Li Xinguo/text
Commander Wang Shusheng
The Western Route Army crossed the Yellow River and marched towards the Hexi Corridor from October 1936 to the spring of 1937. This was a major loss in the history of the Red Army caused by Zhang Guotao's right-leaning separatist line. In the autumn of 1936, the Central Red Army led by the CPC Central Committee and Chairman Mao had arrived in northern Shaanxi for a year. At that time, Zhang Guotao, the principal responsible person of the Red Fourth Front Army, in order to realize his wolf ambition of usurping the party and seizing power, continued to resist the correct decision of the party Central Committee to ask the Red Fourth Front Army to go to northern Shaanxi, adopted conspiracy methods to deceive the superiors and conceal the subordinates, put forward slogans such as "establishing a base area in the Hexi Corridor" and "opening up the international route" in the name of the central authorities, and ordered the Red Fifth Army, the Red Ninth Army, and the Red 30th Army to form the Western Route Army, and on October 26, 1936, forcibly crossed the Yellow River from the upper reaches of Jingyuan, Gansu Province, and marched westward. The Ma family bandits (Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang) in Tonggan and Qing provinces in the Hexi Corridor and the Kuomintang Hu Zongnan reactionaries fought a heroic and tenacious bloody battle. However, due to errors in the guidance of the route, we were almost completely annihilated in the attack of an enemy several times larger than mine. Originally, I was an operational staff officer of the Ninth Army of the Red Fourth Front Army, and I was transferred to the center of the westward march to serve as the chief of the combat section of the cavalry division. Participated in the whole process of the Red Ninth Army's operations in the Hexi Corridor. Today, in the spirit of seeking truth from facts, looking back on the arduous experience of the Ninth Army of the Red Army in the Hexi Corridor more than 40 years ago is very instructive for both the present and the future. Due to the lapse of several decades, there are many names, place names and certain episodes that cannot be recalled. Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be many errors and omissions, which will be supplemented and corrected by those who wish to know.
Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao rejected the correct policy of the Party Central Committee
The Red Fourth Front Army suffered a setback in the Battle of Mintao
In early August 1936, our Red Second and Fourth Front armies walked out of the grassland, entered Gansu, and arrived at Gannan Hadapu. The troops climbed the snowy mountains and crossed the meadows, had no food, no clothing, and sometimes could not even drink a sip of water during the long journey, and suffered hardships. After the troops arrived at Hadapu, the situation was very different, there were egg sellers and baked cakes in the town, and the mood of the troops suddenly improved. Because everyone was covered with lice, they needed to wipe the bath and change their clothes, so they rested in Hadapu for two or three days.
At this time, the central authorities had sent Comrades Nie Rongzhen and Zuo Quan to lead troops to meet us, and after the three armies converged, they planned to seek opportunities to encircle and annihilate the two divisions of Mao Bingwen of the Kuomintang 37th Army (i.e., Tao Zhiyue's division of the 8th Division and Xu Kexiang's division of the 24th Division) on the front line of Longxi, and then advance into northern Shaanxi. However, Zhang Guotao adhered to the wrong line and engaged in another Mintao campaign, and used this as an excuse to reject the correct policy of the party Central Committee.
Therefore, the Red Fourth Front Army drove to the vicinity of Minxian and Lintan counties to carry out the task of the Mintao Campaign. The combat mission of our Ninth Army was to attack the Kuomintang new 14th Division Lu Dachang in Minxian City. The enemy's defensive forces in Gannan were weak, and there was only one local miscellaneous division in Lu Dachang. However, Minxian is the nest of the warlords of Lu Dachangtu, and when the Red Army pressed the border, he was afraid of being wiped out, so he concentrated all six regiments of his main force in Minxian and Erlang Mountain in the southern suburbs, and stubbornly defended Minxian County. Therefore, although the vast area of Gannan was quickly occupied by the Red Army, the county town of Minxian was still in the hands of the enemy.
In mid-August, our army drove to the outside of Minxian County, prepared for about a week to capture Minxian County, tied up the ladder, equipped it with firepower, and began to attack the city. There are two brigades defending the enemy in Minxian County, and there are local militia groups to cooperate, and the strength is quite strong, and our army lacks heavy weapons, so the siege of the city is a night battle.
The siege of the city on the first night caused heavy casualties before the troops could get close to the walls. Then, our army concentrated its fire, and although we approached the city wall and set up a ladder, when we had just climbed up to the city, we were blown up by the enemy. After repeated many times, our army retreated without attacking the city. The next night, our army organized forces to attack the city again, and the troops had climbed the city by ladders. However, the defenders launched a counter-charge, and as a result, we did not take the city because the follow-up troops did not follow. After two failed sieges, our army still did not give up its plan to capture Minxian County. At that time, I was a reconnaissance staff officer of the Second Section of the Military Department, and Comrade Chen Haisong, political commissar of the army, sent me to lead a reconnaissance squad to sneak attack from a sewer leading to the river in Minxian County. The enemy was condescending, guns and bullets were fired, grenades were thrown down the head, and two comrades of the reconnaissance squad were wounded and retreated. The assault was unsuccessful, and the sneak attack failed. At the same time, Erlang Mountain, the commanding heights in the south of Minxian County, has not been captured even though it has been fiercely attacked by the brother troops. After that, although our army besieged Minxian County for a long time, the Kuomintang airdropped ammunition and supplies to Lu Dachang's department to defend it. This battle was not fought well, and Minxian County was not taken, which was the first battle of the Mintao Battle after the Ninth Army came out of the grassland. Because the Battle of Mintao not only caused our army to suffer undue losses, but also caused the Red Fourth Front Army to stay in Gannan for more than a month, thus delaying the convergence with the troops led by Nie Rongzhen and Zuo Quan of the Central Committee, and missing the favorable opportunity to encircle and annihilate the troops of Mao Bingwen and Xu Kexiang. It was also a tactical mistake for the Red Army to march long distances and not get a good rest, so it was also tactically wrong to fortify the city and storm the enemy's heavily defended city.
Xu Xiangqian
Zhang Guotao once again split the Red Army
Organize the Western Route Army to cross the Yellow River westward
After the defeat in the Battle of Mintao, Zhang Guotao should have given up his erroneous ideas, followed the instructions of the central authorities and moved closer to the Huining area of Gansu, and joined forces with the First and Second Front Armies to advance into northern Shaanxi to meet the new upsurge of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. However, Zhang Guotao still adhered to the wrong line of retreat, and in order to realize his personal ambitions and resist the instructions of the central government, he ordered the Left Route Army of the Long March (including the 9th and 30th Armies of the Red Fourth Front Army and the Red Fifth Army) to advance westward into the Xining area of Qinghai. The troops had just walked out of the meadow and had to re-enter the meadow. Around the middle of September, we went west from Minxian County to the Lintan area, at the edge of the grassland, walked for a day, the grass beach and mud swamp were very deep, and the horses could not get out as soon as they fell in. Because this was the third time to cross the grassland, and after the defeat in the Battle of Mintao, the troops were very tired, lacked food, and were in a bad mood, even the cadres did not want to go to the grassland again.
