Chapter 4 Bloody Battle at Manchuan Pass

After the Fourth Red Army broke out from Xinji, Chiang Kai-shek personally came to Guanghua (Laohekou) to arrange the defense along the northwest line of Xiangyang, Fancheng and Nanyang.Chiang Kai-shek ordered He Chengjun, the head of the Wuhan camp, to guard Yunyang and block the west exit of the Fourth Red Army.The enemy Hu Zongnan, Liu Maoen, Xiao Zhichu, and Fan Shisheng also followed the Red Army into the Yunyang Mountains, and Yang Hucheng of the Northwest Army also mobilized a division in Shangnan, Luonan, and Xunyang at the junction of Henan, Hubei, and Shaanxi (now Xunyang, Shaanxi). ), the Baihe area was closely fortified.

The enemy's actions made it impossible for the Red Fourth Front Army to establish a base in the Yunyang mountain area. In Nanhuatang, before they were allowed to seriously plan their next move, Liu Maoen's troops followed up again. Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao had no choice but to lead the troops Marching westward into Shaanxi while fighting, there is only one way to enter southern Shaanxi from the northwestern border of Hubei. Shaanxi is the garrison of Yang Hucheng's Seventeenth Route Army. Under Chiang Kai-shek's strict order, Yang Hucheng has made anti-blocking deployments:

The red bandits fled to the west, and our department has been divided into two districts, Ankang and Shangluo, along the line of Jingziguan-Zhulinguan-Manchuanguan-Baihe-Pingli.In terms of Shangluo, in addition to the original troops, three regiments of the 1st, 24th, and 4th Brigades of the 42nd Division and the 1st Secret Service Regiment were added. , Strictly block and suppress.In Ankang, in addition to the original Ankang appeasement commander Zhang Hongyuan's troops, two regiments of the 1st Guard Brigade and one regiment of the 51st Brigade of the 17th Division were added to Ankang, which was under the command of Commander Zhang Hongyuan and prepared to attack.

Chiang Kai-shek also fixed his eyes on Manchuan Pass, and he immediately ordered all ministries: It is reported that Xu Bandit arrived at the Yuhuangdian-Wujiafan-Tiefosi area before noon on the 7th of Yangyang, and had already crossed Zhaojiachuan Street and fled westward. Block it, and strictly order other troops to pursue vigorously, so as to annihilate Xu Bandit in the area between Manyun... On November 11, the Red Fourth Front Army entered the Kangjiaping and Renling areas of Manchuan Kanto.At this time, the three regiments of Yang Hucheng's department had already arrived one step ahead, blocking Manchuan Pass, the main throat from Hubei to Shaanxi.Hu Zongnan, Xiao Zhichu, and Liu Maoen also approached from three sides, and fierce battles broke out with the 12th and 73rd Divisions of the Red Army's rear guard.Chiang Kai-shek's intention was to compress the Red Army from west to east, and from north to south, in the forest and cliffs from Kangjiaping to Renling within a radius of ten miles.

Manchuan Pass is located on the border of Yunxi County, Hubei Province and Shanyang County, Shaanxi Province, at the confluence of Qianqian River and Jinjia River, and is a pass from northwestern Hubei to southern Shaanxi.Manchuanguan has high mountains and dangerous roads, dense forests and deep valleys. It has been an important border town since ancient times.As early as the Warring States Period, this was an important frontier defense between Qin and Chu, and all subsequent dynasties set up defenses here, and it is a place that military strategists must contend for. After reconnaissance, the troops roughly figured out the distribution of the enemy.The Renling, Leiyinsi, Qilixia, and Gumiaogou lines in the southeast were defended by the two brigades of Hu Zongnan's 1st Division; the Zhangjiazhuang and Majiawan lines in the northeast were defended by the enemy's 44th Division; , The 42nd Division cut off the Red Army's rear.Judging from the map, the Red Army was compressed by the enemy in the cliffs with a radius of more than ten miles.Our army, which had just broken out, was once again in danger.

