Chapter 17 3. Horses are not allowed to be tied in the Summer Palace

Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission set a clear time for Dongye in the "Battle Policy on the Battle of Pingjin", which must complete the division of Beiping, Tianjin, Tanggu, and Lutai before December 25, and cut off their connections.Most of the Dongye army arrived in the Yutian area of ​​eastern Jidong around December 15th. In order to complete the tasks of the Military Commission, most of the troops could not have much rest time and had to act immediately.For this reason, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan specially warned the heads of each column that they must carry forward the spirit of not being afraid of fatigue and fighting continuously, and act according to the scheduled time and route, and must not be sloppy.In this way, in order to cut and separate the important strongholds in the shortest time, the various columns of Dongye rushed to their respective offensive targets according to Lin Biao's order.

The task of the Five Columns, Three Columns, Ten Columns, Eleven Columns, and North China Seven Columns was to strategically encircle Peiping and cut off its connection with other strongholds. The five verticals and the three verticals are the vanguard of the Dongye army entering the pass.Under the leadership of commander Wan Yi and political commissar Liu Xingyuan, the Five Columns departed from Yixian, Fuxin, and Zhangwu on November 23, entered through the Xifeng Pass, and arrived at Jixian and Sanhe in eastern Hebei on December 10. .At this time, the Dongye Advance Corps, the Second Corps, had already invested in the battle to support the Pingsui line, intercepting and besieging the enemy's 104th and 16th armies on the Huailai and Kangzhuang lines.In order to ensure the smooth operation of the Second Corps, Lin Biao ordered the fifth column and the third column that entered the customs first not to rest. After the troops were assembled, they immediately set off and marched westward, inserting between Beiping, Nankou and Huailai, and blocking reinforcements from Beiping. The enemy at Nankou and Huailai also stopped the enemy who retreated to Peiping from Nankou and Huailai.Moreover, the Five Columns must arrive at the location south of the South Exit in the early morning of the 12th.Wan Yi did not arrange for the troops to rest, so he led the army to set off at 6 pm on the 10th.The Thirteenth Division marched for 140 kilometers for 26 consecutive hours, and arrived at the Shahe and Manjing areas at 10:00 am on the 12th.Our Thirteenth Division fought the enemy until 2 pm and defeated the enemy.The 14th Division occupied the Changping, Nankou, and Badaling areas relatively smoothly all the way, and completed the task of cutting off the flat tension line.

At this moment, the Five Columns received an order from the Central Military Commission and the Dongye Headquarters, asking them to use all their strength to cut off the enemy's retreat in Wanping and Fengtai, seize Fengtai, and cooperate with the Three Columns in the south to cut off the enemy's escape route from the south and southwest. Surround Peiping.Among them, the most important task is to work with the three verticals to capture Fengtai, an important stronghold in the southwest of Beiping, and Nanyuan Airport in the south.If Fengtai and Nanyuan are occupied, our army will basically complete the siege of Beiping, because the east and north are already our army's world.Another important aspect of this task is that Fengtai is an important railway hub in Beiping, and it is also the location of the joint logistics headquarters of Fu Zuoyi's "Suppression General" in North China (according to: equivalent to the logistics department of the current military region of our army); Nanyuan Airport is At that time, it was the most important air force base and the most important airport in Peking.If Fengtai and Nanyuan are occupied, not only can a large amount of weapons and materials be seized, but more importantly, the enemy's most important external channels from the ground and the air will be cut off, not only cutting off the main communication channels between the enemy in Beiping and Tianjin and Baoding, It also blocked the way for the enemies of Peiping to flee south.

