After the "918" incident, the Northeast Army abandoned the Fengtian Arsenal and the wealthy Eastern Four Provinces, retreated to guanyuan and the interior of the country, which was getting smaller and smaller, and it was no longer able to support its own hundreds of thousands of troops, and the military salaries needed to be issued by Lao Jiang, and if he had milk, he was a wife, but Lao Jiang's money was not taken in vain, so he appointed Zhang Xueliang as the deputy commander-in-chief of the three provinces of Yu'e and Anhui, the director of the Wuchang Xing Battalion, and a large number of titles such as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northwest Suppression campaign and the acting commander-in-chief, to 'encircle and suppress' the Red Army.
When the northeast army entered Shaanxi and Gansu, it began to deploy to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army, and the young marshal Zhang Xueliang received a report that there were only a few thousand people in northern Shaanxi, Liu Zhidan's Red 26th Army and the Red 27th Army, and that they were poorly equipped, of poor quality, extremely inferior equipment, no artillery, very few machine guns, most of the rifles were captured, there were several models, and bullets were scarce. A considerable number of Red Army soldiers fought with single-shot earthen guns, shotguns, and even large knives, spears, and hoes. If calculated purely according to combat effectiveness, it is at most equivalent to two or three regiments of the Northeast Army. In fact, the Long March of the Red 25th Army has come here to meet.
How could he not win by killing more than a hundred thousand well-equipped troops, young marshal Zhang Xueliang was quite conceited. However, what he did not expect was that these sons of the Northeast Army, whose hometown was occupied by the Japanese, came here to fight against their compatriots, the Red Army, and the internal war-weariness spread, even if it was well-equipped, it would be a complete defeat.
Defeated at the Battle of Lausan. The Laoshan area is a necessary place for the Northeast Army to come to encircle and suppress, here are all loess mountains, the mountains are densely wooded, very conducive to hiding, and in the middle of the valley there is only a ravine dirt road to march (the so-called Yangan Highway). The dirt road was very narrow, and in some places only one or two carriages could be walked, so the Red Army decided to take advantage of the terrain here, set up an ambush, and then lure the enemy deeper, coupled with the peculiarities of mountain warfare, it would certainly be victorious.
Zhang Xueliang so proudly believed that the combat effectiveness of his troops was strong, the Red Army was simply vulnerable, then his subordinates naturally went up and down, the commander in charge of the Commander of the Middle Route Army made meritorious contributions, his main force marched forward in triumph, continuously occupied Luochuan, Ganquan and other places, only encountered slight resistance from the Red Army militia, and easily occupied the territory of more than two hundred kilometers of the Red Army guerrilla zone, and then thought that the Red Army in northern Shaanxi had no combat effectiveness, and was overjoyed.
The senior commanders of these ranks, blinded by the victory, thought that they had occupied a large area of the Red Army's territory, and could rest assured that in fact, the Red Army had taken the initiative to abandon these territories in order to disperse the Northeast Army on these vast but complex terrains, and tens of thousands of troops could not be concentrated at all. This created the conditions for annihilating the main forces of the Northeast Army. At this time, the main forces of the Red Army had long been assembled in the Laoshan area, morale was high, and a tight pocket formation had long been set up to wait for the enemy's 110th Division to drill and launch an all-out attack.
When the enemy had all entered the ambush ground, the Red Army launched a fierce attack, at the same time, the vanguard troops found that the road ahead had been completely blocked by the Red Army with stones, and ordered the troops to retreat quickly.
Due to the narrow terrain of the valley here, the Red Army controlled all the favorable terrain, the 2 regiments of the Northeast Army were like a chicken with an elongated neck waiting to be killed, completely in a passive position, the Red Army could blow down several Northeast Army soldiers with a single grenade, and machine gun bullets swept down rows of Northeast Army soldiers like a gust of wind. The soldiers of the two armies of the Red Army were veterans of the battlefield for a long time, and they attacked fiercely from the northeast army from high to low with machine guns, rifles, and grenades, and the fire was very fierce.
In the ambush battle at Laoshan, the two sides fought fiercely for 3 hours, and the two regiments of the Northeast Army were almost completely destroyed, losing thousands of men and horses, a division commander, a division chief of staff were killed, and two regimental commanders were killed and one prisoner. The Red Army captured 4 mountain guns, 8 mortars, 24 heavy machine guns, 162 light machine guns, more than 3,000 long and short guns, more than 300 military horses, and a 50-watt radio station.
