Introduction: The Battle of Mountain Castle took place in November 1936, after the Long March Division of the Three Main Forces of the Red Army. But in fact, this battle that took place after the Long March is the sign of the end of the Long March in the true sense.
Jiangtai Fort Red Army Division Memorial Hall
In October 1936, the long march, marked by the three main divisions of the Red Army, lasted two years and lasted tens of thousands of miles, officially ended in victory. Chiang Kai-shek was very dissatisfied with the situation in the northwest, and tens of thousands of "red bandits" seemed to have set up a separate "new Central Soviet Zone" in northern Shaanxi. In his view, the northeast army, the northwest army, and other local powerful factions obviously only seek self-preservation and are absent-minded about "suppressing bandits." Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek, with the Central Army as the main force, attempted to take advantage of the Red Army's long-distance journey to gain an unstable foothold and solve the Shaanxi-Gansu region in one fell swoop.
At that time, the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, where the Red Army was located, was the most barren area of the Loess Plateau, with sparse population, drought and little rainfall, and limited products. Tens of thousands of Red Army troops gathered here, not only was it difficult to replenish troops and raise supplies, but also the combat space was very limited. The Red Army had just met the division, the Red Second and Fourth Fronts had traveled a long distance, and the Red Front had just fought continuously and were very tired. Once the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign failed, the Red Army would even be forced to leave Shaanxi and Gansu, cross the Yellow River in the east, and once again shift strategically.
From the perspective of military deployment, Chiang Kai-shek, who served as the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, can be described as meticulously planning for this encirclement and suppression. The 37th Army (Mao Bingwen) and the 3rd Army (Wang Jun) of the Central Army were two roads, attacking from Huining to Jingyuan; the 1st Army of Hu Zongnan, with Hu Zongnan as the main force, attacked from Jingning to Haiyuan; and he Zhuguobu and his cavalry division of the 67th Army (commander Wang Yizhe) of the Northeast Army were pressed from Lund to the direction of Heicheng. With the more "reliable" Central Army as the main body of operations and the Northeast Army as the auxiliary force, lao Chiang was obviously putting pressure on Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng, and so on, and even took the opportunity to send troops into the northwest to "supervise the army."
Red Army soldiers in the high jump photographed by Edgar Snow
In order to break the encirclement and suppression, before the three main forces of the Red Army met the division, the central authorities put forward the "Jing (Ning) Hui (Ning) Campaign Plan" aimed at eliminating Hu Zongnan; on October 11, the Central Military Commission issued the "October Operational Program", planning to implement the Ningxia Campaign, with the intention of concentrating the main forces of the three fronts to develop northward and consolidate and expand the base areas. However, due to a variety of reasons, the Jinghui and Ningxia Campaign plans were aborted, forcing the Red Army to abandon a large area of land west of Yuwang (now Yuwang Town, Tongxin County, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region). The Kuomintang troops took advantage of the situation to pursue from Jingning and Huining to the gates of the Shaanxi-Gansu District, and the situation was very critical.
In addition to the Western Route Army, which had already crossed the Yellow River in the west, the maximum strength that the three fronts of the Red Army could muster was only more than 30,000 people, which was less than the Kuomintang army. In the face of the menacing enemy, the Red Army first retreated to the Talachi and Haiyuan areas in Gansu, and the enemy followed closely. The Red Army continued to move to the area of Prewang Fort and Tongxin City, and the enemy army then detoured to Tongxin City and Tongxin Fort respectively, and the Red Army changed its plan again and continued to move eastward in search of new fighters.
The Kuomintang army was not defenseless against the Red Army's plan to lure the enemy deeper, and the initial plan was to maintain unity and mutual support between the various units. However, as the Red Army moved eastward in great strides, the Kuomintang army marched smoothly, and Chiang Kai-shek believed that "it is now the last 5 minutes of the suppression of bandits, and victory is already in sight." Hu Zongnan, a general of Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, misjudged the red army to flee, and in greed and earnestness, he did not ask for instructions from the northwestern "suppression general" and disregarded the follow-up speed of his friendly neighbors' follow-up troops, and ordered the Red Army to pursue the Red Army in three ways.
Hill Castle Battle Memorial
At this time, the Kuomintang army Mao Bingwenbu was preparing to cross the Yellow River in the west to pursue the Red Army's Western Route Army; Wang Yizhebu, who had a united front relationship with the Red Army, was advancing slowly; Zeng Wanzhong's 3rd Army (Wang Jun was dead and had been acting commander) stopped advancing after entering Tongxin City; only Hu Zongnan's 1st Army acted actively and ventured alone, which provided a favorable opportunity for the Red Army to annihilate the enemy.
The southern part of Huzong clung to the Red Army, and if the Red Army retreated again, it would expose the central organs of the CPC Central Committee and the headquarters of the Red Army to the enemy, and a bloody battle was inevitable. At this time, Mao Zedong, who was on security, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was in Nanjing, could not sit still. After all, this battle is a matter of life and death for the Red Army. Mao Zedong did not dare to slacken off, and sent a telegram to Peng Dehuai in one day to discuss the plan to encircle and annihilate Hu Zongnan; Chiang Kai-shek placed high hopes on Hu Zongnan and encouraged Hu Zongnan to go down to security in one fell swoop.
