Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 252

Once you've read about the Wannsee Conference, you'll understand the essence of total war. The theory of people's war is actually no different from the organizational method of total war. The only difference is that the theory of people's war requires everyone to know the significance of their work, while the goal of total war is to prevent ordinary people from associating war with the country, and simply to let them know that their work is for the country.

Once the people's war model is initiated, it means that economic construction will be interrupted, and the entire society will have to serve the war effort. This is why Central Committee members such as Tian Junyi were unwilling to use this war model from the outset. Although Yuan Shikai's Beiyang clique had secretly expanded its army, the Wuhan Workers' Party was not intimidated.

The reason why the Workers' Party was not afraid was that at least three of the six divisions in Wuhan had been converted to mule and horse service, and their mobility and combat continuity were three times that of a single Beiyang division. In addition, the Wuhan Military Commission had completed the technical arrangements for radio communication for each division, which meant that the Wuhan Military Commission could send instructions directly to each division by radio without having to use wired telegraph.

Although Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army established radio training courses as early as 1905, these were mainly used for communication between land and sea warships. Because the Beiyang lacked its own radio technology reserves, it had to import equipment from abroad. Early radio equipment was too bulky and could only be installed on warships. However, after Wuhan's cooperation with Siemens, there was a rapid development in telecommunications. By 1912, they were already experimenting with mobile radio communication equipment for field use, and by 1914, civilian urban broadcasting systems had been commercialized.

Therefore, once the Beiyang Army left its garrison, Beijing had to wait for the Beiyang Army to stop and notify it by wired telegram in order to receive the news. During the movement of the army, it was difficult for Beijing to keep track of the army's movements. This was also the fundamental reason why the commander of the Beiyang First Division had a higher status than the officials of the Ministry of National Defense, because the commander's power over the troops was almost unlimited, and almost no one could interfere with his command.

In response to this situation, European countries strengthened the command authority of staff officers directly under the military headquarters, thereby maintaining control over the army. With the further development of radio technology, the military headquarters' control over the army was further strengthened. After becoming Chairman of the State Council, Yuan Shikai intended to establish a staff system, but this was opposed by the generals of the Beiyang Army. Furthermore, radio technology was too expensive to be widely adopted. This resulted in the Beiyang Army in 1914 being almost unchanged from that in 1907; Yuan Shikai and the various Beiyang military leaders jointly ruled, rather than forming a unified, centralized system.

In contrast, in Wuhan, the Red Army system had completely replaced the former Qing Dynasty's New Army and Revolutionary Army. The Workers' Party, the Military Commission, and the Military and Political University transformed the Red Army into a people's armed force with a unified ideology, and the original officer class had lost the ability to interfere in politics.

The politicization of the New Army in the late Qing Dynasty was essentially the politicization of the officer rank, which stemmed from a chaotic ideology surrounding military construction. When the Qing Dynasty attempted to establish a standing army based on the model of a modern nation-state, and then openly declared that the Qing and China were irreconcilable enemies, the New Army's anti-Qing sentiment became an inevitable trend. Since the court could not reconcile the question of whether the Qing and China were truly one entity, the army naturally chose the target it wished to protect.

In Wuhan, the Workers' Party had clearly stated that the army was protecting the interests of the worker-peasant alliance, thus the officer rank lost its political influence. The Red Army implemented a conscription system. While the professional armies of the late Qing Dynasty, detached from society, could have greater independence, the Red Army, operating under a conscription system, was more likely to accept the military ideology of protecting the interests of its own class.

Therefore, the Military Commission now has little respect for the Beiyang Army's combat capabilities. Six or seven years ago, the Beiyang Army could still outperform the Wuhan New Army in terms of training and equipment, but it had already fallen behind in terms of organization. Now, the Beiyang Army is no longer worthy of the Military Commission's attention in terms of training and equipment. After all, the Beiyang Army's upper echelons are still pursuing expansion tactics and blindly believing in advanced weapons, while the Military Commission has already begun to study system warfare.

The Military Commission could at most praise the Beiyang Army's personnel, but in other respects, they could only shake their heads. They viewed the Beiyang Army as the British viewed the Qing army: a group of militia capable of using advanced weapons, but lacking any real combat ability; they were only qualified as auxiliary troops.

The Military Commission assessed the Beiyang Army in this way because they had reached the organizational level of an industrialized nation's army. The vast difference between the armies of industrialized and agricultural nations lay not in weaponry, but in organization and operational philosophy. The Qing army's operational philosophy was to plunder after a victory; the Beiyang Army was slightly more advanced, aiming to seize territory and collect taxes after a victory. Therefore, while these old-style armies could produce some notorious bandits, expecting the entire army to execute operational plans was difficult. Their motivation for fighting lay in timely post-battle feedback; without this feedback, they could not continue.

Therefore, traditional armies could exert 80-90% of their fighting strength when winning, but would collapse completely when losing. The Beiyang Army's performance in the war against Russia was a prime example. They were unlikely to gain any significant spoils in their battles against the Russians; they were unable to launch attacks or hold their ground. Only in the battles centered around the Wuhan army were the Beiyang Army able to hold their positions.

The Wuhan army was able to outlast the Beiyang Army for two main reasons: firstly, its clear military ideology, and secondly, the comprehensive support provided by the Workers' Party, which ensured that wounded or dead soldiers received proper care and resettlement. Therefore, the Wuhan army had a clear objective in combat: achieve victory, and then return home to live a peaceful life.

