[Red Pavilion Story Society] Desperately defending the commander-in-chief - Deng Zhongguo, a soldier of the Western Route Army, recalled heroically killing the enemy and rushing out of the encirclement of horse bandits

Text/Euro-kun

In the winter of 1936, after our Western Route Army entered the territory of Gansu, it was attacked by bandits of the Majia Army all day long.

We are infantry, the enemy is a team of horses, and the weapons and equipment are better than ours, so that we have to block the enemy's attacks during the day and march at night, and the enemy can rest at night, and find us after dawn to attack, making us more and more sleepy.

I remember that after passing through Zhangye, Gansu Province, one night, the north wind was howling, the weather was freezing, and we took a journey, when I was the guard of Xu Xiangqian, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army, camped at Shahe Fort in the northwest corner of Linze County, and before I could loosen the belt on the horse's belly, Director Pan of the First Bureau of the Western Route Army ordered me and the reconnaissance personnel of the 267th Regiment of the 89th Division of the Red 30th Army to continue to reconnoiter the way forward.

Our reconnaissance team of about twenty men, led by a chief of staff, set out on horseback, and when the road was reconnaissance, they headed back.

To give Matthier a break, we led it along. When we arrived at a village just over twenty miles from Shahe Fort, we thought that there should be no problems, so we planned to rest for a while, get some water to drink, and feed the horses.

However, the sun had come out very high, and the sun was the clock, but at that time we were too tired to pay attention. At this time, it was the time when the enemy was rampant, so he had to rush back to the camp as soon as possible, so he immediately led the horse and left Zhuangzi.

Not far from the road, I saw a thick smoke covering the sky in front of me, and hundreds of Ma Jiajun's cavalry rushed towards us like a pack of jackals.

Both sides can see very clearly, there is no time to hide, that is the only way to do it with the enemy, but the headquarters' actions tonight all depend on our reconnaissance, the headquarters does not know what the enemy situation in the front is, still less do we know how the safety of the chief is, we are weak, we cannot fight hard with the enemy, and if we want to protect the safety of the chief, we must rush through the enemy's horse!

In particular, I, who was the guard under xu Qianqian's general command at the time, arranged for us to come out for reconnaissance in order to better defend the chief when marching, and now that the enemy has rushed, I am eager to run to the chief at once, even if the enemy has more cavalry.

"Get on the horse!" At the order of the chief of staff, we shot like arrows into the heart of the enemy, and the melee began.

The enemy used sparrow tactics, there was no battle formation, and the bandits howled in droves, released their guns, and rushed over with large knives. The sound of gunfire was mixed with the sound of fighting, and the dust rising from the war horses stirred up a miasma of smoke. We rushed left and right for a while, and then dispersed.

Suddenly, a guy with a big black wool hat and a black beard rushed toward me on a murderous Prancing Horse with a long-maned black horse, trying to stop me; I looked back and saw that there were many horses behind me at the same time.

In a hurry, thinking of the safety of the head of the headquarters, I felt that I could not fall in love with the battle, and I had to rush back to the camp quickly, and I knew that my horse was running fast, so I desperately beat the horse forward.

The black-bearded bandit saw me like this, and chased after my accomplice Ma Duo even more desperately, seemingly trying to catch me alive, so the two horses ran in unison, and neither of them gave in.

I saw the enemy chasing him so desperately, no matter how many enemies there were, they were determined to kill him! Sometimes I slashed with a knife and sometimes I shot with a gun. Fighting each other like this, fighting for thousands of meters, the enemy's horse ran so white that I took the black-bearded guy who just rushed up without noticing, and stabbed him in the head, cutting him off his horse.

At this time, I saw a jujube forest in front of me, so I went straight to the woods, trying to get rid of the enemy, and as soon as I lifted the mane, I jumped over a trench, and jumped over a dead horse and entered the jujube forest.

