Chapter Twenty-One Made Wedding Clothes

  At this time, a large crowd had already gathered outside. Hu Weidong simply started an on-site commander crash course: "The best battlefield for training new soldiers is trench warfare, because new soldiers need experience the most, and trench warfare takes a long time, giving them plenty of time to learn from veteran soldiers; while the best battlefield for transforming captured soldiers is offensive warfare, especially siege warfare, because they need confidence the most..."

  "Report! The leader of the enemy's special forces, Kang Ze, has been found. Unfortunately, this executioner has already taken his own life at the fake county party department..." Dragon Fei Bao's voice with a hint of regret came from outside.

  "He actually killed himself? Well, he's still young and the Blue Shirt Society is still somewhat of an idealistic organization. In a few years...the fascist route will ultimately not work in China!" Hu Weidong sighed to himself, but his mouth was smiling wryly as he said, "Alas, what a pity! I had originally planned to give him credit..."

  "If it weren't for Kang Ze's previous work, how could we possibly have tens of thousands of soldiers at once? If he hadn't been slaughtering everywhere and making the heavens angry and the people resentful, how would the common people be so easy to follow us?" Hu Wei Dong's words brought a burst of laughter from everyone, but he himself was very clear that Kang Ze's methods had at least achieved results in the short term...

  In October 1933, after being appointed as the commander of the Special Task Force by Chiang Kai-shek, Kung Ze immediately stipulated that in rural Jiangxi, all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 were to be enlisted into the壮丁队 (壮丁队). The daily life of these men was subject to comprehensive surveillance, with mandatory morning drills every day. They were absolutely forbidden from leaving their homes or traveling far away (with violators facing death). In fact, this was the largest militia organization in Jiangxi's history. At least 500,000 people were enlisted into the壮丁队, and its "active members" formed the "铲共义勇队", which also had a membership of several tens of thousands of people.

  Then, the night schools for men and women in each village and the "People's Checkpoints", the壮丁队 (Vigilante Corps), and the铲共义勇队 (Anti-Communist Righteousness Brave Troops) appeared together in every village. They forcibly required all adult men and women to attend the People's Night School, with each person needing to "recognize over 500 Chinese characters". After completing literacy education, they were then required to memorize and recite the剿匪手本 (Bandit Eradication Handbook).

  At least a thousand guerrilla fighters served as night school teachers. Outside of adult night schools, the most notable achievement of "New Jiangxi" was in basic education. The guerrillas built about 2,700 schools in Jiangxi, with almost every two or three villages having an elementary school. These schools were named after Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, such as "Zhongshan Elementary School" and "Zhongzheng Elementary School". More than a year later, the number of students enrolled reached 200-300,000 people...

  Along with the night schools and primary schools, medical stations also emerged. Large quantities of medicine mobilized from Shanghai were mostly distributed free to villagers who were suffering from headaches and fever. In Jiangxi, the guerrilla force set up about 2,000 medical stations, benefiting over 10 million residents.

  The achievements of the anti-corruption campaign by the Special Task Force were unprecedented in the Republic of China era. It directly targeted corruption among officials, including embezzlement, bribery and acceptance of bribes. The installation of whistleblower boxes in every village and town enabled the Special Task Force to successfully mobilize tens of millions of people in Jiangxi Province. Within a year or so, it handled over 1,200 major corruption cases and countless minor ones, almost completely eradicating grassroots corruption in half of Jiangxi.

  Under this series of measures to "militarize" and "party-ize" society, the entire Jiangxi society became a large military camp. Moreover, they went from door to door to ask about suffering and poverty, provided loans, seeds, introduced pesticides, and relieved disasters...

  However, Kangze implemented a tyrannical policy. According to incomplete statistics, Kangze's special troops killed at least tens of millions of Jiangxi civilians in just one year, most of whom were innocent. These people had relatives and friends, so to some extent, Kangze became the mortal enemy of at least tens of millions of people who would be delighted to see him dead.

  Originally, due to Kang Ze's status and power, no one could do anything about him, and the hatred would gradually thin out with the passage of time. Although with the rapid corruption and decline of the Blue Shirt Society, the lives of Jiangxi people will not be able to last for many years, it will become more difficult than before Kang Ze implemented "social reform".

  However, at this time and space, Hu Weidong's sudden appearance disrupted Kang Ze's plan. At this time, the masses in the Soviet area, at least in Yongfeng County, were filled with hatred, but they had not given up hope for the return of the Red Army. When Hu Weidong's independent division took control of Yongfeng County and restored many good policies from the Soviet era, it immediately won over the hearts of the people. Simply put, since things were already as bad as they could be, the new government only needed to not be as incompetent as before to gain the trust and support of the people. This is the main reason why Hu Weidong "thanked" Kang Ze...

  At the same time, Kang Ze's education and medical undertakings also made the independent regiment a big profit, achieving universal primary literacy throughout the county without spending a penny, and with so many medical stations, the independent regiment quickly established its own military medical department, directly recruiting people from the medical stations.

  What had a greater impact, however, was Kang Ze's "all people are soldiers" policy. At present, there are tens of thousands of young and strong men in Yongfeng County who have received basic military training. The Independent Division has incorporated all of them into its own militia system without hesitation, selecting the best ones to join combat troops. The reason why Hu Weidong was able to send out more than 30,000 people to attack Yongfeng County was not only due to the conversion of prisoners of war on the spot but also because this part of the army accounted for a larger proportion. What made Kang Ze's eyes wide with anger even after his death was that at this time, the hatred and resentment of the people of Yongfeng towards the government were at their peak, and the Baojia system had cut off everyone's way out (note 1). As a result, the enthusiasm of the people of Yongfeng to join the Independent Division made Hu Weidong feel somewhat uneasy...

  Thus, thanks to Bai Kongze's gift, the independent division's military strength increased sharply to over 40,000 in just a few days, resulting in many soldiers not having enough weapons despite the division's repeated victories and large number of captured weapons since its establishment. In the end, Hu Weidong had no choice but to transfer most of his troops into the militia system, controlling the number of combat troops at around 10,000...

  But even so, compared to before the attack on Yongfeng, the Independent Regiment's strength had increased several times over, which led He Huzi to joke that at this rate, it wouldn't take two or three years to liberate all of China. Upon hearing He Huzi say this, Hu Weidong really got excited and replied with a smile, "Maybe it's really possible, now that we've cracked the White Army's code and cut off their telephone lines, we know everything about their major military actions, with our current strength, wrapping up the enemy is not too easy, as long as we keep fighting battles of annihilation, we'll naturally gain a lot of spoils and captives, and our strength will only get stronger..."

  As Cao Cao was mentioned, he arrived. On the night of the independent division's capture of Yongfeng County, Hu Weidong received important intelligence from a telegraph operator: The fourth detachment of the Taxation Police Corps had set out from Xin'an County and was preparing to go south to Yongfeng to rescue their headquarters. This time, because it was a telegram, unlike answering the phone, it wasn't easy to reveal any flaws, and Hu Weidong happened to be nearby, so the telegraph operator's response was very reasonable and proper, causing the other side to remain in the dark, thinking that the headquarters was still holding out in Yongfeng County...

  Note 1: If there is one bandit (whether real or "red") in a group of five households, all five will be exterminated. In that case, it's better to just join the bandits altogether, at least there's still hope for survival. Of course, this is also because the current independent regiment has shown considerable strength; otherwise, if everyone thought they were doomed to defeat, eight or nine out of ten would still pin their hopes on the unlikely possibility of being spared by the law...