Chapter 73 Tangkeng - the uprising army stumbled

When the rebel army approached Chaoshan, it was discovered that the seventh regiment under Huang Shaohong had entered Pingyuan County, Guangdong from Jiangxi, and was staring at the rebel army. If the rebel army immediately returns to attack this group of enemies at this time, it is still possible to stick to Guangdong.However, after the long-distance troops arrived in Chaoshan, they were busy with meetings, fundraising, and establishing political power. They delayed for a few days before concentrating their forces and marching into Jieyang, and then turned to Xingning. At this time, Li Jishen added the main force of the 8th regiment to Xingning. They were connected with the seventh regiment of the enemy Huang Shaoruan, two regiments of Qian Dajun's department, and about two regiments of the Chaoshan garrison of the enemy He Jiwu. Get up and echo each other from afar.

The 25th Division with the strongest combat effectiveness of the rebel army has been stationed at Sanheba.It's at least a few days' journey from there.The insurgents on different sides of the sky were in great danger of being divided and eaten.In the report afterwards, Ye Ting said that he had "proposed to abandon Chaoshan, concentrate our forces, and transport the surplus empty guns to the Hailufeng area and hand them over to the peasant army, but this proposal was not adopted because the comrades in charge disagreed."On the contrary, some leaders decided to divide the rebel army for the second time: Zhou Yiqun led the 3rd Division of the 20th Army, and some troops were drawn from Ye Ting's troops to guard Chaoshan; the rest of the troops were led by Ye Ting and He Long. Go to Jieyang.

In this way, the uprising troops have been severely reduced after going southward, and when they arrived in Dapu, Guangdong, they were less than 10,000 people; they were divided twice in Sanheba and Chaoshan, and the remaining troops were even smaller, only five or six thousand people, and the average It is already a tired army, facing the strong enemy who came to intercept and besiege, it is already at a clear disadvantage. Liu Bocheng was also one of the generals who realized the danger earlier.During the march, he made a military plan against Li Jishen, but unfortunately when he arrived in Chaoshan, his plan was put aside.The reason is as he said a few months later: "Some comrades in politics ignore the military. He said that the military is not a problem, but only depends on how they stand in politics. Most of the armed comrades feel the long-distance hardship for two months. When they see the prosperous Chaoshan , It is inevitable that there will be the performance of lingering and resting to raise funds for the soldiers. The performance of non-comrades is particularly bad, neglect and delay, and those who were supposed to concentrate on Jieyang on the 24th have not yet been fully concentrated on the 27th. This is the crime of our army's great defeat. "Non-comrade" refers to He Jinzhai, the commander of the Second Division who later disarmed.

On the evening of September 26, under the leadership of Ye He, the 24th Division of the 11th Army of the Uprising Army and the 1st Division of the 20th Army joined the Peasant Self-Defense Army led by Peng Pai and entered Jieyang City. Because the enemy Wang Junbu had retreated to the mountains and lakes in the morning, the rebel army entered Jieyang City without bloodshed.The headquarters of Ye and He were set up in Minglun Hall of Yuxue Palace in Jieyang City, and Peng Pai was stationed in the office of the former Merchants Association. In the afternoon of the same day, Zhou Enlai and Guo Moruo came from Shantou, and held a military meeting with Ye, He, Peng, etc. upstairs in Peng Pai's residence to deploy the marching plan.

In the evening, He Long assigned combat missions, Peng Pai discussed logistical support with the newly established County Workers and Peasants Committee, and Ye Ting went to attend and give a speech at the military-civilian gathering held in the East School Field.After returning, he convened a meeting of cadres above the 24th division and company, and talked about the current enemy situation: "Guangdong Li Jishen mobilized his subordinates Chen Jitang, Xu Jingtang, and Xue Yue to the Dongjiang area with more than 10,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the enemy. We. Judging from the intelligence, there are more than 1,000 enemies facing us at present, and we are sure to defeat them with our 6,000 people. As long as everyone continues to carry forward the revolutionary spirit of fighting the enemy bravely in the battle of Huichang, we will definitely defeat the enemy! "Unfortunately, this is a false intelligence.In fact, the enemy has 4 main divisions, and they occupy favorable terrain and stand ready.The strength of the rebel army is only one-third of the enemy in front.

Therefore, in the early morning of the 27th, when the rebel army advanced towards the mountain lake and Tangkeng, it was both mighty and spectacular.Thousands of workers and peasants transported food and ammunition, shouldered the boats, and marched by land and water: more than 2,000 peasant red guards rushed to the battlefield in separate routes to assist in combat and security, with a huge momentum.Therefore, after marching for more than 40 miles in the morning, there was no trace of the enemy. In the afternoon, the 24th Division was the first to encounter a small group of enemy troops. After entering the battle, this group of enemies fled, and the 24th Division followed suit.

