At the same time that Liu Yimin led the Central Guard Division to prepare to march to Maotai, on the morning of December 29, Luo Binghui commanded the Red Ninth Army to enter Zheng'an County in accordance with the order of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission.

Historically, the Red Ninth Army was known as the "light cavalry" in the Long March, and in the Battle of the Four Crossings of Chishui, it served as a partial division for many times, and completed it very well.

At this time, the Red Ninth Army had already rested in Suiyang for a long time, and was supplemented by soldiers, weapons and ammunition provided by the guard division, and the whole army was expanded into two divisions and six regiments, with strong soldiers and strong horses.

After receiving the order of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, the Red Army corps was quickly mobilized, and the commanders of the two divisions and six regiments drove straight into Zheng'an.

It was the Qianjun Jiang Zaizhen who defended Zheng'an. Chiang Zaizhen lost the 3rd Division of the Zhenqian Army in the war with Wang Jialie for control of northern Qianbei, and fled to Qijiang in Sichuan, relying on Liu Xiang's protection to survive.

It is said that it is a division, but in fact it is four regiments, less than 5,000 men. After the Red Army entered Zunyi, Wang Jialie's main force withdrew to Guiyang on all fronts, and Jiang Zaizhen thought that the opportunity to make a comeback had come, so he led his troops to leave Qijiang and return to Zheng'an and entrenched along the river. At noon on the 29th, Jiang Zaizhen learned the news that Wang Jialie was ousted from power by Xue Yue and sent to Nanjing, and in a state of excitement, he sent a report to Xue Yue asking the Central Committee to reorganize his Third Division. After sending the report, I felt that my excitement did not subside, so I drank half a catty of Moutai roast and ran to Xinna's little wife's room to play crazy. When he was gnawing and scratching and galloping on the delicate breasts of his little wife, the report of the adjutant outside the door woke him up, and the news that the main force of the Red Army had killed him turned him from a fierce bull into a soft bullock, and slipped out of the little wife's body with a snort.

Jiang Zaizhen slipped up his pants, not caring whether the buttocks of his little wife Bai Huahua on the bed would be seen by the adjutant, and opened the door and asked where the red bandit was and how many people were there?

Seeing that the division commander was so embarrassed, the adjutant officer forced a smile and reported that the main force of the red bandits was attacking the county seat in two ways, all the way along Tuping and Hexi to the county seat, and the advance had reached the vicinity of the cinnabar dam; One route is Taibai in the north of Suiyang, through the temple and Ruixi, to attack the county seat. There were at least 20,000 people in the two bandits, with artillery, and the two regiments stationed on the front line of Tuping had already retreated. The red bandits are in quick pursuit, and they will soon arrive at the county seat, forming a siege of the county seat.

When Jiang Zaizhen heard this, he felt that this matter was troublesome, let's defend it, there are more than 20,000 red bandits, and there are artillery, and they will definitely not be able to hold it with their thousands of remnants. Run, this has just occupied Zheng'an, has a foothold, and the ass is not hot yet, so fucking reluctant. Besides, I just sent a telegram to Chief Xue and expressed my loyalty, but before anyone could reply, I collapsed first, can I have good fruit to eat? After thinking about it for a while, maintaining strength is the first thing, without these four broken regiments, let alone Xue Yue, even the cadres in Zheng'an City may dare to kick themselves. Withdraw first, and wait until we see clearly the Red Army's approach and intentions.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zaizhen ordered his adjutant: "Order the troops to retreat immediately." ”

The adjutant asked where to retreat?

Jiang Zaizhen's face was a slap: "Let the lard blind your brain?" Of course, it was to retreat to the Qijiang River and join the Sichuan army. ”

The adjutant covered his swollen face and ran to give the order. Jiang Zaizhen turned around and shouted into the house: "Don't rub it in, get up quickly, let's retreat!" ”

The little wife squirmed and said, "You go, I'll go back to my parents' house to hide."

