Chapter 51 Two, sharpen the knife

On October 7, 1948, Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan and other heads of the East Field Headquarters came to Jinzhou, which had attracted their attention in recent months, and climbed to the top of Maoer Mountain in the northern suburbs. Facing the solid buildings and fortifications of Jinzhou City, Lin Biao remembered the lesson of Siping again.Although the second, third, sixth, seventh, eighth, and nineth columns of the Northeast Field Army's main force have all come, Lin Biao has no shortage of troops.However, facing the city with solid fortifications, how to attack it has become Lin Biao's top priority.At this time, Lin Biao seriously reviewed the situation in Dayi County a few days ago.

Yi County is located about 50 kilometers north of Jinzhou and is the barrier to the north of Jinzhou.In the eyes of military strategists, there is no dispute about the ancient saying "If you want to defend the Northeast, you must defend Jinzhou; if you want to defend Jinzhou, you must defend Yi County".More than 7,000 people from the 20th Division of the 93rd Army of the Kuomintang Army are defending here.The 93rd Army is an old unit of the Yunnan Army, and the 20th Division is a US military equipment division, and its combat effectiveness is not weak.The Kuomintang army has long built solid fortifications on the basis of the original city wall in Yixian County. In particular, the bunkers are built with steel rails or huge timber.Outside the bunker group, trenches with a depth and width of 3 meters were dug.Therefore, it is not easy to fight Yi County.

On September 12, 1948, our army surrounded Yi County and launched an attack on the night of the 17th.It was the main force of our Dongye Third Column and the Second Column and Fifth Division that attacked Yixian County, as well as the artillery support of the Paozong, all under the command of the commander of the Three Columns Han Xianchu.Our army rushed and fought at the beginning, but the effect was not great in the face of the enemy's strong stronghold and powerful firepower.Two days later, it was changed to a point-by-point attack, that is, to bombard the enemy stronghold with artillery fire to make it lose its strong firepower, then use light and heavy machine guns to suppress the firepower of the strongholds on both sides, and then use infantry to capture the stronghold in the middle.The progress of this style of play is not fast.In the end, Han Xianchu accepted the suggestion of Wang Yang, Chief of Staff of the Second Vertical and Fifth Division, and changed to digging traffic ditches. It took the Fifth Division 14 hours to dig five traffic ditches with a total length of 7,300 meters.After two days and nights, the traffic ditch was dug in front of the enemy's position in the southwest of Yi County, and the nearest one was only more than 100 meters away.Then push the flat-fire gun from the traffic ditch to the front of the position, aim at the enemy's bunker, and kill one with one shot.The enemy organized troops to attack, but was beaten by the firepower of our army in the traffic ditch.Zhao Zhenhua, head of the 1st Regiment of the 20th Division of the enemy, said: "This action really poses a fatal threat to the defenders.... Wang Shigao, the division commander, once summoned people above the group leader to observe the situation on the southwest wall and study countermeasures. I found a good way. I also summoned officers who could leave the position and went deep into the lower levels to study countermeasures, but everyone just looked at each other and couldn't think of a feasible way." In this way, the enemy's fortifications guarding Yixian County were destroyed by our army. Layer after layer was peeled off, and finally the city wall was bombarded by our cannon fire. Yi County was finally conquered by me. More than 7,000 officers and soldiers of the 20th Division of the defenders were annihilated or captured.

After learning about the experience of conquering Yixian from the three verticals, the second vertical, and the Pao vertical, Lin Biao also made a decision to dig a big traffic ditch for the conquest of Jinzhou.On October 7, Lin Biao issued the following order: (1) Each division needs to use 6 battalions of troops (2/3 of the troops) to dig traffic ditches, leaving only the troops serving as sharp knives to make full assault preparations behind.Never rely on a small number of troops to dig traffic ditches. (2) When digging traffic ditches, you must have the spirit of not being afraid of casualties and fatigue, boldly advance to a distance of 50 to 60 meters from the enemy, spread out along the way, dig from front to back, and dig from front to back at the same time.

(3) Each division should dig five or three traffic ditches. (4) Each ditch must be 1.5 meters high and 5 meters wide. (5) When digging a ditch, first dig a lying ditch in a lying posture, and then gradually dig into a standing ditch.If I am not afraid of fatigue, as long as I am willing to dig a traffic ditch, no matter how fierce the enemy fire is and how strong the fortifications are, it will lose its effect. (6) The above instructions must be resolutely implemented, and not lazy and afraid of fatigue. From now on, the basic task of the entire Northeast Army is to attack big cities, so all ministries must lay a solid foundation in terms of ideology and style of work during this trench digging.In this way, a major factor of victory will be added to future operations.

