Chapter 6 5. Capture 5 cities outside Changzhi

At noon on September 1, Xiangyuan City, the gate of the Shangdang, was knocked open with powerful fists by Li Da, a man from Shaanxi. Liu, Deng, and Zhang Jichun entered the newly recovered city of Xiangyuan.They held an emergency military meeting in Yinwei Hall on the east side of the second hall of the county office, and decided on the strategy of the Shangdang campaign: first capture the surrounding cities of Changzhi, beat the enemies who came to aid from Changzhi, and then capture Changzhi.The combat period is 1 month. After the meeting, Deng Xiaoping immediately rushed back to the headquarters of the Chi'an Village Military Region, and commanded the southern Hebei troops led by Chen Zaidao and Du Yide and the Taiyue troops led by Chen Geng to gather in the Shangdang area.

At 2 a.m. on September 10, the Shangdang Campaign was officially launched.The situation our army faced at that time was that the six cities in the Shangdang area occupied by the Yan army were deployed with Changzhi as the center and heavily guarded, while the remaining five cities were guarded by more than a thousand people each, and their troops were relatively scattered. Strong firepower equipment.However, our army has been engaged in guerrilla warfare for a long time, with backward weapons and equipment, a shortage of guns and ammunition, and a lack of corps combat experience in urban battles.Therefore, our army decided that the first stage of the campaign was mainly to seize cities and fight for aid, that is, to concentrate superior forces, first capture cities other than Changzhi, and at the same time induce the main force of the enemy in Changzhi to come out of the city for reinforcements, thereby annihilating the enemy's main force in mobile warfare.

Our army first launched the battle to conquer Tunliu City.The Taihang Column was responsible for the tough battle of Tunliu. At the same time, the Taiyue Column and the Southern Hebei Column were assembled in several places where the enemy must pass from Changzhi to Tunliu, ready to annihilate the enemy who sent aid from Changzhi at any time. The rest of the troops monitored and surrounded the eldest son , Huguan and other cities.On the enemy's side, the garrison of Tunliu City was Yan Jun's sixth column, more than a thousand people. They leaned against the city wall and fortifications, suppressed our army's attack with strong firepower, and the battle was more intense.During this period, the enemy of Changzhi dispatched more than 6,000 people to try to reinforce Tunliu twice on the 11th and 12th, but in the end they were afraid of being wiped out, and some of our reinforcement troops were exposed prematurely. Retract Changzhi.On the 12th, I conquered Tunliu and wiped out the defending enemy. At the same time, I decided to take advantage of the victory to capture the eldest son and attract the enemy of Changzhi to send aid to destroy it.

The eldest son is located 50 Huali southwest of Changzhi.The city is not big, but the fortifications are strong: the city wall is 2.5 feet high; along the city there is a moat more than 3 meters wide and 2 meters deep, with water accumulated in the moat; Shoot directly and sideways; there are also barbed wire fences and mines outside the city walls, which are heavily guarded and difficult to attack.The enemy in the city is Yan Jun's second column and the county's two security brigades, with a total of more than 2,100 people.However, our army has just switched from guerrilla warfare to fortified warfare. It lacks experience and has little ammunition. A mountain cannon has only 20 rounds of shells, and a heavy machine gun has more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. It is obviously difficult to attack such a strong castle.

The 386th brigade of Chen Geng's Taiyue column took on the task of attacking the eldest son. In order to strengthen the attack force, Chen Geng also assigned the 38th regiment of the 1st brigade to the command of the brigade.At the pre-war military preparation meeting, Chen Geng pointed out: "Our troops do not have good experience in attacking fortifications and ascending cities. We must be honest in organizing battles, and we must not be negligent or reckless!" Hand grenades, we must pay special attention to tactics, and use short and intensive artillery fire to cover the troops to enter the city in one fell swoop..." After the meeting, Liu Zhong, the commander of the 386 brigade, and Zhang Zuliang, the political commissar, called the cadres above the group to carefully study the situation of the enemy and us, and made specific deployments: The 772 regiment first captured the eldest son Beiguan, and then ascended the city at the north gate; the independent regiment of Qinshui County pretended to attack the east gate to contain the enemy; the 20th and 38th regiments first occupied Xiguan, and then launched an attack from the west gate.

At about 1:00 on September 13, the battle for the eldest son started.The battle in the west of the city went relatively smoothly, and the 20th regiment captured Xiguan after 5 hours of fighting.Then the 38th regiment also approached the city.But the 772 regiment in the north fought extremely hard. Their regiment attacked Beigaomiao. It was a lonely and steep hill with a strong castle. It was an important barrier for the eldest son to defend the enemy. Artillery fire can cross the city wall and shoot directly to the streets in the city.Defending the enemy relied on favorable terrain and fortifications to resist, and the four attacks of the 772 regiment failed.

After careful investigation, the 772 regiment adjusted its deployment in time, and decided to take advantage of its good night combat and take advantage of the shortcomings of simple fortifications and weak defenses on the south side of Beigao Temple near the city gate to launch an offensive at night.On the third night of the battle against the eldest son, this unit, which has enjoyed the title of "Night Tiger Regiment" since the Second Civil Revolutionary War, with the strength of one platoon, took advantage of the dark night to touch the enemy from the unexpected south. After going up to Beigao Temple, after a short period of fierce fighting, our army occupied Beigao Temple, smashed the eldest son's barrier, and captured Beiguan.So far, all the troops have successively transferred to the siege preparations.

Our siege troops organized ladder teams, springboard teams, bombing teams, etc., made springboards, ladders and other climbing equipment, and carried out tunnel operations in Xiguan and Beiguan, dug the tunnels leading to the city wall, and stuffed a lot of explosives at the base of the walls. .After rigorous preparations, at 19:00 on the 18th, I launched a general attack on the eldest son city. As two green signal flares shot across the sky, there was a loud noise, and a gap was blasted in the city wall of the west gate. At the same time, mountain artillery, mortars, and heavy machine guns concentrated their fire to suppress the enemy. After crossing the barbed wire, rushing through the moat from the springboard, and putting the ladder on the wall, the assault troops reached the top of the city in just 10 minutes.

Immediately afterwards, the 772nd Regiment, the 38th Regiment, and the Qinshui County Independent Regiment also entered the city one after another, developed in depth, and launched fierce street battles with the enemy. After repelling the enemy's counterattack several times, the 20th regiment seized the commanding heights in the city - the Bell and Drum Tower, thus effectively supporting the street fighting of the regiments.The battle ended at 2 o'clock in the morning on the 19th. Except for a security brigade defending the enemy at Nangaomiao, all the others were wiped out. More than 300 enemies were killed and injured, and more than 1,500 people were captured alive. Bai Yingzhan.

From the beginning of the Battle of Tunliu, every time I attacked a city, I used other main forces to gather at the mobile position, preparing to annihilate the enemy who sent aid from Changzhi, so as to realize the intention of besieging the city and fighting for aid.However, since the battle of the eldest son, the enemies of Changzhi never dared to send aid again, and our army could not realize its intention of fighting for aid.Therefore, Liu Deng temporarily abandoned the original plan, and instead adopted the policy of dividing troops and accelerating the capture of the outer cities of Changzhi to isolate Changzhi. On the 17th, the Southern Hebei Column captured Lucheng; on the 19th, the Taihang Column captured Huguan.So far, the surrounding cities of Changzhi: Xiangyuan, Tunliu, Lucheng, Changzi, and Huguan have all been conquered by us, and more than 7,000 enemies have been wiped out. The enemies of Changzhi have been completely isolated and become helpless crabs.Our armies from all walks of life approached the city of Changzhi.