Chapter 32 Chapter 10 Breaking Through Lazikou——The Key Battle to Open the Gate of Gansu and Shanxi

On September 12, 1935, the mountains from the Bailong River in Northwest Sichuan to Lazikou in Gannan suddenly became lively.The sound of river water, human voices, neighing of horses, and sporadic gunshots echoed among the mountains and cliffs.The 1st and 3rd Army Corps of the First Red Army (known as the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment at this time) who had just walked out of the deserted and muddy grassland were heading north to Gannan and rushing along the Bailong River to Lazikou, the natural danger.New obstacles are waiting for them to overcome. "Report! The plank road of the Bailongjiang River is in front of it, which has been destroyed..." the scouting vanguard reported.

"The troops stop advancing! The engineering company, repair the plank road as soon as possible!" The chief ordered.During the Long March, the engineers and soldiers who opened roads in the mountains and built bridges when they encountered waters robbed the Wujiang River, crossed the Chishui River, and crossed the northern plateau, making great achievements many times.Now that they had just crossed the grassland, they were all so tired and skinny and hungry, but as soon as they heard that there was a mission ahead, they immediately regained their energy. Each of them was armed with engineering equipment, walked like flying, and went straight to the cliff ahead.

The engineer company commander Wang Yaonan gave a brief mobilization to the troops: "Comrades! The superiors have already said that our army must break through the natural barrier Lazikou if we want to go north to Shaanxi and Gansu. To break through Lazikou, we must take the Bailongjiang plank road. Can it be repaired? The plank road is related to the lives of nearly 10,000 people in the entire army. Our engineering company has always had the tradition of opening roads in the mountains and building bridges when encountering water. We must overcome difficulties, repair the plank road, and open up a victory channel for the entire army. Specific arrangements: one row Responsible for digging broken piles in the original rock hole, the second row is responsible for driving piles, and the third row is responsible for collecting planks and laying bridges..." Soon, a password came from the front to the back of the Red Army lined up in a column: "There is Where there are trees, cut down trees and branches, and send them to the engineer company in front, and where there are boards, buy cash and send them to the front." So, the troops acted urgently, felling trees and buying boards, and the long line became a conveyor belt.

To repair the plank road, the wooden stakes that were originally inserted in the holes in the stone wall must be dug out first.This work is indeed strenuous enough. It requires people to tie ropes around their waists, use crowbars to pry, and drills to dig. It is very hard and dangerous. Moreover, since they crossed the grassland, the soldiers have not had a full meal. Except for a few green trees every day, they only rely on wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.Most of the personnel in the engineering company are tall and strong, how can a few green trees support them!But the Red Army soldiers were hungry and repaired the plank road on the cliff.At the beginning, the progress was not good, and after a few paragraphs, the progress speeded up as the hands became more familiar.

It is 40 miles from Moya Temple to Wazang Temple, the next stop. There are some broken plank roads intermittently, and there are seven or eight wooden bridges across the Bailong River.The first difficulty in the restoration work of the engineer company was that it could not obtain local materials, because the Red Army's ethnic policy was very strict: it was not allowed to move the wood of the temple, and it was not allowed to cut down the forest near the temple.The only way is to spend money to buy it far away, and then transport it back for use.So, everyone went to buy wood and transport it.The second difficulty was the harassment of Tibetan soldiers. These Tibetan soldiers wore clothes made of yak wool, the color of which was similar to that of tree trunks in late autumn. It was difficult to distinguish them from a distance. When they got close, the Red Army engineers and soldiers became living targets, bleeding in vain.While Wang Yaonan directed the bridge repair, he organized sharpshooters to guard against it.As a result, no one was injured, no one died, no accident occurred in the engineer company, and the ancient plank road was restored.

The restoration of the Bailongjiang plank road opened a channel for breaking through the natural danger of Lazikou. On the evening of September 15th, the Red Fourth Regiment, which was being assembled at the Moya Temple, received an order from the Military Commission: "Continue to advance northward immediately, with the Fourth Regiment of the Second Division as the vanguard, and specifically advance to Minzhou in southern Gansu. Capture the natural danger of Lazikou, and wipe out the enemies blocking the way!" After receiving the order, the Red Fourth Regiment immediately held a meeting of the main cadres of the regiment.It is 200 miles from here to Lazikou. In the middle, you have to walk on the plank road at night, cross the Bailong River, and clear the harassment of reactionary armed forces on the road.In the dark night, the wind and rain are fierce, the sky is covered by dark clouds, and you can't see your fingers.The road is rough and difficult to walk, and the bridge is a single-plank bridge, only one person can walk at a time, the bridge body shakes, and if you are not careful, you will fall into the Bailong River.The Fourth Red Regiment carried out intense mobilization.At 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, after a burst of rallying horns, political commissar Yang Chengwu came to the front of the team:

