What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Gao Jingting, political commissar of the Red 28 Army, is undoubtedly a legendary hero of the Red Army.
His bodyguard, Wan Haifeng, who later became a general, said of him: "Comrade Gao Jingting lived for the people and died for the revolution. ”
Among Gao Jingting's men, there was a general, two lieutenant generals and 20 major generals.
Based on this alone, Gao Jingting is a big hero.
Gao Jingting was born a farmer and had little culture. He became the supreme leader of the Red 28 Army, but it was due to a dangerous appointment.
In this regard, on July 16, 1935, Gao Jingting asked someone to ghostwrite a report to the Party Central Committee in a ravine in Shucheng County, western Anhui Province, reporting on the formation and development of the Red 28th Army, which said: "I am a peasant ... The provincial party committee left me alone in this Soviet district. It is hoped that the party Central Committee will urgently send people to lead. ”
The provincial party committee left him alone in the Soviet area, what to do? -- Persist in the struggle and form the Red 28th Army.
What's going on here?
In November 1934, due to Chiang Kai-shek's heavy "encirclement and suppression", the Eyu-Anhui Provincial Party Committee decided in Guangshan County, Henan Province, that the Red 25th Army should immediately move to the mountainous areas of Eyu-Shaanxi and begin the Long March. Before leaving, he left a letter to Gao Jingting, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Northwest Anhui Provincial CPC Committee, who did not attend the meeting, asking him to stay and reorganize the Red 28Th Army and persist in the struggle against the enemy in the Soviet zone.
At this time, Gao Jingting only led a newly formed Red 218 Regiment, surrounded by two enemy divisions and an independent brigade at the Xiongjiahe River in Akagi. After three days of fierce fighting, he led the officers and men out of a bloody road and retreated to a barren mountain. Heavy snow flew, the officers and men ran out of food, and they were still wearing only single clothes, and they froze all night on the wind and snow mountain, and at dawn the next day, the enemy chased them down the mountain, and Gao Jingting led everyone to climb several big mountains in a row and rushed to Bao'er Mountain in Jinzhai County.
At this critical juncture, Fang Yongle, secretary of the Northeast Hubei Provincial Committee, led the Northeast Hubei Independent Regiment to break through the enemy's blockade many times, and also came to Bao'er Mountain to hand over the letter from the provincial party committee to Gao Jingting. When they heard that the provincial party committee and the Red 25th Army had left the base area, everyone froze. Some people started saying strange things, and some people said, "Out of the way!" Fight with the enemy. ”
Gao Jingting severely criticized them and ordered that they should not be allowed to speak indiscriminately.
In fact, his mood is also extremely unstable. The provincial party committee and the Red 25th Army left, but the Red Army remained in the border area with only more than 1,100 people, plus Fang Yongle's independent regiment of 700 people, only 1,800 people, and there were strong enemies on all sides, no doubt waiting for death.
After Gao Jingting calmed down, he resolutely ordered his troops to move rapidly to the east, and on the way, he and Fang Yongle studied the plan for rebuilding the Red 28th Army.
On February 3, 1935, the troops arrived at Pavilion Pass in Taihu County. Gao Jingting announced that he would merge the 218th Regiment with the Edong Independent Regiment to rebuild the Red 28th Army and make himself the political commissar of the army (without a military commander).
However, the dilemma they face at this moment is even more critical than expected. Chiang Kai-shek gathered the 57th Army and the 67th Army of the Northeast Army, Liu Zhenhua's 11th Route Army, Liang Guanying's 25th Route Army, and other units, a total of 55 regiments, plus more than 10 local security regiments, totaling more than 170,000 troops, to carry out a combing and "suppression" of the Red Army remaining in Eyuwan by means of pursuit, encirclement, and interception, threatening to wipe out all the Red Army within three months. At this time, the enemy's 191st, 192nd, 194th, 94th, and 95th Brigades, a total of 14 regiments, had come from the northwest, northeast, and south. Gao Jingting completed the reorganization overnight, and the next day he led the army to move.
He led his troops to break through the enemy's blockade twice, and on February 12, he reached Huangnibang in Huoshan County, where he was surrounded and intercepted by two regiments of the enemy's 94th Brigade.
In the fierce battle, the division commander Luo Chengyun was killed. At dusk, Gao Jingting blocked the enemy with a small force, and led the main force to cross the 1700-meter White Horse Peak, broke through, and reached the Majia River at dawn to get rid of the enemy army.
