Chapter 47 There is no war in northern Guangdong
Let's review how the Central Red Army broke through the first blockade line of the KMT. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
It turned out that before the Long March, the Red Army and the Guangdong Army conducted a "Luotang Negotiation" in southern Jiangxi to find Wu, and reached an agreement that the Red Army secretly "borrowed" from the Guangdong Army.
On October 20, the vanguard of the Red Army began to approach the Cantonese defensive line. According to the agreement that the Red Army had secretly reached with the Cantonese army: the Red Army was to take advantage of the road to move west, and the Cantonese army was to withdraw from a passage twenty kilometers wide, but the Red Army had to notify the Cantonese army in advance.
A big contradiction arises here, that is, the question of whether the two sides can trust each other, and the major strategic shift of the main force of the Central Red Army is a matter of life and death. Will the Red Army take the initiative to tell the Cantonese Army? In case it was betrayed by the Cantonese army and the agreement was leaked, it would be a great disaster for the Red Army.
Fortunately, Chen Jitang, commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Army, complied with this agreement, and in the final analysis, Chen Jitang did not want to be an enemy of the Red Army.
As early as the autumn of 1933, when Chang Kaishen launched the fifth "encirclement and suppression" against the revolutionary base areas in the Soviet area, he appointed Chen Jitang, a warlord in Guangdong Province, as the commander-in-chief of the Southern Route Army, and ordered him to send troops to southern Jiangxi to besiege the Red Army.
Chang Kaishen's move had ulterior motives: he could not only use local warlords to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army, but also use the strength of the Red Army to weaken the Guangdong army, so as to "kill two birds with one stone".
Chen Jitang is the most powerful "Southern Heavenly King" among the Cantonese warlords, and he does not obey Chang Kaishen, and he also understands that this is a "killing two birds with one stone" plan. Therefore, he himself also has a wishful thinking: the Red Army in southern Jiangxi is the best force and barrier to resist Chang Kaishen's attack on Guangdong Province from Jiangxi, and fights against the Red Army that is brave and good at fighting and tactically flexible. However, he was also intimidated that Chang Kaishen held the power of the party, government, and military of the Kuomintang Party, and could not blatantly disobey orders.
Chen Jitang ostensibly "obeyed" Chang Kaishen's mobilization and put on a posture of attacking the Red Army in order to defraud Chang Kaishen's food and ordnance; Secretly, however, he supported the Red Army, sent bullets, medicines, salt, cloth, etc., strengthened the Red Army, and made all kinds of friendly gestures towards the Red Army.
In this way, there was a series of secret contacts with the Red Army, and he had already discovered by this time that the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was really just passing through by road, and the Red Army had also promised not to invade the territory of Canton Province, and both sides were naturally happy.
In order to show his sincerity, Chen Jitang also ordered the Guangdong Army to secretly present more than 1,200 boxes of rifle ammunition and a large number of supplies such as salt and medical supplies to the Red Army, which were transported by the Fourth Division to the vicinity of Wujing for handover.
He also strictly ordered his subordinates not to take the initiative to shoot at the Red Army, not to take the initiative to attack or attack, and not to invade each other amicably with the Red Army. Chen Jitang was quite satisfied with the Luotang agreement, and frequently called it a move to "protect the territory and the people" to his henchmen.
In order to prevent Chang Kaishen from knowing about this agreement, Chen Jitang only sent the agreement down to officers above the brigade level, and the officers below the regimental level did not know the content of the agreement, but they had to let them implement the specific agreement, so naturally there would be some friction.
The first blockade line arranged by Chang Kaishen starts from Anyuan and Xinfeng in the southeast, and ends in Ganzhou, Nankang and Dayujian in the northwest, with Taojiang River as a natural barrier, with a length of about 120 kilometers from north to south and a width of about 50 kilometers from east to west.
At the beginning, the defenders of the Cantonese army were not conveyed to the Luotang agreement between the Red Army and the Cantonese army, and the two sides fought fiercely and the battle was extremely fierce.
However, in mid-October, Chen Jitang secretly ordered the release of water, so the Red Army easily crossed the Taojiang River, entered Chongyi County from Dayu County, and then marched to Hunan Province, and the first blockade line was broken.
At the same time, on the 21st when the Central Red Army began to break out in an all-round way, Chang Kaishen did not receive any information clearly received, and he had no way to understand the Red Army's breakthrough route, so Chang Kaishen was also at a loss.
