Chapter 62 2. Montenegro blocking battle

On the night of October 20th, Wei Lihuang and Du Yuming issued an order for Liao Yaoxiang to attack Heishan, with the purpose of advancing to Jinzhou through the passage in the Heishan area.If you can't go to Jinzhou, you can go to Yingkou. On the 21st, Liao Yaoxiang ordered the troops with the 71st Army as the main force to attack Montenegro.The 71st Army was reorganized from Chiang Kai-shek's guard force and belonged to the direct line of the Jiang army, but it was not Liao Yaoxiang's basic army, so Liao Yaoxiang let him take the lead.Fangshan Town, where the 71st Army was stationed at the time, was only 30 kilometers away from Montenegro. On the 23rd, another fierce battle in the Liaoshen Campaign, that is, the Black Mountain Blocking Battle, which was as famous as the Tashan Blocking Battle, started.

Heishan and its adjacent Dahushan (or Dahushan, a little south of Heishan) area are located in the south of Xinlitun. It is the passage to Yingkou in the south, Jinzhou in the west, and Shenyang in the east. the only corridor.To the north is a mountain range with a height of more than 1,000 meters, to the south is a swamp and water network area that stretches for more than 90 kilometers, and there is only a narrow hilly area with a width of 25 kilometers in the middle, forming a corridor.The two railways of Beining and Dazheng pass through here, and the roads also intersect here. Heishan and Dahushan are the gates of this corridor, and they have become a battleground for military strategists entering and leaving western Liaoning.The tenth column of our Northeast Field Army is here preparing to block the attack of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps to Yingkou (Jinzhou).

After the Battle of Jinzhou ended, the participating troops of the Northeast Field Army were indeed resting.According to the deployment of the central government, it is to attack Jinxi and Huludao first after preparing for a rest, and first eliminate the eastward army of the five divisions of Hou Jingru that Chiang Kai-shek used to aid Jinzhou, and then deal with the five armies of Liao Yaoxiangda that Chiang Kai-shek used to aid Jinzhou. Westward Corps.However, after the uprising of the 60th Army in Changchun, the situation has changed. Changchun will definitely be conquered by our army immediately. Let's go, and the largest Jiang army group in Northeast China at that time was Liao Yaoxiang's Westward Corps. On October 18, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan:

What we are most worried about is that the Shen enemy will retreat from Yingkou and send reinforcements to Central China. It is proposed that after the resolution of Changchun in the day, except for a few independent divisions to monitor Zheng Dongguo and the New Seventh Army, the columns and several independent divisions besieging Changchun should all move south quickly, between Shenyang and Yingkou.The time should be in early November, if it is too late, there is no guarantee.It is also necessary to use a column to control Yingkou, build a strong position, and block the connection between the sea and the land, so that Jiang and Wei dare not leave Yingkou.Even if they go to Yingkou, I can fight first, waiting for the main force to arrive at Jujian.

The above-mentioned telegram is very clear that Mao Zedong originally planned to cut off the retreat of Jiang's army in early November. However, due to the rapid progress of the battle in Changchun, several leaders of our Northeast Bureau in Harbin, Gao Gang, Chen Yun, Wu Xiuquan, etc., had a more direct experience of the situation in the Northeast. They studied the situation in the Northeast at a meeting held on October 17. After the situation, it is believed that the situation in the Northeast is changing rapidly, and our army must keep up with this change as quickly as possible, and push the work deployment to a new stage of finally destroying the enemy.The leaders of the Northeast Bureau also saw that Jiang Jun was likely to retreat from Yingkou, so when the New Seventh Army of the Kuomintang in Changchun put down their weapons on October 18, they telegraphed Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan and Liu Yalou who were on the front line, and reported to the Central Committee. At the same time, it was arranged that the Twelve Columns and the three independent divisions, which were originally in charge of encircling Changchun, boarded the train at Siping, first went to Qingyuan (the train could not pass through Shenyang at that time, so they had to detour from the east of Shenyang), and then marched straight in after getting off the train. Anshan and Haicheng to cut off the enemy's retreat to Yingkou.Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan fully agreed with Harbin's judgment and approach, and also believed that it was necessary to act immediately to block and surround the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, otherwise the enemy might run away. On October 19, they sent three consecutive telegrams to the central government, reporting the situation of the war and their belief that the original plan to fight Jinxi should be abandoned, and instead turn around and fight Liao Yaoxiang.In their third telegram they said:

If the enemy in Shenyang continues to advance towards Jinzhou, our army will wait for the enemy to advance one step before attacking the enemy; but if there are certain signs that the enemy will no longer advance, or if there are signs that the enemy will retreat to Shenyang and turn to Yingkou, our army will immediately retreat. Quickly encircle the two enemy forces at Zhangwu and Xinlitun, and use various methods of destruction to wipe out all the Xinyi, Xinsan, Xinsix, Seventy-one, and Forty-nine armies, preventing them from retreating to Xinmin, Shenyang, and Yingkou.At present, the enemy may withdraw to Shenyang at any time, so our army must adopt a policy of rapid action.

