Chapter 132: Counter-Guerrilla

Ji Xin spoke individually with everyone, each conversation lasting for hours. He met with every Transmigrator in the work team and also spoke with a number of the native cadres.

Liu Yixiao was also called in for a talk. During the three-hour-plus conversation, he felt like he was giving a difficult debriefing.

Ji Xin was very polite, but his questions were sharp. He quickly seized upon small details and inconsistencies, relentlessly pressing for clarification. His grasp of logic, in particular, was much keener than the average person’s.

This guy is truly a product of his law school education! I have to be extremely careful with my words. Liu Yixiao finally finished his tea and walked out of the office, drenched in sweat and on the verge of collapse.

He had no idea what this fellow would write about him in his report!

Liu Yixiao was eager to know what the others had discussed, but no one would tell him—no one wanted to get too involved in this matter. Besides, the content of the talks was confidential, a basic principle of the investigation committee.

A few days after the investigation team returned, Liu Muzhou called him from Lingao on the radio.

“You’ve managed to scrape by, my boy,” Liu Muzhou said to Liu Yixiao over the radio. “But a letter of reprimand from the Senate is unavoidable.”

“What’s a letter of reprimand?”

“It’s a summary of the mistakes and oversights you’ve committed, and it formally tells you: you made a mistake.”

“Sounds alright.”

“It’s not that simple. The letter goes into your personnel file. It’s a small black mark, Captain Liu!” Liu Muzhou complained. “I’ll be getting one too—thanks to you!”

“I didn’t want it to turn out like this either!” Liu Yixiao said hatefully. “I’m going to start planning the bandit suppression campaign right away! A full-scale cleanup.”

“No need to rush. You still have to submit a self-criticism report to the Senate by tomorrow. And of course, the glorious task of reading it aloud in public falls to me again.”

“You are a man of great ability and should bear more responsibility.”

“Alright, enough with the nonsense. Official notification: the Special Reconnaissance Team Command will be sending a counter-guerrilla warfare expert to Danzhou. You will follow his arrangements for the specific bandit suppression matters—you must provide full assistance.”

“Understood.”

In the end, the committee’s recommendation to the Senate was: Liu Yixiao bears primary leadership responsibility, Yu Zhiqian bears secondary responsibility, and Liu Muzhou also bears leadership responsibility. All three were required to “make a serious self-criticism” and received disciplinary letters from the Senate. Not only was the “acting” title of Yu Zhiqian’s acting battalion commander not removed, but the General Staff also required him to wear it for another six months, with “consideration for promotion to be based on job performance.”

The counter-guerrilla warfare expert who arrived was Xue Ziliang. He wore a civilian version of the US digital camouflage, carried an extra-large replica of a US military tactical backpack, and slung an automatic rifle over his shoulder. He sported a civilian version of a boonie hat and Zhejiang-made replica US tactical sunglasses. With a “Chu Qing” hand-made cigar from the South Sea Farm clenched in his teeth, he strode down the gangplank of the navy transport ship with a “thump, thump.” He was looking more and more the part.

Xue Ziliang’s collar bore the golden-threaded branch insignia of the reconnaissance troops, and his shoulders displayed the rank of major. Compared to the solemn uniforms and command swords of the infantry officers, his attire was very casual.

“This banana! So arrogant,” Yu Zhiqian cursed under his breath. He had just received a demerit and was filled with an inexplicable resentment toward this smug “banana.”

Xue Ziliang gave an American-style salute. “I have been entrusted by the General Staff to serve as a counter-guerrilla warfare advisor in Danzhou!”

“A pleasure, a pleasure,” Yu Zhiqian said, though he was actually quite dissatisfied. He had planned to have the Third Battalion redeem itself on its own, not to have some outsider suddenly appear.

“Let’s go to the command post,” Yu Zhiqian said. A soldier pushed over a 28-inch heavy-duty bicycle, with a newly made major’s command flag attached to the handlebars.

“Your vehicle, Major!”

Xue Ziliang and Yu Zhiqian each mounted their 28-inch bikes and, escorted by a squad of bicycle-mounted grenadiers, sped along the newly repaired road toward the Zhonghe Commune.

The Zhonghe Guard Post city had now officially become the headquarters of the Zhonghe Commune. The garrison command and the Danzhou work team had all relocated here to work. The biggest advantage of this place was its proximity to the seaport, which facilitated the reception of supplies from the sea.

Liu Yixiao had initially been very interested in building a new city in Zhonghe, but after the Zhaopu Village incident, his entire focus had shifted to bandit suppression.

Before Xue Ziliang’s arrival, he had already made several arrangements. First, he had scaled back the work teams’ scope of operations, shifting their focus to the Danzhou-Lingao road, which was under construction, to ensure the safety and security of the land transport route. At the same time, he intensified the transformation of the various guard posts and forts, increasing the efforts to reform the military households—this was the only population they could quickly control at the moment.

