Chapter 26 26. Visitors from the Lonely Snow Mountain

The Red Army crossed the Dadu River and finally got rid of the Kuomintang pursuers. They took a short rest in Luding.What Mao Zedong and the others have to do now is to decide on the next course of action-to join forces with the Fourth Red Army led by Zhang Guotao. In the early days of the Long March, the First and Fourth Front Army of the Red Army kept in touch with each other intermittently, but they seldom exchanged news. On January 22, 1935, Zhang Guotao had received a telegram from the Central Committee regarding the resolution of the Zunyi Conference. The Central Committee asked the Fourth Red Army to take action to help the First Red Army cross the Yangtze River.We all know the following situation. The Red Army failed to approach any ferry on the Yangtze River, but was forced to detour through Guizhou and Yunnan, crossing the Jinsha River and Dadu River to the north.In the following months, the two armies were in a state of constant movement, and contact was very difficult.There is another explanation for their seldom contact: the Red Fourth Front Army once lost a telegraph codebook, fearing that it had fallen into the hands of Chiang Kai-shek.Mao Zedong and Zhang Guotao learned about each other, sometimes through the hearsay of ordinary people, and sometimes through reports on "suppressing bandits" in Kuomintang newspapers. Of course, such news is always not very accurate.When Mao Zedong led the Central Red Army in circles in Guizhou, and when Zhang Guotao led the army to the northwest, there was no news exchange between them.Mao Zedong's actions were flexible and changeable, and he constantly used tactics to confuse the enemy. Not only did Zhang Guotao not know his whereabouts, but even Chiang Kai-shek, who was chasing the Central Red Army, could not find them at certain times.

However, in early May, Zhang Guotao received news that the Red Army had crossed the Jinsha River.They held a meeting near Jiangyou to discuss the issue of joining forces with the Central Red Army. On June 2, Mao Zedong led his troops into Luding. On this day, the vanguard of the Red Army suddenly received a telegram from the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army. In the next few days, the welcome troops sent by the Fourth Red Front Army occupied Maogong, and Li Xiannian set up a headquarters in Maogong, waiting for the arrival of the Central Red Army led by Mao Zedong and others.But Li Xiannian did not know when the Central Red Army arrived at Maogong, nor did he know their exact location.

The Red Front Army is faced with a choice: which way is the most suitable way to join forces with the Red Fourth Front Army. There are three routes going north.One is the road on the left, from Luding to Danba along the mountain road of the caravan. This road is the closest, but it passes through the Tibetan area with strong folk customs.The people in Tibetan areas have always been hostile to the army, and the Red Army had some difficulties in passing.The second is the right road, going north to Songpan along the Qionglai Mountains and the edge of the Sichuan Basin. This road is the best, but it is easy to be attacked by the Kuomintang army along the way.The third is to take the middle road and cross Jiajin Snow Mountain to reach Maogong. This is a remote road that few people walk, but some local people have walked this road.

After careful consideration, Mao Zedong was not sure that he could pass the roads on the left and right, so he chose the middle road with the most difficult natural conditions and led the Central Red Army to cross Jiajin Mountain. The Jiajin Mountains stretch continuously from Xiaojin County to Tianquan County, about 200 kilometers long, and its main peak is more than 4,900 meters above sea level, which is the source of Qingyi River.The Red Army is preparing to cross the Wangmu Village at the boundary between Baoxing Qiaoqi and Xiaojin Maogong (Dawei). It is nearly 4,000 meters above sea level and is the first snow mountain that the Red Army has crossed.The Wangmu village is covered with snow and shrouded in clouds and mists. It is revered by the local people as a mountain of immortals. As the name suggests, apart from immortals, even birds cannot fly over it.Many soldiers of the Red Army were from the south, and they felt that there was still so much snow in June, which was simply a spectacle in their hometown.They don't know anything about snow mountains, and they don't know the dangers they will encounter when crossing snow mountains.

The common people at the foot of the mountain told the Red Army that there are more than 70 miles of land up and down on Shenxian Mountain, and they must pass after 9 am and before 3 pm. At other times, it is windy and snowy, the road cannot be seen clearly, and there may be avalanches.Drink white wine and chili soup before departure to keep your body warm; wear thick clothes and prepare crutches to prevent falls.It is said that some people in the local area were killed by hailstones halfway up the mountain, and some people encountered miasma and never came back.Seeing that the Red Army's clothes were thin, they doubted whether they could climb the snow-capped mountains, saying that if they didn't die of starvation or exhaustion, they would freeze to death.Most of the Red Army's winter clothes had been left behind in Yunnan, and they couldn't find enough warm clothes at the moment, and there was even a shortage of white wine and peppers.

