Chapter 244 7. Xu Shiyou recalled the process of conquering Jinan

Xu Shiyou, from Xinxian County, Henan Province. In 1927, he participated in the Jute Uprising.In the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the War of Liberation, he fought countless vicious, tough, and skillful battles, narrowly escaped death, and made great military exploits for the party and the people.The War of Liberation attacked Jinan, and Xu Shiyou, the commander of the Huaye Shandong Corps, was personally appointed by Mao Zedong as the commander-in-chief of the siege. Regarding the fierce process of conquering Jinan, Xu Shiyou made the following recollections:

In order to quickly overcome Jinan, I proposed to adopt "sword tactics".This slogan is easy to understand and remember, and it actually embodies the guiding principles of our offensive campaign.What is "sword tactics"?To kill a cow is to kill the vital point.Jinan's fortifications are strong, deep and long, and there are bright and dark forts everywhere.In the offensive campaign, we must seize the vital parts of the enemy, concentrate our forces and firepower, cut a bloody path, get in and fight, like a sharp knife, piercing the enemy's heart.When the 9th Column issued combat missions, it changed "assist" to "main attack", requiring its troops to display a proactive fighting spirit and go all out to cooperate with the Western Corps in combat.In this way, our siege group will attack east and west, and attack together in a pincer shape. In one fell swoop, we can disrupt the enemy's deployment, break the enemy's stubborn resistance, and wipe out more than 100,000 people from Wang Yaowu's department in Jinan.

On the evening of September 16, 1948, on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the lunar calendar, a round of bright moon illuminated the earth brightly.The tall city wall of Jinan looks even more steep and fortified under the moonlight. At 24 o'clock, all the columns of the siege group fired their guns together, and the killing sound shook the sky.The battle to conquer Jinan has begun. After the general offensive began, our siege corps cooperated closely with the east and west corps, and attacked from the east and west wings at the same time, like a pair of huge iron tongs, tightly clamping the enemy of Jinan.

The Western Corps encountered the enemy early on the way, and after annihilating part of the enemy, it went straight to the front line of Changqing and threatened the airport.At this time, Wang Yaowu found that the army gathered in the western suburbs of Jinan, and judged that our main force was in the west. He was afraid that the airport would be captured and cut off the only channel for internal and external communication in Jinan. The Brigade and the 57th Brigade rushed to the ancient city southwest of the airport. In the early morning of the 17th, the 9th Column of our Siege East Corps won the first battle of Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain with lightning speed, which played an important role in accelerating the progress of the battle.Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain stand abruptly, and the two peaks face each other, linking the gates of the eastern suburbs of Jinan.The enemy attached great importance to the defense of these two mountains. In addition to setting up a large number of open and dark fortresses, they specially dug trenches around the main peak of Maoling Mountain, and built trench-style sandwich wall fortifications with concrete and stones.According to the confession of the prisoners of war, after the completion of the sandwich wall fortification, Wang Yaowu once organized troops to shoot three rounds from the cannon from the foot of the mountain to test its strength.The 74th Regiment of the 25th Division of our 9th Column assaulted the mountain with the main force of 2 battalions. After 2 hours of fierce fighting, they successfully captured the main peak.After dawn, Yanchi Mountain was also conquered by another part of the 9th Column.

The news that the Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain positions, which the enemy thought could hold for at least half a month, were breached after only one night's fighting shocked the enemy's camp and caused great panic.Once these two hills are lost, the enemy will have no danger to defend in the eastern suburbs.The senior generals defending the enemy in Jinan talked a lot: "The positions of Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain are so strong, how could they be lost overnight?" , is the key to the defeat of the Jinan war." After the two mountains fell, Wang Yaowu became furious, and personally ordered the shooting of a major battalion commander who was defeated without a fight.At this time, Wang Yaowu judged that the main force of our siege was in the east, so he urgently transferred the 19th and 57th brigades, which had not yet gained a stable foothold, to the east.

After capturing Changqing, Tenghuaishuzhuang, Pipashan, Shuangmiaotun and other places, our Western Corps took advantage of the victory to leap forward to Lashan and Dangjiazhuang, and broke through the Yufuhe defense line in one fell swoop.Then, the airport was blocked with heavy artillery fire and the runway was damaged.The enemy originally planned to airlift the reorganized 74th Division to Jiji for reinforcements, but only 7 companies of the 172nd Regiment of the division were transported, and they were forced to stop.A transport plane fully loaded with the follow-up troops of the 74th Division flew over the airport. Seeing flames and smoke rising from below, the plane quickly turned around and escaped.