“Sit, have some water,” Yu Zhiqian greeted him, while ordering a messenger to quickly summon Liu Yixiao and the other Transmigrators in Zhonghe for a meeting.

Female orderlies placed several large glass bottles of iced kvass on the table and a bucket of ice in the prefabricated room—all fresh supplies just unloaded from the navy transport ship.

“Sir, please wipe your face,” a female orderly said with a sweet smile, offering a chilled towel.

“Thanks,” Xue Ziliang said, wiping his face casually and then downing a large glass of iced kvass with a satisfied sigh. He looked at the solemn faces of the Transmigrators in the Danzhou command post, and his own cheerful expression became a little sheepish.

“Brothers, the bandits gave us a big slap in the face this time,” Liu Yixiao said with a grim face. “Let’s brainstorm today and think about how to quickly clean up the bandits in Danzhou. If we don’t, it will seriously affect our prestige, and our work will be difficult to carry out.”

Yu Zhiqian said, “Squad Leader Xue has just arrived and is not yet familiar with the situation in Danzhou. I will first introduce the basic situation.”

“I have already read all the materials on Danzhou from the Intelligence Bureau and the Political Security Bureau in Lingao. So, there’s no need to talk about background information. Let’s focus on what countermeasures you have taken since the Zhaopu Village incident.”

Yu Zhiqian then gave a presentation on the measures they had taken, including consolidating villages, building roads, and organizing the militia.

Xue Ziliang listened and nodded. He said:

“The Third Infantry Battalion cannot stay in Danzhou forever. The local government must first ensure its own protection, rather than relying on a strong external garrison. Simply organizing a militia is not enough.”

Although Xue Ziliang was an American citizen, he was largely skeptical of the effectiveness of militias.

“Militias are difficult to use as mobile forces. The combat will of a newly formed militia is also very questionable,” Xue Ziliang said. It was still necessary to form a standing local security force.

“We have already recruited about a hundred people from the activists to form a county garrison company. The Third Infantry Battalion has sent a company to provide one-on-one training, in order to quickly build up a usable armed force from the locals who are familiar with the situation.”

“Very good. Has a local intelligence gathering system been established?”

Zhang Yixiao said, “The Political Security General Bureau has an intelligence network in Danzhou. They have transferred a lot of information to us. But the focus of their network is on Danzhou city and the gentry; their knowledge of the bandits is very limited.”

“That’s the trouble. We’re not familiar with the place, and we don’t know enough about the bandit activity in Danzhou,” Yu Zhiqian said, very frustrated. “Now that the work teams have been scaled back, our sources of information are even fewer.”

To suppress bandits, you need intelligence on them. Xue Ziliang proposed setting up an intelligence center in the command post.

“All intelligence on bandits, regardless of the source, will be consolidated and analyzed at this center.”

“Do we need to send out intelligence agents? We don’t have a special budget for that. Besides, intelligence gathering should be the responsibility of the Intelligence Bureau or the Political Security Bureau, right?”

Xue Ziliang shook his head. “Your thinking is too rigid. What I mean by intelligence gathering is not that we need professional spies like 007. It’s about integrating an intelligence collection and analysis system to gather information on bandits and the social situation from multiple channels.”

“As for the sources of intelligence, first, select some work team members and soldiers with local accents to go out and gather information. Second, question captives and local people for intelligence. Finally, the observations of the work teams and patrols you send out are also of great value. There is no shortage of intelligence; what is lacking is the analysis and consolidation of it!”

“Alright. How about you take charge of this?”

“OK,” Xue Ziliang agreed without hesitation. “I’ll need a few dedicated rooms and some manpower. Also, the Political Security special agent needs to cooperate with my work—he has at least received basic training in intelligence gathering and interrogation.”

“That can all be arranged.”

Yu Zhiqian continued, “We are preparing to expand the armed patrols and equip each patrol with adequate communication means. Besides radios, we’ll have dogs and pigeons.”

These armed patrols would have a strength of 60-100 men and would regularly patrol between several work teams. The mission of the patrols was to clear out all bandits between the work team locations and prevent new bandits from entering the area. If a work team ran into trouble, they would signal with smoke, and the armed patrol would provide support. Only when the patrol itself couldn’t handle the situation would they use the radio to call for headquarters’ support.

“Small patrols suffer heavy losses in ambushes and encounter battles,” Xue Ziliang shook his head. “We are not the US military. Our mobility and weapon projection capabilities are far inferior.”

Ambushes on covered roads, where the enemy could get close before attacking, were a common tactic for inferior guerrilla forces. In the Danzhou of this era, whether in the mountains or on the plains, there were plenty of places to set up an ambush. If the enemy used hit-and-run tactics, even with bows and arrows and old-fashioned firearms, they could inflict effective casualties on the patrols from within fifty paces, using cover.