Chapter 190 5. Yang Dezhi and others decisively wiped out Luo Lirong

According to the scheduled plan, the 2nd Column of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army stormed Xushui to lure the enemy for reinforcements. The 3rd and 4th Columns were in the area north of Xushui, preparing to annihilate the 94th Army or the 16th Army during the movement.However, the enemy immediately assembled 5 divisions in the northeast area of ​​Xushui and shrunk into one regiment. Our army confronted 5 divisions with two columns, forming a confrontation. In order to break the stalemate, the main force of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army moved westward, intending to go to Yixian and Mancheng areas to lure the enemy westward, and wipe out part of the enemy when they dispersed.But whether it can achieve its goal is still difficult to predict.Nie Rongzhen said afterwards: "Unexpectedly, at this juncture, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Peiping to help us." Chiang Kai-shek thought that the Jinchaji troops were passive and unable to escape, so he asked Sun Lianzhong to order Luo Lirong, the commander of the Shijiazhuang 3rd Army, to lead the main force northward. , Attacking the Jinchaji Field Army from the north and the south.

Peng Fujiu, director of the 2nd Intelligence Bureau, said: One day we intercepted a telegram from Sun Lianzhong to Luo Lirong, asking Luo to go north and take one and a half divisions, and one division to stay in Shijiazhuang.When I received the telegram, the enemy had already crossed the Hutuo River. I reported the original enemy telegram to Commander Nie and forwarded it to the field army headquarters. Nie Rongzhen received the telegram and forwarded it to the headquarters of the field army in time, asking the leaders of the field department to deal with it immediately. ("Nie Rongzhen Military Selected Works", People's Liberation Army Press, July 1992, first edition, p. 265) At that time, Luo Ruiqing held a land conference in Shijiazhai, and Yang Dezhi, Yang Chengwu, Geng Biao, and Pan Zili were on the front line.

Yang Chengwu recalled: "On October 17, after dinner, we left Dongma Village, Rongcheng, where Yesi was stationed, and pointed towards Pinghan Road, heading straight to the west. In the evening of late autumn in the Great Plains of Hebei, there was a shower and a fresh breeze. The crop fields that had just been closed with green gauze tents were filled with golden afterglow. The air was full of thick autumn dew, which moistened the soldiers' clothes. Soldiers marched in groups and rows, marching toward the West to west. The road surface is soft and seems to be elastic when walking. There is no more comfortable march than this time. Before we knew it, we had walked more than ten miles. Suddenly, there was a sudden sound of horseshoes, and in the blink of an eye Suddenly a fast horse ran up to us, who turned out to be a cavalry correspondent. He handed us a telegram, the enemy's report just taken by Commander Nie Rongzhen. The telegram said that Luo Lirong, the commander of the enemy's 3rd Army in Shijiazhuang, led the 3rd Army The Ministry, the 7th Division and the 66th Regiment of the 16th Army had crossed the Hutuohe River on the 16th, and could enter the Xinle area on the 17th. It is estimated that they could reach Ding County on the 18th and Fangshun Bridge on the 19th. Hua Nan is going south to meet Luo Lirong." (Yang Chengwu: "Battle in North China", People's Publishing House, October 1986, first edition, pp. 71, 72)

After receiving the telegram, Yang Dezhi, Yang Chengwu, and Geng Biao immediately got off their horses, spread out the battle map on the side of the road, pressed the four corners with stones, and carefully studied the situation.They made a decisive decision: use the main force of the field army to go south to annihilate Luo Lirong.The main force is no longer heading west, but south, annihilating the enemy in the form of encounters.Use a part of the troops to block the enemy's southward movement north of Xushui, and cooperate with the main force's actions in Baonan. Nie Rongzhen received a telegram from the headquarters of the Field Army to go south to wipe out the enemy, and immediately replied: "If you are in a hurry to go south to fight the enemy, you can first send a regiment to the south of Wangdu to stop the attack. , Jizhong will use all efforts to block the enemy."