Li Tianyou, the founding general of the People's Republic of China, is one of the generals of our army who has made outstanding achievements in war, and he has fought many victorious battles and vicious battles in his life, and the 38 th Army he led is also famous in the history of our army, and almost everyone knows it.
Coincidentally, after the Battle of Pingxingguan, Division Commander Lin went to the Soviet Union due to illness, and Li Tianyou also went to the Soviet Union soon after, and they both missed the War of Resistance against Japan after that; After Japan's surrender, Division Commander Lin went to the northeast to serve as commander, and Li Tianyou also went to the northeast.
As a result, Li Tianyou's most well-known battles, such as the Battle of Pingxingguan, the Three Battles and Four Draws, the Four Battles and the Four Draws, and the Tianjin Campaign, are all inextricably linked with Commander Lin.
But in fact, Li Tianyou joined the revolution in Nanning, Guangxi at the age of 14, and then participated in the Baise Uprising led by Comrade Xiaoping and Zhang Yunyi, and became a member of the Red 7th Army. After that, he followed the Red 7th Army to the ** Soviet District in Jiangxi, and was assigned to the command of Mr. Peng of the Red 3rd Army.
He served as a company commander, deputy regiment commander, and regiment commander in the 3rd Red Army Corps, and before the age of 20, he served as the division commander of the 5th Division of the 3rd Red Army Corps. At that time, Li Tianyou's political commissar was Zhong Chibing (founding lieutenant general), and the two commanded the Red 5th Division to serve as a blocking mission in the Xiangjiang Campaign, which played a great role. Later, in the battles such as the forced crossing of the Wujiang River, there were also outstanding performances.
Therefore, Li Tianyou actually grew up under Mr. Peng.
After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Li Tianyou also participated in the Battle of Zhiluo Town under the command of General Peng. In late November 1935, after the Battle of Zhiluozhen, Li Tianyou was transferred to the Red 2nd Division as the deputy division commander, at that time the division commander of the Red 2nd Division was Liu Yalou, and the political commissar was Xiao Hua. From this time on, Li Tianyou worked under the leadership of Commander Lin.
In the Eastern Expedition Campaign, the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Red Division set out to cross the river as the vanguard of the 1st Army Corps, and Li Tianyou took the initiative to ask the vanguard to strengthen the command, and led his troops to inflict heavy losses on the two regiments of the 2nd Column of the Jinsui Army.
Li Tianyou's performance in the Eastern Expedition was outstanding, and then he was transferred to the commander of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Red Division (the political commissar was Yang Yong). After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 37, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the Red 4th Division was reorganized into the 115th Regiment of the 343rd Brigade of the 686th Division, with Li Tianyou as the regiment commander and Yang Yong as the deputy regiment commander (actually political commissar).
After that, Li Tianyou led his troops to participate in the famous Battle of Pingxingguan, in this battle, the 686 Regiment as the main attack force, undertook the important task of "blocking the waist and cutting off", Li Tianyou lived up to expectations, decisively seized the Lao Ye Temple, which became an important guarantee for the victory of the Pingxingguan battle.
In May 1938, Li Tianyou returned to Yan'an due to illness, and then went to Xi'an, but the effect was limited. In June 1939, Li Tianyou, along with Liu Yalou, Yang Zhicheng, Zhong Chibing, Lu Dongsheng and other wounded generals, was sent to Moscow**, after which they entered the Frunze Military Academy to study together.
At that time, Division Commander Lin was also in the Soviet Union for treatment, so he was naturally responsible for leading them.
In the summer of 1941, Li Tianyou and others left Moscow, intending to return to China via Outer Mongolia and Suiyuan, but when they walked to the Daqing Mountain in Suimeng, they found that this place had been strictly blocked by the Japanese army, and Li Tianyou and others had to return the same way. After they returned, they were criticized by Division Commander Lin as "afraid of death", but in fact, it was indeed the Japanese army's blockade that could not be overcome.
This time it was unsuccessful, Li Tianyou stayed in the Soviet Union for another two years, until mid-1943, Li Tianyou and others disguised themselves as businessmen, all the way through the Gobi Desert, through Ningxia, Gansu, Xi'an, and finally arrived in Yan'an.