I hope the Military Commission will call back for instructions. On the night of October 19th, Mao Zedong stayed up all night and sent four telegrams to Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan, saying that he "completely agrees with your suggestions" and also agreed with the suggestions of Gao Gang, Chen Yun, Wu Xiuquan and others, and ordered Dongye to "use 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, nine columns and 27 divisions in total, divide and encircle the 12 divisions of the five corps of the Liao Corps", "with the aim of completely annihilating the Liao Corps" . Such a major battle plan was decided so simply and neatly. It only took three days from the proposal to the central decision-making.

At 4 o'clock in the morning on October 20, after the East Field headquarters received the fourth telegram from the Central Committee, it immediately entered into intense preparations for another major war.On this day, the East Field Headquarters issued a political mobilization order calling on the entire army to take active actions to fight the enemy decisively and wipe out the Kuomintang troops in the Northeast at the moment of major changes in the Northeast War situation.Also on this day, the headquarters also completed the specific deployment to encircle and wipe out the Liao Yaoxiang Corps.At 10 o'clock in the morning, Lin Biao issued a series of combat orders to the troops: the tenth column and the third division of the first column and the Inner Mongolian cavalry division should immediately go to Heishan and Dahushan to deploy defenses, resolutely block the enemy's southward advance, smash the The enemy's attempt to attack Jinzhou or flee south to Yingkou.The Sixth Column (missing the Seventeenth Division) and the Fifth Column advanced to the north of Heishan, cutting off the enemy's retreat back to Shenyang.It turned out that the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 6th, 17th Divisions, and Paozong in the Jinzhou area all sent their troops northward and eastward as secretly as possible, and went to the western part of Liaoning to stand by for the whole army. Annihilate Liao Yaoxiang Corps.The Twelve Columns and the 11 independent divisions of the First Corps that had gone south from Siping did not go to the west of Liaoning, but contained the enemies in Shenyang in the Shenyang area (at this time, Shenyang still had the Zhou Fucheng Corps).The Second Independent Division already in South Manchuria went to Yingkou to deploy defenses to prevent the enemy from escaping from Yingkou.The 4th and 11th Columns already in the Jinxi area are still under the command of the 2nd Corps to block the Huludao Hou Jingru Corps from going north. Among them, several divisions will be sent to the southwest to feign battles every day. The appearance of entering the pass is used to confuse the enemy.

The above-mentioned deployment was also reported to the central government at 10 o'clock on the 20th. In the early morning of the 21st, the Central Committee replied: "I fully agree with your encirclement and annihilation of the Liao Corps and other deployments at 10 o'clock on the 20th, and I have no additional opinions." A large-scale annihilation battle has been finalized and is about to start.In terms of its scale, this war is unprecedented in the history of our army's war. Our army has concentrated 29 divisions with a total of 450,000 people, and it is necessary to eat about 100,000 people from 12 divisions of 5 enemy armies.The most important battlefield of the Great War was the Montenegro area, where our army had to intercept Liao Yaoxiang's corps and prevent them from fleeing south before they could be surrounded and wiped out. Otherwise, the Liao corps would flee by sea before our army's encirclement formed.

Lin Biao chose to put the heavy burden of the Black Mountain blockade on the Ten Columns commanded by Liang Xingchu and Zhou Chiping. The Ten Columns was a new column formed on September 11, 1947, but its main division, the 28th Division, was the famous 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army brought to the Northeast by Liu Zhuanlian and Yan Fusheng when the 100,000 troops entered the Northeast. The 359th Brigade of the Division and the old team of the 29th Division were also troops from the former Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region and the Taihang Military Region from Guannei. The 30th Division was the former Dongman Independent Division of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army. Task.The combat effectiveness of these troops is not weak.It's just that after forming a new column, the whole column has not fought a big battle together.Before the Battle of Jinzhou, Lin Biao placed the Ten Columns, the Five Columns, and the Six Columns in the Zhangwu and Xinlitun areas to "accompany" the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, preparing to meet its westward invasion.However, the Liao Yaoxiang Corps has not been able to attack, and they have no chance to fight.Now that the Liao Yaoxiang Corps has finally come out, and it is rushing over aggressively, the ten vertical soldiers can finally use their energy in their hearts to fight against the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, especially the New First Army and the New Sixth Army. The main force among the "five main forces" has competed.

