Chapter 23 Advance into Western Jiangxi
However, the "artillery offensive" tactics that appeared during the Soviet-German War appeared ahead of time on the Eastern battlefield, and it was not something that could be withstood by just a few words of encouragement. The independent regiment had attacked for two hours but failed to take down the mountain head, but with the help of continuous artillery fire, they took down all positions in just over half an hour.
However, the independent division achieved a brilliant victory in this battle, annihilating more than 5,672 people from the fourth division of the Taxation Police Corps, and even Sun Liren was captured after being stunned by a shell. But the independent division also paid a huge price for this, with more than 3,000 casualties, more than half of which were due to misfire by their own artillery. The artillery of the independent division also consumed a large amount of ammunition, and the precious mountain gun shells were left with only over a hundred rounds. It can be said that the victory in this battle was almost achieved by piling up shells. With the current ammunition reserves of the independent division, they could no longer fight a second battle...
What made Hu Weidong even more depressed was that due to the large-scale use of artillery in this battle, the enemy's weapons and equipment were severely damaged, and only a small part of the enemy's equipment was captured. Fortunately, thinking of those lightly damaged gun factories could be repaired, he felt slightly better.
But it was this battle, which could be considered a "loss of capital", that made Hu Weidong, who had been somewhat arrogant due to the brilliant victory in the Yongfeng War, calm down again. This time, he had a significant advantage over Sun Liping in terms of troop strength, firepower, and intelligence, but only managed to win a narrow victory. It was clear that compared to the top generals of this era, Hu Weidong still had a significant gap. This was an unavoidable fact, as although he had served in special forces, his experience in large-scale battles was severely lacking. Moreover, it may be due to the vastly different nature of their specialized fields that few commanders from special forces backgrounds were skilled at commanding large troops, and this was precisely the ability that Hu Weidong urgently needed...
Although the cost was not small and the gains were not many, but from a deeper level, the harvest of this battle was actually not few. Firstly, it verified the effect of "artillery attack" tactics in actual combat; secondly, it exercised the coordinated ability of infantry and artillery of the independent division. Although the surrender of the enemy troops was not a good thing, after the war, Hu Weidong did not become vigilant against other surrendered soldiers, but instead boldly selected two people from among them to serve as his bodyguards, demonstrating his trust in them. This immediately won over the hearts of tens of thousands of former Nationalist Army soldiers in the independent division, which was undoubtedly a greater gain. Finally, the independent division also captured Sun Liren, one of the country's top generals...
After two consecutive victories, Hu Weidong didn't have time to report back to the Central Committee before launching another attack, and he quickly took down Xingan County, which had been left defenseless after Sun Liren's troops were defeated. However, the Independent Regiment finally caught the attention of Gu Zutong, the commander-in-chief of the Nationalist Army's "Bandit-Suppression" North Route, who was in charge of defending the county. He immediately dispatched an army from Nanchang to the south, adopting a stance that would slaughter chickens with a cow knife. Although the Independent Regiment had changed greatly since its heyday, it still didn't have much chance of winning against an army of 30,000 elite soldiers from the Central Army. Hu Weidong knew well that Gu Zutong was not a military genius, but his use of troops was steady and formidable, leaving little room for maneuver. Once they were surrounded by his superior forces, the consequences would be unbearable. However, Gu's inflexible use of troops could be exploited, and after realizing this, Hu Weidong made an unexpected decision - "Crossing the Gan River to the west"...
The successive victories of the Hu Weidong army increased its prestige in the military, and He Hudie did not understand military affairs. As a result, Hu Weidong's fanciful plan was not opposed by anyone. Fortunately, it turned out that Hu Weidong had gambled correctly, and Gu Zhutong ordered his troops to advance steadily, only pushing forward 30-40 miles per day, until the main force of more than 10,000 people from the Independent Division had crossed the Gan River. They then entered the territory of Xingan County, where almost all the ships sailing on the Gan River section were requisitioned by the Independent Division. By the time Gu Zhutong, who was in Nanchang, anxiously collected enough ships from downstream and sent them to Xingan County for his troops to cross the river, it was already several days later...
At first, the defense circle set up by Old Chiang had begun to withdraw one after another as the Central Red Army went westward. Especially He Keh, the commander of the Western Route Army, had returned to his old nest in Hunan, so that a large area west of Ganjiang was not heavily guarded. The Independent Division naturally took advantage of this and quickly captured Xinyu, Fenyi, and Yichun counties within a few days, and then marched into Pingxiang County, one of the few major coal-producing counties during the Republic of China period.
Pingxiang County has a national army of one division, but it is only the third-rate division of the 2nd Travel 4th Regiment, and the phenomenon of eating empty salaries is very serious. The actual number of soldiers is less than 4,000 people. Moreover, Pingxiang County was also one of the areas with the most frequent and intense worker movements during the Republic of China period. The party's mass foundation in this county is even better than many Soviet counties. How can the national army not be defeated under internal and external cooperation?
Due to the special status of Pingxiang, this news quickly shocked the whole country. The Party Central Committee in the Long March was also greatly shocked and finally began to re-examine the value of Hu Weidong and the Independent Regiment. At that time, the position of the great man had become more solid, and Hu Weidong's Independent Regiment was officially renamed "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Independent Regiment". As everyone had expected, and since the number of old Red Army men in the Independent Regiment had reached over a thousand, accounting for half of the grassroots officers, the reorganization went very smoothly.
Great man initially wanted to give the independent division a military-level, or even a corps-level organization, because according to Hu Weidong's telegram, they already had more than 20,000 regular troops, which was more than many Red Army corps. However, whether it was Peng Lin and other generals who led the army, or the central leaders, they all believed that what Hu Weidong said in his telegram was not credible and lacked evidence, so they decided to give a division-level organization first, and if it was proven later, it could be upgraded to a military-level unit. Everyone's words were reasonable, so Taizu had no choice but to accept everyone's opinion, but he also wouldn't let Hu Weidong suffer in vain. Under his insistence, Hu Weidong not only served as the division commander but also concurrently held the position of political commissar of the independent division (on the grounds that He Hu was inconvenient and there were no other suitable personnel), thereby gaining great autonomy, which many Red Army generals at the military level envied...
At the same time, the Party Central Committee also appointed He Huzi as the secretary of the Fujian-Jiangxi border special committee. On the one hand, it strengthened the construction of the independent division's party organization. On the other hand, Hu Weidong could also merge the Red Army guerrilla troops into his own troops through him. Of course, this is only limited to the other party agreeing to merge, or units with a lower rank than the independent division. Otherwise, merging one division with an army corps would be too far-fetched...
