Chapter 22 22. The battle between the bow string and the bow back

After crossing the Jinsha River at Jiaopingdu, Yunnan, the Red Army entered Huili, Sichuan on the north bank of the river.This ancient city at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan is the fortress that the ancient southern Silk Road must pass through, and a place where business travelers from Sichuan and Yunnan gather.It first established a county system in the Yuanding period of the Western Han Dynasty (116-110 BC).The large-scale construction of the city began in the Ming Dynasty. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the Bell and Drum Tower was built in the center of the city, which became a landmark building in the ancient city. At the same time, the layout of the entire city was also completed.It has two inner and outer cities, the inner city is large and the outer city is small, with solid and thick walls.

When the Red Army arrived in Huili in May 1935, it was already quite dilapidated, with only one straight street and two side streets, and the population of the city was only over 3,000. In an article in "Yunnan Daily" in July 1935, Huili was described in this way: "The people are displaced, hungry and cold, eating and sleeping in the open, and witnessing sadness." At that time, it was not only the ancient city of Huili that was also in precarity, but also the Red Army that came suddenly.The Central Red Army set off from Ruijin and Yudu in Jiangxi Province and crossed four blockades. After losing 40,000 to 50,000 people in the Xiangjiang War, they arrived in Zunyi. Then they crossed Chishui four times, went on an expedition to Yunnan, and crossed the Jinsha River to come here.Except for a 12-day rest in Zunyi, the Red Army hardly stayed there for almost 4 months.Not only marching during the day, but sometimes marching at night in order to save time, especially after entering Yunnan, the weather gradually became hot, and the Red Army soldiers were all ragged and exhausted.

The Red Army officers and soldiers kept asking where they were going in the future.Most of them are from Jiangxi and Hunan. They thought they would fight from Guizhou to Sichuan and cross the Yangtze River, but unexpectedly they came to the Sichuan-Yunnan border in a detour.The surrounding environment is unfamiliar, and it is getting farther and farther away from home.Many ordinary soldiers don't understand what the Red Army is going to do and where they are going; more and more comrades have died, and they don't know whether they can go back alive.The Central Red Army was unable to join He Long and Xiao Ke's troops, and did not know the specific whereabouts of Zhang Guotao's Red Fourth Army. They only knew that they were operating in the Sichuan-Shanxi area.What is the next step?Not only were there a lot of discussions among the soldiers, but some senior generals also began to complain.

Mao Zedong was also considering the same question at this time, how to bring the Red Army out of the predicament and open a broad road to survival and development.What can be done now is to let the Red Army rest in Huili City for a few days before the enemy's pursuers arrive, just like they did in Zunyi last time.Then the most urgent thing is to discuss the next action plan. On May 9, the Red Army attacked Huili City by surprise after crossing the river, but failed.The inner and outer city walls of Huili are two natural barriers, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack.The Red Army once broke through the outer city wall, and Sichuan Army General Liu Yuantang led more than 1,000 people (Chiang Kai-shek allocated part of Liu Wenhui's Sichuan Army to Liu Yuantang to defend the city), blocking the Red Army outside the inner city wall.

When the Red Army attacked the city for the second time, the city defense forces evacuated the residents between the two walls and set fire to their houses.The fire forced the Red Army back to the outer walls.The Kuomintang army ordered the residents to cook porridge in a big pot, and poured the boiling hot gruel on the bamboo siege ladders. Many soldiers were severely scalded and fell off the ladders to die. The Red Army then adopted a tactic that had never been used before. They dug tunnels under the east and west towers and carried out blasting. They wanted to enter the city through the tunnels.

The scene of attacking Huili City is very reminiscent of the siege warfare in ancient China.Huili was also one of the few counties that the Red Army failed to capture during the Long March.In order to reduce casualties, the Red Army changed its strategy and adopted the tactic of "encircling without fighting", and tightly surrounded Huili City.When Liu Yuantang defended the city for the sixth day, Chiang Kai-shek promoted him to lieutenant general and brigade commander, and sent 10,000 yuan by plane to reward the Sichuan army he led. At this time, the Red Army was stationed outside the city to rest, and a meeting was held on May 12 at the iron factory on the outskirts of the city.This meeting was caused by a storm, which originated from Lin Biao.

