Soon after the establishment of the Red Seventy-fourth Division, the enemies distributed in Shang County, Luonan, Shanyang, Zhen'an, and Zaoshui Counties launched the first siege of the Red Seventy-fourth Division.
In order to break the enemy's siege, our army set out from Nianziping in accordance with the situation in which the enemy was strong and we were weak, skillfully avoided the main force of the enemy army, marched west along the lofty mountains and mountains at the junction of Hubei and Shaanxi, and maneuvered with the enemy between Shanyang, Zhen'an, Zaoshui, and Ningshan.
In early November, on its way back north via Xunyang, the Red 74th Division rendezvoused with the Fifth Road Guerrilla Division led by Commander Sun Guang and the Seventh Route Guerrilla Division led by Yu Dexin. A month later, the three regiments of the enemy Pang Bingxun's 40th Army chased after them, and our army immediately went west to Ningshan and Foping, and got rid of the enemy's siege.
In early December, the Red 74th Division won the first battle at Zhen'an Bronze Pass. The peaks of The Bronze Pass are steep, the valleys are narrow, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. When the Red Seventy-fourth Division entered the west ditch of the moon east of The Bronze Pass, it learned that the first battalion of the 23O Regiment of the 115th Brigade of Pang Bingxun's 40th Army had first arrived at the Bronze Pass, blocking the way we had to pass through to Ningshan and Foping in the west, and the 3rd Battalion of the 232nd Regiment also followed up. Detailed reports of the battle of the enemy's Forty Army record:
"The Red Bandit Chen Xianrui shares pretended to be the Seventy-fourth Division, and since last month, Sun Guang, and other small units in the eastern part of Ningshan Province, they were restored to the united towns of Zhen'an, Xunyang, and other counties, with more than a thousand statistics, complete firearms, several light machine guns, a huge momentum, and nuisance everywhere... On the fifth day of this month, it has sneaked to the direction of Bronze Pass, and the figure has fled to the west by taking advantage of the gap... Shi Zhusan, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 230th Regiment, led his troops to the vicinity of Qingtongguan at 3 p.m. the next day... That is, intercept it. The 3rd Battalion of the 232nd Regiment (Sun Bingkun Battalion) followed suit. ”
In the face of the enemy's situation, the commander of the Red Seventy-fourth Division made a serious analysis and decided to take advantage of the opportunity of pursuing the enemy far away and defending the enemy before he knew that our army was coming, to take advantage of the favorable terrain of Yuexigou to lure the enemy with a small force and fight an ambush battle. After the battle plan was issued, Xiao Daxi, commander of the second battalion, sent people disguised as small guerrilla forces to lure the enemy; The first and second battalions were deployed on the left and right sides respectively; The hand-snatching regiment cut off the enemy's retreat with two squads. Although the cold wind was biting, the warriors thought that the annihilation of the enemy was imminent, and their hearts were warm, quietly waiting for the "fish" to be hooked. After a while, the enemy really thought that he had encountered the local guerrillas, and his battalion commander led two battalions and chased the second battalion down the ditch in a dense formation. Yuan Chong'an, political commissar of our first battalion, led the veteran soldiers of the former Eighth Company to take the lead in the charge, and the commanders and fighters of the other battalions rushed to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. In the Battle of Bronze Pass, more than 100 people below the enemy battalion commander were killed and wounded, more than 70 long and short guns were paid, and 5 light machine guns were paid. This battle was the first victory achieved by the Red Seventy-fourth Division in its battle with the enemy's regular troops since its establishment. After the war, he met the Third Guerrilla Division led by Master Wang Shicai at the Bodhisattva Temple. Due to the defection of Zhao Jiuhai with a letter, the third guerrilla division was killed by Li Zhiying, the political commissar of the division, and other old Red Army soldiers were killed, and the troops suffered heavy losses and the soldiers were depressed. Under extremely difficult circumstances, Commander Wang Shicai led the soldiers to fight alone and withstood the harsh tests of being attacked by the enemy on their stomachs and backs and in a harsh environment. Therefore, when he saw the Red Seventy-fourth Division, he held the hands of Zheng Weisan and Chen Xianrui in the cold wind, and shed bitter tears.
