Chapter 51 Scrambling across Wushui, the Red Seventh Army was separated into two by the enemy

When Bai Chongxi learned that the Seventh Red Army had occupied Quanzhou, he personally led a division to attack Quanzhou. Upon hearing the news, the Seventh Red Army was forced to withdraw from Quanzhou, pass Yong'an Pass on the border between Guangxi and Hunan, cross Dupangling, and march toward Daozhou (now Daoxian County) in southern Hunan. Daozhou is already an empty city.Except for the beggars begging along the street and a few poor people in the city, the merchants and rich people have long since disappeared, and many residents have also taken refuge in the mountains and forests to hide.

This is He Jian's poisonous scheme!While forcing the township governments and militia groups to force the masses to fortify the walls and clear the country, he sent spies posing as the Red Army to rape, burn, kill, and rob.When the local people heard that the "red-haired ghost" was coming, they ran away. After the Seventh Red Army occupied Daozhou, in order to quickly eliminate the fear and hostility of the local minority people towards the Red Army, the former commission sent a group of educated comrades to form a propaganda team. Slogans and slogans were written at intersections to publicize the ideas and policies of the Red Army, such as: "Down with the Kuomintang warlords!" "The Seventh Red Army is a team that fights for the poor!" "Practice non-payment of rent, non-payment of debts, non-payment of grain!"

Unexpectedly, they had only been stationed for two days, and the troops could neither raise food nor provide winter clothing, so they learned that He Jian had sent troops to attack Daozhou from Ningyuan, Lingling, and Jiahe.The Seventh Red Army had no choice but to march southward immediately, marching towards Jianghua on the border of southern Hunan. It was midwinter, with heavy snow, north wind howling, and extremely cold weather.Marching hundreds of miles a day, suffering from hunger and cold, most of the troops still wore single clothes, straw sandals, and some even wore flat-knee shorts and went barefoot. More than a hundred officers and soldiers were killed by hunger and severe cold.

The environmental conditions in Jianghua are even worse than those in Daozhou: the Yao people here wear rags and eat rice bran and wild vegetables. They live in shabby households, and everyone is unkempt, and some villages even have leaves and bark. In view of this, the front committee of the Seventh Red Army decided: 1. It is not suitable to stay here for a long time, so we can only trek again, first head to Lianzhou (now Lianxian County) in the northwest of Guangdong, then cross the Laomiao Mountain at the junction of Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, and retreat to the Guiling Mountains of Hexian County on the border of Guangxi. Find a foothold and get a temporary respite in order to develop.

2. According to needs, the troops carried out light equipment, buried heavy weapons such as cannons, and gave some redundant household items such as large iron pots, iron buckets, washbasins, etc. to the local people. 3. For the severely wounded and seriously ill who cannot walk, try to stay in the local area or try to ask someone to escort them back to their place of origin. The troops only stayed in Jianghua for two days. On the third day, as soon as the troops were assembled and ready to go, the Hunan Army and landlord armed forces from all directions attacked like locusts overwhelming the wild.The Seventh Red Army hastily organized a counterattack, retreating while fighting. Although they suffered some losses, they finally broke out.

In mid-January 1931, the Red Seventh Army crossed Laomiao Mountain and arrived at the Guiling mountainous area on the border of Guangxi. Guiling is located in the hinterland of the mountains, remote and remote, with blocked traffic, and far away from the central city ruled by the enemy, which is conducive to the rest of the troops.The former committee of the Seventh Red Army originally planned to rest here for a period of time to mobilize the masses and replenish troops.But after arriving at Guiling, I found that although this place is remote, the landlords and gentry are powerful and their activities are rampant. If heavy troops from the Guangxi family arrive, it will pose a great threat to the Seventh Red Army.

