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

By the time Le Shaohua and Zeng Hongyi arrived in Youxi County with the army headquarters and its subordinate units, it was already noon.

Order has been fully restored in the city. Red Army soldiers are patrolling and guarding various places, and propaganda teams are posting notices and writing slogans on the streets, presenting a well-ordered scene.

Looking at the brand-new county town, Zeng Hongyi was in high spirits, and the fear and anxiety of the past few days were swept away.

He rode on his horse, turned his head, and said to Le Shaohua beside him, whose face was still somewhat gloomy:

"Commissar Le, I think we should let go of some things. It's better to leave professional matters to professionals."

"Look at Comrade Zeyuan, and Huaizhou and Su Yu, they really have a knack for military affairs, they always manage to create miracles. Let's focus on political work and logistical support, and let them fight with full force, isn't that a good thing?"

Le Shaohua felt a surge of frustration stuck in his chest, and his heart was utterly exhausted.

Logically, he and Zeng Hongyi, as the top military and political leaders, should have stood on the same side, jointly managing the military cadres and ensuring that the troops did not deviate from the central government's course.

But this commander-in-chief is a different story. He is timid and cowardly when faced with problems, eager to share his achievements, wavering in his stance, always siding with outsiders, and often dragging himself down.

He even had a somewhat cynical thought: if he didn't have this incompetent and troublesome partner, he might be able to better implement his will and suppress the arrogance of Zhou Zeyuan and his ilk if he were in complete control.

However, on the other hand, the feeling of not having to do anything personally, but simply sitting in the command post watching the troops win battles, accumulating mountains of spoils, and growing stronger day by day... is indeed quite exhilarating.

Not having to bear the risk of making wrong decisions, yet being able to enjoy the prestige and achievements brought by victory—this is probably the ideal state that every political cadre longs for deep down.

It would be even more perfect if the person who orchestrated all of this and created all these miracles wasn't Zhou Zeyuan, that unruly brat who always contradicted him.

Le Shaohua took a deep breath, suppressing his turbulent thoughts. He secretly made up his mind: to be patient for now.

The troops are currently winning battle after battle and their morale is high. Zhou Zeyuan is riding high, and forcibly suppressing him will only backfire and may even trigger a backlash.

Once we reach southern Anhui and establish a firm foothold, or... once the central government issues clearer instructions, it won't be too late to gradually sort out the situation.

When the time comes, there are plenty of ways to use "extraordinary measures" to make him understand who the real leader of this unit is.

If he continues to lead without any restraint, his prestige will grow higher and higher, and his military power will become heavier and heavier. I'm afraid the entire Seventh Red Army Corps will gradually break away from the will of the Central Committee and become Zhou Zeyuan's "private army"!

After the legion headquarters entered the city, many matters were quickly set up.

The corps leadership quickly assigned responsibilities, with Xun Huaizhou overseeing specific military affairs such as the army's rest, guard duty, troop reorganization, and training. The disposal of captured weapons and ammunition was naturally also included in this.

To prevent any unforeseen complications, Xun Huaizhou became more flexible, refusing to discuss the issue of unifying the message at the meeting and instead treating it as a trivial matter, leaving it to his subordinates to handle.

Zeng Hongyi was mainly responsible for organizing the massive amount of supplies that had been tallied into the unified management of the logistics unit, including food, clothing, medicine, and especially those two large boxes of astonishing gold and silver treasures.

The value of those two chests of treasure left even the well-informed Zeng Hongyi speechless.

Apart from a small amount of foreign currency such as US dollars and British pounds, there were neatly stacked 10,000 white Yuan Shikai silver dollars and 2,000 taels of gold!

What does this mean? A ten-tael "big yellow croaker" gold bar was worth about four hundred silver dollars at the time.

These two thousand taels of gold alone are worth eighty thousand silver dollars!

With the addition of that 10,000 silver dollars, the total value is close to 90,000 silver dollars!

This is almost equivalent to the monthly military expenditure of a fully-staffed Class A division of the Kuomintang Central Army!

At a time when the Red Army was facing extreme economic hardship and severe shortages of supplies, the ability to seize such a huge amount of cash and valuables in one go was an extremely rare and bountiful harvest.

If used properly, this money could play an immeasurable and enormous role, whether for purchasing scarce supplies in the White areas, establishing secret transportation lines, or for subsequent troop development and base construction.

Le Shaohua's job was to liaise with the representatives of the Youxi County Party Committee who had just participated in the public event, and to oversee the construction of local government and the mobilization of the masses.

He not only did not oppose Zhou Zeyuan's proposal to "exchange some of the seriously wounded and obsolete miscellaneous weapons for the young and able-bodied men of the local guerrilla forces," but instead actively promoted its implementation.

In his view, this was precisely the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the importance of his political work. He personally held discussions with comrades from the county party committee to understand the local situation and guide the principles and details of the exchange work, keeping himself extremely busy.

It is worth mentioning that Zhou Zeyuan had contact with the underground Communist Party in Youxi when he was fighting as a guerrilla in this area in his early years. Not only did he have old acquaintances in the county party committee, but most importantly, they had a very good understanding of the social situation in Youxi.

During a work handover, Le Shaohua keenly noticed this.

He immediately realized that this was of irreplaceable value to his subsequent efficient campaign of "taking down the rich and raising funds".

So he approached Zhou Zeyuan again. This time, he seemed even more self-righteous.

"Comrade Zeyuan, time is of the essence and the situation is special. In order to raise military funds and mobilize the masses as soon as possible, we have decided to simplify the procedures and refrain from holding cumbersome public trials for some local tyrants and bullies who have aroused great public resentment and for whom the evidence is conclusive."

"Arrests and confiscation of property will be carried out directly based on the lists and evidence provided by local comrades! This is special treatment under special circumstances, for the sake of revolutionary efficiency." "I heard you are very familiar with the comrades of the local Party committee and are quite knowledgeable about the information they provide? I need the most reliable list, as well as their specific addresses and possible locations where property may be hidden. I hope you can cooperate; this is also for the overall sake of the revolutionary work."

Looking at Le Shaohua's serious face, which seemed to say "everything for the revolution," Zhou Zeyuan felt speechless.

You can use the excuse of "time is tight" and "special circumstances require special treatment" to simplify procedures, or even skip necessary investigations and verifications, and directly start raiding homes.

When I command operations and formulate military plans, you want to interfere in everything, demanding strict adherence to rules and regulations and the promotion of democratic discussion.

This person... truly has an impeccable revolutionary will, but his whole being exudes a double standard of "being strict with others and lenient with himself."

However, despite his inner grumbling, Zhou Zeyuan did not object to Le Shaohua's proposal this time.

On the one hand, he does possess a considerable amount of reliable information, which ensures the accuracy of the strikes and avoids accidentally harming any potential intermediate forces.

On the other hand, he was also pleased to see more supplies and funds raised as soon as possible to prepare for the more arduous journey ahead.

As for Le Shaohua's petty thoughts and double standards... he was too lazy to bother with them for the time being, prioritizing the overall situation.

The only pity is that there are a few enemies on this list, and I can't personally send them to the execution platform. It's a great regret in my life.