Chapter 3 New Episode Breakout

After the Huangchaifan meeting, more than 20,000 main forces of the Fourth Red Army were divided into left and right groups, led by Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao respectively. Under the cover of night, they set off from Sigudun, Huangpi, and headed west quietly. On October 12, the troops crossed the Ping-Han Railway between Guangshui and Weidian. A few days later, the two armies met in Chenjiaxiang, Yingshan, in northwestern Hubei.According to the plan before the retreat, the main force of the Fourth Red Army headed west to Pinghan Road to join the Third Red Army, and then waited to fight back to the base.Unexpectedly, when the troops arrived in the hinterland of Dahong Mountain in Sui County in western Hubei, they discovered that the Red Army had withdrawn to the Tongbai Mountains.What made it even more difficult for the troops was that after leaving the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet Areas, the foundation for the Red Army's activities was completely lost.Along the way, there is no grassroots government of the party, no warm welcome from the masses, no supply of supplies, no hospitals to treat the wounded and sick, and they are chased and beaten by the enemy every day.Especially due to the information blockage and the unknown situation of the enemy and the enemy on a large scale, it is extremely difficult to act.The enemy's planes fly over the Red Army's heads every day, and inform the defenders in front and the pursuers behind them of the Red Army's course of action and direction of advance at any time. After chasing, our army faced many difficulties.

The "cooked duck" actually flew!Chiang Kai-shek was extremely annoyed, and he strictly ordered all ministries to intercept and completely wipe out the Red Army.Under Chiang Kai-shek's deployment, Wei Lihuang led the 10th Division of Li Mo'an, the 83rd Division of Jiang Fusheng, and the 34th Independent Brigade of Luo Qijiang to follow and pursue; the 1st Division of Hu Zongnan followed the road from Huayuan to Xiangyang in the north, and the 40th Division of Xiao Zhichu in the south The Fourth Division followed the north-south route along the road from Jingshan to Yicheng, and pursued in parallel; Liu Maoen's 65th Division and Feng Pengzhu's 67th Division relied on Shahe to intercept from the west.The Red Army troops moved forward with difficulty under the enemy's front, back, left, and right pursuit.Due to the bombing and strafing of enemy planes overhead, the troops had to march at night instead, and all they walked were mountain paths, which affected their speed very much. Even so, they had to walk nearly a hundred miles in one night.

At dawn on the 19th, it was still dark, and it was dark all around. The troops advanced to Xinji Town, more than 80 miles south of Zaoyang.Xinji is adjacent to Tongbai Mountain in the north, Dahong Mountain in the south and Han River in the west.Due to the continuous march, the troops were extremely tired, and they were going to rest for a while before leaving.The town is not big, and the troops filled the town from head to toe.The soldiers lay down on the ground staggering, and soon snored. Wang Chongde was from Huang'an. After the Jute Uprising, he joined the Red Army with his son.Both father and son are in the Red Eleventh Division. Due to his old age, he works as a cook in the company's cooking team.This time, the 11th Red Division served as the rearguard when we evacuated from the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet areas. Wang Chongde’s troops stopped by the bank of a small river. Have a hot meal.Wang Chongde carried a load of buckets to the river to fetch water, and it was already daylight.Wang Chongde came to the river, filled it with water, staggered towards the bank, and suddenly heard noisy footsteps in the distance. He looked up and saw a large group of people running towards the town from the embankment on the river bank with guns in hand. .Wang Chongde suddenly became nervous. His army was the rear guard, and there was no one behind us.He was shocked: Is it the enemy? !He threw the bucket and ran to the resting place of the troops, shouting and running: "The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming!"

Wang Chongde's shout also alarmed the enemy, and after a few "pa, pa", the enemy fired.The silence before dawn was suddenly broken, and the resting troops inside and outside the town were awakened by the gunshots and rushed out to meet the enemy. The enemy is Jiang Fusheng's division. They have been following the Red Army for the past few days, but they have not caught up. Yesterday Jiang Fusheng ordered the whole division to not rest day and night. Unexpectedly, they caught the Red Army by surprise in Xinji.The enemy deceived me to be the retreating army, and they didn't even have a battle formation, and rushed towards our army in a mess.The red 11th division in the rear immediately put in the block at the front lines of Dalishu and Sanlilong.The two armies fought in the field from morning till midnight.The enemy held back the Red Army, and the enemy Li Mo'an's division and Luo Qijiang's brigade also arrived and immediately joined the battle.Seeing that there are more and more enemies, the battle is gradually showing a state that is not conducive to our army.

