In July 1931, the Kuomintang suddenly launched the third "encirclement and suppression", and the Red Army fell into crisis for a while!
In fact, at this time, it was only more than 30 days before the Nationalist army launched the second "encirclement and suppression", which shows Chiang Kai-shek's jealousy of the Zhumao Red Army.
Although Mao Zedong had expected it, he did not expect the enemy to launch another attack so eagerly.
Mao Zedong's clever plan of winning more with less
Chiang Kai-shek held a pre-war congress, and he said very bluntly: "We must seize the opportunity when the communist army wants to return to Jiangxi, and the large army will encircle and attack, and we must annihilate it in one fell swoop!" ”
This time, Chiang Kai-shek was determined to suppress the Red Army. He told his generals and soldiers: "In the process of destroying the Red Army, anyone who has made great merits can be knighted." Those who have greater merit are promoted to the first level. ”
Before the third "encirclement and suppression," Chiang Kai-shek held a mobilization meeting
How determined was Old Chiang? The strength of the third "encirclement and suppression" reached a staggering 300,000! And 100,000 of them are the ace troops of the National Army.
Old Chiang Kai-shek even came to Nanchang to take command, proclaimed himself "commander-in-chief of the suppression of bandits," and gathered a large number of Military experts from Germany and the United States around him.
300,000 troops overwhelmed the earth, and under the order of Chiang Kai-shek, the army divided into three ways to attack, and also dispatched the air force! The scale and speed of the Kuomintang's troop dispatch this time can be described as unprecedented.
Mao Zedong is worthy of being a military master, and he knows a little better than the old Chiang Kai-shek: use troops flexibly, fight if you can fight, and retreat strategically if you can't fight.
Therefore, in the face of the attack of the enemy's 300,000 troops, Chairman Mao commanded the Red Army to retreat thousands of miles and return to the revolutionary base areas to avoid the front first.
Old Jiang was different, he was very concerned about the gains and losses of one city and one place. After learning that the Red Army was constantly "defeated and retreated," the Kuomintang army successively occupied Ningdu, Ruijin, Futian, and other places, which made Old Chiang Kai-shek overjoyed and somewhat overwhelmed.
And Mao Zedong? He led the Red Army to constantly win battles, and his prestige in the Red Army was very high! So although the Red Army was retreating. But he was not afraid at all, because everyone firmly believed that Mao Zedong was much smarter than the old Chiang Kai-shek.
Mao Zedong was indeed in his heart. Although the enemy's 300,000 people are overwhelming and threatening, they are about to encircle the Red Army.
But Mao Zedong was convinced that our 30,000-plus Red Army could intersperse among the enemy!
When the generals and soldiers of the Red Army listened, they felt a little incredible: there were 300,000 enemies!
At this time, Mao Zedong proposed the famous "grinding disc" tactic. He laid out the tactics like this:
"Comrades, put the enemy in and fight!" Take advantage of the mountainous and dense forested terrain that we are familiar with, and carry out interspersed movement warfare from the place where the enemy is not close, from the inside out, from west to east, from behind the enemy's tail to catch him off guard! ”
To put it simply: "Millstone Tactics" is to wear and consume enemies like a millstone, and then look for favorable fighters to attack.
Schematic diagram of the third "anti-encirclement and suppression" campaign
It must be admitted that Chiang Kai-shek was also a military man who fought many battles. Especially in the era of warlord division, his confrontation with warlords was almost always victorious.
This time, Lao Jiang personally led an army of 300,000 people to attack, and was also equipped with heavy weapons, and it seemed that victory seemed to him to be sooner or later. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek issued a speech saying: "The communist army is not worried, just this month, it will certainly be completely annihilated and eliminate the great trouble of the party and the state!" ”
However, the direction of the war seemed to be a bit unexpected by Lao Jiang.
In the dark of the night, the Red Army, besieged by the Kuomintang army, took advantage of the enemy's carelessness to skillfully glance at the gap area blocked by the enemy and quickly interspersed to Liantang!
Mao Zedong ordered his troops to quickly attack Shangguan Yunxiang's division on the third day, and the enemy was caught off guard; on the fourth day, the Red Army surprised the Kuomintang Hao Mengling Division and was defeated in one fell swoop.
Without stopping, the Red Army marched rapidly to Huangpi (Jiangxi) for three consecutive days, and the enemy in Huangpi was Mao Bingwen's troops of the Nationalist Army, who were beaten without the slightest preparation by the Red Army like "divine soldiers descending from heaven", and fled in a daze!