Since various enemy troops encircled us from different directions, Hu Zongnan's troops who were closer to our army couldn't figure out what our army was in front of them for a while, so they even blew their horns to contact our army.Xu Xiangqian recalled: If at this time the enemy's foothold is not stable and the situation is unclear, we may charge forward and defeat the enemy.However, Kuang Jixun, the commander of the 12th Division, was ineffective in his command and delayed the fighter plane, so Kuang was dismissed from his post.At that time, we were outnumbered and the terrain was treacherous...it was indeed an extremely dangerous situation.At this most critical juncture, we held a meeting to study countermeasures.Zhang Guotao... proposed breaking up the whole into parts and letting the troops disperse and fight guerrillas.I said...it cannot be dispersed...if it is dispersed, cut it into small pieces, and it will be eaten by others one by one...Finally, I decided to concentrate and break through.

Chen Changhao's opinion is completely consistent with Xu Xiangqian's. He said that the troops cannot be dispersed. More than 10,000 people gather together to form an iron fist. If they are dispersed, it is like five fingers stretched out. An iron fist can strike the enemy, but the stretched fingers can only give the enemy Eat it in one bite.The troops can only break out of the encirclement in a concentrated manner so as not to be divided and encircled by the enemy. In the face of life and death, there is no room for hesitation and wavering.Chen Changhao led Xu Shiyou's thirty-fourth regiment of the Red Twelfth Division to open the way for the whole army to break through. All the twelve divisions and the seventy-three division followed up.

At this time, the whole army of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army marched in the canyon, and the peaks on both sides stood up. In the Qinling Gorge in late autumn, thousands of trees are shaking and withered. On the morning of November 11, the 34th Regiment of the 12th Red Division set off from Kangjiaping, preparing to go to Zhulin Pass in Shaanxi via Nanping.Wang Jinyong's brigade, the striker of Xiao Zhichu's Forty-Fourth Division, also overwhelmed us.The path of the Red Army is from northeast to west, and Wang Jinyong's brigade is from north to south. The Red Thirty-Fourth Regiment follows the mountain from top to bottom, and Wang Jinyong's brigade climbs from bottom to top. The two armies are about 20 miles away from Manchuan Pass. Zhangjiazhuang met head-on.

Luo Yinghuai recalled: Because the mountain obstructed the line of sight, when we found the enemy outcropping on the ridge, the distance was already very close.Therefore, the battle started not with gunshots, but with grenades and bayonets.The first battalion of our thirty-fourth regiment was the vanguard battalion of the army, and it was the first to go into battle. Zhangjiazhuang is a dustpan-shaped small alpine basin, with two small hills standing on the left and right sides like two screens, half-opened and half-covered at the intersection.The exit of the basin is blocked by a small highland in the shape of a steamed bun, and the small highland is covered with pine trees and shrubs as thick as a bowl.There were about a dozen families in Zhuangzi, and when the gunshot rang out, all the people in Zhuangzi ran away without a trace.

Because it was an encounter battle, neither the enemy nor our armies had a position to rely on, and the troops were scattered in the wild.Chen Changhao commanded the 2nd Battalion and 1st Battalion of the 34th Regiment to seize the two commanding heights at the entrance of the village in the north of Zhangjiazhuang.Chen Changhao and Xu Shiyou each held a commanding height.Chen Changhao was carrying a shucking gun and rushed to the front with a platoon. He rushed to the side and shouted: "Quick, call the machine guns of the whole regiment immediately." Following the order, more than a dozen machine guns of the whole regiment screamed wildly. Get up, and the fierce firepower blocks the enemy's follow-up troops from moving forward.

