Chapter 14: Western Extension and Rectification (2)

  The New Soldier Company's grievance meeting was undoubtedly a success.

  The next day, Liu Yimin woke up to find Cai Zhong had set up two stones with a stone slab on top, and was crawling on it writing something. Liu Yimin walked over to take a look, and found that Cai Zhong was writing a letter of complaint and a report on the three investigations.

  Seeing Liu Yimin awake, Cai Zhong raised his head and said: "You're awake? I want to summarize the activities of our troops' grievances and three investigations and report them to the Red Army's General Political Department."

  Liu Yimin took a look at Cai Zhong, who was only 30 years old, but already had very deep wrinkles on his forehead, which made the mole on his forehead even more prominent. His thin face had lost its original scholarly air, and all that remained was a resolute determination after experiencing hardships. His short stature appeared very lean and wiry.

  Liu Yimin knew that Cai Zhong was an old comrade-in-arms, originally the political commissar of the 102nd Regiment of the 34th Division, and before the Long March, he was transferred to be the director of the Political Department of the 34th Division. According to history, Cai Zhong sacrificed in the gunfire of the 44th Division of the Guangxi Army after the 34th Division just broke out from Xinhuang's Guanyin Mountain. Liu Yimin's appearance changed Cai Zhong's fate as well. Especially since they formed the 18th Regiment together, Cai Zhong's performance made Liu Yimin respect him very much: loyal, strong-willed, principled, and also knew how to be flexible and adaptable, demonstrating the characteristics of a Red Army political worker who was both literary and military-minded.

  Upon hearing Cai's words, Liu Yimin said: "Now that we are in the process of transferring, you will probably have to find time to write slowly. However, it is indeed necessary to summarize and promote, if we can use this method to transform prisoners of war, even in the most brutal battles, we can continue to expand the Red Army."

  Tsai Chung said: "I don't know if you noticed, yesterday evening's grievance meeting, originally belonged to the Xiang Army new warriors speech more. Especially after catching up with several officers who drank soldier blood, their emotions were particularly high and transformed quickly. While the original belonging to the Gui Army new warriors speech was relatively less."

  Liu Yimin said, "I noticed it last night. The Guangxi Army and the Hunan Army are different, don't rush, let them continue to vent their grievances today. Report to the military commander and deal with those few rubbish officers."

  Cai Zhong said: "Good."

  "Or I'll go with the new recruits."

  Liu Yimin said: "No need, I believe we can solve the problem today. Let's get ready to set off."

  Jokes, speaking bitterness and three investigations were the main content of the PLA's new-style rectification in history. Through speaking bitterness and three investigations, our army's combat effectiveness increased exponentially. In the Huaihai Campaign, our army suffered heavy casualties, adopting a policy of "capturing and supplementing" prisoners of war to maintain strong attacking power. The secret to transforming prisoners of war was the speaking bitterness movement. Liu Yimin came from a later generation, so he naturally knew the power of the speaking bitterness movement and the three investigations movement, but he couldn't tell Cai Zhongming about it.

  However, in fact, it is more difficult for the Guangxi army prisoners of war to transform, which is different from the Xiang army prisoners of war.

  At that time, the soldiers of various warlords were all recruited from among the poor and downtrodden, with the vast majority coming from impoverished families. Most people had no ideals or sense of justice, and basically just joined the army for a salary. When their superiors told them to attack someone, they would do so without question, belonging to a group that was muddled and confused. Originally, when Red Army political workers did some work on them, it could make them turn their guns around to fight against the White Bandits. Even if they couldn't be made to switch sides, they could still be given some psychological treatment to divide and disintegrate the captives. Therefore, the Red Army strictly forbade beating or abusing prisoners.

  The leader of the Xiang Army, He Jian, was a standard speculative warlord, with no ideals in his chest, but with blood on both hands. Even in the original history, Chiang Kai-shek had never treated He Jian equally with Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Yan Xishan and Zhang Xueliang. The style of the Xiang Army can be imagined.

