Chapter 40 In the fierce battle of flat horses, the Dian army suddenly died down

The heat is unbearable.The long snake-like team crawled untidyly among the dense mountains and dense forests—Lu Han, the commander-in-chief of the Yunnan Army, rode a horse with a green mane, raised his binoculars to look at the vanguard from time to time, and gave orders to the aides: "Brothers in the back!" Pass me the password, follow up quickly, and don't fall behind!" With a gloomy and restless expression on his face, he slammed a whip on the horse's buttocks, and the green-maned horse let out a long breath, and yelled twice "咴咴" , ran forward. Lu Han was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek and the provincial chairman Long Yun to lead three divisions south to fight Guangxi.The Yunnan army of 20,000 horses is mighty and mighty, driving straight in, and it seems to be unstoppable.The vanguard was Zhang Chong's "Iron Army" division, which has always been brave and good at fighting. When they arrived at Youjiang, they occupied the important ferry towns of Baise, Sitang, and Tianyang. , go straight to Nanning!" - Lu Han smiled lightly at this, it's hard to say.

Suddenly, the aide-de-camp hastily sent an urgent telegram from Kunming.Lu Han took it and saw that it was from his superior Long Yun: Lu Huanyan from Guangxi sent an urgent telegram saying: The Gui army that had entered the Youjiang River was fighting fiercely with the communist bandits for many days, and Li Mingrui led the remnants of the communist bandits to flee to the mountainous areas near Guizhou and Guizhou.You are specially ordered to advance at full speed to intercept and annihilate the Youjiang area... Lu Han only read half of the telegram, and angrily threw the telegram to the aide and adjutant, cursing: "You fucker! Lu is making false information!"

According to the reliable information he received: Wang Jialie of the Guizhou Army has stopped going south to Guangxi and is guarding the frontier of Guizhou; Therefore, the Red Army voluntarily withdrew from Baise, rather than fleeing to the mountainous areas near Guangxi and Guizhou. Furthermore, Lu Han thought: Although the Dian army entered Guangxi, although there were 20,000 horses, there were two lives between people and land. In the red soil of Guangxi. Lu Han's worries were not unreasonable. According to Chiang Kai-shek's intention, the Dian army and the Guizhou army would form two fronts and go south to attack the Red Army at the same time, and then attack Nanning to fight the Guangxi clique.But now Wang Jialie used the pretext of guarding the important military area of ​​Rongjiang to defy Chiang Kai-shek and quietly withdraw the Guizhou army who entered Guangxi. The brothers sent to the tiger's mouth.Until the eve before he led his troops to dispatch, he also painstakingly persuaded Long Yun that Lao Jiang's order should be dealt with with a small number of soldiers and horses, and there is no need to mobilize troops.But Long Yun didn't know which nerve was out of order, so he bowed his head and obeyed the order in worship of Lao Jiang, and ordered his generals to lead 20,000 troops into Guangxi to suppress the Communists.I'm afraid that Long Yun has been drunk by Lao Jiang's "ecstasy soup": First suppress the Communist bandits and second hit the Guangxi clique, and you can share three points with Lao Jiang.

The sun was still a tree trunk high, and when the team reached Pingma Town, Lu Han immediately ordered to stop advancing and set up camp at the assembly point before and after the line from Pingma to Guohua. Lu Han jumped off his horse and lazily leaned towards the grass. He suddenly felt exhausted and unable to support himself. He opened his mouth wide and yawned wave after wave. His nose was flowing—the sharp-eyed adjutant knew that the chief's addiction to cigarettes was onset. up.He hurriedly helped him into the tent that had just been set up, handed him a delicate chicken blood jade bong, quickly and skillfully lifted the bong and picked out a mung bean-sized bong from the pack. Put the smoke into the bong, and then strike a match to light the smoke lamp.

