Heroes of the Resistance Reborn

On December 24, 1934, the weather was better than the previous few days. Although it was still a little cold, at least it was no longer gray and gloomy. The sun could still be seen. The 19th Division of the 28th Army of the National Revolutionary Army Division commander Li Juezheng led his troops to search forward.

Early this morning, Liu Jianxu, commander of the 28th Army, called and told him to contact Zhang Liangji's 16th Division and Tao Guang's 62nd Division via telegram. He learned that both divisions had arrived at their designated positions and asked about the current status of the division. At that time, Li Juebu was riding a horse. , the Xiaoshui front line searched for the remnants of the Red Army in the direction of Linkou, and reported the actual situation of the troops.

Li Jue, born in 1900 in Changsha, Hunan, was an old subordinate of Hunan warlord Tang Shengzhi, and the eldest son-in-law of Hunan Provincial Chairman He Jian. It is said that He Jian had three daughters, the eldest daughter He Mei, who was both beautiful on the outside and beautiful on the inside. , the man rode a horse and the woman sat in a "bridal sedan"; in addition, the man's family sent a lot of betrothal gifts, and the woman's family sent a lot of dowry, which caused a sensation in Changsha, the provincial capital, and now, Chairman He's son-in-law and commander of the 19th Division Li After learning from the telegram that the 16th Division and the 62nd Division were in front of his troops, the Zhou Hunyuan Department of the Central Army was to the north, and the 15th Army of the Xiawei Department of the Guangxi Army was to the south, he felt relieved and just urged the troops to move forward. Soon, According to previous reports, we have entered Xiaoshui.

Xiaoshui is just a small mountain village in Shanmuqiao Township, but it is the only way for his Xiang 19th Division to advance. This is the second time that Li Jue has led a large force to pass through this place. The first time was more than three months ago. In September 1934, the Sixth Red Army Corps under He Long and Xiao Ke in the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou base area circled here in September and had a fierce battle with Li Jue's 19th Hunan Division. At that time, the Sixth Red Army Corps entered The Gaogongshan area of ​​Suining was blocked by the Guangxi army. At this time, the main enemy forces in Hunan and Guangxi provinces had entered the Suining and Jingxian areas. Under this situation, the leader of the Sixth Red Army made a decisive decision and transferred his troops southward. That day , the Red Army entered the Shanmuqiao area from the Huangsangping area of ​​Suining. On the 15th, the Red Army rear guard had an encounter with the 55th Brigade of Li Juebu in Xiaoshui of Shanmuqiao. The two sides were originally fighting inextricably and were evenly matched. At this time A local superior soldier in Li Jue's department took the initiative to provide information. Li Jue immediately asked this superior soldier to lead a part of the troops. With his familiarity with the terrain, he took a shortcut to launch a surprise attack on the Red Army from Xiaoshui Dapo boundary. The large force of the Red Army that passed here was cut into two sections. Another force of Li Jue's department circled and outflanked the two sides of the Dapo boundary, attacking the Red Army from both sides. In order to cover the main force in breaking out of the encirclement, the Red Army sent a platoon of troops to fight a bloody road and seize the opportunity. He reached another high ground on the Dapo border, and then launched a fierce attack on the enemy with intensive firepower. This made Li Juebu mistakenly think that the reinforcements of the Red Army had arrived, so he concentrated his firepower on the Red Army covering troops. Li Juebu took advantage of the large number of people to cover the Red Army. The troops attacked in turns, and more than 30 Red Army soldiers died heroically. In the end, only 8 warriors were left. With the enemy outnumbered and no ammunition and food supplies, the 8 warriors swore to die and were not captured. They collectively jumped 50 The heroic sacrifice on the multi-meter-high cliff composed a heroic song. Because their cover contained the enemy's firepower, the real main force took advantage of the opportunity to storm through and successfully broke through. They seized the road and marched south, occupying Tongdao County on the 17th.

