Chapter 3: Evening Autumn (IV)

At the Xin-Meng Battle Summary Meeting that started on May 27, Yang Tianming, Hu Zhicheng and Sun Yaoming, who rushed back from Mengxi, introduced the previous overall deployment of Beijin Group and the current situation of the Fourth and Eighth Columns.

From the current perspective, due to the fact that the People's Army took the lead in occupying key passes and destroying the northward and eastward passages in the west of Mongolia, and the Soviet Union was restrained by changes in the international situation, although the People's Army in the West of Mongolia and the Soviet Union confronted each other, the Soviet and Mongolian Army also adopted a defensive attitude in the deployment of troops, and there is little possibility of war breaking out between the two sides in the near future.

After introducing the relevant situation, Sun Yaoming of the Eighth Column could not help but asks Zhao Zhenzhong: "Sir, judging from the combat situation of our Column in Mengxi, except for some conflicts with a few scattered enemies, our troops are basically marching and have not encountered any major wars. If the goal was set at a high point at the beginning, can we still expand north and east?"

Unlike the Xijin Group, the Beijin Group did not encounter any major war in its advance into western Mongolia. Sun Yaoming's troops from the Eighth Column went directly north from the Juyanhai area northwest of Ningxia, and then faced the Mongolian army, so they did not feel much pressure. Sun Yaoming's views also represent the views of many people in the Eighth Column. Taking advantage of the opportunity of this meeting to discuss, Sun Yaoming raised questions that had been bored for a while.

"Yaoming, your unit is responsible for the defense line from east to south of Mongolia and west, and did not realize the pressure from the defense line from the north and northeastern areas from the Soviet army." Yang Tianming interrupted, "If the Eighth and Fourth Columns changed positions, you would not think so."

The Fourth Column was responsible for the defense missions of the northern Tangnu Mountain and the eastern Hangai Mountain, facing the Soviet army. In mid-to-late March, the Soviet army was airplanes and tanks, and the cannons approached the fourth column defense line. At that time, Hu Zhicheng and others were under great pressure. However, because the defense line northward was long, the Fourth Column and the Eighth Column commands were nearly 1,000 kilometers apart, and they were busy with the construction of their defense areas, except for the telegram forwarded by the Group Command to learn about each other's situation, Sun Yaoming did not feel the pressure on the Fourth Column. This time he returned to the People's Army headquarters to attend the meeting, which was the first time that Yang, Sun and Hu had gathered since they sent troops.

"The pressure is too much. You should guess the same thing when you have more meat on your face." Zhao Zhenzhong looked at Zou Degui's still thin face and joked, "The shopkeepers of other families are all white and fat, and look like they are rich, but look at Store Manager Zou, the meat falling from his face has not yet recovered."

During the Battle of Xin and Mongolia, the Logistics Department tried every means to provide long-distance transportation to the two major groups with about 160,000 troops to ensure the supply of combat materials. As the Minister of Logistics, Zou Degui worked hard to coordinate and dispatch various materials.

"This has grown a lot of meat." Zou Degui touched his chin and smiled, "The most difficult time has passed, and it will be much better in the future."

After everyone was joking for a while, Zhao Zhenzhong said again: "New, Mongolian Battle achieved its expected goals, which is indeed our unprecedented victory. But we must also see that now we are relying on the land of several northwest provinces, with a vast land and sparse population, and the construction in all aspects is in a stage of rising efforts. Now we are still unable to confront the Soviet Union in a comprehensive manner. This is the biggest premise for the formulation of the New, Mongolian Battle Plan."

As he spoke, Zhao Zhenzhong came to the sand table in the conference room, including Xinjiang and Mengxi, which had just been done for a while, and picked up a wooden stick and pointed: "In the northwest of Mongolia, crossing the Tangnu Mountains is the Tangnu Ulianghai area of ​​our country, which is now controlled by the Soviet Union. If our army enters the Tangnu Ulianghai, then we must directly confront the Soviet army. Even if we control the Tangnu Ulianghai with our initial strength and unexpected advantages, it will inevitably cause a strong rebound from the Soviet Union and then be attacked by its concentrated superior forces.

