Chapter 50 3. Facing the fiasco, Xiang Ying finally implemented a strategic shift

After the transfer of the main Red Army, except for the 100,000 troops of Xue Yue and Zhou Hunyuan who pursued them, the 200,000 troops of the other columns remained in the Central Soviet Area, under the command of Chen Cheng to form the "Qing Suppression" army.Chen Cheng said to Chiang Kai-shek: "The Central Soviet Area must be completely wiped out, otherwise there will be endless troubles." From October 26 to November 23, 1934, Chen Cheng's army successively occupied Ningdu, Ruijin, Yudu, Huichang and other counties in the central area of ​​the Central Soviet Area.

It was the 11th Division of Li Mo'an, the enemy's East Route Army, who captured Ruijin County. In January 1935, the "Recovering Ruijin Chronicle" edited by the Special Party Headquarters of the 11th Division of the Kuomintang described the course of this battle as follows: After the recovery of Changtingke, our division returned to Caifang to build the Hetian Huangguan Highway.On the afternoon of November 6th, a telegram was received from the commander-in-chief...the 10th and 36th divisions were under the command of Commander Li, and Ruijin and other causes were recovered; therefore, it was decided that the 10th division would assemble in Changting City on the 8th, and the 10th division would be the 10th division on the 9th. On the front line, advance to the ancient city first, and occupy the Daling Pass west of the ancient city with a powerful force, in preparation for going straight down to Ruijin in the next ten days.On the evening of the 8th, the drizzle was heavy, and on the morning of the 9th, there was a torrential downpour, and the officers and soldiers marched forward vigorously.At 9 o'clock, they contacted the bandits of the Xikou Independent Camp of the Puppet Ancient City Independence Group in Niuling, east of the ancient city.However, the major passes along the way were blocked by felled trees and covered with mines, so the progress was quite sluggish.

The Tenth Japanese Division then marched towards Ruijin. The Puppet Central Soviet Area Model Battalion, Rentian Guerrilla, Jiubao Independence Regiment, Meikeng Chiwei Battalion, and yesterday's remnant troops had a total of more than 2,000 men and guns. .After several charges, it began to be captured in the morning, and the remnant bandits fled in the direction of Huichang Yudu.It has been engraved that my 30th brigade has conquered Ruijin. This military and political center of the bandits, which has been occupied for five years, has entered the hands of our army. Conquering Ruijin, the Kuomintang was all-powerful, and the "Central Daily" made a big exaggeration, with numerous articles.

The enemy's strategic attempt is to shrink inward from the north, east, and south, use group forces to hold the county towns and major communication routes, and use blockades to divide the vast Soviet area into many small pieces, besieging the Red Army in smaller and smaller areas. In the area, then divide and "clear up and suppress", and then wipe it out completely. Every time the enemy invaded and occupied a place, they carried out an inhumane massacre.Landlords, tyrants, rogues and villains who have made a comeback have organized "returning the homeland", "removing communists", and "assassination groups". Countless revolutionary cadres and the masses were buried alive, their hearts were dug out, they were dismembered, and they were chopped up.More than 700,000 people were killed in the Central Revolutionary Base!

Just two days after the fall of Ruijin, the only remaining regular main force of the Red Army, the 24th Division, withdrew from Tingzhou, Fujian to the Jiubao area of ​​Ruijin.This was once the seat of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. The Red 24th Division was originally organized by Luo Ronghuan and others.Division commander Zhou Jianping, political commissar Li Lin (after the main Long March was replaced by Yang Ying, director of the Political Department of the Fujian Military Region), and Yuan Xuezu, director of the Political Department. The Red 24th Division has three regiments, namely the 70th, 71st, and 72nd regiments. Each regiment has three battalions, with better weapons and equipment and sufficient soldiers.During the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, he cooperated with the Red Army and the Third Army for many times, and had strong combat effectiveness.Among them, the great victory in Wenfang, together with the second division of the Red First Army, wiped out nearly one division of the enemy, becoming the only major victory in the later stage of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign.During the Long March, the Red Twenty-Fourth Division, as the only main force staying in the Central Soviet Area, insisted on fighting, and it could be called the "ace army" among the remaining troops.Later, Xiang Ying decided to send most of the recovered wounded left behind to the 24th Division, which has nearly 6,000 people.

