Chapter 55 3. The Magical Scout

Thus, a cross-river reconnaissance activity began again.The movie "Reconnaissance across the River" that people have seen tells the story of this period. Zhong Xidong, the former director of the Political Department of the 27th Army, said in his memoir that on the eve of the battle of crossing the river, all units of the army organized a total of 10 smuggled immigrants, and eight of them were successful. The advance battalion across the river carried out guerrilla activities in the enemy's rear, and the victory was even more meaningful.During these 10 smugglings, a total of more than 30 prisoners were captured, and a battalion went behind the enemy to understand the enemy's situation; The enemy sent troops to conduct reconnaissance. Nie Fengzhi, the commander of the 27th Army, made up his mind.

The reason why he came up with this idea had to start with a small incident.One day at noon, when Nie Fengzhi came to a company to check the training situation, the cook brought a plate of scrambled eggs with leeks. He looked at the cook and asked, "Where did you get this vegetable?" "Two scouts from our company didn't catch the 'tongue' when they went to reconnaissance across the river, so they brought it back when they came back." "Have any of you passed?" "People are sent there every night, but there are not many people." "It's a good idea!"

Back at the command post, he said to others: "Since we can pass a few people, we can pass a company and a battalion. It is possible for us to send a battalion to scout the enemy's situation first!" At this time, the General Front Committee also issued orders to the troops to cross the river for reconnaissance. This was a bold plan, and later this task fell on the shoulders of Zhang Chen, Chief of Staff of the 242nd Regiment of the 81st Division. Nie Fengzhi called Zhang Chen to the headquarters and said: "Now the General Front Committee has instructed that in order to further understand the enemy's situation, terrain, water conditions and residents' conditions along the river and in depth, the army has decided to send a reconnaissance unit to carry out reconnaissance activities. Political Commissar Liu Haotian has studied it, and plans to transfer some personnel from your regiment, and let you and Mu Sirong lead them across the river to carry out this advance reconnaissance mission, what do you think?"

Zhang Chen said: "I have no objection, I will definitely complete the task." Nie Fengzhi went on to say: "What do you think about the composition of the personnel, we will decide today." "I obey the commander's orders." "This mission is quite special, and personnel will be drawn from the entire army." "Yes, but there must be people from the reconnaissance company." Three reconnaissance squads were quickly organized. Zhang Chen was appointed as the captain and temporary secretary of the party committee of the advance crossing brigade, under the pseudonym Yabing.Mu Sirong is the deputy captain.The preparatory work began. Two-thirds of the people put on the costumes of Kuomintang soldiers captured during the Huaihai Campaign, and one third wore plain clothes. At the same time, they also raised a lot of silver dollars and dry food, and equipped with a radio station.

On the night of April 6, this particular team set off on a raft. What happened after they passed, Comrade Zhang Chen later recalled: "At 11:50 p.m. we landed on the Shilichang River Embankment. After brave and courageous actions, we seized the embankment and rushed to the Changbao. After 20 minutes of fierce fighting, After defeating the enemy, the troops quickly passed the front line of defense along the river. That night, we bypassed the blockhouses and blockades, marched for more than 60 miles in one breath, and arrived at the foot of Lion Mountain in the early morning. We climbed to the top of the mountain and entered Qingliang Temple.

"I drafted a telegram and reported the landing situation and our location to the head of the Jiangbei Army through the radio. The sentinel came to report that the enemy's activities were found on the hills on the east, west, north, and east. Obviously, the enemy has come to the door. "Then, we started a 'special battle' with the enemy. We were as stable as Mount Tai, and we kept our guards outside the mountain gate in the middle of the mountain, swaying around with our guns in a big way. The enemy has doubts about us , but I was afraid of offending the "regular army" and couldn't bear it, so I just bluffed on the top of the mountain. When they bluffed, the clever sentry scolded them with a Sichuan accent, and they were merciless. The enemy saw that bluffing didn't work, and occasionally let it go Gun, our sentinel still stood in a conspicuous place and did not withdraw, pretending to be angry, reprimanding the enemy domineeringly: I am from the search team of the 81st Army, if you shoot me a bit, you bastard, we will not be finished! Just like this. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the troops got up and had dinner. Before five o'clock, the enemy withdrew.

