In November 1934, a Red Army force of nearly 3,000 men set out from Luoshan County, Henan Province, and they went all the way west, after a 10-day march, to Funiu Mountain in northern Nanyang, Henan. Funiu Mountain is a branch of the Qinling Mountains, the mountain is tall and majestic, the temperature is not high throughout the year, and it is winter at this time, so there are many wind and snow days. On the 26th, the wind in the Funiu Mountains roared, the sky fell heavy snow, and the wind blew heavy snow on people's faces, making people unable to open their eyes, and the sound of the wind weakened people's hearing. Under such bad weather, the vanguard of the Red Army came to the town of Dushu in Fangcheng County at the foot of Funiu Mountain.
Dushu Town is at the mouth of the passage in the Funiu Mountains, which is a flat open land, and the open terrain in the middle of the mountains on both sides forms an outlet. The wind blew on the thinly clad Red Army, causing them to shrink from the cold, but amid the penetrating sound of the military trumpet and the roar of the commanders, the soldiers remained in their places, and their formations were not in any disorder.
Suddenly, gunshots rang out from all sides.
The sound of gunfire produced a loud echo under the cover of the mountain, and the echo increased the loudness and intensity of the gunshot, and after a round of gunfire, the roaring bullets disrupted the neat Red Army team, and several soldiers immediately fell to the ground.
The Red Army is known for its movement warfare, and there must be sharp soldiers in front of the line, and at this time it was suddenly attacked, which suddenly surprised this team, but after a long time of battle, this team did not panic in the face of sudden changes, but resisted on the spot, shots one after another, and the weather was cold, many soldiers' fingers were frozen, they could not pull the bolts, and the bullets shot were getting denser and denser, and the soldiers continued to fall to the ground, the team began to be chaotic, and the soldiers retreated in every direction.
Attacking this Red Army contingent were the 115th Brigade and a cavalry regiment of the 40th Army of the Kuomintang Pang Bingxun's army, who had already set up an ambush here, riding on the low visibility of the wind and snow and the carelessness of the Red Army's sharp soldiers, and before the Red Army could all enter the ambush circle, they launched a surprise attack in a hurry, and the main force of the 115th Infantry Brigade launched a fierce attack on the front, and the cavalry regiment encircled from both flanks.
The Kuomintang army launched an attack on the Red Army from three sides, and the Red Army retreated in a panic, and if this situation continued, the rout or even the collapse of this Red Army would be inevitable.
At the moment of great danger, a Red Army commander shouted: "Lie down on the ground and resolutely resist." At the same time, with a rifle in a standard kneeling position, the oncoming Kuomintang troops were fired, and as soon as the gunshots rang out, a tall officer wielding a pistol to drive the soldiers to charge fell to the ground, and the enemy's attack slowed down, followed by 4 more gunshots, and the two enemy soldiers fell to the ground in response. This greatly shocked the Kuomintang army, their charge was temporarily contained, the chaotic ranks of the Red Army were stabilized, some fighters lay down in the muddy water to shoot at the enemy, some hid behind obstacles to shoot at the enemy, and soon the counterattack was also intensive, and the two sides formed a confrontational fire.
Pang Bingxun's 40th Army was an old northwest army that had been in battle for a long time, and its combat effectiveness was not weak, and after receiving a counterattack, it paused slightly, and then quickly adjusted, and the front-line soldiers bowed their waists and charged forward in a semi-circular scattered formation to meet the bullets of the Red Army, while constantly jumping and changing the route to avoid the bullets of the Red Army. At this time, the Red Army commander handed the rifle to the correspondent who was close by, drew the large knife on the correspondent's back, and shouted: "Follow me." "Taking the lead in rushing towards the enemy army, the Red Army soldiers behind them closely followed and carried out white-knife combat with the enemy army, and the two sides launched a cruel and fierce white-knife battle, at which time the follow-up troops of the Red Army arrived in droves, and finally killed the Kuomintang army, and the two sides entered a brief standoff.
Although the Red Army repelled the attack of the Kuomintang army, it did not break the blockade of the Kuomintang army, and the follow-up Kuomintang army was speeding up, and the crisis situation of this Red Army had not yet been lifted.
In the face of the blocking positions set up by the Kuomintang army on the opposite side, the Red Army adjusted its deployment, they concentrated more than 70 machine guns on the front, the machine gunners lined up in front, and launched an attack on the opposite Kuomintang army with flat machine gun fire at the front of hundreds of meters, behind the machine gunners were empty-handed fighters, and once the machine gunners fell, the bare-handed fighters in the back took the machine guns and continued to strafe.
