On the way of the Long March of the Central Red Army, there is a very peculiar team, she has been guarding the Party Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission organs around, she is all composed of cadres, well-equipped, tenacious style, incomparably brave in battle, by later generations affectionately called the "Royal Forest Army", she is the Central Red Army cadre regiment.
In October 1934, before the large-scale military transfer of the Central Red Army. According to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the four schools in the Central Soviet Region, namely the Central Red Army University (also known as Hesses University, named after the Soviet Hesses martyrs who died during the Guangzhou Uprising), the First Infantry School of the Red Army (also known as the Peng Yang Infantry School, named in honor of the two martyrs Peng Pai and Yang Yin), The Second Infantry School (also known as the Gongluo Infantry School, named in honor of the martyr Huang Gonglue) and the Special Science School were combined to form a cadre regiment, headed by Chen Geng, the former principal of the First Infantry School of the Red Army, Song Renqiang, the political commissar of the 13th Division of the Red Fifth Army Corps, and the chief of staff Zhong Jianwei (Bi Shiti, also known as Yang Lin, a North Korean after the Zunyi Conference), and Mo Wenhua, director of the Political Department.
The cadre regiment has jurisdiction over the 1st Infantry Battalion reorganized from the Pengyang Infantry School, the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the 3rd Battalion reorganized from the Gongluo Infantry School, the 4th Battalion (also known as the Special Science Battalion) reorganized from the Special Science School, and the higher-level cadres reorganized from the Central Red Army University (referred to as the "Upper Cadre Brigade"). The first and second battalions train company platoon commanders and cadres, the third battalion trains company political instructors, and the fourth battalion trains artillery, engineer, and machine gun cadres. Higher-level cadres train battalion and regimental military and political cadres. The cadres of the four battalions were: Li Rong, commander of the first battalion, and Ding Qiusheng, political commissar; Huang Yanbin, commander of the second battalion; Su Qisheng, political commissar; Lin Fangying, commander of the third battalion; Luo Guibo, political commissar; Wei Guoqing, commander of the fourth battalion; and Huang Jinshan, political commissar. The captains of the upper cadre team are Xiao Jinguang, a teacher at the Red Army University, and Yu Zehong, a political commissar. Each of the four battalions has military, political and cultural instructors. The total number of people in the group is 1480.
During the Long March, the cadres and regiments acted with the organs of the Party Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and were under the direct command of Ye Jianying. The main tasks are: to guard the organs of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Central Revolution, and to be responsible for the reserve, training, and supply of cadres to the troops. The cadres and regiments also cooperated with the main force of the Red Army on many occasions and directly participated in battles, such as the Battle of Tucheng, the Battle of Loushanguan, and the Qiaodu crossing of the Jinsha River. In particular, in the battles of crossing the Wujiang River three times and crossing the Chishui River four times, the engineer company of the Special Science Battalion built bridges to cross the river for the troops of the whole army, and made a major contribution to ensuring the victory of the whole army.
Direct combat operations in the Long March
There were three major combat operations in which the cadre regiment was directly involved during the Long March:
The first time: the battle of Tucheng across the Chishui
Mao Zedong once said that he had lost four battles in his life, including the Battle of Tucheng before crossing the Chishui River.
The first time that the cadre regiment directly participated in combat operations was the Battle of Tucheng, and it was also the one in which the cadre regiment suffered the largest casualties.
Tucheng is located on the banks of the Chishui River in the northwest of Guizhou. After the Zunyi Conference, the Central Committee decided that the Red Front Army would concentrate on the Qianchuan border and prepare to cross the Yangtze River north between Luzhou and Yibin in Sichuan to join the Red Fourth Front Army. At this time, in order to prevent the Red Army from entering Sichuan and crossing the river, the enemy mobilized about 200,000 troops from Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Chiang, forming a large encirclement in an attempt to annihilate the Red Army.
