The course of the third anti-encirclement and suppression campaign in the Central Soviet Area

From July to September 1931, during the Second Civil Revolutionary War, the First Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army counterattacked the Kuomintang army's large-scale encirclement and suppression of the Central Soviet Area in southern Jiangxi Province.

After the failure of the second encirclement and suppression campaign by the Kuomintang army against the Central Soviet Area in May 1931 (see the Second Counter-Encirclement and Suppression Campaign), Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of the Kuomintang Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, soon followed in June. Organize the third larger-scale encirclement and suppression of the Central Soviet Area. A total of 100,000 troops from the 14th, 11th, 6th, 9th, and 10th divisions of his direct line troops were transferred to Jiangxi Province. Together with the original units around the Central Soviet Area and the newly transferred non-lineage units, the total force reached 23 One division and three brigades killed 300,000 people. In July, Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, was personally appointed commander-in-chief of the encirclement and suppression army. He Yingqin was appointed commander-in-chief of the front line. Military advisers from Britain, Japan, Germany and other countries were hired to accompany the army in planning. In this encirclement and suppression, Chiang Kai-shek adopted the policy of advancing straight in, attempting to first eliminate the main force of the Red Army and destroy the Soviet area, and then carry out an in-depth purge. Its deployment: He Yingqin concurrently serves as the commander-in-chief of the Left Group Army, commanding the 1st Attack Army (6th Division), 2nd Attack Army (11th and 14th Divisions of the 18th Army), 3rd Army (5th and 6th Army Divisions). The 8th and 24th Divisions) and the 4th Army Corps (9th Division) launched an offensive from the Nancheng area to the Central Soviet Area, seeking a decisive battle with the main force of the Red Army; Chen Mingshu served as the commander-in-chief of the right-wing group army, commanding the 1st Army Corps (19th Route Army, 60th, 61st Division and 52nd Division), 2nd Army Corps (25th and 27th Division of 26th Route Army), 3rd Attack Army (47th and 54th Division of 5th Route Army), from Ji'an, Yongfeng, Le An direction went deep into the Soviet area and carried out a campaign of suppression. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Air Force teams stationed at Nanchang, Ji'an, Zhangshu and other airports support the operations of the left and right group armies. In addition, the 10th Division and the Siege Brigade are the general reserve forces, located in the Linchuan area; the 77th and 28th Divisions and the 34th Brigade of the 12th Division are located in Ji'an, Taihe, Wan'an, Ganzhou and other places, responsible for clearing and maintaining The 23rd and 79th Divisions and the 1st Cavalry Division were located in the Nancheng, Linchuan, and Zhangshu Town areas, and were responsible for clearing and protecting the rear area; the 49th and 56th Divisions and the new 4th Cavalry Division were The brigade is located on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi to prevent the Red Army from advancing eastward. In addition, the 53rd Division was transferred from Henan Province to Ji'an, Jiangxi Province for standby. In late June, Chiang Kai-shek mistook the 9th Division of the 3rd Army and the 12th Division of the 4th Army of the Red Army operating in the area south of Yihuang and Nanfeng as the main force of the Red Army, so he ordered an attack and ordered the 10th Division to return to the left flank. Group Army Command. Starting from July 1st, the main force of the left-wing group army was dispatched from the Nancheng area. By the 6th, it occupied Lichuan, Zhangcun, Kangdu and other places, and continued to advance towards the Soviet area. At the same time, the right-wing group army was dispatched from Ji'an, Jishui, Yongfeng, Le'an, Yihuang and other areas, and headed in the direction of Futian, Donggu, Chongxian, Shaxi, Liantang, Zhaojie, and Ningdu.

After the victory of the second anti-encirclement and suppression campaign in the Central Soviet Area, more than 30,000 people from the First Front Army of the Red Army carried out mass work in northwest Fujian, western Fujian, Fujian-Jiangxi border and southern Jiangxi and other areas to prepare for the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign. . At the end of June, under the command of Mao Zedong, Secretary of the Provisional General Anti-Enemy Committee of the First Front Army of the Chinese Communist Red Army, and Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the Front Army, it was finally determined that the Kuomintang army was about to launch a third encirclement and suppression attempt, and decided to continue to adopt the policy of "lubing the enemy deeper" , wait for the enemy to penetrate deep into the central area of ??the Soviet area, and then concentrate on counterattack to break the encirclement and suppression. Subsequently, the independent 4th and 5th Divisions and the 9th Division of the 3rd Red Army were in the areas south of Ji'an, Jishui, Yongfeng, Le'an, and Yihuang, and the 12th Division of the 4th Red Army was in the south and southeast of Nanfeng, in coordination with local governments. The armed forces, the Red Guards, and the Young Pioneers used mobile defense and guerrilla warfare to delay the enemy's advance; the main force of the Red Army's 3rd Army, the main force of the 4th Army, and the 12th Army, under the command of Provisional General Front Committee Secretary Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, Around July 10, they quickly gathered from western Fujian, northwest Fujian, Fujian-Jiangxi border and southern Jiangxi, and concentrated in the central area of ??the Soviet Area.

