Chapter 15 The fifteenth round of the Red Army approaching the Guangxi Army panicked and let the head and the tail stay in the corridor

When the time came to November 1934, the large-scale westward march of the Red Army had clearly revealed its intention of action. It was not a tactical maneuver, but a strategic shift, not southward, but westward.Only then did the Nanchang camp inform Chiang Kai-shek, who was inspecting in the northwest, that the Red Army had broken through the encirclement and marched west.Chiang Kai-shek quickly flew to Nanchang with senior Mu Liao, and arranged for a battle to encircle and wipe out the Long March Red Army in the area east of the Xiangjiang River in the south of Wuling. On November 21, 1934, on this day, two cars, one large and one small, galloped along the winding mountain road in the branch of Wuling Mountain.A row of heavily armed soldiers sat on the cart. The soldiers had stern faces and loaded their guns with live ammunition.Sitting in the car was Bai Chongxi, the leader of the Guangxi army, and beside him was his senior staff officer Liu Fei.

Wherever the car passed, it could be seen that a large number of migrant workers on both sides of the road were repairing the road and building bridges. Even the elderly, children, and women were driven to the construction site.There are also some local militia groups that are frequently mobilized in various places.There are also a group of migrant workers rushing to repair bunkers and fortifications at dangerous checkpoints.The two cars seemed to have been taken care of in advance, and all the checkpoints along the way were waved to pass.The teams passing by on both sides of the car carefully saluted the two cars.

Bai Chongxi and his senior staff officer Liu Fei turned a blind eye to all this and let the car pass by quickly.Smart people can tell at a glance that a big and vicious battle is about to be fought in the Wuling Mountain area. After Chiang Kai-shek flew back to Nanchang from the northwest, he immediately dispatched troops and generals. For a while, there were frequent letters and telegrams in the Nanchang camp, and the Xiangjiang Campaign was deployed.The Guangxi army intercepted the Xiangjiang River on the front line of northern Guangxi, and formed an iron triangle encirclement with the Central Army and the Hunan Army, striving to gather and annihilate the Red Army on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River.

Bai Chongxi received the urging of Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, and personally rushed to the front line to inspect the preparations for the implementation of the plan to block the Red Army.Two cars stopped at the foot of Longhuguan Mountain.Bai Chongxi looked up at Longhu Pass.The Longhu Pass is a majestic mountain with a steep pass, easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is indeed a dangerous pass.Since ancient times, it has been the throat of communication between Hunan and Guangxi. Bai Chongxi led Liu Fei and his party to climb to the top of the mountain.When he reached the top of the mountain, he looked to the northwest: to the west of Dupang Mountain, to the east of Xiangjiang River, to the north of Xing'an, and to the south of Quanzhou. Among the fields in Pingchuan, different peaks protrude.More than 2,000 years ago, after Qin Shihuang visited here, he set up Guilin County and built Lingqu with huge stones to divide Xiangli.

Bai Chongxi looked at the situation in front of him that was good for defense but not good for attack, imagining the fierce battle that was about to start, he shivered as if he was afraid of the cold.Liu Fei who was standing beside him seemed to be aware of it, and hurriedly said: What's wrong with you? Bai Chongxi smiled calmly, stretched out his hand to fasten the buttons of his clothes that he had untied while climbing the mountain, and asked the entourage beside him about the recent situation of the other three passes in Dupangling.Dupangling is located between Hunan and Guangxi provinces, with Dao County and Yongming County (now Jiangyong County) in Hunan to the east of the Ling, and Guanyang County and Gongcheng County in Guangxi to the west.The two provinces are bounded by a majestic and difficult-to-climb ridge.Bai Chongxi understood: If the Red Army goes out from Longhuguan in the west from southern Hunan, it can force Guilin to the west and Wuzhou to the south, which is tantamount to piercing the hinterland of Guangxi with a sharp knife.Bai Chongxi smiled coldly, and said to Liu Fei: If according to Chairman Jiang's deployment, we place our main force on the bank of the Xiangjiang River north of Lingchuan to intercept, since there is no danger on the bank, we will definitely fight with our backs. It is very disadvantageous.