Defeated in the Battle of Yulin Bridge. As the saying goes, the Red Army in northern Shaanxi is good at fighting ambush battles, and if the rear does not have enough troops to support the army and go deep alone, it is easy to be annihilated by the Red Army. To this end, it was decided to move forward steadily and steadily with Luochuan as the center, and not to give the Red Army any opportunity to take advantage of it. To this end, the main force of the 67th Army of the Northeast Army withdrew to its own defense area near Luochuan, leaving only a regiment of the 129th Division of Yan'an and a reinforced battalion of Ganquan, and in addition, south of Ganquan, a stronghold north of Luochuan was the military stronghold of Yulin Bridge, where a regiment was stationed.
What he did not expect was that after winning the victory in the Battle of Laoshan, the Fifteenth Army of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was ready to continue to expand its achievements, and decided to take the initiative to attack the Yulin Bridge stronghold and pull out this nail; once the Yulin Bridge was laid, the Northeast Army would only have Ganquan and Yan'an, two isolated strongholds north of Luochuan, and sooner or later it would be finished, and the Northeast Army's attack on the Northern Shaanxi Soviet Region would be equivalent to being crushed.
Yulin Bridge is an important traffic stronghold of the Xianyan Highway (Xianyang to Yan'an), and the Northeast Army occupies this place to completely block the traffic in the southern part of the Soviet Zone, and after a regiment of the Northeast Army is stationed here, it has built some strong fortifications. Defensive positions were set up in the northern highlands outside the Yulin Bridge, bunkers, trenches and barbed wire were built, and heavy machine gun positions were set up. The regimental commander, Gao Fuyuan, graduated from the Northeast Lecture Hall and was Zhang Xueliang's guard battalion commander, with a tough and stubborn personality, who was very loyal to him, and was soon promoted to become his confidant.
At dawn, the Red Army began to attack Yulin Bridge, and the Red Twenty-fifth Army began a frontal assault from the Northern Highlands. The defenders of the Northeast Army, under the command of regimental commander Gao Fuyuan, resisted desperately with 8 heavy machine guns. The Red Twenty-fifth Army did not have any heavy weapons, and mainly charged with the company as a unit of man in the sea of men, and then threw cluster grenades. After several such attempts, they were intercepted by heavy machine gun fire of the Northeast Army, and they could not drop grenades at the bunkers, and they were unable to capture this position.
Here, Xu Haidong Liu Zhidan saw that the strong attack could not be successful for more than an hour, and he was also very anxious and began to find other ways. The local people of northern Shaanxi were all supportive of the Red Army, and they pointed out a small road for the Red Army to bypass this position. So Xu Haidong led a main force to bypass the position and break into yulinqiao town in one fell swoop. Gao Fuyuan was horrified to discover that the Red Army had sneaked into yulin bridge without knowing where to go. But Gao was after all an academy dispatcher, very capable, and immediately ordered the troops to counterattack. The Northeast Army launched a massive attack on the Red Army that had burst into the town, and at one point knocked the Red Army out of the town of Yulinqiao.
What he did not expect was that the rear was guarded, and there was a problem in the front. At this time, the Northeast Army in the front position found that the rear of the Yulin Bridge fired a gun, thinking that the rear was captured, panicked, and messed up. They soon lost the will to resist, some of the soldiers fled, and the remaining troops surrendered under the red army charge, so that the red army controlled the high ground outside the Yulin Bridge, and the fire could cover the whole town. After Gao Fuyuan learned that the Northern Highlands had fallen, he sighed: It's over, the Yulin Bridge can't be defended.
Gao Fuyuan was still very tough, and still unwilling to surrender at this time, he ordered a street battle. Soldiers of the Northeast Army occupied many houses, dug holes in the walls and shot fiercely outside. The Red Army showed no sign of weakness, throwing grenades into the house and wielding large knives in hand-to-hand combat. At this time, the low morale of the Northeast Army was obviously manifested, and many people raised their hands and surrendered without resistance. After 2 hours of continuous fighting, there was almost no real fierce fighting, mainly the Red Army searching the house and accepting surrender.
A regiment of Gao Fuyuan's army was completely annihilated, more than 1500 people surrendered, the town of Yulinqiao was all occupied by the Fifteenth Army of the Red Army, Gao Fuyuan still led several guards to hide in a cave and continued to resist, the Red Army concentrated its fire on this cave, and the northeast army chickens and dogs jumped inside. During the melee, the high arm was shot, and suddenly collapsed to the ground, and the Red Army soldiers who rushed in were captured on the spot, capturing 8 mortars, 16 heavy machine guns, 100 light machine guns, and more than 1,000 rifles, which was another big gain.
