Chapter Sixty: The Battle of Cili

  "Commander, I'm here! How much good stuff did we capture this time?" Director Li Qing asked as soon as he entered the door.

  "Here it is, take a look yourself." Liu Hua said, handing over a list from that morning.

  "My goodness, so many." Li Qing let out a cry of surprise.

  "200,000 rounds of heavy machine gun ammunition, 3 million bullets, 4,000 mortar shells, 1,000 mountain gun shells, 2 mountain guns, 20 mortars, 20 heavy machine guns, 5,000 sets of uniforms, 6 million catties of food, and 590,000 silver dollars."

  "Colonel, we're in trouble now. I reckon the logistics department's heavy transport battalion won't be able to deliver everything at once." Director Li Qing furrowed his brow.

  "Don't worry, you can't transport them, let the soldiers do it. Didn't you all come empty-handed this time? The soldiers consumed a lot of ammunition in this battle, and we need to replenish some first. I've counted: 300,000 bullets, 500 mortar shells, 200 mountain gun shells, and 20,000 heavy machine gun rounds. The rest will depend on your logistics team to transport. Also, we destroyed an enemy logistics battalion's equipment, where there are several hundred mules that you can buy at a low price."

  "Commander of the Legion, if we add a few hundred mules, our logistics department should be able to handle it." Director Li said after thinking for a moment.

  "Alright, tomorrow morning we'll start transporting the supplies. We must finish it within a day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, we have to withdraw from Changde County. Also, send a message to Commissar Chen and ask him to come to the Army Corps headquarters for a meeting tomorrow. The battle of the Second Division will be commanded by Commander Gao and Commissar Chen." Liu Hua said to Li Qing.

  Liu Hua looked at the map for a while, "Communications officer, call Liu Xiaogang's battalion commander over."

  "Colonel, Scout Battalion's Liu Xiaogang has come to report."

  "Xiao Gang, I know your reconnaissance company is having a tough time now, but there's another task that only you guys can complete. How about it, do you have confidence?" Liu Hua asked Xiao Gang with a tired look.

  "Reporting to Legion Commander, Reconnaissance Battalion has completed its mission with determination."

  "Alright, have your cavalry regiment bring a radio station and head towards Zili to scout ahead and gather information on the enemy situation in Zili and its surrounding areas. I need it for my use. We'll set out tonight." He then looked at Xiaogang.

  "Resolutely complete the task."

  Looking at Xiaogang's back, Liu Hua walked into his own bedroom.

  The temporary command post of the 26th Army. "General He, General He, the 7th Army has taken down Changde County." General He, who had been paying close attention to the battle situation in Changde, finally relaxed his tightly furrowed brow.

  "Alright, now that our eastern flank is secure, we can focus on dealing with Li Zongren's two Guangxi divisions. Xiao Ke, the battlefield has been chosen, Liu Hua has given us a good start, now it's our turn to take the stage. How are the preparations going?" He looked at Xiao Ke beside him.

  "General He, I guarantee there won't be any problems. The two regiments of the Gui Army will definitely fall into our ambush tonight. Just wait for the good news!" Xiao Ke said with a smile.

  Perhaps coincidentally, on the same evening when Liu Hua captured the county seat of Changde, the ambush battle between the 26th Army and two brigades of the Guangxi Army also began. Due to the sufficient ammunition and certain artillery cover of the current 26th Army, after two hours of fierce fighting, the enemy's two brigades were completely annihilated. The remaining four brigades of the Guangxi Army retreated from their base without stopping as soon as they learned that their two brigades had been wiped out by He Long.

  At the same time, Liu Hua also received a telegram from the 26th Army Corps. Now that there were only two of the four enemy forces left, the encirclement and annihilation of the enemy's base could be said to be nearing its end. However, Liu Hua did not want to let the enemy leave their base so easily.

  After receiving He Long's telegram, Liu Hua got out of bed and came to the conference room to study the enemy situation. Of the four enemy forces, two had withdrawn, leaving only Li Jue's troops and Chen Quzhen's two under-strength divisions from Western Hunan. He Jian was intimidated by his own side, and Li Jue's retreat was only a matter of time, so there was no need to worry about it. Now only Chen Quzhen's nearly 20,000 men were left, and if they could be eliminated, the entire Western Hunan would become the base area of the Second Red Army.

  Liu Hua immediately sent his analysis to He Zong and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. "Xiao Ke, what do you think of Liu Hua's analysis?" asked He Zong, looking at Xiao Ke, the army commander, after reading Liu Hua's analytical telegram.

  "General He, I agree with Comrade Liu Jun's analysis. The Central Red Army has now broken out of the enemy's encirclement and is looking for a new base area. We don't need to attract the enemy army anymore, but rather the enemy's main target must be us now. Therefore, we must have enough space to counter-encircle them. This time we repelled the enemy army, if next time they increase their forces, it will be difficult for us." Xiao Ke said after reading the telegram and thinking for a while.

  "I also agree with Colonel Liu Jun's analysis." Zhang Zhen, who was beside him, also spoke up.

  "Alright, since everyone agrees, I agree too. Xiao Ke, now order you to lead the troops to monitor Li Jue's troops, I'll lead the Second Army Corps lightly to head north, straight to Cili, and meet up with Liu Hua, together we'll attack our Xiangxi Wang Chen Quzhen. All heavy firepower will be left to you, I estimate that this time Liu Hua must have captured many good things, no need to worry." General He smiled and arranged the task.

  The next day, Liu Hua received a telegram from He Zong agreeing to his plan. Immediately, he ordered Sun Xingbang to lead one division as the vanguard of the entire army and begin advancing towards Cili. At the same time, he commanded the captured soldiers and all logistics personnel inside the city to start transporting the seized materials and ammunition, which had to be completed before nightfall and transported in the direction of Cili. To alleviate the pressure on transportation, Liu Hua took out 100,000 kilograms of grain and ordered the people of Changde to hastily prepare dry rations, distributing them to each soldier's hands. By that evening, the logistics personnel had basically completed the transportation, and all of it was achieved through horse-drawn transportation, accelerating the army's marching speed.

  Just then, the political commissar arrived in Changde County with a platoon of soldiers.

  "Director, you've worked hard." Liu Hua hastily went forward to greet him.

  "Hehe, Commander, you're still being polite to me." He said with a smile and patted Liu Hua's shoulder.

  "Director of the Political Department, how is the situation with the Second Division? After all, there are more than two divisions of German enemies, I'm afraid they can't hold on!" Liu Hua asked as soon as he approached the conference room.

  "Commander, you can rest assured that the Second Division is absolutely fine. In fact, we should thank you for telling us how to use hand grenades to set up ambushes, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to fight so smoothly."

  "That's good, Commissar. Now let's take a look at the spoils of war this time. I'll tell you about the next battle plan later." Liu Hua handed over a list to Guan Xiangying, the commissar.

  Well, it seems that Chiang Kai-shek is going to be scolded again. He has lost so many things. Commander of the army, tell me about your next plan!