Chapter 46: The Central Guard Corps (I)

  Wu Zheng never expected that when he and Cai Zhong returned with the transported goods, his wife and child would appear before him.

  The wife and children had taken off their tattered clothes, put on clean ones, the whole family met, knew about the situation of their parents, hugged each other in pain, and then rested.

  The next day at noon, after waking up from sleep, Wu Zheng was worried, how to settle these two women? Follow the troops? Impossible, the Red Army discipline does not allow it. It is known that when leaving the Soviet area, many female warriors and family members of leaders were left in the Soviet area. Moreover, now is the transfer period, bringing them along can only drag down the troops. Settling locally? I'm afraid that after the troops leave, they will never meet again. Thinking back and forth, there is no solution. Later, he made a decision to leave them behind.

  At mealtime, Wu Zheng held his bowl and thought about how to start while eating. His daughter-in-law looked at him and had already guessed seven or eight in her heart. She cried while eating, and the tears fell into the bowl and then swallowed into her stomach.

  The child didn't know his parents' worries, he just thought the Red Army's food was delicious, and he ate non-stop with a "chirp" sound, finishing a big bowl of rice in no time. After eating, he patted his belly and shouted that it was delicious.

  "Wu Zheng finally spoke up: 'Damn it, after dinner, take the kid and leave. I have a few silver coins from last time's superior reward, you can take them.'"

  The wife heard this and threw down her bowl, hugging the child and crying loudly.

  The child now understood, it turned out that his father wanted to drive himself and his mother away! He immediately stared at Wu Zheng with his shiny eyes: "Dad, we're not leaving, we want to be Red Army, give me a gun, I want to shoot the white dog son, to avenge Grandpa, Grandma and the villagers!"

  Wu Zheng patted the child's head and said, "Silly kid, you're still so short, how can you be a Red Army soldier? Wait until you grow up, then you can be a Red Army soldier, okay?"

  "No! My mother and I will both join the Red Army! If we leave the Red Army, we'll be caught and killed by the White Dogs!" The child shouted loudly.

  "Wu Zhen sighed: "Damn it, I know too, let you go, probably our whole family will never see each other again in this life, even after death we can't be buried together. But the troops are in the process of transferring, and may fight at any time, we can't drag down the troops!"

  The woman wiped her face: "I won't hold back the troops, I can shoot and take care of the wounded. You go tell the leaders that I want to join the Red Army, my daughter and I promise not to hold you back!" Then she burst into tears again: "Do you know, in these two months, today is the first time we've had a good night's sleep? On the road, we were always hiding in piles of coffins to sleep. What time did we dare to sleep soundly?"

  Wu Zheng continued to persuade, his daughter-in-law cried and said: "I've thought it through, even if I die, I want to die with you. Anyway, we two women leaving the troops, what will happen next is clear to you."

  Wu Zheng was the team leader, and the logistics battalion was a directly affiliated unit. The place where they were stationed was not far from Liu Yimin. Wu Zheng's wife had already startled Liu Yimin and Cai Zhong with her crying. Liu Yimin thought that this family must have been talking about their deceased relatives, so he didn't pay attention to it. Cai Zhong couldn't sit still, sighing constantly on the side. Liu Yimin asked him why he was always sighing, and Cai Zhong said that he didn't know how many families of Red Army soldiers had been harmed by the enemy, it's a pity. The most pitiful were probably those female soldiers who stayed in the Soviet area to fight guerrilla warfare, just thinking about it is unbearable.

  Liu Yimin suddenly understood that Wu Zheng must have been driving his daughter-in-law away from the troops, which was why she had been crying all along. He then said to Cai Zhong: "Let's go and take a look."

  Wu Zheng saw the team leader and political commissar arrive, and hastily stood up to salute. His wife also stopped crying, got up with her head down, fiddling with the hem of her clothes without saying a word. The child hid behind Wu Zheng's back, his dark eyes darting back and forth between Liu Yimin and Cai Zhong.