From July 20 to the beginning of August, but in just about ten days, under the guidance of Mao Zedong's "grinding disc tactics", the Red Army was like a divine help, skillfully interspersed under the enemy's heavy troops, and won three battles and three victories.
These three battles not only captured tens of thousands of guns and a large amount of materials, but also boosted morale.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard the news, he was furious and gave his men a fierce rebuke, saying loudly: "The communist army is too cunning, and Mao Zedong must be captured alive!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek was not a simple man, and he reacted immediately: the Red Army had just fought mao Bing's ministry at Huangpi, and it was certainly too late to retreat at this time.
Therefore, Lao Jiang once again ordered: All the large armies of all walks of life are moving closer to Huangpi, and all the troops to the south and west are all turning to the east, and the communist army must be eliminated in Huangpi!
The Red Army was too tired and needed to rest at this time, but the Kuomintang army would not wait.
The situation was very critical, according to the report of the Red Army's front-line reconnaissance personnel: the enemy was coming from all directions! In the northwest, there were 40,000 troops led by Chen Cheng, a nationalist army; in the southwest, there were 40,000 troops led by Jiang Guangding and Han Deloitte; and in the southeast, there were 40,000 kuomintang Sun Lianzhong...
On the map, the dense crowd was full of Kuomintang troops flocking towards Huangpi!
What to do? With an enemy of 300,000 troops, is the Red Army really going to perish?
Chiang Kai-shek, who served as the "commander-in-chief of the suppression of bandits."
Just as the first blow was struck, Mao Zedong issued an order: The Red Army troops stood still and slept soundly!
As soon as the order came out, the soldiers of the Red Army felt incredible, and the enemy was a deadly 300,000 people! What is Commissar Mao trying to do? Although it was a little difficult for everyone to understand, they all chose to obey in the end, because Mao Zedong had led everyone to turn danger into disaster and defeat into victory too many times.
Then, a strange scene occurred:
In Huangpi, the enemy's 300,000 troops were about to assemble and kill, but the Red Army chose to sleep in the same place for 3 days! What is even more surprising is that the Kuomintang army did not rush over within 3 days!
It was three days of life and death. As long as the Nationalist army marches faster, the possibility of waiting for the Red Army is completely destroyed.
What's going on? Was Mao Zedong really the reincarnation of a god? Or is it that he has learned the Qi Men Dun Armor, can he anticipate the enemy's opportunity?
Of course not! Mao Zedong used psychological tactics, and he saw Chiang Kai-shek through. Why?
In the eyes of the old Chiang Kai-shek, the Red Army has always been "to fight if you can win, and to run if you can't win." This time Chiang Kai-shek personally led an army of 300,000, while the Red Army had only 30,000 men, so chiang the elder Chiang was sure that the Red Army would definitely find an opportunity to escape.
In the early days of rejuvenating the country, the Red Army jumped out from the encirclement of the Kuomintang army, so the old Chiang Kai-shek ate a long and wise, and in order to prevent the Red Army from slipping away, he ordered the troops to advance in search and leave no gaps.
In this way, the speed of the nationalist army's march was greatly reduced, so that it did not arrive in time, and the Red Army slept in Huangpi for three days!
Chiang Kai-shek never expected that Mao Zedong would actually be so dangerous that the Red Army would stay in Huangpi and sleep for 3 days! Knowing this, the 300,000-strong army went straight to Huangpi, and the Red Army had long been wiped out.
History has proved that Mao Zedong is worthy of being a military genius, and his strategy, tactics, and boldness are beyond the comparison of ordinary people!
In fact, Mao Zedong was not unprepared, but actually "confident." The terrain around Huangpi, which he had already inspected and understood, was impossible for the Kuomintang army to completely occupy, and at most it could only occupy villages and main roads.
Mao Zedong expected that the enemy could not occupy all of this endless mountain. The closer the Nationalist army was, the more favorable it would be for the Red Army to jump out of the encirclement.
The Red Army slept for 3 days, by which time it had finished recuperating. Late that night, while the enemy was tired, the Red Army climbed over several mountains in a row and jumped out of the enemy's combined strike point!
The Kuomintang army searched for several days in a row, and at this time it was tired and sleeping.
Before dawn the next day, Mao Zedong immediately ordered his troops to hide in the mountains and forests, and he gathered the Red Army generals to study the next step of strategy.
