Here is the natural danger of "one husband and one pass, ten thousand people can not open". "Lazi" means "hillside, steep" in Tibetan, and "Lazikou" means "deep valley at the foot of the mountain".
The only passage from southern Sichuan into Gansu is this Lazikou.
How steep and steep is Lazikou?
Founding General Yang Chengwu wrote: "We came to the front line and looked at it with a telescope, and sure enough, the terrain here was extremely steep. The hills along the sides of the ditch were as if a large mountain had been split by a huge knife, both high and steep. Surrounded by lofty mountains, there is no road to pass. From above, the mountain pass is only about thirty meters wide, and it looks like a long corridor made of thick stone walls.
The cliffs on both sides are steep, the Lazi River flows out from the bottom of the ditch, the water is turbulent, the waves are turbulent, and they converge into a whirlpool of rapid rotation, and although the water depth is not roofless, it cannot be waded in vain. At the front of Lazikou, a wooden bridge running east-west between the two mountains connects the two sides of the cliff, and there is no other way but to pass through this small bridge. At the top of the east end of the bridge, there are several bunkers built on the eight-high cliff. ”
Yang Chengwu was the political commissar of the Fourth Regiment of the Second Division of the First Red Army at that time, and Huang Kaixiang was the commander of the Fourth Regiment.
On September 15, 1935, the Red Fourth Regiment received the task given to them by the legion, and the period for occupying Lazikou was three days, that is to say, it was necessary to take the Heavenly Danger Lazikou before September 18, otherwise, the Shaanxi-Gansu detachment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army would only have a dead end.
At 2 a.m. on September 17, the officers and men of the Fourth Regiment set out. On the Long March Road, breaking through the Wujiang River, flying to seize the Luding Bridge, and crossing the Jiajin Mountain Snow Mountain, the Red Fourth Regiment has always been the pioneer of the road. This breakthrough in the natural danger of Lazikou is the high degree of trust that Chairman Mao and the central leadership have placed in them.
Defending the mouth of the heavenly danger was lu dachang of the kuomintang army, the 6th Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 14th Division, and the regimental commander Zhu Xianrong. For Lazikou, lu dachang, commander of the 14th Division, attached great importance to it and sent 6 regiments to him, but Lu Dachang was not at ease, and he also gave a battalion of the 5th regiment to the 6th regiment; for this reason, Zhu Xianrong believed that such a natural pass equipped with 6 battalions of troops was not too careful, and where even birds could not fly, how could the tired army of the Red Army with poor equipment for long-distance travels get by.
However, Lu Dachang's superiors, Zhu Shaoliang, director of the Lanzhou Appeasement Office, and Wang Jun, commander of the 3rd Army stationed in Tianshui, warned him that if the Red Army were to break through the Lazikou into the hinterland of Gansu, his guilt would be unforgivable, and Chiang Kai-shek also exerted pressure in the telegram.
When Lu Dachang learned that the Red Army was advancing in the direction of Lazikou, he immediately ordered Liang Yingkui, commander of the 1st Brigade, to lead two battalions of the 1st Regiment, plus the brigade's direct subordinate troops, to urgently reinforce in the direction of Lazikou.
There were originally 6 battalions in Lazikou, plus Liang Yingkui's nearly 3 battalions of troops, all of which were 9 battalions, and one battalion was calculated according to 500 people, and the strength of the troops here reached more than 4500 people.
When the enemy and we fight, one is not to make mistakes ourselves, and the other is to wait for the enemy to make mistakes.
Liang Yingkui's troops, due to the narrow roads, too much weight, and slow movement, when they were about to approach Lazikou, saw a group of soldiers retreating from the mountain, and asked, saying that there was a Red Army attacking and advancing towards Lazikou.
Liang Yingkui arrived with his troops on the evening of the 16th and immediately built fortifications. At this moment, Zhu Xianrong came with several guards, saying that the Red Army had arrived near Lazikou, that the 6th Regiment headquarters and reserve had been scattered by the Red Army, and that the radio had been lost. If it were the Red Army, it would certainly give him some comfort and encourage him to attack again, and as a result, Liang Yingkui felt that he was a brigade commander, bigger than Zhu Xianrong, and directly scolded, scolding very badly. Zhu Xianrong went directly, where did he go? Ran to Weiyuan County and hid.
The 6th Regiment had no regimental commander, the enemy was easy to fight, and the first battalion of the vanguard of the 4th Regiment opened the road to attack Lazikou without much effort. However, when he attacked the Lazikou with a single blow, he was seriously frustrated.
Why? Because the defending enemy of Lazikou relied on himself to occupy favorable terrain, he wanted to use the graben to fight the Red Army to the death.
Several attacks by the first battalion were suppressed by heavy fire, and not only did they not make progress, but also suffered heavy casualties.
