Chapter 177 9. Transfer to the south and capture the enemy general Wu Tinglin alive

Chen Xie Group attacked Tongguan with the main force, and controlled a section of Longhai Road from Xin'an to Lingbao. It covered several counties in more than half a month and wiped out more than 20,000 enemy troops.Chiang Kai-shek was shocked. On September 20, Chiang Kai-shek visited Xi'an to deploy defenses, and Hu Zongnan also rushed back to Xi'an from northern Shaanxi.In order to guard Guanzhong, the Kuomintang command airlifted the 65th Division from the Dabie Mountains to Xi'an, and transferred back a force from northern Shaanxi and southern Shanxi.Xie Fusan was dismissed by Chiang Kai-shek due to poor command, and Pei Changhui was appointed as the commander in the eastern direction of Shaanxi.The Kuomintang army has strengthened the defense in the direction of Tongguan. If Chen Xie wants to move westward, he will definitely encounter fierce battles.

Mao Zedong judged the situation and saw that 10 enemy brigades were assembled in Tongguan area, and our army was difficult to succeed; Li Tiejun's corps in the east had only 6 brigades, which were relatively scattered. 15 divisions.Order the 12th Brigade of the 4th Vertical and the 17th Division of the 38th Army to march into southern Shaanxi and restore the base area. The main force of the 38th Army suppressed bandits in Shan County and Lingbao to consolidate the new area.Chen Geng carried out Mao Zedong's instructions. On September 26, he led the main force of the 4 verticals to move eastward from the concealment of Shan County, and quietly arrived near Tiemen Town, east of Mianchi.

When our main force moved to the east of Mianchi in concealment, the enemy's 5th Corps was still ignorant, and the 15th Division marched towards Xin'an and Tiemen, and the 3rd Division marched towards Yiyang. On October 2, our army wiped out the 64th brigade of the enemy's 15th division at the iron gate.Then in the area of ​​Hancheng Town, the 3rd Division who fled back to Luoyang was severely damaged. Since then, the enemy has concentrated 10 brigades including the 3rd Division and the 20th Division in Luoyang, and 8 brigades including the 1st Division and the 38th Division in Tongguan, in an attempt to attack our army from the east and west again and restore traffic on Longhai Road.

At this time, Mao Zedong instructed Chen and Xie: "In addition to leaving a part on Longhai Road to contain the enemy, the main force should go south from Longhai Road to annihilate the reactionary armed forces in the counties in western Henan and open up base areas; send people to follow them southward, and then look for opportunities to annihilate them separately. But fight with certainty." Mao Zedong also pointed out that don't be afraid of the enemy occupying Longhai Road, as long as we open up the situation in the east and south, wipe out the enemy in large numbers. , Reoccupying Longhai Road.

This instruction of Mao Zedong is very wise.If the Chen-Xie Corps had competed with the enemy for this section of Longhai Road at that time, it would have been passive and difficult to develop.Turn the division to the south, take advantage of the opportunity to wipe out the scattered defenses of the counties in western Henan, and open up a vast area. Not only can we establish base areas to support our operations, but we can also move east to the Ping-Han Road and directly cooperate with the main force advancing into the Central Plains. It is an extremely powerful arrangement that focuses on the overall situation, and after the enemy occupies Longhai Road, its forces are scattered, and it is convenient for our army to return to the division to annihilate.

According to Mao Zedong's instructions, Chen and Xie began to go south at the end of October. From November 1st to 5th, they visited Baofeng, Lushan, Nanzhao, Fangcheng, Yexian, Linru, Jiaxian, and Dengfeng cities.In the battle to liberate Linru and Jiaxian counties, the remnants of the enemy's 15th division were annihilated, and Wu Tinglin, the commander of the 15th division, was captured alive. Wu Tinglin was good at defense in the Kuomintang army, but he became a fleeing general in front of our army.When our army wiped out the 64th Brigade at Tiemen, he fled south to Linru. When our army stormed Linru on November 1, he lost his men and fled to Jia County.But as soon as he arrived in Jiaxian County, our army had already approached the city and surrounded Jiaxian County.This time, he couldn't run away anymore, and obediently became a prisoner of our army.

In order to disrupt the deployment of our army in western Henan, the enemy followed our army south with 5 brigades including the 3rd Division and the 20th Division.When our army was about to resolve the battle in Jiaxian County, the leading troops of these five brigades were only 3 miles away from the city. Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi remained calm and commanded the troops to wipe out the enemy before withdrawing from the city.