On the afternoon of December 20, 1934, the 34th Division of the Red Fifth Army arrived near Yuqing County.

Investigators reported that there were no troops stationed in Yuqing City, only militia groups.

Division Commander Chen Shuxiang ordered the 101st Regiment to immediately occupy the county seat, and the 100th Regiment bypassed the county seat and directly attacked the Wujiang Ferry, and the division and the 102nd Regiment followed.

Hou Zhidan is a native of Tongzi, graduated from Guizhou Jiangwutang, and like Wang Jialie, he is one of the backbone figures of the Tongzi department. Since Wang Jialie ousted Mao Guangxiang from the throne of the chairman of Guizhou Province, Hou Zhidang has been working against Wang Jialie. Fighting back and forth, a situation was formed in which Hou Zhidan seized northern Qianbei. At present, Hou Zhidan is also the deputy commander of the 25 th Army, the instructor and the commander of the southern Sichuan frontier defense.

Before the Red Army entered Liping, when Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Wang Jialie's main force of the Guizhou Army to deploy defenses on the front line of Jinping and Liping, Wang Jialie had actually ordered Hou Zhidan's troops to prepare to intercept the communist army. However, Wang Jialie's order not only had no effect on Hou Zhidan, but also caused Hou Zhidan to worry, fearing that Wang Jialie would use the hands of the Red Army to eliminate him. In fact, Wang Jialie really thinks so. Therefore, when on the evening of the 17th, because the Red Army occupied the Jianhe River, Wang Jialie strictly ordered Hou Zhidan to send troops to Huang Ping and Shi Bing to intercept the Red Army on the front line and strictly guard against the Wujiang defense line in accordance with the military conference, Hou Zhidan did not seriously implement it.

It was not until the 19th that the Red Army occupied Huangping and Shi Bing, and Hou Zhidan began to worry about whether the Red Army would want to occupy his nest in northern Qianbei, so he hurriedly dispatched troops to defend the Wujiang River, and prepared to focus on the three ferries of Chashan Pass, Jiangjiehe, and Huilongchang.

To say that Hou Zhidan has been entrenched in northern Guizhou for a long time and occupies a favorable geographical position, the troops should quickly move towards the Wujiang River, but in fact this is not the case. Hou Zhidan's troops had never fought with the Red Army, nor had they fought with the Central Army, the Sichuan Army, the Hunan Army, or the Gui Army, and the only unit that had fought was the Wang Jialie Army, and they did not know that they were in fact a local security force. In addition, many soldiers smoked opium for a long time, and as a result, the combat effectiveness was extremely low. As soon as they heard that they were going to defend Wujiang, the officers and soldiers were all grinding, and most of them were enjoying themselves first and then opening the way. At 11 o'clock in the morning, Hou Zhidan ordered the Lin Xiusheng Division of the Third Brigade to defend Wujiang, but only one regiment left Zunyi by noon.

In the evening, Hou Zhidan learned that the Lin Brigade had all left Zunyi for Wujiang in the afternoon, and was about to pick up the phone to scold Lin Xiusheng bitterly, when he received a report that the main forces of the Red Army's First and Third Army Corps had occupied Fuquan and Kaiyang, and then there was a secret line set up in Guiyang to report that Wang Jialie had withdrawn to Guiyang, and ordered the security regiments in several places to concentrate in Guiyang. Hou Zhidan's heart was put back in his stomach at once, and he said in his heart I said that the red bandits would not come to Qianbei, so is Wujiang better?

Soon his subordinates reported that Wang Jialie's main force of 15 regiments marched from Tongren to Guiyang and had now passed through Renhuai.

Hou Zhidan became more and more convinced that the main force of the Red Army would besiege Guiyang, otherwise how could Wang Jialie let his troops rush to Guiyang day and night?

So, it wasn't until the morning of the 20th that Hou Zhidan asked Lin Xiusheng where his department was. When Lin Xiusheng reported that all roads were moving quickly and were about 70 miles away from the Wujiang River, Hou Zhidan no longer asked where he had arrived, nor did he consider whether Lin Xiusheng's words were credible or not, but just explained that he would speed up and put the phone away.

