In mid-April 1933, the political commissar of the Red 25th Division was transferred to the military department, and the political commissar was temporarily concurrently held by the division commander Xu Shiyou. Xu Shiyou was a good fighter, but he had never engaged in political work, and he didn't know how to start it, so he barely worked for more than a month, physically and mentally exhausted, so he constantly urged his superiors to send a new political commissar as soon as possible so that he could concentrate on fighting the war. One day in early June, Xu Shiyou received a notice from his superiors that the new political commissar would take office today.
Xu Shiyou was very happy after receiving this notice, and as soon as the new political commissar came, he could concentrate on leading the troops to fight. Excited, he personally came to the outside of the barracks with a few staff officers to greet him. However, as soon as he saw the new political commissar, Xu Shiyou was stunned, he rubbed his eyes hard, yes, this is not the same service soldier he was 4 years ago? What's going on? It turned out that when Xu Shiyou was still the regimental commander 4 years ago, he commanded the troops to engage Guo Rudong in the Pinghan Road and the Sichuan Army, although he finally won, but the Red Army also suffered certain casualties, and Xu Shiyou's service soldiers were also sacrificed.
Soon after the battle, the Red Army added a new batch of recruits, from which Xu Shiyou selected a small soldier named Chen Haisong as his service soldier. Chen Haisong is a native of Dawu, Hubei Province, born in 1914, who has been smart and clever since childhood, but due to his poor family's financial situation, he was forced to drop out of school after only a few years of private school. Xu Shiyou saw that this little service soldier was very clever and bitter, so he intended to cultivate him, and as long as he had time, he would teach him how to march and fight.
A year later, Xu Shiyou accumulated battle merits and was promoted to the commander of the Red 25th Division, while Chen Haisong remained in the Red 12th Division. At the end of 1932, with the support of Chiang Kai-shek, Tian Songyao mobilized nearly 40 regiments of troops to launch a three-way siege of Hongsi. After more than three months of bitter fighting, the Red Army repelled the enemy. Chen Haisong performed very well in the anti-three-way siege, so his superiors transferred him to the Red 25th Division to Serve as The Political Commissar of Xu Shiyou, which happened at the beginning of this article.
Xu Shiyou was very happy to see chen Haisong progressing so fast, but at the same time he was a little worried, afraid that he would not be able to do it. Soon after, the Battle of Wanyuan began, and in the face of the superior enemy, Xu Shiyou intended to test Chen Haisong and asked him how to fight this battle. At that time, the Red Army had fewer guns and limited heavy machine guns, so there were not many ways to deal with the enemy's wave charge. Chen Haisong combined with the topographical characteristics of Wan yuan and decided to put a bamboo stick array for the enemy.
Thousands of soldiers of the Red 25th Division set out to cut down the bamboo on the mountain, cut it into bamboo skewers, and then put these bamboo skewers into tung oil and fry them, and the treated bamboo skewers were as hard as steel and sharp. Then Chen Haisong ordered all these bamboo sticks to be inserted in the middle of the mountainside, when it was summer, the grass on the mountain was dense, and these bamboo sticks could not be found nearby. After the battle began, the enemy relied on the superiority of troops to launch a fierce attack from the positions of the Red 25th Division from all sides.
At that time, the soldiers of the Sichuan Army were wearing mostly straw shoes and single shoes on their feet, so when they rushed to the middle of the mountain, they were stabbed by Chen Haisong's bamboo skewer array, and the attack speed quickly slowed down. Chen Haisong took the opportunity to command his troops to shoot at the enemy and easily repulse the enemy's attack that day. Xu Shiyou admired Chen Haisong's brilliant plan, saying that he had never fought such an easy battle. After that, the Red 25th Division repelled many enemy attacks, and after a long time of failure, the enemy's morale became extremely low, chen Haisong and Xu Shiyou took the opportunity to command the troops to launch a counterattack against the enemy, and defeated the enemy army in one fell swoop.
The victory in the Battle of Wanyuan laid a solid foundation for crushing the enemy's Six-Way Siege, and after the war, Xu Shiyou was promoted to deputy commander of the Red 9 Army, and Chen Haisong was appointed as the political commissar of the Red 9 Army, a position half a level higher than Xu Shiyou. At this time, Chen Haisong was only 21 years old, and he became the youngest military cadre in the history of our army. After that, Chen Haisong fought many big battles and hard battles with the troops, and on March 12, 1937, the Red 9 Army fought a bloody battle with the Majia Army at Liyuankou, and Chen Haisong unfortunately died at the age of 23.