The disparity in strength between the two armies was extremely obvious in the eyes of the Military Commission, so it was naturally not afraid of Beiyang expanding its army. Even if it did expand its army, Beiyang was still inferior to Wuhan, because Wuhan had a conscription system while Beiyang still had a volunteer system. Wuhan had people's armed forces departments in various state-owned factories and rural communes, which was the basis for mobilizing people's war. In the eyes of the Military Commission, it was rather ridiculous for Beiyang to compare its army expansion with Wuhan.

The obstacle to expanding the military in Wuhan was not organizational issues, the will of the people, or insufficient resources, but rather the determination of the Workers' Party. In terms of population proportions, the Workers' Party effectively controlled 250 million people, while the Beiyang government only controlled 70-80 million. The total population of China was approximately 500 million, meaning the Workers' Party effectively controlled half of China's population, and at least one-third of them were integrated into Wuhan's economic system.

In 1913, China's national income was approximately 340 billion marks. The concept of national income as an economic accounting method was created by Lin Xinyi and German bankers. The purpose of creating this economic accounting method was to issue national bonds and establish a credit money system and a tax system.

In 1913, Japan's national income was 84 billion marks, nearly a quarter of China's, while the United States' national income was 1400 billion marks. China's fiscal revenue was about 13 billion marks, but Wuhan accounted for two-thirds of it. This did not include the profits turned over by Wuhan's state-owned enterprises and state-owned farms, which amounted to 26 billion marks and were used to pay loan interest and reinvest in production.

In terms of fiscal revenue alone, Wuhan's fiscal revenue was actually comparable to that of the Japanese government. However, after the Far East War, Wuhan focused on infrastructure construction and national economic development, so its military expenditure remained at a low level. Japan, on the other hand, not only had an army that was close in size to the Chinese army and more than twice the size of Wuhan's army, but also maintained a large navy. Therefore, it seems that Wuhan's military strength did not improve much after the war.

However, in terms of industrial scale, Wuhan's steel production has exceeded 1.5 million tons per year, while other regions combined only produce 150,000 to 160,000 tons. Almost all modern steel mills are in foreign ownership, with the remainder being small, rudimentary steel workshops. Coal mining output under Wuhan's jurisdiction is 16 million tons, while other regions produce over 12 million tons. Although most of this is within the Beiyang government's territory, half of the modern coal mine output is foreign-owned. As for oil refining plants, only Wuhan has them; the Beiyang government has none.

Just by looking at the speed of industrial development under Wuhan's rule, one can understand why the British and the Japanese army supported the Beiyang Army in starting the war. If they hadn't started the war, the Beiyang Army would have had even less courage to challenge Wuhan in a few years.

What truly surprised the Military Commission was only one thing: how could the Beiyang Army dare to initiate a war? Given the Beiyang Army's industrial capabilities, once its imported munitions ran out, it would have no choice but to surrender. The Beiyang Army's idea of ​​taking Wuhan in a single, brute-force attack was clearly impossible, as the only heavy artillery division in the entire country was located there. The Japanese Navy, Krupp, and the Military Commission collaborated to complete the design of tungsten carbide cannons, and Wuhan was now capable of producing 150-200 mm caliber cannons independently.

As per the Germans' demands, this new artillery piece could not be exported to any other country, including the Japanese Army. The Germans possessed the formula, the Chinese produced the tungsten steel, and the Japanese Navy guaranteed the safety of German capital during wartime. According to Lin Xinyi, unless naval battleships were deployed into the Yangtze River and their 300mm main guns were used to suppress it, the current mainstream heavy artillery of the army would struggle to suppress this alloy cannon; it was strategic artillery, not tactical artillery.

Of course, the Military Commission did not intend to expose this new type of artillery, as it would greatly weaken Germany's war advantage and thus trigger a change in the course of the European war. The Red Army, too, could not tolerate the Beiyang Army approaching Wuhan, since Henan had become the core area of ​​Wuhan's industrial and agricultural economic system, not only a grain-producing region but also a major supplier of coal and iron.

Therefore, Lin Xinyi's proposal for full mobilization received the full support of the Military Commission. In addition, another suggestion Lin Xinyi put forward was that young party members should be trained in the war and that the war should not be treated merely as a military mission. It was also a war of liberation, and young party members should be given the task of propaganda to liberate the people and make them understand the significance of the war.

This suggestion was endorsed by Tian Junyi. Although the Party's organizational scale was constantly expanding, the overly calm construction period was causing the Party to lose its revolutionary and vanguard attributes. Many young people joined the Party not because they agreed with the Party's ideology, but because they regarded joining the Party as a necessary condition for promotion. Socialist theory was becoming a new set of classics. Some people could recite the Communist Manifesto, but in their actual work, they felt that they were Party cadres rather than representatives of the people.

Tian Junyi also believes that this disconnect between theory and practice within the Party is creating a group of party intellectuals who are far ahead of ordinary people in terms of writing, but refuse to put the Party's ideals into practice. They will listen to the Party, but not to the opinions of the masses. Therefore, Tian Junyi believes that Lin Xinyi is right; these young Party members should be allowed to experience the smoke of the War of Liberation. Those young Party members who cannot resonate with the masses will not be able to remain in the Party.

