Chapter 37 second quarter

In August 1947, the Chen Geng Corps forcibly crossed the Yellow River, crossed the Longhai Railway, connected more than 10 county towns, annihilated more than 40,000 Kuomintang troops, and stabbed another knife into the hinterland of the Kuomintang-controlled area.Chiang Kai-shek became more and more anxious, and ordered the two main forces of Li Tiejun and Pei Changhui to form two corps respectively to attack Chen Geng's corps.After Chen Geng mobilized the enemy, except for a small number of troops to continue to attract the enemy on the Longhai line, the main force moved south. Li Tiejun, Chen Geng's classmate at the Whampoa Military Academy, seemed to want to compete with his alumni, so he followed Chen Geng all the way to the west of Henan.When Chen Geng was in school, he didn't pay attention to Li Tiejun. At this time, he saw that Li Tiejun was just playing along, so he decided to punch him.

On October 30, the troops entered the territory of Yichuan, Henan, and Chen Geng called the brigade commanders of the column to Wenquan Town for a meeting. After the brigade commanders were seated, Chen Geng saw that Zhou Xihan was still smoking, so he asked Zhou Xihan for one, took a big drag, and then got to the point: "At present, this battle is not easy to fight. This kid Li Tiejun just follows, we are now My task is not to fight him, and now is not the time for a decisive battle. If you want to realize the decision of the central government, you have to get rid of him first. But it is annoying for him to follow our ass all the time. I want to beat him before leaving. What? To beat him, there are two ways to tell you, and see which one is better."

Chen Geng's face showed his characteristic joking smile again. He flicked the cigarette ash and continued: "For one, use two brigades to attack Linru and Jia counties respectively, and the rest of the troops will go directly to Baofeng and Fangcheng. After the two brigades attacking Linru and Jia counties succeed The advantage of this method is that it is easier to fight, because the enemy has fewer troops. Another one is to use a brigade to continuously attack Linru and Jiaxian County, creating momentum and drawing Li Tiejun's attention to the east of the Ru River. The main force rushed down to Lushan and Nanzhao to create a base area. The advantage of this method is that the force is concentrated, and the main force can win a short-term rest time. The disadvantage is that the brigade in Linru and Jiaxian is under a lot of pressure. The action is a little slow, and Li Tiejun It’s hard to clean up after you catch up.”

Obviously, the second plan is better, and all the brigade commanders agreed to implement the second plan. "So, who is going to fight Linru and Jia County?" Chen Geng asked. "Me!" Zhou Xihan spoke first. Chen Geng cast his eyes on Zhou Xihan's face, and he nodded with an expression of approval.In fact, what Chen Geng considered in advance was to let Zhou Xihan lead the 10th brigade to fight. After Zhou Xihan said his words, several other brigade commanders also stood up to fight for the task, fighting back and forth, but Zhou Xihan still had a loud voice and a ruthless appearance.Finally, Chen Geng said: "Let the 10th brigade fight!"

Zhou Xihan looked joyful, but Chen Geng pondered instead: "You have a heavy burden, you have to look forward and look backward!" "Not afraid!" Zhou Xihan replied carelessly. Chen Kang, commander of the 13th brigade, half joked and half reminded him: "Old Zhou, be careful of Li Tiejun touching his ass." Zhou Xihan stalked his neck: "I am a tiger's butt, and Li Tiejun dare not touch it. When you get to Lushan, don't forget to leave some ripe persimmons for me!" After Zhou Xihan returned to the 10th Brigade, he met with political commissar Liao Guanxian and deputy brigade commander Zhou Xueyi and began to deploy:

"The 28th Regiment will attack Linru. If all goes well, the 29th and 30th Regiments will not enter Linru, but go straight to Jia County. The 30th Regiment will attack, the 29th Regiment will follow up, and the 28th Regiment will support. From now on, we are Fight independently in the enemy's rear, keeping radio silence with the main force of the column. The reconnaissance unit has already set off ahead of schedule. Before our operation begins, the telephone lines in the two counties will be destroyed. The success or failure of this battle is related to whether the main force can be in the west of Henan Standing firm, in other words, is related to whether we can realize the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee. Actions must be fast, and strikes must be ruthless. If you are not ruthless, you will not be fast. Is there anything you don’t understand?”

"No." "The meeting is over." It only took 5 minutes from the beginning of the meeting to the end of the meeting. This is Zhou Xihan's style. Zhou Xihan also has another characteristic. If you ask any questions outside the command post, even if you ask them well, you will be criticized. He will put on a straight face: "What did you do just now?" On October 31, the 10th Brigade left Yichuan and Liuquan and crossed the Yihe River in the south. On November 1, the 28th Regiment came to Ru and succeeded easily.Killed, wounded and captured more than 600 enemies.

