In the spring of 1934, Chiang Kai-shek sat in Nanchang and commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, under the guidance of the set goal of "meeting the division of Gannan Province," put forward the so-called strategy of "step by step as a battalion, advancing step by step, blocking the road, continuously, economic blockade, and no leakage of water.", which was compressed into the central revolutionary base areas, and the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battles in the Central Soviet Region around Gannan in Jiangxi Province entered the most fierce years, especially Guangchang, the northern gate of Ruijin in the Central Soviet Region, which became the focus of the Red Army's robbery with the enemy.
Guangchang, located in the southeast of Jiangxi, Gansu, Fujian, Guangdong traffic rush, leaning on the western foothills of Wuyi, according to the left bank of the Min River, east of Fujian Jianning, Ninghua border, west of Ningdu County of this province, south of Shicheng, north of Nanfeng, the county is surrounded by mountains, constitute a natural boundary with neighboring counties. After the Red Army occupied Guangchang during the agrarian revolution, it was always regarded as a strategic place, and once it was lost, ruijin, the temporary central capital, had no danger to defend. For this reason, when it was learned that the enemy was attacking Guangchang, the headquarters of the Red Army immediately issued an order to all the units of the Red Army to "swear to defend the northern gate of the Central Soviet Region" and "to defend Guangchang to the death, and every inch of land must be fought." For this reason, all the main forces of the Red Army gathered in Guangchang to participate in this great decisive battle. It is called the "Defense of Guangchang" in the history of the service.
Monument to the Defense of Guangchang
After the battle began, the enemy first bombarded the Red Army's position planes in turn, fierce artillery bombardment, many of the Red Army's fortifications were destroyed, and then a large number of troops rushed toward the Red Army, our heroic Red Army did not hesitate to kill the enemy, rushed out of the trenches again and again, launched an attack on the enemy, fought with bayonets, sabre slashes, and rifle butts, fought with the enemy, launched a life-and-death hand-to-hand combat, and repelled the enemy's attacks again and again, however, the more the enemy fought, our army slowly began to show its inferiority, at that time, Li De, a senior commander of the Red Army, personally went to the trenches 10 kilometers south of Guangchang to command and supervise the battle, and ordered anyone who dared to retreat without authorization to engage in military law.
Even so, in the end, because Guangchang had no castle to defend, the Red Army's bullets and food and other supplies were extremely scarce, the military strength was very disparate, and the gap in strength was very large. The defense of Guangchang not only weakened the strength of the Red Army, but also made the enemy's attack on the Central Soviet Region more smoothly, especially ruijin, Ningdu and other places in the center of the central Soviet area, which were in danger.
Later generations summed up the defeat in the defense of Guangchang, although there were objective factors of the enemy's strength, but more importantly, the command mistakes of the foreign adviser Li De. In his memoirs, it is said that when Li De commanded this battle, a man stayed in an "independent house", guided by short surprise tactics, and commanded this large-scale anti-"encirclement and suppression" war with a map in the house, however, most of the maps at that time were simple sketches, with large errors and not accurate enough, Li De did not ask, the map looked only a hundred miles away, he did not ask whether it was a mountain road or a flat road, nor did he give the troops time to eat and rest, and the difficulties of the enemy situation, climate, and natural conditions were not taken into account. Based on the scale of the distance on the map to calculate the distance, set the time to arrive and enter the battle, and often leave no room.
Therefore, in the course of the battle, the orders he issued were very different from the actual situation on the front line, which brought great difficulties to the actions of the commanders and fighters of the Red Army, and often made the troops unable to enter the battle on time, so that it was inevitable that they would lose the battle. Once it could not be carried out, it was believed that the front-line commanders did not seriously carry out the implementation, often lost their temper and cursed people, and often punished the front-line officers, and even asked for beheading. For this reason, he was given the nickname of "commander of the operation on the map". Without any knowledge of the situation in China and little military talent, he copied dogmas and books and deviated from the adventurism of the actual situation of the Red Army, causing the Red Army to suffer huge losses.