The Red Army is the division that breaks through the siege. It is unfamiliar in Xinji, and entangled with the enemy here, which is beneficial to the enemy and not conducive to us.The most urgent task right now is to take advantage of the fact that the enemy's encirclement has not yet formed, quickly break through the enemy's encirclement, and disengage from the enemy. The terrain of Xinji is undulating, and it belongs to the hills of northern Hubei. The line from Genyaoshan to Lishudang in the northwest has been controlled by the enemy Jiang Fusheng's division. On the line from Huangjiawan to Huangjiawan, the newly arrived Wang Jinyong brigade occupied the line from Fenghuangzui to Yanjia Alley. The east, north, and west sides were encircled, and an encirclement was almost formed. Tens of thousands of troops were compressed and gathered in Songjiaji to Wujia. It is a small place with a radius of no more than ten miles, but there is still a vacancy in the south.Xu Xiangqian urgently ordered to seize the commanding heights of Daofengling, Bandenggang, Liujiagang, Sanlichang, and Dalishu along the line from Wujiaji to Songjiaji, and ordered the Red Twelve Division to seize Wutouguan, the commanding height southwest of Xinji.But the 12th Division moved a step slower. The Wutou Temple had already been occupied by the enemy's 10th Division. Xu Xiangqian then ordered Kuang Jixun, commander of the Red 12th Division, to lead his troops to attack Wutou Temple. Since the attack was from the back, the enemy resisted tenaciously. The army failed to take this stronghold.It was because the commanding height of Wutouguan was not captured, the Red Army was suppressed by the enemy's condescending firepower and suffered heavy losses.

On the morning of the 20th, the Red Fourth Front Army selected the enemy's 34th Brigade, which had weaker combat effectiveness, as a breakthrough point, and launched an attack from both sides.At the beginning, the battle went smoothly. The enemy's 34th Brigade suffered heavy casualties. The brigade commander Luo Qijiang was injured, and the officers and soldiers of the 34th Brigade retreated like a tide.The Red Army troops pursued the victory.If the Red Army can wipe out the enemy's thirty-fourth brigade, the other troops chasing the enemy will not dare to advance aggressively.At the critical juncture, the enemy's 10th Division, which controls the commanding heights of Wutouguan, suddenly attacked the Red Army pursuing the victory with intensive firepower.Due to being intercepted by enemy fire, the Red Army's offensive was frustrated, and the disbanded 34th brigade retreated to Wutouguan one after another, defending against danger, and the enemy and us formed a stalemate.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the Red Tenth and Eleventh Divisions concentrated their main force and attacked the weak positions of the enemy's thirty-fourth brigade.Wu Yunshan, head of the 33rd Regiment of the 11th Red Division, was shot and killed during the attack. At the critical moment, Cheng Shicai, the political commissar of the 33rd Regiment, stepped forward and swung his distinctive long machete to kill the enemy. The morale of the regiment was greatly boosted.During the impact, Cheng Shicai fought with several enemies, was seriously injured and passed out.At dusk, when the sun was about to fall, three brigades of the 44th Division of the enemy arrived one after another, and a brigade of the 51st Division of the enemy also entered Banqiaodian from Xiangyang via Yicheng to guard the westbound passage of the Red Army. The brigade has rushed to the bench to the north, and the Red Army is in danger of being encircled.

Wei Lihuang learned that the main force of the Red Army had been blocked in Xinji, and immediately ordered Hu Zongnan's first division to rush to the line of Banqiao and Pinglin, and Liu Maoen's troops to rush to the line of Xiongji to Gengji.Chiang Kai-shek also sent a telegram to Wei Lihuang on the same day: "Yesterday, the main force of the bandits fought fiercely with our army on the Songjiaji-Wujiaji line. Brother Wang's speed force will attack Songjiaji from Yangjiapeng in the starry night. win the final victory." On the 21st, the enemy's pursuers arrived one after another, and the superior enemy launched continuous fierce attacks on our Guanmenshan and Daofengling positions. In the afternoon, a wave of enemies broke through the front positions and went straight to the front army headquarters.

