Chapter 48 3. Reckless

The enemy army is also acting tensely. According to Chiang Kai-shek's deployment in Beiping, the Dongjin Aid Corps was commanded by Hou Jingru, commander of the 17th Corps. When Chiang Kai-shek went to Huludao to oversee the battle on October 6, Hou Jingru planned to mobilize the four armies (that is, the 92nd Army and the 62nd Army that were transferred from North China, the 39th Army that was transferred from Yantai, and The Fifty-fourth Army on the island) has not been fully adjusted, and the Ninety-two Army and the Thirty-ninth Army have not yet started. Chiang Kai-shek then ordered Hou Jingru to go back to Tangshan, where the 17th Corps is located, to be in charge of urging.However, the aid campaign could not be suspended for a while. Chiang Kai-shek ordered all the troops in Huludao to be temporarily commanded by Que Hanqian, commander of the 54th Army, to attack as soon as possible.

In this extremely urgent moment when the military situation is on fire, why is Hou Jingru, the commander-in-chief of the Aid Jin Corps, nervous and not fast?Why was the mobilization of troops so slow?Among them are the factors of internal contradictions in the Kuomintang army, and there is another factor that was unknown at the time, that is, the commander of the corps was contacting the underground staff of our party for the uprising. Hou Jingru, a native of Yongcheng, Henan, is a legendary figure.In the Kuomintang army, he can be regarded as the true direct descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, because he was born in the first period of Huangpu.But very few people knew at the time that he was also a secret member of the Communist Party of China. In 1924, as a college student of Henan University, he went to Shanghai to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy. The examiner who conducted the preliminary examination for him was Mao Zedong, who was in Shanghai as an alternate executive member of the Kuomintang Central Committee and directed the work of the Shanghai Executive Department of the Kuomintang.After Hou Jingru graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, he became a platoon leader in the teaching regiment, and the company commander Guo Jun was a member of the Communist Party.When he was promoted to the deputy battalion commander of the third regiment of the First Division of the First Army, Guo Jun was his battalion commander again.

Under the influence and introduction of Guo Jun, he joined the Communist Party of China in Chaozhou in October 1925, and his superior Zhou Enlai at the Whampoa Military Academy presided over the joining ceremony. In 1926, Chiang Kai-shek carried out a "purge of the party" in the army.Since Hou Jingru joined the party not long ago and was not discovered, the party organization decided to let him and Liao Yunzhou and other unexposed Communists continue to work in the First Army.During the Northern Expedition, he served as the representative of the Kuomintang Party and director of the Political Department of the Second Division of the Army.Before the end of the Northern Expedition, he accepted the organization's decision to go to Shanghai. Under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, he participated in the Shanghai workers' armed uprising. He was a member of the workers' riot general headquarters and was in charge of the military training of the workers' pickets. In March 1927, Shanghai workers launched the third general strike, preparing for an armed uprising.Zhou Enlai sent him to Nanshi to command workers' pickets to attack the Shanghai Police Department and the Gaochangmiao Arsenal.Both battles were successful under his command.When Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, he was shot and wounded in the right chest while commanding operations at the Commercial Press Club, and was transferred to Wuhan for treatment.After recovering from his injury, he served as the chief security officer of the three towns in Wuhan.After Wang Jingwei rebelled against the revolution, he went to Echeng and served as the head of the teaching regiment in He Long's 20th Army.Then he participated in the Nanchang Uprising with He Long.After the failure of the uprising, he was injured again in Huichang, Jiangxi Province on the way south, and went to Hong Kong with Chen Geng to recuperate. At the end of 1927, he went to Shanghai to participate in the work of the Central Military Commission. In April 1928, the party sent him to Kaifeng to serve as the secretary of the Henan Provincial Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. He was discovered by the Kuomintang authorities during the meeting and was arrested and imprisoned.The Communist Party members in prison had prepared to riot, and he served as the commander-in-chief of the riot. In 1929, due to the Central Plains war between Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang, the situation changed, and he was rescued and released from prison by our party together with An Ziwen and other Communists. In the spring of 1931, the party organization sent him to Shanghai to contact the central government. He originally decided to work in the Soviet area. Due to the traitor Gu Shunzhang from the special department of the central government, the central organization suffered unprecedented damage.From then on, Hou Jingru lost contact with the party organization.Because Chiang Kai-shek was not clear about his activities during this period, he managed to return to the Kuomintang army, first in the 41st Army of the Northwest Army System of Sun Dianying, his fellow villager in Yongcheng, Henan, and later in the 92nd Army. He fought the War of Resistance Against Japan and made military exploits in many wars. In 1943, he served as the commander of the 92nd Army, and after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he also served as the commander of the Beiping Garrison. In 1947, his nephew, Li Jieren, a member of the Communist Party of China, brought a letter from An Ziwen, who was in prison with him, to see him.The letter said: "Mr. Zhou and He care about you and asked me to write this letter to you. If you can come back, you are welcome. The past can be forgiven." Hou Jingru felt deeply, so he planned to choose an opportunity to revolt.Therefore, when he was ordered to organize the Aid Jin Corps, he decided to revolt and deliberately delayed it for a few days.However, he was unable to prepare for the uprising in a short period of time. He had to arrive at Huludao on October 11, but only brought one division with him.At this time, Que Hanqian, commander of the 54th Army, had set out to attack Tashan for almost two days.

