In Shancheng Township, 120 miles northwest of Huan County, Gansu Province, there is a fort composed of ravines and ravines of different sizes (mountain bags), which is named Mountain Castle because of the mountain city and countryside.
In the early morning of November 21, 1936, a Central Army with the name of the 232nd Brigade was driven from the mountain castle, and the brigade commander was named Liao Ang. Liao Ang, a native of Sichuan, graduated from huangpu ii, his brigade was the main brigade of the two brigades under the 78th Division, and the 78th Division belonged to the famous 1st Army of Hu Zongnantianxia, and the division commander was named Ding Delong. Ding Delong, a native of Hunan and a graduate of Huangpu I, had his division headquarters on Baoniu Fort, not far from the mountain castle, echoing Liao Ang's main brigade.
As a result, the line from Baoniu Fort to Mountain Castle suddenly became lively, and the cars and horses were full of a large number of troops.
The uniforms of the Central Army, the same color as the yellow land of Longdong, are all earth yellow, if in the spring, summer and autumn season, they can be integrated with this yellow land, but unfortunately it is winter, there is a lot of snow on the fort, and the white snow reflects the yellow uniforms of these soldiers very obviously, and they can see their actions from a distance.
Liao Ang set up the brigade headquarters on the largest mound of the mountain castle, and his regiments, battalions and companies were spread throughout the various areas of the fort, and the soldiers of each unit skillfully and enthusiastically built trenches and fortifications as soon as they arrived at their own defense areas.
The liao ang brigade was very efficient in building fortifications, and they proved that the Central Army was worthy of being the most elite unit in the Kuomintang army, and they sacrificed the magic weapon that was tried and tested against the Red Army at a glance - fortress tactics. In less than a day, the mountain castle was built with trenches and communication trenches in all directions, bunkers for easy observation and development of firepower, complete heavy machine gun positions on the commanding heights, mortar positions hidden in the ravines, not only that, there were 5 yellow-winged Hawker-3 fighters in the sky, which were the latest fighters imported from the United States, which could be used for air combat, dive bombing on the ground, and could also be used for reconnaissance, and the aircraft hovered over the fortifications. A three-dimensional defense system was formed with the ground troops on the mound.
Because of the sense of security brought by the three-dimensional defense system, the soldiers on the position were very relaxed, they smoked and laughed, and even the sentries in charge of the guard seemed to have forgotten their duties.
At dusk, the sun was about to set on the mountain castle from the southwest, and the red sunlight strongly stimulated the eyes of the soldiers on the position, and the soldiers had to lower the brim of their hats to avoid the harsh sunlight, and none of them noticed that in the south of their position, there were several Red Army soldiers dressed in gray military uniforms and octagonal hats coming quickly towards the mountain castle.
Several Of the Red Army members who moved toward the mountain castle, all carrying only short guns, led by an emaciated Red Army with glasses and a club, did not seem to be bound by glasses and crutches, and marched forward interspersed with yellow land that crisscrossed the ravines, sometimes fast and sometimes slowly, and the rest of the Red Army also moved skillfully, showing a high military quality, and they came to the foot of the fortified fort, hidden in a ravine.
The red army with glasses took the telescope handed by the guards, held it up to the fort for a while, then put down the telescope and pointed it forward, turned its head to a Red Army who was also observing in the telescope next to him, and said: "Wei Hongliang, this is the direction of your assault, there are a total of 9 bunkers, see it?" ”
Wei Hongliang put down the telescope, looked at the red army wearing glasses, showed a puzzled look, seemed to say that I had not counted, and then raised the telescope to look forward, and after a while he put down the telescope and said admiringly: "Commander, see clearly, it is 9." ”
Wei Hongliang was the political commissar of the 13th Regiment of the Red 1st Division, and was named a major general after the founding of New China, and the one who Wei Hongliang called the commander of the division was the future famous general Chen Geng, who was now the commander of the Red 1st Division of the Red 1st Army of the Red 1st Front.
