Chapter 38 The Fiasco of Adventurous Shonan

While the Border Special Committee, the Fourth Red Army Military Commission, and representatives of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee were arguing over whether the main force of the Fourth Red Army should go to southern Hunan, the enemy was not idle. The agreement of the Jinggangshan base area once again launched an attack on the base area. The decisions of the joint meeting were challenged by major changes in the enemy situation. The Wu Shang Division of the Hunan enemy was the first to move. On July 4, the day of the Yongxin Joint Conference, Wu Shang's first and second divisions entered Ningkang separately from Chaling and Lingxian.At that time, Ninggang was only armed with the Red Thirty-two Regiment led by Yuan Wencai, the Red Guards, and the riot squad. Although they defended with all their strength, they could not stop the attack of the two regular divisions of the enemy.

Ninggang was in an emergency, and the Military Commission of the Fourth Red Army quickly dispatched the 28th and 29th regiments back to Ning to rescue the siege. The 28th and 29th regiments of the Red Army marched westward, went straight to the enemy's lair in Hunan, and captured Ling County on July 13.This trick really worked, and the Hunan enemy quickly retreated to Chaling. The Hunan enemy retreated, but the Jiangxi enemy attacked aggressively, and immediately gathered 11 regiments of heavy troops in Yu Yongxin. The Red Thirty-one Regiment, which stayed in Yongxin to defend against the enemy, faced a serious threat.Zhu De and Chen Yi decided to lead the 28th and 29th regiments back to Yongxin.

However, the Red 29th Regiment was unwilling to return to the base area at this time, but asked to go to southern Hunan. The 29th Regiment was formed by the uprising peasant army in Yizhang, Hunan.Participating in the "Nianguan Riot" at the beginning of the year, and then going to Jinggangshan, more than half a year later, the officers and soldiers became more and more homesick. When they heard the news that the Hunan Provincial Committee wanted the Fourth Red Army to go to southern Hunan, they couldn't hold back anymore! The Military Commission and higher-level officials disagreed, so they hid it from their superiors and proposed that "we will command ourselves."

The Yongxin joint meeting has decided not to go to southern Shonan, so they will set up a soldiers committee privately to discuss where to go. The Soldiers Committee was originally a form of promoting democracy in the army, but now it has become a tool for some people to engage in extreme democratization.This is probably not even expected by Mao Zedong and others who advocated the Soldiers Committee. The Soldiers Committee of the 29th Regiment, which was convened by the rural concept, made a decision to meet the requirements of "going back to the hometown" and "going home to cut the rice": on the 13th, it will go to southern Shonan!For this reason, they not only determined the time for the troops to dispatch, but even found the people who led the way.

The sudden change shocked Zhu De, Chen Yi and others.On the one hand, they found Hu Shaohai, the head of the 29th regiment, and Gong Chu, the party representative, to understand the situation, and ordered them to step up their work to stop this unorganized and undisciplined behavior; Hu Shaohai is from Yizhang, and Gong Chu is from Guangdong. They are also affected by homesickness when it comes to the issue of troops going to southern Hunan. It is really difficult for them to do the work of subordinates.In particular, Gong Chu himself is the "protagonist of returning to southern Shonan". Instead of doing dissuading work, he asked the party representatives of each battalion to tell the heads of the soldier committees of each company that he must create momentum that he must return to southern Shonan.The attitude of the head of the group and the party representatives is such that if they are asked to do their work, the result can be imagined.

Mao Zedong's attitude was very clear. After receiving the letters from Zhu De and Chen Yi, he replied immediately.Huang Lin (Jiang Hua), secretary of the Chaling County Party Committee, traveled more than 130 miles to deliver the letter to Zhu De. In accordance with Mao Zedong's letter expressly stating that he must adhere to the instructions of the Yongxin Joint Conference, Zhu De and Chen Yi worked hard to persuade the officers and soldiers of the 29th Regiment. However, the officers and soldiers of the 29th Regiment, who were eager to return home, did not listen to dissuasion at all. Zhu De and others assembled the troops and explained the truth earnestly. "

Finally, with the promise of temporarily returning to Ningkang to relieve the siege of Jingkang, and then go to southern Hunan, we reluctantly took the troops out of Ling County on the 14th and marched towards Ningkang. It is really difficult to lead an army with a weak morale!The troops, which usually travel hundreds of miles a day, only traveled 30 miles a day at this time. The troops stopped at Miandu in Ling County. Zhu De and Chen Yi presided over the enlarged meeting of the Military Commission and continued to do persuasion work.However, Du Xiujing, a representative of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee who has been acting with the army, played a bad role at this time. He "demonstrated his flames" and openly encouraged the 29th Regiment to go to southern Hunan, and he said in a high-sounding manner that this was "execution of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee". decision".