Jiang Zaizhen jumped into the house, picked up the little wife who was still naked on the bed, and yelled viciously: "Think beautifully, Lao Tzu hasn't slept enough." Get dressed quickly, and grind your little girl's skin again! ”

The little wife held back her tears, got dressed in a panic, and followed Jiang Zaizhen away, for fear that if she walked slowly, the division commander would shoot her.

By the time the soldiers of the Red Ninth Army arrived in Zheng'an City, the Third Division of the Guizhou Army had already retreated north.

The Ninth Army Corps rested for a while in Zheng'an to replenish dry food, and then turned its troops to the west and killed Tongzi, leaving not even a small force to monitor the enemy.

Jiang Zaizhen led thousands of remnants of the army to stumble all the way to escape, until he fled to Xinzhou on the border of Sichuan and Guizhou, and met the Sichuan Army instructor Liao Haitao Brigade and the Second Frontier Road Musu Middle Brigade, and then stopped escaping.

The instructor of the Sichuan Army is a first-class division under the command of Pan Wenhua of the 23rd Army, with a total of three brigades and six regiments, each brigade has two regiments and one reading battalion, and is the main division of Liu Xiang's first class, with strong combat effectiveness. Seeing Jiang Zaizhen fleeing back like a lost dog, Liao Haitao wanted to take out a pistol and kill him.

Holding back the anger in his heart and inquiring in detail about the situation of the red bandits, Liao Haitao reported to Pan Wenhua, the commander-in-chief of the bandits on the South Sichuan Road, and sent troops to investigate in the direction of Zheng'an.

When the reconnaissance force sent by Liao Haitao reported that Zheng'an County was empty and the Red Bandits did not know where to go, the Red Ninth Army had already returned to Suiyang at the speed of a rapid march and assembled at the junction of Suiyang and Tongzi.

On the evening of the 29th, while Liu Yimin led the guard division to advance covertly towards Gulin, the Red Ninth Army lit torches and killed the soldiers in the county seat of Tongzi at night.

Tongzi is the hometown of the warlords of Tongzi in Guizhou, and at this time there were only two battalions of the Wanshijiong Regiment of the Guizhou Army that were withdrawn from Meitan.

After Wan Shijiong lost a battalion on the north bank of the Wujiang River, he was driven out of Meitan by the Red Ninth Army and withdrew all the way to Tongzi. Originally, he wanted to withdraw to Guiyang to join the main force, but the vicinity of Zunyi was occupied by the Red Army and could not pass. If you want to evacuate, you have to retreat to Tongren through Zhengyang, and go southeast to Guiyang. However, Jiang Zaizhen took advantage of the westward retreat of the main force of the Guizhou army to occupy Zhengyang, and dealing with Jiang Zaizhen was tantamount to seeking skin with the tiger, and Wan Shijiong did not dare to take this risk. had no choice but to trap Tongzi and wait for the main force of the Central Army and the Guizhou Army to counterattack northern Qianbei.

On the morning of the 29th, before Wang Jialie boarded the plane, he sent a telegram to Wan Shijiong, informing him of the situation of being ousted from power by Xue Yue, and asking him to adapt to the situation so that he could do it himself. Then, division commander He Zhizhong sent a telegram informing him that the whole division would accept the reorganization of the Central Army.

Suddenly, there were great changes, which made Wan Shijiong upset. When I went to bed at night, I didn't think about what I was going to do.

Sleeping until midnight, the guards reported that the red bandits were coming. Frightened, Wan Shijiong hurriedly got up and stood on the city wall to see that several teams of red bandits were rushing to the county seat from more than ten miles away with torches. Wan Shijiong did not hesitate at all, and immediately ordered the troops to gather and move to the border of Sichuan in the north.

A battalion commander brought it up, is it a hit. Wan Shijiong thought to himself, fight, for whom? For whom? His uncle had just been brought to Nanjing by Xue Yue, could he have worked hard for Xue Yue to earn credit? So he said to the battalion commander: "Fool, don't you see that this is the main force of the red bandits? What to fight, it would be nice to be able to run. Remove! ”

Similar to Jiang Zaizhen, Wan Shijiong also led the troops to run dozens of miles at night, until he reached the papaya on the border of Sichuan and Guizhou, and met the third brigade and the reading brigade of Jiang Shangpu, the instructor of the Sichuan army, before stopping.

