Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March | Crossing the "Formidable Barrier" Again — Passing the Torch and Setting Out Anew

A Certain Brigade of the 82nd Group Army's "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River" —— Crossing the "Formidable Barrier" Again — Passing the Torch and Setting Out Anew

■ Song Haiwei, Pan Shida, PLA Daily Reporter Cheng Xue

Photo ①, ⑦: In front of the battle flag, the company organizes officers and soldiers to study the traditions of their predecessors. Photo ②: The company's predecessors forcing a crossing of the Wu River's formidable barrier (oil painting). Photo ③: Local residents presenting the company with a silk banner of commendation. Photo ④: During the War of Liberation, the company captured American-made equipment from the Nationalist Army. Photo ⑤: The company organizes a new-recruit induction ceremony. Photo ⑥, ⑧: Company officers and soldiers conducting training. All photos provided by the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River."

**Company Profile**

The company was founded in 1925, tracing its origins to the 1st Company, 1st Battalion of the "Ye Ting Independent Regiment." During the Long March, serving as the vanguard pathfinders, 17 brave soldiers of the company were the first to break through the formidable barrier of the Wu River, winning a battle of decisive significance. In October 1936, the company was awarded the honorary title "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River" by the 1st Red Army Corps.

Entering the new era, the company's officers and soldiers have pursued practical warfighting and realistic combat readiness, accomplishing major missions with distinction — including cross-region exercises, international peacekeeping, and flood-relief operations. At the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the battle flag of the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River" was honored in review. The company has successively been commended by the Theater Command Army as an "Outstanding Unit in Practicing the Goal of Strengthening the Military" and an "Advanced Grassroots Party Organization."

**Without a Breakthrough in Thinking, There Can Be No Miracle on the Battlefield**

Every year at the new-recruit induction ceremony, the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River" organizes new recruits to gather before a sculpture in the company's Hall of Honor.

The bronze sculpture before them depicts Red Army soldiers crouching on bamboo rafts, water splashing high into the air, rifles pointed forward, bodies leaning ahead — as if they are about to leap off at any moment. "They are all predecessors of our company," Political Instructor Feng Xiaohan told everyone. "Back then, without their forcing a crossing of the Wu River, the subsequent victory would have been very difficult to achieve."

Turn the clock back 91 years.

January 3, 1935. The Wu River crossing at Guizhou. Several soldiers leapt onto bamboo rafts and plunged into the torrent. Bullets skimmed the water's surface from the opposite bank, throwing up columns of spray around the rafts. The soldiers on the rafts gripped their bamboo poles with all their strength while returning fire.

Suddenly, dense gunfire erupted from the flank and rear of the enemy position on the far bank. Five soldiers who had concealed themselves overnight in crevices of the cliff face burst out and tore open a gap in the enemy's defensive line.

That day, the Red Army broke through along the entire front, crossed the river smoothly through the crossing point, and reversed a desperate situation.

In truth, the real "crossing point" was not at the Wu River.

Twenty-two days earlier, at Gongcheng Academy in Tongdao County, Hunan, the Tongdao Conference was convened. Inside the room, a few chairs surrounded a wooden table spread with a map; the oil lamp on the table flickered unevenly.

The dancing flame of the oil lamp illuminated a grave face. Mao Zedong pointed at the map and put forward the idea that "Guizhou's military forces are weak — advancing westward can avoid the enemy's strong points and strike at the weak."

The meeting lasted only a little over two hours, and Mao Zedong's position won the support of the majority within the Party Central Committee. That same evening, an order marked "Most Urgently Urgent" (万万火急) was dispatched from Tongdao. Today, walking into the Tongdao Turning-Point Memorial Hall in Hunan and gazing at a reproduction of that order, this reporter can still feel the urgency of that moment: on the yellowed paper, the four characters in the upper-left corner are written in heavy ink — "Most Urgently Urgent" (万万火急) — and the body of the text drives straight to a single point: continue advancing westward on the 13th.

Those few words were the reason more than 30,000 Red Army soldiers survived. One month earlier, the Central Red Army had suffered the most devastating battle in its history at the Xiang River. After the Battle of the Xiang River, the force had been cut from 86,000 to more than 30,000; the blood of the martyrs turned the river water a dark red.

More terrifying than death was disorientation — the more than 30,000 survivors had crawled across the Xiang River covered in blood, yet did not know where to go next.

