Nowadays, no one must not know the story of the Long March when the Red Army climbed snowy mountains and crossed the meadows, on the long march road, the soldiers of the Red Army fought classic battles, but today I want to talk to you about a fierce battle in the early days of the Long March, the Battle of the Xiangjiang River.
Since 1934, although our army has successively broken through the enemy's three blockade lines, it has also exposed the strategic intention of a major transfer, and the Kuomintang has gathered 400,000 troops and carefully set up a fourth blockade line along the Xiang River in an attempt to take advantage of natural dangers to annihilate our army on the east bank of the Xiang River in one fell swoop.
In November 1934, the Party Central Committee issued an operational order to forcibly cross the Xiang River and made specific arrangements, and Chen Shuxiang, the commander of the Red 34th Division, on behalf of the commanders and fighters of the whole division, accepted the combat task given by Dong Zhentang, commander of the Red 5th Army, and Liu Bocheng, chief of staff: resolutely block the pursuing enemy, cover the crossing of the River by the Red 8th Army, and in case of being cut off by the enemy, immediately return to Shonan to develop guerrilla warfare.
Since its founding, the Red 34th Division has made many military achievements, and since the long march from Xingguo, it has completed the arduous task of blocking the enemy many times, and after accepting the order, Chen Shuxiang led the whole division to march to the Xiang River at the rate of fire, and frequently exchanged fire with the pursuing enemy.
In order to allow the main force and the central authorities to successfully cross the river, on November 27, Chen Shuxiang also deployed troops on the line from the water wheel from Guanyang to Wenshi in Guangxi to block the pursuing enemy.
On the 28th, the Kuomintang's three-way army was pressed from the east, south, and north, and the Red 34th Division was attacked on three sides, but Chen Shuxiang was calm and self-assured, commanding the whole division to stubbornly resist the enemy.
The Red 34th Division stubbornly resisted the attack of tens of thousands of enemies, but in the blink of an eye, the Kuomintang troops used a large number of aircraft to take turns to bomb and strafe at low altitudes, and also blocked the river surface and covered the ground troops, and the dense shells poured like a rainstorm on the fortifications built by the Red Army with mud.
In order to allow the main force of the Red Army to successfully cross the river, all the soldiers of the 34th Division gritted their teeth and vowed to fight the enemy to the end, when the bunkers of the Red Army soldiers were blown up one by one, but they still dared to fight with the enemy who rushed up, and when the bullets ran out, they fought with bayonets, and the soldiers fell one batch after another, but always followed in front of them and stuck to their positions.
Chen Shuxiang knew very well that the longer the blockade battle was fought, the safer the main force would be, so the 34th Division led by him was like a nail in the position, fighting with the enemy for three full days and nights, and in the early morning of the 30th, Chen Shuxiang learned that the Red 8th Army had successfully crossed the Xiang River, and he could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
However, at this time, the road to the west of the troops was cut off by the enemy, still surrounded on three sides, the situation was extremely severe, looking at the tired, hungry and cold soldiers, Chen Shuxiang was very emotional, the whole division of more than 4,000 people, now a bloody battle, only less than a thousand people remained.
In order to lead the troops to break through, Chen Shuxiang went north along the east bank of the Xiang River and arrived in Jeonju, Guangxi, and on December 1, the Kuomintang troops had already deployed four divisions on the east bank of the Xiang River and two divisions on the west bank, completely blocking the crossings along the Xiang River from Dong'an in the north to Xin'an in the south.
When Chen Shuxiang tried to cross the river from The Mouth of the Phoenix, he was once again met with fierce resistance from two divisions of the Gui Army, chen Shuxiang had a premonition that this was the last chance, so he ordered all of them to go light, and all the confidential documents were burned, but after several charges, Chen Shuxiang failed to take the road points along the river.
During the battle, political commissar Cheng Cuilin was heroically sacrificed, and by this time the enemy had formed a four-sided encirclement in a vain attempt to annihilate the Red 34th Division in one fell swoop.
