Chapter 6 Snowy Daba Mountain

Daba Mountain is about 1,000 kilometers long, stretching across Gansu Province, Sichuan Province, Shaanxi Province and several provinces in Hubei Province. It is the boundary mountain of Sichuan Basin and Hanzhong Basin.Daba Mountain is majestic, with sheer cliffs and virgin forests, covering the sky and the sun.The Ba people were fierce and martial, brave and good at fighting. According to historical documents, the Ba people once sent troops to help King Wu defeat Zhou and King Qin to destroy the six kingdoms.In the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang built Mouyang City and Bayu Pass in Bashan according to the land of Bashu, so that the Ba people could fight for the world.Today, the Red Fourth Front Army will also enter Sichuan to mobilize the people of Sichuan to rise up for revolution and compete with the reactionary Kuomintang regime for the world.

The majestic Daba Mountain is like a giant dragon lying across the Sichuan-Shanxi border.According to local residents, it takes more than 200 miles of mountain roads to cross Daba Mountain from south to north. The so-called mountain roads are actually trails stepped by local sheep herders, herbal collectors, and merchants who traffic salt and other goods in Sichuan and Shaanxi. Before departure, the headquarters stipulated that everyone from commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian, political commissar Chen Changhao to each soldier should carry three days of dry food, a bundle of straw and three pairs of straw sandals, and prepare to sleep in the open on the top of the mountain to keep out the cold.

After several days of mobilization preparations, on December 17, under the guidance of Xiong Guobing and Liu Zicai, the 217th Regiment of the advance unit of the 73rd Division (regiment leader Hong Meitian and political commissar Wen Shizhen) set off.The task of the advance regiment was to scout out the enemy's situation, survey and mark roads, and build a simple hut every ten miles as a resting place for the wounded and sick in the large army. At dawn on the 17th, the 217th Regiment began to cross the natural barrier Daba Mountain.In the night sky before dawn, cold stars shine.The soldiers of the 217th regiment climbed up the mountain along the winding mountain road.At the foot of the mountain, there are thorns and thorns, and the trees are dense. When you walk halfway up the mountain, the trees are getting sparser.Going further up, the vegetation on the ground is sparse, and the exposed rocks are covered with a layer of ice and snow.When we went up to thirty or forty miles, the wind howled on Bashan Mountain. Under the agitation of the wind, snow particles as small as millet grains hit people's faces with pain.The strong wind wrapped snow particles and drilled them into people's mouths and nostrils, making people breathless.The officers and soldiers of the 217th regiment fought against the wind and snow for a day and a night on Daba Mountain. With Xiong Guobing leading the way, on the evening of December 18, the troops went down the mountain and entered Hetaoshu Village in Sichuan Province, and wiped out one of the Sichuan Army Tian Songyao's troops stationed in Lianghekou. The battalion opened the way for large troops to enter Sichuan.

On the 18th, large units of the Red Fourth Front Army set off one after another, and after a half-day march, they arrived at the foot of Daba Mountain. The Red Army of more than 10,000 people lined up in a long line and began a difficult trek.In the first tens of miles up the mountain, the slope was relatively gentle, the wind and snow were not too heavy, and the road was relatively easy to walk, but the further up the mountain, the worse the weather was. Eyes, cat's body, one foot deep, one foot shallow, staggering forward.Heavy snow covered the narrow path, and people walked on it, slipping step by step, and the troop moved slowly.There is a path along the mountainside, the local people call it the trouser belt road, which probably refers to its slender and curved path.This road is only 30 centimeters wide. On one side is a steep cliff with no place to climb, and on the other side is a ravine several hundred meters deep. Due to the snow and ice and the trampling of people and horses, the 30 centimeters wide path has become smooth. Mirror ice belt.The vanguard carved out ice ladders on the slippery ice road.For the sake of safety, everyone lowered their center of gravity and moved forward almost squatting on the ground, but they still heard loud cries of people and animals sliding down the deep ditch from time to time.In order to ensure safety, the soldiers tied each other with ropes and staggered forward cautiously on the ice road.

Chen Changhao, Xu Xiangqian and other front army leaders, like all the soldiers, struggled forward on the snow-ravaged mountain top. Although there were several guards around them, everyone still stumbled and fell a lot.I don't know how many cliffs I have climbed, and finally I am not far from the top of the mountain. This is the most difficult section.There are high and steep cliffs on the top, and deep and unpredictable mountain streams below. Due to the large number of people passing by, the snow track has been stepped on slippery.It was almost late at night, and there was a strong wind blowing again on the mountain.The violent mountain wind made people stagger and stand unsteadily, and the snowflakes flying all over the sky made people unable to open their eyes.Despite this, the soldiers still encouraged each other, supported each other, and moved forward with difficulty.The whole army finally climbed to the top of the mountain, and the troops took a rest on the top of the mountain.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao found that many soldiers fell asleep in the snow because of fatigue and hunger.In the severe cold of more than ten degrees below zero, if there are no protection and warmth measures, once you fall asleep, you will probably never wake up again.They shouted anxiously: "Get up, don't sleep, everyone move around, if you sleep again, you will freeze to death!"