What is lamentable is that after the Red Army soldiers jumped off the cliff, the remains of the eight Red Army soldiers were never found because the main force had already taken the road and the people did not dare to walk into the gloomy woods under the cliff for a long time. , there is not even a grave. It was not until 1991 that the Tongtong County Committee and the county government specially built the Xiaoshui Battle Monument and Gate Tower to commemorate the feats of the eight warriors of the Red Army. The Xiaoshui Battle Monument and Gate Tower were built under the Dapo boundary. On the side of the road, General Xiao Ke's inscription "The Spirit of the Red Army Lives Forever" is engraved on the monument. The inscription engraved on the base of the monument records the battle of Xiaoshui. Every year, people come to the Xiaoshui Battle Monument and gaze at the cliff. , in memory of the eight Red Army soldiers who sacrificed their lives by jumping off a cliff.

But now, Li Jue's troops are passing through Xiaoshui for the second time. The same as the first mission, this time they are chasing the Red Army; the difference in the first mission is that the last time they were chasing the Red Army. The Sixth Army Corps, this time was chasing the Central Red Army.

The 19th Division under Li Jue is considered to be the most elite unit in the Hunan Army, and because of the last victory, Li Jue now believes that he can achieve another extraordinary feat in this area. Of course, he is well-known for his military skills. He was good at utilization, cautious and resourceful, so even though the troops had won consecutive victories, he did not dare to be careless at all. He just let the troops move forward in an orderly manner, and scouts from all walks of life were constantly sent out to explore the enemy's situation.

Li Jue has been in a good mood recently. He had just led his troops to participate in the Battle of Xiangjiang River and had a hard-fought battle with the Red Army's main force, the First Red Army, at Jiaoshanpu. Although the Red Army completed its mission of covering the Red Army's crossing of the river, Xiang 19 The division also showed its own majesty and caused heavy casualties to the Red 1st Army. One of its intervening troops even attacked near the headquarters of the Red 1st Army. If the reflection of the bayonet when the soldiers fixed their bayonets had not alerted the Red 1st Army guards, We almost captured Lin Biao, the commander of the First Red Army Corps, and Nie Rongzhen, the political commissar of the First Red Army Corps, alive. In that case, the outcome of the Xiangjiang Battle might have to be rewritten.

Regarding the Red Army, Li Jue had two different thoughts. On the one hand, he believed that the Red Army's combat power was very powerful, which he had never seen in his life. Since graduating from the 9th phase of Baoding Military Academy in 1924 and participating in the Northern Expedition in 1926, he had This is the first time we have encountered such a difficult army. To deal with these people, we must be cautious. If we make a mistake, the Red Army may find a chance to hit us hard. It is inconvenient for these Red Army commanders to have high command quality. The Red Army The combat effectiveness of soldiers is also extraordinary, and they can often complete some seemingly impossible tasks. Moreover, both Red Army soldiers and Red Army commanders have a common characteristic: they are not afraid of death and are extremely brave in combat. This is the most important thing. It troubled him, because every time he conquered a highland occupied by the Red Army, he had to spend several times his strength. Of course, on the other hand, Li Jue believed that no matter how strong the Red Army was, it was weak in weapons and supplies, which would always allow him to finally conquer a highland occupied by the Red Army. As early as February 3, 1931, Li Jue's troops fought with the Seventh Red Army. At that time, the secretary and political commissar of the Seventh Red Army's Military Commission was ***, and the commander-in-chief was Li Mingrui, commander of the army. Zhang Yunyi, the chief of staff was Gong Chu, and the other chief officers were Li Qian, Zhang Jian, Yuan Zhenwu, Li Xian, etc., all of whom were brave generals in hundreds of battles. At that time, the Tang Boyin regiment and Chen Long regiment, with Li Jue as their commander, reached Pingshi on January 31. That is, together with the Deng Hui Regiment, Tan Regiment, and Guo Regiment of the Guangdong Army, they attacked and suppressed the Seventh Red Army, which was resting in Meihua, and launched the famous Battle of Plum Blossom. In this battle, the Seventh Red Army, which had been reorganized by Quanzhou, was defeated. After five hours of fierce fighting, During the battle, the Seventh Red Army suffered unprecedented losses in this battle. Important cadres such as Li Qian and Zhang Jian were killed in the battle, while Hecun, Zhenwu, Li Xian, etc. were injured. More than half of the entire army's cadres were lost.

