Chapter 11: The War Plan (Part 2)

In the first phase of the Liangguang campaign, the focus of operations will be on the western and central routes of Guangdong, especially to ensure the occupation of the various prefectures and counties in the Pearl River Delta region.

After completing the occupation of the Pearl River Delta, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will be immediately transferred to Hong Kong to cooperate with the navy in launching an amphibious operation against Chaoshan at an opportune moment, and to annihilate the forces under the command of the Ming Guangdong Vice-General on Nan’ao Island.

IV. Forces to be Used

The army forces to be used for this operation will consist of a backbone of 6 battalions of field infantry, 12 companies of field artillery, 2 companies of siege artillery, 3 companies of engineers, and other directly subordinate units as required. The distribution and operational areas of these forces are tentatively as follows:

• Central Route Army, 1st Brigade: With a backbone of 2 battalions, it will operate on the central route of Guangdong in the Guangzhou area, with the final objective being Lechang in northern Guangdong.
• Left Route Army, 2nd Brigade: With a backbone of 3 battalions, it will operate on the western route of Guangdong in the Zhaoqing-Wuzhou area, with the final objective being Wuzhou on the border of Guangdong and Guangxi.
• Right Route Army, 3rd Brigade: With a backbone of 2 battalions (one of which will be incorporated after completing other combat tasks), it will cooperate with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in operations on the eastern route of Guangdong in the Chaoshan area, with the final objective being the Xianxia Mountains on the border of Fujian and Guangdong.

Naval Forces: The entire 1st Fleet, and the entire Sanya and Kaohsiung Garrison Areas of the Coast Guard. A new Pearl River Task Force will also be established.

• The 1st Fleet, based in Kaohsiung, will conduct power patrols along the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong to deter possible military intervention by the Dutch and Spanish, and to completely suppress the Zheng clan group in Xiamen.
• If armed intervention by the Dutch is encountered during the operation, war will be declared immediately.
• The Sanya and Kaohsiung Garrison Area fleets will cooperate with the 1st Fleet’s patrol and blockade operations.
• The Pearl River Task Force will be responsible for fire support and troop transport for operations in the Pearl River’s inland waterways.

National Army Forces:

• With the militia of the Hong Kong Agricultural Reclamation Regiment as the backbone, a Guangdong National Army training corps will be formed to serve as the basic seed for the future National Army in various counties of Guangdong.
• Korean Detachment: 4 companies of the White Horse Team.
• Japanese Detachment: 2 companies.
• Li and Miao Mountain Auxiliary Infantry: 3 companies.

Forces directly under the General Staff:

• General Reconnaissance Bureau Special Reconnaissance Brigade: 2 detachments.

The Army, Navy, and Joint Logistics Command will establish a joint forward command in Hong Kong to unify the command of all military operations.

Next is the outline of the administrative implementation plan for the occupied areas.

The total area of Guangdong and parts of Guangxi to be occupied is approximately 250,000 square kilometers, with a population of about 10 million. The administrative management of these areas must closely follow the combat operations. The joint meeting has decided on the following administrative implementation plan for the occupied areas.

“Key Points for the Administrative Implementation in the Occupied Areas of Liangguang”

First Policy:

For the occupied areas, military administration will be temporarily implemented to restore public order, quickly obtain important national defense resources, and ensure the supply of combat troops.

Second Key Point:

1. When implementing military administration, the remaining ruling institutions and organizations will be temporarily utilized, as long as they can perform basic civil functions. They should not be easily changed.
2. The duration of military administration will depend on the local public security situation and the receiving capacity of the civil affairs departments. The basic policy is to stabilize one area and take over one area. The specific timetable will be designated by the civil administrator appointed by the Senate.
3. Spoils of war obtained in the occupied areas should first be sealed, then inventoried and registered by the personnel of the Planning Council’s special search team accompanying the army, reported to the joint logistics forward command, and incorporated into the overall material plan. As for the materials needed by the combat troops for local replenishment, they will be allocated on paper according to the above distribution plan. For materials ordered to be shipped back by the Planning Council, the army and navy should provide the greatest convenience.
4. Post stations, post roads, major bridges, wharves, government offices, official granaries, and charity granaries will be managed by the occupying forces.
5. The occupying forces will manage trade and exchange, especially to prevent important resources from flowing into enemy-occupied areas.
6. In principle, the occupying forces should use the original local currency or exchange goods recognized by the local people as much as possible. In emergencies, circulation coupons can be used for payment, but the exchange principles must be clearly explained, and the amount and location of use must be reported to the Planning Council for future exchange and recovery. The occupying forces themselves can also recover them when supplies are abundant.
7. With the exception of property owned by the Ming government offices, property clearly listed as belonging to “rebels,” and hostile elements who engage in armed resistance, the property of the general gentry, merchants, landlords, and common people will be protected and not arbitrarily confiscated. Local procurement will be paid for at a fair price.
8. When contacting local powerful figures such as gentry, clan leaders, and major merchants, they should be guided to cooperate with our military administration. For those who are unwilling to cooperate, appropriate measures should be taken to ensure they do not interfere with our actions.
9. Strictly enforce military discipline and severely deal with all cases of indiscipline. Appropriate relief can be provided to the local population to enhance their goodwill towards the Senate.
10. The military administration institutions will be gradually merged, adjusted, or taken over by new institutions established by the government.