  Liu Yimin said: "Sister-in-law has arrived? Hmm! Why are you crying? Has Old Wu bullied you?"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Zheng's wife burst into tears again with a "wow".

  Liu Yimin said, "Really getting dumber with age! How can you talk like that?" He then hastily said, "Sister-in-law, don't cry. Whatever it is, tell me and I'll take charge along with the political commissar."

  The little girl poked her head out from behind Wu Zheng's back and said, "Red Army uncle, my mother and I want to join the Red Army. Father says he's afraid we'll hold up the troops and wants to drive us away."

  Liu Yimin pulled over a young boy and asked: "How old are you? What's your name?"

  The little boy replied: "Red Army uncle, I am 8 years old, my nickname is Nai Zi, and my full name is Wu Feng."

  Liu Yimin asked again: "Can you tell your uncle why you want to join the Red Army?"

  The little boy stared and said: "Bai Gouzi killed my grandfather, grandmother, gandfather and grandmother, I want to join the Red Army to avenge them!"

  Liu Yimin stroked his son's head and said: "Being a Red Army soldier means shedding blood and making sacrifices, are you afraid?"

  "Don't be afraid, it's just a dog bear!"

  "What if it was a white dog that caught you?"

  The little girl said angrily: "I'll bite them to death!" After thinking for a moment, she said: "They can't catch me, I can climb trees, jump over walls, and drill into dog holes, I can run away."

  Several people burst out laughing. Finally, Liu Yimin said: "I'll take this soldier and leave him to Old Wu as a liaison officer. And Pan Mingliang, the little red devil who was rescued by Hu Lao last time, will be given to the political commissar as a liaison officer. Sister will go to the medical team. However, everyone must learn how to shoot and have self-defense skills. This matter will be handled by Old Wu."

  "Wu Zheng hastily said: 'Cannot be helped, cannot be helped, this will drag down the Red Army.'"

  Liu Yimin said, "Don't argue anymore, what is the purpose of our Red Army revolution? Isn't it to establish a new China and let future generations live a happy life? What's the point of making revolutions if we can't even protect our wives and children?"

  Later, Li Ying, also Wu Zetian's wife, followed the Red Army to complete the Long March and became one of many female Red Army soldiers who completed the Long March. In her old age, she was often interviewed by journalists, asking her why she joined the Red Army at that time and what was the most unforgettable thing during the Long March? Li Ying replied that if she did not join the Red Army, she would be killed by the local militia, and the most unforgettable thing during the Long March was finding the Red Army in Tongdao. She was grateful to two people in her life, one was General Hu Laohu and the other was Comrade Liu Yimin.

  After leaving Wu Zheng, Wang Tongsheng and Hu Lao Hu came to find him. It turned out that the craftsman Wang Tongsheng had found was not simple, named Zeng Zhao, who was originally an engineer at the Hanyang Arsenal, and had been recommended by Xujianyin, a famous Chinese chemist and pioneer in the ordnance industry, to study abroad in the United States, specializing in firearms manufacturing. Unexpectedly, someone in the factory's high-level management coveted his wife's beauty, so he had to flee Hanyang with his family, planning to go to the United States or Hong Kong. As a high-level technical talent, after leaving Hanyang, he was wanted by the authorities, and it was impossible for him to go to the United States or Hong Kong, not even Shanghai or Guangzhou dared to go. In desperation, he could only head to the remote southwest, and when he arrived in Tongdao, he had no money left, so he had to hide his identity and rely on doing some small ironwork repairs to make a living. He said that he could help the Red Army repair, modify, or even manufacture weapons, but hoped that the Red Army could help his family escape the country.

  Liu Yimin thought for a moment, it seems that there is no such person in history, could he be another talented person buried by history? Never mind, let's meet first and talk later.

  When he met Zeng Zhao, Liu Yimin knew that this was a real talent.

