At the beginning of 1931, the second anti-encirclement and suppression organized by Chiang Kai-shek failed, and not only that, but also "donated" a large number of advanced equipment to the Red Army, so that the Red Army also organized a radio corps.
In June 1931, he hired a foreign military advisory group as a think tank, and personally served as commander-in-chief, sitting in Nanchang, mobilizing 300,000 troops to start the third large-scale military encirclement and suppression of the Red Army.
With a large number of men and a large number of generals, Chiang Kai-shek adopted the strategic principle of "driving straight in at length and attacking in separate directions," and specially ordered He Yingqin on the middle road, Chen Mingshu on the right road, and Zhu Shaoliang on the left road to quickly divide into combined attacks, in an attempt to take advantage of the fact that the Red Army had detoured thousands of miles back to Gannan and had not yet taken a breather to annihilate them in one fell swoop.
Chiang Kai-shek had great confidence in this encirclement and suppression, after all, the Nationalist army was several times larger than the Red Army, and its equipment was more sophisticated, and the only drawback was the struggle between factions, but in his opinion, as long as he personally sat in charge, it was enough to suppress factional contradictions and allow the Nationalist army to temporarily unite as one, so that the annihilation of the Red Army was just around the corner.
To this end, Chiang Kai-shek also issued a "military order" if he did not fulfill the sacrifice of his life.
News of the enemy's third encirclement and suppression soon reached the Headquarters of the Red Army, when Mao Zedong was concentrating on studying the Zizhi Tongjian. Also on the table was a line-bound copy of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and an opened "History of History," which Mao Zedong was preparing to combine with the experience of the first and second anti-encirclement and suppression campaigns and the military content in the book to give the Red Army generals a lesson on the strategy and tactics of the Chinese revolution, to open up the experience of the red army fighters, and to lay the foundation for continuing the battle in the future.
After the intelligence staff officer entered the headquarters, he reported in detail to Mao Zedong on the enemy's movements against encirclement and suppression, and Mao Zedong immediately ordered Zhu De and Ye Jianying to be invited. Subsequently, he took advantage of the gap between Zhu De and Ye Jianying, who had not yet arrived, and carefully studied the "Battle of Source Water".
The Battle of Yuanshui was a famous example of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's Xiang Xie Xuan and others defeating 900,000 people in the former Qin Dynasty with a mere 80,000 troops, and it was a model in history of winning more with less, and the situation of the Red Army today was just like that of Xie Xuan and others in those days, so this battle had great reference value in Mao Zedong's eyes.
After careful analysis, Mao Zedong found that the mystery of the Battle of Yuanshui is that although the gap in military strength in the war is important, the nature of the war, the people's hearts and minds and the correct command are even more important influencing factors.
Therefore, as long as the Red Army exercises correct command and mobilizes the strength of the broad masses, it will not be difficult to defeat Chiang Kai-shek.
Mao Zedong thought, Zhu De and Ye Jianying also came to Mao Zedong's residence, Mao Zedong immediately put down the book in his hand, beckoned them to sit down, and asked He Zizhen to make tea for guests, and when the tea was served, everyone drank tea and talked gradually to the right topic.
Ye Jianying pointed to the military map and gave a detailed introduction to the enemy's deployment, the strength and progress of various armies. He said that at present, the enemy army has advanced hundreds of miles in 7 days, He Yingqin is directly approaching Ningdu and Guangchang; Zhu Shaoliang wants to occupy Yihuang and Nanfeng; and Chen Mingshu is going up the Ganjiang River and occupying Ji'an.
The enemy has initially formed a great encirclement posture against our army. It is estimated that in the next two days, He Yingqin's Forward Army of the Middle Route Army will be able to reach Guangchang and attack our important stronghold in Guangchang. After listening, Zhu De analyzed that Chiang Kai-shek was planning to drive straight in.
