Chapter 29: The Three Battles of Little Water (1)

  He Xinghua came to report again, saying that the enemy's 48th Brigade had sent a telegram, reporting that they were pursuing the division at a rapid pace. Liu Yimin said it was good, let them speed up, especially the logistics battalion, and hurry up, saying that the front line was fighting fiercely with the Red Army and urgently needed to replenish hand grenades and machine gun bullets.

  After He Xinghua left, Liu Yimin led the 18th Regiment to enter the position according to the pre-war deployment. In order to capture all enemy supplies and prevent the enemy from destroying them, Liu Yimin specially ordered a company of new recruits to be dispatched to reinforce the fourth regiment. Everything was ready, just waiting for the 46th Brigade to make their move.

  An hour later, enemy 46 Brigade came rushing along the highway.

  Enemy 46th Brigade from brigade commander to soldier no one thought that the telegram sent by the division commander to urge speeding up was a death warrant.

  At that time, among the warlord troops, those who could be compared with the Xiang Army in terms of combat effectiveness were few and far between. Only the Guangxi Army and the Qinghai Hui cavalry could be mentioned in the same breath as He Jian's Xiang Army. In the eyes of the Xiang Army officers and soldiers, as well as ordinary civilians, other warlord troops were not worth mentioning. The phrase "no Xiang, no army" summed up the public opinion at that time.

  And the 16th Division was also one of He Jian's main forces, with outstanding performances in several battles such as the Central Plains War and the Battle for Hunan. After the establishment of the Central Soviet Area, the 16th Division participated in the encirclement of the Red Army on multiple occasions. It is strange to say that in clashes with the Red Army, the 16th Division had hardly suffered any significant losses. The Red Army twice attacked Changsha, and the 16th Division was once the main force for He Jian's recapture of Changsha, and once the main force for its defense, both tasks were accomplished satisfactorily.

  After the Red Army's Long March began, the 16th Division of Hunan once again boarded the war chariot to encircle and annihilate the Red Army, intercepting and pursuing them without fail. They exerted all their strength, as if they were still nursing at their mother's breast. After several fierce battles, especially after the Battle of Xiangjiang, the 16th Division of Hunan became extremely confident, with mid-to-low-level officers regarding the pursuit of the Red Army as a shortcut to promotion and wealth. They rushed forward in a frenzy, like birds flying together. Especially this 46th Brigade, since its brigade commander Zhang Liangji was promoted to division commander, not only mid-to-low-level officers but even ordinary soldiers walked with their noses upturned, as if they had also become division commanders, arrogant and unstoppable.

  This morning, the commander ordered the entire division to move out and intercept the Red Army. The task of the 46th Brigade was to be the rear guard of the entire division, protecting the baggage train. Many officers were very reluctant in their hearts, thinking that since the Red Army had already run away, they should have been chasing after them, biting hard and catching at least one or two big shots! If they were lucky, they could catch * and Zhu De, the top leaders, which would be a great honor and wealth for generations to come! But instead, they were assigned to be the rear guard. And another thing, the baggage train was a bunch of slowpokes, with their mules, carts, and porters. It took them forever to get on the road, and even then, the marching speed was slow, which affected the main force of the 46th Brigade's march as well.

  The long-awaited telegram from the division commander to accelerate the advance has finally arrived. The enemy regimental commander felt a sense of relief and directly ordered the chief of staff: "Order the entire regiment to march quickly, catch up with the main force of the division as soon as possible. Tell the brothers that the Red Bandits are ahead, merit is ahead, the ocean is ahead, women are ahead. If we're late, others will eat meat and we won't even get a sip of soup. You personally go to supervise the logistics battalion, if anyone dares to drag the whole regiment back, military law will be enforced!"

  Upon receiving the order, the whole army quickly formed into three columns and rushed forward with loud shouts. The enemy's chief of staff galloped to the slow-moving baggage camp.

  The deputy commander of the division, with a whip in his hand, struck him on the head: "You turtle shell, do you want to drag the whole brigade's legs? The brigade commander ordered the whole brigade to rush after the main force of the division, and those who disobey will be punished by military law."

  The enemy's vanguard regiment commander dodged the whip while pulling out his pistol, "Bang bang" two shots were fired into the air: "Brothers, listen up! Let the mules run, the whole regiment is on emergency march. Whoever dares to slack off, don't blame my bullets for not recognizing people."

