If your boss comes to you now and says that your superiors have given an important task, there is a high probability that they will be sacrificed, and even if they are completed, there is no reward, would you be willing? Presumably, the answer for most people is no.
However, in 1934, nearly 6,000 people nodded firmly, and they were the Red 34th Division, the "desperate guard division" during the Long March.
This army was very tragic, and it withstood several times the enemy's attack during the bloody battle on the Xiangjiang River. In order to cover the central government's crossing of the river, they knew that they could not do it, and they stubbornly guarded the port.
In the end, under the heavy encirclement of the enemy, the Red 34th Division was almost completely annihilated. According to incomplete statistics, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, only 12 people from the old Red Army of the 34th Division of the Red Army were found, and only 3 people were able to obtain military ranks in 55 years. Who are these three?
After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Central Red Army was forced to embark on the road of the Long March. At first, the enemy's defenses were not tight, and our troops broke through three blockade lines one after another.
By the time they reached the Hunan and Guizhou borders, Chiang Kai-shek had already mobilized 300,000 troops and relied on the natural barrier of the Xiangjiang River to arrange the fourth line of defense. Therefore, whether or not they can cross the river has a bearing on the life and death of the Central Red Army.
In order to gain a chance, the Central Military Commission made a series of arrangements, among which the Red 34th Division undertook a very important task, not only to protect the safety of the Central Column and the Central Military Commission Column, but also to cover the advance of the Red Eighth Army Corps and the Red Ninth Army Corps towards the Xiangjiang River.
The pursuers came very quickly and fiercely, and Chen Shuxiang, commander of the 34th Division, was so anxious that he could only repel the enemy again and again, hoping that the central authorities would cross the river as soon as possible.
After the central government was temporarily safe, the Red 34th Division received a new task - to take over the defensive position of the 18th Regiment of the 6th Division of the Red Third Army Corps at the foot of the maple tree on November 30.
This order was equivalent to cutting off the opportunity for the Red 34th Division to cross the river, but all the commanders and fighters still carried it out without hesitation.
In the early morning of the 30th, the Red 34th Division crossed the Guan River and rushed to the foot of the maple tree, they were not familiar with the terrain and had no guide, but the route given by the Central Military Commission's telegram was wrong, and they went straight into the depths of the Dupang Ridge.
On the afternoon of December 1, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission asked them to follow the map in a straight line, crossing Baogai Mountain to the foot of the maple tree, and then the Red 34th Division changed direction.
But after two days of walking, a new order came again, requiring them to cross the Xiangjiang River through Datang and directly into the mouth of the phoenix. By this time, it was too late, and the ferry was all occupied by the national army.
The successive changes in direction made the Red 34th Division miserable and ruined their vitality.
On the evening of December 3, the 102nd Regiment of the Pioneer of the Red 34th Division encountered the Xia Wei Department of the Seventh Army of the Gui Department and suffered heavy losses, and in the fierce battle, a shell hit the headquarters of the 102nd Regiment, and Cheng Cuilin, the political commissar of the 34th Division, and Cai Zhong, the political commissar of the 102nd Regiment, who commanded here, died.
Not only was the loss of personnel, but the only remaining radio station in the division was also blown up, and their communication with the central government was completely cut off, which was tantamount to announcing the final end.
The division commander Chen Shuxiang was still making the last effort to bring the team out, and he ordered the whole division to retreat eastward into the Dayuan Mountains while fighting, but unfortunately the enemy had already prepared, and our army was quickly dispersed, and each regiment could only fight on its own.
In the melee, Hou Zhonghui, political commissar of the 100th Regiment, Su Daqing, head of the 101st Regiment, and Peng Zhufeng, political commissar, died one after another.
After finally standing out for the time being, the remaining people gathered together and said that they would never betray the revolution.
In order to leave some seeds for the division, Chen Shuxiang decided to divide his troops into two routes, one was that he himself took more than 600 people to southern Xiangnan, and the other was to transfer about 300 people to the direction of Liu Muqing, the commander of the 100th regiment, Han Wei.
They had hoped that at least some of them would rush out, but it backfired. Chen Shuxiang and others were intercepted by the Kuomintang local security group at Sima Bridge in Dao County, and after the troops were dispersed, Chen Shuxiang was wounded and captured.
The enemy recognized Chen Shuxiang as a high-ranking general of the Red Army and excitedly wanted to go to Changsha to receive the reward. In order to avoid humiliation, Chen Shuxiang took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness on the road, endured the pain, tore out his intestines in the wound, and strangled them vigorously, and died heroically.
The situation on Han Wei's side was not good, in order to buy time for the division commander, he insisted on breaking through until nightfall. However, the enemy bit very hard, and the 100th regiment could only retreat while fighting. After the bloody battle, only more than 30 people remained.