Liu Fei said: Yes, in that case, the Red Army can only go west out of Longhu Pass and enter our border in Guangxi. Bai Chongxi couldn't help shivering again.His thoughts went back to 12 years ago - 12 years ago, the Jianggui War ended with the defeat of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi in Hong Kong and Vietnam.History gave them another chance. After 1930, they united with Huang Xuchu to re-govern Guangxi.At that time, after learning from the painful experience, they made up their minds to regain their glory and shouted the slogan "Rebuild Guangxi and revitalize China".Implementing the policies of "Three-Self" (self-government, self-defense, self-sufficiency) and "Three Housing" (soldiers in regiments, generals in education, and enlistment in recruitment), after several years of operation, Chiang Kai-shek praised it as a "model province".

Bai Chongxi knew that this was Chiang Kai-shek's usual tactic. The reason was that the existence of the Jiangxi Red Army made Chiang Kai-shek unable to deal with the Gui army who had been at odds with Chiang.On the surface, Chiang Kai-shek could only hate in his heart, smile on his face, and united with the Guangxi army to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army.They knew in their hearts that the existence of the Red Army had become an obstacle in Guangxi's defense against Chiang Kai-shek's annexation.thus.In the summer of 1923, Chiang Kai-shek asked Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to send troops to Jiangxi to participate in the "suppression" of the Red Army. Bai Chongxi had to send two regiments, and later sent two more regiments under Chiang Kai-shek's pressure.But when the troops set off, Wang Zanbin, the commander of the 44th Division led by Bai Chongxi, said: Guangxi is barren and poor, and cannot support more soldiers. We went this time to supply Lao Jiang.It is not easy for the children of Guangxi to be soldiers. You must come back intact, and you must not lose a soldier or a gun.The day when the Red Army failed was also the day when Jiang destroyed us.

Wang Zanbin, the commander of the 44th Division, has learned the essentials. After arriving at the front line in Jiangxi, he only built fortifications and did not send troops, forming a confrontation with the Red Army.Under Chiang Kai-shek's repeated urging, even if troops were sent out, they would just put on a show, fire a few shots indiscriminately, and then withdraw immediately. Now that the Jiangxi Red Army has failed, Guangxi is immediately facing the threat of survival.Bai Chongxi was afraid that the Red Army would flee into Guangxi, and he was even more afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would take the opportunity to take over his old nest.

In early November, Chiang Kai-shek sent several telegrams asking the Guangxi army to intercept the Red Army on the Xiangjiang River. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi also felt the seriousness of the matter.They held a high-level military meeting overnight at the Fourth Army headquarters in Nanning. Governor Huang Xuchu, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army Ye Qi, Commander of the 7th Army Liao Lei, Deputy Commander of the 15th Army Xia Wei attended the meeting. Li Zongren said sullenly: With the Red Army fleeing this time, the central government should besiege Jiangxi on all sides and wipe out the Red Army on the spot.In order to protect their strength, the Cantonese army did not fight the Red Army, so the Red Army fled into Hunan.

Lao Jiang also ordered us to intercept the Red Army on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River. This will inevitably force the Red Army to enter Guangxi.Chiang Kai-shek also used propaganda agencies to say that we were in collusion with the Communist Army.As you can imagine, the situation we are facing is very serious, and Lao Jiang has sinister intentions... Standing in front of the map, Bai Chongxi analyzed several possibilities for the Red Army: one is to go deep into the hinterland of Guangxi; the other is to drive directly to Guizhou and establish a new base there; the third possibility is to attack Sichuan and occupy the land of abundance.After reviewing one by one, among the three possibilities, the possibility of the Red Army entering Sichuan is the most likely. Sichuan is a basin surrounded by mountains, and its interior is currently torn apart, far away from the control of the central government. It is the most ideal place for the Communist Party to gain a foothold.After inferences one by one, it is less likely that the Red Army will enter Guangxi. The Red Army is only passing through Guangxi and will not gain a foothold in Guangxi.Under such circumstances, should the Red Army be intercepted?

