Chapter 72 Preparations (1)

  At this time, it was already the second half of the night, and the lights in the command center of the Seventh Legion were still on. The three core members of the legion, Liu Hua, Guan Xiangying, and Li Qing, sat around a table smoking. It had been over two hours since they started discussing, but the three men continued to talk.

  "Commander of the Legion, why don't you tell us about the development direction of our legion during this period?" Li Qing spoke up.

  "Commissar, Director Li, I think there are three directions for our development during this period: Firstly, to train our troops and enhance the combat effectiveness of our seven army corps. Secondly, since the founding of our army, we have never forgotten one thing, which is to stockpile supplies, purchase as much food, clothing, ammunition... as possible. Thirdly, to recruit new soldiers, replenish our new army corps, so that in future battles, we will have sufficient reserve forces and no worries about the rear. In summary, these are my three opinions."

  After finishing, Liu Hua fell into deep thought, because he thought of the history that now the Central Red Army was about to arrive in Shaanbei, and after the central government established its base in Shaanbei, Chiang Kai-shek hated the current Xiangxi base, deploying all the main forces that had surrounded and annihilated the Central Red Army at the beginning to surround and annihilate the Second Front Army. Faced with the strong enemy's encirclement, the Second Front Army had no choice but to follow the central government's instructions, leading the army northward, starting the Long March of the Second Front Army. At the beginning of the Long March, what the Red Second Front Army lacked most was troops and supplies. In the end, after arriving in Shaanbei, even the war horse of He Long, the highest commander-in-chief, was killed as military rations. Thinking of this, Liu Hua became even more convinced of his opinions on these three aspects.

  "I agree with the three suggestions of the legion commander." Due to the long time following Liu Hua's expedition, Li Qing was very clear about Liu Hua's judgment, and every time he was prepared for the unexpected. So he agreed immediately.

  ........

  After more than half an hour of discussion and improvement, the three finally reached a unified deployment: Director Li Qing was responsible for collecting materials, striving to use the silver and gold originally seized as reserves for the troops to store enough military rations, uniforms, ammunition... The troops were required to be able to continuously fight for a month without replenishment, and a large number of mules from Xiangxi were purchased to speed up the troop's marching speed. At the same time, these mules could also serve as emergency food to save the troops in times of crisis.

  The main task of Political Commissar Guan Xiangying was to recruit a large number of qualified new soldiers within the defensive area of his own troops and provide them with certain training, so that the new soldier team could reach its full strength of 2,000 people, and supplement the troops with qualified personnel for future battles.

  The task of the regimental commander Liu Hua was to train and inspect troops. Strengthening the single-soldier quality and coordination combat capability of the troops, and in order to further strengthen the single-soldier quality of the troops, each unit agreed to let every soldier take out 20 rounds of ammunition for training.

  Finally, in order to cope with the possible more severe battles in the future, it is required that each warrior's standard carrying ammunition quantity be 50 rounds, and all remaining ammunition be handed over to the logistics team of the legion for safekeeping. The mortar's loading quantity is 40 rounds. Radio equipment is allocated to the regiment.

  Looking at the results of a night's work, the three people couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief and fell asleep directly on the table.

  The next day, the three of them set off for their respective workplaces according to their predetermined division of labor.

  Liu Hua arrived at the division stationed in Cili with a well-trained guard battalion. Before reaching the training ground outside the city, he heard waves of shouting and killing sounds. From afar, he saw the division commander Sun Xingbang and others, including the political commissar, coming out to greet him.

  "Director Sun, is the troop reorganization complete now?" Liu Hua asked immediately, without being polite, looking at Sun Xingbang who was sweating profusely.

  "Colonel, you can rest assured about my division. The reorganization has been fully completed and all vacancies in the troops have been replenished from the logistics department. Now the troops have reached a full strength of 3,500 people and are undergoing training." The division commander replied immediately.

  "Well, okay, let's go take a look at the training grounds." Liu Hua nodded.

  Under the leadership of Sun Shizhong and others, Liu Hua and others began to walk towards the training ground of the First Battalion. It is worth noting that due to the heavy losses in the Wanmaliang Ambush, many soldiers were supplemented by logistics personnel at this time, so many companies were conducting the most basic formation training.

  Looking at the rows of troops in front of him, Liu Hua shook his head and didn't speak, because after seeing the grand military parade of later generations, how could he be happy with such a formation?

  "Guard battalion, one company and one row come out, the team leader, during this period of time all the soldiers in a row are given to you for command. Their main role is to cooperate with the main officials of each company to train the troops. You should know that the guard battalion is very proficient in the 三三制 combination charge formation I mentioned earlier, so you must make good use of it and strive to become a team that dares to fight hard battles." Liu Hua said to the team leader.

  It was only then that Sun Shangxiang and the others understood why the commander had brought the entire vanguard battalion with him while inspecting the troops. After all, the vanguard battalion was the strongest force in the entire army.

  Soon, Liu Hua led the guard battalion to the training ground of the Second Regiment again and handed over the second row to the commander of the Second Regiment... After a day's inspection, only the Third Division Hai Men had not been inspected. At the same time, in the first two divisions that were inspected, all troops reached full strength and were conducting training with high morale.