Chapter 23 Entering Shaanxi

  Because the main force of the Fourth Route Army originally entered Sichuan from Shaanxi, some remaining personnel and underground party organizations formed a guerrilla team that provided a lot of important intelligence to the besieged Red 25th Army. The wealth of Guanzhong is well-known! Moreover, the enemy in Shaanxi was Yang Hucheng's troops who retreated into Shanxi after the Central Plains War, and these poorly equipped Northwestern Army were naturally not in the eyes of the victorious Red 25th Army over the Nationalist Central Army, so entering Shaanxi to develop and expand the Eyu-Shaan guerrilla zone became the top priority for all of you!

  In the northwest mountainous area, the natural cold is exceptionally bitter. As they approached the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province step by step, the soldiers' deepest feeling was the cold! The northwest wind blowing fiercely wasn't the most annoying thing, although it occasionally pierced through the thick and clumsy cotton clothes, or drilled deep into the gap of the collar, then let you experience a cool feeling. This made the soldiers stop for a moment, look at the gloomy sky, and continue on their way.

  The sound of "treading" footsteps was exceptionally clear in the mountainous area where all human traces had disappeared. The entire advancing troop was shrouded in a layer of swirling white smoke. More than a hundred stretchers carried wounded soldiers forward, but the quilts that had been soaked through with blood revealed the predicament faced by this army lacking medical supplies. However, what was truly deadly was not nature, nor the sweat on their bodies that would freeze into ice blocks as soon as they stopped moving, but rather the Nationalist Army's forces closely following behind!

  A small team of four or five hundred people, although it is difficult to cause great losses to the Red Twenty-Fifth Army, these enemies are constantly exposing the whereabouts of the Red Twenty-Fifth Army to the enemy's main force! Looking at the exhausted soldiers who are walking very slowly, but the leaders in the army dare not order the troops to stop and rest. Even meal times require a hundred-man sentry rotation!

  This annoying thing can be seen from the look on High General's face, which is full of discontent. However, to eliminate that cunning "little fox" at the back, not only will it delay the precious marching time of the 25th Army, giving the enemy more time to prepare and surround them, but the enemy won't wait for them to attack either. If they are led to the enemy's main force by this group of enemies, then they will be stuck like a dog skin plaster.

  Due to the enemy's report, the Kuomintang moved one of their trump card main forces, the 66th Division led by Ou Quan, stationed in Kaifeng, overnight by train from Kaifeng to the border of Henan and Shaanxi provinces, defending the weak line of Wulichuan and Zhaoyangguan south of Lushi County. This move left only Tongguan and Fenglingdu, heavily guarded by the Northwestern Army, on the tattered map of the Red 25th Army, with almost no roads entering Shaanxi province!

  In front of us, the enemy's heavy troops were blocking our way, and behind us, a large army was pursuing! The 25th Red Army had fallen into an unprecedented predicament. One can't help but admire the underground party's powerful work ability, which provided topographic maps, enemy defense maps, and road traffic maps of the Shaanxi-Henan border region within three hours of contacting the Red Army. The leaders of the 25th Army were stunned as they watched the small peddler pull out these things from his unassuming sack like magic!

  The magical performance made the 25th Army ecstatic! Ten brand new rifles, under the excited instructions of the military leaders, were presented as a gift to the comrades of Shangluo Prefectural Committee.

  With the map and intelligence, the 25th Army felt like they had a home. The 25th Army, like fish in water, quickly shook off the "little fox" that was stuck behind them under the leadership of the guide along the mountain path. A thousand precautions can't prevent a thief at home! The regiment commander of the 245th Regiment of the 66th Division, who was originally laid down as a plot for military operations, discovered this rare opportunity to enter Shaanxi after the news that the Nationalist Party had emptied the troops in Luxian County came out.

  As long as you follow the Luoshui River one mile south of Lushi County, along the riverbank washed out by the river, you can enter Shaanxi Province smoothly. If in the past we were worried that the enemy would gather heavy troops in Lushi County and possibly attack the 25th Red Army from the side or rear, now the Nationalist Party has created an unprecedented good opportunity for the Red Army!

