Li Tianyou's behavior in Guangxi led to criticism, and Chen Mingren led the army south
The 15-year-old, despite his young age, has already shown amazing fighting power and courage. His fierceness and determination make people wonder what it would be like if he were 26 or 36 years old.
Guangxi warlords, be careful! In the Baise Uprising, ** left a deep impression on him, the deputy company commander of the special service company of the military department, no matter if ** had a major enemy situation, he would not hesitate to lead the team to rush there, even if he was injured, he would never flinch, and specifically challenge the most difficult battles.
At the end of 1949, when the whole territory of Guangxi was liberated, Li Tianyou led his troops back to his hometown, and at the same time served as the deputy commander of the 13th Corps and the deputy commander of the Guangxi Military Region, and was ordered to guard the southwest.
He was just 36 years old and had already grown from a private to an "ace commander" during his revolutionary career. However, the first battle he fought after returning to his hometown was criticized 4 times, and he was even directly ordered to die: "The battle must be fully resolved within 5 months!" ”
There was not just one opponent in this battle that put him under pressure, but several groups of people with a very complex composition. In order to understand the relationship between this, it is necessary to connect with the specific people's conditions in Guangxi at that time.
Guangxi once gave birth to a very powerful local force, the Gui system. The reason why the Gui department can become a "department" is that it has its own army; the second is to have its own territory and place, and to have the guarantee of financial resources and military resources; Third, it has its own leading group.
Guangxi wolf soldiers since ancient times are famous for their good fighting, under the training of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the two famous generals of the Gui army, the combat effectiveness of the Gui army has become the first of the major local forces in the country, and it is even comparable to several ace main forces of the ** army.
Li Tianyou, who joined the Gui Army during the Baise Uprising, fought with the Gui Army many times during the Red Army. In the Battle of Xiangjiang, he led his troops to fight a bloody battle with the 7th Army of the Gui Army for 3 days and 2 nights, covering the main force to break through smoothly.
He said: "The warriors used their own flesh and blood to forge an iron wall of steel and guns that the enemy could not cross. "In the War of Liberation, the Gui system collapsed, and Bai Chongxi formed an alliance with the Gui army and bandits left behind to carry out guerrilla warfare in Guangxi.
These bandits are numerous, widely distributed, well-informed, and have strong combat effectiveness, and it is difficult to exterminate. Bai Chongxi wanted to take advantage of the characteristics of Guangxi to establish a base here and leave an internal response for the future of the big **.
Guangxi bandits are seriously troubled, Li Tianyou went home to visit relatives, but found that his relatives had died, and his nephew disappeared after joining the army at the military academy, and was found to have been killed in retaliation. After that, 45 days after the liberation of Guangxi, a large number of bandits launched a surprise attack on Gongcheng County, causing a large number of personnel and property losses, at the same time, Yulin, Wuzhou, Pingle and other places also had bandit invasions, the province's bandits spread to 97 counties, the situation is very serious.
The situation was chaotic, and bandits even besieged the troop station and the county seat, forming a large-scale battle.
In the early days of the liberation of Guangxi, due to the serious problem of bandits, Li Tianyou was appointed commander to suppress bandits. However, his work was severely frustrated. After four consecutive telegrams of criticism by name, the leaders of the Guangxi Military Region began to reflect and found that their contempt and overly optimistic estimation of the bandit problem at the beginning had led to the current situation.
They believe that many of these bandits are from poor people, and they have embarked on the road of crime because of livelihood problems, and as long as the policy is in place, they can completely let go**.
Li Tianyou was also a man of poor origin, and he had deep sympathy and concern for his father and elders in his hometown, so he advocated that while suppressing bandits, he should also be pacified by peaceful means.
Although his work was frustrated this time, Li Tianyou did not give up, and he firmly believed that as long as he adopted the right strategy, he could solve the problem of banditry and let his hometown parents live a stable life.
Li Tianyou obviously underestimated those bandits who dominated the mountains and forests all year round. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang pacified Nanzhong and let Meng Huo go seven times, with the aim of recovering the hearts of the barbarians so that they would no longer rebel.
When suppressing bandits in Guangxi, Li Tianyou also wanted to use the same strategy, but the result was not as he expected. Many of the bandits were caught and educated and let go, but they soon ran back into the mountains and continued their crimes.
There was a bandit leader named Shi Huzi, who was captured and released three times, but instead of showing the slightest gratitude, he hurt the people even more frantically.
Such examples are not uncommon. A typical policy at that time was that each county prescribed the number of bandits to be executed, and this number was not as much as possible, but as little as possible.
For example, each county can only punish one bandit leader, and the approval of the higher authorities is required. The purpose of these policies is to cooperate with the general policy of focusing on pacification, to avoid triggering greater contradictions, and to subdue the people's hearts by means of gentleness.
Because of their generosity and mercy, the bandits intensified in a short period of time, and the bandits had no fear, and after being caught, they were only briefly imprisoned, and after escaping, they continued to commit crimes. The anti-bandit campaign is progressing slowly, and there is pressure to solve the problem immediately.
In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, it became necessary to send troops to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
This is the fundamental reason why *** severely criticized Li Tianyou. ** I also understand the particularity of Guangxi's banditry, which needs to be both appeased and exterminated. Therefore, not long after, ** sent two helpers of "one article and one martial arts" to Li Tianyou.
