This battle is known as Chairman Mao's proud work, and it has been listed as a classic case by the world's major military academies, and can even be said to be chairman Mao's command. This war has directly saved China's future. In the face of the well-equipped Kuomintang army surrounded on all sides, how will Chairman Mao command it? Only 30,000 Red Army defeated 400,000 enemy troops, turning the tide of the battlefield at once and ultimately winning the victory.
In October 1934, the Kuomintang troops led by Chiang Kai-shek began the fifth encirclement of the Red Army, at which time the report of military command and Wang Ming made the mistake of left-leaning dogmatism, which eventually led to the complete failure of the Red Army's counter-encirclement, countless soldiers died on the battlefield, in order to preserve the only vitality of the Red Army, forced to choose a large-scale transfer. Not to mention the previous strong battles, when the total number of the Red Army was only 80,000 people, and the total strength of the Nationalist army was 300,000 people, well-equipped. After 7 days and 7 nights of struggle, the Red Army finally broke through the enemy's blockade line, but at the same time paid a great price. Until the end of the battle, the main force of the Red Army was directly reduced from more than 86,000 people to 30,000 people, many of which were completely destroyed, and the blood of the Red Army was stained red.
Chiang Kai-shek
Therefore, the people put forward the slogan of not drinking Xiangshui for 3 years and not eating river fish for 10 years. At that time, a German military adviser in our army continued to advance to the southwest according to the previous plan despite the enemy's encirclement and interception, which made our army in danger of total annihilation. At this moment of life and death, Chairman Mao stood up and said that at this time, it is necessary to break away from the enemy's main force as soon as possible. Only by advancing where the place is weakest can we get out of the dangerous situation and gain the initiative on the battlefield.
Chairman Mao's idea was endorsed by most of the generals at the time. In January 1935, after the Red Army successfully conquered Zunyi, the generals within our Party gathered here to hold a meeting of historical turning point significance. After a vote by the Politburo, Mao Zedong's leadership position in our Party was formally established. Chairman Mao gained military command, but the Red Army became an urgent question of where to go next.
When Chiang Kai-shek learned that the Red Army had occupied Zunyi and suffered heavy casualties, he immediately took advantage of the victory to pursue and wanted to destroy the Red Army in one fell swoop, so he decided to surround the 400,000 troops from four sides. You must know that some of the 30,000 Red Army troops stationed in Zunyi at this time were crippled and some did not even have guns. In this case, the winner or loser is obvious. In order to get rid of the danger of being surrounded by the Nationalist army, Chairman Mao decided to abandon zunyi, which had already been occupied, and cross the Yangtze River. However, to cross the Yangtze River, it is necessary to pass through the Chishui River in the Guizhou region.
This world-shaking confrontation gradually began. A brigade stationed at that time numbered about 6,000 people. Chairman Mao decided to send 10,000 troops first to destroy the entire army. However, the strength of the national army was not as bad as expected, nor was it imagined that it could far surpass other units that had fought before. Most importantly, the information obtained before is also a big deviation. It turned out that the enemy troops stationed here were not brigades, but three brigades, and in addition to this, a steady stream of reinforcements was about to arrive from the rear, so it could not be withdrawn by public announcement.
Long-term combat attrition will only make our army's original lack of firepower more passive. Chairman Mao soon realized the seriousness of the matter, and after careful consideration, decided to abandon the confrontation with the Nationalist army and cross the enemy from the west. Due to information errors, Chairman Mao experienced his first defeat after sitting in the leadership, but he also accumulated valuable experience in later operations. On January 28, when our soldiers approached the enemy, the enemy had been waiting here for a long time. When the enemy discovered the Movement of the Red Army, it immediately sent 9 brigades to ambush the area through which the Red Army passed. At this time, the Kuomintang troops also deployed heavy troops on both sides of the Yangtze River.
Although the Red Army crossed the Chishui River, facing the mouth of the Yangtze River, the Nationalist troops guarded by the Chinese army could only move to Xi'an, Which was far from the mouth of the Yangtze River. After much deliberation, Chairman Mao decided to change the original marching line.
The plan to rendezvous with the Red Army decided to masse all the troops toward the enemy to the place where the troops were the least numerous, and the best target was at Yunnan. The central leadership held an important meeting in this town, called the Tashi Conference. The meeting summed up the various problems faced by the Red Army and began to explore a plan for breaking through the enemy army.
Here, Chairman Mao put forward a bold idea and decided to cross the Chishui River and return to Guizhou. As soon as this idea came out, everyone present was confused and talked about it. Why go back? Chairman Mao explained to the people that by doing so, the enemy would not be able to grasp our movements and let it be chaotic. Only in this way can we find a breakthrough with weak restraint and get out of the encirclement. As soon as this sentence came out, people applauded.
The enemy had no idea what medicine was sold in the Red Army gourd? On February 15, Chairman Mao led the Red Army across the Chishui River, and the soldiers returned to Guizhou under the leadership of Chairman Mao to return the enemy with horse guns. At this time, the enemy's combat mood was very low. Without preparation, our army won a great victory in one fell swoop.
