Author: Cadillo
In October 1936, after the Red Fourth Front arrived in the Shaanxi-Gansu region through the Long March, the headquarters of the Front decided to set up a teaching regiment, and each company of the whole army drew a top man to be trained in the teaching regiment, and Du Zezhou, the squad leader of the 2nd Company of the 34th Regiment of the 12th Division of the Red 4th Army, also got this opportunity.
Du Zezhou, born in February 1915 in Daxian County, Sichuan, after the Red Fourth Front occupied Daxian in June 1933, he joined the revolution and served as a member of the district Soviet and the head of the local Red Guard reconnaissance team. In the anti-Six-Way Siege War, Daxian was occupied by the Sichuan Army, Du Zezhou withdrew north with the main force of the Red Army, was incorporated into the Political Department of the 11th Division of the Red 4th Army as a propaganda team member, and during the Long March, he served as the squad leader of the 1st Company of the Signal Battalion of the Guard Regiment, and the famous revolutionary martyr Zhang Side was a soldier in Du Zezhou's class.
In October 1936, after the three main forces of the Red Army met the division, Du Zezhou returned to the Red 4th Army as a squad leader. In the battle of the Red 4th Army against Weiyuan County, Du Zezhou volunteered to join the siege team, and then braved the enemy's fire to block the first to climb the Weiyuan City Tower, and threw out two grenades to blow up all the enemies who came to reinforce the city tower. After the war, Du Zezhou remembered the first class merit, which was also an important reason why he was selected to study in the teaching group.
According to the regulations, all cadets who joined the teaching regiment were required to receive individual talks from Du Yide, then director of the Fourth Bureau of the Red Army Headquarters, and Du Zezhou was no exception. He briefed the chief, who was three years older than himself, about his various experiences since joining the Red Fourth Front. After du yide listened, he encouraged Du Zezhou: "You have shown great courage in the struggle against the enemy, and this time when you are transferred to study, you must conscientiously study, sum up the past experience well, and guide your future work." ”
【Late Years Du Zezhou (Front Row Seater)】
In late October 1936, due to the sudden change in the situation, more than 23,000 people from the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front and the 5th, 9th and 30th Armies crossed the Yellow River and formed the Western Route Army to advance westward. At this time, Du Zezhou was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 1st Company, 3rd Class of the Teaching Regiment as a cadet, and because the Teaching Regiment had always been with the headquarters of the Western Route Army, he did not participate in major battles along the way, except for studying while marching, and sometimes participated in propaganda work for the people passing by.
On December 20, 1936, Du Yide summoned the relevant cadres of the teaching regiment, the women's regiment, and the special task force regiment to a meeting, saying that 8 days ago there had been an incident in Xi'an, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng had arrested Jiang Shi, and it was estimated that in a short time, the situation would soon change drastically, and the Western Route Army would soon get rid of its current predicament. Du Zezhou was very happy to hear this, and thought that he had fought with Chiang Kai-shek for so many years, but this time he finally caught this guy, and it seemed that the revolution was about to be victorious, and he might be able to return to his hometown in Sichuan.
However, 40 days have passed, and not only has there been no new good news, but on the contrary, there has been a big bad news: more than 3,000 people in the five regiments of the Red 5 Army have been killed in the two bloody battles of Gaotai and Linze, and company commander Dong Zhentang, director of the Political Department Yang Keming, and division commander Ye Chongben have all been killed by the enemy. Not long after, the Red 9th Army also suffered a major defeat, and the rest of the troops, under the cover of the Red 30th Army, withdrew to the Nijia Kiln where the headquarters of the Front Army was stationed.
【The former site of the Ni family kiln (taken in the 1980s)】
The Qinghai warlord Ma Jiajun quickly pursued and surrounded the Ni family kiln. In order to survive, the commanders and fighters of the headquarters organs have all thrown themselves into battle, and the teaching regiment, which is the essence of the grass-roots level, is no exception. Du Zezhou and his comrades resisted the enemy for three days and three nights, finished all the bullets and grenades, and finally relied on the bayonet and the large blade to suppress the enemy back. In the early morning of the 4th day, the organs and the remnants of the Red 9th and 30th Armies finally withdrew from the Nijia kiln and began to return eastward.