The two opinions were at odds, and Chen Yi proposed to consult Mao Zedong for instructions before making a decision. Fortunately, Miandu was not far from Ninggang Maoping, so Du Xiujing volunteered to meet Mao Zedong. Dazed Gong Chu said to Du Xiujing who was about to go to Ninggang: "Wait for you for a day, if you don't come, we will leave!" Du Xiujing really called back and forth in one day.When he arrived at Maoping, Mao Zedong happened to go to Yongxin.After hearing the report, Yang Kaiming, who took over as secretary of the special committee, immediately stated without hesitation: "It's decided, let's go! I'll tell him about Lao Mao."

With the approval of Yang Kaiming, Du Xiujing pushed the 29th Regiment to the road back to southern Hunan. At this time, Zhu De and Chen Yi were powerless. In order to avoid the split of the Red Army and to protect the 29th Regiment, which was alone, they had no choice but to agree to the 28th Regiment to act together. On July 17, the Red Army Brigade set off from Miandu to southern Shonan.The twenty-ninth regiment, which was exhausted in the first two days and only traveled 30 miles a day, completely changed. It marched like flying, and traveled more than 100 miles in one breath, and arrived at Shuikou Town on the same day.

The 28th Regiment, which was not so willing to go to southern Hunan, pursued closely so as not to be left behind.They were very puzzled: What happened to the 29th regiment? In Shuikou, another urgent letter from Mao Zedong was delivered to Zhu De and Chen Yi.After reading the letter, Zhu De, Chen Yi and others decided to make one last effort. That night, a meeting of cadres above a company was held, but the meeting was presided over by Du Xiujing.The topic of the meeting was still whether to return to the border or go to Shonan. Zhu De, Chen Yi, and Wang Erzhuo insisted that the troops follow the decision of the Yongxin Joint Conference and return to the border to break the enemy's "suppression"; Du Xiujing, Gong Chu and others insisted on going to southern Hunan.

