Chapter 75 2. Song Xilian was defeated and captured

Before Chiang Kai-shek left northern Sichuan, the 5th Corps of the Second Field of the People's Liberation Army had set off from Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, and secretly marched from Hunan to Guizhou. On October 13, the Fourth Field Army transferred the order of the Second Field Front Committee, ordering the 5th Corps to go straight out of Guizhou after the liberation of Guangzhou, quickly occupy Guiyang, and cut off the enemy's retreat. After the troops took action, Yang Yong, the commander of the 5th Corps, and Su Zhenhua, the political commissar, immediately ordered all military radio stations to stop working and not to reveal the whereabouts of the troops. Communications can be conveyed through the radio stations of the four field troops.In this way, the enemy has no way of knowing their activities.

Guizhou is the junction of the defense lines of Hu Zongnan and Bai Chongxi's troops. It is a weak link in the enemy's defense line. He Shaozhou's 19th Corps is stationed. Its 49th Army and 89th Army are scattered on the Hunan-Guizhou Highway and Guiyang to Panxian. He Yingqin's nephew, He Shaozhou, is also a young general. He participated in the warlord melee in Guizhou with his uncle in the early years and made a lot of achievements. After Yang Yong assembled in Shaoyang, Hunan, according to the Sichuan-Guizhou combat order of Chief Liu Deng, on November 4, the 16th and 17th armies launched an attack on He Shaozhou's troops.

Frightened by the approaching PLA, He Shaozhou left Guiyang on the 13th without firing a few shots, and fled in the direction of Panxian and Bijie. On November 14, Guiyang was liberated. On November 11, Liu and Deng sent a telegram to Yang Yong and Su Zhenhua: After the 5th Corps occupied Guiyang City, the troops should not rest for more than 3 days, and the main force should go straight out of Bijie and advance westward. Liu and Deng also emphasized: "The focus of the current campaign is still to isolate Song Xilian's four armies and Luo Guangwen's three armies from retreating to Yunnan, and strive to annihilate them on the south bank of the Yangtze River."

The troops marched in the rain for days, trudging between the dangerous mountains and peaks, which was quite difficult. For this reason, Liu and Deng also instructed: "I hope to pay attention to encouraging morale, using modern oceans, and ensuring the soldiers' supplies and health. Don't lose the big because of small things." .4 renminbi of oil and salt and 1 catty of vegetables per person per day are absolutely indispensable. Most important, most important.” On the 14th, they sent a telegram to Yin Xianbing, commander of the 16th Army, to move to Qingzhen and the area west of Guiyang immediately after occupying Guiyang, and to prepare to continue westward. Stay in Guiyang.

On November 30, Yang Yong led the frontline command post of the 5th Corps and set off from Guiyang City to fight in Sichuan. At 8 o'clock in the evening, the command post entered Bijie. On December 2, Yang Yong ordered the 16th Army to attack Leshan according to the instructions of the head of the Second Field, and was responsible for capturing the triangle area of ​​Leshan, Emei, and Jiajiang. Order the 18th Army to attack Leshan from Yibin. On December 7, all the 16th Army crossed the Yangtze River and wiped out more than 2,500 enemies along the way. The 18th Army also marched toward Yibin along Zhenxiong, Luobiao, and Gongxian counties. On December 10, the 72nd Army of Yibin Defending the Enemy declared an uprising under the leadership of General Guo Ruhuai. The 18th Army took over with one part, and the main force quickly crossed the Yangtze River.

At this time, Song Xilian had been severely injured in eastern Sichuan, and ran faster when he met Yang Yong's corps, but Yang Yong's corps still wiped out the 7,000 remnants led by Song Xilian on the way to the north. At this time, Song Xilian was in such a state of embarrassment that he no longer wore the uniform of the lieutenant general, but wore straw sandals barefoot, soaked through, and disheveled. At the same time, the Erye 3 Corps also launched an attack on Song Xilian's tribe in southeast Sichuan.The time is November 1st. The armies from all walks of life rushed to catch up, and attacked from multiple directions in a section about 1,000 kilometers wide from Badong in the north to Tianzhu in the south, completely disrupting the southwestern defense line that the Kuomintang painstakingly managed.

At this time, Song Xilian only had the 14th Corps commanded by Zhong Bin and the 20th Corps commanded by Chen Kefei. Most of them were formed only a few months ago, and their combat effectiveness was very poor.Only the 2nd Army of Chen Kefei Corps is equipped with American equipment, with a long history and strong strength. It is impossible to fight recklessly, what should we do, Song Xilian has been chased to nowhere by the People's Liberation Army, he said to his subordinates: "We must never fight a decisive battle with the Communist Army. If there is a decisive battle, we will definitely be wiped out."

