Chapter 5 Northeast (1946-1948) - bloody battle in Siping

In 1947, the situation in Northeast China changed dramatically. After the three campaigns of going to the south of the Yangtze River and the four battles of Linjiang, Du Yuming was no longer able to attack the main force of the Democratic Alliance Army in North Manchuria. Even when the Democratic Alliance Army went south for the third time, Du Yuming himself The convoy was once stopped by the vanguard of the Democratic Alliance Army on the road, and the two sides exchanged fierce fire. Seeing that the situation was not good, Du Yuming ordered his car to rush out of the encirclement under the hail of bullets, and managed to escape. All were intercepted by the Democratic Alliance Army.After the Sibao Linjiang and Three Downs to Jiangnan campaigns ended, the situation in the Northeast changed suddenly. The KMT and the Communist Party changed hands from offense to defense.

Guan Shanlin's independent brigade participated in the three Jiangnan campaigns.The troops were on long-distance raids all day long—fighting, fighting—long-distance raids. They were very tired, but the morale of the troops was very high. Man cut off his head, Bei Man cut off his waist, made him run back and forth several times, and the basket of beans was finished.The troops sang this jingle and participated in the battle to wipe out all the 88th Division and part of the 87th Division in Jiangjiatun. In May, Guan Shanlin was ordered to take the reorganized independent brigade into the First Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, and Guan Shanlin served as the head of the Eighth Regiment.Guan Shanlin originally wanted to take this opportunity to go to Mudanjiang City to see the dark clouds, but the troops were in a hurry and there were a lot of supplies to do, so he couldn't leave for a while, so he had to bury this idea in his heart.

Guan Shanlin rushed to the outskirts of Siping City with the reorganized Eighth Regiment in early June.Prior to this, the main force of the first column, the sixth column, and the fifth column had besieged the Chen Mingren Department of the 71st Army of the Kuomintang in Siping City for 23 days, and successively captured the towns around Siping and cleared the outer strongholds.Lin Biao, commander-in-chief of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army, made a special trip from Shuangcheng to the foot of Siping City and personally commanded the siege, intending to avenge Siping's fall last year.

Guan Shanlin's eighth regiment was designated as one of the main attacking regiments. The date of the general attack was set at 2:00 pm on June 24th. As a result, it started to rain cats and dogs from the morning. Guan Shanlin and Jin Ke led the Eighth Regiment to squat in the ditch without rain gear and were drenched like chickens. of.Jin Ke touched Guan Shanlin in the rain and said, Lao Guan, this is not the way, the gun and ammunition will be soaked in such a heavy rain, and when the general attack comes, the fart will stop.Guan Shanlin wiped the rain off his face and said to Shao Yue, go, tell the chief of staff, ask him to call and ask the front finger, what's going on?When will it start?We can't keep taking a bath like this.Before the Shaoyue people left, the chief of staff of the regiment had sent the communication platoon leader to report, saying that it was an instruction from the headquarters. Because the artillery positions were soaked in rain, the gun mounts were soft and collapsed, and they had to be re-fortified. The siege time was delayed. .Guan Shanlin said angrily, what a trick!Instead of firing a single shot, people soaked in the rain for a long time!So he ordered the troops to withdraw from the trenches and find a place to hide from the rain first.At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky cleared, and the troops were preparing food. Suddenly, an order was issued to enter the position immediately and launch a general attack on time at 20 o'clock.Without saying a word, the troops left their jobs and immediately ran into the trenches. Some soldiers were smart enough to grab a handful of rice balls and put them in their arms.Guan Shanlin saw that the soldiers were really pitiful, so he asked the cooks of the logistics organization to knead all the rice into rice balls and send them to the squad and platoon company next to the trench, so that the soldiers could hurry up and fill in some things.Guan Shanlin said, who knows whether people will come back after the cannon fires, anyway, people have to eat this last meal.

The cannons sounded on time at eight o'clock in the evening. Hundreds of cannons were fired at the same time. Suddenly, hundreds of eye-catching ballistic trajectories pulled out a bright canopy in the dark sky, and the earth was deafened by the deafening cannons. Trembling violently in the sound, looking from a distance, Siping City was completely submerged by the smoke and flames of the shell explosion.Guan Shanlin and Jin Ke opened their mouths wide, so as not to be deafened by the huge roar of the group of artillery.Guan Shanlin took Jin Ke's hand and said loudly, "Old Jin, I'll go up first!"You are behind, don't hold me back!After receiving the order from Guan Shanlin, when the Eighth Regiment attacked, the platoon leader would go to the sharp-knife squad, the company commander would go to the sharp-knife platoon, and the battalion commander would go to the sharp-knife company. group progress.Jin Ke squeezed Guan Shanlin's hand and said, Lao Guan, don't jump too fast, you have to take care of my old cold legs, don't make me unable to keep up.As the two of them talked, they felt a strange emotion as if they would never see each other again.

