Author: Cadillo
In October 1936, the 5th, 9th, and 30th Armies of the Red Fourth Front and the headquarters of the Front Formed the Red Army in the West, crossed the Yellow River in the west and advanced towards the Hexi Corridor to carry out the task of opening up international lines of communication. In January 1937, about 2,800 people of the first part of the Red 5 Army (directly subordinate units, the 39th and 45th regiments, the cavalry regiment and the special service regiment) were surrounded by more than 20,000 majia troops in Gaotai, Gansu Province.
At the end of the Battle of Gaotai, a large number of wounded and fallen commanders and fighters of the Red 5th Army in the city survived. After the Ma family army invaded Gaotai City, it began to massacre captured and left behind Red Army soldiers. When the massacre was controlled, only about 200 red 5 army commanders and fighters were captured, but soon more than 100 of them were brutally killed by Ma Jiajun in the northeast corner of the city and on the beach south of the city, and Yan Fengcai (also known as Nian Hongcai), chief of staff of the 43rd Regiment of the Red 15th Division, and the following people were escorted by Ma Jiajun to Xining, Qinghai, and killed.
According to Chen Yonglu, who was a correspondent of the 1st Battalion of the Red 45th Regiment, the remaining 100 or so people were concentrated by Ma Jiajun on the highway between the new and old county towns of Wuwei in Gansu Province, and the Qinghai warlord Ma Buqing also spoke at the scene, claiming that they would be "leniently dealt with." After that, Ma Jiajun sent the older of the hundred to the concentration camp to do hard labor, the younger to the Boy Scouts as soldiers, and some to the Hexi Daily Printing Factory, Wuwei Power Plant as workers or nurses in Hexi Hospital.
Of the more than 100 surviving Red 5 Army prisoners, a few took advantage of this rare opportunity to survive and fled back to Yan'an. For example, Chen Yonglu mentioned above, when the battle ended, he hid in a family in the north lane of Gaotai West Street, and soon three Ma family army bandits came to search, and the head of the household, Uncle Da, said that Chen Yonglu was their son. But the cunning Ma Jiajun soon found that Chen Yonglu had leggings on his calf, and he had been a soldier at first glance. The eldest uncle insisted on not letting Ma Jiajun take Chen Yonglu away, and as a result, he was slapped several times by Ma Jiajun.
Dong Zhentang, commander of the Red 5 Army, and Yang Keming, director of the Political Department
In order not to involve the eldest uncle and the eldest wife, Chen Yonglu had to be taken away by Ma Jiajun voluntarily. Chen Yonglu was escorted to Wuwei New Town along with other red 5 army prisoners of war, and was soon sent by Ma Jiajun to Hexi Hospital as a male nurse. In September 1937, Chen Yonglu, together with two other comrades-in-arms du Changfu and Wang Jiawan, who were also captured in the Red Army, found an opportunity to escape from the hospital and eventually returned to the army. In the 1980s, Chen Yonglu officially retired and enjoyed the treatment of retiring military-level cadres.
Among the captured personnel was Lü Renli, then 21-year-old commander of the Red 5th Army Cavalry Regiment, who was captured by the enemy after passing out after passing out with serious head injuries during the battle. On the way to Qinghai, Lü Renli pretended to urinate, and then took advantage of the enemy's lack of preparation to use the cover of night to climb over the wall to escape, only to pass out on the road. A local family rescued Lü Renli for medical treatment and eventually helped him return to Yan'an in May 1938. After liberation, Lü Renli served as the commander of the 15th Artillery Division of the People's Liberation Army, and was promoted to the rank of major general in 1961.
In addition to returning to the army after being captured, some commanders and fighters of the Red 5th Army returned from the siege in the final breakout battle, including Lin Bingcai, the guard of Dong Zhentang's army. At the last moment of the Battle of Gaotai, Dong Zhentang rushed to the south corner of the city with two guns and four guards around him, both guards were killed on the way, and Dong Zhentang himself was shot in the leg and wounded. The three of them jumped from the city wall several meters high together, and as a result, Dong Zhentang broke his waist again, and then he could only crawl slowly with his hands.