According to the plan, the 28th Regiment was led by brigade political commissar Liao Guanxian to kill Shengou in Yu County and monitor the enemies of Yu County and Xuchang; Zhou Xihan led the 29th and 30th Regiments to go straight to Jia County and encircle Jia County. At 10 a.m. on the 30th, the 30th Regiment arrived outside the city of Jia County, and saw that the city gate was closed, and felled trees were scattered all over the east gate, forming an obstacle.Nanguan was burned down to nothing but broken walls, and it was very difficult to get close to the city gate.The terrain outside the north gate is open and flat, but under the control of enemy fire, it is difficult to approach.The west gate is close to the Ru River, and the west gate is close to the city gate. The enemy has also set up defenses here.

The 28th Regiment attacked Linru well, and Lu Xianyang, head of the 30th Regiment, which was mainly attacking Shan County, also wanted to fight a good battle.After surveying the battlefield, he chose Xiguan as the attack point.Before the approaching 29th Regiment could deploy, the 30th Regiment began to move. After more than two hours of fighting, when Zhou Xihan arrived, the 30th regiment had already captured Xiguan and was building ladders to attack the city. However, Jiaxian's defense of the enemy seemed very tenacious.Grenades rained down, and the 30th Regiment's two strong attacks failed.

Zhou Xihan came close to observe the battle for the Ximen, and doubts arose in his heart.This is by no means a militia. Where does the militia have such strong firepower, where do they have heavy machine guns and mortars? "Stop attacking." He ordered decisively. He said to Lu Xianyang: "Don't be impatient, it seems that the enemy's situation has changed. Let's do some reconnaissance to see if we can choose a new attack point. Such an attack would consume too much energy and is not worthwhile." Lu Xianyang and Wu Xiaomin, the head of the 29th regiment, led the way.Zhou Xihan estimated in his heart that even if he found a new attack point, he would have to use the darkness of the night.Although it is not clear how many enemies there are in the city, it is certain that there are regular troops, so don't be careless.