Chen Changhao ordered cadres at all levels to quickly mobilize the soldiers to move on the spot, and never sleep on the top of the mountain.Even so, there were still many soldiers who could not resist the attacks of hunger and fatigue and fell asleep. As a result, these soldiers slept forever on the top of Daba Mountain, where the wind and snow were blowing. More than a dozen people froze to death on the top of the mountain. Xu Shiyou recalled this process in his article "Liberating Tongnanba": Probably on the night of the 18th, we received an order to cross Bashan: the troops had dinner at one o'clock, gathered at two o'clock, and set off at three o'clock.I lay on the floor and couldn't fall asleep.We were already short of clothes and shoes, and now we are confronted with bad weather, which makes it even worse and more difficult!It seems that we can only overcome the snow and cold in Bashan with fiery revolutionary enthusiasm.Thinking of this, I felt that it was necessary to encourage everyone when I set off, so I made a draft.

At two o'clock in the middle of the night, the comrades of the whole regiment braved the wind and snow, stood in an open space, stomped their feet to keep warm, and watched the brother troops marching in.I took this opportunity to check the regiment's readiness one last time. In addition to guns, ammunition and dry food, the comrades carried a bundle of straw on their backs. Some of them also carried a tree stick. With rags and rotten cotton. The wounded and sick stood in the wind and snow as energetically as everyone else.Originally, the regiment planned to leave them in southern Shaanxi to recover from their injuries, but they refused, saying, "If you die, you will die in the army."Xiong Guoqi and I decided to let our able-bodied comrades take care of them on the road, and distributed the few horses in the regiment to them.

...Before departure, I said to the comrades in the whole regiment: "Comrades! We have broken through the Manchuan Pass, we have climbed the Qinling Mountains twice, and we will definitely be able to pass the Bashan Mountains..." ... On the morning of the 21st, we finally crossed the natural barrier Bashan Mountain.When approaching the mouth of the two rivers, I suddenly heard the sound of "cracking", and the valley responded like guns firing.I thought it was the sound from the front, and ordered the whole regiment to run forward.Rushing to the street corner, it turned out that the 217th Regiment of the 73rd Division had occupied Lianghekou. The townspeople set off firecrackers to welcome our army. The doorways of every household were covered with firecracker confetti, and the streets and alleys were filled with Smoke from firecrackers.The soldiers jumped, hugged, laughed, and cheered heartily...

On December 21, all the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army, who had fought thousands of miles away, entered Sichuan. On December 22, the 10th Red Division passed the Datong River and marched towards Hongkou in the northeast of Tongjiang via Shaxi. The 11th, 12th, and 73rd Divisions of the Red Fourth Front Army headquartered in Kucaoba (now Tongjiang Yongan Town); On the 23rd, the Northwest Revolutionary Military Committee held the first senior cadre meeting after entering Sichuan in Kucaoba.The meeting decided to establish a base area on the border of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and at the same time prepare for the establishment of a Soviet government in Lianghekou, and issued the Red Army's "Ten Programs for Entering Sichuan".In this way, Kucaoba became the strategic rear of the Red Fourth Front Army, where the headquarters, logistics departments, and hospitals were all located.

After the Red Fourth Front Army threw off the enemy's pursuit and entered Sichuan, the enemy was not clear about the whereabouts of the Red Army, and they were also looking for and judging the direction of action of the Red Fourth Front Army. On December 18, the vanguard of the Red Army entered Sichuan, and on December 21, the entire army entered Sichuan. It was not until December 23 that the Zhao Shoushan Brigade of the Shaanxi Army reported: "Most of the Xu bandits have arrived in the Longchichang-Linkouzi area. The first has entered Sichuan." Hu Zongnan's first division did not report until December 30: It was reported that the vanguard of the Xu Bandit had arrived at Washiguan, fifty miles northeast of Tongjiang, on the 26th.

Several times of interception, several times of failure, facing the iron army's westward expedition, the enemy is also very helpless. The enemy is still speculating about the movement of the Red Fourth Front Army after it entered Sichuan. The large units of the Red Fourth Front Army have already launched separate operations in accordance with the instructions of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission's Kucaoba meeting to establish the Sichuan-Shaanxi Base.