Chapter 67: Limited Pursuit
Boyang is a township in the west of the passage county, only less than 100 miles away from the passage county seat to the northeast, the new factory in the north, the northeast and the county stream, the southeast is Yatunbao, the passage county, and then the south through Longcheng, Ganxi can go directly to Guangxi, and the west is directly to Liping in Guizhou.
In the official history, on the night of December 11, 1934, the Red Third Army turned to Guizhou from Yatunbao, through Gaojiaping, and Boyang. But now, on December 29, 1934, as the rearguard of the entire Red Army, Li Jiansheng's Red Seventh Army Corps opened from Boyang and came to Liping. The leading troops were the Red 17th Division led by Yuntian and Zhou Pei, the left flank was the Red 18th Division led by Ji Zhentong and Wang Hanying, the right flank was the Red 19th Division led by Peng Zhi and Liu Qiao, the Chinese army was the baggage logistics system, field hospital, martial arts research institute, teaching regiment, cavalry regiment, engineer regiment, and artillery regiment led by Luo Ronghuan, Xu Zhengfang, and Zhao Boping, and the Red 16th Division, special service regiment, and guard regiment led by Li Jiansheng and Zeng Zhongsheng as the rearguard. The next day, the leading troops arrived at Liping. Li Jiansheng's defenders are still on the way.
While marching, Li Jiansheng received a telegram from the central government, and Li Jiansheng soon learned that the central authorities had expressed high appreciation for the Red Seventh Army's nine battles and nine victories in the passage, and had also reported some enemy situations. Li Jiansheng still knows these hostile situations. On the one hand, he came from the afterlife and was very clear about the current situation of the enemy, and on the other hand, his own intelligence system was not a vegetarian and had already provided a steady stream of information. At this time, the situation in three aspects was confirmed, and Li Jiansheng found that the enemy who was besieging him at the moment, although he had continuously inflicted heavy losses on the enemy in the area of the passage, the enemy was still very strong. The four divisions of Zhou Hunyuan's division of the 36th Army of the Central Army were completely annihilated by Li Jiansheng's 3rd and 5th divisions, and the 2nd division was devastated, and the remaining 1st division pursued the Red Fifth Army Corps and fought a big battle with the Red Fifth Army Corps at Jinping Mountain, and the results were victorious and defeated. The Red Fifth Army took the initiative to break away from the front because it had other strategic purposes, and after Liao Lei's 1st Division rested for a night, it got up again to find that there was no trace of the Red Army. The search went on for several days, but it was impossible to make contact with the Red Army. Later, after informing the Central Committee, he learned that another part of the Red Army, that is, the Red Seventh Army Corps, which had just dealt a heavy blow to the division, was heading towards Liping, so he was ordered to press over to this side, and joined forces with the 2nd Division led by Zhou Hunyuan, intending to intercept the Red Seventh Army Corps. The highest authorities then called and asked the 2nd Division to return to Hengyang to replenish and recuperate, the 1st Division led by Liao Lei to continue to follow up, and Zhou Hunyuan to Xue Yue to act. The 28th Army of the Hunan Army Liu Jianxu, with more than 30,000 people, was beaten by Li Jiansheng's division to the point that only more than 3,000 people from Li Jue's 19th Division remained. He Jian was angry and anxious, he didn't want to make this trip to the troubled waters, but he couldn't resist Jiang Gong's request, and now he was the commander-in-chief of the Communist Party, and his own troops would not participate, some of which could not be justified, so he had to secretly send people to another opportunity, and at the same time, he also transferred the 63rd Division to the same time, and supplemented some local security regiments to the 19th Division, so that these two divisions could follow unhurriedly after a short rest. The Xia Wei Department of the 15th Army of the Gui Army is the most relaxed at the moment. Because he had suffered Li Jiansheng's losses earlier, this time he only served as firefighters and did not charge into battle, and as a result, both divisions were preserved. Its 43rd Division, together with the Hunan 63rd Division and the Hunan 19th Division, is now following the Red Seventh Army unhurriedly. The 45th Division continued to deploy as planned, directly from Sanjiang to Guizhou and pursued the Red Ninth Army. Going hand in hand with these people was another powerful force, the Central Army under Xue Yue. Xue Yue is now the former commander-in-chief of the General Headquarters for the Suppression of the Communist Party, which includes the Sixth Route Army and the Eighth Column, also known as the Second Route Army, and has another division-level detachment of the 6th Division under his jurisdiction, which has been followed from the central revolutionary base area in Jiangxi.
