On September 18, 1935, the main force of the Red Army was successively passing through the last natural danger on the border of Sichuan, Lazikou.
Previously, the Red Army had already walked through the meadows, and the advance troops had just passed through the Lazikou Pass. But for Peng Dehuai, who came with the follow-up troops, the Lazikou in front of him still surprised him very much.
The wreckage of the grenades dropped by the advance troops was still lying on the ground, and the pass through which the team was passing was less than ten meters wide, while on either side stood a stone cliff of nearly 90 degrees, almost fifty meters high, and it was said that after the pass, three regiments of the enemy took turns to guard it.
"How did the Red First Army fight yesterday? I really don't understand. ”
Peng Dehuai was in the center of the team, looking at the traces around him and shook his head.
A battle of life and death
There has never been a shortage of fortified and dangerous places in the Sichuan-Shaanxi region, and from ancient times to the present, only a handful of troops have been able to successfully carry out large-scale military operations here. On the road of the Red Army's Long March, the Dadu River and Lazikou were especially dangerous. The upper reaches of the Dadu River are extremely high in altitude and the river flow rate is fast, and the only Luding Bridge that can pass stably is still an iron chain bridge.
Lazikou is even more difficult, as it is the only way from Sichuan to Gansu, but the terrain is as terrifying as a knife and axe.
In the middle of the pass is the fast-flowing Lazi River, surrounded by cliffs on both sides like a large corridor. The maximum distance between the two mountains is only 30 meters, and the width at the foot of the mountain is less than 10 meters in some places.
The only way to pass through the Lazi River was a small wooden bridge about one meter wide, echoed by several large pillboxes built by the enemy on the nearby cliffs and roads, with several heavy machine guns that could fire non-stop.
This is a slaughter field made in heaven.
But the problem is that the Red Army really had to pass through here.
Previously, after converging with the Red Fourth Army, due to Zhang Guotao's insistence, the Central Red Army decided to take the Military Commission column and most of the Red Army to take the northward route together in order to survive.
Although this team has not been defeated, its number is smaller than when it joined forces with the Red Fourth Front Army, and the total number is probably only seven or eight thousand.
However, if the Lazikou pass could not be opened, the south of the Red Army would be a vast grassland that had just come out, and it would be absolutely impossible to turn back and go again; to the east, where Hu Zongnan's main force was located; and to the west, the barren wasteland of Qinghai, where it would be impossible to establish a base area.
The situation of the Central Red Army at that time was that although the Red Fourth Army had nearly 80,000 men ready to attack Sichuan, for a while, the Sichuan warlords might not let Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army in. So Chiang Kai-shek's attention remained on the Central Red Army.
In addition, the Red Army at that time did not have a radio station, and did not know the existence of Liu Zhidan's Red Army in northern Shaanxi. At worst, the Red Army might stay in northern Shaanxi for a short time, and then continue its Long March, heading north, or passing through Xinjiang to contact the Soviet Union.
"Young" Red XXV
However, Chiang Kai-shek was much more impatient than the Red Army, and the Kuomintang had long known about the existence of Liu Zhidan's Red Army in northern Shaanxi, and also knew that they had just joined up with the Red 25th Army that had broken through the blockade of the Central Plains. If these two new forces meet the Central Red Army again, then the encirclement and suppression along the way will be equivalent to a complete failure.
So, although there was a natural danger in Lazikou, Chiang Kai-shek, just in case, still asked Zhu Shaoliang to send an additional 12th Division to assist in the defense.
Enemy arming
The situation was already quite critical, but what was stuck in the face of the Red Army was an iron plate.
According to the observation of the front, it can be known that the enemy general guarding Lazikou was Lu Dachang. Although Chiang Kai-shek didn't think much of him, Zhu Shaoliang didn't know why he handed over the defense of Lazikou and the command of the 12th Division to him.
In Lu Dachang's view, Lazikou is the most unbreakable link in the whole route. When the Red Army passed through the Songpan Meadow, there was a high probability that they had run out of grain and grass, and it was more likely that they would take a detour to find trouble with the local Tibetan Tusi than to die at Lazikou. Either it is to take a detour to the Hexi Corridor to Xinjiang, and in real history, the Western Route Army took this road.
Why was Lu Dachang so confident in his own defense line? Just look at the pillboxes he and Zhu Shaoliang jointly built and the deployment of troops.
The enemy was like a ghost, and the pillboxes were built in extremely tricky locations, specially located on the cliffside near the bridgehead. A few meters above the ground there were several pillboxes, which were the most concentrated part of the fire, each with a platoon of machine guns, which added up to more than a battalion of defensive forces, and four heavy machine guns that drove straight into the main road and the narrow bridge.