  The enemy's heavy cavalry was about to move, the donkeys and horses were neighing, the soldiers' shouting and the civilians' scolding voices intertwined, people were in a flurry, what a lively scene.

  In the chaos, a porter's pole was knocked askew, and in his haste, he flung down the pole and jumped up, cursing loudly: "Son of a turtle, what are you squeezing for? Are you in a hurry to go get shot?"

  The enemy regimental commander rushed over and fired two shots at the challenger, and the troops immediately fell silent. The enemy regimental commander said in a gloomy tone: "Listen up, anyone who disobeys orders will be settled by my bullets."

  In this way, the enemy's 46th Brigade rushed slowly and bumped into the ambush circle of the Red Army's 18th Regiment.

  No suspense, the enemy 46th Brigade didn't even have a chance to fight back. On the narrow valley highway, the 18th Regiment's battalions, with enhanced firepower, taught the 46th Brigade a lesson in what it means to attack an unprepared enemy and what it means to launch a sudden fire assault. In just five minutes, the main force of the Hunan Army, which had never fallen behind in pursuing the Red Army, was crippled by the intense machine gun fire and grenade attacks of the 18th Regiment.

  Maybe some readers will question you, aren't you exaggerating too much? With a group of several thousand people, it's not just that fighting wouldn't be so smooth, even slaughtering pigs wouldn't be that easy.

  It really was that smooth. Think about it, the highway was built on a mountain, with cliffs on one side that you couldn't climb up, and when ambushed, you could only charge forward, retreat backward, charge towards the opposite side or lie down on the spot. Forward? Machine guns blocked the way. Backward? Machine guns fired like a gust of wind. Charging towards the opposite side? More than 30 heavy machine guns and over 100 light machine guns were spewing out flames, forming a dense web of fire that was impenetrable, not to mention the rifles and submachine guns in the hands of the two main force battalion soldiers. What could you do? Lying down wouldn't work either, old brother, because what was falling from above were hand grenades made by the National Army themselves, with a quality far superior to those made from straw ropes in the Soviet Red Army's base area.

  Some readers will ask, then how did you write about the Xiang Army soldiers charging forward and resisting on the spot during the first wave of attacks, and also didn't say that the battle ended so quickly.

  Dizzy, during the first wave of ambush, the 18th Regiment had only six heavy machine guns and 27 light machine guns. The long marching column could not be covered by machine gun fire all at once, and there must have been time for the Xiang Army soldiers to react and take action. If it weren't for the grenades falling from above, the Xiang Army might have turned the battle into a stalemate, or even reversed the situation. Have readers forgotten the story of how the youngest regiment commander, Xun Huaizhou, led the Red Tenth Regiment's first division in an ambush against Wang Yaowu's independent brigade, only to be defeated? The third wave of ambush was completely different from the first one, with so many machine guns covering the marching column tightly. Not to mention a 2-regiment brigade, even if it were a division, what could it do?

  Another reader said that it was a long and arduous journey, and a strong fighting force, how could you deceive people like this, the Red Army didn't even have one casualty, not even the gods in heaven would believe it.

  It's simple, the enemy is indeed a powerful force, but when marching, even rifles are locked with safety catches on, let alone machine guns and artillery? The problem is that Liu Yimin doesn't give them the opportunity to organize shooting! In fact, there are examples in the Red Army's war history where they annihilated the enemy without suffering any casualties themselves. Readers can look it up for themselves.

  There is a reader who is not happy, and he comes up to throw bricks. You are nonsense. Obviously, during the Red Army's Long March, they were being chased by the National Army, but you turned it around, making the National Army into sheep waiting to be slaughtered, lined up for the Red Army to kill.

  Henan western mountain people can only stand still and get hit, when their heads are bleeding they suddenly remember that the side chasing and hitting also has to guard against the deadly trap set by the other side. Haven't you seen, the 25th Red Army with 3000 tired soldiers ambushed Yang Huicheng's one division at Yuanjiagou, after the Central Red Army occupied Zunyi and annihilated Wu Qizhen's one division of the Central Army and Wang Jialie's main force of Guizhou army. Those were all Nationalist armies that became lambs to be slaughtered during the pursuit.

  The people of western Henan thought for half a day before they finally understood one thing: the Red Army is a team that creates miracles, and there's nothing it can't do, only things it hasn't thought of. Whoever thinks the Red Army has been beaten to the point of having no power left will soon meet its own demise. The arrogant 16th Division of Hunan is a clear example.

