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

Zhou Zeyuan shook his head slightly, "You've really become complacent and careless after winning a few battles."

"Even I, the military commander, haven't said it's unnecessary. You political workers should respect our opinions."

That's a bit harsh.

The atmosphere in the ancestral hall suddenly became tense. Several local cadres from eastern Fujian lowered their heads and drank tea, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings.

Zeng Hongyi sat to the side, glanced at Zhou Zeyuan, then at Le Shaohua, and suddenly interjected:

"Comrade Zeyuan, didn't you tell me that our ideal organization was 1500 men per regiment, with three regiments per division, nearly 5000 men, and four divisions, totaling over 20,000 men? How come you changed your mind so quickly?"

Zhou Zeyuan choked for a moment.

Back in Changting, when he made grand promises to Zeng Hongyi, he did indeed mention this amount.

At that time, the entire legion had 9,000 men, and he felt that expanding it to 20,000 would be a remarkable achievement.

Who would have thought that, in such a short time, the goal of 20,000 people would actually be right in front of us?

He coughed lightly and said without changing his expression, "I'm fairly competent in military command, but troop organization requires experience. My abilities in this area are still limited, so I need to listen more to the opinions of Comrade Su Yu and Comrade Huai Zhou."

Le Shaohua couldn't help but hiss; those words sounded so familiar!

That's right, I remember now!

During a meeting in Changting, Xun Huaizhou remarked that his military skills were inferior to Zhou Zeyuan's.

Well, Zhou Zeyuan is doing the same thing. Are you two just passing the buck?

Ignoring his dissatisfaction, everyone's eyes turned to Su Yu and Xun Huaizhou.

Su Yu spoke first: "The factors that restrict military expansion are nothing more than money, food, supplies, weapons, ammunition, and veterans. We actually have none of these things now."

Xun Huaizhou, half-reclining in the rattan chair, picked up the conversation: "Zeyuan's organizational plan was the optimal solution at the time, but it's outdated now. It needs to be readjusted."

Xun Huaizhou glanced around and emphasized, "Let me just say this: could he have imagined that we would have so much light and heavy firepower now?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present was taken aback for a moment, and then they all nodded in agreement.

Yes, the staffing system isn't fixed.

With increased heavy firepower and changed tactics, the organizational structure of the troops naturally needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Xun Huaizhou took out a piece of paper that had been folded several times from his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Su Yu.

"During my time recuperating, I've also come up with a new organizational structure, which is still not fully developed. Please feel free to offer your feedback."

Su Yu took it, glanced at it, and began to introduce it to everyone.

"The entire organizational structure follows a three-three system, with each level of unit comprising three infantry units."

"First, let's talk about the classes. Each class has 11 students."

"The platoon consists of three squads, a platoon headquarters of three men, and a machine gun team of four men. The platoon has a total of 40 men."

"At the company level, there are three platoons under it, plus 20 people in the company headquarters. The whole company has a total of 140 people." (In addition to a 6-person cooking squad, the company headquarters also includes the company commander, political instructor, deputy company commander, bugler, quartermaster, and several signalmen, medics, and reconnaissance soldiers.)

"At the battalion level, in addition to the battalion headquarters and three infantry companies, there is also a machine gun platoon equipped with two heavy machine guns. The entire battalion has 480 men."

Su Yu turned to the next page, raising her voice slightly.

"The regimental headquarters' directly subordinate units were quite large. It directly commanded a special service company of 120 men, a mortar company equipped with 9 mortars, a supply corps, a medical corps, and an engineer platoon. These directly subordinate units, plus the regimental headquarters, totaled more than 500 people."

He raised his head and glanced at the crowd.

"Such a regiment would have a strength approaching 2000 men."

A low murmur arose in the ancestral hall.

Zeng Hongyi muttered to himself, "My goodness... the number of people in our regiment is almost as big as that of the First Supplementary Brigade."

Zhou Zeyuan shook his head: "But our firepower is still far from sufficient. So, the revolution is not yet complete, and comrades must continue to strive."

Zeng Hongyi waved his hands repeatedly and said with a wry smile, "We can't catch up, we really can't. They have one machine gun per squad, we can never do that."

Zhou Zeyuan didn't respond to that question, and turned to look at Le Shaohua.

Le Shaohua remained silent for a moment, his face expressionless, but his tone was much gentler than before.

"It seems I was a bit conservative. We have a total of 12 regiments, plus 4 division headquarters, so our total strength must exceed 25000 men. Very good, excellent. Keep up the good work, everyone."

"I'm afraid it's more than that," Zhou Zeyuan interrupted directly. "Didn't you just say that we need to help the local area develop its armed forces?"

"I propose that we establish the Eastern Fujian Independent Division, based on the local armed forces in eastern Fujian and supplemented with some core members of field troops. It will be temporarily under the unified command of the Northern Expeditionary Anti-Japanese Vanguard."

Su Da's eyes lit up, and Ye Fei, who was next to him, subtly tugged at his sleeve.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Zhou Zeyuan continued, "In this way, the total combat strength of the army will exceed 3. Adding the two artillery battalions recently formed by the corps headquarters, the total strength of the entire Northern Expeditionary Anti-Japanese Vanguard is expected to be 35000."

The moment the words were spoken, the atmosphere in the ancestral hall changed instantly.

Many people's eyes lit up.

The expressions on the faces of the local cadres in eastern Fujian changed from shock to excitement, and then from excitement to anticipation.

Thirty-five thousand people, what does that mean?

Two years ago, the main force of the Red Army in the entire Central Soviet Area was about the same size.

Le Shaohua wore a smile on his face, but he was somewhat unhappy inside.

He is not against expanding the military.

Expanding the military is a good thing; the stronger the army, the more weight it carries.

What he resented was that Zhou Zeyuan had been in charge of the whole thing from beginning to end.

From the planning stage to the establishment of the Mindong Independent Division, from the artillery battalion to 35,000 men, Zhou Zeyuan was in charge of every step, directing, pushing, and making the final decisions.

His role as political commissar was reduced to that of a mere supporting character.

Stealing reputation to this extent is simply too much.

He suppressed his emotions, his face still bearing that gentle smile.

"Comrade Zeyuan, I'm not against expanding the army. But have you considered that our entire corps only has 19000 guns right now?" (This includes the spoils from the battle against Wang Yaowu, plus the weapons already in Mindong).

"If the troop strength is around 25000, that's just right. But if we increase it to 35000, what will happen to the extra 1 men if they don't have guns?"

His gaze swept over the cadres in eastern Fujian, and his tone became increasingly earnest.

"We can't just send them out to fight the enemy with broadswords and spears, can we? That would be irresponsible towards our comrades' lives."

The people from Mindong nodded slightly after hearing this, feeling that the political commissar had considered everything thoroughly and was a reasonable person.

But the expressions on the faces of the people in the Seventh Red Army Corps were rather subtle.

Zeng Hongyi turned his face away, afraid he wouldn't be able to help but laugh. Su Yu lowered her head to drink her tea, the teacup obscuring half her face.

The scene before us is completely reversed from the first military conference in Changting.

At that time, Zhou Zeyuan was conservative, while Le Shaohua was radical.

Then, at each meeting, Zhou Zeyuan became more and more radical, while Le Shaohua generally became more and more conservative.

This is absolutely bizarre!

Zhou Zeyuan wasn't particularly surprised by this.

In later generations, he saw far too many such things.

If you seize the aggressive niche, your competitors will naturally be pushed into the conservative zone.

It's not that he's changed, but that he can't stay in his old position anymore.