Author: Lan Yan also fell into the city
Among the three armies of the Red Army's Western Expedition, the Red 30th Army was the strongest, followed by the Red 9th Army, and the Red 5th Army was the weakest in combat effectiveness. The predecessor of the Red 5 Army is the famous Red 5 Army. As the iron-blooded defender of the Red Army's Long March, the Red 5th Army suffered heavy losses on the journey of ten thousand miles and has not been able to recover its vitality.
In late November 1936, under the command of commander Dong Zhentang, the Red 5th Army was stationed in Shandan in two batches to take over the defense of the 89th Division and the Cavalry Division of the Red 30th Army. Shandan belongs to Zhangye City, located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor, and is the eastern gate of Zhangye, an important town in Gansu Province, and its location is very important.
Dong Zhentang stood at the head of Shandan City, wanting to move two cannons and "greet" these ghostly horse bandits with roaring cannonballs. But at present, the Red Army not only has no cannons, but also has few bullets left, and can only choose to fight with the enemy at close range.
【Commander of the 5th Red Army Dong Zhentang】
The Red 5th Army had two divisions under its jurisdiction, the 13th Division had jurisdiction over the 37th Regiment and the 39th Regiment, with division commander Li Lianxiang, and the 15th Division had jurisdiction over the 43rd Regiment and the 45th Regiment, and the division commander Guo Xishan (defected to the enemy during the Battle of Linze and was later executed by Ma Buqing). The Red 5 Army claims to be an army, but in fact, the whole army is less than 4,000 people. Faced with an enemy that was constantly pouring in like a tidal wave, Dong Zhentang could only shrink the battle line, abandon the stronghold outside Shandan City, and concentrate all his forces inside the city. The 15th Division held off the enemy on the city walls, while the 13th Division remained as a reserve and stood by in the city.
In addition to the two cavalry brigades of the Majia Army, there were also a large number of militia regiments that besieged the Red Army of Shandan. The Majia Army's attack was almost non-tactical, and it was all the pioneers who drove the militia to take the lead, and after consuming the Red Army's extremely limited ammunition, the main force launched a fierce attack.
For three consecutive days, the defenders relied on the city walls to defend. The people in the city were also mobilized to form the Shandan Soviet, mobilizing the masses from all walks of life to contribute to the Support of the Red Army.
Watching the 15th Division fighting feverishly on the city wall, Li Lianxiang, commander of the 13th Division and commander of the 37th Regiment, could not sit still. He found the military commander Dong Zhentang and said, "Commander, let's go up." Our division squatted in the city for three days listening to the sound of gunfire, and the soldiers were going crazy. ”
Li Lianxiang fought bravely and was deeply respected by Dong Zhentang. Dong Zhentang said: "What is in the battle is that even if we don't fight, the enemy will still be entangled." Now your task is to seize the time to rest and hurry up to prepare! ”
The next afternoon, the machine guns responsible for covering the charge on the city wall fired fiercely, suppressing the enemy's attack, and Li Lianxiang led his troops to counterattack. The Red 37th Regiment and the Red 39th Regiment were like a flood that broke the embankment, gushing out from the East Gate and rushing into the enemy position. The besieging enemy was caught off guard and fled in all directions. The Red Army soldiers chased after it until they reached the foot of the Great Wall and occupied a sand beam.
When Zhou Changchang, political commissar of the Red 39 Regiment, stood on a sand beam and raised a telescope to observe the enemy's situation, he and the guards around him were suddenly hit by the enemy and fell to the ground. Chief of Staff Rao Zijian hurriedly pounced on them, only to see a bullet from the enemy go through their thighs. Rao Zijian asked the hygienist to quickly bandage the wound and carry the two men off the position. The assault forces were unstable, and the enemy cavalry had begun a full-scale counterattack.
The assault troops had no danger to defend, and the enemy cavalry slashed left and right. Li Lianxiang fired the last bullet in the pistol, threw the gun away, "clicked", pulled out the ghost head knife from his back, jumped to the ma family soldier who rushed over and slashed at the front with a knife. The light of the knife passed, the blood splashed everywhere, and the Ma family soldiers dressed in black clothes fell off their horses.
Ma Jiajun's cavalry shouted and surrounded him, and several sabers flashed cold light and attacked him. Li Lianxiang, the warrior who joined the ranks of the Red Army in the Ningdu Uprising, did not have the slightest fear, dodged the blade, slashed a horse bandit with one knife, and turned over on his horse to meet the enemy. Just as he was fighting with several horse bandits, a criminal bullet hit him in the back of the heart, and as soon as his body shook off the horse, several horse bandits slashed their knives, and Li Lianxiang was hit several times in his body, and the blood spilled on the battlefield.
【Majiajun Cavalry】
Dong Zhentang, who was standing on the city tower and commanding this scene, was so anxious that he urgently ordered the 45th Regiment to send 2 battalions to attack, and the 37th Regiment and the 39th Regiment withdrew into the city.
