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

Ningde City, a large courtyard in the south of the city.

This was originally the residence of the president of the Ningde Chamber of Commerce.

Before the Red Army attacked the city, the chairman took his family to Fuzhou, leaving the house empty, which was then requisitioned as a temporary command post.

In the courtyard, a group of soldiers were carrying items in and out.

They walked briskly, but remained organized despite their busy schedules.

Several soldiers from the communications department carefully climbed onto the roof and were setting up an antenna.

Zhou Zeyuan followed the soldiers in.

The room was already somewhat complete, with a military map of northeastern Fujian hanging on the wall, marked with the nearest battle lines and troop positions in red and blue pencils.

His bodyguard, Xiao Zhong, was standing on tiptoe, pressing down the edges of the map and securing it with thumbtacks.

Zhou Zeyuan's gaze swept around the room, finally landing on the other side of the wall.

There was a calendar hanging there, and the date on the top page was still September 30th.

"Xiao Zhong, is today September 30th?"

Xiao Zhong glanced back at the calendar, thought about the date, and shook his head:

"Commander, it shouldn't be. Today should be October 1st. The owner of this house has run away, and no one has torn down the calendar."

As he spoke, he walked over, reached out and tore off the expired page of the calendar, revealing a brand new page with three black numbers printed on it: October 1st.

Zhou Zeyuan stared at the three numbers, his gaze suddenly becoming somewhat distant.

He stood there, silent for a long time.

Xiao Zhong had never seen his legion commander show such an expression before, that dazed look, as if he were looking through layers of time at something in the far distance.

He couldn't help but exclaim, "Commander, what's wrong?"

Zhou Zeyuan snapped out of his reverie, a faint smile appearing on his lips: "Heh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about our future direction."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a series of hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

Ye Fei strode in, his face showing urgency: "Commander! Something's happened!"

"What is it? Don't rush, speak slowly."

Ye Fei took a breath, steadied himself, and said, "The reconnaissance reports that the 57th Division is in a large-scale retreat."

Suddenly, many more ships appeared at Saiqi Port in Fu'an, and warships were also spotted. They are likely preparing to leave Fu'an by sea.

Zhou Zeyuan raised an eyebrow slightly, walked to the map, glanced at it, and then nodded:

"The 49th Division was defeated decisively, and the 57th Division was unable to hold on alone. The retreat order was issued in a timely manner, and it should be Wei Lihuang's doing."

Ye Fei took half a step forward: "Commander, should we give chase?"

Zhou Zeyuan shook his head: "How can we chase them? We don't have a single main force around here. If we rush over now, it will be tomorrow, and they'll all be gone by then."

"Arrange troops to march north and take over the counties in northeastern Fujian. Tell the local troops to be careful so they don't fall into the enemy's trap."

"Yes!" Ye Fei stood at attention, saluted, turned around, and strode out.

Zhou Zeyuan turned his attention back to the map.

His finger moved slowly across the map, heading north along the coastline of Fu'an, Ningde, Xiapu, and Fuding, finally stopping at the border between Fujian and Zhejiang.

After the 57th Division withdrew, from Ningde northward all the way to Fuding and the Zhejiang-Fujian border, there were no more large-scale resistance forces from the Nationalist army.

The last guerrilla area in northern Fujian thus became a Soviet area.

The objective of the first external operation has now been achieved.

The goal at the time was to connect all the guerrilla areas and small bases in northeastern Fujian into one contiguous area, and then encircle the Nationalist troops in Fu'an and Ningde from three directions.

However, in the actual execution process, due to time constraints and limited troop strength, Su Yu chose to advance into southern Zhejiang.

However, it neglected Fuding, Xiapu and other places in northeastern Fujian.

Today, the Mindong Soviet Area has truly reached its peak.

Three days later, the Danyang Command Center and the Fujian-Zhejiang Soviet Area Government and other institutions were relocated to Nanjishan, south of Ningde.

As a result, a large number of armed guards were stationed around Ningde.

The importance of Ningde as a transportation hub is self-evident. In order to strengthen its defense capabilities, it is worthwhile for the leadership of the Soviet area to take more risks.

As a result, many government agencies are located in the mountainous areas on the outskirts of the city.

This was so that, in the event of a deteriorating situation, the terrain could be used to make a breakout.

The central government allocated the organization to two armies.

After discussing it, Zhou Zeyuan and Su Yu decided to divide the troops into local forces and field forces.

Based on Zhang Qiming's regiment, it was expanded into a division.

By drawing on some local armed forces and adding a batch of converted Kuomintang prisoners of war, the number of troops quickly reached more than 6000.

The regiment had many veteran Red Army soldiers who had followed Zhou Zeyuan in his campaigns, so it was no problem for them to hold up the rank of officers for a division.

As for equipment, there's even less to worry about.

Li Yannian's reward was generous enough that they could easily expand the army by another division.

This gave the field force a structure of three divisions.

The same was true for the Soviet area's garrison troops; they simply combined several newly formed local independent regiments into one division.

However, after this operation, the size of the local armed forces was rapidly reduced, to the point that they no longer had even a regimental-level organization.

Ye Fei often sighed with Zhou Zeyuan about how back then, the whole surrounding area was filled with the magnificent sight of red-banded teams.

But then again, how can commanding 20,000 semi-military Red Guards compare to commanding 20,000 fully armed regular troops?

That's right, when it comes to the selection of the army commander, who else could it be but him?

Zhou Zeyuan also hesitated.

The appointment of a military commander involves many factors, including balancing various interpersonal relationships.

Putting aside other things, the Mindong Independent Division was a small faction, and the Minbei Independent Division was another small faction.

Although the two mountains share the same origin and are not far apart, they cooperate seamlessly with each other.

Their relationship can be described as close as brothers.

But wouldn't obvious favoritism hurt the other party's feelings?

But in the end, Zhou Zeyuan decided to seize power at this crucial moment!

He persuaded Comrade Qiu Bai, and then, on behalf of the Army Corps Headquarters and the Fujian-Zhejiang Soviet Area, proposed to the Military Commission that Comrade Ye Fei serve as the Army Commander and Political Commissar.

For no other reason than history has already provided the correct answer.

To be honest, this behavior has indeed sparked some controversy.

Many people still hoped that Huang Ligui would serve as the army commander, because he had more seniority and had joined the revolution three years earlier than Ye Fei.

Some neutral parties suggested that Ye Fei and Huang Ligui form a team, with one serving as the army commander and the other as the political commissar.

Zhou Zeyuan, however, was well aware that these two had been in charge of things on their own for too long and had become accustomed to having "the final say" in military command.

When two strong-willed individuals come together, if they share similar ideas and their personalities complement each other, things will go well, like Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi.

If people have different ideas and conflicting personalities, it can really be a disaster.

If there's really no other way, he'd rather have Huang Ligui hold two positions than let the two of them work together.

What three-person teams, five-person teams, special envoys, supervisors...?

His bare feet knew all too well how many hardships he had endured along the way.

Having already gotten soaked in the rain himself, he naturally wanted to prepare an umbrella for his subordinates.