Chapter 31 Chapter 9 Capture of Baozuo City——The Important Battle of the Red Army’s Northward Advance to Gannan

On the night of August 28, 1935, the bright moon was in the sky, and the fields were completely silent.On the hills covered with pine trees outside Baozuo City in the north of the Songfan Grassland in Sichuan Province, a group of horsemen hurried over.I saw them riding for a while, walking for a while, and keeping their hands on the binoculars.One of the leaders was tall and tall, holding a sketch, listening carefully to the report of the person next to him, pointing out something from time to time. "General Commander Xu, according to the reconnaissance and the confession of the captives, the seats are divided into two places, the upper seat and the lower seat, with the Baozuo River running through the middle, and the Yinge River in the south as a barrier. The city is surrounded by mountains. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. There is Hu Zongnan’s military supply base in the city. The enemy is a regiment of Hu’s independent brigade, and the regiment headquarters is in the south of the city. There are nearly 10 outlying strongholds, and the south is dominated by Dajie Temple. In the center, with Qiuji Temple as the center in the north, the enemy's attempt is to stand by and wait for reinforcements. Hu Zongnan's reinforcements are the 45th Division, about 12,000 people, and the division commander is Wu Chengren, who is very cautious and cunning in using troops..." The chief of the reconnaissance department is sending troops to the four Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Front Army and commander-in-chief of the Northward Right Route Army, introduced the enemy's situation and terrain conditions.

"Comrades!" Xu Xiangqian said with a Shanxi accent: "This time, the Baozuo is the first battle we fought after meeting with the First Army, and it was also the first battle after we walked out of the grassland. , we will be able to get rid of the enemy's pursuit. I won this mission from the Central Committee, because although everyone is physically exhausted when crossing the grassland, we are much better than the Central Red Army. They walked all the way from Jiangxi, thousands of miles away. The battle has resulted in a lot of downsizing, and our comrades in the Fourth Front Army should take on more burdens. Packing seats must be done quickly before the enemy’s reinforcements come. First, eliminate the packing seats to defend the enemy, control the key points, and then concentrate our troops to fight for reinforcements. The specific deployment is: three The Tenth Army was responsible for attacking the Dajie Temple in the south of Baozuo, and sent reinforcements; the Fourth Army was responsible for attacking the Qiuji Temple in the north of Baozuo, and controlled the main roads to eliminate the invading enemies; the First Army was used as a reserve team and assembled in Brazil He is on standby in the Banyou area, and is responsible for protecting the safety of the Party Central Committee. This battle can only be fought well, not badly. Whether the Red Fourth Front Army is a hero or a coward depends on us. Go down and act!"

Although the troops of the 30th Red Army and the Fourth Army had just walked out of the grassland and were very tired, when they heard that there was a battle, they immediately cheered up and went into battle with high morale. On the evening of August 29, the battle to eliminate the enemies outside Baozuo started.The Red Tenth Division approached Qiuji Temple with swift action, suddenly launched a fierce attack on the enemy, quickly wiped out the surrounding enemy forces, seized the peripheral strongholds, and took advantage of the victory to rush into the temple.The enemy resisted desperately.

Wang Youjun, the commander of the Red Tenth Division, personally picked up the machine gun, put it on the guards and swept at the enemy in a burst, covering the troops to wipe out the remnants of the enemy in the temple.The troops captured Qiuji Temple and wiped out a battalion of the enemy.Unfortunately, Mr. Wang was shot and died at the age of 24. At the same time, the Red Thirty Army, led by commander Cheng Shicai, launched a fierce offensive against the enemy's Dajie Temple and Shangbaozuo strongholds.Behind Dajie Temple is a five- to six-hundred-meter mountain. In front of the temple, there is a small river. Although it is only 2 feet wide, it is a natural barrier because of the steep terrain and the rainy season.Relying on the commanding heights and surrounding strongholds, the enemy forms a strict defense system and implements the tactics of standing firm and waiting for help.Every step forward of the Red Army has to pay the price of blood.However, the officers and soldiers of the Red Thirty Army were very brave and tenacious. On the same day, they cleared the outer bunkers, annihilated two companies of the enemy army, and forced the enemy troops to retreat to the bunkers on the mountain behind the temple, completely isolated.At this moment, the enemy's reinforcements arrived, and the next step for the Red Thirty Army to deal with the enemy's reinforcements was the key to the victory of the entire battle.