After the surrender of the Japanese, Li Tianyou, like many people, embarked on the road to Baishan and Heishui. Since it has been seven years since he left the unit, the leading bodies of the main forces on the front line have been determined, and Li Tianyou has stayed in the rear to serve as chief of staff of the North Manchurian Military Region, commander of the Songjiang Military Region, and commander of the Harbin City ** garrison.
According to Li Tianyou's son Li Yaning's recollections, Li Tianyou once saved the life of the head of the four fields when he was the commander of the Songjiang Military Region. On that day, Li Tianyou and the head of the four fields went out to see the terrain together, and when they came back, it was late, so they stayed in a village.
Li Tianyou has a strong military literacy and good habits, and he is used to understanding the terrain of this place first whenever he goes to a place. When he learned that there was a river behind this village, Li Tianyou felt that this place was not safe: bandits in the northeast were still rampant at that time, and if bandits came to this village to rob, Li Tianyou and they would have to fight against the water, which was very dangerous.
Li Tianyou didn't sleep well all night, maintained a high level of vigilance, and the next day before dawn, he woke everyone up on the road, but as soon as he crossed the river, a group of bandits chased after him......
Obviously, although he has been out of the army for seven years, Li Tianyou has maintained the level that a soldier and a senior general should have, and it is really condescending to leave him in the rear.
In April 1947, the Dongye Headquarters ordered that Li Tianyou be transferred from the Songjiang Military Region to the 1st Column as the commander, and let him lead the troops to fight on the front line. The reason for this arrangement is that the predecessor of the main force of the 1st Column was the 115th Regiment of the 686th Division, and Li Tianyou, as the commander of the regiment, led them to fight the Battle of Pingxingguan.
But at that time, the commander of the 1st Column was General Wan Yi, and the other part of the main force of the 1st Column was also developed by him from the Shandong base area, and he followed Marshal *** to bring this army from Shandong to the Northeast, and now he is of course reluctant to ask him to leave. General Wan Yi asked to stay in the 1st Column, and reported to the East General Attack many times, and finally he stayed in the 1st Column as he wished, serving as the political commissar of the 1st Column.
During the Third Battle of Siping, Li Tianyou and Wan Yi led 1 column to storm Siping for 15 days, but Chen Mingren held it very firmly, and finally because the enemy's reinforcements arrived, Dong Zong ordered the troops to retreat.
In this battle, the 1st column caused a lot of damage to the defenders, but its own ** also reached more than 4,000 people, and Li Tianyou's pressure at this time can be imagined.
Eight months later, the Fourth Battle of Siping began, and the East General Commander reappointed Li Tianyou as the commander-in-chief of the siege, reflecting a high degree of recognition and trust in Li Tianyou's ability. This time, Li Tianyou and others lived up to expectations and won four draws in only 23 hours. The victory in this battle announced that the balance in the northeast had tilted in favor of our army.
In the Liaoshen Campaign, the 1st Column, as the general reserve, failed to play the leading role, but in the subsequent Tianjin Campaign, the Siye Headquarters ordered the 38th Army (that is, the 1st Column) and the 39th Army to take up the task of attacking Tianjin from the west of the city, and the commander of the 38th Army, Li Tianyou, and the political commissar Liang Biye served as the command task in this direction.
In this campaign, the 38th Army and the 39th Army attacked fiercely, and after occupying the Jintang Bridge, they went straight to the Tianjin Garrison Headquarters and captured Chen Changjie alive. The Battle of Tianjin lasted 29 hours before and after, and 130,000 defenders were annihilated. Among them, the 38th Army captured 2 prisoners alone470 thousand. At this time, the 38th Army, under the leadership of Li Tianyou, already had the appearance of the "Long Live Army" on the battlefield of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea.
From being transferred to the 1st Column, to serving as the siege commander of the Siping Campaign twice, and then to serving as the main attack in the Tianjin Campaign, these three reuses reflect the understanding and trust of the leaders of the Siye Fields in Li Tianyou, and also allow Li Tianyou to fully demonstrate his military talent and style.
After that, Li Tianyou served as the first deputy commander of the 13th Corps of Siye, and led his troops all the way to Guangxi.
In 1955, Li Tianyou was awarded the rank of general for his outstanding contributions to the past war years, and was also awarded the Order of August 1 of the First Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Second Class and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.