Xu Shiyou's eyes were wide open, a gray belt four or five inches wide was tied around his waist, a pistol was inserted on the left and right sides, and a machete was inserted obliquely in the back, with his sleeves rolled up.He led the striker company with more than a hundred people to rush up the hill in one go, and shouted: "Fight!" More than a hundred guns spewed out flames. The enemy was stupefied all of a sudden, and quickly retreated after dropping dozens of corpses.Wang Jinyong led a large army to arrive quickly. When he judged the situation in front of him clearly, he immediately understood the key role of these two highlands.Wang Jinyong reported to Xiao Zhichu to call for reinforcements, and at the same time organized troops to seize the commanding heights.Relying on the superiority of the enemy's numbers, companies and battalions of enemy troops launched a wave-like group charge among the uneven hills.The sound of guns rumbled in the valley, and the brutal battle lasted from morning to night, and a large number of soldiers fell in a pool of blood.The situation is dangerous. Once the enemy occupies this commanding height, the troops behind will be in danger of being blocked.Chen Changhao led the troops to stand on the ground. While commanding the battle, he shouted to the commanders and fighters around him: "We must try our best to guard this opening, otherwise, the whole army will be blocked here and cannot get through." Xu Shiyou, the head of the 34th Regiment, ordered Wu Shi'an, the commander of the Second Battalion: "You are here to listen to the command of the General Political Commissar, and you will fight as the General Political Commissar tells you. You must complete the task even if you run out of troops." A few miles northwest of Zhangjiazhuang, there is a mountain named Longshan, which is another commanding height of the Red Army's breakout channel.The enemy and the enemy are bound to compete.After Chen Changhao and Xu Shiyou started the fight, Wang Shusheng, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, immediately led the 219th Regiment of the Red 73rd Division to quickly seize Longshan. Han Jincheng, the head of the 219th Regiment, rushed to the front. When the soldiers scrambled to the top of the mountain, they couldn't help gasping. Just tens of meters in front of them, a large area of ​​the 130th Brigade of the 44th Division of the enemy was desperately climbing up.Han Jincheng immediately ordered the machine guns to fire, and several machine guns sprayed flames and suppressed the enemy halfway up the mountain.In this way, the several commanding heights that control the passage of Manchuan Pass are all in the hands of our army. The enemy quickly understood the Red Army's desperate intention to seize the surrounding commanding heights, so while bombarding the hill with artillery fire, they organized a large-scale charge in an attempt to regain control of the pass. This is a blocking battle for survival. The soldiers of the 34th Regiment and the 219th Regiment used their guns, Broadswords, bayonets, stones, and my own loyal and brave blood, desperately built an iron wall that the enemy could not overcome.The enemy's impact is like waves, continuous; the defending Red Army soldiers are like a stalwart dam, repelling the enemy time and time again.Luo Yinghuai, a veteran of the Fourth Red Army, recalled: In the fierce battle, I firmly held the red flag.In the Red Army at that time, the role of the battle flag was very important.The battle flag is a symbol of troops and victory. Where the battle flag points, the troops will rush there; where the flag is, the troops are there, and the position is there.When the commanders and fighters saw the red flag, they were full of strength and courage.Because of this, the flag bearers of each army always choose brave and clever fighters, and rush to the forefront of the army in battle.When we fight flag soldiers, we regard the flag as more important than our own lives.At this moment, while I risked my life to protect the red flag, I participated in the battle.Once, the enemy broke into our company's position, and a platoon leader hugged the enemy's machine gunner and rolled together. I was quick-witted, and raised the flagpole...I thrust the spear at the top into the enemy's machine gunner's ear...the enemy screamed With a sound, it rolled on the ground. Dozens of machine guns from both sides roared like the wind, and the cliff section was covered with bullet holes. Soldiers killed on both sides filled the mountain forest in disorder, and the flowing blood soaked the mountain road, making