Lu Han lay sideways on the oilcloth, held a bong, and smoked greedily at the flames, his eyes narrowed slightly, and his expression became more and more peaceful and content, as if he had fallen into a fantasy and transformed himself into a fairy. This is a team of "two-armed soldiers". From the commander to the subordinate privates, everyone has two guns-one steel gun and one smoking gun.They could not walk or fight without smoking opium.Those soldiers were recruited to join the army just to smoke opium, and as long as they had opium, they fought to the death.While Lu Han was lying in the tent and having a good time smoking, his subordinate officers and soldiers all took out their own various bongs as if by magic.Some hid under the rocky cliffs to smoke, some lay down in the grass, and some couldn’t wait to swallow a few puffs of big cigarettes raw. After a burst of nervous and tacit fuss, the whole campsite became peaceful, orderly, warm and quiet.In the eyes of smokers, poppies are in full bloom all over the mountains and fields, and the intoxicating fragrance pervades the hillside grass. In view of the situation of the Yunnan army aggressively entering Guangxi to attack the Red Army, the Seventh Red Army voluntarily withdrew from Baise, but did not He didn't leave Youjiang, but retreated to the mountainous area around Silin, south of Pingma, to hide.

According to the detected enemy situation, the Dian army has arrived in Pingma, and it is likely to converge with the Guangxi "communist suppression" brigade to implement Chiang Kai-shek's order to "attack the communist bandits from the north and the south".Once the Yunnan and Guangxi armies meet, the Seventh Red Army will be attacked by the enemy. It will not be able to annihilate the Yunnan army going south, and it will be extremely difficult to deal with the attack of the Guangxi "communist suppression" brigade. ——In the face of this severe military situation, the Front Committee of the Seventh Red Army held a meeting to study and formulate a decision-making response.

Deng Bin: "Obviously, Chiang Kai-shek's intention is that the Yunnan and Guizhou armies go southward side by side, and they want to join up with the Guangxi clique's 'communist suppression' brigade to attack us, and then the Yunnan and Guizhou armies join forces to attack the Guangxi clique." Li Mingrui: "Currently, the situation in the Youjiang River is favorable to our army. Wang Jialie of the Guizhou Army waited on the border of Guizhou and Guangxi and stood still; while the Yunnan Army entered Guangxi, the people and land were sparse, and they were swimming in the open, so there was no way to build fortifications. I think it might as well Make an attack and beat Lu Han's prestige!"

Zhang Yunyi: "I agree with Commander-in-Chief Li's words! We used guerrilla tactics to attack the Yunnan Army, making them confused as to whether it was the Red Army or the Guangxi 'communist suppression' brigade." Li Mingrui: "The main force of our army quietly moved into the vicinity of Pingma, chose favorable terrain, concentrated superior forces, and took a surprise lightning attack on the Yunnan army, catching it by surprise!" Zhang Yunyi: "Yes! A beautiful ambush! Although in terms of military strength, I only have 3,000 to 4,000 guns, while the Yunnan Army has nearly 20,000 horses, but they are 'two-armed soldiers'. A dozen is like chasing ducks." They fled everywhere."

Gong Hecun: "Don't underestimate the enemy? The 'two-pole soldiers' have smoked enough to fight to the death." Chen Haoren: "According to reconnaissance, the vanguard of the Dian Army is Zhang Chong's Division, known as the 'Iron Army', good at fighting fierce battles." Li Mingrui: "What Chief of Staff Gong and Director Chen said is indeed the truth. Zhang Chong is a great general of the Yunnan Army, especially good at defensive warfare. During the Northern Expedition, he led a death squad to guard Qingliang Mountain for four days and four nights, and finally fought his way out. , join my reinforcements."