In desperation, he had no choice but to adopt a purely defensive combat policy. Therefore, when the 42nd Army, 47th Army, and 50th Army attached to the Three Corps and the Four Fields launched a pincer attack on the Song Dynasty from western Hubei and Xiangxi, the Song Dynasty was almost collapsed at the touch of a finger. By November 15th, the People's Liberation Army had almost eaten up four divisions of the Song Xilian Group. Seeing that the general situation was over, Song Xilian complained about Chiang Kai-shek, and then retreated from the west of Hubei to Qianjiang and Peng in eastern Sichuan. Water area.

Pengshui County is located on the east bank of the Wujiang River, surrounded by mountains. It is a distribution center for goods in eastern Sichuan, and it used to be prosperous.Since ancient times, it has also been a place where military strategists have often fought. When the remnants of the national army retreat here, it is still the common people who suffer. The masses of the people were afraid of Song Xilian's troops, and many people went into the mountains before the gunfire.Business here used to be booming, and there were many ferries and wooden boats coming and going. However, when Song Xilian arrived in Pengshui, he found that there was no civilian boat on the river.

Standing on the river, he saw a small steamship dedicated to hauling cars, and a small wooden ferry boat, moving slowly on the river. The reason for the absence of boats was that the masses had fled, and the second was that his own Suishuo logistics organization had requisitioned dozens of civilian boats, loaded them with luggage and supplies, and headed downstream. The rain was still falling, and the river was foggy. He stood on the bank feeling disappointed, staring at the river in a daze. The retreating troops kept pouring in, and the entire Pengshui County was in a world of routs, and the common people fled.

