Chapter Thirty-Four: The Fifteenth Red Army

  Thanks to book friend highschool for his generous reward ^_^

  Firstly, it was Hu Weidong's own underestimation of the enemy. He only saw that the enemy commander was incompetent, but he underestimated the impact of the quality of the grassroots officers and soldiers on the combat effectiveness of the army. If the division commander of the 88th Division had not been replaced by General Chen Mingren with "Flying General" Sun Yuanliang just recently, and if "General Tang" had not died in the Red Army's artillery fire while directing the battle at the front line, this independent division might have even suffered a disastrous defeat. Thinking about these things, Hu Weidong couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. For this reason, he put aside his face as a division commander and publicly conducted a self-criticism session with the entire division. Unexpectedly, this move earned him an even higher reputation throughout the division.

  Secondly, the independent division has become too bloated today. In addition to the 700,000-800,000 combat troops, there are also more than 30,000 technical personnel, experts and young students from three universities, none of whom are combat personnel, and military protection must be extracted, coupled with the acquisition of cars, the independent division no longer has to worry about the artillery slowing down the marching speed. However, the troops can basically only advance along the highway, causing the independent division to lose its original flexibility and mobility, and the advantage of taking the initiative is also greatly weakened. The exposure of these two problems also became an important reason for Hu Weidong's abandonment of field artillery and cars, and the drastic simplification of combat troops not long after...

  In addition, the special forces that had achieved great success in the early stages of the war should have transformed their strength by now, but in actual combat, they are becoming less and less useful. Hu Weidong knew this was due to the rapid expansion of the scale of battles. After all, it's possible to take out a division or regimental command post, but sending a small team to take out an army headquarters would require incredible luck. As for reconnaissance work, training a specialized scout unit would be enough, and the cost of cultivation is much lower than that of multi-purpose special forces. As for sabotage and harassment behind enemy lines, which requires even less technical expertise, letting guerrilla units do it would be thousands of times more efficient than special forces. But are special forces really useless in large-scale warfare? Or are they just flashy but ineffective? Based on emotional factors, Hu Weidong has always been unwilling to admit it, but now he also didn't think that it was precisely because of his persistence that the little devils who fought against him later suffered greatly...

  The artillery played a crucial role in this battle, and after the war, many infantrymen shouted slogans like "Long live the artillery!" which made the tradition of emphasizing firepower in the Independent Division even more deeply rooted. However, there were also hidden worries. Apart from affecting the mobility of the entire division, due to the arsenal's constant movement with the army and lack of necessary equipment, it was currently impossible to produce qualified shells for the 75mm mountain guns. Although many were captured in Xunyi County, they were being used up one by one. Moreover, intense artillery fire meant fewer captures, and if not for the Nationalist Army's Fourth Division abandoning a lot of ammunition, the Independent Division would have lost heavily in terms of ammunition, especially shells, in this battle. Weapons could be repaired or remade if the arsenal was bombed, but once ammunition was blown up, it was gone forever. Hu Weidong now had some understanding of the hardships faced by the people's army throughout history - no matter how many enemies were eliminated, if the captured weapons and ammunition were not more than what was consumed, then this battle would be just like a defeat. From then on, while promoting and developing firepower, the Independent Division also began to emphasize the importance of conserving ammunition. After all, even if the arsenal could produce everything in the future, it would still cost money - China was still very poor, and every aspect needed money; there was no capital for extravagance or waste...

  The Independent Division annihilated and routed three divisions of the Central Army (including the Ninghua Campaign before), which was a huge blow to Old Chiang. However, Gu Zhutong was overly cautious and delayed giving the order to march south, which made him increasingly dissatisfied. He finally made up his mind to let Liu Xiang replace Gu Zhutong's position and take charge of the two provinces' bandit suppression mission. At the same time, he ordered Chen Cheng's 18th Army to leave southern Jiangxi and participate in the encirclement and annihilation of the Independent Division. In Fujian, under heavy pressure, Old Chiang finally stopped being nepotistic and let Wei Lihuang, who had more military talent, replace Jiang Dingwen's position. This way, he thought that there would be no chance of failure, with elite troops and strong generals in all three directions, and the Red Army would not be able to escape even if they grew wings...

  When Old Chiang was daydreaming, the Party Central Committee in the Long March also learned of the good news of another major victory of the Independent Regiment. With the victory of the Fourth Crossing of the Red Water, Taizu's prestige in the Red Army and the party reached an unprecedented height. He could finally reward the merits of the Independent Regiment according to his own will. However, Taizu's motion to promote the Independent Regiment to a military group was not passed. Hu Weidong was too young on one hand, and the war achievements had not been fully confirmed on the other hand...

  Taizu was also helpless, and had to follow the minority, temporarily only upgrading the independent regiment to the Red Fifteenth Army. However, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission eventually passed Taizu's proposal, which meant that Hu Weidong's Red Fifteenth Army and its recovered counties would directly report to the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. The Red Army guerrilla units that merged with the Independent Regiment also followed the organizational relationship of the Red Fifteenth Army. This led to the rapid development of the Red Fifteenth Army, which had acquired a large number of people who were not yet prominent at that time but later became influential figures, and produced a series of far-reaching influences...

  Among them, the four from the Western Fujian Red Army guerrilla team directly raised the strength of the 15th Red Army to almost a higher level. Chen Tanqiu, Deng Zihui, Tan Zhenlin and Zhang Dingcheng were all famous figures in later generations. Also because of this, at least for now, Hu Weidong, who didn't have much discernment, easily achieved the ability to know people and use them well. He let Chen be in charge of mass work, Zhang be in charge of organizational work and internal rectification, Deng be in charge of rural and logistical work, and Tan be in charge of military and political work, all of which had good results. In addition, since three of the four had some ability to lead troops, Hu Weidong naturally wouldn't let it go to waste. He arranged for the three to serve as political commissars of the three main force divisions, with Tan Zhenlin also serving as the division commander of the 3rd Division of the 1st Independent Regiment. Their outstanding work gave Hu Weidong a lot of help.

  In fact, with the talents, achievements and qualifications of the four, taking such a position is somewhat humiliating, but Mao Zetan, the younger brother of a great man, who was not inferior to them before joining the independent division, is now just a regimental commander. They also have nothing to say. As for whether they have any complaints in their hearts, Hu Weidong doesn't know. However, no matter what, he must establish the concept that "actual work performance determines the height of one's position" in the army. Only in this way can we block the speculative doors of those internationalists who have no real talent or learning and rely solely on their experience in the Soviet Union (except for those with real talents and knowledge).

  However, the four men's hearts are not as narrow-minded as Hu Weidong thought. Moreover, although their positions seem to have been downgraded on the surface, the scale of the Red Fifteenth Army is far beyond what their previous troops could match. The strength of one of its regiments is more than that of an entire army, and its firepower exceeds that of a whole army corps. Their living conditions are also much better. What else do they have to be dissatisfied with?

  Starting point welcomes readers to visit, the latest, fastest and most popular serialized works are all on the starting point of original!