Wei Yunsong, commander of the 15th Division of the 43rd Army of the Gui Army, like Liao Lei, is the backbone cadre of the new Gui department. He was a native of Songshan Village, Songshan Town, Rongxian County, Guangxi, and walked 800 miles to Guilin to participate in the Cai Yixue Barracks at the age of 17, and began his career in the northern and southern wars. It is said that he only had 8 cents on him at that time.
At present, he, together with the two divisions of the Hunan Army, is slowly following the Red Army. For the Red Army, he Wei Yunsong still has a deep understanding. As early as the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, Wei Yunsong, then the brigade commander, led his troops to intercept the rebel troops in Guangdong, and was defeated by Ye Ting and He Long, which was his first defeat as a senior officer, and the Red Army soldiers' unafraid of sacrifice and heroic and tenacious spirit left a deep impression on him. During the Battle of Xiangjiang, he led his troops to participate in the siege of the Red Army, which was regarded as avenging the revenge of the year. However, the next few things left him dumbfounded. First of all, the 44th Division and the 24th Division of the Gui Army, which belonged to the same 15th Army as their own 43 Division, were attacked by the Red Bandits in the Xinwei Blocking Battle, and at first the 44th Division was silent, and only a few Gui Army soldiers who had managed to escape relayed that they were beaten by the Red Third Front Army and "there were few people", and then, the 24th Division was raided by the Red Bandits at Gulingtou and beat the whole army.
And now, after meeting with Li Jue and others, I know that He Jian's department of the Hunan Army is no better. The three divisions of Liu Jianxu's army were beaten to only 3,000 people, which was one-tenth of the original. Before, I only said that the Red Seventh Army was famous, but now that I understand it, I know that the so-called Red Bandit's Seventh Army is the original Red Three Front Army!
Comparing the two compartments, Wei Yunsong couldn't help but gasp, the combat power of the red bandits, especially the combat power of the Red Seventh Legion, gave him a new approval. As the main backbone of the Gui family, Wei Yunsong knew that the Gui army could not afford such a heavy loss. You must know that the main force of the Gui army is only about 30,000 people in five divisions, and the loss of two-fifths at one time, and if there are two more such losses, I am afraid that Officers Li and Bai will flee to Hong Kong for refuge again. Obviously, he didn't want his old leader to follow that path, so he was extremely cautious at the moment.
This morning, the forward position reported that the red bandits had escaped, and Wei Yunsong's first thought was to catch up with it, bite it hard, and avenge the brothers of the 24th and 44th Divisions. After thinking about it for a while, I felt that I couldn't be emotional, so I only did three things at the moment: first, the 43rd Division contracted across the line and moved forward steadily; second, immediately report the situation to Army Commander Xia Wei; Third, the 63rd and 19th Divisions of the Hunan Army, which were suffering from the same disease, cooperated with each other and gradually moved forward.
After receiving Wei Yunsong's report, Xia Wei, the commander of the 15th Army, also thought of the tragedy of the 44th and 24th Divisions being raided, and was afraid that the Red Army would come back and forth, so he directly reported to Commander Bai for a decision. It was not until noon that an order was received from the headquarters of the Fourth Army to "pursue it in a limited way." After Wei Yunsong received the order from Commander Xia, he just reorganized his troops and searched and advanced along the retreat route of the red bandits. With this advance, he found that the pace of his unit was quite consistent with the pace of the two divisions of the Hunan Army, and he quickly understood what was going on. As a result, his 43rd Division marched not unhurriedly, but very "slowly". He didn't know what was going on with this Hunan army, and it suddenly became so slow, but Xia Wei secretly knew the order Liu Jianxu received. It turned out that He Jian's order to Liu Jianxu was very similar to the order given by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi: to pursue the red bandits in front of them to a limited extent!