Duan Suquan, commander of the 8th Column in Dongye, was ambitious after the victory of the Liaoshen Campaign, and looked forward to making new contributions in the process of liberating the whole of China. However, a telegram from the confidential officer shattered all his hopes.
The contents of the telegram shocked him, like a bolt from the blue, and his heart was full of doubts.
The 8th Column did not perform well in the attack on Jinzhou, lost the position of Niulang Mountain (Little Bauhinia Mountain), and did not report to the higher authorities in time. Chief of Staff Liu Yalou was very angry about this, and he directly asked why, and later Lin said on the side that it was not okay to be strict in military discipline, and this matter needed to be investigated to the end, and the commander could not be let go.
** Then he personally went to the 8th Column and severely criticized it, and the matter was resolved. So, what is Duan Suquan's command ability? Let's break it down.
Duan Suquan, a native of Chaling, Hunan, was born in 1916 into a poor peasant family and experienced brutal oppression by landlords. He joined the Komsomol at the age of 14 and soon after.
In the ranks of the Red Army, Duan Suquan was reused by his superiors by virtue of his love for the revolution and outstanding ability, and served as the chief of the Youth Section of the Political Department of the Red Eighth Army of the Hunan and Jiangxi Soviet Region and the head of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Hunan and Jiangxi Military Region.
In October 1934, ** Ren Bishi led the red.
After the 2nd and 6th Army Corps met at the southern waist boundary, in order to cope with the strategic shift of the Red Army, it was decided to lead the main forces of the two armies to develop in western Xiangxi.
In order for the main force to advance eastward smoothly, it was necessary for the Qiandong Independent Division to remain responsible for attracting the enemy's attention, and then the Independent Division to stay in place and carry out its work. After repeated consideration, Wang Guangguang was selected as the commander of the independent division, and Duan Suquan was elected as the political commissar, responsible for leading the Qiandong Independent Division.
Although the independent division had only more than 800 men, its task was still arduous. Under the leadership of Division Commander Wang Guangguang and Political Commissar Duan Suquan, the Independent Division waged more than 20 days of maneuvering with the enemy, successfully pinned down the enemy, and completed the tasks assigned by the superiors.
This proves that Duan Suquan is not only good at fighting, but also able to fight tough and dangerous battles, and is deeply trusted and relied on by his superiors. In the next battle, Duan Suquan personally went into battle and started a white-knuckle battle with the enemy with a rifle with a bayonet, but unfortunately was hit by the squad leader of the militia on the ankle.
Although it was very painful, he still continued to fight until he was ordered to retreat by Wang Guangguang, and the soldiers carried him back to his hometown in Chetian Village, Yajiang, Xiushan County, to recuperate from his wounds.
While Duan Suquan was recuperating from his injuries, the team lost contact, and he begged all the way back to his hometown of Chaling. In October 1937, he learned of the founding of the Eighth Route Army, and was so excited that he decided to look for an organization.
After going through hardships, he finally came to Taiyuan, and when he found his old leader, Ren Bi, he rejoined the team. If he didn't have this experience, with his qualifications, his position would have been higher.
But this experience allowed him to win the recognition of the upper and lower levels, and served as the commander of the column in the war of liberation, which is very rare. For example, red.
He Bingyan of the Second and Sixth Army Corps, he was a division commander during the Long March, and during the Liberation War, he also became the commander of the column in Xiye.
After Duan Suquan returned to the army, his position was not that of an operational commander, but that of the secretary of the Pingbei Prefectural Party Committee. In 1940, after the establishment of the Pingbei Military Subdivision of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, Duan Suquan became the political commissar and cooperated with the commander Cheng Shicai (later Qin Guohan) to actively participate in the anti-Japanese war activities.
After returning to the army, Duan Suquan entered the third phase of study at the Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and his military command ability was significantly improved, so he was entrusted with a major mission.
After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, he was appointed commander of the Rehe Military District.
Proceeding from the overall situation, we should be more cautious."
Mr. Lin insisted that Huang Yongsheng be the commander of the column, while Cheng Zihua was resolutely opposed. Cheng Zihua proposed Duan Suquan as a replacement to Mr. Lin. ** Reluctantly agreed, but not happy.
