Chapter 29 Raid on Ma On Shan

On February 16, 1934, just after the New Year's Eve, Liu Xiang convened a military meeting in Chengdu. Tian Songyao, Deng Xihou, Yang Sen, Liu Bangjun and other princes gathered in Chengdu, but Wang Lingji was missing from all walks of life.Soon, they knew that the arrogant Wang Lingji had become Liu Xiang's "prisoner", and Liu Xiang announced the revocation of Wang Ling's basic position.How could the triumphant Wang Lingji end up in this way? At the end of January 1934, Wang Lingji lost thousands of troops and occupied Maduguan. He did not realize that this was the strategy of the Red Army to "tighten the position".The strength of more than 20 regiments in the Fifth Route was wiped out and disabled by the Red Army, leaving more than ten regiments.From Kaijiang, Kaixian County to Tongjiang, the battle line is hundreds of miles long, with mountains and deep forests along the way, and the Red Army sticks to every dangerous pass. On the side, wailing day and night, no one cares about it, allowing wolves and wild dogs to bite and devour.Logistical supplies, especially food delivery, were difficult. At the beginning, three meals a day were maintained, but not long after that, two meals a day. In the past ten days, one meal a day was still empty. The troops marched and fought in the mountains all day. If you don't go to the village, there is no place to grab food.Fighting desperately every day, the soldiers could not eat a decent meal, and the officers and soldiers complained.More importantly, mid-February is the Lunar New Year. As the saying goes, "a beggar has three years". Walking on the edge, the ministers were full of complaints, and the order to attack Wang Lingji was delayed. The marching speed of the troops was less than ten miles a day, and Wang Lingji's offensive gradually weakened.However, there were also people who advanced aggressively. In the first ten days of February, Liu Cunhou’s third garrison brigade under Hao Yaoting advanced significantly faster than other troops, and penetrated into the Maduguan and Ma’anshan areas, becoming an isolated and helpless enemy far from the rear.

Ma'anshan is only a few tens of miles away from Maduguan. Here, too, there are large mountains, dense forests, and many passes and dangerous passes.Hao Yaoting's third guard brigade broke away from the main force and rushed forward, and was immediately spotted by Xu Qianqian, who was looking for a fighter.As the blue arrow on the map squirmed forward, Xu Xiangqian drew two red arrows on the map like a pair of big pliers, aimed at the blue arrow and opened his mouth wide, waiting for the opportunity. As the Spring Festival was approaching, Liu Xiang's "advancement and suppression" troops from all walks of life also rested on the spot, and Wang Lingji's fifth road also stopped.

Wang Lingji is also the man of the family, and has a wife and children. He also wants to reunite with his family in these few days.To the surprise of all the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Route, Wang Lingji, as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route, left behind tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Fifth Route, and slipped back to Wan County alone to celebrate the New Year with his family.The news of the commander-in-chief's escape was quickly learned by other senior officers. Everyone is leading the army. If you can go home for the New Year, why can't I?Soon, several senior military officers followed Wang Lingji's example and left the troops and slipped back to their hometowns.

Xu Xiangqian also wanted to celebrate the New Year, so he decided to eat Hao Yaoting's brigade as a New Year's feast.He ordered one division each of the 4th, 9th, and 30th armies to quickly concentrate on the 40-mile-wide frontal battlefield from Yanshanchang to Luowenba to wipe out the enemies protruding from the Ma'anshan area. The weather in mid-February was terrible. The weather was gloomy, with rain and snow all day long, and the temperature hovered around zero.The roads in the mountains are slippery and there is a thin layer of ice in many places. On the night of February 10, the sleet turned into snowflakes.Headquarters order: The 88th Division of the 30th Red Army has the 265th Regiment as the first echelon, the 263rd Regiment and the 268th Regiment as the second echelon, with the cooperation of the Fourth Red Army, and the command of the 30th Army Political Commissar Li Xiannian; The 73rd, 74th, and 75th regiments of the 25th Division of the Ninth Red Army were commanded by deputy commander Xu Shiyou to detour to Ma'anshan overnight and wiped out Hao Yaoting's troops.