Three defeats at the Battle of Zhiluo Town. Since the Northeast Army entered Shaanxi, the 110th Division of the Battle of Laoshan was annihilated by two regiments, and the entire division was crippled, if this is a big defeat! The battle of Yulin Bridge was a crushing defeat in which the entire regiment, as well as all its armaments and soldiers, was captured by the Red Army. This time, in the Battle of Zhiluo Town, the Northeast Army can be described as a veritable defeat, the entire 109th Division was completely destroyed, and the division commander committed suicide!
Speaking of the Battle of Zhiluo Town, it should be a pity for the Northeast! Because Zhang Xueliang, who suffered two defeats, has paid attention to and realized the painful lessons brought about by the deepening of the lone army. Therefore, he had already decided to change the deployment, and at first the Red Army really had no way to start since the Battle of Yulin Bridge, and the Northeast Army really did not give the Red Army any more opportunities.
At that time, in October 1935, after the Red Army met in Wuqi Town, northern Shaanxi, Chiang Kai-shek sat on a needle felt, and when the Red Army's foothold was unstable, Chiang Kai-shek immediately dispatched troops and decided to carry out "encirclement and suppression" against the Red Army, mobilized the strength of 5 divisions of the Northeast Army, took 4 divisions of Dong Yingbin's army as the west road, and set out from Qingyang and Heshui in Gansu province to march east along the Hulu River; with 1 division of Wang Yizhebu as the east road, marched west along the Hulu River, in an attempt to advance east-west, and surrounded and annihilated the Red Army in the area between the Hulu River and the Luo River.
On November 20, 1935, the 109th Division, the enemy's vanguard, under the cover of aircraft, entered the town of Zhiluo, the battlefield preset by the Red Army. At the same time, the 106th and 111th divisions entered the area of Heishui Temple, northwest of the town of Zhiluo.
Zhiluo Town is located on the south bank of the Hulu River in Fuxian County, Shaanxi, which at that time was a market town that was necessary from FuXian County in Shaanxi to Heshui County in Gansu. The north and south mountains of the town of Zhiluo are undulating, and in the middle is a narrow long valley river, which is not convenient for large troops to deploy, and the Red Army is ambushed on the mountains on all sides.
At about 4:00 p.m. on November 20, Niu Yuanfeng's 109th Division, under the cover of aircraft, entered the town of Zhiluo and also entered the predetermined pockets of the Red Army. Niu Yuanfeng rode his horse toward the town, and triumphantly told the aide-de-camp beside him that he had sent a telegram to the commander that we had occupied the town of Zhiluo.
Niu Yuanfeng, a native of Yishui, Shandong, graduated from the Northeast Wushu Academy, and he had a very close relationship with Zhang Xueliang, serving as the commander of the Northeast Army for many years (equivalent to the current logistics minister). This Niu Yuanfeng was arrogant and arrogant, and the bull was soaring. Not only did he not take the Red Army in his eyes, but even his commander Dong Yingbin did not pay attention to it.
At dawn on the 21st, the battle of Zhiluo Town began, and the Red 1st Army attacked from the north, northwest and northeast, and the Red 15th Army from the south, southwest and southeast. Most of the nationalist 109th Division was annihilated, and the division commander Niu Yuanfeng led the remnants of more than 500 people to occupy an earthen village southeast of The town of Zhiluo, ready to hold on to help.
Intercepted by the Red Army, the 106th and 111th Divisions that came to their aid retreated to the town of Taibai, northwest of the town of Zhiluo. The enemy 117th Division, which was aided by Fu County, also fled back to Fu County in a hurry, and Niu Yuanfeng, the commander of the 109th Division, ventured to break through, was discovered by the Red 15th Army and annihilated on the morning of the 24th, Niu Yuanfeng shot himself, and the Battle of Zhiluo ended in victory. The Battle of Zhiluo Town annihilated 1 division and 1 regiment of the Kuomintang Northeast Army, captured more than 5,300 people, and surrendered more than 3,500 guns.
After these three fiasco defeats, Zhang Xueliang came to the conclusion that Chiang Kai-shek had used the hand of the Red Army to eliminate himself, and the Northeast Army had never fought with the Red Army since then, which also laid the groundwork for the subsequent Xi'an Incident.