In May 1935, 22 Red Army soldiers participated in the war to seize the Luding Bridge, they climbed the bare iron chains, braved the gunfire of the Kuomintang, and used their lives to spell out a way to escape for the Red Army of the Long March. However, it was such a great group of soldiers that after the end of the war and the founding of New China, people only remembered their deeds, but they could not remember their names at all. To this day, some of these warriors, their names remain a mystery. What really happened back then? What caused the loss of information from these fighters? How many warriors have been found and known today? Today, let's go back to 1935 and see what happened that year.
In the 1930s, due to the influence of the wrong guidance within the Chinese Communist Party, the Red Army suffered a crushing defeat in the Fifth Encirclement and Suppression campaign of the Kuomintang, for which the Chinese Communist Party made plans for the Long March. After a long journey of several months, pursued by the Kuomintang, the Central Red Army came to the Dadu River, where they planned to cross the Dadu River, join the Red Fourth Front, and then make other plans. In the end, the Central Red Army set the location of the river crossing at Anshun Field. And with lightning speed, he defeated the local Kuomintang forces and successfully captured three small boats. However, the Red Army at this time faced two very serious problems. At that time, the red army soldiers who needed to cross the river were as high as 20,000 people. However, there are only three boats, and the water flow of the Dadu River is very turbulent, and it is not an easy task to row across the river. If you want to rely on these three small boats to cross the river, the efficiency will be very low, on the battlefield, time is life, the Central Red Army, simply can not afford to delay such a long time. Wanting to temporarily build a pontoon bridge was obviously a very unrealistic plan, so the Central Red Army aimed at the Luding Bridge north of the Dadu River. They decided to cross the river strongly from there.
Luding Bridge is a chain bridge, this bridge has a very important strategic position, because it is the only bridge on the Dadu River. Founded in the Qing Dynasty, it is a very important transportation hub between Tibet and Sichuan. In order to prevent the Red Army from breaking through from here, Liu Wenhui, who was stationed here at that time, also made sufficient preparations early and dismantled all the wooden planks on the Luding Bridge, hoping to block the Red Army's action in this way. Speaking of this, many friends will be very curious, Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, with a very strong determination, wanted to put the Communist Party to death, in order to prevent the Red Army from escaping, shouldn't Liu Wenhui simply destroy the Luding Bridge, so that it will soon be once and for all? In fact, this truth, Liu Wenhui is not ignorant. However, Liu Wenhui still has a little conscience and sense of responsibility for the country and the people. We just said that the Luding Bridge was the only way to cross the river at that time, and the reason why China has not built a bridge here for so many years is because the terrain here is dangerous, the difficulty of the project, and it is very difficult to imagine, the Qing government spent more than a year to build the Luding Bridge. Once the Luding Bridge is completely destroyed, although in a short period of time, it can play a role in trapping the Communist Party, but from the perspective of long-term interests, such an act in that era of war chaos also destroyed the interests of the Kuomintang itself, paralyzed traffic, will make the Kuomintang suffer deeply, but also affect the lives of the local people, leading to people's livelihood complaints, it is precisely because of these factors, Liu Wenhui did not attack the Luding Bridge, just ordered people to tear down the wooden planks on the bridge. Liu Wenhui was also very confident in his own military strength, believing that under his powerful firepower, the Red Army could not slip out from under his own eyes under such unfavorable circumstances. However, it was this self-confidence, and even conceit, that gave the Red Army the opportunity to break through.
After the discussion meeting, the Red Army formed two commandos, one for the fire attack and one for laying the planks. Liao Dazhu, the commander of the second company, became the captain. In this way, under the cover of rear firepower, this war, which has a bearing on the life and death of the Communist Party of China, officially opened the curtain. With the order of the regimental commander, 22 fighters took the lead in rushing to the Luding Bridge, facing the Kuomintang with sophisticated weapons, they did not have the slightest fear, they regarded death as a homecoming, just to complete this arduous task, in the battlefield of life and death, the momentum of the Kuomintang actually fell to the inferior. The Red Army's surprise attack caught them off guard, and for a moment they were powerless, and their state became more and more panicked, and finally sent a signal for help. However, at this time, the Red Army also blocked and ambushed their reinforcements early. Isolated and helpless, Liu Wenhui, after losing hope, gave up garrisoning Luding Bridge and left Luding Bridge with the remnants of his troops. The victory of the Red Army also paid a corresponding price, 4 of the 22 commandos, because of the heroic sacrifice of the bullet, they were Wei Xiaosan, Liu Dagui, Wang Hongshan, Li Furen, they sacrificed their precious lives for the country and the nation. After experiencing such a fierce war, the Red Army did not have a moment of respite, they must cherish every minute, otherwise they are likely to be surrounded by the enemy. Therefore, they set off again without stopping, and continued to carry out the mission, not even having time to count the wounded, for this reason. At that time, the names of the 22 warriors were not systematically counted out of the list, which also became a regret for China and the nation.
