When the Central Red Army first arrived in northern Shaanxi during the Long March, Chairman Mao made two great moves to win the hearts and minds of the people and gain a firm foothold -

Wuqi Town is located in the middle of Wuqi County in the northwest of Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province. According to legend, Wu Qi, the general of Wei State (about 400 BC), stationed troops here for many years, so it got its name. It is historically Military fortress,.

On October 19, 1935, it was cold and windy, and more than a dozen families living in Wuqi Town put on thick cotton clothes. On this day, many red soldiers wearing single clothes and wearing straw sandals with yellow faces and thin muscles suddenly came to the small town.

This army is the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, which was reorganized a month ago from the Central Military Commission column and the main force of the Red Army during the Long March.

On September 18, the Central Red Army arrived in Hadapu. Chairman Mao gave Liang Xingchu, commander of the reconnaissance company of the First Red Army Corps, a task:

Liang Xingchu led the Red Army reconnaissance company to disguise himself as the Kuomintang Central Committee When the army arrived at Hadapu, the local Kuomintang cadres did not dare to neglect and immediately ordered their men to handle it. The Red Army soldier was then able to go to the local post office to pick up a newspaper. Among them is the "Ta Kung Pao" published in July and August.

Chairman Mao, who was struggling to find a foothold for the Central Red Army, got important news from these newspapers: In northern Shaanxi, there are the Red 26th Army, the 27th Army and the Soviet Area Base Area led by Liu Zhidan and others. And very active. At the same time, it was also learned that the Red 25th Army led by Xu Haidong and others had joined forces with the Northern Shaanxi Red Army.

This major news was like dew after a long drought for the Central Red Army, which had been fighting for a long time. So the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Hadapu and decided to go to northern Shaanxi to join Liu Zhidan's Red Army. .

This is the legendary "a newspaper determines the destination" in the history of the Chinese revolution.

On September 27, the Central Red Army occupied Bangluo Town and Tongwei in southern Gansu. Subsequently, the Kuomintang army broke through the Weihe River blockade. On October 7, the Central Red Army defeated the enemy cavalry regiment that came to intercept at Qingshizui in Liupan Mountain, Ningxia. It cleared the obstacles and got rid of the chasing enemy. In the afternoon of the same day, it crossed Liupan Mountain in one go. After that, we drove straight in, crossed Liupan Mountain, and arrived at Wuqi Town on October 19th.

When the Central Red Army entered Wuqi Town, the local people mistakenly thought that the Kuomintang bandits were coming to harass them again, and fled in a hurry. Red Army soldiers found slogans "Long live the Communist Party of China!" and "Support Liu Zhidan" everywhere on the streets and inside and outside cave dwellings, and determined that this was the Soviet Area in northern Shaanxi. The Red Army soldiers who had gone through all kinds of difficulties and dangers cheered excitedly: "We are really back home!"

When the Central Red Army embarked on the Long March on October 10, 1934, ** * There were more than 86,000 people. After 367 days of arduous fighting, when they arrived at Wuqi Town, only 7,200 people were left.

On the morning of October 20, the day after arriving in Wuqi Town, Chairman Mao met with Zhang Mingke, then captain of the Baoan County guerrillas, when he was deploying the "tail-cutting" battle. He hoped that the guerrillas would cooperate and annihilate the tail-chasing troops. The Kuomintang cavalry came.

Zhang Mingke was originally a long-term worker of Liu Zhidan's family, and later participated in the revolution under Liu Zhidan's guidance.

After learning that Zhang Mingke was the long-term employee of Liu Zhidan's family, Chairman Mao's conversation naturally turned to Liu Zhidan, whom he had been thinking about for a month.

Zhang Mingke described the scene at that time in his memoirs:

Chairman Mao asked him: "Where is Comrade Liu Zhidan active now?" Zhang Mingke suddenly became nervous when he heard this. Seeing this, Chairman Mao asked again: "Do you know where Comrade Liu Zhidan is?" Zhang Mingke had to tell the truth: "He is being detained."

Chairman Mao was shocked when he heard this and stood up suddenly He stood up and asked: "Why? When were you detained?"

Zhang Mingke replied: "I was detained in early October. I don't know why."

At this time, Zhang Mingke looked at He saw an old man with a beard sitting opposite him (later he found out it was Zhou Enlai who had a beard during the Long March) and asked eagerly: "Where are you being detained now?" Zhang Mingke said: "I heard that he was being held in Wayaobao. The police detained hundreds of people.

"

Chairman Mao asked him again: "Who knows the details?" Zhang Mingke replied: "Only Gong Fengchun, the political commissar of the Cavalry Regiment, knows the details. "Chairman Mao and Vice Chairman Zhou immediately asked him to send people on fast horses to find Gong Fengchun.

