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The Red Army ferry remembers its original intention
Yang Zhengping
I often think of myself - there is a small river ditch in front of my hometown, the river is clear, often flowing, when I was a child, I always loved to swim in the river, catch fish, and herd cattle; when I went out of middle school, I met a river called Yudong River, which is the upper reaches of the Guangyuan South River and a tributary of the Jialing River, known as "Hanshou Water" in ancient times; after joining the work, I approached the Guangyuan Jialing River, lived and worked in the city where the South River and the Jialing River meet, touched the willow embankment, greenway, reeds and river water almost every day, and formed an indissoluble relationship with the Jialing River.
The Jialing River is the second largest tributary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, originating in the Qinling Daiwang Mountain in Shaanxi, flowing through Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan, and joining the Yangtze River at Chaotianmen in Chongqing. Along the way, the mountains are steep, deep canyons, and rapid water flows. There are many ferries in the whole basin, many of which are also water stations in the past, and ferries are an important means of passage between the two sides of the strait.
Red blood soaked through thousands of miles of fertile land, and the Jialing River recorded a heroic story. In December 1932, the Red Fourth Front advanced from southern Shaanxi to the northeast of Sichuan, and fought fierce battles with the enemy forces of The Marquis of DengXi in Sichuan, setting up a command organ of the Red Fourth Front army in Wangcang and liberating the counties in northern Sichuan. After the Red Army won victory in the anti-"six-way siege," the Red Fourth Front received a telegram from the central authorities to "concentrate its forces, march west of the Jialing River, and cooperate with the Red Army's move north, and issued a battle order to "cross the Jialing River and meet the Party Central Committee, forcibly cross the Jialing River, and realize the major strategic shift of the Red Army's Long March."
In order to break through the Defense Line of the Jialing River held by the Kuomintang troops and march westward to join the Central Red Army and move northward, the headquarters of the Central Military Commission held a military meeting in the old house of Yinjiajiao in Yongning, Cangxi in mid-to-late 1934 to plan the crossing of the river, and decided to choose the time to forcibly cross the Jialing River at Cangxi and the various ferries in the upper and lower sections of the Guangyuan and Langzhong rivers.
Yuanxikou, located in The territory of Yuanxi Town, Cangxi County, is one of the crossings of the Jialing River by the Red Fourth Front in 1935 (Source: Cangxi Party History Network)
The Mandarin Creek Ferry is located above the north of Cangxi City. Opposite is the Sword Pavilion Crane Ling, the river side is full of thorns, the river flow speed is slow, the river surface is narrow, and it was selected as the first river crossing. The Red 31st Army selected more than 120 people from three regiments to form a river crossing commando team gathered in the trees and prepared to go. Late at night on the evening of January 24, 1935, the commander issued an order that the first batch of 38 warriors set off from the mouth of the Shiqiao River in three wooden boats, paddling through the river in the vast night and rushing to the other side of the Jialing River. Once ashore, quickly hide in the bushes. As soon as the second batch of ships set out, they were discovered by the enemy, and suddenly machine guns and shells were fired at the same time, the follow-up troops were blocked, and the soldiers who had crossed the river fought bloodily, fighting with the enemy army for life and death, and finally because they were outnumbered, the commando team except for two survivors, the remaining 36 people died, resulting in the failure of the Yuanxi river crossing.
It's winter and the weather is cold. The headquarters of the Red Army conscientiously summed up the lessons of the tragic failure of the first crossing of the river by The Yuanxi River, redeployed its forces, and organized the Red Army to be stationed on both sides of the Jialing River to gain a deep understanding of the enemy's situation, train sailors, build ships, and make full preparations for the concentrated crossing of the river. The red army headquarters carried out in-depth political mobilization and carried out tense water training on the Wangcangdong River. The 220 sailors who served on the assault mission, despite the biting cold wind, trained and rowed in the river water, the cocoon scars in their hands were immersed in ice water, cracking the blood marks of the road, the pain was unbearable, still insisted on training, no one cried bitterly tired, and no one retreated for reasons.
In the past, there was no bridge on the Jialing River, and the ferry boats at the dock ferry were snatched or destroyed by the Sichuan army as they fled west. The headquarters of the Red Fourth Front mobilized all its forces to build a number of ships by itself, choosing to secretly build a shipyard in the mountains and forests near the Donghe Wangdu field, a tributary of the Jialing River. The cadres and masses of the Soviet Union actively supported the Red Army in crossing the river. There was no wood for shipbuilding, and the local people took the initiative to transport them; there were no nails, and scrap iron was collected everywhere and broken into pieces, and the self-built furnace was smelted into iron to make nails; there was no shipbuilder, and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee selected famous carpenters and blacksmiths from Cangxi, Langzhong, Nanfang, and Bazhong, carrying dry grain tools, and came from Dabashan Day and Night; without paint, the common people saved the tung oil used for their own lamps and lacquer dowries and sent them to the construction site. Yu Tianyun, commander of the Red 30 Army, Li Xiannian, political commissar, Yu Hongyuan, vice chairman of the Provincial Soviet, and other comrades led on the spot, and Chen Ziqian, secretary of the Cangxi County CPC Committee, went from village to village to mobilize the masses to support the Red Army. The army and the people made concerted efforts, and after intense work day and night, they finally built a hundred "mussel shells" and "five-plate ships" suitable for crossing the river to fight.
