Chapter 42 third quarter

Li Desheng is a native of the Dabie Mountains. In 1930, he joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army from his hometown of Guangshan County, Henan Province (now Xinxian County). In October 1932, he embarked on a westward journey with the 4th Red Army. It was not until July 1947 that he returned to his hometown with Liu Deng's army. The experience of Li Desheng leading his troops to the Dabie Mountains is also the epitome of Liu Deng's army advancing into the Dabie Mountains. Dabie Mountain stands at the junction of Hubei, Henan and Anhui provinces, bordering Pinghan Road in the west, Huainan Road in the east, Huaihe River in the north and Yangtze River in the south, protruding between Wuhan and Nanjing.Relying on this area, you can overlook the Central Plains, approach the Yangtze River, and threaten Wuhan. It is an important strategic area for our army to seize the Central Plains and march into the south of the Yangtze River.If our army rebuilds the Dabie Mountain base here, it will be like a sharp knife piercing the enemy's heart.Therefore, when the People's Liberation Army switched from strategic defense to strategic counter-offensive in June 1947, the first heavy punch was struck by Liu Deng's army, leaping thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains.

Dabie Mountain is an old base with a glorious revolutionary tradition. In the history of our army, there have been "four ins and four outs" battle experiences, namely: the Red Fourth Army marched west, Xu Haidong led the Red Army northward, Gao Jingting led the New Fourth Army eastward, Li Xiannian led the Central Plains People's Liberation Army to break through.The fire of revolution has never been extinguished in this land.Especially when Li Xiannian led his troops to break through, he left behind a large number of cadres who were still fighting guerrillas in the Dabie Mountains and insisted on fighting against the enemy.When they learned the news that Liu Deng's army was going south, they were very excited, and they looked forward to joining forces with the main force day and night.

As soon as Liu Deng's army entered the Dabie Mountains, Deng Xiaoping's political commissar instructed the troops to get in touch with the local guerrillas as soon as possible. On September 2, Li Desheng led the 17th brigade to march towards Huang'an. When the troops came to camp in a village called Huangshichong, a guerrilla leader named Liu Mingbang came.When Li Desheng heard his accent, he was from his hometown!Liu Mingbang was a member of the Eastern Hubei Prefectural Committee during the Anti-Japanese War.When the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army withdrew to the north, Li Xiannian predicted that the revolutionary struggle would encounter many difficulties after the main force withdrew from the Dabie Mountains. In order to preserve the revolutionary fire in the old base area, he ordered Liu Mingbang to stay and be responsible for reorganizing the central county committees of the four counties of Luo, Li, Jing and Guang. Served as Secretary of the Central County Party Committee.The more Li Desheng talked with Liu Mingbang, the more excited he became. This is a relative from his hometown whom he hadn't seen for more than ten years!

Two days later, Commander Liu Bocheng received Liu Mingbang, and according to Deng's political commissar's opinion, he appointed Comrade Liu Mingbang as the county magistrate. Passing by Qiliping, Li Desheng is very close to home. He has not returned to his hometown for 17 years, so he decided to go back to see the landscape and relatives in his hometown.Li Desheng lost his mother when he was young, his father was a long-term worker, and his family was poor. Two younger siblings died of hunger and disease one after another.Li Desheng joined the Red Army and left at the age of 14. When he returned to his hometown, he was already in his thirties.Li Desheng brought a cavalry squad back to the village, but he couldn't find his former residence when he entered the village.Li Desheng inquired all the way and found the home of his uncle and sister-in-law.Because Li Desheng was a teenager when he left home, his uncle and sister-in-law no longer knew him after more than ten years.

Li Desheng said: "I am Desheng!" The uncle and sister-in-law looked at it for a while, and then they recognized it, and burst into tears: "Oh, you're back! You're still alive!" At this time, Li Desheng knew that after he joined the Red Army, his father was captured by the Kuomintang reactionaries because he was a member of the Red Army, and later died in other places.The old man who suffered all his life could not see the return of his son and the victory of the revolution in the end!Li Desheng felt a pain in his heart. When the villagers heard that Li Desheng was coming, they came to see him one after another, asking this and that, and they were very affectionate.Li Desheng talked to the villagers about the development of the revolutionary situation in these years, and told everyone that he would never go back to the Dabie Mountains this time.The villagers were very excited to hear this.Due to the tight combat mission, Li Desheng only stayed in the village for two hours before rushing back to the army.On the way back, he looked at the familiar landscape of his hometown and was overwhelmed with emotion. The villagers have suffered so much under the oppression of the reactionaries all these years. For their hometown, for their relatives, for the liberation of thousands of working people, and for their children They can live a happy life, he is determined to fight for it to the last breath of his life!

