Chapter 77 4. Boss He led his troops into Sichuan

November 10, 1949. The office of the Military Control Commission in the ancient city of Xi'an.He Long was holding a pipe in one hand and reading a newspaper in the other, when the phone on his desk rang.He picked up the receiver and said hello. The call was from Zhou Shidi, commander of the 18th Corps, from the front line. Zhou Shidi said: "Boss He, Liu Deng's army is fighting very lively on the southern front. We have received reports from the frontline troops that the enemy has already begun to retreat." He Long put down the newspaper and said with a smile: "Why, are you in a hurry? The policy Chairman Mao set for us is slow first and then fast. Our task now is how to make the enemy escape slower. If you are in a hurry to chase, wouldn't Hu Zongnan ask for help? Withdrawing southward faster? Old Zhou, hold on to your strength, then you will fight the battle!"

The Central Military Commission decided to attack Hu Zongnan this time, and let the 18th Corps of the First Field take up the final pursuit task, under the unified command of He Long. The time is after the corps of the Second Field completed the big roundabout and outflank, surpassed the Qinling Mountains, and joined forces in Chengdu. The 18th Corps has jurisdiction over the 60th Army, 61st Army, and 62nd Army. The Corps Commander and Political Commissar Zhou Shidi, Deputy Commander and Deputy Political Commissar Wang Xinting, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff Chen Manyuan, and Director of the Political Department Hu Yaobang.

Hu Yaobang can not only do ideological and political work, but also fight wars.His cousin, Yang Yong, was commanding the 5th Corps of the Second Field at this time, outflanking Hu Zongnan's rear from the Tingqian line. The good news from Erye has not yet come, and the opportunity to enter Sichuan has not yet arrived, so He Long had to wait patiently in Xi'an. On November 15, Guiyang was liberated. On November 19, Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered Hu Zongnan's group to withdraw southward from the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains into Sichuan, and airlifted the 1st Army to Chongqing.

On November 28, the main force of Song Xilian and Luo Guangwen Group was wiped out. On November 30, Chongqing was liberated. The time to pursue the fleeing enemy has finally come. "Move out immediately and pursue them fiercely!" Boss He issued the pursuit order. On December 3, the 18th Corps divided into three groups and began to pursue southward pursuit operations. Right road: the 62nd Army pursues south through Bikou, Motianling, and Jiangyou; Middle Road: the 60th Army pursues south along the Sichuan-Shaanxi Highway; Left road: the 61st Army pursues south from the south of Gucheng over Daba Mountain; the 7th Army pursues south from the Tianshui area Advance southward in two ways: one way to Chengdu, and cooperate with the 62nd Army on the right to fight; the other way to Huixian and Luoyang, to cooperate with the 60th Army in the middle.

The army of the three routes traveled day and night, traveling hundreds of miles a day, flying over Daba Mountain, breaking through Jianmen Pass, and crossing the Jialing River. After a difficult journey, they finally arrived at the assembly area encircled by Chengdu 10 days ahead of schedule. Armies from all walks of life marched into Sichuan, surrounded Hu Zongnan's group and the remnants of the Sichuan border, and surrounded them in the Chengdu Basin, making them unable to move. On December 15, the 110th Regiment of the 4th Corps of the People's Liberation Army occupied the two villages of Buyitou and Heilongtan, and wiped out the two battalions of the 578th Regiment.

When An Yufeng, the leading battalion commander of the People's Liberation Army, led his messengers into the enemy's artillery position, the enemy asked, "Password?" Battalion Commander An said loudly: "My own people, why are you barking?" After approaching, he shouted loudly: "We are the People's Liberation Army!" The enemy artillerymen were frightened and replied repeatedly: "The People's Liberation Army is better. We have long wanted to find the People's Liberation Army." With that said, he took four artillery pieces and surrendered.

They also helped the People's Liberation Army shout: "The People's Liberation Army has arrived!" The entire artillery battalion surrendered. When the enemy battalion commander found out that only two People's Liberation Army had arrived, it was too late to regret, and he whispered to the subordinate who took the lead in surrendering: "You are so fucking cowardly for lying about the military situation." Then, Battalion Commander An led his troops to disarm another infantry battalion in the same way. On December 25, Commander Chen of the Second Battalion of the 539th Regiment of the 180th Division of the 18th Corps led three squads of four companies and two platoons and one reconnaissance squad of the regiment. The task of an artillery battalion of the enemy army.