Mao Zedong also analyzed that Chiang Kai-shek was extremely ambitious, wanting to quickly wipe out the Soviet zone, but also fearing that a fire in the backyard would endanger his base camp. Now Chen Jitang, Li Zongren, Shi Yousan, Zhang Fakui, and other warlords from all walks of life are eager to try and take the opportunity to expand their own territory, which has already posed a great threat to Chiang Kai-shek.
In the Red Army, he could not divide all his energy at all, but could only make a fierce move and annex the Red Army in one fell swoop as quickly as possible, and then he could better deal with other warlords. "Chiang Kai-shek does not take a long drive straight in, swallow you and me with hair and bones, who has the time to soak mushrooms with us?"
Mao Zedong humorously concluded: "Sexual urgency can not eat hot tofu, let alone my old Zhu!" Jude finished and put the teacup on the table. He also replied to Mao Zedong with a humorous sentence, which caused Ye Jianying and He Zizhen to laugh.
Subsequently, Mao Zedong continued to analyze the battlefield, he believed that the enemy was trying to oppress our army to eliminate at the Ganjiang River, and we could break through Tomita by Xingguo via Wan'an after rest.
Then, from west to east, it swept toward the enemy's rear contact line, leaving the enemy's main force in a useless place although it penetrated deep into the Gannan base area. As a first phase of the operation, follow-up actions are planned at any time according to the movements of the enemy. In this regard, Ye Jianying and Zhu De both agreed.
In early July, the enemy's large army reached Gannan, and its left route army occupied Nanfeng in the northeast; the right route army entered Ji'an in the northwest; and the middle route army captured Guangchang. Soon, Chen Cheng's forces captured Ningdu, the main stronghold of the Red Army. By mid-July, the enemy had occupied the southeast and southwestern parts of the Soviet zone, forming a circle of encirclement for Xingguo. Chiang Kai-shek won one after another, and gradually raised his eyebrows, thinking that he personally sat in the town and had a very good effect.
In the face of the enemy's pressing step by step, Mao Zedong and Zhu De immediately commanded their troops to set out from Xingguo, circled from the direction of Wan'an to Futian to the north, and successfully passed through the gap of more than ten miles between the enemy Chen Cheng's department and Luo Zhuoying's department, and entered baiyun mountain.
When the enemy forces Chen Cheng and Luo Zhuoying continued to pursue north, the main force of the Red Army quietly returned to Gaoxingping, 20 kilometers west of Xingguo. After resting for a day in Xingxingping, Mao Zedong consulted with the members of the military department and decided to swing his eastern finger and advance toward Liantang, Liangcun, and Huangpi, attack the weak enemies Shangguan Yunxiang, Hao Mengling, Mao Bingwen, and others, lead the enemy's main force to the east, and then return to The Division to rejuvenate the country again and seek an opportunity to annihilate the enemy.
That night, the Red Army targeted the 40-mile-wide gap between Jiang Dingwenshi and Jiang Guangnai, Cai Tingzuo, and Han Deloitte's army, skillfully interspersed it, turned to Liantang, and on the third day suddenly surrounded and attacked Shangguan Yunxiang, beating Shangguan Yunxiang into the wilderness and fleeing; on the fourth day, it attacked Hao Mengling's division, crushed it in one fell swoop, and then rushed to Huangpi for three days to defeat Mao Bingwenshi again.
Only then did Chiang Kai-shek react and hastily command his subordinate troops to turn their flags to the east and attack the main force of our army. The enemy army took a large encirclement posture and rushed to the Huangpi area, thinking that it would use such an advantageous large army to attack in parts and attacks, seize the Decisive Battle of the Red Army, and use the superiority of strength and equipment to wipe out the Red Army in one fell swoop.
At this time, Mao Zedong was surprisingly calm in the face of the pressure of the army, and he actually ordered the troops to rest in Huangpi on the spot, and the troops rested for three days. He himself, together with Zhu De and Ye Jianying, studied military information next to the map of the headquarters office, listened to the reconnaissance personnel report on the enemy's situation, and planned a grand plan to defeat the enemy's encirclement and suppression.