  He had a parting in his hair, tall and thin, fair and clean, wearing a pair of glasses, looking delicate and tender, very much like a pianist.

  Liu Yimin took a piece of paper and casually drew a gun that looked like a hunting rifle, asking Zeng Zhao if he could replicate the kind of hunting rifle his master had. Zeng Zhao took a look and said, "This is not a hunting rifle, but a shotgun, also known as a scattergun. It was already equipped with troops during World War I. The advantage is that it has a large killing range, but the disadvantage is that its range is too short."

  Liu Yimin asked if it was possible to modify this gun into a fully automatic firearm like the "Huaqiang" machine gun. Zeng Zhao said that in theory, all weapons were developed for war needs, meaning that all guns can be modified into fully or semi-automatic firearms, but with higher requirements for mechanics and steel materials. Internationally, no one has yet developed a shotgun that can fire continuously, but the development of automatic feeding rifles is already underway. Domestically, the Northeast Army's arsenal had previously researched and developed semi-automatic rifles with automatic feeding, but the specific results are unclear.

  Liu Yimin casually said, if you let me develop it, I don't know if it will work or not. Zeng Zhao said as long as there is equipment, materials, time and environment, we can give it a try.

  Liu Yimin thought to himself, "Talents, talents, I reckon that in the future when we arrive at Yan'an, as long as I draw a rough blueprint and provide an idea, we can manufacture rocket launchers, anti-aircraft machine guns, and anti-tank cannons on our own. Of course, the prerequisite is that I need to come up with ways to obtain equipment, materials, and matching technical personnel and workers." Liu Yimin suddenly had an idea - what if he were to move Wang Jialie's or Liu Xiang's munitions factory away? He thought about how difficult it would be to transport these heavy objects on the Long March, but if they were to arrive at Yan'an and then go to move away Yan Xishan's equipment, wouldn't that be much more convenient? Wouldn't that mean we could manufacture guns, cannons, and bullets all by ourselves? Haha, I think it's feasible.

  Yan Laowai couldn't have imagined that in the distant Xiangxi, there was a guy named Liu Yimin who had his eyes on his treasure, and later it really fell into his hands. Of course, this is another story.

  Liu Yimin asked Zeng Zhao with some concern: "I heard that there is a kind of gun abroad called a sniper rifle, which can shoot very far and has high accuracy. I don't know if the telescope you helped us install on the gun can guarantee the shooting effect?"

  Zeng Zhao replied, "It's not a professional scope, so the effect is naturally not good. However, if the shooter's level is high, it's still no problem. Because the purpose of installing a professional scope is to increase the shooter's observation distance and improve shooting accuracy. When I was studying in the US, I interned at several large military enterprises and assembled sniper rifles, and the technology was no problem. If there's an opportunity in the future, we can assemble high-quality sniper rifles with professional scopes. Unfortunately, such opportunities are rare. Captain Liu should consider how to help us go abroad."

  Liu Yimin said in a measured tone: "Mr. Zeng, didn't you return to China after completing your studies to serve the country? Now that Japan has invaded, you should use your knowledge to contribute to the nation's resistance against Japan and make achievements. Why go abroad? Join the Red Army, bring out your skills, manufacture excellent weapons, help us defeat the Japanese invaders, and establish a new China. In the future, you will be an important founder of our country's military industry, a great man with a grand vision, and the opportunity is right before your eyes!"

  "Who doesn't want to resist Japan? But look at the National Government, will they resist Japan? Aren't they busy fighting you every day? I reckon that once they've eliminated you, the Japanese will occupy China. I see through them, those scoundrels in the National Government are experts at eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, but ask them about people's livelihoods and construction, and they won't even bother to ask. They're bound to bring about their own downfall and extinction of their kind. Besides, I can help you repair some damaged weapons at most, manufacturing is too difficult, forgive me for speaking bluntly, you don't even have a place to settle down now, how can you talk about equipment, materials and manufacturing?"