Zhang Yunyi: "It's easy to get a thousand troops, but hard to find a general. Zhang Chong fought well. If he still understands his life, I would really like to see him. I will fight this battle. Commander Li and Deng How about planning in the account of the political commissar?" Deng Bin: "The mourning army will win! Commander Zhang volunteered to invite Ying, and he will surely win the battle! If you fight, you will fight Zhang Chong's division!" Li Mingrui: "The enemy is superior and we are few, so don't love to fight. After a sudden attack on the enemy, you should quickly withdraw your troops and transfer them."

Zhang Yunyi: "That's right, that's right, let's take it when you see it!" Deng Bin: "The purpose of this battle is to let Lu Han know what's interesting, and lead his 'two-armed soldiers' to return home early." On the morning when Lu Han ordered camp, more than 2,000 troops from the first and second columns of the Seventh Red Army had ambushed in the Fulu Mountain area from Longxu to Guohua in the southeast of Pingma Town.Zhang Yunyi sent Li Tianyou, the commander of the spy company, to lead a reconnaissance team to closely observe the movement of the Yunnan Army along the way, and at the same time ordered the mountain artillery platoon commanded by Feng Dafei to be ready to bombard the enemy's positions at any time.It was near dusk, just as the camped Dian army took a rest and became addicted to cigarettes, the sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, strong winds and heavy rain.The long camp was full of noise, shouting and cursing, and officers and soldiers scrambled for tents to shelter from the wind and rain. After the storm, the sky was gloomy, and the mountains were shrouded in thick mist.Thunder and lightning flickered from time to time in the distance, showing the darkness of the night even more. Zhang Chong, the division commander known as the "Iron Army Division", set up the security of the camp, and was accompanied by the staff of the guards back to his tent. Facing the Western-style canned food and liquor prepared for him by his attendants, he had no appetite.He was restless and restless. The staff officer of the security guard said: "Master, in this weather, the Communist bandits probably dare not act rashly. The brothers have been traveling for days and are exhausted. This is a good time to take a rest and recharge your batteries." Zhang Chong interrupted him with a slap in the face: "Fuck you! The terrain and the weather here are just the right time for the communist bandits to fight! Damn, if I do, I will set up your ambush and take your camp to the ground. Damn it! Damn, do you believe it or not?" "Master, how can you not believe in a lowly position? I believe, I believe." The security staff nodded and complimented again and again. "Telegram Commander Lu, flat horses to fruitful frontlines, dangerous roads and dense forests, don't take it lightly at night, beware of communist gangsters and frauds!" "yes!" Zhang Chong is a resourceful, decisive and meticulous general in the Yunnan Army. When he received Lu Han's order to camp, he personally followed the reconnaissance platoon to the top of a mountain called Jiaoshan to conduct a survey of the topography of Pingma. Some investigation: The Panshan dirt road from Nanning to Yunnan and Guizhou passes through Pingma and Guohua from northwest to southeast. On both sides of the dirt road, there are several kilometers of ridges, with steep cliffs, strange rocks, and scattered trees. , is an ideal ambush position.He raised the binoculars and looked around for a while, but he didn't seem to find anything unusual. Perhaps because the sky was dark, the mountains were dense and the visibility was too poor, he put down the binoculars, shook his head a few times with a half-smile, and walked down the hillside quite tiredly.He suddenly issued an order: "Blast the surrounding hills with mortars to drive away the birds in the forest, lest they harass our camp." After more than a dozen mortars bombarded the hills they aimed at for a while, the forest quickly returned to calm, and the gunpowder smoke gradually dissipated. Zhang Chong raised his binoculars to inspect again, and then ordered to strengthen the vigilance.But he still looked uneasy. Like a dizzy strange bird, a mortar shell flew over a mound screaming like a dizzy strange bird, and exploded a few meters away in front of Zhang Yunyi—boom! Li Tianyou didn't have time to call out "Commander, hide quickly—" he rolled violently and fell