Author:Junyi
In the history of the development of the Red Army, the divisions of the Red Second and Sixth Armies are an important page. The most direct result of the meeting of the two armies was the establishment of the Red Second Army, one of the three main forces of the Red Army. When the two armies met, it was full of drama.
Before the two units met, the Red Second Army was still the Red Third Army at that time. Under the leadership of He Long, Zhou Yiqun, Deng Zhongxia, Duan Dechang, and Xia Xi, this unit established workers' and peasant organizations and guerrillas and Red Guards in the Western Soviet Region of Xiang'e, but under the brutal and long-term suppression of the enemy and the interference of the wrong line, its strength was seriously weakened, and this Red Army had to withdraw from the base area and move to the Qiandong region to establish a base area. Although the base areas were established, the Soviets and various mass organizations were established, the situation of the Red Army at that time was still not optimistic, and the lack of cadres seriously reduced the ability of the Red Army to conduct regular operations.
He Long and Shaw Ke
The situation of the Red Sixth Army, which was carrying out the western expedition, was not optimistic. From the beginning of August 1934, the Red Sixth Army set out from the yongxin Nashan area and began to break through the western expedition. Through Guidong and Guiyang, the troops successively broke through several enemy blockade lines and entered the Lingling area in southwest Hunan to prepare for armed struggle in the Yangming Mountains and open up new revolutionary base areas. However, as soon as the Red Army stopped, it was "encircled and suppressed" by the enemy's heavy troops, and the Red Sixth Army could not gain a foothold here, so it had to move west again. For more than eighty days, the Red Sixth Army marched for more than 5,000 miles, and the troops were very tired. When the troops reached the Qiandong region, they were surrounded and suppressed by the enemy, and at this time the troops were reduced from 9,000 at the time of departure to only more than 3,000 people.
At the end of September and the beginning of October, the Red Sixth Army fought two consecutive battles with the enemy in Xinchang and Ganxi, of which the First Battle of Ganxi, the Red Sixth Army was suddenly attacked by a strong enemy, rushed to the battle, suffered heavy casualties, and the whole army was cut into three sections by the enemy. Some cadres and fighters of the Forty-ninth Regimental Headquarters, the Fifty-first Regimental Headquarters, and the Machine Gun Company, under the command of Comrade Li Da, chief of staff of the Regiment, broke through the siege and lost contact with the main force of the Regiment. At this time a telegram from headquarters gave the troops hope. The telegram demanded that the Red Sixth Army meet with the Red Third Army active in Qiandong as soon as possible, and the head of the legion immediately decided to find the Red Third Army as soon as possible and strive for the two armies to meet as soon as possible in order to get out of the predicament.
However, it was not easy to meet the Red Army, because at that time the Red Sixth Army could not directly communicate with the Red Army. But after all, the two armies have come to Qiandong, and it is only a matter of time before they meet. Soon, during a battle, the Red Sixth Army captured some enemy newspapers, which carried some information about He Long's troops in Qiandong, from which they learned that the Red Sixth Army was not far from the troops of the Red Third Army, which was a great encouragement to the commanders and fighters of the Red Sixth Army. How to accurately connect with it? The Red Sixth Army thought of using military trumpets to find friendly forces. Whenever the Red Sixth Army went to a place, the trumpeters had to climb the hill and blow up the loud military trumpet to contact the comrades of the Red Third Army.
One day, He Qingji, a reconnaissance staff officer of the Red Sixth Army, was on his way to the march when he received information from the masses that there was a Red Army stationed in a village not far ahead. When He Qingji got this news, he immediately reported to Li Da, chief of staff, and Li Da, chief of staff of the Red Sixth Army, was very excited when he heard the news, and immediately led Yan Fusheng, Rao Xing, Chen Waiou, Li Quan, and He Qingji to look for it. Finally, in the paddy field dam of Jiaoyan Township, Yanhe County, he found the left-behind organ of the Red Three Army, where he met Xia Xi, the chairman of the red army branch. When the comrades-in-arms of the two armies met, they were filled with tears of joy, and a pair of hands clasped tightly together.