Go north from the Tanu Ulianghai area to the east, not far from the West Sayan Mountains, Irkutsk and Abagen. The former is an important town in the Siberian region and an important transportation hub on the Siberian railway; the latter is an important industrial raw material base for the Soviet Union in the Siberian region. Neither of these two places should be lost. Therefore, our army occupied the Tanu Ulianghai north and took the risk of a full-scale conflict with the Soviet Union, which is not worth the loss at this stage.

From the line of the Tanuwuliang Mountain controlled by our army in northwestern Mongolia to the east, it is the former Tanuwulianghai, which now belongs to the Kusugur Province, Mongolia. From Khanhe, at the northern end of Kusubo, it goes east through the mountain valley to Siliujiangka on the Siberian Railway. This distance can also pose a threat to the Siberian Railway, and the Soviet Union will not ignore it.

Moreover, whether it is north or east, it extends our army's logistics transportation line and shortens the Soviet army's transportation line. In addition, the other party has railways and convenient roads, which will be very unfavorable to our army.

Now, our army has placed troops on Tangnu Mountain and Hang Aishan line, which not only leaves enough buffer zones between our army and the Soviet army, avoiding the possibility of our army's early confrontation with the Soviet Union, but also shortening our supply line and extending the Soviet army's transportation line. This rises and falls, and it is more conducive to our army's control of the western region."

Regarding Zhao Zhenzhong's idea of ​​formulating the New Mongolian Battle, participants such as Gu Haichuan, Yang Tianming, Zou Degui had listened to his explanation. Although Zhang Mingrui had not participated, he could also guess the situation from the call from the headquarters and the situation in the controlled areas between the two parties. However, Hu Zhicheng, Sun Yaoming and other column captains had heard of it for the first time, and they all realized it.

"I didn't expect there was so much knowledge here. It seems that I have to learn more and improve in the future. I can't just think about it." Sun Yaoming scratched his head and said embarrassedly.

"It is necessary to learn more. In the future, you will have to go to the Military and Political University regularly to receive training of varying degrees. This will also become a system." After a pause, Zhao Zhenzhong continued, "The two groups and the columns have done a good job in the summary of the Xin and Mongolian Battle. Some of the problems raised should also be solved as soon as possible. However, in addition to summarizing previous experiences and lessons, this meeting also needs to formulate the development plan and combat plan for our army in the next year."

The strategic situation of Northwest University has now been basically determined, but to stabilize this situation, it needs to be further improved. This involves the different actions the People's Army needs to take against various hostile forces near the controlled area.

Due to the secret agreement with Yan Xishan and the Central Army of Chiang Kai-shek threatened Yan's status, there is basically no possibility of a large-scale conflict between the People's Army and the Jinsui Army in the next one or two years. However, other surrounding armed forces are still unstable.

According to the specific situation, the People's Army will adopt two different strategies: defense or active attack. Among them, the People's Army will adopt a defensive attitude towards the Communist Party of China and Zhang and Yang divisions in Shaanxi, and the Central Army in Shanxi. As long as the other party does not take the initiative to attack, the People's Army will also abide by the existing defense line. Of course, if the other party dares to take the initiative to attack, the People's Army will never be polite.

The People's Army will first solve the two units of Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang, which are entrenched in northern Ningxia. The specific tasks will be completed by the First Column, Special Column and Air Force troops. For the Lu Dachang tribe in Longnan and the Zhang Xueliang tribe in Liangdang, in order to improve the defense line and open up the passage with northern Sichuan, and welcome a large number of disaster victims in Sichuan to the north, the People's Army will take action at the end of this year or the first half of next year to capture all parts of Longnan. The specific tasks will be completed by the Second Column at that time.

In addition to solving the surrounding hostile forces, the People's Army will also increase its efforts to march to Tibet this year. Before the end of the year, the Fifth Column must advance to the Kangma area south of Lhasa, and build a highway extending from the rear to the Kangma area, as well as two airports, Lhasa and Kangma. In order to ensure the speed of the fifth Column's advancement and the progress of the project, the Logistics Department has sent 5 more engineer regiments to Qinghai and Tibet after the spring of this year. In addition to the two engineer regiments originally belonged to the Fifth Column, with the ability of 7 engineer regiments, the construction of the airport is definitely no problem, and even the highway construction will not lag much.

