The main force of the Red Fourth Army attacked southern Jiangnan, which was not a pre-planned plan to open up revolutionary base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, but a comprehensive policy decision after comprehensively considering economic, military, and political factors. They did not just want to get rid of the economic and military predicament, but comprehensively considered such factors as solving the economic problem of "lack of provisions", realizing the military strategy of "encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao", implementing the political instruction of "developing towards southern Jiangnan", and objectively the feasibility of "attacking southern Jiangnan". This decision was based on comprehensive analysis and correct judgment, and it eventually led to the opening up of revolutionary base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian and the formation of the Soviet region.
At the beginning of January 1929, during the convening of the "Bailu Conference", the main force of the Fourth Army of the Red Army decided to occupy the rear of the enemy in Jiangxi by rapid means, taking advantage of the weakness to enter, and striving to achieve the effect of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao", so as to relieve the siege of Jinggangshan. As a result, the front committee and military headquarters of the Red Fourth Army led the main force of more than 3,600 people and more than 1,500 guns to set off from Ciping and Xiaoxingzhou respectively, and embarked on the journey of attacking southern Jiangxi by passing through Dafen and Zuo'an in Suichuan.
During this long journey, the Red Fourth Army marched along the deep mountains and old forests on the border of Jiangxi and Guangdong, sleeping in the open air, and was in a very difficult situation. Not only did they have to endure the harshness of the natural environment, but they also had to face the enemy's encirclement and interception. The enemy's Li Wenbin Brigade and Liu Shiyi's Brigade were like hungry wolves, constantly rushing from all directions, trying to annihilate the Red Fourth Army in one fell swoop.
On January 23, the Red Fourth Army captured Dayu County, and the troops entered the city in a mighty way. On the morning of the same day, the former committee of the Red Fourth Army held a meeting of cadres above the platoon level of the whole army in Luwu, Beinei Road, Yuxi Street, in the old city, and the former party secretary delivered an important speech. In the afternoon, a military-civilian meeting was held in the river dam under the Zhongshan Bridge, and the proclamation of the Red Fourth Army and the property of the local tyrants were distributed to the poor people. Under the propaganda and agitation of the Red Army, dozens of young miners in the Xihuashan mining area joined the Red Army. That night, the Front Committee of the Fourth Army of the Red Army held a military meeting attended by cadres at and above the company level of the whole army at the Catholic Church in the old city.
The next morning, the Red 28th Regiment, which was gathering for breakfast, was suddenly attacked by Li Wenbin's unit of the 21st Brigade of the Kuomintang Army. During the battle, the regiment commander ** wanted to organize the whole regiment to retreat, but He Tingying, the representative of the regimental party, resolutely opposed the retreat and personally led the troops to launch a counterattack against the enemy. Soon, He Tingying was seriously wounded and carried down from the line of fire by the soldiers. At that time, ** was distributing property to the masses on the streets of Dayu City, and it turned out that the enemy army hurriedly retreated, and chased until the edge of the city to catch up with the retreating military headquarters.
At the last moment, the commander of the Red 4th Army of the 31st Regiment ordered the regiment commander Wu Zhonghao to lead the 31st Regiment to seize the commanding heights in the eastern part of the city, Dongshan Ridge, and quickly returned to the military headquarters, commanded the independent battalion to leave the old city, and supported the 28th Regiment along the small river from outside the east gate to fight for the heights of Tianzhu Mountain. Due to the condescending occupation of favorable terrain by the Kuomintang, Zhang Wei, the commander of the independent battalion, organized the troops to carry out five charges, all of which were ineffectiveHe also organized troops to seize Ximu Ridge, but failed to do so. Battalion commander Zhang Wei was unfortunately shot and died. The 31st Regiment, under the leadership of regiment commander Wu Zhonghao, quickly crossed the Zhangjiang River, climbed the Dongshan Ridge, controlled the commanding heights in the southeast of the county seat, and set up machine guns to strafe the enemy on the Ximuling Heights on the other side of the river.
The fierce battle lasted all day and lasted until dusk, when the scattered troops of the Red Fourth Army were concentrated one after another. In order to preserve its strength, under the cover of the machine guns of the Red Army in Dongshanling, the military department organized the military department to cross the Zhangjiang River from Shuikou Temple under the tent and Datou'an. ** Retreat with the 31st Regiment. In the evening, the troops converged at Wuyangtan, and then the local masses Huang Xuezheng and Liao Houpi were used as guides to move to the direction of Nanxiong Wuzhi in Guangdong through Gangtoukeng.