Everyone started discussing in a hurry and analyzed the situation in various aspects. The Red Army had 100,000 horses and was coming fiercely. Although they failed and left, they were still struggling.The total strength of Guangxi is only two armies and 16 regiments. Liao Lei's 7th Army and Xia Wei's 15th Army have a total strength of more than 20,000 troops. It's a dead end.If this situation occurs, that is what Chiang is most happy to see. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek will send troops in, and Guangxi will immediately become Chiang Kai-shek's world. In this case, everyone quickly unified their thinking, and formulated a general policy for dealing with the Red Army that night.That is, try to prevent the Red Army from entering the interior of Guangxi, and would rather give up a corridor in northern Guangxi to let the Red Army pass through, and let the Red Army go to Hunan or Guizhou.As the Red Army passed, the camera made side shots, hitting the tail but not the head. At this time, Bai Chongxi got information through the Shanghai Kuomintang's insider: Chiang Kai-shek wanted to force the Red Army to flee from the areas on both sides of Longhuguan to Pingyang, Zhaoping, and Cangwu, so he used the main force to expel them eastward into Xinhui and Yangchun areas of Guangdong, or along Luoyang. Ding and Lianjiang forced their way into the Leizhou Peninsula. It is estimated that the troops from Guangdong and Guangxi will be insufficient to deal with it, and they cannot resist Jiang's massive entry. After reading the secret telegram, Bai Chongxi sighed: Such a vicious plan, we were almost fooled. Bai Chongxi sent the secret telegram to Li Zongren.After reading the telegram, Li Zongren also felt that the situation was serious. According to the news of the Red Army from the Nanchang camp, the vanguard of the Red Army had already appeared in Jiahe, Hunan.In the past few days, the two had many secret talks. Should they compromise with the Communist Party to deal with Chiang Kai-shek?They had already learned that the "Southern Heavenly King" had secretly connected with Zhou Enlai, and this time the Red Army took Chen Jitang's defense zone and successfully passed the border between southern Jiangxi and northern Guangdong, which was beneficial to the Red Army and also beneficial to Jitang. Both Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi secretly hated not being able to connect with the Communist army as soon as possible. In fact, Li and Bai had plans for a long time ago. When there were rumors that the Red Army was approaching Guangxi, Li and Bai sent Liu Shaonan to Tianjin to get in touch with Ji Hongchang there. Ji Hongchang was the chairman of Ningxia Province of the Kuomintang, the commander-in-chief of the 22nd Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the commander of the 30th Army. Because he opposed the attack on the Red Army, he was relieved of his military post by Chiang Kai-shek and ordered to go abroad for "investigation".In 1932, after the Songhu Defense War broke out, he returned to China and joined the Communist Party. In 1933, he united Feng Yuxiang, Fang Zhenwu and others to organize the Chasui Anti-Japanese Allied Army in Zhangjiakou, and fought bloody against the Japanese. They were encircled by the Japanese army and the Jiang army. Although they were defeated, their reputation spread far and wide.At this time, Li and Bai sent people to contact Ji Hongchang. Their purpose was to reach some kind of secret agreement with the Red Army, and the two armies would not harm each other. But Liu Shaonan who sought out Ji Hongchang for a connection did not succeed.At that time, Ji Hongchang was under the strict surveillance of Chiang Kai-shek, and the military commander wanted to kill Ji Hongchang all the time. Liu Shaonan finally met Ji Hongchang in Room 45 on the second floor of the National Hotel in the French Concession in Tianjin. For the convenience of the conversation, Ji Hongchang called two more people, and the four talked while playing cards.Just at this time, Chen Gongshu, the head of the Beiping station of the military command, detected that Ji Hongchang was at the National Hotel in the French Concession, so he sent a female spy with a little girl as a cover, under the pretext of finding the wrong room, and remembered where Ji Hongchang was sitting. , came out and told the killers who were ambushing around.After the female spy left, just in time for Liu Shaonan and Ji Hongchang to change seats, the two changed seats. At this moment, the killer rushed in. They mistook Liu Shaonan for Ji Hongchang and shot him to death. Ji Hongchang His arm was also injured. This unexpected turn of events made Li and Bai unable to get in touch with the Red Army, and in front of them, the Red Army was about to approach Guangxi again, which made Li and Bai anxious. At this time, Li and Bai received another telegram from Chiang Kai-shek: order Li and Bai's 4th Army headquarters to transfer from Nanning to Guilin, gather the main force of the Gui army at the passes north of Guanyang, and work together with the Hunan army to wipe out the troops on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River. The