In the early days of the Red Army, there were some very outstanding generals who played a very important role at that time, such as Wang Erzhuo, Huang Gongluo and Wu Zhonghao. The protagonist of this article, Wang Erzhuo, has the main revolutionary experience of being the commander of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of the Red Fourth Army, and the two people our party can fight the most (personally believe) Lin Biao and Su Yu are his battalion commanders and company commanders. On August 25, 1928, Wang Erzhuo was shot and killed by Yuan Chongquan, the second battalion commander of Huangpu's classmates and subordinates, at the age of 25. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou Enlai inspected the Museum of The Chinese Revolution, which was under construction, and when he found that there were no photographs of Wang Erzhuo, he told the staff around him very anxiously: "We must do everything possible to collect Wang Erzhuo's photographs." The historical status of a regimental leader who died very early can still get the attention of the Prime Minister of the Republic 20 years after his death.
1. Sending "heavy gifts" to the Nanchang Uprising
Wang Erzhuo was a first-term student of Huangpu and was deeply valued by Zhou Enlai, director of the Political Department. During the Northern Expedition, he served as a party representative and director of the political department of the Third Division of the Third Army (the commander of which was Zhu Peide of the Dian Army). Of course, during the period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the director of the political department of the Kuomintang army at the same level and the director of the political department of the later communist army were not the same. After Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup in 1927, many troops were in the Qing Communists, and Zhang Fakui's Fourth Army of the Cantonese Army was more sympathetic to the Communists and took in many Communists who were cleared by Chiang Kai-shek. In July, Wang Erzhu accepted the party's dispatch and served as the commander of the heavy machine gun company of the 74th Regiment of the 25th Division of Zhang Fakui's Fourth Army. Before the uprising, the party specially sent Nie Rongzhen to Mahuiling in Jiujiang, where the Twenty-fifth Division was located, to pull the ranks of the Twenty-fifth Division as far as possible. The commander of the Twenty-fifth Division, Li Hanling, was a hardcore of Zhang Fakui, and it was unrealistic to want to win the uprising of the whole division, and the division had 3 regiments under its jurisdiction, of which the Seventy-third Regiment (regimental commander Zhou Shidi) had more Communists, which was a force that had to be pulled over. Wang Erzhuo's Seventy-Fourth Regiment does not have many party members, and it is how much they can pull. As the commander of the heavy machine gun company, Wang Erzhu led the whole company to participate in the Nanchang uprising, and the "heavy machine gun," a weapon that made the opponent shudder, was thus handed over to the party, which greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the uprising.
2. Follow Zhu Deli to turn the tide
After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, Wang Erzhuo went south to Guangdong with his troops, and his Twenty-fifth Division was under the command of Zhu De, deputy commander of the Ninth Army, and remained in Sanheba in Dapu County, Guangdong Province. People's hearts were scattered, the contingent was not easy to carry, every day some people deserted, even division commanders and party representatives left the ranks, and finally only more than 800 people were left, and the leading cadres were only Zhu De, deputy commander, Chen Yi, instructor of the Seventy-third Regiment, and Wang Erzhuo, commander of the Seventy-fourth Regiment. Although Zhu De was a deputy commander, he did not have his own soldiers, and everyone respected him only because he was an old comrade; Chen Yi was a political work cadre and had never brought soldiers, and at that time everyone still hated the political work cadres more, thinking that they would just play tricks; Wang Erzhuo was different, he was the leader of the main regiment, and he was the senior of many officers, and he enjoyed high prestige in the ranks, and if he picked another one, this team was estimated to really disperse. Zhu De began to reorganize the team in Dayu County, Gannan Province, and the team that was on the verge of dispersing was condensed again, and without the support of Wang Erzhuo, it was estimated that it would be difficult to succeed by relying only on Zhu De and Chen Yi, two of my "outsiders.". In this sense, Wang Erzhuo was extremely credited with preserving the revolutionary flame of the Nanchang uprising. Wang Erzhuo followed Zhu De to Gannan in a difficult environment, because he was busy all day, he could not take care of his haircut for several months, and his beard grew long. Once, He Changgong joked with him: You are now full of beards, almost like Marx. Wang Erzhuo replied with a smile: "If the revolution is not successful, I will not shave my head or shave my beard!" Since then, the 24-year-old Wang Erzhuo has a title of "Beautiful Hair Duke", and has not shaved his beard until his sacrifice.
