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Conquering Lazikou Pass
(china.org.cn)
Updated: 2004-06-25 15:31 On September 15 an order came through, "In two
days we must conquer Lazikou." They skirmished with a battalion of the KMT
Fourteenth Division and scattered them. From prisoners they learned the
Fourteenth had built blockhouses at Lazikou. The pass at Lazikou was
extraordinary narrow. The right side had a cliff that rose almost
perpendicularly for a thousand feet. Across the pass, one hundred feet wide and
narrowing to twelve at its throat, rose another cliff, not quite so high. It was
jagged, not sheer. It could be climbed, perhaps, but not with machine guns
looking down at you. The position, as anyone who observes it today can see, is
impregnable.
The order was given, "We must take the Lazikou Pass or go back through the
Grasslands." Three KMT regiments and two battalions defended the pass. A
succession of night attacks failed. There were heavy casualties. Mao ordered
direct assaults halted. A band of experienced mountaineers assembled for a new
plan. These men, thirty to sixty in all, about twelve Miao and other minority
fighters gathered in the darkness. There was no alpine climbing gear. From
prisoners they learned additional KMT forces soon would arrive. Toward dawn,
explosions came from the mountain. The mountain men had reached the peak and
rained down grenades. Within minutes, the KMT soldiers ran for their lives. The
Red Army would not have to return to the Grasslands.
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