The Long March: A Youth Reader to Promote the Spirit of the Long March

Author: Cui Luchun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The Jialing River is a major tributary of the Yangtze River in Sichuan. The banks are steep cliffs, the terrain is treacherous, the river is wide, deep, and swift, making it dangerous to cross and considered a natural barrier, easy to defend but hard to attack. Yet, at this perilous location, the Fourth Red Army launched the famous Battle of Forging Across the Jialing River and achieved glorious results. If the campaigns fought by the Central Red Army were like a series of inspiring anthems and endless poems, then the Battle of Forging Across the Jialing River by the Fourth Red Army was a spectacular and uplifting event.
The Fourth Red Army was one of the three main forces of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, a brave and skilled fighting force. Especially its commanders were all young, energetic, and experienced. Commander Xu Xiangqian, though young, was resolute and knowledgeable from a young age. The years of chaos in old China and the suffering of the people instilled in him a lofty ideal of saving the nation and its people from hardship. In 1924, he abandoned his pen for a sword, studied at the Whampoa Military Academy, joined the Great Revolution, and became a member of the Communist Party of China. After participating in the Guangzhou Uprising, he came to the Dabie Mountains and grew alongside the Fourth Red Army, successively holding positions as division commander, army commander, and finally commander-in-chief of the Fourth Red Army. He led the Fourth Red Army in many major and fierce battles, becoming a commander who terrified the enemy.
Other commanders of the Fourth Red Army were also all courageous, determined, and wise. From winter 1933 to autumn 1934, the Fourth Red Army, through its heroic fighting, successfullyd Jiang Jieshi's meticulously planned "Six Route Encirclement," which involved over 200,000 troops. Instantly, the Fourth Red Army's reputation soared, it rapidly expanded, and the Sichuan warlords trembled in fear. To eliminate the Red Army and stabilize the rule of the Sichuan warlords, Jiang Jieshi, in late 1934, launched another fierce "Sichuan-Shaanxi Joint Suppression" aimed at completely "eradicating" the Fourth Red Army to ensure no future threat. Meanwhile, the Central Red Army sent an urgent telegraph, requesting the Fourth Red Army to actively support the strategic transfer of the Central Red Army. Therefore, whether to break the "Sichuan-Shaanxi Joint Suppression" or to support the Central Red Army, forging across the Jialing River and advancing westward was the best choice and urgent priority for the Fourth Red Army at the time.
The battle at the Jialing River was inevitable. Only by fighting heroically, at all costs, and without regard for sacrifice, could the Fourth Red Army secure victory in the Jialing River campaign and ensure its survival and development, as well as a smoother Long March for the Central Red Army. The enemy also recognized the strategic importance of the Jialing River and deployed strong fortifications along both banks, destroying ferry equipment, hoping to use the river's natural barriers to block the Fourth Red Army and destroy it.
Since the enemy had already built countless fortifications on both banks of the Jialing River, constructed strong defenses, and seized, sunk, or burned the boats in the river, to cross westward, the Fourth Red Army had to first eliminate the enemy east of the river. The Fourth Red Army fought heroically and, in less than a month,d most of the enemy east of the Jialing River, controlling a vast area east of the river and clearing the way and preparing the conditions for crossing westward.
By late February 1935, the battle to forge across the Jialing River began. The Battle of Forging Across the Jialing River was crucial for the survival and development of the Fourth Red Army...