Under such circumstances, Zhang Guotao had no choice but to decide to go north out of the grassland, go to Jingning instead, and go to Huining.
In late October, when the Red Fourth Front Army arrived in Huining, and after joining up with the First and Second Front Armies, it was planned to return to the north and plan to eliminate a division of Hu Zongnan at Longdongshan Castle, end the Long March, and go to the base area in northern Shaanxi. However, unexpectedly, the troops received an order to cross the Yellow River to the west, organize the Western Route Army, and go to the Hexi Corridor in Gansu. At that time, they mobilized the troops, saying: "Open up the international route", "Establish a base area in Hexi", and "This is a decision of the central authorities." In fact, everyone is kept in the dark and does not know anything about the real situation. The Red Fourth Front Army has such a characteristic, that is, the cadres below have always resolutely carried out the orders and instructions of their superiors to the letter, and the cadres have a strict sense of organization and discipline, and they will go wherever they say. Therefore, the troops always thought that the westward crossing was a strategic decision of the Party Central Committee, but they did not expect that it was Zhang Guotao who embezzled the name of the Central Committee, deceived the superiors and subordinates, and split the Red Army again.
On October 26, 1936, we crossed the Yellow River from Jingyuan upstream. The 30th Army (army commander Cheng Shicai and political commissar Li Xiannian) was the advance force for forcibly crossing the Yellow River, and after receiving the order, it chose 20 miles upstream of Jingyuan as the breakthrough point. On the night of October 24, the crossing failed, and the next night the forced crossing was successful. As soon as he crossed the river, he engaged the enemy Han Qilu cavalry brigade guarding the opposite bank, and after a fierce battle, the enemy was routed, 200 prisoners were captured, and 800 guns were surrendered. Our army took control of the ferry, and then the Red Ninth Army also crossed the Yellow River. The large force crossed the river, advanced forward, and defeated the resistance of the enemy's Maru brigade. In order to allow the army to quickly cross the river, a pontoon bridge was erected at the ferry, and the organs directly under the headquarters and the Red Fifth Army passed through. Originally, it was planned that the Red Fourth Front Army would cross the Yellow River, but when the Red Fourth Army passed a regiment, Hu Zongnan's troops intervened, and the pontoon bridge was also blown up by enemy planes, and it was no longer possible to cross the river. Therefore, the Red Fourth Army and the 31st Army were held back by the southern part of Huzong, and one regiment that had passed also returned to Hedong. The troops that crossed the Yellow River to the west were the vanguard of the Four Front Army, which was claimed to be 40,000 at that time, but in fact there were only more than 27,000 people. The commander-in-chief of the Western Route Army was Xu Xiangqian, General Political Commissar Chen Changhao, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Wang Shusheng, Chief of Staff Li Te, and Director of the Political Department Li Zhuoran.
The Battle of a Mountain
After the troops crossed the river, they fought and advanced, and the three brigades of Ma Buqing's river defense army were scattered, and our army quickly advanced to a mountain in the Jingtai area. At this time, not only the Ma Buqing Department in Gansu, but also the Ma Bufang Department in Qinghai rushed up to reinforce the Yellow River defenders. The enemy probably concentrated about five brigades. The 30th Army was responsible for the main attack of the avant-garde, and the 9th Army was responsible for guarding the enemy in Lanzhou. So our two armies engaged in a fierce battle with the horse bandit troops in a mountainous area. The battle was well fought, destroying part of the enemy, crushing part of the enemy, and the enemy fled in disarray. It was the first victory of our army to cross the Yellow River to the west. At that time, the mood of the troops was high, and all the commanders and fighters regarded the victory of this battle as a gift to the party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and always thought that it was to realize Chairman Mao's strategic decision, to open up the international line, and to establish a base in the Hexi Corridor.
In fact, after crossing the river, the Party Central Committee had already issued a telegram ordering the 30th Army to prepare ships and ask the Western Route Army, which had already crossed the Yellow River, to return to Hedong and go to northern Shaanxi. At that time, everyone did not understand that this was an order of the Party Central Committee, but it was inexplicable and could not distinguish between truth and falsehood. While the boats were being gathered to prepare to cross the river, suddenly a second order came from us, telling our Ninth and Thirty Armies to continue westward. This is another ghost hall made by Zhang Guotao, who once again disobeyed the instructions of the central government.
The troops continued to advance westward, and the headquarters was to be ordered to organize the 30th Army (under the jurisdiction of the 88th and 89th Divisions) into a right detachment, the Ninth Army (under the jurisdiction of the 25th and 27th Divisions) into a left detachment, and the headquarters organs and the Fifth Army (with three infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, and special service regiments) to advance with the 30th Army. The right detachment along the Great Wall, through Dajing, Tumenzi, Huangyang Town, Liangzhou Chengnan, entered Yongchang, and hit Ganzhou (Zhangye); The left detachment passed through Ganchaiwa, entered Gulang, and hit Liangzhou (Wuwei). The purpose is to establish a base area in the Hexi Corridor. On the way to the west, the comrades really experienced the hardships of the world. In the middle of winter and November, the weather in the northwest is already the season of dripping water into ice, and the comrades are marching in the desert wearing single clothes and trousers that do not block the cold wind, and the cold wind rolls up the wind and sand all over the sky, hitting them in the face head-on, like a cluster of bees stinging and drilling heartache, unable to open their eyes. Although a victory was fought after crossing the river, the troops were too tired because of the change of orders and the return of the east and west. At the same time, it also raised some doubts, but it was not clear what was going on. It is not clear whether cadres at and above the army level know about it, but cadres below the division level do not understand it. The troops advanced in an atmosphere of wind and sand and suspicion.
On the way, the 30th Army annihilated an engineer battalion defending the enemy at Dajing and captured more than 300 people. At this time, the central authorities sent a telegram instructing our troops to return all prisoners of war and guns in accordance with the spirit of our army's "August 1 Declaration" in order to show their sincerity in uniting to resist Japan and unanimously to the outside world. The 30th Avant-garde Army returned all its guns and put all the enemy back. However, it did not work. The Western Route Army won several victories in the battles of crossing the river, a mountain, and Dajing, and the troops had a feeling of underestimating the enemy, especially after the battle of a mountain, they thought that the horse bandits were not so difficult to fight, so the troops were scattered, and they advanced in great strides, and the lone army went deep. The detachment on the right crossed Liangzhou to take Yongchang directly, and then hit Ganzhou. This kind of deployment made the forces even more dispersed, and the distance between the battle lines was too long, and the end could not be taken care of, and the various units of the Western Route Army fought in isolation, which was also an important reason for the defeat.
Ma Jiajun militia
The Battle of Dry Chai Wa
In mid-November, the Ninth Army of the Left Route Detachment of the Westward Advance Left Route left a mountain and advanced in the direction of Ganchaiwa Gulang, with the aim of shielding the enemy, opening up Liangzhou, and establishing a base area, which backfired. We marched day and night, and walked all night, and the day was still unknown to the dry firewood pool. During the march, our rearguard troops found enemy cavalry in motion, as well as infantry, the number of which was unknown. Therefore, after the troops entered the camp in Ganchaiwa, the military headquarters immediately ordered the troops to build fortifications, use the courtyard wall as a bunker, dig up gun holes, strengthen vigilance, and prepare to block the enemy. It was about eight o'clock in the morning, and the troops had just finished eating, when the horse bandit cavalry caught up, and the local militia also cooperated with the horse bandit cavalry and launched an attack on our army. The battle of dry firewood was fought.