On January 28, 1935, the Red Army entered the Chishui area in northwest Guizhou from the vicinity of Zunyi. Fierce battles with the enemy took place at Tucheng Fengshuba and Qinggangpo. First, the Red Third Army and the Red Fifth Army entered the battle. However, due to the Central Revolutionary Military Commission's misjudgment of the strength of the Sichuan army, the two corps and the Sichuan army did not get a advantage after a morning of bloody fighting at Qinggangpo. At this time, the reinforcements of the Sichuan army, the Panzuo brigade, arrived, and the two corps of the Red Army suddenly felt extremely difficult. The three regiments suffered a large number of casualties, and the soldiers began to engage in a long hand-to-hand fight with the enemy after running out of bullets, and Yang Yong, the political commissar of the 10th regiment, was shot and wounded, the bullet entered his right cheek, came out of his lips, lost six teeth, and his face was covered with blood. And it took three hours for the reinforcements of the Red Army, the 2nd Division of the 1st Red Army Corps, to arrive. Under these circumstances, Zhu De proposed to go to the front line to personally direct the battle, but Mao Zedong could not stop him, so he asked if there were any other troops nearby? Chen Geng said: "Yes, our cadres and regiments are here!" Mao Zedong said: "Go up! Follow the commander-in-chief to suppress the enemy." Chen Geng gathered the team and rushed up with people.
Rushing towards the enemy's cadres with rifles, it was indeed a heroic team, they faced the fierce fire of the Sichuan army, and there was no momentary hesitation or pause in the shouts and charging steps, and Zhu De's presence at the front made them more courageous. The Sichuan army was frightened by the onslaught of this group of Red Army troops wearing steel helmets, and the Kuomintang had never seen a Red Army team fighting in steel helmets before. Wei Guoqing, commander of the fourth battalion, commanded the mortars and fired the only few shells at the command post of the Sichuan army. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the reinforced 2nd Division of the 1st Red Army Corps arrived and launched a new assault together with the cadre regiments. This time, the Red Army fought all the way to the command post of the Sichuan Army.
Mao Zedong had been watching the cadres charge through the binoculars, and when he saw that the ferocious attack of the Sichuan army was finally suppressed, Mao Zedong said excitedly: "This Chen Geng can be the army commander!"
By the evening of the same day, although the Red Army inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, it was unable to completely annihilate the enemy and became a state of confrontation. At this time, the 3rd Independent Brigade of the Sichuan Army, the 2nd Teaching Brigade, the 2nd Brigade of the 5th Division, the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division and other troops attacked Tucheng from different directions. The Central Revolutionary Military Commission judged the situation and believed that it would be unfavorable for the Red Army to fight again, so it took the initiative to withdraw from the battle, crossed Chishui to the west, and advanced to the south of Gulin.
The second time: the battle of Zaike Zunyi
After the Red Army arrived in Tashi, the enemy near Zunyi was weak, and the Red Army crossed Chishui for the second time and occupied Tongzi in Guizhou. The Central Military Commission of the Chinese Revolution instructed that "resolutely destroy the enemy at Loushan Pass and take advantage of the victory over Zunyi City" and instructed that the capture of Loushan Pass was "the key to the development of the war situation" and "is of vital importance to the smooth transfer of the field army." ”
Loushan Pass is the north gate of Zunyi, located at the top of Loushan Mountain, surrounded by mountains like a sword, is the dangerous road of Sichuan-Guizhou traffic. The 13th Regiment of the 3rd Red Army Corps and the 1st Regiment of the 1st Army Corps conquered Loushan Pass and routed the nearby enemy. At this time, the cadre regiment received the order again, set off from Tongzi, marched 120 miles a day, and the upper cadre team took over the 13th regiment of the 3rd Army Corps to hold Loushan Pass. The rest of the cadres and regiments rushed to the southwest of Zunyi City, and together with the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Red Army Corps, they fought fiercely against the two divisions of Chiang's army, Zhou Mingyuan, and Wu Qiwei. The enemy insisted on holding the commanding heights of Zunyi City's stone lamb's mouth, Lao Ya Mountain. In the battle of Lao Yashan, the commander of the 10th Regiment of the 3rd Army Corps, Zhang Zongsun, was wounded, the chief of staff Zhong Jianwei was killed, and only Huang Kecheng was in command of the battle. As soon as Chen Geng and Song Renqiang led the cadres and regiments into the position, they launched an attack. The cadre regiment attacked head-on from the north to the south, and the 11th regiment assisted from the left. In this attack, all the machine guns of the Red Army opened fire, and the officers and men flocked forward desperately, and the Red Army captured Lao Yashan. The main forces of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Red Army Corps annihilated the enemy inside and outside the city of Zunyi, and Zunyi was captured by the Red Army for the second time.
