On September 7, 1934, the vanguard of the Red Sixth Army engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy at Ganxi in Guizhou.
The battle was fought extremely hard, with less than 300 men left in the fifty regimental headquarters and the first battalion of the Seventeenth Division.
On the third day after the end of the battle, the Fifty Regiments lost contact with the regimental headquarters, and the regimental commander Guo Peng (a lieutenant general in 1955) and the political commissar Peng Dongcai gathered the scattered troops and forced them to move in the direction of Yuqing.
Since the enemy was still in hot pursuit, the troops had to move as quickly as possible, crossing the remote mountainous areas every day, walking nearly 100 miles.
The soldiers of the Red Army could not get grain, so they could only pick wild fruits and wild vegetables to fill their hunger, and sometimes they could not even find wild vegetables and wild fruits, and they could only go hungry.
The more difficult they went, the more serious it was, especially the fact that not only had the Corps Not found it, but the Red Second Army could not find out where it was.
They had no communications equipment in their hands, nor did they lack the compass, maps, and other things they needed for daily marching. The people were trapped in the mountains and forests, and their hearts were burning.
One day, the Fifty Regiment decided to settle down in a small school for the time being. As soon as the regimental commander Guo Peng entered the front room, he shouted happily: "Old Peng! map! ”
"Where?" Where is it? Political Commissar Peng Dongcai listened and ran over happily. Staff Officer Ouyang Jiaxiang also followed two small messengers into the house.
The interior of the house is extremely simple, with only three tables, a few stools, a few slogans on the wall, a map of China, and it looks like a faculty office.
As soon as the people entered the house, they carefully examined the old yellowed map of China.
"Staff Officer Ouyang, how far away you are from Jiangxi?" A messenger couldn't understand it and pulled Ouyang Jiaxiang to ask.
When Ouyang Jiaxiang pointed out the location of Jiangxi, the correspondent asked: "Staff Officer Ouyang, where are you looking for Commander He of the Red Second Army?" ”
This question can be asked by Ouyang Jiaxiang. Although there is a map, there is no way to know the exact location of the Red Second Army, where to find it?
In the past few days, the cadres and fighters of the Fifty Regiments have all been worried about this matter. Guo Peng and Peng Dongcai were even more anxious, and at this moment, as usual, neither of them spoke, but just paced around the hut with their hands behind their backs.
"Staff Officer Ouyang, you find a piece of paper and draw down the areas of Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, and Jiangxi." Guo Peng said as he paced.
Ouyang Jiaxiang searched for half a day before he found a piece of waste paper in the broken paper pile that was already full of words on one side and blank on the other, and there was half an old newspaper next to it.
Lieutenant General Guo Peng and Major General Ouyang Jiaxiang
Ouyang Jiaxiang picked up the old newspaper and looked at it, which was printed by the enemy in Shiquan County, and wrote on it what words such as "communist (bandit)" and "bandit department" were written on it.
Breathlessly, he handed the half of the old newspaper to Peng Dongcai and said, "Political commissar, you see, the enemy scolded us in the newspaper. ”
Peng Dongcai took the newspaper and spread it on the table to look at it carefully. But he was not angry, but as if he had seen some good news, a smile appeared on his face.
Ouyang Jiaxiang was strange, Peng Dongcai suddenly slapped the table with his hand and shouted happily: "There is!" Got it! ”
Guo Peng was also a little stunned by his shouting, and asked, "What did you find?" ”
"Look! Mr. He's position was in the newspaper. ”
Guo Peng and Ouyang Jiaxiang rushed over to look.
Peng Dongcai pointed to a line of Song characters on the newspaper, which read: "He (Long) bandits are harassing along the river and the Yin River, and are moving in a southwesterly direction..."
"Look, what 'bandits' and 'harassment' are all scolding us, really fucking bastards." Ouyang Jiaxiang's anger came again.
"Those words don't have to bother with it." Peng Dongcai said without panic, "The important thing is that the enemy told us about the area of activity of Boss He. Find out where the river and the Yin River are! ”
"Thank you to the enemy, this half of the old newspaper is not a small credit!" Guo Peng turned to everyone and said.
The crowd returned to the map. But I don't know if it's because I'm too excited, or because of something else, the more anxious I am, the more I can't find it.
Guo Peng suddenly shouted, "Here! In this! He forked his two fingers and pointed to the yanhe and Yinjiang rivers in the northeast corner of Guizhou.
After everyone saw it clearly, Guo Peng let go of his hand. Then he happily patted Ouyang Jiaxiang's shoulder and asked him to quickly draw it down.
Then, Guo Peng and Peng Dongcai analyzed and studied the current and possible situations in the next step: they would be able to reach the vicinity of the Yinjiang River in a few days, and if Mr. He came south, he would be able to close with us, and if they went north, we would be able to catch up with them.
According to the situation in the enemy newspaper, it is clear that the corps headquarters has fallen behind. In this way, even if the Red Second Army could not be joined, the Fifty Regiments could meet with the Red Sixth Army headquarters that would catch up later.
In the end, Guo Peng and Peng Dongcai decided to continue to the northeast, and decided that if they could not meet each other, they would send people to contact each other twice, or find a place to rest.
The next day, the troops continued to advance according to the plan they had drawn up. After walking for another week or so, I came to the vicinity of Yinjiang County. However, he still did not see the shadow of the Second Army. How can this be done?
Until they walked to Miaowang Mountain near Yinjiang County, they met with the Red Second Army Reconnaissance Company and the Forty-ninth Regiment, and then saw that General He arrived here with the Red Second Army Headquarters, which surprised Guo Peng, Peng Dongcai and others.
Coincidentally, since the forty-ninth regiment had joined the second regiment, they, like the fifty regiments, had read the news of the fifty regiments' actions from the enemy's newspapers, so they had come to the fifty regiments.
A few days later, the commander of the Red Sixth Army also joined the Red Second Army with the main force and held a grand celebration meeting, which was known in military history as the "South Waist Boundary Division".
The two major corps thus formed a series of important decisions, which played the prelude to the great turning point of the Red Army's Long March; after that, the two major corps set out from the southern waist and began a new journey to cope with the strategic transfer of the Red Army. It is no exaggeration to use the word "great" to describe this meeting.
In a certain sense, it was precisely because Ouyang Jiaxiang discovered half an old newspaper printed by the enemy that he contributed to a great meeting in the history of our army.