A "chaotic" word cannot describe Sichuan in that era at all.
Because of the handover of the times, the new revolutionary party and the old-school officers and gentry who sprang up here were intolerable to each other; and because of geographical reasons, the beiyang, Dian, and Qian warlords came to take advantage of the fire and looting at every turn, and stirred up the land of Sichuan and Shu, which was originally rich and prosperous.
The Sichuan Army, which was formed in the midst of chaos, was only established for a few decades, but it has also been fighting for decades, almost without stopping for a moment. Fighting with warlords from other provinces and fighting with their own people, all kinds of local small princes are emerging in an endless stream, and they all want to occupy the mountain and become kings.
But the appearance of a person completely changed the fate of the Sichuan Army and Sichuan. He crossed the natural dangers of the Shu Road, crossed the land of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and broke the Six-Way Alliance Army with weak troops, and the "unheard of" new tactics even beat the 200,000 Sichuan troops to the head.
He is Xu Xiangqian, a military genius who has fought infighting for more than 20 years and fought against the Sichuan army.
First, Tian Songyao was convinced: They did not dare
In December 1932, Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang, the strongest of the Sichuan warlords, completely tore their faces in defiance of the dissuasion of the family elders, and fought for the ownership of Chengdu.
Seeing this scene, the warlords of Sichuan took sides one after another, wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to grab territory and gain extra money. Tian Songyao, a veteran warlord who occupied northern Sichuan, even gave up his blood and sent all 30 regiments of his main force to the front line to support Liu Xiang.
Tian Songyao is known as the "Sitting Tiger", and although his strength is not the strongest in the Sichuan system, his reputation is the most stinky. During his reign, he set up various tax items to exploit the people, such as paying "match donations" for marriage, "fire cage donations" for roasting fires, and even so-called "toilet donations" for going to the toilet.
Tian Songyao's self-created tax items reached more than 80 kinds, forcing the people of northern Sichuan to almost no overnight food, and they all scolded him for "never hearing of dung taxes since ancient times, and now there is only fart without donation."
But it is such a person who can stand firm in the warlord melee in the past. In terms of its fundamentals, Tian Songyao has no other strengths, except for a few soldiers in his hand, that is, he will take sides. So this time to bet on Liu Xiang, he also spent a lot of effort.
However, before Tian Songyao set out on the expedition, the warlord Liu Cunhou, who was next to his territory, hurriedly sent a letter to persuade him: "You do your best to mix up Liu Xiang and Liu Huiwen, and if the Red Army comes from behind, we will both be doomed." ”
Liu Cunhou, nicknamed "Plague Cow", is senior, but like Tian Songyao, he has no way to govern the army and has a way to accumulate wealth. Tian Songyao was the one who set up many taxes, and Liu Cunhou was the breadth of tax collection, and the taxes he collected were even levied a hundred years later.
Tian Songyao's standing did not rely on speculation, and Liu Cunhou relied on financial resources. He would exploit and use his money on the blade of a knife, and the arsenal that he had worked so hard for 30 years was the foundation of his life.
Therefore, this time Tian Songyao shouted to fight Chengdu, and Liu Cunhou was the one who was most opposed, afraid that the Red Army would take the opportunity to enter Sichuan, beat them a praying mantis to catch cicadas and yellow finches, and even captured the arsenal that he regarded as his life.
However, Tian Songyao did not think much of this, and wrote back to Liu Cunhou and said unashamedly: "If it is a disaster in a simple area, why bother with it." ”
Tian Songyao was able to say such a thing because he was sure that the Red Army would not dare to come.
At that time, the only Red Army troops that could really threaten Sichuan were the Red Fourth Front, which had just experienced several consecutive counter-encirclement and suppression and was forced to withdraw from the Eyu-Anhui base area.
Tian Songyao believed that the Red Fourth Front Army and the main force of the Nationalist Army had fought a decisive battle one after another, and had been forced to go on guerrilla attacks everywhere, and they had already found it difficult to protect themselves, so how dare they come to Sichuan at this time to ask for trouble.
Moreover, taking a step back, there is a proverb in Kawachu since ancient times: "The eagle spreads its wings and is sad to the top of the mountain." "At this time, it was the middle of winter, birds would freeze to death when they entered the mountains, how could the Red Army dare to cross the Shu Road and enter Sichuan at this point in time."
Firmly believing that the Red Army had two "dare not", Tian Songyao confidently sent the main force to Chengdu, leaving only some old and weak to stay in northern Sichuan. But Tian Songyao could not have imagined that it was his decision that eventually led to a "huge catastrophe" in the history of the Sichuan Army.