On november 14 and 15, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission issued successive instructions on november 14 and 15 in accordance with the enemy's situation and the suggestions of the General Headquarters of the former enemy of the Red Army, pointing out: "Since the enemy continues to attack us, the current center is to break the enemy's offensive, and only then can the situation be unfolded and be conducive to the united front." Otherwise, the enemy will regard us as a deception, and not only will the situation not be able to unfold, but it will also be impossible to unite with the united front in Nanjing. Therefore, the main force of our army "should be immediately east of the county seat of Yuwang County, rapidly approaching the mountain castle, gathering all its strength, and preparing to fight the first battle." In order to unify command on the battlefield, Mao Zedong appointed Peng Dehuai as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the former enemy on behalf of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and demanded that the three major fronts of the Red Army "absolutely obey the orders of Peng Dehuai, the commander-in-chief of the former enemy." Zhou Enlai, who had already reached the front, jointly commanded the battle with Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.
Peng Dehuai after the Long March
There's a little episode here. On November 18, Zhou Enlai, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, arrived at Helian Bay to greet the Red Second and Fourth Fronts. After the split of the meadow, after experiencing many ups and downs and tribulations, Zhou Enlai reunited with Zhu De, who remained in the Red Fourth Front, and the meeting with Zhang Guotao was full of tastes. Zhou Enlai and He Long, two old comrades in arms of the Nanchang Uprising, reunited after eight years of separation, and they were very enthusiastic. Later, He Long recalled: "After the three fronts met, Zhou Enlai went to Hongdecheng from security guards, and after he met with me, he asked me what to do after the three fronts met. I said, unified under peng's command! That was when our Second Front once again expressed its support for the Central Committee. ”
On November 17, Hu Zongnan's left, middle and right roads marched towards Dingbian and Yanchi. On the same day, the 2nd Brigade of Zhonglu Road was defeated by the Red 4th and Red 31st Armies in the area west of Mengcheng, with more than 600 officers and men below the regimental commander. The Red Army won the first battle victory at the Battle of The Hill Castle. Hu Zongnan was ashamed and angry, and urgently ordered his troops to advance in all directions. On November 18, Ding Delong, commander of the 78th Division on the right side, found that the main force of the Red Army had shifted to the direction of Hongdecheng and Huanxian, and ordered his troops to pursue in the direction of the mountain castle.
The time for a decisive battle has arrived. On the 18th, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhang Guotao, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, He Long, and Ren Bishi jointly issued the "Mobilization Order for a Decisive Battle to Crush Chiang Kai-shek's Offensive." On November 19, Peng Dehuai personally went to the mountain castle in Huan County, Gansu Province, at the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces, to survey the battlefield. Here the ravines are longitudinal, the rivers and rivers intersect, and the terrain is complex, which is convenient for the Red Army to set up ambushes. There are very few residents of the mountain castle, but there is a spring with a large brush hole, which is rare in arid areas. Peng Dehuai, anticipating that the south of Huzong would have to come here in order to get drinking water, immediately decided to meet the enemy here. On the same day, the various units participating in the war quickly arrived at the designated places, built fortifications on the spot, and waited for the opportunity in hiding; the masses firmly cleared the field and blocked the news.
Battle of The Hill Castle
Peng Dehuai's deployment was clearly divided, and the various departments coordinated with each other: the Red 28th Army, which was unified by the Red Army and the guerrillas in northern Shaanxi, clamped down on the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the Kuomintang Army in the area of Hongjingzi in the north; the 6th Army of the Red Second Front and the 81st Division of the First Army were "retarded" in the northeast army west of Hongdecheng and Huanxian; the main force of the Second Front, as a reserve, was assembled north of Hongdecheng; the Red Army was the main attack, the 1st Army was south of the mountain castle, and the 15th Army and the 4th and 31st Armies were north of the mountain castle, hiding and waiting.
On the 20th, the 1st Brigade of the Southern Left Road of Huzong entered and occupied Hongjingzi, and the 97th Division followed up to Dashuipu; the 43rd Division of the Middle Road advanced toward Baoniu Fort; the 78th Division of the Right Road entered Zhanshan Castle, Xiaotaizi, Fengtai Fort and other places, and sent three companies along the mountain castle to Hongdecheng Avenue to reconnoiter south, and after being ambushed by the Red Army, the remnants fled back to the mountain castle. The commander of the 78th Division, Ding Delong, felt that the situation was not good, and quickly ordered the construction of fortifications in the mountains around the mountain castle.
During the Battle of The Mountain Castle, it was a harsh winter, and the night was very cold, and the commanders and fighters of the Red Army braved the wind and snow to concentrate on the intended battlefield. The mountain castle is located in an arid area and has great difficulty in drinking water. When the vanguard troops of the enemy's 78th Division coveted spring water and were stationed at the mountain castle, disregarding the reconnaissance terrain and the enemy's situation, the commanders and fighters of the Red Army were dressed in single clothes and wore straw shoes on their feet, and their bodies were shivering with cold, and many people suffered from diarrhea and puffiness due to drinking mountains and water, but they still overcame extremely difficult conditions and maintained a state of combat.