At this time, the Red Army scouts brought an important situation: on the large encirclement of the enemy's outer layer, there was a gap of nearly 10 kilometers. As long as this gap can be solved, the crisis of the Red Army can be lifted!
At this time, Mao Zedong's great military ability was displayed, and he decided to "move the tiger away from the mountain"! He ordered Tan Zhenlin and Luo Binghui to lead the Red 12th Army to "play tricks" the enemy and lead the Kuomintang army in the opposite direction, while the main force of the Red Army did the opposite.
The fighters flew by, and late that night the Red Army began to move. Under the command of Tan Zhenlin and others, the Red 12th Army swung eastward to attract the attention of the enemy, while the main force of the Red Army quietly moved west and disappeared into the deep mountains and old forests!
After the main force of the Red Army had gone far, the Red 12th Army, under Mao Zedong's strategic arrangement, immediately turned around and headed north, deliberately engaging in great fanfare and momentum, fearing that the enemy would not know, that is, to make the enemy mistakenly think that the main force of the Red Army had fled north.
Chiang Kai-shek was in a hurry to die, but he did not see mao Zedong and the Red Army moving for a long time, and did not know what medicine was sold in the gourd of the other side, so he sent a plane to inquire around.
The Kuomintang plane just happened to spot the Red 12th Army led by Luo Binghui and Tan Zhenlin! Tan Zhenlin, they were worried that the enemy had not found out, this is good, they tied branches on the horse's tail to raise dust, shake the red flag, etc., to further confuse the enemy This is the "main force of the Red Army."
The Red 12th Army deliberately left marks at the fork in the road, such as "so-and-so regiment is speeding up, so-and-so army is stationed here", and when it arrives at the camp, it writes the unit number on the flag and so on.
Sure enough, Chiang Kai-shek believed it to be true! He concluded that Mao Zedong had led the Red Army to the north, and immediately gathered his troops to chase north, eager to capture Mao Zedong alive.
Tan Zhenlin led the Red 12th Army to deliberately lure the enemy army, and when he learned that the Kuomintang army was chasing after him, Tan Zhenlin had a smile on his face: The enemy was finally deceived!
Tan Zhenlin gave an order to the soldiers of the Red 12th Army: "Comrades, now we start to play against the enemy!" Wherever the mountain is high, it will climb wherever it is, and wherever the road is rough, it will pass from wherever it goes. ”
In the end, Jiangxi is a big mountain, and there are countless mountains and mountains. The large troops of the national army are not good at taking this road, and they also carry a large number of heavy weapons, and they cannot get supplies in time, which is simply a crime. One Kuomintang general complained: "To wipe out the communist army is to be sentenced to life imprisonment!" Fat can drag thin, thin enough to die! ”
On the other hand, the main force of the Red Army, under the command of Mao Zedong's "strategizing," magically returned to the revolutionary base area to rejuvenate the country for repair. Click to view: The two great men talked about a top-secret plan and only made the truth public 37 years later.
For half a month, there was no shadow of any enemy. Mao Zedong's trick can be described as: Lei Gong beats tofu, first put the soft deception!
The main force of the Red Army had eaten, drunk, and rested well, and the fighters were just right. Mao Zedong ordered: Comrades counterattack has begun, and we will start beating from the enemy's tail!
At this time, the Kuomintang army was miserable to the extreme, exhausted and demoralized, and even the ace troops in the 300,000-strong army were already vulnerable.
The Red Army is like a fierce tiger out of the mountains, the spirit is perfect, and the drum is unstoppable!
Under the command of Mao Zedong, the five battles were completely won, and the enemy army was annihilated by 17 regiments and more than 30,000 people. Old Jiang really couldn't fight any longer, and hurriedly ordered the withdrawal of his troops.
Old Jiang returned to Nanchang, and later he said with chagrin when he lectured his subordinates: "The 300,000-strong army cannot win the 30,000-strong military region of the Communist Military Region, and 10 of us cannot be used by 1 person!" ”
The third "anti-encirclement and suppression" can be called a classic among classics! It is ample proof that Mao Zedong was a military genius. In the face of the enemy's 300,000 troops attacking, there was no panic, and cleverly used the "grinding disc tactic" to win more with less and overcome the strong with the weak.
The most admirable thing is that in Huangpi, in the face of the enemy's imminent siege, he ordered the troops to sleep for 3 days and use psychological tactics to compete with Chiang Kai-shek! This kind of boldness and strategic vision is really amazing!