After receiving the order, Wu Zong first arrived at Qinghe, where the Kuomintang army was in front of it.If they want to reach Fengtai, there are two enemy lines of defense in front of them: the first is the line of Yuanmingyuan, Hongshan Pass, and Xiangshan, and the second is the line of Tiancun, Huangsi, New Beijing, and Shijingshan. The second line of defense has actually reached the enemy's inner defense line, and it feels like getting into the enemy's heart.Commander Wan Yi arranged for the Thirteenth Division to advance from the left, break through the Yuanmingyuan, Hongshan Pass, and the Summer Palace, attack Tiancun and New Beijing, and go straight to Fengtai; First-line breakthrough, through Shijingshan and the ancient city, directly into Wanping and Lugou Bridge; the 15th Division served as the second echelon, advancing with the 13th Division; the independent Ninth Division was the reserve team, advancing with the 14th Division.Since the Thirteenth Division had the heaviest burden and was actually the main offensive, Wu Ruilin, the deputy commander of the Fifth Column, acted with the Thirteenth Division.

Wu Ruilin (1915-1995), born in Bazhong, Sichuan, joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in 1928, joined the Red Army in 1932, and joined the Communist Party of China in the same year.During the Agrarian Revolution, he has been working in the Sichuan-Shanxi Revolutionary Base Area and the Fourth Red Front Army. The head of the Organization Department, the captain and political commissar of the Dajin Provincial Cadre Brigade participated in the Long March.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he served as secretary of the temporary special committee of the southern Shandong region of the Communist Party of China, political commissar of the second detachment of the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army, director of the military department of the Taishan District Committee of the Communist Party of China, commander of the first division of the Luzhong Military Region, and commander and political commissar of the Seventh Brigade of the Shandong Military Region.He entered the Northeast in the early days of the War of Liberation and successively served as Chief of Staff of the Liaodong Military Region, Commander of the Andong Military Region, Commander of the Southern Liaoning Military Region, Deputy Commander of the Fifth Column of the Northeast Field Army, and Commander of the 42nd Army of the Fourth Field Army.After the founding of New China, he served as the commander of the Hainan Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the Navy, the deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, and the standing deputy commander of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General in 1955.

Before setting off, Wu Ruilin made a detailed explanation to the division-level cadres of the 13th Division. The main purpose of this operation was to capture Fengtai as quickly as possible with heart-pumping tactics and join forces with brother troops in the southern suburbs.Therefore, don't love to fight on the road, but advance quickly.Whenever the avant-garde troops start at the front, the second echelon behind will automatically become the avant-garde immediately and continue to move forward.If you lose contact on the way, you can find your own way to Fengtai. The 37th Regiment of the 13th Division acted as a vanguard and captured Hongshan Pass with only one charge, and wiped out the enemy's 16th Security Regiment.Not long after passing the Red Mountain Pass, a messenger in front came to report to Wu Ruilin that he saw the enemy's airfield and planes in the west, and asked for instructions to fight or not.Wu Ruilin thought of the order "Seize Fengtai", the word "Seize" is the most important word, so he ordered the messenger to go back and tell the Qianwei Battalion to leave the airport and move forward quickly.

The Thirty-Nineth Regiment passed Xiangshan Mountain, a famous scenic spot in the western suburbs, and went on to the world-famous Summer Palace.Most of the officers and soldiers in the army were visiting the Summer Palace for the first time, or even hearing the name of the Summer Palace for the first time. Seeing the splendor and splendor of the red palace walls and the green mountains all over the mountains, the cadres who played the avant-garde didn't know what to do. Don't type in.When they learned about the situation from the local villagers, they learned that the Kuomintang army stationed an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion in the Summer Palace. There were trenches dug on Longevity Hill, and several ancient buildings reinforced with reinforced concrete were used as defensive bunkers. There are cannons on the shelves, and the officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang army live in the halls such as Foxiang Pavilion, Yulan Hall, Zhichun Pavilion, and Renshou Hall.When Zhang Jingyao, the head of the 39th Regiment, Guo Baoheng, the political commissar, and Wang Shuli, the commander of the Pioneer Battalion, were considering how to attack the Summer Palace, eliminate the enemies inside, and protect such a beautiful building. He shouted loudly before dismounting:

