In early May 1929, Wu Guanghao, deputy commander of the Jute Uprising and commander of the Red Eleventh Army, was unfortunately killed, and a general star fell. The CPC's Northeast Hubei Special Committee sent a letter to the Central Committee, urgently requesting the dispatch of additional military cadres: "The Red Army [in Northeast Hubei] has no one in charge of the overall responsibility, and if the white terror comes and it is very dangerous, please ask the Central Committee to quickly send a commander-in-chief." ”
The strategic position of the Eyu border region is extremely important, and it bears the revolutionary future of opening up the Dabie Mountains and connecting the three provinces of Eyu and Anhui. To go there to take charge of military work, you must have a certain degree of qualifications, prestige and ability.
As for the candidate for the commander-in-chief of the Red Eleventh Army, the Central Military Commission, after careful study, remembered Xu Xiangqian, who was in Shanghai.
Xu Xiangqian was born in 1901, a native of Wutai, Shanxi, and a graduate of Huangpu Phase I.
From the first crusade against the warlord Chen Jiongming to the Northern Expedition, from the Guangzhou Uprising to the creation of the red area of sea and land, Xu Xiangqian participated in almost all the major military struggles led by the CCP in the early days, and was a commander who was promoted from the first rank in the war, and such a commander had the most practical experience.
Xu Xiangqian also had experience in mountainous areas, and after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising at the end of 1927, Xu Xiangqian followed the rebel army to retreat to the Lotus Mountain to fight guerrillas, which lasted for more than a year, during which he was promoted to the commander of the Red 4th Division. In March 1929, Xu Xiangqian secretly withdrew from Lotus Mountain and transferred it to Shanghai, the seat of the Cpc Central Committee, in accordance with the requirements of his superiors.
Xu Xiangqian during the Whampoa period
When he was in Shanghai, Xu Xiangqian repeatedly invited Miao to go to the troops, as long as it was a red army team, it could go anywhere.
At the end of May, the secret traffic officer told Xu Xiangqian that the central authorities had decided to send him to Dabie Mountain to lead the military work, where there was already a small red base area and a Red Army team. A few days later, Xu Xiangqian disguised himself as a businessman and entered the base area through Shanghai, Wuhan, and Huangpi, and escorted by secret traffic officers.
The new commander-in-chief came, and Xu Xiangqian was warmly welcomed by the party and government cadres of the Northeast Hubei Special Committee and the commanders and fighters of the Red Army.
After Xu Xiangqian arrived in the border area, he changed his name to Xu Xiangqian according to the harmonic sound, which means that he has always been forward and never looked back.
The Cpc's Northeast Hubei Special Committee assigned Xu to be the former deputy commander of the 31st Division of the Red Eleventh Army. Before his death, Wu Guanghao had been serving as the commander of the Red Eleventh Army and the commander of the 31st Division, and the special committee considered that Comrade Wu Guanghao was the main leader of the Jute Uprising and the Red Army and the base areas here, and enjoyed high prestige in the border areas. Xu Xiangqian was nominally the deputy commander of the Red 31st Division, but in fact he had to assume the military leadership responsibility of the whole division.
Xu Xiangqian came to Eyuwan with a lot of enthusiasm and wanted to work with local comrades to make a big career, but the initial work in Eyuwan was not smooth. Xu Xiangqian mainly faced three serious problems: language barriers, confusion of authority, and the heavy "suppression" of the Kuomintang army.
Xu Xiangqian has a thick Shanxi accent, and the locals can't understand his Shanxi dialect. Damn, he couldn't understand the local Huang'an dialect. When I first arrived in Eyuwan, I made a lot of jokes because of the language barrier.
One day, two old carpenters wanted to join the Red Army, and the staff in charge of recruiting thought they were too old to accept, and the two old carpenters shouted around the division headquarters. In desperation, the staff could only find Xu Xiangqian to reflect the situation: "Division Commander, these two 'Bo Masters' are refusing to leave, they must join the army!" ”
Xu Xiangqian looked at the two dark-faced and ragged old carpenters and said, "Where is the doctor in the ravine?" It just so happened that the party representative Dai Kemin passed by, he laughed heartily, it turned out that Huang'an locally called the carpenter "Boshi", Xu Xiangqian did not understand the Huang'an native dialect, mistakenly regarded the "Boshi" as "Doctor", and naturally made a joke.
