Speaking of the story of "flying to seize the Luding Bridge", I think everyone is already familiar with it. In September 1935, the Red Army came to the opposite bank of the Luding Bridge at a very fast speed, and under the cover of firepower, 22 brave soldiers successfully conquered the bridgehead on the other side of the bridge, and took the strategic key point of the Luding Bridge at a very fast speed, thus effectively ensuring the passage of the follow-up army. However, everyone may have a question: the enemy knows that the Luding Bridge is a strategic point, so why not directly tear down the chains of the Luding Bridge, instead of allowing the Red Army to conquer it? Did they not think of this simple method? To understand this problem, we have to start with the history of Luding Bridge.
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the residents on both sides of the Dadu River generally exchanged goods through ziplines, but because the amount of goods that the ziplines could carry was limited, some fresh food would rot and deteriorate if it could not be traded in time, so the Kangxi Emperor ordered the construction of the Luding Bridge on the Dadu River. In 1706, the bridge with a total of 13 iron chains was finally built, and the Kangxi Emperor personally gave the name "Luding Bridge", and since then Luding Bridge has become one of the important bridges connecting cross-strait trade.
When the bridge was first built, it did encounter many technical difficulties. Due to the rapid flow of the Dadu River, after the chain is built, how to transport the chain to the other side of the river has become a problem. In response, the locals used boats such as sheepskin rafts, but still did not achieve the desired purpose. In the end, people had to tie the iron cables to more than a dozen slender moso bamboo and use the "rope crossing principle" to transport the iron cables to the other side of the river.
It can be seen that if the enemy cuts the iron cable, it is still a technical problem to build the Luding Bridge again, because the Luding Bridge is different from other ordinary bridges and cannot be rebuilt in a short period of time after it is destroyed. Moreover, judging from the situation at that time, the enemy still had a regiment of troops on the opposite bank waiting to cross the river, and in order to meet this part of the army, the enemy defenders said that they would not take the initiative to destroy the Luding Bridge and tear down the iron cables.
However, in order to block the Red Army's attack, the enemy army had to remove all the wooden planks on the Luding Bridge, hoping to curb the Red Army's offensive ability. However, the speed of the Red Army's march was greatly unexpected by the enemy, so the Red Army was able to take advantage of its lack of preparation and launch a beautiful first-hand attack, thus successfully gaining control of the Luding Bridge.