Chapter 45: A Powerful Enemy Arrives
"General, this Red bandit seems to be different from any of the previous ones. They are very fond of launching fierce attacks, but they themselves cannot produce ammunition and can only obtain it by capturing it from us. As long as we don't give them the opportunity to launch a decisive battle, they won't be able to capture our ammunition, and their supplies will soon run out. They may even be forced to launch a desperate attack on a heavily defended city, wasting their troops in vain. By that time, it will be much easier to deal with them. Moreover, by then, some of the other directions should have completed their tasks, and the troops freed up, combined with those newly trained during this period, should total no less than 2 million men, just enough to concentrate our forces and deliver a fatal blow! Xue Yue, who later became an anti-Japanese general and also an anti-Communist pioneer, although he had some dissatisfaction with Chiang Kai-shek, was also doing his best on this issue."
"Good, good, good, Bo Ling ah, you are indeed the pillar of the party and state!", Old Chiang was overjoyed at once. But just as Xue Yue had left, Old Chiang received an urgent report from the southeastern region that Zhao Guantao's Eighth Army was almost annihilated by the "Gan bandits", and Wenzhou City was shocked three times in one night, the notorious name of the "Gan bandits" was no less than that of Zhu Mao's Red Army before the Fifth Encirclement Campaign.
Chiang Kai-shek could no longer sit still, and after some thought, he decided to let his not-so-trusted Wei Lihuang replace the loyal but incompetent Chiang Tingwen in commanding the 100,000-strong National Army in Fujian. At the same time, he reinforced his most trusted Chen Cheng with four more divisions, bringing the total number of troops under his command to an astonishing twelve divisions. The Whampoa Clique thus finally rose to prominence and became the strongest faction within the Central Army. To balance this, Chiang Kai-shek promoted his favorite Hu Zongnan to commander of the First Army and immediately deployed him to southern Anhui to strengthen the defenses in Jiangnan. Meanwhile, due to Liu Xiang's efforts to justify his defeat, coupled with his previous outstanding performance, Chiang Kai-shek still had not completely lost trust in him and gave him an additional 30,000 new troops, authorizing him to command all National Army forces in Zhejiang, bringing the total number of troops under his command back to over 100,000. Additionally, considering that he could no longer let the Central Army's main faction monopolize power, Chiang Kai-shek promoted Sun Liren (from the Northwestern Army system), who was besieging the Red Second and Sixth Army Corps in the Xiang-E-Xi Soviet Area, to commander of the Second Army Group, with three armies under his command, ordering him to hurry to Zhejiang to assist in the battle.
In terms of strategy, Chiang Kai-shek proposed the "Northern Defense, Western Rejection and Eastern Attack" strategy this time. On the one hand, it was because except for Hu Zongnan, the other two war zone commanders had previously been defeated by the Red 15th Army, making Chiang unable to fully trust them; on the other hand, it was also due to the fact that the southeastern coast is adjacent to the sea, and even if the "bandit suppression" failed, there was no need to worry about the Red Army counterattacking, as the Nationalist army's navy would have a chance to intervene. Additionally, Chen Cheng's troops had to leave out a portion to continue clearing up the remnants of the Xiang-E Campaign, which was another reason that could not be ignored...
At the same time, the previously unstoppable Red Fifteenth Army had temporarily stopped in its tracks in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi-Suzhou region. This was partly because Hu Weidong needed to complete the construction of the bullet factory, but also because the troops were physically and mentally exhausted after several months of continuous fighting, and urgently needed a longer period of rest and recuperation. As Su Yu had demonstrated outstanding command abilities in the previous battle that annihilated Zhao Guantao's Eighth Army, even Ye Fei was deeply impressed, not to mention others. Hu Weidong was delighted to hand over all military work to Su Yu, citing his busy schedule with the munitions factory as an excuse. With Mao Zedong becoming increasingly comfortable in his role as political commissar, Hu Weidong finally had some rare leisure time after several months of exhaustion...
During the reorganization, Yang Wenhao and Pei Yueshan's Northeast Jiangxi Guerrilla Troop and Huang Dao, the top leader of the Northern Fujian Party organization, led hundreds of guerrillas to join, further expanding the strength of the 15th Red Army. Among them, Yang Wenhao, although not high-ranking and with few troops, caught Hu Weidong's attention because he had read a report "Uncovering the Last Red Army" which was about Yang Wenhao's previous activities in Northeast Jiangxi. Historically, Yang Wenhao lost contact with the party organization for a long time and hated the Nationalist government deeply, so when the second KMT-CPC cooperation began, he resisted the party central's reorganization order, killing five representatives sent by the organization, stubbornly insisting on anti-Chiang, until being completely annihilated by the National Army in 1943. He not only died himself but also harmed thousands of revolutionary soldiers and those five party cadres, leaving a very bad first impression on Hu Weidong.
Due to the shortage of cadres in the 15th Red Army, the leaders of the guerrilla team who came with hundreds of people generally became at least a regimental commander after joining. However, Yang Wenhan was only made a small battalion commander due to Hu Weidong's prejudice, but he did not have any complaints and successfully completed many combat missions, which made Hu Weidong begin to re-examine this tragic figure in history.
Perhaps because Yang Wenhan had not been out of touch with the organization for too long at that time, his party spirit was still there, and he was in the midst of the large collective of the 15th Red Army. Even if there were any ideological problems, it would be easy to correct them. Therefore, he was not as hopeless as he was in history.
In the desperate situation where enemies were all around, Yang Wenhan's ability to lead his guerrilla team to persist until the end of the war proved his outstanding military talent. Thereafter, Hu Weidong gave him more and more opportunities to show himself militarily while continuing to relax his ideological education, making him eventually grow into a major general of the 15th Red Army...
Due to the fact that there were not many new recruits in the 15th Red Army, and with Su Yu being fully responsible, after nearly a month of reorganization and training, the combat effectiveness of the 15th Red Army was further improved, and the new formations were also completed. However, time is fair for both sides, during this period, the National Army had basically completed its troop deployment, and Wei Lihuang's army of over 100,000 people launched an attack on the Soviet area first, while Chen Cheng in Jiangxi and Liu Xiang in Zhejiang also completed their reinforcements. The total number of National Army troops surrounding the 15th Red Army reached as many as 400,000...
Hu Weidong only then realized that although he had pulled together a red 15th army of over a million people in just a few short months, compared to the old Chiang who could mobilize at least half of China's resources, his own strength was still not worth mentioning. So the development strategy he had originally formulated was once again picked up.
The main force of the 15th Red Army had not yet launched an attack, and Hu Weidong received news that Tan Zhenlin's troops, who were left to guard the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Suzhou region, had been defeated by Wei Lihuang. This was actually within Hu Weidong's expectations, after all, Wei Lihuang was a truly famous general in the National Army, and although Tan Zhenlin had once played a major role in the 15th Red Army, it was only because at that time Hu Weidong really had no one else under his command. To say nothing of comparing him to Su Yu, even compared to Ye Fei, Tan Zhenlin's military ability was far inferior, let alone being a match for Wei Lihuang? Moreover, Wei's troops were far superior to the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi-Suzhou region's garrison troops in terms of both manpower and equipment...