3. Arch guard the backbone of Jinggangshan
After Zhu and Mao Jinggangshan joined the division, the Red Fourth Army was formed, with Zhu De as the commander, Mao Zedong as the party representative and secretary of the Central Military Commission, and Wang Erzhu as the chief of staff, which was initially organized into 6 regiments. In late May, the 30th and 33rd regiments returned to Shonan to carry out guerrilla warfare, and the troops at Jinggangshan were the 28th Regiment (composed of the remnants of the Nanchang Rebel Army), the 29th Regiment (composed of the Xiangnan Yizhang Peasant Army), the 31st Regiment (composed of the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops on the border of Xianggan), and the 32nd Regiment (composed of Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo's troops), totaling more than 6,000 people. Wang Erzhuo is also the commander of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of the Red Fourth Army, with more than 1,900 people in the regiment, many of whom graduated from the first, second, third, and fourth phases of Huangpu, and have the highest military quality, the strongest combat effectiveness, and the ability to fight hard battles in the Red Army. In May and June 1928, in the battles of Wudou river, Caoshi pass and Longyuankou, Wang Erzhu led the 28th regiment to win three battles, making important contributions to the consolidation and development of the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area.
Battle of Wudou River
In late April 1928, the Jiangxi warlord Zhu Peide ordered Yang Ruxuan's 27th Division to attack Jinggangshan with Yongxincheng as a base. Yongxin County is geographically important and is the largest county in the base area. Therefore, it was a contested place for the Red Army to carry out armed division and create and expand the Red regime in the middle of the Luoxiao Mountains. After Yang Ruxuan entered Yongxin, he ordered his 10th Regiment to defend the city, the 79th Regiment to attack Ninggang by Longyuankou, and the 81st Regiment detoured to Huang'ao, south of Jinggang Mountain, forming a two-way attack on Jinggang Mountain. Zhu De, Chen Yi, and Wang Erzhu led the 28th and 29th regiments as the main attackers to meet the enemy's 81st regiment; Mao Zedong and He Tingying led the 31st regiment to the Qixi Ridge at the junction of Ninggang and Yongxin to block the enemy's 79th regiment. Zhu De and Wang Erzhuo, led by the Twenty-ninth Regiment, marched towards Huang'ao, followed by the Twenty-eighth Regiment. At eight o'clock in the morning, the Twenty-ninth Regiment went straight down the Yanggu Trail down the Yellow Pass, and as soon as it came out of the mountain pass, it encountered a vanguard battalion of the enemy's Eighty-first Regiment. The Red Twenty-ninth Regiment was reorganized by the Shonan Peasant Army that participated in the Shonan Nianguan Rebellion, and its weapons and equipment were very poor, with more than 1,600 people in the regiment, only more than 200 guns, and the rest were shuttle marks and large knives. Zhou Tiren, commander of the enemy's Eighty-first Regiment, heard that the weapons held by the Red Army were all shuttle markers, and thought that they were "small groups of red bandits, not enough to be troubled," so he gathered the whole regiment and went straight to the Wudou River and Huang'ao. Where did he know that what awaited them was the Red Twenty-eighth Regiment, which had experienced hundreds of battles. Under the command of Wang Erzhuo, chief of staff of the Red Fourth Army and commander of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, the enemy was defeated. The first victory of the division was achieved, and the morale was greatly increased. Zhu De and Wang Erzhuo led their troops to pursue yongxin in one breath, taking advantage of the victory to occupy Yongxin City for the first time.
