This team is the famous Red Detachment of Women, whose full name is the Women's Special Agent Company of the Second Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

In August 1930, the Qiongya Independent Division and the Detachment of Women’s Army Company of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army were formally established.

On May 1, 1931, the Women's Army Special Agent Company of the Third Regiment of the Second Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was formally established in Neiyuan Village, Chichi Township, District 4, Lehui County. This is the famous "Red Army" Women's Army". The commander of the Women's Army Special Agent Company was Pang Qionghua (later Feng Zengmin), and the instructor was Wang Shixiang. The company has three platoons, the first platoon leader Feng Zengmin (later Lu Saixiang), the second platoon leader Pang Xuelian (later Li Changxiang), and the third platoon leader Huang Dunying (later Cao Jiaying). Each platoon has three squads, each squad has ten soldiers. There are nine squads in the company, plus the company headquarters' messengers, flag soldiers, buglers, general servants, porters and three caterers, the total number of the company is 103 people. Except for two older house servants, porters and a thirteen-year-old trumpet soldier who are gay, the rest are all lesbians. The vast majority of them are young rural women, some are from the Peasant Red Guards, and some are members of the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League.

Famous

In June 1931, Chen Guiyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Lehui County "*** Suppression" stationed in Zhongyuanxu, Lehui County, often led the reactionary militia to attack 20,000 people. Harassment was carried out in the Soviet area. Our Third Red Regiment decided to eliminate this enemy, and the Women's Army Special Agent Company also participated. In this battle, the formation was deployed on the main road where the county Soviet area agency was located to cooperate with the main force to annihilate the invading enemy.

On June 21, 1931, the main force of the Third Red Regiment headed towards Wanning County in order to lure the enemy deeper and set up an ambush to annihilate the enemy. That night, they quietly withdrew and ambush on the road leading from the Central Plains. In the forest of Shamaoling Mountain where the Soviet government agencies of Lehui County were located. As expected, the enemy fell into the trap and mistakenly believed that only the women's military company was left in our army to defend the county Soviet area agencies. So, early on the morning of the 27th, Chen Guiyuan led more than 200 Kuomintang county soldiers and Wenjia, Beishan and other militia groups to attack the Soviet area office in our county in two groups. [5]

The women's army followed the battle plan and pretended to retreat to lure the enemy deeper. Chen Guiyuan was even more proud and shouted wildly: "They are all women. Whoever catches them will be the wife of whomever they catch." When the enemy entered the ambush circle of the main force of the Third Red Regiment, they were suddenly hit hard by our army and became chaotic. Chen Guiyuan realized that he had been tricked and hurriedly organized a breakout, but it was already too late. The enemy troops on the other side heard the close gunfire and were frightened by the power of our Red Army. They did not dare to advance and fled for their lives.

After an hour of fighting, more than 20 enemy soldiers were killed or wounded, and more than 70 people including Chen Guiyuan, the commander-in-chief of the enemy's "suppression", and Chen Chuanmei, the squadron leader, were captured, and 90 long and short guns were seized. Multiple branches. [2] The deeds of the women's military company who resourcefully and bravely cooperated with the main force of the Red Army in heroic combat were praised by the soldiers and civilians in the base area. From then on, the reputation of the "Red Detachment of Women" became famous in Qiongdao.

Adapted

Schematic map of the Qionghai Revolutionary Base

As the Women’s Army Special Agent Company became more popular, more and more women requested to join the army, so Qiongyate The committee decided to expand the Women's Army Special Agent Company. In the spring of 1932, the Special Committee decided to transfer the former Special Agent Company of the Women's Army from the Le Fourth District to the Qiongdong Fourth District. It served as a guard at the headquarters of the Red Army's Independent Division and was incorporated into the First Red Regiment. A platoon was taken out to absorb young women and expanded into the Women's Army. The Second Company of the Special Agent Company is under the organization of the Third Red Regiment. Huang Dunying and Pang Xuelian serve as company commander and instructor respectively. It has two platoons and about 60 people. The first platoon leader is Li Changxiang, and the second platoon leader is Wang Yunmei. [5]