As soon as Jiang Shangpu asked about the enemy's situation, Wan Shijiong reported that the main force of the red bandits was tens of thousands of people attacking Tongzi in six directions, and he led his troops to resist stubbornly, but the troops were too small, so he had to break out of the encirclement and look for reinforcements.

When Jiang Shangpu heard that it was the main force of the red bandits, he did not dare to slack off, so he hurriedly reported the enemy situation to Pan Wenhua, sent a small force to search and reconnoiter in the direction of Tongzi, and ordered the troops to occupy favorable terrain and prepare to prevent the red bandits from advancing northward.

Pan Wenhua, commander-in-chief of the South Sichuan Army, was dazed by the Red Army and did not know what the Red Army was going to do. I had no choice but to send the enemy situation to Liu Xiang over and over again, asking Chairman Liu to make a decision.

Liu Xiang and his person, who look stupid, are actually the most skilled in power and trickery among the Sichuan warlords.

Sichuan is relatively wealthy, and has always been the object of plunder by warlords of all stripes. Since the 17th town of the New Army was organized and trained at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Sichuan Army, one of the top ten miscellaneous armies in modern Chinese history, began to show its face. From the Xinhai Revolution to the War to the Protectorate War, and then to the Erliu Dispute in 1933, warlords from all walks of life in Sichuan staged a scandalous drama of civil war and disturbing the people on the land of Bashu. The curtain fell, and the winning protagonist was Liu Xiang.

At this time, Liu Xiang was the chairman of Sichuan Province, and he also carried out a preliminary reorganization of the Sichuan army, and he adhered to Chiang Kai-shek's will to mobilize a large army to pursue and suppress the Red Fourth Front Army in northern Sichuan, and appointed Pan Wenhua as the commander-in-chief of the South Sichuan Road to suppress bandits, commanding more than 60,000 men and horses to deploy defenses in southern Sichuan to prevent the Central Red Army from going north to Sichuan.

After receiving Pan Wenhua's telegram, Liu Xiang not only informed Chairman Chiang of the enemy situation, but also pondered what the Red Army was going to do.

Like the thoughts of the Hunan Army and the Gui Army, what Liu Xiang was most afraid of was that the Red Army would enter Sichuan, and if the Central Red Army entered Sichuan and joined the Red Fourth Front Army commanded by Xu Xiangqian, it would be Liu Xiang's life. Therefore, when Chiang Kai-shek ordered Liu Xiang to send troops to southern Sichuan and northern Guizhou to prevent the red bandits from rushing north, Liu Xiang acted actively, handing over his absolute main instructors, model divisions, and even his own personal guard brigade to Pan Wenhua to lead, and tens of thousands of troops gathered in southern Sichuan and pressed towards northern Guizhou, ready to cooperate with the Guizhou army and the central army on the southern front to flank the Red Army.

After the red bandits occupied Zunyi, they even said that they were resting, why did they suddenly send troops to Zheng'an and Tongzi today? Do they want to sweep away the remnants of the Qianbei army in the northern Qianbei region and completely control the northern Qianbei, or do they have other plans? Now that Zheng'an and Tongzi have been attacked by the Red Bandits, where is their next target? If the red bandits are ready to gain a foothold in northern Qianbei, it must be Xishui and Chishui. If they wanted to go north to attack the vicinity of Yucheng, the front of the troops must be directed to Qijiang and Hejiang. Judging from the current situation, our army's heavy troops have already pushed to the borders of Zheng'an, Tongzi, and Chishui, and it is expected that the red bandits will not dare to collide with our army. Then, whether they want to divide in northern Guizhou or go north to southern Sichuan, they can only look for opportunities in Suiyang, Zheng'an, Tongzi, Xishui, and Chishui.