In late December, the pistol regiment reported that there were only a few hundred security guards in Ningshan County, and the defense was relatively lax. The Red Seventy-fourth Division, in order to create momentum to expand the political influence of the Red Army, decided to take the city of Ningshan. This time, the Red Seventy-fourth Division adopted the tactic of attacking the west from the east: that is, it first bluffed and drove north to the mouth of the East River, then suddenly turned around, ran day and night for more than 200 miles, and entered the north gate of Ningshan City in the early morning of the 27th. After the pistol regiment set up the ladder and went up the city wall, it first touched the sentries on the upper floor of the city gate, and then the whole army went out to occupy the whole city in one fell swoop at dawn, annihilating more than 400 people in the security regiment and capturing a batch of ammunition in the enemy's arsenal. When our army attacked the city, the enemy county magistrate woke up from his sleep when he heard the sound of gunfire and hurriedly hid in a small building. When Zheng Lianshun, the political commissar of our second battalion, led the search, he and another soldier were killed by the enemy's cold guns. Zheng Lianshun was the former instructor of the Seventh Company of the 223rd Regiment and an excellent political work cadre. The sacrifice of him and his comrades-in-arms made the soldiers extremely sad and indignant, and set fire to the small building. In the thick smoke and fire, the enemy county magistrate Ju Wenshao ran out for his life and was killed on the spot.
After capturing the city of Ningshan, according to Zheng Weisan's estimates, it would take at least eight or nine days for the enemy to send new county governors and troops to attack the city. Therefore, I rested here, beat the local tycoons, and divided the land. A blind entertainer who sells songs sings and sings:
In the waxing moon, plum blossoms bloom, and the Red Army comes from Ningshan,
Hundreds of guns were surrendered, and the county magistrate killed the south gate;
Fight the local tycoons to save the poor, and the poor people stretch their waists...
This song and ballad quickly spread in the streets and alleys, and after the division organs learned about it, they specially awarded blind artists a few pieces of ocean.
On the ninth day, as Zheng Weisan expected, the enemy new county magistrate took the troops to his post. On the way out of the county seat, comrades all said that Zheng Weisan was "Zhuge Liang" of the Red Seventy-fourth Division and "the enemy was like a god." In fact, this is inseparable from his emphasis on investigation, research, analysis, and judgment of the enemy's situation. Although he was ill and often coughed up blood, he always carried a wooden stick, and whenever he went, he traveled everywhere, collecting enemy newspapers and periodicals, and talking to local squires, teachers, small traders and peasants who came from the south to the north to understand the situation. He not only had a good understanding of the mountains, rivers, customs, and customs of southern Shaanxi, but also had an infallible grasp of the enemy's movements and the situation of local armed forces. Therefore, the analysis of the problem is thorough and the judgment of the situation is accurate.
In early January 1936, the Red Seventy-fourth Division braved the wind and snow and adopted the tactic of attacking the west from the east, first entering the Jinshuihe area of Yang County, and using the Han River to float propaganda slogans. Then turn around and march eastward, straight to the border of Henan and Shaanxi, annihilating more than 500 militia groups in Jingziguan, Xiping, Luanzhuang, Yujiahe, Sanyaosi, Lancao, and Guansipo along the way, and surrendered more than 400 guns; During the round-trip battles, dozens of wounded and sick members of the Red Twenty-fifth Army who took in sick people returned to the army.
In the middle of winter, warriors trekked through the dense mountain forests in the kneeless snow and braved the cold. Like many "iron-footed regimental commanders", "scud legs" and "grass flying" fighters in many Red Army, they have trained a pair of iron feet that are not afraid of wild thorns and quinoa and are not afraid of the rugged mountain roads
Near the Spring Festival, the enemy's Shaanxi army garrison brigade went into the mountains to "encircle and suppress, and after occupying foping county, the special committee and division headquarters decided to jump outside the mountain to "change defenses" of "the enemy enters the mountain and I go out of the mountain." On the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, the Red Seventy-fourth Division left the Qinling Mountains in the north, marched into Huxian and Zhouzhi County, swept through the security forces, beat up local tycoons, and shared floating wealth, so that the troops and the poor people had a decent Spring Festival. When the enemies of Xi'an and Baoji sent several regiments to encircle the city, the Red Seventy-fourth Division invaded Foping City for the second time, eliminated the newly formed security team, and sent Luo Mingyi and Zhang Shao'an to lead the troops to the grass-roots level of Ningshan and Foping to create a base area...