Under the powerful firepower of the Red Army, the Kuomintang army was overwhelmed and could not lift its head, and the blocking position was quickly broken through by the Red Army. The Nationalist 115th Brigade, which had been hit by this, no longer dared to rush to attack, but retreated into the defense of the tall village, Baoanzhai, and they intended to delay the time and wait for the main force of the 40th Army to arrive before encircling and annihilating the Red Army.
What the soldiers of the 115th Brigade of the Kuomintang Army did not expect was that early the next morning, the Red Army in front of them had all disappeared.
The Red Army blocked by the 115th Brigade was the 25th Army of the Red Army, which departed from the base area of Eyuwan, and the commander who led the team in a white-knife fight with the Kuomintang army was Wu Huanxian, political commissar of the Red 25 Army, and the one who led the follow-up Red Army to support was Xu Haidong, the famous general at this time, the deputy commander of the 25th Army at this time.
After the Red 25th Army drove the enemy troops of the 115th Brigade into the village and held it firmly, it did not fight hard with the enemy troops in front of it, but took advantage of the night to bypass the 115th Brigade's defense line and entered the Funiu Mountains at dawn on the next day.
First, different from the Eyu-Anhui Old Red 25th Army, this is a children's army
In October 1932, under the purge and indiscriminate command of Zhang Guotao, the main force of the Eyu-Anhui Red Fourth Front, which had lost successive defeats, had to leave the Eyu-Anhui base area and move west of Pinghan Road, and among the main Red Army was the 73rd Division of the Red 25th Army.
After the main force of the Red Fourth Front left Eyuwan, the main force of the Red Army that remained in Eyuwan was the other two divisions left by the Red 25th Army: the Red 74th Division and the Red 75th Division, plus the local independent divisions and regiments. In order to facilitate command, on November 29, the Eyuwan Provincial Party Committee reorganized the remaining Red Army of Eyuwan on the basis of the Red 74th Division and the Red 75th Division, and formed a new Red 25th Army, with Wu Huanxian as the commander, Wang Pingzhang as the political commissar, Xu Haidong as the commander of the 74th Division, and Yao Jiafang as the commander of the 75th Division, with about 7,000 people in the whole army.
This newly formed Red 25th Division soon ushered in the heavy encirclement and suppression of the 15 divisions plus 2 brigades of the Kuomintang Army, and as a result, under the leadership of Wu Huanxian and Xu Haidong, 2 regiments of the Northwest Ma Hongkui Army and 1 regiment of the Xia Douyin Army were eliminated successively, and the Red 25th Army grew to more than 13,000 people, which was the peak of the development of the Red 25th Army, but then it entered a trough, because the elite Chiang Kai-shek Central Army came.
The Red 25th Army lost successive battles with Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army, and in September 1933, the Red 25th Army was split into two parts by the Kuomintang army, with Wu Huan's first troops in eastern Hubei and Xuhai in eastern Anhui. Although there were only more than 2,000 people in the eastern part of Xuhai in western Anhui, because it was once unable to meet with Wu Huan's first troops, it could only fight independently, so it changed its name to the Red 28th Army.
Half a year later, in March 1934, Wu Huanxian's Red 25th Army and Xu Haidong's 28th Army met again, and the two armies were re-merged into the Red 25th Army. After the merger, the Red 25th Army ushered in the encirclement and suppression of Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army, and the two sides clashed many times, and the Red 25th Army completely defeated the Northeast Army, and each battle always occupied a great advantage, making the Red 25th Army capture a lot.
Although the Red 25th Army won victories on the battlefield, due to the continuous war in the base areas, grain production was affected, the foreign grain transportation channels were cut off by the Kuomintang troops, the warehouses and grain storage areas were occupied and destroyed by the Kuomintang, so that a serious grain crisis occurred in the base areas, and the masses were starved to death , so the body is generally thin, and the number of wounded and sick increases.
Militarily, although the Red 25Th Army had many victories against the Northeast Army, after all, it was facing the entire Kuomintang army system, so the war situation was becoming more and more difficult, and the number of people was getting smaller and smaller, and by April 1934, the number of the Red 25Th Army had been sharply reduced from more than 10,000 people in its heyday to 4,000 people.
Shen Zemin, secretary of the Eyu-Anhui Provincial CPC Committee, was very anxious about the situation faced by the Red 25th Army and the base areas, and he sent a writer and propaganda minister, Cheng Fangwu, to the Party Central Committee for instructions and reports. Cheng Fangwu could not directly contact the Party Central Committee, so he first went to Shanghai to find Lu Xun, through which he connected with the Central Committee, and then he went to Ruijin to meet Zhou Enlai.
