Chapter 8 The Lesson of Two Attacks on Changsha

On August 20, 1930, I rushed to Yonghe City, Liuyang County and found the headquarters of the Fifth Red Army.Deng Ping received me very warmly, asked me about my injuries and treatment, and told me that Mao Zedong and Zhu De were coming to Yonghe City with the First Red Army Corps to join forces. The two fists together are more powerful and can be used for a big fight.I was moved by Deng Ping's enthusiasm, and my heart was warm.Deng Ping asked me to rest for a few days and wait for the assignment, so I stayed in the military headquarters. On August 23, the Red Army and the Third Army joined forces in Yonghe City as planned.On the same day, the front committees of the two armies held a joint meeting and decided to establish the First Front Army, Zhu De was the commander-in-chief, Mao Zedong was the chief political commissar, Peng Dehuai was the deputy commander-in-chief, and Teng Daiyuan was the deputy chief political commissar. Mao Zedong was Secretary of the General Front Committee.The Red First Army governs the first and third armies; the Red First Army governs the third, fourth, and twelfth armies; the Red Third Army governs the fifth, eighth, and sixteenth armies, with a total strength of about 30,000. The strength of the two legions was roughly equal.The establishment of the Red Front Army further concentrated its forces strategically, which was of great strategic significance for the Red Army to better realize the transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare and promote the development of the revolution.

Our Red Army Corps is headed by Peng Dehuai, political commissar Teng Daiyuan, chief of staff Deng Ping, and director of the political department Yuan Guoping; the regiment has three armies, six divisions, a secret service regiment, an artillery regiment, and an engineering battalion, about 17,000 Eight thousand people.The Fifth Red Army has two divisions under its jurisdiction, the first and third divisions, with Deng Ping as the commander, Zhang Chunqing as the political commissar, and Wu Jizhi as the director of the political department.I was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Party Committee of the Fifth Red Army; in November, the Fifth Army of the Red Army held a party congress, and I was elected as the head of the Party Committee Organization.

At the meeting of the General Front Committee of the Red Front Army, the issue of attacking Changsha was discussed.At that time, some comrades saw that the Three Army Corps had won a great victory in their first attack on Changsha, seized a large number of weapons and supplies, and the troops’ weapons and equipment had been greatly improved. They all wore brand-new military uniforms and had a completely new look. Changsha can be conquered with as little as 100 troops. Now that the two legions are united in one place, there is no problem in conquering Changsha. In addition, the general guiding ideology of the party and the army at that time was still to attack the central city and strive for the first victory in one province and several provinces. The idea of ​​attacking Changsha prevailed.However, Peng Dehuai and many comrades of the Three Army Corps, proceeding from reality, did not quite agree to attack Changsha.Because from November 1929 to this time for nearly a year, the army has expanded sixfold, and since May, continuous operations and sieges have begun, and the army has not been rested. Some companies not only do not have party branches, but even party members No, only relying on the activities of the Soldiers Association without the core of the party's leadership, there is an urgent need for a short-term rest in order to fight again.And from the perspective of the enemy's situation, the first time we attacked Changsha was when our army seized the weakness of the enemy's strategic deployment, broke through the enemy's "long snake formation" one by one, and attacked the enemy with lightning speed, so we were able to take advantage of the victory and attack. Changsha City, this time is different: this time the enemy pursued the four brigades of our army, only Dai Douyuan's brigade was wiped out by our first army in Wenjia City, and the other three brigades were wiped out two days before our third army army arrived in Wenjia City That is to say, they have voluntarily retreated to Changsha, and their troops have not decreased. It turned out that there was still an enemy brigade in Changsha that had not been dispatched. When we attacked Changsha again, we lost the suddenness of the attack and turned into a regular positional battle with little confidence in victory.However, as a result of the discussion of the General Front Committee, most people decided to attack Changsha, and Peng Dehuai and the comrades of the Red Army had no choice but to obey.