In February 1936, the enemy mobilized the strength of the Forty-ninth Division stationed in Hanzhong, the Forty-fourth Army of Ankang, the Mixed Brigade of The Southern Huzong of the Forty-fourth Division, the First Brigade of the Shaanxi Police of Baoji, the Second Brigade and Special Service Regiment of the Shaanxi Police of Sanyuan, and the Local Security Regiment, a total of more than a dozen regiments, to launch a second siege of the Red Seventy-fourth Division. Our army moved in a great circle from Foping to Shuangshipu. Shuangshipu is located at the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu, and is the main traffic route to Hanzhong and Sichuan. Legend has it that the story of Zhuge Liang's loss of the street pavilion and the tears of the horse during the Three Kingdoms took place here. After the Red Seventy-fourth Division arrived here, it first pulled out the Shuangshipu and Huangniupu strongholds and seized more than 200 guns. Subsequently, on more than 100 miles of highway lines, roadbeds were dug, bridges were destroyed, and power lines were cut; They also intercepted and attacked many military vehicles, obtaining a large amount of flour and ammunition, which interrupted enemy communications for more than half a month. The enemy in Xi'an also sent aircraft to reconnoiter and dispatched the Forty-ninth Division, the Forty Army, and the Second Brigade of the Police to pursue. Our army avoided the enemy's sharp edge and unexpectedly climbed over the Qinling Mountains to the east.
The top of the Qinling Mountains is covered with snow. The enemy changed "day and night" to "day and night pursuit"; Our army climbed steep walls and sat on "snow slides" for four consecutive days and four nights, climbing over the Qinling Mountains several times and being forced to climb mount Taibai Mountain. On the night of March 15, our army borrowed the snow-colored reflection to go down the mountain and captured more than 10 civilians of the enemy's forty-ninth division in Thick Harbor; Marching to Shaliangzi, the enemy forty-ninth division, leading more than a dozen hounds, barked wildly along the way, and chased after them with flashlights. Because our army did not have much ammunition, the enemy howled that "as long as the red bandits fired one shot, it would be equivalent to killing one person." According to the confessions of the prisoners, the Red Seventy-fourth Division selected the enemy's joint unit and took advantage of the eve of dawn to fight while marching, taking the road and breaking through the siege. At the mouth of the Dongjiang River, Cheng Fucai, a former soldier of the Pistol Regiment of the Twenty-fifth Red Army, disguised himself as a common man, sent central documents such as the "August 1st Declaration" and the "Current Political Situation and the Resolution on the Party's Tasks." The special committee and the chief of the military department rushed to read it, and if they saw the light in the dark night, they were fortunate to have a guideline for their future actions.
After the breakthrough of Taibai Mountain, the Red Seventy-fourth Division guerrilla warfare turned to more than a thousand miles. As soon as it was evacuated to Liangjia Tomb in Shangnan Province, the Special Committee immediately convened a meeting to further study the central documents and study how to implement the anti-Japanese national united front policy under the new situation. In the battle between Manchuan Pass and the militia regiment, Xiao Daxi, commander of the second battalion and an outstanding commander of our army, died heroically, and Li Xuexian took over as his post.
The erratic guerrilla warfare of the Red Seventy-fourth Division caused panic among the enemy. The enemy Longju Zhai 'Express Mail, Dai telecommunications', exclaimed: "Chen Xianrui's bandits suddenly sneaked to the area of Black Mountain Street and Shangguanfang in Shangxian County, and the telecommunications from Shangxian county to Shanyang could not be communicated."; "The militia group of Jingshang County went to suppress it, but instead of winning a victory, it was scattered by the bandits and others," "Nearly sneaked to the area of Siping, and then sneaked to the bamboo forest pass ninety miles southeast of Longju Village," "The bandits were wandering, there was no direction between the east and the west, and there was no certainty in coming and going, and yesterday and now they were suddenly here, which made people defenseless." The Shaanxi provincial government also issued a "fast telegram to the county" and "secretly checked Chen Xianrui and Sun Huzi (Sun Guang, Back Micro Camel) bandits to harass the counties one after another, and it is urgent to quickly eliminate them." At present, the headquarters of the General Bureau of Bandit Suppression in the Northwest has ordered all units to block the blockade in separate routes, and all the county teams should be under the command of the senior commander of the nearest army, in the hope of moving, so that the bandits can be eliminated within a time limit."
In mid-May 1936, on the basis of the original, the enemy added three regiments of the Wang Junbu of the Third Army and a brigade of the Gongbing Domain Einsatzgruppen to carry out the third siege of the Red Seventy-fourth Division.