The three days passed quickly and the situation became more and more serious. On the military map of the headquarters, the circle formed by the blue arrows is getting smaller and smaller, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. On the afternoon of the third day, when he learned of the news that the enemy was nearby, Mao Zedong immediately summoned all the Red Army generals to the headquarters for a meeting, and then ordered the units to immediately set out west.
According to the route planned by the Headquarters of the Red Army, the troops walked for about 20 miles to the junction of Yongfeng, Ningdu, and Xingguo counties, and Mao Zedong asked the messengers to spread the map on the beach, point to the map, and explain to the commanders of the various roads the final information they got: The enemy in both directions of Yongfeng and Ningdu is only 15 miles away from here.
At this time, only the gap of 20 miles in the direction of Xingguo has not been closed. To this end, the headquarters decided that the Twelfth Army would immediately maneuver to the northeast to attract the attention of the enemy, confuse and divert the enemy, and lead the enemy away, while the main force of our army would jump out of the encirclement through the Xingguo gap and enter the shade near Taihe to rest and fight.
For this campaign, Mao Zedong was well aware that whether or not the enemy could be effectively mobilized was the key to action, so he specially ordered the Twelfth Army to try to hold the enemy back, as little as 10 days, as much as half a month. Subsequently, Mao Zedong led the headquarters to set off immediately to the west. The Twelfth Army advanced eastward, luring the enemy deeper.
The Twelfth Army marched to dawn, and the enemy planes followed. In order to effectively confuse and paralyze the enemy, the Twelfth Army pulled a company of troops into a battalion shelf; the red flag was unfurled, and the red flag without the red flag took out all kinds of colorful baggage and shook it high, creating the feeling that the main force of the Red Army was here.
At the same time, in order to make the enemy make even greater mistakes, the Red Twelfth Army also set many traps; on the roads through which our army passed, at every fork in the road, arrows were drawn in white ash and written on the words "The Three Corps Advances From This, and the Fourth Army Goes North" All the trumpets of the Red Army must be capitalized, so that Chiang Kai-shek also believes that the main force of the Red Army has "sneaked north," so that He Yingqin desperately pursues the Twelfth Army.
In this way, the Red Twelfth Army dragged the enemy's 200,000 troops around in circles in the lofty mountains and mountains of Jiangxi, causing the enemy troops who were chasing after them to be tired, fat and thin, and dragged to death, and even the senior generals of Chiang Kai-shek's army cried bitterly, believing that "entering the mountains to suppress the Communists is tantamount to being sentenced to life imprisonment."
At this time, the main force of the Red Army led by Mao Zedong had been resting in the territory of Xingguo for more than half a month, the troops were strong and strong, the morale was strong, and they were preparing to catch Chiang Kai-shek by surprise, and at this moment, Chiang Kai-shek's backyard suddenly caught fire -- chen jitang and Li Zongren's troops in Liangguang invaded Hunan; Shi Yousan led his troops south in Hebei to point south to Xuzhou and Nanjing, threatening Chiang Kai-shek's "old lair" and threatening Chiang Kai-shek's "old lair." Under these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek could no longer take care of the Red Army and could only urgently order the collection of troops.
But where would Mao Zedong give him this opportunity, when he commanded the Red Army to pursue and annihilate the enemy column that tried to withdraw, and won successive battles, annihilating 17 enemy regiments and more than 30,000 people.
The Kuomintang's 300,000 troops threw away their armor and were overwhelmed. Faced with such a mess, Chiang Kai-shek gritted his teeth in anger, but there was nothing he could do. The Red Army's third anti-encirclement and suppression campaign was declared victorious. This victory greatly boosted the morale of the people in the base areas, and by early 1932, the central base areas led by Mao Zedong and Zhu De were expanded to areas with a population of more than 2.5 million.
Take this article to pay tribute to the Red Army, to Mao Zedong!