Chapter 4 Second, the initial contest

On the North China battlefield, Fu Zuoyi and Nie Rongzhen had many contests. In September 1946, under the command of Zhang Zongxun and Luo Ruiqing, some troops from the former Jinsui and Jinchaji Military Regions jointly attacked Datong and Jining (now Jining District, Ulanqab City). He made a mistake and stopped the attack at the moment of victory, resulting in the failure to win this battle.This was the first official confrontation between Fu Zuoyi and our army during the War of Liberation. Fu Zuoyi mistakenly believed that his troops were invincible in the northwest region, so he got carried away.Although he himself admitted that "Battle of Jining, according to the situation at the time, we were quite dangerous and very likely to fail. I think it was a fluke to win in the end."However, on September 20, the "Struggle Daily" he ran published a piece of "Open Telegram to Mao Zedong" written by Yan Youwen, Director of the Information Department of the Commander's Department of the 11th War Zone Commander and President of the Struggle Daily. , arrogantly said: "It was not the national army that was surrounded, defeated, and wiped out, but the entire main force of He Long's and Nie Rongzhen's troops... that you boasted participated in the '25,000-mile Long March'." The next day, the Kuomintang's "Central Daily" reprinted the full text.A few days later, Yan'an's "Liberation Daily" also reprinted the full text.Commander-in-chief Zhu De specially took this "strange article" to some comrades in charge of the army: "Read it to the cadres above the company. This is called the method of aggressive generals. People scold us for going through the 25,000-mile long march." (Note: because For many reasons, the inside story of this matter was not fully declassified until 1993. It turned out that Yan Youwen was an old underground worker who joined the party in 1938. He had been lurking beside Fu Zuoyi for a long time. After 1939, he lost contact with the party organization. The organizational relationship is directly under the leadership of the Social Affairs Department of the Party Central Committee. This "Open Telegram to Mao Zedong" was written on purpose after receiving Zhou Enlai's direct instructions and Mao Zedong's consent. They are intentionally infusing the enemy with ecstasy. At the same time, they also let our commanders and fighters launch a more violent attack on Fu Zuoyi's troops, which is a violent method for our commanders and fighters.)

After that, Fu Zuoyi and the troops of our North China Military Region continued to engage in large or small battles. In October 1946, Fu Zuoyi occupied Zhangjiakou. In November 1947, our army captured Shijiazhuang, and then various counties on the North China Plain fell into our army's hands one after another, while Fu Zuoyi could only control several large cities such as Beiping, Tianjin, Baoding, and Zhangjiakou. In the autumn of 1947, in order to cooperate with the summer offensive of our Northeast Democratic Alliance Army on the Northeast battlefield and prevent Chiang Kai-shek from transferring the North China troops under the command of Fu Zuoyi to support Du Yuming in the Northeast, the Central Military Commission asked the North China Military Region to hold Fu Zuoyi to death.After careful study, Nie Rongzhen decided to besiege Xushui, wait for an opportunity to wipe out the enemies who came to aid from Zhuo County or Baoding, and fought a war of annihilation to hold Fu Zuoyi to death.The command of this battle was handed over to Yang Dezhi, then commander of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army.

Under the command of Commander Yang Dezhi, Political Commissar Yang Chengwu, and Chief of Staff Geng Biao, the Second Column of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army attacked Xushui, and the Third and Fourth Columns sent aid.At this time, Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Beiping to hold a military meeting to study the situation in North China, and decided to fight Nie Rongzhen in Xushui, so Luo Lirong, the commander of the Third Army stationed in Shijiazhuang, led the Third Army northward.Yang Dezhi chose Qingfengdian located between Baoding and Dingxian as the battlefield to deal with Luo Lirong.In order to intercept the enemy at Qingfengdian, the four brigades on the east side of the Ping-Han route and the two brigades on the west side of the road marched at the highest speed. In one day and one night, some traveled more than 70 kilometers, while others ran 125 kilometers. The second fastest march in the style of "flying to seize the Luding Bridge" came, and finally surrounded more than 10,000 horses of the enemy's third army in Qingfengdian on October 19, 1947.The distance our army traveled in one day and one night, the enemy walked for 4 days. On October 20, our army launched a fierce attack on Luo Lirong's third army, and at the same time had to deal with the reinforcements of the enemy's Sun Lianzhong and Li Wen's troops. On the 23rd, the third army was wiped out, and Luo Lirong and deputy army commander Yang Guangyu were captured.In this battle, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army wiped out more than 17,000 enemy troops. It was the first major victory in the early days of the Liberation War on the North China battlefield, and it was also a turning point on the North China battlefield.For this reason, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De specially wrote a poem titled "He Jinchaji Military Region Annihilated Chiang's Third Army", in which there is a sentence: "Look at the late autumn moon on the frontier, shining brightly on the victory flowers in the border area."

