In July 1934, according to the orders of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, the Red Sixth Army began to break through from the Xianggan base area to the west. In September, the Sixth Army entered a place called Ganxi in Guizhou and mistakenly entered the enemy encirclement.
The situation was urgent, and the regimental commander Xiao Ke ordered Long Yun, commander of the Red 18th Division, to lead the division's troops and the 52nd Regiment as rearguards to cover the main breakthrough. But after the main force of the legion broke through,
However, he never waited for the news of the Red 52nd Regiment, and even the division commander Long Yun was nowhere to be found.
During the war years, soldiers were wounded, killed, captured or scattered every day. Some people have recovered the troops, some people are scattered among the people, and some people have become traitors... It is also common for a force to disappear. After the Long March, the Red Army experienced the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation, and although the leaders of the Corps had been worried about the whereabouts of the 52nd Army, they really had no time to investigate.
After liberation, the central authorities sent people to Guizhou three times to investigate. However, the communication conditions were backward in that year, coupled with the shortage of funds and many other reasons.
The investigation team was unable to locate neither the site of the battle nor the remains of any of the fighters.
Under the heavy encirclement of the enemy army, he served as a rear guard, and then he did not return to the team, and rationally thought that this unit must be more fierce and less auspicious.
Without sufficient evidence, history cannot be easily drawn.
Therefore, some books in the future can only mention this matter in a single stroke. At the end of 1985, the party history department of Cengong County, Guizhou, called the founding general Xiao Ke and asked him to recall the situation of Long Yun, commander of the Red 18th Division. In his reply, Schock said:
The Red Sixth Army marched west from Xianggan, with Long Yun as the commander of the Eighteenth Division. After our army lost the Battle of Ganxi in Guizhou, one day the march was attacked by the enemy flank, so it lost contact with the main force, and after that, we did not know where to go.
Where did the division commander Long Yun and the Red 52 Regiment led by him go?
Leaders of the Red Sixth Army, from left: Ren Bishi, Xiao Ke, Wang Zhen
The Red Sixth Army marched west
At the end of 1933, Lao Jiang successively mobilized more than 1 million heavy troops to carry out the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of unprecedented scale in the Central Soviet Region. The situation in the Central Soviet Region is becoming more and more severe, and the territory is getting smaller and smaller. Especially after the heavy losses suffered in the Battle of Guangchang, the enemy army has begun to advance step by step towards the center of the Soviet zone.
In order to share the pressure on the Central Soviet Region, the Central Committee ordered more than 6,000 people of the Red Seventh Army to move north from the Soviet Area. He then ordered the Red Sixth Army to break through to Central Hunan to establish the New Soviet Zone and establish contact with the Red Third Army led by He Long.
According to the orders of the central authorities, the Red Sixth Army set up a military and political committee with Ren Bishi as the chairman and Xiao Ke and Wang Zhen as members, and led the 17th and 18th Divisions and more than 9,700 people from the Red Army School to begin the western expedition.
The Red Sixth Army's western expedition was an extremely tragic journey. When the enemy army learned of the breakthrough of the Red Sixth Army, it immediately mobilized the central army, as well as local troops in Guangdong, Guizhou, Xiang, and Sichuan, and surrounded and blocked with 10 times the strength.
On August 23, when the Red Sixth Army rushed to the predetermined crossing point of the Xiang River to prepare to cross the river, it found that the Xiang Army had deployed heavy troops on the opposite bank. He Jian, the leader of the Xiang Army, was a diehard who worked very hard to encircle and suppress the Red Army, and he personally sat down to suppress the command of Yongzhou in Hunan Province, and built a strong defensive line to prevent the Red Army from crossing the Xiang River in the west.
Due to the change in the enemy's situation, the leaders of the Red Sixth Army decided to return to the Yangmingshan area at the junction of Guangdong and Hunan to establish a base area and fight against the enemy after an urgent consultation. But after they arrived at Yangmingshan, they found that the area here was small and there was no room for maneuver. Moreover, the property is not abundant, and it is difficult to support the survival of the large army. More importantly, the surrounding transportation is convenient, which is convenient for the enemy to deploy troops to attack.
