On April 8, Liu Shihua, an old man in Chijiang Town, Dayu County, looked at an old photo of his mother Zhou Basket at his home. Photo by Wang Kaifeng
Left behind in the Red Army, a name that has been hidden in time.
In October 1934, more than 16,000 Red Army soldiers and guerrillas were ordered to stay in the Central Soviet Region and carry out a three-year guerrilla war that covered the breakthrough of the main force of the Red Army and continued to persist in the struggle.
It was heroic and heroic bloody perseverance. After hanging alone in the enemy, nine deaths. Qu Qiubai, Ruan Xiaoxian, He Shuheng, Liu Bojian... Many well-known leaders of the Party and the Red Army, as well as many more unknown Red Army soldiers, died tragically. The revolutionary spirit of the officers and men of the Red Army who strengthened their revolutionary convictions, struggled hard, relied on the people, and regarded death as their homecoming in the face of desperate circumstances is the precious wealth of the Chinese nation.
In the winter of 1937, the Red Army and guerrillas in the eight southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, and they rushed to the anti-Japanese front line.
↑ This is a southern Red Army guerrilla unit ready to be reorganized into the New Fourth Army. (File photo)
A tragic page in the history of the Chinese revolution
In Dayu County, Jiangxi, the memorial hall of the three-year guerrilla war of the Southern Red Army is like an angular white rock, surrounded by rolling green mountains, and a long scroll of history is spread out wordlessly here.
In October 1934, the main Red Army bid farewell to the red capital Ruijin. The villagers and warriors who sent off the country snuggled up to say goodbye. The comrades who stayed behind were speechless and had mixed feelings.
On the eve of the Long March, the Central Committee set up a new leading organ of the party, government, and army in the Central Soviet Region. Among them, the sub-bureau of the CPC Central Committee is composed of Xiang Ying, Qu Qiubai, Chen Yi, Chen Tanqiu, He Chang and others.
"Everyone is concerned not only about the whereabouts of the main Red Army, but also about the future fate of the Central Soviet Region." Chen Pixian, then secretary of the Gannan Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, later recalled in the book that he was also a member of the left-behind at the age of 19.
These remainers, called the "Division of Death" by the American writer Harrison Salisbury, included more than 16,000 Red Army soldiers, partisans and tens of thousands of wounded and sick. After the Long March of the main force of the Red Army, the Red Army remained disguised as the main force, confusing and delaying the advance of the Kuomintang army and covering the breakthrough of the main Red Army.
"The red army that remained behind contained and attracted hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops, effectively cooperated with the strategic shift of the main red army, and was a magnificent revolutionary epic that reflected the Long March of the Red Army." Hu Riwang, director of the Party History Office of the Ganzhou Municipal CPC Committee in Jiangxi Province, said.
History cannot bear to be read in detail, and once opened, every word may be stained with blood.
From the fall of Ruijin in November 1934 to February 1935, the Central Soviet District fell almost completely in three months, many villages were killed, and young adults suffered "off-generational" sacrifices.
According to historical records, 143 people from 34 households in Louziba Village, Changting County, Fujian Province, except for an octogenarian woman who went out to visit relatives and survived, the whole village was slaughtered; more than 108,000 martyrs in Ganzhou City, about half of whom were cadres and masses of the Soviet region who were killed after the fall of the Soviet district.
"Enemies on all sides, gunshots everywhere ... Old men, children, women, full of pits and valleys, full of villages and fields. I heard the gunshots on this side and ran to that side, and the guns rang over there and ran to this side. Chen Yi once described the scene of the fall of the Central Soviet Region at that time.
In February 1935, the Remaining Red Army was besieged by heavy enemy troops. At the critical juncture, Xiang Ying and Chen Yi received a telegram from the central authorities instructing them to stay behind and break through the Ninth Road of the Red Army.
↑ This is a scene of the three-year guerrilla war in the South. (File photo)
"The three years of guerrilla warfare were no less arduous than those of the Red Army's Long March, and from the perspective of time, the victory of the Long March took two years, and the guerrilla warfare persisted for three years. Judging from the number of senior cadres who died, more than 10 cadres at or above the military level died during the Long March, and no less than 60 cadres at or above the provincial level and at or above the military level died during the three-year guerrilla war. Liu Mianyu, an 85-year-old retired professor at Nanchang University, was one of the first experts to study the history of guerrilla warfare in the south for three years, and he couldn't help but sigh when he recalled this history that could be sung and wept.
He Shuheng, a 59-year-old revolutionary elder, died while moving from Yudu to western Fujian. Because so many people died, few of the living brought back news of the dead. Few people know the specific circumstances of the party's founder's sacrifice.
After Qu Qiubai was arrested, he was unmoved by the enemy's persuasion: "People love their own history, more powerful than birds love their wings, please do not tear my history!" ”
June 18, 1935, Changting, Fujian. Qu Qiubai, 36, smiled at the executioner on a green lawn and said, "This place is very good," and then calmly and righteously.
Salisbury wrote in his book The Long March– Unheard of Stories: "More outstanding Communists were sacrificed among those who remained in Jiangxi during the Long March than in any other period of struggle. ”
As people who failed to participate in the Long March, they completed their spiritual expeditions in a special way.
Rely closely on the people
June's Dayu is a picture full of life and prosperity.
In the land of his righteousness, he has erected a monument to heroes. In March 1935, Liu Bojian, then director of the Political Department of the Gannan Military Region, was wounded and arrested during the breakout battle. Escorted by the enemy to parade the streets, he dragged heavy shackles and staggered through the crowded street market of Dayu (now Dayu).
"With shackles on the long street, waddling and stumbling, the people of the city are attracting attention, and I am not ashamed..."