"Comrades! We are about to set off soon. As the vanguard, we must capture Lazikou within three days and clear the way for the large troops to advance." "Lazikou is the last and most dangerous place on our way north. Breaking through Lazikou, the Kuomintang reactionaries' plot to stop the Red Army from going north to fight against Japan will be completely bankrupt. If we can't take Lazikou, tens of thousands of Red Army will be forced to turn around and go back to the grassland, or go west and take a detour If you go out of Qinghai, or go east to the northeast of Sichuan via Hanzhong and go north, you will step into the enemy's heavily fortified pocket. Only breaking through Lazikou is the only way out for the whole army. Everyone has just walked out of the snow-capped mountains and grasslands, and their physical strength has not yet recovered. There is another 200 miles of dangerous mountain roads in Zikou. Breaking through Lazikou will encounter many difficulties. But our Red Fourth Regiment is an old army that has gone through the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising. We have fought various tough battles, and we will definitely complete this It is a glorious and arduous task. We must carry forward the glorious tradition of flying over Huding Bridge and Loushan Pass, and rush 200 miles to overcome the natural danger of Lazikou!" The powerful political mobilization inspired the fighting spirit of the commanders and fighters.

The marching horn sounded, and the troops marched mightily towards Lazikou. In the early morning of September 17, the forward encountered the enemy.The Red Army finally arrived at Lazikou ahead of schedule. Cleared the enemy outposts and defeated Lu Dachang's 1 battalion in 20 minutes.Putting on the captured enemy uniform, posing as officers and soldiers of the enemy's outpost battalion, he came to Lazikou, broke up an enemy battalion guarding the pass, and captured more than 20 adjutants and medical officers of the 14th Division of the enemy Lu Dachang. officer.The Qianwei Battalion continued to advance and exchanged fire with the enemy troops entrenched on Lazikou of Tianxian, which opened the prelude to the battle of Lazikou of Tianxian!

Liang Yingkui of the Lu Dachang Department of the 14th Division of the Southern Division of Hu Zong of the Kuomintang led his troops to guard Lazikou. Head Wang and Political Commissar Yang discovered the enemy's weaknesses through observation: First, the enemy's bunkers have no roofs, and as long as they are condescending, they are easy to break through.The second is that the enemy forces on the mouth are concentrated in the front, and the defenses on both sides are weak. There are no enemy troops on the top of the mountain, and there is no defense on the cliff more than 80 meters high.If you turn around to the enemy's side, climb up the mountain, attack the enemy fort with grenades from top to bottom, and cooperate with the frontal attack, Lazikou will not be difficult to take.

At the military democratic conference, cadres and soldiers offered their suggestions one after another.The goal is focused on one point: who can climb that steep wall.At this time, a little soldier nicknamed "Yunguichuan" stood up with a whimper, and volunteered to climb the cliff. "Yunguichuan" is a young soldier of the Miao nationality. Before joining the army in Guizhou, he often climbed steep walls to collect medicinal materials and firewood.Because his accent has the characteristics of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, it is named "Yunguichuan".

