During the Long March, in the Battle of the Xiang River, which determined the life and death of the Red Army, the Red First Army under the command of Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen served as the right front and fought fiercely with the Xiang Army at Jeonju Foot Mountain. The Red Third Army, led by Peng Dehuai and Yang Shangkun, served as the left road forward and fought fiercely with the Gui army at Guanghuapu in Xing'an. Dong Zhentang and Li Zhuoran's Red Fifth Army, as the rearguards of the whole army, fought fiercely in Guanyang. A triangle was formed to defend the smooth crossing of the river by the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army. The top commanders of the Red Army who died in these three battlefields, Yi Dangping, political commissar of the Red Fifth Regiment of the First Army, Shen Shuqing and Du Meimei, commanders of the Red Tenth Regiment of the Third Army, and Cheng Cuilin, political commissar of the 34th Division of the Fifth Army, were all Liuyang people. The 34th Division of the Fifth Red Army was killed by the political commissar Cheng Cuilin on the edge of the Xiang River, and the division commander Chen Shuxiang was captured in Daoxian County, Hunan After breaking through, he was heroically sacrificed because he did not want to be a prisoner. Except for a few survivors, 6,000 people of this division were completely destroyed, the most tragic, known as the "Desperate Rear Guard Division".
The Red 34th Division of the "Desperate Defender Division" was formerly known as the 12th Army of the Red Army in western Fujian (the New 12th Army, jiangxi also had a Red 12th Army, which was the Red 12th Army of Wu Zhonghao's army), and when the New 12th Army was combined with the old 12th Army, the New 12th Army was reorganized into the 34th Division. The new Red 12 Army was previously formed by the merger of the Red 20 Army and the Red 21 Army. Let's take a look at the history of this heroic force:
Red 20 Army. In May 1930, the local armed forces in western Fujian formed the Red 20th Army on their own, with Hu Shaohai as the commander, with a total of 1200 people (there were two Red 20th Armies at that time, and there was also a Red 20th Army in Jiangxi, which was cancelled due to the Tomita Incident, and the rest were incorporated into the Red Seventh Army).
Red 21st Army. In June 1930, the Red 21st Army was formed by the 4th Column of the Red 4th Army, the 1st Column of the Red 12th Army and some local armed forces in western Fujian, with Deng Yigang as its commander.
Red 12th Army (New 12th Army). Due to successive setbacks in the battle, in November 1930, the Red 21st Army and the Red 20th Army were merged into the Red 12th Army, which was the new 12th Army.
The Red 12th Army, previously led by Wu Zhonghao, was formed by the expansion of the Third Column of the Red Fourth Army, under the jurisdiction of the 34th, 35th, and 36th Divisions, in October 1930, the 34th Division and the 35th Division were incorporated into Huang Gongluo's Red Third Army and Lin Biao's Red Fourth Army, and the Red 12th Army led the 36th Division into Changting, Fujian, which was the old 12th Army.
In December 1931, after the third anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, the two Red 12 armies were merged, still known as the Red 12 Army. Luo Binghui served as the commander of the army, and Tan Zhenlin served as the political commissar. At this time, the new 12th Army was renamed the 34th Division, which was the official formation of the "Desperate Defender Division".
In late September 1933, the Red 34th Division came under the jurisdiction of the Red 9th Army.
In the fifth "encirclement and suppression", the Red 34th Division was under the command of the Red 7th Army, and the commander of the red army at that time was the youngest commander of the Red Army, the Liuyang people seeking Huaizhou.
In late April 1934, the Red 34th Division came under the command of the Fifth Red Army. Leading members of the Red 34th Division: Division Commander Chen Shuxiang, Political Commissar Cheng Cuilin, Chief of Staff Wang Guangdao, and Political Department Director Cai Zhong. Han Wei, commander of the 100th Regiment, and Hou Zhonghui, political commissar; Yan Fengcai, commander of the 101st Regiment, and Yang Yishi, political commissar; Lü Gongyin, commander of the 102nd Regiment, and Fan Shiying, political commissar. Each regiment has about 1,700 people, and the whole division has a total of more than 5,000 people.
In October 1934, during the Long March of the Central Red Army, the Red 34th Division, as a rear guard division, took on the task of breaking the rear, covering the breakthrough of the two columns of the CPC Central Committee and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. In the Battle of Xiangjiang, almost all 6,000 soldiers were killed, and after the division commander Chen Shuxiang was wounded and captured, he strangled his intestines from the abdominal wound with his hands on a stretcher and died heroically. The 100th Regiment, which served as a cover mission, had only about 10 people left in the battle, and the regimental commander Han Wei, the political commissar of the 3rd Battalion, Hu Wenxuan, and the 5th Company signal officer Li Jinshan were saved.
Han Wei, the surviving 100 regimental commander, was imprisoned for betrayal by traitors while pursuing the Red Army. The outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was released and returned to Yan'an. After the liberation war began, Han Wei was appointed deputy commander and chief of staff of the second column of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army (later the North China Field Army), the commander of the column was Chen Zhengxiang, and the political commissar was Li Zhimin of Liuyang. At one point, Chen Zhengxiang was hospitalized due to illness, and the troops were commanded by Li Zhimin and Han Wei. In 1955, Han Wei was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. On April 8, 1992, Han Wei died in Beijing.
Han Wei was a soldier of the Wuhan Guard Regiment of the National Government, he participated in the Xianggan border autumn harvest uprising together with Lu Deming, and then participated in the reorganization of the Wenjia City Hui division and sanwan, under the leadership of Chairman Mao, participated in the creation of the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area, and later accompanied the Red Fourth Army to western Fujian and participated in the formation of local armed forces. How many generals can be produced by those six thousand sons of Western Fujian, then the founding generals from Fujian will not necessarily be less than Hubei, and Fujian will also have many general counties.
Of course, he also missed his division commander Chen Shuxiang and political commissar Cheng Cuilin very much, both veterans who participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising and participated in the creation of the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area, and Han Wei must be very familiar with Cheng Cuilin, a political commissar with the same experience. After his death, his son Han Jingjing was ordered by his father to go to Liuyang to find the descendants of the martyrs. After I learned of this news, I repeatedly mobilized the media and the public to participate in the search, but unfortunately, I have not found his descendants. In this party history study and education, we have specially opened a column in the media entitled "Martyrs' Aspirations are Red in Two Places," in order to "help the martyrs go home," hoping that more people will participate in this activity, help the 574 liuyang martyrs who died in the Xiangjiang Campaign to "go home," and help General Han Wei, a survivor of the Desperate Defender Division, to fulfill his last wish.
Chinese expounded the truth: "Anyone who has made a sacrifice to this country, even if 70 years, or even 100 years have passed, even if you are only the son of a poor peasant in a small mountain village, will be remembered by history!" A nation that respects heroes and remembers history will be a great nation! I believe that our nation must be such a great nation!