Chapter 34 10. The fish that slipped through the net in Tanggu

To the east of Tianjin City is Tanggu, an important seaport in North China.It used to be a place that Chiang Kai-shek and Fu Zuoyi attached great importance to, but at this time it was impossible to attract much attention from Chiang Kai-shek and Fu Zuoyi. As the most important seaport in the Pingjin area, Tanggu used to play some roles in the wars in Jinzhou area supported by North China in the northeast.After the defeat on the Northeast battlefield, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the original "Aid Jin Corps" to withdraw from Huludao to the Tanggu area to garrison, and Hou Jingru, the commander of the 17th Corps, was the defensive commander of the Tanggu area.On the sea outside the port, there is also the navy of the Kuomintang Navy's Third Fleet commanded by Ma Jizhuang.Chiang Kai-shek put these troops there for only one purpose, which is to prepare for the southward withdrawal of the Kuomintang troops in the Pingjin area.

When our Northeast army entered the customs, in order to prevent the enemy from fleeing south, cut off the enemy's southward escape route, and control the entrance to the sea, the Central Military Commission once ordered Dongye to attack Tanggu before attacking Tianjin in order to control the exit.Lin Biao entrusted this task to the Seventh Column, the Second Column, and the Eighth Column.However, when Dongye's several columns went to Tanggu for on-the-spot investigation and tentative attack, they found that the terrain in front of Tanggu was a salt field with vertical and horizontal ditches, which was extremely unfavorable for our attack.Behind Tanggu is the sea, and the enemy has set up the Corps headquarters on naval warships. If we really want to fight recklessly, the enemy will inevitably escape from the sea by boat.Therefore, several ordered generals headed by Commander Deng Hua of the Seventh Column reported to the Dongye Headquarters and the Central Military Commission, suggesting that Tanggu should not be attacked at present, but the connection between Tianjin and Tanggu should be cut off. Fleeing can also reduce the losses of our army.If the defenders in Tanggu fled south to the south of the Yangtze River, it would not have any impact on the situation in the south of the Yangtze River.The Central Military Commission agreed to this suggestion, and our army did not have the task of eliminating the Tanggu defenders for the time being in the combat arrangement during this period.

According to the order of the Central Military Commission to resolutely cut off the connection between Tianjin and Tanggu, and not allow the enemies in the Pingjin area to flee south, Lin Biao placed the Dongye Twelve Columns between Tianjin and Tanggu, and ordered the Twelve Columns to closely monitor the enemies in Tanggu. The enemy in Tianjin cannot be allowed to escape from Tanggu, nor can the enemy in Tanggu come to reinforce Tianjin when our army attacks Tianjin. On January 3, 1949, the Twelfth Column arrived in the Tanggu area under the leadership of commander Zhong Wei and political commissar Yuan Shengping.

The Twelve Columns were stationed in Shenyang when they were in the Northeast. They were the last column when the entire Dongye army entered the customs. They only set off from the station on December 4th and 5th.After arriving in Tanggu, the party committee of the column considered that the 12th column was officially formed in February 1948. Although the foundation was good, it did not participate in tough battles such as Jinzhou in the Northeast and lacked experience in tackling tough battles. Part of the troops can be sent to attack Tianjin in order to improve the troops' attacking ability.The Dongye headquarters agreed to let the 34th Division of the 12th Column, under the leadership of the division commander Wen Yucheng, fight Tianjin together with the 9th Column. Reinforcements from Tianjin.

