In July 1934, the Fourth Front of the Red Army suppressed the key offensive of more than a dozen brigades of Liu Xiang in the Wanyuan area of Sichuan Province for more than a month, but if it wanted to annihilate the enemy's effective forces, it was necessary to give play to the special skills of our army's mobile warfare and engage in large-scale, deep, and roundabout encirclement.
However, the envelopment can only choose one direction, is it to the left or the right?
On this extremely crucial tactical issue, the opinions of the commander-in-chief of the Four Fronts, Xu (Forward), and his superior Zhang (Guotao) were at odds.
To the left, to the east, the enemy was Liu Xiang's 3 main divisions.
To the right, to the west, the enemy in front of him was a division of Fan Shaozeng.
Commander Xu advocated going to the left to fight Liu Xiang's main force, on the grounds that by destroying this enemy force, we would not only be able to occupy the lower Jiangdong region, but also improve the equipment of our army.
On the other hand, if you encircle to the right, you will be in a parallel position with the enemy army, which is not conducive to the envelopment at all in terms of terrain.
However, the self-righteous Zhang (Guotao) insisted on copying to the left, he was the representative of the Central Committee (Central) and the chairman (seat) of the Northwest Military Commission, and Commander Xu repeatedly violated Yan Zhizhi's advice without results, so he had to obey the order.
The development of the war was already expected, and it was impossible to encircle the right, so it had to turn around and counterattack to the left, and at this time the enemy had retreated, and the tail chased and annihilated the enemy, and the results of the battle were not great.
The results of the counterattack on the Eastern Front were not ideal, and Commander Xu pinned all his hopes on the battlefield on the Western Front. However, the four enemies on the western front watched the collapse of the eastern front and also had the intention of retreating and fleeing.
The next step is to encircle the fleeing enemy, so is it deep or shallow?
Zhang (Guotao) personally called the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front and instructed him to adopt shallow and roundabout tactics and advance north towards Changchi.
The choice of success or failure was once again placed in front of Xu's commander, that is, the four fronts.
Commander Xu sat down by the lamp, pulled out a military map of one in 100,000, spread it on a wooden board, and marked it with a red pencil as he watched.
The cadres gathered around Commander Xu, sitting or squatting, all quietly waiting for him to make the final decision, and everyone's eyes moved with the red pencil.
Commander Xu followed the direction of the attack to the west and marked the location of the Blue Grass Crossing and the Chi Ma Men with a red circle.
Then, he followed the attack route of the Red Thirty-first Army and marked the areas of Wangcangba, Hepingchang and Zhenziba.
Finally, he drew red circles in turn on the Yangbai River, the New Temple Field, the Qingjiang Crossing, and the Right Pass, which were attacked by the Red Thirty Army.
Commander Xu stopped and thought hard for a long time, then lowered his head and continued to draw.
Using his hand as a ruler, he measured the distance from the wooden gate, sanglinzi, and huangniukan to the yellow cat ya, and drew a thick blue arrow.
Finally, he marked a very eye-catching red arrow on the line of Wuguan Village, Kowloon Yard, and Yellow Cat Ya.
"Shallow detours can't hold the enemy at all, that's tantamount to grabbing a rabbit's tail, it's impossible to catch it," Commander Xu put down the pencil in his hand, he decided flatly, "This time, even if I make a mistake and be punished, I will fight this battle, and I am responsible for the problem!" ”
"We agree with the Commander-in-Chief!" Commander Cheng Shicai of the Red Thirty Army and political commissar Li Xiannian said in unison.
Xiong Houfa, commander of the Eighty-eighth Division, Shao Liekun, commander of the Eighty-ninth Division, and Wang Naigui, commander of the Ninety-eighth Division, also responded one after another.
The support of the crowd made Commander Xu make up his mind even further, and he said emphatically: "Since this is the case, let's make a big deep detour and have a race with the enemy!" ”
He continued: "In the case that the Red Thirty-first Army has cut off the retreat of Deng Xihou's troops, the heavy responsibility of shallow detours will fall on the Red Thirty Army.
"You have two major tasks: first, to send the main force to capture the Yellow Cat Pass as soon as possible, to cut off and completely annihilate the road where the enemy Sun Zhen's troops fled to Cangxi; and second, to use a regiment and a half to pursue and annihilate the fleeing enemy along the Enyang River."
"At present, the enemy will soon be approaching the Yellow Cat Pass, and we are still nearly 60 miles away. There is no doubt that we must race against the clock to seize the Yellow Cat Pass!
"Xiannian and Shicai, you led the vanguard troops of the Thirtieth Army to quickly penetrate, and I led the follow-up troops to follow up."
Subsequently, after study, the people made combat arrangements: Xiong Houfa led the 263rd Regiment as the vanguard and immediately set out, with the goal of quickly capturing the Yellow Cat Pass; the 264, 267, and 268 regiments followed up as follow-up troops, and a small number of troops chased the enemy along the tail of the Enyang River.
Although this battle was fought by Commander Xu at the risk of making mistakes, it was gratifying that the development of the war did indeed go as he had predicted before the war.
On the night of September 13, Xiong Houfa, commander of the 88th Division, led the 263rd Regiment as the vanguard of the 30th Army and successfully seized the Yellow Cat Pass on the afternoon of the 14th.
The 264th Regiment, 267th Regiment, 268th Regiment of the 30th Red Army and the 93rd Division of the 31st Red Army arrived in the designated area as follow-up units.
After a day and night of fierce fighting, the various units of the Red Fourth Front achieved a great victory in the history of the famous army.
Specific achievements include: The two brigades of the enemy Sun Nanfu and his subordinate units were all annihilated, and our army killed and wounded more than 4,000 enemy and captured more than 10,000 enemy prisoners. In addition, more than 40 mortars, more than 7,000 guns of various types, 88 telephones, 7 radios, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition were also seized.
After the end of this battle, the Red Fourth Front advanced westward, continued to pursue and annihilate the remnants of the enemy, and directly approached the bank of the Jialing River, completely smashing Liu Xiang's "six-way siege".