Chapter 5 fourth quarter

In the War of Liberation, Chen Geng's most outstanding achievement was leading his army across the Yellow River to the south, advancing into the west of Henan, tearing through the defense line of the Kuomintang army, and beating the war drum of the strategic offensive of the People's Liberation Army together with Liu Deng and Chen Su's army. On August 22, 1947, Chen Geng led the Taiyue Corps to the Yellow River. The Yellow River has always been regarded as a natural danger by military strategists. In the Yellow River in August 1947, the river surged, and the river roared, which was daunting.

Standing on the shore, Chen Geng bent down and pushed a boulder beside him hard, but the boulder remained motionless.Seeing this, the staff officers rushed forward. Amidst the yelling, the boulder broke away from the bank and fell into the river. However, the boulder was like a piece of rotten wood, lifted by the waves and drifted down the river a hundred meters away. How to put a boat in such a fast-moving river?How to put the sheepskin valve?How can you smuggle in an oilcloth bag?Chen Gengyi frowned. The situation does not wait for anyone, and the war situation does not wait for anyone. We must try to cross the river according to the predetermined plan.Chen Geng took the guards along the river to investigate all the way.

When I came to the camp of the 10th Brigade, I saw Zhou Xihan, the commander of the 10th Brigade, and the heads of the various regiments gathered by the river, gesticulating and talking.Zhou Xihan has been with Chen Geng for many years, and Chen Geng understands his nature very well.Before each battle, think carefully; after the battle, be good at summarizing.When you encounter difficulties, you must find a solution, and you generally don't say anything until you can't find a solution.It seems that he has a solution.Chen Geng walked towards them quickly. Seeing Chen Geng approaching, Zhou Xihan immediately went up to him and saluted Chen Geng: "Report to the commander, we are studying the matter of changing the ferry and transferring troops."

Chen Geng smiled and said: "You think of the front again, let's go! Look at the ferry you chose!" The river at the newly chosen ferry is not calm either.Fortunately, the beaches on both sides of the river are wider, and it is easier to cross from the north bank and disembark on the south bank. Unlike the Guandu and Qinghekou that were originally selected, once the river rises, only the towering steep walls on both sides remain. At this moment, the ferry was crowded with people, some of them neatly placed the prepared ferry boats on the shore; some were checking the sheepskin valves; Some are wearing oilcloth bags; others are seriously building heavy weapons fortifications.

Seeing this scene, Chen Geng's previous worries were wiped away.He excitedly patted Zhou Xihan on the shoulder and asked, "Crossing the river as scheduled, is there any problem?" Zhou Xihan answered very simply: "No problem, we can only move forward, not come back!" After speaking, the two of them laughed so comfortably.The turbulent waves failed to stop the Chen Geng Corps, and even many members of the Chen Geng Corps could not believe that they had successfully crossed the roaring Yellow River in August. Later, the folks made a myth about the crossing of the Yellow River by Chen Geng's army, saying that just after Chen Geng's army arrived at the Yellow River, the water of the Yellow River suddenly rose sharply, and the waves soared to the sky, roaring like thunder, and furious.At this moment, a huge golden dragon sprang out of the water, with its head north and tail south, and a golden bridge was built, which scared the enemies on the south bank dumbfounded, and their guns were dumb.The giant dragon bowed to Chen Geng and roared three times. Chen Geng waved his hand, and a hundred thousand troops stepped on the dragon's back, crossed the Yellow River steadily, and wiped out the enemies on the south bank without firing a single shot.Although this is an exaggeration of the legend, it largely reflects the admiration and admiration of the local people for the all-powerful Chen Geng Corps.

As soon as the whole army crossed the river, Chen Geng sent three telegrams to the Central Military Commission, Mao Zedong, and Liu Deng.In the last telegram, Chen Geng reiterated: "I am determined to 'break the boat and sink the boat' and quickly establish a base in Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei without the rear of the Taiyue District." What a brave general! The telegram that the Chen Geng Corps broke through the natural barrier of the Yellow River overnight was also sent to Chiang Kai-shek's bedroom in Nanjing on the night of the 24th. When Chiang Kai-shek received the telegram, his face was ashen for a long time before he said a word: "Chen Geng broke through the natural danger of the Yellow River, and the Central Plains and Eastern Shaanxi are at stake!"