These two battles were fiercely fought, and the cadres and regiments suffered heavy losses, with the Tucheng First World War Cadre Regiment alone losing more than 100 men and five company commanders sacrificing their lives. This was true in the revolutionary base areas, and it was also true during the Long March. Later, Song Renqiang, the political commissar of the cadre regiment, reported to Mao Zedong the situation of the relatively large casualties of the cadre regiment, saying: "The cadres of the cadre regiment are all cadres above the company platoon level, and it is not easy to train one, so the cost of using it is too great. Mao Zedong agreed with Song Renqiang's opinion and said very regretfully: "Yes, it should be used for the students of the cadre regiment, but it will not work in this way." Be careful in the future!"
The third time: the battle of Kyaukpyeongdu
After the Central Red Army crossed the Wujiang River, in order to confuse the enemy, it bluffed, feinted to attack Guiyang, turned around and approached Kunming again, with the purpose of mobilizing the enemy to stay away from the Jinsha River and prepare to cross the Jinsha River to the north. Sure enough, Jiang Jun was scheming.
On April 30, 1935, just as the main force of the Yunnan Army rushed back to Kunming, the Central Red Army was divided into three columns and suddenly returned north and began a sneak attack on the Jinsha River ferry.
The specific arrangements were: The 1st Red Army Corps was on the left, passing through Wuding and Yuanmou to seize Longjiedu; the 3rd Red Army Corps was on the right, seizing Hongmendu; and the 5th Red Army Corps was covering the center of the central column, crossing the 1st Red Army Corps and the 3rd Red Army Corps between Songming and Xundian to seize the Kyaukping Ferry. Of the three ferries identified by the Central Red Army, the Kyaukpyeong Ferry was pinned on the greatest hope, because the two sides of this ferry were steep cliffs, and crossing the river here would surprise the Kuomintang troops. In order to ensure the success of the crossing, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission once again invested the most elite troops: the cadre regiment in the direction of the Kyaukpyeong ferry.
On 2 May, the General Headquarters of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission instructed Liu Bocheng, chief of the General Staff, to lead a battalion of cadres and sappers with a radio station to "rush to Kyaukping on the morning of the 4th to build a bridge."
Kyaukpingdu is located at the junction of Huili County, Sichuan Province and Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, and is one of the important ferries on the Jinsha River. The comrades of the cadres and regiments knew that this battle was of great importance and was a battle that had a bearing on the safety of the Red Army.
In a small mountain village north of Quanlu County, Zhou Enlai went to the cadre regiment accompanied by Liu Bocheng. Zhou Enlai and Liu Bocheng conducted a detailed study of the operational plan for seizing the ferry, and finally decided: With the third battalion of the cadre regiment and an engineer company as the vanguard, led by Liu Bocheng and Song Renqiang, political commissar of the cadre regiment, they rushed to the ferry at a speed of 160 miles that day, destroyed the enemy at the ferry, and then forcibly crossed the Jinsha River to consolidate the positions on the north bank; the troops on the south bank quickly collected ships and organized the construction of bridges, so as to make all preparations for the main force to cross the river. Chen Geng, the commander of the cadre regiment, led the remaining two infantry battalions, a special branch battalion and the upper cadre team to follow up as the rear echelon, marched rapidly at a speed of 100 miles that day, then camped and rested, and then crossed the Jinsha River at the ferry seized by the vanguard troops, occupied Tong'an Prefecture 20 kilometers north of the river, and blocked and eliminated the Sichuan army that reinforced at the ferry.
