Picking up fragments of the memories of the Long March - Li Yabin, the son of the founding general Li Tianyou, recalls the anecdotes of his father's Long March

Founding ceremony military parade

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 7 Title: Picking Up fragments of the memory of the Long March - Li Yabin, the son of founding general Li Tianyou, recalls his father's Long March anecdote

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zeng Tao

In an old residential building in Beijing's Shijia Hutong, this reporter met Li Yabin, the second son of General Li Tianyou. On the day of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, the second generation of the red took out the memoirs, books, picture books and other materials of his father who were treasured at home. These were almost all of his memories of his father.

"Father left too early." When Admiral Li Tianyou died in 1970, he was only 56 years old.

The reporter wanted Li Yabin to recall the story with his father, an old man in his 60s, who thought about it for a long time in his head.

Guanyang farmhouse, simple people and the Red Army who love the people compose fish and water conditions

In 2007, Li Yabin went to Guanyang County to visit the Battlefield of the XiangJiang River, where his father had fought. In Yangliujing Village, he met an 87-year-old man, He Xiaomei.

During the Xiangjiang Blockade War, He Xiaomei was still a 14-year-old girl, when she opened the door for the first time and saw the Red Army sitting on the ground outside the house, she was frightened and quickly hid back in the house.

Later, the room where she lived became the division headquarters and command post of the Fifth Red Division. "Slowly, the local people knew that the Red Army was their own."

He Xiaomei was extremely excited to hear that the person who came was Li Tianyou's son. The old man who had lost both eyes touched Li Yabin's face with both hands and said repeatedly: "True image, real image!" ”

"When your father and a group of them lived in our house." He Xiaomei pulled Li Yabin and told him the story of the Red Fifth Division in Yangliujing. "At that time, we knew that the Red Army was good, so we all gave up the house and cooked and boiled water for the Red Army, and my wife, together with many villagers, carried water from buckets to bring food to the trenches."

"When it comes to the casualties of the Red Army, the old man is particularly sad." Li Yabin told reporters that what He Xiaomei could not bear to recall the most was the soldiers of the Red Army who sacrificed their lives. "The hillsides and trenches are full of corpses, many of them young people in their 20s, and because there are so many corpses, the villagers can only directly pull down the soil and bury the victims together."

After the Battle of xiangjiang, many corpses sank to the bottom of the river. The local people are extremely distressed, and "not drinking The water of the Xiangjiang River for one year and not eating the fish of the Xiangjiang River for three years" has become a tacit rule for everyone.

Three years ago, when Li Yabin went to Guanyang County again, He Xiaomei had died, and the old man's former residence was repaired by the local government department and protected as the "old site of the Xiangjiang Campaign Command Post of the Red Fifth Division".

Li Yabin, who has been treasured by his group photo with He Xiaomei in front of the old site of the command post, said that he was very grateful to the old man for allowing him to have more memories of his father and the red army soldiers.

In the Battle of Xiangjiang, the 20-year-old division commander wept twice

Born in 1914, Li Tianyou joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 15 and participated in the Baise Uprising. He successively served as a platoon commander and a special agent company commander of the Seventh Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, participated in the struggle to open up and defend the Right Jiangsu Region, and then moved with the troops to Guixiang, Guangdong and Gansu.

After entering the Central Soviet Region in July 1931, he served as the commander of the 58th Regiment of the Seventh Red Army, and in 1933 he was the commander of the 13th Regiment of the Fifth Division of the Red Third Army. Just three or four years ago, Li Tianyou was an apprentice in a Guangxi rice noodle shop, working day and night and suffering from oppression. After joining the Red Army, his fate changed.

He was 17 years old when he was the commander of the 58th Regiment and 20 when he was the commander of the Fifth Division of the Third Red Army. Although he was not very old, Li Tianyou had excellent combat command skills, brave and good at fighting, from the Baise Uprising to the attack on Ganzhou, Li Tianyou was a pioneer, charging forward, leading the troops to win one battle after another.

When Li Yabin was a child, he saw the scars on his father's body: his left back, wrist, leg... These scars are the marks left by repeated battles.

During the attack on Ganzhou, he led the commando team to climb the city wall, was counterattacked by the enemy, was hit by three bullets, fell from the head of the city, and passed out in the pile of corpses; during the battle of Gao Hu Brain, his left wrist was injured by flying shrapnel, and blood flowed... No matter how big or small the injury, Li Tianyou never cried out a word of pain, let alone shed tears.

However, in the Battle of xiangjiang, he shed tears twice.

At the end of November 1934, Li Tianyou commanded the Red Fifth Division to block the enemy and cover the central column to cross the Xiang River. The enemy was well equipped, and the aircraft and artillery were all in line to launch a fierce attack on the Red Army. Seeing that the situation is getting more and more tense, several small hills in the front have been lost, and the front line has suffered heavy casualties. After consulting with Zhong Chibing, the political commissar of the division, Li Tianyou decided to send Hu Jun, chief of staff of the division, to the fifteen regiments fighting on the front line to organize and command.

Hu Jun'er didn't say a word, pulled his leg and was about to leave, Li Tianyou hurriedly stepped forward, tightly held his hand, said goodbye to him, and sent him out of the division command post.