In the early morning of the 22nd, Chairman Mao met Gong Fengchun who came after hearing the news. Gong Fengchun expanded the "elimination of counterrevolutionaries" in northern Shaanxi and the development of the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region and the Northern Shaanxi Base Area at that time to Chairman Mao, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai and other central leaders.

From Gong Fengchun's report, Chairman Mao and other central leaders comprehensively reported. Understand the severe situation of the expansion of "anti-revolutionary" in the northwest base area

It turns out that on September 15, 1935, the Red 25th Army led by Xu Haidong and Cheng Zihua went through the Long March and fought with the Red 26th Army led by Liu Zhidan. The Red 27th Army reunited in Yongping Town, Yanchuan County, and formed the Red 15th Army. Liu Zhidan served as deputy army commander and chief of staff.

After the Red 25th Army arrived in Yongping, it was formed by Zhu Lizhi, Nie Hongjun, The "Central Delegation" composed of three people, Cheng Zihua, served as the highest leadership organ of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Shanxi Provincial Committee. At the same time, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China was also established, with Zhu Lizhi as secretary and Guo Hongtao as deputy secretary; reorganized. The Northwest Military Commission was chaired by Nie Hongjun. Liu Zhidan was excluded from the top leadership body.

However, at the critical moment when the Red 15th Army crushed Chiang Kai-shek's third "encirclement and suppression" campaign in the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet Area, " Under the guidance of the erroneous "Left" thinking, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China launched the erroneous "elimination of counterrevolutionaries" with Dai Jiying, director of the Provincial Committee's Political Security Bureau, in the rear and Nie Hongjun in the front.

The primary target of the "elimination of counterrevolutionaries" was Liu Zhidan, whom they regarded as a right-leaning figure.

On October 6, Liu Zhidan, who had just commanded the Laoshan victory, suddenly received a notice asking him to go to Wayaobao for a meeting. Liu Zhidan jumped on his horse and ran towards Wayaobao.

When he was halfway there, a correspondent passing the order came towards him on horseback. When he arrived, the correspondent got off his horse, saluted Liu Zhidan, and took out his weapon. A letter was handed over, saying: "This is an urgent message to the Legion Headquarters. "

Liu Zhidan took the letter and opened it. It turned out to be a list of people to be arrested under a secret order from the Security Bureau. The first person on the list was him.

Liu Zhidan was surprised at first. , and then fell into deep thought. What he was thinking about was not evading and resisting arrest, but the unity within the Red Army. He quickly calmed down, stuffed the letter into the envelope, resealed it, handed it back to the correspondent and said: "Send the letter to the regiment quickly. When the troops left, they said I was going to Wayaobao. "

Those who implemented the "Left" line originally decided to arrest Liu Zhidan in the name of letting Liu Zhidan go to Wayaobao for a meeting. However, the correspondent who sent the letter did not know and sent the letter to the person at that time Liu Zhidan, who served as deputy army commander and chief of general staff, then mounted his horse and arrived at Wayaobao calmly. As soon as he arrived at Wayaobao, several people who pursued the "Left" line immediately followed him closely. The news was blocked. Liu Zhidan remained calm and fought resolutely against those who promoted the "Left" line. As a result, he was dismissed from all his posts and was arrested and imprisoned.

This crazy "revolutionary purge", As a result, more than 200 party, government and military cadres were killed, and more than 60 leading cadres from the former 26th Red Army and the Shaanxi-Gansu Revolutionary Base were imprisoned in Wayaobao Prison, facing the risk of being buried alive at any time.

At that time, dark clouds were rolling over the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet Area, and a catastrophe could occur at any time!

After listening to Gong Fengchun’s report, Chairman Mao felt that the situation was serious. He never expected that from Hada! Liu Zhidan and his comrades, whom he had been looking for since the beginning, were now in prison and in danger of being killed at any time! He made a decisive decision and ordered "to keep people under the knife" and "to stop arresting people."

Immediately, Chairman Mao sent Wang Shoudao, Liu Xiangsan, and Jia Tuofu to Wayaobu to take over the Security Bureau on behalf of the Central Committee to control the situation first and avoid further deterioration.

Although the Shaanxi-Gansu detachment led by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Successfully arrived at Wuqi Town and completed the arduous strategic transfer task. However, the new foothold in the northwest base area faced a very severe situation both internally and externally.