In order to prove his strength to the chief and his comrades, he performed a wall-climbing performance on the spot.I saw him holding a bamboo pole barefoot, wrapping a long rope made of leggings around his waist, and tied a strong hook to the end of the long pole.Use a hook to hook the tree roots, cliff crevices, and stone mouths on the cliff, climb up section by section, climb to the top of the cliff at once, and then return along the original road. "Chief, I'm not lying!" "Yunguichuan" successfully climbed the wall, and the determination to attack was finally formed.One way is to attack from the front; the other way, the "Yunguichuan" detours from the flanks, first climbs up the cliff, lowers the hanging rope, pulls other cadres and soldiers to the top of the cliff, and controls the enemy fort at Lazikou from a condescending height.The frontal attack was undertaken by the Sixth Company. As the sun set, hundreds of detour-climbing teams passed the two felled trees, safely crossed the fast-flowing Lazi River, and came to the steep wall in the dead end of the enemy's sight. "Yunguichuan" climbed first, and he used the previous method to climb to the top of the cliff with the technique of "monkey climbing", and then lowered the ropes twisted by gathering all the leggings of the whole regiment one by one.Head Wang and hundreds of people grabbed these ropes and climbed up.The sky has been blackened, and only the sound of the wind, people's panting, and the sound of falling stones can be heard.All the detour troops of the Red Army went up. Now it's the turn of the Red Sixth Company.Yang Chengwu said to all the commanders and fighters of the Red Sixth Company in the pine forest: "Comrades, on our left is Yang Tusi's cavalry, and on the right is Hu Zongnan's main force. The road to the north to resist Japan is only Lazikou. The Wujiang River, Jinsha River, and Dadu River are all We couldn't stop us, we came over the snowy mountains and grasslands, can a small Lazikou block it?" "The mountains of knives and the sea of ​​fire can't stop us!" All the commanders and fighters of the Sixth Company replied. "Okay! Some light and heavy machine guns will be drawn from the regiment, and you will use them under your command. In addition, the regiment mortars will be assigned to our regiment to concentrate bombardment of the gun towers and enemy firepower assembly points in the pass. Your focus is to covertly engage the enemy and seize Lazikou. The single-plank bridge." "Boss, we are members of the Communist Party, please let the party test us!" Instructor Hu Bingyun made an oath on behalf of Quanlian. Taking advantage of the hazy night, the commando formed by some soldiers of the Red Sixth Company went to the enemy's position at the bridgehead. The cunning enemy army has long been prepared.They used dangerous terrain and solid fortifications as cover, and when the Hongliu Company approached an open field at the head of the bridge, they suddenly opened fire.First, he dropped a lot of grenades, and then counterattacked with light and heavy machine guns.Due to the unfavorable terrain, several impacts were unsuccessful and some casualties were caused. "We must take down Lazikou before dawn!" But it is definitely not enough to rely on a frontal dash.Under the command of Yang Chengwu, Chief of Staff Li Yinghua organized several small groups to attack one after another in order to fatigue and consume the enemy. After several shocks, the enemy army was also paralyzed.The commando of the Red Sixth Company took this opportunity to secretly climb the bridge pillars and cross the river under the belly of the bridge to the opposite bank, waiting for the general attack so as to attack from both sides. At this moment, "Tong, Thong, Thong!" Three red flares shot into the sky. A loud charge sounded from the top of the mountain.On the top of the cliff, the detour troops aimed at the unroofed enemy fort below and dropped grenades one after another. All the rifles and light machine guns condescendingly fired at the enemy.The enemy didn't expect our army to detour back to the top of their heads, and was beaten for a while, crying for father and mother, and ran away with their heads in their arms. The sixth company took the opportunity to shoot and basically wiped out the defending enemy.The Red Army bridgehead troops charged and took control of the wooden bridge, and the whole regiment began to cross the river.At this time, the sixth company showed its might even more. The whole company swept with guns, exploded with grenades, and slashed with big knives, killing the enemy soldiers howling ghosts and howling wolves.Not long after, the Red Fourth Regiment took control of both sides of the Lazi River and continued to expand its victories deeper into the canyon. There is a triangular valley behind Lazikou, where the enemy built a group of gun towers and stockpiled a lot of grain and ammunition.After the defeat of a battalion of enemy soldiers on the entrance, they wanted to take advantage of the danger to block the attack, but due to the rapid pursuit of the Red Army, the triangle area was captured by the Red Army before the enemy could gain a foothold, and the ammunition and food became the Red Army's supplies. Lazikou was finally broken by the Red Army! The Red Army pursued the victory, broke through the enemy's second line of defense, and occupied the Dacishan position outside Lazikou.Zhu Xianrong, the head of the enemy's outpost, fled to Weiyuan like a bereaved dog.The teacher Lu Dachang hid in Minzhou and dared not show his face.In Dacaotan, the Red Army captured hundreds of thousands of catties of grain and two thousand catties of salt from the enemy. The Red Army broke through the natural barrier Lazikou, which was a key battle for the northward journey to Gansu and Shanxi.The success of this battle shattered Chiang Kai-shek's evil plan to starve the Red Army to death in the snow-capped mountains and grasslands. It also announced the failure of Zhang Guotao to split the Red Army and flee southward, and opened the way for the Central Red Army to advance into Gansu and Shaanxi and go to the anti-Japanese front line.