In the spring of 1937, the left detachment of the Red Army's Western Route Army faced the enemy's encirclement and blockade, detoured back to Qilian Mountain, fought a battle in Shiwo, and continued to walk deep into the mountain.
Under the leadership of Political Commissar Li Xiannian, Military Commander Cheng Shiyou, and Political Department Director Li Tianhuan, the unit crossed deep valleys, crossed high mountains, and struggled to climb to a snowy plateau of more than 5,000 meters above sea level.
It can be said that this team has fallen into a desperate situation: the soldiers are wearing only very thin clothes, and many people have worn out straw shoes, and they are marching barefoot in the ice and snow. To make matters worse, the entire force had no food to eat and was in danger of starvation and freezing at any moment.
After the left detachment entered the mountain, the extremely vicious "Ma JiaJun" also followed. In order to get rid of the pursuing soldiers, the Red Army sent someone at the end of the line to clear the snow and remove the footprints of the team.
After marching like this for more than ten days, the left detachment finally threw away the "Ma Jiajun".
However, new problems ensued--because the enemy had closed the mountains and driven away the people in the mountains, the Red Army could no longer find nomadic Tibetans to buy barley and cattle and sheep to eat, as before, and thus completely ran out of grain.
Under such circumstances, the head of the left detachment could only take the best solution to the problem of food shortages - to let the soldiers kill their horses to fill their hunger.
Based on the experience gained from eating snowy mountain meadows, the troops first burned and ate the horse skins and horse bones, and finally ate the water and horse meat.
However, for a troop of more than a thousand people, killing war horses could not solve the problem, after all, the number of horses was limited, and the Red Army was far from enough to save as much as possible. At first, one horse was killed every day, and then only one horse could be killed every two days or even every three days.
As the troops marched, the soldiers watched as there were fewer and fewer horses in the whole procession, and they were a little worried.
Over the next 20 days or so, first the cavalry killed all the horses, and then the horses of the cadres below the regiment were also eaten, leaving only the last few horses.
Although the horses were assigned to the chiefs by the troops, the chiefs, without exception, had long since given up these horses to the wounded or infirm warriors to ride, and they insisted on walking.
On the evening of this day, the troops camped on a hillside and lit piles of bonfires. Tired, tired and hungry warriors sat around the campfire, some of them were freezing their feet and cracking bloody holes, some were drying wet clothes, some were making straw shoes out of rags...
Everyone is hungry and grumbling, even venus in front of their eyes, but they can only eat snow balls and nibble on ice cubes silently, but their hearts are looking forward to a beautiful picture: if you can roast one or two pieces of lamb or horse meat on the campfire, how energetic it would be!
Li Tianhuan (1955), director of the Political Department, saw these situations in his eyes, and his heart tightened: the troops had not eaten for two or three days, and many soldiers were already weak and weak.
Thinking of this, he called the messenger and said, "Take my horse, let the three battalions kill it, and let everyone eat horse meat." ”
As soon as the messenger heard this, he was anxious: "Chief, your horse cannot be killed!" ”
Li Tianhuan said angrily, "What can't be killed!" If the horses of other cadres are killed, my horses cannot be killed? Take it away and carry out the order! ”
When the communicator saw that the chief was angry, he had to tearfully lead the horse to Zhou Chunlin (major general in 1955), the instructor of the third battalion.
Zhou Chunlin knew that this was the chief's horse, but when he saw the hungry faces of the soldiers, he had to pretend not to know, and he also pretended to be happy and said to the soldiers: "Comrades, don't worry, there will be horse meat to eat later!" ”
The crowd was overjoyed to hear this, and one by one they came to the table, eager to help kill the horses.
Suddenly someone asked, "Well, where is this horse?" ”
Someone said, "Wherever it comes from, some of them will eat!" ”
A small, thin warrior suddenly squeezed into the crowd, took a few steps to look at the horse, and shouted eagerly in an excited voice: "No! This horse cannot be killed! ”
"Why can't I kill?" The crowd was stunned.
"This is Director Li's horse!" The skinny little warrior walked over to the horse, reached out his hand to stroke the horse's back, and said excitedly, "That day I fainted on the side of the road, thinking that I could no longer advance, but It was Director Li who gave me his horse to ride and let me pick up a life..."
The warrior choked up as he spoke, and then he fell on his horse and cried silently. The horse seemed to understand the warrior's words, and looked at him meekly and smelled him, as if to comfort him.
"That's right, this is Director Li's horse!" I've ridden..."
"I've ridden this horse too, thanks to it..."
Several fighters expressed the same feeling.
Another soldier blushed and said in a loud voice to the crowd, "This little comrade is right, this horse cannot be killed!" The chiefs have worked harder than us along the way, and their health is not good, even if we all starve to death, we must not kill the chief's horse! ”
The crowd responded, "Yes, you can't kill!" If you kill it, what if a comrade passes out again and again? ”
In the end, there was an agreement to send the horses back and not to slaughter them.
Zhou Chunlin was deeply touched by the true feelings of the soldiers, but he was embarrassed again: if he did not kill the horses, how would the troops march next? If everyone fell because they were hungry, wouldn't the troops be trapped here?
He was worried about not knowing how to deal with the problem at hand when a warrior walked up to him and said, "Instructor, I stumbled upon some sheep dung under the ridge in front of me. ”
"Sheep dung?" Zhou Chunlin was confused, "What's wrong with sheep dung?" ”
The warrior replied, "Those sheep dung are fresh. There are also two railings there, possibly sheep pens that herders have demolished. ”
"Sheep dung and sheep pens? Are you saying that it is possible that the herders have just left here? ”
"Yes!"
Zhou Chunlin listened to the light in his eyes and said happily: "The troops have finally been saved, and there is no need to kill horses for the time being!" Well, early tomorrow morning send someone to ride the chief's horse, go to the front to find out, see if you can find the herdsmen, and buy some cattle and sheep from them! ”
He looked at the warrior in front of him and tentatively asked, "If you are sent, will your physical strength still be able to support it?" ”
"No problem, I can hold on!"
"That would be great!"
To the delight of all the cadres and fighters of the left detachment, the soldier who found sheep dung rode Li Tianhuan's horse, walked only more than thirty miles to find a few herders and their flocks, bought a batch of sheep and came back, and helped the troops get out of the desperate situation of lack of food.
Note: The stories described in this article are real people and real events, and are derived from the reminiscence articles written by General Zhou Chunlin, the founding major general.