Internally, the wrong "purge of counterrevolutionaries" led to the arrest and killing of party, government and military cadres in the northwest base areas, causing great panic among cadres and the masses. In addition, the reactionaries spread rumors and instigated that "the 25th Army is a fake Red Army sent by the Kuomintang to kill all your revolutionary leaders." This aroused great suspicion and fear among the masses. Landlords and rich peasants took the opportunity to provoke and instigate counterattacks. Large areas of base areas were lost. People's hearts and minds of the military were in unprecedented turmoil. Several counties "turned against the enemy" one after another... The base areas fell into a serious crisis. Internal strife is also brewing within the 15th Army Corps. He Jinnian was the commander of the 27th Red Army in northern Shaanxi. When the 15th Red Army was formed, he served as the commander of the 81st Division adapted from the 27th Army. When He Jinnian met Yang Shangkun, he said: "If the central government does not come, we will fight with the 25th Army."

Externally, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to wipe out the Red Army and completely destroy the northwest base. Chiang Kai-shek dispatched Zhang Xueliang's troops of the Northeast Army, Yang Hucheng's troops of the Seventeenth Route Army, Hu Zongnan, Guan Linzheng, Mao Bingwen and other troops of the Central Army to suppress the situation. The "encirclement and suppression" Red Army had more than 100,000 troops. The situation was very critical.

Faced with this severe situation of internal and external troubles, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Wuqi Town. After full consultation, it was decided to divide the troops into two groups to resolve the crisis:

1. Along the way, Chairman Mao and Peng Dehuai led the main force of the Central Red Army to join forces with the 15th Army Corps, and worked together to smash the Kuomintang army's "encirclement and suppression" campaign;

Along the way, Zhang Wentian led the central government agencies to station in Wayaobao, and made every effort to solve the problem of wrong "elimination of counter-revolutionaries" , stable internally.

On October 30, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao left Wuqi Town and went south along the Luohe River. On November 2, they arrived at Xiasiwan, Ganquan County, the seat of the Soviet government on the Shaanxi-Gansu border.

On November 3, the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Union decided to establish the Northwest Revolutionary Military Committee of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. The Northwest Military Commission announced the restoration of the designation of the First Red Army, and the 15th Red Army Corps was organized into the First Front Red Army. Establishment. Peng Dehuai, commander of the First Red Army, and Chairman Mao concurrently served as political commissar. The Red Front Army consists of the Red 1st Army Corps and the Red 15th Army Corps.

Afterwards, the headquarters of the 1st Red Army and the 1st Red Army Corps moved from the Xiasiwan area to the 15th Red Army Corps station in the Daozuopu area south of Ganquan. Chairman Mao and Peng Dehuai met with Xu Haidong, Cheng Zihua and others at the 15th Red Army Corps station and gave cordial encouragement.

After the successful rendezvous between the Central Red Army and the Northern Shaanxi Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek was extremely panicked and mobilized 5 divisions of the Northeast Army, using Dong Yingbin’s 4 divisions as the west route, dispatched from Qingyang and Heshui, and passed through Taibai The town proceeds eastward along the Hulu River; taking Wang Yizhe's 1st Division as the east route, it first advances from Luochuan, and then proceeds westward along the Hulu River via Yangquan Town. The Kuomintang troops advanced east and west in an attempt to encircle and annihilate the Red Army between the Hulu River and Luo River.

After mastering the deployment of the Kuomintang army, Chairman Mao decided to concentrate his forces and fight southward. First, he would annihilate the enemy forces advancing eastward along the Hulu River in the Zhiluo Town area, and then transfer his forces to annihilate the enemies one by one. .

On November 20, the 109th Division, the leading force of the Kuomintang Army, divided into three groups and attacked Zhiluo Town along the Hulu River Valley and the north and south mountains. Chairman Mao commanded the Red Army to resist step by step with a force, luring the enemy into the "pocket" that the Red Army had already laid out in Zhiluo Town.

On the night of November 21, the main forces of the Red Army deployed from their standby positions towards the enemy, and launched a surprise attack on the enemy at dawn. The 1st Red Army Corps attacked the North Mountain of Zhiluo Town from the due north and northwest directions to cut off the enemy's retreat; the 15th Red Army Corps attacked the Nanshan Mountain and southeastern areas of Zhiluo Town from the southwest, due south and southeast directions to prevent the enemy from escaping eastward. The fierce fighting continued until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and most of the enemy's 109th Division was wiped out. More than 500 of its remnants retreated into the earthen village in the southeast of Zhiluo Town and resisted stubbornly.

At this time, the enemy's reinforcements from the east and west were approaching Zhiluo Town. In order to continue to annihilate the enemy, Chairman Mao commanded the Red Army to use a small number of troops to surround the remnants of the enemy's 109th Division and block the enemy's 117th Division from the west, and the main force to attack the enemy's 106th and 111th Divisions from the east. After being blocked by the Red Army, the two divisions retreated westward along the Hulu River in embarrassment on the 23rd. Chairman Mao ordered the Red Army to pursue the victory and annihilate one regiment of the enemy's 106th Division in Zhangjiawan.

