"The Red Army is not afraid of expeditions and difficulties, and it is only idle in thousands of rivers and mountains." The Long March was the most difficult and important step taken by our ancestors on the revolutionary journey.
It has preserved a considerable part of the living strength of our army, and has also rescued the Communist Party from the airtight network of encirclement and suppression, ushered in a turning point in the difficult revolutionary activities, and the spirit of the Long March is an indispensable stroke in the spiritual genealogy of the Party.
But during the Long March, the Communist Party also encountered many insurmountable difficulties: towering snow-capped mountains, resource-poor meadows, and several rapidly flowing rivers.
Among them, Wujiang can be said to be the biggest roadblock, and its treacherous terrain makes people helpless, but our team still overcomes many obstacles to victory, and what helps our team tame the fierce "roadblock" of Wujiang is an inconspicuous little warrior.
So who was this little warrior, and what kind of method did he propose to let the whole team cross the treacherous WuJiang River?
The Wujiang River shoals block the road
In January 1935, the cold wind blew the yellow grass leaves, and also blew the cold and sharp and turbulent water of the Wujiang River.
In such bad weather, a group of neatly dressed troops quietly came to the vicinity of the Wujiang River and began to camp and camp, while several people who were obviously in a leading position came to the shore with a little worry and anxiety on their faces.
This group was the three vanguard corps that had been entrusted with the heavy task of completing the bridge erection work before the large troops were deployed—the Red First, Third, and Fourteenth Armies.
Bridges and boats are indispensable equipment in the battle of crossing the river, especially in the waters of the Wujiang River, which is complex and the rapid flow of the river, only when the path of the river crossing is guaranteed can the safety and stability of the river crossing operation be guaranteed.
Wang Yaonan, the chief person in charge of this bridge-building mission, did not think of using the existing ships, but when the Red Army arrived, all they were left with was the wreckage of the ships that had been destroyed and destroyed by the enemy army, and there was no way to make secondary uses.
To buy new materials, not to mention the time problem, the funds needed for ships with enough thirty thousand people to cross the river are by no means a small amount, and the red army cannot come up with so much money now.
In this way, only bridges could be built, but Wang Yaonan began to worry again. Wujiang was called "Natural Danger" in ancient times for no reason.
Here, the turbulence of the shoals is endless, the meandering waterways are twisting and turning in the steep peaks and valleys, and because the river is narrow, the high-speed water flow hits the stone wall, filling the water with dark surges and whirlpools.
If the Powerful Western Chu Overlord had encountered not the town of Wujiang in Anhui when he was defeated, but this Wujiang, he would not have wanted to kill himself.
Such a natural risk, that is, under normal circumstances, it also takes a lot of effort.
Now that there were well-armed enemies on the opposite side, paying close attention to the movements here, behind them were a group of comrades who were waiting to cross the river to continue the journey, Wang Yaonan recalled the order he had received to complete the task in one day, took a deep breath, and looked at the professional bridge experts behind him.
However, the expression of the experts is not optimistic, although it is now winter, the speed of the Wujiang River has slowed down, but it still cannot meet the minimum standards for building bridges.
In this case, when the bridge is built, people may be washed away as soon as they go down, not to mention the materials for building the bridge. Moreover, the time is pressing, the soil and stone materials that are difficult to transport are too late to collect, and the wood and leather cannot be supplied, and the situation is suddenly in a dead end.
And the urgent report from the rear urged over and over again, looking forward to seeing the hope and dawn of the river crossing, because they could not wait, so why did the Red Army cross the Wu River so urgently under such a difficult situation?
The situation is critical and the enemy is on all sides
This was because the Red Army had suffered a huge blow in the bloody battle of the Xiang River just now, and only 30,000 troops were left.
The Hundreds of Thousands of Kuomintang troops, on the other hand, relied on their numerical superiority to cling to the Communists, and even more divided their forces and cooperated, blocking the path of the Red Army and other legions to make peace, and preparing to use pocket tactics to wipe out the remnants of their forces.
If you do not cross the Wujiang River by force, then the follow-up will definitely fall into a bitter battle. And this is precisely because of the wrong command of Bogu and others.
In the course of the Long March, the gap in strength and weapons between the Communists and the Kuomintang was enormous, so the Communists usually adopted guerrilla and breakout tactics, and such tactics also successfully won us the opportunity to break through the encirclement and kill a bloody road from the enemy's heavy encirclement and suppression.
However, it was inevitable that different voices would appear in the team, and Wang Ming and others, without understanding the battle situation, were self-conscious and resolutely used the method of frontal confrontation.