The division commander Zhou Jianping was born in the army and was born in Jinxi County, Jiangxi Province.He joined the Yunnan Army in his early years and participated in the Revolution of 1911, defending the country against Yuan and the Northern Expedition. In the spring of 1927, introduced by Zhu De, he joined the Communist Party of China and participated in the Nanchang Uprising. After 1929, he successively served as the head of the First Independent Regiment of the Jiangxi Red Army and the commander of the Red Tenth Army, and participated in commanding the anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations in Northeast Jiangxi. After January 1933, he successively served as commander of the 11th Red Army, commander of the 19th Division of the Red Seventh Army, and commander of the 24th Independent Division of the Red Army. The fourth and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" wars in the Soviet area.He has experienced hundreds of battles and made many military exploits. He can be called a famous general of the Red Army.

Occupying Ruijin, Li Mo'an's 11th Division continued to advance towards Huichang with arrogance and arrogance. The commanders and fighters of the 24th Division of the Red Army, seeing the "Red Capital" being ravaged by the enemy, stomped their feet angrily, demanding a severe blow to the enemy. Division commander Zhou Jianping convened a meeting of regiment-level cadres. He asked for everyone's opinions and decided to fight or not.Participants are gearing up and talking about fighting. Xiang Ying also advocated fighting a big battle. He said: "We must use the victory to cheer up the people in the Soviet area and improve everyone's confidence."

A big battle was settled in this way, the battlefield was chosen to be Xiefang between Ruijin and Huichang, and the target of attack was Master Li Mo'an who captured Ruijin. Yuan Xuezu, then director of the Political Department of the 24th Division, recalled: On November 22, the Third Division of the Enemy East Road advanced from Ruijin to Huichang.The military region ordered the 24th Division to rush to ambush near Xiefang.Local armed forces in Huichang, Ruijin and Fujian also participated in the ambush.The battlefield commander of this battle is the division commander Zhou Jianping.However, before the enemy had fully entered the ambush circle (mainly because the Fujian Independence Regiment did not arrive at the designated location in time), the battle began.In military terms, this is called a "premature assault" mistake, so the enemy failed to be completely wiped out, and only half of the enemy's brigade was wiped out, turning the battle of annihilation into a battle of defeat.Although we won this battle, strictly speaking, it cannot be regarded as a big victory, because more enemies could have been eliminated.After the battle, the Central Sub-bureau sent a telegram to the Central Committee, saying that it had won a big victory and wiped out one division of the enemy. The "Red China" newspaper also sent a message.I am in charge of taking prisoners during this battle.Originally, they planned to capture a large number of enemies, but because the battle was a rout, not many enemies were captured, only a lot of mules, horses and livestock were captured.After the battle, I picked two mules and brought them back.

Although the ambush in Xiefang hit the rampant enemies and inspired the fighting spirit of the people in the Soviet area, it also exposed the strength of the Red Army. Xiang Ying began to realize the necessity of "independent warfare" and sent some capable cadres to various regions to lead the struggle.Therefore, Zhang Dingcheng and Fan Lechun returned to western Fujian; Zhong Xunren returned to Fujian and Jiangxi; Hu Hai returned to Donggu; Li Heming returned to Gonglue. At that time, this change in understanding was limited, and it was limited to localities, and it was only in some areas, and the army did not move.Xiang Ying further realized this in his report to the Central Committee: this change was only partial, and the main 24th Division and several base regiments still adopted the combat method of large corps, and still carried out passive defense to prevent and attack the enemy. Destroy the enemy's fortified advance towards the 'triangular area'.So in the battle of Dingbei (that is, the enemy built a fort from Ruilinzhai to the line from Dingpi to Dabaidi), the enemy suffered a little loss by preventing the enemy from building the fort.The 24th Division often went to various areas to stand by in an attempt to intercept and block the enemy's fortification, but failed.At this time, the enemy has occupied Yudu and built a blockade from the back of the mountain to the upper reaches of Yudu River to connect with Ruilin Village, thus cutting off our connection.