When the Central Committee of the Workers' Party concluded that the time was ripe for a war of liberation, on September 17th, Long Jiguang's Ji Army finally ignored the warnings of the Guangdong New Army and marched across the Guangdong New Army's defenses towards Guangzhou. Although the Guangdong New Army was inclined towards republicanism, its combat strength was indeed inferior to that of the Guangxi Ji Army, which was mostly composed of veterans. After the start of the war, it suffered a series of defeats. The Guangdong Provincial Government, led by Sun Yat-sen, had to file a complaint with Beijing and request assistance from Wuhan, believing that the Guangxi army had provoked a civil war.

End of this chapter

Chapter 790

The Russians were even more eager to instigate a civil war in China than the British and Japanese. Although Russia’s power in the Far East was almost wiped out by the Far East war, Russian diplomats tried to recover Russia’s lost interests in the Far East by lending money to the Beiyang government, based on the principle of unity among the great powers.

While Russian diplomats in China acknowledged that the new state established through the cooperation between the Beiyang government and the Workers' Party was restoring China's status as a major power, they also noted that China's fiscal system was chaotic. The fact that the Beiyang government borrowed £6000 million from a consortium of foreign banks undoubtedly demonstrated that it was incapable of ruling the country independently.

To appease the feelings of the Chinese people, foreign banks should shift from their position of ruling China to that of controlling China's finances, helping the Beiyang government to reform its financial system so that it can defeat the Wuhan Workers' Party. In return, the Beiyang government should relinquish some of its rights to foreign banks as collateral. To ensure the interests of creditors, governments should maintain a consistent approach to the China issue.

Russian diplomats attempted to leverage Britain and France to complete their diplomatic strategy in the Far East, much like Russia had profited immensely from the Second Opium War against the Qing Dynasty. With the active promotion of Russian diplomats in China, the loan agreement between Britain, Japan, and France proceeded very smoothly.

However, the National Assembly raised objections to the loan. Before signing the agreement, Speaker Qin Lishan and Vice Speaker Wang Zhengting visited Chairman Yuan Shikai, but Yuan Shikai refused to meet with them, saying that the country needed the loan and it could not be delayed. The two then warned the banking consortium that the loan was illegal and that the National Assembly would not accept it.

At this time, another anti-Cen Shen movement broke out in Guangdong. Yuan Shikai then ordered Zhang Mingqi to succeed him as governor of Guangdong, transferred Sun Yat-sen to be the Pacification Commissioner of Tibet, and appointed Li Chun as the military governor of Jiangsu. After the conflict broke out between the Guangxi and Guangdong armies, Yuan Shikai not only disagreed with the claim that the Guangxi army had provoked the civil war, but also accused the National Assembly of favoring the Chinese Revolutionary Party and announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and the holding of new elections.

While claiming to be dissolving the National Assembly and holding new elections, Yuan Shikai actually intended to use the vacancy in the National Assembly to implement his dictatorship. After dissolving the National Assembly, he ordered Tian Junyi to go to Beijing to serve as the Vice Chairman of the State Council and ordered the Beiyang Army to prepare for a southward advance and an attack on northern Manchuria.

With the support of the British Navy, three battalions of the Northern Army landed in Shanghai on September 25th and began continuously transporting troops to Shanghai. Clearly, the Beiyang Army was prepared to take all of Jiangsu. Faced with the Beiyang Army's deliberate provocation of war, the Wuhan authorities ordered key northern officials, including Qin Lishan, to evacuate Beijing, while simultaneously beginning to expose the Beiyang Army's role in instigating civil war through public opinion.

On September 28, with the Guangxi Jinan Army having already captured Foshan, the Wuhan authorities finally ordered the Fifth Division of the Red Army stationed in Hunan to enter Guangdong to maintain order and demanded that the Jinan Army cease fighting, severely criticizing its looting of civilians.

Long Jiguang immediately telegraphed Beijing, demanding that Chairman Yuan stop the action in Wuhan, otherwise he would have to withdraw to Guangxi. Long Jiguang was pragmatic; he had no psychological burden in fighting the Guangdong New Army because he knew that the Guangdong New Army had little combat experience and was inferior in both equipment and manpower. With the support of Britain and France, he naturally had no worries about being unable to defeat the Guangdong New Army.

However, he also knew the gap between the Ji Army and the Wuhan Red Army. The Hubei New Army was the main force in suppressing anti-Qing forces in Guangxi. It was because the Hubei New Army, which was loyal to the court, was transferred to Guangxi that the court could not find the military force to suppress the Hubei New Army when it rebelled. Some of the Hubei New Army in Guangxi returned to Hubei on their own, while others stayed in Guangxi and became an important asset of the Ji Army.

Although the Hubei New Army soldiers who remained did not identify with the Labor Party, Long Jiguang knew that they would not be willing to fight the Hubei Red Army to the death. On the one hand, the Qing Dynasty had already collapsed, and these Hubei soldiers were only fighting for money in the Jinan Army, so it was unlikely that they would fight their fellow villagers to the death. On the other hand, they did not think they could defeat the Red Army. After all, many of the Jinan Army soldiers were addicted to opium, while the Red Army had banned opium. In terms of discipline alone, the Red Army was better than the Guangxi Army.

The biggest difference between the new and old armies lies in discipline. While the Guangdong New Army was indeed less capable in battle than the Guangxi Ji Army, the Guangdong New Army did not collapse after a defeat. This alone was something the old army could not match. The old army would flee after a single defeat, leaving them to wait for their commander to recruit and reorganize the troops. Long Jiguang was well aware that although his Ji Army appeared capable, a single defeat would leave him a commander without troops. He could not expect those defeated soldiers to remain in formation.

