In 1931, a few warlords in Sichuan fought hardly. The decisive battle between Liuxiang and Liu Wenhui determined who would be the first warlord in Sichuan. As a result, Liu Xiang led his troops to defeat Liu Wenhui. From then on, Liu Xiang became The number one man in Sichuan’s military and political affairs, 500,000 mercenaries, among the warlords across the country, Liu Xiang’s strength can be ranked among the top few, and he is in the same spotlight.
Faced with the generous conditions offered by Chiang Kai-shek , Liu Xiang decided to change his flag and accept Chiang Kai-shek’s adaptation. His 500,000 soldiers became Chiang Kai-shek’s counter-revolutionary accomplices.
Liu Xiang's photo
In 1933, after the situation in Sichuan gradually stabilized, Liu Xiang received an emergency call from Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek asked Liu Xiang to lead an attack on the Red Army in northern Sichuan. Xiang Xinran accepted this task and began to plan a large-scale battle, aiming at Red Fourth Front Army.
At this time, the Red Fourth Front Army, under the leadership of commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian and political commissar Liu Changhao, had just advanced from Jiangxi to northern Sichuan. Xu Xiangqian fought five consecutive victories along the way, gradually liberating Pakistan and the middle area, and successfully established the northern Sichuan revolutionary base. As soon as the Fourth Red Army gained a foothold, Liu Xiang was ready to move, trying to drive the Fourth Red Army out of northern Sichuan with superior forces.
This battle made Xu Xiangqian unforgettable for life. The fierce battle and the many difficulties he faced were unique in Xu Xiangqian's military career. So many years later, Xu Xiangqian recalled this battle and said: "In the big decisive battle with Liu Xiang, the pressure on Wang Shusheng and I was unprecedented. The enemy's strength far exceeds ours, and the fighting conditions are difficult. If we did not win this battle, , The history of the Fourth Red Army will be appreciated!"
From Xu Xiangqian's words, you can imagine how thrilling this battle is. Perhaps it can be said that this is a battle that determines the fate of the Fourth Red Army.
Chairman Mao has always advocated despising the enemy strategically and attaching importance to the enemy tactically. Xu Xiangqian always believes that Chairman Mao’s words are the magic weapon for decisive victory.Therefore, Xu Xiangqian showed enough calmness for Liu Xiang's army, especially after learning about Liu Xiang's specific deployment, Xu Xiangqian laughed and said: "Liu Xiang's deployment is full of loopholes, and the deployment of troops is too scattered! A group of mobs, Not to worry!"
This is Xu Xiangqian’s unique calmness and courage as an excellent military strategist. From a strategic point of view, Xu Xiangqian believes that Liu Xiang’s strategic deployment is not terrible, but from a tactical point of view, Xu Xiangqian knows that our army must To formulate a reasonable battle plan, if you are not careful, you will lose everything.
Liu Xiang was against the civil war at the beginning, but this time he took into account a serious problem when he attacked with troops. As a warlord from the old age, Liu Xiang valued his turf. He could ignore the civil war, but when our army entered Sichuan to establish a revolutionary base area, Liu Xiang could not sit still. The reason was simple. Liu Xiang regarded Sichuan as his own. Territorial.
The combat effectiveness of the Sichuan Army was not weak, which was fully proved in the subsequent Anti-Japanese War. At that time, the total strength of the Red Fourth Front Army was 45,000. In Liu Xiang's view, the total strength of the Red Army was not much. It's difficult, but Liu Xiang's deployment has drawn a long front, which gives Xu Xiangqian room for full play.
The general army siege is mostly divided into three-way attack, while Liu Xiang's deployment for this battle divided 200,000 horses into 6 routes to attack our army's northern Sichuan base area. Briefly summarize Liu Xiang's specific deployment:
- Set up the First Route Army, under the command of Deng Xihou, the 28th Army of the Sichuan Army, starting from the Guangyuan area, attacked in the direction of and Nanjiang.
- ordered the Sichuan army general Tian Songyao to lead the 24 regiments of the 29th army of the to attack in the direction of Bazhong.
- The commander-in-chief of the Third Route Army is Li Jiayu, commanding 15 regiments of the new 6th Division and the 23rd Luozezhou Division, attacking from Nanchong to Yilong and Zengkou Field in the southeast of Bazhong.
