Chapter Seventy: The Red Army's Eastern Expedition (Part 1)

  Thanks to book friend Tian Cang Ye for his second reward, here is today's third update ^_^

  It turns out that Sun Yueqi, although not as well-known as those "two bombs and one star" veterans, was in charge of building the country's first oil mine - Yanlong Oil Mine and the larger Yumen Oilfield, making him a pioneer in the energy industry of both the Republic of China and New China. It is no wonder that Hu Weidong attaches great importance to him. However, although Hu Weidong is very familiar with the name Sun Yueqi, he does not know what position he held each year. There are so many famous people in the Republic of China, and even if Hu Weidong has a good memory, it is impossible for him to remember them all, after all, his main profession is military industry, not coal, iron and oil...

  As a result, Sun Yueqi, who should have been treated as a technical expert, became a prisoner of war because of his identity as a National Army major general. Fortunately, Hu Weidong arrived in time, otherwise this big shot might have been beaten up by the enthusiastic Red Army grassroots fighters for his "reactionary" behavior such as leading the crowd to protect the factory and protest against the demolition of the factory...

  Fortunately, Sun Yueqi was not a narrow-minded person. When Hu Weidong learned that his son had been suffering from otitis media for a long time and couldn't be cured, he asked the military doctor to use penicillin to cure him, and even if he had any grievances in his heart, they all disappeared. At the same time, although Sun Yueqi was deeply trusted by the National Government, as an unadulterated industrialist, he hoped to see China embark on the path of industrialization as soon as possible. The trip to Luoyang was the first time he had seen hope for realizing his ideals since returning home that year. Without developed industry, no matter how well mining developed, it would only be exploited by foreign powers, especially for a populous country like China. Therefore, Sun Yueqi resolutely gave up his rank as Major General of the National Army and devoted himself to the cause of the people. As for Weng Wenhao (one of the four great geologists of the Republic of China, who was then Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan), Sun Yueqi could only say sorry.

  Hu Weidong knew that Sun Yueqi was not only an excellent mining engineer, but also an outstanding corporate manager. As a standard industrial party member, after learning about the Red Party's emphasis and ambition on industrialization, it was highly unlikely that he would again turn to the Nanjing comprador government. Therefore, Hu Weidong unhesitatingly appointed him as the general manager of the newly established "Central Plains Mining Group", allowing him to fully lead the coal and iron development business in the Western Henan-Shaanxi Soviet Area. Sun Yueqi did not disappoint him, with the rapid development of heavy industry in the Soviet area, there was never a situation where coal was insufficient, even with relatively insufficient iron ore reserves, production continued to increase steadily, Sun Yueqi's achievements were immense!

  On February 17, 1936, Taizu personally signed the declaration of the Eastern Expedition and the Red Army entered a state of combat readiness. At this time, Yan Xishan's mobile forces were already powerless to set up strong defensive lines along the river like in history. As a result, the Eastern Expeditionary Red Army easily broke into the northwest of Shanxi Province and quickly divided into four routes, led by Taizu, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, and Xu Haidong, the first fierce general of the Red Army. They stirred up the entire northwest of Shanxi, quickly controlling large areas of countryside and establishing a red regime. Among them, General Xu Haidong, who was known for his bravery, successively crossed the Tongpu Railway, broke through the Fenhebao defense line, fought in Fenyang, Xiangyuan, besieged Jiaocheng, Wenxi, and the vanguard cavalry regiment reached Jinqu and Xiaodian. With only a few thousand Red Army soldiers, they threatened Yan Xishan's provincial capital of Taiyuan. To avoid the destruction of Taiyuan, which had been painstakingly built up, Yan Xishan almost deployed all his available forces to the front line to resist the Red Army's attack. However, the Shanxi-Suiyuan army, which had not fought a major battle for several years, was no match for the old Red Army that had just experienced the 25,000-mile Long March.

  In this short month of March, the Shanxi-Suiyuan army was defeated nine times, with over 10,000 casualties and even more captured. If not for Yan Xishan's previously well-prepared local militia taking on the role of reserve forces, supplementing the front-line troops, the Shanxi-Suiyuan army would have collapsed long ago. However, despite this, Yan Xishan was still anxious about the Red Army seemingly growing stronger with each battle, and was forced to humbly seek help from neighboring warlords.

  First, it was Shang Zhen of Henan, but since there were still tens of thousands of Red Army troops stationed in western Henan, the base area had almost expanded to Zhengzhou, and he did not dare to withdraw too many troops to rescue Shanxi. Moreover, although Shang Zhen came from the Jin-Sui military system, he had long been at odds with Yan Xishan, so he immediately refused his former superior's request for help on the grounds that the "bandit situation in Henan was more severe". Another route was the 35th Army of Fu Zuoyi, stationed in Suiyuan. Unlike Shang Zhen, who had openly become independent, Fu Zuoyi was still nominally Yan Xishan's direct subordinate. Although the 35th Army had only over 30,000 troops, Fu Zuoyi was skilled at using his army, and the combat effectiveness of the 35th Army was extremely strong, making it one of the country's top military units. If Fu Zuoyi were willing to go south to rescue Shanxi, Yan Xishan would have a solid foundation.

  However, Fu Zuoyi, although nominally under Yan Xishan's jurisdiction, had in fact become independent since the Central Plains War. As a patriotic general who firmly resisted Japan, Fu Zuoyi was quite sympathetic to the Communist Party's proposal for a national united front against Japan. He was also worried that if he left Suiyuan, the Japanese and puppet troops would take advantage of the situation. Therefore, when Yan Xishan asked for help, Fu initially declined, citing concerns about the Japanese and puppet troops taking advantage of the situation. But as the Red Army advanced rapidly and the Shanxi-Suiyuan army suffered defeat after defeat, Fu Zuoyi's thoughts underwent a subtle change. Moreover, Yan Xishan, who was anxious like burning fire, allocated 50 train cars of weapons and ammunition to the 35th Army, as well as one million yuan in military expenses. Finally, Fu Zuoyi led the main force of the 35th Army south into Shanxi Province, where they clashed with Lin Biao's Red First Front Army, which had advanced to the northeastern part of Shanxi.

  In terms of military talent and troop strength, Lin and the First Red Army Corps were not inferior to Fu Zuoyi's side. However, since entering Shanxi, their experience of being invincible had made Lin, who was still under 30 years old, somewhat complacent, and he extremely underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Jin-Sui army. He did not know that Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army was the only exception in the Jin-Sui army. Moreover, Fu Zuoyi's troops suddenly marched south and caught Lin off guard, resulting in the entire army corps suffering a great loss. In just a few days, they lost more than 3,000 men. Fortunately, the main force of the Red Army had an extremely strong fighting spirit, otherwise, it could have collapsed all at once...