Indeed, judging from the war situation in China at that time, Liu Deng's army went straight into the Dabie Mountains and slashed the chest of the Kuomintang regime. , advanced into the east of Henan, and slashed again.The three armies of the People's Liberation Army have strategically formed a "pin" formation, each other's horns, working together, on the Central Plains from the Yangtze River in the south, to the Yellow River in the north, from the Han River in the west, and to the Yellow Sea in the east. The Kuomintang group launched a large-scale offensive. Chiang Kai-shek had a premonition that the situation on the battlefield would take a turn for the worse.

In order to deal with Chen Geng's corps, Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered Hu Zongnan to withdraw the main force from the Mizhi and Suide areas to the south to defend Xi'an, and drew one each from the reorganized 3rd, 15th, 47th, and 206th divisions from the troops chasing Liu Deng's army The western aid of the brigade, together with the 4 brigades of the defenders in the Luoyang area, formed the 5th Corps, which was under the unified command of Li Tiejun.In addition, the 27th Brigade of the 30th Division, the 135th Brigade of the 15th Division, the 1st Brigade of the 76th Division, the 167th Brigade of the 1st Division, and the 1st Division of the 206th Division distributed in eastern Shaanxi and Lingbao and Shanxian County Four and a half brigades formed the Eastern Shaanxi Corps.Attacking from east to west with the 5th Corps in an attempt to wipe out Chen Geng's Corps when its foothold was not stable.

I entered the enemy's advance, and a confrontation battle kicked off. In response to the fact that Jiang's army had been mobilized and Chiang Kai-shek was eager to destroy the Chen Geng Corps, Mao Zedong sent several telegrams to Chen Geng's Corps in succession, instructing the Chen Geng Corps to strive for mobile warfare, occupy a wide range of enemy areas, and wipe out more enemies.The troops are required to move westward, seize Shanxian County, Lingbao and other places, and then go all the way out of southeastern Shaanxi and Funiu Mountain all the way to establish bases in the border areas of Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei.

On September 2, Chen Geng's corps began to operate. First, it used a force to monitor the enemy in Shan County, and the main force bypassed Shan County and went straight to Lingbao.With swift action, wipe out multiple groups of enemies.Then one part attacked Tongguan from the west, and the other part returned to Shan County, and conquered Shan County.In half a month of mobile warfare, Chen Geng led his troops to wipe out nearly 30,000 enemies, controlled a vast area from Xin'an to Tongguan, cut off the enemy's east-west connection, and directly threatened Xi'an.Chiang Kai-shek was in a hurry, and hurriedly drew the 65th Division from the troops attacking the Dabie Mountains, airlifted it to Xi'an, and transferred some troops back from the battlefield in northern Shaanxi, and concentrated 10 brigades between Tongguan, Xi'an, to prevent Chen Geng's corps from advancing westward.In this way, Peng Dehuai in northern Shaanxi was able to organize troops to attack again.