Li Jiansheng still knew something about Li Jue. In his impression, Li Jue had caused losses to several giants in his mind, including the aforementioned ones, as well as He Long and Xiao Ke of the Red Second Front Army. Several leaders, for example, according to official history, in January 1935, the enemy army attacked the Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou revolutionary base areas, and the main force of the Red Army took a rest. In early February, the Red Army failed to block Guo Rudong's column in Cili fortification. Dayong was occupied by Li Juebu. The Red Army returned to set up an ambush at Jigongya in Houping of Dayong and attacked again. Li Juebu's column failed. Guo Rudong's column took the opportunity to occupy Sangzhi. The two-month anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign was carried out due to the "implementation of the instructions of the Central Military Commission". He did not fully understand the operational policy of "mobile warfare, select the enemy's weak points and defeat them one by one during the movement". Instead, he faced the enemy from the front and suffered repeated setbacks. The base area continued to shrink and the Red Army's situation became increasingly difficult. The leaders of the Second and Sixth Army decided to move north. In addition, during the Red Army's Long March, Li Jue's column also pursued and intercepted the troops and penetrated deep into Guizhou and Yunnan, causing losses to the Red Army.

Of course, this does not mean that Li Jue's troops have always been victorious against the Red Army and Communists. He was later defeated by Su Yu. It was already 1945. In April of that year, after repelling a series of Japanese attacks in Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi, After the border offensive, the situation in the Third War Zone was relatively stable. Gu Zhutong decided to eliminate ten detachments (more than 20,000 people) of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region of the New Fourth Army that had gone south to establish power at that time, so he ordered Li Jue, then commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, to Commanded the First Commando, the Second Commando, the 52nd Division, the 146th Division, the 79th Division and the 33rd Brigade to launch the Xiaofeng Campaign, with the 52nd Division, the 146th Division The First Division and the 33rd Independent Brigade formed the left corps, while the 79th Division and the Commando formed the right corps. They flanked the Communist forces in the Xiaofeng area. On June 19, 1945, the left and right corps were 20 kilometers apart and had not yet reached the designated attack point. On the starting line, Su Yu attacked the Left Corps with six detachments, repelling the 52nd Division and the 33rd Independent Brigade. On the 21st, the main force of the New Fourth Army arrived in front of the Right Corps. That night, he launched the main attack and overwhelmed the First Commando. Entering a canyon southeast of Xiaofeng, the first commando team was annihilated after two days and nights of fierce fighting. The commando commander Hu Xu was killed, the commander of the third commando battalion Xiong Zhuangyou, and the commander of the fifth commando battalion Chen Shiying were captured, and the offensive failed.

Of course, Li Jiansheng knew a lot about Li Jue, not because he had successively defeated several giants in his mind, but because of his heroic performance and final destination on the anti-Japanese battlefield.

You must know that Li Jue was not a direct descendant of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, but he fought bravely and was loved by Chiang Kai-shek. He was eventually promoted to the positions of Commander-in-Chief of the 25th Group Army and Commander-in-Chief of the 19th Group Army. This was regarded as the most outstanding general among the Hunan Army generals who were not directly descended from him. An anomaly. During the Anti-Japanese War, he successively served as the commander of the 70th Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the lieutenant general commander-in-chief of the 25th Group Army. He participated in the "August 13th" campaign, the Wuhan Defense War, and the Changsha Battle, and suffered repeated setbacks. Ci Feng, and during the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, he has been on the front line. Later generations said that he "did not come to the firing line for eight years." In 1938, Li Jue presided over the battle of Jinguan Bridge, fighting for every inch of land with the Japanese army, and thousands of people died. A Japanese officer and soldier from Osaka suffered heavy casualties. Several replenishments of troops left Osaka with very few vendors and employees. Later generations ridiculed that the 106th Division, the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Songpu, would no longer have to be a "trader." I feel ashamed of myself for the indecent nickname "Division".