Red Army, and let Bai Chongxi sit in Guanyang to command. After reading the telegram, Bai Chongxi angrily threw the telegram on the table, walked up and down with his hands behind his back, and said to himself: Lao Jiang is asking us to do our best. Li Zongren took over the conversation and said: Never mind him, Lao Jiang is using us now. In fact, Lao Jiang hates us more than Zhu and Mao. Zhu and Mao, if there are bandits, there will be me, if there are no bandits, there will be no me. If we keep Zhu and Mao, we still have opportunities for development. After listening to Li Zongren's words, Bai Chongxi burst out laughing. The day before Bai Chongxi left Nanning, he intentionally attended the extended commemoration week held by the Guangxi provincial government in the name of commemorating Sun Yat-sen. He publicly stated that he was going to Quanzhou and explained his three judgments on the Red Army's movements.Many people don't understand Bai Chongxi's move, let alone why Bai Chongxi openly hostile in front of so many people.In fact, what Bai Chongxi meant was that drunkards don't care about drinking. On November 16, Bai Chongxi and Liu Fei rushed to Quanzhou to discuss with Liu Jianxu, commander of the 28th Army sent by Commander-in-Chief of the Hunan Army He Jian, on the joint anti-blocking combat deployment.The two parties agreed to take advantage of the natural dangers of the two rivers in Xiangli.The division of the defense area is bounded by the Huangsha River.The Guangxi Army is responsible for the defense of the line from Xing'an, Quanzhou, Guanyang to Huangsha River; the Hunan Army is responsible for the defense of the line from Hengyang, Lingling, Dong'an to Huangsha River.Bai Chongxi said eloquently at the meeting: The Gui army is ready to deal a head-on blow to the fleeing Red Army at any time. On November 18, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi held an anti-suppression military meeting in Guilin, and decided to take Xia Wei's 15th Army as the left wing, deploy defenses at Qingshui, Gaomu, Yong'an, and Leikou, and concentrate the main force on Xing'an, Quanzhou, and Guanyang. ; With Liao Lei's 7th Army, which had just returned from Guizhou, as the right wing, it deployed defenses in Hexian, Fuchuan, and Gongcheng, and defended Guilin to support the two wings.A large number of militia groups were mobilized to assist in the defense.The deployment has been set, and Li Zongren will return to Nanning, the provincial capital, under the command of Bai Chongxi in Guilin.Bai Chongxi was worried that the Red Army would go straight into Longhuguan and enter Guangxi, so accompanied by Liu Fei, Bai Chongxi came to Longhuguan for inspection. When Bai Chongxi came down from Longhuguan and returned to Gongcheng County, he received a report: The main force of the Red Army had arrived near Dao County, Hunan, and its forward was approaching Dupangling.Bai Chongxi gazed at the undulating mountains on the eastern horizon, and sighed: Zhu De is usually not fast when walking down hills, but he is not slow to lead troops. Long before he came to Longhuguan, he sent a report directly to Chiang Kai-shek in the name of Li Zongren: According to repeated reports, the main force of the bandits fled from Linwu through Jiahe and Lanshan to the west, and Longhuguan, Fuchuan, and Hexian were in a tight situation at the same time.The Renbu was originally in the north of Longhuguan to prevent blockage, so it is planned to move the main force of the Renbu to the vicinity of Gongcheng to support Fu, He, Xing, and irrigation.However, only one can be left in the north of Xing'an and Guanyang. I am afraid that the strength will be weak. Please transfer Commander-in-Chief He to advance to Jianghua and He County in order to be thorough.This telegram is Bai Chongxi's plan to get rid of the golden cicada.In order to achieve the concentration of the main forces of the two armies of the Guangxi line in the area of ​​Longhuguan and Gongcheng County, and prevent the Red Army from entering the hinterland of Guangxi.While generating electricity, Bai Chongxi had ordered the 15th Army stationed from Xiangjiang to Guanyang to prepare for the southward withdrawal of Gongcheng. On the evening of November 21, Bai Chongxi returned to Pingle from Longhu Pass.In order to ensure that the troops of the two armies were stationed in the Gongcheng area, Bai Chongxi announced at the joint defense meeting: from Longhuguan to Pingle, all civilian food will be supplied to the military, and the county government will issue food stamps and money later.If anyone hides and refuses to hand over, it will be considered a crime for intentionally leaving it to the Communist Party.That night, he received another reconnaissance report from the 7th Army: the Red Army had attacked Dao County. Bai Chongxi felt that it was imperative for the Red Army to cross the border.At this time, he felt that the time had come to give way to Zhu and Mao's Red Army. In the middle of the night of the same day, he personally issued an order to transfer the army to Longhuguan; the 15th Army deployed in Quanzhou, Xing'an, and Guanyang withdrew to Gongcheng, leaving only the two battalions of the 72nd Regiment