Chapter 11: Peng's Smile (Part 1)

  After a night march, the 34th Division and the 18th Regiment finally temporarily shook off the enemy's pursuing troops, and the troops camped in a small mountain village deep in the mountains.

  At that time, whether it was the Red Army or the National Army, the troops were basically on foot. The National Army was a bit better off, after all, they were on their own turf everywhere, and their logistics support was relatively reliable, with transportation tools like trains, horses, and carts to help them move around. They also had strong military strength, allowing them to take turns fighting, and the troops could rest and regroup relatively quickly.

  The Red Army, on the other hand, was on a long march, far away from their base, with planes bombing from above and being surrounded and pursued by enemy forces on the ground. The troops were constantly on the move and in battle, measuring every step of the way on foot, with soldiers going for days and nights without sleep, their legs heavy as lead.

  Many soldiers fell asleep while walking and collapsed onto the side of the road, never to get up again - either from exhaustion or being captured by the National Army and local bandits. Sometimes even entire squads, platoons, and companies of soldiers would fall behind due to drowsiness.

  Therefore, after the Battle of Xiangjiang, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission at the time particularly emphasized the importance of taking care of straggling soldiers.

  The warriors of the 18th Red Army had not slept for several days and nights, relying solely on their willpower and the stimulation of victory to cross the Xiangjiang River and complete a night march. As soon as the order to rest was given, the soldiers collapsed, no one caring whether their clothes were wet or dry, whether it was cold or not, or whether the ground was flat or not. They simply lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

  Liu Yimin, Cai Zhong, Liu Jianli, Li Qing, and several other team leaders and battalion cadres were anxious to the point of jumping up and down, fearing that the soldiers would catch a serious illness from sleeping in their wet clothes. However, no matter how loudly they shouted, they could not wake the soldiers.

  Having no choice, they lit fires one by one, dragging the soldiers to the fire pits class by class. Fortunately, the new soldiers who had been reorganized from the captured Guangxi Army were relatively less sleepy. Under the leadership of the cadres, who were half-organizing and half-threatening, they managed to move all the soldiers to the fire pits.

  However, the new warriors were after all newly conscripted Guangxi army captives, with a reliability of zero. His own Red Army soldiers were also exhausted and couldn't wake up, so Liu Yimin had to organize the cadres, control the machine guns, and take turns keeping watch. It wasn't until three hours later that he was able to rouse some of the soldiers. Liu Yimin immediately instructed his chief of staff Liu Jianli to arrange for people to boil water, letting the first batch of awakened soldiers dry their clothes, drink some hot water, eat some dry rations, and set up a lookout. Then he himself went to sleep.

  This sleep, Liu Yimin slept very sweetly. In his dream, he dreamed that a memorial service for him was being held in the auditorium of the National Defense University. The director of the political department of the school read the eulogy with tears in his eyes. His parents were supported by their comrades-in-arms and stood on the left side. His mother's tears fell like broken pearls, unstoppable. Liu Yimin hurriedly said to his mother, "I'm not dead, I've returned to the Red Army era, and I'm leading the soldiers on a long march!" However, no matter how he spoke or shouted, it seemed that his mother couldn't hear him at all, and her tears continued to flow down. Liu Yimin became anxious, stepped forward, grabbed his mother's hand, and shouted loudly: "Mom, I'm not dead! I've traveled back to the Red Army's Long March period, and I've just become an acting regimental commander, leading the soldiers on a long march!"

  Liu Yimin woke up when it was already dusk. Director Cai saw him wake up and said: "Awake?"

  Liu Yimin said with embarrassment: "How is it almost dark outside? Did I sleep for a whole day?"

  Cai Zhong said: "You slept for a whole day, many warriors also slept for a whole day, some of them haven't woken up yet!"

  Liu Yimin hastily asked: "How is the troop? Is there any situation?"

  Cai Zhong replied, "There's nothing going on right now, the troops are all resting. Liu, the chief of staff, has gone to the company, and Li Qing, the director, has gone to the new recruit camp. You're awake, let's go see Chen Shizhang together, ask about the location of the Red Sixth Division, and see if we can meet with the division commander and Peng Jun, the army commander, report on the situation of the 18th Regiment, and get their approval for you as the regiment commander, and the battalion commanders and company commanders you appointed, as well as the reorganization of the troops."

  Liu Yimin said: "Alright, after I wash my face, let's go see the troops first and then meet Commander Chen".

  Liu Yimin and Cai Zhong visited each battalion and company, and the soldiers had a good rest after a day's break. The three companies of the First Battalion and two companies of the Second Battalion, mainly composed of the 18th Regiment, were in high spirits due to their consecutive victories, and there was no sign of the defeat at Xiangjiang. The commander of the First Company, Wang Dahu, even held Liu Yimin's hand and asked if they could attack the enemy again, improve their food, and get rid of the dry rations that had made their mouths numb. The 6th Company of the Second Battalion and three companies of the Third Battalion were composed of scattered personnel from various units, and their morale was not high, showing signs of a major defeat. Liu Yimin knew that these companies needed to recover, and the best way to do so was to achieve a thorough victory, which would truly restore the soldiers' psychology and spirit.

  The several companies of the International Brigade were very quiet, a good day's sleep allowed these young soldiers to quickly recover their physical and mental strength. The replenishment on the banks of the Xiangjiang River replaced the weapons in their hands, the bullet bags were full, and the grenade packs were full, as if their combat effectiveness had not decreased but increased.