In desperation, the Red Sixth Army broke through again to northern Guangxi. The Gui army hurriedly blocked the passage of the Red Army to the south and compressed it to the north. The Xiang army was also afraid that the Red Army would turn back to Hunan and press south with heavy troops. The air force and the planes of the Central Army were constantly bombarded, and the situation of the Red Sixth Army could be imagined.
On September 8, after a bitter battle, the Red Sixth Army took advantage of the shortage of enemy troops to cross the Xiang River from Guilin and occupy the resource county seat in northern Guizhou.
Route of the Red Sixth Army's Western Expedition
At this time the Central Red Army had completed all the preparations before the strategic transfer,
In response to the central Red Army's actions, the Red Sixth Army deliberately slowed down to attract as many enemy troops as possible.
They also planned to capture the bucheng, Suining, and Wugang lines in shonan and establish guerrilla zones, but this was not achieved due to the huge disparity in strength between the enemy and us.
During this period, the enemy army had already determined the strategic purpose of the Red Sixth Army in preparing to go north to meet the Division of the Red Third Army, and mobilized heavy troops to block the passage north. According to the situation, the Red Sixth Army once again adjusted its action plan and immediately moved westward near the new factory in Dajing County.
The Gui and Xiang armies had been attacking the Red Army in parallel from the north and south, and their vanguard troops met when they reached the outskirts of Tongdao County. Due to the fog on that day, the two armies mistakenly believed that the other side was the Red Army, and the fierce battle lasted for more than two hours, with casualties on each other. The two sides fought each other for a long time, and the Red Army once again broke away from the pursuit.
Subsequently, the Red Sixth Army learned that the He Ping Column of the Xiang Army, which was trailing in pursuit, was a newly formed unit, most of which were new soldiers, although well-armed, but not systematically trained, and weak. In order to combat his arrogance, the Red Army set up an ambush at the new factory and severely damaged He Pingbu, so that it did not dare to rush to pursue it. The Red Sixth Army calmly entered Guizhou.
Red Army (stills)
Strayed into enemy encirclement
Before the Red Army entered Guizhou, the enemy forces in the three provinces of Xianggui and Guiqian met in Guiyang to reach an agreement: to jointly mobilize 24 regiments with a total of more than 40,000 troops to encircle the Red Army. In Guizhou, it also carried out the "clearing of the field" and removed all the people and grain, so that the Red Army could not be supplied.
On September 26, the vanguard of the Red Sixth Army reached a place called Daguang'ao in Jianhe County, eastern Guizhou, and was ambushed by the Xiang army. Ren Bishi and Xiao Ke immediately ordered long Yun, commander of the 18th Division, to lead the 52nd and 54th regiments to block the enemy, and the main force quickly moved. The rearguard troops were preparing to withdraw from the battlefield after completing their cover, but the retreat was cut off by the enemy troops who rushed to reinforce.
After fierce fighting, the 52nd Regiment was able to break through, the 54th Regiment suffered heavy losses, and the regimental commander and two battalion commanders were killed. Since the Western Expedition, although the Red Sixth Army has jumped out of the enemy encirclement several times and contained a large number of enemy troops, its own losses have also been very large.
Liu Shikai, commander of the 50th Regiment, Zhang Hongji, commander of the 51st Regiment, and Zhao Xiong, commander of the 54th Regiment, were killed in battle.
After the breakthrough from Daguang, the Red Sixth Army came to the territory of Yong'an County in central Guizhou. At that time, they had no contact with the Red Three Army, let alone the specific location of the Red Army, and the enemy's defense along the Wujiang River was empty, and the head of the regiment originally planned to take the opportunity to cross the Wujiang River to the west.
But at this time, they received an intelligence that "the Enemy of Gui has opened to the south, and the Red Army has occupied the Yinjiang River."
