Looking back on the 100-year journey in the era of peace, the Communists have gone through hardships and hardships, survived several desperate situations, and brushed shoulders with death several times.
-- However, the belief in the independence and self-improvement of the people and the boundless loyalty to the revolutionary cause are an unquenchable force that blows again and again in the spring breeze, bursting out with an astonishing strength that is enough to shock the world.
Among them, the Long March is a strong stroke that every Chinese needs to remember.
Over the lofty mountains, through the thorny land, the vast barren grass beach, buried the bones of countless instructors and soldiers, and the snowy and frozen mountains, witnessed the vigorous blood of the communists, and finally succeeded in joining the army, creating a new situation.
- There is only one question that has always attracted everyone's attention, that is, the Red First Front Army, the Red Second Front Army and the Red Fourth Front Army all have them, why is there no Red Third Front Army?
It is said that when forming an army, it is often arranged in a sequential way, and there is any deep meaning in skipping alone?In fact, although nominally there was no Red Front Army, it has always "existed" and played a key role in the course of the Long March.
Let's talk about the reasons in detail, and first trace back to the source and start with the reasons for the birth of the front army.
Initially, the Communist Party did not set up a front army, but took the ** Soviet area as the core, and established base areas to develop corps in various parts of the country, and finally formed a powerful revolutionary force.
Thanks to the correct guidance of faith and development concepts, the speed of its development can be described as echoing, and the oppressed workers and peasants, and the soldiers of the army who are struggling in the rotten system, have abandoned the darkness and turned to the light.
* How powerful was the Soviet zone in its heyday?
Statistics: Covering an area of up to 8Of the 40,000 square kilometers, the Red Army had about 130,000 and more than 4.5 million deep mass support. The Chinese Soviet Republic, which was established with the Soviet region as the core, has a population of 40 million, which is already an existence that cannot be underestimated.
The outbreak of revolution in the depths of the soul made many uprisings show a devastating trend - such as the Nanchang Uprising, which resolutely fired the first shot against the Kuomintang, and the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which showed the world the determination of the sons and daughters of China to resist the Japanese invaders.
Seeing that the power was getting stronger and stronger, the Kuomintang launched 500,000 heavy troops to encircle and suppress, and at the critical juncture of life and death, it was decided to reorganize the corps into a front army.
1. The Red Army was composed of the First Army Corps and the Third Army Corps, which was the revolutionary armed force established earlier by leaders such as the Red Army.
Therefore, the commander-in-chief is **, who is the general political commissar and secretary of the General Front Committee of the Red Army, and ** is the deputy commander-in-chief.
2. The Red Second Front Army came from the Red Fourth Army Corps and the Red Sixth Army Corps in western Hunan and Hubei regions, with the commander-in-chief being ** and the political commissar being Zhou Yiqun.
The former, formerly known as He Wenchang, was born in Hongjiaguan, Sangzhi County, Hunan Province, his family was quite poor, and he dropped out of school to work in agriculture after only five years of private school.
Zhou Yiqun, formerly known as Zhou Lifeng, was born in Tongren County, Guizhou Province, with a solid family background, and went to Japan to study in his early years.
Because he is familiar with Zhou Yiqun, he partnered together to form the leadership team of the Red Second Front Army, and the degree of cooperation was very tacit.
3. The Red Fourth Front Army is composed of the Red Fourth Army Corps and the Red 25th Army Corps, the main force of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, with ** as the commander-in-chief, Chen Changhao as the political commissar, and Wang Shusheng as the deputy commander-in-chief.
Originally, the Red Army of the Third Front was also in the process of preparing for the plan, but the plan did not change quickly, and the Kuomintang launched encirclement and suppression one after another, and the various armies threw themselves into the important task of formulating a strategic counterattack.
The Kuomintang was menacing, but at the beginning it had the intention of being arrogant and contemptuous of the enemy, and the Red Army seized the loophole and adopted the tactics of luring the enemy deep into the country and being mobile and flexible, and won two victories against encirclement and suppression.
When it came to the third encirclement and suppression, the battle was quite unusual, not only Chiang Kai-shek personally came to command the operation, but also upgraded the equipment, exposing the ambition of annihilating the Red Army in one fell swoop.
Chiang Kai-shek did not hesitate to dispatch more than 400 warplanes, repair thousands of kilometers of military highways, and even connected machine guns and aircraft artillery into a tight encirclement, striking at the Red Army's disadvantage of small strength and insufficient resources.
Therefore, the victory was extremely difficult, and it can be said that it is inseparable from the unwavering faith of the soldiers.
In the face of the fifth encirclement and suppression, serious personnel attrition, and the cutting off of supply routes, the Red Army could only give up the flexible tactics it was good at, choose a defensive strategy, obey the command of Li De, a military adviser sent by the Comintern, and squeeze out the leading positions of the party, government, and army.
It can be seen from historical experience that changing positions in the face of a major war is a major taboo.
With the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement campaign, the Red Army chose to make a strategic shift in order to preserve its strength, which was not called the Long March at that time, but was generally called the Western Expedition and the Expedition.
After all, no one knows how far this journey will go.
The Red First Army, the Red Second Front Army, and the Red Fourth Front Army responded one after another.