Zhou Enlai sent Cheng Zihua, commander of the Red 22nd Division, to Eyuwan as chief of staff, and he told Cheng Zihua that the Red 25th Army could only develop if it made a strategic transfer to establish a new base area, and at the same time it could reduce the pressure on the old base area in Eyuwan.
After Cheng Zihua came to the Eyu-Anhui Red 25th Army, the Eyu-Anhui Provincial Party Committee made another adjustment to the leading body of the Red 25th Army, making Cheng Zihua the commander of the Red 25th Army, Cheng Zihua modestly said that he had come to be the chief of staff, but everyone had great trust in Cheng Zihua, who came to Eyuwan from the central government, and unanimously asked him to serve as the commander of the army, Cheng Zihua was respectful rather than obedient, and served as the commander of the Red 25th Army, the political commissar was still Wu Huanxian, the former military commander Xu Haidong served as deputy commander, the chief of military staff was Dai Jiying, and the director of the military political department was Zheng Weisan. The deputy director of the Military Political Department is Guo Shushen.
After the leadership was established, the Red 25th Army carried out another reorganization, abolished the divisional structure, and had 223 regiments, 224 regiments, 225 regiments, 3 regiments and 1 pistol regiment under its jurisdiction, with a total of more than 2,900 people.
An important feature of the reorganized Red 25th Army is that the soldiers of the combat units are less than 18 years old, and many of their fathers and fathers are cadres and soldiers of the Red Fourth Front, some have died, and some have followed the main force of the Red Fourth Front in the Long March. The cadres of this team are also very young, among them Cheng Zihua is 29 years old, Wu Huanxian is 27 years old, Xu Haidong is slightly older, 34 years old, and later General Han Xianchu was 21 years old at the time, Major General Liu Huaqing was 18 years old, Lieutenant General Chen Xianrui was 20 years old, and General Liu Zhen was 19 years old.
Second, leaving the old base area, where to go to establish a new base area?
The leadership has determined that the reorganization of the contingent has been completed, but where will the new base area be established after leaving the Eyu-Anhui base area? It also made the leadership of the Red 25 Army difficult.
The leadership of the Red 25Th Army, such as Wu Huanxian, Xu Haidong and others, are all local people in Eyuwan, who know nothing about the outside world, they do not know where to leave Eyuwan and where to go, and whether the unfamiliar environment of the outside world can make the Red 25th Army survive, everyone feels confused. Cheng Zihua, who came from the Central Soviet Region, was a native of Shanxi and a student of Huangpu, who had participated in the Guangzhou Uprising, so he had seen the world, and he had heard that there was a bandit in Shanxi who had been king of Funiu Mountain in Nanyang, Henan Province, for several years, and thought that since the bandits could stay in Funiu Mountain for a few years, we workers and peasants' Red Army could gain a firm foothold.
Cheng Zihua expressed his idea of going to Funiu Mountain, which was unanimously approved by everyone, and finally they set a goal: to cross the Pinghan Railway to the west and establish a new base area in Eyu and Shaanxi.
In accordance with Zhou Enlai's instructions, a banner must be displayed when leaving the base area, and since the Red 7Th Army led by Xun Huaizhou and Su Yu had already played the banner of "the anti-Japanese advance team of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army going north," the reorganized Red 25Th Army played the banner of "the second advance team of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army going north to resist Japan."
The Red 25th Army was on the road, they became the last Red Army unit to participate in the Long March, although the age of the combatants were between 13-18 years old, although the number was less than 3,000, but because of the previous battles with the Northeast Army, the weapons and equipment of this unit were very good, the ammunition was sufficient, and the personnel of various logistics, hospitals and other units were equipped with weapons and could be put into battle at any time.
Third, the original plan was in Funiu Mountain, why did you go to southern Shaanxi again?
After the Red 25th Army set out from Luoshan in the base area of Henan on the night of November 16, 1934, the Kuomintang Army took the 115th Division of the Northeast Army as the main force, supplemented by 5 detachments in pursuit, and on the 22nd, Chiang Kai-shek accurately judged that the Red 25th Army would advance west through Funiu Mountain, and ordered Pang Bingxun's 40th Army stationed in Nanyang to intercept it.
Pang Bingxun sent the 115th Brigade and cavalry regiment to the town of Dushu to set up an ambush.
The 115th Brigade and the cavalry regiment waited for the vanguard of the Red Army on the 26th, due to the wind and snow, the visibility was low, so they were not discovered by the top soldiers of the Red 25th Army, but I don't know whether they were conscientious or panicked, this team attacked prematurely, but only caught the Red 25th Army by surprise.