Takuto-kohei-watari
In the end, Zhou Enlai explained the way to deal with the worst-case scenario: if the cadres and regiments have crossed the river, but the ferry has not been secured, and the main force cannot cross the river, the cadres and regiments must be prepared to fight guerrillas alone in Jiangbei.
The vanguard battalion and the rear echelon of the cadre regiment set off at the same time.
When the troops arrived at a place called Sha Laoshu, which was still 50 or 60 kilometers away from Kyaukpingdu, they caught a fat man with a fat head and big ears, who was about to go to the ferry port on the order of the regimental commander of the Jingwei Regiment (the landlord's armed forces) to burn all the ferries. Before the order arrived, it was caught by the Red Army.
Therefore, Liu Bocheng immediately decided to send an advance company to advance lightly, pounce on the river bank, seize the ships at all costs, control the ferry, and forcibly cross the river. The remaining two companies of the third battalion and the engineer company followed.
The vanguard of the vanguard battalion was the Eighth Political Company, and under the leadership of instructor Luo Guibo and deputy battalion commander Huo Haiyuan, they went straight to the riverside and successfully seized the ferry at about 12 o'clock that night. Immediately use the two boats found, send one platoon to the north shore, and smoothly control the north shore. Cleanly seized Kyaukpyeongdu without a single casualty.
In the end, the 3rd Battalion and the Engineer Company, who arrived later, searched for ships in all directions when they were unable to build a bridge over the river, and finally found seven boats.
After seizing Kyaukpingdu, in order to cover the smooth crossing of the river by the follow-up main Red Army, the cadre regiment left a company to guard the ferry, and the rest of the main force was led by regiment commander Chen Geng and political commissar Song Renqiang to advance to Tong'an Prefecture to stop the two regiments of the Sichuan army Liu Yuanzhang who were preparing to march to Kyaukpingdu.
After receiving the enemy, all the cadres and regiments were loaded with bayonets and prepared to fight to the end with an enemy six times their size. Chief of Staff Bi Shiti, Secretary of the General Branch Fang Qiang, and Health Captain Jiang Yaode took the lead and led the troops to continuously charge and attack the enemy. Chen Geng found in the telescope that the defending enemy could not withstand the onslaught of the Red Army and had begun to waver and be confused, so he immediately seized the advantageous fighter opportunity and ordered the trumpeter to blow the trumpet of the charge. The officers and men of the whole regiment rushed to the enemy's position with bayonets in their hands, and Liu Yuanzhang's troops, which were several times larger than the Red Army, were crushed by the Red Army's "lifeless" onslaught and were defeated. The remaining more than 600 people below the regimental commander all surrendered.
Under the cover of the cadres and regiments, the Central Red Army successfully crossed the Jinsha River with all seven boats found by the cadres and regiments.
An important support operation during the Long March
In addition to the above-mentioned combat operations in which the cadres were directly involved, there were also two important bridge-building and support operations.
The first time: erection of the Wujiang pontoon bridge
At the end of 1934, after resting in Liping, Guizhou, the cadre regiment followed the column of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission to the south bank of the Wujiang River.
On January 2, 1935, Geng Biao, commander of the 2nd Division and 4th Regiment of the 1st Red Army, and Yang Chengwu, political commissar, led the troops to forcibly cross the Wujiang River, preparing to seize Zunyi and Tongzi after arriving in northern Guizhou. The cadre regiment was ordered to send an engineer company of the special branch battalion to participate in the task of erecting a pontoon bridge to cross the Wujiang River.
