In 1952, the remnants of the Kuomintang reactionaries entangled a group of bandits in the depths of the Daliang Mountains, endangering the townships in an attempt to confront the people's government. After the central authorities learned of this, they sent Lu Ruilin, deputy political commissar of the Xikang Military Region, to lead the army to Daliangshan to suppress bandits and form a nationality task force to carry out land reform work.
After several battles, the reactionaries and bandits who occupied the Gaji Yi tribe were beaten to the ground, running and fleeing. There were only a few old, weak, sick and disabled people left in the tribe, most of whom were slaves of the big families in the Daliangshan area. After the team moved in, these people were registered, but due to the language barrier, it was necessary to find a translator who could understand Chinese.
At this time, a slave who was blind in his left eye came over and said that he was Han Chinese and could translate for the task force. The people on the task force were curious, why in a place where it was all Yi tribes, there would be a Han slave?
The slave told the task force that he had previously fled here, named Shuai Shigao, and that for more than a decade he had not heard anything out of the window, nor did he know what the situation and the war had changed. After a few days of contact with the task force, Shuai Shigao admired the discipline of the People's Liberation Army and said to the soldiers working together: "The discipline of the People's Liberation Army is really good, just as good as the Red Army!" ”
After hearing this, the soldiers of the task force asked Shuai Shigao: "The People's Liberation Army is the former Red Army, have you seen the Red Army?" ”
Knowing that the team in front of him was the Red Army of that year, Shuai Shigao was a little excited, "I didn't expect to see the Red Army again!" ”
Then, Shuai Shigao talked about his experience with the Red Army, "Seventeen years ago, I was a boatman at the Anshunchang Ferry, and I punched a boat to send the Red Army across the river. ”
Shuai Shigao's experience surprised the task force, and a reporter accompanying the team then wrote down his deeds and reported them to the military region, and after Lu Ruilin saw the article, he shouted a sentence : "There is no place to step on the iron shoes, it takes no effort at all." Because the Party Central Committee had been looking for this shipwright named Shuai Shigao before, but there had been no news of him.
What special experience does Shuai Shigao have that can make the central government pay special attention to him? Why did he become a slave? This has to start with the forced crossing of the Dadu River in 1935.
In October 1934, after the defeat of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army began to shift strategically, opening up the road of 25,000 miles of long march.
Along the way, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Kuomintang troops to pursue and intercept the Red Army, and after breaking through the enemy's heavy blockade line, the Red Army established a leadership with the great man as the core in Zunyi.
However, the enemy's "encirclement and suppression" did not slacken off, and under the leadership of the new leadership, the Red Army crossed the Chishui River in four directions, crossed the Jinsha River skillfully, skillfully evaded the enemy's various encirclements and pursuits, and prepared to cross the Dadu River into the northwestern Sichuan region in May 1935.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized four armies of 200,000 people, and there were blockades in front of the Dadu River, and there were pursuing troops in the back, preparing to surround the Red Army on the south bank of the Dadu River, and even issued wild words to make the Red Army the second Shi Dakai.
This is not a vain statement, Shi Dakai was completely annihilated here. As an outstanding military general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shi Dakai, the King of the Wing, led 100,000 soldiers on a western expedition after the infighting broke out in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, hoping to leave a pulse for the Taiping Army. In April 1863, after a battle, Shi Dakai's 100,000 troops remained for 40,000, and they crossed the Jinsha River and came to the Dadu River in May.
At the Dadu River, Shi Dakai ordered his generals to build a raft to cross the river, but the heavy rain for many days prevented the plan from being completed on time, and the Qing army killed three days later. Shi Dakai, who missed the best opportunity to cross the river, failed to cross many times, and could only fight with the Qing army backwards, and finally fell into a desperate situation due to the exhaustion of grain and grass and serious war losses.