At dawn, the positions of several regiments of the Red Fifth Army were beaten to pieces by the enemy, and the fortifications were destroyed by enemy artillery fire. The 15th Regiment called the division command post: Hu Jun, chief of staff of the division, was heroically killed while commanding his troops to fight back against the enemy.

The wind and clouds suddenly changed, and the heavens and the earth changed color. Li Tianyou's eyes were blurred, and he held the telephone for a long time. Just now, he shook hands with Hu Jun and watched him walk out of the command post and disappear into the smoke of gunfire, but he didn't expect that this would become a farewell! Although Hu Jun arrived at the Fifth Division not long ago, he and Li Tianyou had already met each other as early as they were studying at ruijin red school.

Thinking of the loss of this young, brave, and capable right-hand man and close comrade-in-arms, Li Tianyou could not suppress his feelings, tears came out of his eyes, and his heart ached...

Seeing the division commander Li Tianyou in tears, Huang Mianchang, the commander of the Fourteenth Regiment who retreated to the division command post, silently left the command post. Huang Mianchang did not return to the regimental command post, but braved artillery fire and came to the forward position. Huang Mianchang encouraged his comrades-in-arms while directing the battle. He first led everyone to ambush in the fortifications, sneak attack on the enemy, and then adjusted the deployment of troops, launched a counterattack, and defeated the enemy.

However, Huang Mianchang died in the position.

Li Tianyou had just heard the news of Hu Jun's sacrifice, and now that he had heard the report of the sacrifice of The Commander of the Huang Mianchang Regiment, he couldn't help but shed tears again. The iron-boned man, how many battles he has experienced, only bloodshed, never shed tears. In the Battle of Xiangjiang, Li Tianyou could not hold back, and twice shed tears for his subordinates and comrades-in-arms.

Li Tianyou led his troops to resist for three days and two nights, and finally covered the crossing of the Xiang River by the first column of the central government. In this battle, the Fifth Division, from chief of staff Hu Jun below, almost all the regimental, battalion, and company cadres were either killed or wounded, and the whole division had more than 3,000 people and more than 2,000 losses. In the heart of the 20-year-old division commander, this is an eternal pain.

The troops were attacked, and Li Tianyou on the hospital bed was scolded by Peng Dehuai

On January 15, 1935, Zunyi City, north of the Wujiang River, greeted a new dawn in the bright red morning glow. The Party Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo here. During the meeting, the Fifth Division was tasked with guarding the Dao target water area south of Zunyi, and its main task was to defend the enemy south of the Wu River.

In the evening, division commander Li Tianyou lay on a stretcher and entered the knife target water station. Over the past few years, he has often suffered from malaria, coupled with poor nutrition since childhood, and has also been injured in several battles, resulting in more and more serious "swinging". He lay on a stretcher, his teeth trembling with cold for a moment, his body shrinking into a clump; the next he had a high fever and his body was scalding hot. They carried him into the division headquarters, covered him with a thick quilt, and told him to rest in peace, and the chief of staff was responsible for the duty.

In the night, Li Tianyou forcefully opened his burning red eyes, groaned, and asked the chief of staff whether there was any enemy situation, how the troops were prepared, and how the sentry was arranged... In the past, whenever he went to a camp, Li Tianyou would personally inspect the terrain and check the guard post.

After the chief of staff persuaded Li Tianyou to rest, he went to the company to check again. In the dead of night, Li Tianyou slept alone, and in the middle of the night, he began to have a fever and his mind was clearer.

Li Tianyou listened closely, and there was silence all around, only the cold wind was whistling. When it was almost dawn, there were suddenly a few crisp gunshots.

Li Tianyou immediately turned over and sat up from the bed, picked up the phone to contact the various groups, who knew that the telephone line had been cut off and could not be called.

The gunshots grew more and more urgent, closer and closer. Li Tianyou quickly organized his troops to retreat to the back mountain, stepping on the wet mud road, and came to a hill behind the knife target water.

It was later found out that the sneak attack was a sneak attack launched by a group of bandits, who only snatched some silver dollars and things and withdrew.

At that time, Peng Dehuai, the commander of the regiment, was speaking at the Zunyi conference, sharply criticizing the erroneous left-leaning line of the Party Central Committee. The news that the troops stationed on guard by the knife target water had been attacked by bandits reached Peng Dehuai's ears, and he was furious, picked up the phone, and scolded Li Tianyou bitterly.

When Peng Dehuai had scolded enough, Li Tianyou took over and blamed himself: "I don't blame others, it is my mistake." ”

Hearing Li Tianyou admit his mistake, Peng Dehuai's tone eased up a lot: "I know that you are playing a pendulum, with a high fever, and there is nothing for you." You are right to ask your troops to retreat, you can't let people swallow it in one gulp! I want your troops to learn a lesson, and not to make the enemy collapse at once! ”

Although the troops were attacked and harassed, although they did not cause particularly serious consequences, Li Tianyou still felt very guilty in his heart. He also humbly accepted Peng Dehuai's criticism. Just after the Zunyi Conference, the three corps were reorganized in the lazy bench area and adjusted some division and regiment cadres. Li Tianyou was transferred from the commander of the Fifth Division to the chief of the operations section of the corps headquarters.

This young division commander with excellent command ability could not imagine that his military career as the commander of the Fifth Red Division would end with an attack and a scolding by the head of the regiment. This imperfect result taught Li Tianyou a profound lesson and kept ringing the alarm bell for him in the revolutionary years that followed.