Yuan Shikai certainly couldn't allow Long Jiguang to retreat to Guangxi; otherwise, wouldn't that mean Wuhan would gain another province for nothing? The British also disagreed with Wuhan taking over Guangdong, which would be dangerous for Hong Kong. After all, the Chinese Revolutionary Party, or even Cen Chunxuan before them, could only maintain their rule in Guangdong with British support; their idea of ​​threatening Hong Kong was just wishful thinking. But Wuhan was different. Wuhan wouldn't be subject to foreign trade restrictions. The British blockade of Guangdong's seaports wouldn't force Wuhan to submit; it would only cause British businesses to completely lose the Chinese market.

Therefore, while Yuan Shikai ordered the Hunan garrison to strictly prohibit its entry into Guangdong via telegram, he simultaneously appointed military governors for Anhui and Jiangxi. Areas under Wuhan's control were not given military governors, but instead provincial military commissioners were appointed. Yuan Shikai's appointment of Beiyang generals as military governors in these two regions was clearly an act of declaring war.

On October 1, Yuan Shikai announced that Wang Zhanyuan would serve as the military governor of Northeast China, ordering the troops in northern Manchuria to obey government orders. Wuhan immediately sent a telegram to the whole country, arguing that Yuan Shikai's series of personnel appointments after unilaterally dissolving the National Assembly were illegal, and demanding a new election for the National Assembly and a new government.

On October 3, Li Chun's troops forcibly marched into Xuzhou. After repelling Li Chun's attack, the First Regiment of the Red Army stationed in Xuzhou chose to withdraw from Xuzhou on its own initiative. Wuhan once again sent a telegram urging Beijing to stop military operations and not to provoke a civil war.

On October 5, Yuan Shikai declared the Workers' Party an illegal organization, citing its unauthorized attack on Guangdong and disobedience to central orders. He banned the Workers' Party from participating in parliamentary elections and announced that government troops would enter Wuhan to take over local administration. He warned the people and soldiers in the south not to be deceived by the Workers' Party and to resist the government. Thus, the civil war broke out.

After Yuan Shikai made up his mind to launch a civil war, he was determined to strike at the heart of the enemy. He believed that as long as Wuhan, the ruling core of the Workers' Party, was destroyed, the Workers' Party in various places would lose the will to resist. Therefore, he, Duan, and Feng formulated a war plan that focused on the south and neglected the north.

In the north, Duan Qirui's troops in the Beijing area and Zhang Huaizhi's troops stationed in Chahar were used to contain the Second Division of the Red Army stationed in Shanxi and Inner and Outer Mongolia. Outside the Great Wall, Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division and Chen Guangyuan's Rehe Patrol Battalion attacked northern Manchuria. They also reached a secret agreement with the Japanese Army, requesting that the Japanese army attack Harbin from Vladivostok. After the war, the Beiyang Army would abandon the Primorsky Krai and support for the North Korean Autonomous Region.

The southern advance was divided into four routes: Jin Yunpeng's Fifth Division captured Shandong; Shi Congbin's First Mixed Brigade landed in Shanghai and attacked Nanjing; Duan Zhigui's First Army attacked Anhui and Jiangsu, and then went up the Yangtze River to capture Jiujiang, Daye and other places; Feng Guozhang's Second Army entered Xuzhou to protect the rear of the First Army and support the Shandong and Henan battlefields as needed; Cao Kun's Third Army, which marched from Baoding along the Beijing-Hankou Railway to Wuhan, was the main force advancing south, and was composed of the old Beiyang Third and Fourth Divisions as its core.

The Third Army had a total strength of nearly 100,000 men, and the Second and First Armies combined also numbered 100,000. Therefore, the Beiyang Army deployed almost all of its mobile forces in an attempt to eliminate the Workers' Party in Wuhan in one fell swoop. At this time, the total strength of the troops around Wuhan was less than 70,000, and some troops had been mobilized south to Guangdong. In other words, the Beiyang Army's southward troops were three times the size of the troops defending Wuhan.

However, Wuhan was far superior to Beiyang in intelligence gathering. Once the Beiyang group had formulated its civil war plan, Wuhan had already fully grasped Beiyang's battle plan through various channels. These channels included those from the upper echelons of Beiyang, those from the middle and lower ranks, and statistical results based on Beiyang's logistical mobilization data.

Therefore, before October, the Military Commission of the Wuhan Workers' Party had already concluded that war was inevitable and formulated a response plan, drawing all its mobile forces to form the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Front Armies. According to Cai E's operational plan, the Central Plains Front Army would deal with the Beiyang Third Army, the East China Front Army would deal with the Beiyang First and Second Armies, the Northern Front Army would maintain order in Shanxi, Inner and Outer Mongolia, and northern Manchuria, and the Southern Front Army would resolve the issues in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Having gained experience in the war against Russia, Cai E made great progress in commanding large-scale operations. He emphasized at the Military Commission: "The Beiyang Army's attempt to open a breach to Wuhan with the Third Army is actually no different from the operational thinking of the late Qing Dynasty. The Qing government also tried to use heavy troops to eliminate the resistance forces in Wuhan and thus extinguish the flames of revolution, but they failed."