Liu Deng's army entered the Dabie Mountains, making Chiang Kai-shek restless, and he immediately mobilized heavy troops to encircle him. In early September, 23 brigades of the Kuomintang Army surrounded Liu Deng's army from the north, east, and west.And with the 7th and 48th Divisions of the Guangxi Clan who are very familiar with the situation in the Dabie Mountains, they entered the heart of the Dabie Mountains to find my main force to fight, in an attempt to wipe out me in one fell swoop when my foothold was not stable.These two divisions of the Guangxi Clique were active in the Dabie Mountains during the Anti-Japanese War. There were spy networks established in various places, and some officers were married to the local local tyrants and evil gentry in the Dabie Mountains, so it was very difficult to deal with these enemies.

Chief Liu Deng had foreseen this.Deng Xiaoping warned the troops, "The enemy will definitely grab us when we are not stable. However, the enemy still has a lot of loopholes. We can seize the opportunity to annihilate it and end the enemy's tail pursuit. As long as we are mentally prepared, after a few rounds , We must be able to stand firm and build a solid base." This instruction was quickly spread to the whole army, and everyone was mentally prepared to fight the enemy repeatedly. Our army of more than 100,000 people took the leap forward method to penetrate deep into the enemy's deep areas and stay away from the rear support. The difficulties it brought were unimaginable.Most of the soldiers in the army are from the north, and when they eat rice in the south, they complain of stomach pains; they are not used to wearing straw sandals, and the language is difficult to understand; concerns.Due to the above reasons, some people lacked confidence in establishing the Dabie Mountains base area, and when encountering difficulties, they began to speak strange words and complain, and even battalion and regiment commanders also developed Rightist sentiments.During a march, a regiment commander who used to be very capable of fighting passed through the sleeping enemy group at night and did not fight. The main reason was that he would not be able to deal with the wounded after he opened up. sluggishness, resulting in the enemy running away.In addition, violations of mass discipline in the army also occur from time to time.In response to this situation, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping decided to hold a meeting of senior cadres above the brigade level.In the past meetings, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping always greeted everyone with a smile on their faces, but this time Liu Deng's attitude was very serious.When Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping walked into the venue, several people at the door greeted them, and extended their hands habitually after saluting.Deng Xiaoping waved his hand in the air and said: "The battle is not well fought, no more handshakes!" After everyone sat down, Deng Xiaoping scanned the audience with serious eyes and said: "Today we call everyone to hold a meeting without shaking hands. "

The mood of the participants suddenly became heavy. Liu Bo took over the words: "The political commissar said it was a 'no handshake meeting', but I said it was an 'egg safety meeting'! Some of our cadres lack bravery, have no eggs, and don't look like a man. What should we do? One pair!" Liu Bocheng went on to say: "Some comrades went to war, they were full of worries, moved slowly, and missed the opportunity to wipe out the enemy." Liu Bocheng then emphasized that we must establish the idea of ​​taking the Dabie Mountains as our home, and resolutely overcome right-leaning thoughts and emotions such as fear of war and lax discipline.The speeches of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping at this meeting greatly encouraged the soldiers of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army. After this meeting, the fighting will of the troops became stronger.Later, some people laughed and said that this meeting was an "ovum security" meeting.

In order to strictly enforce the discipline of the masses, Liu Deng made a strict order at that time: those who shot the common people were shot; those who robbed people's property were shot; There are still people who hit the muzzle of the gun. On October 3, the discipline inspection team of the military region inspected at Zongluzui and found that a deputy company commander had openly robbed vendors of vermicelli and floral cloth.In order to maintain discipline, the inspection team compensated the masses with 6 taels of gold, and then publicly shot the deputy company commander. Seeing this scene, the common people were greatly moved, and a large number of local traders also returned.

