Page 73 - SELECTED WORKS OF CHEN YUN Volume I

EXPERIENCES ON THE WESTWARD MARCH 69

down river, but this did not deter them. Six or seven bamboo rafts then
attempted a crossing together. On this attempt, six rafts were able to reach
the northern bank. The Red Army immediately went ashore, drove out the
enemy troops there and occupied their fortifications. Hou Zhidan’s troops
retreated into the mountains to guard their strongholds, firing downward. By
that time, the Red Army held all the fortifications on the north bank and
continued their crossing over using on bamboo rafts. About three hours later,
the Red Army made the ingenious military move of shipping a regiment of
its soldiers to the north bank from a location six kilometres further up the
river. There troops then launched a flank attack on Hou Zhidan’s troops at
lower reaches of the river and also a surprise attack on his follow-up units.
Thereupon, a number of Hou Zhidan’s troops laid down their arms while
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others broke out of encirclement to retreat to Tuanxi and Zunyi. The Red
Army then constructed a bridge and pursued the enemy. Liu Bocheng was
the Red Army officer in charge of the Wujiang River Campaign. He was
well-known in Sichuan for having once defeated Wu Peifu, and he enjoyed
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much prestige in the Sichuan army. He became a member of the Communist
Party in Sichuan and after the Kuomintang and the Communist Party split,
he led the Sichuan army in an uprising in Luzhou.
After the Red Army crossed the Wujiang River, Hou Zhidan’s remaining
troops could no longer sustain any resistance. After successfully occupying
Tuanxi, the Red Army kept pursuing, attacking and finally by three o’clock
in the morning of the third day it had control of Zunyi. Meanwhile, Red
Army troops taking the rightward route entered Meitan and Suiyang while
those on the middle route captured Tongzi and Songkanchang on the
Sichuan-Guizhou border. The Sichuan army brigade under the command of
Liao Ze was defeated. It looked like the Red Army might enter Chongqing
following this victory. Immediately, the rich people of Chongqing began to
panic, and the huishui from Sichuan Province to Shanghai increased by 70
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percent, a reflection of just how uneasy people were feeling. But after wiping
out Hou Zhidan’s troops, the Red Army did not march on. It rested in
Zunyi, Tongzi, Meitan and in Suiyang.
The Red Army’s entrance into northern Guizhou benefited it consider-
ably.
First, in defeating Hou Zhidan’s two divisions, the Red Army had been
able to seize most of their guns and ammunition. This replenishment of arms
and ammunition enabled the Red Army in entering Zunyi for the second
time to defeat the two divisions under the command of Wang Jialie and Xue
Yue’s two divisions which had been dispatched by the Nanjing government
to pursue and wipe out the Red Army. Many warlords were being destroyed