What we need to do this time is to replicate the operation against the Qing army and destroy the momentum of the Beiyang Third Army's southward advance. Then the Beiyang's southward operation plan will collapse, because their southward operation is carried out around the advance of the Third Army. Once the Third Army is defeated, the Beiyang Army will become headless flies.

How to defeat the Third Army? I think we should encircle and annihilate an entire Beiyang division in one fell swoop. This is the fastest way to deal with the Beiyang Third Army.

Cai E's proposed battle plan did not raise any objections from the other committee members. Although the Beiyang Army was constantly expanding, its combat strength was only worth mentioning for the original six divisions. This was because Yuan Shikai had put a lot of effort into training these six divisions when they were formed. Not only were their military discipline far superior to the old army, but their selection of soldiers and officers was also quite vibrant. Therefore, as long as the six divisions of Beiyang had a core, they were not incapable of fighting against Russia.

However, Yuan Shikai's system of personal loyalty led to a rapid relaxation of discipline in the Beiyang Army. In addition, a large number of former Huai Army troops were reorganized, and the core of the Beiyang Army was transferred to form a new army. As a result, the combat power of the new army was far inferior to that of the six Beiyang divisions. Even the original core of the six Beiyang divisions became corrupt and disorganized due to the transfer of too many junior officers.

Although there were fewer than 70,000 troops around Wuhan, these 70,000 were mobile forces capable of field operations, not garrison divisions of varying skill levels. Unlike the Beiyang Army and other regions, Wuhan also had an armed police force to maintain local security, and the army basically did not participate in local security work.

The difference lies in the fact that the Beiyang Army could not deploy its entire force; it needed to leave some troops behind to maintain local order because this was related to the extra income of each division. Therefore, the Beiyang Army could not be fully committed when it went out to war. But in Wuhan, the garrison was truly stationed in the local area. They had almost no contact with the local authorities. Once the order was given, the entire division could be deployed, and only some personnel needed to be left behind to protect the camp.

The Military Commission was very familiar with the Beiyang Army's combat system. In the early stages of the war, only one vanguard was combat-ready, and its follow-up troops could not enter combat status until at least the middle of the war. This was because the vanguard consisted of elite troops drawn from the front, while the follow-up troops were reserves, and it was difficult for them to enter combat status without one or two battles.

Cai E said he wanted to wipe out a division of the Beiyang Army, but in reality, they only wanted to deal with the vanguard mixed brigade drawn from that division. If they could eliminate this capable mixed brigade, the entire division would collapse. Of course, no one thought this was a problem. As long as they could concentrate the strength of a division, destroying a Beiyang mixed brigade was certainly not a big issue. The real challenge in encircling and suppressing a division was cutting off the Beiyang Army's retreat, preventing them from escaping back.

After discussion, the Military Commission believed that the Beiyang Third Army should be allowed to cross the Yellow River, and an opportunity should be sought between Zheng County and Xinzheng to annihilate the Beiyang vanguard. Then, Xuzhou should be recaptured to cut off the Beiyang First Army's retreat. Once the Beiyang Army's main force was wiped out, they could advance on Beijing.

Lin Xinyi hardly participated in the military committee's operational discussions. He focused his main efforts on establishing a war propaganda department and boldly appointed a large number of young people as local propaganda committee members, thus changing the somewhat bureaucratic style of the party's propaganda department.

These young people were mostly Communist Youth League members from Hubei and Hunan provinces, including Yun Daiying, Li Runzhi, Deng Zhongxia, and Xiang Jingyu. Some party members even protested against him, believing that Lin Xinyi was too biased towards Communist Youth League members from Hubei and Hunan and had not made a comprehensive consideration of the national political propaganda work.

Lin Hsin-yi accepted the protests from these party members, but still insisted on his decision. He said at the Politburo meeting, "Overemphasizing the origins of people from Hunan and Hubei when selecting young party members has indeed had some negative political effects. However, the current situation is that Hunan and Hubei were the first regions to complete the land revolution, and the founders of the party were mainly from Hunan and Hubei."

If the revolution fails, progressive forces in the Hubei and Hunan regions will inevitably face severe persecution from reactionary forces, while party members in other regions will receive lenient treatment. In the decisive battle between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces, we can only choose the most reliable successor, not adhere to the principle of impartiality.

The primary task of a proletarian regime is to maintain its own survival, and only secondarily to promote socialist revolution. The principle of fairness is a goal after the success of the revolution, not the current goal.

We can certainly select young party members from other regions to lead the work now, but how do we ensure that they are aligned with the party's line and not swayed by localism? Let's not forget that the land revolution is not yet complete in many places, and many party members are not aligned with the party's line on the position of the land revolution. Only in the areas where land reform has been completed have these party members undergone a test.

Party members in areas where land reform has not been completed need to prove their stance before they can demand the same rights as those who have undergone the test. I firmly oppose treating joining the Party like an imperial examination, where simply joining the Party instantly transforms one into a revolutionary. This is clearly not materialism, but idealism. The transformation of a person's thinking requires a process, and this process is inseparable from the material foundation.

Comrade Lenin said that revolution requires the establishment of a united front to unite with neutral parties to overthrow reactionary forces. I think Comrade Lenin is right, but it should be noted that the focus of the united front is on the front itself, not on unity. It is wrong to abandon the front for the sake of unity. If there is no front, what have we unified? Are we uniting the counter-revolutionaries? Then it is not us uniting others, but the reactionaries uniting us.

