Pioneer on the Long March Road, hero on the Banks of the Dadu River.
This is a text written by Yang Dezhi in April 1991 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his close friend Sun Jixian. During the Long March, the founding lieutenant general Sun Jixian, as a commander, led 17 warriors to successfully cross the Dadu River, and wrote a strong stroke in his military career.
However, for a long time after liberation, what our army has been publicizing to the outside world is the "17 warriors of the Dadu River", and Sun Jixian, as a commander, has not been included.
Sun Jixian
In 1911, Sun Jixian was born into a peasant family in Liuzhuang, Jianzui, Cao County, Shandong Province. He learned martial arts from an early age and practiced martial arts well, especially in knives, guns, sticks and three-section sticks. In January 1931, the Kuomintang 26th Route Army recruited troops in Cao County, and Sun Jixian was successfully selected and became a second class soldier in the 73rd Engineer Battalion of the 26th Route Army.
Soon after, the 26th Route Army was ordered to march to Jiangxi to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army. In November 1931, under the leadership of Chief of Staff Zhao Bosheng and brigade commanders Ji Zhentong and Dong Zhentang, the 26th Route Army held a famous "Ningdu Uprising" of more than 17,000 people.
In October 1934, the Red Army began the Long March, and Sun Ji was appointed as the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the 1st Division of the Red 1st Army, shouldering the heavy responsibility of the vanguard of the vanguard battalion, and breaking through all kinds of encirclement and blockade of the enemy army along the way. On May 23, 1935, after a 70-kilometer forced march, the Red 1st Regiment stopped in a large town in front of Anshun Field.
Located in the central and western part of Sichuan, Dadu River is the largest tributary of the Min River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, the wing king Shi Dakai moved here with 20,000 soldiers, just when the ice and snow melted and the rain was pouring, although Shi Dakai organized his troops to cross the river many times, but they were all defeated, and finally the entire army was destroyed in the desperate situation of natural danger in front and chasing soldiers in the back.
Shi Dakai
At this time, the situation of the Central Red Army was no different from the situation in Shi Dakai's year, and it was very dangerous: in the front, the troops of the Sichuan warlords Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui were holding all the crossings of the Dadu River, and then hundreds of thousands of troops of the Kuomintang Central Army, such as Xue Yue, Zhou Hunyuan, and Wu Qiwei, were chasing them. Chiang Kai-shek also asserted that the Red Army should be made "Shi Dakai's second."
Liu Bocheng, the advance commander of the Central Red Army, and Nie Rongzhen, political commissar, decided to send Sun Jixian's 1st Battalion to destroy the Kuomintang troops guarding Anshun Field, find boats, and forcibly cross the Dadu River to create a bloody road for the Red Army troops in the Long March. Liu Bocheng also asked Sun Jixian to light a fire as a signal for every task he completed.
Before leaving, Nie Rongzhen asked Sun Jixian, "Sun Jixian, do you know Shi Dakai?" ”
Nie Rongzhen
Sun Jixian replied in a loud voice: "No matter what he does ten da kai and nine da kai, we are red da kai, wherever we go, we have to open!" ”
On the night of May 24, Sun Jixian led the whole battalion to Anshun Field and eliminated the defenders here, but because the enemy had already brought the ship to the opposite shore, they managed to get a boat.
But Sun Ji first patronized to find the boat and forgot to light the fire to send a signal. Anxious Liu Bocheng and Nie Rongzhen sent people to the front to inquire about the situation, only to learn that Sun Jixian had already occupied the ferry. When Liu Bocheng saw Sun Ji successively, he split his head and covered his face with a criticism: "How did it happen?" Why not signal? ”
Sun Jixian explained with a serious face: "First, there is heavy rain, and there is no light in the field; second, we listen to the common people on the road, the enemy is about to set fire to this town, and as soon as we come, we will set fire, what do the people think?" The third is to patronize the war, find the ship, and forget about the ignition! ”
Liu Bocheng nodded after listening and said, "Well, camp 1 sleeps, we will buy all the good things that can be bought on the street for you to eat, and tomorrow morning we will force the crossing!" ”
Liu Bocheng
This night, Sun Jixian and the commanders and fighters of the whole battalion could not sleep, and everyone gathered together to eat, talk and laugh, and waited for the battle moment to come.
