"30 miles of mountain road, how long are these thirty-one marks going to go?" When the troops rested at night, Zhang Yu and the others could not rest. Everyone was studying the map carefully. The BJP marched nearly 50 miles in a day. Now it is only more than 30 miles away from Yingshan County. Originally, according to calculations, the troops were only 40 miles away from the enemy. According to the information sent back by the reconnaissance team, the real distance is farther than this. The march of the Hubei New Army on the mountain road in one day yesterday was actually no more than 12 miles.

Zhang Yu didn't care how far the Hubei New Army had gone, it was useless for him to care about this thing. He wondered how it was possible for the Hubei New Army to travel only a dozen miles a day. No matter how difficult the mountain road is, it will not be slow to this extent.

"I think there are a couple of factors that could go into it. First, the clothing of the Hubei New Army was wrong. Political commissar Lu Zhengping said. The distance between the two units was no more than 50 miles, and the reconnaissance units of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were almost pouring out, and the information collected before made it much easier to grasp the specific situation of the 31 targets. If they are not stationed early, they can't stand it. ”

This reason was very intelligible to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, where the comrades set out with marching quilts, and the camp was not prepared with temporary open hoods. I just found a place that was as leeward as possible. In the cold mountain wind, everyone was tightly wrapped in quilts, and some warriors simply wrapped themselves in quilts. This is still the case with the fighters of the People's Party who have been trained in various ways of camping in the wilderness, and it is impossible for the Hubei New Army to pay more attention to these practical techniques than the People's Party.

The Beihu New Army used the New Army tents very traditionally, and the result was that they had to set up tents every day when they camped, and they had to put away the tents before marching. This time alone consumes a lot. In addition to installing and dismantling tents, it is strange that the speed of the march can be increased when transporting these heavy baggage materials during the march.

"Second, they don't have a lot of places to be stationed." Lu Zhengping said.

The mountains are no better than the plains, and the plains are full of places where you can camp. It is impossible to provide a wide square for thousands of people to rest at the same time. Even in such an open place, the mountain wind can blow you to death. The troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were now divided into many small garrisons along the mountain roads. The soldiers wrapped themselves in quilts to rest on the mountain paths, which was already the best way to achieve military efficiency and good health. At least the "good for resting" area is much larger. Under the trees, behind the stones, or simply wrapping yourself in a quilt and resting against the rocks, the method can be described as unleashing your imagination. And if these troops live in tents, then there is no need to think about military efficiency at all.

Lu Zhengping's analysis was very good, and the other cadres attending the meeting agreed with it. Zhang Yu didn't relax after understanding the reason why the thirty-one standard was so slow, he said with a cold face: "The biggest problem now is when to fight with the thirty-first standard, we don't want to fight with them." We will suffer if we fight a tough battle. ”

The 31st Standard has more than 2,000 people, and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army has only 1,100 people. Zhang Yu thought that he had made up his mind to fight, it was really only a day's journey from the enemy, and when the battle was imminent, Zhang Yu felt that his preparation for war was far from enough. At least in terms of the standard of absolute victory, Zhang Yu is still far away.

Ignoring Zhang Yu's nervousness, political commissar Lu Zhengping asked, "Is it to adopt the mode of daytime combat or the mode of night fighting?" ”

There was already a battle plan before the battle, the situation was unclear at that time, and the comrades were not able to come up with a final decision at that time. Now that we are so close to the enemy, it is finally possible to determine the kind of combat method to use to deal with the enemy.

The psychological pressure on each commander was great, and this choice determined the future fate of the 1,100 soldiers of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. It even decided the development of the battle situation on the southern front of the entire base area. Everyone wants to get a big and decisive victory. But before the war began, no one could guarantee the inevitability of victory.

Seeing that no one spoke, Lu Zhengping said: "I suggest that we fight during the day." Our troops are better able to march and intersperse. It's easier to fight when you're fighting with the enemy for the high grounds. Besides, the troops' training for night battles is still very insufficient. It may not be a good thing to rush into a night fight. ”

The officers attending the meeting nodded after hearing this, and Zhang Yu felt a burst of regret in his heart, in fact, Lu Zhengfang just said that he analyzed the results summarized by Zhang Yu when he discussed with Lu Zhengping in private, but Zhang Yu himself failed to take the lead because of gains and losses. Now listening to Lu Zhengping's clear analysis of the occupation, including Zhang Yu himself, he has to admit that this choice is almost the only reasonable choice. It is precisely because this choice is very reasonable that there is a place that cannot be bypassed at all, even if the 31st Standard of the Hubei New Army falls into the encirclement, as long as they grit their teeth and resist desperately, it will take several days to completely annihilate the 31st Standard.

"How strong can the enemy's spirit of resistance really be, and what do comrades think." Zhang Yu asked.