The same applies to ideological issues within the Party. Those who cannot join the Party are rigorously examined, but once they join, they are left to their own devices. As a result, some Party members have lower political awareness than the general public. The general public knows how to defend their country, while some Party members have begun to advocate that without the Party, there would be no country or people. How is this any different from the Qing Dynasty's veneration of Manchuria?

Attempting to place the Party above the state, and to place the state above the people, is not the socialism the proletariat desires; this is the new era's Eight Banners, even worse than capitalism…

Lin Hsin-yi ultimately suppressed dissent within the party and promoted a group of young party members and youth league members from the Hubei and Hunan regions to leadership positions in grassroots party organizations. Soon, the abilities demonstrated by these young people in propaganda work silenced the dissent.

The people of Guangdong had long harbored doubts about the Labor Party's land reform, fearing it was just another means of plundering their wealth, as they had witnessed such exploitative practices extensively under the Qing Dynasty. However, after Long Jiguang's Guangxi Army entered Guangdong, public opposition to the Labor Party's entry finally disappeared. The propaganda teams that accompanied the army quickly explained the land reform policy to the people, gaining their approval, with Li Runzhi performing particularly well.

End of this chapter

Chapter 791

On October 14, Li Chun's troops captured Bengbu. The next day, Ni Sichong couldn't wait to take over Bengbu by train with his guards. According to the pre-war agreement, Anhui was the territory of the Anwu Army under his leadership.

The Anwu Army was formed based on the left wing of the Right Wing of the Wuwei Army and Zhang Xun's troops, and also incorporated the armed forces of landlord militias who had been driven out of Anhui by the Red Army. Zhang Xun was considered a die-hard counter-revolutionary in Wuhan, and the Beiyang government could only spare his life and let him retire to his hometown, while his troops were handed over to Ni Sichong to lead.

Ni Sichong's Anwu Army was originally stationed in Anhui, but under military and political pressure in Wuhan, it was unable to control the entire province. In 1910, when the Huai River flooded, Ni Sichong's troops were squeezed out of Anhui by the disaster relief forces in Wuhan and retreated all the way to the north of Xuzhou.

The reason he retreated so far was that Ni Sichong knew he was no match for the Wuhan Army. He could always win against the revolutionary army or bandits organized by the Kuomintang, but against a regular army like the Wuhan Army, he could only put up a fight for a little longer. Without the support of the entire Beiyang clique, it was impossible to defeat the Wuhan Army.

At the time, the Beiyang Army had no intention of launching a full-scale war against Wuhan, as the war against Russia had just ended and the Wuhan army was still larger than the Beiyang Army. The Beiyang Army was only thinking about reducing the size of the Wuhan army, not about starting a war. Therefore, Ni Sichong had no choice but to cede Anhui and retreat to Shandong. If he did not retreat, he would be isolated in several cities in eastern Anhui by Wuhan. Before the construction of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway, the Anwu Army was essentially besieged by the Wuhan Army.

Ni Sichong was the most enthusiastic in this war with Wuhan because he wanted to take back Anhui's territory. Without territory, it would be impossible to support a private army. How many regiments could he support with central government funding? Before the Jinpu Railway was built, the rich areas of Anhui were along the Yangtze River in the west and the Luzhou area in the central region. Fengyang in the west was a notoriously poor area.

Although Bengbu was on the railway line, it was still a riverbank at the time. While the railway greatly enhanced Bengbu's commercial and military value, to gain access to Anhui's tax revenue, it was necessary to first reclaim Hefei and Anqing. Li Chun had no interest in Anhui, as the wealthier Jiangsu lay ahead, so he readily handed Bengbu over to Ni Sichong.

Regarding the capture of Bengbu, Li Chun embellished the story for his subordinates, claiming it was a city captured by defeating the Wuhan army. However, in reality, the Wuhan army had voluntarily withdrawn. Cai E believed that the Beiyang Army, moving along the Jinpu Railway, had a mobility advantage, and the Wuhan army, scattered across such a vast area, would suffer heavy losses. It was better to cede the railway line to the Beiyang Army, allowing them to move south as quickly as possible, thus luring the Third Army across the Yellow River to attack Wuhan.

The capture of Bengbu did indeed give the Beiyang Army a great deal of confidence. Cao Kun, who had been hesitant on the north bank of the Yellow River, finally ordered Lu Yongxiang to lead the Third Mixed Brigade across the Yellow River to capture Zheng County.

Lu Yongxiang's unit comprised two infantry regiments, one battalion each of machine gun and artillery units, and two cavalry companies. Their rifles were standardized to the Japanese Type 31 rifle, making them the elite force of the 3rd Division. The unit carried four Maxim machine guns, 500,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, 12 mountain guns, and 20,000 artillery shells. If the Red Army is disregarded, this unit's firepower was close to that of a regular Japanese division, given the large number of Japanese advisors within the Beiyang Army who designed its forces based on Japanese army standards.

Lu Yongxiang's troops crossed the river on October 16th and captured Zheng County in three days. Before the completion of the Beijing-Hankou Railway, Zheng County was not much different from Bengbu; even the most prosperous streets in this small county town had thatched huts. Only after the completion of the Beijing-Hankou and Luoyang-Zhengzhou Railways did Zhengzhou experience significant development, but it was still in its initial stages and could not compare with Luoyang and Wuyang, which received substantial resources from Wuhan and were key industrial cities in Wuhan's development plan.

