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

The battle in Songyang County is drawing to a close.

The gunfire on the city wall gradually subsided, with only a few sporadic shots still coming from a corner in the north of the city, which were then drowned out by a burst of hurried footsteps and shouts.

The county magistrate who remained in Songyang received a death order—losing the city and territory would be an unforgivable crime.

He was a real man; instead of abandoning the city and fleeing, he personally went up to the city wall to oversee the battle. In the end, he was hit by a stray bullet and fell next to the crenellations of the city wall.

With the county magistrate dead, the soldiers of the security regiment were no longer so brave.

To be fair, the Songyang Security Corps wasn't entirely without courage when it came to defending their territory and homes.

However, this security regiment underwent two major bailouts this year, with most of its brave and skilled officers and soldiers being transferred to field units.

Those who remained were not only incapable of fighting, but also lacked complete equipment.

It was indeed a difficult task to put them in a position to fight against the regular Red Army.

When Xun Huaizhou climbed onto the city wall, the battle inside the city had basically ended.

Red Army soldiers were everywhere in the streets and alleys, searching out in twos and threes from various alleys, driving out the scattered defeated soldiers from the houses and escorting them towards the county government.

The local people, who had only heard rumors about the demonization of the Red Army, now kept their doors and windows tightly shut, cowering in their homes, too scared to even breathe.

Xun Huaizhou stood on the city wall, his gaze sweeping over the bustling streets and alleys of the city, his face expressionless.

Liu Feng, commander of the 7th Red Army Division, strode up from below the city wall and stood before Xun Huaizhou:

"Commander, why don't you order a pursuit? Letting these stragglers escape to Suichang is just adding to the enemy's defensive strength."

Xun Huaizhou did not answer immediately.

He gazed at the winding mountain road to the north of the city, where the fleeing soldiers were almost disappearing around the bend in the mountain pass.

He slowly began to speak: "No, they went to Suichang, and even fled to the next city, bringing not the strength to defend the city, but fear."

Liu Feng paused for a moment, then his expression suddenly dawned on him: "I understand now. These defeated soldiers are incapable of forming a fighting force; on the contrary, they will lower the enemy's morale."

He pondered for a moment, then volunteered, "Commander, I suggest we organize a vanguard force to march through the night and launch a night attack when the enemy is most exhausted at dawn. We'll definitely be able to capture Suichang in one fell swoop."

"Good idea." Xun Huaizhou's gaze landed on Liu Feng's face with persuasive words. "And then? Think about what we should do next."

After thinking for a moment, Liu Feng replied, "After we break through the city, we'll continue driving the routed soldiers north to Longyou County."

Xun Huaizhou looked at the general in front of him and sighed inwardly.

Liu Feng was one of Zhou Zeyuan's favorite generals. He was brave and decisive in battle, had strong execution ability, and had a set of methods for commanding troops.

This person can serve as a deputy or a capable general, but lacks the ability to stand alone and is deficient in innovative thinking.

Zeyuan is indeed very accurate in judging people.

He didn't directly comment on Liu Feng's answer, but continued, "By this point, the defeated soldiers from the two counties were mixed together, and none of them knew each other. It wouldn't be strange if some unfamiliar faces appeared."

"Why don't we dress our special operations company brothers in Nationalist army uniforms and infiltrate them?"

Liu Feng slapped his thigh, a look of admiration on his face: "That's right! This way, when we attack Quzhou, we'll have an extra source of intelligence within the city, giving us at least a 90% chance of victory!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, "Oh, I see! No wonder our marching speed hasn't been particularly fast along the way. You were waiting for the Nationalist troops in western Zhejiang to gather in Quzhou, and then you would encircle and annihilate them in one fell swoop!"

Xun Huaizhou couldn't help but shake his head.

If you tap it, it's all clear; if you don't, it'll just stay stuck there.

He really is born to be a deputy general.

He made a decision in his heart: no matter how much merit Liu Feng makes in the future, he must never let him fight independently.

This general can only be a knife in someone else's hands; he cannot hold the hilt himself.

Night falls.

The Red Army soldiers rested for a few hours in Songyang County and had a hot dinner.

The daytime heat gradually subsided as the sun set, and the night breeze blew in from the mountains, carrying a touch of coolness.

The soldiers checked their weapons, tightened their leg wraps, and prepared to continue their journey.

The vanguard troops, lightly armed and under the cover of night, quietly left through the north gate and made their way along the official road toward Suichang County.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the night, in Yushan County at the western end of the Jinqu Basin, a Nationalist army unit was also being mobilized overnight, heading towards Quzhou.

This is a regiment of the 75th Division of the National Revolutionary Army.

The 75th Division had just withdrawn from the Shangrao front for rest and recuperation, and its personnel and equipment had not yet been fully replenished.

Originally, this unit was not within Wei Lihuang's command order, but after He Guoguang made the strategic assessment that "the Red Army is very likely to advance into western Zhejiang", Wei Lihuang became more cautious.

He transferred a brigade to Yushan County, located on the southern slope of Huaiyu Mountain, under the pretext of "being wary of the Red Army from Huaiyu Mountain moving eastward into the Jinqu Basin".

This approach is not entirely without reason.

The First Column of Xun Huaizhou's Northern Expeditionary Anti-Japanese Vanguard was not the only force that received orders from the Central Committee to sabotage the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway.

The Red Tenth Army in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area also received the Central Committee's order to sabotage the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, and took action even earlier.

However, the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves is far greater than that that can be overcome by mere enthusiasm.

The regular troops of the 10th Red Army numbered only about 3,000, and more than half of them carried miscellaneous rifles, many of which were "old-fashioned" rifles with worn-out rifling.

Machine guns were even fewer, averaging only one or two per company.

Ammunition reserves were extremely scarce; each person was considered well-off if they could carry twenty or thirty bullets.

With the addition of local armed forces, the troop strength could barely double.

But most of those Red Guards only had broadswords and spears, and they weren't even equipped with gunpowder guns, let alone any military skills.

Their direct enemy, even excluding local security regiments and units like the 75th Division that were temporarily deployed for rest and reorganization, was also excluded.

Even a single Zhou Hunyuan column is an existence that they cannot confront head-on.

Zhou Hunyuan's column was a direct descendant of the Central Army, comprising three divisions and equipped with excellent weaponry.

Each company has 4 to 6 light machine guns, the battalion has heavy machine guns, and the regiment has mortars. Ammunition is readily available.

The soldiers were highly trained, battle-hardened, and far from being a rabble.

Since entering the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi border region, this column has built a dense network of bunkers and strongholds around the Huaiyu Mountain area.

The barbed wire, abattoirs, and trenches were all present, like iron hoops, constantly compressing the living space of the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area.

Unfortunately, the 10th Red Army lacked both a large troop strength and heavy firepower, making it virtually impossible for them to break through the blockade.

Fang Zhimin was in dire straits himself—barely able to save himself, let alone cut off the Nationalist army's lifeline.

But it was quite a coincidence.

He didn't have the power to break through the blockade, but someone with that power came.