The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

"No, Chen Yannian! You idiot!"

"They've all returned, why didn't you come back?! Why did you even go to the Soviet Union?!"

Chapter 100: I'll be back!

When Chen Duxiu was throwing a tantrum late at night, Chen Yannian and members of the Wuhan Central Committee had just crossed the Inner Mongolia-Outer Mongolia dividing line and camped in a small town on the vast Mongolian Plateau.

Of course, they didn't travel on foot. The Soviet Union sent over 20 trucks to escort them. However, trucks kept breaking down along the way, and the remaining trucks that could continue on their journey had more and more people on board, making the journey less than pleasant.

"Comrade Borodin, why are you so unhappy too?" Chen Yannian asked Borodin, the former chief political adviser of the Nationalist Government, who was sitting across from the campfire: "You will soon be returning to your hometown.

"Go home? Ha!" Borodin laughed bitterly, "I also hope that I can go home. I sincerely hope so."

Chen Yannian was speechless for a moment.

Borodin calmed himself down and said to Chen Yannian: "Comrade Chen, in fact, it is you who should not be depressed and frustrated. Your father saved the Chinese revolution with his extremely beautiful undercover plan and prevented it from complete failure. I guess this action has been highly praised by Stalin in Moscow.

Chen Yannian: "Comrade Chen Duxiu's series of arrangements really broke through my previous understanding of my own father."

Borodin: "Why, you didn't know Chen Duxiu's plan before?" "I only knew part of it, not the whole plan."

Chen Yannian also learned to hide things.

Chen Qiaonian: "Comrade Borodin, even though we now have a revolutionary army, this force is in urgent need of external support. Can the Soviet Union continue to support us?"

Borodin: "I'm sorry, but I don't know that now."

Chen Qiaonian: “But the CCP is still within the Communist International.

"But your father believed that the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Revolution should not be led by the Communist International! The international leadership of branches in various countries is written in the discipline of the Communist International, and it is one of the most important articles, formulated by Comrade Lenin himself. I don't think it is feasible to overturn these disciplinary provisions," Borodin said. "Now the Communist International has restored your father's position, but has never directly responded to his call, because this matter can neither be easily confirmed nor easily denied.

Chen Qiaonian: "If Comrade Chen Duxiu's call is rejected and the CCP is expelled from the Communist International, it means that the work of the Communist International in China, the world's most populous country, will be blank."

Borodin: “If this is admitted, it means that in the future there will be a large number of communist parties that, although they have joined the Communist International, will implement a program and take a revolutionary line that is not communist. Their behavior is uncontrollable and unpredictable, which is a huge potential threat to the reputation and cohesion of the International.

Chen Qiaonian: "I think this should be discussed and decided by the Supreme Executive Committee of the Communist International.

Chen Yannian: "....My thought was that I should say what I should say at the meeting of the Supreme Executive Committee."

Borodin: "On the same side as your father?"

Chen Yannian: "First, I will give the International a detailed account of the situation of the Chinese revolution, especially the Northern Expedition of the past year. Secondly, I will also explain in detail the work done by Chinese Communists and Communist organizations during the Northern Expedition. I hope this will serve as a reference for the International Supreme Executive Committee in making its final decision.

Borodin: “I will probably attend this meeting as well.

"Squeak--Squeak--Woo--Ming"

radio station.

The Mongolian People's Republic's radio station now has Russian-language programs, and Mongolian-language programs have been relegated to prime time. The three of them held their breath, listening to the news program filled with noise.

"Chiang Kai-shek, Vice President of the Kuomintang and Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, resigned today."

"According to reports, Chiang Kai-shek resigned under immense pressure from within the KMT and from Chairman Wang Jingwei. During the recent KMT purge in China, Chiang Kai-shek carried out numerous massacres targeting the Communist Party and KMT leftists within his territories. Several recent uprisings in the Chinese military are linked to Chiang Kai-shek's massacres.

Borodin: "Oh?

Chen Qiaonian: "Oh?

Chen Yannian: “Yes.

Borodin: "After the Kuomintang drove out the Communists, internal struggles would intensify, because before they accepted the Communists, they were a loose and undisciplined group.

Chen Yannian: "Well, Comrade Borodin, my feeling is that Chiang Kai-shek will come back.

"Chiang Kai-shek will come back. His resignation this time is a retreat to advance.

In the northwest of Yichun County, Mao Runzhi, Chen Tianheng and Liu Bocheng were training troops. When Mao Runzhi heard the news of Chiang Kai-shek's resignation, his evaluation was the above sentence.

