A year ago, when the Central Red Army came to Lazikou, Lu Dachang deployed two brigades to defend it. The fourth regiment of the First Red Army captured this dangerous pass after a desperate and bloody battle.

On August 9, 1936, the leading troops of the Red Fourth Front Army walked out of the grassland and came to Lazikou, a dangerous pass into southern Gansu. A year ago, when the Central Red Army came to Lazikou, Lu Dachang deployed two brigades to defend it. The fourth regiment of the First Red Army captured this dangerous pass after a desperate and bloody battle.

Lazikou at the foot of Tiechiliang Mountain in Min County

When the 88th Division, the vanguard of the Fourth Front Army, arrived at Lazikou, they found that this time Lu Dachang only put up one battalion for defense. The Eighty-Eighth Division defeated the battalion in one attack and easily captured Lazikou.

The way forward was opened, and the troops began to advance rapidly through Gannan. However, when the First Battalion and Company of the Women's Independent Regiment of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army were escorting more than 500 wounded people through the pass, an accident occurred: they were suddenly attacked by chieftain armed forces

It was not Lu Dachang's troops who attacked the wounded and sick of the Red Army but the chieftain. of cavalry. The cavalry suddenly appeared, their horses' hooves like the wind, slashing all the way. At that time, the wounded and sick soldiers of the Red Army were crossing the small wooden bridge between Lazikou. Company commander Xiang Cuihua led a platoon to clear the way ahead. Instructor Liu Guilan led a platoon to cover both sides of the wounded and sick. Deputy company commander Tan Huaiming led the remaining soldiers to attack the chieftain's cavalry.

Tan Huaiming is a girl with a delicate face. She carried the steel knife on her back and raised the rifle, facing the enemy who was about to rush forward. Her face turned red due to nervousness and impulsiveness. She said to the soldiers: "The sick and wounded are crossing the bridge now. Even if we die here, we can't let an enemy get close."

The chieftain's cavalry also saw clearly that what was blocking them was a group of women. The violent cavalry suddenly broke through the women's company's blocking line.

The sound of gunfire, slashing and cursing suddenly mixed together. Since the enemy was on horseback, the young female Red Army soldiers all stood and shot. The cavalrymen who were hit fell off their horses one after another, and the female Red Army's sword slashed them down. The injured horses neighed in fear and ran wildly in the narrow valley, while the fierce chieftain cavalry struggled with the thin-bodied female Red Army soldiers. Both sides used broadswords. The chieftain cavalry's saber had a narrow and long blade, which caused the female Red Army's blood to splatter; the female Red Army's saber was wide and thick, cutting the enemy's flesh and blood to a pulp.

A cut was made on Tan Huaiming's smooth forehead. The wound immediately rolled up and blood gushed out. After the saber flashed coldly in front of her eyes, her broadsword also slashed down, and the chieftain's cavalry fell down. When the melee was at its most brutal, the company commander and instructor rushed over. Company commander Xiang Cuihua died quickly. The enemy attacked from behind her and struck her on the head with a saber. Xiang Cuihua's black hair mixed with bright red blood foam flew up, and then fell on the battlefield filled with corpses. superior. Instructor Liu Guilan also fell in a pool of blood. At the last moment, Tan Huaiming, whose face was full of blood, shouted: "comrades! The enemy can no longer support it! Kill them!" Tan Huaiming immediately became the main target of the chieftain cavalry attack. She was surrounded by several cavalrymen. Her chest and shoulders were slashed. Finally, two enemy sabers struck her at an angle, and her left ribs were severed. Tan Huaiming, a female Red Army soldier who was born in the south of the Yangtze River, fell in the desolate mountains of northwest China. Inside, his eyes were looking straight at the line of light blue sky above Lazi's mouth.

The Women's Regiment of the Fourth Red Army had one battalion and one company. There were nearly a hundred officers and soldiers in the company, and more than 70 people were killed in Lazikou. After the large forces of the Fourth Red Army passed through Lazikou, they successively occupied Dacaotan and Hadapu, defeated the blockade of the three regiments of Lu Dachang Department, cleared the outlying strongholds of Min County, and surrounded Yanxian County.

