The personnel withdrawn from the First and Second Regiments were supplemented by soldiers captured who were willing to join the Red Army.

  At this point, Liu Hua smiled and said that although the Central Army had good weapons, the soldiers were all conscripted and trained, and could not be compared to the Guangxi or Hunan armies. After an afternoon of mobilization and persuasion, over 1,000 people were willing to join the Red Army, and if they spent another night, there would be even more.

  "There is one more thing, now each regiment must establish a heavy firepower company, equipped with 4 mortars, 8 heavy machine guns, and soldiers provided by the heavy firepower battalion, with prisoners providing personnel. The heavy firepower battalion is divided into two 8-mortar companies and two 12-heavy-machine-gun companies. Sniper company Luo Wen-hua will select marksmen from the entire regiment to form three platoons of snipers. The logistics company will be expanded into a logistics battalion, with company-level cadres promoted directly. All remaining soldiers selected from prisoners by each battalion will be handed over to the new recruit battalion. Execute immediately."

  "Yes" Looking at these people walking out of the conference room with a smile, Liu Hua was delighted and smiled, he could finally make a big move.

  "Superiors, we've won such a big victory and reorganized the troops. We should report the good news to the Central Committee." Said Political Commissar Li Qing with a smile.

  "Alright, let's go now." Liu Hua stood up and headed towards the door.