Chapter 29: Unconventional Fighting Style
At the same time, in order to alleviate the unrest of those neutral or potentially neutral forces, Hu Weidong decided to retain only non-withdrawn militia armed forces in each county. However, the county battalions composed of core militiamen must have the ability to deal with the fortresses used by the National Army to blockade the Soviet area and be sufficient to make the regular army or local militia below the regiment level dare not act rashly, so as to ensure the safety of life and property of the people in each county. For this purpose, Hu Weidong seized every available opportunity to train the cadres of each county battalion on anti-fortress (not just relying on blasting, but also including tactics like beehive... ) and guerrilla warfare tactics (note 1), while leaving them some landmines, hand grenades and explosive tubes, and teaching them how to make stone thunder and incendiary bottles, in case of need. Then, these county battalion cadres went back to teach the district team cadres under their jurisdiction, until all militiamen learned, by that time, if the enemy still dared to come to the Soviet area to wreak havoc, let them see what is called "the boundless ocean of people's war"...
Under the soft and hard efforts of Hu Weidong, the democratic autonomous governments of various counties were established one after another according to the principle of "three-thirds system", becoming a reliable rear base for the independent division. However, Hu Weidong did not dare to be complacent, in order to avoid being attacked by the superior forces of the White Army, Hu Weidong decided to take the initiative to attack first, he concentrated the entire force of the independent division to attack Huichang County, even bringing along the militia from Yunshun County and a large number of non-combat personnel to pretend to be a powerful army of 100,000, intimidating the enemy not to dare to come out of the city for a field battle. Relying on the independent division's specialty in attacking fortresses, they took down Huichang County, which was guarded by a mixed brigade. The defenders initially resisted firmly, but the independent division concentrated thousands of twenty-firearms and a large number of submachine guns, showing overwhelming superiority in street fighting, and captured the county seat with less than 1,000 casualties, killing more than 2,000 enemies, and the rest surrendered...
Sun Liren, a special prisoner of war who had always followed the army, found Hu Weidong's strange way of fighting somewhat difficult to understand. "According to military principles, seeking opportunities to annihilate the enemy in field battles is the right way. Unless it's an insurmountable strategic point, generally we wouldn't choose to attack fortifications, and street fighting is even more impossible due to heavy casualties. But this General Hu has done the opposite, he'd rather attack fortifications and engage in street fighting, and even uses tactics to prevent the enemy from coming out for field battles. And yet, the results of the battle seem pretty good...this is really strange..."
Actually, Hu Weidong also has his own difficulties. He is not very good at commanding large troops in battle, and there are tens of thousands of non-combat personnel in the team, which seriously affects the mobility and concealment ability that are crucial in mobile warfare, making it difficult to fight in the field. Now that the independent division can't afford to lose again, he can only make the best use of his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, choosing to launch a siege and street fighting, which most commanders try to avoid.
Originally, the current independent division not only has a large number of conventional artillery and advanced artillery tactics, but also under Hu Weidong's personal guidance, the artillery has made rapid progress. In addition, a special engineering corps responsible for blasting fortifications was established. Coupled with the "heartless cannon" and other makeshift methods that appeared ahead of time, the independent division's current fortification breaching capability is actually far beyond the average level in the country...
In general, the intense street fighting that was often brutal for independent regiments turned out to be easier to fight than field battles. This is because street fighting is based on company and platoon-level units, which suited Hu Weidong's specialty in special warfare and small-scale combat. Additionally, street fighting mainly involves close combat and ambushes, and Hu Weidong was well-equipped with submachine guns and revolvers, which he liked to use concentratedly. The White Army, which relied on rifles as their main weapon, couldn't resist him.
Moreover, before each city attack, Hu Weidong would send out special forces for reconnaissance, and if possible, even conduct special operations directly. Moreover, there were often underground parties within the city that served as internal responses, making street fighting even easier. In several battles, even excluding those where they directly destroyed the enemy's command center, the casualty ratio between the two sides never exceeded 1:3...
At first, Hu Weidong chose this way of fighting out of desperation, but as he used it more and more, he unexpectedly discovered that this unorthodox method actually had many advantages. Firstly, the weapons and ammunition in the warehouse were generally much more than what the troops carried with them on the battlefield, especially since the enemy was the National Army, which rarely destroyed weapons and ammunition. As a result, the spoils of war obtained from attacking cities were usually much greater than those gained from winning battles in the wilderness.
In addition, after occupying the county town or even the city, the independent division can also obtain a large amount of money and supplies, which is even more incomparable to the field battle. Almost no one knows that Hu Weidong now has over 1 million yuan in his hands, which is still because Hu Weidong abandoned his previous radical "beat local tyrants" policy, otherwise there would be more (now the independent division basically only confiscates official property, and under pressure, the number of ruthless landlords who dare to harm the revolutionary masses is getting smaller and smaller, fortunately, they can't be robbed but can be bought with money, and the independent division's arsenal is still developing rapidly).
In addition, having strong siege capabilities can better mobilize the enemy. If there is no siege capability, then when "besieging and attacking reinforcements", the enemy will not be in a hurry to rescue, and preparations will be more sufficient. It may even become a stalemate, or they may not dare to fight back and retreat. In the worst-case scenario, there is even the danger of being trapped under the city walls and annihilated. On the other hand, having strong siege capabilities is completely different. If the enemy does not come to rescue or reacts slowly, the independent division will simply take down the city, after all, it's a gain. And if they rush to rescue, their preparations cannot be too sufficient, so the independent division's grasp of besieging and attacking reinforcements will naturally be much greater...
In addition, there is another advantage of siege warfare, that is, the target has been determined from the beginning, and the preparation work can be done more thoroughly. For Hu Weidong, who currently lacks experience in large-scale battles, the difficulty of commanding is undoubtedly much smaller than that of mobile warfare with many variables. Of course, if the enemy's marching route is detected by the independent division's signal corps, under the premise of being confident, Hu Weidong would not mind ambushing them, and in fact, he did so at first. However, as the troops expanded rapidly, such opportunities became fewer and farther between, because annihilation battles are more difficult to achieve on a larger scale, let alone that Hu Weidong is not good at large-scale troop operations...
Note 1: Emphasis is placed on landmine warfare, especially advanced tactics such as mother and child mines, chain mines, long dragon mines, nail mines, and improvised mines made from hand grenades. As for sparrow warfare and tunnel warfare, everyone already knows about them. Land tunnel warfare is not applicable in many areas of the south due to high underground water levels. Disguise tactics require a higher level of quality from the implementers, it's best if guerrilla team members can learn it, but Hu Weidong won't force it if they can't...
