Chapter 40 5. North Road breaks through heavy blockades and enters southern Shaanxi

On June 27, dark clouds enveloped the earth.At dusk, our troops from the Central Plains successively assembled at a place three miles away from Xuanhuadian, and then our North Road breakout troops left the Xuanhuadian area under the cover of a change of defense, and proceeded covertly towards Pinghan Road. The journey from Xuanhuadian to Pinghan Road was more than 100 miles. After two days of marching, the troops arrived at Changchong, 20 miles east of Pinghan Road, on the afternoon of the 29th. Li Xiannian, Zheng Weisan, Chen Shaomin, Wen Jianwu and The Central Plains Bureau led by Ren Zhibin and others, the leading organs of the Central Plains Military Region, the 13th Brigade, the 15th Brigade and the 45th Regiment, and the Military Region Guard Corps all gathered here. A natural barrier to cover troops.

Troops are mobilized here for combat.Li Xiannian raised his binoculars and looked west. The mountains in the distance were rolling and layered.The enemy strongholds of Hejiadian and Liulin Station, which blocked the railway nearby, appeared one after another. The section of the Ping-Han Railway from Xinyang to Guangshui was defended by the 66th Army of the Kuomintang. There were 185 brigades and a heavy battalion stationed at Liulin Station and Hejiadian has a total of two to three hundred troops. "Hey, Chiang Kai-shek thought that his 300,000 troops built the Great Wall around us, but there is a gap here." Li Xiannian put down his binoculars and said, with a few smile lines on the corners of his mouth.

In order to quickly pass through Pinghan Road, he decided to divide his troops into two groups. The south route led by Wang Zhen broke through Lijiazhai, which is south of Xinyang and north of Wusheng Pass; breakthrough. Li Xiannian took out his pocket watch, asked the commanders present to adjust the watch, and then said: "Before 10 o'clock tonight, you must take down the Hejiadian and Liulin Station with lightning-fast night attack tactics. Covering the Central Plains Bureau and the leading organs and troops of the military region to break through the siege, if you can break through, you will be victorious; if you can't break through, you will be defeated!" Then he said: "The task you undertake tonight is a glorious one, you can only win, and you are not allowed to fail! "

The 37th Regiment of the 13th Brigade used strong attacks. The 1st Battalion attacked Hejiadian and took the method of "earth tanks" to attack the fortifications. At that time, the enemy was sleeping like a dead pig. They didn't even know they had disarmed them, and they were still talking in their sleep.The capture of Liulin Station and Hejiadian opened a breakthrough, and the main force quickly crossed Pinghan Road and rushed northwest. After the troops crossed the Pinghan Road, they had not eaten cooked food for 18 hours. Li Xiannian ordered the troops to find shelters in the woods to rest and cook in villages along the way.Not long after the troops stopped, my reconnaissance radio intercepted a piece of information that the enemy had entered Xuanhuadian, and Zhang Tixue's department had left skillfully and jumped out of the encirclement.

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing headquarters is ordering Liu Zhi, the director of the Zhengzhou Appeasement Office, to urgently supervise and search all the soldiers and horses of the troops attacking the Central Plains, threatening to "capture Li Xiannian, Zheng Weisan, Wang Shusheng, Wang Zhen, Chen Shaomin" and so on. people. At that time, Li Xiannian, Zheng Weisan, and Chen Shaomin were eating in a small thatched hut by the side of the road. When the translator told the above news to the above-mentioned chiefs, the chiefs laughed so hard that the cucumber slices they held with their chopsticks fell to the ground.

On July 3, the main force of the enemy's 41st Army and a part of the 10th Army advanced from the southwest of Xinyang and Zaoyang to Tianhekou respectively, attempting to jointly attack our North Route Army between Lishan, Gaocheng and Tianhekou north of Suixian County. However, when our North Route Army entered Lutou Town in the northeast of Zaoyang on the 6th, the enemy pursuing from east to west did not reach the Xishuanghe area south of Xinyang, and the enemy's pursuit and blocking plan went bankrupt. On July 7, the enemy re-deployed to pursue and block our breakout on the North Road: the 15th and 41st armies arrived at Cangtai on the 9th, and cooperated with the 10th army to attack our army, but I marched 180 miles all day and night, and passed Cangtai tower.The army on the ground failed to pursue them, and the enemy sent 12 planes with the help of the air force to block the Tang River and the Bai River, forcing me to fight against the water, but the enemy's plot was once again defeated. White River.

The enemy's several attempts to encircle and intercept our army failed. Chiang Kai-shek became furious and dismissed Wu Tinglin, the commander of the 15th Army.And ordered the 41st, 47th, 15th, and 10th armies to block our army in the south of Nanyang, Zhenping, Neixiang, and Xichuan along the Danjiang River. After our North Road breakout troops crossed the Baihe River, due to the urgent pursuit of the enemy, in order to speed up the march, we decided to divide into two groups. Li Xiannian led the 13th Brigade, the 15th Brigade, and the 45th Regiment to cover the Central Plains Bureau and the Central Plains Military Region. Wang Zhen led the 359th brigade and the cadre brigade as a branch, and marched side by side in the direction of Xichuan.

On the 12th, Li Xiannian led troops to the Shijiagang area south of Neixiang.Destroyed the stubborn Bie Tingfang militia, and took advantage of the momentum to surround Madengpu with 38 regiments and Xichuan City with a guard regiment on the 13th, covering the main force to quickly cross the Danjiang River and get rid of the enemy. The Danjiang River was originally not wide and the water was not deep. You can usually wade through it by rolling up your trouser legs. However, due to flash floods in the past few days, it has become like a small yellow river. The rocks by the river stirred up waves a few feet high. There was not a single commoner by the river, let alone a boat. After more than 10 hours of marching in the rainy night, the cadres and soldiers were soaked and looked at the rolling river. I can't help but gasp...

