In 1935, the main force of the Central Red Army led by Mao Zedong and Zhu De broke through the dangerous Lazikou and opened the passage into Gannan. In the small town of Hadapu in Longnan, they learned from the local newspapers that there was a considerable Area of Suzhou in northern Shaanxi, so they decided to go to northern Shaanxi.
On September 18 of that year, the Red 25th Army led by Xu Haidong and Cheng Zihua and the Red 26th Army and the Red 27th Army led by Liu Zhidan in northern Shaanxi merged into the Red 15th Army, with Xu Haidong as the commander of the 15th Army, Cheng Zihua as the political commissar, Liu Zhidan as the deputy commander and chief of staff, and Gao Gang as the director of the Political Department.
In the square in front of the Red Army Cadre School in Yongping Town, northern Shaanxi Province, the officers and men of the Red Fifteenth Army were fighting to consolidate and expand the base area in northern Shaanxi and to welcome the arrival of Chairman Mao of the CPC Central Committee.
Xu Haidong
Seeing that Xu Haidong's Red 25th Army had successfully reached the Shaanxi-Gansu revolutionary base area, and Mao Zedong had led the main force of the Central Red Army to advance toward the Shaanxi-Gansu region, Chiang Kai-shek finally could not sit still.
On September 20, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Xi'an by plane and set up the "Northwest Bandit General Headquarters" in Xi'an, where he himself served as commander-in-chief and Zhang Xueliang as deputy commander-in-chief.
On September 26, chiang kai-shek personally presided over a military conference in the conference room of the "Northwest Suppression of Bandits Headquarters," attended by senior generals such as Yu Xuezhong, Wang Yizhe, Dong Yingbin, Sun Chu, Yang Hucheng, and Zhang Xueliang.
Zhang Xueliang's original intention was not to encircle and suppress the Red Army, he only wanted to fight back to the northeast, expel the Japanese Kwantung Army, and recover the lost land. But he also knew in his heart that these things could only be achieved by chiang kai-shek's strength, and because Chiang Kai-shek put forward the policy of "foreign countries must first be at home," he had no choice but to obey orders.
Chang
This time, Chiang Kai-shek personally formulated a plan to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army:
"Jing Yuexiu and Gao Guizi gathered rice fats and marched from the west to suppress the Red Army in Shaanxi and Gansu; Wang Yizhe's 67th Army entered the line from Luochuan to Yan'an to maintain north-south communication and cooperate with the encirclement and suppression; Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army and Sun Chu's five brigades advanced westward from the west bank of the Yellow River; Dong Yingbin's 57th Army and He Guiguo's cavalry army were compressed from northwest to the south."
Chiang Kai-shek adopted the tactic of "moving south into the north to block, coordinating with the east and west, and gradually compressing to the north," and was determined to encircle the Red Army in the areas of Bao'an and Ansai.
Because Chiang Kai-shek knew very well in his heart that Xu Haidong's Red 25th Army and the Red Army in northern Shaanxi had just completed their divisions and their combat effectiveness was not very strong, this was the best time to eliminate them. If we wait until the main forces of the Central Red Army led by Mao Zedong and Zhu De have also arrived at the revolutionary base areas of Shaanxi and Gansu, it will be even more difficult to deal with.
Just as the main force of the Central Red Army was struggling to advance toward northern Shaanxi, Xu Haidong was also making final preparations to meet the arrival of the Central Red Army.
At the end of September 1935, Xu Haidong, the commander of the Red Fifteenth Army, presided over a military conference in a cave, wearing an octagonal hat, a cross-body gun on his chest, and a horse whip hanging from his waist.
At this time, the 4 corps and 11 divisions of the Kuomintang Northeast Army, the 5 brigades of the Jin Sui Army, and the 2 divisions of the Shaanxi Army, totaling about 150,000 people, were rushing towards the Shaanxi-Gansu revolutionary base area. The entire personnel of the Red Fifteenth Army were only a mere 8,000 or so people, and in the face of the Kuomintang army, which was more than ten times larger than itself, did it insist on fighting? Or transfer?
Xu Haidong carefully looked at the battle map on the table and fell into deep thought.
After some discussion, Xu Haidong made the final decision: "Fight, and we must fight a beautiful battle to better welcome the arrival of the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army." ”
This was the first battle after the reorganization of the Red Fifteenth Army, which unit of the Kuomintang should be fought first? At this time, someone proposed: "We should start from the west road, first eat the Jing Yuexiu in the direction of rice fat, Gao Guizi's Shaanxi army and the miscellaneous army, first fight the weak enemy, the Red Fifteenth Army can go west out of Hengshan, mingle with the Shenmu and Fugu Su districts, and then fight out the three sides to expand the Soviet area." ”
However, Liu Zhidan has a completely different view. He believed that there was indeed a great deal of certainty of victory in attacking these two enemies, but now that the large troops were under pressure, even if the troops of Jing Yuexiu and Gao Guizi of the West Road were completely annihilated, it would not be enough to disintegrate the enemy army.