Wang Yaowu learned that most of the positions in the eastern suburbs were lost and the airport in the western suburbs was in danger. He was very anxious and helpless.At this time, what Wang Yaowu was most worried about was that he couldn't figure out which side the main attack direction of the People's Liberation Army was.He transferred the troops to the west, and the east fought fiercely; he transferred the troops to the east, and the west fought fiercely again.The enemy's mobile forces had no fixed positions and no chance to breathe. They defended from left to right and blocked from the right. They were exhausted and beaten completely bewildered.The captured enemy officer lamented: "Our good team, from east to west, and from west to east, only swayed a few times, and it was over."

Seeing that it was difficult to fly with wings, Wang Yaowu had to retreat into the city. On the one hand, he hurriedly dispatched troops to strengthen the security of the appeasement headquarters;Chiang Kai-shek still telegraphed Wang Yaowu that Jinan must not be lost, and strictly ordered him to "shorten the position and stick to it for help." Standing firm and waiting for help is just a dream of Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Yaowu.Under the destructive blows of our siege troops, it was impossible for the enemy of Jinan to "hold on" and "wait for help" was also hopeless. What awaited them was the end of their entire army being wiped out.In the peripheral battles, our siege groups always advance quickly along their respective main assault directions, and for some isolated strongholds of the enemy, such as Licheng, Qianfo Mountain, Ma'anshan and other places, we divide our troops to deal with them, or encircle them. Do not fight, or wipe out but not encircle.The enemy was isolated and helpless, besieged on all sides. After we took Jinan, some of them surrendered obediently, and some were wiped out while fleeing.The initiative on the battlefield is completely in our hands. According to the development of the battle situation, in order not to allow the enemies in the city to have a rest time, we decided not to wait for the enemies in the commercial port to be completely wiped out. city.

The city wall of Jinan Outer City is divided into three layers of firepower: the gate tower and the upper part of the city wall are equipped with high castles, the middle part of the city wall is equipped with shooting holes, and the foot of the city wall is built with bunkers.There are trenches dug outside the city.In order to stop our offensive, the enemy demolished and burned all the houses tens of meters outside the trench, so that the vast area outside the trench was completely exposed to their firepower.Just as our troops were advancing towards the assault area, the enemy opened fire with light and heavy firearms, and also used gas bombs and flamethrowers. In an instant, the front of our position turned into a sea of ​​flames.The poisonous gas is surrounded by thick smoke, rising and rolling, suffocating.

The battle to attack the outer city was launched at 18:30 on the 22nd.The special vertical artillery attached to the siege group and the artillery of our various ministries concentrated their artillery fire and fired at close range.With an order, the cannons blasted fiercely, and the flames shot into the sky.With fearless heroism, our assault troops rushed through the sea of ​​flames filled with poisonous smoke and killed the outer city.According to the confession of the enemy prisoners: "We underestimated the artillery fire of the Communist army. In the past, I heard that the artillery fire of the Communist army was powerful in the Yanzhou and Weixian battles, but I did not experience it personally. Seven out of ten." The special vertical tank unit dispatched 4 tanks to attack the outer city.After our various units broke into the outer city, they fought fiercely with the enemy between barricades and lanes.After a day and night of fighting, most of the defending enemies in the outer city were wiped out.The blades of our assault troops are heading straight for the inner city.