After the Red Fourth Army left Dayu, they were like a flexible swallow, flying over the "Sannan" (Quannan, Longnan, and Dingnan) areas, guerrilla attacks between the mountains and forests of Anyuan, Xunwu and other places. On January 31, more than 2,600 warriors of the Red Fourth Army (3,600 in total when they went down to Jinggangshan) were as resolute as steel and arrived at Calamus Wei in Xunwu County. There, the two great commanders, ** and **, met with Gu Bai, the leader of the Xunwu Party. Cooper made a suggestion to them: to rebuild a revolutionary base in Luofu Ridge in Xiangshan. This suggestion was like a ray of light, which brightened the future of the Red Fourth Army in an instant, and "Zhu Mao was overjoyed when he heard it," and his joy was overflowing.
The next day, the Red Fourth Army, under the leadership of Pan Li, Li Datian, and others, the guides of the Xunwu Party, advanced to Xiangshan Luofuzhang. Their steps are firm and their hearts are full of hope. That night, they camped in Zhenxia Village, Jitan, a village surrounded by mountains that provided them with a quiet rest. The narrow fields and small rivers in the village are like a tranquil landscape painting, which makes people feel extremely comfortable and peaceful.
After the Red Fourth Army entered Zhenxia Village, it was estimated that the enemy troops following it might not arrive until the next morning, so it was decided that the troops would rest in Zhenxia Village and march immediately after dawn. That night, the military headquarters issued an order that the 31st Regiment, which had taken the avant-garde, was scheduled to set off at 3 a.m.;The military headquarters and the team directly under the front committee are scheduled to leave at 4 o'clock;The 28th Regiment went to the rear guard and set off at dawn.
In the darkness of dawn, the Red Army fighters got up early and prepared to go. Just as the Red Army soldiers were preparing for battle, suddenly, the silence was shattered by a surprise attack by the enemy. The enemy troops, who had been following the Red Army, launched a fierce attack on the Red Army. At this time, the Red Fourth Army, because of the long-distance march for several days, the lack of people and horses, and the negligence of the Red Army units in charge of vigilance also set off first, and the situation was very critical.
In order to arrest the leader of the Red Army and receive the reward, the Kuomintang soldiers took the lead in rushing into the residences of the main leaders of the Red Fourth Army and searching everywhere. ** was almost captured, because the enemy only held **'s coat, he took off the coat on his body to cover the entire head of the enemy soldier, and got out of danger in a matter of seconds. In a panic, ** was stopped and interrogated by enemy soldiers. At this life-and-death juncture, in order to cover **'s escape, **'s wife Wu Ruolan lied that ** was a gangster, and ran in the opposite direction to divert the enemy's attention.Under the surprise attack of the Kuomintang, the Red Army suffered a serious blow, but they did not give up resistance. They fought while retreating, showing a tenacious spirit. However, the sudden attack left many officers and soldiers without breakfast, tormented by exhaustion and hunger. In addition, the weather was cold and the ground was freezing, and the Red officers and men crossed the Zhenxia River with their clothes in great danger. In the fierce cold wind, the wet clothes and pants were like ice cubes wrapped around their bodies, making their situation even more difficult.In the end, ** was able to escape safely, but Wu Ruolan was outnumbered and captured in the process of fighting with the enemy, and was killed by the enemy in Ganzhou Weifu on February 12 of the same year. The ** who broke through the encirclement and the special battalion caught up with the main force of the 31st Regiment, and under the leadership of the guide, arrived at Luofuzhang in the afternoon through the original route.
The 28th Regiment **, which served as the rearguard, heard the gunshots, and judged that the military headquarters had been surrounded, and the rearguard troops had been cut off from the route of advance. From Dali Village through the regimental boat, in the place called Fenshui Tai was ambushed by unknown forces, the troops were scattered, part of the run to Guangdong Pingyuan Renju, because Da She Jiao was guarded by the Cantonese army, they from Dahua Mountain, Huangshi, and north to Jiangxi to Congkeng, to the east of Xiangshan Yong, around a big bend, the journey of nearly 100 miles, in the evening with the front committee and the 28th regiment and a battalion waiting to assemble in Dazhong.
