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

In Huanxi Town, the gunfire quickly subsided.

Only a dozen or so Nationalist Army agents managed to infiltrate the area; the rest were either killed during the infiltration process or simply couldn't find an opportunity to infiltrate and had to return empty-handed.

Although these scouts were skilled, there were too few of them, and they did not carry any heavy weapons.

After the Red Army garrison reacted, they were quickly annihilated.

However, during this process, the gasoline bottles they were carrying set fire to several grain warehouses.

The fire, fueled by the wind, suddenly leaped up.

The fire at one of the granaries was extremely fierce. The soldiers desperately poured water and shoveled soil, and it took them all night, until dawn, to extinguish the fire.

After the fire was extinguished, there was hardly any grain left in the entire granary.

Fortunately, most of the grain stored locally has already been transported away, and many grain warehouses are half-empty.

After taking stock, the Red Army lost approximately seventy tons of grain in this fire.

It barely exceeded 1% of the total grain supply for the entire army, yet it caused the soldiers considerable distress.

Several veteran sergeants squatted in front of the charred granary, holding charred rice grains in their hands, their hands trembling.

"So much grain... if this were in the base area, it could have fed so many villagers! And these white dogs ruined it all with a single fire!"

When the news spread, the entire town of Huanxi was shrouded in grief and anger.

The soldiers gritted their teeth and remained silent, gripping their rifle barrels tightly.

"Wang Yaowu..." someone muttered under their breath.

This name immediately rose to the top of the list of hatred among Red Army soldiers.

Since their formation, the Northern Expeditionary Force against the Japanese had never suffered such a great loss.

In fact, Wang Yaowu was also furious after taking stock of the losses.

It's terrible, absolutely terrible! Both regiments have lost more than half their units!

In the retreat, the wounded couldn't keep up with the troops and were either killed or captured.

There weren't many wounded soldiers in the army, but the total number of casualties exceeded 2,300.

One-third of the troops that were meant to reinforce the First Brigade were wiped out.

The key point is that he witnessed the fierce battle last night, and the Red Army's casualties were probably less than half of his own.

How could someone as proud and arrogant as him accept this?

But he had to swallow this frustration and couldn't show it at all.

He must never let anyone see the despondency in his heart!

He was the one who proposed this battle.

If the war ends in defeat and he is blamed for everything, his military career can be considered to have suffered a major setback.

Therefore, this battle was not a minor victory, but a major victory!

I would like to add that although the First Brigade suffered considerable casualties, the Red Army suffered even greater casualties. Important logistical outposts were attacked, and a large amount of supplies were burned to the ground.

The Nationalist army quickly began to publicize the great victory at Huanxi, claiming that the Red Army's advance detachment had suffered a Waterloo-like defeat and was on the verge of complete collapse.

In the temporary command post, Liu Shengmu, the director of the political department, walked in with a serious expression, holding a telegram.

Seeing that Zhou Zeyuan, Le Shaohua, and Zeng Hongyi were all there, he immediately reported to his superior:

"The results have been tallied. After a night of fighting, our army suffered 857 casualties, including 241 who died in battle."

"The enemy suffered approximately 2,000 casualties, of which 1,300 were captured, and more than 80% of them were wounded."

"Our army has a total of 1600 wounded soldiers and prisoners of war. There are too many wounded soldiers, and Comrade Su Yu is under a lot of pressure."

Zhou Zeyuan frowned for a moment, then decisively said, "Transfer all the medics from the entire army corps there, and also bring in a group of traditional Chinese medicine doctors from Fuzhou. We must do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every wounded soldier."

Le Shaohua raised an eyebrow and teased, "Oh, Comrade Zeyuan, your political awareness has improved recently! I thought you would say that we should prioritize the safety of our own comrades."

Zhou Zeyuan waved his hand, his tone not harsh but very serious: "I don't need to say it, the comrades below will do it themselves."

"Moreover, the wounded and prisoners of war from the First Brigade are all treasures! Wang Yaowu trained them very well, and this time we must not let any of them go. We must do our best to do ideological work on them and try to convert them all."

Liu Shengmu opened another record, hesitated for a moment, and then continued, "Comrade Su Yu made a self-criticism because his negligence led to the burning of seventy tons of grain..."

Zhou Zeyuan interrupted him before he could finish: "Don't accept his self-criticism. Tell him he commanded very well and made no mistakes."

Zeng Hongyi paused for a moment, then frowned and said, "Comrade Zeyuan, isn't your statement a bit too absolute? Seventy tons of grain is no small amount; it wasn't easy for us to obtain this much grain..."

Zhou Zeyuan turned to look at him, his gaze calm yet firm:

"Given last night's situation, even if Comrade Huaizhou or I were in command, it would have been difficult to do better. The enemy was strong and we were weak; the disparity in strength was enormous. Winning was already a good result, so how could we ask for more?"

Le Shaohua, however, was somewhat unconvinced: "Isn't your 'vast difference in strength' a bit of an exaggeration?"

"Our strength is not what it used to be. A division plus an independent regiment can take down a Nationalist army supplementary brigade... Well, even if they are a division, they should be able to easily defeat them."

Zeng Hongyi, standing beside him, nodded repeatedly, clearly confident in the combat capabilities of his own troops.

Zhou Zeyuan was speechless once again upon seeing the reactions of the two.

These two amateurs, once they become blindly confident, are impossible to control.

Liu Shengmu, who was standing next to him, coughed lightly and said in a low voice, "I agree with Comrade Zeyuan's point of view... there is indeed a huge difference in strength."

Everyone turned their gaze to him without prior arrangement.

Liu Shengmu held up the notes in his hand: "Comrade Su Yu learned about the organization of the First Supplementary Brigade through interrogating prisoners, and I will report it to you."

"The First Supplementary Brigade has more than 7,000 men, comprising three regiments, each with more than 2,000 men."

Upon hearing this, Zeng Hongyi was first taken aback, then blurted out, "What? A regiment of over two thousand people? That's equivalent to one of our divisions!"

Zhou Zeyuan nodded and added, "More than that, their firepower is way ahead of ours."

"Our division is basically composed of infantry, but the First Supplementary Brigade has ample supporting firepower."

"The machine gunners, artillerymen, and their supporting logistics forces are the fundamental reason for their large size."

Liu Shengmu continued, "Comrade Legion Commander is absolutely right. According to the prisoners' confessions, their First Supplementary Brigade had one Czech-made light machine gun per squad, nine machine guns per company, and eighty-one machine guns per regiment."

"Moreover, at the battalion level, there is a machine gun company with six heavy machine guns and a mortar platoon with two mortars."

"The regiment also has a mortar company directly under its command. The entire regiment has eighteen heavy machine guns and twelve 82mm mortars."