Even so, it could not stop the determination of the Red Army to cross the snow-capped mountains. On June 12, the Red Fourth Regiment, the vanguard, began to cross the snow-capped mountains.Before crossing the snow mountain, all the soldiers made preparations before departure. They got some knowledge about the snow mountain: cold, ice and snow, and snow blindness (you need to cover your eyes with cloth strips), eat enough, and wear all the clothes... Moreover, they were asked to help each other, "the strong help the weak, the big help the small, help those who can't walk, and carry those who can't", so that every soldier can cross the snow mountain safely.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Red Fourth Group marched towards Shenxian Mountain along the stream beside Qiaoqi Village.The weather at the bottom of the mountain was hot. After climbing for a short time, everyone was sweating profusely. When we looked up, we could see the white peak of the mountain floating in the white clouds.The higher the climb, the lower the temperature, and the road under the feet has been frozen hard.When we reached the halfway up the mountain, the surrounding area was covered with white snow, except for the marching team, we could no longer see any color, nor could we see any living things.

Snowflakes were flying all over the sky, and the air gradually became thinner. Many people felt breathless, dizzy, and their teeth chattered.Most of the Red Army didn't know that there would be such altitude sickness. They didn't expect to die, and they didn't expect the air on the mountain to be so thin. Near the top of the mountain, hailstones suddenly fell, and the place where he was hit immediately swelled up.Everyone had the feeling of losing consciousness, the muscles were numb as if the arms and legs were no longer there.After insisting on reaching the top of the mountain, we can’t stay for a while, because just for a short while, lack of oxygen and cold will make people sleep here forever.

The way down the mountain is much easier than going up the mountain. When you go down the mountainside and enter a valley, you will have the warmth like spring.When they arrived at Dawei Village at the foot of the mountain, the Red Fourth Regiment met a team sent by the Red Fourth Front Army to join the Central Red Army.After experiencing countless hardships, the Central Red Army finally saw new hope. Two days later, on June 14, Mao Zedong led a large army to cross the snow-capped mountains.When they reached Wudaoguai, the highest and longest point in Jiajin Mountain, the sun suddenly disappeared, and suddenly there was heavy snow, and the weather became extremely bad.Mao Zedong walked very hard. He was not wearing a cotton jacket, and his cotton trousers and cloth shoes were completely soaked.He and the bodyguard Chen Changfeng encouraged and supported each other to cross the snow mountain.Lin Biao, the commander of the First Red Army Corps, passed out several times on the top of the mountain, and only went down to the foot of the mountain with the help of the guards.

Going down the mountain is the same as going up the mountain, there is no way.Many people were exhausted. In order to get down to the foot of the mountain as soon as possible, the Red Army soldiers sat on the ice and slid down. Some people broke their bones, and some fell off the cliff, but this is still an effective and good way. Despite the Red Army's best preparations under the conditions at the time, the number of casualties was still high.Especially for the infirm and sick, the thin air is particularly uncomfortable.Eating chili water will have some effect on healthy people, but it will have no effect on weak people.Some people were so cold that their teeth kept knocking, like firing a machine gun, and they couldn't stop; some people's faces were frozen into a dark color; stand up……

There are containment teams along the way, hoping to rescue those fighters who have fallen behind. Often, the fallen behind have already become stiff bodies under the ice and snow.Some frail people cannot take care of them on the mountain, so they can only be sent to the foot of the mountain as soon as possible.Often the men were sacrificed before being sent down, when their companions pulled them up from the snow. People kept watching their comrades die. Zhou Enlai's guard Wei Guolu watched a comrade fall, and when they came to the soldier, he had stopped breathing.His body was placed in a crevice and buried with snow. Clothes to keep out the cold were scarce. After going up the mountain, some soldiers took out blankets and put them on.Cotton clothes and thicker clothes are allocated to those old and thin fighters.An old Red Army soldier was found dead sitting leaning against a bare tree trunk. His clothes were thin and shabby, and his body was covered with snow. He held half a piece of paper-rolled tobacco in his right hand. The fireworks had long been extinguished by the snow. up.The chief who led the team was very angry. He complained that the director of military supplies did not do his job well.However, when he asked about the whereabouts of the Chief of Quartermaster, he was told that the old man on the snow was the Chief of Quartermaster.Many soldiers in the Red Army are like this. They would rather sacrifice themselves than let their comrades die on the snow-capped mountains.Two cooks from the Red Army Corps made chili soup for the soldiers on the top of the mountain to keep them warm. They served the hot soup to others, but they fell down and never got up again. For most of the Red Army, crossing the snow-capped mountains was the most difficult part of the Long March.Its degree of difficulty surpassed that of the Battle of Xiangjiang River, crossing the Five Ridges, and crossing the Chishui River four times.After climbing the snow-capped mountains, the Red Army lost more than 400 non-combat personnel. The Shenxian Mountain in the Jiajin Mountains is not the only snow mountain that the Red Army has climbed. Since then, the Central Red Army has climbed four more snow mountains above 4,000 meters above sea level: Mengbi Mountain, Yakexia Mountain, Changde Mountain and Dagu Mountain.