Newborn 1927

The meeting concluded, and everyone dispersed. Yang Jiefang headed towards his residence, intending to draft today's proposal into a formal document and refine some details. These tasks were originally handled by Master Kong, but he dared not expect Master Kong to do them now.

Halfway there, Gao Huilan caught up with him, looking worried. "Are you really sure? These people are a pack of hungry wolves. Feeding them once is easy; but with such a promise, if they're not fed even once, it could lead to disaster!" Yang Jiefang laughed. "You have so little faith in me? Don't worry! I know what I'm doing." Hearing this, Gao Huilan seemed much relieved. She took out a small cloth bag from behind her back and said, "The mountains are full of all sorts of people. Who can be trusted and who can't? Nobody can guarantee anything. Be careful. Keep this for self-defense." She handed the bag to Yang Jiefang. Yang Jiefang weighed it in his hand; it felt heavy. He opened it and found a box of bullets and two magazines. He had been assigned a Mauser pistol, but no bullets. Now he was fully equipped. Gao Huilan reminded him, "Hide it carefully, don't let anyone see it." Yang Jiefang laughed and said, "Thank you. If anyone dares to bet that my gun isn't loaded, I'll definitely open their eyes." Gao Huilan sighed and said, "I hope everything goes smoothly and we don't need these bullets."

Yang Jiefang put away the bullets and said, "Come listen to my lecture this afternoon!" Gao Huilan nodded and replied, "Okay. Prepare yourself well, I'm leaving now." She turned and left. Yang Jiefang returned to his quarters, first loading his pistol full of bullets, then filling both magazines with bullets for reloading. He then put away his gun and wrote down his proposal from that morning. His speech in the Hall of Righteousness quickly spread throughout the entire stronghold, and before lunchtime, all the heroes knew about it, discussing it privately in small groups.

After lunch, following a habit he'd developed in his previous life, Yang Jiefang always took a short nap before heading to the dining hall. The hall was packed; Jiang Xiaojun was already there leading everyone in reading. Gao Huilan sat nearby, but wasn't paying attention, glancing around every now and then. As soon as Yang Jiefang entered, she spotted him and waved with a smile. Yang Jiefang reluctantly walked over and sat next to her, but didn't speak, instead looking at Jiang Xiaojun in front of him.

Like a primary school teacher, Jiang Xiaojun led everyone in reading the third chapter of "Diary of a Madman" several times in her clear and loud voice. Then she carefully explained the meaning of each sentence and the usage of each word. And it must be said, this girl was very patient and explained things very thoroughly; she truly had the talent of a primary school teacher. Some people who originally didn't have notebooks and pencils, including Cao Laoba and the eight people from Doushan Village, had them distributed by Hou Fei, and they copied the words on the blackboard while reading aloud.

When Yang Jiefang arrived, Jiang Xiaojun's lecture was nearing its end. After finishing the third lesson, she said, "That's all for today's lesson. We'll start the fourth lesson tomorrow." She glanced at Yang Jiefang, then sat down next to Aunt Chu, picked up a cup of tea, and took a big gulp.

Yang Jiefang smiled, stood up under the expectant gazes of the crowd, and said, "Mr. Lu Xun was right! This is a world where people eat each other. We don't want to be eaten, nor do we want our loved ones to be eaten; therefore, we chose to take up arms. Brothers, the moment we pick up our guns, we must be prepared for war. War is never a trivial matter, nor is it a simple matter. The opening sentence of *The Art of War* says: 'War is a matter of vital importance to the State; a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.' This means that war concerns the life and death of the nation and must be treated with utmost care. But how should war be fought? *The Art of War* also says: 'War is based on deception.' This means that strategy is essential in warfare." He paused here, picked up a tattered rag, and erased all the words on the blackboard. He wanted the crowd to digest the meaning of his words. A bunch of illiterate men, who couldn't even do basic arithmetic, how could they understand military strategy? Gao Huilan and Jiang Xiaojun's eyes lit up, thinking to themselves: We didn't expect this guy to know about military strategy!