In desperation, Shi Dakai had to negotiate with the Qing army, and according to the qing army's requirements, Shi Dakai could only take 2,000 people to the Qing army barracks to surrender, and there were more than 6,000 people left at that time. After Shi Dakai finally dismissed 4,000 people, he surrendered with 2,000 men and horses. However, the Qing army did not follow the agreement, but killed Shi Dakai and all 2,000 soldiers.
After Shi Dakai's army collapsed, the Dadu River became a tragic place in the history of Chinese war.
Dadu River is the largest tributary of the Min River, the terrain is steep, both sides are lofty mountains, the water is turbulent, usually the width of the river is more than 300 meters, and the flood season can reach 500 meters. With the lessons of Shi Da's past, the Kuomintang top brass all believed that even if the Red Army could cross the Jinsha River, the Dadu River was definitely an insurmountable chasm.
What's more, the situation faced by the Red Army at that time was similar to that faced by Shi Dakai 72 years ago. First of all, both units arrived at Anshun Field on the Dadu River during the flood season in May, which is also a historical coincidence. Secondly, both units faced various "encirclement and suppression" of the enemy, and Shi Dakai's army was only 40,000 at this time, while the Central Red Army only had more than 20,000 people left. In terms of the number of enemies, the Red Army was under more pressure than Shi Dakai's army, when the Kuomintang deployed nearly 200,000 troops around the Dadu River.
Chiang Kai-shek, who had always regarded Zeng Guofan as an example, vowed to turn the Red Army into "Shi Dakai's second". In the face of many difficulties, the great man predicted: Shi Dakai did not have a path to go, we will certainly be able to walk through.
Because objective conditions are only the influencing factors for winning or losing a war, the key factor that really determines the outcome of the battlefield is still people.
On May 24, 1935, the Kuomintang troops in hot pursuit in the rear were getting closer and closer, and in order to avoid falling into the enemy's encirclement, the Red Army had only one way to go, that is, to cross the Dadu River by force.
For this step, the Kuomintang also took into account long ago, they had previously transported the ships and boatmen and grain of Anshunchang to the north shore, leaving the Red Army with no ships to use and no grain to eat. These actions were carried out by a large local landlord named Lai Zizhong.
At that time, Lai Zizhong also received orders to set fire to all the houses on the south bank, but most of his family property was also on the south bank, and he was reluctant to burn his ancestral house, so he spent money to buy the nationalist officials and left himself a ferry ship on the south bank.
Lai Zizhong's wishful thinking was played like this: If the Red Army did not live from here, then his house could be preserved. If the Red Army came, he set fire to it at once and ran by boat to the north shore. Lai Zizhong believes that this is a way to have the best of both worlds.
But he never expected that on the night of May 24, the Red Army's advance team, the Red Regiment, marched 80 miles, immediately defeated the two companies stationed in the town, occupied the Anshunchang ferry, and the battle ended in only 20 minutes. This ship also became the only ship on the south bank of the Dadu River at that time.
Although a boat capable of carrying more than 20 people was captured, the Dadu River was turbulent, the river was wide, the undercurrent was surging and there were many reefs and shoals, making it difficult to steer the boats across the river without the local experienced boatman at the helm.
After inquiring about the local compatriots, the Red Army learned that most of the experienced old shipwrights had been arrested on the north shore. However, there was a young boatman with good skills, who had not been taken away and was still on the south bank. The boatman, named Shuai Shigao, was 24 years old at the time.
The Red Army immediately sent people to Shuai Shigao's house for help, but the soldiers knocked on the door for a long time, but Shuai Shigao did not dare to open the door. Mainly because in the previous Kuomintang propaganda, the Red Army was a "bandit who kills people without blinking an eye." Another reason is that I am usually scared of being bullied in military uniforms, and I have to hide when I see it, let alone find the door.
