Chapter 32 Battle Prelude

Wanyuan is located in the northeast of Sichuan, in the heart of Daba Mountain, at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and is also the main channel and important gateway to and from Sichuan.Because of its extremely important geographical location, it is known as "Qinchuan Lock and Key". The terrain of Wanyuan slopes from northeast to southwest, with overlapping mountains and ravines.Wanyuan County is located on a flat dam among these lofty mountains.Looking around in the county, the mountains meander.The mountains in the northeast of Wanyuan are mostly karst karst landforms, with steep terrain and dense caves.Due to the dangerous terrain of Wanyuan and its connection with Sichuan and Shaanxi, it has been a battleground for military strategists in the past dynasties.

In the struggle between the enemy and ourselves, Wanyuan changed hands several times.When the Fourth Red Army fought against Tian Songyao in the "three-way siege", they captured Wanyuan. In mid-March 1934, the enemy Chen Guoshu attacked and occupied Wanyuan County. In mid-May, the 33rd Red Army once again expelled Chen Guoshu's troops and reoccupied Wanyuan County. In the beginning, Liu Xiang's "six-way siege" deployment did not focus on Wanyuan.The attacking troops deployed here are nothing more than miscellaneous troops assembled by bandits such as Chen Guoshu and Wang Sanchun.The Red Fourth Front Army did not deploy heavy troops here, only two regiments of the Red Fourth Army were responsible for guarding Sunziliang, Hua'e Mountain and the pass on the southern Shaanxi border around Wanyuan County.In late April 1934, the enemy attempted to capture Zhenlong Pass and Gaobi Village to open the gate to Tongjiang.However, Tang Shizun suffered heavy losses in the battle between Zhenlongguan and Gaobizhai. He left more than 5,000 corpses in front of the Red Army's position and was still unable to cross Zhenlongguan.If Zhenlongguan and Gaobizhai cannot be taken down, the plan of directly taking Tongjiang cannot be realized.Tang Shizun, who had pondered over the map for a few days, decided to change his plan and attack Tongjiang from east to west via Wanyuan, passing through Gongjiagou, Guanbachang, Wangxingguan, Guanba and other places.His plan was quickly approved by Liu Xiang.In Liu Xiang's fourth attack plan, he decided to concentrate his efforts on capturing Wanyuan.

The task of capturing Wanyuan was entrusted to the Fifth and Sixth Routes led by Tang Shizun.The troops of the Fifth Route are the main force of Liu Xiang's 21st Army, with more than 80 regiments of about 100,000 people.In addition to the more than 20 regiments of Liu Bangjun's 23rd Army of the Sixth Route, Liu Xiang gathered more than 100 regiments with a total of more than 100,000 people on the front line of Wanyuan. The enemy changed and we changed. In response to Liu Xiang's attack deployment, Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao made corresponding adjustments to the deployment of the Red Army:

Wang Shusheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the Fourth Red Army, led the majority of the Thirty-One Red Army to block the attacks of the enemy's first, second, third, and fourth routes on the western front by virtue of the favorable terrain of the Xiaotong River; the commander of the Tenth Division of the Fourth Red Army Chen Zaidao led his troops to station at Weijiaping and Caobachang to block the attack of the enemy Fan Shaozeng; most of the Red Ninth Army, Red Thirty Army, and Red Thirty-three Army gathered around Wanyuan County to build fortifications, defend Wanyuan, and The camera counterattacks the enemy and prepares for a strategic decisive battle across the board.

On the eve of the war, both sides were planning strategies.In Wanyuan City, the headquarters of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army was brightly lit day and night, and the radio beeped beeping.Since the beginning of the enemy's "six-way siege", under the massive attack of more than 200,000 enemy troops, the Fourth Red Army has adopted the strategy of "struggling steadily and tightening the position". Withdrawing while fighting, they abandoned fourteen counties one after another. The base area has been compressed into a narrow area east of Nanjiang, north of Tongjiang, and west of Wanyuan. City, the position has been tightened to the limit.The Red Fourth Front Army was tightly compressed into this tiny place like a spring.In order to improve the situation and boost the morale of the army, the Red Army urgently needs to launch a counterattack to defeat the enemy's attack.After repeated weighing, Xu Xiangqian believes that the enemies on the western front seem to have four groups, but they belong to different warlords, and they are not coordinated with each other. It is like a four-legged square table. If one leg is broken, the table will fall.After discussing with Chen Changhao, Xu Xiangqian decided to fight a set of combined punches on the western front to disrupt the enemy's strategic deployment and wait for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.Xu Xiangqian recalled:

The protracted war has made our base area smaller and smaller, and the difficulties are increasing day by day.A large area of ​​wheat fields, too late to harvest, was taken by the enemy.Soldiers, food, salt, medicine, and ammunition were exhausted and unsustainable. We were extremely anxious and decided to attack from the western front. In mid-June, we moved east to the city entrance with the 297th Regiment of the 33rd Army to confuse the enemy.At the same time, in order to concentrate forces, the overly prominent positions around Desheng Mountain were abandoned and withdrawn from Tongjiang County.After the 297th regiment was dispatched, it successively defeated Chen Guoshu, Wang Sanchun and other bandits, took advantage of the victory and marched eastward to capture the city entrance.