Seeing the imminent crisis in Jinan, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xuzhou's ministries to quickly assist the north, and at the same time sent Liu Zhi, the commander of Xuzhou's "suppression general", and Wang Shuming, the deputy commander of the air force of the headquarters, to fly over Jinan to cheer for the enemy in the city. Said: "The reinforcements are progressing very quickly, and they can arrive in Jinan in a few days. You must stand firm and wait for reinforcements." In order to smash the enemy's last bit of luck and take advantage of the victory to quickly and completely wipe out the defending enemy in Jinan, we asked all troops to carry forward the style of fighting bravely, not afraid of sacrifice, not afraid of fatigue, and continuous combat, and went straight to the inner city that night.The enemy never even dreamed that our offensive came so quickly. The inner city is the last core position of Jinan defending the enemy.The city wall is tall and densely covered with open and dark fortresses. In addition to setting up three layers of firepower like the outer city, a child fort is built at a distance of 10 meters, a mother fort is built at a distance of 30 meters, and a fort is built at a distance of 70 to 100 meters.The width of the moat ranged from five to six meters to twenty or thirty meters. The enemy blocked the water from the Black Tiger Spring and introduced it into the moat to deepen the river.Defending the enemy relied on solid city wall fortifications supplemented by complex ground defense facilities, forming a multi-layered fire net composed of light and heavy firearms, in an attempt to make a final resistance. Our siege group decided to launch a general attack on the inner city on the evening of the 23rd, and the units of the East and West Corps quickly approached the inner city wall according to the deployment. At 18:00 on the 23rd, a general attack on the inner city was launched across the board.We first concentrated all the artillery fire and bombarded it violently. The tall inner city wall was immediately submerged in the gunpowder smoke, and bursts of fire flashed out. The sound of explosions was earth-shattering and deafening.Then, the sound of bugles and shouts of killing rang together, and the assault troops from all walks of life passed through the dense explosion smoke, desperately trying to climb the ladder to the city. Wang Yaowu put all his eggs in one basket, and Yan Du's troops resisted desperately.The enemy is condescending, giving full play to the advantages of firearms, and the ferocious tongue of fire licks the ground and sweeps towards them.Chiang Kai-shek frequently mobilized planes to bombard commercial ports, outer cities and other places occupied by our siege forces day and night.A large oil depot on the west side of the commercial port was hit by a bomb, flames rose into the sky, and the flames illuminated the sky brightly.The enemy planes also dropped a large number of incendiary bombs and flares, and there was a sea of ​​flames inside and outside the city, like daytime.Our assault troops are completely exposed to the enemy's fire net. Our siege troops were frustrated across the board and blocked under the inner city.After a fierce battle, there was a rare silence on the entire battlefield. I know very well in my heart that the next move of the thousands of troops on the whole line depends entirely on my decisive command.As a battle commander, at this time, I feel more deeply the importance of shouldering the responsibility.I stared at the battle map on the wall, thinking nervously. Time passed minute by minute.Every second of the fierce battle is extremely precious to us.If one of them is missed, it will bring great losses to the entire battle situation.Some comrades believed that the troops participating in the war fought fiercely for 7 days and 7 nights without rest and replenishment.If it is delayed until dawn, the troops will be intensively exposed to enemy aircraft bombing and artillery fire suppression, which will cause greater losses.According to the siege mission issued by the Central Military Commission, there is still plenty of time.Therefore, they advocated withdrawing the siege troops overnight, resting and reorganizing the attack.Some comrades disagree with this opinion and advocate resolutely fighting inside.Nie Fengzhi, commander of the 9th Column, said that they still have 5 relatively complete regiments, and the troops are ready for another attack. I think that at this juncture, the determination to attack the city cannot be shaken!Judging from the situation on the battlefield, the enemy's four lines of defense have all been lost, and they are besieged by us in the inner city. They are in a panic and the defeat is certain.Many regiments and battalions of our siege troops are relatively complete and still have a certain assault force.If we retreat to rest, we will lose the outer positions and lose all previous efforts.It should also be estimated that Wang Yaowu is likely to make a countercharge while our troops are retreating, making us unable to attack and retreat if we want to, which will greatly increase the casualties of our troops.In this case, you can only fight, not withdraw! Political Commissar Tan Zhenlin fully agrees with me.We then issued an order in the middle of the night to organize an attack across the board again, with the siege east and west corps facing each other, and the inner city must be taken down. At 1:30 on the 24th, the assault troops from all walks of life were like steel knives that never rolled, piercing the enemy's heart.When the night wind blew, the candle lights swayed with the wind, and the regiment command post was extremely quiet.Suddenly, the sharp and rapid ringing of the phone broke the silence.I grabbed the phone, and it turned out that the 9th column had reported the victory. The 9th Column Headquarters reported: "Two battalions from the 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division broke into the inner city." I immediately called Zhou Zhijian, the commander of the 13th column, and told him that the 9th column had already rushed in, and told them to make a quick break, and join up with the 9th column after they broke in. Around dawn, the command post of the Corps became more busy, and the phone calls to report success one after another: According to reports, the 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division of the 9th Column chose the highest point in the southeast corner of the inner city wall as a breakthrough point. The struggle completely destroyed the enemy's resistance, and the red flag embroidered with 10 gold characters "Fight to Jinan Prefecture and capture Wang Yaowu alive" presented by the people of Shandong Province was planted on the meteorological station above the towering city. The two companies of the 109th Regiment of the 37th Division of the 13th Column fought alone in the enemy's formation. They took advantage of the dawn to kill a "returning carbine", and cooperated with the assault troops outside the city to re-tear the breakthrough. I immediately issued an order to ask the follow-up troops of each column to consolidate and expand the breakthrough at all costs and engage in in-depth battles. The red sun jumped out, and the sun passed through the strands of clouds, shining brilliantly on the earth. On September 24, our siege troops completely captured Jinan. Conquering Jinan in 8 days and 8 nights, fulfilled the battle oath of "fighting to Jinan Prefecture and capturing Wang Yaowu alive".The Central Military Commission issued a commendation order, specially conferring the honorable title of "Jinan First Regiment" on the 73rd Regiment and "Jinan Second Regiment" on the 109th Regiment.