The Agrarian Revolution was the most difficult period in the history of the development of the people's armed forces, when the Red Army officers and men armed with rudimentary weapons against the Kuomintang army, which had superiority in equipment and troops. During this period, our side suffered huge losses, and many outstanding generals died in battle, and they were not able to see the founding of New China with their own eyes, the most regrettable of which was Dong Zhentang.
Dong Zhentang is a native of Hebei, intelligent and studious since childhood, at the age of 19, he was successfully admitted to middle school, originally thinking of going to university again in the future, from the literature to the country, but seeing that the Beiyang government was incompetent and the people were wantonly exploited, so that the people could not make a living, he could not help but be sad, and then changed his aspirations, determined to join the army as a soldier, use the barrel of a gun to settle the world, and give the people a balance and a prosperous life. In 1920, he was admitted to the Baoding Military Academy with excellent results, and after graduation, he joined the Northwest Army, and in 1926, he responded to the call of the Guangzhou National Government and united with Yan Xishan's troops under the leadership of Feng Yuxiang to march eastward to attack the Feng's army entrenched in North China, and won a great victory.
Soon after, Dong Zhentang was promoted to division commander and lieutenant general for his outstanding combat achievements, becoming a tiger general in the Northwest Army. Dong is fundamentally different from other Northwest Army generals, and his colleagues enter the career either to seek wealth or power, but he only realizes the ideal in his heart, and every time his superiors reward him with money, he distributes it to his subordinates who are living in difficulty, and he has never left a piece of the ocean. His wife persuaded him to buy a few acres of land and a few houses, but he refused them all, insisting on supporting himself with integrity.
In 1930, the Northwest Army, the Jin Sui Army and the Gui Army forced Chiang Kai-shek to the palace, and the two sides immediately broke out in Henan, Hubei, Anhui and other places, the original battle situation was stale, regardless of victory or defeat, but after Zhang Xueliang led the troops into North China, the balance of victory suddenly tilted in Chiang, Feng, Yan and others retreated in ashes, and some of his troops were forced to surrender to the national government, including Dong Zhentang's division.
Not long after, his unit was reorganized and reduced to a brigade, attached to the 26th Route Army, and transferred to Jiangxi in 1931 to fight the Red Army. At that time, the Japanese invaders had already swallowed northeast China, and the 26th Route Army was eager to use force outside the Guanguan, and did not want to use force with its compatriots at all, but Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly implemented the "Annei" policy, which caused strong dissatisfaction among everyone. When our party learned of this, it believed that this was a God-given opportunity to plot rebellion, so it sent people to contact Dong Zhentang and others, preached to them the Communist Party's policies, and called for an end to the civil war, unanimity with the outside world, expulsion of the aggressors, and restoration of the Chinese territory.
Dong was deeply moved, so together with several colleagues, he led the army to revolt and join the communist camp, strengthening the momentum of the Red Army and making the spark burn more vigorously. The Party Central Committee combined the insurrectionary forces into the Red 5th Army, still under the leadership of the former Kuomintang generals. In 1932, Dong was appointed commander-in-chief of the corps, and he commanded his troops to cooperate with friendly forces to repeatedly attack the enemy and consolidate the Soviet zone. During the Red Army's Long March, he was ordered to lead the army as a rearguard to fight against a large number of Kuomintang troops, and after paying a heavy price, he successfully covered the main force to break through the enemy's elaborate encirclement and smoothly marched into Sichuangui.
In 1936, after the victory of the Long March, the Party Central Committee decided to form an army to expedition to Gansu and Ningxia provinces in order to open up the Soviet Union's material channels for aid to China, and the Red 5 Army was immediately reduced to the Red 5 Army, and Dong Zhentang still served as the commander, cooperating with friendly troops to the west to enter the next beach. The northwest was not surrounded by mountains in the south, and its terrain was flat, where the Red Army could not use guerrilla tactics, and suffered heavy losses under the mobile attack of enemy cavalry units, and its advance was hindered.
After studying the situation, Dong Zhentang decided to lead the army to capture Gaotai City, let the soldiers rest for a while, and then plan the next step. After the enemy heard the news, he immediately organized an army of more than 20,000 people to come over and surround the Red 5 Legion. Dong realized that the enemy was strong and we were weak, and that holding on to it would not last, so he decided to break through the siege, but the political commissar miscalculated the battle situation at this time and asked the troops to hold on to the spot and not to move without permission, so Dong had to carry out the order.
The battle went on very fiercely, the Red Army suffered heavy casualties, and after the soldiers ran out of bullets, they grabbed bayonets and sticks and fought the enemy, struggling to support the month, but still did not wait for reinforcements. At the end of January 1937, most of the officers and men of the Red 5 were killed, and no more than 100 survived. The enemy, sensing that our side was no longer able to support it, gathered his forces and launched a general attack. When the city was broken, Dong Zhentang did not want to fall into the hands of the enemy, and was humiliated by the enemy, so he raised a gun and committed suicide at the age of 42. His children inherited his will, the eldest son joined the army to resist Japan and died on the front line, the second son devoted himself to the field of agricultural research after the founding of the People's Republic of China, made immortal contributions to the development of the mainland's primary industry, and the only daughter became a university teacher.
Dong Zhentang was a great patriotic soldier, and because he despised what the national government had done, he resolutely broke away from the camp of reactionaries, joined the ranks of the Red Revolution, unswervingly followed the communist road, and made immortal contributions. During the expedition to Ganning, he fought tenaciously, preferred to die, and finally killed himself, writing a tragic and singing legend, he is a red hero, he deserves to be remembered forever!