In the case of the huge disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, such behavior is obviously stupid and reckless. After several battles, our army paid a terrible price, the number of personnel was reduced by almost half, the advantages that had been accumulated so hard were gone, and it had to march at a high speed to escape the encirclement of the Kuomintang.
Fortunately, after the breakthrough, the Xiang River, which was gentle in water, gave our army a chance to breathe. The enemy's severe fortifications did not hinder our advance, and our army seized the opportunity that the blockade line was not yet completed.
With excellent strategic deployment and heroic and fearless spirit, like a divine soldier descending from heaven, it reversed the offensive and defensive situation between the enemy and us in an instant, caught the Kuomintang by surprise, and soon occupied the dominant position of crossing the Xiang River.
However, even under such a good situation, Bogu, Wang Ming, and other staff officers who could only talk on paper were not willing to be lonely and made a move to disrupt the war situation.
If you want to break through quickly, then it is inevitable to give up the supplies you carry, otherwise it will drag down the speed of the army's march. But these two men were reluctant to abandon the burdensome weight, and more often interrupted the deployment of others, and it was in this senseless quarrel that the Kuomintang pursued the troops.
The blood of the heroes stained the land and rivers on both sides of the river, the enemy troops were desperate, the guns were incessant, and the smoke of gunfire filled the entire sky.
It was five days and five nights before the bloodied communist troops finally crossed the Xiang River, and behind them, the bodies of their comrades filled the river, and the enemy's gunfire still did not stop. This is the most tragic defeat suffered by our army on the long march, and it is also an eternal pain in the hearts of countless soldiers.
The Slovaks are gone, and the most important thing today is how to protect the existing army from losses. After Wang Ming and other diehards lost their voice, the latest operational meeting abolished the previous battle plan and determined a plan for forcibly crossing the Wu River.
But this move is extremely risky, it is a very difficult time war, and if the best time is lost, it is likely to wipe out the remaining army.
This was also the reason why the task assigned to Wang Yaonan was so urgent, because as long as there was a slight delay, when the pursuing soldiers behind caught up, the crossing of the river failed.
Wang Yaonan, who understood the importance of this task, saw that the experts had no choice but to use the dead horse as a live horse doctor and solicit opinions from the whole army, hoping that someone could turn the tide. I didn't expect that the invincible road really made him wait for the savior.
Strange men in the military make a trick
The young man who brought hope to Wang Yaonan was a young and unremarkable little warrior with a childish face, who called himself Shi Changjie and came from the sapper battalion.
In the face of Wang Yaonan's suspicious gaze, he explained that he said that he had a way, not without purpose, but because he came from the river, he had to go to the river since he was a child, so he was very skilled in how to cross the river.
Shi Changjie said that most of the people on the river rely on fishing boats or stone bridges, but the bridges are sometimes too far away, and some poor people can't afford to sit on boats or rush to the road, so they will take local materials and weave some bamboo rafts to drift along the river.
Although it cannot be used for a long time, it is a stopgap measure. And he observed that the climate near the Wujiang River is very suitable for bamboo growth, and it is much easier and faster to use local materials than to cut down trees.
Wang Yaonan's eyes lit up, which could indeed solve the problem of lack of materials, but he thought about it for a moment: Now that the water of the Xiang River is flowing so fast, he has sent several soldiers to secretly try to cross the river and pull rope.
As a result, the spacious and heavy fishing boats can only drift with the water, and the light and loose bamboo raft is estimated to be more difficult to grasp the direction. Moreover, the bamboo is there, and the nails and ropes used to fix the bamboo have not yet landed.
The hope that had just risen was about to be shattered, and Wang Yaonan sighed, but still patted Shi Changjie's shoulder and encouraged him to make suggestions.
At this time, the second wave of the squads that went out to spy also returned, and they also encountered the same problem, not to mention hiding from the enemy's sentry, that is, there was no one on the other side, and crossing the river in such weather was no less than a fool's dream.
Seeing that everyone was dejected and helpless, shi Changjie was still calm, he smiled slightly and said:
"Of course, only the bamboo raft is not enough, but if you add a rope made of bamboo to create a pontoon bridge, then you can resist the impact of the river, and you can also use the raft to fix the raft, no need to find the rope."
It turns out that although bamboo is hard, it can be made into a soft and tough rope to tie things, and the stone steps happen to be able to do this craft.
Hearing this news, Wang Yaonan was simply overjoyed, and immediately made a decision to follow the method of stone long steps. For a time, the mountains and mountains were full of Red Army soldiers cutting bamboo, and even the nearby villagers came to help.
Bamboo trees were transported down the mountain, turned into bamboo rafts, and smoked into bamboo baskets, and the emerald green color was so bright and full of life, as if the light of victory was rising.
