Chapter 40: The Army Heads North
News came, the Central was greatly encouraged, even the great man sent a telegram hoping that the 15th Red Army would stay and consolidate and develop the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Suzhou base area (the original central Soviet area), and did not agree with Hu Weidong's proposal to leave the Soviet area and go north. In the eyes of the great man, it was not a wise move to abandon the masses' foundation and the existing base, and risk crossing the enemy's repeated blockade to go to the northern region without any foundation. If this were to repeat the mistake of the fall of the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet area, it would be heartbreaking. As for the issue of resisting Japan, even if cooperation with the Nanjing government is necessary, having a territorial base in hand will be more advantageous during negotiations.
But Hu Weidong did not blindly follow orders, instead he reasonably and logically explained his own ideas. In his view, the combat effectiveness of the 15th Red Army largely relied on ammunition, especially artillery shells, and simply relying on captured supplies was not very reliable. Once the ammunition was depleted, would the 15th Red Army be able to continue its victories as before? Hu Weidong did not have much confidence in this. Moreover, there were too many "liberated soldiers" who had defected from the Nationalist army within the 15th Red Army, and they had not had time to fully digest them. After continuous battles, they were generally exhausted, and even if they only suffered a major defeat, it could lead to the collapse of the entire army. Therefore, finding a base area that could support the 15th Red Army and give them an opportunity to regroup and retrain was extremely necessary.
As Chiang Kai-shek's control over Jiangnan grew stronger, the geographical advantages of the Min-Gan-Yue-Su region in the early 1930s no longer existed. Instead, being too close to Nanjing made it vulnerable to frequent attacks by the White Army, making it extremely difficult to develop. Hu Weidong did not dare to hope that every battle would yield a huge amount of spoils exceeding losses. Moreover, due to long-term war and massacres by the White Army, the population ratio in Min-Gan-Yue-Su region was now severely imbalanced. In rural areas, it was almost impossible to see young men; everywhere were women, children, and old men. With only the labor of the elderly, women, and children, it was difficult for them to support themselves, let alone maintain an army of 100,000.
Because of this, Hu Weidong had to control the recruitment ratio to an extremely low 1% (note 1) in order to quickly restore the local economy and alleviate the burden on the villagers. However, if the Red Fifteenth Army continued to stay here for a long time, the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Sichuan border region would inevitably fall into unprecedented famine, according to Hu Weidong's estimate. At present, the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Sichuan border region can support at most 30,000 regular troops, so the main force of the Red Fifteenth Army has no choice but to leave and find another base area.
Demobilizing or converting to militia is theoretically possible, but the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the 15th Red Army have been through many battles and have gradually become a seasoned force. It's hard for Hu Weidong to bear the thought of demobilizing most of them. Moreover, more than half of the soldiers in the 15th Red Army are "liberated warriors" from all over the country, it's okay to let them fight, but if they want to stay in the Soviet area to farm, I'm afraid that within a few days, more than half will run away. Even if they are willing to farm, generally speaking, they won't be happy to be farmers in this foreign land.
Seeing the miserable situation of the Central Soviet Area described in the telegram, the great man couldn't help but have tears in his eyes. He decisively dispelled his overly optimistic illusions and sent a telegram to Hu Weidong supporting his approach. The telegram only had four words: "You are right." This made Hu Weidong very moved. In fact, he had another reason that he couldn't express, which was that if they stayed in the Min-Gan-Yue-Su area, after the Anti-Japanese War and reorganization, the Red 15th Army would definitely enter the New Fourth Army system. However, the secretary of the Yangtze Bureau who led the New Fourth Army at the beginning of the war was Wang Ming, who had returned from the Soviet Union. In comparison, Hu Weidong felt that it was better to head north early and join the Eighth Route Army system to fight against the Japanese more securely.
After reporting to the Central Committee for approval, Hu Weidong first demobilized some officers and soldiers in the troops who were not suitable for combat and had a higher cultural level. The former was transferred to work in the Soviet government or stayed behind to farm, while the latter was enrolled in one of the three universities for "further study" based on their personal characteristics and the needs of the troops. A total of more than 20,000 people were demobilized. Then Hu Weidong withdrew more than 5,000 local militiamen from the Soviet area, adding to the nearly 20,000 wounded soldiers who could not follow the main force, forming the Fujian-Guangdong-Guangxi Independent Division, with Tan Zhenlin as division commander and political commissar, Chen Tanqiu as government chairman, and He Huzi, the president of the court who had decided to stay behind early on.
Hu Weidong had his reasons for making such arrangements. Logically, the main force of the Red 15th Army should have been able to lure away the majority of the Nationalist army, but since Chiang Kai-shek could still insist on "internal pacification before external resistance" despite the Japanese enemy's advances, who could guarantee that he wouldn't suddenly switch to "exterminating bandits before eliminating the roots"? Therefore, Hu Weidong left behind Tan Zhenlin, the military commander with the strongest abilities in the army. This way, even if the Nationalist army launched an attack on the Soviet Zone, they would not be able to easily take it down. As long as they could hold out until the outbreak of war, the Soviet Zone would be safe. As for leaving Chen Tanqiu behind, Hu Weidong was thinking of his historical death in Xinjiang and hoped to avoid this tragedy...
On May 4, 1935, the main force of the Red Fifteenth Army, with more than 90,000 people, and tens of thousands of young students from three universities in Chong'an County, Fujian Province, took an oath to march northward. They used a high-power radio station to broadcast coded messages across China, calling on various domestic forces to stop internal wars and unite against Japan, causing a great stir. The Communist Party's slogan "Anti-Chiang and Anti-Japanese" also changed earlier in history to "Forcing Chiang to Resist Japan", but the old Chiang still insisted on his stance of "expelling external enemies before pacifying internal ones". He turned a blind eye to the change in attitude towards the Communist Party, and strictly ordered the suppression of anti-Japanese salvation movements across the country, so as not to disrupt his plan to "exterminate bandits".
Chong'an County was already the territory of Min-Zhe-Gan-Su in the past. Before the 15th Red Army took an oath, the "Minbei Independent Division" which was fighting guerrilla warfare in this area had come to join forces. Hu Weidong naturally took it over without hesitation and expanded the "Minbei Independent Division", which had only a thousand or so people left, into a division of more than 8,000 people, further strengthening the power of the 15th Red Army...
What delighted Hu Weidong even more was that the original munitions factory in northern Fujian's Soviet area still existed. Although this factory had only over 300 cadres and workers, its technical and equipment conditions were not bad, and it could produce rifles, submachine guns, hand grenades, landmines, and bullets. It must be noted that the bullets were produced, not reloaded, which is very significant. Moreover, the factory's production capacity was quite large, with over 1,000 various types of guns produced every month, more than 10,000 explosive devices and landmines made, over 3,000 hand grenades produced, and 150,000 rounds of ammunition manufactured.
Note 1: That is, the original 30,000 mobilized soldiers, plus more than 100,000 "liberated soldiers", several thousand old Red Army soldiers who were gathered one after another, and the 20,000 to 30,000 people who were won over during the expansion of the red areas before and after the Battle of Southern Jiangxi. After suffering losses in successive battles, the current total strength is around 120,000 men, with more than 20,000 wounded soldiers who may recover and return to their posts.