down a steep rocky cliff together with Zhang Yunyi.A piece of cannonball skin hit the rocky cliff, sparks splashed, and fell beside the two of them with a "dang--". Obediently, it's so hanging!Zhang Yunyi picked up the dagger-shaped shrapnel, and it was still hot, so he blew on it with his mouth, as if to dissipate heat from it. "Commander, are you hurt?" Li Tianyou asked in a low voice. "This shrapnel is very rigid! It's probably made in Germany." Zhang Yunyi touched the sharp edge of the shrapnel with his fingers, and said to Li Tianyou, "You keep this thing, first as a souvenir, and second, to sharpen it for scraping Use a saber." Li Tianyou took the shrapnel and blew it, put it in his pocket casually, and muttered, "Damn it, what kind of guns are these 'two-armed soldiers' shooting? Could it be that they discovered us?" Zhang Yunyi said: "It seems that Zhang Chong is definitely not an idler. This is where he scouted our position with firepower!" Li Tianyou said: "We meet opponents in chess, this time we have a good fight." Zhang Yunyi said solemnly: "The order will go on, and there must be no movement in the forward position!" "Yes!" Li Tianyou quickly disappeared between the rocky cliffs and ravines like a cat. The Seventh Red Army's ambush against the vanguard of the Yunnan Army started at the moment when a ray of glow in the western sky was swallowed by the evening fog after the heavy rain.This is a battle of heroes against heroes!Under the command of Feng Dafei, the six mountain cannons of the Seventh Red Army bombarded Zhang Chong's camp.Immediately afterwards, on the kilometers-long mountains on both sides of the dirt road, torches reflected the sky, and there were bursts of killing, and the sound of rapid bullets was deafening.The Yunnan army was frightened by the sudden and violent bombardment.All of a sudden, the entire camp was in chaos, and the officers and soldiers grabbed their guns and fired cannons, firing wildly at the surrounding mountains shrouded in smoke.Less than half an hour after the battle started, hundreds of corpses were already lying in the camp. Zhang Chong, who had moved from the tent to the foot of a small hill, looked at the tragic scene in front of him but remained calm.It seemed that his expression seemed to be stiff and numb, but he also had a kind of unflappable charm—as if the ambush of the Red Army had already been expected in him.After half an hour, Zhang Chong began to organize his forces to fight back.The mortars of the Yunnan Army and the new German-made mountain artillery frantically bombarded the hidden positions of the Red Army.Immediately, the position became like a child with smallpox, full of scars, violently convulsing, trembling and moaning, the choking smell of blood, the smell of burnt corpses, wrapped in thick black smoke, enveloped the jagged ground. mountains.Taking advantage of the opportunity of the bombardment, Zhang Chong first fed his death squad full of smoke—just like filling the machine he controlled with oil and filling the barrel with shells.The team members were all full of energy, put on their clothes, went into battle like monsters and beasts, and broke into the Dead Sea! ——Indeed, the Yunnan Army is not all cowards. They have officers at all levels of company, battalion, and regiment at the head, and the supervising team is behind. They seem to be invulnerable, and one team after another roared and stepped over them. The corpse of his own brother charged towards the opponent's position.A bloody battle began.Fighting when the enemy has new cannons and sophisticated infantry weapons is equivalent to holding a spear while the enemy is holding a dagger. Only in close combat can the strength of the Red Army be brought into play.Zhang Yunyi ordered the troops not to fight back prematurely, put the enemy at the front of the position, and then attack suddenly.He encouraged everyone to say: "We are facing the ace troops of the Yunnan Army, but this is nothing special. Once their smoke is gone, we will beat them like ducks!" It was close to hand.On the battlefield, artillery fire was no longer bombarding, and there was only gun-to-gun, knife-to-knife hand-to-hand combat; there was only a see-saw-like repeated scramble, rushing up, fighting down; fighting down, rushing up again. Li Mingrui and Deng Bin were only a few meters away from the main position. From a hillside of more than 300 meters, he has been watching the progress of the battle.The battle situation is clear at a glance: the fierce fighting nature of