  Liu Yimin couldn't help but feel that war was indeed a test of human endurance. A group of 16- or 17-year-old child soldiers who had crawled out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood were surprisingly calm in their minds. Thinking back to his own time, when he saw on TV African children holding AK rifles and chewing gum in front of the camera, Liu Yimin felt that humans' adaptability to their environment was truly super strong.

  Thinking again about his own experience of traveling through time for a day, it was simply like a dream.

  Liu Yimin arrived at the new recruit camp, where Li Qing, the deputy director of the political department and instructor of the new recruit camp, and Camp Commander Hong Chaoyuan and Deputy Camp Commander Chen Dazhong were addressing the troops. Liu Yimin listened for a while on the side, and it turned out that five new recruits, who were former prisoners of war from the Guangdong Army, had escaped earlier that morning but were caught and brought back. Li Qing was talking about how the Red Army is a revolutionary army and how joining the Red Army is an honor. It seemed that Li Qing's level of ideological and political work was not low, and his speech was well-organized, but judging from the expressions on the new recruits' faces, it was clear that the effect was not very obvious.

  Hong Chao-yuan had the new recruits take a short rest, and then he, Li Qing, and Chen Da-zhong ran over to Liu Yi-min and Cai Zhong. After saluting, Liu told them that the Guangxi soldiers were deeply influenced by reactionary education and deception, and ordinary educational methods would not work. They needed to attack their defenses psychologically, and could try one-on-one heart-to-heart talks. Cadres and veteran soldiers should each talk with new recruits, ask about their family situations and thoughts, and understand their difficulties. After the heart-to-heart talks, they would hold a speak bitterness activity, speaking about the suffering brought by the Nationalist reactionaries, the warlords' division and chaos, the exploitation of landlords, and the suffering of illiteracy. First, cadres would lead, then select backbone elements from among the new recruits to speak bitterness, finally forming a situation where everyone speaks bitterness, everyone understands revolutionary principles, and follows the Red Army. During the speak bitterness activity, pay attention to finding hidden Guangxi army backbone elements among the new recruits. These people were more deeply deceived politically, but had strong combat ability, so extra effort was needed to try to win them over, making them not only join the Red Army with their bodies, but also with their hearts. If they really could not be transformed, treat them according to prisoner policy.

  Liu Yimin was so carried away with his own talk that he didn't notice the looks on Cai Zhong, Li Qing, Hong Chaoyuan and Chen Dazhong's faces. It wasn't until he finished speaking that he realized these few people had been stunned into a daze. Liu Yimin called out "Hey, hey" twice before they finally came back to their senses. Liu Yimin said: "What are you guys doing? Did you hear what I just said? Wasn't it right?"

  Li Qing said: "Battalion commander, what you said is great! I have been doing ideological and political work for so long, how come I didn't think of this idea? Can I record your words? I want not only to learn from them myself but also to let other battalion company's political workers study them."

  Hong Chaoyuan said: "If this method works, the soldiers' enthusiasm will be mobilized immediately, and it will be easier to command them. The combat effectiveness will also be greatly improved."

  Tsai Chung said: "This is absolutely a new approach for our army's ideological and political work. Tell me, how did you think of it."

  Liu Yimin scratched his head and said, "In the past, famous generals who led troops were also very attentive to communicating with their soldiers, such as Yue Fei, who shared joys and sorrows with them. However, to make an army invincible in a hundred battles, it is essential to have a common struggle goal for the entire army, like the wars recorded in the 'Shang Shu' where Tang of Shang overthrew Xia Jie, King Zhou of Shang was defeated by the eight hundred vassals, and later all the dynasties rose and fell. The key is that soldiers have a unified ideology, striving for one goal, which can lead to repeated victories. Our Red Army is a new-type people's army led by the Party, our goal is very clear, now we need to figure out how to make our warriors, especially new recruits, deeply understand our goal. I mentioned 'heart-to-heart talks' as a common practice in the Red Army, and 'venting grievances' is my own idea, you can boldly try it out, if effective, promote it throughout the regiment, and pay attention to summarizing experiences. This is also part of our plan to reorganize the 18th Regiment."

  Hong Chaoyuan immediately asked: "Can the captain tell us about the plan?"

  Liu Yimin said: "This is just my idea, and we need to discuss it together. The goal is simple, which is to cultivate our 18th Regiment into an invincible and unbeatable hundred-battle lion. There are three main methods: First, use heart-to-heart talks to boost morale and strengthen the cohesion of the troops. Second, use military training to improve the tactical level of the troops. Third, use victories to continuously update equipment and expand the team. Now you start acting immediately, I estimate that in the next few days, our superiors will consider our 18th Regiment as a reorganized unit and will not assign us large combat tasks. Even if there are large combat tasks, the regimental headquarters will not assign tasks to the new recruits' camp. You strive to achieve a breakthrough within 5 days or so, at that time we can mix the new recruits' camp with the old troops and join the combat sequence."

  Hong Chaoyuan and Chen Dazhong immediately gave a military salute: "Mission accomplished!"

  Leaving the new barracks, Liu Yimin and Cai Zhong went to find Chen Shuxiang. On the way, Cai Zhong and Liu Yimin discussed whether to do it together in the first, second, and third regiments. Liu Yimin said they should do it simultaneously. Cai Zhong said he would go back and make arrangements afterwards.