Fighting a war cannot be done arbitrarily, but we must use our brains. Huang Kaixiang and Yang Chengwu were lying on the front line and repeatedly observing the terrain of Lazikou, as long as it was not a heavenly coat, it had a seam. They finally discovered two weaknesses in the enemy's defenses: one was that the enemy's bunkers were uncovered; the other was that all the enemy's firepower was concentrated on the front.
The enemy was too "trusting" in the danger, thinking that the cliff was steep and could not be climbed, and when repairing the bunker, he did not repair the roof in order to save trouble, and as everyone knew, the Red Army sometimes flew higher than the birds.
Huang and Yang also thought that if they could climb up from the cliff and throw grenades into the bunker without a roof from above, they would definitely be able to surprise them. However, the cliff is dizzying even at a glance, how can it go up?
With an idea in place, the next step is how to implement it. This requires brainstorming, meetings, where? Of course, there is no conference room, and the meeting is held in a forest 200 meters away from Lazikou.
At 4 p.m. on the 17th, the meeting began to see who had come to the meeting, which could be described as a gathering of heroes: Lin Biao (commander of the Red First Army), Nie Rongzhen (political commissar of the Red First Army), Commander of Chen Guang's Second Division, Xiao Hua (Political Commissar of the Second Division), and the commander of the battalion company of the 4th Regiment.
This meeting was very difficult, and finally decided: still send people to climb the cliff, there is no other way.
Immediately afterward, a general meeting of soldiers was held, asking everyone to contribute ideas and suggestions, and the wisdom of the masses was infinite.
A small Miao warrior who had enlisted from Guizhou stood up and said, "I can climb up the cliff." As long as I climbed up alone, I could throw down the rope, not to mention a company, a battalion could also go up. ”
All the officers and men looked at the little soldier, who was only 17 years old, with surprise and almost adoration and prayer.
This little soldier did not leave his real name, everyone called him "Yun Guichuan", because he had already traveled through Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan since he joined the army.
"Yun Guichuan" said to Huang Kaixiang and Yang Chengwu: "I often climb the cliff at home to collect medicine. Only by giving me a long pole, with an iron hook tied to the end of the pole, which can hook the roots of trees, cliff crevices, stone beaks and so on on, I can go up. ”
Savior, Huang Kaixiang and Yang Chengwu were so happy that they didn't know what to say.
The four regiments immediately determined the battle plan: the first and second companies, as well as the reconnaissance group and the signal group, led by the regimental commander Huang Kaixiang, climbed the cliff and detoured, reached the detour site before 3 a.m., and then issued two signal flares, one red and one green. After that, the political commissar Yang Chengwu led the second battalion to make a frontal attack, and the sixth company served as the main attack company, and the signal of the total attack was three signal flares.
"Yun Guichuan" looked black and thin, with agile hands and feet, barefoot, and a long rope tied with the straps of the warriors' leggings around his waist, holding a long pole and climbing up like a monkey. After a while, "Yun Guichuan" slipped down the cliff again and said to Yang Chengwu, "I said I could go up." ”
When it got dark, "Yun Guichuan" nodded and hundreds of warriors began to climb.
In order to confuse the enemy, the frontal attack of the second battalion also began.
Here is really "one husband and one pass, no one can open", no matter how tenacious the sixth company is, it is impossible to approach the pass.
The enemy in the bunker at the pass was also even more arrogant: "Even if you fight until next year, you will not want to pass through the defense area of Commander Lu!" ”
Chairman Mao sent people to the front and asked if they wanted reinforcements.
By midnight, the frontal attack had been going on for four hours, with little progress and heavy losses.
In the pre-dawn darkness, two signal bombs suddenly rose from behind the mountain, as if a shot of cardiotonic agent, the officers and men immediately had a bloody vein, and immediately after that, three signal bombs also took off, and the general attack began!
The enemy suffered from the enemy's belly and back, the will collapsed, the Red Army came down like a fierce tiger, invincible, and the mouth of the heavenly danger was broken.
What happened to "Yun Guichuan"? There is no record found in Mr. Wang Shuzeng's book, which is described in the TV series: the troops who climbed to the top of the cliff began to throw grenades into the enemy's uncovered bunker from top to bottom, and the enemy was also trying to fight back, shooting upwards, and the Red Army suffered heavy losses. At this time, "Yun Guichuan" tied the grenade to himself, buckled the pull ring on his finger, jumped into the enemy's bunker, and died with the enemy, the scene was very magnificent.
Three battalions of the Fourth Regiment continued to pursue in the direction of Min County. The mountain road is littered with enemy corpses and various gun supplies. The Red Army propaganda team had already followed the pursuing troops all the way with red slogans written all the way: "Chase to Minzhou, capture Lu Dachang alive!"
Didn't close the eyes overnight
After hearing the good news that Lazikou had been breached, the chairman smiled and shouted to the guards: "Get some food, when you are full, let's go on the road!"
The propaganda team members sang the battle song:
"Artillery fire rings in the sky, battle trumpets are blown frequently, and decisive battles are fought in this dynasty, carry out victorious attacks, and destroy all evil enemies!"