Author: Unsentimental
Nowadays, when many people mention Hu Zongnan, they often subconsciously think that he is an idiot. In fact, this person had a good performance in the Northern Expedition and the warlord melee, otherwise he would not have stood out among many Huangpu first-term students and become the "lucky one" who was the fastest promoted and the most favored by Chiang Kai-shek. The reason why this person was abused by the Northwest Field Army, which had long been in a disadvantageous position in terms of strength, equipment, and supplies in the Liberation War, was that he was always at the level of the God of War against Peng.
Hu Zongnan (center), commander of the northwestern "suppression general", entered and occupied Yan'an
Future generations only see the results, but they may not be aware of the hardships in the process of our army's victory. This was not only the case in the War of Liberation, but also after the three main forces of the Red Army met in 1936.
In October 1936, the Red 1st, Red 2nd, and Red 4th Fronts met in Huining, Gansu Province. Although the officers and men of the Red Army were rejoicing, the situation at that time was quite dangerous: Chiang Flew to Xi'an, concentrated the huge strength of 22 divisions of the Majia Army, the Northeast Army, the Northwest Army, and the Shaanxi Army, and divided them into four roads to the north, in a vain attempt to annihilate the three main forces of the Red Army in one fell swoop in the Haiyuan and Jingyuan areas east of the Yellow River.
At this time, the three main forces of the Red Army moved to the Haiyuan and Taratchi areas, preparing to carry out the strategic plan of capturing Ningxia. Unexpectedly, the enemy troops on the four roads pursued them very quickly, and if they did not teach the enemy a lesson, the Red Army would not even have the opportunity to take a short rest, let alone attack Ningxia. After repeated planning, the General Headquarters finally made the decision to "win over the Northeast Army, stabilize the Northwest Army and the Majia Army, and concentrate the main force to lure and annihilate the strongest Hu Zongnan 1st Army."
At that time, Hu Zongnan's 1st Army was under the jurisdiction of the 1st, 43rd, 78th, and 97th Divisions, and although they were well-equipped, well-equipped, well-trained, they were self-righteous, and not only had many contradictions with the other three-way Chiang Kai-shek army, but were also particularly greedy and aggressive. General Peng Zong, who was then the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of the Red Army, and Liu Bocheng, former chief of the general staff of the enemy, originally planned to concentrate the main forces of the three fronts and organize the Hai (former) battle (Lachi) campaign.
Unfortunately, just as the red army units were secretly advancing toward the ambush positions according to Peng and Liu's deployment, Zhang Shi disregarded the overall situation and ordered the Red 4th Army of the Red 4th Front to withdraw to the Hejiaji and Xingrenbao areas, the Red 31st Army to the Tongxincheng and Wangjia Tuanzhuang areas, and the Red 32nd Army to cross the Yellow River from the triangle city to the west. This not only aborted the plan for the battle of haida, but also completely exposed the right wing of the main force of the Red 1 Front to the southern front of Huzong. In desperation, General Manager Peng had no choice but to order the main force of the Red Army to continue to withdraw eastward and find another fighter.
During the retreat, the 1st Division of the Red 1st Army and the 73rd Division of the Red 15th Army counterattacked ma Hongbin's 35th Division and the 6th Cavalry Division of He Zhuguo in the Hejiapu area, annihilating 2 regiments and capturing more than 1,000 enemy people in one fell swoop. However, the situation has not improved as a result. Jiang ordered Wang Jun's troops of the 3rd Army to be on the left flank, and pursued Tongxin City from Jingyuan via Dalachi and Hejiaji. The King of the 67th Army of the Northeast Army pursued the 4 divisions of Zhebu as the right wing of the town of Meathei through Yuwangbao to Huanxian and Hongdecheng. Taking the 4 divisions south of Huzong of the 1st Army as the middle road, they attacked from Haiyuan to Tongxincheng, Yuwang, and Yanchi in the direction of Yulin, in a vain attempt to coordinate with the troops of Gao Guizi, Gaoshuang Road, and Tang Enbo in northern Shaanxi to wipe out the main force of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi.
The situation became more and more severe, and General Peng was still determined to fight the strong enemy's 1st Army first, and ordered the main forces of the Red Army to move to guanqiao fort and camel factory fort to set up an ambush on the front line. However, the cunning Hu Zongnan discovered the Red Army's intentions and noticed that his situation was becoming more and more isolated and prominent. Therefore, after the 97th Division and the 43rd Division under it occupied Guanqiao Fort and Camel Factory Fort on November 4 and 5, respectively, they became extremely cautious, only making contact with the Red Army with small troops, while the main force was in battalion step by step, waiting for the left and right flanks of Chiang Kai-shek's army to detour to the main flank of the Red Army.
Seeing that the second ambush was unsuccessful, General Peng ordered his troops to continue to retreat eastward. At this time, the Red Army's previous united front work against various miscellaneous armies began to show results. Wang Jun and Wang Yizhebu, who were on the left and right flanks, either stagnated or deliberately rubbed and rubbed, causing Hu Zongnan's 1st Army to stand out again. Instead of this, the arrogant Hu Zongnan dispersed the 4 divisions in his hands into 3 routes: the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division on the left road advanced towards Huianbao. The 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the Middle Road advanced towards Mengcheng and Sweetwater Fort. The 78th Division on the right side advanced from Nishida Iehara to the mountain castle, and the 97th Division and the 43rd Division were changed to the second echelon, following all the way behind.
