Chapter 8 7. Pursue, annihilate and flee the enemy, and capture tens of thousands of people

Shi Zebo, who was trapped in Changzhi and longed for reinforcements to relieve the siege, when he first heard the news that Yan's 20,000 reinforcements were going south, he forwarded to his subordinates the so-called "Shangdang must fight, Changzhi must defend, reinforcements must arrive, and the rebels must come." "Must be destroyed" telegram, I want to use this to stabilize the morale of the army, and also to embolden myself.Shi Zebo once organized "death squads" to break through as many as 17 times.When the reinforcements were annihilated by me, the enemies of Changzhi became frightened and completely lost their confidence in standing firm.

In order to preserve his strength, Yan Xishan urgently ordered Shi Zebo to withdraw from Changzhi and break out westward before the main force of our army returned south, in an attempt to cross our Taiyue area and escape back to Fushan and Yicheng. On the evening of October 8, Shi Zebo took advantage of the heavy rain and thick fog, secretly abandoned the city and fled westward.However, the enemy's move was already expected by Liu Deng.In order to wipe out the enemies of Changzhi, when the enemy army had just abandoned the city and fled westward, our army immediately formed two elite troops in the reinforcement troops to pursue them in parallel.This began the third stage of the Shangdang Campaign, chasing and annihilating the fleeing enemy.

The two regiments of the Taihang Column pursued all the way regardless of fatigue. On October 10, they took the lead in catching up with the enemy's rear guard in Xianggou, Qinshui County. After an hour of fierce fighting, they captured more than 700 enemies and ate the enemy's tail.Then they chased to the Damiaozhuang area, bit the enemy's main force, and fought fiercely with the enemy in Damiaozhuang. At the same time, the Taiyue column far away in Xiangyuan also received orders to rush to Dongyu and Xiyu to intercept the enemy.Taiyue's troops immediately set off from Tuluo Village and advanced along Wuyuan and Zhangdian at the fastest speed.When they rushed to the East and West Valleys, unexpectedly the enemy had already passed, so the troops were divided into three groups: the 21st regiment went to Liangshan, the 20th and 38th regiments went to the valley, and the 772nd regiment walked along Zhangdian, Jiangjunling and Mabi alone. Go around the big bend and insert it.Finally, the enemy's escape route was blocked near Taochuan in Qinshui County. On October 10, the 772 regiment and the enemy exchanged fire at Jiangjunling, and the remaining three regiments of Taiyue troops also entered into battle at Fomiaoling at dawn on the 11th.At this time, the Taihang column who fought fiercely with the enemy at Damiaozhuang also followed, and the enemy was surrounded and compressed in the Taochuan area.

At 3:00 pm on October 12, our army launched a general offensive, and the battle ended in only 3 hours. Except for a few vanguard troops who fled, most of the enemy troops were wiped out, and nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers including Shi Zebo were taken prisoner. .So far, the Shangdang Campaign, which lasted more than 30 days and wiped out 13 enemy divisions and more than 35,000 people, ended successfully. Except for Qin County, all southeastern Shanxi areas were liberated. After the war, General Chen Geng, the commander of our Taiyue column, met with Commander Shi Zebo, explained to him the party's captive policy, and asked him: "What do you think is the reason for your defeat this time?" Shi Zebo, the defeated general, said with emotion: "During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, your army fought against the Japanese army in the Shangdang area. After Japan surrendered, it was wrong for us to seize the territory, but I didn't expect to fail so quickly. God help you!" General Chen Geng replied: "You are right. Yes! It is said that the heroes of Liangshanbo "walked the way for the sky", and we also "walked the way for the sky". Our "sky" is the people. We relied on the people to defeat the Japanese invaders, and we also relied on the people to defeat you. History proves that with If the people fight against you, you will inevitably fail! I hope you can make some contributions to the civil war against Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan in the future."

These words deeply touched Shi Zebo's heart, and our party's captive policy also gave him hope in life. Later, he led the senior generals captured in the joint Shangdang campaign to send a telegram to expose Jiang Yan's crime of instigating the civil war.