  "I wonder what Chiang Kai-shek would do if he knew about this? After carefully planning the encirclement campaign for over two years, it was actually ruined by a small mistake at a critical point. If he were to find out that they had infiltrated Shaanxi, he'd probably spit blood! In the discussions between Gao Guanzhong and other officers, Old Chiang became their favorite person to mock, although Gao also knew that this bald head was patriotic, but now it's an internal struggle, how could they possibly show mercy?"

  The night river wind is really refreshing! Just looking at the big mouthful of teeth fighting inside can tell! Poor little headwind, originally living in the south, experiencing this bone-piercing chill for the first time, how can it be called refreshing? Shrinking into the crowd, he even glanced maliciously at the scrawny tour guide in front, wondering if his thing had been frozen out of function by the cold wind?

  Located at the border of two provinces, Lushi was still very prosperous in the late 1934. Although it was already eleven or twelve o'clock at night, Gaoquan could vaguely see the light reflected from the city's lights through the darkness of less than 500 meters. He could even faintly make out the city walls. In contrast to the prosperity of the city, the city walls were cold and desolate, with scattered sentries holding large torches, walking on the city walls with a show of military might, suppressing all living things that stirred in the dark night.

  The neat footsteps, the collision of guns and objects on the body, "ding ding dong" after passing through thousands of people, had already made the sentries on the city wall less than a mile away alert. However, it was nighttime, their vision was good, but even with large torches, they could hardly penetrate the darkness - this great natural creation caused them trouble and danger! More than a dozen sentries held their guns tightly, exposing their heads above the crenels of the city wall, carefully listening to the movements outside.

  The large army outside, if they want to attack, where can their dozen or so sentries withstand? Even with the addition of the security team and police team inside the city, it's not enough to make such a big fuss about the enemy! The telephone lines leading out of the city had already been cut off by Gaoquan and his men! The tens of kilometers long telephone line was divided into several bundles, tied to the back of sturdy Shanxi mules. Gaoquan, feeling pleased with himself, even thought of teaching a lesson to those hiding in the city with rifles!

  The alluvial plain of the Luo River, which has been deposited for thousands of years, is very flat. Although the withering of winter days makes these formerly cheerful and laughing farmlands silent, from those fertile dark brown soils and sparse field ridges, it can be seen that these good fields are definitely not owned by ordinary people. Such good large tracts of land must have been occupied by those landlords!

  When I think of the makeup investigation, those shabby and disheveled pedestrians with vegetable-colored faces in various small towns, I feel a strong sense of disgust towards this era and society. Perhaps in the rich southern regions, ordinary people can barely make ends meet, but in the impoverished and backward northwest, how many people can really survive? Especially those warlords who control their own territories, in order to have the ability to resist Chiang Kai-shek, they recklessly increase taxes and levies! Those cannons imported from abroad, one by one, and those machine guns with oil, are all paid for with the blood and sweat of countless peasants!

  Along the Luo River, they marched for a day and a half, and the troops finally arrived at Tieguan Pass just before dark. Looking at those few militiamen hanging around on the pass wall, Gao Quan's mouth was full of disdain! "You think you can stop our Red Army from entering Shaanxi with this kind of defense? You really take us for bandits!" Although Gao Quan said so, he still personally led dozens of soldiers to climb over the mountain ridge to the enemy's rear. Then, amidst a mixture of surprise and panic, they tied up those militiamen like dumplings!

  Looking at these old rifles with worn-out barrels and a pile of 7.92mm bullets that had been reloaded, Gao Daquan clearly felt that the weapons and ammunition in Shaanxi were far inferior to those in Henan. Moreover, judging from the performance of these militia teams who should have been defending their homeland with great enthusiasm, this Northwestern Army was extremely ruthless in its exploitation of Shaanxi! As a result, they had very little support among the rural population, and people identified with them even less! "The true promise to love the people made by their old leader Feng Yuxiang must have been completely abandoned by these greedy bastards! It seems that the foreign money Chiang Kai-shek used to buy them off was a stark test of human nature!"

  I wrote these three thousand words in four hours!

  Speechless with oneself

  It's so difficult... Vote for me