At the end of November 1934, Li Tianyou (1955), commander of the Fifth Division of the Third Red Army, received an order from the commander of the corps to block the main force of the Gui Army for three to four days in the area of Xinwei in Guanyang, Guangxi, and cover the westward advance of the main force of the Red Army.
Li Tianyou and Bai Chongxi, who were also born in Lingui County, Guangxi, will decide to fight each other in the Xinxu area.
Li Tianyou, who is only twenty years old, can be described as "the newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger", he has no choice but to go out!
At that time, the frontal enemies of the Red Fifth Division were the Forty-fourth Division of the 15th Army of the Gui Clan and the 24th Division of the Seventh Army, plus the Independent Regiment of the 7th Army of the Gui Dynasty, a total of more than 10,000 strong enemies of more than 10,000 people in 7 regiments.
The thirteenth regiment under Li Tianyou was attacking the forty-fifth division of the Gui fifteenth army in Sujiang, and the fourteenth and fifteenth regiments that could fight, plus the artillery battalion directly under the Central Military Commission, totaled only more than 3,000 people, and they had to face the 10,000 horses of the Gui army.
Three times as strong enemy, plus aircraft, artillery support. As long as this main force of the Gui Army broke through Li Tianyou's left-wing position, the main force of the Red Army would be cut off, and all units of the Red Army would be completely annihilated in the area on the east bank of the Xiang River.
This is no alarmist! Li Tianyou was well aware of the importance of the Red Fifth Division's success or failure in blocking the Gui enemy.
Li Tianyou was very aware that after the Fifth Red Division suffered heavy casualties in the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle of Gaohu'an, although it had been replenished before the great transfer, after nearly a month or so of long-distance marching and fighting, it not only fatigued its troops, but also seriously reduced its personnel.
More importantly, last night's long-distance night march rushed from the water wheel to Xinwei and then south for more than ten miles, and in the second half of the night they rushed to repair the fortifications, and the commanders and fighters of the two regiments did not close their eyes overnight.
What Li Tianyou was worried about was this terrain, although on the surface it seemed that the left and right sides were guarded by danger, but in fact it was backed by Xinwei, there was not much room for maneuver, and the temporary excavation of fortifications was difficult to resist the bombardment of enemy artillery fire and the bombardment of aircraft.
Fighting between such a stretch of mountain and canyons and roads is good to be able to stand up for two or three days, but it is even more difficult to hold out for four days according to the order.
"We must grasp the situation at any time, know ourselves and each other, and command flexibly." If there is a slight negligence, not only will our division fall into a desperate situation, but it will also endanger the whole army! Li Tianyou said to Political Commissar Zhong Chibing and Chief of Staff Hu Zhen in a serious tone.
"The task is really daunting." Zhong Chibing said, "However, for the safety of the main force of the Red Army, I believe that our soldiers will create miracles!" ”
At dawn on the 28th, a sharp knife company of the 14th Regiment of the Fifth Red Division met the small vanguard of the Gui Army in the area of Paibu Jiangcun.
At the order of the commander of the sharp knife company, the soldiers immediately scattered and lay down in the grass beside the road. Suddenly, machine guns and rifles fired fiercely at the enemy.
Before the vanguard of the Gui Army could react, more than a dozen people fell under the shelling of the Red Army. The soldiers of the Gui Army, who had not been hit, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately lay down under the field foundation on both sides of the road.
At this time, the Gui army behind them heard the sound of gunfire and climbed up to the nearby Lion Mountain, intending to suppress the Red Army with firepower.
The Red Army's sharp knife company was divided into three, one to hold the head of the Paibu River Village, one to attack the Lion Mountain, which had been occupied by the Gui Army, and the other to seize the Zhong Shan next to the village.
This Red Army unit of less than a hundred men appeared unusually brave and full of combat effectiveness.
At the top of the hill, in the village, the sound of gunfire and explosions was continuous. The soldiers of the Red Army took advantage of the favorable terrain at the top of the hill to divide their positions and repelled the enemy's crazy attacks again and again.
The barrel of the machine gun had been reddened, and the barrel of the rifle had been hit too hot. One by one, the Red Army soldiers fell, and the blood flowing from their young bodies was redder than the barrel of the gun, hotter than the barrel!
Beside the warriors were a large pile of shell casings, and the number of enemies who fell in front of the position was almost as numerous as there were!
Before the smoke of the enemy plane's last round of bombardment had dissipated, Li Tianyou walked to the hillside behind the command post on foot to observe the situation.
A massive enemy offensive began. Everything in the telescope was clear: the Red Army's forward positions were being hit by multiple enemy firepower. The Gui Army's platoon guns roared, and one shell after another landed accurately in the temporary trenches that the Red Army had just repaired, and the Red Army soldiers creeping on the ground were quickly covered by smoke and dust.
Li Tianyou's telescope was somewhat blurred. He couldn't see our warriors, only hordes of enemy cats running up the hill. The enemy rushed to the middle of the mountain, still not seeing the movement of the Red Army in the trenches on the top of the mountain.
Could it be that they were all killed and injured by the artillery fire? If you fight like this, you will lose a hill. How can you last three or four days?!
When Li Tianyou was worried, the Red Army position, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly burst into smoke. At the top of the mountain bag, a tiger-like warrior appeared!
Before the overwhelmed enemies could react, they were blown up by a series of exploding grenades. After the grenade sounded for a while, the ghosts of a group of wounded soldiers of the Gui Army cried wolf.
Just as the Gui army was in chaos, the machine guns of the Red Army soldiers shouted, and rifles began to be accurately fired.
The enemy collapsed. The Red Army soldiers who jumped out of the trench chased after them, shooting incessantly,
The Gui army withdrew to the foot of the mountain in a panic, and was again accurately shelled by the artillery battalion of the Red Army's "Red Star" (directly under the Central Military Commission).
A large-scale attack by the Gui army was completely defeated.
The commanders Wang Zanbin and Qin Lianfang, who were sent to the front by Xia Wei, a senior general of the Gui clan, could not believe that the Red Army, which had been repeatedly severely damaged and exhausted for more than a month, could have such a strong fighting force. They were sure that they had encountered the main force of the Red Army.
They guessed this correctly, and what they never expected was that the Red Army troops that blocked the seven regiments of the Gui Army on the hilly positions in this narrow valley were only two regiments of the Fifth Red Division and one artillery battalion!
After all, there was a huge gap between the enemy and us, and the subsequent battles became more and more fierce and more and more cruel.
At 4 p.m. on November 30, the Red Fifth Division completed its blockade mission and withdrew from the battle, but the division had more than 3,000 men, and only more than 1,000 wounded remained, losing two-thirds of the damage. Almost all regimental, battalion, and company cadres below the chief of staff were wounded or killed. The famous general Li Tianyou commanded the Xinwei Blockade Battle at the age of twenty, and the life and death of the Red Army played a very crucial role and became a famous example of military history.