Chapter 41: A Series of Happy Events
After the merger with Minbei Arsenal, the arsenal of the 15th Red Army was suddenly invigorated, not only greatly increasing its production capacity, but also gaining the ability to independently produce bullets. This was a significant strategic significance for the ammunition supply of automatic weapons, which had previously relied on reusing old cartridge cases. Unfortunately, the arsenal followed the 15th Red Army and could not settle down, if it could be fully produced, with the equipment that had been renovated under Hu Weidong's guidance, producing tens of millions of bullets per year was not a difficult task...
After the 15th Red Army marched north, good news came one after another. First, after Hu Weidong's repeated requests, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission finally agreed to let Mao Zedong serve as the political commissar of the 15th Red Army. Hu Weidong was finally able to thoroughly and openly discuss his long-standing ideological differences with him. And Mao Zedong, in this position more suitable for him, finally demonstrated his talents that had been buried for many years, making unobtrusive but indispensable contributions to the development of the 15th Red Army.
Then came the "Min Dong Independent Division" with a force of 2,000 to 3,000 men, and their division commander was Ye Fei, who later became a famous general. If Tan Zhenlin's historical achievements were mostly made during his tenure as political commissar, there is some suspicion that he relied on others, but Ye Fei was undoubtedly a true military talent. Hu Weidong immediately appointed him as the commander of the Second Independent Division, one of the three main divisions of the Red Fifteenth Army, with Zhang Dingcheng as his political commissar. The troops led by Ye Fei increased tenfold at once, and both the quality of the soldiers and the equipment were much better than before, so he was very satisfied. Even when it came to introspection on the "Wang Ming" left-deviationist line's poisonous legacy in the internal rectification campaign, they actively cooperated and greatly supported Hu Weidong's work...
From Ye Fei's mouth, Hu Weidong also learned some extremely important intelligence and therefore abandoned his original plan to quickly pass through this area without stopping. He decided to first restore the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Suzhou district and connect it with the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Suzhou district to form a united front, strengthen the self-defense capabilities of the Soviet district.
Hu Weidong made this important decision mainly because he had learned two important pieces of information: Firstly, the Yangyuan Ordnance Factory in Min-Zhe-Gan-Su area, although it was forced to disband more than a month ago and its machinery and equipment were buried, due to effective concealment, it had not been discovered by the enemy yet. The original cadres and workers of the factory remained in the base area, persisting in guerrilla warfare, and finding these people would undoubtedly further strengthen the factory's talent reserve. Especially worth mentioning is that the person in charge of the Yangyuan Ordnance Factory was Liu Ding, who later became the technical director of the Eighth Route Army's Huangyadong Ordnance Factory. This man was a historical military-industrial expert, although not as legendary as Wu Yunzheng, but his actual contributions were even more significant. In Hu Weidong's eyes, he alone was worth more than the Minbei Ordnance Factory.
Secondly, the Red Army Vanguard Regiment, led by Su Yu, the former chief of staff of the 10th Red Army Corps, and Liu Ying, the former director of the Political Department of the 10th Red Army Corps, was currently active in southern Zhejiang. Although Liu Ying died early in history and his name is not well-known, Su Yu was a first-rate general during the Liberation War period. Despite some people's excessive doubts about Su Yu's abilities and achievements due to certain biases, even if one were to rank the military leaders of the Red side by their ability, Su Yu would never fall out of the top ten. Especially worth mentioning is that the larger the army, the greater Su Yu's advantage, and large-scale warfare was precisely Hu Weidong's greatest weakness. Therefore, Su Yu's significance to Hu Weidong and the 15th Red Army cannot be overstated.
Unfortunately, the Red Army Vanguard Regiment probably damaged its radio station during the breakout, making it difficult to contact them immediately. However, if Hu Weidong could really restore the Min-Zhe-Gan-Su area, they should come to join forces once the news spreads.
Hu Yan finally woke up and found himself captured. His emotions were unstable, and he had attempted to take his own life several times, but was unable to do so due to his physical weakness. Hu Weidong rushed to the battlefield hospital upon hearing the news. At this time, Hu Yan's hair was disheveled, his beard was unkempt, and his already small eyes were even more dull and lifeless, completely unlike the dashing figure in the old online photos that Hu Weidong had seen before.
"How could a civil engineering major become like this? Were you beaten by us?", Hu Weidong exclaimed, but Hu Lu didn't even flinch, defeated...
"Victory and defeat are common occurrences in the military, it's just that I was captured once, what's there to be unhappy about?" Hu Weidong comforted, but Hu Xu remained unresponsive, still defeated...
"Don't talk about death so easily, even if it's just for your family!", Hu Weidong said in anger, but failed again...
Hu Weidong, who was furious at Hu Yan's death-like appearance, was about to leave when he suddenly remembered the biggest stain on Hu Yan's life - during the Huaihai Campaign, he had once abandoned his post because he refused to accept Huang Wei's higher status, resulting in the annihilation of over a million Nationalist troops at Shuangduiji. He immediately had an idea and shouted loudly at Hu Yan, "With your abilities, becoming a division commander or army commander is not a problem. Now that you haven't achieved fame and fortune, are you willing to die here?" Upon hearing this, Hu Yan, who had been lying in bed, suddenly sat up with unknown strength, staring straight at Hu Weidong with his eyes wide open, and squeezed out three words from his mouth, "I'm hungry."
Although success dispelled Hu Kuan's suicidal thoughts, seeing Hu Kuan's loyalty to the old Chiang, Hu Weidong wisely gave up his intention to persuade him to surrender for now. He planned to adopt the same approach as he did with Sun Liren, letting him serve as a lecturer for the cadres of the 15th Army for a period after his physical recovery, making it a condition for his release. Even if Hu Kuan's cunning was impossible to learn from, his experience in defensive battles was still very valuable. Although Hu Weidong understood more advanced tactics in this regard, he was inferior to the old man in terms of application. It would be good to exchange and progress together through communication. Even if Hu Kuan could not be transformed in the end, it would be a good thing for him to have the ability to eliminate more little devils. After all, in Hu Weidong's heart, the status of the civil war was always inferior to the future anti-war. Of course, this was also because the 18th Army where Hu Kuan was located had excellent military discipline (should be the first in the National Army, and it was extremely rare that even in the event of defeat and dispersal, they did not disturb the people). Not only had they never engaged in behaviors like those of the Still Township Regiment, but they had also released Red Army prisoners of war and provided them with travel expenses (historical fact), so Hu Weidong was always so polite to Hu Kuan...
Perhaps Hu Weidong's good luck had not yet ended, the main force of the 15th Red Army left Chong'an and just defeated a county, coinciding with the advance of the Tujin Brigade. Seeing the strength of the 15th Red Army, Su Yu was indeed humble as recorded, without any condescension towards Hu Weidong, his junior, who had previously served as chief of staff of the army corps, expressing willingness to accept the leadership of the 15th Red Army and any personnel arrangements.
