Chapter 35 2. The Bloody Battle of Shandan

On November 23, Dong Zhentang, commander of the Fifth Red Army, and Li Pingren, chief of staff, led two regiments and a part of the women's pioneer regiment to the Shuiquanzi and Wangxinbao areas in the west of Yongchang. A lonely fortress.Soon after the troops settled down, the enemy Ma Biao led a cavalry brigade and three militia regiments to attack them. The two sides fought hand-to-hand at night and fought inextricably.In the early morning of the next day, the enemy army came to attack again, and the fifth army fought fiercely with the enemy again. Because they encountered enemy cavalry, the fifth army fought very passively.In this battle, although the enemy was repelled, he suffered a lot of casualties. Li Pingren, chief of staff of the army, was shot and injured in the hip bone of his left leg.It was day and night, and the army left Shuiquanzi and marched towards Shandan.At that time, the 267th and 269th regiments of the Red Thirty Army and the cavalry division of the headquarters were guarding Shandan County. Defense of the Tenth Army.

On November 29, the 37th Regiment of the Fifth Red Army was ordered to garrison in the area of ​​Dafosi and Xishilibao, preparing to prevent the enemy from attacking Shandan.There are three forts here. Xie Liang, political commissar of the 13th Division (and political commissar of the 37th Regiment) led a team stationed in the middle of the fort to serve as the commander; the head of the regiment led some personnel to station in the left fort; The bunker on the right.As soon as the 37th regiment was ready to deploy, the enemy Ma Lu, Han Qigong and other troops launched an attack. The soldiers of our 37th regiment fought tenaciously and wiped out the invading enemy, making it difficult for the enemy to move an inch. We repelled the enemy twice in the morning attack.In the afternoon, the enemy organized three more strong attacks, all of which were repelled by our thirty-seventh regiment.The sun was westward, and the enemy launched another group charge in an attempt to capture our army's position.During the battle, Xie Liang, political commissar of the regiment, was shot in the leg while directing the troops to counterattack, bleeding continuously.The guard wanted to call for a stretcher, but Xie Liang stopped him and said, "Don't shout! That will affect the combat mood of the troops, just give me a simple bandage!" Political commissar Xie endured the great pain and continued to direct the battle until the enemy was defeated. Go down and back out of the line of fire.

On November 30, two cavalry brigades of the enemy Ma Biao and Ma Pu, Han Qigong's infantry brigade, two militia regiments, and a mountain artillery battalion launched a fierce attack on the northeast corner of Shandan City.The five armies stood ready to inflict heavy damage on the enemy and shattered several rampant attacks by the enemy.On the second day, the enemy pushed the main force to Nanguan on the outskirts of the city, and the 13th Division of the Fifth Army took advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold to carry out a night attack, dealing a serious blow to the brigade headquarters and a regiment of the enemy's Malu brigade.

On December 4th, the enemy launched a full-scale attack on the outlying positions of the Fifth Army. Facing the enemy's crazy attacks several times, all the commanders and fighters of the Fifth Army, under the leadership of Commander Dong Zhentang, responded calmly and inflicted heavy damage on the enemy. The army shrunk the line of defense and retreated into the city.In order to prevent the enemy's artillery from causing heavy casualties to our army, Dong Zhentang ordered two regiments of the 15th Division to defend the city wall of Shandan, while all the 13th Division remained in the city as a reserve team.

Early the next morning, the enemy launched another attack. The 15th Division defending the city repelled several enemy attacks by relying on the crenels of the ancient city wall of Shandan.At noon, Dong Zhentang observed in the city that part of the enemy infantry outside the south gate was not on guard, and immediately ordered the 37th and 39th regiments of the 13th Division to attack from the east gate. Because the enemy was defenseless, he was beaten by the Fifth Army Unprepared, the people all over the mountains and plains fled in embarrassment, and the soldiers took advantage of the victory to pursue.During the pursuit, Zhou Changchang, the political commissar of the 39th Regiment, noticed smoke and dust billowing from the left rear. He came and hit him in the leg impartially, and Political Commissar Zhou fell off the slope immediately.Rao Zijian, the chief of staff of the regiment, hurried forward to help him up, and asked the health worker to bandage the wound, and put his back on the ground.At the same time, he ordered the troops to stop the pursuit and organize on the spot to fight the enemy's cavalry.Due to the rapid movement of the enemy cavalry and the counterattack of the previously retreated enemy infantry, the two regiments that had attacked outside the city fell into a pincer attack on both sides and were very passive. The two sides launched a tragic fight outside the city.

Dong Zhentang discovered this dangerous situation on the tower, and immediately ordered the 45th regiment to rush out of the city for reinforcements.Soon, the reinforcements went around behind the enemy's cavalry, beat the enemy hard, and then retreated to Shandan together with the 37th and 39th regiments.Although the enemy was repelled in this battle, due to the interference of the enemy cavalry, no major results were achieved. The brutal tug-of-war continued until December 11th, and the Fifth Army suffered heavy losses. Comrade Li Lianxiang, commander of the 13th Division (and head of the 37th Regiment), in order to cover the safe transfer of troops during the battle on November 30th, Fighting desperately with the enemy, unfortunately, he was hacked on the head by the enemy's saber and died a heroic sacrifice.In the Shandan defensive battle, the five armies fought alone. They held on to Shandan for more than a month. Although they caused heavy damage to the enemy, they also paid a heavy price. The whole army suffered more than 600 casualties.