The enemy launched a fierce attack on our positions, and the horse bandit cavalry was also moving in a northwesterly direction in an attempt to pincer our troops. At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the enemy's planes bombed and strafed to cover the ground troops to attack our positions again. Army Commander Sun Yuqing and Political Commissar Chen Haisong immediately organized all the staff officers of the headquarters and all the soldiers of the Communications Brigade and went into battle together. At the critical juncture, Comrade Liu Peiji, chief of the No. 1 Section of the Military Department, personally led the personnel of the organs, brandished short guns, broadswords, and grenades, bravely resisted, and repelled the enemy's attacks three times in succession. During the third counter-charge, Comrade Liu Peiji jumped out of the courtyard wall and led some of the communicators to fight back against the enemy's dense firepower. Then the second section chief took the lead bravely, and then rushed forward, took the initiative to take on the task of commanding the battle, and continued to counterattack the enemy. At the last moment, a certain regiment of the 25th Division of our army attacked from the enemy's flank, and the enemy saw that the situation was not good, fled in confusion, and could not even bother to pull the corpse, retreated in defeat, and relieved the siege of the military headquarters. The battle continued on the whole line until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy's cavalry covered the retreat of the infantry, and the battle gradually subsided.
Although many enemies were killed and wounded, our army's casualties were not small, and it was the first battle lost by our army since it crossed the Yellow River and advanced westward. The comrades were even more saddened by the sacrifice of Comrade Liu Peiji, chief of the first section of the Military Department. Comrade Liu Peiji is a native of Gansu, who originally followed Army Commander Dong Zhentang to participate in the Ningdu Uprising in Jiangxi; he was an intellectual and very talented; he originally served as chief of staff of a division of the Fifth Army Corps, and was later transferred to the 27 th Division of our army as chief of staff, and when he was crossing the grassland, he was transferred to the military headquarters as the chief of the first section. Comrade Liu Peiji is active and responsible for his work and cares for his comrades, and he brought out this bit of professional ability that I have as a staff officer. The admirable Comrade Liu Peiji is immortal.
During the Long March, the Red Army did not have its own rear base, and it was difficult to supply bullets. In the entire westward expansion operation, the shortage of ammunition has always been a problem, which has seriously affected the combat effectiveness of our army, and often caused a passive situation in which ammunition and food are shortage. At the end of each battle, the soldiers cleaned the battlefield, and they did not like to capture the enemy's guns, but they did not like to find bullets. However, the horse bandits were very cunning, and each soldier had only five or six rows of bullets on his body at most, and he could not get many bullets from the enemy he killed; The horse bandits were mainly cavalry, mainly using knives, which was also one of the reasons for the lack of bullets, which was a new situation encountered by our army in its westward advance.
In this fierce battle, during the front-line battle, the 25th and 27th Divisions learned that the enemy was Ma Bufang's main two cavalry brigades and Ma Buqing's cavalry brigade, as well as infantry regiments and local militia regiments, which were personally commanded by Ma Yuanhai, the commander-in-chief of the enemy's front line. Although our army killed and wounded a large number of the enemy, it could not stop the enemy's pursuit, so we had to hurry forward to the Gulang side after the battle, in order to keep up with the pace of the right army.
Fierce battle in Gulang City
Our troops were frustrated in the battle of Ganchaiwa, broke through one night in late November, and advanced in the direction of Gulang City as planned. However, the enemy's yellow, white, and black horses were still closely following and following us, trying to find me in a decisive battle. For this reason, our army decided to march at night and during the day, and changed from a first-line column to a second-route column, so as to shorten the marching distance, and the machines and artillery were undressed and ready to enter the battle at any time to prevent the enemy's cavalry from attacking. From Ganchaiwa to Gulang, our rearguard troops stopped the trailing enemy troops at Hongliang Mountain. Our army marched from Hongliang Mountain overnight, and before dawn the next day, the troops reached Gulang, and the reactionary militia defending the city was vulnerable and abandoned the city and fled, and our army quickly occupied Gulang City.
Gulang is a small town, located in a small river road facing mountains on both sides, and the south of the city is Wusheling Ridge. Militarily, Wusheling was a fortress position that held Gulang City. From the Wusheling Ridge, Gulang City is condescending, so to stick to Gulang City, you must first control this commanding height. Because Gulang City is located at the mouth of two rivers, the terrain is low, which is not conducive to defense. To the northeast of the city is an open field, and not far from the city is a sandy beach. The terrain is flat, which is conducive to the movement of enemy cavalry. In view of this situation, our army ordered all units of the 25th Division to be deployed in the southwest of the city, and ordered the 25th Division to send a regiment to seize the commanding heights of Wusheling first; The 27th Division (division commander Chen Jiazhu and political commissar Chen Xiushen) was deployed on the northeast side, which was the Pingchuan area, and the enemy was following behind, so that if the enemy was found, he would resist on the spot to stop the enemy's advance. The 25th Division must defend the Wusheling Ridge, if the Wusheling Ridge is lost, Gulang City will not be able to stand. After the troops entered the positions, they quickly built fortifications, strengthened their vigilance, and were ready for battle at any time. The mountains to the west of the city were far away from the city, and there was no key defense.
The enemy's loss of Gulang caused Ma Buqing in Liangzhou to panic, and he not only ordered Ma Yuanhai, who was following the Red Army, to recapture Gulang City, but also sent additional reinforcements.
Just as our troops had just entered the dwellings, and the fortifications had not yet been built, the enemy, with the cooperation of two cavalry regiments and two infantry regiments, suddenly attacked our alert regiment, which caught our troops by surprise. Before the troops were deployed, two battalions in front of a certain regiment of mine suffered losses. About an hour later, the enemy from the south launched another offensive on our Wusheling Ridge. They attacked with mountain artillery first, and the smoke and dust covered the eyes, and the dust and shell fragments were scattered everywhere like raindrops. The explosion of shells, the sound of gunshots, the neighing of the enemy and cavalry horses, shook the entire valley. The soldiers and cadres of the whole regiment of our army who were holding on to the Wusheling Ridge were all holding their guns tightly, and some of them were tightly attached to the fuse of grenades, and they were ready to pile up piles of stones and stones; Some loaded their bayonets with the heads of their guns and waited for the approach of the enemy. The flames of anger burned fiercely in the hearts of every warrior.
The enemy cavalry dismounted and brandished their sabers, and the infantry, with their spears, rushed and shouted murderously, and poured into our position in camps. The commanders and fighters of our regiment who held the Wusheling Ridge concentrated all their rifles and pistols and fired at the enemy together, and grenades, stones, and stones also followed closely and smashed at the enemy, causing the enemy to cry wolf. The battle continued for more than an hour, repulsing several enemy attacks. The horses of the enemy cavalry ran and neighed uncontrollably, and the enemy infantry panicked, disorganized, trampled and crowded each other, and retreated.
