One day in July 1948, in the headquarters of the East China Field Army, Commander Su Yu was drinking and chatting with a man with a few bruises on his face and a coat that had been torn open. Compared with Su Yu's relaxation, this person seemed very restrained, and the smile on his face was unnatural. Who would have thought that this person was the commander of the enemy's 7th Corps, Ou Shou Nian! This person is a person with a very special experience, qualifications, and family background, so much so that almost every senior general of our army attaches great importance to and respects him. Moreover, without taking the initiative to revolt, he did not enter the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center, and directly became a propaganda member and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of New China, which is also very rare. So, what kind of person is this Ou Shou Nian? What kind of answer will he give to Commander Su Yu's question?
Ou Shounian was born in Luoding, Guangdong, on October 5, 1902. The ancestors of his family once had a martial artist in the Qing Dynasty, so in his hometown, the family of the district family was more prominent. But it's a pity that the glory is only one generation, and later their family is still inevitably bound to the fate of the family. By the time of Ou Shounian's father's generation, he had become an out-and-out farmer.
There was another village next to their village, and there was a family in the village, and the man was a widower and a tailor, and he spent his days doing work in the streets and alleys to earn money. The family's land was handed over to the two children of the family, a man and a girl. I often see my sister and brother working in the fields under the scorching sun. As the years grew, the two children grew up. The elder sister married Ou Shounian's father, while the younger brother left his family and business to join the army. This person is the famous patriotic general Cai Tingkai.
Cai Tingkai's military career can't be said to be smooth, but he has become a division commander and a senior official. When he went home once, he saw that his nephew had dropped out of school after only two years of private school, and he felt very uncomfortable, so he proposed to take his nephew to the military road. Of course, the Ou family couldn't ask for it, so Ou Shounian walked out of the village with his uncle.
There is a way that there are people in the DPRK who are good officials, and not long after Ou Shounian's debut, he was sent by his uncle to study at the Yangjiang Military Training Institute of the Guangdong Army. After graduation, he didn't become a big soldier at all, but started directly from the company secretary general, and worked his way up to the platoon commander and company commander. Later, he became a regiment commander in 1927, a brigade commander in 1929, and a division commander in 1931. What's even more rare is that Ou Shounian's rise is not only because of his uncle's support, but also because of his own efforts and abilities.
Ou Shounian is a grateful person, no matter how big an official he is, he always stands on the same front as his uncle. In 1927, the two nephews and uncles participated in the Nanchang Uprising, but they both left the uprising team because of political disagreements; In 1933, Cai Tingkai formed Fujian **, openly opposed Chiang, and Ou Shounian chose to stand with his uncle again despite the huge difference in strength. After the failure of the Fujian Incident, he took refuge in the Gui family to control the army, just so that he could be used by his uncle one day. Cai Tingkai attaches great importance to this nephew and has publicly praised him many times.
After Ou Shounian was captured by the People's Liberation Army in 1948, he was also going to enter the war criminals management center. But at that time, the people were opening their minds and welcoming all overseas democratic forces to return to their motherland. Cai Tingkai was also inspired at this time and returned to his motherland to take up his post. In this way, it is inconvenient for Ou Shounian to be treated as a war criminal. This is also one of the reasons why he directly served in the new ** before he entered the Gongdelin.
It's hard to imagine that, as a member of the **, Ou Shounian received exclusion in his party and the army made him unable to go to the battlefield all year round. However, to illustrate this point, we must first talk about Ou Shounian's attitude towards the Japanese invaders and the Chinese Communist Party.
Ou Shounian was unrelenting in his fight against the Japanese invaders. In January 1932, Ou Shounian led his troops to garrison Shanghai, and did not back down in the face of the provocation of the Japanese army. At that time, the people wanted to seek Gou An by retreating, so that the district could withdraw after the end of the year. But Ou Shounian said a very famous sentence: "If you really want to retreat, you would rather stop being a soldier and go home to plant sweet potatoes!" In the end, the "128 Incident" broke out, and Ou Shounian led his troops to fight back, resisting the enemy for 33 days, forcing them to change commanders three times and increase troops four times!