The 100-meter-long open land, including the Lazi River, is only thirty or forty meters wide. The team was crowded on such a narrow road and could not exert its firepower at all, and rushed forward only to be harvested by machine-gun fire.
And that's not all, in addition to a few pillboxes at the head of the bridge, there are many other defenses visible to the naked eye behind the hillside that pass through here, overlooking the Lazikou Pass. There was the main force of Lu Dachang, with two brigades, and most of the newly transferred Kuomintang 12th Division would be added later. This kind of deployment is, firstly, there is no need to stuff so many people at this small pass of Lazikou, and secondly, it is out of the tradition of the national army, guarding against what the 12th Division may do to itself.
With such a deployment of fortifications and troops, if the Red Army really had to rely on the tactics of crowds to rush forward, even if it broke through the frontal blockade of the pillboxes, it would still have to continue to face the double attack of front and rear firepower.
So can't you get around it?
Delinquency!
Not to mention that the fighters of the Kuomintang army are still keeping an eye on the movements of the Red Army, and from time to time they will launch air raids. The wax mountain behind Lazikou is a steep mountain range, and it is bound to be impossible to pass with the formation of the march.
Moreover, the Red Army had just heard about it at that time, and Lu Dachang also took the opportunity to contact the nearby Tibetan Tusi, instilled in him the threat of the Red Army, and persuaded him to help him block the Red Army's westward advance to the Hexi Corridor. The size of this Tusi army, headed by Yang Jiqing, can be about 20,000.
With enemies on all sides, the Central Red Army was once again in a situation of being encircled.
Unexpected
At this critical moment, an accident occurred.
For some reason, Yang Jiqing, the Tibetan Tusi contacted by Lu Dachang, did not follow Lu Dachang's instructions, and even helped the Red Army build roads and bridges, wanting them to pass quickly.
Even after learning about the Red Army's shortage of food and ammunition, he took the initiative to donate generously and gave the Red Army 300,000 catties of wheat. And did not shy away from inviting the Red Army to rest and rest at the lama temple.
After learning of this, Lu Dachang was even more convinced that the Red Army would advance westward.
At the same time, our army had just defeated two outpost positions near Lazikou, plus the two battalions that Lu Dachang later deployed, and Lazikou was now even more difficult to fight.
Huang Kaixiang, the commander of the Red Fourth Regiment, and Yang Chengwu, the political commissar of the Red Fourth Regiment, were also stunned by the danger after personally observing the terrain. If the defenders of the bunker had enough ammunition, they could withstand the thousands of troops.
The only downside is that due to too much trust in the nearby terrain, this critical pillbox is not capped and will inevitably be wiped out if it is attacked by air. But where did the Red Army get the planes here?
Little hero Yun Guichuan
Huang Kaixiang and Yang Chengwu are both veterans who have fought many battles, but in the face of this ghost-like terrain, even these two have no choice. The Military Commission has already given a deadline for breaking through Lazikou within three days, otherwise everyone will be in danger of being completely annihilated.
But no matter how strong a person's will is, the fact is that if you can't get by, you can't get by.
Seeing that there was nothing to be done, the two immediately brought all the people of the regiment together to hold a combat meeting to discuss the method of conquering Lazikou, that is, the military democratic conference, which was not seen in the Kuomintang troops.
During the meeting, someone discovered another hole in the enemy's defenses.
Although there are many pillboxes in Lazikou, they are all arranged with the guns facing down on the topography, and there is no firepower to guard the cliffs on both sides. If you can throw explosives down from the cliffs, these bunkers will be useless.
However, there are two problems with this tactic. First, who could climb such a high and precipitous cliff? Even if someone could go up, if the number of people who went up was too small, I am afraid it would be difficult to suppress so many enemies below. Second, there was a lack of cover on the cliffs, which could only be used to destroy the fire in the pillboxes, but it was difficult to meet the counterattack of a large army in the vicinity of the enemy. Once an attack is launched, it must be done quickly, even before the first wave of routs flees to the headquarters to report the news, and the Lazikou must be completely occupied, otherwise the enemy may counterattack and recapture the position.
Just as everyone fell silent again, a Guizhou baby who had enlisted in the army halfway raised her hand,
"I can climb up, and if I can give me another rope, and when I get up and fix it, everyone else can go up. ”
This little soldier has no name since he was a child, after joining the Red Army, everyone called him "Yunguichuan", and he also participated in the operation of flying to capture the Luding Bridge before, and was one of the first "22 warriors of the Luding Bridge" to attack by climbing the iron cable.
Because of the previous battle of Lugou Bridge, everyone has no doubts about the ability of Yunguichuan to climb rocks, but after all, this is Lazikou, and the cliff can be almost as steep as 90 degrees, and everyone still wants to hear how he plans to climb.