Ma Jiajun
On the way back, the structure of the original units of the Red Army was disrupted, the teaching regiment and the structure of the fourth bureau were also abolished, Du Zezhou was incorporated into a temporary guerrilla detachment, and Du Yide was transferred to the newly formed cavalry division commander. Soon, the Ma family army's pursuers also followed, and after several fierce battles, most of the Red Army commanders and fighters were scattered.
After the meeting was decided, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao and other leaders changed into plain clothes and left the army, and Du Yide also left the army to break through, which was his last meeting with Du Zezhou before the failure of the Western Expedition.
Du Zezhou's guerrilla detachment continued to guerrilla in the Qilian Mountains, responsible for containing the enemy, and in the end most of the commanders and fighters were heroically sacrificed and captured, and Du Zezhou also fell into the hands of the Ma family army. The cruel and murderous Ma Jiajun had killed Red Army prisoners of war many times before, but at this time, because the overall situation had been decided, Du Zezhou and most of his comrades who were captured at the same time saved their lives, and they were collectively escorted to Lanzhou and received compulsory training from Ma Jiajun in the name of "new barracks".
[Commanders and fighters of the Red Army in the Western Expedition in the "New Barracks"]
In order to get rid of this hot potato, in early July 1937, Ma Jiajun announced that most of the Red Army prisoners of war, including the new battalion, would be taken to Xi'an Railway Station to be transported by train to Luoyang and handed over to Jiang Jun for disposal. The Xi'an underground organization received the news and ambushed many plainclothes scouts on both sides of the road to the railway station overnight, and under their hints and cover, many people, including Du Zezhou, finally successfully escaped from danger and returned to their own ranks.
On July 14, the Red Army commanders and fighters who had been rescued on the way to the transfer were all gathered in Yunyang, Gansu Province, and Wang Shusheng, the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Front Army who arrived in Yan'an first and then commander of the Red 4th Army, held a welcome review meeting. At the meeting, Wang Shusheng said: "Comrades, welcome you back into the ranks of the Red Army! This meeting is very important today, in order to understand your experience before and after you were captured, to prevent Chiang Kai-shek's agents from mixing into our ranks, and as long as someone can prove your experience, you will pass. ”
Du Zezhou saw that Du Yide was also sitting on the rostrum, but he did not say a word, and he looked around again and found that none of the comrades sitting around were standing. So he stood up and said, "I only know Director Du, and no one else knows me." Wang Shusheng turned his head and looked at Du Yide, who was sitting next to him, and Du Yide said: "It turned out to be Xiao Du, this person I know, his performance is very good, he led the death squad to climb the city wall first in the battle against Weiyuan, and he made a first-class merit." ”
【Lieutenant General Duyed】
Wang Shusheng nodded and asked, "What about the experience after being captured?" At this time, a Red Army commander surnamed Zhou, who was also a prisoner of war of the Western Route Army, who was sitting below, spoke: "After he was captured, he has always been locked up with us. I can attest to the fact that when we were first locked up in Xining, we suffered a lot. The horse bandits took us to the quarry to drop stones, and this comrade had to work on his knees because of his ass injury, and his will was very determined. In this way, Du Zezhou successfully passed the review.
Since Yunyang parted ways, Du Zezhou had never met Du Yide again, and it was not until one Sunday in the autumn of 1964 that Du Zezhou met Du Yide, who was then deputy political commissar of the Navy, in the naval compound. At this time, Du Zezhou was already the deputy political commissar of the Capital Guard Division. Du Yidra took Du Zezhou's hand and quipped, "Why are you still just the deputy political commissar of the division?" Du Zezhou said, "No way, after all, our division still has eight old Red Army cadres!" After saying this, the two laughed loudly, as if they had returned to the arduous but spirited years of the Red Army period.
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】