Portrait of Liu Zhidan
Cheng Zihua, a political commissar who was sitting nearby, attended the meeting with illness and said: "The chief of staff (Liu Zhidan) has a good opinion, and we must first eat the Northeast Army. ”
Xu Haidong stared at the battle map, pondered for a while, and suddenly said, "Well, then fight Wang Yizhe's Northeast Army first." ”
Although the Northeast Army has strong combat effectiveness, almost all of the soldiers in the unit are soldiers from the Northeast, who only want to drive out the Japanese Kwantung Army, and their enthusiasm for encircling and suppressing the Red Army is not high. In addition, Xu Haidong had fought with the Northeast Army many times and knew their tactics very well, so he decided to eat the "hard bone" of the Northeast Army first.
At this time, in the ranks of the Northeast Army, Wang Yizhe's 67th Army and Liu Handong's 107th Division had already entered Luochuan, and the 619th Regiment of the 107th Division had entered Yulin Bridge. He Lizhong's 110th Division and Zhou Fucheng's 129th Division advanced along the Luoyan Highway to Yan'an, and the 685th Regiment entered Ganquan to maintain north-south traffic.
After determining the target of the attack, Xu Haidong formulated the tactic of "moving the tiger away from the mountain and encircling the point to provide reinforcements", and the specific strategic deployment was: "Surround Ganquan with a part of the troops, lure the defenders of Yan'an to come to reinforcements, and the Red Fifteenth Army set up an ambush on the road through which the enemy's reinforcements must pass, and then annihilate the enemy in the movement." ”
The next thing to do was to choose an ambush site, and Liu Zhidan, known as the "living map" of northern Shaanxi, circled a place on the battle map: Laoshan Mountain.
Laoshan is 15 kilometers away from Ganquan in the south and 30 kilometers from Yan'an in the north, which is also the only way from Yan'an to Ganquan.
Although he already knew something about the location of the Laoshan area, Xu Haidong was still not at ease, and he and Liu Zhidan and other cadres at the regimental level and above rode a fast horse to a high ridge in Laoshan to survey the terrain.
Standing on the top of Laoshan Mountain and looking down, there was a simple road passing through the middle, and Xu Haidong chose an open area as an ambush point. His idea was to put the enemy into this open field, and then tie up his pockets to completely annihilate the enemy.
After choosing the ambush location, Xu Haidong immediately ordered the 243rd Regiment of the 81st Division of the Red Fifteenth Army to surround Ganquan County, and the 75th Division took advantage of the night to quietly enter the ambush position and ambush it.
Not only that, Xu Haidong stipulated that each soldier could only carry three days' rations, and it was not allowed to cook on a fire during the ambush, let alone move around at will.
In this way, the warriors could only lie on the ground and stand still. At night, the cold wind in the mountains was biting, and the warriors were still wearing single clothes, so everyone could only get closer to each other to warm up.
By the morning of the third day, the enemy was still invisible on the road, and the soldiers had not slept for three days. And Xu Haidong is also like everyone else, every time he fights, he will personally go to the front line to command.
Unable to wait for enemy reinforcements, the soldiers' rations were only enough for three days. Seeing that the plan was about to fail, Xu Haidong thought to himself: "If the Northeast Army still does not come today, do you want to retreat?" ”
At noon, a reconnaissance officer ran breathlessly to Xu Haidong and reported: "The enemy has come from the direction of Yan'an, and it is four roads that are advancing side by side. ”
Chiang Kai-shek
The news that Xu Haidong had been waiting for for a long time finally arrived, and he ordered the scouts to continue reconnaissance while telling the troops to be ready for battle.
He Lizhong, commander of the 110th Division of the Northeast Army, led the troops to search all the way forward, but did not encounter any obstacles, so they began to relax their vigilance.
In fact, He Lizhong wanted to see the joke of the 685th Regiment stationed in Ganquan, and if the defenders of Ganquan and the Red Army were both defeated and injured, they could also reap the benefits of the fisherman.
At 14:00 on the afternoon of October 1, 1935, the two regiments of the 110th Division of the Northeast Army and the division's subordinate units were divided into four roads and walked on the Luoyan Highway with great swagger, and did not encounter the expected ambush.
However, when the vanguard of the 110th Division of the Northeast Army reached Baipo, 6 kilometers north of Ganquan, Xu Haidong ordered the 241st Regiment of the 81st Division located there to open fire. At the same time, the cavalry regiment of the 78th Division, located 3 km north of Laoshan, was ordered to cut off the enemy's retreat, and as long as the enemy was caught in the front and rear, it would automatically move closer to the center.