  Liu Yimin smiled: "Mr. Zeng, look at the big picture, we do have difficulties, and they are great difficulties, but these difficulties are temporary. Believe me, we will have equipment, materials, a stable environment, and with people, what miracles can't be created? Come on, join the Red Army, let's create miracles together!"

  Zeng Zhaoyou's heart skipped a beat. Liu Yimin saw that the timing was about right, so he struck while the iron was hot: "Mr. Zeng, one option is to go to America or Hong Kong and be an ordinary engineer, unknown for life; the other is to be a pioneer in the military industry of a future powerful new China, leaving a name that will shine through history. Which would you choose? If I had to choose, I'd definitely choose the latter. What man doesn't want to leave his mark on history?"

  Zeng Zhao suddenly asked a very bookish question: "Comrade Liu, you also know that my wife is very beautiful. Can you guarantee that the high-ranking officials of your Red Army won't be tempted by her?"

  Liu Yimin burst out laughing, making Zeng Zhao feel very embarrassed and fidgety. Liu Yimin patted Zeng Zhao's shoulder: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you're just too fond of your wife, that's why you think she's exceptionally beautiful, others may not necessarily agree. Don't worry, once you meet our leaders, you'll see they're a group of intellectual elites from this nation and era, what you're thinking won't happen."

  So, Zeng Zhao brought his wife and children to join the Red Army, becoming the head of the Ordnance Repair Department of the 18th Regiment. Many years later, General Zeng Zhao, who had dedicated himself to the people's military industry, passed away. In his brief will, people found a sentence: "I am grateful for my whole life to Comrade Liu Yimin, he is the mentor of my life. I would like to pay homage to him as a junior."

  Just after seeing Zeng Zhao off, Cai Zhong, Liu Jianli, Li Qing and Wu Zheng all came in together, their faces all showing a kind of suppressed excitement.

  Liu Yimin smiled and said: "We didn't say we were having a party committee meeting, how did you all come so quickly?"

  Tsai Chung said: "Just now when you were talking to people, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission sent a telegram. Afraid of affecting your conversation, they didn't disturb you. Congratulations to you, Commander Liu!"

  "What Liu Shizhang, what joke is this?"

  Tsai took out the telegram and said: "You see for yourself."

  The telegram contained four points:

  1. The Red Army's reorganization was reported, with the abolition of the 8th Corps' establishment and its troops being incorporated into the 1st and 3rd Corps; the Central Red Star Column and the Red Chapter Column were merged into one column to strengthen combat forces; the Cadre Regiment joined the 1st Corps sequence, along with the 2nd Division, under the direct command of Chief of Staff Liu Bocheng.

  2. The 18th Regiment would no longer return to the 3rd Corps' establishment and was renamed "Central Guard Division", consisting of three regiments: the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Guard Regiments. The division commander and party secretary were Liu Yimin, political commissar and deputy party secretary Cai Zhong, party committee member and chief of staff Liu Jianli, party committee member and director of the Political Department Li Qing, and party committee member and logistics department head Wu Zheng. Leadership for each regiment would be appointed by the division's party committee after reporting to the Red Army General Political Department.

  3. The Central Guard Division had the same mission as the original 18th Regiment: to delay and pin down the enemy's pursuit troops, protecting the main forces of the Red Army from attack. Specific combat times and regions would be decided by the division leadership based on changes in the enemy situation.

  4. A telegram from the former 18th Regiment proposed sending someone to negotiate with He Jian; the Central Guard Division was entrusted to represent the Center for negotiations, which could happen or not, but Tao Guang and Zhang Liangji must be released and should not be shot. The telegram was signed by Zhu De, Chairman of the Military Commission of the Chinese Revolution and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army.