After the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, Hou Jingru was still stationed in Tanggu in the name of the commander of the 17th Corps, and concurrently served as the commander of Tanggu defense.At this time, he contacted the uprising through Li Jieren, but at this time he had been cut a lot of power, and his Ninety-two Army was also transferred, so his actions were quite restricted.While planning, he was ordered to retreat south.After negotiating with the relevant person in charge of our side, he withdrew the troops that could be taken away to the south of the Yangtze River, and successively served as the deputy commander of the Yangtze River Defense Corps and the deputy director of the Fuzhou Appeasement Office.Because of his mother's illness, he went to Hong Kong to visit. During the visit, he instructed his troops to finally revolt in Fuzhou.

Que Hanqian's Fifty-Fourth Army was originally stationed in Shandong, but after being transferred to Huludao, it had yet to fight against the Northeast Field Army.The Fifty-Fourth Army is considered to be Chiang Kai-shek's Huangpu direct line, and its combat effectiveness is quite strong. In addition to other troops in Huludao at this time, Que Hanqian commanded a total of 5 divisions, and there were artillery support from naval warships, so Que Hanqian thought he had enough troops to attack east Enough, there will be no problem in rushing through Tashan, just boasted to Haikou in front of Chiang Kai-shek, and led the troops to set off. In the early morning of October 10th, under the command of Que Hanqian, led by the temporary 62nd Division, the Kuomintang army launched an attack on our Tashan position.

After the exchange of fire at the forward position, the planes of the Kuomintang Air Force carried out low-altitude bombing. Que Hanqian concentrated more than forty heavy artillery pieces to carry out intensive bombing on our position. Within a few tens of minutes, more than 5,000 bombs fell on our position. The fortifications that our army rushed to repair were huge. The headquarters was blown up, and the ground on the position was blown loose several feet.When the enemy stopped shelling and rushed towards me in three directions, our army resolutely fought back against the enemy with the remaining fortifications.The 8th Division of the enemy's 54th Army attacked our frontal position of Tashan Fort, the 62nd Division was temporarily organized to attack the railway bridge and Gaojiatan, and the 151st Division attacked Baitai Mountain. I launched nine charges, and our army waited for the enemy's artillery fire to stop, and took the method of putting the enemy in front of the position before fighting the enemy. In the words of Commander Wu Kehua:

The enemy's assault formation was dense, with company, battalion, and regimental leaders taking the lead, and the supervisory team (Note: Chiang Kai-shek specially dispatched the "Presidential Palace Field Inspection Team" to supervise the battle. Luo Qi, who was the deputy commander-in-chief of Beiping's security at the time), was behind the pressure, regardless of the terrain conditions, like a group of mad dogs, no matter how they shot, they still rushed forward screaming "Wah-wah" as if unconscious.The front falls, and the back walks over; the first echelon falls, and the second echelon goes up; the second echelon collapses, and the third and fourth echelons go up.Shelling for a while, rushing for a while; charging for a while, shelling for a while.The first attack was repulsed, and the second attack followed one after another.The desperately rushing enemy and our soldiers tangled together, scratching their hair, pulling their ears, wrestling, rolling, and working desperately.I have bunkers, bunkers, traffic trenches, and trenches at the front.