On the evening of November 21, the 232nd Brigade of the Nationalist Army contracted to the balcony of the Cao family. The 1st and 4th Divisions of the Red 1st Army, which were responsible for the main offensive task, took the opportunity to launch an attack, attacked the mountain castle, and turned into pursuit. Other Red Army units also launched a full-scale attack, the 2nd Division of the Red 1st Army and the first part of the Red 15th Army attacked from the south and north sides of the mountain castle to its northwest sentry battalion, cutting off the enemy's retreat; the main force of the Red 15th Army attacked from the northeast to the southwest of the mountain castle, and the red 31st Army attacked from the north of the mountain castle to the south. Under the fierce attack of the Red Army, the Kuomintang army suddenly collapsed, and except for one part that took advantage of the night to break through in a panic, most of them were surrounded by the Red Army and pressed in the northwest valley of the mountain castle. In the darkness, the Soldiers of the Red Army wielded large knives and rushed towards the enemy group with the light reflected in the snow on the ground. The enemy was so frightened that he burrowed into the trench fortifications and ran into the valley.
Chen Xiong, political commissar of the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Red 1st Army, led a platoon to open a gap in the enemy position, and finally died tragically. When the enemy stubbornly resisted with superior weapons and equipment and favorable terrain, the Red Army had no heavy weapons and fought very hard. Peng Xiong, operational staff officer of the 4th Division of the Red 1st Army, led the squad to climb to the back hill, and unexpectedly appeared behind the enemy, and a grenade blew the enemy dizzy. Under the brave offensive of our army, after a period of resistance by the enemy army, it quickly disintegrated and retreated to the mountainside and fled. After a night of fighting, the main force of the 78th Division was almost completely annihilated, and a large number of weapons and ammunition were captured by the Red Army. Wei Hongliang, political commissar of the 13th Regiment of the 1st Division of the Red Army who participated in the night battle, recalled that Hu Zongnan's so-called "elites" still had a set of position warfare during the day, but when they encountered these night tigers of the Red Army in the night battle, they were not as good as sheep.
The Battle of Hill Castle ended at 9:00 a.m. on November 22, when the Red Army annihilated a brigade of the Nationalist 78th Division. The 78th Division said in its war report that the battle was "extremely heavy and chaotic" and that "more than two-thirds of the losses were lost in current terms." During this period, several other divisions sent by Hu Zongnan to attack in the direction of Yanchi were also defeated by the Red 28th Army. After suffering a heavy blow to the south of Huzong, he was forced to retreat to Dashuipu, Mengcheng, Sweetwater Fort and the area west of them.
Red Army equipment for the Battle of Mountain Castle
The victory at the Battle of Mountain Castle was the first major victory achieved by the three main Red Army forces in coordinated operations after meeting the divisions, and it was also the last battle of the Long March. The three fronts uniformly accepted peng Dehuai's command, coordinated operations, and cooperated with tacit understanding. The Red Army fully mobilized the enemy army and created conditions for fighting night battles through a series of tactical actions such as enticing the enemy, setting up ambushes, and cutting off the rear road, so as to give play to its superiority and ensure victory in combat. This victory bankrupted Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to "suppress the Red Army on an unstable footing" and stabilized the situation in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area.
More importantly, although local warlords such as the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army had learned the strength of the Red Army through battles such as Zhiluo Town and reached an agreement with the Red Army to "stop the civil war and unite with the outside world", they still had doubts about whether the Red Army could defeat the Kuomintang Central Army. The heavy blow to Hu Zongnan's troops at the Battle of Shan Castle dispelled their doubts about the Red Army's combat capabilities and greatly strengthened the determination of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to unite the Red Army against Japan. This made Zhang Xueliang, who was in a wait-and-see state, speed up the pace of planning "military advice." Less than a month later, the Xi'an Incident broke out and the civil war ended, kicking off the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation in the united resistance against Japan. Peng Dehuai later said in his evaluation of the Battle of Mountain Castle: "Although this battle (Battle of Mountain Castle) was small, it became a factor contributing to the Xi'an Incident. "It can be described as a hub that affects the situation.
Chinese the Academy of Military Sciences of the People's Liberation Army, written by Qu Aiguo and Zhang Congtian
The Long March is not far away from you and me! Without understanding the truth of the Long March, it is impossible to understand the tremendous energy hidden in the Chinese people and the great changes that are currently taking place on the land of China.
"The Long March" changed the narrative routine based on the Long March of the Central Red Army, and comprehensively and systematically depicted the difficult journey of the Red Army, the Red Fourth Front, the Red 2 and Red 6 Corps, and the Red 25 Army. On the other hand, the special experiences of some important figures are also depicted, such as Mao Zedong in distress, He Zizhen was injured, the friendship between Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and the Living Buddha of Geda, and the education and rescue of Zhang Guotao by the Party Central Committee.
Selected as a theme publication of the Propaganda Department and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March in 2016, CCTV News Network reported on October 18, 2016.