The Red Fourth Front Army headquarters usually has a battalion of guards, but that morning, because the northern line was tight, Chen Changhao led a company to help the northern line, leaving only two companies with less than 300 soldiers in the headquarters.Facing the oncoming enemy, Xu Xiangqian drew his pistol and led the staff staff of the headquarters and the soldiers of the two companies to fight the enemy.The dense gunfire in the direction of the headquarters aroused the vigilance of Ni Zhiliang, the commander of the 11th Red Division, and Li Xiannian, the political commissar: "Oops, the headquarters has been attacked!" But there were no combat troops in front of the headquarters of the 11th Division. More than a hundred people rushed to the headquarters.The soldiers of the communication company held big knives like tigers pouncing on them. The red-eyed soldiers raised their knives and dropped them with a click. Suddenly, more than a dozen enemy soldiers fell to the ground with blood splattered three feet. This momentum made the rest of the enemies The army was frightened and panicked.Seeing Li Xiannian and Ni Zhiliang arriving, Xu Xiangqian, who was fighting the enemy, immediately commanded the troops to charge back and knock down the charging enemy.

The enemy's battle on the 21st is also recorded: My two brigades, Chen and Yu, went through Bandongang-Songlin Temple to attack Daofengling-Guanmen Mountain bandits. The leader of Chen Brigade, Zhang Huchen (21st), entered Jieshan at 3:00 p.m. and saw the red flags on the hills in front of us. Lin Li was covered with bandit soldiers. The second battalion of Zhang Tuan immediately began to attack. The bandit had no idea, and captured Daofengling with one drum.Unfortunately, Zhang Huchen, the head of the regiment, was shot in the chest and died at that time, and more than 50 officers and soldiers were also injured or injured.