The Wujiang River is the largest river in Guizhou, with steep mountains on both sides. Chen Geng, commander of the cadre regiment, and Wei Guoqing, commander of the fourth battalion, personally led the engineer company to march 60 miles in a starry night to the crossing of the Jiangjie River, where they cut bamboo, cut wood, and tie bamboo rows. Due to the deep and rapid flow of the Wujiang River, the stones at the bottom of the river are large and smooth, and the bridge piles are difficult to fix, and they have been washed away by the rapids several times. Engineer instructors Tan Xilin and He Dizhou are very experienced in building bridges, they thought of a lot of ways, and finally used bamboo baskets to load stones, two bamboo baskets buckled up and down, and used hardwood in the middle to form a cross, tied and sturdy and sunk to the bottom of the river, so as to replace the anchor, and then fixed the pontoon bridge.
The pontoon bridge was successfully erected, and the central column and various corps quickly crossed the Wujiang River and went straight to Guizhou.
The second time: heavy Wujiang pontoon bridge
At the end of March 1935, when the Central Red Army crossed the Wujiang River in the south after crossing the Chishui River for the fourth time, the cadres and regiments walked behind, and the third battalion took up the task of guarding the Wujiang pontoon bridge, and according to the instructions, waited for the main Red Fifth Army Corps to cross the river and dismantle the bridge. When the cadres learned that the Red Fifth Army had crossed the river from another ferry, they dismantled the pontoon bridge and began to chase the main force (Song Renqiang said in his reminiscences that he had received a verbal order from a staff officer of the Military Commission). The cadres and regiments chased for forty miles and finally caught up with the central column, and reported to Liu Bocheng about the demolition of the pontoon bridge, when Zhu De and Zhou Enlai were also present.
Zhu De, who had always been honest, became angry when he heard that the bridge had been demolished, and he said angrily: How can this be true! Luo Binghui's Ninth Army Corps is still behind, who told you to dismantle the bridge without authorization? Go back and rebuild the pontoon bridge! Later, Zhu De said: After the bridge is erected, it will be handed over to the Ninth Corps, and they will dismantle the bridge after crossing the river. If the Ninth Legion does not come at seven o'clock tomorrow morning, you will tear down the bridge.
Song Renqiang took the third battalion of the cadre regiment and the engineer company to hurry back to the Wujiang River for another 40 miles, and everyone endured hunger and set up a pontoon bridge overnight. By seven o'clock the next morning, the Ninth Army had not come, and after double-checking the time, the Third Battalion demolished the bridge again. It took two or three days to catch up with the team.
Later, I learned that because the troops were constantly marching and fighting, they could not stop and set up radio antennas, and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission could not contact the Ninth Army Corps for a while. In order to confuse the enemy, cover the main force to cross the river, and deal with the enemy, the Ninth Army Corps failed to rush to cross the Wujiang River. Later, after finally getting in touch, they crossed the Jinsha River in the area of Huize and Qiaojia in Yunnan to join the large army.
Adjustment of the establishment during the Long March
In June 1935, after the Red First and Fourth Front Armies met in Sichuan, the Central Committee decided to merge the cadre regiment with the Red Army School (also said to be the Red Army University) of the Red Fourth Front Army and renamed the new Red Army School (also said to be the Red Army University). Because Chen Geng had previously been dissatisfied with Zhang Guotao's "leftist" erroneous issue when he was in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Region, and had waged a resolute struggle, Zhang Guotao hated Chen Geng. When the Red Army School was established, Zhang Guotao did not let Chen Geng continue to work in the Red Army School and transferred him to the Red First Army as a division commander.
The cadre regiment was organized into a special science regiment of the Red Army School, with Wei Guoqing as the head and Song Renqiang as the political commissar. It has four sections: the Cavalry Section, with Section Chief Su Jin, the Engineer Section, Section Chief Tan Xilin, the Artillery Section, Section Chief Feng Dafei, and the Machine Gun Section, Section Chief Wang Zhitao.