When the car drove to Lianshan Town, the situation changed. Enemies were everywhere inside and outside the town, on both sides of the road, and there were about ten thousand people.Is this our surrender object?When Battalion Commander Chen thought about it, he felt something was wrong. It is impossible for a battalion to have so many. Unable to retreat, he ordered to move on.When the car was only 20 to 30 meters away, these national army troops were still sitting and lying down without moving.From their exhausted looks, one could tell that they had traveled a long distance. A messenger ran over, stood at attention, and reported to Chen Kefei: "Sir, our army commander sent me to contact you. We are the temporary 8th Army that just arrived from Hubei. May I ask you..."

When the enemy has not figured it out, he needs to make a decisive decision. Commander Chen waved his hand and said, "Fight!" The fighters jumped out of the car and threw themselves on the enemy.The enemy army woke up like a dream, and ran away with their heads in their hands, unable to parry. While firing his guns, Battalion Commander Chen divided the forces of the four squads into three groups: Attack all the way to the location of the enemy commander; rush all the way into the town; all the way to a large area of ​​enemies outside the town. All the soldiers vigilantly grabbed almost all of the enemy's machine guns, and shouted while shooting: "We are the People's Liberation Army, surrender your guns and don't kill them, treat the prisoners leniently, don't run, stand aside obediently!"

The shouts of the People's Liberation Army were everywhere in the valley.This cry really worked. The enemy thought it was the main force of the communist army, so they surrendered one after another. Battalion Commander Chen is truly a bold man with a high skill. Four squads of soldiers can't stand against an army's strength, not to mention firing guns, even if they run towards them. The point is, they don't know how much the PLA has come.I just feel that bullets are shooting at me from many directions. Liu Yinghai, a soldier from Squad Six, rushed into a yard by himself. Five minutes later, he handed over the guns of a battalion and walked out with more than 300 prisoners.

