In June 1929, Xu Xiangqian was appointed by his superiors to work in Northeast Hubei and served as the deputy commander of the 31st Division. Although the 31st Division claimed to have four regiments under its jurisdiction at that time, it was actually only four brigades, with a total force of only more than 300 people. And there are some soldiers who do not have guns and can only fight with big swords and spears. What's even more difficult is that before Xu Xiangqian arrived, the commander of the 31st Division, Wu Guanghao, had already died in the battle. Wu Guanghao is from Huangpi County, Hubei Province. He graduated from the fourth period of Huangpu . He participated in leading the armed uprising in southern Hubei and the Huangma Uprising. He served as the commander of the Seventh Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army and the 11th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. He is one of the founders of the Hubei-Henan Border Red Army.
At that time, Wu Guanghao had a high prestige in the Hubei-Henan border area. In order not to affect the emotions of the troops and the masses, the superiors decided to keep the news of his sacrifice temporarily confidential. Therefore, although Xu Xiangqian was the deputy commander of the 31st Division, he actually did the work of the commander. Since he was a newcomer, people didn't know him, and some people were skeptical about his military command ability. If you want to win everyone's trust, you can only keep winning battles. But this is not a problem for Xu Xiangqian. He received systematic military training at Whampoa Military Academy , fought wars in Hailufeng area, and accumulated a certain amount of guerrilla warfare experience.
Therefore, after Xu Xiangqian took office, he quickly led his troops to smash the "Luo-Li Association Suppression", "Hui-Yu Association Suppression" and "Xu-Xia Association Suppression". He won three battles and three victories, and the troops quickly expanded to more than 800 people. In April 1930, the Red 31st Division was incorporated into the Red Army and was renamed the First Division. Xu Jishen was appointed as the commander of the army, and Xu Xiang was formerly appointed as the deputy commander and the commander of the first division, with more than 2,100 people in the army. After the establishment of the Red First Army, under the command of Xu Jishen and Xu Xiangqian, they won three battles and three victories in just one month, killing more than 7,000 enemies, and developing to more than 5,000 people. Among them, the Red First Division, which Xu Xiangqian also serves as the division commander, had the strongest strength, with more than 3,000 troops, and a mixed cannon regiment. Xu Xiangqian's reputation spread rapidly among the local military and civilians.
In January 1931, the Red Army defeated the enemy's siege again and its strength further strengthened. Soon after, the First Red Army and the 15th Red Army were combined into Red Army 4th Army , with more than 12,000 troops in the entire army and opened a base in Hubei, Henan and Anhui. Not long after, Zhang Guotao rushed to Hubei, Henan and Anhui as the plenipotentiary representative of the Central Committee, and successively established the Hubei, Henan and Anhui Branch of the CPC Central Committee, the Hubei, Henan and Anhui Provincial Party Committee and the Hubei, Henan and Anhui Military Commission. Zhang Guotao was appointed as the secretary of the branch and chairman of the Military Commission, Shen Zemin and secretary of the provincial party committee, Zeng Zhongsheng and Kuang Jixun were the vice chairman of the Military Commission, and Zhang Guotao thus monopolized the power in Hubei, Henan and Anhui.
Shortly after taking office, Zhang Guotao made adjustments to the leading cadres of the Red 4th Army. Kuang Jixun was appointed commander of the 4th Red Army, Zeng Zhongsheng was appointed political commissar, and Xu Xiangqian was appointed commander of the 13th Division. In May 1930, the Central Plains War broke out, and Chiang Kai-shek temporarily relaxed his attack on the revolutionary bases of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. After discussing, Kuang Jixun, Zeng Zhongsheng, Xu Xiangqian and others decided to take the opportunity to go south and develop outward. At this time, Zhang Guotao mistakenly estimated the situation and blindly proposed to capture the big city. He ordered the Red Fourth Army to attack Yingshan , exit Qianshan , Taihu , attack Anqing , shock Nanjing, and complete within one month.
Although Zhang Guotao has a very old qualification, he has always been engaged in student movements and workers' movements. He has never commanded a battle and his military talents are very average. Under the circumstances at that time, although the Red 4th Army had more than 10,000 people, there was a very shortage of heavy weapon and there was no condition to capture big cities. In fact, during the entire Red Army period, there was only one battle that successfully captured big cities, that is, Peng Dehuai captured Changsha. However, Zhang Guotao ignored the actual situation and forced the troops to prepare for going south to Yingshan and attacking Anqing.
