Han Wei, the only surviving regiment commander of the Red 34th Division, jumped off the cliff in the Xiangjiang Battle and did not die, how did he live later?
In 1986, the Military Commission decided to compile a series of historical materials of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, including the history of the 34th Red Division. An editor visited an old man during the spring breeze and begged him to share the past of the Red 34th Division.
The old man readily agreed to the request, and it took four months to complete a rich and detailed memory, densely packed with seven pages.
After finishing the editing work, the old man and his son sat at the dinner table and drank wine. The old man shook the wine glass in his hand and said to his son
When I pass away, please scatter my ashes in Fujian. "
This old man was none other than Han Wei, the commander of the Red 34th Division, who was the only surviving regimental commander in the 1934 Xiangjiang Campaign. He has experienced a lot over the years, so why does he want future generations to return his soul to Fujian?
The Red 34th Division was formed by local soldiers in western Fujian and was formed in the spring of 1933. In 1934, the Red Army's Long March began, and the Red 34th Division was designated as the rearguard unit, which set out from Jiangxi Xingguo in mid-October.
At that time, the Kuomintang army pursued the Red Army with 25 divisions and more than 400,000 troops, including two troops led by senior generals Zhou Hunyuan and Xue Yue. The Red Army could only rely on its tenacious will to fight with the Kuomintang army, and in the face of the multiple blockade lines set by the first one, our army broke through one by one, and finally arrived at the fateful battlefield of the Red 34th Division - Xiangjiang.
At that time, our army had successfully broken through the first three blockade lines, but the Xiangjiang River was the fourth blockade line set up by the first one, aiming to trap our army east of the Xiangjiang River and annihilate it in one fell swoop.
* The Military Commission quickly made a decision to send the Red 34th Division to serve as the rear mission. The then chief of staff *** personally visited the 34th Red Division and summoned the division commander Chen Shuxiang, political commissar Cheng Cuilin and the commander of the 100th regiment Han Wei.
An in-depth analysis of the situation, highlighting the enormous challenges of the task. Not only do they need to complete the tasks of the palace, but they may also fall into the situation of fighting alone after being cut off.
Chen Shuxiang made arrangements according to the tasks of his superiors and the actual situation of the 34th Red Division, and decided to stick to the area of Guanyangwen City and the waterwheel to block the enemy's attack.
The Red 34th Division's biggest opponent was Zhou Hunyuan's Third Route Army, which had brought them suffering. At this time, the four divisions under the command of Zhou Hunyuan were well-equipped and had strong troops, and the coordinated operation of artillery and aircraft caused the Red 34th Division to suffer a serious blow.
According to Han Wei's recollections, at that time, the intestines of a company commander were blown out, and he still insisted on directing the battle. The Red 34th Division successfully assisted other Red Army troops in crossing the Xiang River with amazing perseverance.
However, as *** expected, the Red 34th Division was eventually trapped on the east bank of the Xiang River, surrounded by the Kuomintang's Hunan Army, Gui Army, and ** Army. Under the dilemma of being flanked by the enemy, Chen Shuxiang decided to launch a breakthrough.
At that time, Han Wei was responsible for rear cover, and other troops scattered to break through. However, they were forced by the Kuomintang army to run out of ammunition and food, and finally died heroically.
Among them, Chen Shuxiang was captured by the enemy, and in order to retain his last dignity, he committed suicide heroically at the age of 29.
Han Wei, who originally thought that he would be the first to sacrifice, turned out to be the general with the largest number of surviving people, with only more than 300 people left. As the last regimental commander in the surviving army, Han Wei knew he had to make difficult decisions.
Han Wei decided to organize the remaining 300 people into three companies and break through at nightfall. They know that the stakes are huge, but that's the only way to live.
At that time, due to the unfortunate death of many platoon commanders and company commanders, the entire team was shattered. Han Wei not only reorganized the team, but also had to appoint a new company commander to establish the discipline of the troops.
After the team was reorganized, Han Wei led the remaining soldiers to secretly break through at night as planned. However, they did not go far when they were suddenly spotted by a group of Kuomintang soldiers, outnumbering in the thousands.