The next morning, Sun Jixian selected 17 warriors from the 1st Battalion and 2 companies to form a river crossing commando team, with company commander Xiong Shanglin as the commando leader. Each of them wore a large knife, a submachine gun, a short gun, and five or six grenades and work equipment, and they were soon ready.
However, because one boat was too small to hold 17 people, Sun Jixian temporarily decided that the commando team would cross the river in two batches, and Xiong Shanglin would first lead 8 comrades to cross the river first, and when the boat returned, Sun Jixian would lead the remaining 8 comrades to cross the river for the second time.
After the battle was launched, the first group of 9 warriors quickly crossed the river, and the boat quickly transported the remaining 9 warriors such as Sun Jixian. The battle was extremely fierce, and Yang Dezhi, then the commander of the Red 1st Regiment, later described the situation of the battle in the article "Many Heroes on the Dadu River":
At this moment, our two groups of landed warriors were connected, eighteen warriors rushed up together, eighteen grenades were thrown out at the same time, eighteen flower machine guns were fired at the same time, and eighteen large knives flew in the enemy group. The Sichuan army, known as the "two-gun general", was defeated and desperately fled behind the mountains to the north, and our warriors who crossed the river completely controlled the north bank of the Dadu River.
After Sun Jixian led the commando team across the river, he captured two boats downstream of the ferry port, ensuring that the follow-up troops continued to cross the Dadu River. After the Red 1st Regiment crossed the river, it also planned for the 4th Regiment of the Red 2nd Division to capture luding bridge. When crossing the Luding Bridge, Sun Jixian wrapped a blanket and carried a machine gun, when he rushed to a few meters away from the Luding Bridge, he was suddenly strafed by enemy aircraft, and several bullets flew over his shoulder, he thought he was shot, but he still braved the artillery fire to rush forward, and when he went to the bridge, he only hit a few holes in the blanket, and only slightly injured his shoulder, which can be described as very thrilling.
Fly over the Luding Bridge
After the forced crossing of the Dadu River, Sun Jixian published a newsletter entitled "Seventeen Heroes of Qiangdu" in the Red 1 Army's "Warrior Newspaper", which only recorded the list of 17 warriors of Qiangdu and did not mention himself. Because Sun Jixian felt that as a commander, he should give up his honor to the heroic soldiers, so he hid his merits.
In 1956, in order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the second year, the Central Military Commission decided to summarize the history of the army and compile a book. The General Political Department soon launched the "Chinese people's Liberation Army 30th Anniversary Essay Solicitation Activity" in the whole army, and widely issued a call for essays in newspapers and periodicals at the central, provincial, and municipal levels.
After the publication of the essay, it received enthusiastic contributions from people from all walks of life, and Liu Bocheng, who was then the president of the Nanjing Military Academy, also attached great importance to this activity, and he actively mobilized the instructors and cadets of the academy to record their combat experience in the revolutionary war years. At this time, Yang Dezhi and Sun Jixian were serving as the chief and deputy directors of the college's campaign department, respectively, and Liu Bocheng asked them to complete a reminiscence of the forced crossing of the Dadu River.
At first, Sun Jixian thought that his cultural level was low, so he resigned: "Comrade Yang Dezhi can write it, and there is no need for me to write it again." ”
However, Liu Bocheng said: "Recalling the forced crossing of the Dadu River, it is not enough to have only one article by Comrade Yang Dezhi, he is the commander of the battle of the Dadu River, you are a combatant who directly participated in the battle, you write from different angles, it is more conducive to analyzing and accumulating battle examples, this is a political task!" ”
At the request of Liu Bocheng, Yang Dezhi and Sun Jixian completed an article recalling the forced crossing of the Dadu River from different angles. Both articles were selected by the editorial board and compiled into the third volume of The Spark of Fire, which tells the story of the Long March, which was published in 1960.
"Sparks of Fire"
Liu Bocheng also wrote an essay "Review of the Long March", and when writing about the experience of forcibly crossing the Dadu River, he clearly pointed out that it was 18 warriors who crossed the river.
But at an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission in the early 1960s, an air force lieutenant general proposed that the propaganda about the Red Army's Long March to cross the Dadu River was somewhat confusing, and whether it was 17 warriors or 18 warriors should be clarified, even if 18 people crossed the river together, Sun Jixian, as a commander, should not be counted as a warrior.