Chen Geng was now holding up a telescope to observe, listening to Wei Hongliang's answer, he did not put down the telescope, but while observing, he said: "You see, the great war is imminent, they are loose and collapsed, there is no sense of tension in the groups, you don't look at them as the Central Army, it is not difficult to beat them." After a while, Chen Geng continued to observe while saying to Wei Hongliang: "If you look closely, there is a pole on that big fort, most likely an antenna, and it is estimated that there is a command headquarters below, it may be a regiment, do you think it is right?" ”
Wei Hongliang observed in the telescope for a while, nodded, and said, "The division commander is right, judging from the scale of the position, I am sure that it is the regimental headquarters." ”
Chen Geng put down the telescope, and he looked at Wei Hongliang and said, "Whether our division can rush up depends on whether your regiment can tear its mouth from here." Wei Hongliang firmly said that he promised to complete the task.
Chen Geng saw that Wei Hongliang had agreed very cheerfully, worried that he would lightly attack the enemy, and told him: "Don't take the enemy lightly, you have to tell the soldiers that the opposite side is Hu Zongnan's 78th Division, this division has not yet fought with us, it is very arrogant, you must use the night battle you are good at, their equipment is good, so you must be prepared to defeat them with white-knife warfare, but also adopt flexible and mobile tactics, both to reduce our losses and annihilate the enemy." ”
The Red 13 Regiment did not have a regimental commander, as a political commissar Wei Hongliang became the supreme military commander of the 13th Regiment, he was a political work cadre from a company instructor to a regimental political commissar, at this time he was excited and under pressure, excited that he could finally be alone militarily, the pressure was the lack of military experience, all of a sudden let him command a whole regiment, you can imagine the pressure is great, but with Chen Geng's support, Wei Hongliang is still full of confidence.
Wei Hongliang raised the telescope again, and while he was carefully observing, he dictated the assault route, and a Red Army member took out a paper and pen from the leather bag he was carrying and drew it according to Wei Hongliang's dictation, and Chen Geng listened carefully and corrected it from time to time.
The night was very cared for the Red Army, there was no starlight and no moon, and the earth was pitch black, as if to facilitate the Movement of the Red Army, which was good at night battles. Wei Hongliang and his 13 regiments soon moved to the lurking place under the mountain castle.
When the general offensive was launched, Wei Hongliang ordered a company to attack the predetermined route; he did not expect that not long after this company had set out, the machine guns on the enemy's position on the fort rang out, and the company was suddenly suppressed and unable to move, and Wei Hongliang ordered another company to attack the predetermined second route, and this company attacked at a slightly longer distance than the first company, but it was also suppressed by the machine guns that sounded from the enemy position, and it could no longer move forward.
Wei Hongliang's preset assault plan was two routes, and now both routes were blocked, he felt a blank in his mind, and the lack of experience made him have no way to deal with it in his mind, at this time, the military trumpet of the commander came from the direction of the division command post, wei Hongliang understood that this was Chen Geng asking about the assault situation, and he did not know how to answer.
When Wei Hongliang was distraught, the commander around him kept urging him: "Political Commissar, the division headquarters is asking us, how do we answer?" ”
The enemy machine guns on the fort were not straight downwards, the casualties of the two companies of commandos were unknown, Wei Hongliang instinctively looked back, although it was pitch black, but he could feel that the soldiers behind him were lying on their stomachs, these brave and good fighters who had been fighting in the battlefield suddenly fell into a passive beating situation, he could feel the depression in the hearts of the soldiers, the pressure in his heart was even greater, although it was a big winter, the pores around him were open, the sweat gushing out wet his underwear, he gritted his teeth, Prepare to organize a third assault again along the line of the two commandos in front of them, and forcibly break through the enemy's position with the fearless spirit of the brave and good Red Army.
When Wei Hongliang was preparing to organize another assault, he suddenly heard a familiar voice calling his name: "Wei Hongliang, Wei Hongliang, where is Wei Hongliang?" ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" >, where are the three main forces of the Red Army facing the heavy encirclement of the Kuomintang army going? </h1>
After returning to northern Shaanxi after the end of the Eastern Expedition to Shanxi, the Red 1 front launched a non-stop western expedition in order to meet the upcoming red 2 front and the three divisions of the red 4 front, and after opening up a new base area of more than 400 miles, the Red Army had a new base area with more than 30 county seats, creating conditions for the three armies to meet the division.