The remnants of the enemy's 109th Division, which was surrounded by the Red Army in the Tuzhai in the southeast of Zhiluo Town, had no hope of help. They broke out at midnight on the 23rd and were completely annihilated by the Red Army on the morning of the 24th. The division commander Niu Yuanfeng was killed. At this point, the battle of Zhiluo Town ended successfully.

The Battle of Zhiluo Town was a manifestation of Mao Zedong’s military commanding ability. Before the battle began, Chairman Mao assessed the situation, accurately judged the strategic deployment of the Kuomintang army, and formulated the policy of concentrating his forces to first annihilate 1 to 2 of the 4 divisions advancing eastward along the Hulu River, and then shift his forces to look for opportunities to annihilate the enemy one by one. . By seizing the Hulu River, a strategic hub that facilitated the smashing of the Kuomintang's two-line blockade plan and the subsequent development of the Red Army, the Red Army finally won a major victory in the Battle of Zhiluo Town.

During Chairman Mao's military deployment to crush the Kuomintang's "encirclement and suppression" campaign, Zhang Wentian, head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, led the central agency. After arriving in Wayaobao on November 7, he established a "five-man Committee", which is responsible for dealing with the "elimination of counterrevolutionaries" in northern Shaanxi. The "Five-member Committee" released the first batch of 18 people that day, including Liu Zhidan, Gao Gang, and Yang Xiushan.

When the people in northern Shaanxi learned the news that Liu Zhidan and his comrades were released from prison, they were very excited and rushed to tell each other: "Old Liu has been saved, and northern Shaanxi has been saved."

On November 30, Zhang Wentian presided over a meeting of party activists in Wayaobao to vindicate Liu Zhidan and others, and gave a final warning and a serious warning to Dai Jiying and Nie Hongjun, who had made serious mistakes in the "elimination of counterrevolutionaries" respectively. Punishment. At the same time, the "Decision of the Northwest Central Bureau to Review the Counter-Revolutionary Work" based on the report of the "Five-member Committee" was announced.

However, the "Decision to Review the Work of Eliminating Counterrevolutionaries" formed under the leadership of Zhang Wentian did not completely rehabilitate Liu Zhidan and others, which resulted in them still being treated unfairly in the following years. After Liu Zhidan died, his file even read the verdict that "this person committed serious right-leaning opportunistic mistakes."

After commanding the victory in the Battle of Zhiluo Town, Chairman Mao came to Wayaobao on December 13, 1935. In the Jiangxi Central Soviet Area, Chairman Mao was also deeply attacked by those who promoted the "Left" line. He did not believe that Liu Zhidan had made any "Rightist mistakes."

In order to express condolences and support for Liu Zhidan, who was unjustly imprisoned, Chairman Mao immediately met with Liu Zhidan the next day and expressed his deep condolences and care, regardless of the fatigue of the saddle horse.

Correcting mistakes and "eliminating counterrevolutionaries" was the first "popular support project" of the Central Red Army after arriving in northern Shaanxi. Northern Shaanxi's song "Shandan Danhua Blooms Red" sings: "The dark clouds in the sky have been blown away by the wind, and the sky has cleared up with Chairman Mao's arrival!" This is by no means just an artistic technique in a literary and artistic work, it vividly expresses a cruel mistake. After the "Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries" was resolved, the people in northern Shaanxi were in a happy and comfortable mood. Only the cadres and the masses in the northwest base area who have experienced those rough years can deeply understand the profound meaning of these two lyrics.

Throughout the period from October 19, 1935, when the Central Red Army arrived at Wuqi Town, to November 24, 1935, when the Battle of Zhiluo Town ended victoriously, in just one month, Chairman Mao made great achievements in both civil and military affairs. Two great tricks were used: the "literary" aspect, decisively handled the "anti-revolutionary" incident in northern Shaanxi, stabilized the interior of the base area, strengthened unity, and won the hearts and minds of the people. This was the political foundation; the "military" aspect, deployed He commanded the Battle of Zhiluo Town, smashed Chiang Kai-shek's "encirclement and suppression" campaign, and consolidated and expanded the northwest base area. This was the foundation of the military.

Chairman Mao, who was both civil and military, used these two coups one after another, allowing the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Red Army, which had just arrived in northern Shaanxi after more than a year of hard work, to successfully settle in northern Shaanxi and Soon it gained a firm foothold, and from then on the Chinese revolution opened up a new situation. These two combined coups fully demonstrate the foresight and talent of Chairman Mao, a great man of a generation, at a major historical turning point!