Chapter 264 Chapter 29 The Battle of Taiyuan: A Bloody Battle to the Death

Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, was called Jinyang in ancient times. It is located in the northern part of the Jinzhong Basin, on the east bank of the Fen River, surrounded by high mountains on the east, north and west sides, forming a natural barrier. A city that is good for defense but not good for offense. Taiyuan has always been a strategic location that military strategists must contend for. In Taiyuan in September 1948, Yan Xishan had turned it into a blockhouse city, a veritable blockhouse city.Standing on the top of the east mountain and looking at Fushou, every hill and every depression around the city is covered by countless tomb-like bunkers.

In order to maintain his reactionary rule, Yan Xishan used Taiyuan's topography to build permanent city defenses long before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, in the name of retaining technical personnel, he recruited more than 3,000 Japanese prisoners of war as "military advisers" to strengthen and repair the city defense fortifications.With Taiyuan as the center, he built more than 5,000 blockhouses in the area of ​​forty or fifty miles around, including "Good Burger", "Plum Blossom Blockhouse", "Herringbone Blockhouse", "Tiger Fortress", "Folding Blockhouse" and "Killing Blockhouse". ... There are many names, ranging from the first floor to the fifth floor. There are brick blockhouses, stone blockhouses, and reinforced concrete blockhouses, and there are pin-shaped, inverted pin-shaped, round, square, rhombus, half-moon, etc. Most of the blockhouses have Food, water and equipment for eating and sleeping.

Niutuo Village, Xiaoyaotou, Naoma, and Shantou in the east of Taiyuan are known as the "Four Fortresses".There are 13 large blockhouses and 35 small blockhouses in Shuangta Temple; there are more than 160 large and small blockhouses in Huangjiafen, which are densely packed and look like a forest. Yan Xishan once boasted to many generals of the Kuomintang army: "You only armed the people, but not the land." The implication is that he armed both the people and the land.However, he doesn't seem to be satisfied with these.He said: "Our fortifications must be strengthened with the rotation of the earth! Every time the earth rotates, the fortifications must be strengthened by one day."

After seeing these bunkers, an American reporter said in surprise: "Anyone who comes to Taiyuan will be surprised by the countless bunkers: high, low, square, triangular, and even hidden underground, forming an incredible Firepower Network". Yan Xishan was really proud of his city defense work.Whenever someone mentions the city defense works in Taiyuan, Yan Xishan's face will show a proud expression immediately, even in the most depressed time, as long as he thinks of the city defense works he has been running for many years, his dim eyes will immediately radiate Let out a ray of light.

Since our army began to shift into a strategic counter-offensive, Yan Xishan has taken the preservation of the nest as his strategic guiding ideology.He often said to his subordinates: Grab food, keep food in hand, consolidate Jinzhong, and protect Taiyuan to the death. When the Third World War breaks out and the U.S. troops land in China, they can take the opportunity to counterattack and make a comeback. Save the country."Now that Yan Xishan has lost Jinzhong, if he wants to achieve this goal, he can only rely on the large and small bunkers outside Taiyuan City.