In this way, with the support of artillery, our army launched a powerful counterattack after repelling the enemy's nine charges with the most tenacious fighting spirit, and finally repelled the enemy's first day's attack. On this day, which Wu Kehua called "thrilling", the enemy suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and our army also suffered more than 300 casualties. After dark, all units of our army immediately summed up the advantages and disadvantages of the original fortifications, and rushed to repair the fortifications overnight. The traffic trenches were dug to a depth of 1.5 meters, and "pipe-style" personal bunkers were dug in the trenches. The bunkers used the rails removed from the railway. Build it with sleepers and cover it with soil.Several fake fortifications were also built on the Baitai Mountain position to deceive the enemy.In addition, the Four Columns specially organized a number of small teams to penetrate behind the enemy at night to conduct reconnaissance, harass and confuse the enemy.

On the second day, there was another nine hours of fighting on the ground, and the enemy's offensive troops increased from three divisions on the first day to four divisions.The three main positions of our army were once broken by the enemy. The enemy built fortifications one or two hundred meters away from our forward position in an attempt to form a confrontation with our army. Our army organized the second echelon to carry out multiple violent counterattacks before driving the enemy back.The fighting on this day was more tragic than the first day.The battalion and one company of the 34th Regiment, 12th Division, 4th Column, and 12th Division of our 4th Column, which fought repeatedly with the enemy in the village of Tashanbao, withstood the bombing of a large number of enemy shells, incendiary bombs, and aircraft bombs. Of the more than 170 people, there were only 7 fighters left, and all the cadres died heroically.On this day, the enemy suffered more than 1,300 casualties, and our army suffered more than 500 casualties.The position of Tashan is really built with the body of our hero.

After two days of fighting, Que Hanqian couldn't hold his air any longer.At this time Hou Jingru had already arrived in Huludao, so Que Hanqian had to hand over the command to Hou Jingru.Hou Jingru held a joint meeting of teachers and above in Jinxi Middle School.The participants of the meeting were all surprised by the tenacity of the Tashan guards, and demanded to increase the support force of the air force and increase the shelling power of the sea artillery, especially the ace warship of the Kuomintang Navy that was specially transferred by Chiang Kai-shek to park by the sea. "Chongqing", pin your hopes on Deng Zhaoxiang, the captain of "Chongqing".Because they all know that the lethality of the "Chongqing" ship's 152mm cannon is far beyond that of the 105mm howitzer, 120mm heavy mortar and 76.2mm mountain gun commonly used by the Kuomintang Army at that time.

