During the War of Liberation, one of the major problems of our army was to attack the city, and due to the lack of ability to attack the fortifications, it took half a year to attack Changchun and Taiyuan.
This is not the longest, during the War of Liberation, our army once spent two years in order to fight a county town, and three major generals and one general were sent out successively.
In the end, it worked 20 catties of millet.
This county seat is located in southern Hebei, belongs to Handan, Hebei Province, and is called Yongnian (now Yongnian District).
It is located at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain, only 20 kilometers away from Handan City in the south and 150 kilometers away from Shijiazhuang in the north.
It is bordered by Quzhou County and Jize County to the east, and Wu'an City to the west.
Yongnian is an ancient city that was founded at the end of the Sui Dynasty, where Dou Jiande, the king of Xia, and Liu Heimin, the king of Hanzhong, established their bases.
Yongnian is a medium-sized county, with an urban area of less than 20 square kilometers, and Changchun and Taiyuan are much larger.
Although Yongnian is small, after many years of operation, the city defense is extremely strong.
In addition, the Japanese army has been entrenched here for many years and has built various hidden forts, which are even more difficult to fight.
The most important thing is that it is surrounded by a moat, the river is up to 200 meters wide, like Shuibo Liangshan, surrounded by a piece of Zeguo.
There were more than 30 Japanese troops, and the county was actually controlled by the bandit "Iron Devil" (formerly known as Xu Tieying).
In 1905, Xu Tieying was born in a well-off family in Yongnian County, Hebei Province, his father was a well-known landlord, and his family had 100 acres of fertile land.
Xu's father hoped that his son would be Jackie Chan, and when Xu Tieying was 8 years old, he hired a famous teacher for him and taught him to read.
When he was 12 years old, Xu's father sent his son to Baoding to study.
But at this time, the Xu family suffered a catastrophe, a group of bandits ransacked their house, killed Xu's father, robbed them of their gold and silver, and finally burned the Xu family's house.
The Xu family has plummeted since then, and Xu Tieying was also forced to drop out of school.
Facing the ruins, Xu Tieying had a strange idea: to go as a bandit.
He became a bandit, not to kill people and steal goods, but to take revenge.
Xu Tieying first went to Shandong, took refuge in the giant bandit Sun Meiyao, stayed there for two years, and learned a skill.
After returning to Yongnian, he bought a few guns, and together with a few like-minded Fa Xiao, he robbed a pharmacy, fell into the grass, and began the road of revenge.
Later, he really took revenge, but his life could not go back to the past and continue his career as a bandit.
Xu Tieying is ruthless, kidnapping and killing, bullying men and women, doing all kinds of evil, and the people in the rivers and lakes are called "Iron Devil".
The Iron Devil has a terrible name, but he looks like a white-faced scholar.
He is not an ordinary bandit, he is a complex person.
For example, this person has both Wu Yong's resourcefulness and the martial arts of Black Whirlwind Li Kui, and he is also very good at winning people's hearts, with more than a thousand minions under his command.
Although the number of people is not particularly large, they are all his hardcore followers.
After the surrender of the Japanese army, more than 400 people from the nearby puppet army Wang ** department, more than 600 people from the Huo Jianye department of the puppet army in Jize County, more than 200 people from Xu Tieying's department in Linhaoguan, and more than 300 landlords and head of the return to their hometowns, Niu Yushan, fled here one after another, with a total of about 3,000 people.
At the beginning of January 1946, the order was given: pull out the nail.
Xiao Yongyin, commander of the 6th Vertical and 18th Brigade, and Li Zhen, political commissar, led the troops to the outside of the city first, and they used reeds to weave rafts, preparing to cross the river by raft and launch a strong attack on Yongnian City.
At 6 a.m. on January 12, as a signal flare was launched, the assault teams organized by the besieging forces launched the first assault.
After 12 hours of fierce fighting, a number of puppet bandits were killed and wounded, and there were also many ** on our side.
As night fell, Xiao Yongyin and Li Zhen had no choice but to withdraw their troops, planning to fight again the next day.
But the next day, the "armistice agreement" signed by the two sides came into effect, and **in ** said in a hoarse voice: "Stop the siege." ”
In fact, even if it is not stopped, it may not be able to be captured, because the 18th Brigade is not heavy, and the enemy's fortifications are too complicated.
In June 1946, the commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region issued an order to Chen Zaidao, the commander of the 2nd Column, in Handan, that Yongnian should be taken no matter what.
On June 10, the siege began.
Chen Zaidao deployed about 20,000 brigades and a division of the 3rd Division), more than 30 mortars, and several tons of explosives.
But after 10 days of fighting, more than 400 people in the 2nd column, although there were many enemies, they failed to attack.
At this time, a new combat mission was issued, and Chen Zaidao had no choice but to grit his teeth and give the order to retreat, and he was a hundred unwilling in his heart.
Not only Chen Zaidao, but the soldiers were also unwilling.
Some soldiers said with tears in their eyes: "We just withdrew, and the blood of so many comrades-in-arms was shed in vain?" ”
Chen Zaidao comforted: "One day, we will come back." ”
This is one year.
In September 1947, the attack on Yongnian was once again included in the task list of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, and the commander of the 3rd Division in southern Hebei was Gao Houliang (founding major general) who commanded the siege.
