At two o'clock in the afternoon, a huge fleet carrying three and a half regiments of Zhejiang officers and soldiers docked at the wharf outside the south gate of the ancient city of Shangrao.

Two and a half hours later, Yu Jishi, who was having a pleasant conversation with the Jiangxi military and political officials, received a report from adjutant Zhang Yingnian: "Wu Ming has arrived with his troops, and he has now been stationed in the North Gate Barracks according to the plan. ”

Yu Jishi was secretly surprised, and blurted out, "So fast?" What is the status of the officers and soldiers? ”

Zhang Yingnian obviously went to investigate in person, and said in an admiring tone: "The overall formation is neat, the pace is strong, and I don't see fatigue." ”

When Wang Daohan, the commissioner of the Shangrao Administration who was sitting on the side, heard the word "Wu Ming", he immediately pricked up his ears and eavesdropped, and at this time, Yu Jishi's adjutant had quietly retreated. Wang Daohan thought about it, but still suppressed the urge to ask, and took the time to go to the toilet to call the secretary for a careful advice.

In the North Gate barracks, after the companies under Wu Ming's command had settled down, the battalion and company commanders came to the largest barracks in the battalion to attend the meeting.

The brothers were still waiting for Wu Ming to summarize, but Wu Ming waved his hand: "This place is too dirty, the pigsty is cleaner than here, everyone go back and organize all the officers and soldiers who are not on duty to clean up." After dinner, the cooking squad of each company must boil enough hot water, and the officers and men who do not take a bath and do not burn their feet will be fined five oceans each and the meeting will be dismissed! ”

A dozen officers saluted and left, and the whole camp soon boiled over.

"Outside the camp gate, a person claiming to be from the Shangrao Administration sent five pigs and five carts of rice, two carts of vegetables and sauces that had just been slaughtered." The platoon commander on duty of the spy company came in and reported loudly.

Wu Ming, who was about to open the map, raised his head in surprise and muttered, "Shangrao Administration? Steve, don't be busy, come with me to have a look. ”

The young official who was stopped at the gate of the camp saw Wu Ming and hurriedly stepped forward. Wu Ming saluted and asked if the same thing was sent to every regiment of the Zhejiang Army?

The young official hurriedly explained, saying that it was the security forces responsible for the food supply of the various departments of the friendly army, and these were specially ordered by Commissioner Wang to send them, and he also brought Wang Daohan's invitation to Wu Ming to his mansion as a guest. Seeing Wu Ming accept the sumptuous gifts, the young official was relieved, politely said goodbye, and hurriedly left the dusty barracks that was being cleaned up.

The commanders of the companies who heard the news divided everything in a blink of an eye, and before they reached their barracks, they shouted loudly that they would eat braised pork and sweet and sour hooves tonight.

At nightfall, except for the two staff officers of the general headquarters who came to inspect and issue a report on the battle situation, no one came to disturb Wu Ming's department.

The battalion and company commanders, who had eaten and drunk well and had a new look, were able to gather around Wu Ming and begin to conduct pre-war discussions around the military map of northeastern Jiangxi drawn by the staff group.

The pre-war seminars, like the class discussions, were good habits that Wu Ming's department had cultivated for a long time.

From the beginning of leading the troops, Wu Ming sorted out a set of military textbooks for internal study based on the textbooks of major military academies in China and the materials of foreign armies, and constantly consolidated and enriched the content of the textbooks through daily training and simulated exercises, and persevered in it for two years.

Today, the theoretical knowledge and command level of the officers at all levels under Wu Ming's unit have been markedly improved, and the temperament of the officers has also undergone great changes.

Wu Ming was deeply proud of this, and he believed that the military foundation and tactical command level of the battalion and company commanders under his command were no longer under the current level of most officers who graduated from regular military academies in China, and what they lacked was only constant practice and summing up.

At midnight, the seminar had long since dispersed, and the remote Shangrao North Gate Barracks was silent, and Wu Ming, who had returned from the post, saw Dai Ziran, Lu Kuiyuan, and Steve still talking in a low voice under the oil lamp, so he sat down and asked what he was talking about if he didn't sleep so late.

Dai Ziran pointed to the map spread out on the desktop and explained in a low voice: "According to the battle report just issued, we marked the situation of the enemy and us on the map one by one, and found that the entire battlefield in northeastern Jiangxi was very chaotic, and we didn't know where to start if we wanted to break our heads. ”

Wu Ming glanced at the map and said angrily: "You are all pig brains?" If the report of friendly forces is accurate, they will not be beaten by the ** Red Army and lose their armor, you can't doubt the accuracy of this war report a little? Indicate what you think is reliable on the report, and then combine it with the information we have obtained to scrutinize, and then preliminarily draw the general range, I guess you will not feel confused. ”

"Ahh That's ......."

