In May 1929, Wu Guanghao, commander of the Red 31st Division, was attacked by the enemy at Luotiantengjiabao on the way to participate in and lead the Shangnan Uprising, and died heroically. After Wu Guanghao's death, the CPC Hubei Special Committee reported to the CPC Central Committee and asked the CPC Central Committee to send a cadre who understood military affairs to take over Wu Guanghao's work. At this time, after the Guangzhou Uprising, Xu Xiangqian, who led the Red Fourth Division to fight a guerrilla attack on the Dongjiang River, had just arrived in Shanghai from Kowloon after being rescued by the underground party because his troops were scattered.
Yang Yin, who was then the secretary of the Central Military Commission, asked him to go to the northeast of Hubei to the Red 31st Division and take over Wu Guanghao's post. When the Red 31st Division was first established, there were only 72 people, 42 long guns, and 11 short guns, and under the leadership of Wu Guanghao, it grew to more than 300 people, but in addition to the cadres who had short guns such as barge guns in their hands, most of the soldiers held weapons such as shotguns, large knives, and shuttle darts, good rifles, there were, but there were only a few, and there were no machine guns. After Wu Guanghao's death, the troops were besieged by the enemy many times, and when Xu Xiangqian arrived, there were only more than 100 people left.
How can such a team fight? This is a great problem facing Xu Xiangqian. Although, during the Guangzhou Uprising, he served as the captain of the 6th Red Guards Regiment of the Workers' Red Guards, after the uprising, the troops were reorganized into the Red Fourth Division in Huaxian County, and he served as the party representative of the 10th Regiment of the Red Fourth Division, the chief of staff of the Red Fourth Division, and the commander of the Red Fourth Division, but these experiences were extremely short, and moreover, the team was fighting less and less at that time, and finally they were all defeated.
Of course, you can take it well, don't forget, Xu Xiangqian is a student of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, stayed in the school as a platoon leader after graduation, and also made military achievements in the Eastern Crusade. Coupled with the Guangzhou uprising and the difficult course of more than a year after that, he had the experience and courage to lead the weak soldiers to persist in battle. He came to the Red 31st Division in June 1929, and his position at that time was deputy division commander, performing the duties of division commander. Soon after being officially appointed division commander, by March 18, 1930, when the Red 31st Division was renamed the Red 1st Division, there were more than 800 troops, but there was no heavy weapon like the light machine gun.
At that time, the Red Army contingent, in order to solve the problem of weapons and equipment, had to fight several more battles and capture them from the enemy. Therefore, Xu Xiangqian seized the favorable opportunity of Chiang Kai-shek's great battle with Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan in the Central Plains, and in June, the Red First Division surrounded a regimental headquarters of Guo Rudong's troops of the Sichuan Army; in late July, the third division of the Third Division was taught by the Qian Dajun Department; in mid-August, together with the 2nd and 3rd Divisions led by Xu Jishen, they defeated a brigade of Dai Minquan. After that, he annihilated a mixed brigade of Guo Rudong. In December of the same year, Xu Xiangqian led his troops to defeat the 46th Division at Jinjiazhai and Mabu, annihilating four brigades.
As a result, Xu Xiangqian's prestige spread widely within the Red Army and among the enemy. In November 1931, when the Fourth Front Of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was formally established, when Xu Was announced as the former commander-in-chief, the officers and men and the masses in the audience were all excited and burst into tears, which shows how quickly Xu Xiangqian's prestige has increased in less than two years!