It needs to be explained that after the second attack on Yongnian, our army mobilized 50,000 migrant workers to build a 20-kilometer-long "outer city" around the county seat.
Our army built 59 large and small artillery towers, more than 170 bunkers, and 200 war rooms on this outlying city.
In the deep water near the outer city, our army also drilled more than 10,000 wooden stakes and laid more than 10,000 mines of various kinds.
The outside of the city is defended by our soldiers and militia 24 hours a day, and not even a fly can fly out.
However, Lao Chiang was not idle, and from 1946, he used airplanes to airdrop supplies to the enemy in the city, and the enemy survived.
However, there were not only troops in the city, but also tens of thousands of ordinary people, and Jiang's army could not care about the lives of the people at all.
On September 17, 1947, the enemy's airdrops into the city suddenly stopped, and the enemy in the city was in chaos.
At dawn on September 18, gunfire rang out under the western walls of the city.
In the mist of dawn, Zhai Fuli, the head of the enemy regiment, led more than 400 bandits to kill from Xiguan with a shout.
Their purpose is obvious, to grab the sorghum in the West Embankment.
But these bandits have not yet approached the embankment, and the mines have been triggered, and the sound of ** has come and gone.
Defending on the west embankment was the 4th Regiment of the Du, which, relying on strong fortifications, condescendingly beat the enemy.
In an instant, the enemy lay down in a large area, and the remnants of the enemy were terrified, and they retreated back into the city.
The way out to grab food was blocked, and the enemies had to compete with each other and fight fiercely.
As a result, the morale of the army was confused, and some officers and men had the idea of surrendering.
On the evening of October 1, 1947, a bandit appeared in the defense area of our 5th Independent Regiment with a white flag, saying "Don't shoot!" as he walked. ”
Cui Zhiguo, deputy commander of the 5th Independent Regiment, interrogated the person who came and learned that this person was Li Qingchun, the commander of the enemy's 2nd Company.
He took a gold bar and said to Commander Cui, "Give it to me."Jin millet, let me go back and make some soup, the brothers are going to starve to death. ”
This bit of rice is enough for you to eat a few meals, what should you do when you finish eating? Head Cui asked.
Give it to me first, so that the brethren may be fed, and then come and surrender. Company Commander Li said. "Otherwise they won't be able to walk. ”
Deputy Head Cui thought to himself, so he gave him more than 30 catties of millet and more than 100 2 steamed buns and sent him back.
After Company Commander Li went back, he wanted to kill the Iron Demon as a vote.
The Iron Demon was so cunning that he immediately saw that something was wrong with Company Commander Li.
When Company Commander Li pulled out his gun, the Iron Demon pulled out his gun at lightning speed and killed him on the spot.
The Iron Demon did not stop there, he killed Company Commander Li's adjutant and cronies, as well as Li's wife and children, and hung his head on the city wall.
He meant to kill chickens and scare monkeys and deter others.
But this backfired, everyone felt that the Iron Demon was too vicious and not worth burying him.
On the evening of October 2, Hu Yukun, the commander of the 1st Company of Wang's ** Independent Battalion, said to his men: "Brothers, have you seen it? This Iron Demon is so ruthless that we will die at his hands sooner or later. ”
Big brother, what do you say? ”
Let's go, go over there. Hu Yukun said decisively.
At dawn the next day, Hu Yukun took more than 200 of his subordinates, waving white flags, to the outside of the city and surrendered to our army.
Our army took advantage of this favorable opportunity to drop leaflets into the city, telling the enemy: Company Commander Hu has surrendered and been treated well, and you will continue to die dead.
Company Commander Hu Yukun's surrender was like toppling dominoes, which had a knock-on effect.
On the morning of October 4, more than 400 people surrendered to our army, including Zhang Wanzhen, the commander of the independent battalion.
Zhang Wanzhen revealed an important piece of information, the enemy in the city was concentrating, intending to break through in the name of "surrender" in the afternoon of this day.
In the afternoon, more than a thousand enemies came with white flags, their faces full of murder, and all of them holding their guns.
As they walked, they shouted, "Sir, where are you, we have come to surrender." ”
Our troops had known about their conspiracy for a long time, and when they approached, they decided to shoot, and the enemy lay down in a large area, and more than 700 people were killed one after another. After another 400 or so enemies managed to break through the encirclement, they came to Liyuan Village, where the command post of our 2nd Battalion was located, and most of them were wiped out, and all the remaining enemies were captured, including the enemy commander Zhong Yulin.
In the battle, more than 70 bandit backbones such as Wang ** and the Iron Demon were killed, and more than 50 bandit backbones, including Wang **'s chief of staff You Jiagui, the director of political training Li Yihuan, and the third brother of the Iron Demon Xu Tieying, were captured alive, and none of them escaped the net.
On the night of October 4, our army entered the city in a mighty way and completely cleared the remnants of the enemy.
On October 5, 1947, the thousand-year-old city of Yongnian returned to the people.
According to statistics, in order to liberate Yongnian City, from August 15, 1945 to October 5, 1947, our army fought 156 battles with Xu and Wang bandits, sacrificing thousands of commanders and fighters.
Their blood was not shed in vain! The land watered with blood blooms brightly with the flowers of peace.