And it was Xu Xiangqian, who was "bold" militarily, who created this catastrophe.
Second, the Sichuan army is afraid of "spanking"
At this time, Xu Xiangqian had just celebrated his 31st birthday, but he had already shocked the world. During his three years in Eyuwan, he brought a semi-guerrilla local unit into the Limelight and even once overshadowed the "Zhumao Red Army" of the Red Fourth Front.
In particular, in the four major battles from November 1931 to June 1932, Xu Xiangqian was even more fierce, sweeping tens of thousands of Jiang family members like a whirlwind, creating a unique brilliant record.
After the evacuation of Eyuwan, Xu Xiangqian, as the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, was always looking for an option that could be used as a foothold. And his most ideal place is Sichuan.
Sichuan is the country of Tianfu, with abundant grain production, military resources, dangerous mountains and rivers, and a good mass base, which are the most urgent needs of the Red Army. Moreover, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, used Sichuan Shu and Hanzhong as strategic bases to advance into the world.
Another very favorable point, that is, Sichuan at this time, has become a pot of porridge.
Liu Wenhui, Liu Xiang, Tian Songyao, Liu Cunhou, Deng Xihou, Yang Sen, Li Jiayu, and Luo Zezhou respectively divided sichuan and Shu, attacked each other, and infighting continued, and this chaotic period was also known in history as the "Eight Kings dividing the rivers".
In the more than 20 years from 1912 to 1934 alone, there were 470 internal battles in the Sichuan Army, with an average of two battles in two months.
Xu Xiangfang took advantage of the immaculate infighting of the Sichuan army to lead the Red Army into northern Sichuan and establish a new revolutionary base area. This proposal was also unanimously approved by the senior commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front.
On December 9, 1932, the Red Army braved the heavy snow and strong wind and began to cross the Daba Mountain at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi. This is a dangerous mountain range at an altitude of 1500 meters, and it is also known by the locals as a "desperate situation" that no bird can fly.
Single-clothes shoes, 4 pounds of fried noodles, this is the only logistical support for the soldiers of the Red Army. When there is no road, he will walk while chiseling, then spread it with straw to prevent slipping, and sleep at night wrapped in the tarpaulin on his backpack for warmth. Many of the warriors could not bear the exhaustion and never woke up after falling asleep.
But after crossing the snowy mountains, it is the country of heaven.
Tian Songyao could not have imagined that the Red Army would descend from heaven and suddenly appear at the southern foot of Daba Mountain. What he would never have imagined was that in just a few days, his rear defenders would completely collapse. In addition to the Red Army, there were also the people of northern Sichuan who were angry and rushed to the crown.
The people had long hated Tian Songyao and Liu Houcun, the warlords who "ate people", and they rushed to the streets to welcome the Red Army with gongs and drums. Although some people could not eat their own food, they also had to bring out a few bowls of tea to entertain the Red Army.
Under Xu Xiangqian's military orders of "not entering the shop, not occupying the house, sleeping on the street, and not disturbing the people", the Red Army gained the hearts and minds of the people in northern Sichuan almost in one day.
The Sichuan army under Tian Songyao was mostly "double-gunners", smoking a lot of cigarettes, short in stature, with a thin face and yellow muscles, and although the combat effectiveness was not strong, it was also extremely difficult because it was familiar with the terrain and good at mountain warfare defense.
In order to help the Red Army fight, the common people took the initiative to act as guides and taught the Red Army to fight in a serious way. Faced with the dangerous passes and mountains defended by the Sichuan army, some old peasants followed Xu Xiangqian to offer a plan:
"Don't look at the fierce fighting in front of the Sichuan Army, in fact, they don't care about the head, there is no concept of the overall situation, they are afraid of spanking, go around to the back to beat them, and ensure success."
The people who know the Sichuan army best are the people in Sichuan. It was precisely because of this "spanking" trick that Xu Xiangqian marched out in a very short period of time, conquered the dangerous mountain fortress, and within a month, he went down to the three counties of Tongjiang, Nanjiang, and Bazhong, leaving Tian Songyao in the rear, annihilating 3 and maiming 8.
The common people followed the Red Army, which also caused a wave of internal shaking in the Sichuan Army. Ren Weizhang, who had served as the brigade commander of Yang Sen's department, took the initiative to lead the three regiments of his "Northern Sichuan People's Army" to revolt on the battlefield and defected to the Red Army.
Tian Songyao, who was fighting feverishly in Chengdu, soon learned of the news of the fire in the backyard. Almost desperate, he constantly sent telegrams to all the Forces of the Sichuan Army, wanting a truce and peace talks, and even described the Red Army as the "great enemy of life" of the Sichuan Army.