The Red Army braved the scorching heat of midsummer and marched urgently, detouring to Rentian north of Ruijin. After a journey of thousands of miles, they completed the task of returning to the army and concentrated. Before the 22nd, they arrived at Yinkeng, Pipalong, Ping'an Village, and Ping'an Village north of Yudu (today's Yudu). In the Qiaotou area, the main force of the 3rd Red Army, the 35th Red Army, which came north from Yudu and Ruijin, the 7th Red Army, the headquarters of the 20th Red Army and the 175th Regiment came from the west of Ganjiang River. On the 28th, the main force of the Red Army moved to the Gaoxingwei area northwest of Xingguo County. The strategic mission of returning to the division and concentrating was completed. At the same time, the Soviet Area Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China issued an emergency notice to party organizations and governments at all levels in the Soviet Area to mobilize and organize the people, local armed forces, Red Guards, and Young Pioneers to support and cooperate with the main Red Army in the anti-encirclement and suppression operations; They constantly blocked and harassed the Kuomintang troops attacking the Soviet area, while the people of the Soviet area implemented strongholds to clear the country. This made the Kuomintang troops who penetrated deep into the Soviet area hungry, exhausted, bewildered, and greatly reduced in energy. This effectively covered the main force of the Red Army's return to the division, and provided a platform for them to return to the division. The conditions were created for the shift to counter-offensive operations. He also ordered the 7th Army, the 20th Army Headquarters and the 175th Regiment of the Red Army operating in the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Area to cross the Ganjiang River eastward and join the First Front Army of the Red Army.

The Kuomintang army repeatedly sought the Red Army for a decisive battle but failed. The Red Army counterattacked the Kuomintang army for more than 20 days after entering the Central Soviet Area, but could not find the main force of the Red Army for a decisive battle. It was not until the end of July that Chiang Kai-shek learned that the main force of the Red Army was in the Xingguo area. He judged that the Red Army might cross the Ganjiang River westward, so he split his main force and advanced toward the Xingguo area in an attempt to suppress the Red Army on the east bank of the Ganjiang River and destroy it. During this time, the main force of the Red Army had made preparations for counterattack in the Gaoxingwei area. On July 31, the front army headquarters learned that the Kuomintang army was moving in the direction of Xingguo. On its right, there were only three regiments defending the Futian, Toubi, and Xin'an areas. The rear contact line from Futian to the east was also weak. Accordingly, Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to adopt the policy of "avoiding the enemy's main force and attacking its weakness", secretly moving the main force of the Red Army north from the Gaoxingwei area, first breaking through Futian point, and then from west to east, sweeping across the contact line behind the enemy's rear and setting up deep positions. The enemy's main force in the Soviet area of ??southern Jiangxi is in useless places. When the enemy realizes that he has turned back to the north, he will take advantage of his fatigue to look for opportunities to attack those he can hit. In the evening of that day, the main force of the Red Front Army began to advance towards Futian. When the leading troops entered the north of Shipi, they found that two divisions of the 2nd Attack Army had entered Futian. Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to change their plan and led the main force of the Red Army to return to the Gaoxingwei area on August 4 to find another fighter plane.