Along the southern coast of the Jialing River, the 52nd Regiment of the Two Regiments of the Chuan Army, Tian Songyao and Deng Xihou, concentrated and controlled the area. Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, personally led the relevant personnel to survey the terrain and hydrological situation along the river, draw up a meticulous battle plan, choose the location of crossing the river, and decide to concentrate the main force to occupy the area on the other side of the Jialing River.
Everything is ready, and the battle to cross the river is about to begin. Shipbuilders in Jialing Su District and Jiachuan Su District also built ships in the tree jungles of Mao'er Jump (present-day Tiger Jump Town) and YongningPu for the Red Army to cross the river. On March 27, 1935, the local people actively participated in the Formation of the Red Army to carry the ship, and secretly walked forty or fifty miles of mountain roads in the dark to carry the ship to the designated location. Local party and government organs at all levels also extensively mobilized the masses to collect grain for the Red Army and to transport weapons, ammunition, and medicines, thus effectively ensuring the materials needed by the troops to cross the river and fight.
The Battle of Jialing River began on March 28. The headquarters of the Red Army was located in the Tan family compound under tazi Mountain, and the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian, the deputy commander-in-chief Wang Shusheng, and the political commissar of the 30th Army, Li Xiannian, personally commanded the battle. At about 9 p.m. that night, two battalions of the 263rd Regiment of the 88th Division of the Red 30th Army and the headquarters instruction battalion crossed the river secretly near TaziWan and approached the opposite shore. After the battle of crossing the river began, the Red Army set up dozens of artillery pieces and dozens of heavy machine guns on Tazi Mountain immediately fired fiercely at the enemy, covered the victorious landing of the assault troops, annihilated 1 battalion of the enemy, killed 1 enemy regimental commander, repelled the counterattack of the enemy on the left and right flanks, and consolidated the beachhead positions around Duliba, Laojuntang, and Hujiachang on the other side of Tazi Mountain. In the early morning of the 29th, the two subsequent regiments of the Red 88th Division secretly crossed the river, captured the commanding heights of Feihu Mountain, Gaocheng Mountain, and Wannian Mountain, and defeated the 5th Brigade of the enemy's 2nd Division, which was retreating from Langzhong. At the same time, the Red 31st Army successfully crossed the Yuanxi Pass north of Cangxi City, quickly attacked the enemy's dangerous position, the Heling Fire Burning Temple, and fought fiercely for 6 hours, annihilating 1 brigade of the enemy, more than 200 people, and capturing more than 400 enemy people, and the enemy brigade commander shot himself. This major victory opened the way for the capture of The County seat of Jiange County. The main forces of the Red 30th Army, the 31st Army, and the 9th Army successfully crossed the Jialing River at the mouth of Cangxi Jianxi and the ferry ports of Shaxi River, Nanjin Pass, Taziwan, Hexiguan, and Eggplant Ferry in Langzhong, and conquered Langzhong on the 31st; the first unit of the Red 9th Army, with the cooperation of the First Red Army, went south through Langzhong and captured the southern county town on April 2, annihilating 3 enemy regiments. The Red Army stationed along the east side of the Guangyuan River crossed the river in three ways from Hongyan Temple to Qingniu Temple, which is more than 100 miles long. A certain regiment of the Red 93rd Division used pre-prepared boats, bamboo rafts, and ropes to erect a pontoon bridge of more than 200 meters long between the bay of the Wangye Temple and the Xiongjiaba on the opposite bank overnight, and in the early morning of the 30th, a steady stream of crossed the river; the political department, supply department, 31st Army Headquarters, hospitals, women's independent regiments, children's regiments, and stretcher teams carrying the wounded, as well as horse teams carrying heavy loads, also gathered at the cat jumping Luojia Ferry, some by boat, some by pontoon bridge, and so on. It crosses the Jialing River. At this point, the Battle of Qiangdu Jialing River was successfully won, and in order to break through the defense line of jialing River and attack Jianmen Pass, successively liberated the whole counties of Jiange, Jiangyou, Pingwu, and Qingchuan, and won time and war opportunities. In order to effectively cooperate with the Central Red Army in moving to the Sichuan-Qiandian Border Region, crossing the Jinsha River by chance, and realizing the Red Army's northward meeting with the division, he made great sacrifices and contributions.
Jialing River, the green of water, the green of mountains, water is gold, mountains are silver. The gushing river keeps up with the pace of the times, keeps pace with the times, and bravely moves forward. Since the founding of New China, countless bridges and cascade power stations have been built in Guangyuan, Nanchong, Guang'an and Chongqing, and the former wharves, porters, boats and shipwright trumpets have long disappeared into the majestic mountains. Today's Jialing River is not only an ordinary river, but also a tourist attraction integrating power generation, irrigation, flood control and ecology.