"Stop the attack!" After dismounting, the correspondent conveyed the urgent order from the Dongye Headquarters that the leaders of the Five Columns had just received at Qinglong Bridge: In order to protect cultural relics and historic sites, the Summer Palace is not allowed to be attacked, and the troops bypassed both sides of the Summer Palace.Commander Zhang Jingyao immediately ordered to stop the attack on the Summer Palace, and the troops went around from the west side of the Summer Palace and went straight to Tiancun. Unbeknownst to Zhang Jingyao and his soldiers, the urgent order sent by the correspondent was an important instruction from Mao Zedong.Not long ago, Mao Zedong made such instructions in a document: It is not allowed to tie horses in front of the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Golden Palace.

This important instruction from Mao Zedong actually showed Mao Zedong's strategic intention to protect Beiping, the most famous historical and cultural city in our country. The battle of the Five Columns attacking Hongshan Pass on December 13 was not a major battle, but it was the closest battle to the urban area of ​​Beiping that the main force of our army has fought near Beiping for many years.When his subordinates reported to Fu Zuoyi the Battle of Hongshan Pass and the situation of the People's Liberation Army passing the Summer Palace, both in Fu Zuoyi's heart and in Fu Zuoyi's North China "Suppression General" headquarters, it caused a great shock.The shock was caused by a special circumstance: if the Five Columns beat Tamura, the next target would probably be the North China "Suppression General" headquarters, because the location of the North China "Suppression General" headquarters was just beyond Tamura. New Beijing in the south.

The name "New Beijing" is no longer known to Beijingers today. It is the area from Wukesong to Gongzhufen in Beijing today.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, when the Japanese occupied Beiping, they built a new barracks there and called it "New Beijing". At that time, the Japanese army headquarters and many senior military officers lived there.After Fu Zuoyi became the commander-in-chief of the North China "Suppression General" from Zhangjiakou to Peiping, he has been reluctant to live in the city, and set up the North China "Suppression General" headquarters in the barracks there.His own troops were not allowed to live in the city, and all lived in the western suburbs.He also adhered to the old tradition of the Jinsui Army for many years. All officers and soldiers in the army are clothed with cloth shoes, and officers are not allowed to wear woolen clothes and leather shoes.In the words of Fu Zuoyi, all of these, "this is to maintain the tradition of hard work and prevent the corruption of the troops."However, today's situation is too special, the People's Liberation Army has already hit the north of the headquarters.Fu Zuoyi, who has been on the battlefield for a long time, knows very well that the recent battle in the suburbs of Beiping is not that the People's Liberation Army is about to invade Beiping, but is about encircling Beiping and isolating Beiping from the outside world.However, the guns had reached the gate of the headquarters, which was not a good thing in any case.He can send troops to lay a line of defense in Tiancun to block the attack of the People's Liberation Army, but how will he work under bullets in the future?After much deliberation, the only option is to move the headquarters into the center of the city.