Another time, the special forces of the army went out to fight the local tycoons and seized thousands of silver dollars. When the special agent captain returned, he said to Xu Xiangqian with excitement: "Division commander, it is a fire, a fire!" Xu Xiangqian also thought that the special agent team had burned the house, criticized the special agent captain, and asked him to write a check. The special agent captain was confused and grumbled: "If you go out of your way, why are you still being criticized?" ”
Dai Kemin saw that Xu Xiangqian misunderstood again, and explained that "going off the fire" was the meaning of "bumping into big luck" in Huang'an Tu, and Xu Xiangqian realized that he had screwed it again.
In addition to the inconvenience of communication, another major problem that made him feel constrained was the establishment of the powers of the troops and the special committee.
Although Xu Xiangqian was the deputy division commander and the military leader of the Red Eleventh Army, he was not a member of the CCP's Northeast Hubei Special Committee, so he could not attend the special committee meeting. The decisions and instructions of the Northeast Hubei Special Committee were generally told to him by Chief of Staff Cao Xuekai, and the special committee assigned him to do whatever he wanted, and to lead the troops to fight a war.
In this way, Xu Xiangqian's role is very strange, although he is a military leader, he has to obey the command of the chief of staff Cao Xuekai, who is a commander when fighting, and usually does the things of the headquarters staff. Moreover, to listen to reports and express opinions, we had to rely on the translation of party representative Dai Kemin in the half-baked northern official dialect.
Xu Xiangqian had no say in the Northeast Hubei Special Committee that exercised real power in the base areas, so that his opinions were sometimes not taken seriously, and this confusion in his authority soon revealed its evil consequences in the three anti-"hui suppressions."
The first time was "Luo Li will suppress". Luo pointed to Luo Lin, commander of the Independent Fourth Division of the Kuomintang Army, and Li pointed to the provisional Second Brigade of The Henan Bandit Force Li Kebang, which was launched at the end of June. Because the Northeast Hubei Special Committee did not grasp the enemy's situation in time, the Red 31st Division could only concentrate two brigades in a hurry to fight, and the masses in the base areas suffered heavy losses in the "meeting and suppression," hundreds of party members and the masses were killed, and nearly half of the houses were burned.
In the face of the enemy's superior forces, Xu Qiangqian suggested that the troops move north and first attack the weaker Li Kebang's provisional Second Brigade, but in his report to the Central Committee, the Northeast Hubei Special Committee complained about Xu Xiangqian's hesitation in fighting, and also accused Xu Xiangqian of not gently criticizing the special committee: "Please go and do a good job in the transportation of troops, send us more bullets, and we will fight." ”
The second time was the "EyuHui Suppression". In August and September 1929, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Liu Zhi, chairman of the Kuomintang Henan Provincial Government, to unify the command of the Hubei and Henan garrisons to launch simultaneous attacks on the two base areas of Eyubian and southeastern Henan.
Around the policy of breaking the enemy, the Red 31st Division and the Northeast Hubei Special Committee had another disagreement, Xu Xiangqian did not advocate hard fighting, suggested finding gaps in the enemy army to jump out of the encirclement, but the special committee and the army had contradictions and disputes over the issue of whether to fight or not. Xu Xiangqian remembered this deeply:
"At that time, as soon as the enemy came, the local authorities (the Northeast Hubei Special Committee) always demanded that we fight, fearing that we would not fight. Speaking of which, it is nothing more than fear of losing the territory and breaking the altar jars. ”
The third time was "Xu Xia will suppress". Xu refers to the 48th Division of Xu Yuanquan stationed in Xinyang, Henan, and Xia refers to the 13th Division of Xia Douyin stationed in Macheng, Hubei Province.
The base area was devastated by the enemy army twice in a row and suffered heavy losses, and the special committee demanded that the Red Army could no longer "pretend" this time and face the enemy head-on, and also sent a group of information on the actions of four or five hundred enemies.
