Southern guerrilla warfare: I led the Red Seventh Army Corps to amassed a million troops.

Zhou Zeyuan pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Yu Qiubai. "Alright, Comrade Qiubai, I'll explain our operational strategy to you."

"Since our goal is to reach western Zhejiang and the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, our initial actions cannot be to head straight for western Zhejiang."

Yu Qiubai nodded; he understood this point—it was a feint attack, a tactic often used in plays.

Looking across China, even an illiterate person can basically understand what this means.

"Now that we have established a foothold in southern Zhejiang, the Nationalist army is on high alert. Therefore, if our main force launches a feint in northern Fujian, it will certainly disrupt the enemy's judgment."

"Once the enemy mobilizes a large force to surround us, we'll feint an attack and then send our troops to turn west. That would complete half of the plan."

"Good idea." Yu Qiubai nodded repeatedly. "How many troops does the legion plan to deploy?"

"The best infiltration force is quality, not quantity. We plan to organize the First Division and the Seventh Red Army Division into the First Column of the Northern Expeditionary Force against Japan, with Xun Huaizhou concurrently serving as the column commander and in full charge of this operation."

"Good, with elite troops and strengthened generals, I am very confident in this operation in western Zhejiang."

Zhou Zeyuan was silent for a moment, then looked directly at Yu Qiubai, his tone becoming serious:

"Comrade Qiu Bai, to be honest, I strongly oppose this battle. Taking such a huge risk and ultimately achieving the predetermined objective will not yield any substantial strategic gains. On the contrary, it will put the Fujian-Zhejiang Soviet Area in danger."

Yu Qiubai subconsciously lowered his head and looked at the documents spread out on the table.

After a while, he raised his head, his gaze no longer as sharp as before, but with a touch of vicissitude.

"Zeyuan, I know you are eloquent and have a strong sense of justice, and others can't persuade you in a short time. But I'll just say one thing: when the Central Red Army went to fight on the outer lines, your teacher was also in the army."

"It's certainly dangerous for us to provoke war in the Fujian-Zhejiang region, but it's a necessary sacrifice to protect the main force of the Central Committee. Zeyuan, you wouldn't want to see your teacher in danger, would you?"

Damn it! In all my years in the business, this is the first time anyone has dared to threaten me.

Zhou Zeyuan's anger flared up instantly!

This is truly unbearable... I'll have to endure it again.

As doctors, we should be more tolerant of our patients.

No, it seems I'll have to increase the dosage of the medication soon and cure this illness quickly.

He remained expressionless, even smiling slightly: "Comrade Qiubai, don't make it sound like I don't care about the big picture."

"Some of our comrades, when looking at the relationship between the part and the whole, pay too much attention to the whole, but ignore the fact that the whole is also composed of several parts, and cannot completely disregard the parts."

Yu Qiubai, who had been leaning back in his chair, suddenly sat up straight. He blinked and repeated, "A whole is composed of several parts... That makes sense. This statement is thought-provoking."

He immediately forgot about politics and military affairs, hurriedly opened the notebook on the table, grabbed a pen, and wrote down the sentence.

Then, as if no one else was around, he lowered his head and began writing annotations below.

Zhou Zeyuan looked at him taking notes so earnestly and pursed his lips. He thought, "If you can't win an argument, you start pretending to be a bookworm. These big shots are really experienced."

However, he also understood that Comrade Qiu Bai's ability to work in the local area must have involved a power struggle, and there were tasks he had to complete.

Ultimately, these people are just too principled.

If it were me, I would definitely have confidently promised before setting off.

Even if you wanted to send a plane to Mars, I would agree to it without hesitation.

But once I, the trapped dragon, ascend to heaven, the sea is wide enough for fish to leap freely...

What? A promise?

I'm sorry, the revolutionary situation has changed, and we must adjust our strategy!

He has always maintained a flexible moral bottom line when dealing with opponents.

For example, Xun Huaizhou's combat plan required the 7th Red Army Division to be the main force, with a regiment from the 1st Division temporarily reinforced.

In addition, the supplementary regiments will be transformed into professional logistics units and their strength will be fully utilized.

This would be equivalent to having a 5-regiment infantry division.

Xun Huaizhou confidently stated that commanding five infantry units was just within his capabilities.

Adding more troops would be pointless; they still wouldn't be able to break through the Nationalist army's large force.

A smaller force is better; 8000 to 1 troops would be just right.

Given the right opportunity, it would be entirely possible to annihilate an entire enemy division.

Even without suitable opportunities, they can fight or retreat at will.

It is both flexible and maneuverable, and when the opportunity arises, it can also deliver a fatal blow.

However, this highly technical military plan was decisively rejected by Zhou Zeyuan.

The central government's intention was to transfer all four divisions of the Northern Expeditionary Force to western Zhejiang.

As for the safety of the base area, they were not there and could not truly empathize with it.

However, it seems that some people, even if they witness it firsthand, are unable to empathize with others.

In Zhou Zeyuan's eyes, people with weak empathy are not his comrades!

If Xun Huaizhou were to follow his approach, not only would the central government be unlikely to agree, but Yu Qiubai would also feel that he was just going through the motions.

So Zhou Zeyuan took a slightly roundabout approach.

He asked Su Yu and Xun Huaizhou to discuss it and allowed them to select two battalions each from the 1st Division and the 7th Red Army Division.

There are a total of 4 battalions, 4 elite battalions that can win against overwhelming odds under normal circumstances and even turn the tide in adverse situations.

Leave these four battalions in the local area to participate in the subsequent defense of the Soviet area.

Two of them were newly formed supplementary regiments, which were just used to fill the gaps in these four battalions.

After Le Shaohua gradually lost control of the grassroots, as long as he wanted to keep it a secret, no one would find out.

After the operational plan was approved, the Third Division, which was stationed in northern Fujian, was first transferred south to take over the defense of the Gutian area in Pingnan!

The largest territory, consisting of six counties in northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang, could only be entrusted to the Northern Fujian Independent Division for protection.

Therefore, Su Yu transferred three of the four battalions to Huang Ligui.

They have the largest territory, so they will face the greatest defensive pressure.

But from another perspective, the strategic depth is indeed quite large.

With proper tactics, even if the enemy's elite forces are deployed, it can still delay them for a considerable period of time.

On the contrary, Gutian in Pingnan and Luoyuan in Lianjiang have a strategic depth of less than 100 kilometers.

At this point, Zhou Zeyuan was actually caught in a dilemma.

His original intention was still to keep the elite of the Min-Dong Independent Division and the Second Division in the Lianluo area.

After all, if you really want to calculate it, the roads between the six counties in northern Fujian and Gutian in Pingnan are relatively smooth.

There are flat roads for travel. It is also relatively easy to support each other.

But Zhou Zeyuan couldn't convince himself!

Reason told him that the enemy's main target was definitely Su Yu.

Zhou Zeyuan asked Su Yu, and she simply replied, "I have no problem on my end!"

He fell silent.

No matter how he thought about it, he felt that Gutian's side would be facing at least three times the number of enemy troops.

But Su Yu isn't one to act tough; if she needs reinforcements, she probably won't be polite to him.

So you really don't need it?

But why do I feel the need for it?

Is the problem with me, or with Su Yu?

I thought about it for half the night, but I just couldn't fall asleep.

In a daze, between dreaming and waking.

Suddenly it dawned on me!

Then he cursed: "A bunch of cheaters!"