Chengkou County is located at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, bordering Zhenping, Pingli, Langao, Ziyang and other counties of Shaanxi Province in the northeast, Wuxi, Kaixian, Xuanhan and other counties in the south, and Wanyuan in the west.This action of the Red Army really caused Liu Xiang to have an illusion. He thought that the Red Army would leave Wuxi and Fengjie from the south of the city, go straight to Yunyang and Wanxian, and enter the lower Jiangdong. The three armies got through.Therefore, the first, second, and third divisions of the fifth road and Liao Yuchen's division of the sixth road were urgently moved from Tongjiang to the vicinity of Wanyuan, leaving only the fourth division of the fifth road in front of Tongjiang to Zhenlongguan. The Chen Lanting Department, Yang Guozhen Department, and Wang Zhulong Department are located between Zhenlongguan and Wanyuan.In this way, Liu Xiang's main force of more than 80 regiments and 150,000 people all moved eastward to the two- to three-hundred-mile-long front from Tongjiang to the mouth of the city.

The enemy's main force moved eastward, and the goal of mobilizing and dispersing the enemy was achieved. Xu Qiangqian decided to resolutely block the enemy's attack on the eastern front, launch a counterattack on the western front, and wipe out Deng Xihou's troops on the enemy's first line in one fell swoop.That is to say, the 25th Division of the Ninth Red Army of Xu Shiyou on the eastern front held the positions from the south of Wanyuan City to the north of Tongjiang City, and concentrated more than ten regiments on the western front at the watershed between Guimin Pass and Guanguang Temple area.

The troops had just been adjusted and had not had time to act. On June 22, Liu Shenxian gave an order that the enemy troops on the east and west fronts launched a fierce attack on the Red Army, and the enemy troops on the west front launched an attack on the Red Army stationed at the watershed.The headquarters decided to start a counterattack. At dawn on the 27th, the Red Army's counter-offensive troops gathered in the watershed were divided into three groups from the left, middle and right, and suddenly launched a counterattack against the enemy. With only one charge, the right troops rushed into the enemy's position and surrounded the two enemy regiments in Guantianba. Annihilated more than 5,000 people.The left and right sides fought fiercely all day and night, breaking through more than ten enemy positions in a row, and approaching the main enemy position, Red Deer Village.At a critical moment, heavy rain fell.

In the early summer of 1934 in Sichuan, the rain was particularly fierce. For several days in a row, the sky and the earth were vast and heavy rain poured down.The mountainous area has a large area of ​​rainwater collection, and the rolling rainwater flows into the valley bottom and immediately forms a torrent. The raging torrent is like a beast, rumbling in the valley, rampaging, destroying roads and houses, and finally all flow into the Tongjiang River.The waters of the Tongjiang River and the Tongjiang River suddenly surged, and the turbid river surface was torrenting. The river surface, which was only a dozen or tens of meters on weekdays, suddenly became more than 100 meters wide, and the two sides of the river were covered with ocean.The heavy rain blocked the enemy's attack, but the heavy rain also disrupted the progress of the Red Army's campaign.Because the roads and houses were washed away, the movement of the Red Army's troops and the transportation of logistical supplies were severely hindered, and this battle could not be fought.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao made a decisive decision: the troops stopped counterattacking, withdrew to the established position east of the Xiaotong River, and confronted the enemy across the river.

