Chapter 25 Kaijiang encounter

After the battle at Yangliuguan, Xu Xiangqian led the 10th Division of the Fourth Red Army to pursue Liu Cunhou's troops southward and attacked Kaixian County. Xu Shiyou led the 25th Division of the Ninth Army to attack Kaijiang. Xiao Wu was fifteen years old at the time, and joined the Red Fourth Front Army after the liberation of Tongjiang. Because he had studied in a private school and was smart and quick-witted, he was assigned to the communication camp at the headquarters.Xiao Wu was wearing a slightly bulky gray cloth military uniform and a gray octagonal hat. He felt extraordinarily proud. He especially liked the octagonal hat on his head. Compete to see who is more majestic, and some soldiers always laugh at him as "smelly".

On the evening of October 31, 1933, Xu Xiangqian led his troops to camp in the Yangliuguan area west of Kaixian County.In the evening, Xu Xiangqian sent Xiao Wu to deliver letters to the troops stationed around.Xiao Wu trotted and came to a nearby village. He saw soldiers everywhere in the village. Because of the darkness, he couldn't see the uniforms of these soldiers clearly.He thought it was our army station, so he ran in to find the headquarters.Xiao Wu came here by running. He felt thirsty. He saw a light in a house and a few people wearing aprons going in and out like a kitchen, so he dived in to ask for water.Two candles were lit on the stove in the kitchen, and the flames were flickering. A few soldiers were playing dice to gamble, and a circle of people gathered around to watch. They heard Xiao Wu say that he wanted to drink water, but there was no cook. Go back, pointing to the water tank and saying, go scoop it yourself.Xiao Wu picked up the bowl on the stove to scoop water, only to hear the people around shouting, he habitually looked at the heads of these people by the light of the candles on the stove, and suddenly found that the military caps on these people's heads were wrong .Xiao Wu was startled: "The enemy?!" He turned his head and ran out.The group of enemy soldiers in the house also reacted, they chased to the door, shouted and shot.The night was dark, and Xiao Wu quickly disappeared into the night.

Xiao Wu quickly ran back to the station, panting and reported to Xu Xiangqian: "Report to the commander-in-chief, the enemy, the enemy is right around the corner." enemy?Xu Xiangqian was startled.He asked Xiao Wu to explain the location and distance of the village he just went to, and then quickly ordered to notify the troops to prepare for battle immediately. Next to Xu Xiangqian's headquarters is the 3rd Division of the 21st Army led by Wang Lingji.When the Red Army pursued Liao Yuchen's troops a few days ago, Wang Lingji did not come to rescue him. Instead, he let his vanguard search and move forward. The large army stopped and waited for the follow-up troops.Wang Lingji was not in a hurry to attack the Red Army. He didn't know how many the Red Army had. From the map, the Red Army controlled Yangliu Pass, the throat, and was backed by Daliang Mountain. The enemy's situation was unknown and the terrain was not good for him. A division went to fight the Red Army recklessly.Liu Xiang ordered the troops from all walks of life to assemble. He had to wait until all the troops from all walks of life were assembled before working together. He asked the troops to station in the village at the foot of Yangliu Pass.He didn't know that the large army of the Red Army had crossed the Daliang Mountain and entered the territory of Kaijiang in Kaixian County.

Just now, Wang Lingji was lying on the camp bed and was about to fall asleep. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside and sporadic gunfire. As a professional soldier, he woke up immediately and asked his adjutant to find out the situation.After a while the adjutant came back and said that it was too dark outside, and some soldiers said that they seemed to have seen a Red Army soldier running into the village and then ran away again.Wang Lingji stood up and paced back and forth in the room.Red Army?Is it a large force or a small reconnaissance force?Or the local eastern Sichuan guerrillas?He calculated that the Red Army and Liao Yuchen's troops fought bloody battles for several days. Although they won the victory, according to what he knew, the Red Army troops suffered heavy losses and at least had to rest for a whole day.He looked outside, and it was pitch black. Neither side could see this kind of vision clearly, even with the Red Army. Let's talk about the situation tomorrow.Wang Lingji yawned and told the adjutant: "Notify the troops to set up more sentries tonight, set the floating sentries outside the village farther away, and report any situation at any time."

