The Battle of Xiangjiang was one of the most tragic battles on the Long March of the Central Red Army, and the Red First, Red Third, and Red Fifth Armies all paid an extremely heavy price in order to cover the troops' crossing of the river. But to say that the most serious losses were not the Red Fifth Army behind the palace, but the Red Eighth Army on the right rear flank. After crossing the Xiang River, the Red Fifth Army lost more than four-fifths, and only more than 1,200 people were left in the legion of more than 10,000 people.
In the Battle of Xiangjiang, the Red Eighth Army did not experience the fierce blockade battles experienced by the three main armies of the Red First, Red, and Red Fifth, and there was only one main reason for the heavy casualties of the Red Eighth Army:
Legions are almost entirely made up of recruits, and many more don't even use guns.
On September 21, 1934, just a month before the Red Army was preparing to withdraw from the Central Soviet Zone, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission decided to formally form the Eighth Red Army. Regiment Commander Zhou Kun, Political Commissar Huang Su, Chief of Staff Tang Jun, and Political Department Director Luo Ronghuan. The regiment consisted of the 21st Division and the 23rd Division, with a total of 10,922 men.
Most of the soldiers of the Red Eighth Army came from Xingguo County, a "model county" in the Central Soviet Region, and according to statistics, Xingguo County, which had a population of only 230,000 at that time, had 80,000 people participating in the army, accounting for 80% of the county's youth and strength. There are 23,179 famous martyrs in Xingguo County, of which 12,038 died on the Long March Road.
Most of the soldiers of the Red Eighth Army were young peasants who had just put down their hoes, and when they had no time for training, they hurriedly picked up their guns and went on the road. It was only when firing the gun at them that he told them how to fire the gun, and he didn't even say how to aim it, let alone military tactics. Such a legion cannot talk about combat effectiveness.
The Red Eighth Army, which was all composed of new recruits and had no combat experience, encountered such a rare and fierce battle as the Xiangjiang River on the battlefield for the first time, and the results can be imagined.
At 17:00 on November 25, the Central Military Commission issued a combat order, determined to cross the Xiang River from Jeonju and Xing'an in four columns to break through the fourth blockade line of the Kuomintang. The Red Eighth and Red Nine armies were the fourth column, passing through Yongming (if yongming could not be captured, they would be circumnavigated from the north) to Guanyang and Xing'an Counties.
Sure enough, the Red Eighth and Red Ninth Armies were blocked by the Gui Army and the Militia Regiment at Sanfeng Mountain, and they organized many strong attacks, but they still could not take it, and the casualties of the troops were very large. On the evening of the 27th, the Central Military Commission changed its operational deployment and ordered the Red Eighth and Red Ninth Armies to immediately force their troops north to Leikou Pass, enter northern Guizhou, and rush across the Xiang River.
At this time, the Zhou Hun Yuanbu of the Central Army occupied Daoxian County, the main force of the Gui Army returned to Guanyang, and the Xiang Army's Liu Jianxu Army had also entered and occupied Jeonju, and the red eighth and red ninth armies still stranded in The territory of Yongming and Jianghua in Hunan could be cut off at any time, becoming the most dangerous unit in the Red Army.
In view of this situation, the Central Military Commission immediately ordered the Fifth Red Army and the First Division of the Red First Army to block the pursuit of the enemy on the border of Xianggui and Guizhou to ensure that the road of the Red Eighth and Red Ninth Armies to the west was not cut off. On the way from the Xianggui border to the Xiangjiang River in the west, the Red Eighth and Red Ninth Armies were constantly harassed by the Gui army and the militia groups, and the speed of march was not fast. In addition, the Red Eighth Army was unfamiliar with the terrain, took the wrong road, tossed several times, and fell at the end, becoming the tail of the whole army.
In the early morning of November 30, the Red Eighth Army finally arrived at the agreed meeting place with the 6th Division of the Red Third Army, a watermill less than 100 miles from the Xiang River, but arrived two days later than the time set by the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. At this time, the 6th Division had been ordered to rush to Xinxu to rescue the emergency.
The exhausted Red Eighth Army was preparing to rest in the watermill camp, and the Central Military Commission sent an urgent telegram: The enemy is tense, demanding that the Red Eighth Army advance at a rapid pace, and at all costs, it must fight for twenty-four hours to pass through the Xiang River, otherwise there is a danger of being cut off by the enemy.
