Chapter 42: Total Annihilation
Thanks for st201122's comment and vote ^_^
Hu Weidong immediately invited him to serve as the deputy commander of the 15th Red Army and concurrently as the army's chief of staff, while still holding the position of commander of the Tujin (Advance) Brigade. At this time, the Tujin Brigade was no longer the original "brigade" with only two or three thousand people. After the Tujin Brigade joined the 15th Red Army, Hu Weidong made some adjustments to the troop organization. The Independent First and Second Brigades were merged and restored to their original independent brigade numbers, while the Independent Third Brigade was incorporated into the Tujin Brigade. In addition, Hu Weidong also selected a large number of soldiers with higher cultural levels and more flexible minds from each brigade to study at two military schools, and on this basis, plus some soldiers who had received short-term training opportunities due to their meritorious service, he established a new teaching brigade. The strength of the three brigades was around 30,000 each, adding up to a total of over 100,000 troops in the army headquarters. As the commander of a brigade with 30,000 soldiers, his actual power was equivalent to that of the commanders of several main force corps of the Red Army. Wouldn't this make anyone extremely happy? However, what surprised Hu Weidong was that Su Yu expressed that he had no experience commanding large troops and was afraid of not doing well...
"This is also a bit too honest, isn't it? If I didn't know the history that came later, I would have thought he was pretending. Alas, still water has no fish, and someone who is too free from desires and ambitions will easily be misunderstood by others." Hu Weidong sighed softly to himself, then composed his expression and advised, "Comrade Su Yu, being too humble is just hypocrisy. You don't have experience commanding large troops, but when I first started building my team, I had even less experience than you do now! The revolutionary cause is currently at a low point, and many positions urgently need talented people. Don't worry about whether you can handle it or not - as long as there isn't someone better suited for the job, then you should bravely stand up and accept the test from the Central Committee and the Chairman!"
Su Yu was deeply shocked by the words and finally accepted Hu Weidong's appointment, but still insisted that he was only acting temporarily and would wait until he had achieved results before being transferred to a regular position. After some thought, Hu Weidong agreed, after all, Su Yu had been the chief of staff of the Red Tenth Army Corps, but even at its peak, it had only more than 10,000 people, although it was an army corps in terms of organization, its actual strength was not much greater than that of a division of the current Red Fifteenth Army.
Although he was very humble when promoting, as soon as he talked about military affairs, Su Yu unconsciously revealed the pride and momentum of a famous general. After understanding the overall strength of the 15th Red Army, he quickly drafted a battle plan to the command department for discussion, hoping to carry out a major annihilation war and wipe out Zhao Guantao's 8th Army, which had been staring at the Tujie Brigade for several months...
"This is an army, with a force of over 30,000 people, and their equipment is not bad. Annihilating them might not be that easy, right? Wouldn't it be more stable to surround them on three sides and strike at the weak point?" Hu Weidong couldn't help but hesitate.
"We, the Fifteenth Army, have a strength three times that of the White Eighth Army, and our tactical level, firepower intensity, and officer quality are all superior to theirs. As long as we make up for the lack of encircling troops with automatic firepower, we can definitely annihilate this White Army. In fact, if the Tenth Army had sufficient ammunition back then, they wouldn't have been defeated by such an opponent... Now, these bullets were something we didn't even dare to think about in the past!", Su Yu sighed.
As for Su Yu's proposal, Hu Weidong couldn't help but feel a little excited. Since the 15th Army had risen up in arms, they had already eliminated many enemies, but completely annihilating an entire army was something they had never done before. If they succeeded, it was estimated that Old Chiang would have to temporarily give up his encirclement of the Soviet area. To be sure, in those years when several rounds of counter-encirclement campaigns were launched, it only took eliminating a few enemy divisions for the National Army to retreat. After all, Old Chiang still needed sufficient military superiority to suppress local warlords; if he suffered too great a loss, he would not be able to bear it. In just these few months, the 15th Army had already eliminated over a million Central Army troops; if Old Chiang's power were not now far greater than before, perhaps he would have been unable to hold on any longer...
As he wasn't from a military academy, Su Yu's campaign plan book wasn't very detailed, but on the ever-changing battlefield, perhaps it was this seemingly rough yet gave the combat troops more freedom of deployment that made victory easier to obtain? However, Hu Weidong still cautiously asked, "What if we don't fight well?"
"Even if we don't fight well, at most it will only allow a portion of the enemy to escape. With Zhao Guantao's military strength, even if we clash head-on, they are far from being our match." Su Yu replied confidently.
"Then let's do it!", Hu Weidong slammed his fist on the table and said in a deep voice. As Hu Weidong himself was not good at commanding large troops, and also to let Su Yu establish prestige in the army, Hu Weidong handed over the command of this battle to Su Yu, and solemnly declared to all generals including Ye Fei that "the deputy commander's orders are my orders", making Su Yu feel both grateful and deeply aware of the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
Although the 15th Red Army had a great reputation, Zhao Guantao had more than 30,000 troops under his command and had just been promoted to Lieutenant General for his achievements in almost annihilating the 10th Red Army Corps (only Su Yu and over a thousand men successfully broke through) and capturing high-ranking Communist Party officials such as Fang Zhimin. The troops' losses in personnel and ammunition were also replenished in Nanjing, and some new equipment was added, so it can be said that their strength had greatly increased. At this time, Zhao Guantao's confidence was soaring. Moreover, Liu Xiang, a useless person, exaggerated the casualties of the 15th Red Army to cover up his own incompetence, making Zhao Guantao think that the 15th Red Army had been severely damaged, and he became even more confident. After the Red Army continuously defeated the small teams sent by the Eighth Army at the battalion level, Zhao Guantao realized that it was probably the legendary Red Army that had merged with those people he had been pursuing, so he immediately ordered the front line to withdraw troops and required his subordinates to act alone in at least regimental scale. However, even so, the team that charged forward was still surrounded by the main force of the 15th Red Army and was completely annihilated.
To confuse the enemy, the Red Fifteenth Army dispatched more than 30,000 troops in this battle, but basically did not use any artillery or automatic weapons. This created an illusion for Zhao Guantao: "The main force of the Red Bandits is all there, and their equipment is ordinary, easy to deal with..." As a result, he immediately led the main force of the Eighth Army, which had just gathered, to chase after them, only to fall into the encirclement of two divisions of the Red Fifteenth Army, totaling over 60,000 men.
The soldiers of the 15th Red Army finally did not hold back their strength, and the artillery and machine guns opened fire, beating the Eighth Army to tears. However, what Hu Weidong did not expect was that it was the bayonet that ultimately shattered the enemy's morale. When the entire third battalion of the independent regiment, which was in charge of the main attack, charged into the enemy's position with their shiny bayonets, the enemy, who had been hiding in the trenches they had just dug, suddenly collapsed. The Red Army soldiers caught more than 20,000 prisoners, all of whom were still alive and kicking...