Continue northward to western Hunan to link up with the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps? Chiang Kai-shek had long since deployed forces several times the size of the Red Army along the western Hunan line, waiting for the Red Army to walk into the trap.

At this critical juncture, the Tongdao Conference pulled the Red Army back from the edge of the cliff.

Viewed from the perspective of the entire history of the Long March, this meeting proves to be the pivotal turning point at which the Red Army moved from peril to safety. Years later, Liu Bocheng reflected in his memoirs: "At that time, if Comrade Mao Zedong had not firmly insisted on changing course, the fate of the remaining 30,000-plus Red Army soldiers would have been nothing but destruction."

The History of the Chinese People's Liberation Army assessed it this way: "Had the Red Army continued toward western Hunan, it would inevitably have been encircled and faced the danger of total annihilation."

The ideological breakthrough of seeking truth from facts ultimately opened the path to the Red Army's victory. The Red Army welcomed its "dawn" —

From the Tongdao Conference to the successful crossing of the Wu River: only 22 days.

From the successful crossing of the Wu River to the moment when the company's officers and soldiers now stand in the Hall of Honor: more than 90 years.

"Without the ideological breakthrough at the Tongdao Conference, there would have been no miracle on the Wu River battlefield afterward, and there would certainly be no company of ours today," said Feng Xiaohan.

**The Spirit of Seeking Truth from Facts Is Carried Forward in the Company**

In the heartland of the Central Plains, a live-force confrontation exercise was underway. The smoke had not yet cleared; the smell of scorched earth hung in the river valley.

Company Commander Huang Shifeng led the unit in a rapid advance, with a large bridge as the objective. Just as the lead squad approached the bridgehead, a loud explosion rang out — the middle section of the bridge had been "destroyed" by the Blue Force.

At the same moment, a small "enemy" force laid down interlocking fire with light and heavy weapons, sealing off the bridge deck. "We could also take a 20-kilometer detour through the mountains, but we might not arrive on time." Three days earlier, when the company had been drawing up contingency plans, this scenario had been considered; Platoon Leader Shi Linlin reported the detour option to him.

Huang Shifeng did not rush to order a detour. He leapt out of the armored vehicle and moved along the guardrail of the "destroyed" bridge to survey both sides of the riverbed.

"Cross the river using the resources at hand!" After careful assessment, Huang Shifeng issued his order: "1st Squad, flank through the woods on the right and provide fire cover; the engineer detachment moves forward to bridge the gap and ensure vehicles can pass." Before long, a simple mechanized bridge was erected. The unit filed across and entered the designated area on schedule. When the exercise ended, Huang Shifeng removed his helmet and looked at the completed bridge with feeling: "When our company's predecessors were at the Wu River back then, they didn't even have wooden planks — all they had were small bamboo rafts."

At the after-action review, a yellowed hand-drawn map of the Wu River operation appeared on the screen behind Huang Shifeng. The hand-drawn map contained no precise survey data; the contour lines had been drawn by scouts measuring distances on foot.

"Our predecessors had none of today's advanced vehicle-mounted radios or engineering equipment," Huang Shifeng said, pointing to the map. "But they had one skill — seeking truth from facts in assessing the terrain, the enemy, and themselves, and finding solutions from actual conditions."

Different times, the same spirit. The spirit of seeking truth from facts has been carried forward in the company ever since.

On the northeastern battlefield in 1948, facing Nationalist Army forces far superior in numbers, the company did not rigidly hold its pre-assigned positions. After on-the-ground reconnaissance, they adopted a dispersed defensive posture, repelling enemy assaults time and again, ultimately capturing more than 30 prisoners and seizing a large quantity of equipment. After the battle, the Northeast Field Army headquarters awarded the company the title "Heroic Company." On the day the flag was presented, company predecessor Shi Xueyi stood before the formation and said: "The positions marked on the map are fixed; the positions walked out on foot are alive."

That year, Platoon Leader Jiang Heng participated in an international peacekeeping skills competition. Before the competition, he studied and analyzed the characteristics of 21 teams from 15 countries one by one, and targeted his preparation to fill specific gaps. In the end, he achieved perfect scores in all seven assessment events.

On the evening after the exercise concluded, the company bivouacked in the field. Huang Shifeng sat beside an armored vehicle cleaning his weapon; several young soldiers gathered around and asked him why he had not followed the detour route in the contingency plan.