After a meeting and consultation, the Red Sixth Army decided to abandon the plan to cross the river and march northeast, cross the Shiquan, enter the mouth of the river to reach the west of Hunan to contact the Red Third Army.
In fact, this is a false piece of intelligence.
At that time, the enemy army had 2 regiments guarding the Wujiang River, and they expected that the Red Army would not dare to cross the Wujiang River in the west, but would go northeast to the mouth of the river. Therefore, 7 regiments of the Xiang Army, 4 regiments of the Gui Army, 9 regiments of the Qian Army, plus some local militia regiments were mobilized, totaling more than 30,000 people. Under the unified command of Liao Lei, commander of the 7th Army of the Gui Army, a tight blockade network was set up to prepare to wipe out the Red Army in the territory of Shiquan County.
In order to paralyze the Red Army, the enemy sent vigilante groups disguised as civilians and postmen. They deceived the Red Army that there were no troops nearby, and the newspaper carried by the postman also published the news of "two Guangdong anti-Chiang Kai-shek", which corroborated with the information that the Sixth Regiment of the Red Army had previously received from "Gui Enemy Nankai". So the Red Army let down its guard.
On October 7, 1934, Li Da, chief of staff of the Sixth Army, led the leading troops to a place called Ganxi in the southwest of Shiquan. It was a long, narrow valley with only two exits to the northeast and southwest, and the Red Sixth Army marched in a zigzag.
Due to the false propaganda of the enemy, the people have long been hiding in the mountains, and the streets are empty. The Red Army also let down its guard and prepared to rest here, and the cooks were cooking on the fire, and they were completely unprepared for battle.
Zhou Renjie, commander of the first battalion of the Red 51st Regiment (who later became a founding lieutenant general), sent a reconnaissance platoon to the vicinity to scout when he arrived at Ganxi. At about 10 o'clock, they found three young men with a dog walking toward Ganxi, and their movements were very suspicious. The Red Army soldiers pounced and grabbed two of them,
After the interrogation, Zhou Renjie was taken aback that the 19th Division, the ace of the Gui Army, had occupied the commanding heights on the outskirts of Ganxi.
Zhou Renjie realized that things were not good, and immediately ordered his troops to deploy along an earthen wall, and sent a company carrying heavy machine guns to run and seize the nearby heights. This series of moves won a glimmer of life for the Red Army.
Sure enough, soon after, the Gui army launched an attack on Ganxi. Due to the desperate resistance of the Red Army, the Gui army saw that the frontal assault was fruitless, so it sent troops to detour from the west. At this time, the headquarters of the Red Sixth Army was in the Area of Hongyan, 3 kilometers west of Ganxi, and they learned that there had been a battle ahead, but they could not determine the situation for a while and were waiting for news.
When the Gui army detoured, it directly inserted itself into the headquarters of the Red Sixth Army. Shock immediately sent 53 regiments to occupy the high ground to block the enemy.
After seeing that the intention was discovered, the Gui army continued to intersperse in a southwesterly direction, so it cut the Red Sixth Army into three sections.
Because the enemy army had already occupied the outer highlands, the vanguard troops trapped in Ganxi gradually fell into an unfavorable situation. They lost contact with the main force and could only choose to break through. In the end, Li Da led more than 600 people to rush out of the enemy encirclement and found the Red Third Army.
Shortly after the battle began, Ren Bishi and Shock realized that they were trapped in the enemy's encirclement, and that fighting would increase casualties in vain, so they decided to break through to the southeast. In order to cover the main force of the legion, Long Yun, commander of the 18th Division, led the division's direct subordinate units and the 52nd Regiment as rear guards to block the enemy.
Desperate Defender Regiment
The Red 52nd Regiment was an early revolutionary armed force developed by Wang Zhen and others in the Xianggan area, and was known for often winning battles, and was the most effective regiment in the Red Sixth Army. Since the Western Expedition, they have been like a sharp knife, sometimes responsible for opening the way, sometimes acting as a defender, completing one difficult task after another.