At this time, although the Red Eighth Army was in a hurry, the soldiers were exhausted, and they had been harassed by the enemy, but the losses were not serious, especially compared to the Red One, Red Three, and Red Five Legions, which had been fighting hard for several days, it could be said that there were almost no losses.
But the next crossing of the river, for the Red Eighth Army, was incomparably cruel.
After receiving the telegram from the Central Military Commission, the Red Eighth Army followed the Red Ninth Army across the Guanjiang River near the water wheel, and then advanced towards the Xiang River through Gulingtou, Qinglong Mountain, and Shitangwei. Along the way, there were constant harassment by vigilante groups, and the Red Eighth Army stumbled all the way to the Xiang River.
Portrait of the martyr Huang Su
On the evening of the 30th, it was almost midnight the next day, and I don't know where the news came from that at least two divisions of the enemy had caught up. The news spread like a plague among the troops, causing great alarm. At this time a large group of enemies suddenly appeared on the left flank, and in an instant the gunshots burst forth, and the shells rose in flames in the darkness.
The Red Eighth Army suddenly became a pot of porridge: the establishment was chaotic, the formation was chaotic, the officers could not find the soldiers, the soldiers could not find the officers, they were completely out of control, and the crowds were surging everywhere in the night. It has collapsed, and everyone has only one word in their minds: run.
At 15:00 on the afternoon of December 1, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission ordered the blowing up of the pontoon bridge on the Xiang River. The Red Eighth, Red Ninth, and 13th Divisions of the Red Fifth Army were diverted from Phoenix Mouth, 12 kilometers downstream. When the remnants of the Red Eighth Army ran to Mashiwei on the east bank of the Xiang River, the Red Ninth Army and the 13th Division of the Red Fifth Army had just crossed the Xiang River.
The Water of the Xiang River during the dry period is waist-deep, but the cold is bone-chilling. The vanguard of the Red Eighth Army was crossing the river when five or six enemy planes flew to the crossing and began to bombard and strafe fiercely. Suddenly there was chaos in the procession, and the Red Army, which was wading through the water, fell in pieces and was swept away by the rushing waters.
Then, the Gui army, which had arrived from Xinwei, broke through the blockade of the rear guard of the Red Eighth Army and rushed towards the ferry, and the Red Eighth Army took a lot of effort to repel it. In order to cross the Xiang River, the Red Eighth Army suffered a devastating blow, killing and wounding.
According to the local people of Fenghuangzui, after the battle, they buried the bodies of martyrs by the river for three days, and more soldiers sank to the bottom of the river.
Luo Ronghuan crossed the river from the mouth of the Phoenix on the afternoon of the 1st, and when he reached the west bank of the Xiang River, he looked back and couldn't help but burst into tears. Behind him was a very young Red Army, carrying a mimeograph machine on his shoulder.
Nie Rongzhen, the political commissar of the First Red Army, commanded the position on the west bank and beckoned Luo Ronghuan to rest in a temporary shed. After a while, the regimental commander Zhou Kun also arrived at the West Bank with more than a dozen people. Luo Ronghuan hurriedly asked him if he knew how many people had rushed to the riverside, and Zhou Kun did not squeak, and his eyes looked into the distance in a daze.
That night, the Red Eighth Army took in the personnel who crossed the river, the Entire Red 21st Division collapsed, the Red 23rd Division was seriously reduced, the entire Red Eighth Army lost more than four-fifths of the total, and there were only more than 600 combatants left, plus porters, miscellaneous personnel, etc., there were only 1200 people.
On December 13, the Central Military Commission decided to abolish the Red Eighth Army and merge it into the Red Fifth Army. Regiment commander Zhou Kun was transferred to the chief of staff of the Red Army, political commissar Huang Su was transferred to the political commissar of the 1st Division of the Red First Army, chief of staff Bi Zhanyun was transferred to the chief of the 2nd section of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and director of the Political Department was transferred to acting director of the Political Department of the Third Red Army.
A unit is not afraid of all the people, it is afraid that the soul of the army will be destroyed, and the newborn Red Eighth Legion belongs to the latter, so the Central Military Commission decided to cancel the name of the Red Eighth Army. From its formation to its final abolition, the Red Eighth Army existed for more than two months.
At the beginning of the formation of the Red Eighth Army, Zhou Enlai did not agree, and he advocated that new recruits be charged into the three main legions, and that the old would quickly form combat effectiveness. But Li De and Bogu felt that adding a new legion would be much stronger in terms of momentum. Is it true that the same number of apples fits into five bags than in four?