The bloody battle of the Xiang River began and ended

In mid-November 1934, after breaking through the third blockade line of the Kuomintang army, the Central Red Army advanced from the south of Hunan Province to the north of Guangxi Province (present-day Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region). In order to annihilate the Central Red Army in the area east of the Xiang River, Chiang Kai-shek appointed He Jian as the commander-in-chief of the "pursuit and suppression" army, commanding 16 divisions and 77 regiments to concentrate on "pursuit and suppression" in five routes; he also ordered 5 divisions of the Gui Army to block the Red Army in Quanzhou, Xing'an, Guanyang, and other places; ordered 4 divisions of the Guangdong Army to enter the Guangdong-Xiang-Guibian border to prevent the Red Army from going south; and ordered Wang Jialie, commander-in-chief of the "Suppression of the Communists" in Guizhou Province, to send powerful troops to the Xiangqian border to intercept them, with a total strength of nearly 300,000 troops. At that time, Bogu (Qin Bangxian), the leader of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and Li De (also known as Waffle, formerly known as Otto Braun, a member of the German Communist Party) sent by the Comintern blindly retreated and fled, passively avoiding the battle, and in order to realize the plan of meeting the Red 2 and Red 6 Armies in western Hunan Province, it was decided that the Central Red Army would advance in two ways. Its deployment was: the Red 3rd and Red 8th Armies were the right column, advancing in the direction of Jiahe via Bohol And Qinghewei; the Red 1st and Red 9th Armies were the left columns, advancing towards Linwu and Lanshan via Umeda; the 1st and 2nd Columns of the Central Military Commission and the Red 5th Army were the central columns, and then followed. By the 25th, the Red Army had crossed Xiaoshui from Daoxian and Shuikou, and then, in order to mobilize the enemy, it sought an opportunity to cross the Xiang River and march westward into Yongming (present-day Jiangyong) with a force. Bai Chongxi, deputy commander-in-chief of the Gui Army, in order to prevent the Red Army from capturing Guilin, ordered his main force to move south to the area of Longhuguan and Gongcheng to prevent the Red Army from advancing westward and preventing Chiang Kai-shek's army from taking the opportunity to enter Guangxi. In this way, the first-line defenders of Jeonju and Xing'an were relatively weak. Accordingly, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission decided on the 25th that the Central Red Army should cross the Xiang River in four columns from Jeonju and Xing'an, break through the fourth blockade line of the Kuomintang army, and advance to the western extension area on the Xianggui border. On the same day, the Red 1st and Red 3rd Armies broke through the resistance of the Gui Army and entered northern Gui. On the 27th, the 2nd Division of the 1st Red Army crossed the Xiang River and controlled the 30-kilometer crossing of the Xiang River between Jiaoshanpu and Jieshou; the next day, the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 4th Division of the Red 3rd Army also crossed the Xiang River and entered the area of Guanghuapu and Fengshanpu south of Jieshou. The Red 5th Army held the areas of Jiang Jialing, Yong'an Pass, and Leikou Pass, and the Kuomintang army that was slowly pursuing was covered by the follow-up troops. At this time, the follow-up troops were only more than 80 kilometers away from the Xiangjiang River ferry, but due to excessive weight, narrow roads, and slow movements, they failed to reach the ferry port in time. At this time, the 1st road of the Kuomintang "pursuit and suppression" army entered Jeonju and the first line of saltwater; the 2nd road entered the first line of Lingling (present-day Yongzhou) and the Huangsha River; the 3rd road entered Daoxian; the 4th and 5th roads entered the Dong'an area; and the 5th division of the Gui Army drove to the first line of Guanyang and Xing'an. In order to cover the crossing of the Xiang River by the column of the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission and its follow-up corps, the Red 1st and Red 3rd Armies were ordered to build fortifications in Xinwei, Foothill Pu, Guanghuapu and other areas on both sides of the Xiang River in northern Guizhou to block the Kuomintang army.