However, I did not think that the information sent by the special commissar was inaccurate, and the enemy had nearly two thousand people. The Red Army was undermanned and forced to retreat while fighting, paying a great price. Xu Xiangqian's classmate, Gui Bu Toad of Huangpu Phase I, was killed in this battle.
From June to October 1929, although the three "meetings" of the Kuomintang army failed to achieve their goal of eliminating the Red Army, they caused serious losses to the base areas, a large number of Communists and the masses in the Soviet area were killed, and agricultural tools, grain, cattle, and property were transported.
In the three anti-"meeting suppressions," Xu Xiangqian's role was not fully utilized, not only because of the unfamiliarity of life and place, but also because of the language barrier, as well as the reasons of the command system.
The Northeast Hubei Special Committee believed that the results of these three anti-"meetings" were not great, and the gains were not worth the losses, so they vented this dissatisfaction on Xu Xiangqian, and the special committee reported to the central authorities twice in a row, asking for the reassignment of the commander-in-chief, "Please ask the central authorities to quickly send a competent comrade with overall responsibility to direct all the work, and it is necessary to send them." He Yulin, director of the Propaganda Department of the Eyu Border Special Committee, who had made a special trip to Shanghai to greet Xu Xiangqian, also pleaded with the central authorities: "Please send another person who can take on the responsibility of general command."
The CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission in Shanghai believe in Xu Xiangqian's ability, and are well aware that the temporary predicament in front of them is only a period of inevitable "run-in", and the central authorities have always trusted Xu Xiangqian and have no intention of replacing him.
However, Xu Xiangqian still has a long way to go to gain the confidence of the military and people in the base areas.
Don't be alarmed, this is not only the creed of the soldiers, but also the style of Xu Xiangqian.
In the face of questioning, doubting and even criticaly, Xu Xiangqian maintained his inner composure. He knew that as a foreign cadre, to gain the trust of local cadres and the masses, he needed a process, and the key was to seize the opportunity and open the situation with beautiful achievements.
The opportunity soon came.
In order to unify the base areas of the Soviet District in Dabie Mountain, the central authorities decided to divide The huang'an, Macheng, and Huangpi in Hubei and the eight counties in Henan, including Shangcheng, Guangshan, and Luoshan, into the Eyu Border Special Zone, and established the CPC Eyu Border Special Committee to unify its leadership. The new Eyu Border Special Committee demanded that the troops conscientiously sum up the experience of military struggle and formulate a policy for future development, and the task was entrusted to Xu Xiangqian and Party deputy Dai Kemin.
Xu Xiangqian received systematic military training and had unique features in summing up and upgrading military theory; he systematically sorted out his previous experience in guerrilla warfare in Hailufeng and Lianhuashan in Guangdong and the experience of the three anti-"meetings" in Dabie Mountain, systematically summed up the thinking, organizational system, internal organization, and operational principles of the red armed forces in Dabie Mountain over the past three years, forming a completely new mode of operation and a complete set of tactical principles. To sum up, there are four tasks, seven principles, and ten disciplines.
The Seven Principles of Guerrilla Warfare are the essence of this, to the effect that:
(i) Concentrate on fighting and disperse guerrilla warfare; (ii) the Red Army fights and tries its best to call on the masses to participate; (iii) the enemy's situation is unclear and does not fight with it; (iv) the enemy advances and retreats, and the enemy retreats and we advance; (v) adopts the form of running in circles against the enemy; (vi) against the enemy at a distance, first mobilize the masses to disturb the enemy, and then adopt the method of surprise attack; (vii) if the enemy has strong fortifications, he will not fight with him.