In mid-July, the leaders of the Red Fourth Army were reorganized again, Kuang Jixun was demoted from commander to commander of the Red 13th Division, Xu Xiangqian became commander, and Zeng Zhongsheng was still the political commissar. Not long after, Xu Xiangqian led the main force of the Red Fourth Army to the south, and captured Yingshan in just two hours, annihilated more than 1,800 enemies. In Yingshan, after discussing with Zeng Zhongsheng and others, Xu Xiangqian believed that Zhang Guotao's order to attack Anqing was a bad strategy.Yingshan is more than 400 kilometers away from Anqing, and it is an enemy-occupied area along the way, and Anqing is also a strategic location for the enemy's heavy troops to defend.
When far away from the Soviet area and lacking heavy weapons, it rushed more than 400 kilometers long to attack the enemy's strong fortification Anqing. The difficulties and dangers can be imagined. If it is not done well, the entire army will be wiped out. In the end, Zeng Zhongsheng and Xu Xiangqian decided not to implement Zhang Guotao's order to attack Anqing, but instead left the 12th Division to guard Yingshan, and used the forces of the 10th Division and the 11th Division to march towards Qichun, Guangji, Huangmei and other places to attack the enemies entrenched in this area. Afterwards, Zeng Zhongsheng personally wrote a letter to Zhang Guotao, explaining in detail the reasons for doing so.
Under the command of Xu Xiangqian and Zeng Zhongsheng, the 10th Red Division and the 11th Red Division won victory in Qichun and Guangji and other places one after another, annihilated more than 1,600 enemies, seized more than 1,200 guns, and established revolutionary regimes in many townships. The troops won a great victory, but Zhang Guotao was very angry because Xu Xiangqian and Zeng Zhongsheng did not fight Anqing according to his order. Zhang Guotao believed that his authority was not respected, so he immediately wrote to him to severely scold Xu Xiangqian and Zeng Zhongsheng, and rose to the height of "route issue". Then he ordered Xu Xiangqian and Zeng Zhongsheng to lead the troops to "return north immediately and not stay at all." After
Later, Zhang Guotao revoked Zeng Zhongsheng's position as political commissar of the army and Chen Changhao took over. At the end of September, Xu Xiangqian led his troops to Baique Garden, and Zhang Guotao personally rushed to the Red Fourth Army to preside over the "anti-counterattack". Zeng Zhongsheng, Xu Jishen and many senior generals of the Red Fourth Army who were good at fighting were arrested and detained. According to relevant data statistics, Zhang Guotao killed more than 2,500 platoon-level cadres and combat backbones in Baiqueyuan. Xu Xiangqian was very sad about this and expressed some of his different opinions.
Zhang Guotao's purpose of this "anti-counterattack" was to establish his absolute authority. At this time, he saw that Xu Xiangqian had different opinions about him, so he planned to deal with him. But Xu Xiangqian had a high prestige in the Red 4th Army and was very upright. Before there was enough reason, Zhang Guotao did not dare to attack Xu Xiangqian rashly. In order to punish Xu Xiangqian's "materials", Zhang Guotao took advantage of his opportunity to command the battle on the front line and ordered Zhou Chunquan, the security director of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area, to send people to arrest Xu Xiangqian's 21-year-old wife Cheng Xunxuan. After that, the security bureau tortured Cheng Xunxuan severely in an attempt to make her false accusation of Xu Xiangqian. But Cheng Xunxuan never said anything bad about Xu Xiangqian and was killed soon after. After the Red Fourth Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Xu Xiangqian once asked Zhou Chunquan: "Why did my wife be arrested and killed? What was she guilty?" Zhou Chunquan had to tell the truth at this time: "She has no crime. She was arrested at that time just to make your materials."
Xu Xiangqian is the soul of Hong Si and has made indelible contributions to the development and growth of Hong Si. In order to establish his absolute authority, Zhang Guotao even wanted to punish Xu Xiangqian, and for this, he did not hesitate to kill his 21-year-old wife unjustly, which shows how dark he is in his heart. In his later years, Zhang Guotao froze to death in a Canadian nursing home, which can be said that good and evil will be rewarded. After Cheng Xunxuan died, Xu Xiangqian was afraid that his mother-in-law would be sad and conceal her for more than 40 years. Whenever her mother-in-law asks to see her daughter, Xu Xiangqian always says that she is working or studying in another place and cannot come back for the moment.
Later, my mother-in-law proposed to take a bus to visit her daughter. Xu Xiangqian had no choice but to make up a lie, saying that Cheng Xunxuan had been transferred to work in the Soviet Union. In order to comfort her mother-in-law and prevent her from becoming suspicious, Xu Xiangqian would write to her in the name and tone of Cheng Xunxuan and send money and goods every once in a while. Before his mother-in-law died, she held Xu Xiangqian's hand and said, "Xiangqian, you are a good person. Xunxuan will be relieved even if I die." Xu Xiangqian held his mother-in-law's hand and burst into tears.
