The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

The weather in Guangdong is still so hot in November.

"Secretary Chen, next time I come to your house to discuss work, I have to ask you something. If Yang Du were here, I would… I would not come for the time being…"

Chapter 145: Can you recruit 100,000 soldiers?

Ganzhou.

Although the mining machinery ordered from overseas has not yet arrived, the highway from Nanxiong to Ganzhou, which divides and connects several major tungsten mining areas, is being renovated, and teams of road construction workers can be seen busy working everywhere along the way.

November to February next year is the slack farming season, and farmers from all over the country organize themselves to build roads, so it is relatively easy to find manpower.

Of course, farmers can also get paid for repairing roads near their homes during the slack season.

As for the tungsten mines in Ganzhou, some have been explored and determined how to dig the mines, while others are still in the final stages of determining the location of the ore veins.

In the future, Ganzhou's tungsten mines will certainly still have rich open-pit mines that can be mined with a shovel next to a small stream, but the main production should come from the 200-400 meter mines in Dayu County and Shangyou County.

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The current price of tungsten concentrate is 1300 silver dollars per ton (650 U.S. dollars).

Once the tungsten mine expansion is complete, annual tungsten concentrate production will increase to 8000 tons, or $520 million in foreign exchange revenue. Calculating fiscal revenue, the purchase price of tungsten concentrate from the mine in Gannan is 36 silver dollars per dan, while the purchase price in Hong Kong is 130 silver dollars per dan. The scarcity of this resource creates such a significant premium that it's reasonable to charge a resource tax of up to 50%, netting 520 million silver dollars.

Guangdong's fiscal revenue in 1927 was 8.1 million silver dollars. This revenue from January to September did not include revenue collected by the coalition government.

Therefore, the future prospects of the Guangdong Revolutionary Base Area are promising, as long as it can survive this initial dangerous period.

"Commissioner Chen."

"Principal Xiong.

Xiong Xiong, the former commander of the 5th Division of the 2nd Army, was now transferred to the principal of the Ganzhou Military Academy. Xiong Xiong was originally the deputy director of the political department of Huangpu, and Chen Tianheng used to call him Instructor Xiong.

Chen Tianheng: "Principal Xiong, I heard that all the teachers and students of the Ganzhou Military Academy think that the academy should be called 'Whampoa Military Academy Ganzhou Branch'. They don't like the previous name 'Ganzhou Mountain Infantry School'?"

Xiong Xiong: "Needless to ask, who doesn't like to be associated with Huangpu? Besides, our military academy is indeed the bloodline of Huangpu. In 1926, the Wuhan branch was separated from the main branch of Huangpu. After the Wuhan branch evacuated, some teachers moved here, including me.

"The name of the school is a minor issue. Anyway, including me, the Central Military Commission and the Central Military Commission Secretariat all hold an open opinion. Everyone thinks that Huangpu Ganzhou Branch is good, so changing the name is not a bad idea," Chen Tianheng said. "Let me take a look at you, the first batch of students.

"Yang Dezhi, a student of the First Infantry Battalion, reporting to the commander!"

Yang Dezhi, who is only 16 years old this year, stood at attention and saluted seriously.

Yang Dezhi, an old acquaintance. Chen Tianheng smiled and asked, "How old did he say he was when he signed up?"

Xiong Xiong: "16 years old."

Chen Tianheng: "Yes, it seems there is no fraud. However, although Xiao Yang is only 16 years old this year, I have known him for 5 years.

Xiong Xiong: "Huh?"

Yang Dezhi: "In 1922, when my father was working as a blacksmith in Anyuan, I was studying at a workers' night school and learned to read. Commissioner Chen taught me.

"Peng Shaohui, a cadet from the First Infantry Battalion, reporting to the commander!

"Deng Hua, Second Infantry Squadron, First Phase, reporting to the commander!"

"Report, I am Luo Binghui, commander of the 27th Regiment of the 9th Division of the 3rd Army!"

The names of acquaintances (that Chen Tianheng knew in the original historical line) popped up one by one, until the last one, Luo Binghui.

Chen Tianheng: "Captain Luo, I have read the battle summary of the Ganjiang Campaign, and the 27th Regiment performed very well.