After receiving the task, division commander Long Yun mobilized for battle, saying:
Our 52nd Regiment is the rank of the Party, a sharp knife of the Legion, and a wall. No matter how much difficulty we encounter, no matter how great the sacrifice, even if we fight to the last person, we must block the enemy, ensure the safe transfer of the main force, and never fail to live up to the trust of the regimental commander.
The rearguard unit was nominally a regiment, but in fact after a long battle, only about 800 people remained. After Zhujiaba completed the task of blocking the enemy, they quickly withdrew and pursued in the direction of the main breakthrough.
However, due to the fact that there were many wounded soldiers in the troops, coupled with the fact that some people had mistakenly eaten the local tung oil, many soldiers began to have diarrhea. They're very slow and the line is long.
Bronze statue of Long Yun
When they reached an "X" shaped pass called the pass, the main force of the legion was blocked by the enemy.
At this point, Long Yun has two options:
The first is to abandon the wounded and sick in the rear and lead the main force to rush through the pass to catch up with the main force of the legion. However, in this way, the wounded and sick behind are very likely to all die, and it is also possible to attract a large number of pursuing soldiers to the main force of the legion. The second is to resist the enemy army, wait for the wounded and sick in the rear to arrive, and then break through to the west together, and then look for opportunities to find the main force of the corps.
Long Yun could not bear to abandon the wounded and sick, and finally chose the second plan. When they broke through the pass, there were only about 400 men left in the army. After the breakthrough, the warriors walked up the Sleepy Cow Mountain, planning to catch up with the main force after overturning the Laojun Mountain on the other side.
Sleepy Cow Mountain is a narrow mountain range running in a southwest-northeast direction, surrounded by high mountains on three sides, separated by river valleys at the bottom, and on one side of Sleepy Cow Mountain are cliffs tens of meters high.
In the distance, the mountains are connected to each other, and only locals know that the bottom of the mountain hides the river valley.
They herd cattle up the mountain when they herd, and as long as they keep the narrow exit, they are not afraid of the cattle being lost, hence the name "Sleepy Cow Mountain".
After the Red Army walked up the Sleepy Cow Mountain, the enemy followed closely behind, and when they found that the Red Army had entered a desperate situation, they were not in a hurry to attack, occasionally firing a few shots, while constantly shouting for the Red Army to surrender. Because the local people did not understand the Red Army, some people joined the militia groups that besieged the Red Army.
Division Commander Long Yun saw that some of the enemy troops were dressed in civilian costumes and ordered not to injure the masses by mistake.
The Red Army jumped off a cliff
After seeing the situation, the enemy army even more brazenly coerced the masses as "shields" and launched an attack on the Red Army. In the fierce battle, Tian Haiqing, the leader of the 52nd Regiment, was shot and killed, and the soldiers held his body and cried bitterly. If we continue to fight, we will inevitably destroy the entire army. In order to save the troops, the soldiers asked the division commander to lead the main force to break through.
At the critical moment, Long Yunqiang held back tears and bid farewell to the warriors, leading more than 200 warriors down the cliff to the river valley into Laojun Mountain. The remaining 100 or so were pressed to the edge of the cliff by the enemy, and the bullets were about to run out. At this time, the enemy coerced the people to attack the Red Army, and some even began to rob the Red Army of its guns, but the soldiers could not bear to shoot at the masses.
A company commander of the Red Army had the trumpeter blow the charge trumpet and shouted, "Comrades, you must not be a prisoner and jump down." "I saw one red army after another smashing guns and jumping off the cliffs. When the enemy heard the trumpet, they thought that the Red Army was about to launch a charge, and immediately retreated to hide, but after a long time they found that there was no movement, and when they rushed to the cliff, there was no one there.
After the division commander Long Yun led the main force to break through, he was still besieged by the vigilante groups along the way, and the fewer and fewer people fought. Eventually, Long Yun was also wounded and captured in battle. At first, Long Yun insisted that he was a company commander, but was identified by the traitors and could only admit his true identity. He was first escorted to Guiyang, then to Changsha, and finally to the Nanchang Correctional Institute.