Therefore, the Twelve Columns placed the command post in Dasongzhuang, southeast of Junliang City, and closely monitored the enemies in Tanggu. The supreme commander of the Kuomintang army in Tanggu was Hou Jingru, the commander of the 17th Corps. He was appointed by Fu Zuoyi as the commander of the Tanggu Defense Zone. The basic team under him was the 92nd Army that he had led for many years. In addition, the Eighty-seventh Army and the Third Traffic Police Brigade also belong to the Tanggu defensive area, but they are stationed in Tangshan, not Tanggu. At the beginning of December 1948, due to our army's offensive on the Pingsui line, Fu Zuoyi transferred the troops in Beiping to the west. There was a shortage of troops in Beiping, so he hurriedly transferred the 92nd Army to Beiping, leaving only one division for Hou Jingru. Tanggu.Soon, Fu Zuoyi decided to merge the defenses of Tianjin and Tanggu into the Jintang Defense Zone, with Hou Jingru as the commander and Chen Changjie as the deputy commander. Hou Jingru was asked to move to Tianjin and command the defense of Jintang.After receiving this notice, Hou Jingru was already packing up his things and preparing to leave. Because Junliang City, an important military site between Tianjin and Tanggu, was captured by our army, Hou Jingru could not make the trip and stayed in Tanggu.If Hou Jingru had gone to Tianjin at that time, then it might not be Chen Changjie who was captured in Tianjin, but Hou Jingru.Of course, there is also a possibility that Tianjin will be peacefully liberated before Beiping, because Hou Jingru is willing to move closer to our army and stage an uprising.

Before our army attacked Tianjin, Fu Zuoyi ordered the withdrawal of the Eighty-seventh Army and the Third Traffic Police Brigade originally stationed in Tangshan to Tanggu in order to shrink the force, so the small Tanggu suddenly became crowded. But the defense force is not strong.This is because the Eighty-seventh Army was reorganized from the original youth army. It has little combat experience and is recognized as an army that is "good-looking but not useful." .The 318th Division of the reserve division left after the transfer of the 92nd Army was composed of three supplementary regiments, which were neither full nor heavy weapons.Only the Independent Ninety-Five Division has a strong combat effectiveness, but lost more than half of it in the first battle of Tashan. Now there are less than 5,000 people in one division.

In terms of combat effectiveness, the real force in the Tanggu area is the Third Fleet of the Kuomintang Navy at sea. The Third Fleet has the best capital ship "Chongqing" in the Kuomintang Navy at that time, and dozens of other large and small ships.Not only can it support land operations, but more importantly, if it is necessary to load land troops onto warships and escape, there will be enough artillery fire as cover. After Tianjin was besieged, our army had been fighting with Tianjin's defenders every day in order to clear the periphery.The sound of guns made the Kuomintang troops in Tanggu panic, and they were all preparing to flee for their lives.Under the voice of his subordinates, Hou Jingru allocated all the ships and docks to the various troops in advance, waiting for the retreat order from Nanjing or Beiping.

On January 15th, Tianjin was liberated. In order to wipe out part of the Kuomintang troops in Tanggu as much as possible and prevent them from running away, our 12th Zong launched an attack on Tanggu at 3 am on the 16th.The enemy also boarded the boat and fled for their lives immediately. At 4:00 pm on the 17th, our army liberated Tanggu and wiped out more than 3,400 enemies in Tanggu. The remaining enemies fled from the sea with more than 40,000 people.This enemy who escaped from the sea is also the only Kuomintang army that has not been wiped out by our army on the entire Pingjin battlefield, and is the only small fish that slipped through our army's net.

Here is a necessary addition: We have introduced the situation of Hou Jingru before. This soldier from the first phase of Huangpu had participated in the Communist Party of China and the Nanchang Uprising in his early years, and lost contact with the organization in 1931. In 1948, he reconnected with the underground party and prepared to look for an opportunity to revolt, but there was no opportunity.The army he can completely control is only the 92nd Army. When he was in Tanggu, he could only control the 318th Division with poor combat effectiveness. He could not control the 87th Army reorganized from the Youth Army, let alone the 87th Army. Army Commander Duan Yun.Because Duan Yun had worked in Chiang Kai-shek's attendant room in the past, and he had always regarded himself as a disciple of the emperor. After becoming an army commander, he not only followed Chiang Kai-shek to death, but also never bought Hou Jingru's account.Under such circumstances, Hou Jingru could only secretly support Huang Xiang, the commander of the 92nd Army, to wait for an opportunity to revolt on the one hand, and on the other hand follow the 87th Army to withdraw southward.After withdrawing south to Shanghai, Hou Jingru went to Hong Kong, but supported the 318th Division's uprising in Fuzhou in October 1949.After the uprising of the 318th Division, it was incorporated into the sequence of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and became an independent brigade under Ye Fei.