While asking for help, Tian Songyao also hurriedly gathered his own troops, and with a total of 60,000 troops in 38 regiments, formed a three-way army to launch a siege against the Red Army, in an attempt to recover the lost land and drive the Red Army out of northern Sichuan.
3. "Centripetal withdrawal"
20,000 Red Army faced 60,000 Sichuan troops, but Xu Xiangqian, who was on the inferior side of the battlefield, was not nervous, but for the first time put forward the tactical idea of "seeking heart and retreating".
What is the retreat of the heart? That is, to shrink the strength of troops from the core positions from all sides, to lure the enemy to go deeper, to use the dangerous terrain of northern Sichuan to build fortifications, to resist the Sichuan army step by step, to consume and delay the enemy, and finally to seek opportunities to counterattack.
According to local conditions and people's conditions, we should combine mobile warfare with position warfare, make up for the numerical disadvantages with the advantages of terrain and tactics, and seize the weakness of the Sichuan army's weak equipment and weak offensive points to make use of this weakness.
Xu took the initiative to show weakness, so that several main divisions of the Red Army all retreated and turned to a defensive posture. Tian Songyao mistakenly thought that the Red Army did not dare to take the initiative to fight him because of its lack of strength, so he urged his subordinates to seize the offensive step by step.
In the first ten days of the fiercest fighting, Xu Xiangqian personally visited the front line and soon discovered another combat characteristic of the Sichuan army--it was all fighting with a puff of smoke.
Before the Sichuan army attacks, it must smoke a big cigarette, launch a charge with the strength of the smoke, take the lead of the "death squad", the officers press the front, and the offensive arrogance is very arrogant. However, as soon as the smoke passed, the Sichuan army began to be mentally weak, lacked stamina, could not attack and withdraw, and only had to be beaten.
Taking advantage of this weakness of the Sichuan army, Xu Xiangqian ordered the front-line troops to avoid the sichuan army's charge stage and focus on the death squads and the officers of the press. As soon as the Sichuan army's momentum passed, the roundabout troops used the "spanking" trick to carry out a surprise attack from behind to shock and crush the Sichuan army.
Defending in the front and fighting in the back, Xu Qiangfang grabbed the life gate of the Sichuan Army to death. Within a month, the Red Fourth Front used the dangerous passes to resist one after another, annihilating nearly 8,000 enemy troops.
Although the losses were large, Tian Songyao was overjoyed because he had recovered the bazhong and Nanjiang lines all the way and blocked the Red Army back to the foot of daba Mountain, and thought that it had reached an excellent moment to eat the four fronts in one bite.
But he would not have thought that Xu Xiangqian had already designed a large net waiting for him to drill.
Fourth, break the six-way siege
In 1933, the four main divisions of the Red Fourth Front, totaling more than 20,000 people, were all compressed in an area of less than 100 miles in radius - Empty Mountain Dam
This was also the end of Xu Xiangqian's strategic retreat, and the deeper the Sichuan army was pressed, the greater the power of the Counterattack of the Red Army, which concentrated all its forces.
On the night of May 15, the 10th and 11th Divisions of the Red Fourth Front, under the command of Xu Xiangqian, launched a surprise attack on 8 regiments of Liu Cunhou of the Sichuan Army on the Eastern Front, and defeated them in one fell swoop, completely relieving the threat of the Red Army flank.
Liu Cunhou had originally come to help Tian Songyao suppress the front, but he did not expect to suddenly suffer a big loss. When Hetian Songyao called to complain, he said angrily: "I poked the honeycomb, and their first wave of charge destroyed my 8 regiments. ”
Tian Songyao watched the Red Army retreat all the way, and had already forgotten about it, and did not care what Liu Houcun said, thinking that he had suffered defeat simply because he had no command.
However, only a few days later, on the evening of May 20, heavy rain fell from the sky, and the Red Army lurking in the mountains and forests once again suddenly came out, cutting off Tian Songyao's left column, which was still sleeping, annihilating more than 5,000 enemy troops in a battle, and capturing brigade commander Yang Jie.
When Tian Songyao's other two columns heard that the friendly army had collapsed overnight, they were frightened and frightened, and pulled out the road and fled. At that speed of escape, the Red Army's pursuing troops could not catch up with it, and they admired the Ability of the Sichuan Army to retreat.
Xu Xiangqian used this counterattack to break through the "three-way encirclement and suppression" of the Sichuan army, annihilated more than 24,000 enemy troops, extended the front to the areas of Yilong and Jiangkou, and officially gained a firm foothold in Sichuan and Shaanxi.