Xiong Xiong: "Captain Luo is currently serving as a tactical instructor at the Ganzhou branch, but the counter-encirclement and suppression campaign is about to begin again. I guess the branch will have to temporarily suspend classes. Captain Luo may even have to bring a few students and instructors to reinforce the troops."

Luo Binghui: "Commissioner Chen, I still hope to attend the advanced training class at Huangpu and study systematically for a period of time.

Chen Tianheng: "That's a good idea. Principal Xiong and Commander Zhu shouldn't object, right?

Xiong Xiong: “I don’t object.

Luo Binghui did not receive formal military education and was completely self-taught.

He was born in a Han slave family in Yiliang, Yunnan. He ran away from home when he was young and later joined the Yunnan Army under Tang Jiyao. After several years, he became a low-ranking officer in the Yunnan Army.

In March 1927, he heard Zhu De speak in Nanchang. Zhu De said that only by uniting as workers, peasants, and soldiers could we defeat warlords, local tyrants, and evil gentry. Only if the revolution succeeded would everyone have jobs, farmland, and food, and only then would there be hope for China. Deeply moved, Luo Binghui moved closer to the revolutionary camp. After the Nanchang Uprising, he became a member of Zhu De's officer corps. After leaving Nanchang, Zhu De formed the Third Army, and Luo Binghui became its commander.

Chen Tianheng: "Let's go and see Professor Chen Zhuo.

Chen Chao, who until last month was the commander of Chiang Kai-shek's 26th Army, had previously been an instructor at Whampoa Military Academy. Later, when the Five Provinces Allied Forces were incorporated, Chen Chao took command of the 26th Army. Eventually, he was trapped in Xiajiang County during the Ganjiang Campaign. After their reinforcements were largely wiped out, the 26th Army surrendered en masse.

After the surrender, everyone felt that Chen Chao had solid military and academic knowledge, so they invited him to teach at the Ganzhou Military Academy.

"Commander Chen, are all the members of the 26th Army really being disbanded?

After meeting Chen Zhuo, the first topic they talked about was this.

Chen Tianheng: "After examining the political, military, and disciplinary qualities of all officers and soldiers of the 26th Army, we have decided not to retain the 26th Army's structure and all its personnel have been dismissed.

Chen Zhuo: "The 26th Army is indeed of mixed origin and a mixed composition. However, there are still some officers and soldiers with good professional qualities.

Chen Tianheng: "Among them, there are officers and soldiers with good professional qualities who are willing to join our army. A total of more than 400 people were selected. The rest either did not pass our assessment or simply did not apply to join our army.

Chen Zhuo hummed and thought about it!

"Commander Chen, your army... is truly a force without any mountain base.

Chen Tianheng: "Under the modern state system, the military should be like this. It's not that there aren't any groups of people gathering in the military, but these groups, whether they are local hometown organizations, groups formed by military academies or other reasons, have a red line above their heads. If you cross this red line, you are a mountaintop. If you don't cross it, then you are still a normal hometown gathering.

"The red line is whether you interfere with the military's decision-making and the implementation of military orders."

Chen Chao: "I saw before that the commander of your army's third division was He Long. I am familiar with He Long. You put him in the first army as the commander of the third division, instead of letting He Long be sent to the so-called rural base area to raise funds. This is very impressive.

"Commander He was a master at leading the troops," Chen Tianheng said, "but we shouldn't overlook his combat prowess. He was a man of great resolve and determination, and his staff knew that He Long held the Third Division to very high standards in all areas of its operations."

Xiong Xiong: "A few months ago, some of our troops were assigned political commissars for a short period of time after the uprising, such as Peng Dehuai's troops after the Pingjiang Uprising. However, Peng Dehuai is now the army commander and political commissar.

Jiangxi is preparing to counter the encirclement and suppression again.

This was actually the first counter-encirclement and suppression campaign.

The last Ganjiang Campaign was actually the foreplay of the encirclement and suppression campaign that Chiang Kai-shek planned to launch - to capture and station in Ji'an, and use Ji'an as a base to sweep through southern Jiangxi. Unexpectedly, the two armies were stopped and killed on the way to Ji'an, and most of Pang Bingxun's army was also killed.

Everyone knew that Chiang Kai-shek would return. Last week, Nanjing newspapers widely reported that Li Zongren had given a speech fully supporting the suppression of the Communists. This week, it was reported that Chiang Kai-shek's troops in Nanchang, Jiujiang, and Yingtan had all received back pay.