Lin Biao's order was firm and specific, and all units immediately implemented it.The siege army seemed to have turned into an engineering unit overnight. The soldiers who joined the army from the countryside were very handy in digging ditches, and the progress was extremely fast. They could dig the traffic ditches to the front of the enemy's positions in one night.Later facts proved that Lin Biao's decision was correct, and the traffic ditches on the battlefield played a very important role in the battle. Our army's attack on the outskirts of Jinzhou began on September 12 by the Second Corps. After the southward columns arrived, they followed the orders of the Dongye Headquarters to sweep the outlying positions.In battle, some performed extremely well, while others had several problems.Before the general offensive began, the Dongye headquarters summarized the situation in all aspects and dealt with the more serious problems.In order to let everyone learn a lesson and ensure the smooth progress of the decisive battle, on October 8, Lin Biao issued the following briefing to the troops that were fighting at that time:

Our Nine Columns showed a very poor fighting style in the winter battle last year. After being pointed out by the Eastern President, they all worked hard. This year, they have shown that they can both attack and defend. In the White Tiger's position, the enemy's four main infantry regiments cooperated with 11 tanks and five or six planes to attack them. Sacrifice, but in the end I counterattacked and knocked the enemy back, maintained the position and destroyed two tanks, captured dozens of enemies, and killed and wounded hundreds of enemies.After the war, all commanders and fighters of the company recorded three great achievements.I hope you will make good use of this battle example. The Ninth Column is a new army that can do it, the Fourth Column can do it even better, and the foundation of the Eleventh Column is no worse than that of the Ninth Column, so it should be done.The main reason is that if every commander and fighter is determined from top to bottom, brilliant achievements can be made, the enemy will be frightened, and the victory of our entire army can be guaranteed.

One company of the Eighth Column guarded Xiaozijing Mountain in the Jinzhou Industrial Zone on the 5th. The enemy attacked it. The company commander flinched and gave up his position.The Eighth Column's battle near Jinzhou is far behind the Nineth Column's, which shows that those who don't work hard will fall behind. This telegram was discovered by military history researchers from the telegrams at that time when they were studying the history of the Fourth Field Army.This telegram stated that on the eve of the decisive battle, the East Field headquarters used the actual examples in front of them to conduct a vivid pre-war mobilization for the commanders and soldiers, punished the cowards who ran away with steel military discipline, and at the same time set up another banner for everyone to learn—— ——The heroic company "White Tiger Company" of the 25th Division of the Ninth Column guarding the White Tiger Village.This company is the 1st Company of the 74th Regiment of the 25th Division.

Together with the large forces of the Nine Columns, the First Company was inserted from the north between Jinzhou and Yixian on September 11.The task given to Jiuzong by Dongye headquarters is to cut off the connection between Yixian and Jinzhou, and block the enemy troops from Jinzhou to the north to rescue Yixian.When Fan Hanjie sent the 22nd Temporary Division to the north to rescue the besieged enemies in Yixian County, they were blocked by our Nine Columns in the area of ​​Ge Wenbei and Xuejiatun. Annihilating.Fan Hanjie saw that the 22nd Temporary Division was surrounded as soon as it attacked, so he decided to abandon Yixian, rescue the 22nd Temporary Division first, and at the same time protect the position in the north of Jinzhou. On the 24th, under the leadership of the division commander Zeng Yongya, the 25th Division of the Nine Columns penetrated to the north of Jinzhou to block the enemy reinforcements attacking north from Jinzhou City.There are a lot of reinforcements, including the 184th Division of the 60th Army and the provisional 18th Division.The enemy used tanks to open the way, and then used armored vehicles to cover the infantry attack. The battle was quite fierce.Since the location and mission are very important, the battle of the 25th Division is directly commanded by the East Field Headquarters.The first company of the 74th Regiment of the 25th Division fought fiercely with the enemy in Baihutun under such circumstances.

The White Tiger is stationed at the intersection of two highways to the north of Jinzhou, only a little over two kilometers away from Jinzhou, and is already within Jinzhou's defense range.Going north can cut off the enemy's 22nd Division's retreat, and going south can stop Jinzhou's reinforcements going north. The village is not big, but its strategic location is particularly important.When the first company penetrated behind the enemy, it penetrated 15 kilometers in one breath, occupying this strategic location.Of course, the enemy wanted to take it back desperately, so he used troops dozens of times stronger than our army to attack Baihuhutun.Under the leadership of the company commander Chen Xuezhi and the instructor Tian Guangwen, the company used the most tenacious perseverance to repel 15 enemy charges within 16 hours, and completely lost contact with its superiors and brother companies. In an orphanage, everyone's gun barrels were red, and everyone's hands were blistered with blood.When the enemy set fire to the yard, they still insisted on fighting in the fire, and all the commanders and fighters of the company were ready to die with the enemy until the large forces joined them.When the first company met with the main force, the division commander Zeng Yongya sighed and said: "White Tiger Village, there are really tigers today."

This is in a row.The brother company of the first company and the second company of the 74th regiment fought to the point where there were only more than 20 people left in the whole company in the battle to defend Wuxingtun. Dongye headquarters made a lot of preparations for the attack on Jinzhou, and setting up a model like the "White Tiger Company" was just one of them.All the preparations were for sharpening the knife, for the purpose of smoothly cutting the first hard bone in the decisive battle of Liaoshen, and cutting off the middle end of the shoulder pole on Fan Hanjie's shoulder - Jinzhou.