In order to improve its combat capability, the Red Seventy-fourth Division organized its troops into 1st, 5th, and 6th regiments, led by Zheng Weisan, Chen Xianrui, and Li Longgui respectively, turning one into three, dispersing guerrilla attacks, going deep behind enemy lines, and disrupting the enemy's encirclement and suppression arrangements. A regiment led by Zheng Weisan found a grandly decorated carriage on the Xijing Highway in Zhangjiaping, and immediately ordered Li Shuquan and Zhang Haibo to lead the team to surround it -- it turned out that the carriage was sitting in the carriage by Tang Youguang, the commissioner of the bureau who had rushed to Shangluo from Xi'an to take up his post. After the commissioner, who had not yet passed the official addiction, was killed, our army put a warning notice on him, which greatly shocked the local reactionary officials who continued to work for the Chiang family dynasty. After that, one regiment was in Luonan and Lantian, five regiments were north of Hanshui, and six regiments were on the line from Taibai Mountain to Baoji, frequently striking the enemy.
On June 22, Chen Xianrui led six regiments to cross the Taibai Mountains again, directly approaching Baoji, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy's seven or eight regiments had not yet closed, fought a counterattack, and quickly jumped out of the encirclement. When passing through the Bamboo Forest Pass, more than 80 people of the enemy security team were annihilated and came to the area around Zhao Chuan in Shangnan Province.
In the summer of 1934, Zhao Pingfu (Zhao Liuwa), the second squadron commander of the security brigade stationed in Zhao Chuan, gathered reactionary forces to pursue the Party-led Zhao Chuan Defense Regiment, and the regimental commander Ren Zhiwu was captured and killed for the crime of "communist banditry". Chen Xianrui decided to eliminate harm for the people. On the same day, heavy rain poured down, and the soldiers took advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation and attacked in the rainy night, killing more than 200 officers and men of Zhao Pingfu and below in one fell swoop, and capturing more than 200 long and short guns. This crowd called it "the soldiers of the Zhao team, inseparable from the bandits; After the "star of evil" who demanded the people's wealth and went on a fierce attack everywhere, suffering the people and fattening the officers and soldiers, was completely annihilated, the local people all clapped their hands and applauded, and sang happily:
A shower of rain, a gust of wind,
The clouds dissipate the sun red.
Every household greets the Red Army,
The Red Army came to the rescue of the people.
On the way to the battle, the Red Seventy-fourth Division also executed Wang Yuchun, a traitor who killed Wang Sixing, the leader of the Seventh Guerrilla Group of the Third Road Guerrilla Division of Hubei and Shaanxi, and Zuo Zifu, a traitor who killed Cheng Jiaqi, chairman of the Dashahe Township Soviet, and issued a serious warning to those who defected to the enemy and confessed to being thieves as fathers.
In mid-November 1936, the Einsatzgruppen commanded by GongbingFan and more than 1,000 people of the Shangnan County Security Regiment attacked the Red Army along the Fushuiguan Highway. The Einsatzgruppen of Gongbing Domain was not only well-equipped, but also composed of lieutenant officers, and had the momentum of a "death squad that "if it does not succeed, it will become a benevolent". The Red Seventy-fourth Division threw in the full strength of a battalion, using the mountains on both sides of the road to pursue the enemy to Fushui Pass. In just one hour, in addition to some of them escaping by car, I killed more than 100 people, captured 20 barge pistols, 54 guns, dozens of rifles, and 7 machine guns. On November 23, 1936, the "New China Daily" reported under the headline "The Red Army in Southern Shaanxi Painfully Wounded the Gongbing Clan Department": "On the 14th of this month, the unit of Comrade Chen Xianrui of the Red Army in southern Shaanxi province broke through the enemy's Gongbing Clan Department, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties, retreating to Fushui Pass, and our Red Army is besieging Fushui Pass." The Red Seventy-fourth Division left the Qinling Mountains in the north and sent a small detachment to "make a big fuss over Huashan" to propagate the Communist Party's anti-Japanese stand and stir up the enemy's anxiety everywhere. When Chairman Mao Zedong later received Chen Xianrui, he spoke highly of it: "The main Red Army is operating in the west, and you are making trouble in Huashan in the east.
At this point, the enemy launched three consecutive sieges, which were broken by the Red Seventy-fourth Division again and again. It fully shows the bravery and tenacity of the Red Seventy-fourth Division.