Chapter 68 The Fourth Red Army "surrounded Wei and rescued Zhao"

The Fifth Red Army leaped to Jinggangshan and joined the Fourth Red Army, which once again presented an opportunity for development in the base area. At the same time, the enemies in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces are planning a larger-scale "suppression", and the Jinggangshan base area is facing an unprecedented crisis. Opportunity, crisis, another contest of life and death! The enemy started to destroy the Jinggangshan base in one fell swoop. Since the bankruptcy of the second "conference suppression" against the Jinggangshan base area in late August 1928, the enemy forces in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces have been planning to launch a third "conference suppression" on a larger scale.For a while, they were discussing with each other and dispatching troops and generals, making a lot of noise, but in the end they couldn't take concerted action because they had their own ulterior motives and the gongs and drums were inconsistent.

Just when the Kuomintang governments in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces were singing the high-profile "meeting and suppression", there was news that Peng Dehuai's Fifth Red Army had gone to Jinggangshan to join forces with Zhu Mao's Red Army. This is really embarrassing!In a fit of anger, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Zhu Peide, and appointed He Jian, chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, as the acting commander-in-chief of the "Hunan-Jiangxi Bandit Suppression Headquarters", commanding the troops of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, and quickly dispatched troops to "suppress the bandits."

He Jian is a veteran anti-Communist, although he knows that dealing with Zhu Mao's Red Army is not easy; but Chiang Kai-shek put him above Zhu Peide, which made him a little flattered.Under the repeated "urging" of Jiangxi, he followed suit and set about setting up the headquarters. On January 1, 1929, the headquarters of the Hunan-Jiangxi "Hui Suppression" was established in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and He Jian took office. After several plannings, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces mobilized 6 brigades and 18 regiments to participate in the "meeting and suppression". Around Jinggangshan, they were deployed in five routes: the first route was Li Wenbin's 21st regiment stationed in Suichuan and Ganzhou respectively. The 15th Brigade of Liu Shiyi and Liu Shiyi, with Li Wenbin as the commander; the 35th Brigade of Zhang Xingren and the 34th Brigade of Zhou Hunyuan stationed on the Taihe and Yongxin lines, and the 34th Brigade of Zhou Hunyuan, with Zhang Xingren as the commander; The third route is the three regiments of the Wang Jiejun Department of the Hunan Army stationed in Lianhua, with Wang Jiejun as the commander; the fourth route is a brigade of the Wu Shang Department stationed in Yingxian and Chaling, Hunan, with Wu Shang as the commander; the fifth route is the regiment stationed in Guidong, Hunan. Liu Jianxu's Department, with Liu Jianxu as the commander.He Jian ordered all troops to enter the designated position before January 10 to complete the offensive deployment.He attempted to encircle the Red Army layer by layer, advancing step by step, and finally attacking together, squeezing and destroying the Red Army.

The Red Army had to carefully plan a good strategy to defeat the enemy. On January 4, in Hengdian, Bailu Village, Ninggang County, a joint meeting of the former committee, the special committee, the fourth and fifth military committees of the Red Army, the county committees, and the special committees of the regiment was held. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi, Peng Dehuai, Teng Daiyuan, Yuan Wen Cai, Wang Zuo, He Changgong, Tan Zhenlin, Chen Zhengren and other party, government, and military leaders from the Jinggangshan base area attended the meeting, and Mao Zedong presided over the meeting.

There are three agendas for the meeting: (1) to communicate the relevant resolutions of the Party’s Sixth National Congress; (2) to pass the report of the former committee to the Central Committee (i.e., “The Struggle in Jinggang Mountains”); (3) to study how to deal with powerful enemies Suppress". The first two agendas were relatively simple, but when the third agenda was discussing the plan for facing the war, there were fierce debates: some advocated defending against danger; some advocated going to Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi; some advocated going to southern Hunan; He advocated going to southern Jiangxi.

All kinds of opinions are at odds. Mao Zedong talked about his own views. He believed that: in the current situation where the strength of the enemy and ourselves is very different, it is not conducive to us to defend against danger, and the enemy is aggressive, showing great determination. In addition, the winter cold season has arrived, our army Supplies are meager, and although there is assistance from the masses, it is difficult to win.However, the Jinggangshan revolutionary base cannot be given up.In order to keep the red political power in the Jinggangshan base area that has been in operation for more than a year, we must take active actions and take advantage of the enemy's loopholes.When the enemy is coming from one side, we will fight out from the other side, detouring behind the enemy, making it difficult for the enemy to deal with it, obtaining the vital strength to destroy the enemy on the outside line, and breaking the enemy's "coupling and suppression".

Mao Zedong called this a strategy of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao". The participants stopped arguing, and everyone agreed with Mao Zedong's strategy of combining internal and external operations. Therefore, the meeting made a decision: the Red Fourth Army and the Red Fifth Army will be mixed, the five armies and three columns will be organized into the Fourth Army and the Thirty Regiment, Peng Dehuai will be the deputy commander of the Red Fourth Army and the head of the Red Thirty Regiment, and Teng Daiyuan will be the Red Fourth Army. Army Deputy Party Representative and Red Thirty Regiment Party Representative.The main force of the Fourth Red Army was led by Mao Zedong, Zhu De, etc. to attack in the direction of southern Jiangxi, attracting the enemy, and then waited for an opportunity to fight back from behind the enemy; .