Long Yun originally went out with illness, and was injured several times on the way, plus he experienced torture by the enemy after being arrested, and his condition continued to deteriorate after arriving at the correctional hospital. The enemy tempted Long Yun to "surrender" by means of curing diseases and other means, in an attempt to use it as a tool for political propaganda, but Long Yun vowed to die and was unwilling to cooperate.
In this case, his illness was naturally not effectively treated, and he eventually died in a penitentiary in early 1936.
A peculiar folklore unravels the mystery
At that time, some people herding cattle on the mountain hid in the grass after hearing the gunshots and witnessed the tragic leap of the Red Army off the cliff. Some villagers recalled: the remains of the Red Army were scattered under the river valley in piles, some were pierced by tree stumps, some fell to the blood and flesh, the water in the valley was dyed red, and after two or three days, you could still hear groaning when passing by...
The local people were deeply shocked by the feats of the Red Army, and they suddenly realized at this time: these Red Army soldiers wearing tattered military uniforms and with childish faces would rather jump off a cliff and sacrifice than shoot at the common people, they are not the "bandits" in the Propaganda of the Kuomintang...
In the future, every New Year's Festival, nearby villagers will go to the place where the Red Army jumped off the cliff in Hujinggou to burn incense and burn paper to sacrifice the martyrs who sacrificed. Over the decades, the cliff walls have been smoked black by paper money. This habit has been passed down from generation to generation and has become a peculiar local folklore.
Most of the Red Army who jumped off the cliffs at The Cow Mountain were killed, and the only survivors were scattered in anonymity. Among them was a trumpeter named He Burong, who was only 19 years old at the time, and it was he who blew the final charge horn. When he jumped off the cliff, he still hung the general around his neck, and because of his small size and the lack of strength for several days of starvation, he jumped not far and was entangled in the canes of the cliff.
The enemy came and was about to kill him, a call
Chen Guoshan's
The villagers stood up and said, "He is still so young, and you killed him only as a pool of blood..." He Burong, who was full of wounds, was finally killed
Chen Guoshan
take in. In return
The life-saving grace, He Burong changed his name to Chen Shirong, settled in the local area, for
Pension delivery to the end.
Chen Shirong always had a wish, that is, to tell the former leader of the Red Sixth Army, Xiao Ke, in person that he was not a deserter. Unfortunately, this history has not yet been fully revealed,
Chen Shirong died in 2001. Before his death, he told his children that if they had the opportunity to meet General Schock, they must tell him.
Chen Shirong
At the end of 2001, he worked in the party history department of Shiquan County
Yang Youzhu came into contact with the history of the Red Sixth Army, and the mystery of the disappearance of the Red Army Rear Guard Regiment aroused his great curiosity. Yang Youzhu had worked in townships and towns for a long time, knew many grass-roots cadres, and after inquiring around, he got an important clue: There is a place called Sleepy Niu Mountain in Longtang Town, and the local people have a peculiar custom of burning incense and burning paper under a cliff, saying that it is a Sacrifice to the Red Army that jumped off a cliff.
Then he immediately rushed to the local area to investigate, ate and lived in the homes of ordinary people, visited many witnesses and descendants of Red Army survivors, and inspected the site of the Red Army cliff jump. Since then, he has successively gone to the archives of Guizhou, Hunan and other places to check the original archives.
After more than two years of investigation,
Yang Youzhu collected a wealth of first-hand information. In 2004, after repeated demonstrations by experts from the party history department and some old comrades, the feats of the Red Army in The Cow Mountain were certified. A period of 70 years of dusty history has finally been fully displayed in front of the world.
At the critical juncture of life and death, the soldiers of the Red Army would rather jump off a cliff and die than aim their guns at the common people. They preferred to die rather than be captured, showed their loyalty with their lives, and also interpreted the true connotation of the people's children and soldiers.