Chapter 23 3. Crossing the Jinsha River skillfully
The skillful crossing of the Jinsha River is a classic military example of Mao Zedong flexibly adopting the tactics of "strike the east and attack the west" after crossing Chishui four times, constantly creating the illusion of the enemy and then mobilizing the enemy, smashing the enemy's encirclement and interception plan, and gaining the initiative in strategic transfer.
At the beginning of April 1935, after the Central Red Army crossed the Wujiang River to the south, in order to divert the tiger away from the mountain, Mao Zedong commanded the Red Army to feign an attack on Xifeng with a force, the main force stationed in Zhazuo and Gouchang, and the forward approached Guiyang.The Red Army suddenly approached the city of Guiyang, which made Chiang Kai-shek, who was supervising the battle in Guiyang, very nervous.Yan Daogang, who was the director of Chiang Kai-shek's attendant office at the time, recalled: "Around April 5, things were constantly being discovered in the area dozens of miles southeast of Guiyang, and people in Guiyang were panicked. Responsibility is not good, and dereliction of duty.” When Jiang Jun from all walks of life was ordered to go to Guiyang to rescue him, Chiang Kai-shek heard the news on the evening of April 5 that there were Red Army guerrilla activities on the periphery of Guiyang, and anxiously asked about the important gates of Guiyang City. It can be said that he stayed up all night.
In order to further create illusions and misjudgments for the enemy, Mao Zedong ordered the main force of the Red Army to gather on the west bank of the Qingshui River, and specially arranged some troops to stand by the Qingshui River. The main force of the Deputy Red Army is about to cross the Qingshui River eastward and join the Red Second and Sixth Army Corps.
Chiang Kai-shek was fooled again.He believed that the Red Army was going eastward to Xiangxi to join the Second and Sixth Corps, so he urgently ordered three divisions of the Hunan Army to go to Yuqing to intercept; The troops that reached Guiyang and the area north of it pursued eastward.But the Red Army's intention was not the case. It neither wanted to occupy Guiyang nor go to western Hunan. The only purpose was to mobilize the enemy and create conditions for marching into Yunnan.
In early April, various armies of the Kuomintang assembled to the east of Guiyang.When the Yunnan army was transferred to the east of Guiyang and the troops in Yunnan were weak, Mao Zedong ordered the main force of the Red Army to suddenly turn southward in the Shanqingshuijiang area. The highway, at a rapid march speed of 120 miles per day, rapidly advanced towards Yunnan.This not only frustrated Chiang Kai-shek's plan to encircle and annihilate the Red Army in eastern Guizhou, but also made Yunnan Wang Longyun, who was empty of troops, panic.
After Chiang Kai-shek discovered that the Red Army was marching westward into Yunnan, he hurriedly adjusted his deployment again, ordering Zhou Hunyuan's and Wu Qiwei's two columns and the 53rd Division to turn around and march westward.However, due to the exhaustion of the enemy's running back and forth, their morale was low, and their actions were very slow.It is impossible to catch up with the main force of the Red Army.The Red Ninth Army also cooperated with the main force of the Red Army to fight the enemy in the Laomukong area and won the victory.
On April 24, the Central Red Army entered Yunnan.At this time, Chiang Kai-shek judged that the Central Red Army would join the Ninth Red Army, so he mobilized the army to chase the Red Army north again.Mao Zedong took advantage of Chiang Kai-shek's deployment loopholes. On the one hand, he ordered the Ninth Red Army to act alone and continue to go north to attract the enemy. On the other hand, he led the main force of the Red Army to march westward at a rapid pace. On the 27th, the Red Army occupied Malong, then captured the cities of Xundian and Songming, and the forwards approached Kunming.Chiang Kai-shek's plan to wipe out the Red Army fell through again.At this time, the Ninth Red Army marched into Xuanwei, a wealthy place in Yunnan, obtained a large amount of ham and other supplies, and took the opportunity to expand its troops.The main force of the Red Army captured a military vehicle sent by Long Yun from Kunming when the main force of the Red Army marched into Malong. The vehicle contained more than 20 copies of Yunnan military maps that Long Yun gave away, as well as local products such as Xuanwei ham, Yunnan Baiyao, and Pu'er tea.Military maps provided very favorable conditions for the Red Army to march and fight, and the story of "Dragon Cloud Presenting Maps" that has been circulated until now came from here.