On 22 July, Chen Jitang knew that the Central Red Army had begun a large-scale breakthrough, but he deliberately concealed this important military intelligence report. As a result, Chang Kaishen was unable to make an accurate judgment on the movements of the Central Red Army during these crucial days, and only said in a vague manner: "The Red bandits may flee westward, and all units must step up their efforts to suppress Yunyun."
It was not until 25 June that the reconnaissance planes sent by the Air Force discovered a large number of Red Army units, numbering about 100,000, in the mountains on the border of Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Hunan Province, and were advancing in the direction of Hunan Province.
Subsequently, the aerial photos taken by the pilot were sent to Chang Kaishen, who was convinced that the Central Red Army had broken through the encirclement and suppression of the Kuomintang army and jumped out of the encirclement arranged by Chang Kaishen with all his heart.
Chang Kaishen's pain, confusion, anger, and the complex psychology of being fooled cannot be confided in, more than 500,000 heavy troops encircled and suppressed, more than 10,000 pillboxes were tightly sealed, countless aircraft and artillery purchased at huge expense, more than 100,000 officers and soldiers were killed and wounded, and the result was that the Red Army easily highlighted the heavy encirclement he had carefully set up.
Aggrieved, depressed, angry, all kinds of moods made Chang Kaishen have a splitting headache, could it be that the Red Army could not help it, he was flustered and thinking nonsense.
Of course, Chang Kaishen still did not accept his fate in the end, and he immediately offered a huge reward to the head of the Red Army to all walks of life. Chang Kaishen undoubtedly understood Mao Runzhi's value to the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Party best, and the reward announcement declared: "Those who capture Zhu Mao alive will be rewarded with 100,000 yuan." Those who dedicate their heads will be rewarded with 50,000 yuan. Those who capture or kill Peng Dehuai and others below will be rewarded with 10,000 yuan each. ”
On October 25, 1934, Chang Kaishen convened a military meeting and issued an operational order to wipe out the Vermilion Red Army on the second blockade line.
At the same time, in the name of Nanchang Xingying, a new "reward" was issued to the whole country: "Those who capture Mao and Zhu Mao alive will be rewarded with 250,000 yuan." ”
Chang Kaishen's bounty announcement was published in major Chinese newspapers. Curious foreign correspondents followed the threads of world history and searched for all the well-documented bounty announcements they could find, and finally came to the conclusion that the bounty was the "most expensive and tempting bounty" ever made against a particular individual in the name of the government.
Although the bounty announcement was issued and the battle order was also issued, Chang Kaishen was still speculating about what the Central Red Army was going to do and where it was going. As a result, the deployment of the Nanchang camp on the "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Red Army began with a question mark:
Check the red bandits' southern channeling this time, and he is going all out? Or still turn back to the nest? Or is it struggling in Gannan in another way? It's hard to say for sure. However, it is no longer possible to annihilate the bandits in the area east of the first line, and at this time, the purpose of annihilating the bandits in the middle of the second longitudinal line and the horizontal line of Wan'an, Suichuan, and Dafen Towns should be another mobile deployment. After detailed consultation:
1. The telegram ordered He Jian to quickly strengthen the fortifications on the above-mentioned vertical and horizontal lines and strictly deploy them.
2. The telegram ordered Li Yunjie to gather a large army in Suichuan, aid Luo Lin, and consolidate the defense of the river north of Ganzhou.
3. Zhou Hunyun's column dispatched 16 regiments to assemble in Taihe, and Xue Yue mobilized 12 regiments to assemble in Longgang.
Fourth, if the red bandits flee, they will use Xue Yue and Zhou Hunyuan to join forces with Li Yunjie and Li Shengda. If the red bandits returned, they would join Luo Lin with Zhou Hunyuan's column and march east from Ganzhou, and Xue Yue's troops would still carry out their original tasks.
Fifth, Chen Cheng on the East Road should accelerate in the direction of Changting and Ningdu.
At this time, the Central Red Army, which had crossed the Taojiang River, was still divided into three routes, turning due west on the northeastern border of Guangdong Province and marching in the direction of Hunan along the huge valley of the Lingnan Mountains.
The mountains here are deep and dense, the streams are fast, and the people are inaccessible. In the dense forests on both sides of the valley, sporadic gunfire occasionally rang out. The Cantonese troops, who had gathered at various important points on the border of Guangdong Province, could even see the Red Army troops meandering through the blocking positions. The Red Army and the Civilians, who were carrying their burdens, were all within range of their sophisticated weapons, but they were not given the order to attack. The officers and men of Guangdong lay on their stomachs in the grass, watching such a large-scale march and couldn't help but be dumbfounded.