At the end of last year, the Fifth Column had advanced to Ando area, about 470 kilometers from Lhasa to the south, while Kangma was still more than 310 kilometers south of Lhasa. That is to say, the Fifth Column will advance nearly 800 kilometers south this year. In nearly a year, it has been marching 800 kilometers under the harassment of only a small number of rammed chieftains in Tibet, which is not difficult for the Fifth Column, which has adapted to the plateau environment. Moreover, although Tibet is high in altitude, its latitude is low, and it is much warmer in winter than Xinjiang and Qinghai. Even the average temperature in Lhasa in winter is above zero for many years. In addition to heavy snow blocking the road, Tibet's winter has not had much impact on the march.

After explaining the tasks that several columns of the People's Army must undertake, Zhao Zhenzhong then announced: "Based on the number of victims received and the population distribution in the controlled area, the headquarters decided to establish three construction corpses in Xinjiang, Mengxi and Qinghai-Tibet. Each corps is first composed of 400,000 young men and women, and the population will gradually increase in the future. These three construction corps belong to the Xijin Group, Beijin Group and Nanjin Group, and are engaged in industrial and agricultural construction in Xinjiang, Mengxi, Qinghai and Tibet, and conducts military training in the leisure season to consolidate border defense.

According to the training of the recruits, three new columns will be formed by the end of the year in accordance with the combination of new and old methods. In order to perform the southward combat mission, the 10th Column will be transferred to Tibet and form the Nanjin Group with the Fifth Column. Chen Zhiyuan will be transferred from the Fourth Column to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Nanjin Group, and Yu Zhenshan will be the deputy commander-in-chief. Hu Zhicheng of the Fourth Column and Cui Yi will serve as the chief and deputy column captain of the column respectively. The leaders of several new columns will be appointed at that time.

In addition, after the Special Column cooperated with the First Column to solve the two horses in the autumn, it mobilized its troops to cooperate with the Air Force to conduct airborne combat training.

The contents announced by Zhao Zhenzhong are all excited by the congregation. The composition of the three construction corps can effectively enhance the background of border defense forces in Xinjiang, Mengxi, Qinghai and Tibet, and alleviate the pressure faced by the two major groups in the West and North.

In this era, Xinjiang had a total population of only about 2.5 million, while the total population of the large area of ​​Mengxi was less than 160,000, while the total population of Qinghai and Tibet was only about 2.4 million. The population of 400,000 was transferred and resettled in these three directions, both in terms of proportion and specific number. Moreover, with the arrival of disaster victims in surrounding provinces, the number of transferred and resettled populations will further increase.

In fact, if most of the victims who went to the northwest were illiterate and a little older, Zhao Zhenzhong would like to expand the strength of the People's Army. After all, semi-militarized groups and members would have to pay a lot of discounts in future wars. However, in this case, he had to adopt the construction corps method, while organizing a large number of young and strong people to engage in related construction, while conducting military and cultural training to consolidate the foundation of the frontier. With these three construction corpses gradually changing the population composition of the border area, the remnants of the extremist religious forces can also be effectively curbed.

The news of the Construction Corps made everyone feel refreshed and relaxed, while the formation of three new columns and Nanjin Group to be formed before the end of the year was even more exciting to the attendees. At that time, the People's Army had a total of 12 main columns, plus the Special Column, Education Column, Artillery Column, Air Defense Force, Air Force and Headquarters. The People's Army's strength will reach more than 500,000.

With a well-trained, disciplined, strong style and well-equipped army, other domestic forces are no match for the People's Army at all. However, everyone also knows that most of the People's Army's future combat tasks will be targeted at the great powers such as the Soviet Union, Japan, and Britain who have invaded China in the past or are now invading China. In this regard, the 500,000 troops are still not enough, and the People's Army still has a long way to go.

In addition to these news, everyone is also interested in the special column's airborne combat training. The special column was originally selected from the outstanding personnel in the training of various columns and recruits. The sharp knife that exists to undertake special tasks is now to undertake new combat tasks, and there must be extraordinary points in this. Among the people, Gu Haichuan, Yang Tianming and others, who had been exposed to the theory of airborne combat at Northwest Military and Political University, understood in their hearts that the special column had wings since then, and the People's Army also added a new combat method.