In this battle, the soldiers of our army, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, greatly dampened the morale of the nationalist army. In the next two days, our army annihilated eight more regiments of the enemy. This battle was the first victory of the Red Army since the Long March, and the weapons and equipment were also fully replenished. Chairman Mao planned to be stationed in Zunyi, with Zunyi as the center to establish a revolutionary base area and develop the red army troops. Seeing this, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly issued a letter of challenge to Chairman Mao, determined to fight the Red Army to the death near the enemy and personally command it.
Soon the war began. Due to the disparity in strength, the Red Army was once again surrounded by the Nationalist army. However, as a great strategist and thinker, Chairman Mao could not easily destroy the vitality of the enemy, and if Chiang Kai-shek did so, he would be decisive, withdraw from the main battlefield, cross the red water three times, use roundabout tactics, and preserve the enemy's strength. However, this decision was opposed by the Committee. If you attack northern Xinjiang, the possibility of victory is very high. This not only increased the morale of the Red Army, but also obtained a large amount of military supplies. This proposal was supported by all the members of the committee, with only one Chairman Mao. In order to express opposition and not cause unnecessary infighting, Chairman Mao could only remain silent on this. In the evening, Chairman Mao tossed and turned.
It was difficult to sleep, and he felt that this battle must be more fierce and less auspicious. Therefore, Chairman Mao went to Zhou Enlai with a horse lantern, talked about the stakes, and went to Zhu De for discussion overnight. On March 11, chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De held another meeting of the Politburo and persuaded the other members to stop the battle plan.
In the evening, news came from the front, and at this time a large number of nationalist troops were assembled and an ambush was set up. When everyone learned the news, they really sweated a little, and if they did not follow Chairman Mao's advice, the consequences would be unimaginable. Chairman Mao once again proved his extraordinary strategic vision and thinking, and it was precisely because of Chairman Mao's strong advocacy that he avoided the risk of the Red Army encountering danger and all the decisions made by Chairman Mao. All of them were well thought out, and the weak troops previously installed by the enemy in the places were actually just illusions, that is, they wanted to lure the Red Army into going deeper.
Since this was the case, Chairman Mao also planned to accompany Chiang Kai-shek to perform this play well, and immediately sent a small group of troops pretending to look for a breakthrough in the southwest direction. Seeing the situation, the nationalist army immediately gathered a large force and assembled in a southwesterly direction. At the same time, the army in the north began to relax somewhat, and our army suddenly began to march to the north, crossing the Chishui River like a raptor across the river, and escaping the pursuit of the nationalist army.
At this time, the enemy army was confused by the Red Army from top to bottom. The angry and demoralized Chiang Kai-shek could no longer sit still, and personally flew from Chongqing to Guiyang, which was bound to annihilate the Red Army in one fell swoop. After crossing the Red River, the Red Army did not go far, but hid in the woods to observe the movement of the enemy, and at this time, the nearby Nationalist army once again formed a siege. Seeing that the time had come, Chairman Mao still adopted roundabout tactics, asking Zhu De to lead two small troops to pretend to fight the Nationalist army to the death, attracting the attention of the large troops, and he himself led the main force of the Red Army to quickly march to the southwest direction of the lax defense.
Chairman Mao's plan to hide the sky and cross the sea was really wonderful, and Chairman Mao led the Red Army to evolve tricks under the eyes of the Nationalist army, and simply led the nose of hundreds of thousands of Nationalist troops. The fourth successful crossing of the Chishui River indicates that the Red Army has fully grasped the strategic initiative and is striding forward in the direction of Guiyang, preaching everywhere that our army will soon reach Guiyang and capture Old Chiang Alive. When the news quickly reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears, his heart was filled with panic.
However, what made him feel even more uncertain was that at this moment of crisis, he had no troops to adjust, because most of the troops had been transferred to other places, and at this time, the defenders inside Guiyang were only more than 400 people, and in desperation, they had to let the troops stationed in Yunnan and other places come to support, and at the same time ordered the garrison troops to hold the airport and prepare to escape at any time.
Old Chiang Kai-shek did not expect that this time he had won the plan again, and our army did not want to attack Guiyang at all, but directly marched towards Kunming, and at this time Kunming did not have any garrison. In this way, Chairman Mao led his troops to seize the opportunity to cross safely from the gap in the defensive line of the Jinsha River and reach the Western Sichuan Plain and other places. Since then, our army has successfully escaped the encirclement of the enemy army and left the 400,000 kuomintang troops far behind. When Chiang Kai-shek learned the news that Chairman Mao had led the Red Army across the Yangtze River, he knew that he had made a plan. From this battle, we can find that the war is not only a military contest between the two sides, but also the use of tactics, you know. Chairman Mao, who had never attended a military academy in a country, was able to take the initiative in every battle to strengthen passivity with weakness, lead the Red Army to be invincible, and finally win a revolutionary victory, which saved China.