The situation is extremely unfavorable to the Red Army. There is the Ganjiang River to the west, and nine divisions of the Kuomintang army are approaching from the south, north and east. However, the 1st Army Corps that entered the Shiroishi and Chongxian areas, the 1st Attack Army and the 4th Army Army that entered the Xingguo area, and the 2nd Attack Army in the Tomita area had weak combat effectiveness. Based on this, Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to use the 35th Division of the 35th Red Army, the 35th Division of the 12th Red Army, and the 4th and 5th Independent Divisions to coordinate with the local armed forces, the Red Guards, and the Young Pioneers to take active actions to defeat the enemy's 2nd and 1st Routes. The attacking army and the 4th Army were drawn in the direction of Wan'an and Liangkou, and the 1st Army was contained in the Baishi and Chongxian areas; the main force of the Red Army was concentrated to advance eastward, and a breakthrough was made in the middle, in order to annihilate the 3rd Army heading towards Liantang. The attacking army then advanced eastward from the Gaoxingwei area, attacked Longgang and Huangpi, mobilized the enemy, selected those who were prone to attack, and annihilated them one by one during the movement. In order to conceal this intention and create the illusion of an encirclement and suppression army, the Red Front Army used a force to coordinate with local armed forces to attract the main seven divisions of the encirclement and suppression army to the west and northwest of Xingguo. The main force moved from Xingguo and Chongxian on the evening of the 5th. They concealed themselves in the 20-kilometer gap between the local Kuomintang defense lines and advanced eastward. On the afternoon of the 6th, we advanced to the Liantang and Guantian areas to hide and wait. The Kuomintang army was not aware of this action of the Red Army. Its 1st and 2nd offensive armies, led by the 35th Division of the 35th Red Army and the 35th Division of the 12th Red Army, were rushing towards the Gan River; while the 3rd offensive army was led by Liang The village divided into two roads and headed towards Liantang and Chenggang. On the afternoon of the 6th, when the leading 2nd Brigade of the 47th Division of the 3rd Route Attack Army entered near Liantang, Mao Zedong and Zhu De immediately decided to concentrate their forces to annihilate the brigade, and then attack northward to annihilate the main force of the 3rd Route Attack Army. That night, the 3rd Red Army, the 4th Red Army, and the 7th Red Army secretly engaged the enemy and launched a sudden attack at dawn on the 7th. By 9 o'clock in the battle, more than one battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the 47th Division was completely wiped out.

After the Liantang battle, the main force of the Red Army took advantage of the victory and rushed towards Liangcun. On the way, they encountered the 160th Brigade of the 54th Division, which was assisted by Liangcun, and annihilated one of its regiments. The rest of the brigade fled to Liangcun. The Red Army pursued fiercely, and invaded Liangcun at about 13:00, and wiped out the 54th Division headquarters and most of the two brigades that had just withdrawn from Chenggang to Liangcun. After the Liangcun battle, the Red Army's 3rd Army feigned an attack on Longgang and led the main force eastward to encircle and annihilate the 8th Division of the 3rd Army Corps that had just retreated to Huangpi from Junbu, Nanling and other places. On the morning of the 11th, the Red Army entered the vicinity of Huangpi, launched an attack on Huangpi at noon, broke into the village in one fell swoop, and wiped out two regiments of the 8th Division. At 15:00, the remaining parts of the 8th Division broke through to Luokou and Ningdu, and the Red Army annihilated two more regiments during the pursuit. Subsequently, the main force of the Red Army moved to the Junling Nao Mountain area east of Junbu to rest and recuperate. The victories in the battles of Liantang, Liangcun, and Huangpi enabled the Red Army to seize the initiative from passivity.

After the battles of Liantang and Liangcun, Chiang Kai-shek and frontline commander He Yingqin learned that the main force of the Red Army had moved eastward from the northwest region of Xingguo, and estimated that it might leave Linchuan northward. So starting from August 9, the 1st and 2nd offensive armies and the 1st Army Corps were ordered to turn around and head east, in an attempt to cooperate with the 10th Division advancing westward from Guangchang to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Red Army in the area north of Ningdu. From the 12th to the 15th, they approached the area east of Junbu, where the Red Army was concentrated, in a dense encirclement situation. In order to get rid of the unfavorable situation of being surrounded on three sides by eight divisions of the Encirclement and Suppression Army, Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to use the 12th Red Army (under the 35th Division) to feint towards Le'an and draw the main force of the Kuomintang army northeast; The main force of the army secretly returned westward to rest in hiding in Xingguo County. On the evening of the 16th, the main force of the Red Front Army, more than 20,000 people, took advantage of the darkness to secretly advance from the 10-kilometer gap between the 1st Army Corps and the 2nd Attack Army of the Kuomintang Army that was advancing eastward, and jumped out of the Kuomintang Army's encirclement. , returned to the Baishi and Fengbian areas in the northeast of Xingguo in the morning of the next day for rest and recuperation, and met with the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area of ??the Communist Party of China and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. The main force of the 12th Red Army raised flags and trumpets, moved northeastward with great fanfare, and captured Le'an County with a force. Chiang Kai-shek mistook the 12th Red Army as the main force of the Red Army and judged that the Red Army would attack Yihuang and threaten Linchuan, so he quickly transferred his 10th Division back to Linchuan and ordered the 1st and 2nd Attack Army to pursue the Red 12th Army. military. The main force of the 12th Red Army adopted flexible tactics and held back the main force of the Kuomintang Army for nearly half a month, covering the westward movement and rest of the main force of the First Red Army. At the end of August, by the time the Kuomintang army discovered that the main force of the Red Army was heading west to find the main force of the Red Army for a decisive battle, the Red Army had rested for nearly half a month. Chiang Kai-shek immediately took his 1st Army Corps as the vanguard, and other units then marched westward again, seeking a decisive battle with the main force of the Red Army. In order to further mobilize and exhaust the Kuomintang troops, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the main force of the Red Front Army to continue to move westward in early September and moved to the Juncun and Chayuanggang areas between Xingguo, Wanan and Taihe to hide and wait.