On the 28th, the 44th Division of the Gui Army, under the cover of artillery fire, attacked from Guanyang to the forward position of the 5th Division (owed to the 13th Regiment) of the Red 3rd Army of Xinxu. The 5th Division, with its favorable terrain, calmly fought and fought bravely. The frontal attack of the Gui army was blocked, so it detoured from the flank with one force, and the 5th Division was forced to retreat to the second line of defense. On the 29th, the 24th Division of the Gui Army and the Independent Regiment of the 7th Army entered the battle, with the support of aircraft, and the battle became more intense. The Red Army and the Gui Army engaged in a white-knife battle, but in the end due to the disparity in strength, the second line of defense was broken. On the 30th, the Red 5th Division was ordered to withdraw from the battle, and Xinwei was defended by the 18th Regiment of the Red 6th Division.

On the day of the start of the Xinxu Blockade Battle, the three divisions of the 1st Road (Xiang Army) of the "Pursuit and Suppression" Army marched south from Jeonju in an attempt to control the crossings of the Xiang River and cut off the Red Army's waist. In the evening, the vigilance troops of the 2nd Division of the Red 1st Army engaged the 16th Division of the Xiang Army at Lubanqiao, and then retreated to the foot mountain paving position. On the 29th, the Red 2nd Division fought fiercely with the Xiang Army. On the 30th, the Red 1st Division rushed to Jiaoshanpu and, together with the Red 2nd Division, repelled several attacks by the Xiang Army, inflicting heavy casualties, and the Red 1st and Red 2nd Divisions also suffered serious losses, and some positions were captured by the Xiang Army. In the night, the Xiang army detoured and flanked, and the Red 1st and Red 2nd Divisions, in order to avoid being surrounded by divisions, retreated to the area of Xiabitian, Shuitou, Chilanpu, and Baishapu. In the early morning of December 1, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission ordered the Red 1st Army to hold its position at any cost in order to open the way to the west. At dawn, the Xiang army, under the cover of aircraft, launched a fierce attack with the tactics of frontal attack and roundabout encirclement. The Red 1st and Red 2nd Divisions fought hard to cover the central organs and the main force of the Red Army to cross the Xiang River before 17:00 and advance towards the western extension area. On the evening of the 29th, the 43rd Division and local militia regiments of the Gui Army stationed in Guanghuapu, Xing'an County, launched an attack on the Feilongdian and other positions of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of the Red 3rd Army. The 10th Regiment, relying on the favorable terrain from high above, repelled the repeated attacks of the Gui army, and took the initiative to attack in the dark of night, holding the position. On the 30th, the Gui army changed its tactics, and while attacking head-on, the main force attacked along the west bank of the Xiang River to the flank of the 11th and 12th Regiments of the Red 4th Division at the head of the border. After fierce fighting, the 11th and 12th Regiments withdrew from the border crossing at noon on 1 December.

On December 3, the main force of the Central Red Army crossed the Xiang River and entered the Western Extension region. The banks of the Xiang River, which stretched from foot to the first place, were controlled by the Xiang and Gui armies. During this period, the 18th Regiment of the 6th Division of the Red 3rd Army was killed by the Gui Army in its retreat from Xinwei to the Xiang River. At the same time as the xinwei, foot mountain pu, and Guanghuapu blockade battles, the Red 5th Army, which served as the general rear guard of the Red Army, blocked the pursuit of the 3rd road of the "pursuing and suppressing army" in the area of Yong'an Pass and water wheel, and covered the central committee, the column of the Central Military Commission, and the main force of the Red Army across the Xiang River. The remnants of the 34th Division of the Regiment and the 18th Regiment of the Red 3rd Army were blocked on the east bank of the Xiang River and moved to the area around Guanyang and Daoxian, and although they fought heroically and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, they were eventually outnumbered and ran out of ammunition, and the vast majority of commanders and fighters, including division commander Chen Shuxiang, died.

In the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, the Central Red Army, after a heroic struggle, broke through the fourth blockade line of the Kuomintang army and foiled Chiang Kai-shek's plan to annihilate the Red Army east of the Xiang River. But this battle was also the biggest loss in the Long March of the Central Red Army. After crossing the Xiang River (along with the first three breakthroughs of the blockade line), the Central Red Army was reduced from more than 86,000 at the beginning of the Long March to more than 30,000 (including non-combat attrition).