"Now we are all in the southeast, northwest and northwest. Four groups and four strategic directions, sir, do we think we are going all over the southeast, northwest and northwest?" Yang Tianming asked with a smile during everyone's discussion.

"As for our current strength, it's still early to fight all over the southeast, southwest and northwest," Zhao Zhenzhong warned in a stressful tone, "We are just taking advantage of the opportunity of the great powers from all sides to restore the domestic economy, and the opportunity of restraining the powers between the great powers has taken advantage of the situation to achieve some achievements. We can't keep our tails on our current strength. If we fight in a comprehensive manner, any great power can crush us."

Seeing that everyone was a little unbelievable, Zhao Zhenzhong took the opportunity to whine: "Take Japan as an example, the total Japanese army currently has less than 380,000 troops. But if a war occurs, Japan can easily mobilize 2,3 million troops or even 5 million troops with the foundation accumulated by its military training system. In the northwest, in addition to the existing People's Army, there are at most about 300,000 militia reserves. To add one, it will only be 7,800,000 people. The huge gap is too big.

After the conflict with Japan at the end of March, the Soviet Union canceled the attacks that were originally planned to launch on our headquarters. You may wonder why the Soviet Union's 1.3 million army was concerned about Japan's 380,000 troops, but in fact, the Soviet Union was concerned about the real war strength that Japan had accumulated since the Sino-Japanese War. This strength not only refers to the Japanese army's current less than 380,000 troops, but also the comprehensive strength including Japan's politics, economy, military and other aspects, including Japan's politics, economy, military and other aspects.

Our northwest has sufficient development potential, fast speed, and good prospects. But for now, there is still a considerable gap between us and Japan, whether in terms of the total population or the scale of industrial and agricultural production. In terms of war mobilization capabilities, we are more than one order of magnitude worse than Japan.

We have some advanced equipment that is ahead of the world, and we can also achieve a tremendous effect in some battles, but the quality advantage cannot cover up our current quantity deficiency. There are many ants that bite the elephant to death. If we now have a comprehensive confrontation with the Soviet, Japanese, and British powers, the opponent can offset our quality advantage by relying solely on the quantity advantage. In short, you can be proud, but don’t be obsessed with it.”

Zhao Zhenzhong's earnest words made Yang Tianming and others think deeply while ashamed. From the Rangers to the present, under the leadership of Zhao Zhenzhong, everyone has achieved amazing victories and has created two major bases in Yimeng and the northwest in about 10 years. The northwest base has developed into a giant that spans 8 provinces and regions in just about five years, shocking the world.

But when everyone was proud of their achievements, they did not realize the short ribs of Yimeng and the Northwest. Indeed, with the current power of Yimeng and Northwest, they are indeed invincible in China, but compared with the Soviet, Japanese, British, and American powers, the foundation of the leadership of the People's Party is still too shallow and cannot be compared with the strong foundation of the great powers.

After Shengming came to his senses, Yang Tianming felt ashamed and hurriedly promised: "What sir is correcting me is that I am a little proud. I will definitely be cautious in the future and think twice about everything."

"I think it's not just dawn, but most of us here are complacent, at least so do I." Zhang Mingrui also said frankly, "Especially, more than 6,000 elite Soviet troops were wiped out in the Battle of Xinjiang. The troops were full of enthusiasm and became impetuous. Some soldiers even thought that we could really ignore the Soviet Union in the future. After we went back, we must rectify it."

Zhang Mingrui's words resonated with several column captains, and Sun Yaoming also scratched his head and said, "I admit that I have forgotten it. I will definitely change my past in the future."

Zou Degui said emotionally: "You see, I have lost a lot of weight now, but I have encountered difficulties in scheduling materials and other issues. We can ask you for advice. We can always find you, but who can you find? The important tasks of the two base areas and overseas careers are almost all the most difficult problems on your shoulders. Here, I suggest that we all think about everything in the future to share the worries of our husband."

If it were in the officialdom of later generations, Zou Degui's words would definitely be interpreted as having ulterior motives and wanting to undermine superiors, but now Zhao Zhenzhong heard them, but he was only relieved.

"It's not as exaggerated as Degui said." Zhao Zhenzhong smiled, "If you didn't have you each side, I wouldn't have made many nails on my body, and I might have been exhausted. Now I'm going to let you drop the meat for me, and everything is fine here. However, Manager Zou has to make up for it these days."