The enemy's strong attack on Wusheling Ridge was unsuccessful, so he changed his tactics, made a feint on our front with a small number of troops, and mobilized the main force to move in a roundabout way to our flank. The enemy used cavalry and aerial planes to cover the infantry, and inserted from the east side of Wusheling to the flank and rear of Wusheling Ridge, cutting off the connection between Wusheling and the main force of the 25th Division. A part of the enemy cavalry penetrated directly into the vicinity of Gulang City and reached the military headquarters; Another part was inserted behind the 27th Division, carrying out a division posture, so that the 27th Division was exposed to the enemy on its back. The interspersed penetration of enemy troops disrupted the deployment of our troops. So far, our various units have fought separately and bravely and tenaciously resisted the enemy. A regiment that held on to Wusheling was finally outnumbered and fought alone, suffering heavy casualties; The 25th Division could not leave its position to meet Wusheling Ridge. After several hours of fierce fighting, the regiment that held on to Wusheling was almost completely annihilated. At this time, the enemy had already pressed under Gulang City, and Comrades Sun Yuqing and Chen Haisong ordered some soldiers and cadres of the Communications Brigade to rush out of Gulang City under the leadership of the Second Section Chief of the Military Headquarters and instructors of the Traffic Brigade. was violently rushing to kill, when suddenly a machine gun came from the side, and the second section chief shook suddenly, was seriously wounded, and fell to the ground. The enemy pounced with his sabre, and the instructor quickly directed the troops to repel the enemy's onslaught. Although all the personnel who attacked bravely rushed and killed, they were cut off by the enemy cavalry in the Pingchuan area, and they never returned, and all of them died heroically on the battlefield.
My attack was lost, and the enemy became more and more frenzied, and at about half past twelve, they rushed into the city and rushed straight to the place where our army was headed, so that I entered into a fierce street battle with the enemy. At this time, all the staff officers of the transportation brigade and the headquarters of the military headquarters were dispatched, and under the personal command of the former acting chief of staff of the Ninth Army (whose name is lost), they fought the enemy with short guns, hand-held submachine guns, and grenades for more than an hour. In a fierce street battle, the acting chief of staff (the commander at the time) was shot and died. Just when our army was using the bell tower in the city as a basis, using sacks of soil as a cover, and using the walls and roofs of the houses to prepare for a bloody battle with the enemy to the end, the 27th Division of our army defeated the enemy's divided troops, opened a bloody road, and received it from the northeast, forming a situation of internal and external attack on the enemy who broke through into Gulang City. Seeing that the situation was not good, the enemy did not even bother to pull the corpse, so he withdrew from the city in disarray. The streets and alleys were littered with corpses abandoned by the enemy. The battle lasted until four or five o'clock in the afternoon, when night fell, and the fighting ceased because the horse bandit army did not fight at night.
The battle of Gulang City was fought very brutally, the enemy was several times larger than ours, and in addition, there were planes in the air that bombed indiscriminately, causing nearly half of our Ninth Army to be damaged in this battle.
As soon as the fighting stopped, the military headquarters immediately ordered the troops to reorganize and reorganize the structure in order to facilitate the next move. The units seized the time to collect the wounded and sick, bury the comrades who had sacrificed their lives, and did not count the lightly wounded, and concentrated the seriously wounded in a few houses in Gulang City. Under such circumstances, the army commanders convened an emergency meeting, which was attended by army commander Sun Yuqing, political commissar Chen Haisong, chief of staff Li Jukui, and director of the Political Department Zeng Risan. At this time, just as I was sending a letter to the troops for the commanders to sign, I heard that the leaders had decided to study and decide: The lightly wounded should follow the troops, the cadres and wounded should be carried away as much as possible, and the seriously wounded should be left behind, and they should be concentrated in several large houses, and each person would be given three pieces of ocean, and Comrade Zeng Risan would write a letter to the enemy on behalf of our army, asking them not to kill our wounded in a humanitarian spirit. The meeting also made organizational adjustments in the light of the downsizing, merging the second and third companies into one company and transferring cadres. In the end, it was decided to break through and transfer at night, continue to advance westward, and move closer to the Red 30th Army in Yongchang.
Stick to Yongchang and after the "Xi'an Incident".
Fight the enemy for a day during the day. After dusk, our army quietly left Gulang City in the darkness of night. After leaving Gulang, the troops marched day and night in a three-way column to Yongchang to join the 30th Army. It's late November, and the cold wind is constantly carrying snowflakes. The soldiers of the Red Army were thinly clothed and cold, and the wind and snow were bitterly cold, tempering the people's will.
When our army arrived at Yongchang, the 30th Army, except for the 89th Division, which remained in Yongchang, the 88th Division had already advanced towards the Shandan River; The Fifth Army has advanced to Shandan.
At this time, the Western Route Army was all deployed between Yongchang and Shandan, which was more than 100 kilometers long, forming a long snake formation. This narrow strip of land is the bee waist of the Hexi Corridor, bordering Qilian Mountain in the south and Longshou Mountain in the north, with a width of about 40 kilometers from north to south. Over Longshou Mountain, there is an endless desert area outside the Great Wall.
The intention of the higher authorities was to establish a base area in the Hexi Corridor in the area of Yongchang and Shandan. The original plan was to establish bases in Liangzhou and Ganzhou, but this change was made due to the failure to take Liangzhou. Because the Hexi Corridor is a long and narrow strip of land, limited by the Qilian Mountains and the desert, there is no room for maneuver, and there is no mass base, and it is difficult to gain a foothold. In particular, the military situation was not permitted, and the terrain was unfavorable to the activities of our infantry, so when our army left Gulang and drove to Yongchang, the enemy's cavalry and infantry kept following and pursuing, and we had just entered Yongchang, and the enemy also followed closely to the periphery of Yongchang. After the merger of our troops and the 30th Army, the forces were concentrated; But the enemy is also relatively concentrated and strengthened. After two or three days, the enemy had concentrated more than a dozen brigades, and another division of Hu Zongnan served as a reserve for the horse bandits.
After our Ninth Army entered Yongchang, it defended the northeast side of the city, and the 89th Division of the 30th Army defended the southwest side of the city, and the positions of the two armies were connected. Under the situation of the enemy's large army besieging us, in order to carry out the intention of the superiors, resist the enemy, and hold the position, the party organizations at all levels of the army have made political mobilization to the troops. The slogan put forward at that time was: "Only by consolidating the position can we establish a base area." In this way, it has led to an ending of positional warfare and attrition.
The enemy is fighting on the outside line, and the soldiers and ammunition can be replenished continuously, so the battle is continuous, and the battle is becoming more and more fierce day by day. Relying on his airplanes in the air and artillery on the ground (mainly mountain artillery and mortars at that time), the enemy attempted to destroy our army in the Yongchang area with superior firepower and absolutely superior troops. Although the commanders and fighters of our whole army, with their inspiring fighting spirit, smashed dozens of enemy attacks on the position, dealt heavy blows to the enemy, held the position, and confronted the enemy for more than half a month. However, due to the disparity between the enemy and our forces, our army suffered heavy casualties in the battle, and the vital forces were greatly weakened, and more importantly, there was a lack of ammunition. There were many wounded, and all the empty houses and temples in the city of Yongchang were inhabited by the wounded. At that time, there was a shortage of medical treatment, medical personnel did not have time to change the dressing, there was no iodine wine or salt, and the wounds could only be washed with boiling water, and many wounded died because they could not be treated.