in Quanzhou; Xing'an One regiment was reserved, Guanyang was reserved for another regiment, the entire county of Guanyang was fully open, and the 7th Army assembled in Gongcheng for mobile use. Chiang Kai-shek miscalculated before the battle of Xiangjiang started. The plan to prevent and annihilate the Red Army in Xiangjiang became a failure before the plan was implemented. Chiang Kai-shek didn't even know that the telegram sent to him by Bai Chongxi was a trick, so he agreed with Bai Chongxi's plan to withdraw troops from the Xiangjiang defense line by replying on the 22nd. The Red Army marched westward and conquered Dao County on the 22nd. When its vanguard reached Yong'an Pass on the border of Hunan and Guangxi, the Xiangjiang River, 60 kilometers from Quanzhou to Xing'an, had no soldiers to defend.The Xiangjiang defense line has been completely opened to the Red Army. If the Red Army's westward expedition is to advance lightly, it can completely avoid the battle of Xiangjiang and successfully achieve the goal of rendezvous with the 2nd and 6th armies.Just when the 1st and 3rd Army Corps, the vanguard of the Red Army, crossed the Xiangjiang River, the central column carrying altars and pots was still squirming on the mountain road behind.The distance between the front troops and the follow-up troops was a full week. The Red Army did not understand Bai Chongxi's plan to give way at the time, so they failed to take advantage of the precious opportunity of the Guangxi Army's southward retreat to give way to the corridor, and drove into Guandu and crossed Jiangxi to advance westward. The 23rd Division of the Army delayed the precious time to cross the river. On November 23, the day after the Guangxi army withdrew from the Xiangjiang River, Liu Jianxu of the Hunan Army learned that there was no defense on the Xiangjiang River, and immediately reported to He Jian.He Jian was extremely annoyed, and even ordered the four divisions of Liu Jianxu's department to go south to Quanzhou immediately, and ordered all the pursuing troops to step up their pursuit in an attempt to hold back the Red Army so that Liu Jianxu's department could rush to Quanzhou and seize the ferry along the Xiangjiang River. East Coast plans. It was only at 11:30 on November 25 that the Red Army realized that there were no major enemy troops in Quanzhou and Xing'an, and that He Jian's three divisions were advancing southward with all their strength. However, the Red Army command organization did not immediately change its deployment accordingly. Still follow the original four-way march plan to break the enemy's blockade on the Xiangjiang River.It was not until the night of the 27th that the Red Army changed its combat deployment. The main force of the Red Army entered Guangxi from Yong'an Pass and Leikou Pass. With the 1st Army Corps of Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen as the right wing and the 3rd Army Corps of Peng Dehuai and Yang Shangkun as the left wing, they advanced towards the Xiangjiang River and quickly seized Across the Xiangjiang River Ferry.However, the Hunan Army had reached Quanzhou before the Red Army.The 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 1st Army Corps of the Red Army blocked the Hunan Army from going south at Jiaoshanpu in the south of Quanzhou, and the 4th Division of the 3rd Army Corps seized Guanghuapu south of Jieshou and guarded the Guangxi Army in Xing'an to the south.Although the Red Army has seized some of the crossings of the Xiangjiang River, and the vanguard has crossed the Xiangjiang River; however, from the overall situation, the enemy has formed a situation where the north and the south are attacking our army head to tail.The situation is very dangerous. Chiang Kai-shek learned of the information that there were no soldiers defending the Xiangjiang River from He Jian's report on "chasing and suppressing the headquarters". The original plan was to attack the vanguard of the Red Army that had crossed the river, block the troops that had not crossed the river, and still try to annihilate the main force of the Red Army in the east of the Xiangshui River. Bai Chongxi, who was sitting in Guilin, did not take the reprimand in Chiang Kai-shek's telegram seriously, and still followed the established policy: "Take the tail and not the head."He only used one division to support Xing'an to prevent the Red Army from going south, and ordered the 15th Army to return to Guanyang from Gongcheng to attack the follow-up troops of the Red Army with all its strength.In this way, the Guangxi army would not risk the Red Army turning back and attacking, but also could turn over to Chiang Kai-shek, and more importantly, it could prevent Zhou Hunyuan's troops chasing behind the Red Army from entering Guangxi. Li and Bai's attempt made Chiang Kai-shek very clear. If he was in the position of the Gui army, he would do the same, even more cunningly than Li and Bai. He Jian complained repeatedly about this, and shirked responsibility to Chiang Kai-shek, saying: The Gui army's move made the Hunan army fight alone and lost the effect of flanking. According to aircraft reconnaissance, the Gui army was not attacking, but retreating...