Chapter 16 "I'll be the first one, please ask Company Commander Zeng to shout the password!"

In Shuikou Town, the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants temporarily slowed down the enemy's joint attack on the Revolutionary Army by dividing its forces and raiding Chaling County.But the danger was not eliminated. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army left Shuikou on October 22 and continued to guerrilla along the foothills of Jinggang Mountain. Since two companies were divided to fight Chaling and serve as right-wing troops, the remaining five companies and regiment headquarters, including the third battalion, one battalion and one company, and the special agent company, were left-hand troops led by Mao Zedong himself and turned into Jiangxi. Suichuan guerrilla.

Mao Zedong led the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants to set off from Long City and entered Lingxian County, Hunan Province. They first went to Shidu, Miandu, and then to Shuikou. Basically, they were guerrilla along the western foot of Jinggang Mountain. General understanding.Now, the troops are turning east from Shuikou, with the intention of fighting the local tyrants along the southern foot of Jinggang Mountain, and at the same time carrying out mass work, so as to get a feel for the situation here. Turning eastward to the southern foot of Jinggang Mountain, it soon turned back to the territory of Jiangxi Province, which belongs to the boundary of Suichuan County.Although they are two different provinces, their topography, customs and customs are roughly the same.It's just that the population in Jiangxi seems to be less than that in Hunan, and the old cousins ​​don't live as relatively concentrated as Hunan people.

On the evening of the 22nd, the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants arrived at Dafen Town, Suichuan County. Dafen is a town surrounded by mountains. Compared with some surrounding villages, it can be said to be a big village.The army chose such a place to camp, of course, it is beneficial to fight against local tyrants and publicize the masses.However, it may be that after the troops entered the mountainous area, without the regular army of the Kuomintang chasing them, at most there would only be some militia and other landlord armed forces to harass and harass. Also a little tired.Therefore, even though they entered a new area where they didn't know the situation at all, the regiment headquarters only sent general sentries around the town, without doing some reconnaissance and understanding of the surrounding situation.

However, there was such a local snake staring at the revolutionary army covetously. The name of the local snake is Xiao Jiabi. He is the leader of the reactionary forces in Suichuan County and the head of the Jingwei Regiment. He is known as "Xiao Butcher".On weekdays, he was the enemy of Wang Zuo on Jinggangshan. When he heard that the revolutionary army had arrived in Jinggangshan, he threatened that if the revolutionary army wanted to stay in Dafen, they would draw their swords to meet each other. It was night, and the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army fell asleep after a hard day's march.Suddenly, a burst of gunfire broke the tranquility of the mountain village, and Xiao Jiabi led his three or four hundred minions to launch a surprise attack on the revolutionary army.

The revolutionary army hastily responded.Although the officers and soldiers did not panic in the face of the sudden appearance of the enemy, due to the unknown situation and unfamiliar terrain, it was difficult to organize effective resistance.Before long, the revolutionary army units living in various parts of the town were separated by the Jingwei regiment who were familiar with the terrain, and could not communicate with each other. The fighting became more and more intense, gunshots were everywhere, and in the dark night, it was difficult to distinguish the enemy from ourselves. Mao Zedong and the spies were connected together.After briefly analyzing the enemy's situation, he wanted to order the third battalion to fight back and seize the commanding heights outside the town occupied by the enemy. The battalion formed a flanking attack on the enemy.However, in the chaos, it was impossible to get in touch with the third battalion.

Seeing that the spy company was becoming more and more difficult to resist the enemy's fierce attack, and the third battalion could not be contacted, Mao Zedong ordered a retreat. After dawn, Mao Zedong and Zeng Shi'e, who stood out from the encirclement, led the troops to rush along the vast mountain forest path.The early morning fog and frost in the mountains made everyone drenched, but everyone ignored it. Mao Zedong was thinking about the Third Battalion as he walked. He hadn't been in touch with them since the beginning of the enemy's attack. He didn't know whether they were broken up or went somewhere.

The third battalion living in the south of the town, after losing contact with the regiment headquarters, led by Zhang Ziqing and Wu Zhonghao, started a scuffle with the enemy.Later, he withdrew from the battle in a hurry, but went in the wrong direction due to unfamiliarity with the terrain, and went to Guidong County in Hunan.Fortunately, they moved to Shangyou County again, got in touch with the surviving troops of the Nanchang Uprising led by Zhu De and Chen Yi, and participated in the upper fort training of Zhu De's department. They did not leave Zhu De's department until December and moved to Chaling. return to the establishment.This is a later story.

The third battalion was lost, and the regiment headquarters, the secret service company, and the first battalion and first company were also beaten to pieces. When he went to Huang'ao to collect the lost personnel, there were only more than 30 people around Mao Zedong. This is the worst situation for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army since the adaptation of Sanwan. General Tan Zhengda, who served as the director of the General Political Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army after liberation, described the situation at that time in his article "Before and After the Reorganization of Sanwan": "The first company of the first battalion, the regiment headquarters, and the secret service company were led by Comrade Mao Zedong. Leader, although the troops did not suffer much loss, everyone was in a state of embarrassment, and Comrade Mao Zedong only wore a long robe. Everyone had a meal, but he hadn’t eaten yet. Later, after getting the meal, there was nothing to put it in, so he used his clothes pocket, Use two twigs as chopsticks, and eat like this."

The meal has been eaten, but everyone still can't lift their spirits.There were still 5 organic companies yesterday, and 3 companies were lost overnight, and the remaining 2 companies were also incomplete. The team of hundreds of people now only has a few dozen people. It is really miserable! The officers and soldiers sat sparsely on the ground, looking at each other. Seeing this situation, Mao Zedong understood that in such a difficult situation, if the commander also loses confidence and fighting spirit, the team will completely collapse.He took decisive action. In the article "Autumn Harvest Uprising and the Initial Period of Our Army" written by Luo Ronghuan in 1958, the actions taken by Mao Zedong were described as follows: When everyone was full, Comrade Mao Zedong stood up and took a few steps towards the open space in the middle, with both feet Close together, with a straight body, and energetically said to everyone: 'Now stand in line!I'm in first place, please ask Company Commander Zeng to shout the password! 'His strong and calm spirit immediately and powerfully infected the soldiers.They all raised their heads one by one, mustered the courage to fight, full of confidence, stood up with their guns in hand, and looked at his tall body.

After that, the dispersed troops and scattered personnel caught up one after another, and more than 100 people were collected in total.Mao Zedong led the team that had gone through all kinds of hardships and never left, along the rugged mountain road, and walked forward in high spirits.