The outstanding representative of the Red Army units that came out of the Dabie Mountains was naturally the Red Fourth Front, which was one of the three main forces of the Red Army during the period of the agrarian revolution, and successively created the two major Soviet regions of Eyu-Anhui and Sichuan-Shaanxi, and the base areas and the total strength were second only to the Central Soviet Region and the Red Army.
However, the magic of Dabie Mountain is that the people of the Eyu-Anhui base area, which has a tradition of heroic struggle, are able to constantly fight against the enemy under extremely difficult circumstances, so that the revolutionary contingent can continue to serve and live endlessly. After the main force of the Red Fourth Front army withdrew, the party and the people in the old area pulled up two Red Army units one after another with all their might:
Red Twenty-fifth Army, Red Twenty-eighth Army.
The old foundations of these two units were the "partial divisions" and the old, weak, sick and disabled left behind after the withdrawal of the main forces of the Red Fourth Front, but these two "partial divisions" later became the main force, and the "descendants" spread throughout the army, which can be called "the division of a hundred generals".
The Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army were formed many times during the agrarian revolutionary war, the Red Twenty-fifth Army was formed twice in October 1931 and November 1932, and the Red Twenty-eighth Army was formed three times in January 1933, November 1933 and February 1935.
The earliest Red Twenty-fifth Army was the Old Red Twenty-fifth Army, which was formed in October 1931, including the 73rd, 74th, and 75th Divisions. In October 1932, the General Headquarters of the Red Fourth Front withdrew from Dabie Mountain with three divisions of the Red Fourth Army and the 73rd Division of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, leaving the 74th Division and the 75th Division to hold the Eyu-Anhui base area. In November 1932, the provincial party committee of Eyuwan, which remained behind, decided to withdraw the 74th Division, which was severely depleted, and on the basis of the 75th Division, merged with some local armed forces to rebuild the new Red Twenty-fifth Army. The new Red Twenty-fifth Army had Wu Huanxian and Wang Pingzhang as commanders and political commissars.
The Red Twenty-fifth Army we mention today is actually the red twenty-fifth army that was reorganized.
At the end of December 1932, the Eyu-Anhui Provincial Party Committee decided to form the Red Twenty-eighth Army, persisted in armed struggle in western Anhui, and formed a horn with the Red Twenty-fifth Army in northeast Hubei, supporting each other and ensuring that the red flag of Dabie Mountain did not fall. In early January 1933, the Red Twenty-Eighth Army was formally established.
The three leaders of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, from left to right: Cheng Zihua, Wu Huanxian, and Xu Haidong
The Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army have been inextricably linked since their inception, and the history of the Red Twenty-Eighth Army is slightly later than that of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, its troops and the Red Twenty-fifth Army are divided and merged, and the leaders of the two armies are often exchanged with each other, and the two can be regarded as twin brothers.
In April 1933, the Red Twenty-eighth Army was downsized and merged into the Red Twenty-fifth Army. In November, the Red Twenty-Eighth Army rebuilt again. On April 16, 1934, due to the crazy "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army, the troops suffered heavy losses, and the Red Twenty-eighth Army was once again merged into the Red Twenty-fifth Army. In November 1934, the Red Twenty-fifth Army underwent a strategic shift, and the whole army began the Long March.
After the Long March of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, the Red Army remained under the leadership of Gao Jingting, a member of the Standing Committee of the Eyu-Anhui Provincial Cpc Committee, to collect scattered personnel and form the Red Twenty-Eighth Army for the third time.
The frequent formation, dismantling, and reconstruction of the troops shows the cruelty of the local situation, the madness of the Kuomintang army's offensive, and the serious attrition of the Red Army's soldiers.
From 1932 to 1934, Wu Huanxian, political commissar of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, Liao Rongkun, commander of the Red Twenty-Eighth Army, and Wang Pingzhang, political commissar, were all killed or mistakenly executed by the "purge" and were killed, and one after another future generals fell, which was a huge loss of the Chinese revolution, but the successive setbacks did not hit the morale of the officers and men of the Red Army, and they continued to struggle tenaciously.
Marshal Chen Yi's "Three Chapters of Meiling" wrote about the hardships of the Red Army in the eight southern provinces in insisting on guerrilla warfare, and this period was also the most arduous and painful experience of the Chinese revolution, and its difficulty even exceeded that of the main force of the Red Army. The Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army, holding on to Dabie Mountain with their weak bodies, are a powerful part of the guerrilla struggle of the Red Army in the southern provinces, and their combat experience is a vivid portrayal of this period of suffering.
Compared with the main Red Army in other parts of the country, especially the "big brother" Red Fourth Front, the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-eighth Army are mainly the old, weak, sick and disabled and local troops left behind, and they are out-and-out "partial divisions."
They lacked the support and support of large troops and the main force, and their number was far less than that of the Kuomintang army that was "encircled and suppressed." In the face of an enemy that was several times or more than a dozen times their own, the Red Army was at an absolute disadvantage, often only divided into dozens or hundreds of people to fight independently, and the living environment for combat was very harsh.