"It doesn't matter how they resist, just overwhelm them and kill them." As long as there is no involvement in the campaign design level, the cadres below will be active. Up to now, the BJP has fought a knife-to-knife-gun-to-gun battle in every battle, and the battle has finally been resolved by bayonets. From the beginning of the siege, to many battles later. Each time there is a final hand-to-hand battle. Especially in the Battle of Hefei, the annihilation of Li Yuanhong's troops was like this. In order to be able to limit the movement of Li Yuanhong's troops, the troops consumed huge manpower and material resources and prepared for a long time. In the end, Li Yuanhong was completely solved, and it was just the last big charge.

Zhang Yu saw that he had no other choice, and he said loudly: "Then do it." ”

The troops slept at 8 p.m. By about half past three in the morning, all the troops were called up. The cadres and soldiers had breakfast, and then they got the news, and the troops all laid down their luggage and marched forward lightly. The meaning of this command is clear to all. The final battle is finally about to begin. The whole army was excited and uneasy.

It was still dark, and under the light of a few torches, the commissars and instructors began to make the final mobilization. Why we want to fight this battle, everyone is very clear from the analysis. If the troops stick to Anqing City, under the attack of the guns and infantry of the new Hubei army, the losses of the troops will definitely be great. As long as the 31st standard of the Hubei New Army is annihilated, then the Hubei New Army will no longer dare to fight because of its lack of manpower and psychological shock. This is the most basic explanation. The troops fought a lot of battles, and even held a lot of meetings. These explanations are understandable to everyone.

After explaining the ideological design of the campaign, all that remains is the mobilization of combat determination. "We took the initiative to play, but the loss was small. If we are not used to fighting in the mountains, those in the Hubei New Army are even more uncomfortable. Give full play to the style of the troops who dare to fight, and the enemy is certainly not our opponent. ”

The People's Party did not tell the truth, and after telling the truth to the soldiers of the troops, the morale of the troops quickly increased. At dawn, the troops left behind all their equipment except military equipment and began to advance in the direction of the enemy.

The Yingshan immortal landform is known as "three mountains and two rivers". The whole territory of Yingshan is dominated by medium and low mountains, known as "eight mountains, one water and one field". The main peak of Dabie Mountain in the north is Tiantianzhai, which extends to the northeast, constituting a series of peaks such as Yunfengding, Shiguzhai, Wufeng Mountain, Huangmeijian, etc., and then branches to the west into three major ridges, sandwiching two rivers from east to west, running through the whole territory, constituting the terrain that gradually inclines from the north east to the south and west. The highest point of Paradise Village is 1729 meters above sea level, the lowest point is 90 meters above sea level, the height difference is 1639 meters, and the average slope is 17°.

This kind of terrain is very suitable for guerrilla warfare, and the comrades of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army are naturally very aware of it. Just because of its well-trained, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army felt that it was clearly excessive. There are a large number of mountain roads in the entire Yingshan area, and even if the reconnaissance troops have made great efforts and without the cooperation of the local people, they have not been able to understand how many roads are composed except for the official roads.

Chen Ke never revealed to the comrades the issue of "later history", so the comrades naturally did not know that Yingshan County was also an "old revolutionary area". The only thing they can know is that Yingshan is too poor. This is also something that really can't be helped, due to the lack of land, Yingshan is certainly where it is, but the whole area is poor to death.

Yingshan is a red land, which has given birth to a large number of effective people with lofty ideals. Jin Guangyi, the chief criminal officer of the Qing Dynasty, who presided over the Heshen corruption case, Fu Huichu, a veteran of the Xinhai Revolution, Wang Xiaowen, a Siberian investigator who provided a definite basis for Sun Yat-sen's determination of the three major policies of "uniting with Russia and jointly supporting peasants and workers"; Li Cishan, president of the Shanghai Lawyers Association, who organized the rescue of the "Seven Gentlemen" during the Republic of China, Fu Weiyu, secretary of the Central Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, who succeeded Zhou En, and Peng Ganchen, who succeeded Zhu De as commander of the Nanchang garrison and director of the public security bureau, have occupied a place on the stage of Chinese history. Among the first, second and third cadets of the Huangpu Military Academy, the number of Yingshan nationality ranks first in the country. Yingshan is an old revolutionary Soviet area, which formed the party organization of the Communist Party of China as early as 1927 and established Soviet power in 1931. The Red Fourth Front Army marched west from here, the Red 27th Army was formed here, here is the guerrilla base of the Red 28th Army, and the starting point of the Long March of the Red 25th Army, Liu Deng's army jumped thousands of miles into Dabie Mountain, took Yingshan as the main military channel, and fought in a roundabout and fierce battle, the Red Army created 22 leading cadres at or above the division level during the Red Army period, and in the population of only 180,000 at that time, more than 30,000 people were sent to the main force and more than 7,000 people were sacrificed.