Chapter 28 fierce battle horse crossing pass

After inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, the Red Army on the Eastern Front retreated, abandoning Xuanhan and Daxian, and the enemy's Fifth Route Army "recovered" the two counties at once.Wang Lingji was overjoyed. While reporting victory to Liu Xiang, he drove his troops to continue to oppress the Red Army.After defeating the Sichuan Army's repeated attacks and killing a large number of enemy troops, in mid-January 1934, the Red Army on the Eastern Front once again retreated to the front lines of Gujunba, Luowenba, Maduguan and Honglingtai. This period was the most "brilliant" period in Wang Lingji's life. He continued to attack the Red Army. The longer it is, the greater the loss of the troops, but they get carried away, thinking that the Red Army is defeated.Every time he progresses, what he does is two things: one is to report victory to Liu Xiang, and the other is to order the various ministries under his command to continue to attack.The Red Army took advantage of its aggressive advances and continued to block them, consuming its vital strength.

On the western front, the first, second, third, and fourth routes of the Sichuan Army began in mid-December, launching a full-line attack on the east bank of the Jialing River from Guangyuan in the north to Yingshan in the south.The Red Thirty-one, Red Thirty, and Red Ninth Army respectively carried out blockades at Yuanbazi and Happy Ridge in Guangyuan, Sanchuan Temple in Cangxi, Jishanliang in Langzhong, and the line from the south of Yilong City to Folou Temple, consuming a large amount of the enemy and After killing and wounding, he withdrew from Yilong City on January 11, 1934, and continued to fight against the attacking enemy at Wangcangba, Qianfoyan, Yinjiapu, and Dingshanchang.By mid-February, the position was tightened again to Wangcangba, Enyang River, Dingshanchang and Jiangkou.

Faced with the retreating Red Army step by step, Wang Lingji was very excited. He believed that this was a sign of the "collapse of the whole front" of the Red Army.Immediately order the subordinate ministries to move forward quickly.In fact, Wang Lingji is also a veteran who has fought on the battlefield for more than ten years. Could it be that he can't even see the signs of an army's collapse?Since Liu Xiang launched the first phase of the attack, although he occupied several counties abandoned by the Red Army, the strength of the Red Army was basically not damaged, and the Red Army retreated step by step. Every time Wang Lingji attacked a place, he had to pay thousands of casualties , From mid-December to mid-January alone, Wang Lingji's fifth road casualty has exceeded 5,000. Wang Lingji is desperate to move forward, but he wants to use the blood of officers and soldiers to stain his "red cap".

There is a steep pass in the northwest of Xuanhan County, named Madu Pass.Maduguan is located at the junction of Xuanhan, Jiangkou, Daxian and Wanyuan.Maduguan was originally named Langying. Langying County was established here in the ninth year of Tianbao in Tang Dynasty (750).There is a famous river in Langying called Shaxi River. There are huge stones in the river, like steles and plaques, so Shaxi River is also called Beipai River.According to legend, Zhang Fei, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms, rode a horse across the Shaxi River at night to take Bazhou, so the tablet is also called Maduguan.The Fangshanping of Yankou, Daluoping of Qingyun, and Xiangluping of Hongling around Maduguan have strange terrains and are full of cliffs. The White Lotus Sect uprising established its base here.Maduguan is backed by Langying Mountain, with many peaks and ridges, and the mountain is extremely steep. There is a cliff called Baizhang Rock, also known as Monk Rock.Due to the constant wars in Sichuan and rampant soldiers and bandits, the local people built cottages in the dangerous place of Langying Mountain to avoid the disasters of war.

Of course, Xu Xiangqian would not let go of such a strange and dangerous place. The 30th Army and the Ninth Army of the Red Fourth Army's Eastern Front Army deployed defenses along the Maduguan Langying Mountain line. In order to command from the front, Xu Xiangqian set up his frontline command post in Ma cross the border. Christ of Wang Ling urged the troops to move forward and came to Madu Pass.Faced with such a steep terrain, Wang Lingji really had a "dumb spirit". Without thinking, he ordered an attack on Maduguan. In the quiet valley, guns fired all of a sudden, and the lush Maduguan was shrouded in battle clouds.