For a period of time, food was very difficult, to the point where even eating became a problem.Even so, the army did not ask the poor farmers for food, and the troops took the lead in eating less.Li Desheng and several leaders in the brigade only ate a small bowl for each meal.A deputy political commissar even only ate crispy rice and left the rice for the soldiers.This kind of strict discipline and the good ethos of leading by example not only left an excellent impression on the masses of the Dabie Mountains, but also shocked the enemy.After the liberation of the whole country, in the archives of the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense seized, there was such an evaluation of Li Desheng's troops: "This column is good at attacking fortifications, and has good command and discipline. The bandits are called the main column." It can be seen that the Kuomintang army not only Fear of troops that can fight, and fear of well-disciplined troops.

In the early winter of the Dabie Mountains, there will be frost and rain, and the climate is cold. It is impossible to maintain the normal life of the troops without wearing cotton clothes.But at that time, the fabrics that the various troops raised were all colorful cotton cloth and satin, and the clothes they made were all kinds of clothes, which were out of shape!And where can we find so many tailors to rush to make thousands of cotton-padded clothes? Just when everyone was worried, news came that Chief Liu Deng personally sewed cotton-padded clothes. It turned out that after the cold weather, some column leaders were concerned about Liu Deng's thin clothes. They had sent fur coats and robes obtained from hunting local tyrants, and woolen coats from captured Kuomintang officers, etc.Liu Deng refused to accept them all, but sewed cotton-padded clothes by himself, and asked all the soldiers in the army to sew cotton-padded clothes by themselves. The troops were not allowed to wear colorful silk and satin clothes, and they had to keep their military appearance. White cloth and variegated cloth could be burned with straw. blackened. At the command, the commanders and fighters of the whole army dyed, cut, threaded, helped each other, and made cotton clothes.Although these clothes were not dyed gray or green, and the cotton clothes they sewed themselves did not fit well, everyone felt very warm wearing them.By the beginning of November, the 120,000 soldiers of Liu Deng's army had basically solved the problem of cotton clothes.This is something that has never been done by Chinese and foreign armies in ancient and modern times. Only the people's army led by the Communist Party of China can do it. After entering the Dabie Mountains, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping have been looking for fighter planes for the entire division and brigade to annihilate the enemy in order to combat their arrogance.Liu Deng learned that the enemy's 82nd Brigade had been put under the command of the 40th Division, and the two enemies would go south to Guangji.Liu Deng immediately ordered the columns to assemble their troops and prepare for a war of annihilation. Where is the battlefield chosen?Liu Deng and others personally surveyed the battlefield. They walked tens of miles of high slopes and climbed the highest Sanjiao Mountain in eastern Hubei. They looked down at the surrounding terrain, compared the ground pavilions, and selected the necessary route from Xishui to Guangji. Gaoshanpu on the way is used as a battlefield to wipe out the enemy. Gaoshanpu is a small basin surrounded by mountains, with undulating mountains on both sides and winding roads. The southern end is a narrow and long valley, and there is a gap in the southwest. It is a hill more than 1,300 meters long. If the enemy wants to escape from here, he will encounter a real trap. In order to confuse the enemy, Liu Deng ordered the Central Plains Independent Brigade to send a small number of troops, pretending to be guerrillas, harassing the enemy along the way, making mobile defenses, delaying the enemy's advance, waiting for the participating troops to arrive on time, and luring the enemy into our ambush encirclement. The enemy really fell for the trick. After contacting the Central Plains Independent Brigade, what they saw was the sparse gunfire of old guns. They fled as soon as they counterattacked. They lined up in three-way and four-way columns, and marched swaggeringly, ignoring the "Tuba Road" at all. When the enemy was led into the "pocket" of our army in the Gaoshanpu area, he was first resolutely blocked by our 1st vertical.The enemy still didn't care, and only sent two platoons to grab the hill, trying to clear the way forward.Under the fierce firepower of our army, these two platoons were basically wiped out.Only then did the enemy wake up, and gradually increased their troops, launching continuous attacks.But except for 7 who left a large pile of corpses, they have not been able to move forward. At this time, the generals of the