On the 12th, news of the "Xi'an Incident" suddenly came, and Chiang Kai-shek was arrested. It turned out that Chiang Kai-shek called a meeting of Chen Cheng, Wei Lihuang, Zhu Shaoliang and a large number of generals in Xi'an, and personally deployed the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army.At the same time, the troops of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng were forced to go to the front line in northern Shaanxi to suppress the Red Army. Otherwise, the Northeast Army and Northwest Army would be transferred from Shaanxi to Gansu, and the Central Army would take over the defense to complete the "communist suppression cause".Under such circumstances, the Northeast Army headed by Zhang Xueliang and the Northwest Army headed by Yang Hucheng, under the influence of the anti-Japanese national united front of the Communist Party of China, were dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's policy of compromising Japan that "to fight against the outside world, we must first settle the inside" and launched a mutiny in Xi'an , Detained Chiang Kai-shek.

The storm of the Xi'an Incident also pushed the Hexi Majiajun into an embarrassing situation.But Ma Bufang is known as the "wild horse" and has a tacit understanding with Chiang Kai-shek.He was furious at Zhang and Yang's patriotic behavior, and refused to accept the West Route Army's idea of ​​forming an anti-Japanese united front.Unlike Yu Xuezhong, the Northeast Army stationed in Lanzhou, who was stationed in Lanzhou to ease the relationship, he insisted on going his own way and wanted to fight the West Route Army and the anti-Japanese forces to the end.His brother Ma Buqing saw a letter from the West Route Army advocating negotiations and joint resistance against Japan, and his heart was not without fluctuations.Despite this, the two sides temporarily stopped fighting.

Hearing the news, the commanders and fighters in our army's position were full of joy.Dong Zhentang also showed a gratified smile on his face. He has always supported the Party Central Committee's policy of going north to resist Japan.Now, Lao Jiang has been captured, and the anti-Japanese voice is getting louder and louder all over the country. Perhaps, one day soon, he will finally get his wish and lead the five armies to the anti-Japanese front line.On December 27, the Party Central Committee sent a telegram: The peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident has a bright future.The West Route Army still carried out the task of advancing westward, occupying Ganzhou and Suzhou, and one part occupied Anxi.It is up to you to decide when to start the westward march and how to fight according to the situation.

After receiving the power, the West Route Army decided to evacuate Yongchang and Shandan, and immediately marched west. Before departure, Dong Zhentang came to the Health Department of the West Route Army to visit the Chief of Staff Li Pingren and Xie Liang, the political commissar of the 13th Division, who were recuperating here. He preached in his sonorous voice: "Good news! Chiang Kai-shek has been forced to It is a great thing to agree to the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation and unite to fight against Japan! Now our Chinese nation has hope, you can rest assured and recuperate well in the hospital, the anti-Japanese frontline still needs you! ”

Li Pingren and Xie Liang were deeply encouraged by what they heard, and they unanimously stated that they would follow the commander's order, strive to heal their injuries as soon as possible, and return to the army.How did they know that this farewell has become an eternal farewell. After the failure of the West Route Army, both Li and Xie were seriously injured and could not be transferred with the army.In order not to drag everyone down, they insisted on staying.After persuading the guards around them to leave, the two persisted for eight days in the barren mountains of Qilian Mountains.It was the cold winter season, cold and hungry, coupled with the severe pain caused by the inflammation of the wound, in desperation, Li Pingren thought of death.He moved his body with difficulty, took out a few catties of tobacco soil for leg pain, and said to Xie Liang: "Old man, I'll take a step first." Xie Liang was lying a few meters away. At this moment, he was suffering from a high fever and was exhausted. He felt that the god of death was approaching him.He could only watch helplessly, but there was nothing he could do, two lines of hot tears flowed silently... Not long after the smoke was swallowed, the poison started to attack, and Li Pingren foamed at the mouth and twitched non-stop... Seeing the painful death of his old comrade-in-arms, Xie Liang didn't want to live anymore.He struggled to climb over, buried Li Pingren's body, and insisted on climbing under a small tree, untied the bandages on his legs, and prepared to hang himself.Because the tree was too short, after several tosses, it was unsuccessful.The severe pain of the wound made Xie Liang faint... Soon, several Red Army soldiers who had fallen behind passed by and rescued him.Although his life was saved, they were captured by the Ma's army soon after. The military doctor of the horse bandit saw off his injured foot and put him in prison.Through the efforts of the party organization, Xie Liang returned to Yan'an after going through a lot of hardships, and returned to the embrace of the party.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xie Liang served as the Deputy Political Commissar of the Artillery of the Military Commission. When he was awarded the title in 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general.He became one of the famous one-legged generals in our army, and later wrote the book "Legend of the One-legged General".