Chapter 138 7. One deployment and three plans for the Yangma River operation

After Li Jiyun's 31st Brigade was destroyed, Hu Zongnan learned the lesson of dividing his troops and being wiped out.It was decided to adopt the so-called "square tactics" formulated by the National Defense Ministry of the Kuomintang, that is, to use two armies to form a square formation tens of miles wide, to walk together and stay together, so as to avoid being defeated individually.He focused his attention on the northeast of Yan'an, thinking that Qinghuabian's attack on the 31st Brigade might be the cover force of the People's Liberation Army, and its main force must have retreated northeast.Therefore, he decided to use all the strength of the two armies to carry out a "big sweep" against Yanchuan and Qingjian.And he said to his army commanders Dong and Liu: If the People's Liberation Army is willing to fight decisively, it will be smashed with your two "iron fists", otherwise it will be driven eastward to cross the Yellow River.

It was only a 3-day journey from Yan'an to Qingjian, but Hu Zongnan's two reorganized armies traveled for 6 days, and the main force of the People's Liberation Army was not found along the way.It turned out that the main force of the People's Liberation Army neither fought a decisive battle with the Hu army nor crossed the Yellow River eastward. It only used a small part of its troops to lead the nine brigades of the Hu army to the northeast, but the main force moved in the opposite direction, waiting to wipe out the enemy. On April 1, Hu Zongnan had no choice but to order Dong and Liu Erjun to turn westward from Qingjian, and then "sweep" towards the line of Wayaobao and Shuiping.In an attempt to drive the main force of the People's Liberation Army to the north, and then join forces with the 22nd Army that went south from Yulin in Suide.

On April 11, Hu Zongnan's 72nd Regiment drove from Qingjian to Wayaobao.After the Central Military Commission learned of the enemy's action, at 23:00 on the same day, Mao Zedong telegraphed Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun: they have learned that a regiment of the Qingjian 24th Brigade will be transferred to Wayaobao today.After the regiment arrives in Wa, the 135th Brigade is likely to be mobilized, either to Ansai or to Panlong. I hope to pay attention to reconnaissance and prepare to take the brigade to ambush it on the way.The "secret information" mentioned here, according to Chen Haihan, the former chief of staff of the Teaching Brigade, said: "The information was provided by Dai Zhongrong, deputy director of Hu Zongnan's Confidential Office, through the radio station at Xi'an Station of the Longhai Railway. Dai is a fellow of Hu Zongnan and worked in Shanghai. After graduating from university, he followed Hu for more than ten years. On the surface, he was stubbornly anti-communist. Hu had no doubts about him, but in fact he was our underground comrade." (Chen Haihan: "Under the Commander-in-Chief", PLA Press, 1984 edition, Page 73) After receiving the above instructions, Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun immediately analyzed the situation, made up their minds, deployed quickly, and used a force to disguise the main force to attract Hu Zong's southern main force to the area west of Panlong, and concentrated most of the force to the area beyond Wayaobao Taking advantage of the short opportunity before the enemy's 135th brigade and its main force approached, they made a quick decision to encircle and annihilate them.

Peng Dehuai and others analyzed that the main force of the enemy's 135th Brigade would go southward, and there may be three routes: one is to the south, along Wayaobao and Panlong Avenue; the other is to go southwest, passing through Anding to Ansai; Southeast, via Yongping or Qingjian.Among them, due south has the shortest journey and is close to the main force, so the possibility is the greatest.In order not to lose the opportunity to fight, and to be able to cope with various situations, at 20:00 on the 12th, a preparatory combat order of "one deployment" and "three combat plans" was issued.

One deployment is: use the 2nd column and the teaching brigade to assemble in the Lingwan, Heishansi, and Dujiapan areas in the southeast of Wayaobao; use the new 4th brigade to gather in Xinzhuanggou in the southwest of Wayaobao, and the mountains west of Yanjiagou , and with no more than 2 companies to build fortifications on the highlands north of Shizui and Songjiagou to prevent the enemy's 29th Army from advancing northward; the 358th Brigade of the 1st Column assembled in the golden area southwest of Wayaobao and northwest of Panlong. In the area south of the Chahe, Baijiaping, and Yanglugou lines, the 1st Independent Brigade (belonging to the 35th Regiment, which was led by Yan Kuiyao and located in the southwestern area of ​​Qingjian) assembled in the Anjiazui and Shijiaping areas; The 7th Security Regiment was assembled on the Shiyaohe and Nanjiawan lines.

The three combat plans are: The first plan: If the enemy's 135th brigade goes south along the Wapan Avenue, when its vanguard enters between Yanjiagou and Xinzhuanggou, it will use the 2nd column and the teaching brigade from east to west , the new 4th Brigade moved from southwest to northeast, and the Independent 1st Brigade and the 7th Guard Regiment cut off their return route back to Wayaobao from west to east, and simultaneously slammed and wiped out the enemy in the Yangmahe area.The second plan: If the enemy's 135th Brigade advances to Ansai along the mountainous area south of Wayaobao and Anding Avenue, follow and pursue with the 2nd column and the teaching brigade, and the 7th Guard Regiment immediately goes to Shilipu (south of Anding), Occupy the position between Shijiazui and attract the enemy in front of us. The newly organized 4th Brigade waits for the enemy to advance to Anding and contact the 7th Guard Regiment. Then it moves closer to the 7th Garrison Regiment and attacks from southwest to north. The 1st Brigade is independent. Quickly detour to the enemy's right side and attack from northwest to east, thus annihilating the enemy in the area south of Anding.The third plan: If the enemy's 135th brigade advances along the southeast highland of Wayaobao to Yongping or Qingjian, use the 2nd column and the teaching brigade to wipe out the enemy, and the newly formed 4th brigade will quickly advance to Lingwan, together with the 2nd column Move closer and return to their command to work together to wipe out the enemy, and the 35th Regiment of the Independent 1st Brigade blocked the attack flexibly.In order to ensure that the main force completely wiped out the enemy's 135th Brigade, the 358th Brigade fought back and forth, attracting and restraining the 1st and 29th Army, the main force of Hu's army, who went north to meet the 135th Brigade in the northwest area of ​​Panlong.

