Chapter 3 Militia Corps

  Hu Weidong was about to shake his head, but saw the old man secretly wink at him, and suddenly understood that if he didn't give these people hope, they would only despair like scattered sand and die, and even when the butcher's knife fell, they wouldn't resist, just like before he came.

  "How is the chairman, has he recovered from his illness?" "Where are the Red Army now? When will they come back? The villagers have been bullied by the White Dog!" The crowd's voices suddenly rose again, interrupting Hu Weidong's words once more. Fortunately, the old man came out in time to mediate, "Everyone, please be quiet, next, let Comrade Special Envoy give a speech!"

  The crowd's chatter immediately came to an abrupt halt, and it was clear that this old man had a high reputation in the village. Hu Weidong finally adjusted his mood and began to speak eloquently. At first, he felt guilty for deceiving people, but seeing the hope rekindled in everyone's eyes, he thought he should have done so earlier. However, Hu Weidong was not a professional politician, and after speaking a few sentences, he completely lost his composure and started talking about the reasons for the failure of the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign. But everyone listened very seriously, and a former Red Army family member even burst into tears, "No wonder, no wonder, we used to win battles all the time, the Red Army grew stronger with each battle, but later we kept losing, the Red Army dwindled in numbers, and eventually couldn't even hold onto the Soviet area... it turns out that Chairman Mao was no longer our leader a long time ago..."

  "Elder, don't be sad, I think Chairman Mao will definitely resume his position and lead the Red Army again." Hu Weidong hurriedly comforted him. Anyway, it's already the end of 1934, and the Zunyi Conference is not far off...

  Although the crowd reacted enthusiastically, Hu Weidong quickly ended his speech and began to count the spoils of war from earlier. There was a total of one shotgun and thirty-two rifles. Unfortunately, the shotgun was an old model that could only fire single shots, with only two magazines inside, each holding ten rounds, meaning the shotgun had only about ten rounds of ammunition. As for the thirty-two rifles, although they were all "Hanyang-made" rifles, which were the mainstream rifles in China before the War of Resistance, many of them were quite old, including some with worn-out rifling and even a few that were produced during the Republican era as "old-style tubes".

  The village is much larger than the previous small village, and even after more than 100 people were killed by the bandits, there are still over 300 people in the village. Although the loss was great, after rekindling hope, the atmosphere in the village has become lively again, especially after Hu Weidong announced that he would form a militia team, the young men in the village immediately became enthusiastic, and what man doesn't love guns? Especially during the passionate and hot-blooded youth...

  But Hu Weidong did not just pull people in, instead he conducted a screening process, for which he did not hesitate to expend some precious bullets, and had the applicants take a simple test...

  "Did you all understand the shooting method I just mentioned?" Hu Weidong shouted to the more than 50 young men who had signed up.

  "Understood!", the uniform and consistent response made Hu Weidong involuntarily stunned, at this time, the old man came out to explain to him that Xingguo County was a model county in the Soviet area, and almost all young people in the county had received some simple military training, so they were very familiar with discipline and formation.

  "It turns out that military training has been arranged already, this is the best, at least it can save a month of time." Hu Weidong was overjoyed and immediately shouted loudly, "Those who know how to shoot guns stand on the left!"

  All of a sudden, except for those little devils who were still shorter than the rifles, almost all the bigger boys ran to the left...

  Hu Weidong's eyelids twitched, and he asked, "Since you know how to shoot guns, why didn't you join the Red Army? (There are 11- or 12-year-old Little Red Devils in the Red Army, so age isn't a problem.)"

  "They just fired two or three shots per person, they didn't even meet the conditions to join the Red Army, especially in the past two years when ammunition has been increasingly scarce, there weren't even bullets for them to train with. Besides, local labor is needed too. Comrade Special Envoy used to work in the White area, right?" The old man hastily pulled at Hu Weidong's sleeve and discreetly gave him a hint, lest he reveal more of his ignorance...

  "Yes, I grew up overseas and only returned to China two years ago. After reading Chairman Mao's works, I became inclined towards the revolution..." Hu Weidong fabricated a background for himself to avoid raising suspicions about his behavior and demeanor not being like those of people from this era in China. Anyway, the people who knew him should have all passed away by now, and even if there were any left, with his age, his appearance would change significantly after a few years. As for his temperament, it had already changed dramatically since he crossed over. A year or two later, even if the parents of this new body were to come back to life, they might not be able to recognize him. Moreover, Hu Weidong's words also laid down a hidden plot, implying that "he was influenced by the ideas in the works he read, and not directly sent by anyone..." This way, when someone came looking for trouble in the future, he could use this as an excuse to defend himself. As for whether others could hear it now, he didn't care...

  "No wonder he's so knowledgeable! It turns out he's been abroad!", the villagers immediately began to discuss and speculate, their gaze towards Hu Weidong becoming increasingly respectful and enthusiastic. But Hu Weidong, with a strong sense of national pride, couldn't help but shake his head in secret, "It seems that in this era, the tendency to worship foreign things is even more severe than it was back then! However, at least for me now, it's not necessarily a bad thing..."

  Hu Weidong immediately picked out five rifles with similar workmanship and let the applicants try shooting three rounds each, selecting thirty-five people with better results as candidates for the militia team, and then selected twenty-four people based on physical fitness, strength, agility and other tests.

  However, with the 25-man militia team, Hu Weidong taught everyone the important tactical inventions of the people's war, and the villagers finally didn't have to be as nervous as before. Hu Weidong could also breathe a sigh of relief. But he was also very clear that peace would not last long, and soon more militias, or even regular armies, would come here to further clean up. Only by defeating them could the militia team and fellow villagers survive, but on the other hand, whoever died would damage China's vitality, which would be detrimental to future resistance. Hu Weidong couldn't help but worry, "How should this contradiction be resolved?"