At noon, Hou Zhidan summoned a few old brothers to drink, and chatted about the situation in Guizhou while drinking, Hou Zhidan held a wine glass, and told the old brothers conclusively that Wujiang is known as a natural danger, not to mention the red bandits after the fiasco of the Xiangjiang Campaign, it is Chairman Jiang, if you don't discuss with him, it is impossible for the well-equipped Central Army to think about Wujiang! In the final analysis, this Qianbei is the foundation of the Tongzi system, and it is his Hou Zhi's burden to one acre and three points of land, no matter who wants to come here to spread wild, they must first see if Wujiang Tianwei agrees or not, and see if the brothers of the tutor agree or not!

These words were as strong as oxen, and several old brothers who listened to them drank bitterly.

An old brother made fun while drinking, and said, "If the red bandits really go to besiege Guiyang, it will be Chairman Wang's good look!" ”

Another person immediately said: "What Chairman Wang, that's a traitor from our Tongzi family." It's best to let the red bandits arrest Wang Jialie, we support Deputy Hou's military seat, no, it should be the waiting military seat and the chairman coming to power. When the time comes, the instructor will take Guiyang directly, and we will divide our troops to guard my brother's area and protect Chairman Hou to be a happy and comfortable king of Guizhou. ”

Hearing this, Hou Zhidan's eyes lit up, and he said again and again: "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, the old brothers have love." ”

As a result, the atmosphere on the wine table became more and more enthusiastic, guessing and talking, and I didn't know what it was today.

Historically, when the Red Army forcibly crossed the Wujiang River, it was carried out in three ways. Among them, the 1st Army and 1st Division and the 9th Army of the Right Column crossed the Wujiang River on a bamboo raft from the Huilongchang Ferry near Jingkou in Yuqing County, and there was almost no decent fighting, and the defending 8th Regiment of the Guizhou Army was about to collapse at the touch of a button; The left column of the Red Third Army crossed the Wujiang River from the Chashanguan ferry, and there was no fighting, and the enemy saw the arrival of the Red Army, thinking that the divine soldiers had descended from heaven, abandoned their positions and fled, and the Third Army Corps easily crossed the river; Only the 2nd Division of the 1st Army Corps of the Middle Route had fought fiercely with the enemy at the Jiangjie River crossing. The reason for the fierce battle was that Li De and Bogu reiterated the proposal to march to Xiangxi, advocating that Wujiang could not be reached, and the central government had to convene a meeting of the monkey farm to solve the problem of the route of the march, which delayed time and gave Hou Zhidan's troops the opportunity to build fortifications. Even if the order was like this, the two regiments of Hou Zhidan's defenders, under the suppression of the fire of the Red Fourth Regiment, saw that the Red Army's bamboo raft had crossed the river and landed on the shore to attack, and they quickly broke and fled.

Now, the 34th Division of the Red Fifth Army Corps rushed back to Longchang Ferry, 11 days earlier than the Red Army's forced crossing of the Wujiang River in history. Not to mention that Hou Zhidan couldn't think of it, Wang Jialie and Chiang Kai-shek couldn't think of it, their eyes were all on Guiyang. Therefore, there are no defenders on the Wujiang River, and Lin Xiusheng's brigade is still a long way from the Huilong Ferry. In this way, when Han Wei, the commander of the 100th Regiment of the 34th Division, led his troops to arrive at the ferry in the evening, the captain was still ferrying normally.

Han Wei ordered the troops to control the ferry and ferry. Looking at the situation, Han Wei was happy to be happy, there were 5 ferries at the ferry. I asked the boatman to know that this is the only way from Yuqing to Meitan, and there are more pedestrians, so there are more boats.

Han Wei then asked the boatman if he was willing to cross the Red Army across the river. So the boatman said, "Are you going to fight the burden?" If we go to fight for the burden, we don't want all the money to pay you.