The enemy still pursued them and forced them to the edge of a cliff on the bank of the Guanjiang River, at this time there were 5 people around Han Wei, none of them wanted to be prisoners, and they all jumped off the cliff.
Han Wei, Hu Wenxuan, political commissar of the 3rd Battalion, Hou Shikui, commander of the 1st Battalion, and Li Jinshan, a communicator of the 5th Company, all landed on the tree first when they jumped down, and there was a certain buffer, and there was no fear for their lives at that time, but unfortunately Hu Wenxuan and Li Jinshan were later killed by the pursuing enemy.
On the way to escape, Han Wei and Hou Shikui met Luo Jindang, the commander of the first battalion, and under the treatment and cover of local villagers, the three of them recuperated at the home of a village doctor. After Han Wei and Hou Shikui recovered from their injuries, they went to the party organization, and Luo Jindang continued to be treated if he was seriously injured.
At this time, the main force of the central government had already been transferred, and Han Wei and Hou Shikui couldn't return to the team after looking for two months, so they had to act separately. Han Wei went to his brother's house in Wuhan to see if there was any information here.
However, just a few days after settling down, the traitor Zhang Lianhua (who had participated in the Anyuan strike with Han Wei) discovered his traces and arrested Han Wei with the police.
Fortunately, Zhang Lianhua only knew that Han Wei had participated in the Red Army, and did not know his position. Han Wei insisted that he was just an ordinary soldier, and that he was not persecuted, but only imprisoned for several years.
After the Xi'an incident, the two parties cooperated. During the negotiations, our party proposed to "release political prisoners and go to the national disaster together," and the Kuomintang released a number of people.
At that time, the Red Army officers and soldiers could regain their freedom, and the cadres had to be sent to Nanjing, but fortunately, Han Wei's identity was not exposed, so he was successfully freed and transferred to Yan'an to study at Kang University.
In his subsequent war career, Han Wei served as the commander of the 4th Regiment of the Jin-Cha-Ji Second Army Division, the commander of the Fifth Army Division, the commander of the Rehe Military Region, the deputy commander of the 2nd Column of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and the commander of the 67th Army. In 1955, Han Wei was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
Jumping off a cliff with Han Wei, Hou Shikui is also one of the survivors who received the rank in 55. After the two failed to find an organization and separated, Hou Shikui was captured by the reactionary militia and sent to Hengyang for detention, and soon after was taken to Kunming Prison for punishment.
In order to obtain information about the Red Army, the enemy inflicted various kinds of torture on Hou Shikui, causing him to suffer severe physical damage, nerve damage, and epilepsy.
Even so, Hou Shikui did not reveal half of the secret, and insisted until the two parties cooperated and was released.
After that, he successively served as the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment of the 115th Division, the deputy commander of the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the Shandong Column, the commander of the 5th Brigade of the Liaonan Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, and the commander of the 10th Division of the 4th Column of the Dongye, and obtained the rank of major general in 1955.
The highest rank of the Red 34th Division until 1955 was General Zhu Liangcai, who once served as the secretary of the military headquarters of the Zhu Maohong Fourth Army, when there were only two secretaries in the military department, and the other was Tan Zheng.
During the Xiangjiang Campaign, he served as the director of the Political Department of the Red 34th Division, and while directing the battle, his old wounds recurred and bled profusely, and he was sent to the Red Army General Hospital, which allowed him to escape death. When he recovered, the troops were gone, and how to arrange them became a difficult problem.
During his treatment, Zhu Liangcai witnessed the increasing number of injuries and illnesses, and heard with his own ears that many people were shaken by the prospects of the revolution, so he took the initiative to apply for the post of political commissar of the General Health Department and General Hospital of the Central Military Commission, and the Central Committee agreed.
Later, he actively did ideological work for the wounded, and if there were seriously wounded fighters during the transfer, he was the first to carry the stretcher, which was to show that the organization would not give up on anyone.
With him taking the lead, many comrades spontaneously went to carry stretchers, forming a cohesive force of unity from top to bottom.
Later, Zhu Liangcai also participated in the Western Route Army, and after the troops were dispersed, he walked for 36 days and returned to Yan'an after many hardships.
These two catastrophes made him see many things, and in 1955 he was awarded the rank of general and became the political commissar of the Beijing Military Region. However, believing that the revolution had succeeded and that younger cadres had been trained, he offered to resign.
Chairman Mao and Nie Shuai both talked to him, but Zhu Liangcai was very resolute, not only wrote letters many times, but also found Premier Zhou to talk to him three times in person. Reluctantly, the central government approved his request in 1958.
He is an old Jinggang, the chairman has a lot of feelings for him, and he specially talked with him once before officially leaving his post, and when he saw that he had made up his mind, he said humorously: People are occupying the pit and not, you are good, you can but not occupy the pit.
Of the 6,000 people in that year, only 3 people were left who could get the rank in 55 years, this ratio is sad, and it can also be seen how difficult it is to succeed in the revolution!