According to the suggestion and arrangement of Li Shijie, chief of staff of the command, Fu Zuoyi agreed to move the headquarters to Zhongnanhai immediately, because it is moderate, has many houses, and is not disturbed by residents.The original North Parallel House of the Kuomintang was set up there. After the Beiping House was withdrawn, there are still a few family members in it.As long as these family members are removed, the headquarters can be moved in. In this way, Fu Zuoyi's North China "Suppression General" headquarters moved away in a panic, or it can be said that it was driven away by our army's attack.Just ten minutes after moving away, the 3rd Battalion of the 37th Regiment of the 13th Division arrived.The soldiers thought they were going to fight a tough battle there, and then smashed the enemy's headquarters. They didn't expect that the enemy's headquarters had been withdrawn, and the remaining 200 enemies who hadn't had time to withdraw had no intention of resisting. After blowing up several armored vehicles and several cars, they disarmed and surrendered.The soldiers didn't make it to the battle, and they were very unhappy.The biggest gain is that the enemy still left more than 40 tanks and armored vehicles. Due to lack of fuel, all of them were thrown there and became the spoils of war for our army. After the peaceful liberation of Beiping, Fu Zuoyi said something like this to a leader of our army in the former Dongye: "Wukesong that night, I was sitting on the chariot. It was very cold, and I was wearing a coat. Your yelling I heard the sound. How you fought at that time, I didn't see it, because I had already gone one step ahead." Although the headquarters was moved to Zhongnanhai, Fu Zuoyi was not at ease.He could see from the direction of action of the PLA that the PLA moved south from the west of Beiping. Of course, its main target was not his headquarters, but Fengtai, an important transportation hub and material distribution center.Since Fengtai is the main target of the People's Liberation Army's attack, the People's Liberation Army is prepared to go. It is absolutely impossible for the current defenders of Fengtai to defend Fengtai.If there is a hasty increase in troops, there is no certainty.What's more, the hasty mobilization of troops at this time may create an opportunity for the People's Liberation Army.So Fu Zuoyi made a bold decision, ordering the defenders of Fengtai to immediately withdraw to the city, let the People's Liberation Army occupy Fengtai, and observe the strength and defense of the People's Liberation Army during this period. Organize troops to recapture Fengtai.As for the large amount of materials in Fengtai, Fu Zuoyi believes that the People's Liberation Army will not destroy them, and it is impossible to move them away in the short term. However, Fu Zuoyi underestimated our army's marching speed.When he gave the order to retreat the Fengtai garrison, our Fifth Column and Thirteenth Division had already approached Fengtai.In order to successfully capture the main target of our army, Deputy Commander Wu Ruilin walked at the forefront of the troops. On December 14, under the command of Wu Ruilin, the 37th Regiment of the 13th Division launched a frontal attack on the enemy in Fengtai via Dajing, the 39th Regiment attacked Xiaojing and Zhouzhuang from the right, and the 38th Regiment served as a reserve team.Our army launched a fierce attack and took Fengtai down.Because the Fengtai garrison at that time had only one brigade of the 101st Army. The 101st Army was reorganized by Fu Zuoyi not long ago from Sun Lianzhong's remnant troops. The brigade stationed in Fengtai was pieced together by local troops. powerful.At the same time, our 5th and 14th Division captured Wanping and Lugouqiao, and the 15th Division reached the southwest area of ​​Guang'anmen, and wiped out many enemies.By the afternoon of the 14th, the Fengtai area was completely occupied by our army. Several strongholds in the western suburbs of Beiping were completely captured by our army within a day or two, and the situation in the western suburbs was completely controlled by our army. Even the dignified headquarters of the "suppression general" in North China was forced to move in a hurry. More importantly, I cut off the main channel for the enemy to escape from the city of Peiping.This was extremely embarrassing and dangerous for Fu Zuoyi.In order to stabilize Beiping and boost morale, according to his planned plan, he was determined to recapture Fengtai when our army was not firmly established and win the battle.For this reason, he personally organized and concentrated the strength of 7 divisions and more than 100 artillery pieces. With the support of tanks and armored vehicles, he attacked Fengtai on December 15.On this day, Huang Xiang, the commander of the 92nd Army, was in command