The Flames of Resistance Against Japan in Jiangnan

Unexpectedly, Chen Xinchun did not insist on his own opinion as expected. Instead, he generously accepted Xu Wenqing's suggestion to return to the southern Anhui region for the battle. Xu Wenqing was undoubtedly very happy to see this.

Next, the two began to make a series of arrangements and deployments regarding the allocation of supplies and personnel.

Before leaving the newly established base at Foziling, considering that the Southern Anhui Independent Regiment urgently needed reinforcements, Xu Wenqing and the 55th Regiment left all the supplies they brought with them to Chen Xinchun's Southern Anhui Independent Regiment, except for some essential supplies.

In order to protect the newly established base area, the 55th Regiment set up a garrison battalion, selected necessary combat backbones, and left behind soldiers who were physically weak.

Meanwhile, all the wounded and sick soldiers who were unable to advance with the Independent Regiment were left here to recuperate and temporarily handed over to the garrison battalion commander, with Chen Xinchun in charge of overall coordination. This also included personnel from the Southern Anhui Independent Regiment who returned from among the rescued Red Army prisoners.

In this way, Chen Xinchun would have over a thousand troops at his disposal. If any unexpected situation arose, he wouldn't be completely helpless.

After reaching an agreement with Chen Xinchun, He Zhengdao discussed the matter with Hu Jiu and others, and confirmed the action plan.

The next day, Xu Wenqing led the special operations battalion, dressed in Jiangxi army uniforms, to begin reconnaissance in northeastern Jiangxi, below Foziling.

After Xu Wenqing wiped out a township government office, he learned that a Central Army unit would be heading to Shangrao the next day to capture the Red Army prisoners held there. After verifying their identities, they were to be taken outside the city and executed by firing squad. Of course, they also had another task: to escort them to the Jiangxi army there as a so-called reward.

Upon hearing this news, Xu Wenqing was undoubtedly overjoyed, thankful that he had gone out to conduct reconnaissance beforehand. It wasn't difficult; if he had missed this news tomorrow, the Red Army soldiers currently imprisoned in Shangrao would have been in real trouble.

After learning of this situation, Xu Wenqing quickly cleaned up the battlefield and secretly returned to Foziling. He was considering how to deal with this main force regiment of the Central Army, who would be carrying out a so-called inspection and cleanup plan the next morning.

It is said that they would select those Red Army prisoners currently held in Jiangxi and Anhui who were willing to surrender or betray the army, and then execute the remaining die-hard Red Army officers and soldiers on the spot after verifying their identities.

This cruel method was undoubtedly one of the ruthless tactics employed by Chiang Kai-shek, who, while stationed at the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, adhered to the principle of "better to kill three thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free." It was also used to intimidate local warlords and civilians willing to join the Red Army.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, Xu Wenqing, upon returning to Foziling, immediately ordered the 55th Regiment to cease rest and begin setting up an ambush at the locations they had scouted before their return. They had to get ahead of this supervisory regiment and annihilate them completely.

Xu Wenqing also hoped that after annihilating the Central Army's supervisory group, he could impersonate the supervisory group and rescue the captured Red Army officers and soldiers imprisoned in Shangrao without firing a single shot. Under these circumstances, he had to act before the White Army and rescue as many imprisoned Red Army soldiers as possible, who were in imminent danger of being killed at any moment.

Knowing the urgency of the situation, Chen Xinchun didn't say much, only instructing Xu Wenqing to be careful. He then asked Xu Wenqing for a radio for communication between the two armies. As for communication with the main force, the corps command kept changing radio frequencies during the breakout, so even if they had a radio, they couldn't contact the main force for the time being.

However, with the radio, the Southern Anhui Independent Regiment led by Chen Xinchun was able to formulate their next battle plan based on the general route of the 55th Regiment's continuous advance.

Meanwhile, the radio also served another purpose: if Xu Wenqing needed to transfer wounded soldiers, all of them could be secretly sent to the Foziling base area to recuperate. This would both replenish Chen Xinchun's core strength and prevent the wounded soldiers from slowing down the 55th Regiment's march.

He watched through the night as the newly reorganized 55th Regiment, under the command of Xu Wenqing and other officers, rapidly advanced towards the foot of Foziling. Chen Xinchun was unaware that he was witnessing the rise of an iron-willed army. His own fate, too, was completely altered by Xu Wenqing's presence.

Leading the reorganized 55th Regiment, which had set off overnight, Xu Wenqing ordered the reconnaissance company to set off ahead of time to avoid attracting attention as much as possible. They quietly infiltrated the only road leading into Shangraocheng and laid an ambush.

Tomorrow they will be there, take down this Central Army inspection team, and then impersonate them to rescue their Red Army comrades imprisoned in Shangraocheng.

Considering that tomorrow's operation will primarily involve surprise attacks, it would be best to avoid fighting if the enemy could be disarmed without engaging in combat. Therefore, as a precaution, Xu Wenqing organized the officers and soldiers of the Special Service Battalion's engineering company, along with all the idle soldiers in the regiment, to dig concealed fortifications and trenches on both sides of the road.

If by tomorrow we still can't take down this Central Military Inspection Team using relatively mild methods, then the only way is to annihilate them as quickly as possible to prevent leaks and attract the attention of the surrounding Jiangxi troops.

It's important to understand that while there aren't large forces of the Jiangxi army in their current location, small groups of Jiangxi soldiers could easily cause trouble if they discover chaos. This would undoubtedly add to their difficulties in rescuing the hostages!

After everything was arranged and seeing that it was still early, Xu Wenqing personally inspected some of the constructed concealed fortifications. Finding nothing wrong, he instructed the soldiers that they could take a nap in the dug trenches.

Once the reconnaissance company that went forward to investigate sends back news, all they need to do is prepare for battle and await his orders to encircle and annihilate this Central Army inspection team.

As the morning sun shines on the earth, caravans carrying goods pass by on this road, which is usually bustling with people. However, these caravans are completely unaware that a large force has been ambushed in the mountain paths on both sides.

As before, the guards hired by the caravan were very vigilant, but they did not notice anything unusual and quietly passed through the ambush site set up by the 55th Regiment.

It wasn't until the reconnaissance company soldiers reported the arrival of the White Army Central Army Inspection Corps, along with ten vehicles and an infantry artillery company, advancing towards the ambush site under the cover of a squad of infantry, that Xu Wenqing realized the inspection corps was even towing an infantry artillery unit. He understood that if they didn't take down this artillery company, things would get really complicated if a battle broke out!

He quickly ordered Zhang Cheng, the guard of the special operations battalion, to impersonate Jiangxi soldiers and rapidly deploy the prepared roadblocks on the road. At the same time, several heavy machine gun positions were also quickly set up on the pre-designated sites.