In late October, Chen Geng led his troops to the south again, even Kebaofeng, Lushan, Nanzhao, Fangcheng, Dengfeng and other cities.In order to disrupt the deployment of Chen Geng's Corps in western Henan, the Kuomintang army chased southward with the 3rd and 15th divisions.In order to deal with the enemies chasing after them, the Chen Geng Corps held a special meeting of the front committee in Nanzhao to determine countermeasures.At that time, some people advocated immediately annihilating the enemy immediately behind, or pulling the troops to the west, and establishing a base on the "bull's back" of Funiu Mountain.This kind of opinion is somewhat rash and rash. Chen Geng believes that we should still adhere to our army's consistent combat principles, and annihilate them one by one after they have dispersed and consumed the enemy.To be calm, to put a long line to catch big fish.That is to say, first send a force to pretend to be the main force, cut off the Xixiakou and Jingziguan highways controlled by the enemy, and echo the troops who went south to open up the base area in southern Shaanxi.Confuse the enemy, lure the enemy's 3rd Division and other western aid, lead Li Tiejun's "big bull" away, and try to drag him down.The main force moved to the north and east, along the west side of Pinghan Road, ready to attack Pinghan Road at any time, to support the struggle of Chief Liu and Deng in the Dabie Mountains, and to cooperate with Chen Su's army to fight in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu.When the time is right, Li Tiejun's corps will be wiped out in one fell swoop. Chen Geng named this combat plan "West Henan Cowherd". The front committee meeting adopted Chen Geng's plan to wipe out the enemy. Chen Geng immediately deployed: With the 13th brigade of the 4th column and the 25th brigade of the 9th column, under the unified command of Huang Zhen and Huang Xinyou, advance to Wanxi and take on the task of "bringing the cow"; With the 26th and 27th brigades of the 9th column, led by Qin Jiwei, they launched to the rear of Baofeng and Lushan; With the 10th and 11th brigades of the 4th column, they waited in concealment in Fangcheng, Yexian, Biyang and Tanghe areas. After the deployment was completed, Chen Geng said to the leaders of the 13th and 25th brigades who were responsible for the task of "leading the cow": We must try to lead the "stupid cow" Li Tiejun into Funiu Mountain, buy time for the main force to move, and create conditions for a larger battle; at the same time The "cow" must be exhausted, thinned, and collapsed, so as to prepare the conditions for "killing the cow". The task of "leading the cow" is actually not easy. The 13th brigade and the 25th brigade combined have less than 6,000 people, but Li Tiejun's "cow" is a 30,000-strong army fully equipped with American equipment. If the "cow" is not careful, he will be injured by the "cow", so the battle of wits is even more important Yu Dou Li. Time was running out, and the "Dear Cow" troops set off in the evening of the same day.The 25th Brigade went straight to Stone Buddha Temple in Nanyang, and the 13th Brigade went south to Zhenping.In order to create momentum and confuse the enemy, the troops of the two brigades marched in battalions as units, and thousands of people withdrew. In order to attract the attention of the enemy, the troops marched at night also broke the convention and sang loud and clear military songs. Others sang hometown ditties, such as Pingju Opera, Yuju Opera, Meiju Opera, Beilu Bangzi... The wonderful fragments that are difficult to hear at ordinary times, all came in handy this time.The enthusiastic and bold singing and vocals of the soldiers seemed to infect the horses carrying the cannons, and they also let go of their voices and hissed their necks. In order to expand the target and create momentum, the 13th and 25th brigades also sent some units back to the villages they had passed by.When camping, each army drew a house mark on the lintel of the common people's house: after they settled in, each army repaired the pots and stoves immediately, even in the house, in the platoon, and in the class, and some classes even repaired several. There are everything for cooking, boiling water, and heating. Even the useless pots and stoves should be burned with some firewood.For a while, the camps were filled with smoke and flames shining in the sky. Those who knew were living in a company, and those who didn’t know thought they lived in a regiment. The next day, the villagers started talking about it.This said that Lao Balu came over, and the mules and horses passed the middle of the night.That said, the village is full of cooking pots, and at least there are thousands of people living there.One pass to ten, ten to one hundred, the faster the spread, the farther the spread, the more magical the spread! This trick really worked. On the afternoon of November 15th, as soon as the 13th Brigade and the 38th Regiment cleared up a group of stubborn soil in Liucun Town, the scouts rushed to report to the brigade commander that the enemy was catching up.Brigadier Chen ran to the mountain and looked through the binoculars. Sure enough, the enemy swarmed like locusts. After a while, gunshots rang out from the bottom of the mountain. This was the exchange of fire between the rear guard and the enemy.At this time, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the "cow" was finally caught. It was the 3rd Reorganized Division of the Kuomintang Army who was "led" here, and the division commander was Li Tiejun.What's