Before the adjutant could go out, gunshots sounded like popping beans, and Xu Xiangqian had already led his troops to fight over.With a big knife in their hand, the Red Army entered the village for hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and the enemy army in the village was in a mess.Under the protection of the guards, Wang Lingji desperately withdrew from the village. Most of the enemy troops in the village were wiped out, and some of them fled into the boundless night. On November 3, the Tenth Division of the Red Army and the Third Division of the Sichuan Army caught fire at Yangliuguan and Yongxingchang.

Wang Lingji and Liao Yuchen's troops who retreated here and were also commanded by Wang Lingji launched a large-scale attack on the Red Army.Liao Yuchen was the most active.After escaping into Kaijiang, he was ordered to return to the command of the Fifth Route. When he reported to Wang Lingji's headquarters, Wang Lingji taunted him. It's the commander of the Fifth Route again. He is already a "defeated general" and has less than three regiments in his hands. At this time, if he challenges the "Wang Lingguan", will there be good results?He held back his breath.In this attack, Liao Yuchen took the initiative to serve as the striker in order to avenge the loss of land. He gathered the remnants and encouraged them a lot, shouting the slogan "Eliminate the red bandits and restore Wanyuan" at the meeting.His gang of remnants really summoned up the courage of the "sorrowers" and marched desperately one by one.

The third division is one of Liu Xiang's main forces, well equipped with weapons and not weak in combat effectiveness.After the fight, Xu Xiangqian discovered that this Sichuan army was indeed different from Liu Cunhou's army. Their military quality and training level were not low, and they could withstand the Red Army's offensive.Moreover, after two days of fighting, the enemy fought more and more. On the morning of the third day, three enemy planes also flew in to join the battle, and the battle became more and more intense.He felt that something was wrong, and asked people to find out the situation of the enemy. Soon, he learned from the numbers of the prisoners that the enemy army had increased to three divisions.The two sides fought fiercely for five days in Liujiaping, Miao'anzi, Tongjiagou, and Yangjiaba areas of Yongxing Field. The three regiments of Ma Yunping, the enemy's third guard, were almost wiped out. More than 5,000 people were killed and injured, and the casualties of the Red Army continued to increase. Moreover, the enemy's follow-up troops continued to move in, and the situation became more and more unfavorable.Xu Shiyou and Chen Haisong reported to Xu Xiangqian in time that the situation was wrong and there were more and more enemies, so the troops lost too much if they fought like this.

The Kaijiang and Xuanhan areas are open, and it is not conducive to the Red Army to fight when the enemy is outnumbered. Xu Xiangqian decided to adopt the policy of "tightening the position and luring the enemy to go deep" and ordered the Ninth and Thirty-three Armies on the Eastern Front to fight side by side. While withdrawing, the troops retreated step by step to Zengjia Mountain and Chiqi Mountain on the north bank of the Zhou River, and turned to defense on the spot.The anti-"six-way siege" officially kicked off. Liu Xiang, who was guarding in Chengdu, received a report from Wang Lingji that he had fought against the Red Army in Kaijiang and Kaixian County and defeated the Red Army.Liu Xiang was very happy.At the same time, he was extremely dissatisfied with the slowness of the other warlords.

On November 16, Liu Xiang issued the first general offensive order.After receiving the attack order, the various ministries behaved differently. Yang Sen was eager to regain the lost territory at the beginning, and immediately led the fourth army to advance quickly after receiving the order. The third, fifth, and sixth mixed brigades of the 20th Army fought fiercely with the Red Army. According to the plan of "tightening the position", our army fought while fighting Withdrew, and abandoned Camp Mountain on November 23.When Yang Sen re-entered the camp, he was so excited that he burst into tears.Immediately report victory to Liu Xiang, and drive the troops to continue to commit crimes in the north.