In October 1936, the Red 1st Front finally ushered in huining in Gansu and the red 4th front, the red 2 front division, after the meeting of the red army total number reached more than 50,000 people, the strength suddenly became stronger, at this time, in addition to the local Red Army guerrillas, the main force of the red army in the whole country was concentrated in Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia, but the Kuomintang army that followed the Red 4th Front also followed to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area.
When the three armies of the Red Army met the division, the total number of Kuomintang troops that followed and the Kuomintang troops in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area around the Red Army reached 5 corps, namely Hu Zongnan's 1st Army, Wang Jun's 3rd Army, Mao Bingwen's 37th Army, Wang Yizhe's 67th Army, and He Zhuguo's Cavalry Army.
Mao Zedong once again gave the strategic action of the Red Army, concentrating all the main forces of the Red Army and developing northward into Ningxia.
The reason why ningxia was considered was because the Red Army had little room for choice at this time, the failure of the Crusade proved that the Red Army could not enter Shanxi, the south was the territory of the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army, which had almost become friendly, and the barren northern Shaanxi was even less likely to accommodate many Red Army, while Ningxia had a prominent attraction for the Red Army.
In several provinces of the Loess Plateau, Ningxia is very special, because of the Helan Mountains as a barrier, and there are large areas of Yinchuan Plain, making Ningxia a place rich in rice, as the saying goes, "the World Yellow River Funingxia", the Red Army arrived here, can get a lot of living and material support.
More importantly, the Red Army had been looking for a link with the Soviet Union, and the failure of the Crusade had cut off the Red Army's hope of contacting the Soviet Union, and Ningxia had given hope to the Red Army. When the Red Army enters Ningxia and makes contact with the Soviet Union, it will obtain a large amount of Soviet materials, which will have two meanings: near, united in the northwest of the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army against Chiang Kai-shek; far, united anti-Chiang kai-shek forces throughout the country.
But at this moment, the Red Army was facing the encirclement and blockade of the two groups of the Kuomintang army.
A group of Ma Jiajun in the front, this group is dominated by the "two horses" of the "three horses" in the northwest, and they are posing along the Yellow River. One cavalry division of Ma Buqing, the king of Qinghai, was neatly dressed and crossed the prancing horse on the western front of the Yellow River; 1 division of Ma Hongkui, the king of Ningxia, was waiting in a strict position on the north line of the Yellow River.
The other was the Kuomintang field army group, which was led by Hu Zongnan's 1st Army, of which Hu Zongnan's 1st Army was preparing to cut off the main force of the Red Army's retreat to northern Shaanxi, Wang Jun's 3rd Army and Mao Bingwen's 37th Army were coming to the Main Red Army's division, Huining, and the rest of the armies were responding to Hu Zongnan's army.
In order to achieve its strategic goal of entering Ningxia, the Red Army must be prepared to fight another big battle, which is divided into two steps: first to carry out an annihilating blow to the Kuomintang field group, and then to strike at the Majiajun group and cross the Yellow River.
This was the Red Army's famous Ningxia Campaign plan.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > the result of the Battle of Ningxia, a tragic army was born</h1>
The Red Army did not expect that they would fall into passivity at the beginning of the Ningxia Campaign, because Chiang Kai-shek personally came to Xi'an to supervise the battle, the cooperation of the various Kuomintang troops complemented each other, coupled with the 300,000 people who had a 10-fold advantage over the Red Army, although Zhang Xueliang had informed the Red Army of Chiang Kai-shek's plan to wipe out the Red Army, but in the face of the powerful Kuomintang army, the Red Army still had only the merit of fighting.
Not long after the campaign was launched, the Red Army lost Huining, Jingning and Jieshipu, and the Red Army's base areas were compressed, and not only that, the main force of the Red Army was also blocked on the east bank of the Yellow River, concentrated in the Haiyuan and Dalachi areas.
Seeing the predicament of the Red Army, the Kuomintang army stepped up its encirclement and suppression and went all out to compress these two areas, with the intention of driving the Red Army to Jingyuan County on the bank of the Yellow River, and attacking the Red Army on both sides with the Defenders of Jingyuan, Deng Baoshan, and the Kuomintang advancing and suppressing troops, and annihilating the Red Army on the east bank of the Yellow River.