Amid the laughter of everyone, Zhao Zhenzhong said again: "Say hello to everyone in advance. Around September this year, our party will hold its second congress, and the relevant situation will be sent to everyone later. I only emphasize one thing, that is, the party representatives selected by the army must be the best in all aspects, not only must be strong in military affairs, but also must be both morally and capable, and be able to set a good example for other party representatives. You all must arrest them personally and not make any mistakes."

From the early days of the founding of the Party in 1931, there were a total of 3,899 activists at home and abroad, to more than 357,000 party members at home and abroad, the People's Party has made great progress in the past five years. Unlike other political parties, members of the People's Party must not only have high ideological awareness, agree with and be able to implement the Party's policies and policies, but also formal party members cannot be illiterate. In this regard, the quality of the People's Party was the highest in the country at that time.

In the past five years, not only has the construction of the People's Party made great progress, but under the leadership of the Party, the two bases of Yimeng and the northwest and overseas causes have also achieved fruitful results. At present, the domestic and international situation has undergone tremendous changes. Before the Sino-Japanese War is about to break out, the People's Party is indeed necessary to elect a new leadership body in order to lead the whole Party, the entire army and people from all walks of life in the next five years to deal with the more complex and changeable domestic and foreign situations, lead the base areas to accelerate development and construction, and lead the party, government, military and civilians to win the final victory.

After this military meeting, the First Column, under the leadership of Sun Guantao, Guo Cheng, Liu Haidong, Huang Tiancheng and others, and Hong Fei, who was in charge of the Air Force, jointly formulated an attack plan against Ma Hongkui and Ma Buqing.

The first column, the special column has a total force of 43,000. In addition to the remaining personnel, the number of troops participating in the battle is also 40,000. With the absolute advantage of military strength and the assistance of the air force bombers, it is no problem to annihilate the two horses' troops.

However, Zhao Zhenzhong's request for this battle was to use his captured relatives to shake the determination of the two senior commanders to resist, use his powerful force and attack power to deter the grassroots officers and soldiers of the two departments, dispel their fighting will, and force the landing of the two horses as much as possible.

It is not an exaggeration to completely eliminate the two horses. However, the two horses' personnel have a certain impact among the people in the northwest. If they are completely annihilated, it is better to force the landing, which can increase the population in the northwest while promoting local stability. Of course, this is also related to Zhao Zhenzhong's consideration that two horses may still be used in some places in the future. But if the two horses are stubborn and do not become strong and will be strong to the end, the People's Army will not tolerate it.

The People's Army was preparing to attack the two horses, and at this time, Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang, who were stationed in Jierzhao, northern Ningxia, were in the Heliangtai area, had a hard life. It is not an exaggeration to say that life was like the New Year.

Ma Hongkui's family was originally detained except for his father, Ma Fuxiang and his second son, Ma Dunjing, when the People's Army occupied Ningxia in 31 years, and after Xinjiang fell into the control of the People's Army this spring, Ma Dunjing was also captured. In other words, except for two family members of Ningma, one old and one young, all the rest of Ningma is controlled by the People's Army.

Ma Bufang originally sympathized with Ma Hongkui and was secretly glad that he was very lucky. Fortunately, he saw the opportunity early and transferred his old and young people to Xinjiang to settle. But his complacent as the war in Xinjiang ended, the Qingma was completely wiped out.

Now, the two horses are not energetic every day except sighing and drinking. In addition to facing the pressure of the People's Army, the two must be wary of Yan Xishan's Jinsui Army's attack. Sun Dianying's military strength is equal to the two horses, but Yan Xishan made an excuse to easily disarm the Sun army after digging the tiger away from the mountain. The lessons of the past have to be taken precautions.

Just when the two horses were struggling to survive, in mid-August, Ma Quanliang and Ma Lu came to Heliangtai together.

"Junru, how could you get here? Where is A Jing?" As soon as he saw Ma Quanliang, Ma Hongkui jumped up, stepped forward and grabbed Ma Quanliang's collar and asked.

Ma Bufang, who had sighed and comforted each other, jumped to Ma Lu and asked anxiously: "Where are Shaoxiang and Madam? Where are my elder brother and my uncle?"