In order to further open up Hu Zongnan's offensive formation, General Peng ordered the Red 4th and Red 31st Armies of the Red 4th Front to ambush the 2nd Brigade of the enemy's 1st Division in the middle of the road at Mengcheng on November 17, eliminating its vanguard regiment in one fell swoop in a short period of time, and then taking advantage of the fact that the enemy's follow-up troops had not yet arrived, quickly withdrew from the battlefield and continued to move eastward.
Although this battle was not successful, it not only slowed down the enemy's attack speed in the middle road, making it distant from the 78th Division on the right side, but also forced Hu Zongnan to transfer the 43rd Division, which had been following behind the 78th Division, to the middle road to replace the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division, which had been severely damaged by the Red Army.
Ding Delong, the commander of the 78th Division, like Hu Zongnan, was a first-term student of Huangpu, and like Hu Zongnan, he did not pay attention to the Red Army. When he saw that the Red Army was constantly "retreating," he thought that the time had come to "make a great achievement in the world," and he urged his subordinates to pursue them desperately. By November 20, the 232nd Brigade of the 78th Division (under the jurisdiction of the 463rd and 464th Regiments) and the 468th Regiment of the 234th Brigade had crashed into the ambush circle set by Peng Zong at the mountain castle.
General Peng immediately ordered the Red 1st Army to deploy south and southwest of the mountain castle, attacked the horse paw and sentry horse battalion with the main force, and sent the Red 2nd Division to cooperate with the Red 15th Army to break the enemy's retreat. The 4th and 31st Armies of the Red 4th Front attacked east of the hill castle to the west. The first unit of the Red 15th Army, in coordination with the Red 2nd Division, cut off the enemy's retreat, and the main force attacked in the northeast of the mountain castle in a southwesterly direction. The Red 28th Army was responsible for clamping down on the 1st Brigade of the Enemy's 1st Division on the Left Road from Dashuikeng to Hongjingzi, the Red 6th Army, in coordination with the Red 81st Division, monitored the 67th Army of the Northeast Army in the area of Guojia Dawan, and the Red 2nd Army was the general reserve for the campaign.
In order to ensure the inevitable victory in this battle, the General Headquarters issued the "Mobilization Order for decisive battles on smashing the enemy's offensive," calling on all red army commanders and fighters to "not be afraid of fatigue, bravely charge, capture more prisoners, surrender more guns, crush the enemy's attack, and create a new situation, as the first gift to the people of the Northwest Soviet Region after the meeting of the three fronts." Vice Chairman Zhou also rushed from northern Shaanxi to the front line to extend condolences to all the combatants. Previously, the Red Army had lured hu zongnan several times but failed to succeed, and all the commanders and fighters held their breath and prepared to strike at Hu Zongnan's arrogance fiercely.
At about 14:00 on the 20th, the sharp troops of 2 companies and 1 platoon of the enemy's 463rd Regiment engaged the Red 1st Army south of Balipu, and the Battle of Shan Castle officially began. By the afternoon of the 21st, the Red Army deployed as scheduled and completed the encirclement of the enemy on the mountain castle. In view of the low terrain of the mountain castle and the fact that it was difficult for the Red Army to hold on to it on all sides, Ding Delong ordered his troops to retreat to the high ground around the Cao family balcony at dusk. General Peng saw the situation and immediately ordered all the troops to launch a general offensive while the enemy changed its deployment.
For a time, the gunfire around the mountain castle was loud, and the killing sound was tremendous. The warriors of the Red Army launched an attack in an overwhelming situation, forcing the opponent to engage in hand-to-hand combat with them, limiting the power of the enemy's sophisticated guns. Under the fierce blows of the Red Army, the mountain castle soon fell into the hands of our army, and the fleeing enemy officers could not find the soldiers, the soldiers could not find the officers, and they were quickly eaten by the Red Army. Only some of the enemy hedgehogs were stationed in and around the sentry camp. However, they only barely held out until 9 o'clock on the 22nd, and then they were gone.
In this battle, the Red Army annihilated 1 and a half brigades of the enemy's 78th Division, and together with the results of several previous battles, annihilated about 15,000 enemy personnel, and captured a considerable amount of various weapons, equipment, and military supplies, and sent much-needed supplies to the Red 2 and Red 4 Fronts that had just completed the Long March. After this battle, Hu Zongnan was terrified and immediately ordered all his troops to retreat back to the area west of Dashuikeng, Mengcheng, and Tianshuibao. The situation in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area has finally been stabilized. However, he failed to kill Hu Zongnan, and Peng Zong regretted it
After the war, Chiang was forced to reassess the strength of the Red Army, which objectively contributed to the final peaceful settlement of the "Xi'an Incident" that broke out more than 20 days later.
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