"We use the magic weapon of guerrilla tactics to deal with the enemy and fight wits and courage. We rest in secret during the day and carry out activities at night, stop and go, and go from east to west. Make false appearances to confuse the enemy, if you are forced to fight, do not fight, and if you want to fight, concentrate all firepower to deal a heavy blow to the enemy. "On April 10, we finally got in touch with the local guerrillas. Joining forces with the guerrillas made us even more powerful, like a duck in water. "We sent people to investigate the deployment of enemy troops, troop mobilization, establishment and equipment, combat capabilities, command system, artillery positions, ship activities, terrain traffic, inland river grain stations, internal information and folk customs, etc. Some of this information was drawn into charts, and some of it was passed through The radio stations continuously spread to the north of the Yangtze River, providing a strong basis for the main force to formulate an operational plan for crossing the river and for the commander to make a timely and correct determination to cross the river..."

Mu Sirong was the chief of the reconnaissance section of the army at the time. He and Zhang Chen respectively led the troops to the opposite bank. All the personnel arrived at the enemy's stronghold, disrupted the communication, and destroyed the enemy's command post. According to the recollection of a veteran soldier who participated in this operation, when they cut off the enemy's 88th Army's front command post leading to the divisions and telephone lines, the enemy's command was completely interrupted, and they were in a mess, mistakenly thinking that our army The main force had already crossed the river, and they were so frightened that they abandoned their formation and fled.

According to a prisoner's confession, when he saw that the company commander couldn't get through to the battalion commander, he yelled and said, "Brothers, run for your life!"The communist army crossed the river, and the battalion headquarters ran away.The soldiers were terrified when they heard this, abandoned their positions, and ran away, all scrambling for their lives... When the commander of the enemy 88th Army heard the sound of gunfights near the command post, he could not get through a phone, so he hurriedly sent a squad to He checked the line, but he didn't come back. He felt that the situation was not good, so he ran away in the car.

When Qi Jinhu, the reconnaissance hero, took four comrades to the enemy's forward position to catch his tongue, the enemy's defenses were tightly guarded and it was difficult to approach.It was a stormy night, and he asked a comrade-in-arms to guard the boat by the river. He, Song Xieyi, and Wang Linfang walked into the enemy bunkers. They walked about 33 meters forward, and gunshots came from the river. "Something went wrong," he said, "the enemy has spotted our ship." Wang Linfang, who was following behind him, asked, "What shall we do?" "Go to the riverside quickly."

The three of them ran around in the dark night, the gunfire became more and more intense, and the shouts of the enemy were already heard. Qi Jinhu jumped down from a hillside and knocked over a person while running forward.He thought it was Song Xieyi, so he stretched out his hand and said, "Old Song, get up!" The black shadow scolded: "Bastard! What old Song, you don't even know your company commander? Go to the riverside, the communist army has crossed the river!" Qi Jinhu took his time and ran towards the river. After reaching the river, the small wooden boat that sent them had disappeared.The three of them came here one after another to stand in the rain and discuss countermeasures.Qi Jinhu said: "Don't be afraid, we can't go back now, but the enemy hasn't found us, so we can only stay on this small island temporarily." Song Xieyi said: "Platoon Leader Qi, the situation on this small island has not been clarified yet. It is right for us to stay, but this place is too small. We have to find a safe place to hide as soon as possible." So the three of them walked on again.After turning a big corner, Wang Linfang, who was walking in front, suddenly said: "Look, there is a small house in front, and the lights are still on." Song Xieyi said: "I can't go, maybe there are enemies inside." Qi Jinhu gestured for them not to speak, and walked forward for a while. When he was approaching, Qi Jinhu looked up at the terrain for a while and said: "We can go in and take a look. I guess there are no enemies." Song Xieyi said: "That's not necessarily the case, you still have to be careful." "This is a single house, the target is obvious, there is no protection around, the enemy dare not live here." "Let's go and have a look." They walked over and walked around the hut, and after they found out that it was a private house, they went up and knocked on the door. It was a white-haired old man who came to open the door. He looked at the three people who were drenched in rain, and let him in without saying anything.Only then did he realize that they were not wearing Kuomintang military uniforms. His wife sitting on the bed looked at them and asked: "Who are you?" Qi Jinhu said: "Old lady, to tell you the truth, we are the People's Liberation Army." The old man stared at them in a daze. Qi Jinhu explained again: "It was the New Fourth Army back then." "A team from the Communist Party?" "yes." "Someone shot just now, was it you?" "Yes, we just came from the riverside." "The army of the Communist Party is better than that of the Kuomintang!" They live here temporarily.But they couldn't move during the day, and the enemy searched very strictly, so they could only conduct reconnaissance at night. A few days later, the enemy drove the two old men to the south bank to build fortifications.Unable to hide, they hid again in a wheat field more than a foot high, with nothing to eat. A few days later, they risked their lives to come to the river, paddled a big wooden basin and floated to the other side...