Chapter 52 Three or five columns sweep the periphery

Conquering Jinzhou is not only the goal of the Northeast Field Army, but also a major concern of the Central Military Commission in Xibaipo Village.Mao Zedong asked Dongye to take Jinzhou within a week. On October 10, Mao Zedong said in a telegram to Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan: The battle situation in this period is very likely to develop into an extremely favorable situation, as you have said, that is, not only the Jinzhou defending enemy can be wiped out, but also the Hu and Jinyuan enemy units can be wiped out, and the fleeing enemy in Changchun can be wiped out. Part or most of it.If the Shenyang reinforcements advance to the area north of the Daling River, just as you have captured Jinzhou, making it possible for you to transfer your forces to encircle the enemy, then you may also annihilate the Shenyang reinforcements.The key to all this is to strive to capture Jinzhou within a week or so.

Your central attention must be on the battle of Jinzhou, and you must conquer the city as quickly as possible.Even if all other goals are not achieved, as long as Jinzhou is conquered, you will have the initiative, which is a great victory. Mao Zedong not only paid great attention to the Jinzhou Campaign, but also gave him full confidence.He believed that the pawn he cast the earliest and most resolutely would surely kill the enemies in the Northeast. Beginning on October 8, Lin Biao ordered the various troops that had surrounded Jinzhou to capture important strongholds outside Jinzhou. The Seventh Column and the Ninth Column were in the south of the city. The Seventh Column captured Hanwang Dianshan and Shuangshanzi, the main positions in the south of the city, and the Nineth Column occupied Daling. On the 11th, two columns attacked Xiaolinghe under the city.

In the southeast of the city, Ba Zong first captured the Great Bauhinia Mountain and the Little Bauhinia Mountain, Baiguantun and Beidaying on the 12th, and Dongdaliang, Bajiazi and Clothing Factory on the 13th. The three verticals spent a lot of effort in the north of the city. On the 13th, they captured the commanding heights in the north of the city, the distribution pool and Dajieda, which were heavily fortified by the enemy.The distribution pool was indeed the pool of the waterworks. It was built entirely of reinforced concrete on a high terrain.The enemy rebuilt it after draining the water, and built 14 bunkers around it. Outside of them, there were trenches, barbed wire, deer villages, and minefields, which were quite solid and equipped with armored vehicles.

The defenders were selected from among the veterans of the enemy's 20th Division who had more than 8 years of military experience. The enemy wrote on the wall that "the distribution pool is the second Verdun" (note: Verdun is the second Verdun in northeastern France). The most important military fortress, during the First World War, the German army was unable to attack, and the French army launched a counterattack. Verdun became a turning point in the military situation of the First World War).Commander Han Xianchu personally went to the front line to command, fought hard for 8 hours, and finally took down this "Verdun".Since this place is condescending and is the northern gateway of Jinzhou City, Han Xianchu also moved the headquarters of the three columns to the distribution pool.

The second vertical is in the northwest of the city. The Heishan Regiment area here is relatively high-lying, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The enemy's 93rd Army guarding this place calls itself the "Little Maginot Line of Defense" (note: the Maginot Line of Defense is the second Before the First World War, France built a defense system on the eastern border to prevent Germany from attacking, named after Minister of War Maginot).The second vertical captured it on the afternoon of the 13th. In this way, I have completely wiped out the strongholds outside Jinzhou City, I have pushed all the defenders into Jinzhou City, and even the artillery has been pulled into the city.The five main columns of our army are literally approaching the city.

Fan Hanjie in Jinzhou City saw that he had become the main target of the Northeast Field Army, and his original determination to defend the city had gradually wavered. On October 2, Chiang Kai-shek asked him if it would be better if all the troops in Jinzhou were concentrated in Jinxi and the defense of the second place was changed to one.Fan Hanjie also believed that as long as there were eastward and westward corps aiding Jin, it would be more beneficial to fight in Jinzhou and the East Field, and the Jinzhou defenders did not need to withdraw to Jinxi.However, when he found that the progress of these two Jinzhou aid corps was very slow, and Jinzhou was gradually surrounded by Dongye, he took the initiative to ask for a breakout on October 6, and when he withdrew the Jinzhou garrison to Jinxi, both Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang He disagreed, and ordered him to "stand firm in Jinzhou so as not to affect the overall situation."At that time, the Ninety-Three Army, the main defensive force in the city, had already issued an order to break out of the siege, and the divisions were already preparing for action.Since they were not allowed to break through, they had no choice but to stay in Jinzhou City.