At 8:40, the artillery group began to shoot extended.Guan Shanlin leaped onto the ditch according to the clock, raised his arms and roared loudly, blowing the charge!The trumpeter stretched his neck and blew the charge horn, and blew eighteen times in one go, blowing the trachea in a daze, and when the sound of the horn stopped, he fell down staring straight at his eyes.The troops flooded into the city like a tide. Wherever they passed, the city walls and fortresses were all destroyed by artillery fire, and the deer rocks and plum blossom piles were also thrown aside. , People step on it and shake it.Guan Shanlin followed the Jiandao Battalion, rushed into Siping City along the blasted city wall, and ran for several hundred meters before encountering the first barrage of blocking bullets.

The fierce street fighting actually started in the early morning of the 15th, and lasted ten days from the beginning.Chen Mingren's garrison guarded every street and every house in the urban area.Chen Mingren is worthy of being a famous general of the Kuomintang. During the Anti-Japanese War, he commanded the troops to carry out the famous Songhu Battle at home and abroad, which caused the Japanese to suffer a lot. Now, he is using 20,000 defenders to deal with the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Democratic Alliance Army. Perform a heroic defense of the city.At the same time, Zheng Dongguo led the Fifty-Third Army, and Sun Liren led the New First Army to point straight at Siping City with two arrows from the north and the south, in an attempt to lift the siege of Siping.The battle in Siping City was still raging, with the sound of guns and guns and hand-to-hand combat everywhere.Corpses were piled up in the streets and alleys, and the blood plasma slowly flowed under the scorching sun, and then solidified. The whole Siping City seemed to be covered with a red carpet, and the tragic battle was shocking.Every soldier of Chen Mingren's 71st Army received the order to fight until the last soldier. They could not escape Siping City, nor did they plan to escape Siping City. They didn't even intend to leave Siping City alive. Even Chen Mingren, the commander of the 71st Army, telegraphed Du Yuming that he was determined to die for the country with his own body, and his aspirations were fulfilled.

Guan Shanlin led the Eighty-Fourth Swordsman Battalion to attack the urban area from the west of the city, and since then has been caught in a see-saw-like fierce battle. The battle was quite brutal. Every street and every house had to pay a considerable price to capture it.The Jiandao Battalion suffered more than half of the casualties on the 15th, and began to continuously replenish the organizational system. By the seventh day when the troops reached the railway line in the central district of the city, the casualties of the whole regiment had exceeded 500. Lian personally directed the troops to move forward inch by inch.Guan Shanlin was bald, with his arms open, sweating like a steamer, his eyes breathing fire, holding a scalded carbine in his hand, pointing at any obstacle in front of him and shouting at the top of his lungs, destroy it!Guan Shanlin's throat was dry and hoarse, his lips were chapped, and his whole body was drenched in blood.He stumbled and ran forward, but was repeatedly thrown down by Shao Yue.Guan Shanlin punched and kicked Shao Yue, and shouted, "You don't rush forward like a dog, you hug me and do it!"Shao Yue was already wounded, a piece of skin on his chin was broken off by a shell fragment, and his face was covered with blood, but he still didn't leave Guan Shanlin even a single step, and used his body again and again with his mouth closed to protect a calf. Block the Guanshan forest, block the bullets and shells flying towards the Guanshan forest.