Caoshi Pass ambush battle
On May 13, 1928, the Gansu enemy launched a third "offensive" against the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area, and Zhu Peide, chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Government, ordered Yang Ruxuan to lead the entire 27th Division and Retake Yongxin by Ji'an. After Yang Ruxuan entered Yongxin this time, he did not move. Smoke too much with your aunt and wife all day, or invite rich and powerful people to play mahjong with you to take advantage of the opportunity to accumulate wealth. Yongxin County, as an important barrier in the base area, allows others to sleep peacefully on the side of the bed. Mao Zedong and Zhu De knew that they could not fight the enemy hard, and it was better to lure the enemy out and annihilate them separately, and after careful planning, on May 18, the Twenty-eighth Regiment and the Thirty-first Regiment and one battalion advanced toward Gaolong in three ways. Gaolong is a traffic pass leading to Lianhua, Yongxin, Ninggang and other places in Jiangxi, known as the "throat of the tea tomb". The Red Army's rush to attack Gaolong did mobilize the enemy stationed in Yongxin, Yang Ruxuan did not know that this was a strategy of "attacking the west from the east", and attempted to take advantage of the false situation to occupy Ninggang, and at the same time ordered Liu Anhua, the commander of the Seventy-ninth Regiment, to go to Xixiang, and Yang Ruxuan led the division headquarters and a special agent battalion to sit in Yongxin County to command and supervise the battle. After the enemy army was transferred, Zhu De led the Red Twenty-eighth Regiment and the Thirty-first Regiment and a battalion to the east, rushed to Yongxin, and directly attacked the lair of Yang Ruxuan's division. On the evening of the 18th, Wang Erzhuo's Twenty-eighth Regiment rushed to Yongxin Huantian and set up an ambush at Caoshi Pass. The next day, the Seventy-ninth Regiment swung into its pockets, the regimental commander was killed on the spot, and the rest fled. Wang Erzhu led his troops to advance with victory and approached Yongxin City. At this time, Yang Ruxuan was listening to the gramophone in Yongxin City, and when he heard that the Seventy-ninth Regiment had lost and that the Red Army had attacked the city, he did not believe it at all. It wasn't until the gunshots rang out and the bullets hit the roof that Yang Ruxuan hurriedly changed into civilian clothes and fled. In the chaos, a stray bullet hit Yang Ruxuan, and although he was lucky not to die, he did not dare to fight anymore. Several guards set up Yang Ruxuan and fled to Ji'an. The Red Army occupied Yongxin.
Longyuankou victory
In mid-June 1928, Zhu Peide, chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Government, was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to reinvigorate his strength and, with Yang Chisheng, commander of the Ninth Division, as the commander-in-chief, led 3 regiments of the Ninth Division, plus two regiments of Yang Ruxuan's 27th Division, a total of 5 regiments, attacked Yongxin from Ji'an and launched the fourth "offensive and suppression" to the Jinggangshan base area. At the same time, the Second Division of the Eighth Army of the Xiang enemy Wu Shang was also transferred from Pingjiang to defend Youxian County to strengthen the defense of the Red Army on the Xianggan border. Faced with the enemy's coming, the Red Fourth Army retreated from Yongxin to Ninggang, the center of the base area. According to the battle arrangement, Zhu De led the 29th Regiment and a battalion of the 31st Regiment to set up an ambush at the New Qixi Ridge, Wang Erzhu led the 28th Regiment to set up an ambush at the Old Qixi Ridge, and Yuan Wencai led the 32nd Regiment to set up an ambush at the altar of martial arts.
Qixiling, also known as Lianggongling, is a group of mountains stretching across the north of Ninggang, and the new and old Qixiling are left and right, like two iron gates, guarding the base camp of the base area. Each of the two hills has a path spiraling upwards to the new city of Ninggang. After the battle began, when the Twenty-ninth Regiment had just occupied the commanding heights of the New Seven Streams Ridge, such as Wangyueting and Windmill Pass, the enemy had already been killed, and the Twenty-ninth Regiment had rushed to the battle before even building the fortifications. The situation of the Twenty-eighth Regiment was even worse, when it reached the Old Seven Streams Ridge, the enemy had already preemptively occupied the commanding heights of the Hundred Steps Pier, and Wang Erzhuo could only command the troops to attack upwards, suffering a big loss in terrain. Wang Er saw that the terrain was unfavorable and the twenty-eighth regiment was mostly short weapons, and did not blindly command the charge. He selected more than 100 combat-experienced and hill-climbing commanders and fighters, let them carry short weapons, and divided them into groups to take advantage of the dim light in the early morning to rush along the enemy's shooting dead end to the hundred-step pier. Because the commandos were swift and multi-pronged, several clusters successfully entered the enemy's positions and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. A small number of commandos were invincible in the large number of enemy positions, and with one to ten, they successfully ensured that the large troops could climb the hundred-step pier. After more than 1 hour of fierce fighting, the enemy was overwhelmed, and the rolling belt climbed down the mountain.