After Zhang Guotao openly engaged in separatism, the Special Science and Technology Group resolutely struggled against Zhang Guotao's separatist acts. When the Central Red Army went north, the Special Science Regiment, under the leadership of its commander Wei Guoqing and political commissar Song Renqiang, broke away from the Red Army School and insisted on following the Party Central Committee to the north. Because most of the trainees of the Special Science Regiment at that time were members of the Red Fourth Front Army, and most of these students followed Zhang Guotao south, in the end, there were actually only a few dozen cadres of the original Red Front Army left in the Special Science Regiment.
In September 1935, the Central Red Army arrived at Hadapu in Luzhou, Gansu Province after crossing the snow-capped mountains and meadows with great difficulty and successfully breaking through the blockade line of Lazikou. The Red Army was reorganized in the Hadapu Central Committee, and the 1st and 3rd Army Corps of the Red Army and the organs directly under the Central Military Commission (including the Special Science Regiment) were organized into the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with three subordinate columns. The Special Science Regiment was incorporated into the Third Column and merged with the Teaching Battalion of the 1st Red Army Corps and changed to a battalion school. The principal is Chen Qihan, the former commander of the teaching battalion of the Red First Army, the political commissar is still Song Renqiang, and the director of the political department is Mo Wenhua.
The school is subordinate to a higher-level cadre corps, captain Zhou Shidi, political commissar Dong Biwu, two military companies, and one political company. The commander of the first company, Huang Yanbin, the instructor, Li Zhimin, the instructor, and Liu Shaoqing, the deputy company commander. Huo Haiyuan, the commander of the second company, and Yang Bailang, the commander of the third company. A special science battalion has an engineer company and a heavy machine gun company, with battalion commander Wei Guoqing and political commissar Chen Renqi. He still serves as the direct guard of the organs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Revolution.
In October 1935, the Suiying School and the Northern Shaanxi Red Army Cadre School met in Wayaobao Town. Later, according to the order of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, the battalion school and the rear health unit were merged to form the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army School. Principal Zhou Kun, political commissar Song Renqiang.
The historical mission of the Central Red Army cadres and regiments in the Long March was successfully fulfilled.
Some people say that the Red Army cadre regiment is the Red Army's version of the "storm commando" formed under the leadership of Li De, which is used to verify Li De's "short assault theory" and to play the role of "special forces" in combat. The author believes that this view is debatable. This is because Song Renqiang, who has always served as the political commissar of the cadre regiment, has already explained in his memoirs that the purpose of forming the Red Army cadre regiment is to protect and train cadres, which is a glorious tradition of the Red Army all along. In addition, the main task of the Red Army cadres and regiments is to serve as the vigilance and defense of the organs of the Party Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and they are not to be used as an assault force, and they are reluctant to use them unless they have to.
Song Renqiang, Xiao Jinguang and Chen Geng
The Central Red Army Cadre Corps made outstanding achievements during the Long March, and it also produced many generals. Anyone who has served in the cadre regiment, and it is recorded in the article that there are 1 person at the national level after the founding of the People's Republic of China (Dong Biwu, in fact, Mao Zedong put him in the cadre regiment for Chen Geng to take care of, and Xu Teli also went with him), 2 generals (Chen Geng, Xiao Jinguang), 5 generals (Wei Guoqing, Song Renqiang, Chen Qihan, Zhou Shidi, Li Zhimin), 4 lieutenant generals (Mo Wenhua, Ding Qiusheng, Fang Qiang, Tan Xilin), 4 major generals (Su Qisheng, Su Jin, Wang Zhitao, Liu Shaoqing), 1 minister (Luo Guibo), 1 person at the deputy ministerial level (Jiang Yaode), as well as many company and platoon cadres and thousands of students who have not been counted, as well as those cadres such as Zhong Jianwei and Huang Yanbin, who have made immortal contributions to the revolutionary cause!
I would like to pay high tribute to the ancestors who sacrificed their blood and lives for the cause of the Chinese revolution!