Before the official expedition, Chiang Kai-shek had to give these troops a wave of money. It was previously called "travel pay", and now Chiang's army calls it march expenses. In fact, the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government also has something similar, called combat subsidies.

The Nanjing headquarters was said to have mobilized 500,000 troops for this encirclement and suppression campaign, but the Guangzhou intelligence department itself calculated the number to be about 400,000 troops. In short, after the military pay and the departure expenses were paid, Chiang Kai-shek had to use up more than 8 million of the 30 million silver dollars he had looted from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortium.

That is why Li Zongren concluded with great certainty that "regardless of whether Guangzhou is finally reached or not, Chiang Kai-shek will stop fighting when his money is spent."

"Secretary Fang, this time Chiang Kai-shek's encirclement and suppression campaign is much larger than the last one. The Gannan base area will be under great pressure."

Fang Zhimin, Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, of course he cannot now manage the entire Jiangxi Province. The main work scope of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee is southern and central Jiangxi.

"Since May, our bases in southern and central Jiangxi have supported the formation of the Third Army and added over 4 men to the Fourth Army. In addition, we have established four independent peasant defense regiments, upgraded from the militia and peasant self-defense forces," Fang Zhimin said. "Excluding the Fourth Army, southern Jiangxi has a total armed force of 3 men. According to Commander Zhu De's plan, southern Jiangxi can defeat the enemy through appropriate tactics."

Chen Tianheng: "Secretary Fang, we were able to defeat Chiang Kai-shek in this counter-encirclement campaign, but now we should also plan the next phase of action for the army and local government after the counter-encirclement campaign is successful.

Fang Zhimin: "We should expand our base areas, implement land reform in more areas, and draw the peasants to our side. I think that within a year, Chiang Kai-shek's army will probably be reduced to the Jiujiang-Nanchang line."

"In fact, we need to look further ahead," Chen Tianheng said. "The Military Commission has now formulated a preliminary plan for the future path of national revolutionary victory. That is, by the time we confront Chiang Kai-shek, we must achieve the goal of 'building an army of 500,000 men.'"

"Five hundred thousand," Fang Zhimin sighed. "Five hundred thousand..."

"This 500,000-man army is to be formed in Guangdong, southern Hunan, central and southern Jiangxi, and at most Hubei, Henan, and Anhui. For central and southern Jiangxi, well, I think 100,000 is a reasonable number," Chen Tianheng held up a finger to represent 100,000. "What do you think?"

Chapter 146: The Third Army is about to develop into a field army

The request Chen Tianheng made to Fang Zhimin was a bit "excessive".

Rural conditions in southern Jiangxi and along the Hunan-Jiangxi border were similar. The First and Second Armies spent several months on the Hunan-Jiangxi border, adjusting rural policies several times, before they could replenish the First Army's personnel and establish the Second Army. Initially, they discovered that many farmers, while willing to serve, were reluctant to travel far.

In southern Jiangxi, Fang Zhimin, Ye Ting and Zhu De also experienced similar situations, and only after a lot of effort did they obtain 30,000 troops.

Now the limit will be increased to 10.

"The Guangdong Revolutionary Base Area now has a development plan. Three years from now, the base area's fiscal revenue may reach 30 million silver dollars, of which about 10 to 15 million can be used for military expenditure. The two arsenals will also be fully operational by then, sufficient to arm 500,000 troops.

Chen Tianheng explained the plan.

Fang Zhimin: "In the rural areas of southern Jiangxi, there are many mountains and little land, but it is close to Fujian and Guangdong. Farmers in the rural areas have many business projects and always have to find one or two side jobs to supplement their family income. This was especially true after we carried out land reform and distributed land. Because there was a future in life, self-cultivating farmers devoted themselves to production tirelessly. Recruiting soldiers... has always been difficult.

Chen Tianheng: "It's not that we need to raise so many troops from all over the country right now, but three years from now, when we have money and guns, we need to have people in the rural bases."

44

"What's wrong with Li Zongren? He's mobilizing troops and preparing for an attack, and he even issued a telegram?"

Ye Ting frowned, not understanding why Li Zongren wanted to cause trouble for Guangdong.