After wiping the blackboard, Yang Jiefang picked up a piece of chalk, turned around, and said, "How to use strategy to win battles? That's what I'll be talking about in the coming days. Today, I'll talk about the first tactic: guerrilla warfare." He turned and wrote the words "guerrilla warfare" on the blackboard, then turned back and said, "What is guerrilla warfare? In short, it's sixteen characters: 'When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we attack; when the enemy retreats, we pursue!' Simply put, fight if you can win, run if you can't." He quickly wrote these sixteen characters on the blackboard. The crowd didn't understand their meaning, but they all copied them down.

Yang Jiefang said, “These sixteen characters are simple and easy to understand, but applying them well is not so easy. I will now use our actual battle as an example. Hou Fei already recounted our experience yesterday, so I won't repeat the process. What I want to talk about today is how to fight this battle from a commander's perspective. You brothers can also think about it yourselves. If you were in command, how would you fight?” He paused for a moment, scanned the room, and continued, “The first time we ambushed the enemy at Qinglong River Bridge, they were completely unprepared. We could have caught them off guard. Because of our own shortcomings, we didn't fight well! I don't mean to blame anyone here; I'm just stating the facts. The brothers on the mountain don't usually handle guns…” Without systematic military training, we were pretty much doomed once the fighting started. Luckily, the enemy wasn't much stronger, which allowed us to withdraw quickly. However, this withdrawal was a rout, not a retreat as the enemy advanced; a retreat is an organized and planned retreat when the enemy outnumbers and outmatches us. Listen carefully, everyone, this planned retreat is for better striking the enemy. In comparison, our second ambush was relatively successful, wounding seven or eight enemy soldiers. However, the enemy still numbered over 160, a fraction of ours. So, what did we do next? Hou Fei mentioned it briefly yesterday, but not in enough detail. Zhao Changming, you tell everyone how we withdrew!

Zhao Changming was called upon and had no choice but to stand up, saying, "I... I can't say." Yang Jiefang encouraged him, "Just speak boldly. Even if you can't say it well, can't you say it badly? Just say the worst." Everyone laughed, and Zhao Changming felt less nervous. He said, "At that time, the soldiers all came after us. Commander Yang left a small squad to cover our retreat and taught me a method of leading an ox. We can't let these soldiers get too close, or we'll shoot them; we can't let them lose track of us either, or if they stop chasing, we'll turn back and shoot them. In short, it's like leading an ox, leading the soldiers by the nose, making them run along our route, and finally leading a small squad of soldiers into our ambush."

Yang Jiefang exclaimed, "Well said!" and immediately led the applause, which was joined by everyone else. In fact, many people did not truly understand the explanation and did not grasp its subtleties. When the applause subsided, Yang Jiefang said, “Everyone heard that. We let the enemy attack according to our route and our rhythm, while we fight and retreat, firmly maintaining the initiative on the battlefield. That’s what we call ‘the enemy advances, we retreat.’ Look, the enemy’s goal is Yang’er Mountain or Da Kuangji. We’re setting up an ambush along the way, not to wipe them all out at once, since we’re outnumbered by the government troops. In this situation, I’ve considered the possible reactions of the government troops. First, they might ignore us and continue marching. Although the probability of this is small, it’s still possible. If they ignore us and continue marching towards their target, then I will continue to set up ambushes along the way. This whole route is mountainous, with plenty of places suitable for ambushes. If we take out seven or eight of them each time, and we set up ambushes several times, we can take out dozens. That’s what we call accumulating small victories into a big victory, guaranteed to make them cry for their parents.” Everyone applauded and cheered.

Yang Jiefang paused, then continued, "Another possibility is that they will pursue us. Logically, they are stronger than us, and having been ambushed and suffered casualties, they will definitely pursue us. In fact, our troops did catch up. At the time, I considered two scenarios: one, the entire enemy force would pursue us; two, only a small number of them would. Regardless of the scenario, the number of enemy pursuers would certainly not be less than ours, maintaining a situation of enemy superiority. What do we do when the enemy catches up?" "My strategy is: when the enemy advances, we retreat. We'll use a small squad as bait, leading the enemy by the nose, circling around the mountains according to our route and our pace. When the enemy gets tired, they'll naturally split up; even if they don't want to split up, some will fall behind, reducing the number and strength of our pursuing troops. What I need to do is keep the pursuing enemy decreasing until their strength is weaker than ours, creating a situation where the enemy is weaker and we are stronger in a localized area. Do you all understand this?" Most people were able to keep up with the pace and basically understood.