When Ye Ting got off the line of fire and reported the situation ahead to the general headquarters, he was still very optimistic. According to his estimation, the enemy could be dealt with within three or four hours at most.When he said this, the atmosphere in the headquarters was filled with joy. The 24th Division fought very simply. After rounding the enemy's side, they fought fiercely for just over an hour, defeating Wang Jun's brigade, and the remnants fled towards Tangkeng.At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the rebel army occupied all the positions of Wang Junbu, and the headquarters of He Long and Ye Ting moved to Tanling Mountain.

Because the rebel army didn't know that there was a large army behind Wang Jun, and they won the first battle, and their morale was high, so they took advantage of the victory and pursued them without thinking much.After this pursuit, they met Xue Yue, their great enemy. Xue Yue fought against the insurgents and lost one of them.But this time he has a large number of people, and reinforcements are coming soon, so he has nothing to fear.Especially when Wang Jun was defeated and retreated, he was still cursing Wang Jun's idiot on the hill.When the rebel army advanced to a low valley, the enemy fired fiercely, forcing He Long's headquarters on Tanling Mountain to relocate several times. Often, just after moving away, dozens of shells fell on the spot and exploded.

The fighting became more and more intense, and the rebel army sent several small troops to attack the enemy's forward positions, but was forced to retreat because the follow-up troops were blocked by enemy fire.This repeated charge and kill many times, and the fierce battle continued until late at night, and finally failed.After midnight, the first part of the 24th Division was led by local Red Guards, taking advantage of the bumpy sugarcane plantations to detour the enemy's right wing, infiltrate and contact the enemy, and cooperate with the frontal attack. In the early morning of the 28th, the rebel army finally captured the Zhugan Mountain and the right-wing hilly positions occupied by Xuebu.Xue Yue was laughed at by others before he had the last laugh.General Ye Ting, who won two battles and two victories, is really a bit crazy.His mind is already hot, even if there is an iron wall in front of him, he will never look back!Victory is as alluring as a colored ball.

After Xue Yue was defeated, Chen Jitang's troops came up again.He was ordered by Li Jishen to support Xue and Wang.His eleventh division had arrived at Tangkeng the day before, deployed before dawn, and occupied most of the mountains.Because dry land and paddy fields intersect here, most of which are sugarcane fields, it is difficult to look forward to each other. Once found, it will be close to hand to hand.When most of the 24th Division rushed to the mountainside, the 4th and 5th regiments of the 20th Army's 2nd Division arrived from Jieyang, and they immediately increased their strength. The enemy retreated one after another, and the rebel army was able to completely occupy a high mountain in front.