Facing the increasingly tense and deteriorating situation, Chen Yi repeatedly proposed to Xiang Ying to disperse the troops to fight guerrillas, but Xiang Ying still disagreed. The reason why Xiang Ying did not agree to disperse the 24th Division and other independent regiments to fight guerrillas was that his guiding ideology was still to stick to the instructions of the Central Committee. He hoped to concentrate his forces to fight mobile warfare and fight regular warfare, so as to welcome the main Red Army back to the Central Soviet Area with major victories. Chiang Kai-shek was very angry after the main Red Army broke through the defense line of the Cantonese Army Chen Jitang's department. He ordered Chen to quickly attack Huichang and cut off the retreat route of the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area to the south.

The Cantonese army is quite capable of fighting.The Jiangnan Red Army and local armed forces fought with it several times, but they all retreated. In order to consolidate southern Jiangxi and maintain the connection between the two sides of the Huichang River, Xiang Ying decided to gather the Red 24th Division and the Independent 3rd and 11th Regiments to fight the Cantonese Army in Niuling. However, contrary to Xiang Ying's expectations, the Battle of Niu Ling turned out to be the biggest defeat after the transfer of the main Red Army, and cast a heavy shadow on Zhou Jianping's brilliant military career. Xiang Ying regretted the battle of Niuling.When he reported to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in 1937, he wrote: The Douling battle was an undeserved fiasco, and it was an undeserved battle.In advance, there was a reconnaissance of the Cantonese enemy's guerrilla attack in Niuling'ao area (about one to two battalions), and they were preparing to ambush or attack near it. It was already afternoon, and the soldiers were also very tired. They should choose a place to camp, then reconnaissance the situation and decide to act.Unexpectedly, Xu Hong, the leader of the independent regiment, who was a risky man, wanted to follow and chase him.At that time, Zhou Jianping, the commander of the 24th Division, was in charge of the commander-in-chief, so he agreed without thinking. The most ridiculous thing was that a regiment ambushed along the road from Tangcun to Niuling to attack the enemy reinforcements, but they dispersed their forces and were later defeated by the enemy one by one.The main force attacking Niuling was about four regiments. When they reached the vicinity of Niuling, they did not deploy their troops.The enemy occupied the house and did not move. When we rushed to the front, the enemy countercharged the whole regiment.When retreating, he dispersed the follow-up troops by himself, and the enemy followed and chased them all the way to the command position.Zhou Jianping brought flowers. Fortunately, Yang Ying led the direct subordinate team to resist tenaciously, so they repelled the enemy and took in the rout. It was not until two days later that the whole team was assembled, but they had already suffered heavy losses. Five regiments were defeated by one The upper and lower enemies are defeated one by one.This defeat is an unprecedented defeat for our Red Army, and a defeat that should never have been fought is simply the inevitable result of treating war as a trifle.This defeat can be said to have shaken the confidence of the troops in combat and increased the fear of the Guangdong warlords. At the same time, it has also become our last battle to end the battle of the large corps. Niu Ling suffered a disastrous defeat in the First World War. Xiang Ying's assessment of the situation became sober, she was no longer so blindly optimistic, and realized the seriousness of the situation. At the end of November, Xiang Ying held a meeting of the Central Bureau to discuss the future struggle policy. At the meeting, Chen Yi proposed to quickly and comprehensively switch to guerrilla warfare without further delay. The 24th Division and the Independent Regiment should also be dispersed.The Central Sub-bureau should issue instructions to all localities to change the way of struggle and prepare for the coming of a big storm. Chen Yi's opinion was endorsed by the vast majority of members of the Central Sub-bureau. Xiang Ying finally agreed with Chen Yi's opinion, and asked Chen Yi to draft an instruction to issue in the name of the Central Sub-bureau, and deploy all regions to switch to guerrilla warfare. The meeting decided that only Xiang Ying, Chen Yi, and He Chang would remain in the leadership of the Central Sub-bureau, and all other members would be dispersed to various guerrilla areas in the Central Soviet Area.The Central Sub-bureau, some units of the 24th Division, and the party, government and military organs of Jiangnan Province were quickly transferred to the Shangping area.