Luo Yinghuai, former deputy political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region, deputy political commissar of the Beijing Military Region, major general, and then platoon leader of the 34th Regiment of the 12th Red Division recalled: In one day, we fought hand-to-hand with the enemy many times... Once, when we were in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy who rushed to the position, the enemy grabbed the cloak on my body, I struggled hard, and jumped off a few meters high cliff. The enemy only took off the cloak. Throughout the day on the 21st, the battle was stalemate. The enemy's strength was several times that of ours, and enemy reinforcements continued to arrive.In the scuffle for two full days in Xinji, the two sides fought in complete darkness, and Wang Hongkun, the commander of the Red Tenth Division, was injured.At dusk, the enemy Fan Shisheng's 51st Division launched an attack from the southwest to the rear of the Red Army. Hu Zongnan's 1st Division pressed in from the northeast.If urgent measures are not taken, the Red Fourth Front Army will be in danger.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao discussed for a while, and decided not to fight the enemy, and quickly concentrated their forces to break through to the northwest where the enemy's defense force was weak. In this battle, there were a large number of wounded in the army. Now that the army wanted to break through, the wounded could not be taken away, so some of the wounded had to be placed in the homes of local villagers.Qin Jiwei, a veteran of the Red Fourth Front Army, the former commander of the Beijing Military Region, and then the company commander of the International Regiment of the Shaoxing Communist Party, was wounded in the battle. He was told to stay and resettle.Qin Jiwei recalled: One afternoon, I was restless. I know the difficulties of the superiors, and it is imperative to keep us.But anyway, I'm not willing to be left behind. I am already a member of the Red Army, and I have joined the party and become a company commander. It can be said that I have given everything about myself to the Red Army.If you don't want me now, where should I go?Here are all white areas, and the masses are not very enlightened, leaving us in the homes of the common people, asking for medicine and myrrh, it will be more or less auspicious.When the enemy came, he had no choice but to catch him without a fight.Besides, even if the injury is healed safely, where should the next step be? The more I thought about it, the sadder I became, and the more I thought about it, the more depressed I became. In the end, I made up my mind to catch up and keep up with the troops!Although his arm was injured, his leg was fine and he could still march. Don't the troops have to pack lightly?Well, I don't want anything. Aren't you afraid that the wounded will be dragged down?Well, you go ahead and I go behind, you fight as you should, and you run as you should, and I will follow wherever I can.Whenever you can't move anymore and you fall down on the spot, the revolution is considered to be over.Anyway, I just won't stay. At night, the main force of the Fourth Red Army advanced lightly, passed through the Shahe and Xianghua Highway, and moved to the northwest. The 11th and 73rd Divisions of the Red Army rushed to the forefront.Chen Changhao, Xu Xiangqian and the heads of the divisions all picked up the guys and fought the enemy together with the soldiers.In order to break out of the encirclement and win a way out, the soldiers of the Red Fourth Front Army, with the determination to fight to the death, brandished swords, gun stocks, bayonets, stones, poles and other things that could be used to fight the enemy. The two armies fought together Unable to shoot, hand-to-hand combat replaced the hail of bullets.At the juncture of life and death, what the two armies fought was brave will and indomitable spirit.Although people kept falling and were injured, no one stopped.In front of the desperately advancing Red Army, the enemy finally couldn't hold back and retreated.The Red Army took the opportunity to break out of the enemy's encirclement.Xu Xiangqian recalled the battle: The battle of Zaoyang Xinji was the most ferocious battle fought by our army since the transfer.In this battle, the situation would have been much better if our army hadn’t lost the opportunity to occupy the commanding height of Wutouguan.Although we wiped out a lot of enemies, we also suffered heavy casualties. Lin Weiquan, commander of the 31st Regiment, and Wu Yunshan, commander of the 33rd Regiment, both died. Wang Hongkun, commander of the 10th Division, was wounded. He was the leader of the regiment, who was resourceful and brave in battle, and it was a pity to die. When Zhang Guotao recalled this journey, he wrote: When marching to the Wujiaji area south of Zaoyang, our army and the enemy had the largest battle during the westward march. ...the enemy...surrounded our army from southeast, north and south, trying to force our army to retreat to the Han River and annihilate them there... At that time, we were in a passive position, and it was not easy to get out of the line of fire unless we dealt a major blow to the enemy. ...After two days and one night of melee, they finally broke through a gap in the enemy's northern line and escaped from the encirclement. ...Chen Changhao, who commanded the operations on the northern front, served as the vanguard of the retreat, and Xu Qianqian led most of the advance...Due to excessive fatigue in the past few days...Chen Changhao and most of the people were too tired to move anymore.Only a few soldiers with particularly strong bodies, such as Xu Xiangqian, could support it. Dragging his wounded body, Qin Jiwei joined the breakout army.Most of the wounded and sick left were found and killed by the enemy. After breaking out from Xinji, the troops marched overnight to get rid of the enemy. The next morning, they entered the Tuqiaopu area, ten kilometers southwest of Xiangyang, where Chiang Kai-shek laid a second blocking line.The enemy's 65th and 67th divisions are here to relax and wait for work.There is a river named Shahe on the earth bridge. The river is not deep. When the troops were wading in vain, the enemy opened fire.Encountering obstacles in the middle of the crossing is a big taboo for military strategists.As soon as the vanguard started, Xu Xiangqian immediately rushed to the avant-garde 29th Regiment of the 12th Red Division to personally direct the counterattack. The enemy waited for work with heavy troops from two divisions, and defended against danger. Unexpectedly, the exhausted Red Army would launch another attack in the middle of the crossing. The counterattack was caught off guard, and the 29th regiment took the lead in charging and wedged into the enemy's formation, fighting together with the enemy.The 32nd Regiment of the 11th Division