When the Soldiers of the Red Army knocked on the door and saw that no one had come to open it, they shouted inside: "Boss, don't be nervous, our Red Army is the army of the poor, and we are all peasants." ”
Listening to these few words, Shuai Shigao opened a crack in the door and looked at the Red Army soldiers in front of him. His biggest discovery is that from the perspective of clothing, these soldiers are really quite poor. Several Red Army soldiers in front of them, their clothes are patched, their feet are wearing straw shoes, which are not better than ordinary people, and then think of the clothes of the Kuomintang soldiers they have seen before, Shuai Shigao has a natural good feeling for the Red Army in front of him.
Shuai Shigao invited the Red Army soldiers into the house, and he had already guessed a few points about the purpose of the soldiers coming. "Boss, we want to ask you to help us cross the river, you can rest assured, we will give money." The Red Army soldiers said what they meant.
"Haven't the boats all been pulled to the north shore?" Now there are no boats on the south bank of the river! "Shuai Shigao still knows the current situation.
After listening, the warrior explained: "We captured one, but in terms of punching the ship at the helm, we can't do it, and I asked several people, and they all said that you were an expert in this area, so I came to you for help..."
After the handsome Shi Gao listened, he fell silent after an "Oh" sound. He was worried that at that time, the Kuomintang had stationed a battalion of troops on the north bank, and if he took the Red Army across the river, the Nationalists on the opposite side would definitely shoot and shoot, and perhaps one of them would accidentally be shot and lose his life.
After the mobilization of the Red Army, Shuai Shigao finally agreed to the Red Army's request after some careful consideration, but there were conditions, that is, he had to eat a good meal. Also, he couldn't punch the boat alone, and he had to find a few helpers.
After the Red Army agreed, Shuai Shigao found several shipwrights who were familiar with Zheng Youlun, Shihua Shihua, Wang Youlun, and so on. In the shed on the shore, the Soldiers of the Red Army made the borrowed rice into white rice, which met the requirements of the handsome and high-ranking people to "eat a good meal". Watching several people wolf out their stomachs, the warriors were a little scared, and Shuai Shigao ate three bowls of white rice alone.
On the side of Shuai Shigao, there are actually two reasons for asking for a good meal. One is that the front is dangerous, do not know when the bullet will come, since it is a life-threatening job, then "do not do the hungry ghost" is also the common sentiment of people. The second is that even if life is worry-free, punching a boat is also a manual work, and there was only one ship at that time, which definitely needed to go back and forth many times, which was also a great test for the physical strength of the shipwright.
In the early morning of May 25, the commander of the Red Army personally came to the ferry to command, and after discussion, it was decided that 17 brave soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Battalion of the Red 1st Regiment would serve as the vanguard, board the boats of the four boatmen of Shuai Shigao, and begin to cross the river in the rain of enemy guns and bullets.
The first day had just rained, the river began to rise, there is a local saying that "the water does not cross in May", but Shuai Shigao and his companions can no longer take care of so much. Together, they rowed the boat toward the center of the river, and it was not long before the enemy spotted this flat leaf boat on the surface of the river hundreds of meters wide and immediately shot at the boat with machine guns. "Boss, go to the back!" Faced with enemy guns, Red Army soldiers feared for the safety of the boatmen.
The handsome man rowed the oars vigorously, the bullets whizzing by his ears, and the boats swayed left and right in the rushing river. When the boat came to the center of the river, Shuai Shigao, with experience, found a reef covered by the rising water, and the ship was getting closer and closer to the reef, and if it collided, the whole ship would be finished. And this place is also within the range covered by enemy fire.
Fortunately, at this time, the Red Army on the south bank saw the vanguard entering the enemy's range, mobilized heavy fire, and used its artillery to hit the opposite shore to cover the warriors on the ship. Shuai Shigao and the three boatmen tied ropes to their bodies, jumped off the ship in a race against time, and pushed the boat outward with their shoulders, finally making the course avoid the reef.
After leaving the reef, the ship sped toward the north shore crossing, where the enemy was about to counterattack when it was hit by shells from the south shore, and the vanguard on board immediately landed to control the crossing.