In mid-December, when the fighting was at an urgent juncture, news suddenly came that Chiang Kai-shek had been captured alive by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng. The soldiers discussed one after another: This traitor who did not resist Japan and fought the civil war did not end well. You have to kill Chiang Kai-shek!
At this time, the enemy cadres of the Military Political Department organized themselves to go deep into the forward positions and shouted to the enemy: "Don't fight, your master Chiang Kai-shek has been captured alive." Everyone is Chinese, unite to fight the Japanese invaders. "Although the morale of the enemy army has been shaken, the political struggle has not worked. The stubborn enemy cursed at us, and the enemy also fired machine guns at us. The two sides continued to confront each other, fighting and stopping.
After more than ten days, an order came from above, saying that everyone should prepare eight days' dry food and prepare to return to Gulang City, and the Kuomintang Yu Xuezhong troops welcomed our army to Lanzhou for garrison. Everyone smiled and discussed: "It must be that after capturing Chiang Kai-shek, he must be forced to admit our army, stop the civil war, and unite to resist Japan." Half of our Western Route Army has lost, and half of it is still there, so we can go to the front line to fight the Japanese invaders. It reflects the sentiment of the vast number of commanders and fighters of our Western Route Army, who are eager to go north to resist Japan and unwilling to move westward.
However, at about eight o'clock one night, just as the whole army was ready to set off for Gulang City, an order suddenly came down to continue the troops to move westward. This cooled people in half. The army commander who held a meeting at the headquarters came back and conveyed: "Chairman Chen Changhao (Chen is the chairman of the Military Committee of the Western Route Army) said that our Western Route Army has not completed the task of opening up the international route and should continue to advance westward. "Everyone was depressed and went back to the barracks in a dull mood. After stopping for a few days, it was ordered to evacuate Yongchang and advance westward.
In the bloody battle, the Ni family's camp and the cavalry division attacked Yongchang
When the Western Route Army withdrew from Yongchang City and continued to advance westward, the Red Fifth Army was the vanguard and had already advanced from Shandan to Linze and Gaotai, and part of the 30th Army had also reached the area of Shandan and Shahe Town. The task given by the headquarters to the Ninth Army was: on the way west, the camera captured Ganzhou. When our Western Route Army did not abandon Yongchang City, it was a situation of a long snake formation in the east and west, and the enemy army could only bite the tail of our army, and did not dare to rashly cross Yongchang City and implement the tactics of division and encirclement of our army. When our West Route Army withdrew from Yongchang, the Red Ninth Army entered the periphery of Ganzhou, because the enemy army was strong, there was no siege, so it turned across the Heishui River and stationed in the Nijia camp. Since then, the Western Route Army has been in an extremely unfavorable situation and is easily divided and surrounded by the enemy. The city of Ganzhou was in the hands of the enemy, and the waist of the Western Route Army was attacked on both sides of the east and west, and the enemy cut off from it, and the head and tail could not take care of each other. The unfavorable situation of our army was quickly taken advantage of by the enemy. The enemy's powerful pursuit force pressed on us on the left, center, and right, and successively routed our rearguard troops in the vicinity of Shandan, Damaying, Ganjunbao, and Shahe Town, and then besieged Linze and Gaotai with most of its troops, and besieged Nijiaying with part of its troops, so that our Western Route Army was divided and surrounded in three isolated strongholds.
Ni's camp is in Nanxiang, Zhangye County, it is a very big village, about 15 miles long from north to south, three or four miles wide from east to west, there are about more than 50 enclosures of about the size of the family, the siege of the big family is built squarely, more than two zhang high, there are pillboxes and watchtowers, as if the city wall is like, it is called Tunzhuang. Most of the surrounding areas of the village are desolate Gobi Desert, and more than ten miles to the south is the Qilian Mountains.
The rear guard of the Ninth Army lived in the northeast of Ni's camp, and part of the 30th Army lived in the southwest of Ni's camp, and the positions of the two armies were connected. After the troops were stationed, they dug gun holes around it, built fortifications, and arranged deer barricades in the main direction of the enemy's attack.
Although the situation became more and more difficult, the vast number of commanders and fighters of our Western Route Army were fearless and fought back against the enemy's frenzied siege with the heroic spirit of majestic mountains and rivers.
After our troops were stationed in the Nijia camp, the enemy quickly chased after us and surrounded us, first with a small fight, and then the enemy, with the cover of air planes and the support of ground artillery fire, launched a fierce attack on us, and the horse bandits launched three consecutive attacks on us with the strength of more than two brigades, and the warriors of our defending troops met the enemy with rifles, machine guns, grenades, and bayonets in the collapsed fortifications and craters, and when the enemy entered our position, they swung their swords to attack, killed the enemy back, and held their positions.
The enemy's attack on the Ni family's camp was repeatedly beaten to the point of bleeding by us, so the enemy changed the direction of the attack and launched several attacks on the flank of our army one after another, and each time he fought, he killed the enemy's corpses all over the field. The enemy organized attacks in turn almost every day, but each time the attack was fought from 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning until dark, when our troops resumed their original positions, and it came to an end. The enemy is fighting for every inch of land, and our army will not give up an inch of land.
This lasted for about twenty days. One day in late January 1937, news came: The Fifth Army was surrounded by the enemy at Gaotai and Linze and fought alone, and our cavalry division reinforced the Fifth Army, but it was also surrounded by the enemy's cavalry. The higher authorities ordered the 25th Division of our Ninth Army to organize reinforcements. Just as the 25th Division was assembling and standby, it suddenly issued an order: If you don't go, the Fifth Army has already lost. Comrade Dong Zhentang, commander of the army, and Comrade Yang Keming, director of the Political Department, also died heroically in Gaotai.
The annihilation of the Fifth Army at Gaotai was a major loss suffered by our Western Route Army since its westward advance. At this time, the headquarters ordered the only Ninth Army and the 30th Army to tighten their positions and concentrate in the area of Nijiayingzi to confront the enemy. The headquarters of the Western Route Army, the avant-garde units of the 30th Army, and a small number of comrades who returned from the Fifth Army were all concentrated in Ni's camp. At this time, our two corps had a total of 10 regiments, each regiment numbered from about 4 to 600 men, and after the battles at Gaotai and Linze, the enemy concentrated all the strength of his 10 brigades in the Nijia camp and surrounded us heavily. It lasted for more than a month, engaged in dozens of fierce battles with the enemy, large and small, smashed dozens of enemy attacks, and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy of 7 to 8,000 people.
In February 1937, in order to break the enemy's heavy siege and contain the enemy, our troops formed a cavalry division for the second time in the vicinity of Nijiayingzi in order to meet the urgent needs of the combat mission. It was formed on the basis of the 1st Cavalry Division. Therefore, here it is necessary to briefly recall the history of the creation of cavalry divisions in the Red Army.