The Front Committee then convened another meeting and made a decision: 1. Guiling cannot stay for a long time, and the troops only take a short rest here. 2. Confiscate the property of reactionary bureaucrats, landlords and tyrants, and solve the problems of food, clothing and cold protection for the troops as much as possible. 3. Reorganize the troops.At this time, there were still more than 3,500 troops in the army. In order to enrich the grassroots and facilitate command, the former committee decided to revoke the designation of the division, and reorganized the original two divisions into two regiments, with the main officer concurrently serving as the regiment leader.

The original 19th Division was downsized into the 55th Regiment, with Gong Hecun as the chief of staff and Deng Bin as the political commissar. It had two battalions under its jurisdiction, with a total of more than 1,200 people.The former 20th Division was downsized into the 58th Regiment, with Li Mingrui, the commander-in-chief, and the head of the regiment, Li Qian as the deputy head of the regiment, and Xu Zhuo, the director of the political department (after Chen Haoren left, Xu was replaced in this position) and the political commissar. Jurisdiction over two battalions, a total of more than 1,300 people.At this time, the army still had six heavy machine guns and three mortars.

On January 19, the reorganized Seventh Red Army set off from Guiling, crossed Yingyang Pass, and marched again to Lianzhou in northwest Guangdong. On January 21, the Seventh Red Army marched into Dongpi, sixty miles away from Lianzhou City, and learned that there were militia groups in the city, and forced the common people to gather in the city and blockhouses and not allow them to come out.The front committee of the Seventh Red Army weighed the pros and cons, and based on Gong Hecun's suggestion, decided not to attack Lianzhou, but to go north to Yizhang, Hunan, because Zhu De, Chen Yi and others led the Yizhang uprising there three years ago.After analysis, it is believed that there is a certain mass base, and the terrain is dangerous, which is conducive to survival.

On January 23, the Seventh Red Army turned north and passed through Xingzixu Town on the way. When they heard that the Hunan Army was heavily defended in Hunan, they could not rush forward, so they turned back to Lianzhou. The Red Army turned around and returned to the south, causing the Lianzhou defenders to be extremely frightened, so they set fire to the city in an attempt to stop the Red Army.The Red Seventh Army quickly organized a commando to fight fiercely with the defending enemy while entering the city to fight the fire, so that Lianzhou City was not completely destroyed by the flames.