The Red Army's entry into Yunnan made the enemy defenders in Yunnan uneasy, because most of the Yunnan defenders had been transferred to Guiyang to listen to orders, and the troops in and around Kunming were very empty, and it would take a few days for Chiang Kai-shek's troops chasing the main force of the Red Army to catch up. Long Yun was very nervous.In order to save Kunming and his own life, he stepped up his telegram to urge the Sundu column east of Qujing to take a shortcut and go straight to Kunming for rescue, and at the same time mobilized militia groups from all over Yunnan to defend Kunming.In this way, the defensive forces in northern Yunnan and the south bank of the Jinsha River were weakened again, creating favorable opportunities and conditions for the Red Army to forcefully cross the Jinsha River to the north and west of Sichuan.
On April 29, the main force of the Red Army rushed towards the Jinsha River in three ways.The Jinsha River is the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The current is fast and difficult to pass.The Kuomintang army hid the ships and took control of the ferry on the other side, which became a major obstacle preventing the Central Red Army from going north.
In the process of the Central Red Army splitting its way to the Jinsha River, the Red First Army, the left column, disguised itself as the Kuomintang Central Army on a mission in order to seize the opportunity, and arrived at Luquan on May 1.The magistrate of the city guarding the city welcomed the vanguard of the Red Army into the city without distinguishing between the real and the fake.Subsequently, the Red First Army took two counties lightly and headed straight for the Jinsha River.At the same time, Liu Bocheng led the cadre group of the advance team of the Central Column to march 200 miles a day and night, and arrived at the Jiaoping Ferry on the Jinsha River on the evening of May 3.
Jiaopingdu has been the main crossing of the Jinsha River since ancient times, and the enemy attaches great importance to it. Therefore, Liu Bocheng personally commanded the deployment to conquer Jiaopingdu.After discussing with Chen Geng, the head of the cadre regiment, and Song Renqiong, the political commissar, Liu Bocheng decided to use the third battalion as the advance force. The team seized Tong'an Town on the north side of the ferry, wiped out the enemies who came to aid from Xichang and Huili in Sichuan, and covered the troops directly under the Central Committee and the Fifth Red Army to cross the river.
Liu Bocheng led his troops disguised as the Central Army of the Kuomintang, and captured a fat-headed and big-eared militia member on the way to Jiaopingdu.The leader of the regiment said that he would go to the ferry to convey the order of the regiment leader and burn the boats to prevent the communist army from crossing the river.Liu Bocheng immediately asked the regiment: "The Red Army is coming soon, we have to rush to the other side of the river. Has the order to burn the boat been issued? Has the boat been burned?" Seeing that Liu Bocheng looked like a high-ranking official, the regiment bowed respectfully He answered calmly: "No, I'm going to Jiang's side to handle this matter, and the order is still in my hands."
At the same time, the advance battalion learned two important pieces of information from the local people: one is that there are no regular KMT troops stationed on the other side of the ferry, there is only one Lijin Bureau and one security team, but dozens of guns; With two wooden boats.Liu Bocheng, Chen Geng, and Song Renqiong decided that Xiao Yingtang would lead a company as the advance team, seize the ships, control the ferry, forcibly cross the river, and destroy the enemy on the other side first, and the other two companies and the engineering company quickly followed up. In the early morning of May 3, the advance company successfully seized the ferry.Then, they used the two captured boats to ferry the first and second platoons to the north bank, and the third platoon stayed on the riverside for vigilance.
Because the Red Army moved quickly and secretly, the enemy did not expect them to come so fast, so they were unprepared.The advance team of the Red Army crossed the Jinsha River, and when they arrived at the Lijin Bureau on the other side, they were playing mahjong in a hurry.The local people took the lead to call the door, saying that they were here to pay taxes; while they were having fun inside, someone yelled: "Come to pay taxes in the middle of the night, don't open the door, come tomorrow!"The Red Army took the opportunity to pay the guns of the security team, confiscated all the taxes, and completely controlled both sides of the ferry without any casualties.
Under the circumstances that it is difficult to cross the river in other places, the central government decided to cross the river from Jiaoping.When only a few wooden boats were found, the local boatmen gave strong support and divided them into two shifts to ferry back and forth day and night.By May 9, more than 20,000 Red Army troops had crossed the Jinsha River and reached the Huili area.During this period, the Ninth Red Army also passed the Jinsha River in the Huize area.
At this point, the Central Red Army got rid of the enemy's hundreds of thousands of heavy soldiers, shattered the enemy's plan to encircle and annihilate the Red Army in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, and seized the initiative in strategic transfer.The Huili meeting held thereafter consolidated Mao Zedong's position and played an important role in the smooth march of the Central Red Army to the north and the victory over Zhang Guotao's separatist behavior.
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