The victory in the Battle of Qingfengdian not only opened the door to Shijiazhuang, but also captured the former guard of Shijiazhuang, Luo Lirong, under the guidance of his teacher Nie Rongzhen (Luo Lirong and Yang Guangyu were both students of the second phase of Whampoa and students of Nie Rongzhen). He also provided our army with the defensive deployment of Shijiazhuang.Therefore, on the day when the Battle of Qingfengdian ended, Nie Rongzhen sent a report to the central government, requesting "to take advantage of the victory to seize Shimen (note: Shimen is Shijiazhuang, this place was merged by Shijiazhuang Town and Xiumen Town in 1925, named Shimen) Shimen City was abolished later, but it was restored to Shimen City in 1947, so the official name at this time is still Shimen City, and after liberation in November 1947, it was renamed Shijiazhuang City)".Mao Zedong replied to Nie Rongzhen and said:

The victory of the Qingfengdian Annihilation Battle is of great significance to the further change of the fighting style in your district.At present, if the northern enemy goes south, we will wipe out part of it. If the northern enemy stops, our army should rest on the spot for about 10 days, reorganize the troops, recover from fatigue, scout Shimen, and complete all preparations for attacking Shimen.Then, not only concentrate the 9 brigades of the main force, but also concentrate several local brigades to attack Shimen with the attitude of attacking Shimen and fighting for reinforcements. The enemy defenders in Shijiazhuang were not strong at this time, only the 32nd Division of the Third Army that had not gone northward during the Battle of Qingfengdian and some local troops, with a total strength of more than 20,000.However, because Shijiazhuang is an important military area bordering Taihang in the west and controlling Pingchuan in the east, as well as a railway transportation hub, it has always been a battleground for military strategists.During the period of Japanese occupation, fortifications were being built all the time. After the Kuomintang army took over, they continued to build Shijiazhuang into a three-layer defense system with more than 6,000 blockhouses. There are two deep defensive ditches, one with a depth and width of 6 meters and 7 meters, and one with a depth and width of 5 meters and 5 meters. There are minefields, barbed wire fences and deer villages on both sides of the ditch.Therefore, the propaganda tools of the Kuomintang have always boasted that "the fortification of Shimen can be guarded by the national army for three years."

On October 25, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army held an enlarged meeting of the former committee. Commander-in-chief Zhu De came to the venue to give guidance and put forward specific requirements for "bravery plus technology".The meeting carefully analyzed and studied the first large city with strong fortifications that our army attacked in the War of Liberation, and decided to "take the offensive tactics of positional warfare as the main method" and adopt the policy of steady progress. Destroy the enemy's fortifications with tunnel operations and explosive blasting, and then seize positions with infantry.Nie Rongzhen also put forward the "Nine Chapters of the Covenant" as a political order after entering a big city.After the meeting, the siege officers and soldiers were organized to make a lot of preparations, such as how to pass the big ditch, how to destroy the power grid, how to blast the bunker, how to cross the road, how to deal with tanks, how to fight in the streets, etc., all carried out exercises.

On November 6th, we launched a powerful offensive against the Shijiazhuang defenders at the same time from the west and south of Shijiazhuang in three verticals, the east and north in four verticals, the troops of the Central Hebei Military Region from the southeast, and the troops of the Hebei and Jin Military Regions from the southwest.Our army approached the enemy step by step with tenacious soil work. After six days and six nights of hard fighting, on November 12, we not only captured Shijiazhuang, which the enemy boasted "can be defended for three years", but also captured the enemy's defender and three soldiers alive. Liu Ying, commander of the 12th Division, gained valuable experience for our army to attack large cities with strong fortifications.

Our army's capture of Shijiazhuang has played a great role in both encouraging our soldiers and civilians in North China and attacking the enemy. Chiang Kai-shek also said this in his diary written on November 30: All battlefields across the country are in danger of being inferior and passive. Yulin and Yuncheng have been besieged for a long time without reinforcements; Completely shaken... This is the autumn of life and death. Very different from Chiang Kai-shek's mood, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, who had been to the front in person, wrote a poem titled "Happy News to Recover Shimen" for our army's conquest of Shijiazhuang. The poem said:

The Shimen blocked the Taihang Mountains, and the warriors opened their fingers. Exterminate the entire division to close the important town, and don't ask Huma to return to Qinguan. However, none of these battles were fought against direct line troops of Fu Zuoyi's Jinsui Army system. Fu Zuoyi's old troops, especially the 35th Army, have not been taught a lesson. Nie Rongzhen has not yet reported the battle of Jining and Datong. hatred. After Fu Zuoyi became the commander-in-chief of the "Suppression General" in North China, under the repeated orders of Chiang Kai-shek and under the guidance of his own orthodox thinking, of course he still wanted to wipe out North China and show some color to the People's Liberation Army troops in North China.According to his decision to go to Shenyang to participate in the military meeting held by Chiang Kai-shek himself, the North China "suppression general" must launch military operations as soon as possible to contain the vital forces of the People's Liberation Army inside the pass and cooperate with the Northeast battlefield outside the pass.Fu Zuoyi originally planned to wipe out the People's Liberation Army in the northern section of Pinghan Road first to ensure the smooth flow of the railway line. Unexpectedly, the day after he moved the headquarters to Beiping, my Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army gave him a blow.