The Red Army's first cavalry division was formally formed in Ganzi in May 1936 during the Long March, after the Second and Fourth Front armies met in Ganzi and when they were crossing the grassland, in order to meet the needs of reconnoitering the grassland terrain and collecting food supplies for the troops. In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the troops and bring out the excellent work style of the troops, Comrade Xu Shiyou, commander of the Red Fourth Army, was organizationally transferred to the cavalry division as division commander; The commissar's surname was Luo, and he was killed in the battle later. The division consists of four large platoons in each company, four squads in each platoon, and twelve or three people in each squad. The division headquarters has four sections: operations, reconnaissance, communications, and management. The chief of the Operations Section is Comrade Liu Qingnan, who was originally Xu Shiyou's operational staff officer, and is a good cadre who is brave and good at fighting and uniting comrades. In August, when the Long March came out of the grassland, Comrade Xu Shiyou was transferred to the Red Army University to study, and Ma Liangjun served as the division commander. When he followed the Fourth Front Army, crossed the Yellow River to the west, marched into the Hexi Corridor, and aided the Gaotai Fifth Army, the whole division was annihilated, and only a very small number of people ran back.
The situation of the second formation of the cavalry division: because since the crossing of the river to the west, it has mainly clashed with horse bandits, and the horse bandit troops are mainly cavalry, in order to contain the enemy in another direction and strengthen the mobility of the troops, the headquarters decided to reorganize the cavalry division under the urgent situation of the battle in the area around Nijiayingzi. After its formation, it was under the leadership of the Ninth Army. The establishment situation is as follows: The headquarters of the cavalry division originally consisted of four sections: operations, reconnaissance, communications, and management, but in order to reduce the establishment, there were only operations sections and management sections. Division Commander Du Yide, Political Commissar Liu Qingnan, Chief of Staff Li Caiyun. The Political Department has only one political work cadre, which is under the direct leadership of the political commissar. In addition, the headquarters has a communications squad of about 10 people, two regiments and seven companies of the whole division, with a total of about 400 people.
Except for those who returned from the former cavalry division, most of the cadres and soldiers of the cavalry division were transferred from units directly under the army, and they were formed in a hurry, under the personal leadership of Comrade Li Caiyun, chief of staff, and only underwent short-term training. Comrade Li Caiyun, a native of Gansu and an intellectual who took part in the Ningdu uprising in Jiangxi, was formerly the head of the training section of the Fifth Army Corps, and was very experienced in the training of troops.
The source of horses was mainly reduced from the direct detachment, and some were drawn from the 25th and 27th divisions. The quality of the horses is very poor, about a third are mares (horses). As the saying goes, if a horse doesn't go into battle, it can't fight.
After the cavalry division was formed, after a short period of riding and tactical training, it was put into battle. The cavalry division carried out its first mission at the end of February and early March 1937, leaving the military headquarters from Ni's camp and inserting itself behind enemy lines to the southeast of Yongchang County to contain the enemy. At this time, although it is at the beginning of spring, it is not bad with the midwinter season of the nine cold days. Late one night, we broke through the enemy's blockade, inserted ourselves behind enemy lines, walked along the side of the Qilian Mountains for two days and two nights, and arrived in the southeast of Yongchang County, where in a large river dam area, the enemy cavalry caught up, and the enemy from Gulang and the local militia together exceeded our strength by more than twice the strength; And our goal of pulling out the main force of the enemy in the Ni family's camp has not been achieved. In this case, we first seized a dirt circle and fought with the enemy for two days and one night, because we ran out of ammunition and food, and could no longer entangle with the enemy, we had more than ten casualties, and the chief of the management section also died. So it was decided to break through at night. Because there were many mares that had lost their foals and could not run fast, the warriors not only could not ride their horses, but also had to pull their horses away, and suffered serious casualties. Despite this, our fighters were still in high spirits, broke through the enemy's encirclement, and moved along the side of the Qilian Mountains. At this time, he received a telegram from the military headquarters, ordering the cavalry division to return to the Ni family camp immediately. After getting rid of the enemy, they walked more than forty miles, and at about twelve o'clock in the evening, suddenly there was a great storm, the thunder was deafening, and the lightning shone on the horses a fire, and no one could stand, and the warriors sat on the ground and hugged the horses' legs, and after more than an hour, the storm stopped. We walked all night with the compass and looked at the map, and arrived at the Yonggu Pass at dawn. Encountering a small group of horses sent by the enemy from Xining to the front, we pursued them for a while, but could not catch up.
After walking for about two or three days, he returned to Ni's camp one night and saw Comrade Wang Shusheng, the acting commander of the army (at this time, Sun Yuqing had been transferred from the Ninth Army to serve in the 30th Army), and he said: "Everyone is resting and waiting. "Although the cavalry division did not achieve the expected goal in this mission, all the comrades showed a high degree of revolutionary spirit in the round and round battle, and the soldiers took great care of the horses, saved their dry food for the horses as fodder, and did everything possible to find water in the pond and open the ice cave to find drinking water for the horses. In the extremely fierce and brutal situation of the fighting, not a single comrade was emotional, and not a single comrade was left behind. It has fully demonstrated the thorough revolutionary spirit of our people's army that is not afraid of sacrifice and is indomitable.
At this time, the situation of the main army was already very difficult, it was attacked on three sides, and it was fighting with the enemy all day long, especially the 30th Army was fighting even more fiercely, and the combat effectiveness of our Ninth Army was already very poor. The higher authorities believe that it will be very detrimental to our army if they persist any longer. Therefore, under the circumstance that it was necessary to break through and transfer, it was decided to transfer the troops to Liyuankou. At this time, the entire Western Route Army was less than 3,000 people. The troops broke through and moved to Nanliugou, where the enemy bit our troops like a wolf, and fought fiercely for another day before moving to Liyuankou.
The last decisive battle at Liyuankou
Our army marched from west to east to Liyuankou, and the task of the Ninth Army was to occupy a small hill at the northwest end of Liyuankou and cover the transfer of the 30th Army and the headquarters. However, as soon as the 30th Army reached the east side of Liyuankou, the enemy fiercely caught up with them. The enemy's cavalry cut off the retreat of our Ninth Army and surrounded the remaining seven or eight hundred men of the Ninth Army. The 89th Division of our 30th Army sent a battalion to reinforce the Ninth Army, and more than 300 cavalry of the Cavalry Division also launched an attack on the enemy, trying to repel the enemy and let the Ninth Army break out of the encirclement. Since the enemy's forces outnumbered us several times, surrounded by several layers, with infantry inside and cavalry outside, the assault did not work, and the rescue did not help. Thus, a final battle to the death began. Comrade Chen Haisong, political commissar of the army, led all the commanders and fighters of the Ninth Army to resolutely stand on the mountain ravine, fight up to kill the enemy, bravely resist, and not give up an inch of land. The soldiers fought with the enemy with the flame of vengeance with anger, and when the bullets were finished, they stabbed them with bayonets, stabbed them with bayonets, slashed them with broadswords, smashed them with stones, and killed the enemy all over the mountains and fields with corpses, and the soldiers of our Ninth Army would rather shed the last drop of blood than surrender, so they all died heroically on the battlefield. This is the most tragic situation after the high platform. At about 10 o'clock in the morning, only Comrade Chen Haisong, the political commissar, with a dozen or so guards, stood at the highest point of the mountain, and the enemy found that the soldiers around him were all using fast and slow machine box guns, and concluded that he was not an ordinary cadre and dreamed of catching him alive. Comrade Chen Haisong, our military political commissar, with the dauntless heroic spirit of the proletariat, was not afraid of danger and was determined to fight the enemy to the end. The enemy wanted to capture them alive, but the result was that they left one corpse after another, and the embarrassed and angry enemy concentrated their firepower, and finally Political Commissar Chen and his guards lived and died with the position, bloody battlefield, and died honorably. Comrade Chen Haisong was only 25 years old when he died, he was a good political cadre but also a good military commander from Hubei, Henan, and Anhui to the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. His sacrifice made all the personnel of the Ninth Army who remained behind.