Liu Bojian's will was not destroyed by the deliberate humiliation of the enemy, and the open-minded revolutionary wrote the immortal "Walk with Shackles".
↑ Liu Bojian Xinhua News Agency photo
Before the sacrifice, Liu Bojian said in a letter to his family: "Life is for China, death is for China, everything is just listened to." ”
Nowadays, Bojian Avenue in Dayu County, the traffic is weaving, and the end is the Happiness Avenue... The people engraved Liu Bojian's name forever on this land for which he shed blood and sacrificed.
"As long as we rely closely on the people, we will certainly be able to overcome all difficulties and obstacles, which is particularly evident during the three years of guerrilla warfare." Zhu Chang, deputy director of the Party History Office of the Dayu County CPC Committee, said.
In order to cut off the links between the guerrillas and the masses, the Kuomintang troops carried out large-scale "liquidation and suppression" of the guerrilla areas, and they concentrated the common people in the plains and forbade the masses to enter the mountains at will through the means of emigration and villages and driving the masses out of the mountains.
The guerrillas regard doing a good job of mass work as a lifeline, and in their view, the more difficult the time, the more attention must be paid to the implementation of the Party's policies. According to the recollections of some guerrillas, the local people often risked their lives to take advantage of the opportunity to go into the mountains to cut firewood, and gave food, salt, intelligence, etc. hidden in bamboo bars to collect firewood to give to the guerrillas, and some villagers were severely tortured by the enemy for this reason, but they said without fear: "If we want to die, we will die one, at most one, and we will not harm the Communist Party." ”
↑ On April 8, Liu Shihua, an old man in Chijiang Town, Dayu County, looked at an old photo of his mother Zhou Basket at his home. Photo by Wang Kaifeng
In Chijiang Town, Dayu County, 86-year-old Liu Shihua has guarded his old house and the memories of his parents for many years. His mother, Zhou Lan, often delivered meals, purchased supplies, and spied on enemy situations for the guerrillas, and the guerrillas affectionately called her "Zhou Basket Sister-in-law".
"The Kuomintang severely wounded my father, burned my mother's hair, broke her fingers, and forced them to know the whereabouts of the guerrillas, but they did not reveal the slightest." Liu Shihua said.
The guerrillas sometimes went to visit the homes of the masses and saw that some of them had broken their legs, some of them had their teeth knocked out, and some of them had burned down their houses, but they still supported the Communist Party without complaint, and no one was moved to tears.
The people have nurtured the soldiers of the Red Army in a desperate situation.
"Rely on the people, support will never be forgotten."
He is a reborn parent, and I am a good boy who fights.
The revolution is strong and the strong is strong. ”
The deep affection of the Red Army guerrillas and the masses of the people whose blood is thicker than water is vividly expressed in Chen Yi's "Guerrilla Words in Gannan Province", as he said: "It is this unswerving alliance of life and death that ensures our survival and march toward victory." ”
Faith is tempered in the test of life and death
Meiguan Tiger occupies Meiling, and one pass separates the north and south.
For thousands of years, the Meiguan Ancient Road has carried the sorrows and joys of countless lives from the south to the north, leaving countless historical imprints in the past and the present. The guerrillas who turned to fight here used their blood to persevere and write their own red legends.
↑ Today's Meiguan Ancient Road. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Shaolong
In the winter of 1936, the border of Gansu and Guangdong was located. Fading grass, cold moon, chasing soldiers. In the midst of the enemy's heavy siege, Chen Yi had been wounded and sick and had been hiding in the grass of Meiling for more than twenty days. He expected that he would be more fierce and less auspicious, so he wrote a desperate poem "Three Chapters of Meiling" and hid it under his clothes, preparing to die in righteousness.
"What does the severed head mean today?" Entrepreneurship is difficult and difficult. This went to Quantai to recruit the old department, and the banner was 100,000 Yan Luo. ”
The guerrillas are hanging behind the enemy, fluttering in the storm, they don't know what is happening in the world...
Surrounded by the Kuomintang army, the Red Army and the guerrillas were trapped in the deep mountains and dense forests, walking in the forest by day and sleeping in caves at night, filling their hunger with wild fruits, wild vegetables, and grass roots, and living like wild beasts.
In the cold winter of 1936, Xiang Ying, Chen Yi, Chen Pixian, and Liu Jianhua were forced to hide on a high mountain, and the four of them leaned back to back, wrapped in the only worn blanket, and kept each other warm.
↑ On April 8, Liu Shihua, an old man in Chijiang Town, Dayu County, looked at the old photos left by Chen Yi at his home. Photo by Wang Kaifeng
"Their food, clothing, and housing were extremely difficult, and for a time my father and comrades-in-arms had to share a pair of pants, and the two took turns wearing them." Liu Luming, vice president of the Jiangxi New Fourth Army Research Association, said. Liu Luming's father, Liu Jianhua, was the secretary of the Gansu-Guangdong Border Special Committee.
Even under such difficult conditions, the guerrillas organized the soldiers to study as soon as they had the opportunity, and they tried every means to collect books and newspapers, to learn Chinese language, arithmetic, and military theory, and to pay attention to analyzing the situation and the future. Once, while searching for guerrillas, enemy soldiers picked up a bag and opened it to see that it contained books.
The majority believe because they see it, and only a few see it because they believe. The power of faith is the secret of the Communists' continuous march from victory to victory.
With the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, the war drums of the War of Resistance Against Japan became louder and louder. In October 1937, at the critical juncture of the survival of the Chinese nation, the Red Army and the guerrilla iron army of the eight southern provinces came out of the mountains, reorganized into the New Fourth Army, embarked on the anti-Japanese front, became an important anti-Japanese force, and continued to write the heroic legend of the people's army. (Reporters Li Xingwen, Lai Xing, Huang Haoran)
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph