Chapter 49 In the bloody battle in Wugang, Li Mingrui scolded He Mang: What the revolution needs is not martyrs

The Seventh Red Army marched to the Wugang area, and originally only wanted to raise some food and supplies, and did not intend to attack the city.But soon got the news that there was only one security regiment stationed in Wugang City, the strength of which was no more than six or seven hundred people.To fight or not to fight?The Red Seventh Army Military Committee and the Front Committee considered that since the troops entered southern Hunan, the weather was suddenly cold, and the commanders and fighters were still wearing single clothes and trousers when they left Hechi, and the troops were short of food and ammunition, which needed to be replenished urgently, so they decided to attack Wugang .In fact, Wugang is not just a security regiment defending the enemy.Since the Central Plains War, it has become the first line of defense for the Hunan Army to prevent the Guangxi Army from going northward under the order of Chiang Kai-shek.So far, only two regular regiments of the Hunan Army are still stationed in Wugang City. Since there is no fighting for a while, the security regiments are all responsible for guarding and patrolling.Due to the unclear investigation of the enemy's situation, the Seventh Red Army rushed to attack the city.

On December 26, the Red Seventh Army launched an attack on Wugang City. However, after three days of continuous attack, they failed to capture, and the troops suffered heavy casualties.The enemy relied on danger and resisted stubbornly.The two sides became confrontational, firing guns and cannons at each other.The ancient city of Wugang, located on the west bank of the Zishui River, was shrouded in billowing smoke and the most tragic battle was on the fourth day.The Red Seventh Army adjusted the siege deployment: the fifty-fifth regiment dug tunnels, placed explosives to bombard the city, and the main force launched a general attack after the city wall was blasted.At this time, the five regular regiments mobilized by He Jian, with the cooperation of the air force, aggressively surrounded the Seventh Red Army.

At about 2:00 pm, the enemy arrived and launched aerial bombing first: several Italian bombers swooped towards the outer positions of the Red Army with the blood dripping on their backs, and the sky was immediately filled with horrific howling noises.Almost at the same time, at the main offensive position a hundred meters away from the Red Army headquarters, a natural cave, several clusters of flames rose from the ground, followed by deafening explosions. "He Yunqiao is so vicious!" Li Mingrui cursed secretly.His face was blackened by gunpowder smoke, his eyes were red and swollen, his voice was hoarse, and he had not closed his eyes for three days and nights.At this moment, he felt heavily that the battle situation had deteriorated, and the situation was extremely critical!The scene in front of me is too different from the initial hope!He threw the binoculars in front of his chest, turned around and suggested to Zhang Yunyi, Deng Bin and others, "Let's withdraw! The sooner the better."

Zhang Yunyi held up his binoculars and inspected the battered but unmoving city wall and the positions below the city full of bomb craters and bunkers: enemy planes sting and bite like bees, and the ground suffered from malaria under the impact of heavy bombs Trembling like the ground, the sound of the explosion merged into a continuous roar, and waves of air rushed from the bomb crater. On the side of the bombed pontoon bridge and the surrounding river beach, there were naked corpses, broken gun handles, and dripping blood. There are bayonets, and bloody cloth strips are hung on the fallen branches. This is the scorched earth scorched by the flames of war!This is the land soaked in blood!

In his heart, he was ridiculed by the god of war: the Red Army resisted the combined attack of the enemy's infantry, artillery and air force with a single arm. I have already held on to the ground, but I rushed into the position. All the imbalances determine the cruelty of this contest! "Notify all regiments to withdraw from their positions after sunset!" Zhang Yunyi issued an order to Chief of Staff Gong Hecun. "You can only retreat when the battle is dark," Gong Hecun muttered, "But where are you going to retreat? It's a fucking rotten fight!" "Yeah, where are you going? Alas!" Deng Gang, the representative of the Central Committee, raised his eyes from the map, glanced at everyone's faces, and then turned to the map.He wished he could find a smooth route to safety immediately.

"He Jian's soldiers are coming, we have to rush across Zishui and move to the southeast." Deng Bin pointed to the Xinning and Quanzhou areas at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi on the map. "You mean, let's go back to Guangxi?" Deng Gang asked. "It can only be transferred to Xinning and Quanzhou." Deng Bin said. "Right now, our entire army is disheveled, hungry and cold, and walking barefoot." Chen Haoren's words revealed a sentiment of compassion, "The forward fifty-five regiments have run out of bullets, and He Mang sent people to ask for them twice. Scolding mother, do I have no bullets for me to use fire sticks to fight the enemy? I had to send a batch of bullets from the reserve battalion. Alas, it seems that our plan was wrong.”

"No! No!" Deng Gang immediately retorted, "This has nothing to do with the central government's plan. It's just an accident! How can you doubt the central government's plan?" "However, we are in a predicament, surrounded by the enemy here," Chen Haoren said anxiously. "There is no need to argue anymore." Li Mingrui ordered with the decision of the commander-in-chief, "The front committee and the military committee will lead the twenty divisions to withdraw first, cross the Zishui River, and break out along Qitangpu to Xinning; the two regiments of the nineteenth division Then follow up, I command the fifty-fifth regiment to lead the enemy, then climb over Shimen Mountain, get rid of the chasing enemy, and make a detour to Xinning to rendezvous. What do you think of this action?"

Deng Bin said: "We must withdraw from Wugang before dawn and cross Zishui." Zhang Yunyi said: "Only in this way can it be possible to avoid greater losses. Soldiers are expensive, throw away all supplies and unnecessary things, and charge lightly! However, I have a little opinion, can I exchange it with Commander Li? ?” Li Mingrui hurriedly asked: "What is Commander Zhang's opinion?" Zhang Yunyi said: "You should lead the main force to withdraw first, and the 55th regiment and I will stay to contain the enemy." Li Mingrui said: "It's the same if you stay and I stay, or I stay, it's decided like this."

The artillery fire has stripped all the trees around Wugang City.The siege position outside the south gate of the city experienced a pause in the battle, which meant that the enemy with absolute superiority reorganized and adjusted its troops and firepower to launch a more violent attack after the enemy planes stopped bombing. The setting sun, which is about to set, is showing its face in a lonely corner on the side of the ancient city.In the crimson redness of the evening sky, the battered city gate tower casts a sad shadow on the Zishui River.The orange of the setting sun, the red of the evening sky, the gray-brown of the gunpowder smoke, mixed with the dull bronze-like brick color of the city wall, all these seem to confirm this city with strong armor and thick walls. The soldiers of the 55th Regiment used artillery shells and aircraft bomb craters as resistance fortifications to fight desperately against the swarming enemy troops. The wave-like repeated impact and counter impact of both the enemy and the enemy has been lost. ...

"Regimental Commander, the enemy is attacking again!" shouted the combat staff officer who was watching the enemy's movements. "Fight!" The regiment leader He Mang roared, picked up a crooked machine gun, and fired at the enemy group that was rushing towards him, yelling and cursing non-stop, "He Jian, I don't want to pee on you! Do you have the guts to come? I want to meet you! Five hundred years ago, it was a family, and I couldn’t write two characters of "he" in one stroke, bah! Why did you insult the ancestors of the He family? You are the scum of the He family! The scum of the He family! "

He Mang, also known as Ziqi, was born in Longzhou, Zhuang nationality. He was admitted to the Guangxi Military Academy in 1926 and joined the Communist Party of China in September of the same year. In October 1927, he was arrested and imprisoned by Huang Shaohong of the Guangxi Clan.When Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui were in charge of Guangxi, they learned that He Mang was imprisoned, so they rescued him and appointed the captain of the garrison brigade.After the Baise Uprising, he served as the commander of the first battalion of the first column of the Seventh Red Army.Because of his bravery and combat skills, Hechi Reorganization was appointed as the head of the 55th Regiment of the 19th Division. "Regimental Commander, Battalion Commander Ge of the First Battalion said that the bullets sent by the military headquarters have run out again!" The messenger crawled over to report. "Then fight for the bayonet and snatch it from the hands of the dogs! Snatch it!" He Mang said. "Yes, take it from Gou Ri!" The positions collapsed one by one, indicating that a camp near the pontoon bridge and the river beach was about to fall.Battalion Commander Ge Zhihu, whose arm was blown off, held a saber and shouted hoarsely, leading a team of broadswords to slash left and right at the charging enemies. Shooting at the enemy, someone holding the opponent tightly and pulling the grenade, this extremely crazy fighting is thrilling! The whole position is like a giant who is still fighting endlessly with scars and blood.Piles of puddles of blood, in the strong choking wind, steaming pink steam In the evening, Li Mingrui arrived at the position of the 55th Regiment with a squad, four machine guns and some ammunition. "Commander Li, why are you here? We will immediately organize a breakout," He Mang reported. "You mean, give up the position right away?" Li Mingrui had always valued He Mang, but his sullen questioning tone immediately made He Mang choke. "Commander, our regiment can fight a bloody road and rush out to cover the large troops to break through." He Mang didn't know the real intention of the commander-in-chief. "He Mang, if you lose your position now, I'll chop off your head!" Li Mingrui's voice was not high, but it contained the strength of a thousand hooks, "The fifty-fifth regiment will nail the enemy here like a nail! No My order is that no single soldier is allowed to retreat!" "yes!" "Stopping the enemy is victory!" "He Mang understands!" He Mang admired Li Mingrui's loyalty and bravery, and since he joined the party, he has repaid the Communist Party with death. ——This is the soldier soul of a general who bid farewell to the old army! He Mang issued an order to the troops to fight to the end.In the bloody sky where the setting sun fell into the Cangshan valley, the enemy started fierce shelling again, showing the enemy's determination to capture the position before dark, using iron and fire to wipe out the Red Army's hope of breaking through at night. As soon as the artillery fire ceased, the enemy launched tactics into the sea, echelon by echelon advancing forward, shrinking step by step, and shouting slogans: "Catch the communists alive, and you will be rewarded for your meritorious service!" "Catch the communists alive, and you will be rewarded for your meritorious service!" "Catch the communists alive, and you will be rewarded for your meritorious service!" It was getting dark quickly.The night sky was pierced with pale marks by tracer bullets.The enemy defending the city swarmed out of the city gate in a murderous spirit, and the enemy reinforcements also outflanked the city from outside the city. Li Mingrui observed the enemy's movements through the flash of tracer bullets.He is familiar with the opponent's habit of fighting at night: only pulling the formation, not daring to approach; the soldiers are fighting in the front and shouting loudly, while the commander kicks the ducks behind.He found that after the defending enemy left the city, they advanced southward along the beach, while the reinforcement enemy spread out its two wings, forming a trend of encircling and closing in. Therefore, Li Mingrui made tactical adjustments to the fifty-fifth regiment: the first battalion blocked the enemy defending the city, the second battalion and the third battalion attacked and helped the enemy respectively, and when the two enemies approached, each battalion quickly withdrew from its position, broke through from the east of the city, and headed towards Shimen. The mountain advances rapidly. He told He Mang: Send some soldiers to search for the clothes on the enemy's corpse to wear, and when they approach the enemy, they also shout the slogan "Catch the Communists alive, and you will be rewarded for your meritorious deeds." He Mang understood the commander-in-chief's intention, put a load of bullets into the pistol, and said, "Damn it, it's worth fighting to our death once we reach ten days!" Li Mingrui scolded him: "Fart! What the revolution needs is not martyrs, but soldiers!" At 1 o'clock in the morning, He Mang commanded the first battalion to stop the enemy's attack more than a dozen times, then withdrew from the main position where there were broken limbs and corpses, and joined the second and third battalions.When the defending enemy rushed into the main position, He Mang led some soldiers who changed into enemy uniforms to approach the reinforcement enemy, and shouted the slogan: "Catch the communists alive, and you will be rewarded for your meritorious deeds!" This trick really came true. The aiding enemy regarded the defending enemy who broke into the main position as a "communist bandit", and the defending enemy also regarded the aiding enemy as a "communist bandit". In the dim waning moon, squatting on the top of Shimen Mountain outside Wugang City, with turbid and cold eyes, I stared blankly at this protracted human tragedy, and stared at the majestic and ferocious God of War with his monotonous and colorful blue iron and blood-red weapons. Colors are scribbled on the ancient canvas on the border of Hunan and Guangxi.The chaotic black crowd fell down and ran wildly in the waves of gunpowder smoke, and the noisy calls were accompanied by the sound of guns from far and near, like a hoarse commentator, facing the quite spectacular night battle. The screen, tirelessly explaining.Let them kill each other! Li Mingrui had no time to take care of these, he commanded the fifty-fifth regiment to break through to the east of the city.Suddenly, there was a strange whistling sound of shells in the air, which made the eardrums "squeak and buzz". "Lie down!!!" Li Mingrui roared with his voice pressed down, and the soldiers fell to the ground one by one as if they had hit an invisible stumbling block, and he really felt like he was hit by a stone and suddenly fell to the ground. fall down. When he turned around and sat up, He Mang's head fell to the ground with a "gudong", his whole body shrank into a ball, and he was holding the pistol tightly in his hand. Putting on the enemy officer's jacket was soaked with blood; in an instant, He Mang's feet were spread apart and stiff, and the hemp sandals were covered with black mud soaked in blood. "He Mang, He Mang, my good brother!" A loud cry never woke up He Mang, the 26-year-old head of the 55th Regiment of the Seventh Red Army...