Because of the political commissar Wu Huanxian's calm organization to meet the battle, the Red 25th Army was in danger. In the end, the Red 25th Army used the night to bypass the defense line of the 115th Brigade and successfully entered Funiu Mountain. Cheng Zihua and Wu Huanxian were very satisfied with the terrain of Funiu Mountain, believing that it was warable and defensive, and that it was a good place to establish a base area, but after they were stationed, they found that the land here was barren and poor, lacked grain, and the gentry landlords were very powerful, and the Red Army could not rely on the masses to establish a base area here, so they had to consider finding another place, and they set their sights on southern Shaanxi.
On December 8, the Red 25th Army advanced westward to Luonan in southern Shaanxi, and on the 10th, the Eyu-Anhui Provincial Party Committee met at Yujiahe in Luonan to discuss a series of issues such as the establishment of the Eyu-Shaanxi base area and the establishment of a new Eyu-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, but was suddenly attacked by the 60th Division under Liu Zhi, director of the Kuomintang Yu-Anhui Appeasement Office. After more than 20 attempts, the Red 25th Army finally killed the 60th Division, but both Xu Haidong and Cheng Zihua were seriously wounded.
Although xu haidong and Cheng Zihua were seriously wounded, the Red 25th Army won the first battle into southern Shaanxi and laid an important foundation for the Red Army to open up a base area in southern Shaanxi.
On July 15, the Red 25th Army received a large bulletin from the traffic officer, which carried the Red First Army, and the Fourth Front Army had already met in western Sichuan and was preparing to continue north. Since the newspaper was dozens of days ago, Cheng Zihua judged that the central authorities had already gone north at this time, and on the same day the Eyu-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee held a meeting and decided to leave 2,000 Red Army troops to form the Red 74th Division, with Chen Xianrui, director of the Political Office of the 223rd Regiment, as the division commander, to continue to lead the struggle in the base areas in southern Shaanxi, and the main force immediately went north to find the Central Red Army Division.
Fourth, why did the Red 25th Army, which wanted to join the Division of the Central Red Army, first arrive in northern Shaanxi?
The Red 25th Army was very capable, without excess weight and baggage, the decision to go north was made on the evening of the 15th, and the next day they set off, they marched along the northern foothills of Zhongnan Mountain for more than ten days, arrived in FengXian County, Shaanxi Province, successively fought with the southern part of Huzong and the Ma Family Army's Ma Hongkui, and then crossed the Sealand Highway over Liupan Mountain to Pingliang.
As soon as the Red 25th Army entered Gansu, it was tracked by ma Hongbin's 35th Division of the Ma Family Army.
The 35th Division was very cunning, knowing that the hard fight was not the opponent of the Red 25th Army, so it adopted the strategy of following the Red 25th Army and finding the opportunity to bite it. The Usual Tactic of the Red Army in dealing with such an opponent was to completely crush him with an ambush, but the Red 25th Army only destroyed the 105th Brigade of the 35th Division in the Heshui area, and did not make the 35th Division lose its combat effectiveness, so the cavalry regiment and the 104th Brigade of the 35th Division still followed closely behind. Arriving in Jingchuan County, the 35th Division finally got another chance to attack the Red Army.
At dawn on August 21, the Red 25th Army came to the Jing River in Jingchuan County, which was the summer water rise season, and after several days of torrential rains, the Jing River surged and could not be crossed, so the Red 25th Army decided to take a big detour and cross the Tributary of the Jing River near the Queen Mother's Palace, 15 kilometers away from the county seat.
When the first two regiments of the Red 25th Army had already crossed the river and the 223rd Regiment of the Rear Guard Regiment was preparing to cross the river under the command of Xu Haidong, more than 1,000 people of the 208th Regiment of the 104th Brigade of the 35th Division of Ma Hongbin, with the cooperation of a cavalry company, attacked the Red 25th Army.
In the face of the sudden arrival of the enemy, Xu Haidong hurriedly organized a fire block.
The Red 25th Army captured a lot of weapons from the Northeast Army, each company had 9 machine guns, 3 more than 1 company of Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army, so the fire was very fierce. Under the machine gun blockade, Ma Hongbin's 208 regiment suffered heavy losses, but the Red Army was small after all, the situation was very unfavorable, at this time, Wu Huanxian, who had crossed the river with the vanguard troops, crossed the river with more than 150 people to return, inserted himself from the flank behind the enemy 208 regiment, and launched a white-knife battle with the enemy troops of the 208 regiment, Xu Haidong on the front also counterattacked, and the two sides fought together, and as a result, the Red 25th Army finally annihilated the 208th regiment and killed Ma Kaiji, the commander of the 208th regiment.