Han Wei had no choice but to command the team to retreat in an orderly manner in a fierce battle with the enemy, but ** kept increasing. In the end, only about 30 people remained out of the remaining 300 people.
Forced to Baojie Ridge, Han Wei decided to disperse the number of people again and strive for every soldier to successfully break through. In order to give the others more chances to escape, Han Wei and the five cadres were determined to act as bait for the enemy army, leading most of the ** to the edge of the cliff.
When the enemy army gradually narrowed the encirclement and forced them to no way out, Han Wei and other leading cadres decided to sacrifice themselves for the soldiers and resolutely jumped off the nearly 2,000-meter-high Baojieling cliff.
However, Han Wei did not expect that this leap would become the last spark of the Red 34th Division. Because after Han Wei jumped off the cliff, the remaining troops he led disappeared in history.
According to legend, the remaining survivors may have been hiding among the people, and because of their injuries, they could no longer go into battle, and from then on began a life of indifference.
Another theory is that, with the addition of Chen Shuxiang's remaining team, a total of more than 400 people managed to survive. These survivors were captured and released, and subsequently joined the New Fourth Army.
To be exact, Han Wei is one of the survivors. After jumping off the cliff, he and two other cadres miraculously caught by a tree branch and survived.
Han Wei and the only two remaining cadres, Hou Dekui, the commander of the second battalion, and Luo Jindang, the commander of the regimental division, became one of the few survivors. However, Rogindang unfortunately suffered a comminuted fracture of his left foot and was unable to walk.
In order to save the Luo Jin party, Han Wei and Hou Dekui decided to find a way to survive. At this time, they met a Lang Zhong named Wang Bensen.
Wang Bensen is a farmer in Xiexing Village, Guanyang County, and is also a Tulangzhong. He stumbled upon these three survivors when he went to the Treasure Realm Ridge to collect medicine.
Seeing the situation, Wang Bensen quickly brought Han Wei, Hou Dekui and Luo Jindang back to the village for **.
According to the recollection of local villagers, the three were hobbling and supporting each other, apparently seriously injured.
Wang Bensen hid the three of them in the sweet potato cellar at home for more than 20 days. During this period, the Kuomintang launched a search operation in the mountains, but the villagers did not disclose the whereabouts of the survivors.
After the Kuomintang evacuated, Han Wei and others left the sweet potato cellar. They took off their military uniforms and left their military uniforms and ** for the villagers as a means of self-defense to express their gratitude.
At the same time, it was also to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang. Wang Bensen prepared a flat pole for each of them, and asked them to disguise themselves as porters.
Due to the severity of his injuries, he was unable to continue walking and needed a longer period of recuperation. Therefore, he stayed in Hip Hing Village. And Han Wei and Hou Dekui decided to part ways in order to protect each other.
Han Wei embarked on a long road alone, carrying a flat burden, and marched along the official road at that time. The official road is only more than one meter wide, and the freshly buried corpses of the Red Army can be seen on the cliff wall.
Two months later, Han Wei returned to his hometown in Hubei with great difficulty. He arrived in Wuchang, the capital of Hubei Province (present-day Wuhan), where he lodged with his brother to recuperate and catch up with the army again.
However, he did not expect that he would meet his colleague Zhang Ronghua who used to work in Anyuan here. It is worth mentioning that Han Wei's opportunity to join the revolution was the famous Anyuan Road miners' strike in 1921, which brought him into contact with the party organization for the first time.
Once, Zhang Ronghua, like Han Wei, shouted the voice of justice because of his opposition to the oppression of imperialism and feudalismAt this moment, however, Zhang Ronghua became unrecognizable - he secretly informed the Kuomintang of Han Wei's whereabouts.
Late one night, Han Wei was still asleep, but a group of people suddenly broke into Han Wei's brother's house. It turned out that it was Zhang Ronghua who betrayed Han Wei's whereabouts, and Han Wei was immediately arrested by the Kuomintang.
The arrest resulted in Han Wei being held in prison for up to three years. During this time, Han Wei never revealed that he was a Red Army cadre, and the Kuomintang mistakenly thought that he was just an ordinary Red Army soldier, so that Han Wei was spared.