A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

After the battle at Yantou Village ended, Song Hongfei deployed the defenses and then inspected the various positions.

The battle was brilliant and successful, with minimal casualties in each company. The entire sergeant battalion was filled with a triumphant atmosphere, a reward for months of arduous training and endurance in freezing temperatures. The soldiers tasted the joy and sense of accomplishment of victory. Even the new recruits, fighting for the first time, had shed their fear and nervousness. The adrenaline from the intense battle had not yet subsided, and their morale was high. They were all resting and chatting with great enthusiasm.

An old soldier nicknamed "Big Mouth Li" was smoking a cigarette and boasting loudly, thumping his chest and shouting that the battle was really exciting. He said that the battle was over in no time and he hadn't had enough yet. He suggested that they should take advantage of the victory and charge into Qinglong Village to kill them all!

Song Hongfei and Wang Jingxiong, the 1st Company Commander, came over and heard it. Wang Jingxiong laughed and scolded, "Li Dapao! Look how confident you are. If you keep bragging, I'll send you to Qinglong Village to brag to the Southeast Army!"

The soldiers who had been listening to the boasting were amused and secretly chuckled.

Only then did Li Dazui notice the battalion commander and company commander. He stood up at attention, his expression unchanged, and said solemnly, "Yes, company commander! As long as you give the order, I will charge forward bravely and resolutely, determined to take Qinglong Village!"

"Tch~~" The soldiers were secretly looking down on him. Li Dapao was really bragging, and he even managed to flatter his superior!

Wang Jingxiong glared at him: "You've gotten bolder, haven't you? You have too much energy to burn, huh? Go find a secluded spot and bang your head against the wall to vent your frustration!"

"Corporal punishment is prohibited." Song Hongfei waved his hand and patted Li Dazui on the shoulder. "High morale, not bad! But it's not enough to just charge forward, you also have to be able to chop! Company Commander, I just saw a pile of firewood in your company headquarters landlord's yard that hasn't been chopped yet? How about this guy takes charge of it?"

"Battalion Commander, what a great idea!" Wang Jingxiong exclaimed with delight. "Li Dazui, did you hear that? What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and chop it open!"

"Huh?" Li Dazui was dumbfounded.

The soldiers burst into laughter.

Wang Jingxiong, following suit, immediately put his instructions to use: "The battalion commander's instructions are excellent! We not only need to be able to charge forward and break through, but as veterans, we also need to be able to shoulder heavy responsibilities! The water tank in the mess hall is almost empty, and I think—"

"Hey, platoon leader, right away! Right away!" Li Dazui hurriedly ran off in a panic, afraid that the platoon leader would give some other instructions.

"Hahaha~" The soldiers burst into laughter, "Show-off, huh! Let's see you show off some more!"

Song Hongfei looked around at all the soldiers and said, "The enemy isn't stupid either, so we must not underestimate them! We should despise them strategically, but take them seriously tactically!"

He paused slightly, then added, "An army is a fighting unit; only by acting under unified command can victory be achieved!"

After this battle, the soldiers were completely convinced of their superiority.

"Good morale, keep it up!" Song Hongfei and Wang Jingxiong laughed heartily and walked towards another position.

A communications soldier ran up: "Battalion Commander, there's a call from headquarters. The commander-in-chief wants you to come to headquarters immediately!"

Song Hongfei: "Okay, I understand!"

Song Hongfei traveled from the Yantou Village position to Ruiningzhuang, southeast of Xincun. The headquarters was located in a grand Ming and Qing dynasty mansion—the Hu Family Compound. Ruiningzhuang was bordered by the Longhai Railway to the south, and three or four hundred meters further south was the Xitong Highway, which ran parallel to the railway. The railway line ran westward from the stairwell railway station east of Ruiningzhuang, less than five kilometers from the Chishui Station west of the Chishui River. The entire railway line was paved above ground, about 3 to 5 meters high.

As soon as Song Hongfei entered the headquarters, he found that a number of people had arrived. The leader was none other than Xu Yuexiang, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army Group. Xu Yuexiang and Gui Shuaizhen were discussing and pointing at a map.

Song Hongfei stood at attention and saluted the two men: "Commander-in-Chief! Captain!"

Xu Yuexiang and Gui Shuaizhen stopped, and Gui Yongqing said, "I don't need to introduce you, you're old acquaintances."

"An old acquaintance, and I've gotten to know him in a new way. This guy always manages to give people some new surprises from time to time." Xu Yuexiang seemed to be in a good mood.

Xu Yuexiang continued, "The battle at Chishui River has been deadlocked for several days, but today there has finally been a breakthrough. The Training Corps has won its first battle! Commander-in-Chief He and Commander-in-Chief Liu are extremely pleased and specially instructed me to come from Huayin County to convey their congratulations and commendations. Commander-in-Chief Gui just told me that it was you, Song Hongfei, who put on such a good show for everyone."

Song Hongfei humbly replied, "Commander Xu, you flatter me! It's all thanks to the Chief Commander who set up such a great stage that I was able to put on this show."

Gui Shuaizhen waved his hand and said, "Don't flatter me! The sergeant battalion fought a really good battle. I know you're not one to boast, but being too modest is just flattery."

Song Hongfei said, "How dare I flatter you? If it weren't for the artillery battalion of the General Headquarters and the support of the southern front troops, this battle would not have gone so smoothly."

Gui Shuaizhen laughed and said, "You little rascal, why are you being so modest today? Tell me, are you trying to set a trap for me again?"

