Chapter 21: Besieged City and Relief Troops

  Political Commissar Li Qing had been standing on the city wall with binoculars, gazing into the distance since Liu Hua led the second battalion out of the county town. After about two minutes of gunfire, it subsided. To be sure, Political Commissar was now afraid of major casualties, and the troops were in a state of mobile warfare; if there were seriously wounded soldiers, it would definitely slow down the speed and mobility of the troops.

  The sound of gunfire ended quickly, and the commissar knew that his troops had won a victory. Now the only concern was the casualties of the troops.

  Soon, a team appeared in the distance, heading towards the county town. Seeing that there were no stretchers with the troops, his tense heart finally relaxed and he hurried down from the city wall to welcome his commander.

  "Director, how did you end up leaving the city? What's the situation like in the city now?" Seeing his superior show concern for him as soon as they met, Li Qing couldn't help but feel a wave of emotion.

  "Commander, everything is normal in the county town. How was the ambush battle? Were there many casualties?" Li Qing asked hastily, returning to the topic at hand.

  "Commissar, don't worry. With the instructor leading the charge personally, what's there to worry about? This battle will be a complete victory for us, annihilating an entire enemy battalion and capturing all their equipment. We only had a few soldiers who were slightly injured during the charge when they tripped and fell, but no one was killed in action." The second battalion commander, Gao Yuan, hastily replied upon seeing the commissar's anxious expression.

  "Alright, alright, comrades are all good, hurry up and enter the city. The cooking team has bought several fat pigs and prepared lunch for you, waiting for your triumphant return! Hurry up and enter the city." Li Qing said excitedly after hearing this.

  "Director, through interrogation of the captives, it seems that Liu Jianxu of the Xiang Army has already sensed something is off about the city of Xing'an and has taken precautions." I decided we would retreat tonight, let's discuss where to attack next.

  "Well, we've been here for a day and night already, it's time to go. At the same time, it's also time to let the enemy know of our Independent Regiment's existence." Li Qing said with a smile to his superior, while spreading out the captured Xiang Army map.

  The eyes of the two fell on Jinggangshan at the same time.

  "Little Dragon, immediately notify several team leaders and cadres of the directly affiliated troops to come to a meeting." After consultation with the political commissar, the two decided to return to Jinggangshan, attract the enemy's reinforcements, reduce the pressure on the Central Red Army, and in order to return to Jinggangshan, they must first capture the heavily guarded key town of Chaling.

  "Comrades, just now I consulted with the political commissar, and in order to better pin down the enemy's main force and alleviate the pressure on the Central Red Army, we have decided to fight our way back to the base area, deal a heavy blow to Chiang Kai-shek, and take the opportunity to encourage the guerrilla units that are persisting in the base area."

  After hearing the team leader's words, several main officers immediately became excited and wanted to return to their base. This was something they had been dreaming of since the beginning of the Long March. Now that their division commander was going to lead them back to their base, how could they not be happy? They all rushed to say: "Commander, we will definitely inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, Commander."

  Looking at the several masters below who were eager to try, Liu Hua also smiled.

  "Alright, since everyone is so confident, now I order, the first battalion to be the vanguard of the entire division, with the reconnaissance platoon as the lead, to rush straight to Chaling. Once in Chaling, surround the enemy first, and after surrounding them, launch an attack. Do not launch a strong assault, nor can there be any casualties. Just apply pressure on the enemy, making them constantly ask for reinforcements. Let the artillery company follow your actions. New recruit battalion..."

  Guard company, reconnaissance company 1st and 2nd platoons, firepower battalion, logistics convoy follow me closely, 2nd battalion brings up the rear, 1st battalion is 10 li away from logistics, 2nd battalion is 5 li away from headquarters, after dinner rest for an hour, depart at 9 o'clock, rush to Chaling.

  "Yes, Captain." Several people shouted in unison.

  In the dark of night, a group of warriors were, under the encouragement of political commissars and others, panting heavily as they ran, the artillery company's soldiers also refused to fall behind, driving their horses tightly behind the first battalion.

  After several hours of marching, the soldiers' footsteps gradually became heavy. Old Sun timely let the soldiers stop and change from marching to normal walking. In this way, after two shifts, the sky was already bright, and the outline of Chaling had appeared in front of Old Sun and others.

  "Now I order, the Second Battalion to attack from the front, the Third Battalion to surround and attack from the rear, the Artillery Company to immediately construct a firing position, listen for my command, and open fire. The First Battalion will serve as reserve." Old Sun calmly commanded.

  As a former sharpshooter, Old Sun could guess that his commander's plan this time wouldn't be as simple as just taking down Chaling. With his own battalion plus the artillery company, he had more than enough strength to take down Chaling with minimal casualties, considering it was only defended by one Central Army battalion. Yet, the battalion commander didn't order them to take down Chaling, but instead asked them to put pressure on the enemy and make them ask for reinforcements. It seemed that they wanted to ambush the reinforcement troops. Thinking of this, Old Sun let out a faint smile that wasn't noticeable to others.

  The bombardment began, and with Old Sun's order, the 12 mortars of the artillery company, which had been prepared for a long time, immediately spewed out flames. The Central Army's 105th Division defending Chaling was miserable, when did they encounter such intense firepower? After all, it was the Central Army, after losing some troops, they immediately began to make defensive preparations in an orderly manner under the leadership of their superiors.

  Lao Sun guessed the intention of his superiors and didn't plan to use too many shells, so he only fired five rounds from each gun before stopping. Although they had a sufficient supply of ammunition now, it couldn't be wasted here.