Yang Jiefang glanced around and continued, "Just as I predicted, only one squad of the officers and soldiers continued the pursuit of the small team we left behind to cover their retreat. Midway, they considered abandoning the pursuit and turning back, but after we launched several counterattacks, they became enraged and finally decided to catch up with us. This created an opportunity for us, a chance to defeat them. A pistol squad, a full complement of over forty men, caught up. But we had over sixty men; sixty against forty was a sure thing. So, I had Zhao Changming lure this squad into our ambush. With their strategy of surprise and numerical superiority, we naturally won, almost completely annihilating the squad and capturing twenty-eight pistols." The crowd cheered again.

Suddenly, Li Yichao, the commander of the Dragon Squad, stood up and asked, "What if the enemy doesn't split their forces?" Yang Jiefang praised, "That's a good question. Everyone participated in the morning run, and after running ten miles, no one isn't tired, right? What if they ran forty or fifty miles continuously? Wouldn't they be exhausted? If the enemy doesn't split their forces, I'll break into smaller groups, taking turns to lure them out and maneuver around them. When the enemy is exhausted, no matter how many of them there are, they'll just be a bunch of weaklings. How can we be afraid of not being able to defeat them? That's called attacking when the enemy is tired!" Li Yichao added, "The enemy can also take turns resting and then split up to pursue!" Yang Jiefang laughed, "Isn't that splitting their forces? That's exactly what I want." Li Yichao was slightly taken aback, then understood and sat down silently.

Yang Jiefang continued, "Enemy encampment harassment refers to our harassment operations against the enemy's temporary encampments when they are on the march or during lulls in fighting. The purpose of this harassment is not to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, but to psychologically damage them. By constantly harassing them, we break down their psychological defenses, exhaust them, and throw them into disarray, thus changing their original battle plan. We then find their weaknesses and launch an attack." Upon hearing this, most of the people looked blank; few understood.

Yang Jiefang, feeling helpless, still had to use examples to explain: "That day, we launched three ambushes, each one better than the last, killing and wounding more than thirty officers and soldiers, greatly weakening the enemy's manpower. However, the enemy still outnumbered us by a large margin, and the situation of the enemy being strong and us being weak had not changed. That night, the enemy chose to spend the night in Doushan Village. But could we let them sleep peacefully? Could we let them eat and drink their fill and be fully rested to attack us? Of course not, which is why we had to harass the enemy. As I just said, our goal was to keep the enemy from sleeping, to keep them constantly worried that we would attack, and to make them worry about losing their lives in their sleep. They are already very tired during the day, and if they don't sleep well at night, how can they have the energy the next day? Perhaps some people will say that they are physically strong and can go without sleep for one or two nights without any problems; but what if it continues for three or four days, five or six days, or even longer? Even if they are made of iron, they will eventually break down. This is the significance of harassing the enemy when they are stationed there. Now everyone understands?" The crowd finally understood.

Yang Jiefang continued, “The main purpose of our tactical policy of retreating when the enemy advances and harassing when the enemy camps is to disperse the enemy's forces and wear them down. When the enemy's forces are scattered and exhausted, that's when we strike hard. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. I can't beat a strong and healthy person, but when he's completely weak, can I still beat him? That's called attacking when the enemy is tired. As for pursuing when the enemy retreats, that's easy to understand. When the enemy is scared and wants to escape, of course we should pursue them and beat them while they're down. After the second ambush at Qinglong River Bridge, we captured a large number of guns during the pursuit of the enemy. Now, do you all have a different understanding of the sixteen-character principle of guerrilla warfare?” Everyone looked at the words on the blackboard, pondered them carefully, and indeed gained some insight.