Suddenly, I heard a wounded man shouting, and suddenly I saw that less than a hundred meters to the right, there were two bandit guys shooting at me, and I couldn't care less about life and death, I just wanted to save the wounded, we were all class brothers who climbed snowy mountains, crossed meadows, and lived and died together! Since the Long March, many comrades-in-arms have been dragged down, and now comrades-in-arms are treasures. I quickly drew my shell gun and aimed at the horse bandits to return fire, but fortunately, both guys were knocked down by me.

I jumped off the horse to see that the wounded man was Comrade Chen Xuepin, who was injured on his right foot, his body and face were covered with dust, and his clothes and pants were torn to pieces, obviously he had climbed a little longer after being injured! I hurriedly helped him onto his horse, and I took a gun in one hand and led the horse in the other.

The horses were tired like rain. In the rain of bullets, in the sound of fighting, under the pursuit of enemy horses, through the concealment of the woods, we fought while walking, and finally got rid of the enemy and returned to Shahe Fort with difficulty.

Soon after entering Shahe Fort, the pursuing enemy gathered from all directions, and gradually the crowd became thicker and thicker, and suddenly, the dust around Shahe Fort was covered with dust, and there were enemy horses wielding sabers everywhere, and it is said that a cavalry brigade of the enemy brigade commander Ma Biao arrived.

It is estimated that the enemy already knew that it was the headquarters of the Western Route Army that lived here, so they frantically launched an attack. Shahe Fort is surrounded by a wall that is four feet thick and three feet high, and the door is large and thick, wrapped in iron, like an ancient city. We clung to the wall and fought back at the enemy with limited ammunition.

Although there were tall and solid walls, the headquarters was a few cadres of the organs, and the guard troops were few, and the enemy was outnumbered, so it was impossible to persist until the follow-up troops came to reinforce, so the chief decided to break through that night.

The gate was blocked by the enemy again, and to break through, it was necessary to dig a hole in the wall. It was getting dark, and the chiefs, the cadres of the organs, the female comrades, and the soldiers all began to dig holes. There were not enough tools, some used bayonets, and ordinary people also used door panels and bamboo baskets to help carry bricks.

Before the breakout, everyone prepares a white cloth or white hand towel and wraps it around their left arm so that the night can be recognized.

We guards, fearing that the horses would be frightened away in the breakout, all got on the "horse chew" and studied the method of defending the chief: divided into two roads, left and right, with the chief in the middle, as long as the enemy did not cut us down, the horse bandits would not want to approach the chief.

We all knew at that time that it was difficult to break through the siege without dying, so we all made up our minds to "swear to die to defend the chief."

It was about nine o'clock in the evening, and the breakout began.

The chiefs scattered and rushed out with the headquarters personnel from the various wall holes, blossoming on all sides, and turned the enemy blindfolded.

We guards, wrapped the reins around our arms, pinned breezy barge guns to our waists, and carried large knives in our hands, divided into left and right roads, defending Commander Xu Qianqian, and rushed out of the gate while the enemy was confused.

The dense enemy soldiers, rushed by us, flashed to both sides like split waves, and then rifles, machine guns, and pistols opened fire at the same time, and the shouts of killing were earth-shaking.

Behind our feet, the front and back of the horseshoe are the sparks emitted by the gunshots, and we seem to be stepping on the martians and rushing forward.

At this time, my heart was particularly nervous, afraid of an accident to the chief, and from time to time I looked back, at the same time, my eyes did not dare to relax at all, and I searched closely for the front and back of the chaotic crowd.

When we first rushed out, the enemy surrounded us like swarms of bees, and we sometimes slashed with knives and sometimes shot with pistols, forcing the enemy to be inaccessible.

Gradually, it was dark in the middle of the night, and we couldn't distinguish between people on the other side, so we took the opportunity to shout: "Rush! Catch alive, kill! "to deceive the enemy so that they may not know who we are."

In this way, we rushed to kill twenty miles, and the enemy was gradually thrown away by us. The sound of gunfire and fighting slowly fell behind, and we finally put Commander Xu safely out of the siege.

Deng Zhongguo (1917-1989), a native of Jinzhai, Anhui, served as a guard for Xu Xiangqian, the commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army, and as the commander of the Fuxin Military Subdistrict in Liaoning After liberation.