At this time, Han Wei knew the name Hou Zhidan, carefully inquired about the situation of Hou Zhidan's troops, and arranged for the vanguard company to cross the river immediately, and after crossing the river, he quickly controlled the key points of Jingkou, covered the crossing of the river, and immediately sent a messenger to report to the division headquarters about the situation of the ferry and the situation of Hou Zhidan's department.

After receiving the report, Chen Shuxiang ordered the main force to quickly advance to the ferry and report to the corps.

After receiving the telegram that the Fifth Army Corps had successfully crossed the Wujiang River, [***], Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De laughed heartily and called for heaven to help the Red Army. The 13th Division quickly marched westward along the north bank of the Wujiang River, seized the Jiangjie River and Chashanguan ferries, and covered the main force crossing the river; The 34th Division advanced to Zunyi to search and annihilate the river defense troops of the Guizhou Army from Zunyi at any time. Ordered the Ninth Army to quickly advance to the Huilong Ferry and quickly cross the river. After crossing the river, he immediately went north to seize Meitan, and after succeeding, he advanced to Suiyang to attack. The Fifth Army Corps controlled the ferry and had the task of monitoring the enemy situation on the south bank of the Wujiang River.

After that, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission ordered Liu Bocheng, chief of the General Staff, to lead the Second Division and cadres to speed up the pace of action, quickly rush to the Jiangjie River crossing, and strive to cross the Wujiang River before the arrival of the enemy's river defense troops and take Zunyi directly. The 1st and 15th Divisions of the 1st Red Army, which had entered Kaiyang, were ordered to go north to the Chashanguan Ferry, cross the Wujiang River and march to Zunyi. The Red Third Army Corps, which was in the territory of Fuquan, was ordered to abandon the occupation of Fuquan, quickly advance northward, and cross the river along the marching route of the 1st Army, 1st Division, and 15th Division.

By the time the Red Ninth Army Corps arrived at Huilongchang at 5 a.m. on the 21st of the morning, the Red Fifth Army had already crossed the Wujiang River.

Luo Binghui saw that a pontoon bridge had been erected on the Wujiang River. With the help of torches, Luo Binghui saw that the pontoon bridge was connected with five boats with bamboo, and the pontoon bridge deck was all paved with bamboo, and two ropes were pulled up on the river to fix the pontoon, and the rushing Wujiang River was tumbling and roaring to the northeast under the pontoon.

Rao is Luo Binghui is well-informed, and he has to admire the sappers of the Fifth Army Corps for their thoughtfulness, and it is just a matter of setting up a pontoon bridge, and it is much safer to pull up the ropes on both sides.

Seeing that the vanguard had made contact with a battalion of the 101st Regiment of the 34th Division of the Fifth Army Corps guarding the ferry, Luo Binghui waved his hand and took the lead on the pontoon bridge. Behind him, the units of the Ninth Army Corps went to the bridge and crossed the river in order.

After crossing the river, when Luo Binghui saw the battalion commander of the 101st Regiment who stayed at the ferry, he still asked: "Whose idea was the construction of this pontoon bridge?" ”

The battalion commander of the 101st Regiment reported that it was the idea of their regiment commander Su Daqing, saying that when he was crossing the Xiangjiang River, Comrade Liu Yimin had told the regiment commander Su how to build a pontoon bridge. It's a pity that there are no wooden planks here, but there is a lot of bamboo, so I can only use local materials.

Luo Binghui sighed in his heart: This Liu Yimin is really a talent, not only is he a good hand at fighting, but he is also so expert in the soil work, if he has the opportunity, he must have a good look at this Red Army hero, it is best to get him drunk, and let him tell him where he learned so many ideas!

Looking back at the secluded cliffs on both sides of the Wujiang River, and then listening to the sound of the turbulent Wujiang River, Luo Binghui sighed in his heart, the so-called Wujiang natural danger was trampled under his feet in this way! Unexpected, really unexpected!

After crossing the river, the Red Ninth Army Corps rested in place, and when the sun was just rising, it began to set off north to complete the task of capturing Meitan.

(To be continued)