Chapter 14 4. Zhangjiakou was liberated again

When the 35th Army to rescue Zhangjiakou retreated to the east, Zhangjiakou, which was stationed by Sun Lanfeng, the commander of the 11th Corps, was of course in danger.Although Sun Lanfeng once praised Haikou, saying that Zhangjiakou's fortifications, which had been built since the Anti-Japanese War, were "no less than the Great Wall", and the enemy could not approach it 15 kilometers away.But when the 35th Army and the 104th Army were wiped out one after another, there was only one main force left in Fu Zuoyi's lineage, which was the 105th Army in Zhangjiakou.In order to preserve this last bit of strength, Fu Zuoyi had to fight to the death. Fu Zuoyi ordered Sun Lanfeng and Yuan Qingrong, the commander of the 105th Army, to try to break through to Chabei and Suidong, and join Dong Qiwu's troops in Suiyuan.At the same time, Fu Zuoyi asked Dong Qiwu from Suiyuan to try his best to support Sun Lanfeng and Yuan Qingrong who broke out.To use a common saying, this is a last resort to "treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor".

The supreme commander of the defenders in Zhangjiakou City is Sun Lanfeng, the commander of the 11th Corps, but the 11th Corps is an empty frame, and the main force under it is only the 105th Army, so the military command is actually said by Yuan Qingrong Calculate.As soon as Yuan Qingrong saw Fu Zuoyi's telegram, he made a decision without any hesitation: break out immediately.The reason is very simple. The 105th Army has been trapped for a long time. If they don't break through, they will only be wiped out. At this time, the troops of the Third Corps that I surrounded Zhangjiakou were still tightly surrounding Zhangjiakou in accordance with the Central Military Commission's intention of "surrounding and not fighting" Zhangjiakou.After the leaders of the Corps accepted the severe criticism from the Central Military Commission for arbitrarily adjusting the positions of the 1st Column and 1 Brigade, which allowed the 35th Army to slip eastward, on the one hand, they made a review to the Central Committee and took responsibility. Strict education requires the entire team to do a good job in all aspects of encircling the enemy in Zhangjiakou, and there must be no more mistakes.In particular, it is necessary to prevent the possible breakthrough of the enemy. If the enemy dares to break through, the enemy must be completely wiped out in a short period of time.

In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through, three tight encirclement circles have been formed outside the city of Zhangjiakou: The first encirclement is the three columns of the Three Corps, namely the first column, the second column and the sixth column, all placed in positions outside Zhangjiakou City; The second encirclement was the troops of the Beiyue Military Region and the Inner Mongolia Cavalry Division, which were placed a little farther away at the important strongholds on the front lines of Zhangbei, Kangbao and Shangdu; The third encirclement circle is the Jinsui Eighth Column and the local troops of the Jinsui Military Region, which originally belonged to the Three Corps, and they are placed in important strongholds on the front line of Jining, Fengzhen and Zhuozishan.Although our army already had a clear advantage over the enemies in Zhangjiakou, in order to be able to completely wipe out the enemies in Zhangjiakou, Mao Zedong transferred Dongye Sizong, who had just wiped out the 104th Army of Anchun Mountain, over.

On December 20, under the leadership of commander Wu Kehua and political commissar Mo Wenhua, Dongye Four Columns rushed to Xuanhua, and also participated in the first encirclement sequence of the Three Corps, which greatly strengthened the forces surrounding Zhangjiakou. As the supreme commander of the front line encircling Zhangjiakou, Yang Chengwu made a careful analysis of the enemy's possible final struggle. He concluded that after the 35th Army was wiped out, the 105th Army would inevitably break out from the encirclement from the north or west. Break through in two directions, because these two directions are the best way to escape to Suiyuan, and at this time only Suiyuan is the only area where the enemy can escape.Based on this judgment, he placed the second column in the west, the sixth column in the northwest, the first column and part of the Dongye Four Columns in the northeast, and the main force of the Dongye Four Columns in the south. Various preparations for the enemy's breakthrough.Yang Wucheng's own headquarters moved forward from the original left guard on the south bank of the Dayang River, and placed it on the West Taiping Mountain in the northwest of the city.Here, you can clearly see the movement of Zhangjiakou City, especially the frozen Dayang River passing through the city and the towering Dajing Gate located between the two mountains in the north of the city.

It is really an arrangement of God. On the second day after Dongye Sizong entered the position, that is, on the night of December 22, the enemies in Zhangjiakou City began to tentatively break through.Yuan Qingrong ordered his 259th Division to make a tentative attack on Dajingmen in the north, conduct a fire reconnaissance of the People's Liberation Army besieging the city, and if they can open a way out, put all their strength on it.In order to keep it secret, Yuan Qingrong did not tell anyone about this plan except a few subordinates, not even Zhangjiakou's garrison commander Jin Shuke.Yuan Qingrong said to outsiders that it was a sweep of peripheral enemies.

