In May 1978, Su Yu, then a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission and a young man, came to Tanjiaqiao, and this was his third visit to this picturesque place.
Su Yu sat silently on a boulder on the left side of the mountain stream at the Baiting Wooden Bamboo Checkpoint in Tanjiaqiao, staring at the stone gate post stained red by the sunset in the southeast, su Yu did not want to leave for a long time. He burst into tears and seemed to be back in the thrilling bloody battle of 44 years ago. He said to Liu Kui, who was accompanying him:
"I've basically won battles all my life, but I've lost battles here."
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > I. Red Tenth Army Expedition</h1>
In October 1933, Chiang Kai-shek gathered 1 million troops and carried out a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Region. In this battle, the Nationalist army took the battalion step by step, using the fortress tactic to compress the operational space of our army. By the end of the year, the Central Soviet Area had shrunk from 1,000 miles to more than 300 miles.
Faced with such a severe military situation, the Red Army decided to make a strategic shift in October 1934. The largest unit around the Central Soviet Zone was the Red Tenth Army.
As early as early July 1934, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission transferred back the Red Seventh Army, which had been fighting on the eastern front of the Central Soviet Region for a long time, and formed it into the Red Army's anti-Japanese advance team in the north, and the commander of the regiment was the young and promising Xunhuaizhou. At that time, Su Yu was serving as the chief of staff in the Red Seventh Army.
According to Su Yu's recollection, Xunhuai Prefecture was an outstanding young commander who grew up during the revolutionary war years. Xun Huaizhou did not attend the military academy for a day, and at that time, with his outstanding military achievements, he became a division commander at the age of 19 and a military commander at the age of 20. In the Fourth "Anti-Encirclement and Suppression" Battle of Huangpi, he led the Red Twenty-first Army directly into the rear of the enemy, cutting off the retreat route of the Nationalist 52nd Division, and creating key conditions for the total annihilation of the division.
In 1933, Xun Huaizhou became the commander of the Red Seventh Army, seven years younger than Lin Biao, thus becoming the youngest regimental commander in the history of the Red Army. It can be said that Xunhuai Prefecture was a rising star of the Red Army at that time, and its future will be unlimited.
According to the command of the Central Military Commission, the Red First Army and the Red Third Army will adopt the tactic of attacking the west from the east to break through the heavy siege and make peace with the He Longbu. The Red Seventh Army was changed to the "Anti-Japanese Advance Team going north" and marched toward Anhui, Zhejiang, and Fujian, attracting the attention of some of Chiang Kai-shek's troops, and opening up new Soviet areas.
After a long battle, the Red Seventh Army had only more than 4,000 people left and only more than 1,300 guns, a difficult and arduous task. After the Red Seventh Army went out, the first battle was to capture Fuzhou. However, with thousands of soldiers and horses in the Red Seventh Army, it was naturally unable to conquer the provincial capital of Fujian. At Su Yu's suggestion, the Red Seventh Army abandoned the attack on Fuzhou and quickly marched towards the guerrilla zone in eastern Fujian.
By October 10, the Central Red Army had left the Central Soviet Region, while the Red Seventh Army was transferred to Fang Zhimin's Fujian-Zhejiang-Gansu Region and gained a temporary rest. According to the orders of the central authorities, the Red Seventh Army and the Red 10Th Army were united to form the Red Tenth Army, still called the "Anti-Japanese Advance Team in the North", with three divisions under its jurisdiction and a strength of more than 10,000 troops.
The head of the regiment was also changed, with Liu Yuxi, a first-term student of Huangpu, serving as the commander of the regiment, Xunhuaizhou being demoted to the commander of the 19th Division, and Su Yu shortly afterwards serving as the chief of staff of the regiment.
