Chapter 22 third quarter

Chen Zaidao was a warrior who was good at fighting as early as in the Red Army period.He joined the Red Army and successively served as platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, division commander, and army commander.Participated in the previous anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations in the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet areas. "The bravery of the way again" was well-known in the Red 4 Front Army at that time. Just after the first day of the Lunar New Year in 1933, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Tian Songyao as the supervisor of "suppressing bandits" on the Sichuan-Shanxi border, and allocated 200,000 yuan in military expenses, 1 million rounds of bullets, and 4 planes, and ordered him to take the Red 4th Front Army on the Sichuan-Shanxi border The base area was not stable, and the "encirclement and suppression" was carried out quickly.On the third day of the first lunar month, Tian Songyao announced his inauguration in Chengdu, and electrified the whole Sichuan, asking all the warlords to "cooperate with each other".

Tian Songyao's 29th Army has 5 divisions, 3 brigades, and an independent brigade of the army, with a total of 60 regiments.After he took office as the "Supervisor", he immediately transferred most of his troops west of the Jialing River to the east. With 38 regiments of about 60,000 troops, he organized them into three columns of left, center, and right, and prepared to besiege the Red Army in three directions. Kill the nascent Sichuan-Shaanxi border revolutionary base in the cradle. The young Sichuan-Shanxi border area is facing a severe test! At that time, the soldiers of the Red 4 side had not been in Sichuan, the troops had not yet been expanded, and the base area was a new one. The combat maneuver area was small, and the enemy was strong and we were weak.After correctly analyzing the situation of the enemy and ourselves and the terrain characteristics of northern Sichuan, the headquarters of the front army decided to adopt the combat policy of "tighten the position and lure the enemy deep".All troops are required to use the dangerous terrain to build necessary fortifications, use mobile defense to inflict a large number of damage to the enemy, and then gradually shrink to achieve concentration of troops. When the time for counterattack is ripe, concentrate their forces to crush the enemy's siege.

According to the location of the mobilized masses, the headquarters of the Red 4th Front Army decided to use the 73rd and 11th divisions in the Sanjiangba, Mumen, and Changchi areas of Nanjiang to deal with the enemy's left column; The right column; the 218th regiment is located in the Beiba area in the northeast of Nanjiang, and is on guard in the direction of southern Shaanxi; the Red 10th Division is located in Hongkouchang in the northeast of Tongjiang, dealing with the enemy Liu Cunhou and Yang Sen, and ensuring the security of the front army. The commander of the Red 10th Division at that time was Chen Zaidao.

In mid-February of the Gregorian calendar, Tian Songyao led the White Army to launch a full-scale attack on the Sichuan-Shaanxi border Soviet area. The face-to-face enemy of the Red 10th Division first attacked in two directions with the strength of a regiment.When the enemy entered the firepower zone of our army, Chen Zaidao's carefully arranged light and heavy firepower opened fire at the same time, hitting the enemy with nowhere to hide, leaving a lot of corpses behind and fled back. After the fierce battle, there was a temporary silence on the battlefield.Gusts of north wind made people shiver.The cooking team delivered a steaming lunch, and the soldiers ate with relish, as if they were participating in a sumptuous feast.

As soon as their jobs were lost, the soldiers immediately began to repair the fortifications.After a while, the enemy pulled up all three regiments and attacked the position of the Red 10th Division again.Under the cover of artillery fire, the enemy approached our position step by step.Although they suffered a large number of casualties, they still climbed up step by step relying on their numbers.Things are getting tense.The forward positions had been occupied by the enemy, so Chen Zaidao immediately called out the reserve team and went straight to the enemy's flank.Our frontal troops took advantage of the momentum to launch a counterattack, drove the enemies in the forward position of the Turen down, and chased the enemies with intensive firepower, and drove the enemies down the mountain.

The next day, troops from Liu Cunhou's brigade and the other two regiments attacked the position of the Red 10th Division again. The two sides fought fiercely for a whole day, but the position of the Red 10th Division remained motionless. After our front-line troops inflicted heavy damage on the attacking enemy, the headquarters of the Red 4th Front Army ordered the front-line troops to gradually shrink their positions according to the predetermined combat plan, lure the enemy to go deep, and then concentrate their forces to destroy the enemy. The confrontation between the two armies after a fierce battle is a tense period for the transition to the next fierce battle.While the enemy was rectifying and replenishing, preparing to launch a new offensive, at the same time, he plundered people's wealth and food in the rear to meet the needs of what he called "suppressing bandits".Our army actively carried out cold gun killing activities, and often dispatched detachments and guerrillas to harass the enemy's rear.

After a month of rest and replenishment, Tian Songyao's troops launched a fierce attack across the board in mid-April.Our army made full use of the combat experience in the previous period, continued to use a small number of troops, relied on dangerous terrain and fortifications, and created many battles in which fewer troops won more.In three days, our troops across the board killed and wounded more than 3,000 enemies. For more than two months, although our army has consumed a large amount of the enemy, overall speaking, the enemy still has a great advantage in numbers, and the conditions for the counterattack of the main force of the Red Army have not yet been met.In order to highly concentrate our forces, further consume the enemy, and cause and discover the enemy's faults, our army voluntarily withdrew from Tongjiang City on April 29, and tightened its positions again to the lines of Pingxiba, Yinglongshan, Jiziling, and Jiuzipo.

