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

In order to integrate the newly joined soldiers, especially the three hundred converted prisoners of war, into the group as quickly as possible, Zhou Zeyuan simply walked into the marching column and, among a group of former Kuomintang prisoners of war, began to do ideological work with them as he walked.

Beside him, Political Commissar Liu Shengmu, who should have been in charge of this work, was now like a humble student, holding a small notebook and attentively taking notes on Zhou Zeyuan's words.

"...Therefore, when you join our Red Army, you must learn to read and write!" Zhou Zeyuan's voice was loud and clear, and not only could the Kuomintang prisoners of war around him hear it clearly, but the Red Army soldiers who were a little further away could also hear the gist of it.

"Why were we workers and peasants always bullied by landlords and bureaucrats in the past? To a large extent, it was because we were uneducated! We couldn't read or understand reason, so we just believed whatever people said, and we had nowhere to seek justice when we were wronged."

"Now that the Red Army has arrived, our ranks emphasize equality, and there's no longer the old army where superiors could arbitrarily beat or scold subordinates. However, no one can guarantee that one or two scoundrels with corrupted ideas will never infiltrate our revolutionary ranks."

"Only when you understand the culture and can read can you comprehend the rules and regulations, distinguish right from wrong, reason with them, and know how to use the rules and regulations to report problems and make accusations to higher-level organizations!"

He looked around at the faces of those listening attentively: "The good atmosphere in our revolutionary ranks doesn't rely on the self-discipline of any particular officer or leader, but on the supervision of each and every one of us! It's the collective strength of everyone!"

One of the veterans, sporting a thick beard, couldn't help but exclaim, "This is incredible! Sir, you mean... we common soldiers can actually supervise the officials?"

The guard, Xiao Zhong, immediately chimed in proudly, "What's wrong with that? In our Red Army, revolution only distinguishes us by our roles, not by rank or status! Last time, our division commander wanted to sleep in and missed morning exercises, and he even got a scolding from me!"

"Hahahaha!" A burst of good-natured laughter immediately rang out around them, and the atmosphere became much more relaxed.

Even Liu Shengmu, who was engrossed in taking notes, couldn't help but tremble slightly as he wrote, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

Zhou Zeyuan laughed and said, "Xiao Zhong is a good example! I also have times when I want to be lazy and make mistakes. No one is perfect or without flaws."

"At times like these, you need the supervision and reminders of your colleagues! If it weren't for Xiao Zhong reminding and criticizing me, wouldn't I have really made a mistake?"

"If no one had reminded me, wouldn't this mistake have only gotten bigger? So everyone must dare to speak up and be good at supervising; this is being responsible to the revolution and to our comrades!"

As he was speaking with great enthusiasm, suddenly, his ears, far more acute than those of ordinary people, caught a strange buzzing sound coming from very high in the sky. The sound grew clearer and clearer as it approached!

With absolute confidence in his own incredibly healthy and sensitive body, Zhou Zeyuan felt a chill run down his spine!

"Oh no! Airplanes! Enemy planes! Evacuate! Everyone evacuate!!"

"Guard! Sound the warning whistle! Notify all troops! Quickly!!"

Standing next to him, Xiao Zhong reacted extremely quickly. Almost at the same time as Zhou Zeyuan shouted, he had already stuffed the copper whistle hanging on his chest into his mouth!

"Beep—beep beep beep!!!"

The piercing whistle instantly pierced through the noise of the march and spread in all directions.

The officers and soldiers of the 7th Division of the Red Army, who had received air defense drills early on, had almost developed a conditioned reflex to it.

The shouts of officers at all levels rang out simultaneously: "Air raid! Spread out! Take cover! Find shelter!"

Without hesitation, the soldiers immediately followed their usual training and quickly searched for any possible cover in the woods on both sides of the road.

Many new recruits, who had just enlisted and were still unaware of what was going on, were grabbed by the veterans next to them and dragged along to do the same thing. Although they were flustered, they were not completely at a loss.

However, when this whistle, representing the highest level of alert, reached the ears of the main force at the rear, the response was much slower and more chaotic.

Although many realized that enemy aircraft might be attacking, they lacked systematic air defense training and combat experience, and many soldiers were at a loss and stood still.

Many people here don't even know what an airplane is or how powerful it is. Many junior officers have never seen an airplane in their lives, let alone organized effective air defense.

Legion Commander Xun Huaizhou was in the central command position when he heard the urgent whistle coming from the front, and his heart skipped a beat.

When he looked up and vaguely saw several small black dots on the horizon growing larger rapidly, he became extremely anxious!

"Enemy air raid! Evacuate! Lie down! Find a place to hide!" He shouted hoarsely as he mounted his horse, spurred it on, and galloped forward to personally direct the evacuation.

Under his shouts and encouragement, the group began to move more frantically, and the crowd surged to both sides of the road like a flock of frightened sheep.

At this moment, four light bombers dispatched by the Kuomintang Air Force appeared clearly in everyone's sight in the sky.

They swooped down like several giant iron birds with a heart-stopping roar!

The scene that followed was chaotic and dangerous. Although the Red Army was panicked, it did not completely collapse thanks to the efforts of its core members, and managed to maintain basic order during the evacuation.

The Kuomintang planes clearly did not expect that this "Communist" force would react relatively quickly. The first aerial bombs dropped had a surprisingly low hit rate, mostly landing in open fields or roadsides, kicking up clouds of dust and causing minimal direct casualties.

However, one of the pilots, seeing that no effective anti-aircraft fire had been organized below, became bolder and actually lowered his altitude on the second approach to perform a dive bombing and low-altitude strafing!

Machine gun bullets swept across the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Boom!" A bomb exploded not far from the road, and the blast wave knocked over several soldiers who did not have time to lie down.

To make matters worse, the loud roar of the engine as the plane flew low over the ground terrified Xun Huaizhou's mount!

The warhorse let out a long neigh, raised its front hooves high, and twisted its body wildly!

"Commander, watch out!" the guard next to him exclaimed.

Caught off guard, Xun Huaizhou was thrown off the frightened horse and crashed heavily onto the gravel by the roadside!

"Commander!"

"Help! Save them!"

A gasp rippled through the crowd, and several guards and staff officers, disregarding the threat of enemy aircraft overhead, rushed forward with all their might.

Fortunately, the enemy aircraft's harassment did not last long. After circling twice in the air, the four planes flew back in the direction they had come from and disappeared into the horizon.

Only after the initial shock subsided did the people dare to peek out from their hiding places and begin rescuing the wounded and regrouping their ranks.

The results of the damage assessment came back quickly: in this sudden air raid, the Red Army suffered more than 30 casualties, including nine killed in action, and the rest suffered varying degrees of injuries from bombing, falls, or being hit by stray bullets.

The material losses were not significant; the main damage was to several pack horses that were startled, scattered, or injured.