Chapter 225 5. "There is no real battle in Kaifeng"

Kaifeng is located in the eastern plain of Henan, bordering the Yellow River in the north and the Longhai Railway in the south.It is a famous historical city. It was the former capital of the Five Dynasties Liang, Jin, Han, Zhou and Northern Song Dynasty. It was the capital of Henan Province of the Kuomintang at that time and also an important town in the Central Plains. It has a population of about 400,000 and occupies an important position in politics and military affairs. Su Yu chose Kaifeng as the target of attack, which completely exceeded the enemy's expectations.When our army was about to launch a battle, the enemy was still in the dark.The Kaifeng defenders believed that our army was attracting the main force of the Kuomintang army to the southwestern Shandong for a decisive battle, and "there was no real battle in Kaifeng."

Although the Ministry of National Defense and Xuzhou's "General Suppression" had sensed that our 3rd and 8th columns were showing signs of besieging Kaifeng, when they saw the two major groups of our army facing each other from north to south and taking advantage of the enemy's focus on southwestern Shandong, they suddenly Launched an attack on the Kaifeng defenders.He decided that our army was trying to pinch the Qiu Corps, so he mobilized troops to the southwestern part of Shandong in a hurry to fight a decisive battle with our army. What is especially ridiculous is that the enemy's Central China "suppresses the general" and insisted that our 3rd and 8th columns were still In the area east of Fangcheng.However, our army created the conditions to wipe out the enemy under the close tracking and surveillance of the enemy's heavy troops, and captured a favorable battle. , to attack the Kaifeng defenders. The first part of the 2nd vertical cooperated with the 8th vertical, and first cleared the agricultural and forestry test ground at Nanguan Station, the east gate, the east of the 16th barracks, and the enemy at Caomen Pass, and prepared to attack the city from the east and north; the other part of the 8th vertical first The enemy at the airport at Nanguan Station, the area west of Barracks No. 17 and No. 7, and the west gate were cleared, and the city was prepared to attack the city from the south and west.Before the general offensive, most of the defending enemies were wiped out.

At 11 o'clock in the evening on the 18th, the general offensive began. In the ancient city of Kaifeng shrouded in night, bullets rained and artillery roared.Our army used powerful artillery fire to support the raiding siege troops. In just five or six minutes, our siege troops seized the Xiaonanmen tower. After Xiaonanmen was lost, the enemy counterattacked frantically and blocked the advance path of my follow-up troops at Xiaonanmen with intensive artillery fire, separating my 5 platoons entering the city from the follow-up large troops, and the situation was very critical. Chen Shiju and Tang Liang ordered the troops to repel the enemy's counterattack at all costs, and let the follow-up troops follow up to rescue the enemy's troops in the city.

At the same time, Chen and Tang ordered the troops to intensify their attacks on Songmen.The fortifications of the Song Gate are solid, easy to defend but difficult to attack, and our siege troops cannot attack for a long time. Songmen is 70 to 80 meters away from Songmen Pass, and then there is a trench (without water), 5 meters deep and 20 meters wide. About 20 meters away from the right side of Songmen, there is a triangular bunker, low It is short and strong, and can accommodate a platoon of troops. There are trenches (no water) and barbed wire and other city defense equipment dug outside the fort; the city gate is blocked with sacks of soil; The five small forts, which communicate with the big one, are the commanding heights of the city gates. The 100-200-meter walls on both sides of the Song Gate are built with open and dark forts, forming a cross-fire network and tightly controlling the Song Gate.

According to the unified battle deployment of the superiors, at about 1:00 am on June 19, our various artillery fires violently bombarded the Song Gate, and suddenly the front of the Song Gate was filled with smoke and turned into a sea of ​​flames.Under the cover of smoke, the blasting commando of our army blasted the Song Gate.After repeated charges and blasts by my blasting commando, the Song Gate was finally blasted open, and the siege troops began to charge into the city. When the Song Gate was broken by me, the defenders in the city counterattacked me under the cover of armored vehicles and artillery fire.

Chen and Tang ordered the troops to hold on to the breakthrough of the city gate at all costs to ensure that the follow-up siege troops could enter the city. I broke through the Song Gate by 8 and 3, and when the enemy's firepower turned to the Song Gate, we organized forces to quickly clear the enemy bunkers outside the Xiaonan Gate and control the breakthrough again. Great South Gate and West Gate.In this way, the main forces of the 3rd and 8th verticals all rushed into the city.The column headquarters also went to the city to command in person, and each unit penetrated deep into the enemy in multiple ways to engage in fierce street fighting.By June 21, the Kaifeng defenders were wiped out.

In this campaign, a total of more than 30,000 enemies were eliminated. Li Zhongxin, commander of the Kaifeng garrison and commander of the reorganized 66th Division, was killed, and Chief of Staff You Lingyun was captured alive, and a large amount of food, fodder and ammunition were seized.The Associated Press in Shanghai on June 26 stated: "The materials, weapons and munitions obtained by the Communist Army in Kaifeng enable it to support the operations in Central China until the end of summer." Although this is a bit exaggerated, Huaye did seize more than 6,000 Stock rifles, more than 3,000 barrels of gasoline, 32 cannons, and a large number of other military supplies.In order to be able to transport these trophies away, Chen Shiju and Tang Liang asked the heads of Huaye to report to the Military Commission, the Central Plains Bureau, and the East China Bureau, and ordered the 4th Column and the Special Column to build a blocking position west of Lanfeng in order to control it for one more day and organize a large number of migrant workers Grab the loot.