Lu Dachang defended Minxian County at all costs.

On the day when the Red Army met at Qiuji Temple to study the attack on Min County, Lu Dachang also hosted a military meeting to study the defense of Min County. In addition to strengthening the blocking fortifications of Erlang Mountain, the most important barrier in Min County, Lu Dachang also emphasized the food reserves in the county.After the meeting, Lu Dachang counted the number of bombs and artillery shells necessary to defend the city: 100,000 bombs and more than 10,000 mortar shells. Lu Dachang also asked the county magistrate of Minxian County and the mayors of various townships to cooperate with the urban defense headquarters in checking household registrations to "prevent joint exploration and lurking."

A few days after the meeting, Lu Dachang received battle reports that key points from Hadapu to the north were occupied by the Red Army. Finally, when the wounded who blocked the Red Army on the outskirts of Min County were carried into the county seat, it caused great panic among the county defenders.

At six o'clock in the evening on August 14, with fierce wind and rain, the Red Army launched an attack on the county seat of Minxian County and the peripheral strategic area Erlang Mountain.

Throughout the night, the Red Army repeatedly attacked the Erlangshan position with a regiment. One of Wang Xianyi's regiments defending the large bunker on the top of the mountain suffered almost all casualties. At dawn, there was only one platoon of officers and soldiers left in the bunker, and they had no ammunition. The Red Army used ladders to climb up to the large bunker, and started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy on the top of the bunker. Seeing that the bunker was about to fall, the Jiang Hancheng brigade sent by Lu Dachang arrived. The one who rushed to the front was Yang Boda's battalion. Each person in the battalion held two shell guns and fired from left to right. The firepower was fierce, rushing from the foot of the mountain to the bottom of the bunker. In the end, the Red Army retreated, and all of Yang Boda's battalion, including the battalion commander and company commander, were injured, half of the platoon commander was injured, and one-third of the soldiers were injured.

After analyzing the battlefield situation, Lu Dachang felt the seriousness of the problem: Erlangshan needed to continue to increase its troops, but his new 14th Division had no troops to deploy. He immediately sent a telegram to the Lanzhou Xujing Office to request reinforcements: "The enemy is numerous and we are outnumbered, so we must guard against the enemy alone. Over the past few days, more and more communist troops have followed. The department has an outnumbered enemy and many casualties, so we always make a desperate move. After all, it is useless to help the country. Please order the troops to come to Min to assist in the defense. "Shortly after Lu Dachang's telegram was sent, Chiang Kai-shek personally called back: "A team has been sent to provide reinforcements and supplies. Afterwards, Zhang Xueliang's telegram also arrived: "The common forces attacking Min County and Longxi were the 88th and 89th divisions of the enemy's 30th Army. The 25th, 26th, and 273rd Divisions of the enemy army are now besieging Yan County. Their slogan is to destroy the Central Army in Gansu. The Zhou [ Zhou Hunyuan ] division is sending reinforcements to the north, and they can reach it in a few days. Wanwang calmly responds to the battle and competes for full merit." - The two big men called in person. Lu Dachang was a little flattered and immediately went to the streets to inspect. city ​​defense.

In the evening, at the same hour as yesterday, strong winds rose again. The Red Army used its main force to attack Erlang Mountain and the other part to attack Minxian County. As a result, Lu Dachang's troops finally "could not take care of each other."

At midnight, the Erlangshan position was broken through by the Red Army. Lu Dachang was extremely anxious and ordered Liang Yingkui's brigade and Jiang Hancheng's brigade to immediately organize a death squad, led by the two brigade commanders personally, rush out from the small south gate of the county and go straight to the Erlang Mountain blocking position one kilometer away from the city gate. At the same time, he ordered to force Cannon and machine gun concentrated fire cover.

At four o'clock in the morning, the news came that the Erlangshan position was saved, but the casualties of officers and soldiers were huge. The lives and deaths of seven of the nine infantry companies were unknown, and only 400 troops were left in one regiment.

