Preface After the founding of New China, the textbooks of the Red Army's "flying to capture the Luding Bridge" during the Long March has been included in primary school textbooks, which has become a familiar story for generations. The "Chinese Military Encyclopedia" has an author

Introduction

After the founding of New China, the text of " flying to capture Luding Bridge " in the Red Army's Long March has been included in the primary school textbooks, which has become a familiar story for generations. The "Chinese Military Encyclopedia" has an authoritative record, but for many years, there has been a problem that has been controversial, that is, why didn't the enemy directly blow up the iron chain, but defend the other side to the death?

Picture | Text "Flying to Capture Luding Bridge" Illustration

Luding Bridge is located in the west of Luding County, Sichuan Province. It is an important pass from Sichuan to the Kangzang Plateau . After the 22 warriors who captured Luding Bridge that year, few of them were recorded by people after the battle. It was not until decades later that the answer was revealed.

Question 1: Why did the Red Army have to walk on Luding Bridge

Nie Rongzhen recalled many years later: "Comrade Mao Zedong specifically pointed out to us that seizing Luding Bridge is a strategic measure. Only by seizing Luding Bridge can we avoid the fate of Shi Dakai ."

Chairman Mao mentioned two key points in this sentence. One is that the Luding Bridge must be captured, and the second is that we must not be the second Shi Dakai.

First of all, why you have to seize Luding Bridge starts with the special strategic background of that year.

Picture | In 1934, Mao Zedong (first from left) and the guards in Ruijin, Jiangxi. After the young Mao Zedong led the team to Jinggangshan in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek has concentrated his troops on attacks on Jinggangshan many times, trying to eliminate all the Red Army's forces.

However, after several years of hard fighting, Chiang Kai-shek not only could not defeat the Red Army, but the Red Army continued to expand and grow under the leadership of Mao Zedong, from the first anti-"encirclement and suppression" " to the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" . Under Chairman Mao's superb military strategic command, the Red Army smashed Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy again and again.

, but then, the coming of Bogu led to the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression", and even led to huge casualties in the Xiangjiang Battle, and the entire army dropped sharply from 80,000 to 30,000. Then, under the strong protests of the entire army, they demanded the replacement of leaders. Chairman Mao was pushed to the position of supreme leader, and the fate of the Red Army began to reverse.

Unexpectedly, just a few months after the Zunyi Conference was held, Chiang Kai-shek was like a desperate man to jump over the wall. After learning that Mao Zedong had become the leader of the Red Army, he even chased the Red Army wildly.

On May 20, 1935, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission ordered the Front Army to quickly cross the Dadu River. After the Red Army crossed the Dadu River in Anshunchang , they found that there were only a few small boats here, and each boat could only sit a dozen people at a time.

But now there are tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers, and it will take as long as one month.

In addition, the Kuomintang is chasing him relentlessly, and it is impossible for him to cross the river within a few days.

Picture |Luding Bridge

Faced with such a severe situation, Nie Rongzhen and others reported to Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao believed that there is only one way to cross the river, that is, Luding Bridge on the Dadu River.

So, is there any possibility of capturing Luding Bridge? At that time, the central government handed over the arduous task of capturing Luding Bridge to Yang Chengwu, who has been the pioneer since the Long March , the Red 4th Regiment. At the beginning, the order given to him was to capture Luding Bridge within 3 days.

, but there are 320 miles from Anshunchang to Luding Bridge, which means that Red Fourth Army must march 80 miles a day. However, after just one day of leaving, the central government urgently sent Yang Chengwu to take down Luding Bridge tomorrow, otherwise the Red Army would be in danger.

"The left-wing army will seize the Luding Bridge tomorrow. You must use the highest marching speed and resolute maneuvering methods to complete this glorious task."

This means that Yang Chengwu must lead the team to run 240 miles of winding and rugged mountain roads a day, and at that time, the large army relied on their legs. Although this is unlikely, Yang Chengwu still did not eat or drink for a day, insisted on completing the task, and finally arrived at Luding Bridge in the early morning of May 29.

Look at the situation of Luding Bridge at that time. The entire bridge is 101.67 meters long and 3 meters wide. The dry water level of the East Bridge Head Platform is 14.7 meters high.There were 13 iron chains on the bridge, with wooden boards on it. When Yang Chengwu arrived, the enemy had already started to dismantle the wooden boards. Most of the wooden boards on the entire bridge were removed. If the Red Army wanted to go there, they could only attack.