Seeing that Wang Lingji was rampant, Xu Xiangqian called Cheng Shicai, commander of the 88th Division of the 30th Army, and pointed to the map to explain: "Wang Lingji's wild behavior here depends on the follow-up reinforcements and supplies. According to intelligence, Wang Lingji's left flank is more than ten miles behind. It is the gathering place of the enemy's soldiers, and the terrain here is very favorable for our night attack, so let your night mob group go and get him." Cheng Shicai, a native of Dawu, Hubei, joined the Red Army in 1930.He has successively served as company instructor, political commissar of the 33rd Red Regiment, commander and political commissar of the 88th Division of the 30th Red Army, deputy commander and commander of the 30th Red Army.During the War of Liberation, he served as the commander of the third column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, the commander of the South Manchurian Military Region, the commander of the Andong Military Region, and the commander of the Western Liaoning Military Region.After the founding of New China, he served as the first deputy commander of the Public Security Army, deputy commander of the Shenyang Military Region and commander of the Shenyang Garrison. In 1955, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

The 265th Regiment of the 88th Division is the famous "Ye Mo Regiment" of the Red Fourth Front Army.Cheng Shicai heard of the name "Ye Mo Tuan" when he was the head of the 33rd Regiment. After he became the commander of the 88th Division in June 1933, he immediately went to the 265th Regiment to experience it. One dark night, when the two companies of the 265th Regiment were about to set off to perform a mission, Cheng Shicai took a few staff officers and guards and hid quietly on the side of a road that the troops were going to pass through.It was a quiet and cold winter night, and Cheng Shicai hid in the withered grass half a person deep, held his breath, and quietly listened to the movement around him.Soon, there was a soft "swish" sound, and a team could be vaguely seen advancing gently and quickly.The troops were only about ten meters away from Cheng Shicai. After the troops passed by, it was like the night wind blowing gently across the ground, and the "swish, swish" sound could not be heard.The troops also disappeared into the night.Cheng Shicai was very surprised. He asked the army leaders around him, how did hundreds of people walk in the mountains at night so that the distance was equal and none of them fell?The leader said softly: "Teacher, you stare at them."

After the troops walked more than 100 meters, Cheng Shicai noticed a little light like a firefly from behind the troops.Don't remind me, I really thought it was a string of flying fireflies.The next day, the soldiers introduced to him, this is called "bamboo tube signal".Soldiers cut open one end of a bamboo tube, inserted a stick of incense in the middle, and tied the bamboo tube to the body, with the mouth of the incense tube facing backwards. As long as the people behind follow the incense in front, they will not lose contact with each other.The soldiers also told him that in order to avoid accidentally injuring their comrades in night battles, in addition to tying white towels to their arms, they also made a bamboo whistle. This kind of bamboo whistle sounds very loud and has a special sound. It can also be heard over the sound of gunfire.In the night battle, as long as you blow the bamboo whistle, you will know that the opponent is your own.Cheng Shicai immediately asked the 265th Regiment to promote the training method of "night touch" in the whole division. Later, Xu Xiangqian asked to promote it to the whole army.

Cheng Shicai assigned Xu Xiangqian's order to "move at night", and the 265th Regiment dispatched immediately after making some preparations. At midnight on January 23, the battlefield had already calmed down, the sky was covered with thin clouds, and nothing could be seen two or three meters away.This is the best weather for night touch.The 265th Regiment of the 88th Division, led by regiment leader Zou Fengming and political commissar Huang Yingxiang, sneaked through the mountains and forests in several routes, like a fish diving into the water. A team of nearly a thousand people marched in the mountains and forests without a trace of light or sound , The footsteps of "唰唰唰" are like a breeze blowing in the mountains and forests.The troops quietly headed towards Qingyun Field.Qingyunchang is a small market town in the mountains. The town is full of more than 2,000 officers and soldiers from the 12th Brigade Reserve Regiment of Fan Shaozeng's 4th Division.Under Wang Lingji's order, they hurried to Maduguan for reinforcements, because it was getting dark, and the troops camped in Qingyunchang.

