In October 1934, the vigorous Long March began, and a large-scale transfer that shocked the world began. From the central Soviet region to northern Shaanxi, passing through snow-capped mountains, grasslands, and uninhabited areas, the Red Army created a miracle under the conditions of interception in front, pursuing troops in the rear, and constant harassment by fighter planes in the air, so that hundreds of thousands of well-equipped Kuomintang troops along the way became a historical background wall.
Everyone knows the greatness of the Long March, but how great is the Long March? Perhaps in the perception of many people, the Red Army's Long March was a "great escape", escaping from the encirclement and interception of hundreds of thousands of elite troops of the Kuomintang, believing that the greatness of the Red Army lies in escaping, but the truth is not so.
Moreover, have you ever thought about the question: The starting point of the Red Army's Long March was the Central Soviet Region, and if it was just to escape, it would become a destination in all directions, but why did the Red Army finally march toward northern Shaanxi? Speaking of the real reasons behind this incident, there are both great decisions and heart-wrenching compulsions.
The GI is overwhelmed
In 1934, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" against the central Soviet area. In the previous battles, the Kuomintang army suffered repeated setbacks and was never able to inflict heavy losses on the Red Army, but allowed the Red Army to grow and develop again and again. This time, Chiang Kai-shek invested more than a million troops and formulated a "roller" tactic to shrink the encirclement at a rate of several miles a day, in an attempt to destroy the Red Army in one fell swoop.
Chairman Mao had not yet obtained the command of the Red Army at that time, and the Red Army chose to harden the Kuomintang army head-on when the Red Army had won several victories against "encirclement and suppression" in the past, and the battle situation was very unfavorable. As the Kuomintang army continued to compress the living space of the Red Army, a breakthrough was imminent, and a forced Long March began.
There is no dispute that breaking through the encirclement was the only way out at that time, but the problem is that the Red Army's breakthrough means leaving the central Soviet region, and after losing this base area, what will be the future of the Red Army? Bogu and Li De chose the destination in the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area, and decided to lead the Red Army to march all the way to the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area after breaking through the encirclement, and join forces with the Red 2nd and 6th Corps there, and then make a long-term plan.
This was an option, but it was so obvious that after the Red Army broke through the encirclement, even Chiang Kai-shek saw through the Red Army's intentions at a glance, and sent heavy troops to set up an ambush on the way to the Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guizhou base areas in the central Soviet area, just waiting for the Red Army to enter the encirclement.
Therefore, the Red Army suffered heavy losses under the command of these two people, and the battle of Xiangjiang suffered heavy casualties, and more than 70,000 Red Army troops rushed while fighting, crossing the river under enemy artillery fire, and finally only more than 30,000 people crossed the river, and the heroic souls of the remaining tens of thousands of soldiers remained on the other side forever.
After this battle, the correctness of the two men's command has begun to be questioned. However, the two did not change their strategy because of this, and still insisted on going their own way and planned to continue to move closer to the base areas of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou. The Red Army suffered heavy casualties and demoralization, and Chiang Kai-shek had already reorganized the ambush, and if he really continued the march according to the intentions of the two, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Power Grind Crazy
When the flame of revolution was shaking, Chairman Mao stepped forward at this critical moment and strongly advocated the plan to abandon the original plan and instead march to Guizhou, which was supported by Zhang Wentian, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and others, and the Red Army was able to get rid of Chiang Kai-shek's ambush and move to Guizhou, ushering in new hope.
What is the difference between the Red Army's move closer to the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area and its advance toward Guizhou? First, the enemy's intention to advance to the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area has been seen through by the enemy, and the road of advance is full of dangers, and the Red Army can no longer withstand another heavy blow; second, as long as the Red Army gets rid of its plan to march to the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area, it will immediately have more choices.
At that time, Guizhou belonged to the weak zone of the Kuomintang army's defense, and Chairman Mao led the Red Army to Guizhou with two advantages, one was to let the enemy army have no purpose, and the other was to reverse the passive situation and no longer blindly escape. Although the Red Army was not inferior to the Kuomintang army in terms of strength and weaponry at that time, tens of thousands of troops still had considerable combat effectiveness, and marching into Guizhou was equivalent to attacking the weak point of the Kuomintang, so that the Kuomintang had to defend, so that the Kuomintang army could be mobilized and change from passive escape to active attack!
Chairman Mao's generous speech made the people of insight present immediately understand his intentions, and they immediately felt that they were suddenly open, so they won the support of everyone and established a leading position in the subsequent Zunyi Conference.
The sudden appearance of the Red Army in Guizhou surprised Chiang Kai-shek, because most of the Kuomintang's forces were deployed along the Yangtze River. The Red Army suddenly diverted to Guizhou, causing all Chiang Kai-shek's arrangements to fall through and immediately panic. Guizhou's troops were empty and could not allow Chiang Kai-shek to redeploy troops, so he gathered heavy troops and pursued Zunyi.
This time, Chairman Mao planned to enter Sichuan and cross the Yangtze River north to join the Red 4th Front Army. Judging from Chairman Mao's plan, whether Chairman Mao led the Red Army into Guizhou or planned to go to Sichuan, it was decided according to the war situation at that time, and northern Shaanxi was not the destination of the Red Army's Long March for a long time.
Chiang Kai-shek's heavy troops along the Yangtze River did not move, and sent other troops to rush to Zunyi, which was menacing. Seeing this, Chairman Mao immediately led the Red Army across Chishui and came to Tashi after the Battle of Tucheng. At this time, the movement of the Red Army still seemed to be to cross the river northward and join the Red 4th Front.