According to "Selected Literature and Historical Materials", Yang Chengwu's Red Fourth Regiment immediately started to exchange fire with the enemy, otherwise the enemy would have dismantled the wooden boards.

Problem 2: The most difficult thing to seize the Luding Bridge

Luding Bridge was built in the early 18th century. At that time, Emperor Kangxi ordered the construction. On the east of the bridge of Luding Bridge, there was the "Imperial Luding Bridge Stele" of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, which records the whole story of the bridge construction.

The entire bridge deck is made up of 13 iron cables connected by 12,164 iron clasps, weighing about 21 tons. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose, Shi Dakai led his army to cross the Dadu River, but when he attacked Luding Bridge, he was intercepted and surrounded by the governor of Sichuan, and 40,000 soldiers were wiped out.

So before taking over Luding Bridge, why did red bun order to shorten the time again and again? It is because Chairman Mao had the first words and must learn from Shi Dakai's lessons to avoid repeating the mistakes.

At that time, the Red Army was almost 30,000. Chiang Kai-shek also said that the Red Army would inevitably be ruined here. Obviously, Chiang Kai-shek also thought that the Red Army wanted to cross an iron chain bridge was nonsense, but he did not expect how brave the Red Army was.

American journalist Edgar Snow first reported the story of the Red Army's flying to the Luding Bridge to the whole world. In the book " Traveling West ", he described the story of that year as follows:

At the bridgehead of Luding Bridge, an enemy's machine gun position was facing the Red Army. Behind them was the enemy's encirclement and blockade. After the attack on the bridge began, a Red Army was shot and fell into the water. The second one was also shot. About 20 warriors pulled the iron chain with their hands and crawled forward, throwing grenades into the enemy's machine gun positions one by one...

Snow In Yan'an , they interviewed many witnesses of the old soldiers who participated in the capture of Luding Bridge. The credibility and authority of the old soldiers were still very high. The "more than 20 warriors" he mentioned actually refers to the 22 warriors who flew to capture Luding Bridge.

As the revolutionary war continues, many people's names are no longer well known, among which Liu Jinshan is one of the 22 warriors.

Picture | Liu Jinshan, one of the 22 warriors of Luding Bridge,

Liu Jinshan's nickname Liu Jizi was born in 1908 in a poor peasant family in Tiancun Town, Ganxian District, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. Since 1930, the commander asked him why he joined the Red Army. He said: "I am an orphan. The Red Army made me turn over and be with the Red Army. I have to be with the Red Army for life and death."

In May 1935, before the Luding Bridge was captured, when the Red Fourth Regiment arrived at the Luding Bridge, the enemy had already removed a lot of wooden boards, and even only 13 bare iron chains were left. The cold air was so cold that I looked down and there was a turbulent and cold river water, and the enemy's heavy machine gun .

Facing this scene, the enemy shouted arrogantly from the opposite side: "If you have the ability, you can fly over."

In order to complete the task, the Red Fourth Regiment decided to form a "success squad" to rush over. At that time, a total of 21 warriors signed up. After Liu Jinshan arrived at Luding Bridge, he recommended himself and immediately asked for instructions to join the suicide squad.

Then, the organization learned about Liu Jinshan's heroic performance in many previous battles, agreed to his request, approved him to join the suicide squad, and formed a 22-person team.

With the command of the regiment commander, "Go to the bridge, cover!" The battle started fiercely, and 22 warriors rushed up and climbed on the iron chain.

Liu Jinshan remembered that at that time he had grenades all over his body and a big knife on his waist. Before he walked, the comrade in front was holding several marching pots , but the enemy's firepower was very dense, and four soldiers were unfortunately shot and fell into the middle of the river.

But this did not scare Liu Jinshan. He held the iron chain with his hand and slowly moved forward. The barbs on the iron chain had already made the soldiers' hands blurry, but the soldiers still did not retreat, but continued to move forward.

With the machine gun cover of the Red Army soldiers behind, the enemy on the opposite side could not stand the situation when they saw the Red Army so brave, so they began to throw the moor bottles and ignited the only wooden boards across the bridge.

As the fire grew bigger and bigger, Liu Jinshan, Liao Dazhu and others saw that the situation was not good, so they decided to rush over immediately. On the one hand, the enemy uses fire to attack. If the time goes by, the only few wooden boards will be burned out, and they cannot be stepped on. On the other hand, as the fire spreads, the iron chain may be burned red, and there is no hope of crawling forward.