But he soon got a "taste". On the 26th, the 27th Division of the Ninth Red Army attacked Fenghuang Village more than ten miles north of Yingshan City at night, annihilating Yang Sen's 3rd Mixed Brigade in one fell swoop, and directly attacked under Yingshan City with a counterattack. Yang Sen, who had been happy for only two days, immediately became nervous.Yang Sen was very aware of his own capital. These so-called mixed brigades had a combined strength of more than ten regiments. When they fought against the Red Army, they would lose one by one. After fighting this little capital, he would be nothing.Thinking of this, Yang Sen hurriedly ordered his fifth and sixth mixed brigades to stop attacking and keep pace with other warlords. Even so, he had already lost one mixed brigade in only a dozen days. Every time he thought about it, Yang Sen felt a dull pain in his heart .In order to prevent further losses, Yang Sen used his brains.According to the article "Sichuan "Bandit Suppression" Fourth Route Army's Attack on Wanyuan and Its Defeat":

November 21st... After Yang Sen entered the camp, he lied about the battle situation and asked for rewards, and at the same time moved the army back to the camp to show that he would stick to it.At that time, the troops of the 20th Army were repeatedly beaten by the Red Army, most of the brigades were broken, and the morale of the troops was extremely weak.The brigade commanders Xia Jiong and Yang Hancheng witnessed the situation of the department at that time, and they knew that the soldiers had no fighting spirit. If they fought against the Red Army again, they would kill themselves with eggs; Severe punishment and annexation of troops.Therefore, Yang's troops neither dared to advance nor retreated, but decided to confront the Red Army on the spot for a long time.Xia Jiong then secretly suggested to Yang Sen: In order to preserve strength, it is best to send someone to secretly contact the Red Army and request that "the two sides do not fight". The Fifth Route Army commanded by Wang Lingji) in order to weaken Liu Xiang's political and military power, and also to vent the long-accumulated personal anger between Liu and Yang in the struggle for power and profit.Xia Jiong's suggestion was agreed by Yang Sen. At the beginning of 1934, Xia Jiong sent Wang Yi'e, the deputy chief of his brigade headquarters, to sneak to Tongjiang in disguise, and met with the leaders of the Fourth Red Front Army, Chen Changhao and Zhang Guotao, and reached an agreement. A "neither side to attack" agreement.Chen Changhao also sent Secretary Xu (can't remember his name) to live in Xia Jiong's brigade headquarters as a liaison.Since then, the situation on the side of the Fourth Route Army has tended to ease. For several months, the two sides guarded the original position with small troops, and only fired a few shots occasionally, and no battle broke out.By April 1934, the troops of Li Jiayu and Luo Zezhou of the Third Route Army had successively occupied Yilong and entered Bazhong. The Fourth Mixed Brigade (Brigade Commander Gao Dezhou) came to the front to participate in the attack of various armies on Bazhong and Tongjiang.In early April, Yang Sen personally led the 4th and 5th mixed brigades to attack Lancaodu, which belongs to Bazhong, and the 3rd and 6th mixed brigades followed up.The 4th Mixed Brigade first attacked the advance position of the Red Army in front of Lancaodu on the right bank of the Ba River. When the Red Army bravely blocked it, it suffered heavy casualties and retreated immediately.The Red Army took advantage of the momentum to counterattack violently, and the troops of the Fifth Mixed Brigade on the second line were also severely beaten. Hou Shiguang, the commander of the 15th regiment of the brigade, and Wang Zicai, the battalion commander, were killed on the spot. Tang Bingqing, the battalion commander, was injured. After following up the cover of the troops, they barely stabilized their position and carried out containment and rectification.Yang Sen personally led his troops to attack, but was defeated by this, so he had to take a defensive position, set up defenses on the spot, and built fortifications to defend.And after various efforts, they got in touch with the Red Army again and reiterated the previous agreement of "not attacking each other". Liu Xiang's eyes and ears were not deceived by Yang Sen's little move, and Liu Xiang began to think about eating Yang Sen. During the period of rest and recuperation after the defeat of the Sixth Route Army, Liu Xiang gradually learned about Yang Sen's secret negotiation with the Fourth Red Army on "not attacking each other" and exchanging