In the trenches in front of the Erlangshan position, there were more than a thousand corpses of Red Army officers and soldiers. On the 16th, Kuomintang aircraft dropped a large number of bullets, artillery shells and food into Minxian County. But in the night battle, the Red Army's offensive became even more fierce. They took turns attacking throughout the night without stopping for a moment.

Although Lu Dachang's Erlangshan position was not lost, the connection between the position and the county seat was interrupted. In the early morning of the 17th, a section of the Red Army began to attack Nanguan of the county seat. Lu Dachang ordered the two regiments on the city wall to cover with machine guns, and then used the reserve team to counterattack. Both sides used machetes, bayonets and in the streets of Nanguan. grenade combat. Two hours later, the Red Army withdrew.

In order to prevent the Red Army from attacking the city again, Lu Dachang ordered all the houses in the Nanguan area to be demolished, giving all residents five hours to move out.At the same time, it was also decided to abandon all positions outside Min County and defend Erlang Mountain and the county seat. In the end, Lu Dachang completely closed the North Gate, which was the only place where soldiers and civilians had been allowed to pass since the war began, "to show the determination of the entire city's soldiers and civilians to sink their boats."

On this day, Lu Dachang also distributed a reward: "On a regiment basis, anyone who can defend Erlang Mountain for three days and three nights will be rewarded four thousand yuan in cash."

However, in the early morning of the 18th, the county seat Both the east and west gates showed signs of crisis, and the Red Army's attacking troops gradually approached. Lu Dachang strictly ordered the troops not to retreat and to organize a counterattack immediately. When the counterattacking enemy came into contact with the Red Army guard post, the large Red Army troops who had occupied the edge of the county were cooking, with yellow rice porridge and beef stew in the rice pot. The two sides immediately started a hand-to-hand fight in front of the pot. After the Red Army dispersed, a report was sent to Lu Dachang. The report said: The Red Army troops attacking the county seat of Minxian County "were all part of the teaching and engineering battalions of the Ninth Army, and half of the officers and soldiers were between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one." ".

Chiang Kai-shek once again personally called Lu Dachang: "This division should encourage morale and hold on to the city. Zhongzheng has sent three planes for reinforcements, so don't worry."

Lu Dachang received reconnaissance information saying that the Red Army was outside the city. They widely collected wood, firewood, and planks to build ladders for attacking the city, and threatened to "never give up until the county seat is captured."

Sure enough, on the night of the 22nd, the Red Army used more than a hundred ladders and began to attack the city one after another. The Red Army's attack lasted for three full days, and the two sides formed a cruel and protracted tug-of-war on both sides of the city wall.

"Detailed Combat Report of the Army's New 14th Division":

1. At 9 o'clock in the morning, Brigadier Liang [Liang Yingkui] reported: At 12:10 last night, the bandits used the old city wall to hide in the rear. Speech: China is now at a critical moment of national survival. , the whole country united to resist Japan and save the nation, and it could not be led except by the Red Army. Our guards fired at them, but the orators remained the same, and several people were replaced. About ten people stopped shouting "long live the Red Army." In the morning, many pieces of printed matter were picked up in the moat, including dozens of letters and slogans to inform the soldiers.

2. At nine o'clock in the morning, regimental commander Wang [Wang Xianyi] reported: At twelve o'clock last night, the bandits were speaking, singing, shooting, or blowing trumpets in a hidden place near the position until three o'clock. The Fourth Red Front Army's attack on Min County lasted for fifty days.

Finally, the commander of the Red Army’s frontline troops kept writing to Lu Dachang to “negotiate a cessation of the war.” Lu Daju sent people to contact the Red Army and proposed that "as long as we no longer attack the city and do not occupy the territory of Min County, we can go whichever way we want." The Red Army wrote a reply to Lu Dachang, proposing suggestions such as stopping the fighting and exchanging prisoners of war, but it was not clear about "not occupying the territory of Min County". Welcome to pay attention to

the revolutionary deeds of the female Red Army soldiers who served the people bravely and loyally, and the legacy they left behind This epic revolutionary poem will forever be recorded in the glorious history of the proletarian revolution