The 265th regiment touched Qingyun Field at two or three o'clock in the morning on the 24th.The troops surrounded Qingyunchang, and Zou Fengming gave an order, and the grenade and machine gun fired together. Qingyunchang was immediately like a boiling cauldron, and the flames from the exploding grenades were like festive fireworks. The explosion sounded, and the Sichuan army in their sleep was like a burning beehive, scurrying around without thinking, and many people went to another world while still in their dreams.Many Sichuan troops wanted to rush out of the town. More than ten machine guns from the 265th Regiment guarded the exits of the town. shooting.In less than an hour, a regiment of enemies in Qingyun Field was wiped out.After cleaning the battlefield, the 265th Regiment quickly returned by night.When we returned to Maduguan, it was already twilight.The officers and soldiers of the two regiments of the enemy's 12th brigade were eating breakfast as a whole. The 265th regiment was beating grass and rabbits.But the enemy quickly launched a counterattack against the 265th regiment.This is the forward position of our army. When we heard the sound of the front line, the frontal troops of our army rushed out of the position immediately, and flanked the 265th regiment back and forth, and basically wiped out the two enemy regiments.That night, the Red Army wiped out three enemy regiments at once with minimal losses. Wang Lingji and Fan Shaozeng were furious when they got the news.Wang Lingji immediately ordered the artillery to bombard the Red Army's Maduguan forward position frantically to relieve his hatred.