The Red 28th Army broke through the enemy's blockade several times in a row and moved to Taoling in Huoshan County before landing on Taoling, where Gao Jingting found that a regiment of the enemy's 195th Brigade had been chased by the rear. Gao Jingting decided to fight a battle and ordered the special service battalion to ambush in front of the pass, and the rest of the troops to ambush in the woods on the hillside. As soon as the first two enemy battalions entered the pass, the special agent battalion immediately opened fire. The enemy swarmed up the hill. Gao Jingting gave the order to sound the charge trumpet, and Fang Yongle led the officers and soldiers who were ambushed in the woods to rush to the enemy group and divide the enemy into several sections. Lin Weixian, commander of the special service battalion, took advantage of the situation to jump out of the position and led his troops to engage in a white-knife fight with the enemy. Two enemy battalions were completely annihilated, and the battalion commander was killed.
Chiang Kai-shek's plan to wipe out the Red Army in three months was shattered, and he mobilized 13 divisions, an independent brigade, and a total of 61 regular regiments to "clear and suppress" the Red 28th Army.
When the enemy's heavy troops pounced, Gao Jingting led his troops to prepare to go to southern Shaanxi to find the Red 25th Army, but after crossing the Pinghan Railway, they found that the enemy had already stationed heavy troops along the line to intercept them. There were enemy blockades in the front and pursuing troops in the rear, so Gao Jingting had no choice but to lead his troops back to western Anhui immediately.
After returning to the Dabie Mountains, Gao Jingting put forward the operational principle of "not fighting if the enemy's situation is unknown, not fighting if the casualties are too large, not fighting if the terrain is unfavorable, and not fighting if there are too many captured." He conducted guerrilla operations in the mountainous areas of western Anhui and northeastern Hubei to strike at the enemy.
The enemy built a seven-way blockade line that crisscrossed and woven like a net, and the Red 28th Army was very difficult to move. In order to get rid of the predicament, Gao Jingting put forward the principle of "reducing the whole into pieces and collecting the pieces into pieces," and decided to use battalions as units to go deep into the plains and hilly areas where the enemy's troops were weak. In the following year or so, the Red 28th Army divided into multiple roads, east to Gaohebu in Huaining County, threatening Anqing, the capital of Anhui Province, west to the outskirts of Xiangfan, a major town in northern Hubei, south to the Yangtze River, and north to Xinyang, expanding the scope of activities to 45 counties and affecting jiangbei. In June 1936, the "Declaration" published a newsletter exclaiming:
"Gao Jun (Jing) Pavilion is all elite, but more than a thousand people, scattered in the counties of the border area", "now rounded into zero", "day by day to see the expansion, the vine is difficult to map".
Gao Jingting's guerrilla tactics caused the enemy a headache and helplessness.
According to the book "The Magnificent Song of the Magnificent Division" compiled by the 2nd Division Branch of the New Fourth Army Research Association, "In the three years of guerrilla warfare, the Red 28th Army annihilated 18 battalions and 15 companies and a large number of small enemy troops; the maximum number of regiments to suppress the enemy's regular army reached 68 regiments, and at least 30 regiments. "The Red 28th Army fought alone, but it created brilliant achievements in guerrilla warfare. The enemy's 68 regiments were contained, while Gao Jingting had only a mere 1,000 men.
This is undoubtedly a miracle.
In the three years of arduous guerrilla warfare, Gao Jingting's generals, including Fang Yongle and Huang Xunan, were killed and sacrificed, and he himself made many adventures, hunting down and killing traitors for the enemy, but he was unscathed.
In the case of losing contact with his superiors, Gao Jingting led his troops to fight in the "encirclement and suppression" of hundreds of thousands of heavy troops of the enemy alone, and not only was it not destroyed, but it grew this team of more than 1,000 people to more than 3,000 people. In 1938, when the Red 28th Army was reorganized into the fourth detachment of the New Fourth Army, it was the largest number of the New Fourth Army.
Decades later, when recalling the combat history of the Red 28th Army, Lieutenant General Lin Weixian, a subordinate of the high army, and Major General Zhan Huayu, Li Shi'an, and Wang Shaochuan said affectionately:
"The victory of the Red 28th Army is inseparable from comrade Gao Jingting's correct command."
After Gao Jingting's sacrifice, his daughter Gao Fengying said: "He is a warrior, he is a hero. This is true.