It's all Xue Yue's bastard's mistake. Originally, Xue Yue commanded the Central Army, the Guizhou Army, and the Dian Army to squeeze from west to east, the Central Army reinforced army to attack from the south to the north, and his own Sichuan army to oppress from the north to the south, so that the red bandits could be besieged in the Zunyi area and annihilated. Who knows, Xue Yue actually ignored the red bandits and brazenly took down Wang Jialie, now it's okay, Xue Yue is busy reorganizing the Guizhou army, and it is impossible to go north to attack for a while, and the reinforcements of the Central Army are still on the south bank of the Wujiang River, and it is impossible to fly across the Wujiang River in a short time, which has become the Sichuan army's independent resistance to the Red bandits.

Since Qianbei only has its own Sichuan army and red bandits to fight against each other, it is better to be careful, so as not to bump into ghosts while walking and capsize in the gutter. Let Pan Wenhua urge the ministries to advance steadily, since the red bandits in Zheng'an City have withdrawn, the Liao Brigade and the Mu Brigade can take advantage of the situation to occupy it, and the Jiang Brigade and the Reading Brigade will hold the northern part of Tongzi, and see how the Red Bandits move will go next. The troops of the other 1st Division, 2nd Division, and Model Division steadily pressed towards Chishui, and the various units maintained close contact with each other and supported each other, so as not to be taken advantage of by the Red Bandits.

After thinking about it, Liu Xiang sent a telegram to Pan Wenhua, telling him his opinion and letting him make a decision on the spot.

Tongzi is different from other places in Guizhou, because it is the nest of the Tongzi system, the development is relatively deformed.

In the small county town, there are dozens of villas, and cars bought from foreign countries are still parked in front of them.

Luo Binghui walked all the way, watching and scolding: "These bastard warlords in Guizhou have transported all the money they plundered from the common people back to their hometown to build villas." I said why there are so many cadres in Guizhou, it is all a good thing done by these warlords. ”

He Changgong, the new political commissar of the Ninth Army Corps, said: "Don't scold, these cars can't run under such road conditions in Guizhou, and we can't drive away, what can we do?" ”

Luo Binghui said coldly: "What should I do? Cold. He poured out the gasoline and gave it to the soldiers, and when he marched at night, he lit torches, and when he encountered the enemy's bunkers, he was less of a bastard. The cars all smashed me! ”

He Changgong felt a little pity, so he didn't speak.

Luo Binghui saw that He Changgong didn't speak, and he knew that the political commissar felt sorry for these things, but he didn't understand cars, so if he didn't smash it, would he still leave it to the reactionaries? Think about it if Liu Yimin of the guard division was here, that guy has a lot of ideas, maybe he can have the best of both worlds. There is no way, the commissar has just arrived, and he still has to respect his opinion, right? Luo Binghui had no choice but to say: "Why don't we send a telegram to the central government for instructions?" ”

He Changgong looked at the cars regretfully and said: "Forget it, put the gasoline and bring it, don't smash the car, Liu Yimin is right, we are the Red Army, not bandits, don't destroy too much." ”

Luo Binghui looked at He Changgong and asked strangely: "The political commissar is also familiar with Liu Yimin?" ”

He Changgong shook his head: "I haven't met our legendary little hero yet, but I've heard a lot of his words." Let's go, hurry up, we're not aiming for this. ”

Luo Binghui nodded and ordered the troops to set off immediately.

Not long after Liu Xiang sent a report to Pan Wenhua, the units of the Red Ninth Army Corps waved the banners of the First Army Corps, the Third Army Corps, and the Fifth Army Corps, and the troops divided their ways and slaughtered Xi Shui in a mighty manner.

The Red Ninth Army did not enter the county seat of Xishui, but in the relatively large townships and towns at the junction of Xishui and Tongzi, such as Guandian, Taolin, Erli, Erlang, and Sangmu, it attacked the remnants of Hou Zhidan's militia with great fanfare, destroyed the local government, opened warehouses and released grain, and relieved the cadres. In just one afternoon on the 30th, 1,200 people were popularized from the cadres, and Luo Binghui and He Changgong were happy.