However, after capturing Zheng County, Regiment Commander Wu Peifu still approached Brigade Commander Lu Yongxiang and said, "I think there's something wrong with how this battle was fought. The Southern Army didn't leave because they couldn't hold the position; they deliberately abandoned Zheng County. I've seen the positions the Southern Army abandoned. They were cleaned up very thoroughly. They didn't leave us any discarded weapons, nor did they see any trace of large-scale destruction of weapons."

I think it would be safer for us to first establish defenses in Zhengzhou, and then consider advancing south after capturing Luoyang. If the southern army in Luoyang launches a counterattack against Zhengzhou, our retreat will be cut off.

Lu Yongxiang thought Wu Peifu's words made a lot of sense. He sent a telegram to Cao Kun, advising him to be cautious about advancing south. He pointed out that the battle fought in Zheng County alone had consumed more than 50,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition and more than 2000 artillery shells. In the telegram, he lamented, "The ammunition my troops carried was originally intended to reach the outskirts of Wuhan, but now one-tenth of it has been used up just after crossing the Yellow River. If we advance according to the original plan, we will probably be completely exhausted before even leaving Henan."

The frontline troops believed that they should proceed with caution. Cao Kun did not want to offend his subordinates, but he knew that the battle plan was arranged by Chief of Staff Duan. If they could not act according to the plan, the entire southward campaign would fail, and he would be held responsible. Therefore, he tentatively sent a telegram to Beijing to report the frontline troops' reaction.

However, his telegram was rejected by Xu Jiayin before it even reached Duan Qirui. In his reply, Xu Jiayin stated, "The Third Army must strictly follow the plan to march south. If military operations are delayed, Cao Kun will be held accountable."

The "Little Xu" refers to Xu Shuzheng, who, as Duan Qirui's strategist, has now risen to the position of Vice Minister of the Army. The southward campaign plan was actually devised by him. Cao Kun was close to Feng Guozhang and other northerners within the Beiyang clique, the so-called Zhili clique. These northern generals actually advocated for a peaceful coexistence with the southern army, with the Huai River and Qinling Mountains as the boundary.

Duan Qirui, representing the southerners, demanded the unification of the country. This was mainly because the southerners in these Beiyang groups were from the banks of the Huai River. Compared to the Kuomintang, they were northerners, but compared to the Zhili clique, they were southerners. Naturally, they were unwilling to let their hometowns become a buffer zone between the north and south.

Not only did Xu refute Cao Kun's telegram, but he also issued orders directly to the various units of the Third Army in the name of the Ministry of War, demanding that they cross the Yellow River. This infuriated Cao Kun, who accused Xu of factionalism. However, Cao Kun was still powerless against Xu, because Yuan Shikai now trusted Duan Qirui, who advocated for war, more. He could only submit another report requesting increased ammunition supplies.

However, this request was rejected by Xiao Xu. This time, it wasn't that Xiao Xu was making things difficult for Cao Kun; it was simply that there was no ammunition available. Although Beiyang had a small-scale arsenal, the Shandong Machinery Manufacturing Bureau in Jinan, it could only supply a portion of the ammunition. For such a large-scale war, Beiyang's ammunition supply could only rely on foreign purchases.

After the Far East War ended, the Beiyang Army was also working on standardizing its weapons and equipment, but the Germans were unwilling to support the Beiyang Army, and the British and French army weapons were not very suitable for the Beiyang Army's usage habits. In the end, the Beiyang Army chose the standard weapons of Japan.

Then a problem arose: Japan's own industrial capacity was not strong, and a large portion of its production capacity was being used to replace the equipment of its own army. Therefore, what it could provide to the Beiyang Army were either obsolete inventory or orders with constantly delayed deliveries. Even if Xiao Xu wanted to replenish ammunition for the Third Army, he had to consider Japan's production capacity; it wasn't something he could decide. Moreover, the shrewdness of Japanese businessmen meant that the more urgently the Beiyang Army pressed for supplies, the higher the prices the Japanese quoted per unit.

Therefore, Xiao Xu believed that military supplies should be replenished according to plan, and the front-line troops should not be allowed to make arbitrary demands. After all, the Beiyang leadership did not believe that the amount of ammunition consumed in the domestic war could be compared with that in the war against Russia, and they could not afford to fight such a war.

Thus, less than a month into the war, conflict had already arisen between the Beiyang frontline troops and the Army Ministry, which controlled the overall situation. The distance from Zheng County to Xinzheng is approximately 70 li (about 35 kilometers).

卢永祥部于10月21日离开郑县南下新郑，但到了10月27日也还没到新郑，平均每日行军不到10里。

The reason for the slow march was that the region was high in the west and low in the east, consisting of hills and plains. Wu Peifu's vanguard troops were extremely cautious, always deploying a wide reconnaissance network. They would set off at nine in the morning and stop to set up camp by two or three in the afternoon. Even Wang Rong, who was in charge of the Central Plains Army, felt that the Beiyang Army was not lacking in talented generals, so much so that they could not wait for the Beiyang Army to walk into the encirclement on its own.

By October 25th, the Central Plains Army had deployed its troops to their positions. Four regiments in the Xinzheng area were designated as the main force to encircle and annihilate Lu Yongxiang's forces, two regiments in the Luoyang area attacked Zheng County to cut off its rear, and one regiment in Zhongmu was tasked with preventing Zheng County from rescuing Lu Yongxiang's troops. Therefore, on October 27th, the Second and Fourth Regiments of the Central Plains Army left their defensive positions north of Xinzheng and launched an offensive against Wu Peifu's forces.