According to Yun Guichuan, he is a member of the Miao ethnic group in Guizhou, and he has been good at climbing cliffs to pick herbs and sell them for money since he was a child. For such a cliff, he used to climb it with a long hook pole. All you need to do is find a slender and sturdy bamboo pole with an iron hook on it, and you can use the long hook to hang the fulcrum on the cliff and then go up the pole. But it's definitely not going to be too heavy, and the climber must be thin and small, and can't carry heavy firepower.
Coincidentally, after climbing the snowy mountains and crossing the grasslands, there were really not many still strong soldiers in the Red Army.
Yun Guichuan also said that it is not realistic to prepare so many long hooks in a short period of time, so he can come to climb the rock first, and it is convenient for others to go up after leaving the rope.
Land air strikes
After Yun Guichuan said this, the feasibility of "air raids" seems to have increased a lot. These life experiences of his were never dreamed of by Yang Chengwu and others, who grew up in the plains. This is not some kind of "non-governmental master", but all knowledge comes from labor practice, which the Kuomintang cannot understand in any way.
Before the official attack, I saw that the little warrior of Yunguichuan stripped off his shoes and exposed his feet, found a cliff outside the enemy's field of vision and began to climb, and carried a rope tied by the soldiers with leggings around his waist. He grabbed the root of the cliff with the end of his long pole, tugged at it a few times, and continued to climb up. When you reach the root of the tree, you can climb the trunk and cliff with both legs and one hand, looking for the next foothold, and so on.
Yun Guichuan's method is simple, but after actually watching it once, it is really only he who can do it. Watching the emaciated and swarthy figure fight with gravity made Yang Chengwu and the others below couldn't help but hold their breath.
Against the backdrop of the setting sun, the shadow is sometimes smart, sometimes still, and seems to be ready to go. He fought against death with the hope of the Red Army, and the souls of the people below seemed to be drawn by him, and they were carried up the steep cliff.
A full fifty meters, then political commissar Yang Chengwu, mentioned in his memoirs. After Yun Guichuan reached the top, he found that his neck was already stiff, and he seemed to have forgotten to breathe. I saw that Yun Guichuan stayed on the cliff for a while, lowered the rope and lowered it on the spot, and said to everyone with a simple face:
"Look, I said I could go up. ”
With the ropes provided by Yunnan-Guichuan, the Red Army's plan to "air attack" Lazikou was realized, and the regiment commander Huang Kaixiang personally went on the field and climbed the cliffs on both sides with three companies, preparing to raid and destroy the enemy's fortifications. On the front, political commissar Yang Chengwu led a battalion to carry out a frontal assault.
In order to cover the troops who climbed the cliff at night, Yang Chengwu made a feint in advance, and fought with the enemy troops in the pillbox, and after verifying the enemy's crossfire, he began to persuade the enemy to surrender.
"Don't bother talking, even if you fight until next year, you won't think about Lazikou. ”
The two sides were entangled until the eve of dawn, when two bright signal flares suddenly rose upwards at the junction of the black cliff and the dark purple night sky. Then came the rain of grenades, pouring straight into the uncapped enemy bunker. This is the signal for the launch of the general offensive!
In just a few minutes, Yang Chengwu's main attacking force broke through the dangerous Lazikou without experiencing many casualties, and after more Red Army soldiers rushed to the vast area, our firepower was finally fully exerted, and the enemy knew that he was invincible, and immediately fled back to the direction of his main force.
Due to the rapid rout of the enemy, our army even captured the ammunition depot near the Lazikou Pass by the way, plus the grain donated by the Tibetan Tusi before, this time the Red Army has the confidence again.
Unexpectedly, Lu Dachang's troops did not counterattack the Red Army at all, but were driven out of the county seat by Tang Huaiyuan, the commander of the 12th Division, who had just arrived, and replaced Lu Dachang as a local hegemon.
And the Red Army, after coming out of Lazikou, can be regarded as raising its eyebrows. With the captured silver dollars, the Central Red Army procured a large amount of materials that could be used in the towns and villages of Gannan, and there was no longer any need to worry about hunger and bitter cold.
And what makes everyone even happier is yet to come. After Chairman Mao arrived in Gannan, in order to understand the situation of the country, he asked a reconnaissance company commander to go and buy a newspaper to come back, and this company commander was Liang Xingchu. And the newspaper he brought back was impressively published the news of Xu Haidong's Red 25th Army and Liu Zhidan's division.
This is also the last sentence of Chairman Mao's poem, "Seven Laws: The Long March":
"I like the snow of Minshan Mountain for thousands of miles, and the three armies are happy after the end. ”