Chen Tianheng: "The voices accusing him within the party grew louder, and Wang Jingwei seized upon this to make a fuss. Chiang Kai-shek's announcement of his resignation was a good move. He would leave without a fight, and those powerful local factions, especially the Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangsu-Zhejiang cliques, would inevitably fight endlessly. Wang Jingwei would have no way of pacifying them, and they would have had to ask him to return to his post. Perhaps he could even take a step back and take two steps forward.

Liu Bocheng: "He practices his political tactics, and we organize ours.

The area within dozens of miles around Yichun is now the territory of the rebels.

Three days have passed since the battle to annihilate two divisions of the 30th Army. There is really nothing much to say about this battle. The four regiments of the First Army were defeated in one day. The ratio of combat ammunition consumption to captured ammunition was 1:2. After this battle, the First Army had enough ammunition to fight another battle.

Over the past three days, over 6,000 armed members of the peasant association have arrived near Yichun. Tomorrow, Xia Xi will arrive in Yichun with another 3,000 from Xiushui County. After receiving land, the peasants' enthusiasm for participating in this war of self-liberation has surged, leading to the expansion of the rebel army exceeding initial expectations.

Not only was the Second Division fully staffed, but He Long's 15th Independent Division was also fully staffed. The three regiments of the reorganized 15th Independent Division were filled with a large number of new recruits from various counties in Jiangxi and Hunan. This greatly diluted the 15th Independent Division's original structure of officers and soldiers sticking together from their fellow townspeople, making the unit's internal organization even more dependent on the soldiers' committee.

The largest unplanned expansion was the training camp of the 6th Division of the 2nd Army led by Xiao Jinguang.

Now Xiao Jinguang directly raised the banner of the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

The Second Army was organized as a "guerrilla army" with a temporary strength of 1.2 men, consisting of three divisions with 3700 men in each.

The guerrilla army did not have mountain cannons. Although this thing could be used in mountainous areas, it required a large number of mules and horses, and the Hunan-Jiangxi border lacked qualified draft horses and pack horses.

Of course, although there were no mountain artillery, Chen Tianheng still tried his best to allocate 12 Stokes mortars from the captured items to the Second Army.

Because it relies on the base, it generally does not fight outside and does not need auxiliary forces such as logistics and supply troops, engineering battalions, etc. Therefore, the units under the Second Army are extremely streamlined infantry units that only retain the most basic elements.

"You will be the future commanders of the Second Army. In Ji'an and Ganzhou, we are also forming the Third Army, commanded by Comrade Zhu De, which will also be a guerrilla force. The main areas of activity for the Second and Third Armies are shown in the map.

Chen Tianheng hung up a rough map of South China. It outlined two regions. The light-shaded area covered almost all of Jiangxi, most of Hunan, western Fujian, and northeastern Guangdong, essentially encompassing everything except the central cities. The dark-shaded area stretched southward from southern Hunan and central Jiangxi. However, between Nanchang and Changsha, the dark area formed a bulge, extending northward to Xiushui County, near Hubei Province.

The legend is also written on the map: the dark area is the "core area" and the light area is the "guerrilla area".

Xiao Jinguang: "This 'core area' seems to be designed to avoid the railway line.

Chen Tianheng: “To be precise, it is 100 kilometers away from the railway line.

"Entering the 20th century, people gained a new understanding of war logistics in the industrialized era. One useful experience summarized was that when the battlefield is more than 100 kilometers away from the railway, the difficulty of the military's logistical transportation will increase sharply.

Of course, this experience is a summary of European countries' military experience. The Chinese army does not have as many artillery and supplies as the European and Japanese armies. However, the vast majority of Chinese troops do not have enough mules and horses to transport their limited artillery and supplies. Based on the experience of the Northern Expedition, the 100-kilometer railway line rule is also valid in China.

"When a well-organized enemy force equipped with more artillery wants to attack our core base, it will inevitably have to travel for several days on roads in poor condition. This gives us enough time to be warned and take various measures to thwart it.

"We'll discuss the specific measures and tactics later. Now, let's discuss another question. If the enemy forces attacking our core base area are extremely large, and they attack in multiple, slow, and progressive directions, how will we respond?"

“If you can’t fight, run away.

Chen Tianheng: "Run, that is, a large-scale transfer of the core base. However, there is another solution, that is, our main corps, or field army, will come from outside the war zone and severely hit these multiple and slowly advancing enemy forces.

The Second Army's mission is to demonstrate the power of workers and peasants in the core areas and guerrilla zones, to ensure the smooth completion of land reform in these areas and to safeguard the achievements of land reform; to mobilize the masses to build new political power in the base areas and guerrilla zones; and to organize and assist in the training of peasant self-defense forces and other militias.

The two "guerrilla armies" of the Second Army and the Third Army had an activity range that formed a semicircle, forming a barrier outside the Guangzhou/Southern Guangdong area.