After tossing at the junction of Xishui and Tongzi, the Red Ninth Army beat torches, bypassed Xishui County, and attacked and occupied Tucheng on the night of the 30th.

Historically, after Hou Zhidan's division was defeated in Zunyi, the remnants of Hou's Dan army once retreated to Tucheng, and when the Red Army captured Tucheng, the remnants of Hou Zhidan's army fled. Now that history has changed, Hou Zhidan's troops were wiped out in Zunyi, and Tucheng was not guarded by soldiers at all. Therefore, the Red Ninth Army occupied Tucheng without bloodshed.

This time, not only Pan Wenhua and Liu Xiang couldn't sit still, but Chiang Kai-shek couldn't sit still. He concluded that the red bandits must have wanted to cross the Chishui River from Tucheng and flow south of Sichuan. Therefore, Liu Xiangchuan's army was strictly ordered to concentrate its forces in Tucheng to intercept the main force of the red bandits so that they could not flow to southern Sichuan; ordered Xue Yue to leave the more tired troops to garrison Guiyang, and led the main force to urge the Yunnan army and the newly reorganized Guizhou army to quickly march to Zunyi; Ordered the reinforcements who arrived on the south bank of the Wujiang River, Tang Enbo and other troops to force the Wujiang River and cooperate with Xue Yue to capture Zunyi.

After receiving the order, Liu Xiang pondered, it was really like that. What are the main forces of the Red Bandits doing in this small place of Tucheng, just to cross the Chishui River into southern Sichuan? Is this worth it? He immediately ordered Pan Wenhua to concentrate the forces of 11 brigades to attack and advance towards Tucheng, and to be sure to fight on the east bank of Chishui, and strive to eliminate the red bandits near Tucheng, or at least force them back to Zunyi, and hurry up the encirclement of the Central Army, the Dian Army, and the Guizhou Army.

Pan Wenhua can be regarded as an outstanding figure in the Sichuan army, and has held important positions. He is not tall, has a round face, wears glasses, and is 48 years old. He was the first mayor in the history of Yucheng, a well-known military and political duplicity in the Sichuan army, and was deeply trusted by Liu Xiang.

After receiving Liu Xiang's telegram order, he also saw the Red Bandits' intentions, and immediately ordered the four brigades of instructors in Zheng'an and Tongzi to pursue the Red Bandits in the direction of Tucheng at a rapid marching speed; He ordered the rest of the brigades and the 1st and 5th divisions to attack and advance to Tucheng, and ordered a brigade to cross the Chishui River to block the red bandits. For a time, the small Tucheng became the focus of attention of Chiang Kai-shek, Liu Xiang, Pan Wenhua, Xue Yue and others.

At this time, no one thought that what would happen to Gulin County, which was far away from Tucheng, adjacent to Xuyong, and located dozens of miles away on the west bank of the Chishui River.

Gulin is located in the southernmost edge of Sichuan, on the north side of the western section of the Daloushan Mountain in the Wumeng Mountains in the transition zone between the Sichuan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

At 3 o'clock in the morning on the 31st, the special operations detachment of the Central Guard Division came to the east gate of Gulin County.

The area of the county town is not large, but the city walls are relatively strong.

Li Lingfeng, Wang Tongsheng, and Wang Dahu crawled 200 meters away from the city gate, and after a little observation, they found that the city gate was closed, and the two soldiers of the security regiment standing guard on the city tower were swimming back and forth with yawns in their mouths. There were no other sentry posts around, and it was estimated that the soldiers of the security regiment guarding the city gate were sleeping soundly.

The three of them looked at each other and nodded. Wang Tongsheng made a gesture, and his snipers stepped forward to hide, and pointed their guns at the sentry on the city tower.

Wang Dahu crawled back, and on the hillside behind him, a battalion of mortars had been set up, ready to shell the city tower at any time.