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression began, Ou Shounian participated in the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Wuhan. Because he knew the tactics of the Japanese well, he fought relatively smoothly and had a lot of achievements. But this has become a major reason for his exclusion. The root cause of this is the relationship between Ou Shounian and our party.
As mentioned earlier, Ou Shounian once followed Cai Tingkai and participated in the Nanchang Uprising, but later broke away from the team. This shows that Ou Shounian has not yet understood what is going on with the Communist Party at this time, and he has no ideals of fighting for the toiling masses of the world. However, he was also full of doubts about the actions of the people to encircle and suppress the Soviet areas. He was once involved in the first of the Soviet districts.
Second, the third encirclement and suppression, but not directly participating in the troops, but serving as a guard. In 1933, he really participated in the war once, but he was completely defeated by *** in the Pengkou area! After this defeat, he understood two truths: 1. The so-called "suppression of the Communist Party" was just a cover for the Jiang clan to weaken his own non-descendant troops; 2. Being an enemy of the Communist Party will only weaken China's overall military strength and allow the Japanese invaders to benefit!
After understanding these truths, Ou Shou began to "passively ** and actively resist Japan". However, after the Fujian Incident, Cai Tingkai's 19th Route Army was dismembered, and Ou Shounian could only choose to leave the land of right and wrong and go to Germany to study military affairs. In 1937, the Gui Department expanded the army in order to protect itself, Cai Tingkai rebuilt the 19th Route Army, and Ou Shounian was able to return. Soon after, Jiang and Gui reconciled, and Ou Shounian was considered to have entered the top of the military circles.
However, Ou Shounian always adhered to his idea of actively resisting Japan. In addition, he is "not enthusiastic, which makes many high-level leaders look at him unpleasantly." So in 1939, the top management of ** began to attack him. The first was his chief of staff, who was imprisoned by Li Pinxian, commander of the 21st Army, on charges of "colluding with the Communist Party". Immediately after, something very strange happened. Some of the people of the ** AFS Corps shouted too loudly because they were too active in propaganda to resist Japan, and as a result, they aroused the disgust of President Chiang. These people were all inexplicably arrested and prepared to be escorted back to Chongqing. However, Ou Shounian was very sympathetic to these people, and he did not understand how the "old man" could embarrass these anti-Japanese propaganda, so he used his connections to bail some of them. As a result, this became evidence of his "collusion with the Communist Party", so Ou Shounian, who had repeatedly achieved good results on the battlefield, was directly removed from his post and investigated. A few days later, he was sent to a special class at the Chongqing Army University. This general, who was determined to resist the invaders, became a spectator of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in this way, and spent time every day by playing mahjong with Ye Ting, the former commander of the New Fourth Army.
Because Ou Shounian has always adhered to the practice of "passive ** and active resistance to Japan", this has made him make a lot of historical achievements, and the contradictions with our party are not deep, and there are not many blood debts on his body. Correspondingly, his thinking is also relatively democratic, and it does not take too long to transform. This is also an important reason why he did not enter the meritorious forest.
In August 1943, Ou Shounian became the deputy commander-in-chief of the 26th Army, which had no real power. Although he was still excluded from the anti-Japanese battlefield, he finally had some military power and could do some things. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Cai Tingkai founded the pro-democracy movement camp in Hong Kong and asked Au Shounian if he was interested in participating. Ou Shounian said at this time: "I am different from you, you are a celebrity, I am a soldier, I don't know how to engage in politics, and I can't help." It's better for me to stay in the army, and you can send me at any time, so that I can still have a force in my hands to help you. This sentence is very intriguing, could it be that Ou Shounian wants to help his uncle bring down the world? There is no answer now, because history has not given him the opportunity to write the answer.
After the start of the Liberation War, many of the veteran generals of the ** camp were activated. Ou Shounian is not only an old qualification, but also has a background of studying in Germany, so it is natural for him to become a senior battlefield commander. In 1947, he became the deputy commander of the 6th Pacification Zone, and then there was a fierce battle with the People's Liberation Army in the Yellow Flood Area of Henan. The result seems to be a victory for Ou Shounian, but the strategic impact on the PLA is actually not great. Since then, the PLA has continued to counterattack on all fronts. In order to cope with the offensive of our army, ** promoted Ou Shou Nian to the commander of the 7th Corps.