Therefore, the Kuomintang army pounced on Tashi and strengthened its defenses along the Yangtze River, just waiting to drive Tashi's Red Army into the encirclement. But Chairman Mao was so far-sighted, and his thinking was completely beyond Chiang Kai-shek's ability to see through, and when the Kuomintang army was encircling Tashi, Chairman Mao killed a horse pistol, and led the Red Army to cross the Chishui River and return to Zunyi, and also destroyed two enemy divisions by the way.
The Red Army was not only not consumed, but replenished, and the news reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears, which made him furious, and immediately transferred troops to pursue Zunyi. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek once again pounced this time, because Chairman Mao led the Red Army to cross the Chishui River again through the town of Maotai.
The Kuomintang army has always been one step behind the Red Army, like an ox being led by the nose, but there is nothing to be done. Chiang Kai-shek was also aware of the passive situation of the Kuomintang army at this time, but he never found the opportunity to reverse the situation, at this time he heard that the Red Army had crossed the Chishui again, and suddenly came to the spirit, he thought that the Red Army had killed a horse pistol last time to throw off the Kuomintang pursuers, and this time the Chishui crossing must take the opportunity to go north and cross the Yangtze River.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly transferred troops to strengthen the defense line along the Yangtze River, as long as the Red Army dared to cross the Yangtze River at this time, it was bound to fall into the heavy encirclement of the Kuomintang army. Chiang Kai-shek was very confident in his judgment this time, and waited for the good news to come, but he did not expect that Chairman Mao did not cross the Yangtze River north this time, but crossed the Chishui again and led the Red Army straight to Guiyang to kill.
Chiang Kai-shek, who learned the news again, was struck by lightning, not because the Red Army's action was beyond his expectations, because even if he did not calculate accurately, he could have organized a pursuit again, after all, the superiority in strength was always on the side of the Kuomintang. But the problem was that Guiyang was Chiang Kai-shek's old nest, and at this time Guiyang's troops were very empty, and all of them were transferred by Chiang Kai-shek to prevent the Red Army from crossing the Yangtze River.
The Red Army crossed Chishui again and sent troops to Guiyang, and this step alone can be described as a stroke of genius, avoiding the pursuit and blockade of the enemy, and directly attacking the enemy's soft underbelly, so that Chiang Kai-shek had an embarrassing situation of being overstretched in the face of comprehensive superiority in troops. In order to protect himself, Chiang Kai-shek also did not care about face, and opened his mouth to ask Long Yun in Yunnan for help, and Long Yun then sent troops to Guiyang to relieve Chiang Kai-shek's urgent need.
After receiving the news that Long Yun had sent troops to come to his aid, Chiang Kai-shek felt a little relieved and was less afraid of the Red Army shouting "capture Chiang Kai-shek alive". It's just that what Chiang Kai-shek and Long Yun didn't expect was that the Red Army's actions were thunderous and rainy, and the Red Army, which was marching all the way towards Guiyang, arrived in Guiyang immediately, but did not have the slightest intention of staying, but went farther and farther.
Chiang Kai-shek and Long Yun, whose faces were full of question marks, suddenly felt confused, but soon Long Yun panicked, because he found that the direction of the Red Army's advance was not somewhere else, it was Yunnan, where Long Yun was located. Good guy, Long Yun dispatched troops to aid Guiyang, which relieved Chiang Kai-shek's urgent need, but caused an empty situation in Yunnan, which made Long Yun suddenly experience Chiang Kai-shek's feelings not long ago.
Long Yun was helpless, in order to protect himself, he hurriedly transferred troops from the direction of the Jinsha River to come to the rescue, and after the Jinsha River troops were transferred, the Red Army immediately appeared in the Jinsha River area, taking advantage of the emptiness of Long Yun's troops in this area, and successfully crossed the Jinsha River. The Jinsha River is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and crossing the Jinsha River is equivalent to crossing the Yangtze River, and the Red Army's move is tantamount to announcing to the Kuomintang that it has realized its original military intentions, and making hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang soldiers cry out.
Judging from Chairman Mao's actions after commanding the Red Army, Chairman Mao's goal of crossing the Yangtze River has never changed, but he has constantly changed the direction and rhythm in the process of marching, and has never clearly set the end point of the Long March.
After all, during the march of the Red Army led by Chairman Mao, although there was no way to meet the enemy, he was always holding the enemy's nose and walking, making the enemy confused at the same time, he also continued to dispatch troops in accordance with Chairman Mao's ideas, and "four crossings of the Chishui" also became Chairman Mao's proud work.
Marched into northern Shaanxi
Later, after Chairman Mao led the army to Gansu, he learned that there was a Red Army in northern Shaanxi, so he decided to march to northern Shaanxi and set northern Shaanxi as the destination of the Long March. Even if the Red Army crossed the Yangtze River, there were still many options, why was it set in northern Shaanxi at this time?
First, there is a Red Army contingent in northern Shaanxi, which is the Red 26th Army led by Liu Zhidan. The team experienced many setbacks back then, but under the leadership of Liu Zhidan, it re-emerged and established a base.
Second, the Red Army had two choices, one was to pass through Sichuan, and the other was to continue to go north through the world. At that time, Chairman Mao chose to continue to go north and create the Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu District, so as to start a new journey.
Judging from these two points, northern Shaanxi all met the criteria, and as long as the Red Army marched into northern Shaanxi, it would have a broader world, which was far better than being trapped in Sichuan. Moreover, with Comrade Liu Zhidan's army and base areas there, the Red Army will no longer be rootless duckweed and can be better developed.