Chapter 47: Artillery Blind Firing

  Due to Liu Zong's misjudgment, it wasn't until the Red 15th Army crossed Tianmu Mountain and approached Hangzhou City that Liu Zong realized the Red Army was really going to attack Hangzhou. He suddenly panicked, hastily assembled his troops to rush north for rescue, and asked the Military Commission for help, hoping that Nanjing would quickly dispatch troops to provide emergency assistance. After all, the Qiantang River Bridge was still under construction at the time, and relying solely on the few ferry boats that had been urgently mobilized, it was impossible to transport Liu Zong's 100,000-strong army across the river in just one or two days. Moreover, it had taken several days for Liu Zong's 100,000-strong army to assemble. Probably due to being intimidated by the previous defeat, Liu Zong was extremely cautious this time and only began crossing the river after his main forces were assembled. However, this ended up putting the Nationalist Army reinforcements from the north in a difficult position. As a result, before Liu Zong's army had even completed its crossing of the Qiantang River, it received news that Hangzhou had fallen...

  At that time, the National Army had not yet mastered more accurate radio detection and positioning technology (historically, it was only provided by the Americans in the late Anti-Japanese War), so Long Fei Bao and other special warfare personnel could safely transmit the coordinates of important military targets within Hangzhou City to the military command. At the same time, due to the absolute superiority of the Red 15th Army's forces and the suddenness of their arrival, the Hangzhou garrison was unable to build fortifications outside the city and did not dare to go out of the city to fight back, so they could only shrink inside the city and defend themselves. Hu Weidong was greatly relieved at this time, knowing that his plan had already succeeded. However, in order to fully demonstrate the power of the new tactics, Hu Weidong did not immediately order an attack, but instead waited until nightfall to let the artillery use the cover of darkness to advance to the pre-selected positions near the city and launch a fierce bombardment against the many military targets that had already been located within the city. The 75mm field guns had a range of over eight kilometers, and when they fired from near the edge of the city, they could hit many targets within Hangzhou City...

  Under this sudden and intense bombardment, thousands of National Army officers and soldiers were still not fully awake when they died in their sleep. The city of Hangzhou was thrown into unprecedented chaos, and the underground party and special warfare personnel fanned the flames, causing the situation in the city to completely lose control. As a result, the remaining National Army could not organize itself at all. At this time, the already damaged city walls of Hangzhou had been blown to pieces by 150mm heavy howitzers. Under the guidance of the firelight in the city, the Special Operations Brigade of the Red Fifteenth Army led by Mao Zedong himself charged into the city...

  The special agent team's strong military quality and special equipment configuration showed great power in the night alley battle, while the National Army inside the city did not have an obvious advantage even in terms of numbers, and their equipment was inferior. When the formation was completely disrupted and everyone fell into unprecedented panic, the morale of the officers and soldiers collapsed rapidly, and they began to surrender to the Red Army in batches. As a result, the 15th Red Army took down the big city of Hangzhou without even losing a single company, and the process went so smoothly that even Hu Weidong, who had formulated this attack plan, was somewhat surprised...

  The indirect artillery tactics, referred to by Hu Weidong as "blind firing technology" (i.e., not through visual observation by the artillerymen, but rather based on data provided by forward observers), were actually not particularly advanced. Not only did the European and American powers possess this capability, but even the Japanese army's artillery had mastered it. However, the tactically backward National Army was largely ignorant of this tactic (also because they thought their opponents, the Red Army, were uncultured). As a result, their defensive layout was problematic, and at night, they had no concept of anti-artillery defense, leading to heavy casualties and chaos that allowed the Red Army to exploit the gaps. Otherwise, with the limited range and firepower of 75mm field guns, it would have been difficult to achieve significant results. In general, this tactic requires accurate maps for reference in order to be effective in siege warfare where visibility is limited. It's likely that there are few people in the world who can accurately hit targets within a city based solely on coordinates reported by observers, like Hu Weidong did. No wonder he later earned the nickname "Cannon God" among military enthusiasts worldwide...

  Regarding the Hangzhou match factory and other national industries, Hu Weidong strictly ordered his subordinates not to harass or destroy them. Even when it came to equipment and raw materials that they needed themselves, they purchased them from these factories at prices no lower than the average market price. However, towards banks, pawnshops, and other purely financial or quasi-financial institutions that made money solely through money, Hu Weidong's attitude was much tougher. He treated them differently for two reasons: first, under the semi-colonial and semi-feudal situation of old China (for a large country like China, only when the real economy is developed can finance, especially private-controlled finance, be beneficial), these institutions were absolutely more harmful than beneficial to the Chinese people, and it was not an exaggeration to call them bloodsuckers; second, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang financial clique was the behind-the-scenes supporter of Chiang Kai-shek (although later during the war against Japan, they were counter-attacked by the bureaucratic comprador forces represented by the "Four Big Families", and their fixed assets were mostly destroyed in the war, after which the Jiangsu-Zhejiang financial clique declined and never recovered...). Hu Weidong naturally would not be polite to them. As a result, just this one item yielded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of gold, silver, foreign exchange, and other hard currencies, and if all the antiques, paintings, and other items could be sold, it would be an astronomical figure.

  Looking at this string of numbers, thinking about the hundreds of millions of ordinary people who can't even afford a meal, and China's national industry struggling to move forward, Hu Weidong became increasingly resentful towards these wealthy elites. It's worth noting that in this era, an enterprise with an investment of one million yuan was considered a large factory in China. However, these Jiangsu and Zhejiang wealthy elites had enormous wealth, but they basically used it for usury, buying land, and other businesses that brought no benefit to the country or its people. They fattened themselves up by sucking the blood and sweat of Chinese ordinary people. Even when they occasionally set up industries, they were all light industries that made quick money, with not a single person investing in the heavy industry that the country urgently needed at the time (there were some private heavy industry enterprises, but none of them had financial backing, and almost all of them suffered losses at the hands of financiers, leading to many going bankrupt). The government didn't support it, and the richest people in the country didn't invest either. It's no wonder that the so-called "Golden Decade" saw a decline in the production of heavy industry in China, to the point where it was even worse than during the Beiyang government era...

  In addition, Hangzhou is a large city with a population of nearly 600,000, and its economy is among the top ten in China today. Even if there are not many troops stationed here, the city's arsenal and various supplies are very abundant. Just searching the warehouses made the Red Fifteenth Army rich beyond their wildest dreams...