In January 1935, after three months of difficult journey, the Central Red Army moved from the Central Soviet Area to the Zunyi area, and held an important meeting with far-reaching significance in the entire history of the Chinese revolution here - the Zunyi Conference.

In January 1935, after three months of difficult journey, the Central Red Army moved from the Central Soviet Area to the Zunyi area, and held an important meeting with far-reaching significance in the entire history of the Chinese revolution here - Zunyi Conference . During this meeting, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the leadership position of Chairman Mao .

Zunyi Conference Site

After the Zunyi Conference ended, Chairman Mao used his exquisite strategic command ability to bring hope of life to the Central Red Army on the verge of despair. The key to turning the world is the "Four Crossings of Chishui" campaign. Even Chairman Mao, who commanded countless troops throughout his life, regarded this mobile war as his most proud move. How great is the Four Crossings of Chishui ? It can be said that even a mistake will rewritten history.

The Central Red Army facing dilemma

At the end of the Zunyi Conference, Chairman Mao was ordered to in a critical moment and became the actual commander of the Central Red Army at that time, but the situation facing the Red Army was extremely critical.

After the Central Red Army occupied Zunyi, Chiang Kai-shek judged that the Central Red Army had two transfer roads: one was to enter Sichuan north and converged with Red Fourth Front Army ; the other was to enter Hunan east and converged with 2 and Red 6 Legion .

Chiang Kai-shek

Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized KMT Central Army and Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Dian warlords , a total of 400,000 troops , approaching Zunyi from 5 directions at the same time, trying to encircle and annihilate the Central Red Army on the Sichuan-Guizhou border area northwest of Wujiang . Chiang Kai-shek's army had strong military strength and its weapons and equipment level was much higher than that of the Red Army. This was Chiang Kai-shek's source of confidence that "the great cause of suppressing the Communist Party will be accomplished."

At this time, due to the influence of wrong command, the Central Red Army at this time reduced its troops from 86,000 when it set off to more than 330,000 after the Battle of Xiangjiang, resulting in extremely heavy losses. It is probably impossible to hand over the 400,000 troops mobilized by Chiang Kai-shek to fight against the 400,000 troops that were mobilized by Chiang Kai-shek.

The Red Army in a arduous journey

But in this situation, Chairman Mao commanded with his calm strategic mind to command a fantastic example of mobile warfare in military history.

Crossing Chishui

After the Zunyi meeting was held, the original policy of the Central Red Army was to go north to Sichuan , and merge with the Red Fourth Front Army, which had a scale of more than 100,000 people. However, since the combat effectiveness of the Sichuan Army far exceeded Lin Biao, Luo Binghui and others' expectations, the battle into Sichuan was not smooth, and the Red Army did not successfully capture the Chishui County town that it expected to be easily captured.

Enemy and our situation map before crossing the Chishui River four times

At this time, the Red Army was facing a serious problem: the northbound passage has not been opened, and heavy troops from the rear are about to attack. How should we deal with it? Chairman Mao's choice was to avoid the solid Sichuan Army defense line and advance towards the direction of the Yunnan Army with fewer troops in the west of .

January 29, under the command of Chairman Mao, the Central Red Army divided into three groups, crossing the Xixi Chishui River from the Yuanmeng Field and Tucheng Belt. It aimed at Gulin and Xuyong areas in Sichuan Province. Later developments proved that Chairman Mao's strategic command to avoid the real and go against the false is of great significance. It not only retained the vitality of the Red Army, but also played a role in confusing Chiang's army.

Second Crossing Chishui

After crossing Chishui, the Red Army advanced to Gulin, Sichuan and continued to go west, trying to conquer Xuyong and open up the road northward to Sichuan in another direction. However, due to the obvious shortcomings of the Red Army's lack of troops, Xuyong County failed to take it down after a sudden attack, and the hope of going north suddenly became slim . In desperation, the Red Army had to continue to advance westward until the Thaxi area in northeastern Yunnan.

