After Maogong met the teacher, Zhang Guotao insisted on going south and put forward the slogan of "beating to Chengdu and eating rice" . At that time, many of the generals of the Red Fourth were very optimistic about the prospect of going south, because the Red Fourth had repeatedly fought against the Sichuan army in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Region, and had achieved great victories in both the anti-three-way siege and the anti-six-way siege, according to which It was believed that Liu Xiang, the defeated general, was still relatively easy to fight. At the beginning of the south, Hongsi first launched the Sui (Jing) Chong(Hua)Dan (Ba) Mao (Gong) Campaign, using tactics such as night touching and interspersing detours, defeating the troops of yang Sen and Liu Wenhui's six brigades, and occupying Danba, Maogong, and Dawei.
Liu Wenhui
After winning the initial battle, the morale of the Red Fourth was greatly boosted, believing that the Sichuan army was still as vulnerable as before. On October 20, 1935, Zhang Guotao issued the "Battle Plan of Tianlu Mingya qiongda", preparing to completely eliminate Yang Sen and Liu Wenhui, and then fight Liu Xiang. In order to achieve the objectives of the campaign, the red four divisions were divided into three columns of left, center, and right to attack Tianquan, Lushan, Mingshan, Ya'an, Qionglai, dayi, and other places. Among them, the right column was composed of the Red Fourth Army and the Red 30th Army, and Ni Zhiliang, chief of staff of the Front Army, was the commander and political commissar of the column, with the goal of capturing the county seats of Tianquan and Lushan.
On October 24, 1935, Ni Zhiliang, Xu Shiyou, Wang Jian'an, and Cheng Shicai led the right column down the Dadu River and the Jintang River to capture the town of Jintang, and then launched an attack on Tianquan, which was guo Xunqi's model division. Among the generals of the Sichuan Army, Guo Xunqi was very famous, and he caused great trouble for the Central Red Army in the Battle of Tucheng, so he was known as the number one general of the Sichuan Army. Before the right column set out, Xu Qianqian repeatedly instructed guo Xunqi's model division to be completely annihilated.
Guo Xunqi
At that time, Guo Xunqi's deployment was: the first brigade guarded the area west of Lingguan; the second brigade guarded the area north of Dagang Mountain and Luoxi Mountain; and the third brigade guarded the area of Laochang and Sanjiangkou. He himself led the direct subordinate units of the division headquarters to sit in command in Tianquan City. In order to take Tianquan City in one fell swoop, Ni Zhiliang and others decided after research that Cheng Shicai's 30th Army was responsible for containing Guo Xunqi's main force, and Xu Shiyou's 4th Army was responsible for attacking Tianquan City. On November 7, 1935, the Red Army launched an attack on Tianquan, and Guo Xunqi urgently dispatched peripheral troops to come to reinforcements, but was firmly blocked by Cheng Shicai's troops and could not move.
Xu Shiyou and Wang Jian'an took the opportunity to lead the 4th Army to launch an attack on Dagangshan, the gateway to Tianquan, where the enemy constructed dense fortifications and crossfire with heavy machine guns and mortars, sealing the road for the Red Army to charge. Several attempts by the Red 12th Division were crushed back by enemy fire. After xu Shiyou received the news, he personally rushed to the front line, he saw that the terrain was unfavorable to the Red Army, ordered the 12th Division to suspend the strong attack, and on the same night formed a small and capable unit to launch a sneak attack on the enemy from the flank, and in one fell swoop destroyed the enemy's heavy machine gun position.
Xu Shiyou
Subsequently, Xu Shiyou personally commanded the Red 11th Division and the Red 12th Division to launch a general attack on the defenders of Dagang Mountain, and after a bitter battle to annihilate a regiment of the enemy, the remaining enemies fled to the city of Tianquan. Taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, wang Jinshan's tenth division changed into the costume of the Sichuan army, followed the defeated soldiers of Dagangshan into Tianquan City, and launched an attack on Guo Xunqi's division. For a time, there was chaos in Tianquan City, there were gunshots everywhere, and Guo Xunqi couldn't figure out how many Red Army troops had entered the city, so he abandoned Tianquan and led his troops to flee to Hongya.
Guo Xunqi ran away, and it was reasonable to say that the Red Army should take advantage of the victory to pursue, but Xu Shiyou and Cheng Shicai and others did not immediately pursue, but spent a day and two nights to consolidate the position, and by the time they launched another pursuit, Guo Xunqi had already run away. Before the battle, Xu Xiangqian repeatedly instructed that it was necessary to completely annihilate Guo Xunqi's model division, because this division was Liu Xiang's ace main force and the spiritual pillar of the Sichuan army. If this unit can be severely damaged or even completely annihilated, it will be a great spiritual blow to the Sichuan Army and will be very beneficial to the operations in the future. However, Xu Shiyou and others did not take advantage of the victory to pursue after capturing Tianquan, causing the model division to run away.
Xu Xiangqian
Xu Xiangqian was very angry when he heard the news, and immediately sent a telegram reprimanding him: "Zhi (Liang), Shi (You), Jian (An), and Shi (Cai): Guo Shiquan has retreated, you have not pursued the enemy when you see it, you have lost this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the blind man of the real military, the criminal of the revolution, mistake after mistake, and give you a serious warning first." The four taiwan chiefs refused to accept the report, made a big mistake in the military plane, gave a warning first, and if they dared to commit another offense, they would be punished by military discipline. Xu Xiangqian was mild-mannered, rarely criticized his subordinates, and such harshly worded telegrams were rare in his military career. Soon after, the Red Fourth fought a decisive battle with the Sichuan army at Baizhang pass, and Guo Xunqi's model division was at the forefront, causing the Red Army to delay in opening the situation and eventually losing at Baizhang Pass.