interesting is that Li Tiejun and Chen Geng were classmates at the same time in the Whampoa Military Academy.This Li Tiejun had poor academic performance in the Whampoa Military Academy, while Chen Geng was one of the "Three Heroes of Whampoa".When he was in school, Li Tiejun respectfully called Chen Geng "Brother Chen".Now Brother Li is chasing and killing Brother Chen, even though Brother Chen is playing tricks on Brother Li on purpose. Li Tiejun also knew that "Brother Chen" had countless Taos in his stomach.So even though he was chasing "Brother Chen", he was still very careful.After several times in Linru, Baofeng, and Nanzhao, he guessed that his "Brother Chen" might be playing tricks on him again, so he hesitated, and only sent a brigade to follow the troops of "Dianniu" to further find out the truth. . Brigadier Chen of the 13th Brigade saw that the enemy behind him was cautious and knew that the enemy had some doubts. If he did not lead the main force of the enemy to his side, he would expose the actions of the main force of our army corps and make the "Planning the Cow" fail.While reporting the situation to Chen Geng, he improved the way to confuse and lure the enemy. Chen Geng quickly sent a telegram to the 13th Brigade.Impressively written on it: "Resolutely lay down Zhenping!" Zhenping is the passage from Nanyang to Neixiang and Xixiakou. If Zhenping is lost, Nanyang will inevitably be threatened, so Li Tiejun will definitely rescue. Such "radical generals" are obviously much more effective than "please generals". Brigadier Chen admired the commander's strategy. That night, the 13th Brigade surrounded Zhenping County. Brigadier Chen gathered dozens of trumpeters from the whole brigade, sounded the charge horn together, and concentrated all artillery, mountain cannons, and light and heavy machine guns to fire violently.Seeing this momentum, the enemies in Zhenping City thought that the main force of the People's Liberation Army had arrived, and were frightened out of their wits, and hurriedly asked Li Tiejun for help.Seeing this, Li Tiejun was also in a hurry, and sent messages again and again: "Hold on! Hold on! Let's come for reinforcements!" Zhenping's defender did not hold on.At dawn, they disarmed and surrendered. At the same time, the 25th Brigade, another unit of my "Dear Cow", also occupied the Stone Buddha Temple. When Li Tiejun led the main force of the reorganized 3rd Division to Zhenping exhaustedly, our 13th Brigade had already distributed the food in the warehouse to the common people. The soldiers had enough food and sleep, and marched westward in a mighty way. . In the days that followed, our "Pulling the Cow" troops led the enemy in a parade in western Henan. It is not an easy task for the "cow-raising" troops to complete the task of "cow-raising" completely, because this "cow" is not tame, and sometimes kicks its hooves and kicks its legs, full of bullishness.Often, as soon as the troops put down the rice for cooking, the "cows" would bite up, and they had to extinguish the burning firewood and leave immediately.As soon as the backpack was opened, the "cow" arrived, and the troops had to pack up their luggage in a hurry and continue to set off.Especially the guard troops, they had to rush to repair some fortifications to show the "cow" while walking, so that the cow could smell the scent of "cow material" and walk away. It is difficult for our army to "lead the cow", but it seems to be even more difficult for the Kuomintang army.They followed behind the People's Liberation Army, afraid that the People's Liberation Army would escape, and they were also afraid that the People's Liberation Army would return to their carbine.I was out of breath all day long and lived in fear.As soon as the People's Liberation Army left, they followed closely; as soon as the People's Liberation Army stopped, they quickly turned to defense.The enemy's troops were bloated, their supplies were cumbersome, their morale was low, and they gradually couldn't keep up. How to hold the "cow" tight and make it run fast has become an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Chen Geng thought of beating. The cow can't just be pulled but not be beaten.Chen Geng made up his mind to give this "cow" a little color. On November 19, Chen Geng ordered the 13th brigade to go to Neixiang to join the 25th brigade.That night, two brigades surrounded Neixiang County, with the 25th Brigade as the main attack and the 13th Brigade as cover.Before the general attack, Chen Geng said to the two brigade commanders: "The artillery fire for the siege must be fierce, and let the enemy ask Li Tiejun for help." Under the fierce artillery fire of our army, the enemy in the city really called Li Tiejun several times for help.After Li Tiejun received the report, he became very arrogant, and immediately led the 3rd division to rush forward. The "bull" was held tight again.Our army immediately retreated and moved to the other side of the Tuan River.Li Tiejun was not willing to let go, and chased desperately.In this way, he was led to Chimei Town by our army. Chimei Town is located in the middle of Neixiang and the hinterland of Mount Funiu, and it is a necessary pass leading to the hinterland of Mount Funiu.Here, the ditch is deep and the road is narrow, the mountains are high and the slopes are steep, it is a dangerous place in the art of war.Not to enter dangerous places is military common sense, and the iron army will not understand it.What if he doesn't come? Shock him again!Therefore, our army sent a small force to lure the