The Red Army in the battle

The Chiang Kai-shek saw that the Red Army had advanced all the way from Zunyi to Zhaxi, so they judged that the Red Army's intention to try to advance westward and bypass the Sichuan Army's defense line was very obvious. Under Chiang Kai-shek's deployment, the Kuomintang Central Army, Yunnan Army and Sichuan Army began to change the direction of attack, intending to encircle and annihilate the Red Army in Zhaxi in northeastern Yunnan.

However, Chairman Mao unexpectedly ordered the Red Army to stop moving westward , and suddenly turned eastward, crossed the Chishui River and fought back to Zunyi. This move made the Chiang army's troops stunned. None of them expected that the Red Army would return to Zunyi, so the "encirclement and suppression" of these Chiang army in Tashi could only fail.

chatting and laughing Mao Zedong

You can see that the second crossing of Chishui is an excellent example of Chairman Mao’s clever use of reverse thinking : the enemy believes that the Red Army will firmly advance westward, but no one will think that the Red Army will return eastward and return to Zunyi, where the origin is.

Three Crossings of Chishui

After the Red Army crossing the Chishui River and re-captured Zunyi, Chiang Kai-shek was a little anxious and personally took the opportunity to arrive in Chongqing to "supervise and suppress the Communist Party." He asked the Chiang Kai-shek army units to implement the combat policy of step-by-step and steady progress in accordance with the successful experience of the fifth encirclement and suppression campaign that year, and gradually compress the Red Army's activity space.

Chiang Kai-shek

But Chairman Mao’s strategic concept has far surpassed Chiang Kai-shek. He convinced Zhou Enlai and the vast majority of comrades of the Military Commission to let the Red Army cross Chishui for the third time from the ferry entrance of Maotai Town . At the same time, the Red Army made great efforts when crossing the river, and also sent a team of to , Gulin with radio station , sending signals along the way, making a scene of a fierce attack on Gulin and Xuyong in Sichuan Province in order to go north to enter Sichuan.

Red Army soldiers crossing the river

Cheng-shek saw the Red Army crossing the Chishui River , and mistakenly thought that the Red Army was going to regroup the main force to attack Gulin and Xuyong . He was so excited that he could not control himself. He urgently ordered all units to seize the opportunity to move towards Gulin and Xuyong areas to fully encircle and annihilate the Red Army. However, when Chiang's army arrived here, they found that they had not seen any soldiers or soldiers from the main Red Army. So where did the main Red Army force go after crossing the river?

Four Crossings of Chishui

What Chiang Kai-shek never dreamed of was that the Red Army crossed the Chishui three Crossings of Chishui and attacked Gulin and Xuyong were just an illusion that Chairman Mao deliberately showed him. After crossing the Chishui River three times, the main force of the Red Army did not attack Gulin and Xuyong, but instead hid in the dense forest 20 kilometers north of the Maotai Town Ferry. When learning that the main force of Chiang Kai-shek army had already rushed to Gulin, Chairman Mao smiled calmly and ordered the Red Army to cross the Chishui River for the fourth time, making the illusion that he would fight back to Zunyi for the third time.

Mao Zedong, who was planning to plan, found that he had lost another in Gulin and Xuyong , and Zunyi was facing a crisis again. He was shocked and hurriedly returned to Zunyi. But he fell into the mindset again. At this time, the Red Army did not return to Zunyi, but went south with its troops heading straight to Guiyang. In this way, Chiang Kai-shek's army heading north to Zunyi and the Red Army heading south to Guiyang retreated to the north, and Chiang Kai-shek's idea of encircling and annihilation of the Red Army was completely bankrupt.

Save the Red Army in danger Chairman Mao

Reviewing the battle of crossing the Chishui River in the Four Crossings, Chairman Mao cleverly used bold and agile mobile operations to completely lead the Chiang army with strong troops but rigid thinking, so that the Red Army with disadvantaged troops firmly controlled the military initiative, leaving Chiang army in a situation of passive disadvantage everywhere. It can be said that even in the history of world military, this four crossings of Chishui is the best example of mobile warfare.