Battle of Laoshan Martyrs Cemetery
The 110th Division of the Northeast Army was well-equipped and full of combat effectiveness, and in He Lizhong's eyes, the small Red Army in front of him was not afraid.
Xu Haidong stood at the top of the hill, carefully observing the battle with a telescope. He saw the timing and ordered the trumpeters to blow the charge trumpet, and the Red Army soldiers were like tigers descending the mountain, killing the enemy one by one.
For a moment, the enemy panicked and fled in all directions, being divided into two places at the mouth of the Elm Tree Ditch and XiaolaoShan.
The battle lasted for more than five hours, the 628th and 629th regiments of the 110th Division of the Northeast Army and the direct subordinate units of the division were completely annihilated, and the division commander He Lizhong was seriously wounded and fled to Ganquan County, where he died shortly after being killed.
The Battle of Laoshan was the first battle of the third anti-"encirclement" operation in the revolutionary base areas of Shaanxi and Gansu, which not only hit the morale of the Kuomintang troops, but also paved the way for the main forces of the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army to settle in northern Shaanxi.
Due to the heavy casualties in the Battle of Laoshan, the Nationalist army adopted a fortress policy of step-by-step battalion, and a battalion of the 619th Regiment of the 107th Division and the 602nd Regiment of the Northeast Army entered and occupied Yulin Bridge, and they dug trenches and built pillboxes by the bridge.
Gao Fuyuan
Gao Fuyuan, the commander of the 619th Regiment, also began to play his own small calculations, he concentrated his forces in the town of Yulinqiao, disguised the mountain as the main position, but only put a platoon of troops. As soon as the Red Army was found, the defenders of Yulin Bridge would immediately provide support with artillery fire and send reinforcements.
Just before the battle began, Xu Haidong quietly sneaked into yulin bridge to survey the terrain. He found that every morning, noon and evening soldiers of the Northeast Army would deliver things to the mountains, and that they were wearing aprons.
Xu Haidong judged that these people should be delivering food to the mountain, and there were only two or three people who delivered food each time. Inference from this, there will certainly not be too many enemies on the mountain.
Seeing through the deployment of the Northeast Army, Xu Haidong decisively ordered that the enemy's fortifications had not yet been built and annihilate them in one fell swoop. The 243rd Regiment of the 81st Division continued to encircle Ganquan, while the main force of the Red Fifteenth Army attacked the town of Yulinqiao from three sides.
At dawn on October 25, under the command of Xu Haidong, the 75th Division of the Red 15th Army and the 241st Regiment of the 81st Division attacked the defenders of Yulin Bridge from the east and west sides. After eliminating some of the enemy, the 78th Division also crossed Luoshui from west to east and launched an attack on yulin bridge.
By the afternoon of the fierce battle, the defenders of the Northeast Army were annihilated in one fell swoop, and more than 1,800 people below the regimental commander were captured. From these prisoners of war, Xu Haidong recognized Gao Fuyuan, commander of the 619th Regiment of the Northeast Army.
Although he was captured, Gao Fuyuan still showed a tough attitude and shouted loudly: "A regiment leader of my hall, the dragon entered the shallow water and was played by shrimp, the tiger fell to Pingchuan and was bullied by the dog, if you want to kill, you have to cut it casually!" ”
Xu Haidong already knew that Gao Fuyuan had been Zhang Xueliang's guard battalion commander, and his relationship with Zhang Xueliang was very close, and if he could win gao Fuyuan, then it would be possible to unite with Zhang Xueliang to resist Japan.
Xu Haidong quickly untied Gao Fuyuan, patiently did his ideological work, and said to him: "You are an officer of the Northeast Army, your hometown has been invaded by the Japanese, and your parents and brothers and sisters have been bullied and insulted by the Japanese. You are Chinese, we will not kill you, we will let you go back. If you still have blood, go and fight the Japanese. ”
After listening to Xu Haidong's words, Gao Fuyuan was deeply moved, and he took the initiative to ask to return to Xi'an and go to persuade Zhang Xueliang to unite against the Japanese.
From then on, Gao Fuyuan built a bridge between the Red Army and the Northeast Army to build an anti-Japanese national united front, and secretly joined the Communist Party of China in 1936.
After two battles at Laoshan and Yulin Bridge, the Southern Offensive Campaign launched by The King of the Northeast Army with Zhebu was declared a failure.
At the most difficult moment of the Chinese revolution, Xu Haidong led the Red Fifteenth Army to launch the Battle of Laoshan and the Battle of Yulin Bridge, paving the way for the Party Central Committee to settle in northern Shaanxi.