the enemy and the enemy has been stimulated by the crazy attack and tenacious resistance, and has been brought into full play! Li Mingrui and Deng Bin turned their gazes to the depths of the battlefield—the hidden grassy beach where the Dian army organized a counterattack, which was shielded by a row of small hills.There, groups of death squads sent by Zhang Chong came out of their holes like pythons. indeed so.Those daredevil players are like red-eyed gamblers, desperately using all-or-nothing madness to destroy the front position of the first column of the Seventh Red Army with all their strength.From Zhang Chong's point of view, the brave soldiers under him still don't have iron walnuts that can't be smashed! "Zhang Chong is indeed a very experienced commander." Deng Bin praised his fierce opponent. "We must withdraw from the battle before dawn to prevent Lu Han from sending follow-up troops to surround me." Li Mingrui said.He seemed to have seen the fierce battle at Tingyu Bridge in the Northern Expedition again.At that time, he was the commander of the Seventh Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army, and Zhang Chong was the head of the advance regiment of the neighboring army. "It is estimated that Lu Han already knows that his 'Iron Army' division is in full swing with me, and will definitely send troops to reinforce it." Deng Bin analyzed. "We must withdraw from the battle before dawn!" Li Mingrui repeated decisively.From time to time, the purple flames of the bullets flashed the outline of his stern face like a rock.He suggested that Deng Bin and Chen Haoren lead the military department and the third column to evacuate to Taiping and Xingning. He and Mo Wenhua, the staff officer of the headquarters, were accompanied by Gong Hecun, the chief of staff who came to report the battle situation, to Zhang Yunyi's front command. department. Suddenly, the ground trembled under his feet, a shell exploded only a few meters away from him, and the shrapnel with a quenching scream fanned a scorching air of air past his ear, and he A guard behind him was knocked down by the shrapnel, while a guard in front of him was thrown onto the hillside ten meters away by the blast of the shell, and just yelled "Damn you!" before lying down. .Li Mingrui staggered two steps forward, shrouded in smoke, and it took him a long time to realize that his figure was running towards the headquarters like a ghost. At this moment, as a battle-tested general, Li Mingrui didn't care if there were still shells coming, and he didn't care who died or who was injured. That was the matter of the ambulance team.On the battlefield, he is never mother-in-law or mother-in-law; he believes that "compassion" is a quagmire in war, and whoever falls into it will suffer disaster; It's the big picture. From the flashes of the enemy's artillery fire, Li Mingrui judged the artillery group positions of the Yunnan Army hidden behind the mountain. Napoleon once called cannon the "God of War", and Li Mingrui also held the same view.He went to the forward headquarters, asked Zhang Yunyi about the situation of the battle, and ordered Feng Dafei to bombard the enemy's artillery positions with mountain artillery: to blow up their Bufu field artillery at night, otherwise, our army will suffer heavy losses when they retreat. "Damn, I've run out of shells!" Feng Dafei panted, his body covered in oil and blood.The hoarse throat seemed to be stuffed with sand. "Then organize a blasting team!" Li Mingrui ordered. "There is no explosive bag!" Gong Hecun said anxiously. "Then use cluster grenades!" The commander-in-chief, who is usually amiable but has become stern and decisive on the battlefield, even ordered such a strategy, it was in the form of an order that must be absolutely obeyed—this is in the When the Central Soviet Area criticized him a year later, it was regarded as a crime of "warlord style".But at this moment, on the ever-changing battlefield, Li Mingrui's military dictionary only includes adaptability, confidence in victory, accurate judgment, and decisive decision-making.He was a general of the Kuomintang during the Northern Expedition, and now he is a general of the Red Army. These are all from a political point of view; but on the battlefield of blood and fire, he admired Napoleon; he is not a poet, but he believes that the magnificent epic is written on the battlefield. like inspiration.He is decisive and resolute because he is confident that he holds the key of military wisdom in his hands, and