In the New Seven Streams Ridge, although our army preemptively occupied a favorable position, the enemy, armed with his own equipment, carried out crazy fire suppression of the positions of the Red Fourth Army. Due to the fierce enemy fire, the 29th Regiment was still captured by the enemy after repelling several enemy charges at the windmill mouth. Seeing the enemy's stormtroopers along the ridge line towards the Wangyue Pavilion, where the command post was located, Zhu De personally grabbed a gun and led 3 fighters down from the Wangyue Pavilion. The surrounding soldiers, encouraged by the heroism of the commander, jumped out of their positions and rushed toward the enemy despite the rain of bullets and bullets. Under the leadership of Zhu De, the officers and men of the Red 29 Regiment finally repelled the enemy and reoccupied the windmill mouth. In this counter-attack, Jude charged forward and was almost hit in the head by two stray bullets. At that time, the bullets flew over Jude's scalp, and two streams of green smoke suddenly appeared from his octagonal military hat. After the war, When Zhu De took off his hat, the military hat left two bullet holes.
When the main force of the Red Fourth Army in the new and old Qixi Ridge drove the enemy down the mountain and took advantage of the victory to surround the enemy in Longyuankou Village, the 32nd Regiment ambushed in the martial arts altar also took the enemy's headquarters and wounded Yang Chisheng. Yang Chisheng saw that the general situation had gone, so he had to order his troops to break through, and he himself fled to Yongxin. In this way, the Red Army annihilated 1 regiment of the enemy at Longyuankou with less than 3 regiments of strength, defeated 2 regiments of the enemy, and then pursued the fleeing enemy, and recaptured the county town of Yongxin, smashing the "joint suppression" that Chiang Kai-shek had painstakingly planned. The Great Victory at Longyuankou was a famous example of the Jinggangshan base area winning more battles with less, and had a huge impact on the development of the base area, after which the Jinggangshan base area entered its heyday.
3. Defeat of Shonan
On June 26, 1928, the Communist Party of China's Hunan Provincial Delegates Du Xiujing and Yang Kaiming both came to the border and instructed the Red Fourth Army to leave the base camp and "immediately develop towards Shonan.") On the evening of July 12, the 29th Regiment, under the pretext that the Hunan Provincial Party Committee had an order for the Fourth Army to go to Shonan, secretly decided to sail to Shonan on the 13th without concealing the Central Military Commission and its superior commanders! The Twenty-ninth Regiment was composed of the Xiangnan Yizhang Peasant Army. Since the "Nianguan Riot" in 1928, it has been nearly half a year, and many people have a strong sense of homesickness. On the 15th, Zhu De and Chen Yi presided over an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission in Qiudu, Shuxian County, to do persuasion work and try to keep the 29th Regiment at Jinggangshan. Du Xiujing, a representative of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee who accompanied the army, not only did not come forward to work, but instigated the 29th Regiment to go to Shonan. In order to conform to the military's will, avoid the red army brigade from splitting and embarking on the extreme road, and also worried that the twenty-ninth regiment would go deep alone and risk being broken by the enemy, Zhu De asked the twenty-eighth regiment to go with him to attack the important town of Chenzhou in southern Shonan.
Zhu De knew that the enemy army stationed in Chenzhou was Fan Shisheng's Sixteenth Army. After the defeat of the main force of the Nanchang Uprising in Chaoshan Province, Zhu De led the remnants of the Nanchang Uprising to fight for thousands of miles, and at the time of crisis, he received sincere help from Fan Shisheng, and Zhu Bu was able to tide over the difficulties. Later, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram ordering Li Jishen, chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government, to solve Zhu Bu's problem, and Fan Shisheng secretly revealed the news to Zhu De, allowing Zhu De to lead his troops out of danger. Now, the Red Army brigade has gone to Shonan and attacked fan shi, a friendly army in the past, and has not fallen into a notoriety of being unjust and ungrateful?