  Liu Yimin was puzzled, how could he be given a central guard regiment number? Didn't the original Central Guard Regiment already belong to the Red 8th Army Corps? It seems that history has indeed undergone significant changes due to his arrival. In history, after the Red 8th Army Corps was disbanded, 1000 people were incorporated into the Red 5th Army Corps. Now there are more people, and they have been divided and incorporated into the Red 1st Army Corps and the Red 3rd Army Corps. Adding to this the Xiang army prisoners he sent over, these two army corps have been greatly strengthened in terms of numbers. It seems that he has already begun to change history.

  Liu Yimin said with a bit of embarrassment: "Everyone, leaders, are we being promoted too quickly?"

  Tsai Chung said, "It's not that we're promoting you quickly, it's that you're being promoted quickly. This is the Central Revolutionary Military Commission's affirmation of your ability and contributions. Regimental Commander, shouldn't we study the cadres of the three regiments as soon as possible and report to the Center for approval?"

  Li Qing said: "We also need to hold a grand founding ceremony for the Central Guard Regiment to boost morale."

  Wu Zheng said: "We now have sufficient supplies and can make it more lively."

  Liu Jian said: "The founding conference must hold a flag-giving ceremony to reflect the majesty and inviolability of our Central Guard Corps."

  Liu Yimin thought for a moment and said: "Yesterday, three regiments were just established, the cadres were adjusted once, and today they were adjusted again. The speed is a bit too fast. I propose a plan, let's discuss it and see if it works. The division's directly affiliated units will not move, the 1st, 4th, and 6th regiments will be reorganized into the 1st Guard Regiment, with Gao Yuan as the regimental commander, Hong Chaojun as the political commissar, and Lei Ming as the chief of staff; the 2nd, 5th, and 7th regiments will be reorganized into the 2nd Guard Regiment, with Zhang Hongtao as the regimental commander, Zhao Shan as the political commissar, and Li Yimo as the chief of staff; the 3rd, 8th, and 9th regiments will be reorganized into the 3rd Guard Regiment, with Chen Dayong as the regimental commander, Shi Ran as the political commissar, and Chen Dazhong as the chief of staff. In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, all the regimental commanders who are also serving as team leaders will not be exempted from their duties. Let's fight a few more battles and let the lower-level cadres be tempered again. Promoting them too quickly is not good."

  Cai Zhong thought for a moment and said, "I think this plan is basically feasible. I suggest adjusting the positions of Shi Ran and Chen Dazhong. Chen Dazhong is good at ideological work and did well in the new recruit camp. Shi Ran is more skilled in military command and staff work, serving as deputy commander of the instruction team, while the commander Li Yimo serves as the chief of staff of the second regiment. Shi Ran should not outrank him. I suggest Chen Dazhong be appointed as the political commissar of the third regiment, and Shi Ran as the chief of staff."

  Liu Jianli, Li Qing and Wu Zheng all think it's feasible.

  Liu Yimin said: "Still, the political commissar is meticulous, and adjusting it a bit would be more suitable. Actually, after these few battles, I'm very satisfied with the performance of our cadres. Several regimental commanders are not mentioned, they were all originally from main force regiments. Hong Chao-yuan was also from a main force regiment, Zhao Shan and Lei Ming are both suitable candidates for main force regiment commanders. No rush, the troops still need to expand, as long as we fight well. Let's report to the Central Revolutionary Military Committee according to the political commissar's adjusted opinion. The political commissar and Old Wu will prepare, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock we'll hold the founding ceremony of the Central Guard Regiment, then we'll have to prepare for a big battle. I'll write a letter, Li Qing will be responsible for sending someone to contact He Jian, no matter what, we must make this old scoundrel shed some blood. The chief of staff should hurry up with the troops' training, especially the three newly established battalions, go down and inspect them one by one, ensure that when we pull them up, they won't be pulled thin."

  "Don't worry, I'll go right now," said Liu Jianli.

  Several people dispersed and went busy, Liu Yimin muttered to himself: "General Xue Yue, where is your Central Army now? Good expectation!"