Of course, Li De came to the Central Soviet Region with the good intention of helping the Red Army win the battle, but his wrong command caused heavy losses to the Red Army, which eventually led to the serious defeat of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, and the Red Army was forced to withdraw from the Central Soviet Region. At the beginning of the Long March, as one of the members of the "three-man regiment" responsible for planning and making decisions, Li De still carried out the wrong command: on the one hand, too much emphasis was placed on secrecy, and the strategic transfer was not properly mobilized; on the other hand, the passive avoidance of war during the retreat was adopted, resulting in the Central Red Army suffering heavy losses in the early stage of the Long March. However, later, the leaders of the Red Army recognized his mistake, corrected the chaos at the Zunyi Conference, revoked his military leadership, and lived an ordinary life ever since. Here, without talking about his mistakes, how did he come to Ruijin, the capital of the Provisional Central Government?
Born in September 1900 in the town of Ismanin on the outskirts of Munich, Germany, Reed began serving in the army during World War I, participated in a number of battles, and later went to prison, escaped to the Soviet Union after the October Revolution, and joined the Red Army. Because he had been a soldier and had some combat experience, he was promoted quickly in the army, and his highest position in the Red Army was chief of staff of the cavalry division. Later, he was selected to study at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, where he was a highly qualified student. Due to his better academic performance, he was sent to China to Shanghai after graduation.
Because of his rich experience in barricade street warfare and solid knowledge of military theory, Bogu, who was the temporary head at the time, was overjoyed, and he left this old acquaintance behind. This year Otto Braun was 31 years old and Chang Bogu was 7 years old. At this time, forced by the white terror of the Kuomintang rule, the provisional central government moved from Shanghai to the Central Soviet District, and in September 1933, Li De disguised himself as a priest and, in the name of visiting the ancient temple in Chaoshan And was escorted by underground traffic officers, from Shanghai to Ruijin, the central revolutionary base area. At that time, there was a secret traffic line between Shanghai and the Central Soviet District from Shanghai to Ruijin via Hong Kong, Shantou, Tai Po and Yongding, winding for about 3,000 kilometers. It was tasked with transferring cadres, transmitting information and transporting materials from Shanghai to the Central Soviet Region.
While carrying out a frenzied military "encirclement and suppression" of the Soviet area, the Kuomintang authorities also imposed a strict seal on the Soviet area. It is claimed that "do not give grains of rice spoons of water to the help, pieces of paper only birds through." All the towns and cities in the enemy-occupied areas adjacent to the Soviet zone have implemented a limited "public sale" of salt, cloth, kerosene, medicine, etc., and cut off traffic in the chibai area, and the personnel must also be strictly inspected, and many people have been arrested by the enemy on the way.
At that time, in Changting and Yongding in Fujian and Shantou and Chaoshan in Guangdong, there were more people going abroad, and it was still a place where foreign missionaries preached, such as Changting, which had a Christian hospital. Hong Kong is an important transit station for overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese, and the economy is also relatively prosperous, especially Hong Kong, Shantou and hundreds of industries coexist, and Huayang is mixed, so that Li De adopts such an identity, which is not easy to expose, however, his process of coming to the Soviet Union is still very thrilling.
At that time, Bogu's younger brother Qin Bangli opened a pharmacy in Shantou, mainly responsible for safely escorting Li De and others to Ruijin, due to the long distance, the rush time is very long, and it takes many days to live in the middle, in order to ensure safety, a set of secret working methods are adopted. Each line and station only contacts one person in the local leader, and is not allowed to have relations with other responsible persons. Traffic officers only have a single line of contact, do not have any horizontal relationship, generally do not know each other, do not understand the situation of the whole line.