the road sticky and slippery. The soldier slipped and fell on the road.Xu Shiyou commanded the soldiers to gather the grenades and throw dozens of them on the enemy's position at a time. Every time the smoke from the grenade explosion and the enemy's machine gun paused, the troops rushed forward. The brutal breakout battle lasted for three days and two nights. Under the protection of the commanding heights, by the evening of the 13th, more than 20,000 Red Army soldiers rushed out of the Manchuan Pass like a torrent and entered the territory of Shaanxi. The "Battle Detailed Report" of Xiao Zhichu Department of the Forty-Fourth Division of the Kuomintang Army recorded the course of the battle: Our division was notified by Commander Liu and Commander Hu that the remnants of Xu Bandit were blocked in the area east of Manchuan Pass and were fighting fiercely with our Hu and Liu armies.With the purpose of encircling and annihilating the bandits, our division ordered Yu and Wang's two brigades to advance to Majiawan via Zhangjiazhuang and stop the bandits from fleeing north.At the same time, Chen Brigade was ordered to advance from Nanping to the area west of Zhangjiazhuang.On the morning of the 13th, my pioneer king traveled to the vicinity of the Lion Mountain in the northwest of Zhangjiazhuang, and suddenly encountered the vanguard of the Xu Bandit, fleeing to the northeast, and should be hit head-on.The bandit retreated to the high mountains in the northwest of the Lion Mountain, resisted tenaciously, and fought fiercely until noon. Because the positions of our regiments were all low and under the surveillance of the bandits, they attacked the bandits several times but failed.The follow-up troops of the bandits increased one after another, and all the 12 pseudo divisions pounced on our position many times. They were extremely ferocious. The Fourth Red Army broke through Manchuanguan and entered Shaanxi in one fell swoop. Chiang Kai-shek was in a hurry and called Yang Hucheng: Xu bandit's way to the west has been blocked by our Hu Zongnan division. In addition to ordering the division to block it and order Liu Jun to pursue it bravely, I hope that Director Yang will quickly order the troops near Zhulin Pass to go southward, and Commander Xiao will quickly supervise his subordinates to advance to Shanyang To intercept, Master Fan quickly entered the Xiangkou Town, Tumen Town, Yunxi with a strong force, and cooperated with the Hu Division and Liu Jun to attack and intercept. Yang Hucheng belongs to the local powerful faction, and he also obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's words, and resisted hard grinding. After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's call, Yang Hucheng's call back was more interesting: He Long led about 3,000 remnants of the bandits, and suddenly fled from Suijing through Tongbai and Zhaohe in Fangcheng to the area west of Baitugang in the southwest of Nanzhao... If the bandits went into Shangnan-Luonan, it would be the same as encircling and suppressing Xu bandits. It has no effect. The defense area of ​​our department is vast and there is no troops to send. Except that Commander Wu has been temporarily stationed at Zhulin Pass, and the Shangluo troops are still guarding Shangnan-Fushui Pass. They are sending troops to Luonan to intercept. . It can be seen that the local warlords listened to Chiang Kai-shek and did not listen to the propaganda, and they were unwilling to take chestnuts for Chiang. The Red Army rushed out of Manchuan Pass and entered Shaanxi, completely breaking the enemy's dream of blocking the Red Army in the deep mountains of Northwest Hubei and destroying it.In order to ensure that the large forces broke out, more than 2,000 soldiers were buried in Manchuan Pass at the junction of Hubei and Shaanxi.Xu Shiyou later recalled: "From the beginning to the end of the battle, too many cadres and soldiers died. There were more than 500 officers and soldiers in the battalion, and at the end of the battle there were only more than 80 people left." Xu Xiangqian recalled the battle at Manchuan Pass: The 34th Regiment of the 12th Red Division (regiment leader Xu Shiyou) and the 219th Regiment of the 73rd Division (regiment leader Han Liangchen) are troops that are good at fighting tough battles and fighting hard. We used the 34th Regiment to attack head-on.The 219th regiment cooperated to seize the Beishan pass and open the passage for the whole army; each of the 10th and 11th divisions resisted the enemies in the south and west.Chen Changhao directed in the front.The enemy and we fought for positions