At that time, Sun Jixian also attended the meeting. An old comrade next to him could not listen any longer, and he quietly said to Sun Jixian: "You should also come out and talk to correct the audience!" ”
Sun Jixian whispered, "What can I say?" Can you say you're a warrior? ”
After the meeting, the Central Military Commission asked the General Political Department to verify whether it was 17 braves or 18 braves who forcibly crossed the Dadu River, but the only information that could be found was the newsletter of the "Seventeen Heroes of The Strong Crossing" in the "Warrior Newspaper" that year and the diary of a Red Army cadre who did not personally attend the scene of the Dadu River.
Sun Jixian himself was very dismissive of this, but his children later felt unfair to him when they saw that the propaganda about daduhe did not have him. But Sun Jixian said to the children: "The battle to cross the Dadu River by force has been clearly described in my reminiscence article, and as for whether I am a warrior or not, there is no need to argue." In the years of the revolutionary war, countless martyrs sacrificed their precious lives, and some comrades did not even leave their names after their sacrifices. We, the survivors, feel sad when we think of them. If you fight for any 'warriors', it will be too boring, and I feel ashamed! ”
Sun Jixian's words fully demonstrated his lofty style and great personality.
In 1979, the "Spark of Fire" series of books was republished, and when the series of books selected Yang Dezhi's reminiscences about the forced crossing of the Dadu River, the content about crossing the river was changed to this:
When the solemn moment came, Xiong Shang (Shang) Lin led sixteen comrades to jump on the ferry.
"Comrades! The hope of millions of Red Army is in you. Resolutely cross over and destroy the enemy on the other side! ”
The ferry left the south shore amid enthusiastic agitation.
……
Under the cover of my fierce fire, the ferry docked. Seventeen warriors flew ashore, a row of grenades, a burst of submachine guns, and crushed the enemy who rushed down. The warriors occupied the fortifications of the crossing.
After Sun Jixian saw this article, he was very angry, he did not care that the article did not mention himself, but the process of the battle was also tampered with, completely inconsistent with historical facts, which made him very unacceptable, so he specifically found Yang Dezhi and said: "We red 1 regiment forcibly crossed the Dadu River, you know best, how can you write like this?" ”
Yang Dezhi and Sun Jixian
After reading this article, Yang Dezhi was also very annoyed, because when the book was published, he was visiting abroad, and the relevant departments did not seek his opinion, so they directly changed the "18 warriors" to "17 warriors", and the battle process did not conform to historical facts, but in view of the fact that the series of books had been published, he had to comfort Sun Jixian and said: "I will definitely correct it in my future memoirs." ”
Yang Dezhi did not renege on his word, and in his memoir "Hengge Ma" written in 1985, he specifically clarified the historical facts about the forced crossing of the Dadu River, he wrote:
Since the ship was so small that it could not accommodate seventeen comrades at a time, we decided to force the crossing in two rounds. The first ship was led by Comrade Xiong Shanglin. In order to strengthen leadership, the second ship sent the battalion commander Sun Jixian to take control.
On April 13, 1990, Sun Jixian died of illness in Jinan at the age of 79. Before his death, he instructed his family: After his death, he should scatter a part of his ashes in the Dadu River, and he would accompany the terrifying waves of the Dadu River to tell future generations about the amazing legend created by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army led by Chairman Mao here!
Soon after, when Yang Dezhi chatted with Sun Jixian's son Sun Dongning, he said excitedly: "Your father is a hero in the Long March, when he forcibly crossed the Dadu River, the first boat of nine people, Xiong Shanglin carried; the second boat of nine people, your father led." Nine plus nine is eighteen, it should be eighteen warriors, and your father should be counted as a warrior! ”
Yang Dezhi
At this time, the relevant departments sought Yang Dezhi's opinion on the "Life of Comrade Sun Jixian", which wrote about Sun Jixian's experience of crossing the Dadu River as follows:
He personally selected and led seventeen warriors to cross the Dadu River, captured and controlled the ferry positions, and covered the follow-up troops to cross the Dadu River, making outstanding contributions to the victory of the Red Army's Long March.
After Reading it, Yang Dezhi said happily: "It is very good to write like this, he personally selected and led the Seventeen Warriors to cross the river, this situation is true, and writing it in this way is even higher than writing that he is the Eighteenth Warrior!" ”
It is precisely under the insistence of Yang Dezhi that more and more people know Sun Jixian's warrior identity and that true history, and believe that Sun Jixian can rest in peace under the Nine Springs!