On the evening of July 9, 1948, the Nakano 6th Column launched an attack on Yangyang. At that time, the defenders of Laohekou, Xianghe and Fancheng were Kang Ze, the commander of the 15th Appeasement Zone and the leader of the big secret service, and his deputy was Guo Xunqi, a famous general of the Sichuan army. The defenders consisted of the 104th, 163rd and 164th Brigades, with the 104th Brigade consisting mainly of recruits and equipped entirely JapaneseThe 163 Brigade and the 164 Brigade are mainly composed of veterans of the Anti-Japanese War and are the main force of the Sichuan Army. The total number of defenders is more than 210,000 people, as well as local security corps. Xiangyang is bordered by Hanshui in the north and high mountains in the south, and has always been a military location, and the siege often starts from the mountains. Wang Jinshan's first attack on Nanshan suffered a setback, which caused a large **. The 6th column advanced through the Dabie Mountain, and the firepower was obviously insufficient, with only 4 mountain guns, one of which was damaged. The enemy forces in Namsan not only blocked the road up the mountain with machine guns and mortars, but also used poison gas bombs. The brave Wang Jinshan showed an unexpected delicate side, and was determined to ignore Nanshan's obstacles: "The knife splits the three levels".
He avoided the south and east of the city, and instead launched an offensive from the west of Xiangyang City, occupying Pipa Mountain, Zhenwu Mountain, and the Iron Buddha Temple, making Xiangyang City a dead end for the firepower of the Nanshan defenders. Li Desheng of the 17th Brigade took the initiative to ask for battle, and suggested that a feint attack on Nanshan should be made to confuse Kang Ze and make it difficult for him to judge the true intentions of our army. Li Desheng's plan coincided with Wang Jinshan, and the task of "slashing three passes" was handed over to the 17th Brigade. The Battle of Xiangfan was carried out according to the deployment of Wang Jinshan, and the 17th Brigade mainly attacked Pipa Mountain, Zhenwu Mountain and Iron Buddha Temple, and then broke through the West Gate;Xiao Yongyin of the 18th Brigade made a feint attack on Dongguan, and the 12th Brigade of Southern Shaanxi and the 3rd Division of Tongbai made a feint to attack the Nanshan Heights to confuse and contain the enemy;You Taizhong of the 16 Brigade served as a reserve. The night before the attack, Li Desheng led the cadres of three regiments of the 17th Brigade to sneak into the sorghum field at the foot of Pipa Mountain to observe the terrain. Chen Shaofu, commander of the 50th Regiment, and Lu Zhimo, political commissar of the 50th Regiment, sent small troops to approach the dead corners of the ravines and the roads up the mountains to probe the enemy's firing points and the laying of mines. On the evening of July 9, the battle began on time. Sharpshooter Ma Tiangong destroyed 3 enemy pillboxes with 3 shells, and the commander of the 49th Regiment, Gou Zaihe, led 3 battalions to charge to Pipa Mountain.
In order to avoid accidental injury to their own artillery, the commanders and fighters of the 3rd Battalion of Gou Zaihe carried flashlights on their backs and gave instructions to the artillerymen. The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion rushed through a sorghum field and destroyed two of the enemy's heavy machine guns, and the regiment commander Gou Zaichong was at the front, seeing that the top of the hill was not far away. Suddenly, Gou Zai felt something strange under his feet, and immediately pushed the guards who came to him, and shouted loudly: "Get out of the way, I'm stepping on thunder!.""When the guard fell, the mine was **, and Gou Zaihe died heroically at the age of 34. Li Ruhai, political commissar of the 49th Regiment, Gou Zaihe, head of the regiment, and Yang Yi, deputy head of the 50th Regiment. The 3rd Battalion of the 49th Regiment of the 17th Brigade captured Pipa Mountain, but the brigade commander Li Desheng was in a heavy mood. The 49th Regiment is the main force of the 17th Brigade, Gou Zaihe has been under his command since August 1946, although the two have only worked together for 2 years, but they have experienced the Lanfeng Siege, the Battle of Dingtao, the Battle of Southwest Lu, the Battle of Dabie Mountain and other life and death tests, which can be called comradeship. However, Li Desheng could not tolerate his grief on the battlefield, so he immediately appointed Wang Xijun, deputy commander of the regiment, to command the 49th Regiment, and together with political commissar Miao Xinghua and deputy political commissar Jin Ning, he led the 3rd battalion to fight bloodily with the enemy, and finally held Pipa Mountain.