Chen Shuxiang urgently convened a meeting of party members of the division headquarters, and he said two decisions: First, to find the enemy's weak belt to break through, to fight a guerrilla attack in Shonan, and second, if the breakthrough fails, the last drop of blood should be shed for the revolution.
At this time, the team was less than 700 people, Chen Shuxiang decided to divide the troops into two ways to break through, one led by the regimental commander Han Wei more than 200 people to cover the breakthrough of the division headquarters, as a result, they encountered a large number of enemy siege attacks in the direction of Liu Muqing, resulting in the heroic sacrifice of most of the fighters and the loss of a small number of people.
More than 400 people led by Chen Shuxiang and Chief of Staff Wang Guangdao successfully broke through to the empty shuyan village in Shonan Province, where they were supplied and mobilized many Yao youths to join the Red Army.
Soon the local security regiment heard the news, in order to preserve the vitality, Chen Shuxiang retreated to a small river in Jianghua County, but was blocked, this river is called the Muzi River, the river surface is not wide, at that time in the winter sun, the white mist rising from the water surface is slowly dissipating, and the ferry port is empty, only a small boat tied to the river.
Chen Shuxiang, who had rich combat experience, felt that the dense forest on both sides of the river seemed particularly silent, and he judged that there was a high probability that there would be an ambush in this area, so he ordered him to prepare for battle and forcibly cross the Muzi River.
However, when the soldiers boarded the boat and reached the position in the center of the river, there was a sudden burst of gunfire on both sides of the strait, and Chen Shuxiang urged the soldiers to fight hard to cross the river while leading the troops to return fire, and just when the small boat was about to dock, a bullet suddenly hit Chen Shuxiang's abdomen at some point, and he was bleeding on the spot.
Gritting his teeth, Chen Shuxiang pressed the wound with a belt, and after landing on the shore, the soldiers made a simple stretcher and carried Chen Xiangshu away, but because the wound was not bandaged, coupled with the rugged mountain road, Chen Shuxiang lost too much blood and fell into a coma.
When the soldiers broke through to the Donkey Horse Bridge, the county's security regiment had already surrounded them, and gunshots rang out everywhere, which also woke up the unconscious Chen Shuxiang, but he did not panic, but immediately ordered: Comrades, you rush to break through, I will cover you.
Without waiting for the other warriors to react, he had already raised his gun and attacked the enemy.
"Division commander, division commander...."..."
The warriors' hearts were like knives, and no one wanted to leave, which made Chen Shuxiang very anxious, he roared: Go fast, leave me alone, the 34th Division must leave seeds and preserve the living force.
The soldiers woke up, rushed out of the breakthrough under the command of Wang Guangdao's chief of staff, and seized the opposite hill, and when Chen Shuxiang retreated to a broken temple on the side of the road, he continued to use firepower to attract the enemy and cover the retreat of his comrades.
The bullet ran out, Chen Shuxiang let the guards support him, he walked out of the temple door, calmly, for a while the enemy was shocked and did not dare to come forward.
He Xiang, the battalion commander of the Daoxian Security Regiment, was ecstatic when he heard that a Red Army division commander had been arrested, and he hurriedly asked Chen Shuxiang to be brought in, but because the interrogation and inducement were fruitless, He Xiang sent Chen Shuxiang to the county security regiment headquarters to receive a reward.
In order not to be a prisoner, Chen Shuxiang actually took advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation, personally tore open the intestines, and sacrificed heroically, only 29 years old.
In general, although the Xiangjiang Campaign crushed the enemy's plan to encircle and annihilate our army, the fierceness of the battle led to the direct reduction of the main force from more than 86,000 people to 30,000 people, and lost nearly 56,000 people.
After the Red 34th Division fought this battle, the division commander Chen Shuxiang and the political commissar Cheng Cuilin were sacrificed one after another, and the Red 34th Division finally survived less than 500 people.