After the founding of New China, Chinese began to sort out the information of these soldiers who had made special contributions to China during the war, and at this time people were surprised to find that although the Battle of Luding Bridge was famous in history, people did not know the names of these soldiers at all, and in this way, people began to embark on the road of finding these soldiers. In order to be able to find these fighters from the vast sea of people, China set up an investigation team, and in May 1975, they found the first fighter at the Revolutionary History Memorial Hall in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, and this soldier's name was Liu Zihua. This made the staff very excited, and then they found the person in charge of the memorial hall, and from here they found the Langfang Military Sub-district, and after repeated confirmation, they finally determined that Liu Zihua was the soldier who participated in the capture of Luding Bridge. At the same time, more information about Liu Zihua was also obtained. After the liberation of China, Liu Zihua became a chief of staff at the Langfang Military Subdistrict, but in 1951, Liu Zihua died of illness.
With this beginning, the staff involved in the investigation once again gained momentum and saw hope. In 1985, Wang Yongmo, a staff member of the investigation team, met General Yang Chengwu, who had participated in the campaign, and got the name of another small soldier from Yang Chengwu's mouth. Yang Chengwu told Wang Yongmo that among the 22 people who participated in the assault at that time, there was a small warrior, and he was very impressed, because this warrior was a young man of the Miao ethnic group, when he was young, he had always lived with his father in the mountains, so he had trained a good climbing skill from an early age, which was also one of the important reasons why he was selected for the commando team. The name of this little warrior was called Yun Guichuan, which was the name he only had after he became a soldier. However, in addition to this, General Yang Chengwu could not give more valuable information, and the only thing he knew was that Yun Guichuan did not die in that battle. The name of Yun Guichuan has also appeared in the Luding County Memorial Hall since then.
In 1986, in order to find more clues to the soldiers, Wang Yongmo met with General Luo Huasheng, the general secretary of the regimental party branch of the Red Fourth Front, in Beijing, and General Luo Huasheng personally participated in the selection of commandos that year, so he should have a deeper impression of the names of these people. General Luo Huasheng told Wang Yongmo that the criteria for his own selection at that time required that the other party must be a party member or an active member of the party. Among these people, including the leading cadres of the Second Company, the instructors of the company commanders, the secretary of the party branch, and general Luo Huasheng, these valuable clues also gave Wang Yongmo a clearer direction for his investigation and search. In the days that followed, Wang Yongmo and other members of the investigation team were still looking for these fighters day after day, and slowly under the investigation they did not give up, 12 fighters gradually surfaced. In addition to the original Liu Zihua and Yun Guichuan and the previously mentioned Liao Dazhu, they found Wang Haiyun, Li Youlin, Liu Jinshan, Zhao Changfa, Yang Tianming, and five warriors.
Their names are also recorded in the Memorial Hall of the Flying Luding Bridge, in which there are 22 pillars, which are granite columns, representing every soldier of the year. However, because only 8 warriors were found, only 8 pillars had the names of these warriors on them. And it is worth mentioning that only above the top of the two stone pillars are carved the figures of the warriors, one of which is Liu Zihua, whom we mentioned above.
These great warriors, in that era of war, disregarded their own bodies and personal interests, exchanged their lives for the safety of the Communist Party and the strong vitality of China, and it was their selfless dedication that allowed New China to be reborn. In our current society, war seems to have become farther and farther away from us, but in fact, all the years are quiet, there is such a group of people, where we can't see, carrying the weight for us, we can't see the scene of these soldiers working on the border, but we need to cherish their dedication to the country and the people.
The era of peace is very hard-won, thanks to the strength of the motherland, thanks to the efforts of thousands of Chinese people, and what we can do is to not forget history and forge ahead in an ordinary society.