Under such conditions, the Red Army could only block the enemy on the one hand and forcibly cross the river at the same time, and in the fierce battle, the general headquarters of the Red 4th Front, the direct subordinate units and the 30th Army, the 9th Army, and the 5th Army crossed the Yellow River on October 25, but because the task of annihilating Wang Jun's 3rd Army on the east bank was not achieved, the encirclement of the Kuomintang army to Haiyuan and Tarachi became smaller and smaller, and the Red Army that did not cross the river had to abandon the plan to cross the Yellow River in the west and move eastward, which declared the defeat of the Ningxia Campaign.
As a result of the defeat in the Battle of Ningxia, the main force of the Red Army, which had just met the division, was divided in two, and the 21,800 Red Army troops who had crossed the Yellow River formed the Western Route Army and began a tragic western expedition until the entire army was destroyed.
For this reason, the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of the Red Army of the Red Army determined the operational plan for the pursuing and suppressing enemy, that is, to move one by one, lure the enemy to go deeper, take advantage of the favorable terrain to concentrate superior forces, first attack the southern part of the central army Huzong, contain Wang Jun, Mao Bingwen and other miscellaneous troops, and at the same time carry out a united front against the northeast army.
Under the successive transfers of the Red Army and the enticing of the enemy to penetrate deep into the tactics, the fighter plane against Hu Zongnan was finally caught.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="74" > Third, the Red Army held a knife in one hand and touched the "round baba" forward with the other</h1>
Luring the enemy to go deep and then annihilating the enemy with superior troops has always been the main tactic of the Red Army's movement operations, and at this time, the Red Army should focus on attacking Hu Zongnan, and it is also using such tactics.
The purpose of the Red Army was to lure the southern part of Huzong to the triangle of Yuwang (near present-day Tongxin County, Wuzhong City), Yanchi, and HuanXian, and then concentrate the main force of the Red Army to encircle and annihilate.
The patient Red Army finally waited for the opportunity, and Wang Jun, commander of the Kuomintang Army's 3rd Army, crashed a plane, leaving the 3rd Army leaderless and stationed in Tongxin County, the Northeast Army had been united, and only the south of Hu Zong was bravely pursuing, becoming a lone army.
On November 17, the 2nd Brigade of Hu Zongnan's 1st Division was annihilated by the Red 4th Army and the Red 31st Army of the Red 4th Front, and lost one aircraft. Therefore, Hu Zongnan ordered his 1st Division, 97th Division, and 78th Division to intensify the encirclement of the Red Army, of which the 1st Division, the 97th Division entered and occupied Hui'an Fort southwest of Yanchi County, and the 78th Division entered the vicinity of the mountain castle northwest of Huan County.
The 78th Division was isolated from the closer 1st and 97th Divisions, and this division became the focus of the Red Army's attack.
The Red Army blocked Hu Zongnan's 1st And 97th Division with the Red 28th Army of the Song Dynasty, while the rest of the Main Red Army encircled and annihilated the 78th Division. The specific tactic for encircling and annihilating the enemy's 78th Division was to first annihilate the Liao Ang Brigade and then annihilate the 78th Division.
The Red Army cut off the retreat of the 78th Division with a part of xuhaidong red 15th army, and the remaining red 1st, 2nd, and 4th fronts attacked liao ang brigades at the mountain castle from three directions: east, south, and north.
The Red 1st Front's offensive was to the south, with the Red 1st Division in charge of the main attack on the hill castle, and the Red 1st Division's assault unit was the 13th Regiment. After the attack was launched, the two assaults of the 13th Regiment were frustrated, and when the political commissar Wei Hongliang was preparing to carry out another assault, he heard a familiar shout, and he knew that Chen Geng was coming.
In the darkness, Chen Geng came to Wei Hongliang with a crutch and a low foot, and after asking about the situation at the scene, pointed out the shortcomings of Wei Hongliang's command: the two-way assault had no focus and the firepower was improperly used. Then Chen Geng asked, "How many companies are in charge of the second assault?" Wei Hongliang said it was 3 companies.