On July 23, Red Army soldiers approached Yashiping outside Chenzhou. Early in the morning of the 24th, the officers and men of the Red Twenty-ninth Regiment did not know whether they were eager for revenge or wanted to take the lead, and they did not even reconnoiter or study the enemy's situation, so they began to attack. By the time Zhu De, Chen Yi, and Wang Erzhu arrived at Yashiping, the battle had already begun. Zhang Hao, commander of the Forty-sixth Division of the Sixteenth Army of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Chenzhou, was confused by the surprise attack of the Red Army. He knew that the troops who came to attack were Zhu De's Red Fourth Army, and he also knew the relationship between Zhu and Fan Shisheng and the Old Testament, and he thought that the Red Army's attack was Zhu Bu passing through Chenzhou and obstructing the reasons of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, so he ordered the supplementary regiment to retreat. The supplementary regiment retreated without a fight. The Twenty-ninth Regiment did not know the inside story, thinking that it was a cowardly battle against the enemy, so it attacked more and more bravely. For a moment, the guns were raining down, covering the sky and the ground, and the soldiers of the replenishment regiment fell one by one. The brave impact of the Twenty-ninth Regiment made Zhang Hao angry and wanted to ask Shi Sheng to demonstrate, and Fan went to Guangzhou again. Faced with the requests of his subordinates and the casualties of his soldiers, this young and fierce division commander immediately ordered the four regiments stationed at Suxian Bridge to march from the north of the city to the county seat. After the Twenty-ninth Regiment entered the city, the soldiers ran wildly from east to west, and many people left the fighting group without permission and went to the streets to cut hair and eat. In the evening, the enemy began to counterattack, and the twenty-ninth regiment was attacked on its stomach and back, and the situation was very critical.
Zhu De, Chen Yi, and Wang Erzhuo heard the news and urgently ordered the Red Twenty-eighth Regiment to rush to reinforcements, blocking the enemy troops who were counterattacking from the direction of Suxian Bridge to the county seat. The fighting was fierce, and the Red Army suffered heavy casualties. In the face of an enemy several times larger than mine, it was necessary to suffer losses if they were hard, so Zhu De and others issued an order to retreat to Zixing while fighting. When the Red Army brigade retreated to the Dongjiang River in Chenzhou, the number of people was counted, and only more than 100 people were left in the contingent of more than 1,000 people in the twenty-ninth regiment, and the formation was destroyed. Only Hu Shaohai and Gong Chu returned with a few people from one or two dozen communications personnel and a small number of special agent companies, and a company led by Xiao Ke (sixty or seventy people) was slightly more completely formed. The Twenty-eighth Regiment also suffered some losses, but the basic contingent was intact and well-organized.
In the First World War of Chenzhou, our army "won first and then lost, and withdrew from the battle" and suffered heavy losses. The Red Twenty-Ninth Regiment has since ceased to exist. The history of this incident is called "August Failure".
4. Fall under the muzzle of one's own people's guns
After the "August Defeat", Mao Zedong personally led the three battalions of the Thirty-first Regiment on a journey to Shonan to welcome back the main force of the Red Army. On August 23, the three battalions of the 31st Regiment led by Mao Zedong met the 28th Regiment led by Zhu De and Chen Yi at the county seat of Guidong County. Mao Zedong was very happy to see Zhu De, Chen Yi, and other military leaders, and to see that the main force of the Red Twenty-Eighth Regiment had suffered little losses. Zhu De, Chen Yi, Wang Erzhuo, and others were also very happy and moved. They did not expect that the Mao Party representatives would personally lead troops to Shonan to find and greet them. After the Zhumao troops met in front of the village, they also moved to Jinggangshan. What made the Red Army soldiers sad was that on the way back to the division, there was a tragedy of Wang Erzhuo's death.
On August 25, when the Red Fourth Army withdrew from Guidongzhai Qianwei to bypass Chongyi and return to Jinggangshan, the vanguard was served by four infantry companies of the second battalion of the Red 28th Regiment, as well as the machine artillery company and mortar company of the regimental headquarters, all led by Yuan Chongquan, commander of the second battalion.