Unfortunately, however, the merger of the two red forces did not bring the imaginary "1+1>2" effect. The Red Seventh Army is better at regular warfare and has more veterans; the Red 10th Army is better at guerrilla warfare and has more new recruits. In 1973, Zhu De commented on this reorganization:
"If you form a corps, you will not collapse without being organized, you will not be able to fight a regular war, and you will not be able to fight guerrilla warfare." Experience still requires the regular army to be organized into guerrilla groups. ”
And this compilation was ultimately doomed to the tragic fate of the Red Tenth Army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the siege of Tanjia Bridge</h1>
Hearing that the Red Seventh Army and the Red 10Th Army were united, Chiang Kai-shek was overwhelmed, so he specially transferred 200,000 troops to deal with the Red Tenth Army. At this time, the Red Tenth Army had already left the Gansu District of Fujian, Zhejiang and reached Tanjia Bridge in the eastern foothills of the Yellow Mountains.
Today, Tanjiaqiao is a picturesque tourist attraction, but in that year it was a bloody frontier for the anti-Japanese advance team in the north.
After arriving at Tanjia Bridge, Liu Yuxi learned that a nationalist army had also followed here. They were the Supplementary First Brigade, led by Wang Yaowu, a fierce general of the Nationalist Army.
Wang Yaowu, we are all familiar with each other. At that time, he was a fledgling, and he was not very famous. Determined to make a contribution, he took the lead, threw off friendly forces, and became the vanguard of the pursuit of the Red Army.
The enemy army is alone and deep, and it is the time of encirclement and annihilation. Liu Yuxi, who was born in the first phase of Huangpu, naturally did not show mercy to Wang Yaowu, the primary school brother of the third phase. He believes that the total annihilation of Wang Yaowu will change the situation of being passively beaten for a long time.
Liu Yuxi believed that this battle should be led by his old troops, the 20th Division reorganized by the Red Tenth Army. After all, as an old unit, Liu Yuxi was more comfortable to use.
In this regard, Su Yu, chief of staff, raised objections. Su Yu believed that the 20th Division was originally a local unit and was better at guerrilla warfare. The 19th Division, which was drawn up from the Red Seventh Army, had rich combat experience and was more suitable as the main attack. The two sides argued for a while, but in the end, Su Yu chose to obey the leadership. The 19th Division was replaced by interspersed troops, ready to cut off the enemy's rear road.
Subsequently, the various units of the Red 10Th Army lurked in the jungle on both sides of the road that Wang Yaowu's troops had to pass. Not only that, Su Yu also sent some scouts disguised as local people to come and go freely on the road.
In the view of Liu Yuxi, Xun Huaizhou, Su Yu and other generals, the total annihilation of the first brigade should not be a problem. Su Yu later recalled that the intention of this battle was very good. As long as the First Brigade can be completely annihilated, it can replenish a large number of personnel and ammunition for the Red Army, and can eliminate the arrogance of the enemy's pursuit.
The Red 19th Division and the Supplementary First Brigade were old rivals, and the two sides fought many times, and the Supplementary First Brigade never took advantage of anything. Therefore, many commanders and fighters believed that the First Brigade was "a unit that did not experience a single blow, and was not at all an opponent of our army." ”
But in fact, the supplementary first brigade is not weak in combat effectiveness, and it is not a miscellaneous unit. They are well equipped, the quality of the troops is high, and most of the officers are from military academies, and their combat effectiveness is not weak. Although its name has the word "supplement", it is actually still a central military unit.
At the same time, although Wang Yaowu was a fledgling, he had actually demonstrated his military talents in the civil war. In the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Wang Yaowu led his troops to hold the strategic place of Yihuang for 24 days without being breached by the Red Army, which was called a miracle by Chiang Kai-shek. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek was quite optimistic about Wang Yaowu.
Wang Yaowu was no stranger to the Red Tenth Army, and he once said to his three regimental commanders:
"The political commissar of the Tenth Army of the Red Army is Fang Zhimin, the regimental commander is Liu Yuxi, and the deputy commander and regiment commander are Xunhuaizhou, and the regimental commander and division commander have a very strong will to fight and have rich combat experience, especially xunhuaizhou is the strongest."