Li Xiannian walked to the river and asked the staff to open the map, and they must find a route that can be crossed. "If you can't get through, you have to fly!" Then Li Xiannian called Jian Zuuoguo, the entourage and staff officer, and said, "Take all the soldiers in the guard who can swim, and make sure to find a route that all the troops can wade through!" After searching east and west, finally, under the guidance of an old man in his 70s, he selected a river crossing point 3 miles west of Xichuan City. The troops began to cross the river, and three Kuomintang planes bombed and strafed along the river. The planes flew so low that even the KMT's party emblem and Arabic numerals on the fuselage could be seen.However, our troops still crossed the Danjiang River on the 14th and reached the Meijiapu area.

At this time, the troops led by Wang Zhen had reached the area near Jingziguan.Jingziguan is located at the junction of Henan and Shaanxi. It is the gateway to Shaanxi. The terrain is very dangerous and has important military value.The First Army of the Hu Zongnan Group entered the area on the 11th to deploy its defenses. On the 14th, when Wang Zhen led his troops to the Jingziguan and Baoyuling areas, they were blocked by the enemy forcefully, and the chasing enemy followed. Jingziguan rushed westward from the south. After 2 days and 1 night of fierce fighting, it smashed the enemy's pursuit and attack, and broke out from the encirclement to advance towards Shanyang and Zhashui.

On the 15th, the enemy pursued the troops led by Li Xiannian with one division each of the 41st and 47th Army, and blocked us from going north with one division of the 41st Army; I marched westward; I used the 10th and 15th armies to guard against my southward crossing at Baisangguan and Liguanqiao in an attempt to encircle me in the area around Baisangguan. The troops of the Central Plains moved with great speed, and before the enemy's encirclement was formed, they broke in from the vicinity of Baisangguan, and the enemy's plan fell through again. On the 17th, when the troops led by Li Xiannian arrived at Nanhuatang, they were blocked by the enemy's 1st Army.The enemy entrenched in Nanhuatang is the 1st Division of Hu Zongnan's 1st Army, known as the "No. 1 Army in the World" by the Kuomintang.The enemy attempted to cooperate with the two chasing divisions and several divisions that were about to arrive from other directions to encircle and annihilate our army in the valley around Nanhuatang. Surrounded by dangerous mountains.There are many rocks, shrubs, jungles, thorns and thatch on the mountain.When the troops arrived here, it was the white morning, and they couldn’t see anything clearly. After the vanguard started, after a while, the white mist gradually dispersed. Looking up, every mountain top, all the passes, and dangerous roads in front There are fortifications built by the enemy-earth forts and ditches, each with dark shooting holes, and the troops have broken into the tiger's den. There are heavy enemy troops on both flanks, and there are enemies chasing closely behind - the situation is extremely critical.Li Xiannian, Zheng Wei and the other three leaders have all arrived at the front line. After research, it is decided: Break through from the front and kill a bloody road!Li Xiannian said excitedly: "Fight! The tiger wants to block Wu Song's way, and Wu Song still has a tiger-fighting club in his hand!" After the attack order was issued, the 37th Regiment attacked from the front, the 39th Regiment covered from the south, and the 38th Regiment attacked from the right flank of the 37th Regiment. , The battle lasted until the afternoon. Seeing that the enemies on the left and right and behind were about to close up, and the situation was very serious, Li Xiannian said: "Call Xia Shihou to come!" Commander Xia came running profusely in sweat... "You quickly Organize your regiment's team, take down the enemy's main position on the top of Yuhuang Mountain, and fight a bloody road!" Commander Xia immediately returned to the regiment command post and reorganized the attack. Communist Party members, Communist Youth League members, combat heroes, and special shooters, each of them had three or four hand grenades stuck in their waists. As soon as the charge horn sounded, shouts, killing sounds, and gunfire were intertwined, shaking the mountains. Gu Ying, the 37th Regiment seized the top of Yuhuang Mountain. The 38th Regiment, 39th Regiment, and 45th Regiment all withstood the attack of the enemy with several times superiority. It was almost dusk, and it was drizzling, and the troops braved the rain and continued to advance along the bloody road that had been killed. On July 20th, the troops led by Li Xiannian were blocked by the enemy again in Zhaojiachuan. Our avant-garde immediately seized and held on to Qianpoling in the northeast of Zhaojiachuan. Zhao Xitian, the commander of the 20th Division of the enemy, was rewarded for his meritorious deeds. He personally supervised the formation and concentrated all his troops. Taking turns to attack upwards, the battle lasted for 16 hours from noon, and the enemy launched 17 charges successively, all of which were defeated by me.The troops finally passed through the small ditch three miles southeast of Qianpo Ridge.The enemy's dream of encircling and annihilating our army in Dongzhaochuan was once again shattered. After the battle of Zhaojiachuan, when the troops arrived near Manchuanguan, they were attacked by a division of the enemy Hu Zongnan. I immediately used the 37th regiment to attack the enemy's right flank. After 2 hours of fierce fighting, the enemy was defeated and the main force was turned northward. On July 28, the troops joined forces with the guerrillas in southern Shaanxi. From the time they left Xuanhuadian on June 27 to the time they arrived in southern Shaanxi, it took one month and one day and a journey of more than 3,000 miles. Surrounded, through the hardships and dangers of the world. After arriving in the Zhen'an and Zhashui areas, the troops led by Wang Zhen continued to move north, breaking through many enemy attacks along the way, and arrived in northern Shaanxi on August 31 with the support of troops from the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.