  The Guangxi Army was different, it should be said that it was a special case among the warlord troops at that time. Because the main officers of the new Guangxi faction were all graduates of military academies, and at that time they also had the ideal of overthrowing the warlords with revolutionary means, and had ambitions to unify China. After unifying Guangxi, they did not adopt major destructive policies. In addition, after many years of fighting against Chiang Kai-shek, they had suffered from the weakness of their troops being bought off and defeated by Chiang, so they often regarded themselves as a revolutionary army, paying close attention to the ideology, style, and construction of the officer corps and reserve forces, forming the Guangxi Army's strong and resilient combat style. Therefore, it was predictable that Guangxi Army prisoners would be difficult to reform.

  Thanks to Liu Yimin, a Ph.D. student from the future, a heart-to-heart talk activity narrowed the psychological distance between the Red Army soldiers and the captured new soldiers of the Guangxi army. A grievance-reporting activity made these Guangxi army captives settle accounts: it turned out that their own misfortunes and those of their families were all caused by this unreasonable social system and its beneficiaries - the ruling class, the exploiting class.

  The breakthrough came from a new warrior named Li Dexian.

  Li Dexian was originally a platoon leader in the Guangxi Army. His home was on the outskirts of Guilin, Guangxi. He had five paternal uncles and his family lived together, renting 100 mu of paddy fields from a landlord. Every morning before dawn, his grandmother would lead his mother and aunts to cook meals and feed pigs, starting their day's work. His father and uncles spent most of the year working in the paddy fields. Although they had good harvests every year, after deducting the rent for the land, all that was left for the family was food for the mouth. Then came various miscellaneous taxes, which when deducted, meant that the whole family could only eat white rice during busy farming seasons and Chinese New Year. For most of the time, they had to rely on coarse grains and wild vegetables to fill their stomachs.

  Helpless, Father and uncles discussed that they must cultivate a scholar, cannot let the children be blind to the exploitation of the wealthy. So, the whole family used the grain saved from their mouths to support Li Dehuan's study, hoping he could change the fate of the whole family.

  Li Dexian joined the Guangxi Army after finishing his studies and was soon sent to a training team due to his cultural background. After returning, he became a platoon leader. He thought that with his own abilities, he would quickly rise through the ranks, but unexpectedly, he was captured by the Red Army in one battle.

  Through their complaints, the Red Army soldiers helped Li De-xian calculate an account. Every year, his whole family paid 60 dan of land rent and various donations, which added up to 1,200 dan in 20 years, equivalent to 600,000 jin. It turned out that his whole family had been working hard for the landlord and warlord. He himself had read books and joined the army with the goal of changing the fate of his family and the poor people. Who would have thought that by picking up a gun to fight against the Red Army, he was actually fighting against his own brothers? Even if he wasn't captured this time, even if he could rise through the ranks, in the end, he would still be defending the landlord and warlord, and opposing the poor people. From the very beginning, there was no difference between him and the bodyguards of the landlord's family. Therefore, the only correct choice is to join the Red Army, thoroughly overthrow the exploiting class, and establish a new society where everyone is equal, everyone has land to farm, and everyone has work to do.

  Li De-xian's transformation inspired the lower-level officers among the captured Guangxi troops, and with the addition of 30 people from the Red 5th Division who were all originally from the Red 7th Army's Guangxi native soldiers, they were the elite of the Red Army, making it easy for them to communicate with the Guangxi captive soldiers. Therefore, the training work in the new barracks suddenly became much smoother, and Li Qing, Hong Chao, and Chen Da-zhong couldn't help but burst out laughing with big smiles on their faces.

  From then on, the transformation work of the new recruits' prisoners can be said to have achieved results.

  After receiving the report from the new troops regiment, Liu Yimin began to reorganize the troops.

