Chapter 15 5. Pioneering work: the two corps cooperated in combat

It is the first time for the two troops to cooperate in large corps operations, whether it is for the Jinchaji troops or the Jinsui troops. How to do a good job in the coordinated operations of the campaign is a question that Nie Rongzhen and He Long have been thinking about.They jointly agreed on the specific deployment of this battle: Jinchaji troops attacked from east to west, first annihilated the enemies of Longshengzhuang and Zhanggao, and then defeated the enemies between Fengzhen and Jining one by one; Northward offensive, after eliminating the enemies of Liangcheng, Xintang, and Tiancheng villages, they launched an offensive in the direction of Jining;

On October 15, Nie Rongzhen issued an order for the Suiyuan Campaign, and then led his troops westward. On the 18th and 19th, various troops launched an offensive: the Hebei-Chahar-Hebei column took Longshengzhuang; the Jizhong column took Zhanggao, Sanshuiling, and Guancun; .Quickly capture the above points.At the same time, the troops of the Jinsui Military Region occupied Liangcheng, Xintang, Taolin and other places, and rushed towards Zhuozi Mountain. Under the joint attack of the troops of the two military regions, Fu Zuoyi hastily retracted, adopted the tactics of "retreat at one touch", and quickly concentrated on the base camp of Guisui.Due to the rapid retreat of Fu's troops, the Jinchaji and Jinsui combat troops failed to cut off the enemy's retreat, and gathered and wiped them out.The enemy concentrated heavy troops in the fortified city, which caused great difficulties in attacking the fortifications.

On October 22, the enemy's 35th Army Headquarters and 101st Division in Jining became alone.The old capital of Fu Zuoyi's start is the 35th Army, which is the designation Zhang Xueliang gave him back then.The main force of the 35th Army is the 101st Division.If this force is eliminated, it will be a heavy blow to Fu Zuoyi.Nie Rongzhen seized this opportunity and immediately decided to gather and annihilate the enemy with the two columns of Jicha and Jizhong. He ordered the Jicha column to immediately occupy the eighteen stations west of Jining to cut off the enemy's retreat; Yushuwan and Naobaoshan attacked Jining from the south and southwest. On the 23rd, the Jizhong column occupied Yushuwan and Naobaoshan, defeated a regiment of the 101st Division, and moved forward to the west of Jining with a force.The enemy's 35th Army Headquarters and 101st Division abandoned the city at night and fled westward. On the 24th, troops from the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region occupied Jining. On the 25th, the 1st Independent Brigade of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region intercepted the fleeing enemy in Jining in the northwest of Kuishengzhuang, but because the follow-up troops did not arrive in time, the enemy and our forces were too disparate. After fierce fighting, the enemy still fled.

On October 25th, the Shanxi-Sui troops fought a beautiful battle in Zhuozi Mountain, wiping out more than 4,000 people from the new 26th Division of the enemy.Nie Rongzhen immediately issued an order calling on the troops of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region to learn from the brothers. On the 20th, Nie Rongzhen's command post moved forward to Longshengzhuang. On the 26th, he met He Long, commander of the Jinsui Field Army.They arrived at Mount Zhuozi together.The troops of the two districts joined together. On the 27th, the Central Military Commission emphasized in a telegram to Nie and He: "This battle must achieve the goal of annihilating Fu Wan's main force. We should move our main force behind Fu Wan's position and fight from west to east before we can gather and annihilate them. According to this, Nie Rongzhen, He Long, and Li Jingquan determined the next step of combat deployment: in view of the retreat of about 6 enemy divisions into Guisui, it was decided to clear the periphery first, encircle and return to Sui, and then attack the city; another part of the force was sent to Baotou, Cut off Fubu's escape route to the west and return to Sui in isolation.

At the end of October, the troops of the two districts completed the encirclement of Guisui. In mid-November, 2 brigades from Jinsui and 1 brigade from the Jicha column began to attack Baotou.Nie Rongzhen set up a command post in Taobuqi to direct the siege operations.There are more than 24,000 people in 6 divisions of the enemy in Guisui, with sufficient food and ammunition reserves, and they are determined to stick to it.However, Nie Rongzhen's headquarters were all newly built, with no experience in large-scale combat and attacking fortifications, and lack of cannons.Soon, the battle situation was reported from the western front: the attack on Baotou was frustrated, and a cavalry division of Ma Hongkui in Ningxia went out to Linhe and approached Baotou.Under such circumstances, on November 13, he detoured from Taobuqi to the west of Guisui City to meet with He Long and Li Jingquan to discuss the next step.

Nie Rongzhen and He Long felt: Although our army has a slight advantage in Guisui and Baotou, it is difficult to supply troops for long-term expeditions, and it is difficult to plan for a long time, and it is very difficult to increase troops in the two areas. How inconvenient, it is of course best to take Baotou and return to Sui, otherwise it is not appropriate to stay under the strong city for a long time.They decided that He Long and Li Jingquan would lead the Jinsui troops westward to reinforce Baotou, and the Jinchaji troops would continue to besiege Guisui.The above deployment was reported to the Central Military Commission.The Central Military Commission replied on November 16, ordering Nie Rongzhen to lead the Jinchaji troops to march westward together with the Jinsui troops, leaving only a small number of troops in Guisui to control key points for flexible siege.If Baotou cannot be captured quickly, the Shanxi-Sui troops will advance westward to eliminate Ma Hongkui's reinforcements, and seize Wuyuan, Linhe, and Shanba; Draw the enemy out and seek field battles; after the Jinsui troops complete their missions, leave some troops to control Wuyuan, Linhe, and Shanba, and the main force will return to the east and attack back to Sui with the Jinchaji troops.

This is a plan to go all out to take Baotou and ignore it.Nie Rongzhen was quite worried about the success of this plan, and on November 17, he put forward the following proposals to the Central Military Commission in a realistic manner: First, if the main forces of the Jinchaji troops advance westward, the besieging troops will be at a disadvantage, and the enemy will definitely take the opportunity to counterattack. "Because Fu Jian defended Suicheng with the main force, not simply defending, but active defense, continuous and active attacks, trying to find opportunities to defeat us one by one... If our besieging troops turn into a disadvantage, the enemy will concentrate on counterattacking us. Then the whole war situation is in danger of deteriorating."

Second, if we use all the main forces to advance westward to capture Wuyuan, Linhe, and Shanba, then we will be divided into three battlefields, Guisui, Baotou, and Hetao, which are more than 800 li apart. difficult to cope with each other. Third, the Suiyuan area is not a base area. There is no solid rear supply line, food and ammunition cannot be transported quickly, and the evacuation of the wounded is also a big problem. Therefore, he advocated fighting a few battles first before looking at the situation, and ending the Suiyuan Campaign if necessary.The Central Military Commission replied on November 22, still advocating that the main force of Nie's troops move westward and concentrate their forces to capture Baotou.But he also pointed out that "we don't know the situation ahead", Xi Nie and He dealt with it according to the actual situation ahead.Since then, until the first ten days of December, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Sui forces have adopted the method of besieging the city and fighting for aid in Guisui and Baotou, repelling the 4th Cavalry Division of Guisui's attack; Baotou repelled the 10th Cavalry Division of Ma Hongkui's Department reinforcements, but not many enemies.At this time, the severe winter has come, and the troops are facing more and more difficulties.Therefore, with the consent of the Central Military Commission, Nie Rongzhen issued an order to end the Suiyuan Campaign on December 13.