Kuomintang "Wuhan Xingyuan" were still in the dark, and they kept telegraphing to cheer up the 40th Division: "There is only one brigade of the Communist Army in Gaoshanpu, so you can move forward boldly and with confidence." The planes of the Kuomintang army also flew Go to the sky above Gaoshanpu to cheer, and go around Li Zhenqing, the commander of the 40th Division of the enemy who arrived in Qichun first, and urged his troops to rush to Qichun for dinner on the intercom!And the enemies trapped in the encirclement are calling their father and mother. On October 27, our army's general offensive began. All participating troops pressed against the enemy from all directions. The enemies fleeing from all sides were like headless flies, running against a wall in the east and fleeing to the west. With the cooperation, they surrendered one after another. At two o'clock in the afternoon on the 27th, the battle ended victoriously. Our army wiped out the enemy's 40th division and 82nd brigade, a total of 5 regiments, more than 12,600 people, shot down 1 enemy plane, and seized a large amount of weapons and equipment. The generals of the Kuomintang "Wuhan Xingyuan" did not expect their troops to collapse so quickly. They even sent several planes from Wuhan to drop a lot of hot sesame seed cakes and steamed buns, which happened to comfort the victorious PLA. The great victory at Gaoshanpu relieved Mao Zedong and others who were far away in northern Shaanxi. Mao Zedong said to Zhou En: "The victory in the battle of Gaoshanpu is not only significant in that our army has wiped out more than 10,000 enemies, it shows that Liu Deng has established a foothold there, and the king of heaven and I can't drive them away!" After the Battle of Gaoshanpu, Chiang Kai-shek could no longer hold back.At this time, the People's Liberation Army's Chen Geng Corps and Chen Su's army also advanced into the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei region and the Henan-Suwan region.Chiang Kai-shek was so anxious to go out in person, presided over the review meeting of the Dabie Mountains, and announced the establishment of the "Jiujiang Command Department of the Ministry of National Defense", with Bai Chongxi as the director, to be in charge of the area from Jinpu Road to Bing, north of the Yangtze River, east of Pinghan Road, and south of the Huaihe River. operational command.Chiang Kai-shek almost gave the command of half of the rivers and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River to his potential opponent Bai Chongxi. It can be seen that he is desperate to fight to the death with our Central Plains troops. After Bai Chongxi was ordered, he immediately organized 15 reorganized divisions and 3 brigades with nearly 80 regiments to encircle and suppress our Dabie Mountain troops on an unprecedented scale. Facing the grim situation, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping decided to adopt the policy of "avoiding war" to deal with the enemy according to the enemy's combat deployment, and based on factors such as the small room for maneuver in the Dabie Mountains and the food shortage. The specific deployment is: the main force of the field army, in cooperation with the local armed forces, stays inside the Dabie Mountains to fight, and adopts generous maneuvers. The enemy moves inward, and we move outward.Contain the majority of the enemy with a small force, annihilate the small force with the large force, and use this kind of mobile and flexible tactics to strike and disperse the enemy. Li Desheng led the 17th Brigade to stay in the Dabie Mountains. The main task was to deal with the enemy and drag the enemy down. On the night of December 2, the 17th and 18th Brigades suddenly attacked Songbu from a long distance, surrounded the enemy on all sides, and completely annihilated the Kuomintang Macheng County Government, 8 security squadrons and 1 volunteer group.This battle not only dealt a devastating blow to the reactionary forces in the Huang'an and Macheng areas, but also directly supported the local work in Hu District, and seriously threatened the enemy's rear supply line, forcing some of the enemies who entered the center of the Dabie Mountains to return to aid. The reason for the elimination of Song Port also shocked the natives in the eastern Hubei area.Because they knew that the regular army of the Kuomintang was temporarily dispatched to sweep it, and it was impossible to stay there for a long time. If it became an enemy of the Communist Party, which had established a political power in the local area, it would be eradicated sooner or later. The Songport Battle was an example.In particular, the Kuomintang government has been declining day by day, and the Communist Party is getting stronger day by day. The Dabie Mountains may soon return to the embrace of the people like the Red Army and the Anti-Japanese War. It is better to leave a way out.Some stubborn locals who had done bad things surrendered to the local people's government one after