Regarding the importance of the Red Army's Lazikou Battle in those years, Marshal Nie Rongzhen had a highly praised sentence: "As soon as the Lazikou was opened, all of them were alive." ”
Lazikou is located at the junction of Diebu County and Min County in Gansu Province, and is an important passage from the Tibetan area in northwest Sichuan to Gansu. The hills that extend north along both sides of the Lazigou seem to close here. Looking up from the bottom of the ditch, the mountain pass is only more than 30 meters wide, and there are cliffs on both sides. The Lazi River flows through the bottom of the ditch, and the water is turbulent and cannot be waded in vain. At the front of Lazikou, between the two mountains, there is a small wooden bridge running in an east-west direction, connecting the two sides of the river, and is the only passage through Lazikou.
This area was the territory of the Gansu warlord Lu Dachang, and a brigade was stationed in the area of Kangduo and Heizha south of Lazikou. When the vanguard of the Red First Army attacked the head of the Black Za Mountain, the two enemy companies above fired a few random shots, turned their heads and ran. These defenders could not find out exactly how many Red Army troops had come, threw away their troops and radios, and fled along the dangerous road along the river to Lazikou, retreating to the place five miles behind Lazikou and setting up camp.
Therefore, the Defenders of Lazikou were left with only two battalions of the newly formed 14th Division of the Kuomintang. One battalion held the pass, and the other battalion was placed in the valley behind the pass. The defenders built bunkers on bridgeheads and cliffs to form a network of intersecting firepower. In addition, the enemy also deployed two divisions in the area around Lazikou, ready for reinforcements.
On September 12, 1935, the Central Red Army, which separated from the Red Fourth Front and continued north, reached Lazikou. In order to break through the encirclement of the Kuomintang, the Central Committee decided to break through this Lazikou, which is known as a natural danger. The vanguard of the order, Lin Shuai of the Red First Army, decided to give this task of finding Lazikou to the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division.
The Red 4th Regiment has always been a heroic regiment, and has successively participated in battles such as crossing the Red Water, outwitting the three counties, snatching the Jinsha River, crossing the Daliang Mountain, flying to seize the Luding Bridge, and opening up the passage of snowy mountains and grasslands. This time, through frontal assault and the tactic of climbing the cliff to encircle and encircle, after two days of fierce bloody battles, they finally conquered the natural danger of Lazikou, which became a famous example of a weak victory over a strong and surprising victory in the long march.
This article focuses on three people in this battle: the regimental commander, the battalion commander, and an unknown little soldier who has made the first contribution.
Then let's talk about the regimental commander first, and the regimental commander's name is Wang Kaixiang.
Wang Kaixiang was born in Yiyang, Jiangxi, in 1908, joined the revolution in 1926, the leader of the Red Guard Regiment, the political commissar of the 82nd Regiment of the Red Tenth Army, the commander and political commissar of the 32nd Division of the Red 11th Army, the political commissar of the 1st Division of the Red 1st Army, and the commander of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Red 1st Army during the Long March. After capturing Lazikou, it reached the town of Wuqi in Shaanxi. In early November 1935, Wang Kaixiang fell ill with typhoid fever and died in Luohanchuan, northern Shaanxi (some people say that he committed suicide with a pistol because he could not bear the pain), at the age of 27.
Responsible for the Lazikou attack was 4 regiments and 2 battalions. The 2nd Battalion was originally a unit of the Red Fourth Front, and in June 1935, after the First and Fourth Fronts met the divisions, they were added to the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Division, 4th Regiment of the 1st Red Army. The commander of the 2nd Battalion was Zhang Renchu.
Zhang Renchu was a regimental commander when he was in the Red Fourth Front, and after being transferred to the Red First Army, the regimental commander became a battalion commander and the battalion commander became a company commander, but these commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front obeyed the decision of the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission without complaint.
Zhang Renchu, a native of Huang'an, Hubei Province, was born in 1909 and joined the Red Army in 1927, successively serving as the captain of the guard team of the Tongjiang Branch of the Red 4th Front, the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Security Bureau's 2nd Battalion, and the commander of the 294th Regiment of the 98th Division of the Red 33rd Army. After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, he served as the deputy regimental commander of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the 1st Red Army and the commander of the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Division. After the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, it became a battalion commander. Later, in the War of Liberation in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he went from regimental commander and brigade commander to military commander. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955 and died in 1969 at the age of 60.
This unknown little warrior has a nickname called "Yun Guichuan".
After receiving the task of attacking Lazikou, the 4th Regiment decided that the regimental commander Wang Kaixiang would lead the troops to detour behind the enemy, and Yang Chengwu, the regimental political commissar, would lead a battalion to attack head-on.
The cliffs on both sides of Lazikou are nearly 100 meters high, almost straight up and down, how can the troops climb up and detour? Just when everyone was in trouble, a small Hmong warrior suddenly volunteered and said: I can climb up. It turned out that when he was at home, he often climbed the cliffs to collect medicine and firewood, and practiced the stunt of rock climbing.
Political Commissar Yang Chengwu decided to let him give it a try. I saw this little warrior holding a bamboo pole and rope, lightly ascending through the cracks in the rocks, as if playing a thrilling acrobatic. The people below were all wide-eyed, too nervous to gasp for breath. Finally, the little warrior climbed to the top, tied the rope, and a road to victory was opened.
But let us regret that this little soldier who made the first contribution to the Central Red Army's victory over Lazikou did not even leave a name, and everyone only knows that his nickname is "Yun Guichuan". According to the memoirs of General Yang Chengwu, this young warrior was only sixteen or seventeen years old, of medium stature, with high eyebrows and cheekbones, a brownish-black face, and large and energetic eyes... Because he did not have a name when he joined the army, his comrades-in-arms gave him a name called "Yun Guichuan".
To this day, the whereabouts of "Yun Guichuan" are still a mystery.
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