Hao Yaoting's brigade and the seventh brigade of the enemy's third division are distributed in Luodawan, Maoba, Hujiachang and other places in Ma'anshan.The Sichuan army is already at the end of its strength, and it will collapse at the first touch in front of the ready-to-go Red Army.The 88th Division wiped out the two enemy regiments of Luo Dawan with almost no effort.Immediately, the whole army went straight to Hao Yaoting's headquarters in Maoba thirty miles away. The enemy here was also unprepared. One regiment killed and wounded more than 900 people, surrendered more than 600 guns, and captured more than 800 people.

Interestingly, Hao Yaoting had been shot dead by the Red Army, yet "Current Affairs Weekly" published the following news: (Newspaper, Wanxian, 19th) Since the second day of the first month of the abolished (old) calendar, the red bandits have secretly ordered all parties to counterattack separately and concentrate their main force on the south of Xuan and Suima Duguan. Commander Fu Lu repeatedly received spies and reported that the bandits were coming. He had already built the fortifications of the positions, and the forts and towers were well equipped. On the night of the first (11th), the bandits attacked at night with a rate of 400 to 500 people. I, Commander Hao Lu, defended In the front, take the lead, deal with it calmly, and fight fiercely for an hour. When the bandit was defeated head-on, more than a hundred prisoners were captured, and more than forty people who surrendered their weapons were ordered to follow and chase them down. People from all walks of life in the city were extremely excited when they heard the good news. , And call the front for condolences.

On the other hand, another newspaper was more honest. In March 1935, Sichuan’s “Guowen Weekly” published “Inside Information” about the Red Army’s elimination of Hao Yaoting’s troops in the article “Impressions of Red Army Suppression in Northeast Sichuan”: Hao Yaoting, the commander of the right-wing road, was in Luo Dawan, Wanyuan. Due to negligence in security, the bandits attacked at night, disarmed the guards, seized the password and military uniform, and went to the headquarters disguised as an army. All officers and soldiers were captured alive, only one master escaped.Hao Yaoting himself died in this incident—he was also the first casualty among senior officers of the Sichuan Bandit Suppression Army!

It is said that this incident was again caused by the collusion between a battalion commander under Hao and the bandits.He acted as an internal response to lure the bandits in, occupied the headquarters, and after killing Hao Yaoting, he forced all the officers and soldiers to join the bandits... When most of the bandits arrived—according to the intelligence, it was Chen Changhao who brought the capable six regiments. The bandit soldiers went—although the Hao Department completely collapsed, and even the nearby Cui Jinshan, Ma Yunping, Wang Xueju, Leng Baiyun and other departments also suffered a lot of blows.The ministries lost more than a thousand rifles, a dozen machine guns, and several mortars.

This was an extraordinary incident in Sichuan Province's campaign against the Red Army. The 88th Division killed Hao Yaoting, and the 25th Division commanded by Xu Shiyou captured Zhang Bangben, commander of the enemy's Ninth Brigade, alive. On the night of February 10, Xu Shiyou commanded the 25th Division of the Ninth Red Army, with the 73rd Regiment as the avant-garde, braved the snowflakes, and rushed towards Hujiachang along the mountain trail.The 73rd Regiment boarded the Eagle Village at a height of more than 1,000 meters at night, captured the Hongyan Highland occupied by the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the enemy in one fell swoop, wiped out a battalion of the enemy, and controlled the commanding heights in the north of Hujiachang.The 74th Regiment marched along Jigong Ridge, and the 75th Regiment marched towards Hujiachang along Luogu Mountain, encircling the enemy's 7th Brigade and the headquarters of the 3rd Division on three sides.As soon as the battle started, the enemies in their sleep were in a mess. The seventh brigade of the third division was Wang Lingji's unit, and this unit had a relatively strong combat effectiveness.After being attacked suddenly, the enemy commander immediately commanded the troops to hastily seize the high ground around Hujiachang in an attempt to resist.The characteristic of Xu Shiyou's fighting is "ruthless". He didn't give the enemy a chance to breathe, and immediately gathered his troops to launch a general attack on the enemy.Before the general offensive, Xu Shiyou gathered all the trumpeters of each company and ordered dozens of charge horns to sound at the same time.The excited and high-spirited trumpets reverberate and vibrate in the distant mountains and near the valleys, like thousands of troops coming in a row.Under the agitation of the charge, the soldiers shouted and rushed towards the enemy. The enemy who climbed up to the high ground in a hurry could not organize a decent defense. In less than an hour, the division headquarters of the enemy's third division and most of the seventh brigade of the third division He was wiped out, and Zhang Bangben, commander of the Ninth Brigade at the division headquarters, was captured alive. On the 12th, the Red Army turned around and headed west, occupied Chixi Field, and returned to march to Madu Pass.