The actions of the Red Army greatly moved and educated the citizens of Lianzhou.Many citizens and businessmen took the initiative to raise funds and food to comfort the Red Army.Inspired by the noble spirit of the Red Army, the local church medical bureau admitted more than a hundred Red Army wounded and sick to hospital for free treatment (after these wounded and sick were cured, most of them were sent to the Central Soviet Area by the underground party organization in Hong Kong).At the same time, the Seventh Red Army mobilized the masses to fight against landlords and bullies, confiscating their floating wealth and distributing it to the poor. The Seventh Red Army rested in Lianzhou for seven days, replenished ammunition, horses, medicine, clothing, etc., and raised another 40,000 cash, and two to three hundred poor young people joined the Red Army.At this time, not only did everyone put on new clothes, but also gave each person two silver dollars, and the team expanded.Everyone was smiling and their morale was boosted! ——Looking at this moment, this hard-working, impoverished and hard-to-reach team looks roughly the same again. At this time, the general deployment of the Seventh Red Army still wanted to go north to the southern Hunan area, where it could gain a firm foothold, replenish its troops, and establish a foothold.Therefore, it was decided to turn around and head north again. On January 28, the Seventh Red Army withdrew from Lianzhou, fought fiercely with the incoming Cantonese army and militia for two days, retreated to Xingziwei, and arrived at Meihua Village in Ruyuan County, Guangdong Province (now part of Lechang County) at the end of January. It's the end of winter and early spring, the season when wintersweet flowers are in full bloom.Meihua Village is located in the Nanling Mountains on the border of Hunan and Guangdong. It is a large village with thousands of households. It is only a hundred miles away from Yizhang in southern Hunan. Knowing that the Red Army was here, Gu Ziyuan, the Propaganda Minister of the Lechang County Committee of Guangdong Province, accepted the appointment of the underground party organization and came to contact the Seventh Red Army.Gu Ziyuan brought documents such as the emergency notice of the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. After reading these documents from the Central Committee, the Front Committee of the Seventh Red Army found out that as early as September last year, when the Seventh Red Army gathered in Hechi, the Party Central Committee had already criticized Li Lisan's "Left" adventurist line. "The plan to organize a national general uprising and concentrate the national Red Army to attack the central city was stopped." what!Everything is relieved, everything is understood, and everything has come to light!All of this made all the heroes of the Seventh Red Army grieve, filled with grief and indignation: From September 1930 to January 1931, this gap in time caused the Seventh Red Army to travel thousands of miles, besieged and intercepted by the warlords of Guangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong, and to rush for their lives day and night in the midst of hunger, cold and hardship, not only losing the revolutionary base. , and the force has dropped by two-thirds! Such a big responsibility, such a big loss, such a big mistake, in retrospect, how can it not be deeply shocking!I am deeply sorry! !Deeply regret! ! ! However, the dead are gone, irretrievable, and there is no time to restore them. Deng Bin convened a meeting of the former committee in Meihua Village, and decided that the troops would mobilize the masses in the Meihua Village area, expand the Red Army, and establish a base area and Soviet regime in Xiaobeijiang (that is, the Wushui area) on the border of Hunan and Guangdong. As everyone knows, this area has always been a battleground for military strategists.The warlords of Hunan and Guangdong fought here year after year for the territory.Three years ago, the rest of the Nanchang Uprising led by Zhu De and Chen Yi staged an uprising in southern Hunan, occupied Yizhang County, and fought fiercely with the five regiments of the incoming Hunan Army Xu Kexiang, as well as heavy troops from the Guangxi Army and the Guangdong Army.After the failure of the uprising, Zhu De and Chen Yi led the remaining troops and the Hunan Peasant Army to the Jinggangshan area in southern Jiangxi, joined forces with the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army led by Mao Zedong, and established the Fourth Army of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army (later renamed the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army. Zhu De served as the army Mao Zedong served as the party representative, Wang Erzhuo served as the chief of staff, and the army has about 10,000 people).A few months ago, Zhu and Mao's Red Army (Red Front Army) also entered and exited southern Hunan many times when they attacked Changsha under the order of the "Li San Line".Therefore, whether it is the Hunan Army, the Guangdong Army, or the Guangxi Army, they are all watching this area very vigilantly. The news that the Seventh Red Army was stationed in Meihua Village was quickly known to Chen Jitang, a warlord in Guangdong.Chen Jitang quickly planned with He Jian, thinking that the Seventh Red Army "migrated thousands of miles and was restrained on all sides. When the tiger fell into Pingyang, it was not difficult to capture".That is to say, the Hunan Army and the Guangdong Army joined forces to attack from the north and the south in an attempt to annihilate the Seventh Red Army in one fell swoop. On the morning of February 3, the Seventh Red Army received