"The contingency plan was drawn up three days ago. Using the situation from three days ago to deal with today's circumstances — that's not fighting a war," Huang Shifeng continued. "Our company's old tradition, starting from the 17 heroes who crossed the river, has always recognized one truth — seeking truth from facts (实事求是). Those four words are not a slogan; they mean that no matter when, if you face a situation that does not match reality, you must dare to say 'no.'"

The night was very still. Huang Shifeng assembled his weapon, worked the bolt, and the metallic clack carried far into the distance.

**You Cannot Aim at Today's Target with Yesterday's Sights**

In 2017, the company relocated as a complete unit. The company had to contend not only with the move to a new garrison, but also with a transformation of its combat system: after the relocation, the company's primary weapon systems were entirely replaced, tactics and methods were rebuilt from scratch, and even cutting-edge concepts of unmanned combat had entered the company's practical combat research — when "today's coordinates" could not be found on "yesterday's map," the company's officers and soldiers could not aim at today's targets with yesterday's sights.

The first to feel this "growing pain" was Wu Jinhong, the company's infantry fighting vehicle gunnery technician.

"Operations I could have done with my eyes closed were completely useless in the face of the new equipment." Confronted with entirely updated fire-control parameters, Wu Jinhong's painstakingly developed "muscle memory" had become a shackle on his progress.

In response, Wu Jinhong approached the task like a newly enlisted recruit, learning from scratch step by step. Through countless hands-on trials, he developed a four-step gunnery method: "search, sort, shoot, shift" (搜、排、打、走). This method, derived from practical training and exercises, helped gunners react faster and shoot more accurately. In a subsequent brigade gunnery assessment, all 13 of the company's gunners achieved excellent ratings, placing first overall.

At the rear support position, Liu Feng, an armored vehicle technician with more than 20 years of service, similarly refused to "go by feel" when faced with new equipment of a completely different design. He worked from technical drawings, breaking down principles and comparing differences, studying every potential fault point as if dissecting a specimen. "Equipment maintenance tolerates no empiricism — whatever the problem is, you solve it by the method appropriate to that problem; you absolutely cannot rely on old instincts to muddle through," Liu Feng often told his younger comrades.

Aiming at today's targets, the company proceeded from new actual conditions, summarizing new patterns and seeking new methods.

To enhance combat effectiveness, the company Party branch consistently applied "three dissatisfactions" (三个不满足) in military training: not satisfied with the established standards of the training syllabus — converting some elective training subjects into mandatory ones and integrating actual combat requirements into daily training; not satisfied with only a few top performers standing out — using mutual-aid groups to fill the gaps of every soldier; not satisfied with conventional training organization models — using exercises to organize adversarial training and conducting after-action reviews to develop new tactics and training methods.

This approach of "seeking hardship voluntarily" ultimately produced hard combat power on the battlefield. In 2018, after completing a high-intensity 40-kilometer load-bearing movement, the company's officers and soldiers were the first to "break through the enemy" in the confrontation; in 2020, during an evaluative exercise, the company's gunners set a record of 100% hit rate… Each of these results is the most powerful response to the principle of "train the way you fight."

Standing at the intersection of past and future, the officers and soldiers of the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River" have always kept clear heads: only by proceeding from objective reality and continuously recalibrating their "sights" can they steadily strike the "bullseye" of victory on the rapidly changing future battlefield.

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**Why Did the Wu River Not Become a Second Xiang River**

■ PLA Daily Reporter Cheng Xue

The Xiang River and the Wu River — both were formidable barriers on the Long March route, yet they led to entirely different historical outcomes.

The Battle of the Xiang River, which erupted at the end of November 1934, was the most devastating battle the Central Red Army fought during the Long March. After that battle, Red Army numbers plummeted sharply, and the surface of the Xiang River was covered with the bodies of martyrs. To this day, the local saying still circulates: "For three years, do not drink the water of the Xiang River; for ten years, do not eat the fish of the Xiang River." The price paid in blood proved that mechanically executing "Left"-deviationist dogmatism — disregarding objective reality and forcing a breakthrough through enemy lines held in strength — could only drive the Red Army toward annihilation.

Just over a month later, the Red Army faced the formidable barrier of the Wu River. The Wu River's current was swift and turbulent; both banks were sheer cliffs. Chiang Kai-shek's forces were in close pursuit, attempting to turn the Wu River into a second Xiang River. Yet this time, the catastrophe was not repeated. In early 1935, the Central Red Army split into three columns and forced a crossing of the Wu River, leaving the Nationalist "pursuit and suppression forces" stranded east and south of the river.