***, who got up late, lived in Wenchang Pavilion at the edge of the village at the time, and there were enemy troops around Wenchang Pavilion, but the enemy didn't know that *** and He Zizhen and his wife lived in this broken temple. ** Judge the enemy's situation, go downstairs and come out of the back door, and come to the river under Zhenxia, but was immediately surrounded by the enemy. Seeing that the situation was critical, He Zizhen shouted, "Zizhen is here!.""Former committee member, secretary of the special committee of the Hunan and Jiangxi borders, heard He Zizhen's shout, knew that he was with He Zizhen, led a team of people to come, shot left and right with He Zizhen, killed a bloody road, rescued the enemy from the encirclement, and fought to the death with the enemy from the riverside next to the Wenchang Pavilion in Zhenxia.
Many troops lost their command and were in disarray. For a time, the morale of the troops was low, and the mood of defeat and the idea of "leaving the unit" began to breed and spread. Zhenxia was surrounded, and many officers and men were even more "deserted" in their thinking. At that time, as *** later said in the ** report: "It was the most difficult time for our army."
Liu Shiyi, commander of the 15th Brigade of the Kuomintang, even confidently issued a good news that "within a few days, we will purge the first, annihilate the ugly captives, and eradicate the root plant."
On 3 February, at the meeting at Luo Fuzhang, in order to resolve the problem of the command level of the Red Fourth Army on the way to break through the encirclement and the adverse impact of the phenomenon of extreme democratization in the army, it was unanimously decided at the meeting to temporarily suspend the work of the Central Military Commission, an overlapping and cumbersome organ, and to concentrate power on the front committee, so as to facilitate the agility and decisiveness of command. At the same time, the meeting decided to change the Central Military Commission into the Military Political Department, and the post of director of the Political Department will still be held by ***. In addition, the meeting also discussed and approved a plan for the reorganization of the troops, and in order to confuse the enemy and facilitate action, it was decided to change the regiment into a column, which was the first major reorganization of the Red Fourth Army since it went down to Jinggangshan.
The unit was reorganized into three columns: the main force of the 28th Regiment, the special service battalion of the military headquarters, and the independent battalion were organized into the first column, and the column had four detachments under its jurisdiction. The original three battalions were changed to three detachments, and the special service battalion was changed to the fourth detachment, with Xiao Ke as the leader of the second detachment and Hu Shijian as the party representative. In addition, the original four companies formed a battalion was changed to three companies to form a detachment (battalion), Bi Zhanyun was the leader of the fourth detachment, and the detachment consisted of brigades and squadrons. The commander of the first column is **, because He Tingying sacrificed, and the political commissar was replaced by **. The 31st Regiment is the third column, with commander Wu Zhonghao and political commissar Cai Xiemin. The second column is fictitious.
The purpose of this reorganization is to facilitate combat operations and guerrilla warfare, and to strengthen the party's organizations and train more leading cadres at the grassroots level. At the same time, the expansion of the number is also to confuse and intimidate the enemy who is chasing and intercepting all the way.
The Luo Fuzhang meeting also decided to drive the Red Fourth Army to the Donggu Revolutionary Base in Ji'an, Jiangxi, to join up with the Second and Fourth Independent Regiments of the Red Army, and march to Donggu separately from the first and the first. It was discussed that in the event of the defeat of the troops, the leaders should sneak to Shanghai and other places to contact the organization in the form of pseudonyms in the newspaper, in order to regain their strength.
During a meeting in Luo Fuzhang, two enemy detectives were captured. After the meeting, Gu Bai of the Xunwu Party organization hurriedly sent information. It turned out that after the Red Fourth Army entered the Luofuzhang Mountains, the warlords of Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian provinces were afraid that Luofuzhang would become the second in Jinggangshan, so they mobilized heavy troops to "encircle and suppress" them. The 15th Brigade (Liu Shiyi) and 21st Brigade (Li Wenbin) of the Jiangxi Army assembled in Xunwu and Huichang counties, the 2nd Independent Brigade of the Fujian Army (Guo Fengming) rushed from Tingzhou to Shanghang Wuping, and the Guangdong Army's Fan Shisheng Division and Wang Yingyu Department rushed from northern Guangdong to the front line of Xunwu and Pingyuan, in an attempt to exterminate the Red Fourth Army in the Luofuzhang Mountains.
As a result, the Red Fourth Army immediately made preparations for the transfer, stipulating that the march was "accurate", that is, it was not allowed to fall behind, not to use flashlights, not to have something ringing, not to speak, and not to cough. Before dawn on February 4, the Red Fourth Army left Luofu Ridge and advanced along the rugged mountain road on the Jiangxi-Fujian border to Donggu, and that night it was again blocked by Liu Shiyi's troops in Luotang, Xunwu County, and then turned to Wuping and Huichang.