The 259th Division went relatively smoothly in the tentative attack, and moved forward several kilometers that night. In the early morning of December 23, Sun Lanfeng and Yuan Qingrong decided to lead the 105th Army to break out in the direction of Dajingmen.In order to confuse our army's attention, at the same time, two cavalry brigades broke through to the west.After the two cavalry brigades realized that Yuan Qingrong was sacrificing them to preserve the 105th Army, they scolded Yuan Qingrong for being a joke. In addition, they were strongly blocked by my second column, so they all retreated and rushed in. Among the large troops going north out of Dajingmen.In addition to other local troops such as the security corps, as well as several officials and businessmen who fled with their family members, the outside of the gate of Dajing suddenly became full of shouts and traffic.Among them, there were more than 50,000 enemy infantry, cavalry, and artillery who broke out of the city.

From Dajingmen to the north, along a small river, there is a long river beach. The road is on the right side of the river beach, the East Taiping Mountain is on the east, and the West Taiping Mountain is on the west. There is a long valley between the two mountains. After the army fleeing from Zhangjiakou left the city, they encountered a strong resistance prepared by our army when they walked to Taolai Temple. , In a narrow valley more than 500 meters wide.Yang Chengwu commanded the first column, the sixth column, and a part of the second column from different directions to forcefully block the enemy from the headquarters on the West Taiping Mountain. Form the second blocking line behind the first line of troops.Since our army has already occupied the favorable terrain of the highlands on both sides, it has formed a powerful firepower net against the enemy, basically pressing the enemy to fight.Yuan Qingrong organized troops to bombard with artillery and charge with cavalry. The two divisions attacked outward 12 times in a row, but they were all repelled, causing heavy casualties.Just the countless stones pushed down by our army from the hills on both sides did not know how many enemies were killed or injured.Of course, in order to repel the enemy's desperate charge, the frontline troops of our army also paid a high price. The breeders were all engaged in the battle, and they blocked the enemy's crazy attack just now.In order to escape, the enemy once organized two infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades to act together. Sun Lanfeng personally commanded the artillery positions, and Yuan Qingrong personally commanded the assault troops. Under the defeat.

Yuan Qingrong and Sun Lanfeng saw that they couldn't make it through, so they planned to retreat to Zhangjiakou City and plan their next move.While our army was besieging and annihilating more than 50,000 enemy troops in the ravine, Yang Chengwu had sent a small number of troops into Zhangjiakou, which had little defensive capability, and liberated this important city again.There is no possibility for the enemy to enter Zhangjiakou again. The fierce battle ended in a snowstorm until the afternoon of the 24th. A corps headquarters, a military headquarters, 5 divisions, two brigades, and two security regiments were wiped out, and more than 54,000 enemies were wiped out. More than 50,300 people.Yuan Qingrong, commander of the 105th Army, and Yang Weiyuan, deputy commander of the 105th Army, were captured.Sun Lanfeng escaped from a small mountain pass under the protection of a few cavalry and arrived in Shangdu.Then on the Tumultai grassland, they encountered the three cavalry of Eyou sent by Dong Qiwu to meet them, and they escaped by luck.

From December 5, 1948, when the Thirty-fifth Army and the People's Liberation Army received fire, to December 24, when our army liberated Zhangjiakou, it took only 20 days. The 04th Army and the 105th Army were all wiped out (strictly speaking, there was only one division left among the three armies, which was the 262nd Division of the 35th Army. did not enter the battlefield, so was not eliminated).His cavalry, artillery, engineers and supply units were also basically wiped out.Except for a few divisions, the troops he can command are basically the troops of the central army system that he can't actually command.

Zhangjiakou was liberated, and the 35th Army, 104th Army, and 105th Army were eliminated one after another, which meant that the snake tail of Fu Zuoyi's long snake array had been cut off by our army. His military layout in North China It has been crushed as a whole, and the day when this "long snake" in North China will be completely shredded is not far away. After Zhangjiakou was liberated, Luo Ruiqing, director of the Political Department of the North China Military Region and political commissar of the Second Corps, met Yuan Qingrong, the commander of the 104th Army captured by our army, in a house of the former city government near the temporary prisoner camp in Zhangjiakou.In order to escape for his life in the ravine, this general under Fu Zuoyi rolled down the hillside, causing severe leg injuries, and had to lean on a crutch at this time.

Luo Ruiqing asked him: "What is the reason for your failure this time?" Yuan Qingrong's answer was very straightforward: "The general trend is over and it is out of control." When Luo Ruiqing thought of the scene when Fu Zuoyi led Yuan Qingrong and others to occupy Zhangjiakou two years ago, he couldn't restrain his excitement. He said loudly to Yuan Qingrong: "Do you still remember? On October 11, 1946, you took the opportunity to capture Zhangjiakou from behind us. This time Chiang Kai-shek went crazy. On the third day, he announced the convening of the Puppet National Congress, tore up the CPPCC resolution, and developed the anti-people civil war to its peak. Fu Zuoyi also went crazy, and wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, declaring that if the Communist Party wins , he, Fu Mougan, held the whip for Mao Zedong. When we withdrew from Zhangjiakou, we said that we would fight back soon.” What else can Yuan Qingrong say at this time?He could only say again and again: "The fight is back, the fight is back. The Kuomintang will surely lose, and the Communist Party will surely win."