The Madu Pass is an important point, only five miles away from the pass field in the west of the Tongjiang River. Taking the pass from Madu Pass opens the gate to the river. On January 24, Wang Lingji ordered Hao Yaoting of the Seventh Brigade of the Sichuan Army to attack Ma'anshan, and Liu Ruobi, acting brigade commander of the Eighth Brigade, to attack Maduguan. The Red Ninth Army and the Red Thirty Army that Xu Xiangqian deployed here are the most capable units of the Red Fourth Front Army, and Xu Shiyou and Chen Haisong are in charge of commanding them.The terrain of Maduguan is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Due to the terrain constraints, the enemy's attacking troops are crowded together and difficult to deploy.Liu Ruobi gathered a machine gun battalion and an artillery battalion, strafed and bombed the Red Army positions frantically, and then organized multiple infantry groups to attack in turn.But what Liu Ruobi didn't expect was that despite his ferocious firepower, the shock waves he organized were repulsed time and time again.In fact, it wasn't that Liu Ruobi didn't try his best, because the terrain of Madu Pass was so favorable to the Red Army. The sloping area of ​​Maduguan is a huge array of rocks composed of countless boulders. These rocks are round and bare, and there are no obstacles everywhere except grass and thorn bushes between the stones. The Red Army relied on these stone formations to build After several fortifications, they cut down many trees and built the trunks into a "wooden city". Even if the enemy rushed through Stonehenge, it would be difficult to climb in front of these half-meter-high and several-meter-long "wooden cities".In order to prevent the enemy from being killed by artillery fire, Xu Shiyou only placed a few people in the front fortifications to monitor the enemy, and most of the defensive troops hid in the back fortifications. When the enemy approached forty or fifty meters, the soldiers in the front fortifications suddenly opened fire. Delay the enemy's attack speed; wait for a large number of enemies to approach, a large number of soldiers quickly rushed to the front from the defensive position behind, relying on the favorable terrain and solid fortifications to fire steadily, and then jumped out of the fortifications amidst the sound of killing and rushed to the front. The enemy group was slashed with a machete and picked with a bayonet.Fighting in this way, the Red Army can not only avoid the enemy's firepower, but also use favorable terrain and features to kill the enemy to the maximum extent. Whenever the enemy launched a charge and rushed to those round, bare boulders, they would be hit head-on. They had nowhere to hide and nowhere to hide. The soldiers who charged were either killed or injured.Sometimes, the Red Army will organize troops to attack the enemy from both wings.On the first day, Liu Ruobi charged nearly ten times, killing and injuring more than 500 people, and the road of charging was strewn with corpses of soldiers.The huge rocks in front of the Red Army's position were covered with the blood of enemy soldiers. Because there were too many dead and wounded soldiers, a thick layer of blood accumulated on the stones. The blood made the stones slippery and sticky. Many soldiers who charged did not know why they slipped and fell They were still hit by bullets, and fell to the ground one after another when they almost reached the rocks. Seeing that a group of soldiers rushed up and only a few came back alive, the wounded soldiers cried to their parents: "Oh, it hurts!" "Give me another shot!" !”, Hearing the screams, the soldiers of the Sichuan army who were waiting to charge in front of the formation were frightened, and they all hesitated to charge.Liu Ruobi's face was so dark that he looked like a judge in the underworld. He brandished his pistol and kicked the cowering soldiers with his feet, but it still didn't work. The regiment-level officer supervised the battle team, pointed the guns at the soldiers' backs, and forced the soldiers to charge forward.After another day of fighting like this, there was still no progress.In two days, Liu Ruobi's brigade suffered more than a thousand casualties. Seeing that his troops were about to be wiped out, Liu Ruobi himself was dejected and did not want to fight again, but Wang Lingji did not let him go.Wang Lingji yelled at Liu Ruobi angrily: "You are human beings, and the communist army is also human. Why can't the communist army attack you but you can't? I don't believe that the communist army is superhuman, and Ma Duguan cannot be defeated!" He took the two pistol brigades of the division headquarters and Yang Qin'an's independent regiment to the front of the Eighth Brigade to supervise the battle. Wang Lingji said to Liu Ruobi sternly: "If you take Ma Duguan down for me, I will be responsible for promoting you as brigade commander." , if you can't take it down, don't blame my military law for being ruthless!" Liu Ruobi is Wang Lingji's subordinate, and he has seen the cruelty of this "Wang Lingji" many times.He knew that now it was not a question of being a brigade commander, but a question of whether he could survive.Under Wang Lingji's gunpoint, Liu Ruobi organized the troops into several reinforced companies, and imitated the Red Army. When charging frontally, he flanked the Red Army's defensive positions from both wings, and then raised a machine gun himself to lead the commando to attack the Red Army.Holding a short spear, Wang Lingji personally supervised the battle in front of the position, and promised a big reward: "The first person to capture Maduguan will be rewarded with three thousand yuan in Dayang!" Prior to this, the enemy had occupied the surrounding Yandeng Mountain, Yandui Mountain, and Luoyu Mountain. The east, north, and south highlands of Madu Guan were all controlled by the enemy. Liu Ruobi's brigade organized an attack again, and Wang Lingji transferred the artillery battalion of the third division to strengthen the artillery firepower of Liu Ruobi's brigade, and called for aircraft support.All of a sudden, the Red Army's positions were bombarded with artillery fire, aerial bombs and artillery shells exploded like rain, hundreds of light and heavy machine guns fired wildly, and shrapnel flying all over the sky weaved a dense web of death.Before the fire stopped, the enemy's death squad rushed forward.In the winter, these guys have smoked enough smoke, all of them have green eyes, are shirtless, wear red belts around their waists, hold ghost-headed swords in their hands, and rush forward while muttering.The front row was knocked down, and the rear row followed. Liu Ruobi led the assault team to attack the Red Army's forward position immediately after the Death Squadron. The bombs dropped by the enemy's aircraft ignited the defensive wooden city on the Red Army's position and the surrounding woods and grass. The fire was raging and the flames spread to the sky.Taking advantage of the fire, this time, Liu Ruobi's death squad and commando rushed to the front of the Red Army's position, but the flames on the Red Army's position prevented them from advancing.At the critical moment, with the help of God, the downhill wind blew up on the Red Army's position, and the fire fought against the wind, and the wind helped the fire, and the fire rolled straight towards the charging enemy.The thick smoke made Liu Ruobi and the soldiers of the Sichuan Army unable to open their eyes, and the flames made them unable to breathe. Lie Yan drove Liu Ruobi and the death squad back with the billowing smoke.Hundreds of people rolled and crawled back to the starting position.Hearing a few gunshots in the air, Liu Ruobi and the soldiers looked up and were dumbfounded.Wang Lingji stood on a stone, silent, his mouth was tight, his face was livid, his dark eyes were full of murderous intent, and he held a pistol that was still smoking. A mobile machine gun was aimed at the soldiers running back.Looking at the situation, Liu Ruobi understood that going forward today is also death, and going back is also death, anyway, he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, turned around and shouted at the terrified and bewildered soldiers: "Come on, let me go all the way, anyway, it's just one!" Die, I can't live, and you all don't want to live." Under Wang Lingji's gunpoint, Liu Ruobi made up his mind and led the retreating death squads and commandos to rush to the Red Army's position again regardless of anything. From the war to the 28th, the Maduguan blockade was fought for five days. According to the tactics of "tightening the position", after inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, the Red Army withdrew from Maduguan again and retreated to Dayakou and Yingbeichang.Wang Lingji finally occupied Madu Pass and Jiangkou Pass, and he reported victory to Liu Xiang again.But for more than a month, Liao Yuchen's and Liu Ruobi's troops under Wang Lingji's command had suffered tens of thousands of casualties. The troops suffered heavy losses and lost their combat effectiveness.Wang Lingji's offensive has come to an end.