with it, he can unlock the door to victory.When he was interrogated in the Soviet area, he confessed frankly: I am the darling of the war, in other words, a tool of the war, or a rifle.On the battlefield, all the enthusiasm in the body will be stirred up, and the whole body is in the best competitive state. The blasting team of more than 20 people quickly formed was divided into four groups to sneak attack on the enemy's artillery position.At this time, Li Tianyou escorted a captured battalion commander of the Yunnan Army over to be interrogated by Li Mingrui and Zhang Yunyi. "What's your name?" "Report sir, the youngest one is called Dong Yan. There are old and young in my family, I beg you, sir, to let the young one out." "We can let you go, but how will your Master Zhang Chong treat you?" "It is better to die in battle than to be captured. If the captive returns, he will be shot. I... I will go home and farm." Li Mingrui and Zhang Yunyi looked at each other, and signaled the guards to untie Dong Yan. Li Mingrui immediately took out a small notebook from his pocket, tore off a page, and under the light of a pine torch, quickly wrote a few lines. After finishing writing, he folded it, put it in an envelope, and wrote on the envelope " Brother Zhang Chong personally learned," and then said: "Dong Yan." "The little one is here." "I'm Li Mingrui, and I have a life-and-death relationship with your Master Zhang. I wrote a text message to Zhang Chong, asking you to hand it to him in person. This will not only save your life, but also keep you promoted." "Ah, the sir is the famous General Li! The little one has admired you for a long time, and the little one is blind. Please forgive me." Dong Yan bowed to Li Mingrui in fear and fear, took the letter with both hands, and said, "Thanks to General Li's trust, I will definitely take the letter with you." Hand it over to Teacher Zhang." Gong Hecun brought several guards to escort Dong Yan down the mountain. We don't know what Li Mingrui wrote in the letter to Zhang Chong. After about two hours, the menacing Yunnan Army stopped its offensive.The battlefield immediately fell silent, the artillery fire stopped roaring, and the killing cries also stopped.Not only Zhang Chong's vanguard retreated to Sitang and Baise, but even Lu Han tactfully led his troops to retreat to the edge of Yunnan, and never made trouble with the Seventh Red Army again. At dawn, the Red Army cleaned up the battlefield and found that the two sides had fought fiercely, and the Dian army had left five or six hundred corpses, a dozen intact mortars, Bufu field guns, and hundreds of shells. This campaign also caused the Red Army to pay a price equal to that of the Yunnan Army.On the battered battlefield, the flames and air waves that had been raging all night had subsided, and the restless thick fog began to become moist again and roll up, revealing the dark hilltops in the torn milky white rags. The cool morning breeze squeezed out from the valley in the west, and the diffuse fog slowly faded to the east bank of the Youjiang River. The tree haw, under the gradually brightening sky, overflows with the dignified color of the oil painting of the battlefield, and the mountain presents a reckless and gray figure. Fifty-six years later (1986), Deng Xiaoping revisited his hometown with a lot of thoughts. He recalled his combat life in Guangxi. He talked about the battle of ambushing the Yunnan army in Pingma: "The Yunnan army can fight and is the most calm. But Each soldier has two guns, one is a rifle and the other is a bong. Smoked opium can't walk, so the Yunnan army fought well in defensive battles. The Seventh Army of the Red Army once fought a battle with Zhang Chong. Near Pingma, east of Baise. Zhang Chong was a general in Yunnan, and the three divisions of the Yunnan Army were about to attack Guangxi! Later, Zhang Chong participated in the revolution. He was a Yi nationality and died after liberation.” After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang served as the deputy commander of the 60th Army of the Kuomintang, the commander of the New Army, and the commander of the Second Route Army to fight against the Japanese army. In 1946, he went to Yan'an and joined the Communist Party.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he successively served as vice chairman of Yunnan Province, deputy to the first to fifth National People's Congress, and vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He died of illness in Beijing in October 1980.