- The commander-in-chief of the Fourth Route Army is Janssen , commanding 12 regiments of the 20th Army,Attack from Peng'an towards Dingshan Field and Tongjiang.
- The commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army is Liu Xiang's 3rd Division, the commander of the 3rd Division Wang Lingji , commanding 24 regiments of the 21st Army, from Kaijiang, Dazhu to Xuanhan, Daxian direction attack.
- The commander-in-chief of the Sixth Route Army is Liu Bang Jun, commanding 12 regiments of the 23rd Army adapted from the remnants of the original Liu Cunhou Army, plus Chengkou and the bandit Wang Sanchun in the Zhenba area. There were 6 regiments including span2span, a total of 18 regiments, which attacked from Kaixian and Chengkou areas to Wanyuan.
These six men and horses are equivalent to fighting across a front line that is more than 300 kilometers long. From the perspective of Liu Xiang’s deployment, the Fifth Route Army and the Sixth Route Army he arranged are the main forces, and these two men and horses are going straight to the red The four fronts left the hinterland.
Photo of Marshal Xu Xiangqian
Anyway, the total strength of the enemy is 200,000, while the total strength of the Fourth Red Army under Xu Xiangqian's command is only 45,000. This is a huge battle between the enemy and us. In order to analyze the enemy's situation, Xu Xiangqian hadn't slept for two days. He held the map and studied it repeatedly. He used a thick pile of paper just to write tactics.
Just a week before the battle started, a heavy rain began to fall in northern Sichuan. The rain came in a timely manner. Xu Xiangqian looked at the heavy rain pouring outside the window. He smiled and said, "A good rain! Liu Xiang's march. The speed is greatly reduced! God is also on our side!”
The Red Four Fronts came out in large numbers. After dinner that day, Xu Xiangqian, as the commander-in-chief, summoned the main leaders of the Red Fourth Front for a meeting. General Wang Shusheng, the deputy commander-in-chief, arrived at the venue very early, followed by political commissar Liu Changhao, and then Xu Shiyou, the commander of the 9th Army of the Red Fourth Army, followed.
Xu Xiangqian immediately recounted the results of the analysis in the past few days. Wang Shusheng and Xu Shiyou sat next to each other. Xu Shiyou, who had always been fighting bravely, lowered his head, frowned and said nothing.
Xu Xiangqian saw that everyone was not too confident in this battle. He first smiled, and then said loudly: "We have come along! We have gone through countless battles, how did it turn out? It's not about fighting the enemy. Fuck! I still think that our army will win this battle!"
Xu Xiangqian has a thorough understanding of war. If you carefully analyze Xu Xiangqian’s classic battles throughout his life, you will find that his military strategy is very similar to Su Yu. Xu Xiangqian is good at Create a fighter, and then grasp the fighter accurately, and make a victory with one sentence.
This battle is the best proof. Xu Xiangqian said: "Although Liu Xiang has 200,000 troops, his deployment is divided into six troops. On average, he will have more than 30,000 troops on each road. Shang Liu Xiang’s headquarter set off from the Guangyuan area, and the distance to our base area was as long as 300 kilometers, and the front line was drawn very long. As a result, his pioneer troops on each route would be at best thousands of troops! You say, what else is there? How scared?"
Xu Xiangqian's words made Wang Shusheng, Xu Shiyou and others feel less nervous. Then Xu Xiangluo listed three reasons why our army must win:
- One is the internal conflicts of the enemy. There are many, different appearances, different paces, and most of them have lingering fears because they have been beaten by our army.
- The second is that the Red Army has achieved great strength after its early victories, and has gained rich experience in combat with the Sichuan Army.
- Third, the expansion and construction of base areas can provide a solid material foundation for our military operations. At the same time, the 38th Army of the Shaanxi Army Sun Weiru and the Red Army maintained a non-aggression agreement, so that the Red Army had no worries and was able to concentrate its efforts on Liu Xiang.
Wang Shusheng recognized Xu Xiangqian's analysis, and his face began to smile. Xu Shiyou even asked Ying to say: "Let us be the main force of the Ninth Army in this battle!" This is Xu Xiangqian's strength. The words suddenly raised the confidence of the generals below.