At this time, the Kuomintang army had been running back and forth in the Central Soviet Area for two months. In addition to its three divisions that had suffered annihilating blows, the other units had also suffered heavy losses from the people of the Soviet area and the local armed forces. Assailed by hardships, morale plummeted. Contrary to the situation of the Kuomintang army, after three battles and three victories, the Red Army's morale became even stronger after more than half a month of rest and recuperation. On the battlefield, it was even more obvious that the Kuomintang army was passive and the Red Army was active. During this time, the warlords of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces took advantage of the fact that the main force of Chiang's army was deep in Jiangxi and were marching towards Hengyang, Hunan. They posed a great threat to Chiang Kai-shek and forced Chiang Kai-shek to order an end to the encirclement and suppression and implement a general retreat. The Red Army took advantage of the victory and pursued it. On the evening of September 6, the headquarters of the Red Front Army learned that the Kuomintang troops in the Xingguo area were retreating north along Gaoxingwei Avenue. Mao Zedong and Zhu De immediately decided to first seize and annihilate the enemies retreating north in the Xingguo area, and then wait and see to expand the results. Then the 3rd Red Army and the 5th Independent Division were ordered to quickly seize the old camp and cut off the enemy's retreat; the 3rd Red Army, the 4th Red Army (and command the 35th Division), and the 35th Red Army attacked Gaoxingwei and its enemies in the north and south; the 7th Red Army contained The enemy of rejuvenating the country. At dawn on the 7th, the 4th Army of the Kuomintang Army retreated north from the Xingguo area. When its leading independent brigade withdrew to the vicinity of Laoyingpan, the 3rd Red Army cut off the brigade's contact with the follow-up troops of the 4th Army. Subsequently, the 3rd Red Army , the 5th Independent Division launched a rapid attack on the Independent Brigade, and by about 14:00, they were completely wiped out.

On the 7th, the 7th Red Army advanced towards Xingguo and contained the 52nd Division; the 3rd Red Army, the 4th Red Army (and commanded the 35th Division), and the 35th Red Army launched an attack on the 60th and 61st Divisions of the Kuomintang Army in the Gaoxingwei area, and fierce fighting began. By the 8th, more than 2,000 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded, and the battle turned into a confrontation. In order to maintain the initiative, the Red Army withdrew from the battle. On the 13th, the main force of the 4th Army Corps and the 52nd Division of the Kuomintang Army retreated to Ji'an from Changjingkou, Xingguo and other places respectively. The main force of the Red Front Army pursued the troops. At dawn on the 15th, after the main force of the 4th Army passed through the Fangshiling Pass, the main force of the Red Army arrived and seized the Fangshiling Pass, intercepting the 52nd Division and an artillery regiment and an infantry unit of the 4th Army. camp, surrounded it in the area south of Fangshiling, and immediately launched a fierce attack. By 9 o'clock, they were completely wiped out. Other Kuomintang troops withdrew to Ji'an, Yongfeng, Yihuang, Nancheng, Nanfeng, Guangchang, Ningdu, Ganzhou and other places. At this point, the Red Front Army smashed the Kuomintang army's third encirclement and suppression of the Central Soviet Area.