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

"Comrades from the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee told me that there are several workers they recruited in the Fujian Manufacturing Bureau, and they have been keeping an eye on them for years."

"Some of that equipment was swallowed up by several private factories, and these factories all have close ties with local officials."

Le Shaohua became increasingly agitated as he listened. He slammed his fist on the table. "These corrupt officials! They've really gone too far!"

His voice carried a righteous and stern anger:

"The equipment from the Fujian Manufacturing Bureau is the precious property of our Chinese working class! It's the blood and sweat of the people! How dare they embezzle it?! They even dare to steal the property of our Soviet Area government?!"

He stood with his hands on his hips, looking every bit like a proletarian revolutionary soldier about to charge into battle:

"Comrade Zeyuan, there's no room for discussion! The entire house must be confiscated!"

"Those machines and equipment are the people's precious property, and they must be returned to me intact! What I hate most in my life are corrupt officials!"

Zhou Zeyuan chuckled inwardly, but nodded with a serious expression.

"The political commissar is right. Although most of this equipment is old stuff from the late Qing Dynasty, it's still legitimate military equipment, much better than those makeshift workshops in our Soviet area. If we could get our hands on it and transport it back to the Soviet area, that would be truly..."

He rubbed his fingers together, and the two exchanged a knowing glance.

This is another first-class merit award!

I'm absolutely thrilled!

Then Zhou Zeyuan sighed and rubbed his temples: "That's why I said I still can't sleep tonight."

I'm afraid things might get complicated if I delay. What if word gets out and those bastards move or destroy the equipment? That would be a huge loss. I was just about to leave after receiving this news.

"But I still have a ton of work to do... and someone has to keep an eye on all of it. Now that you're back, let's quickly hand it over so I can get going."

Le Shaohua immediately became anxious and blocked Zhou Zeyuan's way, saying, "What handover? This is such a waste of time!"

He patted his chest, exuding an air of pride:

"You continue with your current work. Leave the inspection of the machinery to me!"

Zhou Zeyuan hesitated, "Ah...isn't that a bit inappropriate? Comrade Political Commissar, you've been running around all day, you must be exhausted. Why don't you rest for a bit, I'll go..."

"Sigh! What's so tiring about it? I'm like a brick in the revolution, I'll go wherever I'm needed!"

As he spoke, he began straightening his collar and checking his sidearm, his posture resembling a pre-battle pep talk.

"Comrade Zeyuan, if you're tired, take a rest. I'll be right back! I'll make sure you get all that equipment back, down to the last screw!"

After saying that, he didn't wait for Zhou Zeyuan's response and turned to walk out quickly.

As he reached the door, he turned back and gave Zhou Zeyuan a thumbs-up: "Wait for my good news!"

The curtain was lifted, and the person had already disappeared into the night.

There was a moment of silence in the command center.

Zhou Zeyuan slowly straightened up, walked to the door, peeked out, and only after confirming that Le Shaohua's figure had disappeared around the street corner did he slowly turn back.

He walked to the table, picked up the list of supplies that Le Shaohua hadn't had time to finish reading, and muttered to himself, "He really is a chosen worker."

"It's a bit rough to the touch."

Liu Feng, who was standing next to him, swallowed hard.

So terrifying.

It is truly terrifying.

A political commissar of a military corps should be a fierce and decisive figure, but in front of his own boss, he's practically been tamed into a hunting dog.

The key point is that this political commissar was doing it with great enthusiasm, righteous indignation, and boundless energy, completely unaware that he was being led by the nose.

Liu Feng shuddered and secretly resolved: In the future, he would speak less and work more in front of the legion commander, and never try to play tricks.

This guy can even fool the political commissar. My little schemes are nothing compared to his.

Zhou Zeyuan was not proud at all for fooling Le Shaohua once again!

This was just a minor incident; he still had a lot of important things to do.

Taking over a provincial capital and wanting to plunder the land is a complicated task, but it boils down to three things: plundering, transporting, and recruiting.

These three things are all closely related to mobilizing the masses.

At this stage, it is a safe and stable approach to let the local central municipal party committee take the lead, with the military providing assistance, so as not to cause too much turmoil in Fuzhou.

Only the legion commander himself truly understood that the arrival of the legion's main force had not fundamentally improved the current situation.

While the issue of prisoners of war may be somewhat exaggerated, it is still a major problem that urgently needs to be addressed!

This is because, starting from the Battle of Xiaotao Town, the Seventh Red Army Corps had not released prisoners on a large scale.

For example, in the battle to capture Daejeon, the total number of prisoners captured by the Seventh Red Army Corps had reached 2,700.

He mobilized 1,200 of them to join the army, and more than half of the remaining 1,500 were wounded soldiers with limited mobility.

Kele Shaohua managed to take away 600 Kuomintang prisoners of war who refused to join the Red Army, leaving only the wounded in the local area.

The advantage of doing this is that it prevents the prisoners of war from reorganizing after their release and becoming enemies of our party.

The downside is that most of these people are die-hards, and if they stay in the ranks, they will always be a potential threat.

Fortunately, the battle went smoothly all the way, and even the stubborn elements in Zhou Zeyuan's eyes had a lot of their attitudes softened.

But the number of these prisoners of war did not decrease; on the contrary, it increased with each victory.

They captured Youxi, took Gutian, and fought all the way to Shuikou Town, where they forced 1,600 enemy soldiers to surrender without bloodshed.

The weapons and equipment of the four battalions were easily captured, but there were also 1,600 more prisoners of war who needed to be guarded.

Adding to the more than 1,000 Kuomintang officers and soldiers captured in the Battle of Fuzhou, the number of prisoners of war that the Seventh Red Army Corps needed to guard suddenly exceeded 4,000.

These four thousand people are four thousand burdens; they cannot be killed, nor can they be released.

Once released, a large portion of them would rejoin the Nationalist army.

Ideally, they should receive sufficient ideological education so that they can choose to return to their hometowns after leaving.

But there's not enough time.

The Kuomintang 261st Brigade landed before nightfall.

On our side, although the entire advance team had already arrived in Fuzhou City.

However, after a night of fierce fighting, over a hundred soldiers were killed and more than three hundred were wounded.

In addition, the 1st Regiment of the 7th Division of the Red Army went to eastern Fujian and has not returned to this day.

The entire legion, even including the work teams and logistics personnel, has only about nine thousand men who can carry guns.

The best option would be to quickly convert some of the prisoners into Red Army soldiers.

If both sides have God's-eye view, and if the Nationalist army receives reinforcements tomorrow or the day after, they will definitely take the initiative to provoke a war.

But by this time, let alone Jiang Dingwen, he had already been completely fooled!

Even if someone told him that the Red Army had only 10,000 combat-ready soldiers, and that a considerable number of them were new recruits and former KMT prisoners of war, he would still be in trouble.

He would also slap the other person across the face.

Are you kidding me? A few thousand real Red Army soldiers could beat me into this state?