The atmosphere in the headquarters immediately became harmonious and relaxed.

Xu Yuexiang said, "Just now, Commander Gui told me the specific details of this battle. One infantry battalion was attached to one artillery battalion and one field gun battalion. This was unprecedented in the National Army and extremely rare in battles around the world. The 'three-three system, small-group multi-pronged attack, and infantry-artillery coordination' gave us all a wonderful tactical lesson! Now, tell us your thoughts and experiences as a front-line commander."

Song Hongfei paused for a moment, thought carefully, and then carefully organized his thoughts, saying, "To be honest, ever since the incident occurred and the headquarters received orders, I have conducted in-depth research on the Southeast Army—"

Upon hearing this, everyone present, including Xu Yuexiang and Gui Shuaizhen, suddenly felt a sense of balance: this kid always manages to achieve amazing results, it turns out he has put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes! To succeed in anything, you can't do it without effort. Even geniuses can't hide their brilliance without hard work—thinking this way, everyone felt at peace.

Jealousy is a human emotion, and it is a natural human feeling.

Combining the battle summaries from Sanzhang Village and Yantou Village, Song Hongfei slowly recounted the events—

Only then did everyone learn that Song Hongfei had conducted a detailed study of the Southeast Army and the Southwest Army long before the incident occurred.

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle," and "Never fight a battle unprepared" have always been Song Hongfei's creeds. He concluded that the Southeast Army was actually just a well-equipped and outwardly impressive force, but one that still retained feudal warlord and even bandit-like habits. Its main weakness lay in:

The organization had significant flaws, with an imbalance in the ratio of infantry to artillery, supply, and engineering branches. Battalions generally lacked battalion-level heavy firepower; mortars were only available at the regimental level. Below the battalion level, only light machine guns and grenade launchers were available. Only a few elite units had heavy machine guns at the battalion level. Ordinary units were organized into regimental machine gun companies, which were then attached to infantry battalions during wartime, resulting in a lack of coordinated training in peacetime.

Lacking in infantry-artillery coordination capabilities, a few elite units have an artillery company at the division level, while the rest are organized into independent artillery brigades and regiments. However, there is a severe lack of coordination training between artillery and infantry in peacetime, and there has been no communication or cooperation for a long time. The infantry-artillery coordination capability can be said to be virtually zero.

Their tactical level was outdated; aside from swarming, wave-like mass charges, there was no tactical coordination between different branches of the infantry. Their offensive, defensive, and positional deployment methods were still the outdated, linear skirmish tactics of World War I. Although each infantry squad had a light machine gun, they were completely ignorant of skirmish tactics with the light machine gun as the core firepower, and even concentrated and spread their light and heavy machine guns evenly on the front line, making them vulnerable to large-scale destruction by superior enemy artillery fire.

The officers' military thinking was rigid and outdated, resulting in inferior morale, fighting spirit, training level, tactical coordination, and command capabilities. When faced with equally well-equipped, well-rounded, tactically advanced, and well-trained opponents, they were simply outmatched and suffered heavy losses. Whether in the Great Wall Resistance, the Rehe Resistance, or the battles against the Communist Red Army, the Southeast Army's performance was lackluster, with numerous instances of battlefield collapses and retreats.

"It can be said that the Southeast Army suffered a beating in vain a few years ago during the 'September 18 Incident' and did not learn any lessons. To this day, it has not made any progress!" Song Hongfei looked around at everyone and said solemnly, "It was by formulating a battle plan targeting the weaknesses of the Southeast Army, breaking through one point, and shaking the entire front that the sergeant battalion was able to succeed in one fell swoop."

"Learn to fight in battle! All National Army units should take this as a warning and strive to make up for their shortcomings. If they do not correct their mistakes in time, the backward Chinese army will probably suffer the same fate as the Southeast Army today when facing the powerful Japanese army."

Song Hongfei's summary and speech were thought-provoking and resonated deeply in everyone's minds. To the officers, who had long been influenced by Tsarist Russian military thought, this was an extremely advanced yet highly realistic military strategy and tactical guiding ideology. It not only fully demonstrated his profound military theoretical knowledge and extremely high strategic and tactical literacy, but also his clear and logical thinking, rigorous and thorough analysis, and well-reasoned arguments, further combined with successful and brilliant combat examples.

"Well said!" Xu Yuexiang nodded, then turned to Gui Shuaizhen and said, "The tactics and experiences are worth summarizing. We should compile them into a detailed combat summary report as soon as possible. This will be another highly commendable article!"

Gui Shuaizhen nodded and instructed Wen Zuquan, the director of the staff office, "Director Wen, the staff office should compile a detailed report as soon as possible!"

Xu Yuexiang looked around at everyone present and slowly said, "The negotiations in Xi'an are currently underway with great difficulty. 'Political negotiations should be preceded by military action.' In order to increase the central government's bargaining power, gain the initiative, and put pressure on the other side, Commander-in-Chief He had already instructed us before I came here: to seize the opportunity to expand our gains."

Everyone present understood immediately.

War is a continuation of politics, and a means of politics. There are countless examples throughout history of negotiating while fighting, fighting while negotiating, using war to promote negotiations, and using negotiations as a cover for war.

Victory on the battlefield is the biggest bargaining chip at the negotiating table, a statement that Song Hongfei strongly agrees with—what you can't get on the battlefield, you can't expect to get at the negotiating table.

Negotiations falling apart? Then increase your bargaining chips.