In the arrangement of transportation stations, some points appear in the form of families, some appear in the form of shops or schools, and even some points appear in entertainment venues. When performing tasks, traffic officers often use other identities as cover, generally disguised as businessmen, painters, relatives or traders who rush to the market; most of them are two people walking together, one after the other, the former is empty-handed, mainly to see the wind, and the latter carries documents. If the situation is found in the front, it will be transferred immediately to protect the safety.
In the process of escorting Li De to the Soviet area, because he was German and had special physical characteristics, he was interrogated from time to time on the road. As soon as li de was received, several people in the escort team encountered a dangerous situation. At that time, the squad took Li De through the narrow field and prepared to enter the mountain. Suddenly, there was a crisp gunshot from the front, and it turned out that the Kuomintang army was "encircling and suppressing" the local guerrillas. Fortunately, everyone was vigilant and found out early, so they quickly turned back to the same place, lurked in a remote house, and waited for the calm to continue on the road, and the traffic station still left the shelf bed where Li De had slept.
In view of this dangerous situation, in some places there are strict guards on the roads of major stations, the enemy's blockade line has suddenly widened, and many sentries have been added to the main roads and small roads, and the inspection is particularly strict. For the sake of absolute safety, the convoy formulated a rule, that is, "three no's", that is, where there is smoke, where the chickens and dogs are barking, and where there is light. It means that there are no roads on the mountain, and there is only a beast road in the dense forest except for thorns. This Li De must not be able to climb over the mountains, only to see him miserable along the way.
In front of him was one big mountain after another, and after walking not much he was a little bit shy, he became hesitant, it seemed difficult to hold on, and he was about to fall behind, and the escort team saw him like this, so they untied their legs and formed a long rope that was firmly tied to Li De's waist, and pulled him uphill, and finally survived.
In view of the unforgettable years of this secret trip to the Soviet Union, Li De's memoir "Chronicle of China" written in his later years specifically recorded that after arriving in Chao'an, he walked to the banks of the Han River and hid in the narrow cabin under the guidance of the liaison officer. I was here I lay flat for almost 2 days and 2 nights, not daring to make a sound. Nearly evening, the ship finally set sail. At night, the small boat, together with many other small boats, was dragged by a steamship and sailed upstream... There were several stops along the way, and above them was the sound of human footsteps. On several occasions it was clearly a cross-examination, mixed with rude questioning and orders. On the third day, I stepped onto the board of the boat.
Li De passed through the last waterway traffic in Chaozhou, and then crossed the mountains, especially thrilling under the eyes of the enemy, traveling hundreds of kilometers, the squad unconsciously, lasted more than ten days, were day and night, through no man's land and barren mountains, and finally reached the Soviet area.
After arriving in Ruijin, according to the leader's meaning, for the sake of confidentiality and security, his title was always Chinese "Li De" (meaning a German surnamed Li), and his identity and original name could not be revealed. At the military conferences in the Soviet zone, he himself repeatedly stated that his position was only that of an adviser and did not have the power to give instructions, but he later became a member of the "three-man decision-making group", and from then on, Otto Braun entered the annals of the Red Army under the name "Lide".
However, after the Zunyi Conference, as the Red Army won one victory after another, the dismissal of his post and Li De's real convincing, there was a significant change in attitude, and after he arrived in northern Shaanxi, he helped train cavalry in the army and later served as a professor at the Yan'an Military Academy. He left China in 1939 during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, ending his seven-year trip to China. In his later years, he returned to his hometown to work as a translator and teacher until his death in 1974.
Later generations commented on Li De's trip to the Soviet Zone, if he did not sit in the position of commanding the Central Red Army, he would not have left such a reputation, just like ma Mo, who talked about soldiers on paper during the Three Kingdoms period, although he did not have the talent to command the troops, he was a very good staff officer, if he really could not bear the talent of the general, and he could not beat his face and be fat and hard, otherwise he would be discredited, harming a large number of innocent people, and making Hong this deeply in danger. If he is placed in the right position, such as a teacher in a military academy, or a translator, even if he cannot be passed on for a hundred lifetimes, it is enough to peach and plum all over the world.