Here it is necessary to introduce the "Chongqing" ship. "Chongqing" is a cruiser with a displacement of 5,270 tons and a length of 154 meters. It was originally the "Dawn Goddess" warship of the British Navy. It was launched in 1936. It was General Mountbatten, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet during World War II. Its flagship has sunk 1 German and Italian cruiser and 10 destroyers. In 1944, it also served as the command ship of Allied Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower.In order to compensate for the six patrol boats left by the Chinese government in Hong Kong during the Anti-Japanese War, the British government donated this warship to the Kuomintang government in May 1948. It became the largest warship of the Kuomintang navy and was renamed "Chongqing". Deng Zhaoxiang, the captain of the "Chongqing" ship, is a patriotic general who opposes civil war from the bottom of his heart.Under the order of Gui Yongqing, the commander of the Kuomintang Navy stationed on the ship, he had to fire at the Tashan position on land.But Deng Zhaoxiang told Gui Yongqing that the "Chongqing" ship had a large tonnage and a deep draft, so it could not enter the offshore waters.In this way, the shelling on the land cannot be visually detected, but can only be fired according to the marks on the map.Gui Yongqing still ordered the "Chongqing" ship to fire, and Deng Zhaoxiang also ordered to fire. Only geniuses know where the shells landed.Since the positions of the offensive and defensive armies of Tashan were only a few hundred meters away, many shells fell on the positions of the Kuomintang army.So after the "Chongqing" ship fought for two days, Gui Yongqing had to stop the "Chongqing" ship from firing on the shore.In fact, the draft of the "Chongqing" ship only needs 10 meters, and the sea near Tashan can be approached. Even Gui Yongqing, the naval commander, was fooled by Deng Zhaoxiang (General Deng Zhaoxiang soon cooperated with the underground organization of the Communist Party of China to lead The "Chongqing" ship revolted on February 25, 1949. The Northeast Military Region still appointed Deng Zhaoxiang as the captain. According to the superior's instructions on "keeping people but not ships", the "Chongqing" ship sank in the harbor of Huludao. After the founding of New China, Deng Zhaoxiang served as the deputy commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, and the "Chongqing" ship was also salvaged , used as a ship for daily life, and its ships and bronze bells are still preserved in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, and are designated as national first-class cultural relics). Hou Jingru's attitude was to procrastinate as long as he could, but he had to fight.He once told Liu Chunling, the deputy commander of the 17th Corps, and Zhang Boquan, the chief of staff, that the important thing is to maintain one's own strength, because, "According to our current situation, we can't attack Tashan and Jinzhou, and if we attack, we can't." If you can’t get out, if you don’t call in, you can last for a few more days.”Both Liu Chunling and Zhang Boquan agreed with his proposition, to preserve their own strength as much as possible, so the military meeting finally rejected the proposal proposed by the chief of staff of the 54th Army to concentrate the main force from between Tashan and Baitaishan to the back of Tashan, and then attack from both sides. According to Hou Jingru's opinion, Zhang Boquan proposed a steady and steady plan.It is still advancing frontally, because it can use the height advantage of the terrain it occupies to exert firepower, and it is relatively safe.This plan was supported by War Supervisor Roach.Because the independent Ninety-five Division that was originally directly under the North China "Suppression General" that was just transferred on October 10 is Luo Qi's old unit, and its combat effectiveness is quite strong. It used to have the reputation of "North China Zhao Zilong Division" in North China. Not a single machine gun was lost."At this time, Luo Qi not only wanted his 95th Division to show his hand in front of Chiang Kai-shek, but also proposed that he personally command the 95th Division to attack Tashan, but also because Chiang Kai-shek made it very clear to him, the war supervisor: "This battle is up to you Personally supervise the battle, if you can't attack Tashan, you must follow the military law!" Roach is afraid that there will be a day when "military law is practiced".For this reason, he also proposed a one-day truce on the 12th, so that the 95th Division could see the terrain and formulate plans.Hou Jingru agreed with Luo Qi's opinion, and sent Lin Weichou, deputy commander of the 17th Corps and commander of the 62nd Army, to command the 62nd Army as the flank of the 95th Division, and was responsible for commanding the entire front. Roach did not expect that the truce on the 12th would be of great help to the Tashan defenders.The reconnaissance squad of the 34th Regiment of the 4th Column disguised itself and went deep into the enemy's rear at night on the 11th, and captured a deputy commander of the 92nd Army of the enemy. During the interrogation, he explained the changes in the enemy's offensive deployment.Our army made full use of this day to make preparations, and let the 10th Division take over part of the defense of the 12th Division with heavy casualties. With the approval of the Corps Commander Cheng Zihua, the 11th Column was transferred up, and an artillery regiment was transferred to the 4th Division. Vertically, the defensive capabilities of the Tashan position were greatly enhanced. At 4:30 a.m. on the 13th, the enemy once again used indiscriminate bombing as a prelude, and then marched in parallel with the 95th