The enemy, who was in a state of rest, was dizzy by the counterattack of the Red Army on this snowy night. After waking up, he realized that two brigades had been lost. Liu Bangjun's 23rd Army hurriedly moved the other two brigades to the west to consolidate the Hujiachang , The position south of Maobachang.The Ninth Brigade of the Enemy Middle Road extended eastward from Luodaping, consolidated its position near Aikouchang, and joined forces with the two brigades of the 23rd Army to block the advance of the Red Army. Since the Red Army adopted the tactics of tightening its positions, the Red Army has resisted steadily, retreating while fighting, and wiped out a large number of effective forces of the enemy.But Xu Xiangqian has been looking for opportunities to launch a counterattack against the enemy.This time the enemy Hao Yaoting's troops were wiped out, and the Red Army gained a local advantage. Xu Xiangqian wanted to start a counterattack from here.

From the 12th, the offensive and defensive positions of the enemy and ourselves were changed, and the Red 25th and 88th Divisions and other units launched attacks on the enemies in the Chixichang and Maobachang areas.But the terrain here is good for defense and not good for attack. If we attack hard, it will consume our army's vitality, and the enemy is not yet at its most tired.The Red Army failed to break through for two days in a row, so Xu Xiangqian immediately decided to stop the counterattack and retreat to the front lines of Maobachang, Maduguan and Honglingtai. A total of two enemy brigades were wiped out in the Ma'anshan counterattack, and the front line advanced more than 30 miles in a section with a width of about 20 miles. Liu Xiang was greatly shocked when he learned that more than two brigades had been lost, especially when he learned that the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route, Wang Lingji, was not on duty. On the other hand, Tang Shizun's First Division, Wang Zuanxu's Second Division and Yang Guozhen's Independent Brigade were rushed to aid the Eastern Front. After the New Year's Eve, Liu Xiang called Wang Lingji to fly to Chengdu for a meeting.As soon as Wang Lingji arrived in Chengdu, he was placed under house arrest by Liu Xiang, and he was dismissed from all positions for the crime of "absence of duty without authorization".Immediately, Tang Shizun, the commander of the First Division, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route, Fan Shaozeng as the deputy commander-in-chief, Xu Shaozong as the commander of the Third Division, and Zhao He as the commander of the Seventh Brigade. At this time, Liu Xiang had launched the "Six Route Siege" for more than three months. Although the Red Army gave up some towns and positions, Liu Xiang paid a heavy price for it. After Wang Lingji was dismissed, he talked about the casualties of the Fifth Route Army Zeng lamented: "The Fifth Route Army has suffered 6,000 casualties since the battle, 200 company platoon leaders, 30 battalion commanders, and 3 regiment commanders." Looking back at Liu Xiang's high-profile declaration at the inauguration ceremony that he would "eliminate all" the Red Fourth Army's "rhetoric rhetoric" in three months, it is ridiculous.So far, Liu Xiang's first general offensive had to come to a hasty end.