  No more nonsense, the book is back to normal. In this battle, the enemy's 46th division headquarters and two regiments were completely annihilated, as well as a logistics battalion belonging to another division. 2,450 enemy soldiers were killed, 450 wounded, and 700 captured. The reason why there were more prisoners of war in this battle than in the previous two ambushes was that the soldiers did not destroy the enemy's logistics vehicles, giving most of the logistics personnel the opportunity to surrender. One radio station was seized, as well as 12 60mm mortars, 12 heavy machine guns, 72 light machine guns, 146 submachine guns, 140 pistols, and 2,150 rifles. 20,000 hand grenades were confiscated from the soldiers of the 46th division, as well as 76 carts of mountain gun shells, mortar shells, heavy machine gun bullets, rifle bullets, hand grenades, dry rations, medicines, and other supplies. Additionally, 50,000 silver dollars and 60 gold bars were seized.

  Liu Yimin and the team and battalion leaders stood on the highway, watching as soldiers escorted prisoners of war and transported supplies.

  The highway was littered with the bodies of Xiang soldiers, lying horizontally and vertically everywhere, with bloodstains all over the ground.

  A Red Army soldier had 5 or 6 rifles slung over his shoulder, and in his hands he held a rifle as he rummaged through the corpses to check if there were any enemies playing dead.

  He was indeed found by him, a military officer with his face down crawling among the dead bodies, but his shaking buttocks still exposed him. The Red Army soldier walked up and said with hatred: "Damn it, you guys have today too, learned to pretend to be dead! Aren't you good at fighting? Get up!"

  The officer had no choice but to get up, and glared at the Red Army soldier. The Red Army soldier immediately shouted: "What are you looking at? Not convinced?" The officer had no choice but to obediently walk towards the prisoner of war group.

  The high-spirited appearance of the Red Army soldiers deeply infected the cadres. The battalion commander, Gao Yuan, muttered to himself: "We won! We finally won! Since the Soviet District Defense War, we have been chased and beaten by the enemy like rabbits, sacrificing so many comrades. Today, we finally won a thrilling victory! Old Guo, Old Zhang, did you see? We won!" As he spoke, tears flowed out. The cadres also sighed in unison.

  Cai Zhong told Liu Yimin that Gao Yuan's Old Guo and Old Zhang were his two political commissars, both of whom sacrificed themselves in the Su District Defense War.

  Liu Yimin knew that people's emotions would be stirred up after a big battle, and thinking again, the once-invincible Xiang 16th Division was eliminated like this. He wondered what kind of reaction He Jian, an old counter-revolutionary, would have when he found out. Maybe he would wail loudly and beat his chest with grief. Liu Yimin couldn't help but feel a surge of heroic spirit, and in a loud and clear voice, he recited a poem in the style of Chen Yi's famous poem:

  The little water village was haunted by a ghostly howl, and the 16th division of Xiang's army had nowhere to escape.

  Hand grenades fall like smoke and sea, machine guns sound like waves of bullets.

  The enemy's courage is shattered by a sudden attack on their head and tail, and their morale is shaken by a swift and decisive strike at their center.

  The mountains and sunlight reflect each other, every Red Army soldier is proud and heroic.

  Li Qing murmured a recitation, clapped his hands and said: "Good poem! This emotion, this scene, and our unprecedented victory - this poem has fully depicted all of these. Heroic spirit, fighting will soaring to the sky. I want to send this poem by telegram to the Red Star newspaper to inspire our Red Army to achieve even greater victories."

  Liu Yimin said: "You'd better not make a fool of yourself in front of me."

  Tsai Chung interjected: "Indeed it is well-written, I agree to send it to Red Star Daily."

  Liu Jianli asked, "What to do with so many supplies?" Liu Yimin thought for a moment and said, "We can only take them all." Liu Jianli said again, "It's really too much, I'm afraid we can't carry it." Liu Yimin said, "Even if we can't carry it, we have to. We can't leave it for the enemy."

  Then Liu Yimin asked Cai Zhong about the work of transforming the prisoners of war. Cai Zhong said that it was very difficult. The first two batches of 720 prisoners had undergone work, but only 100 people were willing to join the Red Army. Most people said they wanted to go home and farm. A few stubborn ones even cursed us, saying we would launch a surprise attack, and some even dared to form a battle array.

  Liu Yimin smiled and said, "Form a battle array? I'm not interested in that. Chief of Staff, send a telegram to Chairman Mao, Commander-in-Chief Zhu, and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission to report our victory. Let's go take a look at those prisoners."