In the evening, Wu Xiaomin reported: There is a dry riverbed outside the east gate, which can be used to meet the enemy. "it is good!" Zhou Xihan quickly adjusted his deployment, and the 29th regiment focused on the east gate.The artillery brigade was dispatched with 1 reinforced company and 6 mountain cannons, and 1 platoon of the engineering battalion was assigned to the 29th regiment carrying 300 kg of explosives.The attack began at midnight; the two battalions of the 30th regiment continued to attack the west gate before the start of the 29th regiment, and another battalion was sent to block the south gate to prevent the enemy from escaping from the south gate.He also made people urgently transfer back the 28th Regiment from the direction of Yu County to take up the task of reserve team outside the North Gate. As soon as the deployment was completed, the scouts who were reconnaissance in Qianren City ran back and reported: Wu Tinglin, the commander of the 15th Division reorganized by the Kuomintang, led the division headquarters and 2 regiments of the 64th Brigade, and a reinforced battalion of the 125th Brigade of Sun Yuanliang's Corps was dispatched on the evening of the 2nd. More than 80 vehicles rushed to Jia County.There are now more than 5,000 people defending the enemy in Jia County. No wonder it is so difficult to fight, the regular army in Jia County is close to 1 brigade! It seemed that the enemy was about to compete with Zhou Xihan, a tough guy. Just after finding out the enemy's situation in Jia County, the scouts sent another intelligence: Li Tiejun's army had entered Yichuan. There was Wu Tinglin in the front and Li Tiejun in the back.The praying mantis catches the cicada, and the oriole follows behind. What Chen Geng had worried about really happened. Zhou Xihan's 10th Brigade was suddenly caught between the enemy's front and rear. The situation suddenly became tense, and Zhou Xihan was fighting alone, so he had to come up with countermeasures as soon as possible.If they retreat and do not attack Jia County, the 10th Brigade will suffer less losses.But the enemy will soon discover the location of my main force, and Commander Chen Geng's plan to go down to Mount Lu will come to nothing.In other words, the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee will be difficult to realize.It is not Zhou Xihanding's responsibility to protect himself and lose the overall situation. Fighting, but there is no certainty of winning.There are already 5,000 Kuomintang regular troops in Jiaxian City, and Li Tiejun is behind him.If Li Tiejun's troops are counted, the enemy is exactly 10 times that of Zhou Xihan. Confronting an enemy that is 10 times as powerful as yourself, if you can't beat Jiaxian, you have to get in.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Geng have spent many years cultivating this excellent army, so they are ruined in their own hands? Dilemma, what should I do? Zhou Xihan took out a cannon barrel and lit it to smoke. There was no sound in the command post, and Zhou Xihan could vaguely hear the sound of burning tobacco leaves every time Zhou Xihan took a puff.The faint red light reflected two small bright spots in his focused eyes. Zhou Xihan continued to smoke, one after another.He was thinking about a question: Can Jia County fight? As soon as Wu Tinglin entered Jia County, he closed his door, and there was basically no defense outside the city.No matter what his purpose in coming to Jia County is, this alone shows that he is negative and frightened.However, since our army crossed the Yellow River, it has won several victories in a row, with high morale, sufficient ammunition, and good weapons. It is possible to open Jia County and get rid of the scourge of Wu Tinglin for the people of western Henan.Li Tiejun has followed our army for many days, always keeping a certain distance, which shows that he still dare not fight a decisive battle with our army.After Wu Tinglin was attacked by me, he would not fail to ask Li Tiejun for help.Li Tiejun has suffered enough from our army's siege and aid, and will not act rashly.Even if he comes to help, he will let Wu Tinglin stand guard, and when our army is almost exhausted, he will take advantage of it at a small price.Even if Li Tiejun came to help with all his strength, he would not be able to reach Jia County without a whole day's work. A full day is enough for our army to be ready. Zhou Xihan thinks more about the overall situation. Even if the 10th Brigade is in danger of being eaten up, he must ensure the deployment of Commander Chen Geng and the realization of the decision of the Party Central Committee. He threw away the cigarette butt, and said to everyone: "Fight, fight according to the original plan!" At 2 o'clock in the morning on the 4th, the 10th Brigade and the 30th Regiment, which was in charge of the feint attack, launched another attack.The engineer brigade blasted open the outer gate of the east gate with explosives. The 29th regiment took advantage of the momentum to ascend the city, and Zhang Tiantong, the combat hero of the 5th company, led 3 soldiers to take the ladder to the tower first.The soldier Fang Wen Zhutou climbed up to the top of the city alone, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, he took a machine gun on the battlement into his hand.The 18 enemies on the tower were frightened and fled to the second tower together.Zhang Datong led the assault team to guard the first tower, and kept attacking the second tower 30 meters away, charging back and forth 4 times, and finally rushed up, capturing all 11 enemies who were still alive. The development of the attacking force was extremely rapid, but within a few minutes, the striker penetrated into the depths of the enemy.Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Tinglin hurriedly transferred part of the troops defending the north gate to the east, but it was of no avail. They couldn't resist the tide of the People's Liberation Army, and they all became prisoners. Yang Tianming, the deputy division commander of the enemy, who was wearing an American officer's uniform, came to "supervise the battle" with a group of people. As soon as he reached the crossroads, he ran into the 1st platoon led by Wang Jiyou, the political instructor of our 1st company.Yang Tianming thought it was his army.Just as he was about to shout, Wang Jiyou rushed up with soldiers and grabbed Yang Tianming.Yang Tianming was still shouting: "Don't get me wrong! Don't get me wrong!" Wang Jiyou stepped forward to pat 7 Yang Tianming: "Deputy division commander, there is no misunderstanding, we are the People's Liberation Army!" After breaking through the city wall, Zhou Xihan ordered the 29th Regiment to continue to attack from east to west, and occupied the south gate with a force to meet the troops lying outside the south gate to enter the city.At the same time, the 28th regiment was ordered to enter the battle between the east gate and the north gate in time to expand the results of the battle. The 30th regiment also broke into the city from the north gate.By 10 o'clock in the battle, our army had controlled the north, east, and south of the city, and the remnants of the enemy retreated to the northwest corner of the city. At this time, the scouts sent rushed back to report to Zhou Xihan: The enemy's 3rd Division and 20th Division had entered from Linru to Sansilibao and were in a hurry. After listening to the scout's report, the command post of the 10th Brigade was no less than a heavy shell.Zhou Xihan told his subordinates to be calm.However, no matter how calm people are at this time, they will also be nervous.Sanshilibao is exactly 30 li away from Jia County. Even Zhou Xihan did not expect that Li Tiejun's movements would be so fast.If Wu Tinglin was a raging army of soldiers and a nest of raging generals, then Li Tiejun had neither soldiers nor generals. For a 30-mile journey, if you walk fast for 2 hours, if you walk slowly, it only takes 3 hours.Chen Geng, who was always paying attention to the developments of the 10th Brigade, had already been reported at this time, but Chen Geng, who had always been a general, was not so calm at this time.He paced back and forth, repeating in his mouth: "30 miles, 30 miles". Someone suggested: "Should I order Zhou Xihan and the others to withdraw?" Chen Geng stopped, pondered for a moment, and shook his head: "No! Let him decide for himself, let's not interfere with him." At this time, the commander's ability to adapt, judge, and handle is the key.If you don't withdraw, you will lose a brigade at worst; if you withdraw, you will lose everything. Of course, how could Chen Geng be willing to throw himself into the 10th Brigade and Zhou Xihan!He asked, "Who is closest to the 10th Brigade?" "The 13th Brigade." "Order Chen Kang to meet him quickly!" ... Under Jiaxian City, Brigadier Zhou Xihan lit the cannon again.The soldiers outside the city suppressed the border, but the stubborn enemies inside the city were not wiped out.Walk?Where can I get off!Wu Tinglin will tear your pants and wrap your legs around you tightly.Fight, the enemy reinforcements will arrive in the blink of an eye.The situation is more dangerous than before the siege, and the outcome is only a hair's breadth away.If he can't get away or eat Wu Tinglin, then Li Tiejun will definitely not let go of this golden opportunity to eat Zhou Xihan.Only when Wu Tinglin was eaten cleanly and thoroughly would Li Tiejun restrain himself. Zhou Xihan dropped the cigarette butt in his hand and lit another. He said to the others in the temporary command post: "The situation is indeed very dangerous, but we cannot retreat now. You all know why. Wu Tinglin is our only way out." Then, he ordered the 30th regiment to send a battalion to quickly occupy the position in Shiwulibao, and the 3rd battalion of the 28th regiment served as the second echelon of blocking 5 miles north of the city.These are two measures to slow down Li Tiejun's leveling speed. After the confession, he ordered the 29th Regiment and the 30th Regiment to keep 2 battalions each as reserve teams, and he commanded the remaining 4 battalions to attack the fortifications.The team directly under the brigade, the wounded and the prisoners first withdrew west of the Ru River and moved towards Lushan. 3 hours, as long as the blocking forces can win 3 hours, it is enough.Zhou Xihan was making arrangements with his mouth, his eyes were looking at his watch, and he was thinking in his heart. After the deployment, everyone thought he was about to give an order for a general attack, but he threw away the cigarette butt and said loudly: "Dinner!" Everyone was stunned for a moment, when is it, and they still want to eat!Some people wondered if there was something wrong with their ears, and looked at Zhou Xihan suspiciously. Zhou Xihan looked around the crowd and said with certainty: "Yes, let's serve dinner!" Then he said to deputy brigade commander Zhou Xueyi: "Old Zhou, think of a way, the main attacking troops should be able to drink hot soup." Zhou Xueyi nodded in understanding, turned around and left. Zhou Xihan cocked his neck a little excitedly, his eyes sparkled, and said to everyone: "Comrades, Li Tiejun has food to eat, and Wu Tinglin has food to eat. Our troops can't meet them hungry." Many years later, when Zhou Xihan recalled the scene in Jia County, he said: "At that time, I wanted to say a lot, but I only said a few words. I have time to eat, why don't I eat? I can fight without eating, but If you are full, you will be strong, if you are full, you will be courageous, if you are full, you will not panic. I will go and catch Wu Tinglin when I am full, and see what Li Tiejun can do to us!" The heroic style is still shocking decades later. 