The civil affairs department has a complete plan for taking over local political power. Since the number of naturalized citizen civil affairs cadres is a drop in the bucket for the whole of Guangdong, the Government Affairs Council has adopted a phased social transformation plan by dividing the region into zones when formulating the specific takeover plan.

The entire province of Guangdong will be divided into several regions. First, social transformation will be carried out in the core region, which is the fifteen counties and one prefecture under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty. This region will undergo a comprehensive social transformation, a complete “rebirth.” A modernized administrative structure and social structure, as currently implemented in Lin’gao, will be established. The original clerical class will be replaced by reliable naturalized citizen cadres—with the exception of a few who can be educated and retained, all will be purged.

Second are the pacification zones, which are generally prefectures and counties with developed economies, strategic locations, or transportation hubs. In this region, a relatively complete county-level structure will be established first, with a focus on transforming the towns within the county, adopting a gradual transformation model where the cities radiate to the countryside. When the time is ripe, a more radical social transformation will be carried out.

Finally are the security zones, which include all non-core and non-pacification prefectures and counties. For these prefectures and counties, a policy of maintaining the status quo will be temporarily adopted, continuing the Ming government’s model of not extending political power to the countryside. The administrative focus will be on suppressing armed rebellion, collecting taxes, levying labor, and obtaining local resources, without touching the local social order.

In the security zones, the original ruling institutions and administrative personnel should be fully utilized. It is acceptable to fully employ those old officials and local gentry who are willing to pledge allegiance to the Senate and have a better reputation. They can also be appointed to major administrative positions such as county magistrate as a transitional policy.

However, in the core and pacification zones, the appointment of old officials and gentry must be handled with caution, and they are generally not allowed to be appointed to important leadership positions.

As for the number of naturalized citizen cadres required to take over Guangdong, according to the estimates made by the TG at the end of the Liberation War when it was about to take over the Kuomintang-controlled areas and establish a new political power, the 500 counties required about 53,000 cadres at the five levels of central bureau, regional party committee, prefectural party committee, county party committee, and district party committee, as well as various cadres in large cities. Corresponding to a population of 160 million, this was about one cadre per 3,000 people, with less than 100 cadres allocated to each county.

The Government Affairs Council is now roughly following this standard for allocation. Since the population in the 17th century was much smaller than in the 20th century, and the Senate’s local administrative system adopts a two-level system of prefecture-county and township (town), no longer having the intermediate level of prefecture or “prefecture, city,” the number of cadres required will be even smaller.

The core region of Guangzhou Prefecture has 15 counties and 1 prefecture. At a rate of 100 cadres per county, 1,600 people are needed. The other counties also need to be equipped with 10 to 30 cadres depending on the situation. A rough calculation for the 7 prefectures and 75 counties of Guangdong shows that about 4,000 local cadres are needed.

To mobilize 4,000 local cadres is a bit of a pressure for the Senate. Before its national victory, the TG had already established local political power in hundreds of counties and had a large number of local cadres. By drawing a portion from each county, most of the needs could be met, and they could also accept old staff and recruit new cadres from students in the Kuomintang-controlled areas. Although the Senate has established county-level political power throughout Hainan Island, most of the counties in Hainan have very small populations, with most counties having a population of no more than 10,000, and administrative affairs are extremely limited, so the number of cadres allocated is naturally small. Apart from the few large counties with large populations such as Lin’gao, Qiongshan, Danzhou, and Wenchang, most counties can provide very few local cadres. Fortunately, the number of staff in the central ministries and commissions in Lin’gao is quite large, and a portion can be transferred to supplement the local cadres.

As for accepting old staff, the clerical class is a completely degenerate and corrupt special class. Most senators are very distrustful of them, and their local administrative skills, with a few exceptions, are incompatible with the Senate’s modern local administrative system and can be said to be completely useless. The Ming Dynasty also did not have students who had received modern primary and secondary education to recruit. The old intellectuals were both rare and their knowledge system was incompatible with modern civilization, so they were of little significance in supplementing the cadre team.

To raise these cadres, in addition to transferring 1,200 naturalized citizen cadres from various counties, central agencies, and state-owned enterprises, 300 older students from the Fangcaodi Academy’s primary school will be selected for immediate graduation and assigned to various agencies as administrative interns, to be trained as cadres for the north.

500 men and women with primary school diplomas or type B or C diplomas will be recruited from society and given accelerated administrative training. If not enough qualified personnel can be recruited, the requirement will be relaxed to include illiterates, but they must be under twenty-five years of age.

All older, militarily less-qualified, and physically less-fit personnel in the army and navy will be retired and transferred to the local cadre team to serve as armed cadres, ready for deployment. This group will consist of about four to five hundred people.

In addition, the local staff who originally worked for the Guangzhou station can also be converted into local cadres. This part is about two to three hundred people.

In total, about 3,000 cadres can be prepared for the Liangguang campaign. This can basically meet the cadre allocation needs of the core and pacification zones in the first phase.