In the face of the enthusiastic villagers, the Red Army also gave equal rewards, and all those who came to help were given a certain amount of money as remuneration.
Moreover, the mother bamboo Red Army, which was used to breed the bamboo forest, did not move at all, trying not to affect the livelihood of the people in the next year. In such a tense and fiery atmosphere, the horn of the general attack was quietly sounded.
The Divine Soldiers made a surprise attack to cross the Wu River
Doing a good job of the bamboo raft does not mean that everything is all right, the enemy has been closely following the movements of our army on the other side, and once the bridge is laid, it is faced with the crazy fire attack of the enemy.
How to suppress enemy fire and ensure the speed of bridge construction has become a matter that needs to be considered first. Sure enough, the first bamboo raft had just appeared, and the sound of gunfire followed, but our army did not panic, and the bridge building work was carried out in an orderly manner.
At the same time, three small bamboo rafts drifted silently from the war zone to the enemy position in the churning waters of the river.
It was precisely because the Kuomintang, which was proud of the fact that it had beaten the Communists to a single step, did not expect that it had already suffered from the enemy on its stomach, and after a few gunshots on the riverbank, the pressure on the troops on the river was suddenly greatly reduced, and nearly a quarter of the troops were successfully passed.
However, after the enemy found out, reinforcements also arrived quickly, blocking the soldiers crossing the river on the shore, the battle fell into a stalemate for a while, the follow-up troops could not keep up, the troops crossing the river could not break through, and the soldiers who laid bamboo rafts could not dodge in the river water, and for a time became a living target, suffering heavy casualties.
Just then, the stalemate was broken by the sound of earth-shaking cannons, and a tall man lay prone to the ground, commanding one earthen cannon after another to spit out tongues of fire.
With each artillery shot, a gap appeared in the enemy's position, and the soldiers on the opposite bank seized the opportunity to clear the entire blockade line of the river crossing with more than a hundred people.
Behind them, the pontoon bridge was like a long dragon, using the blood and flesh of the warriors as the foundation, steadily and rapidly spreading on the river.
When the enemy strafed, he blocked it with a bamboo raft, and when the pontoon bridge was unstable, he supported the bamboo raft with his own shoulders and served as a stepping stone for his comrades- In the cold river water, only the blood of the warriors and the sincere and firm hearts of the warriors were so fiery.
When the pontoon bridge finally reached the shore, the flag representing the advance was waved high, and under the loud charge trumpet, it was the angry and scrappy roar of the warriors.
This means that the situation in which our army was suppressed and beaten by the Kuomintang has finally been reversed, and it is finally possible to raise its eyebrows and breathe in front of the enemy, so the soldiers of the Red Army are like tigers out of the gate, rapidly advancing along the pontoon bridge, splitting the enemy army like a sharp knife, and the well-equipped enemy army suddenly fled, like a dog that lost its family, and can no longer get up.
After settling the army, they should have rewarded the meritorious deeds and commended the stone chief who proposed the idea, but at the commendation meeting, only a faint name was present.
As the person who is most familiar with the pontoon bridge, Shi Changjie took the lead in the process of building the bridge, ensuring the stability of the bridge, which also made him a target for the enemy, and after two injuries, he rested under the water and became the most stable support of the bridge.
Crossing the Wujiang River is also the most difficult and desperate situation for the Communist Party; the Kuomintang's iron wall can no longer hold back the footsteps of our army, and the soldiers have regained their confidence and fighting spirit, and even difficulties like wujiang can be overcome, and nothing can hinder our victory.
Soon after, the Zunyi Conference was convened, and the party was back on the right path, establishing a more dynamic and suitable leadership team, all thanks to this miraculous battle.
brief summary
An obscure little warrior, in the face of difficulties, can do his best to use his own wisdom to give advice, and at the same time, he does not shrink in battle, bravely sacrifices his life, and creates such a tragic and miraculous battle, which chairman Mao is called "a god and man."
In the ranks of the Red Army, there are countless such people, who may be unremarkable, have no outstanding appearance, and have no superior strength, but they can match the gods with wisdom and will.
Now on the banks of the Wujiang River, it is still green bamboo, picturesque, the construction of modern water conservancy projects has calmed the raging river, the bridge covers both sides of the Wujiang River, and the sound of the whistle is endless, transporting people on both sides of the river.
The bamboo that was cut down that year did not know how many waves were changed, except for the words engraved on a simple monument, there was no trace of the battle in that year.
Perhaps, such a scene is the vision of countless "stone long steps" in those years that they would rather sacrifice their lives in exchange, and in the future, I only hope that the water of the Wujiang River will be clear, and the tragic scene like that of that year will never be repeated again.