information: about a regiment of troops from Deng Hui of the Cantonese Army came from Lianzhou.The Front Committee believes that the enemy has only one regiment, which is a great opportunity to wipe out the enemy.It was decided to fight the enemy here. At noon that day, both the enemy and ourselves launched an offensive.As soon as the battle started, it was discovered that the enemy's forces were definitely not a regiment, but a division, and two of the regiments came from the direction of Lechang. Bad intelligence leads to bad decisions, and bad decisions lead to failure. After more than five hours of fierce and cruel battle, more than 1,000 enemy soldiers were wiped out, and the Red Army suffered more than 700 casualties. That night, the Cantonese army stepped up its offensive, and backup troops came in a steady stream.The Seventh Red Army then withdrew from the battle at dusk and moved to the southeast mountainous area of ​​Meihua Village to fight in Meihua Village. Gong Hecun, chief of staff of the Seventh Red Army, Yuan Zhenwu, commander of the 59th regiment, and Li Xian, battalion commander of the 58th regiment, were seriously injured.More than half of the army's cadres were injured, and there were only more than 2,000 troops left. ——Deng Xiaoping had a deep memory of the battle in Plum Blossom Village. When he inspected Guangdong in 1992, he also mentioned his past combat experience in Guangdong with emotion.He said with great regret: In the battle of Meihua Village, many important cadres, such as Li Qian, were sacrificed!Like... His voice choked up. In March 1931, he returned to Shanghai to report to the Party Central Committee again. When asking for instructions, he wrote in the "Report on the Work of the Seventh Army" to the Central Committee: In view of the fact that the plan to establish a Soviet area around Meihua Village could not be realized, he decided to leave Lechang as soon as possible. , Advance to Jiangxi, find the Soviet area for a considerable period of rest.Before the troops set off, after consultation with the local party organization, the wounded and sick such as Gong Hecun, Yuan Zhenwu, and Li Xian stayed there to recuperate, and left more than 200 guns, two mortars, and some horses to the local guerrillas. The troops and the masses were armed.In order to strengthen the command, the former committee decided that Li Mingrui would concurrently serve as the head of the 55th regiment, and Zhang Yunyi would directly command the 58th regiment. On February 5, the Seventh Red Army withdrew to the Yangxi (now Ruyuan County) ferry in the southeast of Lechang, and immediately began to cross Wushui (the upper reaches of the Beijiang River) eastward. The Wushui River is wide and deep, so it is not allowed to wade in vain, and the boats at the ferry have been confiscated and burned by the Cantonese army and militia in an attempt to block and annihilate the Red Army on the west bank of Wushui.The Red Seventh Army quickly sent people around to look for boats, but only found two small boats hidden by fishermen in the reeds in Jiangtan Bay, so they had to cross in batches.Due to the small number of boats and the large number of people, the rush to cross was very slow. In the evening of the same day, Deng Bin and Li Mingrui led the 55th Regiment and the 58th Regiment with a total of more than 1,500 people who had just crossed the east bank of Wushui. The Cantonese troops from the north and south of Shaoguan and Lechang rushed to intercept them. .The 55th Regiment and the 58th Regiment of the Seventh Red Army were in a disadvantageous situation where the Guangdong Army was attacking on both sides, and the situation was very dangerous. Boom—boom—boom da da da da da The enemy first used mortar bombing and machine gun fire to block the ferry.Two ferries were hit by shells and shattered, and people who had time to disembark in the future fell into the blood-red river... On the beach beside the ferry, pack horses neighed and galloped, and the chaotic gray crowd rushed to the river bank recklessly, occupying a favorable position The enemy fought back Deng Bin and Li Mingrui felt a kind of ridicule and anger in their hearts: the enemy came to intercept at this time! "Commander Zhang and the others can no longer cross the river" "The enemy's plan is to divide and annihilate us" "We have to fight on our own!" "And we can't wait here for a long time!" "Then fight and fight against Renhua Withdraw!" "Okay, everything is up to fate!" The setting sun is like blood.The rushing Wushui roared furiously from the bullets.The corpses of horses and soldiers were lying on the river beach by the ferry.The dark sandy beach is trembling under the infiltration of blood, and the waves of the water are swaying and whispering—this is a requiem for the martyrs of the unyielding, desolate, tragic, majestic, and dull, filling the space between heaven and earth , To awaken the dead! After Li Mingrui commanded the troops to strike the Cantonese army, he rushed out a bloody road and retreated in the direction of Renhua The main force of the 58th Regiment led by Zhang Yunyi and more than 600 non-combatants including the troops directly under the army were stopped by the Cantonese Army on the west bank of Wushui.They watched helplessly that the troops on the east bank fought desperately with the enemy, and their comrades fell one by one, but they were really "watching the fire from the other side", powerless to help.Moreover, the enemy's backup troops have begun to turn around and attack them.The river was completely blocked by enemy fire. At this point, the Seventh Red Army was separated into two parts by the enemy in Wushui, lost contact with each other, and had no news at all...