Chapter 58 5. The dream of breaking out is no longer dreamed of

In the "dead city" of Changchun, trapped are 100,000 young soldiers.Although they know that their future is bleak, they have to make the last effort for the possible way out.Among them, some still hoped that the Jiang army might come to rescue, some planned to break through desperately, some obeyed the fate and followed the crowd, and some began to consider breaking up with the Jiang family dynasty and turned to the dark. The 100,000 army is under the military pressure and political offensive that I have besieged for several months, and there will inevitably be contradictions and divisions.The final result of the development of this situation was that Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 60th Army, led the entire army to revolt.

Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang originally planned to send troops to rescue the 100,000 defenders in Changchun.After the launch of the Beining line, even the most important Jinzhou could not be guaranteed, and Changchun could not be taken into account at all. Although on the surface, they still kept sending calls and letters to the senior generals in Changchun, saying that "the army is about to go to the rescue" and so on. But in fact, they were unable to break out of the siege at all, so they had to order the Changchun defenders to take risks and break out of the siege many times to find their own way of life.It's not that Chiang Kai-shek didn't know that it was impossible to break out of the siege, but once the breakout failed, the responsibility could be attributed to the breakout party's improper command and ineffective combat, and the parties involved should bear the crime.Of course Zheng Dongguo understood this in his heart.But in order to escape, he had no other way but to break through, so he planned to break through with all his might. At the beginning of October, he knew that our main force in North Manchuria had gone south to fight on the Beining line, so he ordered the New Seventh Army to make a tentative attack. The target was Dafangshen Airport, and he wanted to recapture the airport first and restore external air traffic.

On October 4, Zheng Dongguo issued an order to Li Hong, the commander of the New Seventh Army, to lead the 38th Division, the strongest of the New Seventh Army, to attack Dafangshen Airport, and at the same time ordered Zeng Zesheng, the commander of the Sixtieth Army, to cooperate.Zeng Zesheng knew in his heart that the combat power of the 60th Army at that time was no longer capable of this kind of offensive combat mission, because the rations of the 60th Army were far inferior to those of the New 7th Army, and some sergeants had already suffered from edema.Zeng Zesheng said to Zheng Dongguo: "At present, the morale of the troops is low, and they can't break out at all. Going out will only increase casualties."

On October 6, Li Hong led the 38th Division out of the city to attack northwest.Since this was the first attack by the enemy in several months, our siege troops had not received any information in advance and were not well prepared.In addition, as soon as the enemy army came out, there was one division of the 38th Division, and there was also the cooperation of the 61st Division of the New Seventh Army and the 182nd Division of the Sixtieth Army. Therefore, when the two sides first fought, the enemy broke through the independent Seventh Division that I besieged. line of defense.After I received the report from the East Field Headquarters, I ordered Commander Xiao Jinguang of the front-line siege command post to "control the airport with artillery fire and prevent airdrops from enemy planes. If the infantry can occupy it, it will be occupied and the runway will be destroyed."The Du 7th Division and Du 10th Division of our siege troops not only resolutely blocked the enemy's attack, but also blew up a big hole in the airport runway.This trick is very effective, the airport is no longer usable, so why bother trying to occupy the airport!Both Li Hong and Zeng Zesheng advocated withdrawing the troops, and Zeng Zesheng approached Zheng Dongguo and told Zheng Dongguo that the officers and soldiers had no food, so how could they rush forward when they were hungry.Zheng Dongguo had no choice but to order all the attacking troops to retreat to the city on the 8th.This time the breakout was over.

In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through again, at the time when the main force of our siege, the 12th and 6th Columns, had been transferred to Kaiyuan and Tongjiangkou to deploy defenses on the Beining Line, the Dongye Headquarters mobilized on the basis of the original 6 independent divisions. They mobilized 5 independent divisions and 19 independent regiments, and carried out a deep second-line deployment to encircle Changchun, ensuring that the enemy forces in Changchun City cannot have any hope of breaking through. However, after the first attempt to break through failed, Chiang Kai-shek ordered twice more, and wrote a personal letter to each of Zheng Dongguo, Li Hong, and Zeng Zesheng, ordering all Changchun defenders to go southeast through the area east of Siping Break out of the siege, and said, "If you don't follow the order to break out of the siege, you will be engaged in military law."

On October 16, Zheng Dongguo received Chiang Kai-shek's third breakout order and a personal letter, which said: Now all the bandit columns are attracted by me to the west of Liaoning.Your ministry should act as ordered.There is a shortage of opportunity and fuel, and even if the defenders are all starved to death, there will be no chance to turn in.If you delay any longer, the opportunity will be missed, and the overall situation will be at a disadvantage. Your deputy commander-in-chief, army commander, etc. will be charged with disobeying orders and should be punished by the most severe military law.

After receiving such an order from Chiang Kai-shek, Zheng Dongguo had to hold a meeting to study it immediately. On the afternoon of the 16th, Zheng Dongguo notified the commanders and chiefs of staff of the two armies to come to a meeting. Zeng Zesheng said that he would not be able to attend the meeting, and Li Hong said he was sick and asked for leave.At the meeting, Zheng Dongguo conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's order in the original text and announced that he could only follow the order to break through.Zheng Dongguo announced at the meeting that he decided to break out at dawn on the 17th.

Zheng Dongguo never thought that on the night of the 16th, he got the news that the 60th Army had decided to revolt.When he called Zeng Zesheng, the phone had already been cut off.Zheng Dongguo had no choice but to issue an order to the New Seventh Army to "stop the breakout operation and withdraw the original defense". On the morning of the 17th, Zeng Zesheng informed Zheng Dongguo of the reasons for the Sixty Army's uprising and the decision to uprising.Zheng Dongguo immediately reported Wei Lihuang. In Changchun City, no one mentioned the word "breakthrough".If there were still people dreaming of breaking out of the siege, no one will even dream of breaking out of the encirclement from now on.