Chapter 172 6. Wu Ruilin had a whim

After Luo Ronghuan learned of the setback in the siege of Linyi, he picked up the phone and wanted to call the command post of the Luzhong 2 Division on the front line of Linyi. The continuous siege of the city was frustrated, and the commanders and fighters, not to mention the fire, expressed that they would not withdraw their troops if they did not take Linyi City.On this day, Wu Ruilin and several regiment and battalion cadres were studying the situation when the phone rang.Wu Ruilin got up to answer the phone, and Luo Ronghuan's voice came from the opposite side: "Is it the 2nd division? How is the siege going?"

"I'm Wu Ruilin." Then Wu Ruilin truthfully reported the situation of the siege. Later, Luo Ronghuan asked Cheng Zongmei, head of the secret service, Huang Tuanzhong, deputy head, and Yao Ke, head of the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Regiment, to answer the phone and listened to their reports. After pondering for a while, Luo Ronghuan said to Wu Ruilin: "The city attack is not good, don't be discouraged, and prepare to fight again. You first, you must resolutely besiege the enemy. None of you can leave the battlefield for half a step. You must cover the more than 2,000 commanders and fighters in the moat. Withdrew safely; second, the morale of the troops was frustrated, and it was necessary to rectify and change the command. Under the command of the Luzhong 2 Division, all ministries should unify their thinking, strengthen unity, and coordinate operations; third, organize cadres to carefully inspect the terrain and fortifications, Mobilize the vast number of commanders and fighters to contribute ideas."

Luo Ronghuan finished speaking in one breath, and then said to Wu Ruilin: "You must come up with a plan report as soon as possible." Speaking of this, Luo Ronghuan paused for a while, and then asked, "How long will it take you to capture Linyi City?" Wu Ruilin thought for a while and said, "According to the current situation, it will take 15 days at the earliest." "Okay, you have to come up with a battle plan first. At the same time, you have to make all the preparations for the siege ideologically, tactically, and materially. The sooner the better!"

After accepting the task, Wu Ruilin led the regiment and battalion cadres of the four regiments to inspect the terrain again, and at the same time investigate the enemy through the insiders in the city.They learned that the Linyi city wall was 12 meters thick and 15 meters high, and it was built with three-component clay.At the same time, many bright and dark bunkers were built on the enemy's city walls, and more than 1,000 desperadoes were selected to form "death squads".After understanding the situation, Wu Ruilin believed that under such circumstances, it would be very difficult or even impossible to attack from the outside by means of blasting or building ladders to climb the wall.What to do, is it true that the city cannot be captured?

Everyone looked at the solid Linyi city wall from a distance, and faced difficulties, some rubbed their hands, and some stomped their feet anxiously, creating a small hole where they stepped.At this time, someone said something: "I wish I could get in from the ground and wipe out these villains!" This sentence inspired Wu Ruilin. When he came to the northwest corner of the city to survey the terrain again the next day, he suddenly thought: "We can drill in from the ground to fight." The battalion cadres immediately became active after hearing this. Wu Ruilin went on to say: "We can dig tunnels from here all the way to the bottom of the city wall, and carry out internal blasting. There is also the largest gun tower in the city built on the city wall here. The internal blasting can not only blow up the city wall, but also destroy the gun tower." Blow it upside down! Isn't this just drilling in from the ground to fight?"

Everyone nodded after listening. Wu Ruilin went on to tell his thoughts: "I have seen tunnels dug twice before, but they were unsuccessful. One was because of a large amount of water seepage underground, and the other was because of the arrival of enemy reinforcements. I think the conditions here are good now. The soil quality is suitable for Digging a tunnel and using internal blasting methods may be successful. But first we need to use a small highland here to build a bunker, set up two heavy machine guns and two light machine guns, cover the troops to build a bridge over the moat, and build a few more on the other side For a small bunker, also set up machine guns, then dig a small passage by the moat, carefully measure the distance under the gun tower, check the soil quality, and then decide where to dig the tunnel.”

After hearing the commander's detailed plan, the cadres of the regiment battalion expressed their excitement beyond words.Finally, it was decided that the 11th regiment would dig the tunnel. On the 23rd, Li Zuopeng convened a meeting of relevant commanders of the siege force to study the next siege plan.Wu Ruilin expressed his thoughts, which happened to coincide with the thoughts of the leaders of the Binhai District.So the meeting initially determined the specific plan for the siege.At the end of the meeting, Li Zuopeng told everyone that after the meeting, he went to the military region to report to Luo Ronghuan the situation of the siege and the preliminary plan for the next siege.

After hearing this, Luo Ronghuan immediately approved the plan.And let Li Zuopeng return to the front line of Linyi as soon as possible, and quickly captured the city. After returning to the Linyi front line, Li Zuopeng held a combat meeting on August 29 and issued a campaign order. Since then, tunnel work has been in full swing.Under the cover of firepower on both sides of the moat, the siege troops organized manpower to dig tunnels day and night. The 3rd Battalion of the 11th Regiment dug very hard, digging 15 meters in the first day. After calculation, Wu Ruilin believed that if he kept digging day and night, the 300-meter-long tunnel could be dug in eleven or two days, so he reported to Luo Ronghuan that the attack could be launched on September 10.

Luo Ronghuan immediately approved and instructed Wu Ruilin: "We must make good use of the strengths of the several regiments participating in the siege, deploy them in a unified manner, and win the battle." In order to ensure the success of the siege, in addition to the 4 regiments and 1 guard battalion that participated in the siege earlier, four or five independent regiments and county armed forces from the three surrounding military regions were added, so that the siege force reached nearly 20,000 .