Northwest Years 西北岁月 Episode 23

Now Chiang Kai-shek's group has begun to focus on attacking northern Shaanxi, while Hu Zongnan's troops have invaded the Guanzhong Division and deployed five brigades in the eastern Longdong area. Zhang Zongsun, Xi Zhongxun and others led the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army and the masses to actively prepare for war, and learned that the 48th Brigade led by He Qi was moving towards Heshui. Zhang Zongsun was overjoyed and was ready to give the other side a dumpling. Xi Zhongxun suggested that the current task was to defend Yan'an and send a reconnaissance unit to find out the enemy situation first.

On the other hand, He Qi received a call from Hu Zongnan, asking him to return to the original route to evacuate Heshui and change the route to Xihuachi. After Huang Xinting, who was in charge of reconnaissance, led the team to the designated location, he found that the enemy situation had changed and immediately reported it to Zhang Zongsun and others. Because Zhang Zongsun and He Qi were classmates, he had a little understanding of his character. He guessed that he did not get the oil head in Heshui, so he went to the strategic location to grab supplies and replenish supplies, so he ordered the troops to prepare to attack Xihuachi.

In February 1947, the 358th Brigade quickly took the periphery, and because the project was blocked, it directly switched to on-site defense. Zhang Zongsun then ordered his troops to launch a general attack, and tonight they must occupy Xihuachi at all costs. The artillery battle between the two sides was brutal, and the Kuomintang army continued to fire chemical incendiary bombs, which caused the attack of Zhang Zongsun and Xi Zhongxun's troops to be seriously hindered, resulting in heavy losses, and the casualties of the civilians were also very large.

In addition, the reinforcements of He Qi's troops were coming. Faced with this situation, Xi Zhongxun persuaded Zhang Zongsun to withdraw from Xihuachi as soon as possible, otherwise it would cause very terrible consequences. In the end, Zhang Zongsun ordered the troops to stop the attack. When he learned that our side had four times the enemy's strength but still failed to take Xihuachi, he felt extremely heavy, so he personally wrote a report to the Military Commission for self-criticism, and Xi Zhongxun was willing to accompany him to take responsibility.

Peng Dehuai first criticized Zhang Zongsun, Xi Zhongxun and others for underestimating the enemy and not fighting this battle well, and then asked them to move east immediately and lead the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Field Army to move closer to Yan'an. Ten days ago, they hid near Zhangcunyi and were ready to defend Yan'an. On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek sent a secret telegram to Hu Zongnan, ordering him to quickly seize Yan'an during the Moscow Conference. Hu Zongnan ordered all units to arrive at the attack position at 6 pm on the 12th and launch the attack at dawn on the 13th.

Mao Zedong and others received the telegram in time and arranged for the people to evacuate Yan'an first. Peng Dehuai reported to Mao Zedong that there were few people and ammunition. The top priority was to establish a command organization on the Northwest battlefield as soon as possible. Mao Zedong felt that people and ammunition were not a big problem. The key was to rebuild the command organization, so he decided to gather the main combat forces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia to form the Northwest Field Army.

For this reason, Peng Dehuai recommended himself and served as the commander and political commissar to unify the command of operations. He also asked Mao Zedong to bring Xi Zhongxun as deputy political commissar and Zhang Zongsun as deputy commander. Mao Zedong readily agreed to hear this and said that in addition to doing a good job in the transfer of organs and the masses, he would also hold a mobilization meeting to publicize the determination to defend Yan'an.

However, Mao Zedong did not attend such an important meeting, which attracted the attention of Hu Zongnan and Xiong Xianghui. They wondered whether he was secretly planning something, and how to develop after occupying Yan'an was still a key issue. On March 13 of the same year, Hu Zongnan's troops launched a large-scale attack on Yan'an, and the defense of Yan'an was completely launched. 200,000 Kuomintang troops surrounded 30,000 field troops.

On March 18, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others led the central organs to evacuate Yan'an to preserve their strength so as to use the advantages of terrain in northern Shaanxi to eliminate the Kuomintang army. Before leaving, Mao Zedong told everyone that they wanted to exchange one Yan'an for the whole of China.

The next day, the Kuomintang army occupied Yan'an, and Chiang Kai-shek was delighted and rewarded Hu Zongnan, but the Kuomintang army did not find any traces of the Communist army after occupying Yan'an, which made Hu Zongnan puzzled. Considering that the CCP's top leadership was too large to be concealed, Hu Zongnan ordered Dong Zhao and Liu Kan to send reconnaissance troops to search for the main force of the Communist Army on the north and west lines of Yan'an, and at the same time sent the Air Force to cooperate in the operation and capture Mao Zedong alive to eliminate future troubles.

The Northwest Field Army was formed and hidden in Ansai, Shaanxi. Everyone was upset because Yan'an was captured by the Kuomintang army. Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun comforted everyone not to be too pessimistic, and that Yan'an would be taken back sooner or later. They firmly believed in Mao Zedong's words of exchanging Yan'an for the whole of China.