If the enemy forces attempted to attack Guangzhou, they would be mired in this 1000-kilometer-deep swamp. The First and Fourth Armies would then strike, shredding these immobilized enemy forces. If the enemy forces concentrated their superior forces to attack the core area from multiple directions, the First and Fourth Armies would similarly strike back and shred the enemy.

These bases are not without rear support. Compared with history, this is the biggest point of strengthening.

The base can also ensure that local food or exportable agricultural and mineral products can be transported to Guangzhou.

As the power of the Red Separatist regime grew and strengthened, the vast swamps of the base area would transform from a defensive weapon into an offensive one, a familiar strategy of "surrounding the cities from the countryside to capture them." Once a new central city was captured, this pattern would continue.

"Telegram from the Fourth Army: The vanguard arrived at Jiulongnao, Dayu County, Ganzhou yesterday."

"There are no modern mines in the area, only a few hundred farmers who gather in the Jiulongnao Stream to wash tungsten ore."

“Am I in the wrong place?

Ye Ting

Chapter 101: From Luxury to Frugality

Ye Ting did not go to the wrong place. Jiulongnao in Dayu County is one of the major tungsten mining sites in southern Jiangxi.

In 1927, the tungsten mine in Jiulongnao had two characteristics: first, it was an open-pit mine; second, there was a Jiulong Creek in the open-pit ore vein. Hundreds of years of water erosion had already carried out preliminary screening of the tungsten ore sand. The underwater sand and gravel were fished out and simply screened to obtain tungsten concentrate.

Despite this, the Jiulongnao Tungsten Mine's production efficiency remained appallingly low. Ye Ting observed that the 300 or so miners only managed to recover a mere 100 tons of tungsten ore per year.

In addition to open-pit tungsten mines, there are also mines in southern Jiangxi to mine tungsten. The largest of these, the Pangushan Tungsten Mine, employs more than 10,000 workers. In 1925, the output of ore was as high as 2188 tons. On average, each miner produced 200 kilograms of tungsten concentrate per year, which is lower than Jiulongnao.

So we are back to the old question: we need investment, import mining machinery, and build a modern tungsten mine.

On the one hand, it reduced labor consumption, but on the other hand, more importantly, modern machinery could dig deeper mines, thus expanding production capacity. The amount of open-pit and shallow tungsten mines was limited, and no matter how much manpower was available, it would be impossible to mine more than 10,000 tons of tungsten concentrate annually (the Nationalist government mined 17,000 tons in 1937).

A fact that many people don't realize is that from 1914, when China began mining tungsten, to 1949, its cumulative output of tungsten concentrate was 23.7 tons, accounting for only 28% of the world's total tungsten concentrate production during the same period. Large-scale tungsten mining was also practiced in the United States, Bolivia, British Burma, and Portugal.

China's tungsten ore reserves actually account for more than 60% of the world's total reserves.

Now is not the time to hoard minerals as "strategic reserves" for future use. The CCP is short of money, as are all forces within China. Mining an extra $100 million worth of tungsten ore might buy an extra factory in two years, which would be of immeasurable significance both for China's industrialization and for the impending war.

When the rebel army expanded with Yichun as its center and took control of several surrounding county governments, new problems regarding money also arose.

"You all want to join the Second Army, not the First Army?"

"Is the title of the best master among all teachers useless?

Upon hearing the news, Chen Tianheng and Yuan Zhongxian were both devastated.

"Yes, more than 30 soldiers who were scheduled to join the Second Division have applied to be transferred to the Second Army," said Guo Liang.

Yuan Zhongxian: “What’s the reason?

“It’s the same business, the money is the same money, but it’s closer to home.

Under the leadership of the Hunan Agricultural Committee, a large number of nearby farmers came to join the uprising army. After a few days, the new recruits began to integrate into the collective life of the army and, of course, to inquire about various aspects of information.

By now, new recruits knew that the First Army was the "Field Army," while the Second Army was the "Local Forces," or, as Chen Tianheng defined them, the "Guerrilla Army." The difference between the two was that the Field Army would conduct large-scale operations and battles, while the Local Forces, before being upgraded to Field Army status, primarily focused on defending base areas and deterring landlord counterattacks with force.

Joining the field army means that you will be scattered all over the country in the future and will definitely not be able to take care of your family; this is not the case with local troops, which are not too far from your home and you can take a day or two off and walk back.

Chen Tianheng: "The First and Second Armies receive the same amount of money, but the Second Army is still expected to help its families? This is a misconception. The guerrilla army's combat zones might be very close to home, but sometimes they're still two or three hundred kilometers away. Soldiers constantly have to think about taking leave to go home and farm during the busy season, which is not going to work. ... Actually, when converted, the money is still too little."

