Author: Mo Guyan
At the beginning of 1929, Wu Guanghao, commander of the Red 11th Army and commander of the 31st Division, was killed, and the Red Army in the Eyu-Anhui area was suddenly leaderless. The Edong Special Committee soon made a request to the Shanghai headquarters -- to quickly send a competent person to take charge of military work.
Yang Yin, secretary of the Shanghai headquarters in charge of military work, held that the strategic position of the Eyu-Anhui base area was extremely important, and that the selection of the commander-in-chief of the Red 11th Army must be carefully considered. Just as he was struggling to consider a candidate, a Shanxi man named "Yu Liren" took the initiative to ask to meet with him.
This mysterious figure with the pseudonym "Yu Liren", whose real name was Xu Xiangqian, was a 28-year-old graduate of the Huangpu Phase I, who participated in the Guangzhou Uprising and fought guerrilla warfare in the Hailufeng area. He had just been ordered to travel from Hong Kong Island to Shanghai in March, and his superiors asked him to rest for a while before arranging work. While waiting for the assignment of the task, he shut himself in the room to read a book, turning a blind eye to the world of flowers and flowers in the ten miles outside the window, and the only requirement was to meet Yang Yin as soon as possible and accept the task.
At the end of May, Xu Xiangqian and Yang Yin finally met, and Yang Yin asked Xu Xiangqian for advice, and Xu said that he could do any work, but it was best to do military work. Xu Xiangqian's wish was exactly what Yang Yin had hoped, and he planned to send Xu to Dabie Mountain to lead the military, and Xu Mankou agreed without hesitation.
This was the first and last time the two of them met, and two months later, Yang Yin was arrested for betrayal by traitors, and he was righteous to Long hua. During this period, Xu Xiangqian disguised himself as a businessman, took a boat from Shanghai to Wuhan, then from Wuhan to Huangpi, and finally walked on foot into the Suzhou area.
Hoping for the stars and the moon, the new commander-in-chief finally came, and the entire Eyu Border Region was full of jubilation. Xu Xiangqian was encouraged and simply changed his name to Xu Xiangqian, which means to go forward.
Xu Xiangqian was appointed deputy commander of the Red 31st Division. The special committee's explanation for this was that after Wu Guanghao's sacrifice, in order not to affect the morale of the troops, no news of his death was announced for the time being, so Xu Xiangqian could only be temporarily made deputy division commander, and all orders were issued in the name of Wu Guanghao for the time being. However, Deputy Division Commander Xu was actually responsible for the command of the whole division.
Xu Xiangqian during the Red Army period
When Xu Xiangqian first arrived, how the level was still tested by actual combat, he himself was naturally full of ambition and ready to do a big job. However, the trouble he encountered was indeed something he had not thought of in advance.
The first is the language barrier, Xu Xiangqian can't understand the Edong dialect, and the locals can't understand his Shanxi dialect. This trouble is just fine, adapting to a period of time can always be understood, the bigger trouble is that there is a problem with the authority setting. Xu Xiangqian was not a member of the special committee and was not qualified to participate in the special committee, and the instructions of the special committee were conveyed to him by member Cao Xuekai (chief of staff of the 31st Division), asking him to do whatever he wanted. In this way, he became the chief of staff and the commander of the leading division.
This strange system has not yet been straightened out, and the battle has begun to be fought. Xu Xiangqian's first big test began in such a situation.
At the end of June 1929, the troops of Luo Lin (formerly a general of the Gui clan) of Chiang Kai-shek's army and the bandit Li Kebang attacked from north to south and launched an attack on Chaishan Fort, the core of the border area. At this time, the four brigades of the Red 31st Division were still dispersing guerrillas, and they could not concentrate in a hurry, so they could only concentrate on two brigades. Xu Xiangqian led these two brigades to ambush Luo Lin's troops, and as a result, as soon as the enemy machine guns fired, the guerrillas scattered, and only more than a hundred people were left around Xu Qianqian.
The Red Army is on the march
At present, this red army detachment is seriously untrained, and it is not at all like a regular army, which cannot defeat the enemy's regular army. Therefore, Xu Xiangqian decided to avoid the strong and attack the weak, and first fought the bandit Li Kebang's troops, resulting in five consecutive battles, killing and wounding more than a hundred enemy people. After Entering the base area, Luo Lin's troops were harassed by the guerrillas every day, and after a few days, they could not be bothered, so they withdrew their troops and left, and this encirclement and suppression of a small scale was crushed by the Red Army.
Although the enemy withdrew, the base areas were also looted, many houses were burned, grain and cattle were also robbed, and the masses complained a lot about this, saying that the Red Army was ineffective in combat, and Xu Xiangqian was questioned.
Red Army information photo
Three months later, Liu Zhi, the highest-ranking leader of Jiang's army in Henan, personally dispatched his horse and unified command of the men and horses of Hubei and Henan provinces to launch an attack on Dabie Mountain. How is the battle fought? Xu Xiangqian had a disagreement with the Edong Special Committee. Of course, the Special Commissar hoped that the Red Army would keep the enemy out of the border areas, lest the enemy break the altar jars as soon as he came in. What Xu Xiangqian wants is a battle result of less consumption and more annihilation of the enemy, so his principle is that battles with favorable conditions should be fought, and battles with unfavorable conditions should not be fought.