another, expressing their willingness to reform their mistakes.Some landlords were stubborn and voluntarily or forced to do some good deeds in order to save a way out. 6 Even though two wounded remained in a small village in the valley of Macheng, one lived in a poor farmer's house and was well taken care of; the other wounded was placed in the landlord's house.Once when the Kuomintang troops were about to enter the village, the reconnaissance team leader of our army said to the landlord, "If you hand over these two wounded soldiers to the enemy, you will kill your family!" After the enemy arrived in the village, the poor old man carried the wounded soldiers into the mountains to hide Get up; and when the landlord was dealing with the Kuomintang army, he dared not speak about the two wounded.The two wounded have been safe and sound in this small period. In order to contain the enemy and pull them back to the hinterland of the Dabie Mountains to cover our field division's rear command post going north, starting from December 21, Li Desheng led the 17th brigade to start the "grand action" to drill into the enemy's encirclement.The reason why it is called a feat is because this action is "knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, and walking towards the mountains of tigers".At that time, there were as many as 10 enemy divisions assembled in the center of the Dabie Mountains, and the 17th Brigade leaned into the enemy group! The 17th Brigade set off.It was winter at that time, the mountains were covered with thick snow, and the cold wind was blowing head-on, which hurt like a knife cutting the face. Snowflakes got into the collar and cuffs, and the cold was biting. Many ice picks grew.Ice was frozen on the rugged path, and stepping on it was like walking on a road that had been poured with oil. Every step slipped, and people kept falling and getting up again.Mules carrying machine guns and mortars often slid to the edge of the rock, and the cadres and soldiers pulled the mule's tail and lifted the mule's legs to rescue the animals.After descending the mountain and crossing the glacier, the officers and soldiers could only take off their cotton trousers and dart in the water. They were numb from the cold. When they went ashore, the ice cubes on their trousers made a sound like wearing armor. While marching hard, the troops also had to fight the enemy. During the New Year's Eve in 1948, all the companies tried their best to buy some meat. Just as the festival was about to start, the enemy came up again, and there were more than one group. The enemy surrounded them in three ways.After Li Desheng led the troops to fight the enemy, he immediately led the troops to transfer, and this "New Year" was finally spent in the night march.In the struggle with the enemy, there are many dangers, and the alternation of life and death often happens in an instant. Once, the enemy showed signs of attacking our resident Huanglongyan. Li Desheng sent scouts in time to capture prisoners at night to understand the enemy's situation.The scouts found a few strands of telephone wires on a hillside, and followed them to the entrance of the village, where they captured an enemy soldier. After interrogation, they learned that the enemy was about to encircle Huanglongyan, and the vanguard had already set off.The scouts flew back and reported the situation to the 50th regiment stationed in Huanglongyan. It took only 20 minutes for the troops to gather out of the village. At this time, a large number of enemies had arrived from the other side of the village.If the 50th regiment did not discover the enemy's situation in time and evacuate in time, it may suffer heavy losses. Another time, a company of the 49th regiment moved south from Macheng. In order to facilitate operations in enemy areas, most of them wore captured Kuomintang uniforms and steel helmets.On the way, we encountered more than 100 stubborn locals from the enemy township office, who were escorting 14 of our militiamen to Macheng.Seeing this company, the enemy mistook it for the Kuomintang army, and rushed to report their merits, saying that they had captured 16 "communist bandits" and stoned two of them to death.Our company commander said: "Gather together and lead us to fight the communist bandits." The gangsters gathered and stood in line, and our army disarmed them all at once.At that time, the soldiers were so angry that they wanted to stab these enemies to death with bayonets. Of course, the enemy is also very cunning.Once, an enemy spy pretended to be a poor peasant and asked to join the army. The leader of my unit was paralyzed and accepted him.The next day, the enemy agent pretended to be sick, and fled back to report to the enemy when there was no one there, which attracted the enemy to attack our unit. Fortunately, our large force arrived in time to repel the enemy, so we did not suffer any major losses. In the struggle to persist in the Dabie Mountains, Deng Xiaoping contributed a lot.In order to mobilize the enemy, Liu