I have a relationship with jialing river, and I love my mother river. During the period of poverty alleviation in Longyin Village, Cangxi County, I made a special trip to the Yuanxi Ferry port of the Jialing River to explore the heroism and tragedy of the Red Army's crossing of the river in those years, and listened to the old man tell the story about the Red Army. Longyin Village is located at the junction of Wulong, Yuanxi and Zhejiangshui, only half an hour away from the Jialing River. At noon, I braved the scorching sun, stepped on the board of the boat, looked at the green mountains around me, and looked back at the past, and my heart fluctuated. The ferry port and surface of the former river have changed their appearance, and they have been submerged by the Tingzi Lake formed by the Cangxi Tingzikou Power Station, and what is presented in front of them is a wide water surface with turquoise waves. There is also a ferry port in Shiban Village, Yuanxi Township, with an iron plate boat, which is regularly transported every day, and will soon be replaced by a newly completed cross-river bridge. The 92-year-old Han Xiulin of Longyin Village Group 3 said that in the past, there were three ferries above and below the Mouth of the Yuanxi River, the Shiluo Pot, and the Yuanxi Temple, and the first time the Red Army crossed the river was the Shi Gong Pot Ferry. The Second Large-Scale Crossing of the Red Army took place at three ferry ports at the same time. She said that she was only seven or eight years old at the time, but she was deeply impressed that there were Red Army everywhere on the mountain of Longyin Temple. A few nights before crossing the river, the local people participated in the Red Army carrying boats, carrying bamboo rafts, carrying half barrels, carrying wooden planks, lantern torches and torches in a line, all night long. Xue Taiping and Li Zhengrong, two elderly cadres of Longyin Village, spent several years collecting the stories of the Red Army at their own expense, visiting the elderly who are still alive in several local townships and towns, compiling materials on "Red Dragon Yin", which will be published into a book to publicize Longyin Village, publicize the spirit of the Red Army, and inherit and educate future generations. According to "Red Dragon Yin", there have been battles of Siping, Xuanduguan and Jianshanzi near Longyin Temple, and there are revolutionary stories such as the Red Army Women's Propaganda Brigade, the Township Soviet Guerrilla, the Red Army Weapons Factory, the Old Chinese Medicine Medicine Rescue the Red Army, the Three Days and Three Nights To Carry The Ferry, and severely punish the bully landlords. Mou Lunde, retired principal of Wulong Middle School, raised funds to build a martyrs' cemetery in Qingfeng Village as a local red education base.
Cangxi is an important part of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area and the starting point of the Long March of the Red Fourth Front. The Red Army fought more than 100 battles in the nearly two years since it turned to Cangxi, and 30,000 people have joined the Red Army. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the army, the people's government of Cangxi County built a sculpture of "Red Army Crossing" on the original site of Taziwan on the east bank of the Jialing River. The front "Red Army Crossing" 3 large characters are inscribed by Marshal Xu Qianqian, and the busts of 3 Red Army soldiers and 2 Red Guards are tall and majestic, with angry eyes and alert eyes, looking ahead alertly. I can't remember how many times I walked into the Red Army ferry, and every time I went, I had new feelings and harvests. In late April, our unit carried out the theme education activity of "learning the history of the party, remembering the original heart, and undertaking the mission", and once again came to the memorial site of the Battle of Jialing River of the Red Fourth Front, visited the historical sites, remembered the heroic deeds, and sought the truth of the revolution. In front of the Red Army's monument, they reminisced about their original intentions, lectured on traditions, and listened to party lessons; inside the memorial hall, they visited the exhibition of historical pictures and watched the film and television film "Forcibly Crossing the Jialing River"; under the sculpture, they relived the oath of joining the party, sang revolutionary songs together, and recited Mao Zedong's poems. At this moment, we seem to be returning to the years of revolutionary war, as if we have seen the heroic soldiers of the Red Army brave the rumbling fire of the enemy, flying against the waves, bravely marching forward, and not afraid of sacrifice. A story of rivers and rivers, the sacrifice of a generation in exchange for the happiness of thousands of generations. When I left, I wrote down "Visiting the Cangxi Red Army Crossing Feeling" on my mobile phone:
Ming Li increased his faith and gravity, and the Red Army ferry sacrificed the soul of the hero.
The stone inscription Gallery thinks of the former sages, and the ferry statue remembers the original heart.
The song is dedicated to the party, and the first epic poem is full of passion.
Lofty ideals are greater than heaven, and we do not live up to the mission of shouldering iron shoulders.
The water of the Jialing River has flowed through the ages, and the red story has flowed through the ages. The old ferry port on the Jialing River has disappeared, and it is difficult to see a wooden boat. The green mountains are always there, and the sound of the waves is still there. The heroic scene of the soldiers of the Red Army fighting in blood is still in front of us; the unremitting fighting spirit of the Red Army will always radiate the light of the times that is invincible; and the soldiers of the Red Army who died gloriously in the battle will always be engraved in the green mountains and rivers.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author: Yang Zhengping (Guangyuan Municipal Party Committee Institutional Establishment Office)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan
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