There were more than 100 people in the 3rd battalion and 9 companies, and only 6 people remained. When capturing Pipa Mountain, the team was too impatient and the formation was too dense, resulting in a heavy number of troops. When capturing Zhenwu Mountain, the second pass of the "lock of Xiangyang", Zheng Zhifu's 2nd Battalion carried out more detailed pre-war reconnaissance and preparations, and even specially sent a small detachment to clear mines, so there were only more than 20 people**. However, during the capture of Zhangjiatang Village in the west of the city, Yang Yi, deputy commander of the 50th Regiment, died. Faced with the loss of Zhenwu Mountain, Kang Ze and Guo Xunqi were unwilling and launched a fierce counterattack with the support of aircraft, but they were both repelled by the 49th Regiment. The enemy unknowingly airdropped 82 mortar shells and 84 rounds on Zhenwu Mountain, and Li Desheng immediately transferred them and prepared them for use in the siege of the city. When attacking the last "roadblock" Iron Buddha Temple, the relay was finally completed by the 50th Regiment of the 17th Brigade and the 47th Regiment of the 16th Brigade. On the evening of July 15, the general assault on Xiangyang began, and the battle lasted until the afternoon of the 16th, successfully capturing Kang Ze and Guo Xunqi alive. 17 Brigade Commander Li Desheng. A total of 2 enemies were annihilated in the Battle of Xiangfan10,000 people, the chairman called and instructed Kang Ze to be escorted to the North China Military Region.
This battle was likened to "a fierce basketball game" by Marshal ***, Huaye, Zhongye and Bai Chongxi were entangled in eastern Henan, and Wang Jinshan took the opportunity to throw an empty basket. The 49th Regiment of the 17th Brigade, which made meritorious contributions in the "Three Passes of Sword Splitting", was awarded the honorary title of "Xiangyang Special Meritorious Service Regiment", and the 17th Brigade of Li Desheng, the 6th Column, which undertook the main attack on the first breakthrough of the city, was also awarded the first-class meritorious service. This fierce battle was the largest battle since Li Desheng served as the commander of the 17th Brigade. Li Desheng showed remarkable command skills in this battle, but he was deeply trapped in the pain of sacrifice of his subordinate general, the commander of the 49th Regiment. Gou Zaihe, born in Bazhong, Sichuan, from a poor family with no cultural background, joined the army at the age of 19 and joined the Red Army, experienced the arduous journey from an ordinary soldier to a company commander, and also participated in the Long March and arrived in northern Shaanxi. Subsequently, Gou Zaihe followed Zhang Xianyue and Zhang Nansheng into the 3rd Division of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, and participated in the formation of the 32nd Regiment of the new 11th Brigade of the 129th Division and served as the battalion commander. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he became the deputy commander of the 17th Regiment of the 49th Brigade.
In August 1946, Li Desheng was transferred to the commander of the 17th Brigade, and together with Gou Zaihe, he planned the attack on the south gate of Lanfeng and the railway station, and achieved major results. Gou Zaihe also performed heroically in the Battle of Dingtao and the Battle of Huaxian, but he was wounded twice but always stuck to the battlefield. In one battle, an enraged Gou had several enemy soldiers executed by his own hands. Although there was a dispute in Dabie Mountain, Li Desheng and Gou Zaihe always cooperated tacitly in the battle. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Songbu Clearance and Suppression Small Security Team was large-scale, including the 49th Regiment of the main force. In the ensuing battle, the 49th Regiment lost contact with the 17th Brigade, and the first company suffered heavy losses at Qiliping, which triggered Li Desheng's rare anger. After Gou Zaihe's sacrifice, Li Desheng never gave up looking for his family. After many inquiries, Li Desheng learned that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Gou Zaihe married a female traffic officer, and lived a happy life with his wife, and even gave birth to a son. However, as the war progressed, Gou Zaihe's family was eventually unable to follow the army south, so they had to return to their hometown in Shanxi. It wasn't until 1973 that Li Desheng finally learned the whereabouts of Gou Zaihe's wife and son, who were in a village in Pingshun, Shanxi.
When Duan Jinqiao saw the certificate that her husband had become a martyr, tears welled up in her eyes. Although the army was ready to take Duan Jinqiao's family to Nanjing for work, due to the pregnancy of his daughter-in-law, Duan Jinqiao finally chose to stay in Pingshun, Shanxi. Until 1989, Duan Jinqiao reunited with her husband and ended her bumpy life. The selfless dedication of the martyrs was finally duly rewarded, and at the National Day military parade marking the 70 th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the banner of the "Xiangyang Special Meritorious Service Regiment" fluttered high, demonstrating their glory.