The text is Tao Zhu, who is known for his low profile, but has rich experience and unique insights in military, political work, diplomacy, logistics, propaganda, etc., and is known as a "big showman" in the army, and has served as the deputy director of the Political Department of the Northeast Field Army, and is Li Tianyou's former boss.
As soon as Tao Zhu arrived in Guangxi, he made two important decisions. First of all, he decided to completely confiscate the guns of the people in the history of Guangxi. Since the peasants possessed guns mainly for self-defense, and many bandits took advantage of this, they became peasants during the day and became bandits at night, making it difficult to distinguish from the crowd.
Therefore, whether it is a civilian gun or a bandit gun, it must be confiscated to limit the bandits' *** and lurking range. Second, he decided to focus on cracking down on bandits, changing the previous pattern of suppressing bandits everywhere and fighting them every day.
He demarcated key areas for suppressing bandits, carried out a comprehensive crackdown on one locality, and then transferred the main force to the next area, so as to achieve the goal of "first breaking through each of them and then sweeping them all in one net."
After determining the general strategy, Tao Zhu began to execute. At the same time, ** also ordered the 21st Corps stationed in Hunan to go south to assist the Guangxi Military Region in suppressing bandits, increasing the strength to 2 corps, 17 divisions and 1 regiment, and nearly 200,000 people.
The arrival of the 21st Corps made Li Tianyou both surprised and nervous. Because Tang Tianji, the political commissar of the 21st Corps, was his old comrade-in-arms in the Red 5th Division, and the corps commander was one of his "old opponents".
However, this is also the second helper sent by *** to Li Tianyou - Chen Mingren.
3. Former rivals, now fighting side by side: The relationship between Li Tianyou and Chen Mingren can be traced back to the famous Battle of Siping. In 1939, as the acting commander of the 343rd Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, Li Tianyou went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment due to injuries, and entered the Frunze Military Academy there to study, and did not return to Yan'an until the spring of 1944.
After this period of tempering, Li Tianyou is ready to go to the battlefield again, and the situation of the war also provides him with an opportunity. In the summer of 1947, the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army achieved brilliant results in the summer offensive, and decided to choose the final battle of the whole campaign in Siping, an important city in the central part of the northeast.
At this time, Li Tianyou had just been appointed commander of the 1st Column, and he was designated as the commander-in-chief of the siege, leading the 1st Column, 3 independent divisions of Ximan, 17 divisions of the 6th Column, and 5 artillery battalions directly under the headquarters to attack Siping.
Although it was expected in advance that the Battle of Siping would be an easy victory, the battle did not go well due to the stubborn resistance of the defenders and the tactical mistakes of our troops. Although our army had the advantage of strength, it encountered the enemy's core position during the siege, and the siege corps was blocked on all fronts.
Li Tianyou had no choice but to use the reserves, but he was still unable to break through the defensive line. In the end, with the arrival of enemy reinforcements, our troops could only evacuate. This battle made Li Tianyou deeply understand the difficulties of the battle, and also remembered the name of the enemy general Chen Mingren.
However, a year later, Li Tianyou learned his lesson and again led the order to attack Siping, which took only 23 hours to successfully capture the city. It is a pity that Chen Mingren was sitting on the "cold bench" in Nanjing at this time, and he had no chance to fight his old opponent again.
Li Tianyou would never have thought that Chen Mingren, who he had always wanted to fight again, would become a comrade-in-arms who fought side by side when they met again.
Chen Mingren, a high-achieving student in the first phase of Huangpu, became famous in the bloody battle of the Eastern Crusade and was praised as the "Huangpu Banner". During the expeditionary force, he returned to Longshan in a bloody battle, and said that "if I can't take back to Longshan, I will die on the mountain", which shows his bravery.
During the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Mingren made outstanding achievements, paid attention to strategy and tactics in commanding operations, skillfully arranged pocket formations, carried out encirclement operations, conquered the impregnable fortress of Huilongshan by the Japanese army, and invigorated China and foreign countries.
Chen Mingren is an upright person, never tends to be inflammatory, and when his subordinates are in difficulty, he speaks up righteously, and when his subordinates make mistakes, he also bears them with all his might. In 1949, Chen Mingren and Cheng Qian rebelled peacefully in Hunan, hoping that the people would not be warned.
** Sent Chen Mingren to Guangxi, firstly, because he liked his ability, and secondly, he wanted to use a radical method for Li Tianyou. In Nanning, Li Tianyou and Chen Mingren, two famous generals, joined the southwest of the town, which means that the good days of those stubborn bandits have come to an end.
Li Tianyou personally went to the front line to direct the suppression of bandits, and in less than two months, more than 38,000 bandits were exterminated.
In southwest Guangxi, the anti-bandit operation led by Chen Mingren was a great success. Chen Mingren's prestige in the local area was extremely high, and when the remnants of the defeated soldiers in the mountains and forests learned that Chen Mingren was their encircler, they immediately lost their fighting spirit and surrendered one after another, no longer resisting.
By April 1951, the bandits in Guangxi had been basically eliminated. This victory is a well-talked about story in military history, the former opponent has now become a comrade-in-arms, and the enemy has become a family.
The special friendship between Li Tianyou and Chen Mingren brought long-lasting peace and tranquility to the southwest.