In 1947, in order to realize the most far-reaching strategic interests, Liu Deng's army went south to the Dabie Mountains, cut off its own back road, and advanced to the heart of the enemy, starting an arduous struggle.
Their heroic deeds and outstanding achievements have become a glorious page in the history of the Chinese revolution.
In the distant Dabie Mountains, the two leaders of Liu and Deng quickly determined the battle plan and conveyed the battle instructions, and a major war was about to break out. Zhao Lantian, the brigade commander of the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, was a person who was keen on fighting, and after receiving the order, he couldn't wait to rush to the front of the main force with the reconnaissance company and became a temporary scout.
This temporary scout, who seemed to be "not doing his job", led to a great victory that will go down in military history.
At the end of August 1947, Liu Deng's army successfully completed the feat of advancing thousands of miles into Dabie Mountain, like a sharp knife straight into Chiang Kai-shek's heart. However, the goal of establishing the Dabie Mountain Revolutionary Base Area was fraught with difficulties.
The barren land and sparse population in the Dabie Mountains brought serious hunger problems to Liu Deng's army in winter. In the past month, hunger has become a common problem in the troops, and the biggest complaint of the soldiers is hunger.
After entering the Dabie Mountains, there was a saying in the troops: "The more you eat rice, the bigger it gets, and the smaller the road gets." ”
The soldiers in the north were accustomed to millet and yam eggs, and rice was difficult for them to swallow, and even rice would not be eaten. The Kuomintang troops have been operating in the Dabie Mountains for many years, and there are complex situations such as joint defense of the armor, special service organizations, and small security teams.
Because of this environment, Liu Deng's army faced the problem of food shortage, and the well-meaning people would hide when they saw them, and those with malicious intentions would report them.
In addition to hunger, water and soil adaptation, injuries and diseases, and mosquito bites are also serious problems that hinder the troops from marching and fighting. There are many mosquitoes in the southern region, and mosquitoes are even more rampant in the mountainous areas, and there are no mosquito nets in the troops.
Not having enough food and clothing, starving and cold, poor hygiene, and sores and pus on the body are all the normal things that Liu Deng's army had to face in the past month after it entered Dabie Mountain.
The soldiers endured hardships along the way, and while the physical torture was endurable, the mental distress was insurmountable. More than a month after entering Dabie Mountain, homesickness spread rapidly among the troops, and the soldiers' minds were seriously shaken.
Non-combat attrition has increased dramatically, starting with one or two, and then turning into a whole squad, and if this continues, not only will it not be possible to fight, but it may even be at risk of the troops collapsing on their own.
The troops' low mood, heavy fears about fighting, and lack of confidence in establishing base areas have reached a point where there is no room for delay. Therefore, Liu and Deng convened a meeting of senior cadres on September 27 to resolve these issues.
The top priority at the moment is that the army urgently needs a major victory to stabilize the morale of the army and bring hope to the whole army to establish the Dabie Mountain base area.
Early in the morning, in an ancestral hall deep in the Dabie Mountains, a group of commanders gathered to wait for an important meeting. After a while, Liu and Deng walked into the room solemnly, and people knew that the troops were about to carry out a large-scale operation.
Since the march into Dabie Mountain, although it has not achieved large-scale victories, the troops on the southern front have made rapid progress and reported frequent good news, and have liberated many small county towns, including Lu'an, Jinzhai, Huoshan, and Shucheng.
However, the Kuomintang forces also quickly counterattacked, and some liberated county towns were again in trouble due to the retreat of Liu Deng's army. Chiang Kai-shek is mobilizing the first integrated division, the integrated division, and the integrated division originally north of the Dabie Mountains to encircle our army, in his words.
The situation is complex and changeable, and it is difficult to calm down with one joy and one sorrow. The good news is that we have successfully mobilized the enemy, and the strategic goal of advancing into the Dabie Mountains has been achieved. The worry is that the enemy is menacing this time, and we are already in the center of the battle.
** A detailed description of the current situation. Despite the menacing enemy, we were fully prepared for the encirclement of our old rival Chiang Kai-shek.
After analyzing the encirclement and stakes of the enemy's forces, we quickly announced our strategic deployment. After the deployment, ** lit a cigarette and said in a deep voice: "The commissar is right.
Otherwise, the troops will run every day, and the ghost will believe you. * also stopped talking and responded solemnly: "We must ensure the stability of the force so that we can achieve our goal." ”
The autumn equinox has passed, the dew is frosty, and in the cold night, a figure vaguely disappears through the night. As agile as a cheetah, the next moment he was already on the top of the hill, in front of the big tree, holding the tree with both hands, kicking his legs, and quickly climbing the big tree several feet high.
Sitting firmly on the thick branches, among the leaves, his expression is calm and unwavering, and his eyes are firmly focused on the telescope, and the distant scene is in full view. He is the commander of the Seventh Brigade of the Third Column, Zhao Lantian, an uninhibited brigade commander scout.