Dai Ziran covered his mouth and exclaimed, then his eyes flashed, he picked up a trapezoidal ruler and a pencil to quickly draw a few straight lines on the map, mentally calculated for a moment, and then picked up the circle spacing, rotated around Huaiyushan, and was excited after putting down the compass:

"Fang Zhimin's troops are less than 5,000 soldiers, and under the threat of five times the strength of our army on three sides, it is impossible for his troops to scatter everywhere in the south, south, north, and west, which will only allow us to break through each ...... Therefore, these 5,000 men and horses could only gather back and concentrate in the Huaiyu Mountains, a narrow area of 80 kilometers from north to south and 50 kilometers from east to west, waiting for an opportunity to move. ”

"Indeed it is! In the face of our pressing step by step, they can only see the opportunity, as long as they eliminate one or two of the encirclement and suppression army, the whole battle situation will come alive! In addition—"

Wu Ming pointed to the area north of Wuyuan on the map: "When the battle situation is unfavorable, you can also retreat calmly, don't forget that they still have this retreat in the direction of southern Anhui." ”

Dai Ziran buried his head in thought again, and Lu Kuiyuan asked puzzledly: "Aren't there two brigades of friendly forces in Anhui on the front line in southern Anhui to cooperate with us in combat?" ”

Wu Ming smiled bitterly and said, "If the friendly forces could work together, Fang Zhimin's department would have been gone a long time ago...... In addition, our friendly forces are not familiar with the complex terrain of the Huaiyu Mountains at all, let alone have training and relevant experience in mountain warfare, so we must not count on them. You might as well imagine that you take three companies to hide within a radius of 100 miles centered on Huaiyu Mountain, and then let the friendly soldiers encircle and suppress you in three ways, what should you do? ”

"Hmph, who are we afraid of in this mountain? Although most of the area is not familiar to us, there are at least fifty brothers from this mountain in our company, so it can be said that we can occupy the geographical advantage; Second, after more than a year of training in mountain and jungle warfare, several of our companies have the ability to march quickly and sustain operations, and have mastered flexible and changeable applicable tactics. ”

"Then there are high mountains and dense forests, thousands of mountains and ravines, no matter how many of our opponents there are, they can't put them away, and it is impossible to carry artillery into the mountains. Do you know the way? ”

When Wu Ming said this, Lu Kuiyuan suddenly came to his senses: "I understand!" I understand what the eldest brother means, it seems that the battle that is about to start is more auspicious! ”

Dai Ziran raised his head, agreeing with Lu Kuiyuan's analysis, and then stared at the map again, silently weighing.

Steve asked Wu Ming with some concern: "Brother Ming, what if the war is unfavorable and the command pushes us out of the city to fight hard?" ”

Wu Ming sighed: "Try to avoid it, if this situation really happens, we can only disobey the yang and the yin, and we don't have to think about what to fight and annihilate the enemy." ”

Steeve nodded thoughtfully, "Maybe that's the only way...... With the training and equipment of our two companies, especially the strong combat effectiveness and reconnaissance capability of the spy company, as long as we do not go deep alone, we can still be sure of self-protection even if we encounter an enemy three times as large as ours. ”

Wu Ming nodded and turned to Lu Kuiyuan: "Are you ready?" ”

"Ready, the five brothers sent to Lu are all local heroes who defected to us at the beginning of the year, and they have undergone basic reconnaissance training in the battalion, and they are mountain people who take off their military uniforms and put on their previous clothes, and they can carry out reconnaissance with swagger, and their families are all in Maoliangwu and have been well taken care of." Lu Kuiyuan replied confidently.

Wu Ming was very satisfied: "Good job, after I go back, I will tell a few brothers that you only need to find out the whereabouts of the opponent, you don't need to venture deep into the opponent's warning area, no matter what the result is after three days, you must return." ”

"Understood!"

Lu Kuiyuan stood up, put on his military hat, saluted and strode away.

After reading the map, Dai Ziran finally raised his head: "Brother Ming, is there a time limit for this attack?" ”

Wu Ming said helplessly: "I say that the communist army in the encirclement will be resolved within a month, but there is no clear operational plan and requirements, it is estimated that the two armies will hold a joint combat meeting tomorrow, and it will be considered high efficiency if they can come up with a specific combat plan within three days." ”

"What if Chief Yu asks you to attend a joint operations meeting?" Steve asked.

Wu Ming thought for a while and shook his head: "I guess nothing is wrong with me, the generals gathered in Shangrao City this time are not low-level, in addition to a large number of generals and colonels of the Jiangxi Provincial Security Command, Chairman Jiang also sent the deputy secretary general and the chief of the operations section of the Nanjing camp, as well as two moral affairs advisers, where would I need a small lieutenant colonel to make up the numbers?" ”

"So in the next few days, will each company start normal training?" Dai Ziran asked again.

Wu Ming shook his head again: "No need, rest for three days and start internal study...... At this time, we need to recuperate, don't take out the radio station and use it first, and the individual weapons and combat equipment of the special service company are not allowed to move, and they are not allowed to go out of the barracks! Steve, if your health team is bored, you can do a thorough and detailed physical examination of the Engineer Company and the brothers in the cooking squad of each company. ”

"Yes!"

Steve and Dai Ziran replied in unison, and went back to rest under Wu Ming's urging.

Wu Ming turned on the lantern, lit a cigarette and silently checked the map, measured a certain area on the map from time to time, and wrote down groups of data after repeated scrutiny, and wrote down paragraphs of text.