The Western Route Army was a detachment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.
In October 1936, at the Hubaokou Ferry in Jingyuan County, Gansu Province, the Red 5th Army, the Red 9th Army, and the 21800Th Red 30th Army that crossed the Yellow River in the west were ordered to form the Western Route Army, preparing to create a base area along the Hexi Corridor or go to Xinjiang to receive Soviet aid.
In the Hexi Corridor area, the Western Route Army encountered a frenzied blockade and siege by the Qinghai Erma troops, and the Western Route Army fought alone away from the main force of the Red Army.
In the Battle of Gulang, after the defeat of the Red 9 Army, the Red Army's combat strength was greatly damaged. Due to the extreme disparity in strength, the Western Route Army retreated to the west and withdrew; it intended to get rid of the pursuit and interception of the Majia Army and go to Xinjiang to receive Soviet aid, but the Majia Army still pursued it from behind, and in the middle of the Hexi Corridor, Linze, Nijiayingzi, and Gaotai County, the Western Route Army stopped and prepared to fight the Majia army to the death here.
However, in the harsh winter, the soldiers of the Western Route Army, who were still wearing single clothes and straw shoes, worked expeditions, had no logistical support, could not be replenished with ammunition, and did not have any assistance. No good base areas have been created and there is no mass base.
The brave soldiers of the Western Route Army fought a deadly duel with more than 100,000 majia army troops composed of aircraft, heavy artillery, and cavalry, eliminating 25,000 Majia troops, defeating their entire army and retreating from Liyuankou in Linze into the Qilian Mountains.
(The picture above is the cavalry of the Ma Family Army, and the picture below is the remains of the soldiers who died in the battle of my Western Route Army)
On March 14, 1937, the last military and political meeting attended by cadres at and above the regimental level was held in Shiwozi, Sunan County, in the Qilian Mountains, and it was decided that Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian would leave the army and return to northern Shaanxi to report the situation to the Party Central Committee.
The Western Route Army Working Committee was set up, and eight comrades, Li Xiannian, Li Zhuoran, Li Te, Zeng Chuanliu, Wang Shusheng, Cheng Shicai, Huang Chao, and Xiong Guobing, formed the Western Route Army Working Committee to command the troops in a unified way, with Li Xiannian in charge of the military and Li Zhuoran in charge of politics.
The remaining 3,000 men of the Western Route Army were divided into three detachments, staying in the Qilian Mountains to fight guerrillas, 3,000 were divided into left, middle, and right detachments; Li Xiannian led the 30th Army, and 1,500 personnel of the headquarters directly subordinate units were left detachments to fight guerrillas on the western mountains; the remaining three infantry companies of the Western Route Army, two cavalry companies, a total of more than 700 people, were organized into a right detachment led by Wang Shusheng and Zhu Liangcai to fight guerrillas on the southern mountains, and the remaining wounded and sick, and more than a thousand people of the women's independent regiment were organized into one detachment, which was organized by Bi Zhanyun, Zhang Rong led the search for a hidden transfer on the spot.
(These are the female soldiers of the Western Route Army)
The two detachments on the left and the right set out in two different directions at the same time, and at this moment Li Te, member of the Working Committee of the Western Route Army, chief of staff of the Western Route Army, and Huang Chao, member of the Working Committee of the Western Route Army and political commissar of the 5th Red Army, moved with the left detachment.
Li Te (1902-1938) a native of Huoqiu County, Anhui Province, who pursued progress in his early years, studied in the Soviet Union, returned to China in 1930, and was sent to work in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region after returning to China, successively serving as deputy chief of staff of the Red Fourth Front, chief of staff, and chief of education of the Red Army University.
During the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Li Te made important contributions to the growth of the Red Fourth Front, and to the creation and development of the Eyu-Anhui and Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Regions. Later, however, in the face of Zhang Guotao's separatism, Li Te sided with Zhang Guotao and once split the Red Army; when the Red Army went north alone, he caught up with the Central Red Army to intercept and shouted at the leaders of the Central Red Army. This is the biggest stain on Litt's life.
In November 1936, after the establishment of the Western Route Army, Li Te became a member of the Standing Committee of the Military and Political Committee of the Western Route Army, chief of staff of the Western Route Army, and followed the General Political Commissar Chen Changhao and the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian across the Yellow River.
(This is the photo of Li Te, chief of staff of the Western Route Army.
The left detachment of the Western Route Army, led by Li Xiannian, Li Zhuoran, Li Te, Cheng Shicai, and Huang Chao, made a difficult trek over the Qilian Mountains.
After several battles with the blockaded Ma Jiajun at the foot of Qilian Mountain. The 1,500-man left detachment ended up with only 420 men left to reach Xingxing gorge in Xinjiang.
(This is the scene of the Western Route Army crossing the Qilian Mountains)
At Xingxingxia, they met with Chen Yun and Teng Daiyuan, representatives sent by the central authorities, and Chen Yun and Teng Daiyuan transported the remnants of the two armies, who were already very tired, to Urumqi in a car that had long been prepared, and the new barracks set up in Urumqi were rested and trained, and the senior cadres gathered together to conduct political study.
At the end of 1937, wang Ming, who was returning from the Soviet Union and passing through Xinjiang, conducted a political review and screening of the cadres of the Xilu Army in Urumqi, and everyone else passed the pass. Only Li Te and Huang Chao, Wang Ming charged them with "Trotskyism", and were secretly executed in 1938, the whole process is still a mystery, decades have passed, the Party Central Committee does not know this matter, and later in Zhang Guotao's "Memoirs" it is known that Li Te and Huang Chao let Wang Ming kill.
(This is the team of the Western Route Army)
It was not until after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee that the Party Central Committee tried unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and the cases of Li Te and Huang Chao were finally put on the agenda of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, and under the appeal of Xu Xiangqian and the generals of the Red Fourth Front, Li Te and Huang Chao were rehabilitated in 1981 and posthumously recognized as revolutionary martyrs.
Li Te's personal entry was later included in the Chinese Military Encyclopedia. The summary comment is "Senior Commander of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army".