On August 21, 1935, a day of thunderstorms, the Red 25th Army marched east from the town of Baishui to the north bank of the Jing River, crowded by the river at the ferry, noisy, some wading, some rowing. Heavy rain does not stop.
Officers and men scrambled, and the ranks were chaotic.
Suddenly, someone called: "The flash flood is coming!" The flash flood is coming! ”
Flash floods broke out.
There was only one boat at the port, and it was swept away by the flash flood. Therefore, the officers and men who had not crossed the river immediately retreated to the shore, looked at the billowing flood, and stopped moving. Deputy Commander Xu Haidong did not expect the flash flood to come so quickly and so fiercely, and when he saw a regiment (223 Regiment) still separated on the north bank, his heart was anxious, in case the pursuing enemy attacked behind him, he would really have to fight alone. As soon as he thought of this, he immediately ordered the commander of the 223rd Regiment to send a company back 10 miles to strictly block the pursuit of the enemy.
After this company left, Xu Haidong was still not at ease, and he took the guards and rushed over. Unexpectedly, they only walked 5 miles and joined the 2208th Regiment of the oncoming 104th Brigade, which was pursuing the enemy.
Xu Haidong commanded the whole company to hastily occupy a small hill and block the enemy. However, the enemy fought more and more, and suddenly surrounded Xu Haidong and them all. The enemy cavalry charged desperately. During the fight, Xu Haidong's guards were either wounded or sacrificed, and the entire company was charged by the enemy cavalry and began to collapse.
Xu Haidong's left leg was disabled, and he couldn't walk on the rope and couldn't run fast. The enemy soldiers chased after him and shouted:
"Catch alive! Catch alive! ”
In the midst of extreme danger, Xu Haidong's groom, suddenly riding a white horse and leading a horse, galloped over and shouted to Xu Haidong:
"Get on the horse!"
He quickly pulled bai mara to Xu Haidong. Almost instantaneously, Xu Haidong jumped on his horse, whipped a few lashes, and the horse galloped with him and rushed out of the enemy's siege.
Xu Haidong and Ma Fu braved the rain and ran back to the river where the 223rd Regiment was located. The whole regiment had not yet crossed the river, and the enemy's gunfire became more and more intense. Xu Haidong shouted, "The enemy is coming, resolutely resist!"
The warriors were invigorated, and in the lightning and thunder, they immediately occupied the river embankment as a position. A roar of horses and men, the enemy cavalry rushed in. After the cavalry, the infantry swarmed again. The Red 223 Regiment fought with its backs to the water, blocking the enemy to death outside the river embankment. Xu Haidong and the 223rd Regiment fought hard against the enemy, and it was another backwater battle, and they were once again in danger.
Suddenly, a team came out of the right wing, and the leader shouted with a shell gun in his hand:
"Communists, rush forward with me..."
The man wielding the shell gun was Wu Huanxian, the military political commissar.
It turned out that Wu Huanxian, the political commissar who had crossed the river, heard the fierce gunfire on the opposite bank, knew that the situation was critical, and immediately led a traffic team of more than 160 people, risking being swept away by the flood, forcibly wading over, and running to seize a commanding height outside The Village of Sipo and launched an attack on the enemy. They actually waded through the river successfully, and when the commander of the army, Cheng Zihua, saw it, he immediately ordered the main force of the whole army to cross the river immediately. Xu Haidong saw that the main force had forcibly crossed the river, personally led a regiment, and inserted itself into the rear of the enemy's flank.
As a result, after several rushes and killings, the Red 25th Army actually turned defeat into victory, annihilating more than 1,000 people of the 2208 regiment of the enemy's 104th Brigade, and the enemy regimental commander Ma Kaiji was also killed by the river.
The Red 25th Army once again turned the danger into a disaster and turned the crisis into safety.
Xu Haidong's groom is called Xiao Hou. He herded horses for the landlord's family from an early age, and three years ago he threw the landlord's whip and joined the Red Army. Xu Haidong heard that he understood horse doctors and was good at recognizing and taming horses, so he left him in the military headquarters and became a "horseman" and was also Xu Haidong's groom. He felt that Commander Xu reused himself, was very motivated, and raised the horses of the military department to be strong and happy. He is very clever, followed Xu Haidong for many years, never made a mistake, and the friendship with Xu Haidong is very deep. This time, after he found that Xu Haidong had gone to the rear, he was worried that he had an accident, led the horse to chase him, and indeed saved Xu Haidong's life at a critical moment.
After the war, Xu Haidong said:
"If it weren't for the 'monkeys' saving each other today, I would have been taken prisoner!" This Mackay is really dead! ”