  As the bombardment ended, the charge sounded, and the 2nd and 3rd battalions immediately launched a charge. However, as soon as they came into contact with the enemy, casualties appeared, and it stopped. At this time, the howitzer fired again. After this bombardment, the commander of the 105th regiment could no longer bear it, because after the two bombardments just now, he had already lost a battalion of men and horses. He immediately sent a distress telegram to his superior.

  "Report to the commander, a telegram from the 105th Regiment: The Communist army with approximately one regiment's strength and equipped with mortars is attacking Chaling, has already lost one battalion's strength, requesting reinforcements."

  "What? A whole regiment of Communist troops! Where did these people come from? Weren't the Communist troops on the east coast all eliminated? How did they get here? Send a telegram to the commander-in-chief immediately!" The commander of the 21st Division of the Central Army, who was left in the Central Soviet Area, roared.

  "White officer, something's wrong. The 21st Division commander just called and said a communist regiment is attacking Chaling, asking if our regiment is the remnant of the East Bank communists."

  "It's just a regiment of the Communist Army, isn't it? The 21st Division has more than 10,000 men, what's to fear about that thousand or so men? Immediately order the 21st Division to dispatch a brigade to wipe out this gang."

  At this time, Bai Chongxi did not know that Liu Hua was thinking about how to plot against him. As a matter of fact, as the later generation knew, after the Central Soviet Area was occupied by the enemy, the enemy only left four divisions of Bai's troops to guard, and in order to make another move, they had to give these four divisions a blow, making the enemy fear themselves, so that they could return to their base and develop better. This plan was known only to Li Qing.

  "Report to the superior, according to reconnaissance, the enemy army has dispatched a brigade from Anren, equipped with an artillery company, two heavy machine gun companies, totaling approximately 3,500 people, and is marching towards Chaling. They will enter Chaling in about seven hours."

  "Ah, Comrade Political Commissar, it seems the enemy has arrived, and we have something to do again. The map." Liu Hua said with a smile to the Political Commissar.

  At this time, Liu Hua led the new recruit regiment and the second team with nearly 3,000 people to wait for the appearance of the warplane five miles away from Chaling. At this time, the warplane finally came.

  Looking at the map of the highway from Anren to Chaling, both of their eyes fell on the place called Mafangjiang.

  "Order the troops to march quickly and get to Ma Fu River to build an ambush formation, hurry up." Liu Hua commanded immediately.

  Ma Fujiang is about 10 miles away from Chaling, and the independent division took about an hour to get here. Seeing the terrain here, Liu Hua couldn't help but say: "It's really heaven helping me."

  It's called Ma Fuzhou because the road is located in a low valley, and from a high place, it looks like a river lying here. Looking at the nearly two-kilometer-long mountain valley, Liu Hua was delighted.

  "Immediately hold a combat meeting"

  "Comrades, I suppose you have all understood my intention for this battle! It's not just about taking down Chaling, but there are still around four enemy divisions in the Soviet area. If we want to achieve anything in the future, we must inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. Today is our chance. An enemy brigade will arrive soon, and I have decided to launch an ambush here with 3,000 troops from the Second Regiment and the direct-affiliated units of the division. We will annihilate the entire enemy brigade! Comrades, do you have confidence?"

  Looking at the eager battalion commander Liu Hua asked.

  "Yes!" The cadres replied in unison.

  "Alright, now I'll assign combat tasks;"

  The guard company was responsible for cutting off the enemy's retreat, blocking their escape route after the battle started, and not allowing a single person to escape.

  "Yes, I will definitely complete the task." Li Xiaolong stood up and saluted as he said this.

  "Commander Gao, now I want you to organize all the snipers in the regiment, just one platoon, into a sniper company, with Luo Wenhua as the company commander. They will be stationed on both sides of the position, specifically targeting enemy commanders and heavy firepower personnel. The requirement is that the enemy's machine guns and mortars cannot open fire."

  "Yes, complete the task resolutely," said the deputy commander of the guard company, saluting.

  "Below is the order of ambush, in sequence: First Battalion, Second Battalion, Third Battalion. The new recruits are to be inserted into these three battalions. Each person will receive 5 hand grenades. After a round of machine gun fire, everyone will throw their grenades collectively and as quickly as possible. All automatic firepower will be deployed on the same line. We must inflict maximum casualties on the enemy in the shortest time possible. Two heavy machine gun companies will be concentrated together. Chen Guangrong, you must clearly define the firing range beforehand, leaving no blind spots. Don't worry about conserving ammunition, just annihilate this entire brigade. There's plenty of ammo. No one is allowed to charge forward without orders, to avoid friendly fire. Execute immediately."

  "Yes!" everyone shouted in unison.

  At this time, Liu Hua suddenly thought of something "Let the battalion commander stay for a moment."

  "Commander Gao, I'm assigning the 3rd platoon of the reconnaissance company to you. You must hold the front line firmly and defend your position well, preventing the enemy from recklessly breaking through to Chaling. I'll also allocate three machine guns from the logistics battalion to reinforce the firepower of the blocking troops. Any questions?"

  "Report to superiors, resolutely complete tasks."

  Watching Liu Hua complete the task in such a short time, he couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion. "Director, everyone has their own tasks, what are we doing?" said the political commissar with a smile.

  "We, haha, I'm going to make a sneak attack, you don't know what's going on, haha, gone." After finishing speaking, he ignored the political commissar's surprised gaze and walked out laughing.