Chapter Thirty-One: The Army Enters Min

  Thanks to book friend Wu Dong San Jun for his generous reward, now let's get to the main topic ^_^

  But what everyone did not expect was that the Independent Regiment had not yet killed its way to Ruijin, when it received a telegram from the Huichang County Party Committee (Hu Weidong supported a 5-watt small radio station and a communication officer for each county city he conquered, if the local party committee did not have a radio station, now finally got a return). It said that tens of thousands of National Army troops were killing their way into Huichang County from Ruijin, they were mobilizing villagers to hide in the mountains, and reminded the Independent Regiment to be careful, the enemy may be rushing towards Xunwu County.

  "I'd love to have them come," Hu Weidong couldn't help but laugh loudly. He was somewhat afraid of field battles, but if he could clearly understand the enemy's movements, it would be a different story altogether. Moreover, the Independent Regiment was now strong and powerful, not only had the artillery regiment under the division headquarters been fully equipped with 75mm field guns that had a longer range, higher accuracy, and greater firepower compared to the original mountain guns, but also distributed those 36 mountain guns to each brigade, establishing a mountain gun battalion in each one. At the same time, the division headquarters had newly established an independent heavy howitzer battalion, with unprecedentedly powerful firepower, filling Hu Weidong and his vast number of soldiers with confidence.

  The outcome of this battle was without suspense, the National Army's 8th Division, lacking anti-artillery awareness, suddenly encountered an unprecedented intense artillery bombardment while on the march, and the entire division fell into an unprecedented panic. The Nationalist officers and soldiers who were frantically running around trying to avoid the artillery fire unconsciously crowded together into dense groups, becoming the best live targets for the Red Army's artillery. In a short while, they suffered casualties of two or three thousand people. Meanwhile, the main force of the Independent Division, like a fierce tiger descending from the mountain, was unstoppable. In less than half an hour, these tens of thousands of well-equipped Central Army troops were completely annihilated...

  Mao Bingwen was informed of the defeat on the front line and immediately became flustered, hastily ordering Xu Kexiang, who was suppressing bandits in Fujian, to rush back to Ruijin for reinforcements. At the same time, he couldn't care about losing face or his superior's dissatisfaction, and directly requested reinforcements from the old man, bypassing his superiors...

  Xu Kejiang was shocked after receiving the telegram and immediately stopped the siege of the Wuyi Mountain Red Army guerrilla team, rushing back to reinforce. Although Mao Bingwen came from the Xiang Army and was not a pure Central Army aristocrat, he used to be Tan Yankai's trusted iron rod, and Tan Yankai's relationship with Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling was well-known to all. Moreover, although Mao Bingwen's military ability was mediocre, he had a high reputation within and outside the party. If something happened to him, Xu Kejiang would be in trouble...

  However, the National Army (except for a few elite troops) had always been slow in its march, and Xu Kexiang had never placed much emphasis on military discipline. Moreover, at this time they had already penetrated deep into Fujian Province, and it was not easy to turn back. The Independent Regiment, however, happened to pursue the victory and launched a surprise attack into Fujian Province, taking Wu Ping and Changting counties in the same period of time, blocking the way for the National Army's 24th Division. Due to the complete inequality of intelligence, Xu Kexiang and his 24th Division rushed head-on into the net set up by the Independent Regiment and were completely defeated, with over 7,000 people, including Xu Kexiang, becoming prisoners of the Red Army...

  The policy of treating captives with kindness obviously did not apply to butchers like Xu Kexiang, who was beheaded by Hu Weidong at the foot of Ruijin City, giving a great psychological shock to the National Army inside the city. Hu Weidong saw through the captured binoculars that the White Army inside the city generally had fearful expressions, and immediately made a decisive decision, ordering the entire army of over 700,000 people to launch a fierce attack on Ruijin. The defenders were already disheartened and could not withstand the enemy at all. Mao Bingwen saw that things were not going well, took his trusted pistol squad and broke out from the northeast side where there were relatively fewer enemies, abandoning his subordinates who immediately lost their fighting spirit and surrendered in droves. Ruijin, this former Red Capital, was finally successfully recovered after being trapped for several months, and Hu Weidong immediately let the telegraph operator report the good news to the Central Committee.

  After learning the news of Ruijin's recovery, the Central Committee was naturally overjoyed, but Taizu remained calm and composed. In his reply, he praised the outstanding performance of the independent regiment in their consecutive victories, while also worrying that the independent regiment would attract Chiang Kai-shek's high attention, leading to a large-scale deployment of troops specifically targeting the independent regiment.

  Hu Weidong proposed a strategic idea for the independent regiment to jump to the outer lines and mobilize the enemy's main forces, while using guerrilla warfare to deal with the enemy's small units on the inner lines. This received Taizu's approval and affirmation.

  As a result, the independent regiment left Ruijin in just a few days, re-entering Fujian Province with lightning speed, pursuing Mao Bingwen's escape route into Ninghua County...

  At this time, the old Chiang in Chongqing also knew that the National Army had lost two divisions and one brigade again, and finally attached great importance to the Independent Division. Because Chen Cheng's command of the "bandit suppression" reserve army stationed in Gannan was surrounding and annihilating the Southern Guerrilla Corps of the Red Army under Xiang Ying and Chen Yi, the task was equally important. In addition, the main force of the "stubborn bandits" had already entered Fujian Province, and he left behind a large army of 100,000 after pacifying the "Fujian Incident", which should be enough to deal with it, so he ordered Jiang Dingwen to dispatch troops to quell the rebellion. However, at the same time, the old Chiang who had a mind to promote his beloved general Tang Enbo also promoted him as the commander of the 13th Army on the spot, under which were the 4th Division, the 88th Division and the 89th Division, three elite National Army divisions. However, this caused great dissatisfaction among the 87th Division Commander Wang Jingjiu, who had similar qualifications but was more capable than Tang Enbo. Moreover, Tang Enbo had always only had eyes for the old Chiang, and his relationship with Jiang Dingwen, his direct superior, had always been bad. Although the Fujian National Army was strong, it buried the seeds of discord from the beginning because the old Chiang used people improperly...

  On April 1, 1935, in the depths of a dense forest in Ninghua County, Fujian Province, gunfire continued to erupt. More than 200 Red Army guerrilla fighters were surrounded by an enemy force ten times their size. Due to continuous battles and arduous marches, almost every one of them was wounded, and bullets were running out. Everyone knew this might be their last battle, but there was not a hint of fear on anyone's face. For several months, they had been defeated time and again yet still managed to hold on until now - not a single one of them was a coward. However, in the eyes of these young people, whose average age was less than twenty years old, there was an unmistakable glimmer of reluctance and attachment.

  "Lao Dai, you and your wife lead the uninjured soldiers to break out, I'll cover for you with the wounded." A tall and stately young man with a delicate face said resolutely.

  "How can this be done, or should we cover you and break through? Su Ping is already unable to run, even if he breaks through, he may not be able to run far and will only drag everyone down." The slightly older but still bookish "Old Dai" immediately refused, "I am the political commissar, the party's command authority, you should listen to me!"

  "Breaking through is a military issue, I am the division commander, naturally it should be my call!", The two of them started arguing over "who dies first", but this actually boosted everyone's morale. Each person made full psychological preparations, determined to fight the opposition to the end, until sacrifice or revolutionary victory!

  But just at this moment, everyone suddenly heard the sound of gunfire growing louder from down the mountain. A soldier with very good eyesight boldly stuck his head out to take a look and immediately shouted, "There are so many people!"