Division and the 8th Division to forcefully assault the railway bridge east of Tashanbao and the Gaojiatan position. The 157th and 157th divisions stormed Baitai Mountain and Tashan Fort.Luo Qi had already uttered wild words, saying that "there is no position that Master Zhao Zilong cannot hold"!In order to make meritorious service, Luo Qi specially established a war supervision organization in the army, supervised level by level, and those who are timid will be killed without mercy.In addition, at the price of 500,000 yuan in gold coupons, a large number of death squads who "would rather die than retreat" were bought to take the lead in the charge.Under the command of Zhu Zhiyi, the commander of the 95th Division, these death-death squads led the 95th Division to advance step by step in a multi-step wave like a madman, using the corpses around them as temporary fortifications, and rushed forward desperately.Some daredevils are even bare-chested and bare-armed, with weapons in hand and big knives on their backs, just like the Red Spears in the past.Due to the madness of the enemy and the fact that the 95th Division used all automatic weapons, a team of submachine guns and a team of light machine guns went forward in turn, with strong firepower.It was the 28th Regiment that our army was attacking against the 95th Division from the front. They used machine guns and grenades to knock down the enemies who rushed up to the position again and again, and organized counter-charges again and again.All the communication lines of the whole regiment were blown up, and they could not be contacted. Each position fought independently and fought on its own.After repeated see-saw-style fighting many times, the 28th Regiment truly realized their oath of "living and dying with the position", and held the position at the tragic cost of more than 800 casualties in the whole regiment.All other positions of our army were also firmly held. October 13 was the cruelest day of the Tashan blockade.Although the enemy had more than 1,200 casualties, our army also had more than 1,000 casualties, almost one-on-one! On the night of the 13th, Wu Kehua withdrew the 28th regiment and replaced it with the 30th regiment.Lin Biao transferred the first column to the back of the fourth column as the reserve team of the fourth column.With Yizong behind him, Sizong has more confidence.Especially in the middle of the night on the 13th, Wu Kehua had already received a call from Liu Yalou, the chief of staff of the headquarters, knowing that the periphery of Jinzhou had been cleared, and a general offensive would be launched on the 14th.As soon as this news was conveyed to the commanders and fighters, the whole column was extremely excited, and the fighting spirit was even higher. It is precisely because Jinzhou's enemies have reached a critical situation that Fan Hanjie, the coach of the Jinzhou garrison, keeps calling Chiang Kai-shek for help.On the night of the 13th, Chiang Kai-shek issued a death order to Hou Jingru and Luo Qi to "take Tashan at dawn, occupy Gaoqiao at 12 o'clock, and reach Jinzhou at dusk".In order to complete the order, Roach decided to take a risk and carry out a sneak attack at night.Que Hanqian of the 54th Army objected, because he knew that fighting at night relied on close combat, relying on bayonet and grenade skills. These skills were the strengths of the opponent and his own weaknesses.If you let your 54th Army go to fight at night, it is tantamount to going to death.Luo Qi had no choice but to let the 95th Division organize two battalions to attack at night.In the early morning of the 14th, these two battalions failed to be noticed by our army by crawling forward for a long distance, and approached the position of the 34th regiment of our army.Because our army used the night to rush to repair the fortifications, everyone except the sentry was sleeping soundly in the early morning.When the enemy was discovered, some enemies were repulsed after a period of hand-to-hand combat, but some enemies also seized some positions of our army. After dawn on the 14th, the enemy launched a charge with the 95th Division and the 8th Division, relying on some positions occupied at night.Since the Ninety-five Division had been beaten to the point of exhaustion the day before, and the number of personnel was seriously reduced, the combat effectiveness at that time was reduced, and our army knew that the general attack on Jinzhou had begun amidst the roar of guns and artillery in Jinzhou. The soldiers The crowd is invigorated and the fighting spirit is doubled.Although the enemy's attack did not weaken that day because of Chiang Kai-shek's death order, the enemy's officers also knew the situation on the front line of Jinzhou and knew that the so-called aid to Jinzhou was meaningless, so they tried every means to preserve their strength.At dusk, Hou Jingru could not get any information from Fan Hanjie. Of course he understood what this meant, so he ordered the troops to withdraw from the battle. Strictly speaking, after the evening of the 14th, the Tashan blockade ended with our army's victory.However, since Chiang Kai-shek had not yet agreed to Hou Jingru's withdrawal of troops, in Huludao, apart from Luo Qi, the presidential supervisor known as "Luo Qiansui", there was also Chen Wei, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" sent by Wei Lihuang. Tie was in charge of the Huludao command post of the Northeast "Suppression General" which was specially used to supervise the war, so Hou Jingru could not issue an order to stop the attack.Under Roach's insistence, on the 15th, troops from 5 divisions still attacked our position with the 95th Division as the main force.At 12:00 noon, the enemy army retreated across the board, and the battle was finally over.