supplies with the Red Army.Liu Xiangyou hated Yang Sen even more because Wang Lingji, Tang Shizun, Fan Shaozeng and other Fifth Route Army troops were annihilated by the concentrated forces of the Red Army, so he secretly ordered the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan "Bandit Suppression" General Reserve Army stationed in Nanchong at that time on the charge of "collaborating with the Red Army". Pan Wenhua used force to deal with the 20th Army.At that time, Jiang Zhongyong (formerly the head of Yang Sen's regiment) who was working as a staff officer in Liu Xiang's "suppressing generals" reported the above news to Yang Sen. Yang Sen was very frightened when he got the news. opponent.In desperation, Yang Sen sent an urgent telegram to Luo Xiangzhu, the representative of the army stationed in Nanjing, in various ways to express his loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek. At the end of 1934, He Guoguang, Chiang Kai-shek's staff team, was ordered by Chiang to enter Sichuan. Yang Sen immediately sent his chief of staff Liu Yong (Jun Ming) to Chongqing to find He Guoguang's secret activities, and asked He to try to transfer the 20th Army to other battlefields. to avoid being knocked out by Liu Xiang.He Guoguang and Yang Sen used to be classmates in the military officers' crash school in the late Qing Dynasty. More importantly, He Guoguang's entry into Sichuan was to implement Chiang Kai-shek's established policy of dividing the Sichuan army. Chiang Kai-shek's divide and conquer strategy.He Guoguang immediately agreed to help Yang Sen.At this time, when the Central Red Army went north and arrived in Guizhou, He Guoguang transferred all of Yang Sen’s 20th Army from the northern Sichuan battlefield to the southern Sichuan Yibin, Leibo, Pingshan, and Ebian areas in the spring of 1935 on the grounds of preventing the Central Red Army from entering Sichuan. Out of Liu Xiang's control.He Guoguang saved Yang Sen's life, and Yang Sen got closer to Chiang Kai-shek. Except for Yang Sen, Deng Xihou and Tian Songyao also looked for "shade" on the battlefield.No matter how urgent Liu Xiang's offensive order is, he will discount it when he gets to them.Deng Xihou is the most cunning general in the Sichuan Army, nicknamed "Crystal Ball" and "Monkey".This time is the same, he will never use his little money to seek the "red top son" of the King of Sichuan for Liu Xiang.Tian Songyao was beaten the hardest by the Red Army, and he knew the Red Army's combat effectiveness the most. Both of them waited and waited, and their troops dragged their feet until early December.It's not that Liu Xiang didn't see this, but at this time, he also had more energy than he wanted. The newly reorganized 33rd Red Army stationed at the line from Bajiao Field in Xuanhan to Fankoudian in Kaixian County, with a front line of more than 400 miles.Wang Lingji learned that this unit was newly reorganized from the original eastern Sichuan guerrilla army. He decided that the combat effectiveness of this unit was not strong, so he commanded the troops to launch a fierce attack on it.The Thirty-three Red Army was newly formed. Most of the more than 10,000 people in the army were recruits who had joined the army for less than a month. The equipment of the army was far behind other troops. Only a few people could get a gun. At that time, the headquarters deployed some combat backbones, political cadres and some firearms from other old troops to the 33rd Army.Although it is a new unit that has only been formed for a few days, the Red Army headquarters has already used it as the main force.The whole army was defending a front of more than 400 li. Xu Xiangqian called several times to ask Wang Weizhou if he could hold out.Wang Weizhou firmly stated: Although the 33rd Army is a new army, the soldiers are poor peasants who have just joined the army. They hate the warlords to death and have a high will to fight.The veterans of the Eastern Sichuan Guerrilla Army have rich combat experience, and the backbones transferred from various ministries can organize the troops well. Please rest assured, the commander-in-chief, we will resolutely execute orders and ensure the completion of tasks. Wang Lingji's troops launched several attacks on the positions of the 33rd Army, and several times they broke through the front positions. The soldiers of the 33rd Army rushed forward to meet the enemy's bayonets and fought with the enemy.Wang Weizhou organized several counterattacks, driving the troops of the enemy's third division back dozens of miles, until they reached Sanhuikou and Wentangjing in Kaijiang.Let Wang Lingji never dare to underestimate this army again.