Commander of the Cavalry Regiment of the Red 5th Army, Major General Lü Renli in 1961
Three men walked forward another thirty meters, and another guard was shot and killed. Dong Zhentang, because it was difficult to move, ordered the remaining guard Lin Bingcai to break through immediately, and he was responsible for cover. Seeing that Commander Dong was so resolute, Lin Bingcai could only bid farewell with tears, and finally withdrew to Linze City, where Huang Chao, the political commissar of the Red 5 Army, was located. When the soldiers of the Ma family army rushed up to try to capture Dong Zhentang alive, Dong Junchang immediately raised his gun and committed suicide. After liberation, Lin Bingcai served as commander of the Shantou Military Subdistrict in Guangdong Province, and retired in the 1980s.
Also breaking through the siege was Li Caiyun, then 29 years old, head of the training section of the Red 5 Army Headquarters, who, like Dong Zhentang, joined the Red Army through the Ningdu Uprising, serving as the commander of the Red 5 Army in the Jiangxi Soviet District, and as the commander of the Jinchuan Military Region and the commander of the Independent 1st Division during the Long March. After Li Caiyun broke through to Linze, he participated in the final battle of the Red Army in the Western Expedition until he was separated from most of his comrades-in-arms while fighting a guerrilla war in the Qilian Mountains. On the way back to the Su district of northern Shaanxi with Wang Shusheng and others, he unfortunately died in an accident.
In addition to being killed or captured, there were a small number of Red 5 Army soldiers hiding in a corner of the chaotic battle situation, and fortunately they were not discovered by ma Jiajun. For example, Li Zhongrong, a battalion commander of a battalion of the Red 5 Army, prepared to leave the city with a blind woman disguised as a husband and wife after the fall of Gaotai. When the Sentry of the Ma Family Army screamed and asked whether Li Zhongrong was a Red Army, the blind woman immediately cried out: "My man is dumb, let us go." The Sentry of the Ma Family Army saw that the couple was strange and pitiful, so they had to let them go. Under the cover of blind women, Li Zhongrong then returned to the team.
Li Caiyun, former chief of the training section of the Red 5 Army Headquarters
Zhang Lixiong, then a 24-year-old political commissar of the 45th Regiment of the Red 5th Army, was settled by guards with a leg injury in the home of Chai Weiren, a middle-aged fellow in Gaotai City. Chai Weiren hid him in a hidden place in the house, escaped the Ma family's search, and a few days after the battle was over, Chai Weiren tried his best to send Zhang Lixiong out of the city. Zhang Lixiong returned to the headquarters and returned to Yan'an after the defeat. After liberation, Zhang Lixiong served as deputy commander of the Yunnan Military Region and adviser to the Fuzhou Military Region, and was promoted from colonel to the rank of major general in 1961.
Zheng Zongxian, the former head nurse of the health brigade of the Red 5 Army Hospital, was lucky not to be found out by Ma Jiajun after the fall of Gaotai, and found an opportunity to run out of the city, because he could not contact the troops, and was afraid of being caught by Ma Jiajun, so he boiled water in a local lama temple to work. Soon, Zheng Zongxian met his wife Wu Lanying, an instructor of the women's regiment who was also missing from the army. The two men went out several times to look for the Red Army, but they did not find them, and then settled in the area. After liberation, Zheng Zongxian was arranged to work in the local health center.
Guo Ailian, a former red 5th army doctor, like Zheng Zongxian, joined the Red Army after the Ningdu Uprising. After the defeat of the Battle of Gaotai, Guo Ailian hid in a peasant family in Gaotai City, and after most of the Ma family army left Gaotai, Guo Ailian relied on his own medical skills to practice medicine for the locals, but also accumulated some entanglements. After the liberation of the whole country, Guo Ailian returned to his hometown of Ledu County in Qinghai to continue practicing medicine, and later changed to the director of the local supply and marketing cooperative, the village secretary and other positions.
Zhang Lixiong in 1955
According to incomplete statistics, after the Battle of Gaotai, more than 30 commanders and fighters of the Red 5th Army escaped from danger under the cover of the people of Gaotai. Zhang Lixiong, Lü Renli and other leaders of the People's Liberation Army still remember the Gaotai compatriots who covered them decades later, and decisively extended a helping hand when they were in difficulty.
Due to the limited information, the only surviving commanders and fighters of the Red 5 Army in the Battle of Gaotai can be listed in this article, and here, I salute the editors of the first series of "Gaotai Literature and History Materials"!
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】