On the question of whether to fight or not to fight, the Red Army also saw inconsistencies within itself. Some cadres and fighters advocated hard fighting, and Xu Xiangqian had no choice but to use the Guerrilla War on the Dongjiang River in which he had participated as an example to make it clear that hard fighting could only lead to defeat. In view of the fact that the special committee's demand that the Red Army adhere to it was very resolute, Xu Xiangqian had no choice but to carry it out, and as a result, he had no chance to annihilate the enemy on the inner line for half a month, and finally there was no way out, so he had to jump to the outer line and join the Red 32nd Division.
At this time, the 48th Division of Xu Yuanquan, stationed in Xinyang, and the 13th Division of Xia Douyin, stationed in Macheng, also came to the north and south in an attempt to annihilate the Red 31st Division. The masses in the Soviet zone complained bitterly about the two lootings by Chiang Kai-shek's army, and the special committee strictly ordered that the Red Army must not avoid fighting this time and must face the battle head-on.
Xu Xiangqian and Cao Xuekai discussed for half a day, determined to fight an ambush, because the local organization had sent intelligence that an enemy force of about four or five hundred people would pass through The Tiezigang of Tiantai Mountain tomorrow. Since there are only four or five hundred enemies, the deal should be possible. The Red 31st Division concentrated all its forces in ambush at Tiezigang, and they did not have a single machine gun in their hands, and the whole division had less than three hundred rifles in total, and the purpose of this battle was to capture some guns and ammunition, and to fish for one.
Red Army homemade grenades
As soon as the battle began, the situation was not good, the enemy was not four or five hundred at all, but a piece of black pressure, enough to have two thousand people. The Red Army originally wanted to encircle the two wings, but it was beaten by the intensive fire and could not lift its head, so it had to change from the rear to the front, quickly withdraw from the battle, and dive headlong into the depths of the mountain. After retreating to safety, the Red Army suddenly found that Xu Xiangqian had lost!
Xu, who had an injury on his leg, could not run fast forward, and as a result, he fell behind in the retreat. He went into the woods, but the enemy did not notice, fired a few random shots and left. It was not until the evening that he was picked up by the Red Army soldiers who came back to find him.
These battles were not fought well, and Xu Xiangqian had a bitter word. The Edong Special Committee reported to the Shanghai headquarters that Xu's ability to move forward was OK, that is, his body was too weak to suffer great hardships. Of course, this is a polite statement, but in fact the special committee is very dissatisfied with the performance of the Red Army during this period, believing that the responsibility lies with this new military cadre, and this Huangpu student sounds very promising, but not only can not win the battle, but even the retreat can not run away from others, such a cadre wants him to do what?
Xu Xiangqian is facing a serious crisis of trust, and the only way to get through it is on his own. However, the opportunity soon came.
First of all, xu Xiangqian spent seven days summing up the lessons and lessons of guerrilla warfare in Dabie Mountain on the basis of his own experience in fighting guerrilla warfare on the sea and land, and compiled a set of resolutions on military issues, which were adopted at the meeting of the Eyu Border Special Committee. This set of resolutions summed up the seven tactical principles of the Red Army, among which "concentrating forces", "the enemy advances and we retreat, the enemy retreats and we advance", etc. are the only ways for our army to defeat the strong with the weak. These ideas were unanimously recognized, and Xu Xiangqian was regarded as genuine by the head of the special committee, so he was elected as a member of the special committee at the special committee meeting held in November.
The former site of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District Headquarters
In March 1930, all the Red Army in the Dabie Mountain area was gathered to form the Red 1st Army, Xu was the former deputy commander and commander of the 1st Division (reorganized from the 31st Division), and the commander was Xu Jishen, who had parachuted in, and the two Huangpu Phase I students began to work together. Three months later, the Red 1st Division attacked Pinghan Road, and Xu Xiangqian set the target of the attack at Yangjiazhai Station.
Stationed at Yangjiazhai Station are two companies of Guo Rudong's department of the Sichuan Army, they are far from the main force, it is difficult to get reinforcements, and besides, the Sichuan Army is a "double gun soldier", the combat effectiveness is very bad, so Xu Xiangqian wants to take them to sacrifice the flag. Wang Shusheng, the leader of a large group, led the people to attack from the front, Xu Shiyou, the leader of the sharp knife platoon, rushed into the village with a large knife, and the second and third teams also attacked from both flanks. An hour later, the two companies of Sichuan troops were all wiped out.
This battle was fought beautifully, but the scale was too small to prove Xu Xiangqian's level. Ten days later, Guo Rudong mobilized two regiments to attack the Red 1st Division to avenge Yang Jiazhai's arrow.
According to reliable information, Xu Xiangqian planned to ambush Yang Pingkou, where the enemy must pass. However, since its inception, the Red Army has never once ambushed an entire regiment of the enemy, and many people in the division headquarters are worried that they will not be able to digest it and their opinions will not be unified. At this time, Wang Shusheng, who was flesh and blood, resolutely advocated fighting, and Xu Xiangqian finally made a decision, ordering cadres at all levels to command from the front and be sure to "slap the Sichuan army to pieces."
Sure enough, the Sichuan army did not fight, and the Red Army killed and wounded 1,200 enemy prisoners in 4 hours and surrendered more than a thousand guns. This was not only the first victory of the Eyu-Anhui Red Army in annihilating one regiment of the enemy, but also the first battlefield miracle in which all the Red Army units implemented the reorganization of equal troops to completely annihilate the enemy.
Many years later, Xu Xiangqian revealed in his memoirs that he was determined to fight this battle and was not very sure at the time. Fortunately, the battle was won, and the fight was so painful, Xu Xiangqian's trust crisis was finally lifted.
In 1955, he was awarded the title, and the two in the front row were Nie Shuai and Xu Shuai
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