The Bolu meeting lasted for 4 days and ended on January 7. After the meeting, those who attacked southern Jiangxi and those who stayed behind in Jinggang acted urgently, as if they were ready for battle. The border special committee was reorganized, with Deng Qianyuan as the secretary, Deng Qianyuan, Teng Daiyuan, Chen Zhengren, Wan Xixian, and Zhu Changkai as the standing committee, in order to meet the needs of the war. Formation of the Frontier Red Guard Corps, with Yan Hui as the commander and Liu Zuoshu as the party representative, unified command of the local Red Guards and riot teams in the four counties of Yongxin, Ninggang, Lianhua, and Chaling. The army defended the Jinggangshan base area.

While Yuan Wencai was transferred to serve as the chief of staff of the Fourth Red Army, and Liu Huixiao, head of the propaganda department of the Ninggang County Party Committee, was appointed as the former Secretary-General of the Party Committee, and went out with the Fourth Red Army, a group of capable cadres were also transferred from the Fourth Red Army to strengthen the leadership of the troops left behind. Among them, Zhang Ziqing was the chief of staff of the Fifth Red Army, Chen Bojun and Chen Yi'an were the staff officers of the Fifth Red Army, and He Changgong was the secretary of the Ninggang Central County Party Committee and the representative of the 32nd Regiment.

On Jinggang Mountain, the preparations for the battle were carried out in an orderly manner; at the foot of Jinggang Mountain, the five-way army commanded by He Jian stepped up to encircle them step by step.The contest is at hand! Mao Zedong decided to strike first.Before the enemy launched an offensive, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the main force of the Fourth Red Army with more than 3,600 people and left Jinggangshan on January 14 to attack southern Jiangxi. This day is a day of heavy snow. In Ciping, the center of Jinggang Mountains, the left-behind troops and the nearby masses braved the snow to see off the troops coming down the mountain.Hand in hand to say goodbye, those who encourage each other, those who stuff eggs and deliver cloth shoes, are full of endless heartfelt love, and endless love.

No one thought that this was the last farewell to the Jinggangshan base where they had fought for more than a year, and they all believed that they would come back soon. With this belief, the soldiers of the Fourth Red Army embarked on the journey. The sudden descent of the Fourth Red Army surprised He Jian. He hastily ordered Li Wenbin's 21st Brigade, which had entered Suichuan, and Liu Jianxu's Division, which had entered Zixing, to join Liu Shiyi's 15th Brigade in Ganzhou. brigade, and pursued the Fourth Red Army with all its strength. All of a sudden, it affected several brigades of enemy troops who were preparing to attack Jinggangshan. This was exactly the purpose of the Fourth Red Army jumping to the outside line to fight.Therefore, the enemy's encirclement and pursuit did not stop the determination of the Fourth Red Army to advance.The Fourth Red Army adopted a circling "circle" tactic to avoid the strong and attack the weak, and quickly jumped out of the enemy's encirclement. On January 22, the Fourth Red Army suddenly forced Dayu County. This action startled the enemy, and Li Wenbin's 21st Brigade hurriedly surrounded them.As a result, the enemy and us fought fiercely in Dayu City.This was a vicious battle, and the Red Army paid a heavy price.Not only did the troops suffer heavy casualties, but they also sacrificed two outstanding commanders, including He Tingying, the representative of the Red 28th Regiment, and Zhang Wei, the commander of the Independent Battalion. The Fourth Red Army, which managed to break out of the encirclement, had to turn to the "Three Souths" (that is, Quannan, Longnan, and Dingnan) areas to carry out guerrilla warfare.Mao Zedong and Zhu De very much hoped to have a buffer opportunity so that the Red Army could free up its hands to carry out mass work and lay the foundation for the establishment of base areas.However, the enemy did not give the Red Army such an opportunity, they clung to it, so that the Fourth Red Army was often besieged, and experienced repeated adventures: Once, several leaders of the army were besieged by the enemy, and Chen Yi was arrested. In a battle, Zhu De's wife, Wu Ruolan, chief of the Women's Movement Section of the Fourth Red Army, was wounded and captured. She was tortured and steadfast, and finally died in Ganzhou. under the city.Later, the enemy hung his head on the top of Xiaowu Gate in Changsha for public display.Zhu De was deeply saddened by the loss of his beloved partner. He loved orchids all his life and liked to plant orchids, probably in order to express his longing for his dead wife. The inability to get rid of the chasing enemies made the situation of the Fourth Red Army more and more difficult.In order to reverse the situation and get out of the predicament, Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to find an opportunity to teach the enemy a lesson. On February 10, which was the first day of the Lunar New Year, the Fourth Red Army finally seized an opportunity. At that time, the troops came to the Dabai land in Ruijin, and the Jiangxi enemy Liu Shiyi was still chasing him.Mao Zedong and Zhu De saw that the terrain of Dabai land could be used, so they decided to set up an ambush on the spot to fight the arrogance of the enemy. To teach the enemies who are chasing after us these days, the Red Army soldiers are all bravely at the forefront.When the enemy entered the ambush circle, the Red Army launched a fierce offensive.After a day and night of fierce fighting, all the besieged enemies were finally wiped out. In this battle, more than 1,500 enemies were wiped out, and more than 800 people below the head and deputy commander of the enemy were captured.The Fourth Red Army achieved its first major victory since leaving the Jinggangshan base area. The enemies chasing after hearing this were terrified and dared not pursue rashly; the masses in southern Jiangxi raised their eyebrows and gained confidence in the Red Army.The Fourth Red Army began to gain a firm foothold in southern Jiangxi.