Chief of Staff Li Da reported to Xia Xi and other leaders on the red sixth army's withdrawal from the Xianggan Su area and the arduous journey to the west. Xia Xi said: The radio of the Red Third Army was broken, and it was learned from Jiang Jun's newspaper that the Red Sixth Army had arrived in Qiandong and had come to meet. Commander He Long said that you have come from afar, you are not familiar with the land, and there are enemy blockades, although we do not know the specific location of the Red Sixth Army, but we must take the initiative to "bump into the Sixth Army." Commander He and Political Commissar Guan have already led their troops into two routes and gone deep behind enemy lines to meet you, and it is estimated that there will be news soon.
Major General He Qingji
Sure enough, within a few days, the main force of the Red Third Army led by He Long also met with the main force of the Red Sixth Army led by Xiao Ke in the Muhuang area of Yinjiang County in eastern Qiandong. On October 26, the two armies held a grand celebration meeting at the southern waist of the border between Sichuan and Qianqian provinces. In order to avoid being harassed by enemy air strikes, it was decided that the meeting would be held when the sun was about to set. At that time, it had been decided to restore the structure of the Red Second Army, with He Long as the commander of the Red Second Army, Ren Bi with the Red Sixth Army's western expedition as the political commissar of the Red Second Army, and Guan Xiang as the deputy political commissar. Therefore, at the venue hung a banner reading "Celebration Meeting of the Second and Sixth Armies of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army." At that time, when the two armies met, the Red Second Army had 4,000 people and was organized into two divisions, while the Red Sixth Army had only 3,300 men left, and the division was directly abolished and organized into three regiments.
Before meeting the division, He Long called on the commanders and fighters of the Red Second Army to carry forward the style, and called on the cadres and fighters of the Red Third Army to use the gap between marches and operations to make straw shoes for the comrades of the Sixth Army. He once told everyone to be modest and cautious and learn from the big brother of the Red Sixth Army from the Xianggan Border Region. He said, "What is a master?" Meeting the teacher is to meet the teacher, understand? Comrades..." He Long specially instructed the Red Second Army to equip the cadres of the Red Sixth Army battalion and above with mounts, to solve the problem of heavy packing horses for the troops, and to send grain and meat, so that everyone could eat well and rest well. This feeling of being at home made the Red Sixth Army feel very warm on the long expedition.
After the two units met, the situation was suddenly different. The Red Sixth Army came from the Jiangxi Soviet Region, and the quality of officers and men, especially the military and political quality, was extremely high, and it was a good unit capable of fighting a hard battle. Since the withdrawal of the Red Second Army from the Honghu base area in 1933, it has been "surrounded and suppressed" by the enemy army, unable to establish a solid base area, and has been climbing mountains and wading through water for a long time. He Long said: "Our camp is on the soles of our feet. "Therefore, the Red Second Army walks fast, fights like a fierce tiger, and is particularly able to endure hardships."
In order to integrate the strength of the two armies, the Red Sixth Army specially selected 100 cadres to supplement the Second Army, such as Gan Siqi, Yuan Renyuan, Fang Liming, Chen Xiyun, Zhang Pinghua, Yu Qiuli, Xian Henghan, Li Jianzhu, Jin Rubai, Zeng Jingfan, and others, who entered the Red Second Army during this period. He Long attached great importance to and trusted these cadres, and arranged for them to serve as the director of the political department of the corps or the political commissar of the division and regiment and the head of the political organs of the division and regiment. In order to reflect the importance attached to these comrades, He Long specially demoted the former political work cadres of the former Second Army to deputy posts, or assigned them to work at the next level.
After these cadres entered the Second Army, the work of the Second Army quickly became active. In addition, some military cadres transferred from the Sixth Army to the Second Army were also reused, such as Li Da was appointed chief of staff of the Second Army, and Guo Peng was appointed division commander. The mutual transfer of cadres accelerated the integration of the two units, and soon both units recovered their vitality, and this meeting of the division truly achieved the effect of one plus one being greater than two. In the subsequent battles, the Red Second and Sixth Armies as a whole won many battles in battle and successfully created the western Hunan base area.
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】