Ye Ting is now in Ganzhou, and the 10th Division of the Fourth Army also entered Ganzhou from eastern Guangdong in advance and is now stationed outside the city of Ganzhou.

Chen Tianheng: "Chiang Kai-shek gave out a big red envelope, but the Guangxi clique also had its own reasons. Last month, a shipload of opium from the Guangxi clique was smuggled into Guangdong from Wuzhou. It was seized by us during transshipment at the Guangzhou dock. All the opium was confiscated and publicly destroyed in Guangzhou, and the opium dealers were imprisoned and awaiting sentencing. The Guangxi clique now realizes that the opium trade route that used to be shipped from Guangxi and Hunan to Guangzhou by Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan people and then sold in Hong Kong has been cut off by us, and it is likely that it will never be restored.

Zhu De: "So the Guangxi clique was furious and was determined to attack us.

Chen Tianheng: "Opium is the main source of income for the Guangxi clique. Even though the Guangxi clique now occupies many northern provinces, they are still unwilling to give up the opium income. But this matter is not negotiable. The Revolutionary Government Committee made a unanimous decision, and both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party voted in favor.

Ye Ting: "I haven't been back to Guangzhou for a long time. Are all the opium dens in Guangzhou closed down now?"

Chen Tianheng: "All the opium dens have been closed. There are a lot of addicts left. Some are enduring at home, some can sign up for supervised drug rehabilitation, and some can't stand it any more and flee to Hong Kong. But Guangdong is now completely drug-free. This is written into the law and won't change."

After talking about opium, the three of them turned their attention back to the military situation in southern Jiangxi.

There are currently no intelligence personnel who can directly copy the battle plan from the Nanjing headquarters. Predicting the attack route of Chiang Kai-shek’s army depends on detecting their troop movements.

The 32nd Army, which had been wiped out in the Ganjiang-Ji'an battle the previous month, was rebuilt, with Xue Yue as its commander. Although Qian Dajun also managed to escape the encirclement, he was reprimanded by Chiang Kai-shek upon his return and dismissed from his position. Xue Yue was promoted from division commander to army commander.

The 26th and 17th Armies were not rebuilt.

现在蒋军在江西有8个军：九江-南昌一线有1、2、6、9、32军，抚州-鹰潭有19、20、25军。

There are 11 armies in Hunan and Hubei, but it is not certain whether all of them were deployed in the encirclement and suppression. It is possible that some of them were stationed in Wuhan. Currently, two armies have left the Yuehan Railway and set off for Hengyang: the 37th Army and the 8th Army.

Ye Ting: "Zhou Xicheng's 25th Army has extremely poor combat effectiveness. Their Guizhou 1st Division is the main force, but this main force also includes an entire regiment equipped with single rifles. The 32nd Army has just been rebuilt and is at the level of a stray dog, unable to fight. Chiang Kai-shek still needs to garrison troops to defend Jiujiang and Nanchang, so the pressure on the Jiangxi battlefield this time is not that great. Instead, the Guangxi clique should pay attention. If the Guangxi clique is determined to attack, their combat effectiveness will be much higher than that of the Jiangxi side."

"So I suggest that my Fourth Army march westward from Ganzhou and join forces with the First and Fifth Armies near Chenzhou to deal with the Guangxi clique's southward-moving troops. After all, the Fifth Army currently only has two brigades under its command."

Chen Tianheng: "Although the military pressure in Jiangxi is not as great, we must defend Ganzhou. The Ganzhou tungsten mine will be a very important source of our economic wealth in the future. Ganzhou already has many project sites. If the Chiang Kai-shek army invades, construction will be interrupted and machinery and equipment will be damaged, which will be very disadvantageous to our future." After discussion, the Central Military Commission decided that the Second Army should assemble and move south from the Hunan-Jiangxi border to southern Hunan to join the flexible defense zone in southern Hunan; the Third and Fourth Armies should counter the encirclement and suppression in southern Jiangxi.

Ye Ting hummed, "So, is it safe in southern Hunan and northern Guangdong?"

