Chapter 27: Gu Zu Tong's Misjudgment

  Thank you book friend Chen Mu Yu Xiang for the second reward, and again ask for votes and member clicks. The competition on the new list is really too fierce...

  When the news of Kang Ze's death was learned, Old Chiang had already been enraged, but at this time, the Central Red Army's movement suddenly became unpredictable and mysterious, letting the National Army suffer several not-so-small losses in a row, as if it were about to break out of its cage. Old Chiang couldn't care less about Jiangxi affairs anymore and hurriedly rushed to Chongqing to personally direct the battle, putting Gu Zhutong in full charge of annihilating this "bandit" army. Gu Zhutong was very much on high alert for this, especially after the Independent Regiment revealed its Red Army flag, but although he used troops steadily, his mind seemed a bit dull, thinking that the Independent Regiment still had the same strength as before it advanced to southern Jiangxi, and severely underestimating it, especially in terms of troop numbers. As a result, Gu Zhutong, who thought the Independent Regiment didn't have many troops, deployed all of his more than 50,000-strong force along the entire front line to prevent the Independent Regiment from roaming around, forming an airtight net, and also requested support from He Yingqin and Chen Cheng. The former strictly guarded against the Independent Regiment infiltrating into Hunan, while the latter ordered his deputy Luo Zhuoying, who was on the "bandit-suppressing" front line in southeastern Jiangxi, to deploy a second-line division to garrison Yongxin County, preventing the local "bandit situation", which had already been pacified, from reigniting.

  However, the "heavenly net" laid down by Gu Zhutong was dispersed due to insufficient troops and was easily defeated by Hu Weidong, who took down two regiments in a row and also trained 20,000 new soldiers. After suffering losses, Gu Zhutong's old habit of being conservative and cautious recurred, and he ordered the front line to retreat while reinforcing the troops to avoid further encirclement. Unbeknownst to him, Hu Weidong had no intention of entangling with him and immediately ordered a swift withdrawal upon seeing the enemy's defensive line retract. By the time Gu Zhutong reacted, the main force of the Independent Regiment had already crossed the Gan River and returned to Xingguo County, where they originated. Along the way, they also swept through Anfu and Ji'an counties, eliminating thousands of local armed forces and taking away large amounts of supplies and young intellectuals. Except for not burning or killing, their methods were relatively mild, similar to those of historical bandits...

  But this approach indeed caused great trouble for Gu Zhutong, and just recovering the remaining counties and restoring order in those six or seven counties had already left him exhausted. Where did he have the energy to deal with the Independent Regiment? Chiang Kai-shek, who was deeply disappointed with Gu Zhutong, couldn't help but think of replacing him. Soon after, he ordered Liu Xiang, one of the "Five Tiger Generals", to replace Gu Zhutong as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Route Army and take full responsibility for the task of "suppressing bandits" in Jiangxi.

  After Hu Weidong began to recruit educated youth in Pingxiang, he didn't let go of any county he went to. Even after returning to Xingguo, he unceremoniously started eating "local grass". Poor Xingguo's young people were already severely insufficient, and suddenly 70-80% of them were taken away (the result of too good education), making Xingguo County, which was already "old and small", almost become an "old man county" and a "woman county". Fortunately, Hu Weidong considered the local difficulties and demobilized those who did not meet his requirements in terms of intelligence, character, moral integrity, physical quality, and willpower in Xingguo and other central Soviet counties (this is not helping the locals at all, but rather getting rid of burdens...). At least the difficulty for young women in each county to find a partner was slightly alleviated.

  But anyway, Hu Weidong finally recruited a proportion of "educated youth" (this historical term appeared ahead of time because of him) that was still significantly lower than at the beginning. According to later statistics, counties outside the Soviet area and those that had not been "remolded" by Kang Ze generally accounted for only 1% to 2% of the total population. Those in the Soviet area and those who had undergone "social reform" were much higher, mostly above 4%, while Xingguo County was unmatched, reaching an astonishing 12%. The "model county" is indeed a "model county". With a population of less than 100,000, Hu Weidong managed to select over 10,000 "educated youth" (in fact, it should be said that they were "educated young people"...).

  Due to Hu Weidong's crossing, Xingguo County was later not only known as "General County", but also became a nationwide famous "Scientist County" and "Engineer County". However, Hu Weidong was given an ungracious nickname by the deeply resentful Suqu masses - "Population Trafficker"...

  Actually, Hu Weidong had no choice but to do so. He was deeply aware of the scarcity of talent during the Republic of China era and knew that for the sake of China's future, every young person with a cultural foundation must be well-cultivated. If they were left to fend for themselves in their hometowns, which were then plagued by war and blockade, even if they managed to survive, due to the lack of an environment conducive to learning and growth, within a few years, they would forget what they had learned, which would be a great pity. Of course, Hu Weidong also had some "personal motives". The arsenal needed to be expanded, and qualified officers were in severe shortage, all of which required a large number of talents. Cultivating young people with culture would definitely be faster than illiterates...

  With so many students, it was necessary to educate them well. Although the conditions were harsh, Hu Weidong quickly established three schools that did not even have fixed buildings but had a significant impact on China and the world: the Tactical Academy (which later became one of the most important colleges of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University), the Artillery School (which expanded its teaching scope after its establishment and was later renamed "Technical Specialized School", training tens of thousands of technical personnel, greatly making up for the lack of technical personnel in the People's Army), and the Technical School (originally Hu Weidong just wanted to train some skilled workers, but it turned out that many experts and even world-class masters emerged from among the students. This school later became the predecessor of "National Defense Science and Technology University"). The biggest difficulty after the establishment of the schools was the severe shortage of teaching staff. To solve this problem, Hu Weidong racked his brains. On the one hand, he fully utilized the remaining value of technical personnel who followed the army and old soldiers in the military. On the other hand, for those promising students, he would take out time to personally teach them in small classes whenever possible. With Hu Weidong's knowledge and vision that surpassed his era, in the 1930s when science and technology were backward, at least in the two main specialties of artillery and ammunition as well as more than a dozen related disciplines, he could be considered a world-class expert, although due to the large span of years, not all of his knowledge and abilities could be used.

  Note 1: The so-called "Five Tiger Generals", refers to the five secondary generals under Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin before the War of Resistance, namely Liu Ye, Gu Zhutong, Jiang Dingwen, Chen Cheng, and Wei Lihuang. However, among these five people, only Wei Lihuang can be considered a famous general. Chen Cheng was good at training troops but not at commanding, Liu Ye and Gu Zhutong both had major weaknesses, and Jiang Dingwen is not even worth mentioning. But before the War of Resistance exposed their fatal weaknesses, Liu Ye was actually the most prominent among the five, having never lost a battle in over a decade of domestic war (after losing one battle during the War of Resistance, he completely turned around... afterwards, whether fighting against Japan or the Communist Party, he never won again...). If he had died before the War of Resistance, his later evaluation might have been entirely different...