Song Xilian set up the command post in an ancient temple to the east of Pengshui. Every day he watched the troops rushing through in a daze, feeling extremely anxious. On the morning of the 17th, Song Xilian and Chen Kefei, commander of the Corps, crossed the river. After crossing the river, Song and Chen sat on a bench, watching helplessly as the troops continued to cross the river. Song Xilian sat dumbfounded. He took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket, lit it and took a few puffs. He said: "The Beiyang warlord system headed by Yuan Shikai is finished in 30 years. I think the Whampoa system headed by our principal is almost 30 years old." It’s been a year, and it seems like it’s time to die. It’s a 30-year cycle, it’s destiny, it’s fate.” Chen Kefei also graduated from Whampoa, he nodded and said, "Yes, this is also a catastrophe for changing the dynasty!" It is conceivable that they all have this mentality, how can they win the battle? On November 14, Jiang and his son flew from Taiwan to Chongqing. On the 17th, Chiang Kai-shek sent Chiang Ching-kuo to take a secretary and an adjutant each, escorted by six military policemen, and take two jeeps to the front of eastern Sichuan to deliver a letter from Chiang Kai-shek to the front-line generals. Song Xilian's headquarters is located in Jiangkou Town, Wulong County. Song Xilian was flattered by Chiang Ching-kuo's arrival. This man was very loyal to Chiang Kai-shek. He knew that the endgame could not be saved, but he still brought Chen Kefei and Gu Baoyu, commander of the 124th Army, to meet Chiang Ching-kuo. Jiang Jingguo didn't say anything, but just handed the old man's letter to them.The letter was written by Chiang Kai-shek to the six generals of the Whampoa faction, including Zhong Bin, Chen Kefei, and Gu Baoyu. The content is nothing more than instructions to encourage them to carry forward the Whampoa spirit, follow the prime minister's legacy, persevere to the end, and defeat the Communist bandits. After all, it was the old man's handwritten letter, and they looked very encouraged after reading it. One after another said: I vow to die to be a soldier who will succeed or be benevolent. Jiang Jingguo was very happy to hear that, and hurried back to Chongqing to return to his command. The People's Liberation Army has surrounded them, and it is very difficult to escape. What is the use of determination? That night, the People's Liberation Army captured Pengshui County. From the 19th to the 22nd, the main force of the 3rd Army of the Second Field and the 47th Army of the Fourth Field wiped out the 14th Army of the Song Dynasty in the northeast of Xianfeng. Zhong Bin, commander of the Corps, was captured alive by the People's Liberation Army on his way down the river in a civilian boat. When Song Xilian heard the news, he was fleeing along Baima Mountain, and the gunfire of the People's Liberation Army on the opposite side of the mountain could be clearly heard. At the critical moment, one tire of Song Xilian’s jeep was blown up, and there was no spare tire. Song Xilian went around the jeep three times in a hurry, turned left three times, turned right three times, and said to the driver with his fist: “You have to fix it within 10 minutes, or else I will shoot you!" Chen Kefei rushed over from behind, threw the spare tire to Song's driver, and ran away first. At noon on November 23, Song Xilian left Baimachang and arrived in Nanchuan at dusk. At this time, the People's Liberation Army was not far from Nanchuan. Song Xilian had only one way to escape.At this time, there were only two armies around him.Song Xilian negotiated secretly with his two army commanders and several staff members. The first step was to go to Xichang; the second step was to retreat to the Tengchong area on the Yunnan-Myanmar border. In order to escape secretly, he stipulated that from the date of the operation, the radio station is prohibited from contacting the Ministry of Defense and other stations. In the next few days, Chiang Kai-shek no longer knew where Song Xilian was fighting.When he was anxiously inquiring about the situation in the Southwest in Taiwan, General Song had become a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army. On November 25, Nanchuan was liberated. On the 28th, the People's Liberation Army used pincers to annihilate the remnants of Song Xilian and about 30,000 people from the Luo Guangwen Department of the 108th Army in the area north of Nanchuan. On December 15, Song Xilian, who managed to escape from the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, led more than 7,000 people and fled in the direction of Qianwei. Unfortunately, this news happened to be learned by Yin Fatang, head of the 115th Regiment of the 18th Army of the Yang Yong Corps, who was attacking north. He immediately led his troops to outflank and surround him on the 15th. After several hours of fierce fighting, more than 4,000 people from the Song Dynasty were wiped out. There are more than 3400 people.Song Xilian took these remnants and defeated generals and fled in the direction of Longsanchi. As a result, on December 19, it was stopped by the 139th Regiment of the 18th Army, which traveled day and night. As soon as they crossed the Dadu River, they were surrounded by the People's Liberation Army.Song Xilian saw the People's Liberation Army rushing towards him shouting, and he was very embarrassed at this moment.The clothes on my body were soaked by the rain for several days; the hair that was always combed neatly before was now loose, dripping with rain; a pair of leather shoes had been lost a few days ago, and I was wearing a pair of straw sandals on bare feet , covered in mud... There is no way out.But he didn't want to be a prisoner of the communist army.He drew his pistol and pointed it at himself.His guard platoon leader Yuan Dinghou grabbed them and yelled: "Sir, you can't do this!" At this moment, a PLA soldier rushed over and pointed a gun at them: "Don't move!" Song Xilian is also a very optimistic person. After being imprisoned in the prisoner-of-war camp, he still looked indifferent. At that time, the Communist Party still gave preferential treatment to these senior prisoners of war, and they still had freedom in life.Song Xilian followed the captive team from Leshan to the Bai Mansion in Ciqikou, Chongqing. He often played chess with his friends who were sent here at the same time, Zhong Bin, commander of his 14th Corps, and Wang Lingji, chairman of Sichuan Province. Care about gains and losses, argue. Wang Lingji laughed out loud at the seriousness of the two, and teased Song, "Thinking that at the beginning of the year when you became the director of the Sui Department, you gave up the position of commander of the Corps to Zhong Bin. Why don't you even give up a game of chess now?" Song Xilian was not happy: "These are completely different things, don't talk about them together." It's ridiculous that these defeated generals can only re-realize their dream of war on the chessboard. Chen Geng made a special trip from Kunming to Chongqing to see them. Chen and Song are old classmates and good friends of Whampoa Phase I.When Chen Geng was standing next to their chessboard, Song Xilian was blocking Zhong Bin's elephant eye with a pawn. Chen Geng couldn't help blurting out: "Good chess!" Song Xilian raised his head and was surprised when he saw Chen Geng.He never thought that Chen Geng would come to see him. The old friend reunited, although his hands were clasped tightly, but he was a defeated soldier, and the path he took was completely different, what else could he say. Song Xilian said embarrassingly: "Brother Chen, why don't you fight the war, and still have time to come and see me?" Chen Geng said with a smile: "There is no more war! You are all sitting here, and Lao Jiang ran away." Song Xilian asked, "What about Yunnan?" Chen Geng said: "Lu Han also revolted." Song Xilian blushed and said, "I'm ashamed. I couldn't change the flag."