Following the failure of the last Ma'anshan counterattack, this time the watershed counterattack ended in vain.Xu Xiangqian recalled: In the Ma'anshan counterattack and the watershed counterattack, we tried to launch a counterattack, but due to immature conditions and limited concentration of troops, we failed to do so.It is necessary to stop the counterattack in time.If we disregard subjective strength and objective conditions, rush to counterattack, take risks and act recklessly, the situation will be difficult to deal with. The red army's counterattack on the western front failed, and the two armies were in a confrontation. Tang Shizun, the enemy's fifth army on the eastern front, launched an attack on Wanyuan according to the established plan, thus starting the most tragic battle since the anti-"siege of six routes". Before the war, around Wanyuan, Tang Shizun's army of more than 100,000 troops and a grain and fodder transportation army of more than 100,000 people continuously gathered to Wanyuan from various places.Through radio deciphering and intelligence reconnaissance, Tang Shizun's actions have long been grasped by the Red Army headquarters.Tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers at Hua'e Mountain, Damian Mountain, Xuanzu Hall, and Nantianmen, all around Wanyuan County, rushed to build fortifications day and night.Throughout May and June, there was a rare calm on the war-torn front.It was the night before the storm, and the tension before the decisive battle could be smelled in the air. The watershed counterattack on the western front failed, and the Red Army could only make a fuss at Wanyuan on the eastern front.If the enemy captures Wanyuan, it means that the Fourth Red Army will be completely squeezed out of Sichuan, and the Sichuan-Shaanxi base that took two years to build will be lost. will be in a very passive situation. The "six-way siege" of the Sichuan-Shanxi Soviet Area led by Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang and the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Area led by Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army were carried out almost simultaneously.These were two simultaneous strategic strangulations or strategic decisive battles conducted by the Chiang Kai-shek counter-revolutionary clique against the Central Soviet Area and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area led by the Communist Party of China.Liu Xiang and other Sichuan warlords were themselves part of Chiang Kai-shek’s counter-revolutionary military clique. Liu Xiang and other Sichuan warlords’ “six-way siege” against the Red Fourth Front Army and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area and the Chiang Kai-shek counter-revolutionary group’s “encirclement and suppression” against the Central Soviet Area and the Central Red Army were both An integral part of the struggle between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang reactionaries, the Red Fourth Army’s anti-"six-way siege" not only directly fought against the all-out Sichuan army, but also contained Chiang Kai-shek’s Central Army and many enemy troops in Shaanxi, Gansu and other surrounding areas. The struggle between the Central Soviet Area and other Soviet Areas.The anti-"siege of six routes" and the decisive battle of Wanyuan by the Red Fourth Front Army were in essence a life-and-death struggle between the Chinese Communists, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and Chiang Kai-shek's counter-revolutionary clique.From a strategic and historical point of view, the success or failure of the Wanyuan decisive battle is not only related to the Sichuan-Shanxi Revolutionary Base and the Fourth Red Army, but also to the overall situation of the Chinese revolution.At the critical moment, Xu Xiangqian proposed to "be calm, judge the situation, and resolutely 'gather all the three armies and cast them in dangerous places', and implement the decisive battle defense of Wanyuan".While defending Wanyuan, concentrate all your strength to deal a fatal blow to the enemy.Therefore, Wanyuan has become a strategic location that both sides are determined to win. Because so many strategic factors converged in this battle, and because all the main forces of both sides gathered here for a decisive battle, the Wanyuan decisive battle became the largest and most tragic battle between the two sides in the "six-way siege". The battle with the most, the worst defeats, and the greatest victory of the Red Army.In the history of Chinese revolution, the Wanyuan decisive battle was the first large-scale strategic decisive battle between the Red Fourth Front Army and the Kuomintang reactionaries. If the fight against the "six-way siege" is like a grand musical symphony, then the Wanyuan Defense War is the climax and strongest voice in this symphony. Due to the reality that the enemy is strong and we are weak, and the enemy outnumbered, the anti-"six-way siege" and the Wanyuan decisive battle will be an unprecedented severe test of the will, perseverance, courage, and wisdom of all the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army and all the people in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area. The blood and fire, life and death on the battlefield forged the "invincible" iron-blooded military spirit of the Fourth Red Army, further strengthened the revolutionary ideals and beliefs of the soldiers and civilians in the base areas, and left an extremely precious glorious tradition and spirit for the construction of China's revolutionary armed forces wealth.According to statistics, one founding general Marshal Ji, one general, fourteen generals (including ten generals in 1955 and four in 1988), thirty-five lieutenant generals, and major generals participated in the Wanyuan Defense War. Two hundred and fifty two people. Xu Xiangqian analyzed and commented on the Wanyuan decisive battle in his memoirs: The anti-siege of the Six Routes was the most difficult battle we fought in Sichuan.In the history of the Red Fourth Front Army, it can also be said to be the largest, longest-lasting, and most brilliant battle. The decisive battle defense in the Wanyuan area is the most decisive in countering the "six-way siege".If Wanyuan falls, our army is in danger of being pushed out of northern Sichuan.The enemy is desperate, and we are also desperate, "This is a bloody battle that is related to the life and death of the Sichuan-Shanxi Revolutionary Base Area. You can't do it if you don't work hard!"