Chen Geng immediately ordered the reinforcement of the 3rd Company to be transferred to the reserve, and at the same time concentrated the firepower of the whole regiment to support the 3rd Company.
Coincidentally, when Chen Geng was laying out his firepower, Deng Keming, the commander of the 12th Regiment of Li Tianyou's department of the Red 4th Division, was awarded major general after liberation, and at this time he passed by with his troops, just around with 3 heavy machine guns. After Dunkmin inquired about the situation, he immediately ordered his 3 heavy machine guns into battle.
With the cooperation of Dun Keming's heavy machine guns, the firepower of the 13 regiments increased greatly, and for a time, more than twenty light and heavy machine guns simultaneously shot at the bunkers in the direction of the second assault, although it was dark, but from the trajectory of more than twenty bullet tracers, it was obvious that the fire of the bunkers was suppressed.
The captain of the reserve drew a large knife from his back and shouted in the darkness, "Follow me." The words had not fallen, the people had already sneaked out of the position, and with the upward impact of the reserve captain, Chen Geng and Wei Hongliang only felt like a whirlwind around them, and the commandos behind them rushed up one by one.
The enemy's opening on the south side of the mountain castle was torn open, and Chen Geng's Red 1st Division rushed to the enemy position, and the two sides engaged in a white-knife battle.
According to Wei Hongliang's later recollection, the white-knife warfare at that time was almost one-sided of the Red Army, due to the large density of soldiers on both sides of the position, coupled with the inability to see clearly at night, the Red Army soldiers held a knife in one hand, touched forward with the other hand, as long as they touched the hat with "round Baba" (popular in the dialect of the two lakes and southwest regions, meaning the ceramic round hat emblem on the hat), they took a knife, and regardless of the result, they threw down this and touched the next one.
To have such clean and skillful movements are veteran soldiers who have been in the battlefield for a long time, in fact, the Red Army at this time is almost all veterans who have experienced the Long March.
The white-knife battle lasted only a few minutes, and the Nationalist army began a full-scale rout, and the Red Army was in hot pursuit. The Central Army, which had always been known for its elite, immediately formed a rupture in the face of the Red Army's white-knife battles and pursuits.
When the Red 1st Front attacked from the south, the Red 2nd Front and the Red 4th Front also attacked in the east and north, and the Liao Ang Brigade was completely destroyed by the attack in three directions. Liao Ang fled with a few people to the division headquarters of Baoniu Fort, the Red Army was in hot pursuit, and the commander of the 78th Division, Ding Delong, saw the Red Army coming and realized that he was going to be completely annihilated by the Red Army, so he immediately sent troops to block the Red Army, and he himself and the main force desperately broke through to the north, intending to get closer to the 1st Division and the 97th Division. The Red Army pursued it until the 78th Division entered sweetwater and achieved its goal of approaching the 1st and 97th Divisions.
Counting the results of the battle, the Red Army annihilated a total of 1 brigade and 2 regiments of the 78th Division of the Southern Huzong Division of the Central Army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="75" >4</h1>
The Battle of the Mountain Castle was a victorious battle fought by the Red Army at the most difficult time, and the main reason for the victory was to implement the consistent tactics of the Red Army, that is, to lure the enemy to the ambush site and then concentrate the superior forces to annihilate it.
Such tactics of the Red Army were implemented by the New Fourth Army of the Eighth Route Army during the anti-Japanese period and the People's Liberation Army during the Liberation War, and became the magic weapon for defeating the enemy and winning victory.
However, the victory in the Battle of The Mountain Castle did not extricate the Red Army from its predicament, and its important role was mainly in the political aspect, and this victory made Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng see the strong combat effectiveness of the Red Army. When Chiang Kai-shek mobilized a large army to press against the Red Army, and the CPC Central Committee wanted to abandon the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area for the second Long March again, it was strongly opposed by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, who promised the Red Army that the situation would change greatly within 2 months, and sent the Red Army a large number of winter materials, including equipment, clothing, and money.
As a result, on December 12, half a month after the end of the Battle of Mountain Castle, the Xi'an Incident, which shocked China and foreign countries and changed history, finally achieved the rebirth of phoenix nirvana.
The Battle of Mountain Castle became the last battle of the main Red Army and the Kuomintang army before the War of Resistance.