Since the withdrawal of troops from Chenzhou, some officers and men of the Twenty-eighth Regiment have had some views on Yuan Chongquan, the commander of the Second Battalion. During the battle in Chenzhou, the third battalion and the enemy fought fiercely, and the regimental commander Wang Erzhuo ordered the second battalion to go to reinforcements, but the battalion commander Yuan Chongquan pretended not to hear, and fortunately the three battalions withdrew quickly, otherwise the whole battalion would be destroyed. When the troops retreated to Putian wei in Guidong, someone found that Yuan Chongquan wanted to take another route to break away from the brigade. Even Zhu De and the Central Military Commission felt that he was unreliable in all his deeds and decided to transfer his work. However, after entering Guidong, he was busy fighting local tycoons, mobilizing the masses, and dividing troops everywhere, and it was too late to carry out the implementation.
Yuan Chongquan did have a rebellious heart. The hard life of Jinggangshan, he could not stand it for a long time. After withdrawing from Shonan, he had been looking for opportunities to try to pull away the 6 companies he had mastered and defect to Liu Shiyi, the enemy's independent Seventh Division in Gannan Province. Yuan Chongquan's deeds aroused the suspicion of He Ducai, the party representative of the machine gun company, Zhao Erlu, the representative of the Sixth Company, and Su Yu, the commander of the fourth company. It was decided to quietly take away the four companies that Yuan Chongquan could not grasp and return to the military headquarters, but there were still 2 companies that followed Yuan Chongquan. When Zhu De heard that Yuan Chongquan was trying to rebel, he was very angry, and Lin Biao, commander of the first battalion of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, immediately concluded that Yuan Chongquan had no medicine to save and advocated a solution by force. However, the regimental commander Wang Erzhuo did not believe that his subordinates, disciples, and fellow villagers would defect, believing that they could "chase them back", and took the initiative to ask the 28th Regiment and the first battalion to go after Yuan Chongquan. When Wang Erzhuo and his troops arrived at Xindiwei, Yuan Chongquan had already wrapped up five companies and mortar companies and went to Chongyi Sishunwei. Wang Erzhuo immediately followed Si Shunwei. By this time, it was nearly dusk. As soon as he heard that Yuan Chongquan was here, Wang Erzhuo rushed into the village with a guard platoon. "I'm The Regiment Leader Wang Erzhuo, and I'm here to pick you up!" Wang Erzhu shouted and walked. Many of the soldiers of the Fifth Company and the Mortar Company who were coerced heard the voice of the regimental commander and quickly returned to Wang Erzhuo's side. At this time, Yuan Chongquan, Juniper and several other leaders were playing mahjong in the ancestral hall of the village, and when they heard that Wang Erzhuo had led a battalion to come, they were terrified.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Chongquan, who had lost his humanity, rushed out with two guns in his hand and fired several shots at Wang Erzhuo, who was standing outside the ancestral hall and was not hidden! Wang Erzhu fell in response and died on the spot. The soldiers of the guard platoon saw the death of the regimental commander and hurriedly opened fire on Yuan Chongquan. Yuan took advantage of the night to run out of the village and deceived one of the platoons that had sentry away. Later, Yuan Chongquan really defected to Liu Shiyi's department. Wang Erzhuo's sacrifice made Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi, and others who arrived later very sad. Zhu De hugged Wang Erzhuo's corpse and cried bitterly. Although Si Shun's trip recovered two companies, he broke a general.
After the Red Fourth Army returned to Ninggang, Mao Zedong and Zhu De held a solemn memorial meeting for Wang Erzhu on the sandbar in The City of Chang. Four big words were written on the mourning door: Red Tide Surging Tide. Mao Zedong personally drew up a pair of ties for the love of the general, and pasted it on both sides with cotton, expressing the deep feelings of remembrance of the generals of the whole army:
One cries Erzhuo, the second cries Erzhuo, Erzhu is now eternal, but the responsibility of staying is unbearable;
Born as a class, die as a class, how to think of class, get the beginning of the Peace.