The Wu River did not become a second Xiang River — what changed was not only the battlefield situation, but a fundamental ideological line.

From the Xiang River to the Wu River, the turning point in between began with seeking truth from facts. Through the practice of blood and fire, the broad ranks of commanders and soldiers gradually came to understand that without seeking truth from facts, no amount of heroic sacrifice could bring victory. Gazing at this period of history, a series of conferences bore witness to the formation of the ideological line of seeking truth from facts:

On December 12, 1934, at the Tongdao Conference, Mao Zedong, proceeding from the actual enemy situation and seeking truth from facts, argued forcefully that the Red Army should avoid the enemy's strong points and strike at the weak, turning westward into Guizhou to establish a new base area where enemy forces were relatively thin; on December 18, 1934, the Liping Conference formally adopted this position, abandoning the original plan to link up with the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps; from December 31, 1934 to January 1, 1935, the Houchang Conference again rejected the erroneous insistence of Bo Gu and Li De on proceeding to western Hunan, and resolved to force a crossing of the Wu River and seize Zunyi… As Party history experts have noted, from the Tongdao Conference to the Liping Conference, the Houchang Conference, and then the Zunyi Conference, these meetings were linked one to the next, forming the chain of a great turning point in the Party's history. And the core of that chain was precisely these four words: "seeking truth from facts" (实事求是).

Seeking truth from facts was not only a matter of strategic direction, but also of tactical adjustment in response to changing enemy conditions. Arriving at the Wu River crossing, the Red Army did not act recklessly — Geng Biao, then commander of the 4th Regiment of the 1st Red Army Corps' 1st Army Corps, conducted on-the-ground reconnaissance and discovered that the fortifications on the main road at the crossing were strong but that the small path upstream was poorly guarded. He therefore employed a feint-and-strike approach during the forced crossing, cleverly breaking through the formidable barrier.

The defeat at the Xiang River and the victory at the Wu River — separated by a single river, two different fates. They tell us: respecting objective laws and persisting in seeking truth from facts is the only way out of a desperate situation; to deviate from this line is to move toward the opposite of one's intentions, no matter how worthy the vision. This is not only the lesson the Long March imparts to us, but also the law governing the rise and fall of any endeavor.

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**When There Is a Burden, the Cadres Carry It on Their Shoulders**

■ Political Instructor of the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River," Feng Xiaohan

Push open the door of the company's Hall of Honor, and a carrying pole (扁担) sits in a prominent position in the display case. The bamboo wood has been worn to a shine, and three characters are carved into the middle of the pole: "Zhu De's" (朱德记).

Winter of 1928, Jinggang Mountains. The 4th Red Army had just established a foothold when the enemy closed in from all sides, throwing up layer upon layer of blockades in an attempt to starve the Red Army out in the mountains.

Food grew scarcer by the day; some soldiers were so hungry they could barely hold their rifles steady. To solve the food problem, Zhu De, then commander of the 4th Red Army, took the lead by picking up a carrying pole and leading the unit down the mountain to haul grain. From the Jinggang Mountains to Ninggang, the mountain paths were steep; in some places along the way, loose rocks tumbled down, and a moment's inattention could send a person sliding into a deep ravine. Zhu De hauled grain by day, and at night returned to study the enemy situation and deploy operations, often working at his desk until past midnight, then rising before dawn to set out again.

The soldiers felt for him and wanted him to rest; they quietly hid his carrying pole. When Zhu De found out, he did not lose his temper — he simply found a new length of bamboo, fashioned it into a carrying pole, and carved his name on it again, neatly and squarely.

After that day, no one hid his carrying pole again — but every person in the unit gripped their own pole more tightly. And so, under Zhu De's leadership, they carried grain load by load, hauling out a supply line and hauling out a lifeline for the base area.

In truth, what lay behind the carrying pole was far more than a route for transporting grain. After the Jinggang Mountains rendezvous in 1928, the 4th Red Army had only recently been established, and some within it still carried the habits of the old armies — some were given to empty talk, some sought the easy way out. Zhu De set an example through his own conduct, using a single carrying pole to tell everyone: cadres cannot carry out their work by sitting in rooms issuing orders; they must stand at the very front of the ranks, bleeding and sweating.

In the decades that followed, this force marched from the Jinggang Mountains to northern Shaanxi, and from northern Shaanxi across the whole country — sustained by this "carrying-pole spirit" (扁担精神): whenever there was hardship, the cadres stood at the front; whenever there was a burden, the cadres carried it on their shoulders.