After Tian Songyao occupied Tongjiang, he thought that the Red Army was overwhelmed by heavy troops and unable to fight back, so he energized the whole Sichuan and said: "The bandits have suffered more than half of their casualties since mid-February. This is the total collapse. I will be able to return to the division within ten days. .” His arrogance is beyond words. Therefore, Tian Songyao once again organized troops to attack across the board.The left column, which was in charge of the main attack, concentrated 13 regiments to rush east; the central column and right column advanced to the north of Tongjiang in an attempt to annihilate our army in the Kucaoba area.

A decisive battle between life and death is imminent! The situation at this time appeared to be very serious, but fundamental changes in favor of the Red Army had already taken place.After three months of fighting, the enemy was hit repeatedly, with tens of thousands of casualties. The last general attack it launched was at the end of its strength.Our army voluntarily abandoned Tongjiang, which caused the enemy's illusion and mistakes.The 13 regiments of its left column ventured into the Liulinxi area south of Kongshanba. It was difficult to supply, the personnel were exhausted, and their morale was depressed.Although our army has retreated to the Kongshanba area with a radius of less than a hundred miles, the battle line is shortened, the main force is concentrated, the morale is strong, and the fighting spirit is extremely high; the Kongshanba area is high in altitude, with many peaks and towering trees in the territory. , Jin can be condescending, and it is a very conducive area for combat.

The headquarters of the Red 4th Front Army carefully analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy and ourselves, and decided to annihilate the enemies who occupied Zhuyuguan first, and then quickly returned to the division to concentrate their forces to eliminate the enemies in Liulinxi. The task of annihilating the enemy at Zhuyuguan was handed over to the Red 10th and Red 11th Divisions commanded by Chen Zaidao. In the middle of the night on May 15th, the main force of the Red 10th Division and the Red 11th Division occupied the dangerous positions in the northwest, northeast and southeast of Zhuyuguan in one fell swoop, forming a siege of the enemy.The next day, the entire line of the enemy at Zhuyuguan collapsed, and Chen Zaidao led his troops to chase for more than 60 miles in one go, thus releasing our army's counter-attack.

In order to wipe out the enemies in Liulinxi cleanly and thoroughly, the headquarters of the Red 4th Front Army decided to encircle the enemies with 4 divisions.The Red 10th Division led by Chen Zaidao attacked the enemy's right flank from the east of Kongshanba and the Changkun area, and then joined other troops to annihilate the enemy. After the headquarters meeting, our counter-offensive troops immediately carried out political mobilization and material preparation.Among the troops that our army stood on the front, with the spirit of never retreating, tenaciously held their positions, repelled the enemy's crazy attacks again and again, and won precious time for the preparation of the counterattack. At 4 o'clock in the morning on May 21, the general offensive began.Intensive gunshots, ear-shattering cannons, shouts of Red Army soldiers, howls of White Army soldiers, and neighing of mules and horses merged into an exciting battle march, inspiring the Red Army soldiers to fight the enemy bravely.The enemies who woke up from their sleep were at a loss and were in a mess. Some ran around naked, and some shot at their own troops.The Red Army warriors swung their bright swords and chopped down the stubborn enemies one by one. At dawn, the Red 10th Division and the Red 11th Division cut off the enemy's rear, and the frontal troops of the Red Army immediately launched a fierce attack, encircling most of the 13 enemy regiments in the Yujiawan and Liulinxi areas.After three days and nights of fierce fighting, the Red Army wiped out 7 regiments of the enemy, defeated 6 of them, killed and captured nearly 5,000 officers and soldiers under the brigade commander Yang Xuanfu, and seized more than 3,000 long and short guns, 20 machine guns, and 50 mortars. . After the victory at Kongshanba, the enemy has collapsed across the board.Our army pursued fiercely and continued to attack.Chen Zaidao led the Red 10th Division to take advantage of the victory and advance to Land Fort.The Red 11th Division regained Changchi and Mumen and approached Cangxi.After the Red 73rd Division regained Tongjiang, they regained Bazhong City and threatened Yilong.During the retreat, the white army was panicked and defeated, and completely lost the ability to resist.The Red Army captured more than 6,000 enemies along the way. The anti-siege operation, which lasted 4 months, ended in victory.The Red Army not only regained the lost ground, but also more than doubled the base area.A total of more than 24,000 people were killed, wounded and captured, and more than 8,000 guns were surrendered.The White Army lost nearly half, and the rest retreated to the banks of the Jialing River.The once invincible Tian Songyao believed that "talent is light on responsibility", so he telegraphed to Chiang Kai-shek, requesting that he be relieved of his post of "suppressing bandits" in the Sichuan bandit area. He finally came to his senses, if he continued to "suppress the bandits", he might even kill himself. The heroic Red Army marched in the four directions, and since then has gained a firm foothold in northern Sichuan, and has grown and developed its own team in the struggle.The Front Army Headquarters held a military meeting in late June and decided to expand the 4 divisions into 4 armies.The Red 10th Division was organized into the Red 4th Army.Chen Zaidao served as deputy army commander, and later he was promoted to army commander.