Chapter 2 Pre-War Preparations

  The sun rises in the east, and the fog begins to dissipate slowly. In Guanghua Pu, south of Jieshou, less than 3,000 meters away from Jieshou, the Fourth Red Army is busy constructing fortifications. Liu Hua's Tenth Regiment is also doing the same thing. While digging trenches, Liu Hua observes the position. As a graduate student at the National Defense University, he has studied every battle of the Long March and has come to Guanghua Pu many times to pay respects to the martyrs who died in the revolution.

  So he knew how fiercely the Guanghua Pu battle was fought. So he worked hard to dig fortifications, because he knew that good fortifications could save his life in times of danger. But when he inspected the fortifications of others in his squad, he couldn't help but get angry. Now he finally understood why the battle had been so fierce back then, it seemed they had underestimated the enemy after all. Because what was reflected in his eyes were single-row snake-shaped fortifications, only shallow trenches were dug, and there were pine trees and weeds on the edge of the position. Looking at other companies and his own squad, they were all the same. "Can this kind of fortification withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery? Not to mention the enemy has planes" Liu Hua thought to himself.

  He looked at the mountainous terrain behind the array and suddenly thought: In history, the Gui army took advantage of the dark night to pass through this mountainous terrain and broke through the Red Army's array in one fell swoop. Of course, since he knew about it, the Gui army would not be able to achieve it. "If a fire was set at that time, haha, there would be a good show for the Gui army, and then just wait and see the good show of the Gui army." Liu Hua smiled secretly with satisfaction.

  By noon, the warriors who had been tired for half a day sat down to rest. But when Liu Hua saw the fortifications of others, his mood could not calm down. Liu Hua took advantage of the break to gather everyone in the class together and said seriously: "Comrades, your fortifications are so simple, how can you block the enemy at that time?" Xiaolong said while eating: "Squad leader, I think the Guangxi Army and the Guangdong Army are the same, they won't be so serious, otherwise they wouldn't have withdrawn!" Liu Hua didn't speak, turned around and looked at Old Sun who was put in the class due to the rectification campaign, asking: "Old Sun, what do you think?" "I think there will definitely be a battle, but it shouldn't be that intense!" When he heard this, Liu Hua interrupted Old Sun's words and said seriously: "You must believe me, this battle will definitely be very cruel, so everyone must dig good fortifications, just like mine. After eating, start immediately, did you hear?" After finishing speaking, he turned around and left.

  Liu Hua walked to the company, found the company commander Wu Xin who was working with his sleeves rolled up and said he had something important to report to the regimental commander. Commander Wu looked at Liu Hua's calm demeanor and didn't say a word, turning around to take him to see the regimental commander.

  Squad leader Shen Shuqing was thinking about the next step, when he was suddenly interrupted by a "report". He looked up and saw Wu Xin bringing in a young soldier. The soldier felt very familiar, but couldn't remember who it was. Hurriedly asking: "What's the matter?" Liu Hua gave a standard salute: "Reporting to the squad leader, I have an important matter to report." "Speak quickly" replied the squad leader.

  "Yes, Commissar, I found that our warriors have a serious underestimation of the enemy and never thought of fighting a tough battle. We all know that the Guangxi Army has the reputation of being an 'Iron Army' in the country and has never been defeated in domestic wars. We can imagine that when they have common interests with Chiang Kai-shek, without affecting their own strength, they will not show mercy to our Red Army, let alone they have airplanes and artillery?"

  The squad leader fell silent and said: "That's true! But with our soldiers' bravery, the spirit of not being afraid to sacrifice should be able to hold out for two days!"

  "But then we have to make such a great sacrifice..."

  The team leader finally agreed with Liu Hua's suggestion.

  The battalion commander said as Liu Hua walked out of the command post: "Liu Hua, I order you to instruct each company to complete their work and prepare to meet the enemy's attack."

  "Yes! Captain, mission guaranteed!" After finishing speaking, he gave a standard military salute and walked out of the command center.

  The whole afternoon, Liu Hua was busy directing others to complete their tasks. He deeply understood the difference between himself and others. In his spare time, based on the differences between the Red Army and the Guizhou army, he thought of a tactic that would later be called "Military God Summary", namely "Three people form a group, three groups form a team... Forming a queue shape, especially suitable for close combat, hand-to-hand combat." Thinking of this, he walked to the company commander and proposed his idea. The company commander knew that among all the squad leaders in the company, only Liu Hua had read books and was full of clever ideas, so he immediately agreed and required the whole company to train together.

  Under Liu Hua's leadership, Quanlian began to train troops on the battlefield during this limited time.

  While the team leader Shen Shuqing listened to Liu Hua's report, on the one hand, he was secretly delighted in his heart, feeling happy that there were such excellent and thoughtful soldiers under him, thinking that he must cultivate them well. On the other hand, he was worried about what Liu Hua said, because he knew that not only his own team members had a light enemy mentality, but the entire army also had it. Thinking of this, he quickly reported the situation to his division commander and army commander. Only then did his heart feel at ease, and he hastened to consider how to meet the enemy.

  At this time, the Central Red Army, which had been remembered by Liu Hua, was slowly moving towards the Xiangjiang River. At this time, Chairman Mao woke up from his daze and saw the familiar faces of Luo Fu and He Zizhen. He Zizhen hastily asked with concern: "Old Mao, you scared us to death just now, you should rest well and not overexert yourself."

  Jiaxiang, you can rest assured now! By the way, how's the situation with the troops? Hurry up and tell me!

  "The troops are still in Guanyang and are just about to set out." Wang Jiaxiang hastily replied.

  "What's going on, it's so slow, this will suffer a big loss. It's better to be faster, I think you should go find En and tell him, we must hurry up to Xiangjiang." After finishing speaking, Wang Jiaxiang hastily left.

  It seems to have verified the words of a great man. When the troops, under Zhou Enlai's urging, had not yet walked five miles at that snail's pace, they heard three shots and immediately someone shouted loudly: "Enemy planes are coming, hide quickly..."

  It seemed that Chiang Kai-shek had given the order to kill, and within a day, enemy planes came to bomb continuously. Under the bombing of enemy planes, the main force of the Red Army began to move step by step towards the Xiangjiang River.

  At this time, after a day and night of marching, the main force of the Red Army had only marched more than ten miles, while at this time, the main force of Liu Jianxu's division of the Xiang Army had all entered Quanzhou. At the same time, the 48th Division of the Guangxi Army and an reinforced battalion of the Seventh Army occupied Xing'an, with their military strength pointing directly to Shoukang, while the other two divisions of the Seventh Army pointed directly to Guanyang, a great battle was about to break out.

  The tenth team of Guanghua Pu's Red Eight Array was now practicing targeted military training under Liu Hua's leadership, and for a time, the sound of laughter and killing shouts filled the air. At this point, the four teams of the Gui army were already very close to them. The great war would soon arrive.