The west of the railway line in Siping City has been completely occupied by the Democratic Alliance Army. The core position of Chen Mingren's military headquarters has also been breached. More than half of the defenders of the 71st Army were killed or injured. Chen Mingren's younger brother Chen Mingxin was also captured by the Democratic Alliance Army. Chen Mingren led the remaining troops to retreat Eastern region, guarded by death.The Eighth Regiment finally crossed the railway line and began to attack the enemy at the water tower in the city center.After the three attacks were beaten back, the communication platoon leader in ragged clothes and covered in blood put the phone into Guan Shanlin's hands. Kill Guan Shanlin!Guan Shanlin couldn't speak, he threw the microphone on the ground with his hands, blood was leaking from his eyes, he was panting, he looked up at the tall water tower that was constantly spitting out flames, and his whole body trembled.At that time, the Eighth Regiment had put its last reserves into battle, and there were no more troops to replenish.Jin Ke drew out his pistol and said, Lao Guan, take a breath, let me come.Guan Shanlin said, we had a division of labor, I hit the front and you hit the back.Jin Ke said, even the art soldiers and cooking soldiers have come up, so where is there any future?Guan Shanlin said, Gou Ri's firepower is too fierce, it's hot!Jin Ke said, let's bombard him first!So the 82 level gun and the 60 mortar were brought in and aimed at the water tower for a while.The water tower is made of marble and green stone, which is difficult to bombard. There is a basement under the water tower. When the guns fired, the defenders drilled into the basement.Guan Shanlin saw that this posture was not going to help much, so he said, this is not good, and he has to send grenadiers to attack.Suppress Gou Ri's firepower, and the troops charge at the same time!Jin Ke said, I think it will work, you command, I will lead the stormtroopers, this time he must be shot!Guan Shanlin saw that the political commissar was also obsessed with fighting this battle, so he said, that's fine, I'll let the grenadier climb under the water tower to fight, you see I suppress the firepower before you charge, move quickly, as long as Paste it into the water tower, and the **** will have nothing to do with you!Everyone prepared separately for a while. Jin Ke led the stormtroopers and climbed behind the railway. Guan Shanlin asked five or six grenadiers to get ready. Taking advantage of the gap between the artillery fire and the explosion, the cat walked along the corners on both sides of the street, crossed the overpass and approached the water tower, then lay down on the ground, and fired two grenadiers at the fire point of the water tower with a grenadier.The water tower was full of flames, and the dust of marble and bluestone was flying around, covering the scorching sun.Seeing that the firepower on the water tower was suppressed, Jin Ke jumped up with the stormtroopers and rushed towards the water tower.No one noticed anything unusual on the overpass, and when Shao Yue saw that something was wrong there, he pulled Guan Shanlin and shouted anxiously, Captain, there was an ambush on the overpass, and the situation was irreversible.Ambushing on the overpass are two big sacks, each with a rope leading to the water tower, the sack and the rope were silent and unmoved before, waiting there sinisterly in the smoke and firelight, patiently counting Looking at their prey, they looked like dead animal carcasses, without arousing anyone's speculation or suspicion, which made their threat to the extreme.When political commissar Jin Ke led the stormtroopers across the railway, across the street, and under the overpass, the rope connecting the sacks was pulled by the defenders in the water tower, and the two sacks opened at the same time, and passed through the bridge. The best soybeans were poured down like rain, and the round beans immediately covered the street. The charging soldiers stepped on them, unable to stand, and fell down one by one, the weapons in their hands fell far away, and the water tower At this time, like a monster who suddenly woke up from alcohol, his eyes widened, and the black window spit out the flames of heavy machine guns, light machine guns, and submachine guns at the same time. Immediately, it was like a slaughterhouse, lying full of corpses and dripping with blood.Guan Shanlin's hot blood shot out from his forehead, and he shouted at the charge, come back!Withdraw quickly!The charging people retreated one after another when they heard the voice of the small trumpet ordering to retreat, but the more anxious they were, the more they could not maintain their balance. When they got up, they slipped and fell to the ground. It became an untenable floating island, and the sailors who bumped into it rashly stumbled and rolled on it as if they were seasick, while the water tower received them with death with a sinister and calm mockery that never changes. .Guan Shanlin was dumbfounded, the hard hair on his bare head was on fire, and his body was covered in cold sweat. He was furious and furious at this despicable and shameless tactic that he had never seen before, but at the same time he was helpless.He saw several soldiers were hit by bullets, crawling painfully in the center of the street holding soybeans.He saw political commissar Jin Ke sitting on top of the soybeans, shaking his head in disbelief.A string of heavy machine gun bullets flew in and beat Jin Ke's chest to pieces. Jin Ke was almost cut in half. When he fell, he pointed the Canadian pistol in his hand at the water tower, as if at the last moment. , he also wanted to figure out the mystery of the untenable floating island...

At dusk, the Eighth Regiment, with more than half of its casualties, was ordered to withdraw from the battle. In the bleak afterglow of the setting sun, they slowly left the railway line with the stretchers of their comrades dripping with blood and drooping limbs, and left the city from the west of the city. Ten days ago, they came from Here, they rushed into the city holding the battle flag high and shouting.In the scorching summer wind, the bloody smell outside the city was much weaker and purer than that in the urban area. Perhaps it was for this reason that the cadres and soldiers of the Eighth Regiment suddenly squatted on the ground, crying stand up.

Twenty-four hours later, the siege gunfire suddenly stopped, and all the troops were ordered to withdraw from the battle at the same time. Overnight, hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Democratic Alliance Army withdrew from the Siping City, which had been beaten to pieces, in an orderly manner. Disappeared in the night in sequence.The order to retreat was issued by the commander-in-chief of the Democratic Alliance Army, Lin Biao himself.The two reinforcements of Zheng Dongguo and Sun Liren have joined forces with the reinforcements, and half of Siping City is in the hands of Chen Mingren. Lin Biao is worried that he will not be able to win Siping, which will put the whole army in a passive situation.In fact, his worries were unnecessary.What Zheng Dongguo and Sun Liren were most worried about at the moment was not that they would not be able to rescue Chen Mingren and solve the siege of Siping, but that they were worried about Lin Biao's best tactics of besieging cities and fighting for aid. Taking three steps at a time, the Democratic Alliance Army has enough time and strength to give the Siping defenders a final blow.And Siping's defenders really couldn't stand it anymore. Even Chen Mingren himself had loaded a No. 2 Browning pistol with bullets and put it in his pocket, ready to die for the country at any time.He had no idea that the siege troops would suddenly retreat automatically, giving him a way out.Naturally, he never expected that half a month later, he would fly to Nanjing with his wife to receive an honor personally awarded by Chiang Kai-shek, and become a star of hope among the overshadowed generals of Huangpu. The DAF's retreat was leisurely and without any threat.