In the end, Duan Suquan succeeded Huang Yongsheng as the commander of the 8th Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army. Duan Suquan was uneasy and apprehensive about this appointment, because Huang Yongsheng was Mr. Lin's favorite general, and he was an airborne outsider, and commanding the troops might face great resistance.
Duan Suquan's worries seemed to be superfluous, the commanders and fighters of the 8th Column did not reject him because he was not a local, and his command and operation were also very smooth. In the "Winter Offensive", Duan Suquan gave full play to his military talents, commanded the 8th Column to win a complete victory in the Battle of Xinlitun, annihilated more than 4,000 enemies, and was praised by the headquarters.
However, although Duan Suquan was worried that he might be treated unfairly, his fears did not come true, which made him feel relieved. However, what is unexpected is that in the Liaoshen Campaign in September 1948, Duan Suquan was assigned another "difficult problem".
The Dongye headquarters asked him to block the airport outside Jinzhou in order to prevent the Kuomintang troops outside the city from reinforcing Jinzhou. Outwardly, the task was simple, but the telegram did not say which airfield should be blocked.
Because at that time, there were two airports in Jinzhou. Although even elementary school students can find the answer - blockade of the airport in use, but this is because the abandoned eastern suburbs airport is closer to the 8th vertical station, and the western suburbs airport in use is located near the 9th vertical station.
After receiving the order, in order to resolve the uncertainty of the blockade of the airport, Duan Suquan asked Noji for instructions and received instructions for them to decide for themselves. In the end, they chose to block the western suburbs airfield, but later found out to be wrong, ** criticized it, believing that they had delayed the fighter plane in the mission.
Duan Suquan's delay in the fighter plane is real, but he can't be blamed entirely. The main reason was that after receiving the telegram, the personnel of the 8th Column Staff Office handed it over to the exhausted Chief of Staff Huang Huxian, and Chief of Staff Huang failed to deal with the telegram within 4 hours after receiving it, which caused Duan Suquan to not see the telegram in time.
However, Duan Suquan did not shirk his responsibility, he was convinced that as a leader, he could not let his subordinates bear undue pressure, so he chose to take responsibility himself.
* The Chairman was dissatisfied when he received the telegram. He telegraphed back and said: The military order should be tightened and the two-day delay in blocking the airport should be criticized. After receiving the criticism from the Central Military Commission, Duan Suquan was deeply moved, and in his diary that day, he wrote: This matter should arouse serious vigilance, and when carrying out the task, we should be honest and act according to the rules, and there should be no deviation.
** has reservations about the criticism of **, he believes that Duan Suquan has been treated unfairly. He once said to Liu Yalou: "The enemy's plane was taking off and landing at the airport in the western suburbs at that time, and the 8th column also called to ask for instructions, which is definitely not right.
But if our command had been precise in issuing the order and clearly pointed out that it was a blockade of the airport in the western suburbs, wouldn't this mistake have been avoided? ”
On October 14, before the start of the siege battle, ** formulated an offensive strategy, and decided that the two columns would attack the city side by side from north to south, and the two columns would attack from south to north, while the 8th column would attack from east to west alone, with the aim of luring the enemy and bearing more shells.
* It was also instructed to assign the artillery regiment of the 1 column to the 8 column. However, after the start of the battle, due to the water level of the Daling River ** and muddy roads, the artillery regiment of the 1st Column failed to reach Jinzhou in time, and the 8th Column could only rely on its own 94 mountain artillery to attack the city.
Although the 8th Column made great sacrifices and successfully opened the northeast corner of Jinzhou City, it was only a breakthrough 200 meters wide and 300 meters deep, and the time to enter the city was 6 hours later than the other four columns.
However, the commanders and fighters of the 8th Column performed excellently, they quickly occupied the headquarters of the enemy's 6th Corps and Fan Hanjie's command post, captured more than 7,000 people under Sheng Jiaxing, commander of the enemy's 93rd Army, Jing Yang, commander of the 18th Division, and Huang Jianyong, commander of the 54th Division, and killed and wounded more than 3,000 enemies.
Although in the eyes of **, the performance of the 8th Column was not satisfactory, and he criticized the 8th Column twice in a telegram to the Military Commission, but in any case, the results of the 8th Column were outstanding, and they made great contributions to the war.