At the end of December, the Western Expeditionary Army abandoned Yongchang and Shandan to continue its westward advance. On New Year's Day 1937, Dong Zhentang led the 39th regiment and the 45th regiment to take Gaotai lightly, captured the pseudo-county magistrate Ma Henian, and also reorganized the captured security regiment and militia regiment. At the most critical moment of the Battle of Gaotai, it was these captives who suddenly turned against the water and gave the Red 5 Army a fatal blow.
Ma Yuanhai, the former commander-in-chief of the Majia Army, used part of his forces to contain the Red 30th Army, the Red 9th Army, and the Red 5th Army stationed in the area of Nijiayingzi, Shahe fort, and Linze, and gathered the main forces of several brigades and a large number of militia groups to besiege Gaotai.
Because the only radio station of the Red 5Th Army was at the military political commissar Huang Chao, while Huang Chao and the 37th and 43rd regiments were stationed in Linze, fifty or sixty miles away. The news of Gaotai's siege was unknown to the headquarters of the Western Expeditionary Army. After many days of fighting, the lone Red 5Th Army suffered heavy casualties and was about to run out of ammunition. Dong Zhentang ordered people to dig a large hole under the northern wall of the city that could pass through three people side by side, leaving only a thin layer outside the hole, ready to break through at any time in a critical moment.
Ma Jiajun
In the evening, just as Dong Zhentang was preparing to order a breakthrough, Huang Chao, the military political commissar, sent a letter to the effect that Gaotai was an important stronghold for opening up international passages and must be held to the death. After reading the letter, Dong Zhentang was silent, the political commissar had the final decision-making power, and when he did not receive instructions from the headquarters, according to organizational discipline, he must carry out the orders of the political commissar. Dong Zhentang solemnly asked everyone: swear to coexist and die with Gaotai!
On January 20, the enemy, under the cover of artillery, set up a ladder and began to attack the city. All the personnel of the Red 5 Army, cooks, and grooms all went up to the city wall. Fight the enemy with large knives, sticks, stones, and even boiling water. At the most critical juncture, the newly reorganized vigilante group in the city took the opportunity to reverse the water and opened the city gate, and the majia army cavalry rushed into the city with a saber. Yang Keming, director of the military's political department, grabbed the machine gun from the sacrificial machine gun and swept at the enemy group until the bullet ran out and the last drop of blood was shed.
Commander Dong Zhentang led the guard platoon to rush left and right, as a soldier, what he could do at the moment was to attack, attack, and attack again... Until you fall on the way to the charge!
【Bloody Battle between the Red Army and the Ma Family Army】
When the officers and men of the Red 5th Army were fighting in the bloody battle at Gaotai, the key officers of the headquarters broke the enemy's telegram and learned that Gaotai was surrounded. The distant water could not quench the thirst of the near, and the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian could only mobilize the only mobile unit, the cavalry division of less than 500 people, to rush to gaotai, and at the same time order Huang Chao to urgently reinforce.
The cavalry division was besieged by the enemy army halfway through, and faced with an enemy several times larger than itself, the cavalry division, under the command of division commander Dong Yanjun and political commissar Qin Xiandao, launched a life-and-death contest with the enemy. In the end, due to the disparity between the masses, the cavalry division was completely destroyed, and none of them survived.
After Huang Chao received a telegram from the headquarters, he ordered Rao Zijian, the new commander of the 37th Regiment, to take a battalion to support Gaotai. Rao Zijian felt that there was too little in one battalion and wanted to take the 37th regiment with him. However, he was categorically rejected by Huang Chao, and Rao Zijian had no choice but to choose the second battalion that could fight the best to go with him on the mission. What Rao Zijian did not know was that at this time, Gaotai's comrades-in-arms were already buried in the wind and snow.
The Red 5th Army passed through the two battles of Shandan and Gaotai, and the elite were lost, and the situation of the western expedition team was even more difficult. Taking stock of the many defeats of the Western Expedition, none of them ended in the failure of trapping the isolated city.
As we all know, the Red Army is known for its proficiency in guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare. Once the city is firmly held, flexible tactics lose their usefulness and become a war of attrition. The most important reason for such a passive situation was, first, the demand by the superiors to establish a base area on the spot during the Western Expedition to respond to the actions of the Red Army in Hedong. Second, after being criticized for carrying out Zhang's line to the south, Chen Changhao, the principal commander, went to the other extreme: In spite of the harsh reality facing the troops, he obeyed orders and did not have the courage to make decisions on the spot, and only knew how to mechanically carry out the instructions of the decision-making level. In this situation of passive beatings everywhere, even Marshal Xu Qianqian, who was a talented man, could not turn the tide and eventually folded Qilian Mountain.
【Chen Changhao】
When Chen Changhao recalled in his later years, he blamed himself unceasingly: "I really can't help but blame the defeat of qilian by the Western Route Army soldiers; tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers, blood stained the desert, and the revolutionary forces accumulated over the years have not yet fought a war with the Japanese and Kou, and they have been destroyed in one fell swoop." When I think of those familiar faces, when I think of those Red Army soldiers scattered in the vast Gobi, my heart is like a knife..."
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