of the main attack on the battlefield. The Ninety-two Army was originally stationed in Tianjin, and was transferred to Beiping by Fu Zuoyi not long ago to strengthen its defense. They are the two main forces with the strongest combat effectiveness.Huang Xiang, the commander of the 92nd Army, was born in Huangpu, and he is quite conceited.In his eyes, Fu Zuoyi's task of "recapturing Fengtai overnight" is his trust in him, and his Ninety-two Army will never fight as badly as the miscellaneous Army One Hundred and One Army.In order to give Fu Zuoyiliang a hand, he put two main divisions, the 21st Division and the 56th Division, into the battle together. This battle was originally expected by my five verticals, because they estimated that the enemy would not ignore the large amount of supplies in Fengtai, and would probably counterattack. Therefore, after the capture of Fengtai, Wan Yi immediately held a meeting of the cadres of each division to arrange how to deal with it. The enemy's counterattack.The meeting decided that the Thirteenth Division would build a defensive position in depth with Fengtai Town as the center; part of the Fourteenth Division would extend forward to cooperate with the Thirteenth Division, and part would serve as the second echelon to the east of Wanping; the Fifteenth Division would cooperate with the Thirteenth Division to defend Fengtai; The Ninth Independent Division serves as a reserve team.The Column Artillery Regiment established launching positions in the Qilidian and Zhoujiazhuang areas, focusing on supporting the 13th Division.After the meeting, the ministries immediately used the terrain to build fortifications. Under the command of Huang Xiang, seven divisions were invested in the first attack, and the focus of the attack was Fengtai Town.Huang Xiang used 4 divisions to attack the positions of the 13th Division, and another 3 divisions to attack the positions of the 15th and 14th Divisions.For the soldiers of the Five Columns who have just passed the decisive battle of Liaoshen, they already have certain experience in fighting enemy tanks and armored vehicles.Therefore, when the enemy launched an attack on Fengtai, the soldiers of the five verticals responded calmly and adopted the tactic of bringing the enemy close to fight. They first used light and heavy machine guns to attack infantry, and then used blasting tubes and explosives to deal with tanks and armored vehicles.The Thirteenth Division fought the hardest. In some companies, all the cadres were killed or injured, and only more than 20 people in the whole company still stood firm;The enemy launched seven attacks on the 15th, but still made no progress, and lost a dozen tanks and an armored train. In order to change the situation where the Ninety-two Army had not made any progress in attacking Fengtai, on the 16th, Fu Zuoyi added an artillery regiment, and transferred two divisions of the Ninety-fourth Army, the main force of the other Central Army system, so that The 92nd Army and the 94th Army attacked Fengtai together, and tanks and armored vehicles joined the battle.Our army fought very hard, and some companies and platoons were basically wiped out. Several regiment-level cadres also went to the front line to fight the enemy. More than 60 cadres below the regiment were killed or injured throughout the day. Thirty-seven Zhang Tongxin, the political commissar of the regiment, died, and Zhai Bingtao, the head of the 38th regiment, was seriously injured. The entire column suffered 1,770 casualties.However, Wu Zong insisted on holding back the enemy.At the end of the day, the enemy still hadn't made much progress.Really helpless, Fu Zuoyi had to withdraw the team.Of course, there was another reason why Fu Zuoyi withdrew his troops, and that was the dangerous situation in Nanyuan to the south. The Dongye Sanzong led by Commander Han Xianchu and Political Commissar Luo Shunchu attacked Nanyuan Airport. The three columns served as the main attacker many times in the decisive battle of Liaoshen not long ago, fought several vicious battles, and made illustrious military exploits, but the casualties of the troops were as high as more than 10,000, which was the largest casualty among the Eastern Field columns.Although more than 8,000 recruits (including more than 6,700 turned farmers and more than 1,300 liberation fighters) were added before and on the way to the customs, they were not yet full.However, under the order of the Central Military Commission, they still entered the customs quickly, and they were still one of the two columns at the forefront. Sanzong set off from Jinzhou on the evening of November 23. According to the requirements of speed and concealment, they traveled at night and stayed at dawn, took a shortcut, took a mountain road, entered the Great Wall from Lengkou, and arrived at the designated