Corps commander, it sounds like a high position. But Ou Shounian knew that his corps was a ragtag army among miscellaneous armies, and its combat effectiveness was not very strong. So in the following battles with the PLA, he always seemed too cautious. Finally, in mid-1948, Ou Shounian paid the price for his prudence.
In June 1948, Su Yu commanded the People's Liberation Army and launched the Eastern Henan Campaign. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) was strong in combat and soon surrounded Kaifeng. The national ** urgently ordered Ou Shounian, Qiu Qingquan and others to lead the troops to relieve the siege, among which Qiu Qingquan quickly led the team to set off, but Ou Shounian rubbed up. At this time, the corps commander was very sure that Kaifeng City was just a bait, and the real purpose of the PLA was to encircle the point and send reinforcements. So he was struggling, but he refused to enter the army quickly.
It should be said that Ou Shounian judged well, and Su Yu's original plan was indeed to encircle the point and send reinforcements. However, after getting the enemy's movements, Su Yu found that Qiu Qingquan, who was powerful in battle, was close to Kaifeng, and it was not cost-effective to stop him; And Ou Shounian's 7th Corps has dragged itself into a lone army because it is marching too slowly, just in time to be eliminated. So on June 30, the 7th Corps was divided and surrounded by the People's Liberation Army in the Longwangdian area of Henan.
At this time, Shen Chengnian, the commander of the integrated 75th Division under Ou Shounian, had already sensed the danger and suggested that Ou Shounian break through quickly. However, Ou Shounian believes that he still has more than 10,000 elite troops at this time, and he can completely hold on and wait for help. In this way, not only will you be fine, but you can also use yourself as a situation and fight a counter-encirclement war with reinforcements! In order to achieve his strategic goals, Ou Shounian built a large number of fortifications around his station.
* In terms of finding out that Ou Shounian was besieged, he also mobilized heavy troops to rescue. However, under the resistance of the People's Liberation Army, it is difficult for the rescue force to make progress. On the contrary, it is the side of Ou Shou Nian, which is becoming more and more unsupportable. On July 6, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) broke through Ou Shounian's defensive line, and the commander of the 7th Corps saw that the situation was not good, and quickly jumped on a tank and fled. Unexpectedly, the tank turned around in the maze of defense that he had arranged himself, and did not go out for half a day. I finally found my way, but I didn't go far and the tank broke down again. When Ou Shounian heard the sound of cheering victory around him, he knew that he was finished and became a prisoner.
However, in his life, Ou Shounian has never served anyone except his uncle. So he straightened his clothes, climbed out of the tank in a dashing manner, looked at the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army below, and said arrogantly: "Take me to see Su Yu!" "That posture, as if he was the winner.
At this time, several soldiers who were celebrating saw his style, they were really angry, and they couldn't care about any prisoner policy, and it was a violent beating to hold Ou Shounian! As a result, the face of the commander of the **7th Corps was swollen and his coat was torn.
The matter soon reached Su Yu's ears, and he severely criticized the soldiers who caused the incident, and at the same time asked people to buy a few dishes and a jar of old wine, ready to suppress the shock of this ** senior general. At this time, Ou Shounian no longer had the arrogance he once had, and honestly pushed the cup with Su Yu to change the lamp, and even his voice was quiet.
Su Yu looked at him like this and wanted to comfort him, so he asked, "I would like to ask General Ou, what do you think of the current battle situation?" "This is the scene at the beginning of this article.
Ou Shounian pondered for a long time and said, "General Su Yu, my advice to you is four words: accept it when you see it." You see, although you have won a few battles now, your strength is still incomparable to **. If you can continue to win, of course, there is no problem, but as long as you lose a battle, you may fall into passivity! Stop when it's time to stop, don't even run out of stuff by then! ”
Su Yu listened to Ou Shounian's words, smiled and shook his head, and did not answer positively. The course of history proves that he does not need to answer, because more than a year later, the People's Liberation Army under his leadership defeated all the national ** troops. And Ou Shounian also saw the combat effectiveness of the PLA, and then began to accept the transformation with an open mind. In 1950, due to the better attitude of reform, the lighter historical problems, and the role of General Cai Tingkai, Ou Shounian walked out of the prisoner of war camp and returned to the arms of the people.