Chapter Thirty-Three: Narrow Victory

  Before, Hu Weidong was unable to get much substantial support from the counties due to a lack of capable personnel and could only let each county autonomously defend itself, at most passing on some information to the Independent Regiment. However, now that he has obtained more than a dozen mid-level cadres from the Central Soviet Area's Independent Regiment and the Ruijin Special Committee, the situation is completely different. He Huizi, who had difficulty walking, voluntarily stayed behind to take charge of rebuilding the base area and quickly united nearly ten counties in the Soviet area that were previously fighting on their own, greatly increasing support for the Independent Regiment, making it even more unstoppable. What surprised Hu Weidong even more was that He Huizi also dared to visit "the old rascal of Central Plains" Zhang Feng personally, successfully doing his united front work, and only paid the price of several hundred Thompson submachine guns that had used up their bullets and could not be replenished (but were very valuable to Zhang Feng, because Henan was close to Shanxi, and the Taiyuan Arsenal could mass-produce the 11.43mm handgun ammunition used by the Thompson submachine gun, he could buy bullets from Yan Xishan to resupply, while the price of the Thompson submachine guns was expensive, if he had bought them himself, it would have cost tens of thousands of yuan and he might not have been able to get so many). This caused Zhang Feng to feign illness and lead his troops back to their hometown in Henan, instantly reducing the number of enemies facing the Independent Regiment by two divisions. When Chiang Kai-shek learned of this, he was furious, his intention to eliminate the miscellaneous brands under the name of "suppressing bandits" once again failed, and Zhang Feng, as the big brother of both the black and white ways in Shaanxi and Henan provinces, a veteran of the Xinhai Revolution, had high prestige within the party and among the people, and had also done great favors for Chiang Kai-shek, so Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to take drastic measures against him, and could only sulk by himself...

  Moreover, through exchanges with Red Army leaders such as Mao Zedong, Hu Weidong finally began to combine his tactical knowledge that transcended the times with the actual situation of this era, gradually growing into a truly excellent general. On the other hand, although Chiang Kai-shek was furious and almost lost his mind, he still insisted on not allowing Chen Cheng to withdraw troops from southwestern Jiangxi, but instead ordered Tang Enbo in Fujian to immediately accelerate his westward advance, forcing the "bandits of Jiangxi" back into Jiangxi, and then joining forces with Gu Zhutong's unit in the north and Chen Cheng's unit in the west to annihilate them. If they couldn't be completely annihilated, it didn't matter; the enemy would only have one way out - southward, and at that time, the Central Army could follow them into Guangdong, taking down "Southern Heavenly King" Chen Jitang just like Xue Yue did when pursuing the Red Army's Long March...

  Due to the strengthening of local work, the central government also instructed the underground party in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces to give the independent division the greatest support. Hu Weidong's courage grew even more, especially when he learned that the person sent to deal with him was "Tang Shuai" (Tang Enbo). In later records, Tang Enbo's military tactics were described as "retreating and advancing like the wind, encircling and ambushing like a forest, harming civilians and plundering like fire, and not moving to help friendly troops in difficulty." If even he couldn't win, wouldn't Hu Weidong be unworthy of his identity as a traverser? Moreover, whether it was troop strength or firepower, the independent division now surpassed Tang Enbo's 13th Army. However, Hu Weidong underestimated the impact of grassroots officer and soldier quality on military combat effectiveness. Although Tang Enbo himself was not impressive, the three divisions under his command, especially the 88th Division, were among the best troops in the National Army. Could they be compared to the independent division, which had rapidly expanded through frantic recruitment of prisoners of war and child soldiers?

  Moreover, at that time Tang Enbo was young and vigorous, eager to make a name for himself and rise through the ranks. His will to fight was far from what it would be later in history when he became known as "Tang the Commander" who only cared about making money. As a result, although the Independent Regiment had surrounded Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division with accurate intelligence, they were unable to finish them off and instead suffered casualties of four or five thousand men. At this time, Tang Enbo personally led the 89th Division to reinforce, and the 4th Division also quickly approached the battlefield. The annihilation battle that Hu Weidong had envisioned suddenly turned into a chaotic melee...

  Fortunately, Hu Weidong's artillery made great contributions again. After receiving the telegram from the scout and learning the accurate position of the enemy army's divisional artillery positions, the independent division's field artillery group preemptively destroyed the 88th Division's 12 field guns. Then, taking advantage of the field artillery's obvious range advantage over the enemy army's regimental-level mountain guns and howitzers, they began to bully the National Army, which could not fight back. Originally, with the strong lower-level officers and soldiers of the 88th Division, they could still hold their ground under intense artillery fire. However, their division commander, Sun Yuanliang, also known as "Flying General," who had a history of fleeing in panic, did so again in the face of deafening artillery fire, just like during the Northern Expedition. (PS: Due to Sun Yuanliang's escape this time, which led to the death of Tang Enbo, who was more important in Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, "Flying General" was permanently expelled from the army, even after many of his fellow Huangpu classmates pleaded for him. Counting Tang Enbo's death, Hu Weidong had already made a significant contribution to the future War of Resistance...)

  As the saying goes, "he is the backbone of the army", and Sun Yuanliang has only been in the 88th division for a month or two. He is also greedy for wealth and beauty, and has not yet gained the trust of his subordinates. Now that he has fled, everyone suddenly lost their fighting spirit and surrendered one after another. It's probably because Sun Yuanliang was too disappointing to everyone, and the transformation education of these KMT elite soldiers was much easier than Hu Weidong expected. More than 90% of the grassroots officers and men eventually became "liberated soldiers", which greatly enhanced the strength of the independent division (although the surrendered troops from the Taxation Police Corps were basically well-trained, their combat experience was far inferior to that of the old soldiers in the 88th Division).

  After the collapse of the 88th Division, Hu Weidong immediately ordered the artillery to concentrate on attacking Tang Enbo's 89th Division. Under Mao Zedong's repeated requests, he sent his special operations team to sneak into the flank and rear of the 89th Division for a pincer movement. As a result, during this period, the independent division's artillery once again achieved a remarkable feat, with Tang Enbo personally going to the front line to direct the battle, only to coincidentally fall under the firepower of the independent division's field artillery group, instantly annihilating him (the Henan people sent congratulatory telegrams)...

  The 89th Division was Tang Enbo's home unit, and Tang Enbo's death had a great impact on them. Moreover, Mao Zedong's special troops suddenly appeared on their flank and launched a fierce attack, causing the entire division to lose its fighting spirit instantly. The remaining 9,000+ men all laid down their arms and surrendered. Upon hearing the news of the defeat of the two divisions, the Nationalist Fourth Division, which had not yet joined the battlefield, immediately fled in disarray, abandoning weapons and ammunition along the way, effectively blocking the pursuit of the Independent Division and "luckily" escaping with their lives...

  Although this battle was won, the casualties of the independent division reached a new high, with more than 8,000 troops lost in combat. Although most wounded soldiers in the unit could recover and at least over 10,000 "liberated soldiers" could be converted from prisoners of war, it would still take time. Moreover, compared to the losses, several problems exposed by this campaign made Hu Weidong dare not underestimate them...

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