4 main battalions, more than 2,000 people, how easy is it to eat hot soup in half an hour?This incident didn't take much effort from deputy brigade commander Zhou Xueyi. The hot rice and soup were brought by the local people.The common people know that the People's Liberation Army is working hard for them! Zhou Xihan held up a bowl of noodle soup with both hands, and two huge teardrops fell into the bowl. After 2 hours of preparation, the 10th Brigade launched a general attack on the remnants of the enemy at 13:00.Our army concentrated artillery fire to suppress the enemy's firepower, and the artillery pushed the mountain cannon to a place 20 meters away from the enemy's bunker to aim and shoot directly, destroying the enemy's bunker in one fell swoop. The troops then launched an attack. The 1st platoon of the 4th company of the 29th Regiment was a commando. During the battle, 18 people in the platoon were injured. Except for the seriously injured, the minor injuries could not go to the line of fire until the enemy was completely wiped out and 90 enemies were captured. The 1st Battalion of the 28th Regiment broke through the enemy's frontier positions from the southwest, and the 2nd Company rushed to the forefront.The enemy used a high wall to block our army's advance with fierce artillery fire. The 2nd company and 3rd platoon leader Zhang Baozhen led the whole platoon to rush up, but was suppressed by the enemy fire under the high wall and could not lift his head. The 2nd company commander Zhou Yingquan stepped forward to inspect the attack road, and was shot through the abdomen and legs by enemy machine guns before running a few steps, and lay down in a pool of blood.The correspondent rushed forward under the rain of bullets and dragged the company commander to a corner for emergency rescue. The instructor Wang Wenhui took off his shirt and yelled: "Grandma, I don't believe I can't beat it! Call me the small artillery squad!" The small artillery squad ran over. Wang Wenhui said to the artillery squad leader: "Zheng Guoying, I want you to poke a hole in this wall with three artillery pieces, and I will give you a great credit for the whole class!" Zheng Guoying didn't say a word, and set up the 60 mortars to shoot in and out. "Tom tom tom" 3 muffled sounds, and 3 shells pierced a hole in the high wall, just enough to pass through a person. However, the enemy's heavy machine guns blocked the entrance of the cave again.Like the sharp beak of a woodpecker, the bullet knocked off the loess at the entrance of the hole piece by piece.The yellow dust seemed to spread out. There are no shells in the artillery squad, and only explosives are used to blast them. Wang Wenhui ordered: "Demolition Team 1, come on!" Before the first group could reach the high wall, they were knocked down by a storm of machine gun bullets from the enemy. Then, the 2nd and 3rd groups suffered casualties one after another. The veins on Wang Wenhui's cheeks popped up. He threw his military cap and white coat to the ground, and ordered without hesitation, "Machine gun cover, I'll go!" Before the others rushed out, the correspondent Wei Xiaotang rushed out first. Wei Xiaotang had 10 grenades hanging on his body, and each hand grabbed 3 more grenades, and the fuse hoop was already on his ring finger. Wei Xiaotang took advantage of the gap in the firepower of the enemy's machine gun to change the chain belt, rushed to the enemy's firepower point, threw 2 grenades into the perforation, took advantage of the explosion smoke, and shot left and right, and threw 8 grenades into the enemy pile. The enemy was in a mess and exclaimed: "The communist army is coming in, run!" Wei Xiaotang had an idea, and shouted bluffing: "The first row is to the left, the second row is to the right, and the third row is to follow me!" After shouting, he picked up a rifle with a bayonet on the ground and rushed forward. Going forward is the enemy's core position, the Dragon King Temple where the enemy's division headquarters is located. Zhou Xueyi, the deputy brigade commander, and Zhao Huaqing, the head of the regiment, all came to the forward position.From the fact that the head of the brigade and regiment came to the front to organize the battle, the commanders and fighters realized that the whole battle was at a critical moment. According to Zhou Xihan's order, the Brigade Mountain Artillery Brigade pushed the mountain artillery to a distance of tens of meters from the enemy's bunker to shoot, destroying the enemy's son-mother-fort group.The brigade engineer company blasted continuously, destroying more than 10 enemy bunkers.Then, under the leadership of the trumpeter, the buglemen of the whole brigade blew the loud and clear charge horn together. Our army launched the final assault on the enemy. The enemy knew that they were about to be destroyed, so they made a final struggle.Spit out all the firepower.Our army's advance was blocked. It was the same warrior, Wei Xiaotang, who saw that the assault team was crushed under the enemy's fire, and he was so anxious that he said to the instructor again: "I'm going!" He picked up the explosive bag and rushed forward. The enemy's dense bullets hissed around Wei Xiaotang, spraying the ground like raindrops.Wei Xiaotang kept changing his movements, sometimes jumping up, sometimes lying down, and unexpectedly rushed under the east wall of the Dragon King Temple under the rain of bullets. With a loud noise, a wall of the Dragon King Temple was blown down... In the thick smoke and dust, the enemy raised a white flag of surrender.Wu Tinglin, the commander of the 15th Division who was good at defense in the Kuomintang army, did not escape the fate of being annihilated in the end. After Zhou Xihan received the report, he immediately ordered the troops: "Hurry up and take them away!" After finishing speaking, he directly talked with Chen Geng by radio: "Conquer Jiaxian County, capture Wu Tinglin and two deputy division commanders. Li Tiejun has passed Shilibao, 5 miles away from the county seat. I will evacuate now." Chen Geng put down the microphone and couldn't help blurting out: "This battle is really Zhou Xihan's masterpiece!" Chen Geng's words were full of emotion, but it is not too much to call it a masterpiece.During the movement, the troops conquered the city, annihilated as many enemies as they were, and captured several enemy generals when the enemy's soldiers were overwhelming. This is rare in the history of war. Zhou Xihan has created this miracle, in addition to his high command ability, he also has courage!