Tian Songyao, who had been defeated, threw all the responsibility to the warlords of the various factions in Sichuan who were watching from the sidelines, and said fiercely: "If the Red Army pursues me again, I will not want my territory, so that everyone will not be able to live a clean life!" ”
On the other hand, Xu Xiangqian, who broke the Shaanxi army in the north and defeated Tian Songyao in the south, immediately pointed bingfeng at poor Liu Houcun, and he caught him off guard, capturing the precious arsenal, and obtaining countless equipment and logistics materials, of which silver dollars were as high as more than 1 million pieces.
In just a few months, the Red Fourth Front army expanded to more than 80,000 people, and the base area also included 8 counties in Sichuan and Shaanxi, such a strong strength and development speed was enough to make the warlords in Sichuan feel frightened.
In order to resist the offensive of the Red Army, the warlords of the Sichuan Army, who had been in the civil war for more than 20 years, finally sat together to discuss the matter of alliance. This is also the first time in modern history that the Sichuan Army has joined hands with the outside world.
Liu Xiang, who was elected as the "ally lord" of the Sichuan Army, ordered all the troops available in Sichuan, a total of more than 110 regiments with about 200,000 troops, divided into six routes, and adopted the tactics of attacking in a divided attack, taking step by step as a battalion, and fighting steadily and steadily, and encircled the Red Army in an attempt to wipe out the Red Fourth Front army on the Border of Sichuan and Shaanxi within 3 months.
Facing the six-way army that was 3 times larger than himself again, Xu Xiangqian still came up with the old method of "three-way siege", first shrinking the defense and then waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.
Xu Xiangqian divided the Red Fourth Front into two, and more than 20 regiments were arranged on the eastern front, which were deployed in the area east of Wanyuan, under the personal command of Xu Xiangqian to resist the enemy's 5th and 6th Roads.
More than 10 regiments on the western front, deployed in the area north of Yingshan and Quxian County, were commanded by Wang Shusheng and Li Xiannian to contain the enemy's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th roads.
In addition, 2 regiments are scattered on the border line in northern Sichuan to guard and monitor the direction of southern Shaanxi and ensure the safety of the base area.
In the face of the huge offensive of the Sichuan army from all directions, Xu Xiangqian was still a trick of fresh moves, defending in front and fighting in the back, targeting the Death Pit of the Sichuan Army.
Wang Lingji, the commander-in-chief of the 5th Road of the Sichuan Army, who rushed in front, did not learn the lessons of Tian Songyao, and when he saw the Red Army retreating, he took the enemy lightly, and the result was that he lost his troops because he was blocked all the way, and then he was defeated by Xu Xiangqian in Ma'anshan, and he was also dismissed by Liu Xiang.
Wang Lingji is a typical example, but not the only one. Xu Xiangqian abandoned the conventional tactical line of thinking of "let you come a few ways, I will only go all the way", insisted on giving a comprehensive blow to the Liulu Sichuan Army, and had to be beaten hard and severely.
On the Eastern Front, Xu Xiangqian, with the strength of 22 regiments, suddenly threw himself into a counterattack and raided Qinglongguan, the general headquarters of the 5th and 6th Route Armies of the Sichuan Army, crippling them in one fell swoop, and forcing his main force to retreat.
When the Sichuan Army's Western Front 4th Route Army heard of the defeat of the Eastern Front, everyone panicked. Xu Xiangqian also took the opportunity to carry out a large-scale roundabout operation, defeating the 4th Road Sichuan Army at Huangmaoya, annihilating 10 regiments, killing and wounding more than 4,000 people below the brigade commander of the Sichuan Army, and taking more than 10,000 prisoners.
By late September, most of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd roads of the Sichuan army had collapsed to the west of the Jialing River, and the 4th route had retreated to the yingshan and Quxian areas. At this point, the sichuan army's huge "six-way siege" declared complete bankruptcy.
In the counter-siege operation that lasted for 10 months, the four fronts carried out solid attrition with defense, reversed the situation on the battlefield with continuous counterattacks, and wiped out more than 80,000 Sichuan troops.
Xu Xiangqian first entered Sichuan and Shu, continued the whirlwind tactics of the Eyu-Anhui period, swept all the way, defeated the strong with the weak, won with tactics, and continuously consolidated and expanded the revolutionary base areas in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and spread the declaration far and wide throughout the country.
The heavy sword has no edge, but it can open mountains and split mountains. The 31-year-old Xu Xiangqian, with his excellent military ability and command art, became the most brilliant general star in the land of Sichuan and Shu.