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

Zeng Hongyi was in charge of cultural promotion and mobilization. He also had a major task: to repair and widen a main road connecting Lianjiang, Danyang and Luoyuan, based on the existing roads.

The road is over 40 kilometers long and is required to be able to carry 75mm artillery pulled by mules.

Previously, in order to eliminate the First Detachment of the Fujian Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Force, which was active in the eastern mountainous area of ​​Lianluo, the Kuomintang had also undertaken the construction of this Lianluo Highway.

The local Party committee promptly organized the masses to launch a struggle against the road construction project. This successfully forced the Nationalist government authorities to terminate the project.

The person who organized this struggle against road construction was Chen Shangrong, the current secretary of the Lianjiang Municipal Party Committee.

Two years later, the situation changed drastically.

The underground party cadres who had previously tried so hard to sabotage the Lianluo Highway now strongly advocated for its construction.

According to Chen Shangrong, with 5000 people mobilized at once, working in sections, and with sufficient funds, food and supplies, he was confident that he could complete the basic repairs within two weeks.

At a time when the Kuomintang army was pressing in, mobilizing so much manpower and resources to build roads naturally aroused a lot of opposition.

In particular, many of the mobilized laborers were young and strong men who were willing to join the Red Army. Making them complete the road construction first and then join the army was a complete waste of precious training time.

Zhou Zeyuan strongly supported the proposal, and his reasons were quite valid.

Although the National Revolutionary Army had a large force, it was divided into three directions: north, south, and west. Each of its forces was not at an advantage against the entire northward anti-Japanese vanguard.

If the 40-kilometer road from Lianjiang to Luoyuan is completed.

The Red Army stationed in the southern mountainous area of ​​Lianjiang only needed to walk a short distance along the mountain path to reach the flat road.

The movement of Red Army troops between the two regions, from south to north and from north to south, could be completed in just one day of forced march.

Mountains and hills account for nearly 9% of Fujian's total area. The densely populated areas of Lianjiang, Luoyuan, and Danyang are all intermontane basins.

The town of Danyang is bordered by the Gutou Mountain Range to the east and the Quebi Mountain Range to the west, with a narrow passage running between the two mountains.

In addition, the maritime transport routes in the east have made the connection between Lianjiang and Luoyuan extremely close, forming a relatively closed geographical unit.

In actual combat, if the National Revolutionary Army wanted to attack the Mindong base area, it had to travel for two or three days along mountain roads to reach the core area of ​​the base area.

If we were to deploy another field force to block the enemy from the front, while guerrillas harassed them from the flanks and rear, doubling the time wouldn't be too difficult.

For Xun, Zhou, and Su, this gave them a four- or five-day window of opportunity to concentrate their superior forces and annihilate a portion of the enemy army.

This is way too much time!

All of this strategic planning hinges on the timely completion of the road.

Therefore, Xun, Zhou, and Su were in unison and were willing to draw on a group of veterans and key personnel to participate in the construction, so as to complete the project ahead of schedule.

After the meeting, everyone dispersed, and the command center fell silent again.

Xun Huaizhou, Zhou Zeyuan, and Su Yu did not leave immediately. The three of them sat around the table, and the conversation naturally turned to the recent situation of the troops.

The results of the recent expansion and reorganization are already beginning to show.

Many members of the Red Team adapted quite quickly after enlisting.

They were essentially local armed forces, spending years fighting the Kuomintang in the mountains. Their organizational discipline and revolutionary enthusiasm were not much worse than those of field troops.

What's truly lacking is formal tactical and technical training.

Especially marksmanship.

The vast majority of these people had never even touched a gun before joining the Red Army.

Surprisingly, their close-quarters combat skills were quite strong; many of them were trained martial artists with a solid foundation in fist, foot, knife, and staff fighting.

After asking around, I learned that many of the Red Team leaders in the Mindong area were originally "martial arts sects" in the local area.

In the old society, the disciples of these schools relied on martial arts to protect their villages and strongholds. After revolutionary ideas were introduced, they were transformed into armed forces under the leadership of the Party.

Therefore, on paper, the Red Army has recently absorbed more than 1 people, which seems to increase its burden.

The number of troops also swelled rapidly from 9,000 in Changting to nearly 30,000, more than doubling.

The group was filled with a large number of former KMT prisoners of war and young farmers who had just put down their hoes, making it seem haphazard and not very efficient.

However, due to the large influx of Red Belt members and local armed forces in eastern Fujian, the Red Army's base was not diluted, but rather greatly strengthened.

Those prisoners of war and new recruits who had not yet been long-term indoctrinated with revolutionary ideas made astonishing progress in this atmosphere where veteran soldiers took the lead and red belt members competed to be the best.

It can be said that the complex composition and impure beliefs caused by Zhou Zeyuan's continuous expansion of his army while fighting were miraculously repaired after the large-scale expansion of his army in eastern Fujian.

Of course, there are problems.

The average quality of the troops has indeed declined.

No matter how good the Red Army's leaders were, they ultimately lacked training in modern firearms.

While those former KMT prisoners of war had a military background, their ideological transformation would take time.

It would be impossible to reach the technical and tactical level of the main Red Army forces without long-term rigorous training and real combat experience.

Of course, this only refers to individual soldier quality.

The factors that determine the combat effectiveness of a military unit are far more than just this one.

The commander's tactical deployment, the support of equipment and logistics, and the morale and cohesion of the troops are all indispensable.

For this reason, everyone in the Seventh Red Army Corps was extremely concerned about repairing the Lianluo Highway.

Everyone hoped that the first battle after the massive military expansion would be a typical annihilation war of "the strong bullying the weak and the many oppressing the few".

New recruits need to see blood, officers need to establish their authority, and the entire unit needs a resounding victory to build confidence.

Su Yu glanced at the Lianluo Highway marked on the map, then looked up and asked, "How long will it take for this road to be completed?"

Xun Huaizhou held a pencil in his hand, twirling it between his fingers twice, and replied, "I asked several construction supervisors, and they all said that at the current pace, it will take at least another ten days."

Su Yu frowned. "Can't it be any faster? Should we add more people?"

Zhou Zeyuan shook his head. "We're already working in sections, and we have enough manpower. Adding more people would only cause chaos, and the progress might not be faster."

"Then let's hope the Nationalist army moves slowly and doesn't take action before the road is completed."

Su Yu held the enamel mug on the table in one hand, remained silent for a moment, and then her tone became more confident.

"Even if they really attack, with our current strength, we are not afraid of them."

Upon hearing this, Xun Huaizhou turned his head to glance at Zhou Zeyuan, a slight smile playing on his lips:

"Then we really have to thank Zeyuan. If it weren't for his ability to keep things in order, we might still be stuck in some remote mountain village. Calling him our savior wouldn't be an exaggeration at all."

Zhou Zeyuan slightly raised his hand, his expression indifferent: "No need for formalities."

Xun Huaizhou clicked his tongue and slapped his hand away: "I was just being polite, did you really take it seriously?"

Zhou Zeyuan smiled. He thought, "Why not take advantage of my good brother?"

Xun Huaizhou adopted a serious expression: "But speaking of which, what was going on at the meeting today? Didn't we agree to let Su Yu join the leading group? How come you agreed as soon as Political Commissar Le mentioned Director Liu?"