  The First, Second and Third Battalions have all recovered their combat effectiveness to varying degrees. Among them, the First Battalion is in the best shape, especially the original Vanguard Company which has been reorganized into the 1st Company. Since meeting Liu Yimin, they have had a string of victories that have stimulated the troops to shout with excitement. With excellent equipment, elite soldiers and high morale, if Liu Yimin wants to turn the Red 18th Regiment into the central red army's sharp arrow, the 1st Company is the arrowhead, always ready to pounce on the enemy and strike a fatal blow. Especially after Liu Yimin deliberately taught the 1st Company the tactics of three men in one group, three groups in one team, alternating cover, coordinated attack, infantry company, platoon, battalion tactics and concentrated firepower, deception, enticement, confusion, and surprise attack, these seasoned soldiers have made a qualitative leap in tactical level and thinking. Under the leadership of the 1st Company, the other two companies of the First Battalion also trained according to the methods of the 1st Company. The cadres of the Second and Third Battalions also followed suit. In just a few days, the three main battalions of the 18th Regiment had regained their combat effectiveness.

  Liu Yimin felt it was time, and after consulting with Cai Zhong, Liu Jianli, and Chen Dazhong, they reorganized the new recruits into the 4th Battalion. Hong Chao and Chen Dazhong were appointed as battalion commander and deputy battalion commander respectively, while Li Qing remained as the battalion's instructor. The battalion was composed of the 10th, 11th, and 12th companies. Peng Hu, the original commander of the 1st company of the new recruits, was appointed as the commander of the 10th company, with Cheng Guangrong as his instructor. Nan Hongjun, the original commander of the 2nd company of the new recruits, was appointed as the commander of the 11th company, with Shi Tugen as his instructor. Yang Yan, the original commander of the 3rd company of the new recruits, was appointed as the commander of the 12th company, with Ding Jiesheng as his instructor. The soldiers were dispersed and reorganized into a mix of old Red Army soldiers and new recruits. All four combat battalions were replenished to 480 men each. The team rebuilt its guard platoon, communication platoon, sniper platoon, reconnaissance platoon, and firepower support platoon, all of which increased in personnel. The cooking squad also ended its embarrassing situation of having only three people. Each battalion set up a cooking squad. The new recruits' organization was retained, with three companies of cadres left behind. Lei Ming, who came from the 5th Division, was appointed as the commander of the new recruits, with Chang Hua as his instructor. Hou Sanxi, the original commander of the 4th company of the new recruits, was reassigned as the commander of the 1st company of the new recruits, with Yu Qing as his instructor. Sang Yida, the original commander of the 5th company of the new recruits, was reassigned as the commander of the 2nd company of the new recruits, with Chen Xian as his instructor. Cheng Baicheng, the original commander of the 6th company of the new recruits, was reassigned as the commander of the 3rd company of the new recruits, with Guo Decheng as his instructor. From then on, their task was to specialize in training new soldiers.

  The whole division has four combat regiments, one recruit regiment, one firepower support company, one reconnaissance company, one sniper company, one guard squad, one communication squad, and a field hospital. It is the temporary field hospital of the Red 5th Division rescued by Liu Yimin in Xiawan Village under Guanyin Mountain in Xinhuang. There are 2 doctors and 3 nurses, but unfortunately, all medicines have been used up. The total strength is 2160 people, which is the largest division in the Central Red Army.

  Unfortunately, apart from only having 6 heavy machine guns, the heavy firepower was clearly insufficient. The light weapons were also inadequate. When the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions were reorganized along the Xiangjiang River, they were supplemented with captured Guangxi Army weapons according to the standard of one company, but at that time, nearly a thousand new recruits in the New Soldier Battalion were unarmed, and all the captured weapons had been handed over to the Red 34th Division. When the 8th Corps reorganized its troops, it basically took away all the discarded weapons from the 18th Division and the 34th Division.

  The four battalion commanders came to ask Liu Yimin what to do without guns. Liu Yimin said, "What's the worry? Can't a few big battalion commanders handle this little thing?" The central army has good weapons, cannons, machine guns, 79-style rifles, submachine guns, and hand grenades galore. We can go get them at any time. Several battalion commanders were eager to try, asking when they would go get them. Liu Yimin said, "We don't need to find the time, others are carrying guns and pulling cannons behind our backs, chasing after us. We can wait for them without even moving."