Author: Mo Guyan
Since the Red Army crossed the Chishui River for the second time, it first attacked Loushan Pass and then attacked Zunyi City, opening up the posture of a deadly battle with the enemy in northern Qianbei. For the Red Army, which had less and less room to maneuver, the situation at that time was that every battle had to be won, otherwise there was no room for maneuver. Once the army is defeated and surrounded, it can only be completely destroyed, and there is no other way.
As usual, Peng Dehuai's Red 3 Corps undertook the task of frontal attack, and after paying a small price to capture the commanding heights of Loushan Pass, it directly attacked Zunyi City. If Wang Jialie's Qian army could be completely defeated in Zunyi, and then take advantage of the victory to annihilate Wu Qiwei's troops, who had just crossed the Wu River, the whole situation would be greatly improved, and the Red Army would be able to gain a firm foothold in northern Qianbei.
On February 26, the Red 3rd Army crushed the 6 regiments of the Qian Army, which had no fighting spirit, and forced them to zunyi city. From the overall situation, Wu Qiwei's column may arrive in Zunyi after dawn, and if the Red Army cannot take Zunyi before dawn, it will fall into great danger of being attacked by the enemy on its back.
This was one of the most severe moments in the entire long march of the Red Army, and like the Battle of the XiangJiang River, "not for the victor, that is, for the defeated.". On the afternoon of the 27th, the Red 3 Corps, which had been fighting hard for many days, could not take the slightest breath and struggled to launch a siege battle.
Since the two fierce battles in Xiangjiang and Tucheng, the 3rd Army had suffered serious attrition, and had to cancel the division-level structure, and the whole army was reduced to 4 regiments, and the division commanders Zhang Zongxun and Peng Xuefeng were both demoted to regimental commanders. Peng Dehuai, who was seriously undermanned, did not even have a reserve in the previous Battle of Loushan Pass. Fight to this point, fight is a breath!
Deng Ping, chief of staff of the Red 3rd Army, commanded from the front according to the usual practice, leading the Red 11th Regiment to rush to the front. It is extremely regrettable that Deng Ping was accidentally shot under Zunyi City and unfortunately died heroically.
Cadres have always been the tradition of the Red Army, especially at critical moments of life and death, and the motivational role of cadres is particularly crucial. Since the Long March, the proportion of casualties among cadres at all levels of the Red Army has been very large, but the sacrifice of senior commanders like Deng Ping in front of the line is also the first time, which is undoubtedly a huge loss.
Regarding the details of Deng Ping's sacrifice, many of the information is unclear. The memories of General Zhang Aiping in his later years should be the closest to the truth.
Portrait of Deng Ping
When the Red Army launched the Zunyi Campaign, the Red 3rd Army attacked fiercely, taking Zunyi New City in one fell swoop, and then attacking the Old City. On the evening of the 27th, Deng Ping personally came to the north gate of the old city of Zunyi to reconnoiter the enemy's situation and prepare to launch a general attack when night fell. Beside him were Zhang Aiping, political commissar of the Red 11 Regiment, and Lan Guoqing, chief of staff of the Regiment.
The three of them hid on a dirt slope, just a few tens of meters from the moat, completely within range of the enemy's rifles, which was too risky. Lan Guoqing suggested another place, but Deng Ping thought it was the most suitable place to observe, turning a blind eye to the danger.
After carefully analyzing the terrain, Deng Ping roughly determined a route, preparing to send troops to cross the river in the dark, gather some troops under the city wall, attract the enemy troops defending the city, and wait until the main force of the legion arrives to concentrate on launching a general attack, no matter what, to capture the old city of Zunyi before dawn.
The Red 11th Regiment reconnaissance platoon took the lead, and their alertness flexibly used the jumping piers on the moat to cross the river, and when they reached the designated position, they built a simple bunker and took the lead in standing on their heels. The 3rd Battalion followed suit, and also crossed the river smoothly and touched under the city wall.
At this time, Deng Ping found a group of warriors climbing the city wall from the telescope, the problem was that they had not received the order to attack the city, so acting without permission might destroy the siege plan. Zhang Aiping saw from the telescope that the leader was Cai Aiqing, the instructor of the 7th Company, who was very brave in battle and rushed to the front every time he fought.
Deng Ping felt that the 3rd Battalion must have made a mistake in the task, perhaps Zhang Aiping did not explain the task clearly, and immediately ordered the 3rd Battalion to send a message and immediately stop the action. After a while, a small messenger from the 3rd Battalion came to report that the city wall was divided into two layers, and the 3rd Battalion had climbed into a company. Deng Ping asked the little soldier to go back and tell the commander of the 3rd Battalion that the troops who had climbed in should not withdraw and wait for the order of the general attack at night.
Admiral Zhang Aiping
The little warrior gave a military salute and sped away. What no one expected was that it was this military salute of the little soldier that exposed Deng Ping's position.
Deng Ping had just told Zhang Aiping a word, and halfway through the sentence, a bullet suddenly flew in, entered his forehead, and flew out of the back of his head, and blood splashed Zhang Aiping's body.
Peng Dehuai, who was nervously planning combat operations at the corps headquarters, received a call from Zhang Aiping. Hearing this unexpected bad news, he was stunned. After a moment of silence, Zhang Aiping on the other side of the phone heard a heart-rending scolding: "You pigs and dogs, give me to die!" Zhang Aiping still sighed when talking about this matter decades later, and she could fully understand Peng Dehuai's extreme grief and indignation at that time.
At nightfall, the Soldiers of the Red Army shouted the slogan of "avenging the Chief of Staff" and entered Zunyi City, and the 8 regiments of the Qian Army were completely destroyed. Early the next morning, the Red 3rd Army engaged in a deadly battle with wu Qiwei's two divisions at Honghuagang and Laoya Mountain outside the city, and the Red 1st Army rushed hundreds of miles overnight to attack Zhongzhuangpu, the seat of Wu Qiwei's headquarters. The two legions joined forces and completely defeated the enemy. The officers and men of the Red Army used the unprecedented victory since the Long March to comfort the heroic soul of the martyr Deng Ping.
When Deng Ping's body was buried, Peng Dehuai, a tough man who never shed tears, burst into tears. After that, he said a sentence that Zhang Aiping would never forget: "The road to revolution is still very long, and you should not make senseless sacrifices!" ”
Zhang Aiping later recalled that the gun that hit Deng Ping was a "nine-shot stick."
The so-called "nine-shot stick" is actually the German-made M1871 Mauser rifle, which is the world's earliest bolt-action rifle, which can be called the originator of the modern rifle, and has been widely equipped with various Warlords in China since the end of the Qing Dynasty. The gun has a total of 9 bullets in the ammunition magazine, so it is commonly known as the "Nine Bullet Gun", also known as "Nine Sound Mauser" and "Nine Sound Stick". By the 1930s, the gun was already so badly backward that even the Red Army, which lacked guns and ammunition, could not be seen, and only the most inferiorly equipped southwest warlords would use it.
The tomb of the martyr Deng Ping, whose epitaph was inscribed by Zhang Aiping
According to common sense, this broken gun does not have the function of accurate shooting at all, and Deng Ping is most likely hit by a stray bullet. This can't help but make people sigh: time also, fate also! As the leader of the Pingjiang Uprising and the founder of the Red 3Rd Army, if Deng Ping lived to be liberated, the title of general should not be controversial.
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