Disbanded

In July 1932, while Chiang Kai-shek launched the fourth counter-revolutionary "encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Guangdong reactionary authorities ordered the security brigade to quickly cross Qiongdu and head towards Qiongya Soviet Area and the Red Army for the second "encirclement and suppression" campaign. At the end of July, Chen Hanguang, commander of the Guard Brigade of the First Group Army of the Kuomintang, led three regiments and a special agent battalion and a detachment of the Second Air Force Squadron to attack more than 3,000 people and landed at Haikou Port and Dongshui Port in Chengmai County. After the enemy landed, its brigade headquarters and three regiments were stationed in Fucheng, Haikou, Jiaji, Ding'an and other towns. In order to achieve the purpose of annihilating the Qiongya Red Army and extinguishing the flames of the Qiongya Agrarian Revolution, the enemy adopted the strategy of "military and political, suppression and appeasement", and used "thunder and wind" means and "attack key points first", "heavy layers of encirclement", The tactics of "defeating them one by one" launched a crazy "encirclement and suppression" campaign against various Soviet areas in Qiongya.

[5]

Chen Hanguang organized the main force of the enemy's first regiment and one unit of each of the second and third regiments to fight more than 1,600 people. They divided the troops into three routes from Ding'an to the base area of ??Qiongdong Fourth District, Qiongya Soviet Area. Launch an attack. On the morning of the 2nd, the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 1st Battalion of the enemy's 1st Regiment formed a group and attacked southeast of Pingping Village in Qiongdong 4th District via Yantang and Shuangyan Village; the 2nd Battalion and the Machine Gun Company of the enemy's 1st Regiment The enemy's 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment formed the 1st Road and attacked from Huangzhu to the flat northwest. The 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment also set up an ambush near Shuishuihu Lake to intercept our army's retreat. and the road to support.

Because the enemy is strong and we are weak, the Special Committee decided to leave a part of the Red Army to carry out guerrilla warfare in place to contain the enemy. The military spy company took advantage of the enemy's encirclement gap to move from Niutanling and Balsam Mountain to the Muruishan base area. When the troops withdrew to Ma'anling at the junction of Qiongdong and Ding'an in Dong'an, they encountered the enemy. In order to cover the safe transfer of the leadership organization, the Women's Army Special Agent Company and the Red Battalion stayed behind to stop the enemy. The enemies rushed forward in droves, and the women's army company and other Red Army soldiers fought back tenaciously, repelling the enemy's attacks time and time again. After the bullets are fired, use stones as weapons to hit the enemy to prevent them from advancing forward. After completing the blocking mission, the second squad of the Women's Army Special Agent Company stayed behind to cover the retreat of other comrades. With no ammunition left, the eight soldiers in the squad engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and finally all died on the battlefield. [5]

Due to the failure of the Red Army in the second anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle, part of the Women's Army sacrificed heroically and some were separated. The company commander and instructor were arrested and imprisoned. The first and second companies of the Women's Army Disintegrated successively. Soon after, the main force of the Hainan Red Army failed in the battle, and the Detachment of Women was forced to disband and scattered among the people. [7]

Performing tasks

The main tasks of the Women's Army Special Agent Company are to protect the Red Army division headquarters and Soviet government leading organs, guard prisoners, do propaganda and mobilize the masses, and cooperate with the Red Army when necessary The main force fights against the enemy. In addition to bravely killing enemies in wartime, they also cooperated with the local Soviet government to carry out activities in various villages during peacetime. They were a very active propaganda team. They often go deep into the masses, carry out propaganda and education, inspire the masses' consciousness, mobilize the masses to join the army and fight, publicize the Communist Party's policies to the families of the militia, and mobilize the members of the militia to move closer to the revolutionary ranks through their families.

Due to the active work of the Women's Army Special Agent Company, they are often commended by their superiors. When Feng Baiju, Secretary of the Special Committee, later recalled the deeds of the Women’s Army Company, he praised: “The activities of the Women’s Army were well integrated with the masses in the Soviet area. They often participated in agricultural production and helped farmers with various tasks, and were very popular among the masses. They fought bravely and had the courage to do so. Once the Detachment of Women cooperated with the main force to defeat the enemy, and when the capture was calculated as a company, the Detachment of Women still ranked first.”[6]