The Flames of Resistance Against Japan in Jiangnan

Xue Geming was not worried about this. Not only were He Changgong and Cai Zhongshan seasoned veterans, but He Xiaosheng and the other guerrillas sent by local party organizations were also good candidates.

After discussing with He Changgong, Bianjing, and several other leaders, Xue Geming decided that, on the one hand, everyone would work together to build houses in a relatively flat area at a lower elevation, using the abundant tall grass, wood, bamboo, and stones found in the mountains. Houses would be roughly four people per room, each with a toilet, and there would be waterways nearby. Since this area was upstream of a mountain spring, Yun Tiansheng led two men to build a small dam for daily water use, and also ran a bamboo pipe to the kitchen for drinking water only. Fortunately, both the militiamen and the guerrillas were native locals, mostly farmers, and were familiar with such work, so the task was easy for them.

The third task was to determine the organizational structure. Xue Geming, He Changgong, Bianjing, and several others discussed the matter and decided to temporarily organize these individuals into an independent company of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Red Army. Later, considering this title too insignificant, they decided to make it more formal and name it the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Independent Brigade. Xue Geming personally served as the brigade commander; He Changgong was the party representative; Bianjing and Yang Guisheng were the deputy battalion commanders; and Cai Zhongshan was the director of the political department. The brigade consisted of three combat companies and one logistics company. The three combat companies were each expanded from three small detachments. The combat squadrons, numbered 15 men each. Squadron 1 was led by Guo Ergou, with Guo Dage and Niu Dazhu as deputy squadron leaders, plus two local Party members and eight militia members. Squadron 2 was led by Lu Xiaoshan, with Yan Dongzi and Liu Fusheng as deputy squadron leaders, plus two local Party members and eight militia members. The special operations combat squadron consisted of 11 men, led by Yun Tian, ​​with Bai Gaoshan and Liu Xiaomin as deputy squadron leaders, plus two local Party members and four militia members. The logistics squadron consisted of 4 men, led by He Xiaoshan, including the wounded militia member Li Zhi, a local Party member, and Li Dazui. Li Dazui and Wu Pangzi, a local Party member formerly a butcher, worked in the cooking team, responsible for everyone's meals. Li Zhi was responsible for guard duty and also participated in Yun Tian's squadron's training.

The fourth thing was to strengthen training and ideological education. Fortunately, there were quite a few members and guerrillas in the small team at present, and the ratio of party members and key personnel to militia members was close to one to one. In addition, most of these militia members were forced into their positions, and although some of them were originally arrogant and domineering, none of them were particularly evil, making them easy to work with. This work included two aspects: military training and ideological training. Yang Guisheng was in charge of shooting training, Yan Dongzi, who had fully inherited Xue Geming's teachings, was in charge of team rules training, Liu Fusheng was in charge of physical training, and Yun Tiansheng was in charge of special operations training; ideological training was handled by He Changgong and several others.

He Changgong agreed with all of Xue Geming's suggestions. Finally, he gathered everyone together and announced the appointment decision. No one raised any objections.

That evening, Li Dazui and Wu Pangzi stewed the fat dog they had brought back, and everyone had a good meal. They were allowed to rest for another night, and training officially began the next morning.

The training began early the next morning. The mornings consisted of armed training, followed by a midday rest, an hour of ideological training in the afternoon, and a 10-kilometer armed cross-country run in the evening. Xue Geming personally gave training sessions to the instructors and political representatives. His lectures were quite novel, even to veteran hunters like Yun Tiansheng. The grievance sessions and heart-to-heart talks were also eye-opening for veteran political workers like He Changgong and Cai Zhongshan. Their intuition told them that these new political "weapons" would be incredibly effective!

All tasks proceeded smoothly. He Xiaoshan and Cai Zhongshan, having nothing urgent to attend to, decided to quietly return to Huang'an County, firstly to let their families know they were safe, and secondly to gather information.

Clearly, Xue Geming and his team had carried out their operation flawlessly. Despite Qian Chen, the second son of the wealthy man, relentlessly pressuring the head of the Huang'an Police Station, the Huang'an police had absolutely no information and no idea who was behind it. Although there were oxcart tracks left when they left the city, Xue Geming, a seasoned expert in hiding, had completely erased them, leaving the police with nothing. The city garrison officers, however, had some idea of ​​what was going on, but having received bribes and fearing responsibility, they dared not speak up and simply pretended not to know.

As for the later questioning of why they opened the gate in the middle of the night, the city guards insisted that the Qian family had done similar things before, sending things out of the city in the middle of the night, so it was normal to let them go this time!

Thus, he completely absolved himself of any responsibility. This infuriated Qian Chen, but knowing it was the truth, he was powerless to change it and could only let it go.

For the next month and a half, Xue Geming's team's training became routine. Because of the good food and rigorous training, the newly joined members made significant progress in physical fitness, ideological awareness, and military skills. He Xiaoshan and Cai Zhongshan also obtained a lot of cloth through various channels and had it cut into standard uniforms, hats, shoes, and vests. They then took it to the mountains and used tree sap to make camouflage uniforms for the team members.

After spending some time together, the team members, who had initially been somewhat distant, now became close friends. At this point, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Independent Brigade was beginning to take shape! Li Xuege and He Changgong also noticed several promising soldiers among the former militia members, preparing to train them as their next targets.

May arrived in the blink of an eye. Xue Geming, He Changgong, Bianjing, and Yang Guisheng discussed the matter and decided to launch another operation. This time, however, they didn't plan to operate within Hubei Province, but rather within Anhui Province, with Jinzhai as the initial location. They anticipated a substantial harvest, similar to the last time, and therefore needed to prepare in advance.

So they mobilized all the team members to act in unison, cleaned up a few caves nearby, and built a number of houses by the water before stopping.

Seeing that everything was on track, Xue Geming had ideas for launching a new operation. That day, after a brief discussion with He Changgong, he assembled the troops. Looking at the spirited and high-spirited unit before him, Xue Geming nodded in satisfaction and gave them high praise. Xue Geming had an excellent memory and could recall almost everyone's name. Therefore, when praising everyone, he didn't hesitate to single out names for commendation, which excited many of the later recruits. After all, this was the first time they had encountered such a situation!