At the critical moment, Liu Jinshan and Liao Dazhu suddenly stood up and took out a long sword from their waists: "Run, comrades!" With a few shouts, the soldiers behind them all stood up, and with a few only wooden boards, they crossed the sea of ​​fire, rushed across the bridge, and rushed to the enemy's position.

Yang Chengwu saw the soldiers so bravely, and immediately let the soldiers behind lay wooden boards. A few minutes later, the soldiers rushed by. The warriors had already become chaotic with the enemy on the opposite side, and they were in chaos.

After rushing across the bridge, Liu Jinshan felt a piercing pain. It turned out that due to the fire, many parts of his body were burned, and even his skin and gun body were stuck together, making the flesh and blood, and the pain was unbearable. The task of

was finally completed. The Red 4th Regiment captured the Luding Bridge and completed the extraordinary task issued by Chairman Mao. These warriors also received the reward from the central government. Each person had a Lenin server, a pen, a diary, and an enamel cup. This was the highest reward of that era.

's victory in winning the Luding Bridge is of great significance to the New China. Among the top ten founding marshals of the New China, seven of which passed by the Huding Bridge during the Long March.

Chairman Mao later said in his poem "The Long March" that "the iron chain crosses the Dadu Bridge" is the highest praise for these warriors.

Question 3: Why didn’t the enemy blow up the iron cable

The Red Army captured Luding Bridge, so who is the enemy opposite the bridge? Why didn't the iron chain be blown off directly?

According to the "Selected Literary and Historical Materials" internally issued in June 1979, an article "The Real Situation of the Twenty-Fourth Army Blocking the Red Army in the Sichuan-Kang Border Region" records some details from the perspective of the Kuomintang at that time.

At that time, the 24th Army of the Kuomintang was stationed opposite the bridge. After that, the commander of the army was Liu Wenhui. After receiving the news that the Red Army was going to capture Luding Bridge, Liu Wenhui quickly asked Li Quanshan, the commander of the 38th Regiment, to lead the team to the right wing of the front line, and focus on the Luding Bridge. After Li Quanshan, the leader of the 38th Regiment of

, came to Luding Bridge, he immediately asked someone to demolish the wooden boards on the bridge deck while starting the construction work. It was too late at that time, and Li Quanshan and others were exhausted from the journey, so they did things in a hurry. Unexpectedly, the Red Army had already arrived at the other side before the wooden boards were demolished.

Before dawn, Li Quanshan had no time to completely remove the wooden boards, because the wooden boards were firmly fixed to the iron chain with iron nails, and there were still a little wooden boards at the other end of the enemy.

Nie Rongzhen recalled: "At that time, Luding Bridge was demolished to the point where only a few bare iron chains were left, hanging on the dizzying torrent."

can be confirmed from this that the enemy started to demolish it from one side, but it was not finished. The Red Army looked basically iron chains. It can be imagined that if the enemies were demolished, it would be very difficult for the Red Army to cross the bridge, but it would be easy for the enemy to be under the bridge. This is enough to show how far-sighted Chairman Mao's emergency orders were to speed up the time.

According to that article, the Red Army and the 38th Regiment fought fiercely at Luding Bridge, and more than 50 casualties were Li Quanshan. They saw that the situation was not good, so they began to attack with fire, because Li Quanshan did not expect the Red Army to rush over.

article records that Li Quanshan saw that he could not resist and asked his superiors for help, hoping that the brigade commander Yuan Guorui would provide assistance. Unexpectedly, Yuan Guorui was also fighting with the Red Army in the Dadu River. After receiving a call from Li Quanshan, he said, "We are also very nervous here" and then blew the phone.

It can be seen from this that the feats of 22 warriors frightened Li Quanshan, but it was too late to ask for help now, so they could only use the last fire attack to delay time. Unexpectedly, the warriors of the Red Army crossed the sea of ​​fire and seized the Luding Bridge with their lives.

So the question is, why didn’t Li Quanshan’s chief Liu Wenhui directly give orders to blow up the iron chain? Wouldn't this be easier?

In fact, Liu Wenhui is not an ordinary person. The reason why he can't blow up the bridge is because he also has his own careful consideration.

first, he thought the Red Army could not attack and there was no need to blow up the bridge.