Bocheng led the 1st Zong and the wild driver Guan to cross the Huaihe River to the north, and launched in the Huaixi area.However, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Li Da led the wild division Qianzhi and commanded the 3rd and 6th verticals to persist in dealing with the enemy in the hinterland of the Dabie Mountains.Despite being surrounded by the enemy, Deng Xiaoping was still very composed.Every night, when it was time to broadcast, no matter how tense the enemy situation was, he would not leave. He must stop and listen to the broadcast of Yan'an Radio Station.Sometimes he knows that there are enemies nearby, but he doesn't care, and he has to listen before leaving. No matter how anxious the comrades around him are, they can't do anything about him. On New Year's Day in 1948, the conditions and environment were so difficult, Deng Xiaoping still organized the guards to hold New Year's gatherings and inspections.The soldiers shaved their heads and faces overnight, and mended their tattered military uniforms.On New Year's Day, before dawn, the troops formed a battalion.Lined up on the field ridge under the hillside, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Li Da came to the front of the queue to review.Deng Xiaoping greeted everyone with a resounding voice, and said to everyone: As long as you have firm beliefs, work hard, overcome temporary difficulties, stand firm, and drag the enemy tightly to the Dabie Mountains, you will win! Deng Xiaoping's spirit of not being afraid of hardships and dangers left a deep impression on many veterans.A veteran warrior recalled: At the very difficult time in the Dabie Mountains, Deng Xiaoping was always thinking about the safety of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao.Once, the comrades in charge of the district party committee went to the resident of the Qiliping Central Plains Bureau in Huang'an to report on their work.Deng Xiaoping made an exception and invited everyone to have a drink. He said happily: "We have not received news from Yan'an for three days. Today, we received a telegram from the Party Central Committee. Have a glass of wine and celebrate!" After fierce struggles, our army took root in the Dabie Mountains and successfully realized the best of the three futures estimated by Mao Zedong.During this period, the three armies of our Central Plains cooperated with each other and fought mobile, wiped out a large number of enemies, and established a Central Plains base in the vast area of ​​the Jianghuai River and Han River with a population of 45 million. In February 1948, the Central Military Commission requested Liu Deng to lead the headquarters and the main force of the field army to move out of the Dabie Mountains and enter between the Huaihe River, Longhai Road, Shahe, and Funiu Mountains, and set up a command center on the southern line to uniformly command the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army and the East China Army. The Chen Shiju Corps of the Field Army launched a campaign in the Central Plains. After arduous struggles, the troops coming out of the Dabie Mountains are still striding forward, but in a strict sense, they can hardly be called "majestic troops".After the severe winter and the war, their homemade cotton clothes were torn apart, and the cotton cloth dyed with tree sap had long since faded. Many of them had disheveled hair and emaciated faces.However, it is such a ragged army that has won the respect of the Party Central Committee and other field troops in theaters! Chen Yi, who went to visit Liu Deng's troops on behalf of the Central Committee, was moved and said this: "It is precisely because Liu and Deng's army held back the enemy in the Dabie Mountains that the various regions were able to smoothly turn to the offensive and won many victories. Half of it, and the other half must be remembered on the commanders and fighters who persisted in the Dabie Mountain struggle." Chen Yi also revealed such a "hidden secret": In December 1947, the Central Committee held a December meeting.Chairman Mao wrote "The Present Situation and Our Tasks".Chairman Mao said to me personally: "If our army's corps in the Dabie Mountains did not gain a foothold, I would not dare to hold this meeting, nor would I dare to say this or write this article; nor would I dare to talk about the great turning point. It may take a year or so before I can write the article. Now that the troops in the Central Plains have stood firm and the victory is reliable, I can write this article. Now we have to send an appeal to the people of the whole country and prepare to win national victory in a few years.” In 1930, Li Desheng walked out of the Dabie Mountains. He was only 14 years old at the time. He could not bear the oppression of the reactionary forces and joined the revolutionary team alone. Eighteen years later, he walked out of the Dabie Mountains again. This time he led a team of heroes to a broader battlefield until the founding of New China was ushered in.