Looking across the entire course of the Long March, this "carrying-pole spirit" was put to a severe test in the aftermath of the Battle of the Xiang River.

Facing an unprecedented blow, many commanders debated whether to continue northward to western Hunan as originally planned. At the critical moment, an emergency meeting inside Tongdao County, Hunan, went deep into the night, and "turning westward into Guizhou to avoid the powerful enemy" ultimately became the consensus; a few days later, the Liping Conference further rejected the impractical plan of fighting head-on…

Gazing at these two meetings, Party member cadres carried the burden on their shoulders — carrying the direction of survival for an entire army. Comrade Mao Zedong dared to stand up and repudiate the erroneous line, blazing a new path and wrenching the fate of tens of thousands from the jaws of destruction.

Today, that carrying pole still rests quietly on display in the company's Hall of Honor. Standing before it, I seem to still see that figure from long ago — on a mountain path, Zhu De dressed in a gray cloth military uniform, a heavy bamboo carrying pole pressing down on his shoulders, yet his steps steady and sure. Those who came after walk the same road forward; the carrying pole on their shoulders has been replaced by a steel rifle, the mountain path has become a training ground, but the heavy weight on those shoulders has not diminished by a single ounce.

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**My Home Is at Chashan Pass**

■ Junior Sergeant of the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River," Qian Fadong

My hometown is Chashan Pass (茶山关) in Zunyi, Guizhou, and the Wu River runs right past my front door.

As a child, I always heard the elders point to the river and say: "Back then, the Red Army crossed from right here."

In early 1935, the advance force of the 3rd Red Army Corps arrived at the Wu River crossing at Chashan Pass. On the far bank, the enemy had long since built defensive works along the river, set up machine guns to seal off the river surface, and had all the boats at the crossing loaded with sand and sunk to the bottom of the river, vainly hoping to hold the natural barrier to the last.

The river current was swift and icy cold, and the far bank was heavily defended — yet the Red Army forced a crossing of the turbulent Wu River. The river defense that the Nationalists had painstakingly constructed quickly collapsed.

This battle was an important link in the Red Army's breakthrough of the Wu River defensive line. After the battle, the villagers of Chashan collected and buried the Red Army soldiers who had fallen. Later, the government erected a monument to the Red Army martyrs at the entrance to Chashan Village.

In 2024, I enlisted. When new recruits were assigned to their units, I learned that I had been placed in the "Model Company for Forcing a Crossing of the Wu River." Back then, the company's predecessors had also fought at the Wu River, forcing a crossing from a different point along the river.

On my first day in the company, the political instructor led us into the Hall of Honor. An old map hung on the wall, with several crossing points along the Wu River clearly marked. I spotted the three characters "Chashan Pass" (茶山关) at a glance, felt a surge of warmth in my chest, and stood before the map for a long time without being able to say a word.

Now I am one of the company's infantry fighting vehicle gunners, learning from my predecessors to stand watch at my battle station. During one live-fire exercise, as I was searching for targets in the turret, the vehicle suddenly lurched violently, the gun barrel became unsteady, and the target disappeared from the sight. I quickly stood up to search for the target again; moving too abruptly, I slammed my nose hard against the equipment, and blood immediately poured out.

I had no time to wipe it away. I gritted my teeth, reacquired the target, aimed, and fired — every subsequent round hit. "Why didn't you call a halt at the time?" After the mission ended, a comrade asked me while helping wipe away the blood from my nose. "Back then at the Wu River, the Red Army's predecessors never stopped in the face of the enemy's hail of bullets and shells. If they had stopped, the entire battle might have turned out differently," I answered.

On a home leave that year, I went again to the Red Army Martyrs' Monument at the entrance to the village. Before my eyes, the monument was the same monument — but I, standing before it, had grown a great deal since before I enlisted. I stood there for a long time, thinking of the map in the Hall of Honor, thinking of the days I had spent sweating in the barracks, and thinking above all of the Red Army predecessors who had fought so bravely on that battlefield long ago.

The Wu River still runs swift and turbulent; the Red Army Martyrs' Monument stands quietly; and I, too, will continue to strive hard for the cause of strengthening the military.

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*Layout design: Fang Han, Yang Lei*

*PLA Daily, August 20, 2026, Page 7. Graphic design: Yang Lei*