Battalion Commander Chen divided the captives into officers and soldiers and put them under custody in two places. At this time, the enemies who had not disarmed began to be vigilant and counterattacked from several directions. The enemy counterattacking to the west highland was rushing to the sixth squadron highland. One guy climbed up to the sixth squadron's position. As soon as he straightened up, he took a bayonet from Liu Yinghai and rolled down the slope. Seeing this, many enemies lay on the ground and could not shout. Liu Yinghai shouted at the enemy below: "Get up and surrender, you are welcome." A company commander lying on the ground said, "Okay, just don't shoot." As he spoke, he held a white towel on the spear and led a group of national troops with their heads bowed, and raised their hands to surrender. The commander of the Temporary Eighth Army was very cunning. He disguised himself as a farmer and fled with a group of defeated soldiers surrounded by his cronies. Unexpectedly, the four squads of the People's Liberation Army defeated an enemy army and captured more than 2,200 people.This is also unique in the history of world war. He Long led his troops to pursue the enemy's record is brilliant. The Corps' 180th Division and 552nd Regiment's intelligent annihilation of Hu Zongnan's Ace 38th Army is a good story in the Liberation of the Great Southwest Campaign. It was January 1950, and the Southwest Campaign was drawing to a close. Many Kuomintang troops either surrendered or revolted. However, Li Zhenxi, the commander of the 38th Army, was a diehard. He ignored He Long's letter to persuade him to surrender, and led the remnants to flee to the Maowen area, intending to sneak abroad along the deep mountains and dense forests. The 38th Army is the trump card of the Hu Zongnan Group. It used to be the main force and followed General Hu to northern Shaanxi. Li Zhenxi led the remnants to flee, and the 180th Division asked the superiors to quickly send the 552nd Regiment Reconnaissance Company, which was rushing to repair Dujiangyan, to cross Mao County and intercept the 38th Army of the Hu Division. In mid-January, the 552 regiment went northward along the Minjiang River from Guanxian County, and rushed towards the Maowen area. On the morning of the 19th, the troops entered near the county seat of Maoxian County and learned that the main force of the 38th Army had fled to Huilong Mountain in the east of Maoxian County. The whole regiment and mules and horses marched into the county at dawn. They walked back and forth on the street a few times, people yelling and horses yelling, creating an illusion, giving people the feeling that thousands of troops are stationed in the city. On the evening of the 20th, the main force of the regiment launched an attack on Huilongshan. When contacted by the radio station of the People's Liberation Army, they called the regiment headquarters "Mao County Advance Headquarters", the division-directed reconnaissance company and each battalion were called "XX Divisions", and the six ethnic minority detachments (one or two hundred people in each detachment) that cooperated with each other called "XX Division". "Independent First Regiment... Sixth Regiment". The attacking troops called out the titles of the above-mentioned troops and commanders loudly at the foot of the mountain, which made Li Zhenxi on the mountain startled when he heard it from the radio, and couldn't tell how many people from the PLA had come. The two sides confronted each other until dawn on the 22nd. Several enemies came down from the mountain with white flags. The second battalion sentry shouted sharply: "Stop, what are you doing?" "No, don't shoot. Please talk to the commander of the People's Liberation Army. Our commander has something to say." "Who is here?" "Deputy Division Commander, the representative sent by Commander Li." "Come here two people, the rest are not allowed to move." The enemy's deputy commander came over with an adjutant, and the regiment sent two government officials to negotiate with them as the head of the headquarters. The deputy division commander said: "Our Commander Li is very grateful for Commander He's lenient policy, and asks both sides to cease fire first, and Commander Li is willing to lead his troops to revolt." The "Director" of the People's Liberation Army laughed loudly, and said, "What time is it, are you still talking about the uprising? Go back and tell Li Zhenxi that you are only allowed to surrender, not to revolt, and you must beat us to the end." And put forward specific surrender matters and conditions.The deputy commander said: "Please don't fire, don't fire, brother go back and report to Commander Li." The deputy teacher ran back to the mountain, and Li Zhenxi hurriedly asked, "How is it?" He said: "There are communist troops everywhere, it will be impossible if you don't surrender!" Li Zhenxi didn't make a statement, and persisted for more than an hour. At noon, he sent the deputy army commander and the previous deputy division commander down the mountain to sign the surrender. Regiment Chang Jianggang and political commissar Zhang Min received them as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of Maoxian County.Fortunately, the People's Liberation Army at that time did not have rank marks. When they arrived at the command post of the regiment, Li Zhenxi and others still hadn't figured out how many people there were in the PLA. They saw with their own eyes that many wires were pulled around the station of the regiment, many bamboo poles were erected on the house, and many "antennas" were erected to show that the headquarters had Several radio stations were working, and many soldiers coming in and out were calling for a certain minister and a certain director. So far, the 38th Army of Hu Zongnan Group, with a total of more than 5,000 officers and soldiers, walked out of the valley and put all the well-equipped American weapons and equipment on the ground. Li Zhenxi leaned on crutches, bowed to the "commander" and "political commissar" of the People's Liberation Army, and then sighed, "We have failed." Commander Jiang Gang said: "If you are one step late, we will launch a general offensive." Li Zhenxi said: "Yes! Yes! Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. If you can fight, you will fight, and if you can't fight, you will surrender! But I, Li Zhenxi, can finally be worthy of Chiang Kai-shek. I can't even raise an uprising, so I can only be a general." This person's image is embarrassing, and his speech is humorous, which makes everyone laugh. A regiment is in charge of an army, and mutiny may happen at any time. Just in case, the regiment's staff carefully marked an interesting marching route map and sent it to the enemy division headquarters. The reconnaissance company and each battalion were marked as ×× divisions, and the divisions of Li Zhenxi's army were inserted in the middle to march, and the minority detachment was marked as six independent regiments, which marched on the left and right mountain ridges and served as flank guards.Until the troops returned to the Guanxian garrison. Only then did Li Zhenxi know that his majestic trump card, the 38th Army, fell into the hands of a regiment of the People's Liberation Army. He said: "Damn it, damn it! I'm so stupid!" Zhang Min, political commissar of the regiment, said: "Why, Commander Li is not convinced? We can pull back to Huilong Mountain and practice with Commander Li again!" Li Zhenxi hurriedly waved his hands and said, "No, no, brother admires your army, admires, admires..."