After a three-thousand-mile western expedition, the main force of the Red Fourth Front crossed the Daba Mountains to northern Sichuan in late December 1932, and on December 18, the vanguard of the Red Army captured the county seat of Tongjiang County, and then the Red Army departments quickly controlled most of Tongjiang County, and the headquarters and organs of the Front Army were stationed in Tongjiang.
Northern Sichuan was originally the territory of the Sichuan warlord Tian Songyao, but at that time, Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui were fighting in the Chengdu area, and Tian Songyao led the main force of more than 30 regiments to Chengdu to support Liu Xiang, so his troops left in the northern Sichuan area were not many, which was very conducive to the next development of the Red Fourth Front Army that had just arrived in northern Sichuan.
Soon after the Red Fourth Front army occupied Tongjiang City, Tian Songyao sent his second line Liu Hanxiong's troops into Nanjiang, and the first road Li Weiru and Luo Shuqiong's third division entered Bazhong in an attempt to counterattack Tongjiang, but because Tian Songyao's main force went to Chengdu, the total strength of the enemy attacking was 11 regiments, and the Red Army had the advantage in terms of combat effectiveness, so the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front decided that the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian would lead the main force to attack.
When Tian Songyao was occupying the northwest of Sichuan, the locals made a couplet satire:
Well, he Tian family, bitter my Tian family, said that the voice faction miscellaneous taxes, the regiment general faction, the Jia chief faction, the estimation faction, the nominal official faction, the Hu faction of ghosts, the hard heart of the Yu'er faction; in order to want Batu, so we want Batu, talking about collecting foreign money, collecting on the field, collecting in the countryside, collecting in the open and secret, not afraid of hand collection, only afraid of heavenly harvest, beware of no one to collect the bones.
The terrain of northern Sichuan is complex and densely forested, and the Red Army is very unfamiliar with this area after its first arrival, and there is no local map, but because Tian Songyao is unpopular, the local compatriots in northwest Sichuan have served as guides for the Red Army, which has helped a lot. Xu Xiangqian ordered the Red 73rd Division to advance west from PingxiBa on the west bank of the Xiaotong River to meet the enemy Liu Hanxiong's troops; the Red 11th and 12th Divisions attacked the enemy Li Weiru and Luo Shuqiong at the mountainous and dangerous mountainous area west of Tongjiang City.
The battle went very smoothly, Liu Hanxiong, Li Weiru, Luo Shuqiong and other units collapsed at a touch, 3 regiments were completely annihilated, 8 regiments were defeated, the Red Army captured the three county towns of Tongjiang, Nanjiang, and Bazhong and most of the surrounding areas, and the Red Fourth Front Army was able to gain a foothold in northern Sichuan.
In mid-February 1933, the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area was formally established, with jurisdiction over five counties of Hongjiang, Chijiang, Chibei, Nanjiang, Bazhong (Hongjiang, Chijiang, and Chibei are newly divided counties) and Bazhong Special City, with a population of about one million.
In October 1932, Eyuwan's third "anti-encirclement and suppression" defeat, the main force of the Red Fourth Front army more than 20,000 people to the west, the losses on the way, after the occupation of Tongjiang, the total number of about 14,000 people, including a large number of non-combatants belonging to the military department, organs, logistics, hospitals and other institutions, after gaining a foothold in northern Sichuan, the Red Army received a great material supplement, at the same time the masses in the base areas also actively participated in the Red Army, by the end of February, the main Red Army of the Red Fourth Front army grew to 18,000 people.
All divisions and regiments of the Red Fourth Front have set up new battalions and companies, women's independent battalions have also been formed, and the four main divisions, the Red 10th, 11th, 12th, and 73rd Divisions, have been greatly replenished, and the appearance of the troops has also been renewed. So who are the division commanders and political commissars of these four divisions?
The commander of the Red 10th Division at the time was Wang Hongkun, and the political commissar was Zhou Chunquan. Wang Hongkun, a native of Macheng, Hubei Province, was awarded the rank of general in 1955 and was awarded the Order of August 1st, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class; Zhou Chunquan was a native of Huang'an (now Hong'an) in Hubei Province, and was also a founding general.
Ni Zhiliang, then commander of the Red 10th Division, and Li Xiannian, political commissar. Ni Zhiliang, a native of Beijing, graduated from Huangpu Ivy, was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955, and was awarded the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class; Li Xiannian was a native of Huang'an (now Hong'an), Hubei Province, and he transferred to local work without participating in the first rank of our army.
The commander of the Red 12th Division at the time was He Wei, political commissar Gan Yuanjing; He Wei was a native of Lehui County, Guangdong Province, who left the army and returned to his hometown in 1938, and there are many theories about the ending after that; Gan Yuanjing was a native of Dawu County, Hubei Province, he was captured in a battle during the Western Route Army's Western Expedition, and returned to his hometown in 1938.
Wang Shusheng, then commander of the Red 73rd Division, and Zhang Guangcai, political commissar; Wang Shusheng, a native of Macheng, Hubei Province, was one of the representative figures of the Red Fourth Front, and served as deputy commander-in-chief, and in 1955 he was awarded the rank of Grand General, the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class; Zhang Guangcai, a native of Huangpi, Hubei Province, was awarded the rank of Major General in 1955, and was awarded the Order of August 1, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Second Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.
Later, with the victory of the anti-three-way siege, Yinan, Yingqu, Xuanhan and other battles, the area of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area reached 42,000 square kilometers, the population was close to 6 million, the main Red Army also developed from 18,000 people in 4 divisions to 5 armies with more than 80,000 people, in addition to the guerrillas, Red Guards, Young Pioneers, Boy Regiments, Women's Independent Regiments and other local armed forces also reached more than 100,000 people, and the commanders of the first four main divisions also became military commanders.