On December 27, 1947, our Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army was led by the Second Column commanded by Chen Zhengxiang, the Third Column commanded by Zheng Weishan, and the Fourth Column commanded by Zeng Siyu simultaneously attacked the section north of Baoding on the Ping-Han Line. The railway transportation between Tianjin, Zhangjiakou and Baoding was paralyzed. During this period, the Northeast battlefield was the focus of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.Chiang Kai-shek asked Fu Zuoyi to hold back the People's Liberation Army on the North China battlefield and not let them go out to reinforce the Northeast battlefield; and Mao Zedong also asked Nie Rongzhen to hold Fu Zuoyi's group and not let him go out to reinforce the Northeast battlefield.So Nie Rongzhen said to his subordinates many times at this time: "Fu Zuoyi restrains us so that we cannot support the Northeast, and we must restrain him." Thus, a battle started by mutual restraint began.

Just after New Year's Day in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang to hold the Northeast Military Conference and notified Fu Zuoyi to attend.At the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek clearly asked Fu Zuoyi to dispatch two armies to contain Nie Rongzhen's forces.After Fu Zuoyi returned to Beiping, he decided to dispatch four armies at a time to find and eliminate Nie Rongzhen's main force between Beiping and Baoding to support the Northeast battlefield.These four armies are the 35th Army, 104th Army, 16th Army, and 94th Army. When the generals of our Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region learned that Fu Zuoyi's original unit, the 35th Army, was dispatched, they all said that this time they must teach the 35th Army a lesson and avenge the battles of Jining and Datong.Therefore, under the deployment of Nie Rongzhen, the main force of the military region quickly launched operations.In order to disperse the forces of Fu Zuoyi's dispatch of four armies at a time, the three verticals of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army launched an attack on Laishui, and the six verticals launched an attack on Baoding.Fu Zuoyi urgently ordered Lu Yinglin, commander of the 35th Army, to lead the newly formed 32nd Division and 101st Division (one regiment missing) to rush to Laishui.These two divisions are Fu Zuoyi's most cherished troops. They are called "a piece of gold" and "a piece of silver" by him, and their combat effectiveness is quite strong. On January 12, 1948, this "one piece of gold" and "one piece of silver" came into contact with us in the north of Gaobeidian. The commander of the three verticals is Zheng Weishan, and the political commissar is Hu Yaobang. According to Nie Rongzhen's urgent order, Zheng Weishan and Hu Yaobang pulled back the main force attacking Laishui and surrounded the new 32nd Division in a small village called Zhuangding. On January 13, the newly formed 32nd Division was wiped out, and the division commander Li Mingding was killed.The 101st Division and the provisional 17th Division of the 35th Army were blocked by our Second Column. The 101st Division was defeated by the Second Column in Wu Village on the 12th, with more than 600 casualties, and had to flee back to Dingxing.Fu Zuoyi also dispatched the three armies temporarily to go for reinforcements, but was blocked by our three verticals and could not get close to the thirty-fifth army.The military headquarters of the 35th Army was attacked by Yizong at the head of the Juma River bridge, killing more than 200 people including the enemy chief of staff Tian Shiju on the spot, and taking more than 400 people prisoner.In this way, the entire 35th Army was beaten to pieces by our army, and Lu Yinglin had to rely on cavalry protection to rush out of the encirclement. The 35th Army is the old team that Fu Zuoyi relied on to start his career. Since 1931, he has served as the first commander of the 35th Army.As the direct descendant of Fu Zuoyi's direct descendant in the entire North China Military Group, this battle was fought so badly that he almost lost it all.Lu Yinglin knew that he couldn't bear this responsibility. Although he rushed out of the siege, he was so frightened that he lost his mind. He only said one sentence all day long: "The Thirty-five Army, the thirty-fifth army started by the commander-in-chief, will be ruined by Lu Yinglin." hands!" Two days later, when the surrounding subordinates guarded him loosely, Lu Yinglin committed suicide with a gun. Fu Zuoyi had always been more cautious in combat. He fought so many battles throughout the Anti-Japanese War, and the 35th Army only lost one battalion commander.But this time, the division commander Li Mingding was shot dead, and the army commander Lu Yinglin committed suicide. This was really like a bolt from the blue to the troops of Fu Zuoyi's system. The Battle of Laishui was the second contest between Fu Zuoyi's basic troops and our Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army in the War of Liberation, and it ended in complete failure.Lu Yinglin is not only Fu Zuoyi's most trusted general, but also an old classmate of Baoding Military Academy when he was studying in the fifth term, and Fu Zuoyi's chief of staff during the Anti-Japanese War. The two have a deep friendship.Therefore, when the news of Lu Yinglin's death came, Fu Zuoyi wept behind closed doors several times in the temporary office building of the headquarters of the North China "Suppression General" on Beichang Street in Beiping.