Shaoxiang is Ma Jiyuan, the eldest son of Ma Bufang. He is only 15 years old this year and has always been favored by Ma Bufang. He originally went to Xinjiang with Ma Bufang's family, Ma Lin, Ma Buqing, Ma Lu and others.

"Commander-in-chief, please let go, I'll say it slowly." Ma Quanliang said to Ma Hongkui with red face.

Ma Hongkui didn't care about his own failure and urged Ma Quanliang to speak quickly.

When Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang heard that their family was safe and their lives were taken care of by the People's Army, they were considerate, but their situation was not as good as before, and they felt inexplicably sad and happy. Especially when Ma Hongkui heard that he had lost the peace of his family in Ningxia a few years ago, he was even more excited.

"Tell me, what do you have to explain if the People's Army asked you two to come back?" After calming down, Ma Hongkui asked. Ma Quanliang and Ma Lu were captured and released back. Ma Hongkui didn't believe that the other party just asked the two to come to report their safety, and there must be other purposes.

Ma Quanliang and Ma Lu looked at each other, and then Ma Quanliang looked at Ma Hongkui's face and said carefully: "Well, the People's Army asked us to come back because we wanted the commander-in-chief to put down his weapons and reunite with his family."

Ma Hongkui knew that there was nothing good. After he let out a long sigh, he closed his eyes and asked, "Do you want our two men to put down their weapons and let the People's Army slaughter?"

"They said to ensure the personal safety of the commander-in-chief." Ma Quanliang added, gritting his teeth.

"Only guarantee personal safety? There is nothing else?" Ma Hongkui asked with his eyes raised.

"They didn't say anything else." Ma Quanliang's voice became weaker as he spoke.

Ma Hongkui didn't say anything for a long time. Two horses still had a total of 20,000 troops. The People's Army should have a good price. But the People's Army only guaranteed the personal safety of the enemy leader. In addition, there was no preferential treatment for Ma Hongkui and had never heard of the People's Army's persuasion to surrender like this.

"It seems that the People's Army will definitely win us." After a while, Ma Hongkui sighed quietly.

The People's Army did settle for the two horses. Shortly after Ma Quanliang and Ma Lu arrived at Heliangtai, in the early morning of August 29, the First Column and the Special Column dispatched together to completely surround the two horses' camp.

As soon as the sky was dawn, the People's Army Air Force took turns to circle over the heads of the Liangma Station and scattered a large number of leaflets to persuade the surrender. Even the artillery and airplanes followed by the People's Army also carried out warning shelling and bombing near the Liangma camp, indicating that the Two Horses Army had no chance of escape.

After discovering the situation of his troops, Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang promptly reported the situation to Nanjing and asked for help.

Chiang Kai-shek also wanted to rescue the situation of the two horses, but the Guangdong-Guangxi Incident in the south has not yet subsided, and the Nanjing authorities could not make any moves. Although there is a Central Army in Shanxi, there is a People's Army and the Yellow River between the northern part of Ningxia, and it is impossible to rush through it in a short time.

Fu Zuoyi's troops in Suiyuan were concentrated in Guisui area, and it took time to mobilize. Although Wang Jingguo was close, just west of Baotou, he saw the warning bombs of the People's Army Air Force with a telescope, and completely gave up the idea of ​​rescue. The People's Army is not as simple as changing cannons at the moment. Even the planes were thrown bombs, and Wang Jingguo didn't want to provoke them. Besides, Yan Xishan had secretly ordered not to conflict with the People's Army, so Wang Jingguo would naturally not go to the trap.

Although Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang also thought that the People's Army had been fierce in the past, they did not expect that the People's Army would have such a power with wings. Looking at the leaflets landed in front of the command department and the explosion smoke rising from time to time due to the People's Army's warning bombardment around, the two horses felt dim and bitter in their hearts.

"Tell me brothers, put down my weapons." After Ma Hongkui said weakly, he looked up at the sky, his eyes were dull. He even had a hope that he would rather throw a bomb from the People's Army and bear it down.

As Ma Hongkui's order was conveyed, the two horse troops, which were originally unwilling to fight, threw down their weapons and walked out of the defense zone according to the leaflet. The two horse troops were completely freed...

More to, address
Chapter completed!