Chapter 114 6. Ambush the 77th Division

On February 19, Huaye troops had secretly approached both sides of Laiwu and were about to complete the encirclement campaign.The Kuomintang found out that our 1st Division and 1st Division had been waiting west of Laiwu for three days. At the same time, they discovered that our right-hand army had assembled in Lu Village, and a few captured soldiers who had escaped went back to inform them. Only then did Wang Yaowu and Li Xianzhou find out our army's true intentions.The Kuomintang’s war history statement: “The main force of the East China Field Army made a strategic shift, passing through Linyi, Mengyin, Xintai, and Laiwu East and West mountain trails, day and night, and advancing secretly. Our air force can neither search nor ground intelligence. I don't know where the main force of the bandit army is. By the time its intentions and actions were known, our southward marching regiment had been surrounded separately in the ancient Maling Road." (Quoted from "The History of the Third Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army")

Wang Yaowu judged that the Communist Army had an attempt to concentrate its forces to wipe out the 73rd Army first and then the 46th Army. He took emergency measures and ordered the 46th Army that had already reached Yanzhuang to quickly withdraw to Laiwu and join forces with the 73rd Army to hold on.At the same time, the 77th Division of the 73rd Army was ordered to go south via Boshan to return to the establishment.This can prevent the troops from being scattered and being defeated individually. Han Liancheng, the commander of the 46th Army, swung his troops back to Laiwu that night, and Li Xianzhou deployed defensive tasks to the two Korean commanders.

After Su Yu learned of the changes in the enemy's situation, he immediately adjusted his deployment and ordered the 1st vertical to attack the headquarters of Lixianzhou in Laiwu and the 73rd Army, the 4th vertical to attack the 46th Army in Yanzhuang, the 6th vertical to attack the new 36th Division in Kouzhen, the main force of the 8th vertical and a part of the 9th vertical in Bo Hezhuang in the south of the mountain set up an ambush to destroy the 77th Division, and captured Jinyang Pass in the 10th vertical, cutting off the retreat of the Kuomintang army.The battle is scheduled to start at 15:00 on the 20th.

At dawn on the 20th, the 8th and 9th verticals respectively entered the Hezhuang area to hide, while the 77th Division also went south from Boshan at the same time and arrived at Hezhuang at noon. According to this situation, our army must launch a battle in advance, otherwise the enemy will go out of our encirclement and approach Kouzhen. At 13:00, our army launched an attack two hours in advance and approached the enemy. The 25th Division of the 9th Column rushed to the front and wiped out two enemy companies.Due to the long attack distance and the inconvenient movement in the mountains, the enemy could not be divided and wiped out on the road.The enemy army quickly shrank to the two villages of Hezhuang and Fudong, and assembled and held firm.

At dusk, the 25th divisions of the 8th and 9th verticals seized the commanding heights around Hezhuang and Fudo, and launched an attack on the enemy. 9 broke into the village with continuous blasting and started street fighting with the enemy.Li Xianzhou received an emergency from the 77th Division and ordered Han Jun to send a regiment from Tusikou Town to reinforce.Han Jun thought it was inconvenient to move at night, and believed that the 77th Division could persist until dawn. However, under the onslaught of our army, by dawn on the 21st, most of the 77th Division was annihilated by our army.The division commander Tian Junjian led the remnants to break out in the direction of Boshan, and was surrounded by the 26th Division of the 9th Vertical and the 5th Luzhong Security Regiment at Qingshiguan, and Tian was shot dead.

The Battle of Hezhuang wiped out the 77th Division, which made a good start for the victory of the Laiwu Battle.