Chen Tianheng: "Unlike southern Jiangxi, we can even abandon Chenzhou in southern Hunan. As long as the Chiang Kai-shek army consumes all the offensive energy of the Guangxi clique in the Nanling Mountains on the Hunan-Guangdong border and prevents them from entering Shaoguan, we can complete the mission in this battle. Moreover, we have a railway line from Guangzhou to Shaoguan, and our logistics supply line after leaving the railway is over 100 kilometers. If the Guangxi clique's army crosses Chenzhou and continues to attack southward, its logistics supply line without railway is as long as 200 kilometers."

Zhu De: "On the Jiangxi battlefield, Chiang Kai-shek transferred the 19th, 20th, and 25th Armies to Fuzhou-Yingtan, indicating that they may adopt a new offensive line."

Chen Tianheng pointed out Guangchang, Ningdu, Xingguo, and Yudu counties south of Fuzhou-Yingtan: "There is indeed a route to attack Ganzhou the next day. From Fuzhou south, we can reach Ganzhou through these counties. The journey is longer than from Ji'an to Ganzhou, but we can bypass Ji'an. This is also a normal mentality. They just suffered a major defeat between Nanchang and Ji'an last month.

Zhu De: "I'm afraid they will attack from two directions. One way will go south from Fuzhou to Ganzhou, and the other way will follow the same route as last month to attack Ji'an. They have sufficient troops to fight from two directions."

Zhu De speculated that Chiang Kai-shek's army would have two offensive routes in Jiangxi, each with three armies.

If the three armies keep their distance while advancing, cooperate with each other and are not divided or surrounded, it will not be easy to destroy the coalition forces.

If one of the routes finds a large number of coalition troops nearby during the attack, then the other route will have no heavy troops blocking it and can keep advancing.

The solution is to stretch the front as much as possible. The longer the enemy's advance, the more opportunities they have to reveal loopholes. Then, seize one of the routes and strike hard. Once this route is cut off, the encirclement can be broken.

"We'll attack the enemy's weakest lines," Chen Tianheng said. "Based on Chiang Kai-shek's current deployment, we suspect the enemy forces in Fuzhou are weak, including the notoriously weak 25th Army. But we can't rule out the possibility that a stronger unit from Nanchang, such as Liu Zhi's First Army, will be temporarily transferred to Fuzhou just before departure. In that case, we'll have to adjust our plans."

Ye Ting: "After Liu Zhi rebuilt the First Army, he fought very cautiously, trying to avoid direct confrontation with our main force.

Chen Tianheng: "Liu Zhi will probably be let go this time. Obviously, if the First Army goes towards Ji'an, we will attack the enemy in the Fuzhou direction; if it goes towards Fuzhou, we will win another battle on the Ganjiang-Ji'an line.

Accompanying Chen Tianheng to Ganzhou this time were ammunition, a total of 40 bullets and 2000 artillery shells, which were supplied to the Third Army. The ammunition for the Second Army on the northern Hunan-Jiangxi border was transported via another route.

The Fourth Army brought enough ammunition when it set out from eastern Guangdong.

After sorting and classifying the spoils of the last Ganjiang Campaign, the Ishii Arsenal fully producing 79 bullets, and importing 500 million rounds of bullets from Vladivostok in one go, there was basically enough ammunition for this counter-encirclement and suppression campaign.

Chen Tianheng also discovered that the Third Army was in excellent condition at this time.

The three divisions of the army have a comprehensive grasp of technical and tactical qualities, from infantry squad techniques and tactics to company and battalion tactics, as well as the coordination between mortars and infantry.

Zhu De himself was a person who was very knowledgeable about tactics. After he "stepped down" from the Yunnan Army, he went to Germany for inspection. He learned German in half a year and read various books in Germany, including a lot of military books about World War I. Zhu De even found a low-ranking German officer who had participated in World War I, and they chatted in a pub with a glass of beer each.

It can be said that before Chen Tianheng introduced the entire set of infantry tactics, it was Zhu De in China who had the most research on the German Storm Troopers tactics from 1917 to 1918.

The Fourth Army "aided" the Third Army and laid a solid foundation for the Third Army's technical and tactical qualities.

In addition, the morale of the Third Army was extremely high.

The Ganjiang Campaign was fought between the Second Army and the Third Army. Originally, it was two armies fighting against two armies, but later Cheng Qian offered to buy two and get one free, and the extra army was also weakened in one round and almost wiped out, so now the Second Army and the Third Army can fight 2 against 3.