On August 24, the headquarters of the Red Army issued an order to advance to Changsha in three routes.The First Red Army was on the left, the Sixteenth Army of the Third Red Army and the Pingjiang Local Armed Forces were on the right, and the Fifth and Eighth Armies of the Third Red Army and the Liudong Local Armed Forces were on the middle. They arrived in the southeastern suburbs of Changsha on the 28th The Fengshu River, Xinqiao, Luoxiaping, Lingzhongpu, and Longtoupu areas within thirty miles form a siege to Changsha.At this time, according to reconnaissance, Changsha defended the enemy from Houzishi in the southern suburbs, passing through Ami Ridge and Huji crossing to the mouth of Laodao River in the northern suburbs. After several kilometers, there are many blockhouses, giant deer villages, and tall power grids. , this is such a strong fortification that we have never seen before.However, our army only has rifles and a few machine guns. Although the army has an artillery regiment, it only has a dozen mountain cannons and more than 20 mortars (the few field cannons seized during the first attack on Changsha were too heavy to be used. The number of shells was small, and there was a lack of offensive weapons. Therefore, after the siege of Changsha, the general headquarters tried every means to lure the enemy to attack, but the enemy defended for several days. It was really annoying. .

On September 3, the General Command of the Front Army learned that the Defending Enemy Command would attack our army from Houzishi with ten regiments in order to cheer up the enemy defending the city and break the siege. Enemy deployment: The Third Red Army is responsible for monitoring the frontal enemy, and the First Red Army is on the west side of the enemy's attack line, forming a large pocket to ambush the enemy.In the afternoon of the same day, the 1st and 2nd Brigades, the Supplementary Regiment, the Independent Regiment, the Secret Service Battalion, and the Engineer Battalion, which belonged to the enemy's Tao Guang Division, really attacked our army from Houzishi and fell on our hook.At around five o'clock in the afternoon, about two enemy regiments entered our ambush circle, and their follow-up troops continued to leave the city.When it was nearly dusk, our army caught the enemy by surprise and attacked violently with the pressure of Mount Tai. He was caught off guard and drove the enemy to the edge of the Xiangjiang River. After fierce fighting, more than 600 enemies were killed and two regiment commanders and thousands of soldiers were captured. The rest handed in more than a thousand guns, and wounded their brigade commander Chen Wo and two regiment commanders. The rest of the enemy fled in a panic, hiding in the Houzishi position, not daring to fight back.

The enemy has accepted the lesson of the failure of the attack on the Monkey Stone, and dare not attack rashly again.Our army besieged the city for another seven days, but the enemy still couldn't hold out, and the two sides confronted each other under the city of Changsha. On September 10, the General Command of the Front Army had to issue the "Order to Attack Changsha" at Tian Xinqiao.However, the two legions attacked repeatedly. Due to the adequate preparations for defending the enemy and the solid fortifications, the attacking troops were blocked by the high-voltage power grid, so the attack failed and caused heavy casualties.In order to break through the enemy's power grid, our army once adopted the method of "fire bull formation", bought a batch of bulls, tied rags stained with kerosene, cotton wool, whips, and cannons to the tails of the bulls, and set them on fire together.The bull was frightened by the fire and firecrackers, and rushed towards the enemy's power grid like crazy.However, when the Fire Bulls rushed close to the enemy's position, some were killed by enemy bullets, and some were killed by the high-voltage electricity of the power grid; Dispersed the shock troops following the Fire Bull formation, but it still didn't work.This kind of "Fire Bull Formation" used to be powerful against the soil fences armed by landlords; but it was useless against the enemy's high-voltage power grid, which was also a manifestation of our lack of scientific knowledge at that time. After the failure of the "Fire Bull Formation", the troops organized several strong attacks, but they still failed and caused heavy casualties. Facts have proved that our army does not yet have the conditions for positional warfare and fortified warfare.

At this time, the Yangtze River Bureau of the Communist Party of China reported that the troops of Zhang Fakui and the Guangxi faction of the Kuomintang had entered the front line of Xiangtan in an attempt to reinforce Changsha to defend the enemy. Therefore, Mao Zedong suggested to destroy the reinforcements of the Gui army before attacking Changsha.After discussion, the General Front Committee agreed with Mao Zedong's opinion, and on September 12 issued the "Order to Withdraw from Changsha and Occupy Pingxiang Zhuzhou to Standby", and the second attack on Changsha came to an end.In this attack on Changsha, regardless of the changes in the objective situation and the weakness of our army's attack force, we decided to attack based on our subjective wishes and suffered setbacks. The lesson is profound. During the "Cultural Revolution", some people imposed the blame for the failure of the second attack on Changsha on Peng Dehuai, which is unrealistic and unfair.