The mission of Zhao Lantian's Third Column was to look for opportunities to annihilate a small group of enemies when the 7th Division was stationed in Macheng and Shawomen. In late September 1947, they defeated the 29th Regiment of the 58th Division of the Kuomintang in ** and Huangchuan, and Chiang Kai-shek was forced to transfer the 48th Division from western Anhui for reinforcements, leaving the western Anhui region empty.
After the troops successfully broke through, the three columns quickly seized the opportunity, took advantage of the weakness to advance into western Anhui, and divided the troops to find the enemy for annihilation. Their actions were exactly what Chief Liu Deng expected.
The commander of the Third Column stressed that when carrying out tasks, it is necessary to command flexibly and actively coordinate, and once the opportunity is seized, there is no need to ask for instructions, and it is necessary to quickly encircle and annihilate the enemy. Zhao Lantian was extremely excited after receiving the order, he had always loved war, and he couldn't wait to lead the reconnaissance team to the front of the large army to find fighters that night.
On the way, Zuo Kuiyuan, the commander of the 20th regiment, ran into Zhao Lantian and immediately reported his situation.
The 88th Division was stationed in Xuzhou, but after Liu Deng's army advanced into Dabie Mountain, it was dispatched to Hefei and Anqing for coordinated defense. In late September, the 88th Division seized the opportunity of the coordinated operation of the field troops in western Anhui to annihilate the **58th Division, invaded the Tongcheng and Shucheng areas, and became complacent after achieving some results, and even thought that it was invincible.
However, they did not expect that the main force of Liu Deng's army would quickly return to the division. As a result, the complacent 88th Division and the 62nd Brigade were greedy for merit, and after seizing Shucheng, they were still not satisfied and continued to advance.
This behavior became the target of the commander of the third column, and he ordered the troops to take advantage of this opportunity to strike at the 88th Division.
In a battle in southwest Lu, the 88th Division suffered the loss of three columns, so when they met again, they chose to retreat quickly. In order to avoid being pursued, they chose to take a detour on a rugged mountain road and settle in Zhangjiadian.
However, their whereabouts were discovered by Zhao Lantian, the commander of the 7th Brigade, who temporarily served as a scout.
Zhao Lantian sat on a tree branch, holding a telescope in his hand, and his gaze was cast into the distance. In the picture, a gray and black world disappointed him. Suddenly, the camera showed a few lonely thatched huts, and then more than a dozen, and then turned around, and there was a large dense settlement.
Against a gray and black background, the lights flickered, as if to light up hope. Zhao Lantian was overjoyed and said to himself: "I finally found you." ”
In Zhangjiadian, surrounded by rice fields and ditches, and dense pine forests in the outer 20 miles, the Kuomintang 88th Division thought that this place was easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it did not realize that this was actually a victory place for the encirclement and annihilation of the three columns.
Suddenly, a sound of surprise broke Zhao Lantian's thinking, and a scout member ran up the hill, leaning down under the branch and calling in a low voice. The prisoner's confession confirmed Zhao Lantian's conjecture, and as expected, the 88th Division and the 62nd Brigade were camping in Zhangjiadian, preparing to retreat north tomorrow to join the integrated 46th Division.
Zhao Lantian secretly calculated in his heart: I can't let them slip away anymore. It was a battle that had to be fought, but when he thought about it, he hesitated again. As the saying goes, "It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice." ”
When he received the order, he couldn't wait to take the reconnaissance company to the front to investigate the enemy's situation. However, at present, he has only one reconnaissance company and a regiment closely behind, and it is tantamount to a fantasy to fight against the 88th Division.
The 88th Division was already ready to retreat in the middle of the night, and the idea of waiting for reinforcements was no longer realistic. They were all equipped with American-style **, and after entering Zhangjiadian, they drove out more than 200 households, and even removed the door panels and bed boards of the masses as fortifications.
The 88th Division was not only outnumbered and well-equipped, but their commander, Zhao Lantian, was alone, and it was not easy to annihilate them. Zhao Lantian frowned, waved his fist angrily, and couldn't help but scold in his mouth: "The opportunity that was finally obtained, can you just let them slip away?" ”
When Zhao Lantian was thinking hard, someone suddenly reported: "Brigade Commander, Brigade Commander Tong is here." As soon as he heard this, Zhao Lantian immediately jumped down from the tree, galloped all the way down the hill, and grabbed Tong Guogui, the commander of the 9th Brigade who was commanding at the front line.
He also followed the movement of the troops at the forefront, and when he learned the news that the 88th Division was sleeping overnight in Zhangjiadian, he decided to adopt encirclement tactics. Of course, Tong Guogui came to Zhao Lantian for the same reason as him this time, and there was only one 26th regiment left in his hands.
The two brigade commanders, Lao Tong and Tong Guogui, had only the strength of the 20th and 26th regiments, and they decided to act together to surround the enemy troops in the south and west respectively to prevent the enemy from escaping.
