In the fourth "counter-encirclement and suppression" campaign, the main force of the Red Fourth Front moved to the jute area, and along the way the Nationalist Wei Lihuang and Chen Zhibu pursued them relentlessly, and the Red Army launched a fierce battle with the pursuing enemy in the Hekou town area, with heavy casualties on both sides, and Gan Jishi, political commissar of the Red 11th Division, and Cai Shenxi, commander of the Red 25th Army, were martyred.
On October 10, the main force of the Red Fourth Front army came to the Huangchaiba area (located in Hong'an County, Hubei Province), the Red Army's front foot arrived, the 2nd Division of Chen's successor department quickly pursued, the Red Army fought with the enemy until dusk, the Nationalist 2nd Division suffered heavy casualties, and the deputy division commander Bai Tianmin was also seriously wounded, so he retreated. But this was only a temporary victory, because the nearby Nationalist 13th, 1st, 88th Divisions and other units were coming, and more than 20,000 people of the Red Fourth Front were in danger of being encircled.
On the evening of the same day, the Eyu-Anhui sub-bureau held an emergency meeting, at which Zhang Guotao held that the enemy's strength in the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign greatly exceeded ours, and our army was completely in a passive and defeated position after failing to accomplish its task of crushing the enemy after various battles. The main towns in the base areas were occupied by the enemy, and the main force of the Red Army had no room for maneuver and could not crush the enemy's "encirclement and suppression." Only by jumping out of the enemy's encirclement can you save your strength. It would be hopeless to leave the main forces of the Red Army in the base areas to fight.
Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, also fully agreed with the pulling out of the troops, pointing out that there was only a small area left in the Eyu-Anhui base area, and as long as the gun was fired, it would not take two or three hours for the enemy to attack from all sides. Due to the urgency of the enemy's situation, the encirclement of the enemy on the periphery could be completely killed at any time, and the overwhelming majority of the participants supported the opinions of Zhang Guotao and Xu Xiangqian, so the meeting made a decision, and the main force of the Red Fourth Front Jumped out of the outer line to fight.
But where exactly is it moving? At that time, the nationalist armies on the east, south and north sides were all heavily armed, so the Red Fourth Front initially moved to the west of Pinghan Road, because the enemy here had relatively few troops, there were not many fortresses, and the final destination was actually to take one step at a time, and the top priority was to break through the enemy's encirclement. At that time, the participants probably did not think that this walk was three thousand miles.
The westward advance of the Red Fourth Front is not a simple march, there are more than 100,000 Nationalist troops behind the butt, and there are local Nationalist troops intercepting along the way, which can be said to have gone all the way and fought all the way. In the Zaoyang Xinji area of Hubei Province, the Red Army encountered at least 6 divisions of the Nationalist army that had been pursuing one after another, and after a bloody battle, they broke through, and lin weiquan, the leader of the Red 31st Regiment, and Wu Yunshan, the leader of the Red 33rd Regiment, were sacrificed, and these two regimental commanders were among the best regimental commanders in the Red Fourth Front, and Xu Xiangqian was very sorry.
In early November 1932, the Red Fourth Front army entered the Manchuanguan area on the border of Hubei and Shaanxi, taking advantage of the fact that there was still a gap in the enemy's encirclement at that time, Xu Shiyou, commander of the 34th Regiment of the Red 12th Division, led the whole regiment to capture the Beishan Pass, opening a passage for the whole army, most of the Red 34th Regiment was sacrificed in this battle, and the 219th Regiment of the Red 73rd Division, which was cooperating, also suffered heavy casualties, and the regimental commander Han Liangchen was sacrificed.
During the transfer, Chen Xilian, who was then the instructor of the special service company of the 30th Regiment of the Red 10th Division, was assigned a very important task, that is, he was responsible for escorting more than a hundred baskets of silver dollars along the way, which was all the belongings of the Red Fourth Front at that time, and Chen Xilian led the soldiers of the whole company to shoulder this heavy responsibility. This was a very hard job, because a basket of silver dollars was very heavy, and Chen Xilian and the soldiers were marching with heavy loads, much harder than ordinary soldiers.
After the Red Fourth Front crossed the Qinling Mountains, there was still an enemy chasing after them, the Red 11th Division was entangled by the pursuing enemy when it was serving as a rear guard, Chen Xilian and the special agent company were also near the Red 11th Division, the enemy pursued very fiercely, after the division commander Ni Zhiliang saw Chen Xilian, the two discussed, thought of a good way, scattered some silver dollars on the ground, the pursuing Nationalist soldiers saw it, they went to check the silver dollars, the result was chaos, the Red Army took the opportunity to attack the enemy back, the Red 11th Division rearguard troops were released.
The Red Fourth Front continued to advance, moving south to Hanzhong, and at first preparing to establish a base area here after crossing the Han River, but southern Shaanxi was in drought for many years, the grain was extremely scarce, the population was not large, and it was not an easy place to defend and difficult to attack, which was not conducive to dealing with the enemy's "encirclement and suppression". Therefore, the Red Fourth Front held a meeting of cadres at and above the regimental level in Zhongjiagou and decided to march into northern Sichuan to establish a base area.
To get to northern Sichuan, it was necessary to cross the Daba Mountain, it was December, it was freezing with heavy snow, the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army braved the severe cold to wear single clothes and straw shoes, trekked in a difficult environment, over the Daba Mountain, seventy miles up the mountain, seventy miles up the mountain, seventy miles down the mountain, the Red Army walked for two days, after crossing the Daba Mountain, the Red Fourth Front Army occupied most of the three counties of Tongjiang, Nanjiang, and Bazhong within ten days, and the creation of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area began.