location Fengrun and Yutian on December 7.The East Field Headquarters originally wanted the Three Columns and the Five Columns to pass through the north of Beiping and insert them between Nankou, Huailai and Peiping. escape. On December 13, the Three Columns set off from the Xianghe area and first arrived at the southeast of Tong County in the east of Peiping. They cut off the external contacts of the enemy in the southeast of Peiping, swept away the enemy strongholds in the southeast of Peiping, and completed the encirclement of Peiping in the southeast. . On the night of December 15th, the Three Columns received an order from Dongye Headquarters, in order to reduce the pressure on the Five Columns in Fengtai, they were asked to immediately insert into Nanyuan and launch an attack on Nanyuan Airport.Han Xianchu asked Chief of Staff He Zhenya to quickly organize scouts to find out the internal situation of Nanyuan Airport in order to launch an attack as soon as possible.He Zhenya handed over this task to the reconnaissance company of the Seventh Division.The first platoon of the reconnaissance company of the Seventh Division captured a platoon leader of the security regiment stationed at Nanyuan Airport. The platoon leader drew a plan of the airport for the reconnaissance company.At the same time, the second platoon of the Seventh Division's reconnaissance company got through the barbed wire fence of the airport and sneaked into the airport.Therefore, when the Seventh Division launched an attack on the airport under the command of He Zhenya, the scouts came to cooperate with each other. Nanyuan Airport was easily taken down by our army, and more than a dozen aircraft and a large amount of military supplies were seized.Fu Zuoyi once ordered Huang Xiang to lead the 92nd Army to counterattack Nanyuan Airport.Huang Xiang indeed brought the 56th Division of the 92nd Army to counterattack, just like he went to attack Fengtai, he couldn't attack at all.The three verticals only used one regiment's strength to repel the enemy's two regiments.Huang Xiang had no results in his attacks on Fengtai and Nanyuan, and he was unable to attack repeatedly. In order to preserve his strength, he gave Li Shijie, the chief of staff of the "Suppression General", "The Communist army is tenacious, our army is tired, and it is not suitable to fight again." After the phone call, the troops were withdrawn to Guang'anmen. The Nanyuan Airport was lost, and the Xijiao Airport was controlled by the People's Liberation Army. From then on, the air passage from the inside of Beiping City to the outside world could only rely on the Temple of Heaven in the city and the temporary airstrip built in Dongdan. Since our army has already occupied Tongxian, Daxing, and Langfang in the east of Beiping, Huairou, Miyun and other places in the north, now the west and south are occupied by our army.As of December 17, our army has completed the encirclement of Beiping. Before the five verticals captured Fengtai, Dongye's advance corps, the Second Corps, occupied the important stronghold Nankou.Commander Cheng Zihua left the Fourth Column at Nankou, commanded the Eleventh Column to approach the western suburbs of Beiping, fought the enemy outside Xizhimen, repulsed the enemy's tank convoy trying to attack the city, and liberated the western suburbs, including Tsinghua University and Yankee. In a large area including Peking University, the troops were warmly welcomed by teachers and students of two famous universities. Many anti-Jiang patriotic and progressive people came here. Many people in Beiping called this area "liberated area". Immediately afterwards, the Eleventh Zong went south to Wanping and conquered Shijingshan.Shijingshan was the most important industrial area in Beiping at that time, and a regiment of the enemy's regular army and several policemen were stationed there.During the battle, the Eleventh Zong not only eliminated the enemy, but also protected important industrial facilities such as the Shijingshan Power Plant and the Steel Plant. Commendation Award.At that time, the Shijingshan Power Plant had stopped sending electricity to the city of Beiping, which made the city dark at night, the running water was cut off, and the trams stopped running (at that time, trams were the main public transportation in the city).In order to take care of the normal life of the masses in Beiping City, our army resumed the normal power supply to Beiping City after occupying Shijingshan Power Plant, which was widely welcomed by the people.Of course, from another point of view, from then on, there was no electricity, no water in the city of Beiping (the Shijingshan Power Plant was the only power plant in Beiping at that time, and the water company also relied on the power of the Shijingshan Power Plant), that is, It is completely in the hands of our army.