During the war against Russia, the Red Army's combat system was mainly centered around defensive operations. As a result, the Beiyang Army paid great attention to the Southern Army's defenses. Even Wu Peifu believed that the main force of the Red Army would be waiting for him on a fixed defensive line, which is why he became increasingly cautious in his marches.

At this time, Wu Peifu was regarded as the most skilled regimental commander in the Third Division in training troops. Whether he could fight was still to be proven. However, Wu's analysis of the Southern Army before the war was recognized by the high command of the Third Division. The Southern Army's tactics were based on using defense to blunt the enemy's momentum and then launching a major counterattack to lay the foundation for victory.

Faced with this tactic, Wu advocated a defensive approach, arguing that defensive tactics were more diverse and deadly than offensive ones. He believed that the Beiyang Army, lacking heavy artillery, would be unable to breach the Southern Army's well-equipped trench defenses unless massive casualties were incurred; after all, even the Russians had never breached the Southern Army's trench system.

Therefore, Wu Peifu's army marched with a lighter force at the front and a heavier force at the rear. Once he discovered the Southern army's defensive line, he immediately switched to defense, establishing a solid starting position before attempting to flank and attack from the rear. In Wu Peifu's view, the key to this North-South war was actually seizing control of the Beijing-Hankou Railway. Whoever controlled the Beijing-Hankou Railway would gain an advantage over the surrounding area. An army that could move quickly along the railway could tie down a large number of enemy troops with a smaller force, thus creating opportunities to encircle and annihilate a portion of the enemy army.

Wu Peifu's military philosophy cannot be said to be wrong. After the advent of railways, this became the standard tactic of the army of continental countries. No matter how amazing your schemes were, you could not make up for the huge material advantage brought by railway transportation. In the end, the weaker side would destroy the transportation lines, thereby leveling the transportation gap between the two sides, so that the war could continue.

However, after the advent of automobiles, positional warfare relying on railway lines began to give way to more flexible mobile warfare. After the Red Army crossed the Gobi Desert in Outer Mongolia and cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, it forced the Russians to abandon the war. The Military Commission also began to focus its efforts on high-speed mobile warfare, with the aim of avoiding the enemy's defensive positions, striking the enemy's rear, and thus causing the enemy to lose the will to hold out.

In short, the Military Commission was also deeply troubled by the defensive combat system it had established. They believed that if the enemy used this system against them, the Red Army would also be in a difficult situation. The German strategy was to use heavy artillery to destroy the defensive system and then use infantry to seize the positions.

However, Lin Xinyi rejected this idea, believing that the defensive system could be further developed. For example, he suggested setting up multiple defensive lines to avoid heavy artillery bombardment and using multiple machine gun positions to reduce the number of defending infantry, thus turning positional warfare into a tactic of casualties. The Germans argued that Easterners didn't understand the power of heavy artillery, which was why they came up with such a useless defensive concept.

After all, the heavy artillery division that Wuhan considered a treasure was, in the eyes of the Germans, merely the artillery configuration of a corps-level unit. The forces mobilized for the European war could not possibly be ended by just one or two corps. The Chinese believed that their multi-layered trench defense system could withstand heavy artillery bombardment, while the Germans thought this was simply due to insufficient artillery density, something the German army didn't need to worry about.

However, the Military Commission ultimately favored Lin Xinyi's concept of mobile warfare, which involved striking the enemy's rear lines at high speed to disrupt their command and defense systems, thereby eliminating their main forces in motion. After all, the terrain of the East Asian continent was actually more suitable for large-scale mobile warfare, as the continent's large area provided ample room for maneuver.

The adoption of mules and horses as a means of troop deployment was precisely to adapt to this concept of mobile warfare. At the start of this operation, the Central Plains Front Army's radio communication equipment was deployed from the division level down to the regimental level, ensuring that each regiment could receive orders from the Front Army headquarters while on the move, thus adapting to the rapid adjustments of targets and routes required in mobile warfare.

Lu Yongxiang's troops thus became the practical target for the Red Army to test its mobile warfare concept.

Wu Peifu was very strict in disciplining his troops, so when he discovered that the Red Army was attacking him, he immediately withdrew his troops and established a defensive position. The speed at which he switched from advancing to defending earned the admiration of the passing Red Army generals, but that was all.

These passing Red Army generals were actually Red Army troops advancing deep into Wu Peifu's rear, bypassing his forces. After all, this was not a one-on-one battle between Wu Peifu's troops and a Red Army unit, but a full-scale confrontation between the Beiyang Army and the Red Army. The ability of Wu Peifu's troops to switch to on-site defense did not mean that the rearguard led by Lu Yongxiang could do the same, let alone that the supply troops further behind could.

So Wu Peifu could only stand in his defensive position and watch as the Red Army bypassed his flank and attacked his rear troops. This scene immediately dampened the morale of Wu's officers and soldiers, who had been in high spirits. If their retreat was cut off, what was the point of them holding this position? Wu Peifu could not do anything to intercept them, because the Red Army was just waiting for him to abandon his position. Once he left his position to intercept them, he would inevitably be attacked by the Red Army troops left to monitor him. If the surrounding Red Army troops then turned around and attacked, they would be the first to be wiped out.