Although these operational principles are very simple and simple, they have rich theoretical connotations, and they are similar to the sixteen-character technique of attack tactics summarized by Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Xu said to the front and back:
"This set was not stipulated above, nor was it brought from the Whampoa Military Academy, but was gradually developed according to the actual situation at that time. ...... Where does the Whampoa Military Academy have sleeping straw and door boards? Fight where there are three bullets! The things of the Whampoa Military Academy are general military common sense, and here they are engaged in separate ways, relying on their own exploration. ”
These few pieces of experience, which are concise and concise, easy to learn and easy to remember, are very popular with the officers and men of the Red Army, who elevated the simple and intuitive guerrilla tactics of commanders and fighters to the basic tactical principles of guerrilla warfare, displayed dazzling military talent, and won the first glimmer of respect.
On November 20, 1929, the first party congress in Eyubian was held, and the meeting adopted the "Resolution on Military Issues" submitted by Xu Xiangqian, and Xu Xiangqian, who was expected by all, was successfully elected as a member of the special committee and was responsible for leading the military and military movement work. At the subsequent First Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Congress in Eyubian, Xu Xiangqian was again elected chairman of the Military Commission.
Putting Xu Xiangqian in the right position, he was able to exert all his abilities, and soon Xu Xiangqian established his military prestige with brilliant achievements.
In February and March 1930, the central authorities decided to merge the Red Army in the three base areas of Eyubian, Southeast Henan, and Western Anhui to form the First Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and appointed Xu Jishen, a famous general of the Huangpu First Term and the Northern Expedition, as the commander of the army, and Xu as the former deputy commander and commander of the Red First Division. Xu Jishen led the Second and Third Divisions into action, and Xu Qianqian led the First Division to attack Pinghan Road.
Xu Xiangqian fought the first battle against Yangjiazhai and eliminated the Sichuan army Guo Rudong's troops, and the army expanded from 800 to 1200 people. In the second battle of Yang Pingkou, more than 1,200 enemy troops were killed and captured, more than a thousand guns were surrendered, and a major victory was achieved in annihilating an entire regiment of the enemy for the first time since the establishment of the Eyu-Anhui Red Army, and the army was also expanded to 1500 people. At the Garden Station of the Three Battles, 8 heavy machine guns and 5 mortars were captured, more than 1,400 people in a regiment of Qian Dajun's instructor were disarmed and taken prisoner by the Red Army, and the Red First Division of the Red Army was expanded to 3,000 people.
In the same period, the second and third divisions had more than 1,800 people combined. Xu Xiangqian's Red First Division became the absolute main force in the Dabie Mountains.
More importantly, Xu Xiangqian's military operations completed the qualitative change in the strategy and tactics of the Red Army, and successively adopted new tactics such as attacking points for reinforcement, long-distance attacks, and roundabout encirclement, and began the transition from small-scale guerrilla warfare to large-scale mobile warfare, which marked that the Red Army in Eyuwan had entered a new stage of development.
After the founding of New China, Xu Xiangqian talked with the staff of the Party History Department about this time and said: "These tactics were forced out by the situation. Otherwise, we will not be able to survive, develop, and win wars.
As a leading figure who led the troops into a new stage, Xu Xiangqian won the respect of the officers and men of the whole army with his thick personality, down-to-earth style, meticulous thinking, and calm and self-assured style, and established great prestige in the fires of war.
The masses in the Soviet area and the soldiers of the Red Army in the Dabie Mountains knew that as long as they followed Xu Forward to fight, they could continue to win victories, and rarely suffered losses, so they increasingly had a strong sense of dependence on him, and the villagers and soldiers had already taken this Shanxi man as their own family. Later, the Eyu-Anhui Special Committee also wrote in its report to the Central Committee: "Ordinary soldiers believe in Xiangqian (Xu Xiangqian). ”
Xu Xiangqian finally had a suitable platform to fully stretch his fists and feet, and by the time the Red Fourth Front was established on November 7, 1931, Xu Xiangqian had become the commander-in-chief of a front, and his military career began to gradually mature and peak.
Xu Xiangqian took this Dabie Mountain disciple to fight in Eyuwan, west into Sichuan and Shaanxi, north to Shaanxi and Gansu, there were 80,000 troops at the peak, he was always the supreme military leader and actual spiritual leader of this heroic force, and he was a well-deserved soul figure of the Red Fourth Front.
In 1955, Xu Xiangqian was awarded the rank of marshal as a representative of the Red Fourth Front.