Chapter 73 9. A loss of Nie Rongzhen

When the Li Wen Corps was blocked on the Eastern Front, Chiang Kai-shek played a trick of "luting it with profit" and ordered Zhangjiakou to be included in the 12th theater, which greatly stimulated Fu Zuoyi's enthusiasm.Therefore, he mobilized 20,000 troops to avoid the fortified areas of the Jin-Cha-Hebei troops on the western front, crossed hundreds of miles of grassland from Jining to the east, and suddenly appeared in the Zhangbei area north of Zhangjiakou. Zhang Bei. The intelligence department failed to discover the enemy's sneak attack.Peng Fujiu, director of the Second Bureau of the headquarters, was always concerned about Fu Zuoyi's attack on Zhangbei. Chiang Kai-shek's unified cipher was used, and he had another set of his own. Chiang's telegram was legitimate, but Fu's telegram was deliberately turned upside down, inserting the time and signature into the message, making it very difficult to decipher.

Peng Fujiu also learned: Fu Zuoyi did not have a deciphering mechanism, but set up several radio stations to find the direction, listened to the direction and sound of the radio, and learned from this that the People's Liberation Army had the main force in the southwest of Zhangjiakou, but it was empty in the north of Zhangjiakou. It should be said that Nie Rongzhen had a mistake in the direction of Zhangbei. He only deployed a regiment to guard the Wanquan area, and asked Zhangbei's local troops to "pay attention to the disturbance of the enemy cavalry in the west."Later, Nie Rongzhen reviewed and said: "We were prepared for Fu Zuoyi's strategy of advancing eastward through Fengzhen, Datong, and Yanggao to respond to Huailai, but we underestimated his direct entry into Zhangbei from Jining and Shangyi." (Nie Rongzhen Memoirs", People's Liberation Army Press, March 1986, 2nd Edition, p. 639) Therefore, the plan to annihilate the enemy on the Eastern Front was not fully realized.Fu Zuoyi's sneak attack was better than Li Wen's.

At that time, the troops placed on the western front could not be transferred to the northern front for a while, and there were only a few local troops blocking the enemy in Zhangbei, and Fu Zuoyi was mainly cavalry and moved quickly. On this day, 6 enemy planes bombed and strafed Zhangjiakou.Nie Rongzhen directed the battle in the tunnel of Dongshanpo headquarters.The sudden attack of the enemy did not cause him to be taken aback. He called Zheng Weishan, commander of the Zhangjiakou Garrison, to make emergency arrangements. When Zheng Weishan recalled the scene at that time, he said: Fu Zuoyi took advantage of the emptiness in the northwest direction of Zhangjiakou, and used a small number of troops to move towards Xinghe. He mobilized more than 20,000 main force infantry and cavalry, and took the lead in occupying our Nanhaoqian (Shangyi) and Daqinggou on October 8.The Divisional Unit of the 7th Army, which served as guard in Zhangbei, mistook it for a small group of enemies to harass, so they sent two regiments of cavalry to detour to encircle and wipe out the enemy, leaving only one company in Zhangbei.On the same day, more than 2,000 enemy cavalry (soldiers) took advantage of the emptiness and went straight into Zhangbei, making the situation in Zhangjiakou suddenly tense.At this time, I just sent Li Jinshi, the head of the guard regiment, to take a battalion to Zhangbei to guard against small groups of enemies. I didn't want to find the main force of the enemy as soon as I arrived, so I fought desperately with the 7th Division troops.When I learned of this situation, I sent the main body of the guard regiment to Zhangbei in a hurry.However, time was delayed due to bombing and strafing by enemy planes along the way. When they arrived in Zhangbei, most of the enemy had arrived one after another, and they were forced to retreat after fierce fighting with the enemy.The situation is getting worse.President Nie ordered me to immediately send the teaching brigade that had just returned from the Jining campaign to rush to the front line of Langwogou between Zhangbei and Zhangjiakou to fight against the enemy and cover the transfer of the leadership.