Transfer to Kanglong Temple
After the headquarters of the Ninth Army and the cavalry division withdrew from Liyuankou, the enemy's entire firepower was pressed on the 30th Army. At that time, there were still 200 or 300 men in each regiment of the 30th Army, holding on to a dry riverbed east and west of Liyuankou, using grenades and bayonets, preferring to die rather than retreat. After another day of fighting, it was decided to break through and move into Qilian Mountain at night, and advance to Kanglong Temple, which was more than 80 miles away.
At this time, there were only 1,400 or 500 people left in the Western Route Army. The troops retreated to Kanglong Temple and entered Qilian Mountain while fighting. The mountains and ravines here are deep, the ice and snow are everywhere, the temperature at night is minus 30 or 40 degrees, most of the soldiers are thinly dressed, and a few soldiers wear captured enemy clothes and old sheepskin jackets. The bitter cold wind pierced the heart, and the heat from the body quickly froze, and ice chips hung on everyone's clothes, hair, and eyebrows. In such a difficult and treacherous environment, the Red Army soldiers still maintained a fighting posture and marched forward. During the day, he fought a fierce battle with the enemy for a day, and he did not even eat, and went hungry to advance. Those who have a little dry food can eat a handful of dry food and drink snow to satisfy their hunger, and there are many people who do not have dry food, so they can only grab a handful of ice and snow to satisfy their hunger and follow the advance of the troops.
We walked all night, and just after dawn the enemy's cavalry caught up. At this time, there were only 1,000 men in the 30th Army, only 300 men in the Ninth Army and the Cavalry Division combined, and only 100 men in the headquarters and women's regiment. Therefore, the task of covering, transferring, or blocking the enemy was left to the Thirtieth Army. The comrades of the 30th Army, although there were few people, fought very well. They fought the enemy all day long in the cold ravines of the icy and snowy mountains, and repelled several enemy charges. In the vast twilight, in accordance with the orders of the headquarters, he continued to move to the deep mountains, and successfully completed the task of covering the transfer of troops.
Kanglong Monastery is a lama temple with monks and lamas in it, and they bought some food here, but in order to get rid of the enemy, we did not stop here, and climbed the mountains overnight to reach the area of Shiwo.
Stone Nest Meeting
This area is a bluestone hill with tiny shrubs and weeds. On a larger mountain, there is a light stone cliff, and there is a stone pit under the cliff, and huge strange rocks are piled up, so people call this place "Stone Nest".
A short time after dawn, the enemy caught up. We walked along a small dry ditch formed by a flash torrent, and climbed to the top of the mountain. The comrades of the 30th Army used as cover to block the enemy in the ditch, and fought very tenaciously, especially the 263rd Regiment, which was "defending like Mount Tai," and the 265th "Tiger Regiment," which was invincible, fought even better, blocking the enemy in the ditch and not daring to advance. At this time, the 268th Regiment had seized a mountain bag behind it to ensure the retreat of the whole army; Of the more than 200 people of the 265th Regiment, the regiment commander Zou Fengming had been wounded, and was led by political commissar Huang Yingqun to continue to stubbornly resist the enemy's way; In order to cover the headquarters on the mountain, all the personnel of the 30 th Army took up arms, and the responsible comrades of the army also fought side by side with the soldiers, and bravely resisted for more than three hours, until the headquarters and the remaining small number of comrades of the Ninth Army went up the mountain, and then they withdrew while fighting and joined up with the team directly under the headquarters and the covering troops of the 268th Regiment on the top of Shiwozi Mountain.
On the top of Shiwozi Mountain, there were more than 1,000 Red Army soldiers dressed in tatters, with dark and thin faces, who had gone through a long and arduous battle. The scrawny horses were silently gnawing on the dead grass in the cracks of the stones. The remains of the Red Army martyrs were found on the hillside, and the horse bandit cavalry was still patrolling back and forth. In the face of such a scene, I think of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman Mao who have already arrived at the base areas in northern Shaanxi, the fraternal units under the direct leadership of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and the Red Fifth Army Corps and the more than 20,000 Red Army athletes who crossed the Yellow River to the west. Since crossing the river, the officers and men of the Red Army, with their unwavering loyalty to the revolutionary cause, have fought bravely and tenaciously against the enemy with one as ten, or even one as a hundred, but they have never been able to extricate themselves from the predicament of fighting alone, and this is a serious loss caused to the revolution by Zhang Guotao's erroneous line. Facts have eloquently proved a truth: Without the correct line of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, no hero can avoid the fate of defeat. At that time, some comrades of our army burst into tears after meeting each other, and they were speechless for a long time.
On the afternoon of that day, the headquarters held a meeting on the top of Shiwozi Mountain, which was the last meeting held by the Western Route Army on the way to the west. It is said that Chairman Chen Changhao first analyzed the situation and made a decision at the meeting, to the following effect: First, we are outnumbered, and in order to preserve our strength, we can only disperse our activities and hold out until the arrival of the Western Army. The Central Committee and Chairman Mao have ordered Comrade Liu Bocheng to lead troops to rescue us. secondly, we have a small number of troops, and there are not many guns; At the meeting, it was decided that Chen and Xu would leave the army and go to the central base area in northern Shaanxi first (I heard that Xu did not agree to leave the army, but due to the situation, he had no choice but to do so). Third, according to the existing personnel of the troops, it is divided into the left detachment and the right detachment, and more than 1,000 people of the 30th Army are the left detachment, which is under the responsibility of Comrades Li Xiannian and Cheng Shicai; The remaining more than 300 people and more than 100 cavalry of the Ninth Army were the right detachment, which was in charge of Comrade Wang Shusheng. The comrades of the headquarters organs followed the 30th Army. Fourth, after the reorganization and reorganization of the troops, they went into the mountainous areas to fight guerrilla warfare and buried on the spot heavy weapons that could not be taken away.
Commander Du Yide
In the Qilian Mountains
At night, with a feeling of deep attachment and tears in their eyes, the comrades drove into the mountains to organize a guerrilla fight.