Liu Wenhui formed an inherent concept under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek for a long time, believing that the Red Army has always been vulnerable and has no military strength, but he lowered the Red Army soldiers. The 22 Red Army warriors rushed over tenaciously and exchanged their lives for the victory of winning the Luding Bridge.

Second, Liu Wenhui believes that his army has strong combat effectiveness and the Red Army cannot defeat it.

This can be seen from the fact that Liu Wenhui only lets one regiment stationed at Luding Bridge, but the Red Army has good command and is brave and good at fighting. Some troops have forced their crossing of the Dadu River, forming a situation where the two Red Army cross the river and climbing up the river. They are determined to win the Luding Bridge.

Third, Liu Wenhui dared not blow it up, it would be a sinner forever if it exploded

You should know that in ancient times, especially without the support of advanced technology, most bridge construction situations were adapted to local conditions. The Dadu River is located in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and the river under the bridge is turbulent all year round and unfathomable.

When Emperor Kangxi ordered the construction of a bridge, it not only consumed countless manpower and material resources, but each iron cable needed to be connected to both sides of the strait using the "crack crossing principle". Not only that, deep wells that cost dozens of meters on both sides of the strait, and the iron cables were cast and fixed in the deep wells with pig iron.

In other words, although there are only 13 iron cables, this is indeed the only channel connecting the two sides of the strait. For hundreds of years, this iron cable bridge has served the residents of both sides of the strait. If it is easily broken, it is tantamount to the common people and history, it is tantamount to the sinners of the ages.

Smotherley also confirmed in the book that the Sichuan Army at that time demolished some bridge boards and , but not all of them were demolished. Luding Bridge is the only channel between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. If there is no particularly tense military situation, who would be willing to demolish this historical bridge in China?

authentic Sichuan people Liu Wenhui could not have known this truth, and he has been working hard in the Kuomintang. Liu Wenhui knew that doing so would not be worth the cost, and this person had a patriotic sentiment. He has always opposed the civil war , so from that perspective, Liu Wenhui would never take risks.

Of course, the fundamental reason is that Liu Wenhui is not optimistic about the combat capabilities of the Red Army. He believes that the Red Army cannot cross the Luding Bridge with only steel cables, unless it is "flying". Unexpectedly, 22 warriors really "flying" with their tenacious fighting spirit. This battle not only shocked the Kuomintang, but also shocked the domestic and foreign countries.

In addition to Edgar Snow's report, " First Army History of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army " also records: "Before the Red Army arrived, the enemy had removed the wooden boards on the iron chain bridge, leaving only 13 iron chains across the Dadu River. The warriors braved the enemy's dense firepower to climb the hanging iron chains and rushed to the opposite shore."

And Liu Jinshan, one of the 22 warriors, was awarded the title of "Flying to Seize Luding Bridge Battle Hero" and won the second-level August 1 Medal . Like Liu Jinshan, few people know the names of these 22 warriors.

The Warriors' later years

Liu Jinshan and other soldiers who seized Luding Bridge were even more indifferent to fame and fortune in the future. Those who were lucky enough to survive made great contributions to the New China in the end. Liu Jinshan took the initiative to invite the rank of demotion when he was awarded the rank of "The rank of the rank of the colonel" in 1955.

But many people still don’t know that Liu Jinshan was the old Red Army who captured Luding Bridge. After General Yang Chengwu’s memoir was released, the glorious deeds of these 22 warriors surfaced. Someone asked Liu Jinshan to write a memoir or a biography after

. He politely declined, saying, "This is not my credit, if you want to write, write about my sacrificed comrades."

Liu Jinshan's answer is so simple and sincere. His answer submitted a satisfactory answer to the party. He is Chairman Mao's loyal soldier and the party's loyal soldier.

In life, Liu Jinshan is even more difficult and simple. He comes to do not make a special car every time he goes out, and asks his children to be allowed to take public cars and not take public things.

When the children go to school, Liu Jinshan does not allow the children to say that they are a cadre family, and never give them any special things. Everyone calls Liu Jinshan: Military Migrant workers in the eldest family.

In September 1999, Liu Jinshan died of illness in Suzhou at the age of 91.

Nowadays, very few of the 22 warriors could find files at that time, they were all unsung heroes.

As Liu Jinshan's children said, the father did not leave any material wealth, but what he left to his children was eternal spiritual wealth, which was always worthy of learning from future generations.