The above deployments and plans are based on emergencies, and have the following characteristics: they can deal with various situations; each plan can concentrate the superior forces of 4 brigades; the first plan with the greatest possibility can concentrate 5 brigades superior force. After receiving the order, the various ministries made preparations according to different plans, and sent reconnaissance teams to closely monitor the actions of the Hu Ministry. After all the deployments were completed, Peng Dehuai got up and walked out of the cave, stepped on his horse, and led his entourage to the brigade headquarters of the 1st Column and 1st Brigade to check the terrain and combat deployment in the blocking area.After he asked Wang Shangrong, the commander of the 1st Independent Brigade, about the preparations for the blockade, he pointed to the line of Yushumaozi, Yunshan Temple, and Yuanzigou in the northwest of Panlong on the map and said: "Your 1st column will stage a decisive battle on this line today. The 358th Brigade has attracted the 1st Army to the west, if you can block the 29th Army to the south of the Yangma River, half of the task of annihilating the 135th Brigade will be completed. As long as you can persist until two o'clock in the afternoon, the task will be completed." Wang Shangrong said: No matter how difficult the task is, the task is guaranteed to be completed.

The first column, which pretended to be the main force of the field corps, adopted a mobile defense and actively and tenaciously resisted under the order of "only let the enemy advance 5 to 10 miles a day".With the strength of two brigades, the main force of Dong Zhao's and Liu Kan's two armies, a total of 8 brigades, was held back.The commanders and fighters who stood firm said happily: The accuracy of the enemy's execution of President Peng's orders is about the same as ours! According to the strong formation of our fighting forces, Hu Zongnan concluded that the main force of the Northwest Field Corps was in the area west of Panlong, and ordered the reorganized 1st Army and the 29th Army to advance rapidly; at the same time, he ordered the 135th Brigade to move south quickly in order to encircle and wipe out the main force of the Field Corps.

At 8 o'clock on April 14, Hu Jun's 135th Brigade, which was ordered to quickly go south, left Wayaobao and leaped forward along the highlands on both sides of Wa and Pan Avenues.At around 10:00 in the morning, the small troops of the Northwest Field Corps, which acted as a lure to the enemy, caught fire.Hu Jun fought and advanced, all entered the highland north of the Yangma River, and were surrounded by the 2nd Column, the Teaching Brigade, and the New 4th Brigade who had ambushed in this area in advance.The field corps formed an absolute advantage with 4 brigades encircling and annihilating 1 enemy brigade. The 135th brigade could not advance forward or retreat backward, so Hu Zongnan urgently sent reinforcements to rescue the siege.

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Peng Dehuai went to a regiment command post on the front line to observe the progress of the battle in detail.He saw the shells fired by the 359th Brigade and the 4th Independent Brigade blooming in the enemy group. Hu Jun ran around like a lost dog, and praised repeatedly: "Good fight, good fight!" Because of his accurate judgment of the enemy's situation, The deployment was careful, the command was decisive, and the troops were maneuverable and brave. By 4 pm, more than 4,700 people from the 135th Brigade had been wiped out, setting a precedent for an entire brigade in the Northwest battlefield.Peng Dehuai learned that the enemy's acting brigade commander Mai Zongyu had been captured, and said with a smile: "I don't need him as an agent now!"

At this time, the main force of the eight brigades led by Dong Zhao and Liu Kan were being stubbornly resisted by the first column of the Field Corps, and they were almost unable to move an inch.When the Field Corps encircled and wiped out the 135th Brigade in the front and rear of Lijiadixiao and Yangmahe areas, the main force of the Hu army entered the Nanshan and Gaoshan mountains southwest of Wayaobao.The two Hu armies advancing from the north to the south were less than 50 miles apart (on April 16, 1947, Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun called the Central Military Commission to report the battle at Yangmahe, saying: "The enemies advancing from the north to the south are less than 50 miles apart. , Still annihilating the enemy's brigade." According to the memories of relevant comrades, the distance is only about 10 miles. The ravines in northern Shaanxi are undulating, and the telegram may refer to the distance, or there may be errors for other reasons.), but they could no longer "rendezvous". After receiving reports from Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun on the annihilation of the 135th brigade, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China issued a circular to all strategic areas saying: This victory proves that the Hu army can be gradually eliminated by using only the existing troops in the border area without any foreign aid.It proves that by waiting patiently, without arrogance or impetuosity, you can find opportunities to annihilate the enemy.Hope to issue commendations to the officers and men of the whole army, and order the military and civilians in the whole border region to hold a celebration party to encourage the morale of the people and continue to wipe out the enemy. On April 15, Mao Zedong called Peng Dehuai and Xi Zhongxun, and based on the combat experience in the previous period, he proposed the combat policy of "mushroom" tactics in the Northwest battlefield.Point out: Our policy is to continue the past methods to make the enemy very tired and very short of food. "Grind the enemy to exhaustion and then destroy them."Emphasize that this method is the only way to defeat the enemy in the end.Peng Dehuai said: We implement Chairman Mao's policy is to adopt the policy of not leaving, entangle the enemy, and find the right opportunity to eliminate it.He correctly resolved the relationship between grinding and beating. Grinding is to consume and fatigue the enemy and achieve the purpose of destroying the enemy.