repeatedly, and the battle was fierce. In the second battalion of the 34th regiment, there were more than 500 people. In the end, there were only more than 100 people left; Han Liangchen, the head of the 219th regiment, also died.But our army finally controlled the pass, opened the channel, and broke out overnight. Zhang Guotao also clearly recorded the Battle of Manchuan Pass in "My Memories": ...Chen Changhao led a group of people and quickly seized the trail on the right side of Manchuan Pass.Chen Changhao's movements were extremely agile. In about an hour and a half, he led a dozen or so cavalry to guard the pass of the path.Xiao Zhichu was one step late, the high ground there was already occupied by Chen Changhao and his ten or so cavalry.Nai had to turn to occupy the high ground opposite the pass.In this way, they can still control this dangerous path leading to Shaanxi.But the group led by Chen Changhao arrived after them, and immediately started a battle for the hills with Xiao's troops. As a result, all the hills that could control this path were occupied by our army. We took control of the trail, out of the enemy's trap, and avoided a war that would have been unfavorable to our troops. Chen Mingyi, a veteran of the Red Fourth Front Army and former deputy commander of the Chengdu Military Region, recalled: "Chen Changhao and the soldiers fought together, cut down deer villages, and threw grenades. The brave, calm, and invincible heroism of a member of the Communist Party of China is a great example." The enemy army was very frustrated with our army's breakthrough, and wrote in the Battle of Manchuanguan in his "History of Bandit Suppression War": After bandit Xu fled westward from Manchuan Street, he was stopped by our Shaanxi army at Manchuan Pass and could not go west. Instead, he turned from the east of Manchuan Pass to the south of Shangjin, and went to the vicinity of Renling. Turning to the east, I was intercepted by our Liu army, and turned to flee to the northeast. On the morning of the 13th, I arrived near Zhangjiazhuang. On the one hand, the Shaanxi Army's anti-blocking forces were relatively weak, so they took advantage of this gap on the thirteenth day and night, and rushed away in a panic. The bandits who were about to encircle them escaped again. Although Jiang Jun chased and intercepted along the road, our army always succeeded in breaking through every time. Chiang Kai-shek supervised and urged the ministries, and the officials of the ministries always replied that they were always fulfilling their duties and were deploying the pursuit.Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he called these generals on November 10: According to the telegram, even if you chase for a thousand miles, the bandits will not be harmed, and if you chase another thousand miles, it will still be of no benefit to me. I hope that beyond the pursuit, I will quickly set up an intercepting party, work together to encircle and suppress them, gather and wipe them out... In fact, Chiang Kai-shek didn't know that the Red Army had gone all the way through mountains and rivers, going through all kinds of hardships, and the enemy army was chasing after the Red Army. It goes without saying that there were heavy casualties, even the living people suffered.Xiao Zhichu, commander of the 44th Division of the enemy, lamented in the telegram: ...For days and nights, he rushed forward without any hesitation. The mountains stretched across, the cliffs, and the cliffs, circling and circling. , There is no cover, the officers and soldiers will not have enough food for several days, and it will be the middle of winter, but they will still be undressed and barefoot, sleeping on the hillside, the cool wind will bite the bones, and they will be hungry, cold and tired. ... Our division has been chasing and suppressing for more than two months since it was ordered to pursue and suppress in northern Hubei. , although there are few supplements in the two places of Xichuan and Shangxian, they are also a bucket of rice for salary, which is useless. If you buy it anywhere, it is nothing like what you pass. They are all desolate and poor valleys, with few people and few villages. , not enough for our entire army to eat, I think the people are hard, I would rather be hungry than to ask for it, and it is already a severe winter, the road is covered with ice and snow, people and horses slip and fall, many people are injured and killed, the officers and soldiers are naked and barefoot, feel hungry and cold, and die due to illness , There will be many people every day, so it is a pity.