On October 19, 1935, the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Central Red Army arrived at Wuqi Town in northern Shaanxi and established contact with the local organizations in the base area of northern Shaanxi, thus ending the Long March. On November 6, the Red 1st Army Corps and the Red 15th Army Corps (Red 25th Army and Northern Shaanxi Red Army) formed by the Shaanxi-Gansu detachment joined forces, and the Red Army was formed again, with a total of more than 15,000 people, and the instructors also met Xu Haidong.
The Red 25th Army established by Xu Haidong is a very special force, this army is a traditional strong army in the Henan-Anhui Soviet base area, with a long history, and has been rebuilt many times, and the Red 25th Army brought by Xu Haidong to northern Shaanxi has been rebuilt for the third time. The main component of this unit is the children of the military families of the former Red Fourth Front Army, most of whom were 12-17 years old at the beginning of the Long March, and many of their relatives at home had the experience of being brutalized by Chiang's army, so the revolution was the most resolute and thorough, and the combat was the most courageous, but the depth of theoretical accumulation of the revolution was insufficient. In the process of merging with the 1st Army of the Red Army to form the 1st Army of the Red Army, the 1st Army of the Red Army transferred a large number of veteran Red Army cadres to the 15th Army of the Red Army to serve as commanders at the grassroots level, and quickly made up for this shortcoming.
Group photo of cadres of the Red 25th Army - ordinary stone extract
Since the roots of the Red 25th Army were in the Red Fourth Front Army, which was theoretically a unit of the Fourth Front Army system commanded by Zhang Guotao, Xu Haidong's attitude towards the Central Red Army was crucial.
At the end of 1935, the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Central Red Army was the most difficult time, and this indomitable army had recently gone through a long march of 20,000 troops, breaking through the countless encirclements and interceptions of the national army, crossing the moat of the snow-capped mountains, and walking through the desperate situation of grassland. It is a pity that the meeting between the Central Red Army and the Fourth Front Army not only did not strengthen itself, but instead took the Red Fifth Army and the Red Ninth Army and was taken south by Zhang Guotao.
At this time, the Central Red Army had no food and no clothing, and northern Shaanxi was the Loess Plateau, and the coldest winter was approaching, and most of them were people from Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, and other places in the south, wearing shabby straw sandals and tattered clothes, and they could not survive this cold winter. The area controlled by the base area in northern Shaanxi is not small, there are 9 counties, but the land is vast and sparsely populated, and the population is only about 500,000 people. The local people, like the soldiers of the Central Red Army who first arrived here, can eat up to three bowls of millet and a little sauerkraut per person a day. Satiety can't be said in any way, just barely survived. Therefore, the problem of survival is a problem that the Central Red Army urgently needs to solve during this time period, and if it cannot effectively supply cold materials, the Central Red Army will not even be able to survive the severe cold winter in northern Shaanxi.
Monument to the Red 25th Army - Ordinary Stone Extract
This is the lowest point of the heroic unit of the Central Red Army, and before meeting with Xu Haidong, it is probably impossible to say that the instructor has no worries in his heart.
Therefore, the instructor sent Yang Zhicheng (1955), the quartermaster's minister, to Xu Haidong with his handwritten letter, and personally signed the IOU. After Yang Zhicheng handed over the letter to Xu Haidong, Xu Haidong's eyes were moist. His first reaction was to apologize, he held Yang Zhicheng's hand tightly, and said repeatedly: "Old Yang, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't think it through." ”
Yang Zhicheng didn't understand what Xu Haidong meant, and hurriedly said: "The chairman also knows that you are in difficulty here, so if you can't do it, you will ......."
Before he finished speaking, Xu Haidong interrupted him and said directly: "No! No matter how difficult it is, we are better than you, please tell the chairman to rest assured, we will definitely raise funds and hand it over!"
Xu Haidong consulted with the quartermaster minister and found that the whole army was only 7,000 oceans, and the army's cold supplies were also missing. Even Xu Haidong himself was wearing a thin cotton coat, the original thick coat, which was wrapped and buried when the political commissar Wu Huan died first.
Xu Haidong had the bottom in his heart, 7,000 oceans, that would be able to help the Central Red Army, he immediately ordered the quartermaster minister to load 5,000 oceans into a truck and send it to the first army overnight, and resolutely stated that this was not a loan, but a delivery. Although the Minister of Munitions complained bitterly, there were only 2,000 oceans left, and the Red 25th Army (which had been reorganized into the 72nd Division of the Red 15th Army at this time) was definitely not enough, but he still resolutely carried out Xu Haidong's order.
At the same time, because the original weapons of the Red 25th Army were relatively abundant, he also ordered each company to draw a light machine gun with sufficient ammunition to fully support the big brother of the Red 1st Army.
The 5,000 oceans that Xu Haidong supported at a critical time were by no means just a matter of money. This expresses a party member's wholehearted support for the Central Committee at the most difficult time for the organization, and is a manifestation of the party spirit of a loyal party member. This is in stark contrast to Zhang Guotao. With Xu Haidong's wholehearted support, the Central Red Army finally had a solid foothold in northern Shaanxi.
As the old saying goes, the icing on the cake is better than sending charcoal in the snow. From the teacher's point of view, the Central Red Army has just experienced Zhang Guotao's split, and there is no definite bottom line in his heart about the attitude of the Red 25th Army, which originally belonged to Zhang Guotao.
Xu Haidong's 5,000 oceans show more of a sincere attitude and a kind of wholehearted support for the Party Central Committee, and the teachers have been completely relieved since then. Although due to physical reasons, Xu Haidong almost stopped engaged in front-line command work after 1941 and recuperated from illness for a long time, he clearly expressed his support for the party Central Committee when the Central Red Army was in the most difficult time, and made indelible contributions to the foundation of the revolutionary base areas in northern Shaanxi, and the Red 25 Army system has also become a staunch and indispensable part of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Among the generals, Han Xianchu and Liu Zhen are both cadres from the former Red 25th Army, and the Red 25th Army has a total of 97 founding generals.
This IOU written by the instructor is also unique in his life. The content of the original letter is as follows: Comrade Haidong, hello, because the troops have difficulties in eating and clothing during the winter, I hereby borrow 2,500 yuan from you. ------Mao Zedong.
Part of the major generals from the Red 25th Army - ordinary stone extract