enemy, and at the same time drew out a battalion to arrange a pocket formation at Yuguan Pass, preparing to ambush the enemy.The enemy was "led" over again, to Yu Pass.The enemy launched round after round of attacks on our positions.And each time more troops were added.Faced with the casualties of the Kuomintang army, Li Tiejun became happy instead. He really thought that he had captured the main force of Chen Geng's corps, so he simply supervised the battle himself and mobilized dozens of cannons.However, when the enemy tried their best to attack the top of the mountain, our army had already moved away.Li Tiejun, who got nothing, thought that his great achievement was about to be accomplished, so he directly sent a power call to Chiang Kai-shek to ask for credit, saying: "The Chen Geng Corps of the Communist Army has been chased by me to the end of the road, and hastily fled into the deep mountains and old valleys. The morale of the Communists is low, heavy casualties, serious deserters, food shortages, and no supplies. When they fled, their heavy weapons were discarded everywhere. The victory of the national army is imminent. , the aftermath of the good news." After reading Li Tiejun's telegram, Chiang Kai-shek really thought that Chen Geng's corps was defeated by Li Tiejun's attack and became a deserter. The elimination of the People's Liberation Army's wing in the Central Plains was just around the corner. In the face of defeat, quickly launch a siege to the Communist Army of Liu and Deng in the Dabie Mountains, and wipe them out in the Dabie Mountains!" That night, the Kuomintang Central News Agency reported this "good news" at an unprecedented speed, touting Li Tiejun as an "iron-handed general" and a "hero of the times." Li Tiejun, who was blown out of his head, actually did it on November 22, ordering the entire 3rd division to throw away their luggage and cannons, and chased them into the mountains with all their strength. So far, my task of "raising the cow" in western Henan has been basically completed.The Li Tiejun Corps has basically been dismantled, and its main 20th Division was clamped between Fangcheng and Nanyang; the entire 3rd Division was dragged to Xixiakou and Xiaguan Town; the 124th Brigade was destroyed by me and fled to Zhengzhou. In this way, Chen Geng decided to change from "drawing the cow" to "driving the cow", and must drive the enemy to the predetermined area to eliminate them. On the morning of December 23, Chen Geng sent troops to "greet" the 3rd Division along the Suiping and Xiping highways. The entire 3rd division has been dragged around by the People's Liberation Army. It was exhausted and demoralized. This time it was suddenly attacked again.Before he could raise his head, the machine gun on the left wing fired again.The enemy marched tens of meters with great effort, and the machine gun on the right wing roared again.In this way, the enemy only walked 5 miles for 5 hours. Under the constant resistance of my "welcoming" troops, this exhausted "cow" finally walked into the slaughterhouse by itself. On the morning of the 24th, the entire 3rd Division, with a regiment of troops, launched continuous attacks on our blocking troops, but were all repelled.Only then did Li Tiejun find himself surrounded by the People's Liberation Army.The main force of the Chen Geng Corps has been assembled, and the main force of the East China Field Army Chen Tang Corps is rushing southward along Pinghan Road.Li Tiejun knew something was wrong, and immediately ordered to retreat to the southeast.How can I get away?That night, they were surrounded by the two large armies of Chen Geng and Chen Tang in Zhuwangzhai and Jingangsi area. On the evening of the 25th, our various siege troops attacked the enemy according to the pre-plan, and fought fiercely all day and night. By 20:00 on the 26th, except for Li Tiejun who led a few remnants to escape, the 5th Corps and the entire 3rd Division were all wiped out.Li Yingcai, Chief of Staff of the 5th Corps, Zou Yan, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Lu Kezhen, Commander of the 3rd Division, were all taken prisoners. After the war, Chen Geng came to the prison camp and talked with the captured Kuomintang generals one by one.This is Chen Geng's habit.He believes that by doing so, he can understand the enemy's tactics and gain more information about the enemy's situation. After meeting Li Yingcai, Chen Geng said: "The attendant was captured, didn't you expect it?" Li Yingcai said dejectedly: "I didn't expect your army to come and go. We thought that the main force of your army was in the west, but it turned out to be in the east. They led us around a big circle, dragged the fat cows into tired ones, and were finally slaughtered. I didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it." "Where is your Commander Li?" "Ran." "He's really embarrassing President Jiang!" Only then did Li Yingcai notice that the interrogator's tone was unusual. He hesitated for a moment and asked, "Excuse me, sir..." Chen Geng said: "Chen Geng, you are an old classmate of Commander Li." Li Yingcai stood up straight, and said repeatedly: "I have admired you for a long time, I have admired you for a long time, it's my fault that I don't know the real face of big brother." Chen Geng smiled slightly and asked, "Why don't you run?" Li Yingcai replied truthfully: "I can't run away." He added, "It's no shame to lose to Brother Chen!" The defeated generals of the Kuomintang army should have learned a lot from their "big brothers" in the Whampoa Military Academy.