The Red First Front Army set out from Ruijin, the Red Second Front Army was drawn from Sangzhi, Hunan, and the Red Fourth Front Army was Cangxi, Sichuan
As mentioned above, the Red Third Front Army has actually been in the planning all along.
Originally, *** was the main commander to lead the Red Fifth Army and the Red Eighth Army.
However, *** himself directly put forward his own opinions, he believed: It is too early to set up the Red Three-Front Army, and it is better to concentrate troops to improve combat effectiveness.
** and other leaders recognized the idea of ***, and only established the Red Third Army Corps, which was responsible for attacking Changsha first.
In the face of the best-equipped Kuomintang army, it was still defeated. In the process of responding to the encirclement and suppression initiated by the Kuomintang one after another, the plan will.
The 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Army Corps were reorganized together into the Red Third Front Army.
However, the sudden failure of the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression, the Red Army began to strategically shift, and the Red Third Front Army did not have time to be established.
The reason why we need to use such a strong army to protect the safety of the first is because along the way of the Long March, we not only have to transfer while fighting, but also face three more serious problems.
1. First of all, there is the dilemma of revolution and counter-revolution.
After the victory of the fifth encirclement and suppression, the Kuomintang greatly increased its self-confidence, and planned to take advantage of the victory to pursue and completely annihilate the Red Army.
The Red Army's decision to make an expedition was so bold and bold that it was said that many of the preparations had to be completed within seven days, which made it difficult to do everything.
Such as resources, preparation, etc., so the Red Front Army is facing great pressure, after all, *** and others are the core of the leader, if the Kuomintang can annihilate it, the rest of the Front Army will also be hit hard.
Therefore, it is proposed not to rush to form the Red Third Front Army, but to merge the forces into the Red First Front Army, which can have the effect of being able to deal with it more calmly in the process of the Kuomintang's encirclement and pursuit.
2. Moreover, there are sharp conflicts in the internal guiding ideology
This is obviously a big problem. The left-leaning ideology first abandoned the flexible strategy adopted by *** and others during the fifth encirclement and suppression, and instead chose to use the stubborn strategy to cause serious fighters.
After all, although the Kuomintang army was arrogant and arrogant, its equipment was very advanced at that time, and it would only be a matter of time before it was broken through by bombarding the defensive line with aircraft and artillery.
Moreover, the leaders who adhered to the left-leaning line, emulating the experience of the Soviet Union in the struggle against tendencies and the suppression of rebellion, went so far as to use extreme measures to deal with leaders with different opinions by means of brutal struggle and ruthless attacks.
The safety of the leaders has become the most important thing, because the enemy who is encircled and intercepted is not only the Kuomintang, but also the rest of the people who adhere to left-leaning ideas, which is equivalent to a life-and-death situation between inside and outside.
What's more, in terms of the degree of difficulty, the Kuomintang was at least an enemy on the surface, and the Red Army, which had experienced a hundred battles, had already had profound experience in dealing with it.
But the brutal blows from those who once fought side by side are really unguardable.
First of all, it is a situation where we don't know whether we are friends or foes - it is difficult to distinguish which comrade-in-arms around you is being rebelled against and will give a backstab at a defenseless moment.
In addition, having worked together for many years - they all have a certain understanding of each person's strategic plan, and the route of the Long March is easy to guess, so they can set up an ambush in advance and give a fatal blow.
Therefore, the proposal not to form the Red Third Front Army is purely to protect the security of the Red Army.
And the core leaders of *** and other *** also recognized this decision.
3. Finally, the harsh environment on the Long March and the physical condition of the people who have traveled long distances are also a problem.
The route of the Red First Army was quite difficult, and the plan was to go north to Xiangxi to join the Red Second Army Corps and the Red Sixth Army Corps, and after careful consideration, it was proposed to move to the northern part of Guizhou, where the Kuomintang forces were weak, that is, the place where the famous "Zunyi Conference" was held.
But in the course of this transfer, the Red Army suffered heavy losses.
During the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, Chiang Kai-shek gathered 300,000 troops, erected pillboxes, and set up a dense blockade like a spider's web.
At the moment of life and death, the instructors and soldiers burst out with a shocking spirit of fearless sacrifice and won victory in a seemingly desperate situation.
After that, the Red Army fought many classic battles, such as crossing the Chishui River four times, grabbing the Dadu River, and flying to capture the Luding Bridge. In short, the soldiers became more and more courageous, regarded all difficulties and obstacles as challenges, and finally succeeded in completing the meeting of the two armies with the Red Fourth Front Army at Xiaojin.
Then, in the face of all kinds of major battles, it is particularly important that the corps of the Red Third Front Army, which was planned to be formed, will be used to support the strength of the Red Front Army.
Therefore, in the entire process of the Long March, the Red Three Front Army was not established, but it played a key role.
When the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, the Japanese invaders who fought fiercely needed to concentrate their forces to improve their combat effectiveness, so the Red Third Front Army did not have the time to formally form a successful army.
To sum up, the Red Three-Front Army was originally in the plan, but the situation changed rapidly, either because the Kuomintang launched an encirclement and suppression, or because it needed to defend ** during the Long March, and then there was a heavy task of fighting the Japanese army invading China, so it was not established.
But the Red Third Army has always been there, and has played a pivotal role in every period. Obviously, we must not forget the sacrifices and contributions he made during the Long March.