In July 1932, during the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle, Li Xiannian was appointed as the political commissar of the 11th Division of the Red Fourth Front, and with the division commander Ni Zhiliang commanded the troops to severely damage the enemy. In October, the main force of the Red Fourth Front was strategically shifted from the Eyu-Anhui base area to the west. The 11th Division broke through the encirclement of the Nationalist army in the areas of Zaoyang Xinji and Tuqiaopu, opening the passage for the whole army and ensuring the safety of the headquarters in a critical moment.
In early November, the Red Fourth Front passed through Nanhuatang in Shiyan County (Yunyang District). The Nanhuatang area is bordered by Funiu Mountain in the north and Abalone Ridge in the south, between the Danjiang River and the Han River, with better terrain and abundant grain and rice. The Red Fourth Front held a meeting and reported to the CPC Central Committee that it planned to mobilize the masses here and establish base areas. However, after staying in Nanhuatang for just three days, the enemy was pursuing again.
Under the command of Xu Xiangqian, the Red Fourth Front engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy, the Tenth Division and the enemy Forty-fourth Division exchanged fire north of Nanhuatang, and Li Xiannian, then political commissar of the Eleventh Division, and Division Commander Ni Zhiliang led their troops to engage the enemy Sixty-fifth Division in a fierce battle east of Nanhuatang in the area of Zhihua Mountain And Taishan Temple. In the south, the enemy's First Division was approaching seven trees more than 10 miles away from Nanhuatang, and the enemy's Fifty-first Division in the southeast had reached Zisangguan and Huang persimmon Ping, encircling the Red Fourth Front from the east, south, and north, leaving only one road west into Shaanxi. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had already sent troops to Yang Hucheng in Shaanxi to block the Red Army at Manchuan Pass. Therefore, the Red Fourth Front abandoned its plan to establish a base area in Nanhuatang, broke through the enemy's blockade and continued to move west. （
@秦楚刊号
）
The breakthrough of Manchuan Pass was a battle that was related to the survival of the Red Fourth Front. On November 5, the Red Fourth Front withdrew from Nanhuatang and marched to Manchuan Pass, where it was blocked by Yang Hucheng's troops from entering the west, and Hu Zongnan and other troops pressed behind them to encircle the Red Fourth Front in the gorge from Yunxi at the junction of Exi and Kangjiaping to Renling in Shanyang County. At this critical moment, Xu Xiangqian decided to concentrate his forces to break through to the west. With the frontal assault of the Thirty-fourth Regiment and the cooperation of the 219th Regiment, they seized the northern mountain pass, opened the passage for the whole army, and used the Tenth Division and the Eleventh Division to resist the enemy in the south and west. The enemy and we repeatedly fought for positions. The Thirty-fourth Regiment battalion of more than 500 people, fighting to the end only killed more than 100 people, the leader of the 219th Regiment Han Liangchen heroically sacrificed. After taking control of the pass, the Red Fourth Front finally opened the passage and broke through to the west overnight. After crossing the Qin mountains, taking Guanzhong, crossing the Han River in the south, and crossing the Daba Mountain, the soldiers divided into three roads and quickly entered the Tongjiang, Kenanjiang, and Guanzhong rivers, creating a Sichuan-Shaanxi base area.
Please pay attention
Feel free to learn more about the relevant content thank you!