After detailed investigation, Cheng Shicai, commander of the Red Thirty Army, decided to surround the remnants of the enemy with a regiment of troops.The main force of the whole army returned to the mountain to the west of the division, where the enemy's reinforcements must pass. The Red Army wanted to lure the enemy into the ambush circle and wipe them out. Cheng Shicai said to his subordinates: "The 45th Division to Aid the Enemy is Hu Zongnan's main division. It has a total of more than 12,000 people, and its weapons and equipment are better than ours. Although our 30th Army is one army, it only has 13,000 people. After crossing the grassland, they can’t eat oil and salt for a long time, and their physical strength is seriously damaged. It is a difficult task to eliminate the enemy whose number is similar to ours and whose equipment is far better than ours. It was also Chairman Mao who personally explained to our Thirty Army. The Party Central Committee is watching us. Our Thirty Army has a good tradition. We must plan carefully and fight bravely to eliminate this enemy and open a victory channel for the Central Committee to go north. "However, the enemy commander Wu Chengren is very cunning.His troops were very cautious and never advanced rashly.

For this reason, the Red Thirty Army specially dispatched a regiment to carry out the task of luring the enemy in front of the ambush circle.Relying on some small hills, the regiment resisted steadily, fought and retreated, and finally hid in a dense pine forest in the ambush circle of the Red Army.The enemy finally got into the "pocket" preset by the Red Army. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the Red Army launched a general offensive on Ximian Mountain.The Red Army hiding in the forest on the mountain rushed towards the enemy together, and the sound of gunshots, cannons and explosions of grenades rang together.The battlefield six or seven miles long was turned into a sea of ​​flames.

The heroic 268 regiment plunged into the middle of the enemy army like a steel knife, cutting the enemy army into three sections.The Red Army's only dozens of shells bombarded the enemy group.The soldiers first fought with guns, then bombed with grenades, and finally fought hand-to-hand.Every hill, every forest, every tuft of grass has become the target of contention.The cadres, propagandists, cooks, and breeders of all reserve teams and agencies under the control of the division and regiment took up guns and participated in the battle.Comrades from the military department also went to the front line.Some people were still holding their swords tightly when they died, and some soldiers had their arms broken and were still fighting. The scene was extremely tragic.

The battle went on for seven or eight hours.The Red Army finally gnawed off the enemy troops divided into several sections one by one.The enemy division commander Wu Chengren jumped into the river after being seriously injured, and another regiment commander and deputy became prisoners. When the ambush on Ximian Mountain was in full swing, the Red Army's troops surrounding the enemy in Baozuo also launched a powerful offensive against the enemy.Except for two or three hundred enemies who fled towards Nanping in the dark and fog to report their funeral, the rest were all wiped out. Among them, the 200 enemy troops in the bunker behind Dajie Mountain surrendered their guns obediently, seeing that the general situation was over under our strong political offensive.The soldiers rushed into the Dajie Temple and saw that the fleeing enemy set fire to the grain. The soldiers who had been fighting hard for a day without getting a grain of rice grabbed the burnt grain with their hands and chewed it.The cadres and soldiers of the Red Thirty Army fought hard against the enemy enduring hunger and won the victory.So far, the Battle of the Seats has ended victoriously.

In the entire seated battle, more than 4,000 people under the enemy's division commander were killed and injured, more than 800 enemies were captured, more than 70 light and heavy machine guns, more than 1,500 long and short guns were seized, and seven or eight hundred yaks and horses were obtained, as well as a large number of weapons and ammunition.These have become important supplies for our army to advance northward. When the news reached the Party Central Committee, Mao Zedong warmly praised: "The cadres and soldiers of the Fourth Front Army fought bravely and fought well!"