Although the Red 25th Army annihilated Ma Hongbin's 208th Regiment, it also suffered heavy losses, the biggest loss being that the excellent military and political commander Wu Huanxian was shot in the chest and died. Wu Huanxian was one of the founders of the Eyu-Anhui Red Army and had a high prestige in the Red 25 Army, and his sacrifice brought a great blow to the military morale of the Red 25 Army.
The goal of the Red 25th Army was originally to find the Central Red Army division, but after Wu Huanxian's sacrifice, the Red 25th Army's morale was affected, and the long-term conquest also made the Red 25th Army tired, at this time, Mao Bingwen's 37th Army was chased by 80 cars, and Ma Hongbin's cavalry followed closely behind, Cheng Zihua and Xu Haidong decided to change the plan to find the Central Red Army and go to northern Shaanxi as soon as possible to meet Liu Zhidan.
After arriving at Bao'an (present-day Zhidan County) on September 7, the Eyu-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee held a meeting here and appointed Xu Haidong as the commander of the Red 25th Army, Cheng Zihua as the political commissar, and then marched north, reaching the town of Yongping in Yanchuan County on the 15th to meet Liu Zhidan's Northern Shaanxi Red Army.
The Red 25th Army that arrived in northern Shaanxi still had more than 3,400 men, an increase of 500 men over when it left Eyuwan, and if we added the Red 74th Division, which had more than 2,000 people left in southern Shaanxi, the number of people doubled from the beginning of the Long March, so the Red 25th Army was also the only unit that increased in numbers after the end of the Long March.
On September 18, 1935, the Red 25th Army and the Red 26th Army in northern Shaanxi were merged into the Red 15th Army, with Xu Haidong as the commander of the regiment, Cheng Zihua as the political commissar, and Liu Zhidan as the deputy commander.
5. Incident evaluation
Most of the Red Army troops in the Long March suffered heavy losses, but the Red 25th Army arrived at its destination at the latest in the Long March, and the number did not decrease but increased, in addition to the commanders who are good at using troops and cadres and soldiers who are brave and good at fighting without fear of sacrifice, an important reason is that the Red 25th Army has a clearer purpose and more preparations than any other Long March troop.
The Red 7 Corps, which was the first to carry out the Long March, received an order from the Central Military Commission to go north to resist Japan, and this corps was convinced of this purpose from top to bottom, but the real intention of the CmC was to make them take on the task of mobilizing the enemy and covering the breakthrough of the main force of the Central Red Army; the Red 6 Army, which followed the Red 7 Army, received the order to establish a base area in central Hunan according to the planned route, but the real intention of the Central Military Commission was to let this corps explore the way in the early stage; the Long March of the Red Army on the red side. Initially, it was to meet the Red 26th Army in western Hunan Province, thinking that the road was not far away, so it brought a lot of weight on the road, which seriously reduced flexibility; the Long March of the Red Fourth Front was carried out in a aimless internal friction.
The lack of purpose and preparation made it inevitable that the above-mentioned Long March troops would suffer heavy losses during the Long March.
The purpose of the Long March of the Red 25Th Army is very clear, that is, to leave the old base area to find a new base suitable for survival, as for how to march on the road, it is completely changed by itself according to the enemy's situation, and because the cadres and fighters are young in age, so there is basically no baggage, completely light forward, before the Long March, the full combatization was realized, even logistics and medical personnel can fight at any time, there is great flexibility and speed in tactics, and it can ensure that the march is more than 100 miles a day. This is unmatched by all other Long March troops.
Another condition that cannot be ignored is that the Red 25Th Army obtains a large amount of weapons and equipment in the battle with the Northeast Army, which makes the Red 25th Army's firepower very strong. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, the Red 25th Army had 9 machine guns per company, and the uniforms of the army were neat, which made the Red Army in northern Shaanxi envious, and the powerful equipment coupled with the bravery and good fighting of the Red Army made the Kuomintang pursuit and interception troops dare not fight hard with the Red 25th Army, and also enabled the Red 25th Army to repeatedly turn dangers into disasters.
Of course, there is also an objective reason, that is, the main force of the Kuomintang army, especially the elite Chiang Kai-shek Central Army, is mainly focused on dealing with the Red First and Fourth Fronts, and the red 25th army is used to deal with the Red 25th Army, and the miscellaneous army is not willing to fight hard with the Red Army in order to preserve its strength.