Lin Biao was an excellent military general, which has been mentioned in many places above. In 1935, he was only 27 years old, with a calm and intelligent mind, very serious, and almost no jokes.Although he failed to win the battle of Chishui City in northern Guizhou, it was impossible for any commander to capture Chishui City under the conditions at the time.Lin Biao is good at using suspicious soldiers and has great courage, so Mao Zedong likes to send him to confuse the enemy, especially in Kunming, where he feinted very cleverly.Lin Biao has an aloof personality and is not easy to listen to other people's opinions.Although he always successfully carried out the tasks assigned by Mao Zedong, he gradually expressed doubts and dissatisfaction with Mao Zedong's military command ability during the march.

When crossing Chishui four times, Lin Biao compared the marching route to a bow, saying that the Red Army is always walking on the back of the bow, not on the bow string, and not on shortcuts (some soldiers also complained that they are always marching non-stop), like Mao Zedong This kind of command will not work. Nie Rongzhen heard Lin Biao's complaints and expressed different opinions. Of course, he agreed with Mao Zedong's approach.He persuaded Lin Biao, saying, this is like falling into the enemy's pocket. If we are highly flexible and mobile, how can we get out of the pocket?

Lin Biao also called Peng Dehuai and said: "The current leadership is no longer possible. Come out and command. If this continues, we will fail. We obey your leadership. You give orders, and we will follow you." Peng Dehuai rejected Lin Biao's suggestion. Lin Biao insisted on his own opinion, and wrote a letter to the military trio (Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Wang Jiaxiang), reflecting the distaste for non-stop marching in the troops: Road, will drag down the Red Army.In his letter, he suggested that Mao Zedong, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, be replaced and Peng Dehuai be appointed.At this time, Mao Zedong, Zhou, Wang and other members of the Military Commission were considering the current strategy and planning of the Red Army with other personnel, and decided to command the army to go north and join the Red Fourth Front Army.

Lin Biao found Nie Rongzhen and hoped that Nie Rongzhen would sign the letter before handing it over.Nie rejected Lin Biao's request. When Lin Biao's letter was handed over to the military trio, it was the most tense time for the march.Only when we arrive at Huili will we have time to hold a meeting to resolve this issue.Yang Shangkun was temporarily notified to attend the meeting. At that time, he had a leg injury and was carried on a stretcher.He didn't know the content of the meeting beforehand, and he felt the seriousness of the problem only after seeing the content of Lin Biao's letter printed and distributed at the meeting.

A telegram signed by him and Liu Shaoqi coincided with some of Lin Biao's views.This telegram was sent after the defeat in the Battle of Tucheng.Because the battle was fought so bitterly, many commanders and fighters did not understand and were full of complaints, thinking that the battle should not be fought like that.They telegraphed the situation they had investigated to the central government. Unexpectedly, this telegram reflecting the thoughts of the soldiers was also criticized.At the same time, Huang Kecheng was also criticized.Huang Kecheng had a straightforward personality. He wrote directly to the central government, saying that the battle of Tucheng had a lot of casualties and failed to achieve its goal, so it was not worthwhile. These opinions were criticized at the meeting.The young Lin Biao became the main target of criticism at the meeting.The meeting criticized the serious mistakes of Lin Biao and others in opposing Mao Zedong's leadership and opposing the Red Army's mobile operations, and maintained the internal unity and unity of the party and the Red Army.Mao Zedong was very angry with Lin Biao's actions. He was in his early 40s at the time and had much more experience than Lin Biao. He had successfully commanded the Central Soviet Area to fight against "encirclement and suppression".He bluntly satirized Lin Biao: "You are a baby, what do you know?" The one most implicated by Lin Biao was Peng Dehuai.Nie Rongzhen, Zuo Quan, Luo Ruiqing, and Zhu Rui all confirmed that Peng Dehuai rejected Lin Biao's proposal to make him the military commander (these people were all present when Peng received the call), but Peng was still suspected of participating in mobile operations with Lin Biao. Mao Zedong criticized Peng Dehuai at the meeting. Although there was a discrepancy with the facts, Peng Dehuai took the initiative to criticize himself at the meeting, and he took the main responsibility for the so-called right-wing phenomenon in the Red Army.But Peng Dehuai firmly denied any connection with Lin Biao's letter.Regarding this matter, he wrote in his "Self-Report" after the founding of the People's Republic of China: "I have adopted the attitude that things will become clear after a long time." We can't get entangled in the old accounts of history. Of course, historical facts need to be clarified.In any case, the Huili meeting unified the thinking within the leadership of the Red Army and eased the dissatisfaction accumulated since the Zunyi meeting.The meeting finally determined the next action plan: continue northward, pass through the Yi Nationality's Daliang Mountain area, cross the Dadu River, and join forces with the Fourth Red Army.