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

"Yes, that's a rational choice." Zhou Zeyuan sighed. "But unfortunately, our two decision-makers at the top are often not very rational, and... they're very impatient."

"Forget it, there's no point in saying all this now. I'll just remind you of one thing: if you really receive orders to attack a major city, you must be firm! If you find you can't take it, retreat as quickly as possible! Preserving your strength is the top priority!"

Xun Huaizhou smiled wryly: "I'm afraid it won't be up to me then. It will all depend on your performance. Our Political Commissar Yue is completely under your thumb now."

Zhou Zeyuan shook his head. "That's because, so far, the Central Committee hasn't given him any absolute orders to carry out. If the Central Committee's telegram grants him the authority to oversee execution, do you think Zeng Hongyi will still be on our side? What will you do then?"

Xun Huaizhou's expression shifted uncertainly. He remained silent for a long time, finally letting out a long sigh: "We'll see... we'll see. There'll always be a way..."

Looking at him like this, Zhou Zeyuan felt a sense of helplessness. What kind of allies were these... He couldn't carry them, he really couldn't.

It seems we can't rely entirely on the legion's leadership to make timely decisions. We need to think of other solutions ourselves.

Just then, Su Yu walked over excitedly: "Haha! Huaizhou! Zeyuan! We've really struck it rich this time!"

He held a rough inventory list in his hand: "Preliminary count complete! Including the spoils from Lu Xingbang's arsenal, we've seized a total of over 2,500 rifles of various types this time!"

"More than two hundred pistols and submachine guns! Sixty-two light machine guns! Twenty heavy machine guns! Thirty-two 82mm mortars!"

Zhou Zeyuan whistled, "Hey, it seems that when in doubt, it's always a good idea to attack the warlords first—low ​​risk, high reward!"

Su Yu nodded in agreement, "Not only that, the biggest gain was in ammunition! A rough count shows over 200,000 rounds of 7.92mm ammunition alone! Adding other types of ammunition, the total exceeds 300,000 rounds!"

"More than 1,200 mortar shells! More than 8,000 hand grenades! And there are too many medicines, food, clothing, and business finances to count them all at once."

Xun Huaizhou was dumbfounded and, unusually, swore, "Holy crap! This...this is more extravagant than our entire legion! That old bastard Lu Xingbang's accumulated wealth over the years was wiped out by the two of you in one night!"

Su Yu rubbed his hands together with joy: "After this battle, we'll truly become rich! We really have to thank Lu Xingbang this time. He not only sent us more than 1,500 prisoners, but also contributed so much weaponry, equipment, and ammunition!"

Zhou Zeyuan, however, was not as excited as they were. Instead, he stroked his chin and said, "This is called taking from the people and using for the people. His money and his guns are not his; they are the hard-earned wealth of the people. If we should thank anyone, we should thank the folks in central and northern Fujian."

Xun Huaizhou gave him a strange look: "Zeyuan, what's wrong with you again? You shouldn't be happy when you should be. Are you throwing a tantrum?"

Zhou Zeyuan looked up and said seriously, "I've been thinking about something. Do you think it's possible for us to take advantage of this spoils to standardize the ammunition types for the main weapons of the entire legion? For example, to try to use 7.92mm bullets?"

Su Yu shook his head almost without hesitation: "Impossible, completely unrealistic. Unless we eliminate almost 40% of our current miscellaneous firearms and give them to the local armed forces. But that would significantly reduce our combat effectiveness, and the local armed forces wouldn't be able to absorb so many guns."

Zhou Zeyuan looked at Su Yu with some surprise: "You seem to know very well about the specific models and stock of our legion's weapons?"

Xun Huaizhou also became interested: "Zeyuan's words make some sense. Even if complete unification is not possible, we can take this opportunity to reduce the number of models as much as possible and achieve unification of some main forces. Comrade Su Yu, you are the chief of staff, in charge of logistics and equipment. Can you give me a detailed analysis and see to what extent it can be achieved?"

Su Yu looked at the two of them. "Let me make it clear first that my opinion below is not influenced by any personal feelings. It's not because I have a relationship with Ze Yuan that I'm biased towards the Seventh Red Division."

Zhou Zeyuan immediately understood the implied meaning and raised an eyebrow: "Oh? It seems... it shouldn't be a problem for our 7th Red Army Division to be given a separate unit to standardize the main weapon models?"

Xun Huaizhou nodded in agreement: "If that's the case, I agree as well. The 7th Red Army Division is the vanguard of the northward anti-Japanese expeditionary force. Concentrating the best resources and prioritizing the equipment and ammunition supply for the main force division is in line with military principles, as long as it doesn't affect the basic combat effectiveness of other units."

Seeing that the two main leaders had expressed their opinions, Su Yu no longer hesitated and spoke eloquently: "Alright, first of all, the types of guns captured this time are quite mixed. They are mainly Hanyang rifles, with a small number of Liaoning Type 13 rifles and Gong-made Mauser imitations, etc. These basically use 7.92mm round-nosed or pointed bullets. They account for about 70% of the captured quantity."

"In addition, there are also rifles such as the Type 38 rifle and the Type 38 rifle, about a hundred of each. Besides that, there are some other types such as the Springfield rifle and the Mannlicher rifle, not many in number, but the models are too varied and too old, and maintenance and ammunition are problems."

"I suggest that we take this opportunity to carry out a phasing-out process. We should clear out all these 'small, miscellaneous' rifles and overly old firearms and hand them over to the local armed forces and Red Guards led by the county party committee."

Zhou Zeyuan immediately chimed in, "That's exactly what we should do. We have suffered quite a few wounded in this battle, especially the seriously wounded, who will be unable to move with the troops in the short term. We can't stay any longer, so these seriously wounded will be handed over to the local county committee for proper care."

"After they recover, they can become the backbone of the local armed forces. We can use these miscellaneous guns to exchange with the local guerrillas and recruit young men with some basic skills from them to supplement our troops."

"In this way, the local armed forces obtained the much-needed weapons and supplies, strengthening their ability to defend the base area; we also optimized our troops and replenished our manpower, so everyone got what they needed and no one suffered a loss."

Xun Huaizhou nodded in agreement: "Yes, that's a good idea, but..."

He turned to Su Yu, "What you just described was only Lu Xingbang's spoils. Our own corps' situation is much more complicated than Lu Xingbang's; it's practically a hodgepodge of weapons from all over the world. There are five or six different types of rifle bullets alone, and the comrades in the logistics department curse as soon as a battle starts."

"This is a rare opportunity. I think that if we can reduce the types of ammunition used by our main forces to three or four, that would be a great victory!"

Next, Su Yu provided a comprehensive plan to allow the 7th Red Army Division to exchange weapons and equipment with the other three divisions, and to prioritize the replenishment of compatible equipment from the captured firearms, thus basically ensuring the uniformity of ammunition caliber for the 7th Red Army Division.