Know thyself and know the other, and never lose a battle. The Red Tenth Army's contempt for Wang Yaowu eventually made them suffer a big loss. Even so, however, the Red Army's odds of winning were high. Compared with the supplementary First Brigade of more than 7,000 people, the Red Tenth Army had more than 10,000 people, which was superior in number and geographical advantage. If there were no accidents, Wang Yaowu would certainly be unable to escape the disaster. But unfortunately, accidents occurred on the battlefield.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, unexpected gunshots</h1>
At this time, Wang Yaowu's 2 regiments were stepping into the ambush circle of the Red Army. From the topographical point of view, Tanjia Bridge is indeed a good place for ambushes.
This place is located at the junction of the three counties of Tai (Ping) Jing (De) She (County), and has been guarding the traffic artery between Hui (Zhou) and Ning (Guo) since ancient times, and the Dayan Highway under construction passes through the border from north to south. The village is large, with about a thousand households. The village is surrounded by high mountains on both east and west sides, Queling Ridge (bordered by Jingde) in the east, Huangshan Mountain in the west, flat valleys and the Machuan River from south to north in the middle, Wuniguan Mountain Pass and Shimengang and Serpentine Mountain commanding heights in the south, and a small hillside north of Wuniguan, with dense forests and dangerous terrain.
Su Yu proposed that from Wuniguan onwards, the advance team would set up an ambush along the two sides of the highway from south to north, in the order of the Nineteenth Division and the Twentieth Division. After the enemy passes through the Wuni Pass and all enters the ambush area, he immediately blocks the Wuni Pass, cuts off the enemy's retreat, and blocks the enemy's assistance. The Twentieth Division, together with parts of the Nineteenth Division, quickly attacked the enemy and annihilated most of it on the road.
Although Su Yu's plan was elaborate, most of the soldiers of the 20th Division were recruits, had never fought such a large-scale ambush battle, and lacked field combat experience, so they were very nervous.
Just then, a new Red Army soldier, overly nervous, suddenly fired a shot ahead of schedule. It was this shot that broke all the plans made by Liu Yuxi, Xun Huaizhou, and Su Yu, and also put more than 10,000 officers and men of the Red Tenth Army into a desperate situation.
The vanguard of the First Brigade was immediately alert, and they soon discovered the Red Army's ambush plan. So while they seized the roadside heights, they sent people to report the situation to Wang Yaowu in the rear.
Striking grass to scare snakes is a big taboo for soldiers. Liu Yuxi was angry and anxious when he saw the situation, so he issued an attack order in advance. Because the enemy was prepared and not completely surrounded, the ambush battle instantly turned into an encounter.
Although Wang Yaowu was in a passive position, he soon realized that the Red Army in ambush ahead was not too strong. So Wang Yaowu immediately brought in machine guns and mortars and suppressed the firepower of our army. Our army was already short of guns and ammunition, and lacked field experience, but under the fierce fire of the enemy, it quickly fell behind.
Although the officers and men of the Red 20th Division resisted bravely, in the end they could not resist the enemy's impact, and the position was eventually overwhelmed by the enemy. With the continuous influx of officers and men of the Supplementary First Brigade, the Wuniguan and Tanjiaqiao heights were completely overwhelmed by the enemy, and the initiative on the battlefield completely changed hands.
Xun Huaizhou saw that the Red 20th Division was defeated, so it immediately changed the original plan to encircle the enemy's rear road, but immediately fully supported the Red 20th Division and retaken the high ground.
When the Red 19th Division reached Wuni pass, one of Wang Yaowu's regiments had firmly occupied the commanding heights, and the advancing Red 19th Division was cut off by machine guns under the cliffs, and it was difficult to deploy its troops.
Xun Huaizhou took the lead, and he personally picked up a light machine gun and fired fiercely at the enemy. Encouraged by Xunhuai Prefecture, the Red Army launched four successive charges against the enemy. With insufficient guns and ammunition, the Red Army blew up the charge trumpet, carried a long spear bayonet, and carried a large knife, and fought bravely with the enemy.