On October 9, when Hanwang Dianshan, the most important stronghold in the south of the city, was captured by our army, Lu Junquan, the commander of the enemy's Sixth Corps, felt that the future was not good, because Shen Xiangkui, the commander of the New Eighth Army, told him what he had learned after observing the battle situation for many years. Speaking from experience: "When the old man (referring to Chiang Kai-shek) has no other choice, he comes to call him brother and brother. This is his way." On this day, Lu Junquan just received a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek, and it really read: "Jinzhou's relationship with the overall situation, please let me Brother is waiting for help." Lu Junquan deeply felt that what Shen Xiangkui said was very true.Chiang Kai-shek is usually full of autumn wind and murderous look towards his subordinates.But whenever the war is critical and he wants his subordinates to work hard for him to "become benevolence", he will often send a very sincere and cordial telegram, hoping that his subordinates will "become benevolence" for him.Not to mention those army commanders and commanders, sometimes a division commander can be called brother and brother for this purpose.For example, just a dozen days ago, when Yi County was besieged and was about to be lost, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Wang Shigao, commander of the temporary 20th division in Shouyi County on September 29: "My brother Shigao: The safety of Yi County affects the entire situation in the Northeast War. The division has fought bravely and fought hard for several days, which is very commendable. Director Fan has been ordered to provide reinforcements, and I hope to encourage the officers and soldiers to make persistent efforts and do their best." Two days later, Wang Shigao became a prisoner .Now, Chiang Kai-shek is calling "my brother" to Lu Junquan, a general of the Yunnan Army who is not directly related to Jiang Jun.Lu Junquan knew in his heart that the time for his "my brother" to follow in the footsteps of Wang Shigao, his "my brother" was very close.

When the Dongye troops outside the city gradually narrowed the encirclement of Jinzhou, shells had already been falling on the office building of Jinzhou Railway Bureau, where Fan Hanjie's headquarters was located. On October 12, he had to move the headquarters to the downstairs of the Central Bank, because there was a solid basement there, and it was very close to the Jinzhou Post Office, where the headquarters of the Sixth Corps was located, only more than 20 meters away.He later said in his memoirs: The People's Liberation Army's artillery fire concentrated the greatest firepower to shoot, hitting many places in the Jinzhou command post.Wherever I go, the artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army will follow wherever I go, as if I know my position completely.Jinzhou City was surrounded even tighter by the People's Liberation Army, and all strongholds and communication lines in the city were completely controlled by the People's Liberation Army's artillery fire.Under the cover of artillery fire, the siege troops of the People's Liberation Army kept building spider web-like traffic ditches to approach our defenders' positions day and night, and used explosives to explode the heavy machine gun fortress positions of the defenders' strongholds.

Also on October 12, Lin Biao issued a general offensive deployment to the troops, and decided to launch a general offensive at 10 am on the 14th.Lin Biao's deployment is based on the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 17th divisions as the northern assault group, with the artillery regiment of the artillery column, the heavy mortar regiment, the tank battalion of the chariot regiment, and the two battalions of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment. , under the unified command of the commander of the three columns, Han Xianchu, broke through from the north and northwest of the city; the seventh and ninth columns were used as the south assault group, accompanied by the second artillery regiment of the artillery column, and a company of the antiaircraft artillery regiment. Hua unified command and broke through from the south of the city; with the eighth column as the east assault group, accompanied by the artillery regiment of the first column, commanded by Duan Suquan, the commander of the eighth column, to break through from the east of the city.After the various troops broke into the city, they joined forces at the High Court to the Baiyun Office.The entire siege campaign should be resolved within three days.In addition, take the first column as the general reserve team, and place it near Gaoqiao, or attack Jinzhou, or assist Tashan.

The Northeast Field Army invested a total of 250,000 troops to conquer Jinzhou, which did not include the Fourth Column, Eleventh Column and other troops that blocked the enemy's reinforcements. In order to successfully solve the difficult problem of attacking the fortification, Lin Biao mobilized powerful firepower for the attack in addition to digging a traffic ditch to approach the enemy.A total of more than 300 heavy artillery from Dongye Paozong and each column were transferred up, 15 tanks from the Special Forces Chariot Regiment were also transferred from Beiman, and there were more than 600 small-caliber artillery from each unit.Equipped with such a powerful heavy weapon to attack a city that is not too big, this is the first time in the history of the People's Liberation Army.

Considering that this is the first time that our army has attacked a large city in the Northeast, before the general offensive, Commissar Luo Ronghuan and Director Tan Zheng of Dongye also specially called the political commissars and directors of the Political Department of each column for a meeting. In addition to political mobilization, Specifically explain to the troops the city policies and city entry disciplines that should be strictly observed after taking Jinzhou.Luo Ronghuan pointed to the fruit-bearing apple tree in the yard in late autumn as a metaphor: We must educate the troops to ensure that ordinary people do not eat a single apple, no matter what is hanging on the tree, harvested at home, or dropped on the ground, they must not eat it. This discipline must be firmly adhered to. Since then, "not eating an apple from the common people" has become a symbol of the Northeast Field Army's enforcement of discipline and improving military-civilian relations.