Yuan Zhongxian: "The new recruits' wages have indeed been reduced... I'm wondering if our new rules for new recruits and old rules for old recruits are feasible. Should we just unify them?"

Chen Tianheng: "We need to consult with Commissioner Mao. Where is Commissioner Mao?

Guo Liang: "Commissioner Mao went to Shangli and will be back tonight.

Chen Tianheng: "Then let's go to Shangli now.

Despite Chen Tianheng's wealth, the First Division's officers and soldiers weren't known for their extravagant spending. Chen Tianheng's money was used to improve equipment and enhance the First Division's combat effectiveness. Salaries remained at the Northern Expedition Army standard, not a penny higher. Even the logistics department didn't handle the extra large sums; most supplies were already purchased and delivered directly to them.

The average soldier in the First Division received a monthly salary of 6 to 7 silver dollars, of which, according to the Northern Expedition's customary deduction, a 3-yuan monthly meal allowance (10 cents per day, meaning they actually spent 15 cents per day on food), resulting in a total of 3 or 4 silver dollars per month. Therefore, the soldiers' daily allowance was not much different from that of other Northern Expedition troops. When stationed in cities, they occasionally dined at small, inexpensive establishments.

This ensures that the First Division can adapt to difficult environments in the future.

Besides, not all military pay was spent as pocket money. In this era, as long as a young man from a peasant family joined the army and had no bad habits, most of the military pay he received would be sent back home to supplement the family income.

After the Nanchang Uprising, the troops entered the Hunan-Jiangxi border and expanded the army. Taking into account the current financial resources of the base area, after careful calculation by the base area and the Agricultural Committee, the new enlisted soldiers received a monthly allowance of 1 silver dollar, a supply system, and meal expenses were not deducted from the allowance.

1 silver dollar, I can’t afford any more.

A monthly allowance of one silver dollar did not mean the base could support the Second Army just by paying it. Far from it. The soldiers' food expenses had to be paid, and even if three silver dollars a month was too much, two silver dollars was the minimum, double the allowance paid to the soldiers.

Besides food, there is also money for uniforms. If the troops maintain a normal frequency of training, running, jumping, crawling and rolling around, uniforms are just consumables.

看看，还没算武器弹药的钱，每个士兵每月的人力成本就有4~5银元。把士兵津贴从3/4银元砍到1/2银元，大约只削减了三分之一的人力成本。

This does not include compensation for casualties in Miluo.

"Commissioner Mao.

Chen Tianheng, Yuan Zhongxian and Guo Liang found Mao Runzhi in Shangli. He was inspecting the rural areas in the area and chatting with a family.

…So that’s how it is.

Mao Runzhi frowned after understanding the situation and said, "But the base area can't afford to pay so much money. The landlords don't have that much floating wealth, and it can only be distributed once, while the soldiers' allowances must be paid every month. However, if a farmer joins the army, his family will indeed become much more difficult. This family has a soldier in their family, I don't know if you know him.

Yuan Zhongxian: "There are thousands of people joining the army. It is too difficult to remember every one of them.

"My son Wen Yanlei was trained in the military training school run by the farmers' association. He is the captain of the farmers' armed team here. After joining the army, he seemed to have been directly promoted to the company commander.

Chen Tianheng: "Then I know. In the 2nd Regiment of the 15th Independent Division, there were three people who joined the army from the Farmers' Association. Because of their good foundation, they were directly promoted to company commanders, so I have an impression of them.

Mao Runzhi: "Chen Tianheng, Yuan Zhongxian, now that you are here, you should learn about the Wen family's financial situation.

Thank you

The Wen family is a large family with 10 people and three generations living together.

They used to be self-cultivating farmers. After the land reform, they were given an average of 1.4 mu of land.

Mr. Wen is 48 years old and still works in the fields. His wife is 47 years old and suffers from heart pain (perhaps heart problems), so she stays at home to raise pigs, cook, and do laundry.

The second generation has two sons and two daughters-in-law. In the third generation, the eldest brother Wen Yanfeng has three children, and the 20-year-old second brother Wen Yanlei has one child.

Ten people normally needed 50 dan of grain per year, but they only had 40 dan left for food, with sweet potatoes replacing the surplus. After paying the land tax (now called public grain in the base area) and taxes, the family had little left over from their farm crops. To keep the family afloat, the Wen family raised pigs, wove bamboo baskets, chopped wood, and did odd jobs—everything.

Maintaining a family requires more than just food; expenses abound. Plows and farm tools cost money. A set for a family of ten costs 10 yuan, which lasts for a dozen years, translating to 0.6 yuan per year in farm tools. Cloth and clothing cost 3 yuan per year, even if they're already patched up. A few years from now, the eldest child's wedding will cost about 100 yuan... And then there's the oxen, a massive and risky expense.