"Even if the Red Army brigade goes back to the border, it will not be able to solve the crisis in Jinggang. If they go to attack Chenzhou, it may have the miraculous effect of 'surrounding Wei and saving Zhao'!" Du Xiujing spoke plausibly. "You are gambling your luck with the lives of the Red Army soldiers!" Wang Erzhuo retorted mercilessly. Du Xiujing blushed with anger, pointed at Wang Erzhuo and shouted: "Do you listen to the provincial committee, or the provincial committee to you?" Du Xiujing, who seemed to call himself an "imperial envoy", moved out the sign of "provincial party committee" to suppress different opinions, and the meeting broke up unhappy. The last efforts of Zhu De, Chen Yi and others also failed. The Red Army Brigade left Shuikou and soon set foot on the land of southern Hunan. The goal of the advance was Chenzhou, an important town in southern Hunan. Li Buyun, who witnessed it, described the situation at that time: "From Ling County to Chenzhou, it was really like returning home at that time, like a bitter daughter-in-law returning to her mother's house after a long absence, with very hard feet, walking three steps at a time." On July 23, the troops arrived at Yashiping outside Chenzhou City. The next day, the Red 29th Regiment rashly launched an attack without knowing the enemy's situation and making no preparations.At that time, Hu Shaohai, the head of the regiment, intended to wait for Commander Zhu De and the 28th Regiment to arrive before taking action.But Du Xiujing said sternly: "What are you waiting for! Fan Shisheng's army is the Kuomintang army, and we are the Communist Party. If we let the enemy not fight, what kind of revolution will we have!" Although Fan Shisheng was a general of the Kuomintang, he had sincerely helped the revolutionary army led by Zhu De in times of crisis. Hu Shaohai knew this very well, so he proposed to wait for Zhu De to make a decision. Sure enough, when Zhu De and others arrived, the battle had already started.After inquiring, it happened to be the 46th Division of the 16th Army of Fan Shisheng's department. Zhu De was in a dilemma.He clearly remembered what Fan Shisheng said when he parted with Fan Shisheng in Rucheng, Hunan Province: "Brother Yukai, let's go and say goodbye, so that we can cherish ourselves. When we meet in the future, if you don't hit me, I won't." I won't hit you." But now, after more than half a year, Zhu De felt sorry for the confrontation. He said to Du Xiujing and Hu Shaohai: "Fan Shisheng is a friendly army. He helped us in the past and formed a united front with us. hit." Du Xiujing doesn't care about any united front, he said: "It has already started, let's fight!" It is inconvenient for Zhu De to say anything more. If he persists, he will not only offend the officers and soldiers of the 29th Regiment, but may also be suspected of "collaborating with the enemy". Besides, Zhang Hao, commander of the 46th Division of the 16th Army of Fan Shisheng's Department stationed in Chenzhou City, was also very clear about the relationship between Fan Shisheng and Zhu De, so when he first heard that the Fourth Red Army led by Zhu De had arrived in southern Hunan, he did not I didn't take it seriously, thinking that it would be a big deal for both sides to shoot a few shots to deal with it. But the development of the matter was beyond Zhang Hao's expectation. The Red Army did it for real as soon as they came up, smashing one of his supplementary regiments to pieces, and broke into Chenzhou County.He was very annoyed, and he didn't care so much, and immediately ordered the four regiments stationed in Suxianqiao to rush to the county town to fight. The 4 regular regiments attacked, and the 29th regiment that entered the city was quickly surrounded.Although the 28th Regiment tried its best to withstand some of the enemies who counterattacked the county, but the enemy army was too strong. In addition, the 29th Regiment rebelled without fighting, and the city of Chenzhou was quickly lost.The battle was fought hard, and the Red Army suffered more and more casualties. Zhu De made a prompt decision and ordered the 28th Regiment to withdraw from the battle and retreat in the direction of Zixing while fighting. Zhu De's decisive decision saved the Red Twenty-Eight Regiment. However, the 29th Regiment disappeared in Chenzhou City. There were only more than 100 people left in the team of more than 1,000 people, and only one company led by Xiao Ke was formed. Xiao Ke remembered this period of history very clearly: Chenzhou was captured on July 24, the 28th Regiment lived in the north of the city, and the 29th Regiment lived in the south of the city.Towards dusk, Fan Shisheng's troops came to counterattack from the north and fought against the 28th Regiment. As soon as the 29th Regiment heard the gunshots, they went south. The team continued for two or three miles.I don't think the situation is right. The 28th Regiment is fighting, so why didn't the 29th Regiment go to reinforce them, instead they ran south?It's not like marching.Therefore, I told my fellow to sit down and not move around.This company is still relatively neat, only a little scattered.The 28th regiment in the north is still fighting.I think the military department didn't order to go to Yizhang. It was because they heard the gunshots from the north and ran south with a lot of blindness, thinking to go south so they could go home.I will go back with this company.At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, the 28th regiment was retreating on its way to the east, and we followed the 28th regiment to the east.The next day, retreat to Dongjiang in Chenzhou.Hu Shaohai, head of the 29th Regiment, also came with the order platoon.Because the team was out of control, there were more than 1,000 people in the group when they went to Shonan, but only about 100 people came back one after another.Hu Shaohai only brought ten or twenty correspondents and a part of the secret service company plus some service personnel.My company had sixty or seventy men and forty-five guns.In this way, the rest of the twenty-ninth regiment only had a total of more than 100 people and eighty or ninety guns.The rest went in the direction of Yizhang, but I heard later that they all collapsed. The adventurous advance into southern Hunan finally led to the worst defeat since the establishment of the Fourth Red Army.This failure not only pushed the Red 29th Regiment to destruction; it also deprived the Jinggangshan base of an opportunity for consolidation and development.