That night, when the troops came to the fork in the road, they only heard a comrade shouting in front of them: Comrades of the 30th Army go this way; When the comrades of the Ninth Army walked over there, the mountains were covered with ice and snow, and they walked along the river ditch like this, and Wang Shusheng, the acting commander of the Ninth Army, followed the headquarters of the cavalry division. Due to the excessive fatigue of the troops, many soldiers fell asleep on horseback, and it was only at dawn that they realized that the troops had lost contact with each other, and only Commander Wang Shusheng, Division Commander Du Yide, several cadres of the division headquarters, and more than 20 guards and communicators remained. Seeing that the enemy might catch up as soon as it was dawn, the army commander immediately ordered us to hurry up the hill and occupy the top of the hill, observing the scattered troops while observing the situation and the enemy's situation. As soon as I reached the top of the mountain, it was already dawn, and I saw the enemy catching up. We hurried over the hill to another ravine, but luckily we were able to escape the enemy's pursuit that day, and we could no longer contact the lost troops. In this way, more than 20 of us, under the leadership of Comrade Wang Shusheng and Comrade Du Yide, moved alone in the continuous Qilian Mountains, crossing mountains and ravines and passing through dense forests. On the second or third day, the enemy caught up with us again, because he followed the snow marks of our horses. Comrade Wang Shusheng and Comrade Du Yide organized a few comrades to block the attack and cover the transfer of other personnel. As a result, the comrades who served as cover never returned, and only a dozen of us remained.
One day, we walked into a large forest, stopped under a large Masson pine tree, and at about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, suddenly twenty or thirty female comrades and a few male comrades ran out of the forest. When they saw us, they grabbed us by the tail and wanted to go with us up the hill to fight guerrillas. According to the analysis of the situation, Commander Wang and Division Commander Du decided that they could not stay for a long time and decided to let them disperse. We had barely walked about five miles when we heard gunfire behind us, fearing that the comrades of the women's regiment had come into contact with the enemy.
We got rid of the enemy and continued westward. One day, when we came to a fork in the ditch and suddenly met the enemy, we immediately turned our horses and fought and retreated, and in the end there were only 11 people left, including Wang Shusheng, Du Yide, and me, and the rest of the wounded comrades were captured by the enemy. After getting rid of the enemy, we continued to walk westward, always trying to find the 30th Army, and we walked like this for about seven or eight days. One day, when we walked to a place, we stopped to rest, and suddenly found a pile of freshly burned firewood ashes and hot steam, and found a small piece of white paper in the ground, on which there was a pen with the words Li Xiannian written, and we judged that the 30th Army had gone west. So more than a dozen of us went west to catch up. After walking a short distance, he met Sun Yuqing, the former commander of the army, and Comrade Xiong Houfa, the commander of the 88th Division. Both of them were wounded and unable to advance with the large army, so they took the initiative to ask each to bring one or two guards and prepare to go up the mountain to fight guerrillas. They all rode horses, and only Comrade Xiong Houfa rode a big gray mule. Since then, sixteen or seven of us have been together.
According to Comrades Sun Yuqing and Xiong Houfa, the 30th Army was transferred to Xinjiang. Because of the long time, the enemy's main force has been chasing behind the 30th Army, and the various mountain passes are somewhat loose. We walked hard west along the Qilian Mountains, and our daily camping camp was a cave or a grass hut. There are many caves or grass huts in the Qilian Mountains, most of which were chiseled or built by shepherds to shelter from the wind and rain. One day, we walked into a large deep ditch, about eight or nine miles long, with more than ten earthen caves, presumably a good place for the villagers to take shelter from the wind and rain when digging gold in the ditch, and decided to stop and camp. In order to cover several wounded comrades and avoid enemy attacks, it was decided that a few of them would live in a few holes in the back ditch, and a few comrades who were in good health would live in a few holes in the front. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, unexpectedly, a small group of enemies suddenly came up from the back mountain, and several of our comrades in the front ditch had just unloaded their saddles, and suddenly heard the sound of gunfire coming from the back ditch, so they hurriedly prepared their horses and rushed to the back ditch, but Sun Yuqing and Comrade Xiong Houfa had already been scattered by the enemy, and when we rushed to the back ditch to meet the enemy, the enemy could not figure out how many people we had come, so they fled. We killed an enemy mule carrying flour and other goods, only to find out that it was a convoy sent by the enemy. From then on, several of their comrades were separated again, and we had to continue walking into the mountains. Later, I heard that Comrade Sun Yuqing and Comrade Xiong Houfa were escorted to Qinghai and killed by Ma Bufang.
In the endless mountains and ravines, and in the uninhabited stone mountains and forests, I don't know how many days I walked, one day I met the villagers who were grazing herds, and asked them about the distance to Xinjiang, and they said: There are eight stations for the poor, eight stations for the rich, and there are eight stations for the poor and not rich, and no one can tell how many miles one station is. How poor it is, how rich it is, and how many miles it should be at 3824 stations, it is impossible to calculate. We realized that it was impossible to catch up with the 30th Army, and that the enemy was chasing after the 30th Army, so it was dangerous for us to follow it. So I decided to turn around and head east along the mountains and forests.
There were eleven of us riding horses over mountains and ravines, and it was very inconvenient to take the horses, because the goal was large, and the fodder for the livestock was very difficult. In order to better conceal and reduce the load, it was decided to throw off all eleven horses. So we tied the horse's four legs and pushed it into a ravine in the mountains, and in this way we got rid of the horse. From then on, we, the eleven people, along the deep mountains and valleys, fought the enemy in the Qilian Mountains, and about the day before the Duanyang Festival, we walked out of the mountain pass.
One night after leaving the mountain, we walked out of the Qilian Mountains and arrived at Beishan, which is the territory of Minqin County on the border between Ningxia and Gansu. There were only eight of us left. That night, Wang Shusheng decided to divide into two groups, Wang Shusheng asked me to take three people to go first, and he and Du Yide were also four people. And decided to arrive in northern Shaanxi, and proved to each other that they were all communists.
After a tortuous road, in order to avoid the enemy's inspection, we scattered around again, and Qin Chuanshan and Cao Pitang and I returned to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border area one after another, and finally returned to the party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and embarked on the broad road, thus ending a tragic encounter in the Western Route Army.
Concluding remarks
The Western Route Army suffered serious losses due to Zhang Guotao's right-leaning opportunist line. Looking back today, every comrade of our Fourth Front Army is very sad. At the turning point of the Chinese revolution, Zhang Guotao was afraid of both the Kuomintang and Japan imperialism; during the Long March, he pursued the line of retreat and escape, and set up another central committee to create a split, which was later corrected, but his personal ambition remained undead, and he went behind the back of the central committee and Chairman Mao to do another thing to oppose the anti-Japanese line of the party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, causing extremely serious losses to the revolution.
However, the tragic and heroic Western Expedition was a singing and weeping history in the revolutionary history of the Red Army. Those of us who are alive today are all moved by the memory of those comrades who fought bloodily and sacrificed their lives. At the same time, we are always reminded that we should continue to hold high the banner of Mao Zedong Thought, carry forward the fine traditions of the revolution, win new victories in the new long march to realize the four modernizations, and carry out the socialist cause pioneered by the revolutionary martyrs to the end.
(Compiled by Xing Zhenhua and Shen Chuanzhong, December 1979)
Shaanxi Cultural and Historical Materials (10th Edition)