After the Red Army took control of the north bank ferry, Shuai Shigao and his companions also found several ships that had been pulled over before, and they immediately supported four boats back to the south bank to transport more Red Army to the other shore. After several round trips, the Red Army finally crushed the defenders on the north bank and occupied the position.
The boatmen who were taken to the north shore were all rescued, and when they returned, they looked at the red army's clothing and movements, which were not at all like the "bandits" advertised, and under the persuasion of the handsome seniors, a 77-man shipwright team was formed, and everyone was divided into four groups, and they were ferrying day and night. However, due to the small size of the ships and the size of more than 20,000 people of the Red Army, after 7 days and 7 nights of forced crossing, only more than 7,000 people still crossed the Dadu River.
This speed made the commander very anxious, if the enemy regrouped, then the Red Army on both sides of the river would be forced to divide its troops into two ways, and it would be easy to be surrounded by the enemy.
At the critical moment, an 86-year-old local veteran talent, Song Dashun, offered a plan to let the red army troops go up the river for 300 miles and cross the river from Luding Bridge. After hearing this, the great man immediately consulted with other leaders of the Central Military Commission and decided to use 7,000 people who had crossed the river to contain the Kuomintang troops on the north bank, while the Red 1st Division, which had not yet crossed the river on the south bank, went into battle lightly, marched up the river in a hurry, and flew up the Luding Bridge on the 29th, so that the main force of the Red Army on the south bank could smoothly pass through the Dadu River.
Although more than 10,000 Red Army soldiers in the back crossed the river from Luding Bridge, the more than 7,000 soldiers who crossed to the north bank with Shuai Shigao and his companions also played a major role in avoiding the tragedy of "Shi Dakai's second". After ferrying the Red Army, a Red Army commander came to the ferry, greeted Shuai Shigao, and gave him 8 oceans as a reward.
The Red Army shot the large landowner Lai Zizhong, bid farewell to the handsome and senior man, and continued north. After the Red Army left, the Kuomintang troops once again occupied Anshun Field. The shipwrights who had helped the Red Army before became "sinners" of the "bandits." Among them, the most contributed handsome Shigao was the first on the arrest list, and he himself did not know it.
One morning, Shuai Shigao, who was still sleeping, was awakened by a knock at the door, and when he opened the door to see that it was a relative, before he could greet him, the relative said: "Shigao, you run fast, the Kuomintang is coming to arrest you." ”
Shuai Shi Gao listened, dozing off and was startled awake, "Really? ”
"Of course it's true, you helped the Red Army cross the river, and they will definitely shoot you if they catch you." Hurry up and run! Listening to his relatives' words, Shuai Shigao immediately packed up a few clothes and fled from Anshun Field.
Under the ventilation of relatives, several other boatmen also rushed to the neighboring village to join Shuai Shigao. At first, they all thought that they could go home as long as they waited for the limelight to pass in a few days, but they did not expect that the Kuomintang had been pursuing them, and they had no intention of calming down.
Unable to find Shuai Shigao, his father, brother and sister-in-law were all locked up and tortured, and his father eventually died tragically in prison. Shuai Shigao and his partners, only to hide their names, after staying in the mountains for a period of time, only to be short-term workers in different places, relying on mining, running horses and other jobs to make a living.
In the end, Shuai Shigao, who was really desperate, came to the Yi area of Daliangshan, sold himself into slavery, and became a slave of a large landlord of the Gaji Yi tribe, who specially raised horses and cattle for the landlord's family.
As a slave, Shuai Shigao has no dignity to speak of, he eats and lives in the cowshed, the cowshed is not clean, the cows and horses' feces and urine, accompanied by leftover weeds, after being together, the smell is unpleasant, and there are various germ infections, Shuai Shigao, who lives in the cowshed every day, over time the eyes are infected, and finally the left eye is completely blind.
A boatman who made great contributions to the Red Army's forced crossing of the Dadu River lived a life of darkness for more than 10 years like cattle, horses and livestock in order to escape the capture of the Kuomintang.