of the Red Army and the 32nd Regiment of the 73rd Division of the Red Army respectively repelled the flanking enemies on both sides, and the enemy's ambush circle was torn a big hole.In this battle, not only defeated the blocking enemy army, but also captured two enemy regiment commanders, captured a mountain cannon, four mortars, and more than a thousand rifles. It is a pity that these heavy weapons could not be carried, so they had to be destroyed on the spot bury.Before going far, the troops were blocked by the enemy again. The Fourth Red Army marched westward this time, and the enemy's air force kept turning its head. The enemy knew exactly where the Red Army was heading. Encircled and annihilated on the way.Under Chiang Kai-shek's strict orders, the various enemy troops rushed forward aggressively. The Red Army broke through a line of blocking, but was intercepted again within a short distance.Not far from Tuqiaopu, the troops were ambushed by the enemy Peng Qibiao brigade.The marching column was cut off, and the Red Fourth Front Army headquarters and two regiments were besieged.The enemy found that many of the people in the encirclement had binoculars and mostly wielded short guns. They concluded that they were the Red Army headquarters, so they launched a frenzied attack.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao held short guns and personally led the troops to counterattack.During the scuffle, a bullet flew in and passed between Zhang Guotao and Xu Xiangqian, hitting the head of the guard Ma Baoshan who had been following Xu Qianqian, and the pony fell to the ground. bomb sacrifice. The grim situation did not allow the slightest hesitation. Chen Changhao organized more than ten machine guns to form a commando to fight and charge in front, opening the way with fire nets.Seeing the general political commissar rushing to the front, the soldiers spurted blood one by one, waving bright swords in their hands, and their roars were like howling winds.This situation shocked the enemy who set up an ambush, and they dared not approach, only dared to retreat to a distance and shoot.In the rain of bullets, people fell to the ground and sacrificed. The blood of the martyrs soaked the land in northern Hubei, and the enemy's position was also covered with mountains of blood.After fighting for half a day, the troops finally broke out of the enemy's encirclement.After several battles, the enemy had tasted the suffering of the Red Army, so they did not dare to stand out and advance aggressively, but could only follow from a distance. Seeing that the Red Army had already been encircled, he did not expect that the Red Army could successfully break out of the encirclement again. One can imagine Chiang Kai-shek's mood. On October 25, Chiang Kai-shek sent an order: The First Division, the Forty-Fourth Division, the Fifty-first Division, and the Sixty-fifth Division were organized into the Hubei-Shaanxi Pursuing and Suppressing Army, which was under the command of Director He Chengjun.The bandits are fleeing westward, and they should be followed and pursued in order to annihilate them. During the march, Zhang Guotao, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao and others discussed while walking. According to the analysis of the situation, it was impossible to return to the Hubei, Henan and Anhui bases. To break out of the enemy's encirclement, the troops could only go northwest and enter the Qinling Mountains.The troops rushed westward from Suixian and Zaoyang, first went north to Xinye and Dengxian in Henan, then crossed the Danjiang River, passed through Xichuan at the junction of Henan and Hubei, and entered the Yunyang Mountains in northwestern Hubei.Soldiers and bandits are rampant in this area, and the people have already fled to other places. The army stretches for hundreds of miles, desolate everywhere, no human habitation, thorny wilds, houses collapsed and empty along the way, no one is seen for dozens of miles, and the rivers they pass are all dry.The bleak scene is like beyond the Great Wall.The troops couldn't raise food and grass all the way, so they had to eat wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger. In the northwest of Xichuan is the rolling Funiu Mountain, and to the west is the majestic and steep Wudang Mountain.The troops advanced rapidly through the forest trails in the mountains.The small roads in the mountains are not conducive to the movement of the enemy's large forces, and the cloudy and sunny weather and the dense forests in the mountains also prevent the enemy's aircraft from moving.In this way, the troops only slightly threw off the pursuers. On October 31, the Fourth Front Army called the Central Committee to report the battle situation and the direction of action of the troops in the past few days: On the 19th, our army fought fiercely with the enemy's 10th, 83rd, 44th Divisions and 34th Brigade at Tanghe in Suixi for three days. All the positions of the division were also breached. The Forty-Fourth Division kept its position strictly, and the main points of the enemy's hold were approaching our army.On the 22nd, the Fourth Front Army broke through to Tuqiaopu in the east of Zaoyang, and met Liu Zhenhua's troops at a dangerous crossing point. The enemy approached from behind, but finally Liu Zhenhua's troops broke through and took the road to Xinye, Dengxian and Xichuan. Now they have reached the south of Xichuan. Fifteen miles away is Songwan.In this battle, thousands of firearms were surrendered to the enemy's 83rd and other divisions, thousands of people were killed and wounded, and Luo Qijiang was injured.Our army also suffered thousands of casualties.Although our army is exhausted from daily battles and long-term marches, its morale is still very high, and we are ready to fight the enemy to the death at any time. The area around Yunyang is located on the border of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, where the mountains are large and the population is sparse, the land is barren and the people are poor, and the traffic is blocked. In the first ten days of November, the first autumn frost falls, and the cold winter is approaching.The troops entered a small town called Nanhuatang in the northwestern border of Hubei, where the exhausted troops rested for three days. Nanhuatang belongs to Yun County, which is located in the south of Qinling Mountains. The rolling Danjiang River flows through the foot of the mountain in the north of the town, surrounded by endless mountains. It is far away from the center of the enemy's rule. The Red Army once established a base area in Fang County not far from here, which has a good mass base. From a military point of view, this is a good place to mobilize the masses to establish a base area.Zhang Guotao, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao and others wanted to establish a red base in the upper reaches of the Han River here.