They had no heavy weapons, not even a single shot, and many warriors could only fight with the most rudimentary knives and spears. In the years of circumventing the Kuomintang army, they marched to fight almost every day, but they fought bravely and well, repeatedly defeated strong enemies, created a rare miracle in the history of war in our country, won more with less, and defeated the strong with the weak, and wrote an extremely brilliant page in the history of the Chinese revolution.
They had no fixed rear, not even a rear, and their weapons and equipment were completely seized from the hands of the enemy, they beat straw shoes, sewed military uniforms, carried grain, dug wild vegetables, built huts, and even fought with hunger and marched barefoot. They collected their own Chinese herbs, disinfected them with salt water, and even applied weeds, bark, and pumpkins to their wounds, and although they were in danger, they persevered, worked tirelessly, and did everything they could to continue to fight.
Relying on these two forces, the Eyu-Anhui Provincial CPC Committee has repelled the enemy of "liquidation and suppression" time and again, and the Red Army and the masses in the base areas have also posted leaflets everywhere
"The trees cannot be cut down, the roots cannot be dug up, and the mountains are left behind, and there are Red Army everywhere."
The heroic Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-eighth Army have been following in this way, and have always held high the revolutionary red flag.
It is precisely by virtue of this spirit that the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army have developed and tempered from weak Red Army ranks into heroic and warlike revolutionary forces.
During the three-year guerrilla war in Eyu-Anhui, when they lost contact with the Party Central Committee, the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army moved to 45 counties in the 3 provinces of Eyu-Anhui, single-mindedly devoted themselves to the party, smashed the Kuomintang's four major "clearances," dragged down the Kuomintang's 170,000 troops, and made the revolutionary red flag erected in the Dabie Mountains after the Jute Uprising of 1927 always fly high. Finally, it became the only Red Army unit in the 8 southern provinces and 15 regions, with the largest number of retained troops and the only red army unit retaining the military structure.
On September 15, 1935, the Red 25th Army took the lead in reaching northern Shaanxi, laying the foundation for the subsequent three main divisions of the Red Army. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, the troops grew from 2,980 during the Long March to 3,400, the only Red Army unit that did not lose personnel during the Long March.
During the Long March, whether to go south to meet the main forces of Zhang Guotao and the Red Fourth Front, or to go north to strategically plan the Central Red Army, at this critical moment in history, Wu Huanxian, as a political commissar, made the correct choice and resolutely decided to go north with the whole army to cooperate with the actions of the main force of the Red Army in the northwest.
Many years later, Han Xianchu, a famous general from the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the "whirlwind commander", still sighed:
"The political commissar's decision saved the Red Twenty-fifth Army and all of us."
Because of this outstanding contribution, the Red Twenty-fifth Army was finally able to stand side by side with the three main forces of the Red Army and become a separate unit in military history.
This old Red Army, brought out by Wu Huanxian, Cheng Zihua, and Xu Haidong, later developed into Huang Kecheng's Third Division of the New Fourth Army, and finally entered the annals of history as the prestige of the 39th Army of the People's Liberation Army, and was the absolute main force of our army.
After the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, the Red Twenty-eighth Army that remained behind was reorganized into the fourth detachment after the New Fourth Army, with four regiments under its jurisdiction and a total strength of more than 3,100 troops, which was the largest number and better equipped unit at the beginning of the establishment of the New Fourth Army.
This unit later developed into the Huaye 2nd Column under Chen Su's army and the 21st Army of the People's Liberation Army. In the War of Liberation, the 21st Army and its predecessor units moved to Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces, fighting more than 110 battles and killing and wounding 44,963 enemy.
The 21st Army fought from the War of Liberation to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and later entered Shaanxi, which was subordinate to the Lanzhou Military Region and garrisoned Guanzhong Dadi. After the military reform in 2017, the 21st Army continued to remain in the formation sequence of our army with a new number and set out to fight with a new posture.
Gao Jingting, political commissar of the Twenty-eighth Red Army
Chairman Mao repeatedly praised the two units of the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army and their main leaders. To Xu Haidong, Chairman Mao praised him
"A great contribution to the Chinese revolution"
。 To Gao Jingting, Chairman Mao praised:
"Gao Jingting, they have achieved great results in their struggle against the enemy, and they are very remarkable."
Countless generals came out of the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-Eighth Army; the Red Twenty-fifth Army walked out of 97 founding generals, Xu Haidong ranked second among the major generals; and 76 of the four detachments of the Red Twenty-eighth Army and the New Fourth Army were awarded the rank of major general or above.
When we look back at the history of the Chinese revolution, we have to sigh that Eyuwan is really a magical land, not only cultivating the difficult and tortuous and great and glorious Red Fourth Front, but also the two "partial divisions" of the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-eighth Army later became a strong lion brigade. History will remember this great legendary, heroic, and meritorious unit that came out of Eyuwan.
For the legendary experience of the Red Twenty-fifth Army and the Red Twenty-eighth Army, you can consult the author's previous articles.
The legendary Red 25th Army: The "seed troop" that came out of Dabie Mountain, 97 founding generals were born
Why should the Red 25th Army and the Red 28th Army be regarded as part of the Red Fourth Front?
He was the soul of the Red 25th Army, and Han Xianchu sighed every time he recalled: If the political commissar is alive, he will not be able to do it
The Red 25th Army withdrew from Eyuwan, originally planned to be a "short journey", but unexpectedly took the "Long March"