In addition, it must be explained that the fact that the losses suffered so much in the suppression of bandits were also due to the fact that the scope of the Soviet region in western Henan was further expanded during this period, and the scope of the suppression of bandits naturally also expanded. It is worth mentioning that after the Red 15th Army reached Lushi County, it got in touch with the remaining Red 74th Division left over from the Second Long March of the Red 25th Army. However, to the surprise of Zheng Weisan, secretary of the Hubei Shaanxi Special Committee, Chen Xianrui, commander of the Red 74th Division, and Li Longgui, political commissar, Hu Weidong, the young chief, did not dismantle or demote the Red 74th Division into a regimental and battalion-level unit because it had few soldiers, but retained the number of the Red 74th Division and gave it additional personnel and equipment, so that its strength reached more than 3,000 people, and its firepower increased tenfold. The Red 74th Division suddenly had a very first impression of Hu Weidong, "This chief is a kind person!" ”

As everyone knows, Hu Weidong did this mainly because he was subconsciously a "number control", for those heroic troops with a glorious history, he always wanted to pass on the number, and at this time the Red 74th Division was still very weak, but in history they were able to develop from the initial more than 300 people to thousands in just over a year, and the equipment was greatly improved because of the capture, and the guns were even slightly surplus, which many of the main forces of the Red Army could not do, Chen Xianrui's military talent, At least the level of guerrilla warfare can be seen, even if it cannot be compared with Gao Jingting, a master of guerrilla warfare, he can definitely be regarded as an excellent Red Army general. (PS: In history, Chen Xianrui also had a relatively good record during the Red Army, and he has not been very brilliant since then, but I personally think that it should not be a problem of ability, but a bad situation, especially when he was transferred to a political work cadre later, it is even more difficult to give full play to his military talents. Although the political commissar has great power, he wants to make great contributions, unless he is the leader of the base area in charge, like Taizu)

After learning about the strong strength of the Red Eighth Army Corps, Chen Xianrui immediately suggested that the main force send troops to restore the Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi base areas, which had now almost all become guerrilla areas, and Hu Weidong agreed, but only allowed to occupy the six core counties of the original Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi base areas, so as not to spread too much to control the bandits in the base areas; among these six counties, only Lushi County was in Henan, and the other five were Shangnan, Xunyang, Zhen'an, and Shanyang in Shaanxi, and Yunxi in Hunan. As a result, the scope of the western Henan Soviet region was expanded to 23 counties, and it spanned three provinces, and it is reasonable to say that it should be renamed the Hubei-Henan-Shaanxi base area, but because the western part of Henan is far from being comparable to the five counties of the other two provinces in terms of population, area and economy, people still habitually call it the western Henan Soviet area

The expansion of the base area is a good thing, but it has also led to a debate, should the Red Eighth Army develop westward, try to seize Xi'an, and connect the western Henan Soviet region with the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border area? Or should it develop south and east, and connect with Gao Jingting's Dabie Mountain base area?

In Hu Weidong's personal opinion, it is necessary to develop to the south, he knows very well that although the Red Eighth Army is strong, it has no grasp of capturing Xi'an at all, and the city of Xi'an is strong, and although the Northeast Army, the main force of the Shaanxi National Army, is in a mess, they have a lot of artillery, and there is an aviation brigade stationed in Xi'an City, as long as they are dedicated to defending the city, although the Red Eighth Army is strong and good at attacking fortifications, it is difficult to fight down. And more importantly, although Xi'an is very famous, it has no money, no industry, and no resources, so it is not worth the risk of the Red Eighth Army.

In addition, Hu Weidong still has a little "selfishness"; he is now able to carry out large-scale industrial construction in the western Henan Soviet region in full accordance with his own plan, to a large extent, because no one interferes, but once it is connected to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border region, the two hands with a higher position than him cannot be counted, and if a certain layman leader raises objections to Hu Weidong's jihua, it will be a headache, so Hu Weidong does not want to accept the direct leadership of the central authorities too soon before he makes great achievements and proves himself right. However, this is something that must not be said, and if someone uses this as a basis to label him as a "vain attempt to stand on his own", it will be a big trouble. But what distressed Hu Weidong was that most of the officers and soldiers below wanted to join forces with the Central Red Army...,

Fortunately, at this time, the great man saw that the Soviet area in western Henan was expanding too rapidly, and he did not dare to fully believe that the Red Eighth Army was really as powerful as the telegram said, and was worried that its stalls would be too big and that there would be problems, and that its reckless actions would sabotage the central government's plan, so he telegraphed to the headquarters of the Red Eighth Army at the end of November, asking it to consolidate the base area in western Henan first, and then say that if there is spare strength, it should first run the Central Plains, and it is not appropriate to enter Guanzhong by force. Because now that the Red Army has reached a tacit understanding with Zhang Yang, if the Red Eighth Army advances westward into southern Shaanxi, the two are likely to be forced to change their attitude and fight to the death with the Red Army under heavy pressure, and no longer obstruct the Central Army's large-scale entry into Shaanxi, which is asking for trouble

Hu Weidong, who breathed a sigh of relief, immediately ordered the Red 74th Division to advance south into the Nanyang area to conduct guerrilla operations, and seize Nanyang City to establish a base when the time was right, and then it could attack Runan with the Red 28th Army in the Dabie Mountains and unite the Western Henan Soviet Region with the Dabie Mountains. Most of the backbone of the Red 74th Division came from Dabie Mountain, and they were very happy when they learned about it, and Hu Weidong took into account that Gao Jingting's 82nd Division was already too bloated, and that the Red 28th Army and the Red 74th Division were from the same family, so he assigned the 74th Division to Gao Jingting's Red 28th Army, which further strengthened the strength of the Red 28th Army.

At this time, Luoyang and Mengjin County to the north had already been surrounded on three sides by the Soviet District of Western Henan, but Hu Weidong had never sent troops to capture Luoyang, and the national army in Luoyang was also peaceful, not worried about the Red Army at all, and the main general who commanded the 30,000 defenders of Luoyang was the old acquaintance of Jiangxi in the past - "the old thief of the Central Plains" Zhang Fang

Due to the experience of fighting at the beginning, Hu Weidong knew that although Zhang Fang's department did not have many people, its combat effectiveness, especially fighting spirit, could not be underestimated, and the weapons and equipment were not very good (that is, not many good things were captured), with the current strength of the Red 15th Army, it may not be difficult to capture Luoyang, but definitely don't want to play the good trick of transforming prisoners and "raising war with war", this kind of loss-making battle Hu Weidong is naturally reluctant to fight.

In addition, Zhang Fang has a high reputation in both black and white in the Central Plains, and has always been an important target in the Red Party's united front list since he first formed a good fate, so Hu Weidong naturally has no need to fight against his sword soldiers. Zhang Fang also reciprocated the favor by using his prestige in the green forest to persuade some bandit leaders to take the initiative to surrender to the Red Army, which greatly reduced the losses of the Red Army and the Soviet government. Later, Hu Weidong asked why Zhang Fan didn't take in those bandits by himself, but Zhang Fan smiled bitterly, "I can't afford to raise them"