Regarding the specific tactics of this battle,Xu Xiangqian put forward a crucial point: "Tighten the position, take the annihilation of the enemy's vital forces as the combat goal, and look for opportunities to fight back based on the development of the battle situation!" Xu Xiangqian's style of play is very important. His goal is to exchange space for time and gradually eliminate After the enemy's vitality, seize the fighter to fight back and win.
Photo of Marshal Xu Xiangqian
According to Xu Xiangqian's specific deployment, the Fourth Red Army basically dispatched all the troops to participate in the war. Wang Shusheng, Xu Shiyou and others became the main commanders. Xu Xiangqian's combat plan is as follows:
Take the east line as the main defensive direction, with 28 regiments of the 4th Army, 33rd Army (1 regiment each), 9th Army and 30th Corps (1 division each), deployed in Wanyuan In Xuanhan and Daxian areas, the focus was on the enemy's fifth and sixth offensives, under the command of the commander-in-chief of the front army, Xu Xiangqian himself. On the west line, there are 12 regiments including the 31st Army (less than 2 regiments), the 90th Division of the 30th Army, and the 27th Division of the 9th Army. Commander-in-chief Wang Shusheng commanded the enemy's first, second, third, and fourth lanes respectively. In addition, the 276th and 278th regiments of the 31st Army were deployed in the Sandaohe area and Tongjiangbeiba area north of Wangcangba, and the 4th and 33rd Army regiments were deployed in Xixiang on the northern border of the Soviet area. , The area south of Zhenba, guard against the enemy in southern Shaanxi.
After the troops of our army entered the designated positions, Liu Xiang’s offensive began shortly afterwards. In the first four stages of combat, our army has been evading its edge, and will take the initiative to withdraw from the position every time the movement is successful. , And Liu Xiang can't see Xu Xiangqian's strategy at all at this time. Liu Xiang is like a businessman. He feels that he has more and more sites, which proves that he is winning repeatedly.
What Liu Xiang didn’t notice was that his troops were being eaten away by Xu Qiang, but Liu Xiang’s subordinates were not all confused. Deng Xihou was wary of Xu Qiang’s tactics, but although he felt something was wrong, he said Nothing is wrong.
The main force of our army has been retreating, and the fighting lasted for more than ten days.Xu Xiangqian gave up two-thirds of the northern Sichuan area. These areas largely contained Liu Xiang's troops. Because Liu Xiang did not get a place, he had to divide his troops and garrison him. Xu Xiangqian found out after careful calculations that these areas were divided. With Liu Xiang's strength of at least 60,000, plus the previous battles, our army has wiped out more than 10,000 of the enemy. Xu Xiangqian had a foreboding that the real fighter was coming.
The retreat on the battlefield also pays attention to the doorway. It can neither retreat too far nor delay the speed. The most important point is where the retreat is regarded as the end point. The answer Xu Xiangqian gave was the Wanyuan area, and for the subsequent counterattack, Xu Xiangqian was going to launch it in the Wanyuan area.
Why did you choose Wanyuan as a springboard for the counterattack? There are two reasons. One is the special geographical location of Wanyuan. If our army cannot defend Wanyuan, it will be completely forced out of the northern Sichuan area. Another reason is that Xu Xiangqian found a real fighter when our army retreated to Wanyuan.
Liu Xiang arrogantly ordered his Fifth Route Army and Sixth Route Army to join Wanyuan, where they fought a decisive battle with our army. When Liu Bangjun led the 23rd Army of the Sichuan Army to Wanyuan, Xu Qiangqian ordered the troops to launch a counterattack. .
The gap between Liu Xiang's troops has been widened during the long march. The 21st Army like Wang Lingji is even in a prominent position in the front, completely losing contact with other enemy troops.
As a result, our army used superior forces to intersperse and annihilate the enemy one by one, and a massive counterattack was launched. The troops of the Sichuan Army thought that our army was unable to counterattack, and this sudden counterattack stunned them.
Photo of Marshal Xu Xiangqian
The subsequent battle lasted for more than ten days. Our army successfully won the final victory. Under the command of Xu Xiangqian, 80,000 people under Liu Xiang were wiped out.
The victory of this battle allowed Xu Xiangqian's Red Fourth Front Army to gain a firm foothold in northern Sichuan. The situation later turned into a confrontation between Liu Xiang and our army, and he dared not launch an offensive anymore. Liu Xiang later said to his subordinate Guo Xunqi: "If you don't have to be a last resort, don't fight the Red Army!"
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