After several iterations, the Wuniguan Heights were finally captured, but the Red 19th Division also exhausted its attack kinetic energy and lost the ability to fight again. What is even more strenuous is that Xun Huaizhou, who is a pioneer soldier, was unfortunately shot in the abdomen and seriously injured. On the way to Maolin, the heroic young general died at the age of 22
Xun Huaizhou was so young, if he could continue to live, he did not know how many more merits he could make for the people. However, it is a pity that he is so young and promising, he still sacrificed himself under the beautiful foothills of the Yellow Mountain.
After 8 hours of bloody fighting, the Red Tenth Army and the Supplementary First Brigade fought both defeats and were exhausted. In this bloody battle, Su Yu was also wounded, and he maintained his troops with other commanders and fighters, and finally quietly withdrew from the battlefield.
After the Battle of Tanjiaqiao, the blood of the martyrs stained the landscape and water of Tanjiaqiao red, and the tragedy of the Red Tenth Army was inevitable.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 4. Sacrifice</h1>
The fierce Battle of Tanjiaqiao became a turning point in the fate of the Red Tenth Army. If this battle is won, the Red Tenth Army will be replenished with a large number of weapons and weights, and can really gain a foothold in southern Anhui. But unfortunately, the Red Army lost, and it was impossible to establish a Soviet zone in southern Anhui.
In order to get rid of the enemy's encirclement and blockade, from December 1934 to January 1935, the Red Tenth Army fought day and night, its strength gradually depleted, and its situation became increasingly dangerous.
In January 1935, the advance team was heavily besieged by the enemy chief Yu Jishi at Huaiyu Mountain in Gandong, and in addition to Su Yu and Liu Ying leading more than 800 people to break through, Liu Yuxi, Fang Zhimin, and more than a thousand heroic comrades fell into the cage of the enemy army.
As the encirclement narrowed, the Red Tenth Legion was so hungry that it had to fill its hunger with grass-roots bark. Although the Red Tenth Army was on the verge of extinction, the units of the Nationalist Army were not happy. Yu Jishi constantly asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions: "Whether it is possible to withdraw the rest." ”
But at this moment, Fang Zhimin's guards brazenly rebelled and confessed to Yu Jishi about Liu Yuxi and Fang Zhimin. Under Chiang Kai-shek's strict orders, Yu Jishi maintained the encirclement.
On January 27, 1935, Liu Yuxi, who had been shot in both hands, was found. Just two days later, Fang Zhimin was also captured.
Soon, Liu Yuxi was escorted to Yu Jishi. As a student of the first phase of Huangpu, Yu Jishi did not even have a word of greeting. Dressed in a large trunk and roasting on the fire, he waved his hand and let people take Liu Yuxi down. Later, after Huang Wei heard about this, he scolded Yu Jishi:
"It's so cold, you should also ask someone to eat a good meal and wear a cotton jacket!" Everyone is a classmate, you are too cruel. ”
After Liu Yuxi was escorted to the rear, Chiang Kai-shek, Gu Zhu and others took turns to persuade him to surrender. As a student of the first phase of Huangpu, as long as Liu Yuxi relaxed, he could not only immediately get rid of the predicament of the prisoners of the lower ranks, but also be able to rise to the ranks and get rich, and enjoy the glory and wealth.
However, Liu Yuxi only looked at the lobbyists with contempt, and then looked haughtily into the distance. Whether it was friendship, officialdom, or death, it could not shake Liu Yuxi's will like steel. As he put it:
"Death is inevitable, and as for when it will die, I don't know, because life is already in the hands of my enemies."
Also persuaded to surrender was Fang Zhimin, who, like Liu Yuxi, had a firm belief that led him to shut out all threats and inducements. Not only that, but he also wrote "Lovely China" in prison. His iron backbone and tough temperament, even the director of the detention center was impressed, and voluntarily sent this essay that touched countless people out of prison.
On August 6, 1935, Fang Zhimin and Liu Yuxi walked side by side in Nanchang to the execution ground and bravely performed their righteousness.
Nowadays, few people know the names of Liu Yuxi and Xun Huaizhou, and they have not had time to see the day of the founding of New China, and they cannot enjoy the glory of the people who gave them orders and their chests are full of medals. But their fighting spirit, their loyalty and blood, will always be the soul that supports the people's army to overcome all difficulties!