The two agreed to start the official action. They moved quickly, taking the strength of two regiments first, and successfully surrounded the ** in Zhangjiadian with the number of divisions.
This bold action fully demonstrated their resourcefulness and courage.
In the silence of the night, the troops moved quickly, and the sparse radio sounds came and went. **, who was sleeping soundly, never dreamed that he would be surrounded by two regiments in Zhangjiadian.
At three o'clock in the morning, Zhao Lantian successfully led the team to the northeast side of Zhangjiadian. He looked at his watch, which was pointing to 3:05 in the moonlight, breathed a sigh of relief, then sat down on a stone and lit a cigarette and took a deep breath.
The 20th Regiment is located in the northeast of Zhangjiadian, which is the place where the enemy plans to retreat, it belongs to the enemy's rear, there is no support, and there are no fortifications in a hurry, and the risk is huge.
Whether or not the enemy can be stopped is related to whether the enemy can escape. At dawn, a battle was about to break out in Zhangjiadian under the thick fog. The enemy woke up, but at the same time fell into a panic.
* In the case of being surrounded, I felt extremely nervous, and at first tried to break through, but found that the number of people surrounded was only about two regiments, so I frantically attacked.
After sunrise, fierce battles unfolded on the 295 heights on the northeast side, with the enemy's mountain artillery and broken artillery carrying out frantic fire support to protect the detachment from breaking through. Looking from the command post on the north side of Zhangjiadian, the position of the 20th Regiment was engulfed in flames, and Zhao Lantian also discovered this situation, the situation was very critical, but he knew that he must not give up his position.
Zhao Lantian threw the cigarette butt on the ground and roared at **: "Zuo Kuiyuan, don't worry, as long as I still have a breath, I won't let an enemy leave ...... alive.""I never imagined that one of their regiments would be in such a stalemate with the enemy on the northeast flank that it was repulsed three times in a row.
The situation was urgent, ** intensified the offensive and frantically charged the 20 regiment. The enemy's equipment and numbers far exceeded the officers and men of the 20th Regiment, causing heavy losses to the 20th Regiment.
Therefore, in the later stages of the battle, the regimental reserve and the brigade reconnaissance team were also thrown into battle, resolutely dragging the enemy in Zhangjiadian. The enemy could not move forward from the positions of the 20 regiment.
The battle commanded by Tong Guogui of the 26th Regiment has successfully repelled the enemy's counterattack in the southwest, and interfered with the enemy troops who are breaking through with artillery fire, and launched an echoing battle with the 20th Regiment.
The battle lasted until three o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy launched a last fierce breakthrough, but in close cooperation with the 20th and 26th regiments, it was ultimately defeated. As a result, the 88th Division was heavily surrounded by two regiments in Zhangjiadian and could not move.
As the sky darkened, the sound of artillery fire faded away, and the fighting ceased for a moment. The guard handed Zhao Lantian, who had not eaten for a day, a bowl of pumpkin and asked him if he was hungry.
Zhao Lantian looked at the pumpkin in his hand and realized that he had indeed not eaten for a day.
After a whole day of fierce fighting, the deputy commander of the Third Column saw that Zhangjiadian was heavily surrounded and the battle was fierce. He looked at everything in front of him, the corners of Zheng Guozhong's eyes were slightly moist, and he whispered to himself: "Eighty-eighth Division, we must catch you!" ”
Zheng Guozhong's main force arrived in time and easily defeated the 88th Army, like catching a turtle in an urn. Zheng Guozhong immediately issued an order, ordering the main force of the three columns to concentrate the broken artillery and mountain artillery of each brigade to suppress Zhangjiadian fiercely, which lasted for more than an hour.
The artillery fire was continuous, blood was splashed, the enemy's fortifications were blown to pieces, and under the artillery fire, ** was terrified and fled in all directions. The trumpets of the charge came and went, and the troops that had already surrounded Zhangjiadian rushed in and destroyed the enemy in one go.
The 9th Brigade was the first to break through in the south, the 7th Brigade and the 8th Brigade advanced from the east and north respectively, and some stubborn ** tried to break through to the east, but were easily intercepted in Zhangjiadian like a flock of sheep.
The enemy's command system was completely disrupted in the artillery fire, the communication between divisions, brigades, and regiments was broken, and the soldiers appeared confused and at a loss. Despair permeated the entire 88th Division, and patches of soldiers began to surrender, and Zhang Shiguang, the deputy commander of the 88th Division, saw that the situation was not good, and he disguised himself as a woman and successfully escaped.
The general attack, which was expected to end before dusk the next day, was successfully completed before dawn, destroying more than 4,000 enemies and capturing thousands of guns of various types. Due to the suddenness of the end of the battle, by the time enemy reinforcements arrived, our troops had already withdrawn to a long distance.
Commander of the 184th Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the enemy.