Li Lingfeng issued an order to Wang Laohu's squadron. Wang Laohu led his team to crawl forward, and when they reached about 30 meters below the city wall, the two warriors took off their bows and arrows from their backs. After only two "whoosh, whoosh" sounds, the two sentinels on the tower of the city fell limply on the battlements of the city wall.

Wang Laohu issued an order to advance, and the team members quickly ran to the city wall, and the iron grasp in their hands flew out and was firmly buckled on the city wall. The team members pulled the rope and climbed up, and after a while, they went up to the city wall.

Then, Zhao Zhiyu's squadron and Zhao Yonggang's squadron climbed the city wall one after another, leaving Zhao Zhiyu's squadron to control the city tower and city wall and provide fire support.

Wang Dahu stared nervously at the figures of the special combat team members, and was relieved until he saw the special combat team members kill the sentries on the city tower and climb the city wall. Turning his head and waving, the first company quietly touched the city gate according to the infantry squad attack formation.

The city gate opened, and the first company entered the county seat of Gulin, and then the second company, the third company, the fire support company and Wang Tongsheng's sniper brigade all entered the county seat.

The special combat team members had briefly interrogated the prisoners, and there was only one security regiment in the county town, three battalions, and less than 1,000 people, guarding several city gates. The regiment headquarters is located in the old county yali and is co-located with the county magistrate.

After a brief discussion, Li Lingfeng decided that the sniper team would leave one squad to control the east gate, the first detachment of the Wang Dahu squadron of the special combat team would cooperate with one detachment of the sniper brigade to control the north gate, the second detachment would cooperate with one detachment of the sniper brigade to control the south gate, and the third detachment would cooperate with one detachment of the sniper brigade to control the west gate. The remaining two squadrons and the remaining personnel of the sniper brigade cooperated with the first battalion to solve the three battalions of the security regiment in three ways. Six more men were selected from among the captives and led the troops at the price of five oceans each.

It went very smoothly, and without firing a single shot, nearly a thousand soldiers of the security regiment became prisoners of the special operations detachment in their sleep.

By the time Liu Yimin led the guard division into Gulin County, Li Lingfeng, Wang Tongsheng, and Wang Dahu had already finished interrogating the Gulin County Magistrate, the head of the security regiment, and the police chief. The salt tax of 60,000 oceans stored in the county government was also completely seized by the soldiers.

Liu Yimin ordered the troops to rest for two hours in Gulin. Two hours later, the special operations detachment all changed into the uniforms of the security regiment and attacked and occupied Xuyong. The extra security regiment uniforms allowed the regiment to change its outfits and follow the special operations detachment to support. The 7th Regiment left a company to guard the prisoners and meet the troops of the 1st Regiment. Other troops followed with a regiment.

Zhou Yi, the commander of the new corps, asked Liu Yimin if he could include the soldiers of the security regiment in the management of the new corps, Liu Yimin refused and directly told him that no, there were many prisoners in front of him, and there were many recruits, and these prisoners were left to the first corps to deal with. Zhou Yi was both full of expectations and very disappointed, and he felt uncomfortable all over his body.

After receiving the telegram that the guard division had successfully attacked and occupied Gulin, [***], Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De pressed their ecstatic mood and immediately ordered the first army and one division waiting by the Chishui River to set off and quickly take over Gulin. Ordered the Ninth Army to attack Chishui after dawn to further confuse the Sichuan army. After 12 noon, it is necessary to disengage from contact with the enemy and quickly retreat south in concealment. Ruochuan enemy pursued urgently, led the enemy to Loushan Pass, and after the implementation of the blockade, threw off the enemy and advanced towards Renhuai; If the Sichuan enemy stagnates, they will advance to Maotai to cross the Chishui, catch up with the main force, and enter southern Sichuan. Then the telegram ordered the Third Army Corps, the Fifth Army Corps, and the Military Commission column to assemble urgently, and advance towards Renhuai in separate directions. The target crosses Chishui and enters southern Sichuan.

(To be continued)