At the beginning of 1950, Liu Bocheng, chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, came to Anshun field to investigate, and learned that Shuai Shigao and the boatman had been exiled to other places because they helped the Red Army cross the river, and immediately asked the local organization to look for these "heroes" of the Red Army. Several of the shipwrights who were still alive went home, but there was no news of Shuai Shigao, and his life and death were unknown.
Later, after General Manager Peng learned of Shuai Shigao's uncertain life and death and the suffering of his family, he proposed to the central authorities that the local Province of Xikang should mobilize all forces to find the benefactor of the Red Army. After receiving the order from the central government, the Xikang provincial government set up a working group to collect clues everywhere and look for Shuai Shigao, but there has been no news.
It was not until 1952, when the People's Liberation Army was suppressing bandits in Daliangshan, that in a Yi village, it discovered that the "one-eyed" Han slave was Shuai Shigao, the Benefactor of the Red Army that the central government had been looking for.
After the news of Shuai Shigao's discovery reached the central authorities, because Liu Shuai was busy preparing to build a military academy at that time and Mr. Peng was in the Korean battlefield, the central government only called back to xikang province to properly arrange and take care of Shuai Shigao's living problems.
The local government welcomed Shuai Shigao home, divided into three houses and land, and he was already in his 40s, and he also married his wife and had children.
In 1955, the twentieth anniversary of the Red Army's forced crossing of the Dadu River, the Central Committee decided to hold commemorative activities. Mr. Peng specially sent someone to bring Shuai Shigao to Beijing and participated in this commemorative activity. But on this trip to Beijing, Shuai Shigao did not see the busy Mr. Peng.
In 1965, Mr. Peng was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the construction of the southwest third line, and when he was inspecting the asbestos mine, he heard that Shuai Shigao was treating eye diseases in the mining hospital in Asbestos County, and immediately decided to meet the deceased.
After coming to the hospital, Mr. Peng shook Shuai Shigao's hand and said, "Are you Shuai Shigao?" We are old friends, and we have long wanted to go to Anshun field to see you. ”
After 30 years, Shuai Shigao could no longer recognize the chief in front of him and asked, "Chief, how do you know my name?" ”
"Not only do I know your name, I also know that you have suffered a lot for the Red Army, and 30 years ago, on the day the Red Army left Anshun Field, we said goodbye on the ship." After listening to Mr. Peng's words, Shuai Shigao couldn't believe it and asked, "Chief, what's your name?" ”
The accompanying person next to him said: "This is General Manager Peng, Peng Dehuai!" ”
General Zhang Zhen took a group photo with Shuai Shigao
When Shuai Shigao heard this, he immediately took Mr. Peng's hand and said, "I know, you are the head of the 8 oceans that gave me 8 oceans when you said goodbye 30 years ago, and you also sent someone to pick me up in Beijing in 1955!" ”
The two held hands and talked for a long time, and then Mr. Peng took out 30 yuan and stuffed it to Shuai Shigao, saying that it was an old Red Army's heart for the "benefactor". Shuai Shigao was reluctant to accept it at first, but he could not resist the persuasion of Mr. Peng and accepted the money. After that, Mr. Peng also sent someone to send a radio to let Shuai Shigao have time to listen.
After the reform and opening up, Yang Dezhi, the founding general who had participated in the forced crossing of the Dadu River, also visited Shuai Shigao at Anshun Field. Since then, Shuai Shigao has become the local red business card, and all those who come to visit the Qiangdu River will hear the story of Shuai Shigao and the Red Army from the tour guide.
In 1995, he was born on the banks of the Dadu River and was a handsome man who had been a slave for more than 10 years, and completed his life journey at the age of 84.
Although Shuai Shigao is gone, people have not forgotten him. In the epic chapters about the Red Army's forced crossing of the Dadu River, about the water conditions of the military and civilian fish, his name is always mentioned. Photographs of him and several boatmen have also been treasured in the memorial hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's forced crossing of the Dadu River.
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