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > five, Su Yu's tears</h1>
The collapse of the Red Tenth Army made Su Yu's heart like a knife. But now is not the time to mourn comrades, and the legacy of the martyrs must be inherited. Su Yu and Liu Ying led the last 800 brave soldiers into the mountains of southern Zhejiang and began his three-year-long and arduous guerrilla war.
On April 28, 1938, Su Yu, who had become the deputy commander of the second detachment of the New Fourth Army, passed through Tanjia Bridge again on the way to the enemy's rear. Looking around, it is still a green, pine wave, and stream, as if the deceased comrades are sending him and his new comrades on a new anti-Japanese journey.
Su Yu burst into tears and sighed with emotion. When the people along the way heard that the team led by Su Yu was the Red Tenth Army, which was strictly disciplined and did not commit any crimes in the autumn, they all beat gongs and drums, and came to see them off like they had seen their relatives who had been separated for a long time, and some of them even enthusiastically signed up to join the army. The blood of the martyrs did not flow in vain, and the revolutionary seeds sown by the advance team have long been rooted in the hearts of the toiling masses in Huangshan.
After the defeat at the Battle of Tanjiaqiao, Su Yu has been reflecting on this battle. More than 40 years later, when he looked back on this history, he objectively analyzed the reasons for the failure of the advance team. In his opinion, although the Red Tenth Army had flaws in command, it was not fatal. The determination of the corps chief and the operational deployment were correct. But the enemy army was too strong, and the Red Tenth Army, which was fighting alone, could not tolerate any mistakes. Coupled with the subjective "left-leaning" wrong strategic decision of our army, the Red Tenth Army finally embarked on a dead end.
However, Tan Jiaqiao's defeat did not crush Su Yu, nor did it crush the 800 heroes under his command. They turned themselves into fire and inherited the legacy of the martyrs. The spark left behind by the Red Ten Legion eventually burned the entire wilderness. As Jin Yinan said:
"Wu Zhonghao sacrificed and went out of Xunhuaizhou; Xunhuaizhou sacrificed, and Su Yu came out." The ideal of revolution, the will to fight, is like an unquenchable torch, passed from the hands of one person to the hands of another. ”
Su Yu dried his tears, summed up the lessons, and finally grew into a world-famous general who attacked and won battles, commanded a million troops. The Battle of Tanjiaqiao was a rare defeat in Su Yu's life, but this defeat also made him a success.
On September 24, 1948, the East China Field Army commanded by Su Yu shouted the slogan of "Attack Jinan Province, capture Wang Yaowu alive" and enter the city of Jinan. The victor of tanjiaqiao in the past, Wang Yaowu, fled in disguise and was eventually arrested by the militia in Shouguang County. At this moment, I wonder if Su Yu would think of Xunhuai Prefecture, which was buried in Maolin, and shot and killed Fang Zhimin and Liu Yuxi in Nanchang. I think this is inevitable, Chen Yi has a good saying, called "the success of the newspaper to fly as paper money."
Martyr Liu Yuxi, martyr Fang Zhimin, martyr Xunhuaizhou martyr, Hu Tiantao martyr, do you see it?
At the flick of a finger, in May 1978, Su Yu returned to Tanjiaqiao, sitting on a boulder for a long time and refusing to leave. Finally, with tears in his eyes, he made up his mind. After returning to Beijing, Su Yu said to his wife Chu Qing:
"In the years of the revolutionary war, I was through hundreds of battles, and among the comrades who fought with me, hundreds of thousands of comrades died, but I was still alive and saw the victory of the revolution. After my death, do not hold a farewell to the body, do not hold a memorial service, hope to sprinkle my ashes on the land of the eight provinces and cities of Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, and Henan that have been frequently fought, and be with the comrades-in-arms who have been buried there. ”
In 1984, Su Yu died of illness. The central government followed Su Yu's advice. On April 28, part of Su Yu's ashes were buried on the back hillside about 100 meters from the Baiting Muzhu checkpoint. No ceremonies were held, no eulogies were read. The great General Su Yu could finally accompany his comrades-in-arms buried here day and night.