Unexpectedly, after occupying the mountain, the enemy entered another high mountain to confront it. From 12:00 noon to 9:00 pm, the enemy still resisted.At this time, the battle is like two tides colliding with each other, one wave drowns, and the other rushes over. The two sides rush back and forth, forming a tug-of-war.You hit with a grenade, and I threw it with a grenade. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, and it was still hard to tell the winner.The enemy's strength is about 15,000, three times that of the insurgents. In the fierce battle on the 28th, Admiral Xiao Ke was a participant.He recalled the battle situation of the 2nd Battalion of the 71st Regiment where he belonged, it was a tragic epic of blood and fire: The 2nd Battalion of the 71st Regiment, under the command of Battalion Commander Liao Kuaihu, cooperated with the 1st Battalion, each company took advantage of the terrain and rushed forward under the rain of bullets.The sound of the horns that shook the enemy's gallbladder was intertwined with the shouts of the soldiers, breaking through the enemy's position in one fell swoop, the enemy retreated, captured 20 or 30 enemies, and seized a heavy machine gun.The soldiers of our second battalion chased half a mile away, entered the high mountain guarded by the enemy, and attacked the enemy's formation with their backs.At this time, the enemy brigade counterattacked down from the mountain, and we retreated to the original position.Battalion Commander Liao rearranged the team a little and commanded to meet the enemy.The enemy rushed forward with a superior force, and our second battalion fought resolutely, causing heavy casualties on both sides.Later, due to the disparity between the number of people and the widows, the position of the second battalion fell and retreated to the position of the regiment headquarters.Battalion Commander Liao stopped the retreat and assembled according to the organizational system. He ordered the relatively neat eighth and fourth companies to counterattack immediately and must regain their positions.The two companies split up and marched forward. Battalion Commander Liao accompanied the team to supervise the battle, and finally took back the position of the second battalion.The enemy fired fiercely from the opposite side of the field ridge. Battalion Commander Liao was shot and fell down. The orderly helped him. He sat on his position with tenacious perseverance, facing the enemy, and signaled to his comrades: stick to the position!Hold your ground!Then, closing his eyes, he fell down again. It was already midnight on the 28th, and Ye Ting was walking around in the command post uneasily.The adjutant sent some biscuits and milk, and the commanders talked about the enemy's situation while eating. Ye Ting suggested: It seems that the enemy is difficult to defeat at once, let's carry out a night attack.The 71st and 72nd Regiments of the 24th Division were the main attack, and the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 20th Army were the cover, under the banner of flames. It was almost dawn, but there was still no fire on the top of the mountain.Ye Ting led the staff out of the command post to watch. They encountered the enemy's shooting down the mountain, and the bullets flew in. They had no choice but to go back to the house.Ye Ting discussed with Liu Bocheng and others. Liu Bocheng pleaded with him and said: "We can't fight anymore. Our army suffered too many casualties. Counting the officers and soldiers together, there were 2,000 dead and injured, and we were unable to fight anymore." Ye Ting watched, and only then did he realize that the enemy's follow-up troops were much larger than expected. Ye Ting wanted to charge again, but now he had to give up and agreed to the retreat of the troops. For 3 days and 3 nights, many people only ate a few biscuits and drank some cold water.Grab a few mouthfuls of food after stepping back.When the third team of the teaching brigade of the 24th Division had dinner, they gathered to report the number. There were only more than 40 people left, and more than half of them were killed or injured.Seeing that there were only 40 people eating, the old cook thought that there were still troops on the front line, so he left the food aside.Someone told him not to stay, these comrades would not come back.When the old cook heard this, his eyes turned red and he burst into tears on the spot.Ye Ting was also squatting in the team to eat, and when he heard the cook cry, his heart was pierced, and he glanced at the old cook very upset, and said: "Why cry, there will always be sacrifices in war, our team is still expanding, you Maybe one day I will be a company commander!" After eating, the troops gathered and retreated towards Chaoshan. The soldiers refused to retreat and were not convinced: "We are not defeated, why retreat?" The cadres were also angry: "Dou Na mother! This is the first time I have retreated since I ate the army rations!" The soldiers of the 24th Division paid more attention to the honor of the Iron Army, and cursed on the way to retreat: "Why do you want to retreat? Damn you, why don't you fight him to death, and lose the reputation of the Revolutionary Army like this?" Reluctance to retreat and eagerness to retreat The soldiers formed two swirls, and the order was a bit chaotic. He Long was riding on a tall horse, the reins were tightened, and the horse was spinning around in place.He shouted loudly at the officers: "Comrades, these 10 years have been when I collapsed and continued to work. Why? Because I am doing revolution and I am not afraid of failure. To make revolution, The people support it. We may be killed, but the people will never cease to be killed. Now the situation is very serious, I only have two words: first, keep the green hills, and don’t worry about running out of firewood; second, I’d rather die standing than kneeling Live!" The brigade began to retreat in an orderly manner. The enemy did not pursue.It turned out that Chen Jitang didn't pay much attention to the rebel army at the beginning. When the two sides fought, he found that he was not fighting against him as his superiors explained, but the opponent was a mob.The two armies were strangled together, and no one could take advantage. His acting commander Wu Yongtai, known for his bravery and skill in combat, had died in battle at this time, surrounded by countless corpses of soldiers.He was sweating and persevering on the top of the mountain.After dawn, the rebel army began to retreat.He was a little puzzled: Ye Ting had always fought bloody battles to the end, why did he leave undefeated?He didn't dare to chase, for fear of falling into a trap. The position was in a mess in the receding gunpowder smoke. What should I do if I withdraw?The Revolutionary Committee and the Staff Group did not issue a retreat order, nor did they indicate where to go.On the way to retreat to Chaoshan, they met an adjutant of He Long. He said that Chaozhou was lost, and Shantou could not be protected, and the Revolutionary Committee had transferred to Hailufeng. Nie Rongzhen, the representative of the 11th Army Party, discussed with Ye Ting, where should they go? Ye Ting said: "Going to Hailufeng is not an option, because the 24th Division suffered too many casualties, and the 25th Division was separated at Sanheba and lost contact. The further we go to Hailufeng, the farther away from the 25th Division. no." "what is your opinion?" "Go to Fujian. The enemy there is weak. There is only Zhang Zhen's division, which doesn't have much combat effectiveness. We can find the 25th Division and take them with us." Nie Rongzhen felt that Ye Ting's proposition was also right. When Ye Ting followed Sun Yat-sen, he had carried out a revolution in Fujian, and he knew the situation there, so it was a good idea.But thinking about it again, as a party representative, he had to be cautious and think over and over again. He said: "This is not acceptable, we have not received an order, and if we leave like this, won't we become separate and act alone? Act without order No way! Let’s talk about it after we find our ex-committee.” So they turned around and headed west, passing Jieyang to Liusha.