In the entire history of the War of Liberation, this was the first and last time that our army used one column to deal with two Kuomintang ace armies at the same time. At noon on October 21, Ten Columns received an order from Dongye Headquarters: After the liberation of Jinzhou and Changchun, the enemy Liao Yaoxiang Group still attempted to march westward to join the enemy in Jinxi, reoccupy Jinzhou or escape into the pass.Our ten columns should enter the line of Heishan and Dahushan, choose positions, build fortifications, defend tenaciously, stop the enemy, and gather and annihilate the enemy after the main force arrives. After the Ten Columns Party Committee received the telegram, it was very clear in their hearts that the task was quite arduous, because we had to use one column and one division of our army to fight against the enemy's powerful corps, which included Jiang's trump card New First Army and New Sixth Army There are 6 armies plus one division, not to mention that the enemy is a corps with mechanized equipment from the United States, and its equipment is much stronger than our army.In addition, although the enemy's morale has been shaken and their morale is low, they are now fleeing and fleeing. If they are in a hurry, they will jump over the wall. The degree of madness cannot be underestimated.Therefore, the ten vertical party committee immediately convened the standing committee, conducted careful research and deployment, and put forward the slogan of "defend Montenegro, fight the enemy, and live and die with the position" to the entire team.And decided to keep a strong reserve team while defending the whole line, and launch a counterattack at any time.The Montenegrin blockade must only be fought well, not badly, and it must be done with people on the ground.That night, the entire column marched 30 kilometers in a hurry to reach their designated positions and rush to repair the fortifications.Centering on the frontal defense positions from Dabaitaizi in the west to Gaojiatun in the east, with the strong support of local villagers, trenches, machine gun bunkers, command posts, observation posts, and first aid stations were built.Due to the relatively flat terrain in this area, the only commanding height, Highland 101, is also a stone mountain that cannot be dug fortifications, which brings many difficulties to the construction of the position.However, the army and the people worked together to overcome all difficulties, and in more than 20 hours, they used wooden boards, steel rails and piled up soil to complete the fortifications. Also on October 21, Liao Yaoxiang issued an order to attack Montenegro. On the 22nd, the two divisions of the 71st Army made a detour from the side, and the third brigade of the 207th Division attacked the front with the cooperation of the heavy artillery regiment directly under the Corps, and at the same time marched towards our army's position. In the early morning of the 23rd, the enemy exchanged fire with the 7th company of the 82nd Regiment of the outpost company of our 28th Division in Jianshanzi.Although the enemy launched a fierce attack, it was tentative and did not dare to advance.My seventh company blocked the enemy with all the troops of the company, and beat the enemy back with stones after the bullets were exhausted.Although there were many casualties, it won an extremely precious day for the large troops in the rear position to make various preparations.Therefore, judging from the above battle schedule, our army's schedule is quite urgent.It is on this agenda that we can know how important the five-day debate between Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinates was to our army. When the Black Mountain blockade started on the 23rd, Liang Xingchu immediately reported to the East Field Headquarters.According to the situation at that time, Dongye Headquarters called back and issued a more specific task to Ten Zong: "Stick for three days." The leading cadres of the ten verticals knew very well that these three days would be arranged every minute and every second. On the 24th, the enemy launched a full-scale attack on our position with the strength of four divisions, supported by five artillery regiments and several aircraft.The earth-shattering Montenegro blocking battle officially kicked off.The cunning enemy did not place the main force on the front, but on the side of Gaojiatun, where our defense force is relatively weak and the fortifications are relatively poor.The troops Liao Yaoxiang used to attack Gaojiatun were transferred from Shenyang not long ago. Among the most reactionary "Party troops" in the entire Kuomintang army, the 207th Division of the Youth Army and the 22nd Division of the New Sixth Army, the trump card army of the Kuomintang division.The troops Liang Xingchu used to defend Gaojiatun were the main force of the Ten Columns and the 28th Division formed on the basis of the famous 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army.He Qingji, the commander of the 28th Division, led the officers and soldiers of the division to defend three commanding heights: Stone Mountain, 92 Highland, and 101 Highland.The third brigade of the 207th Division of the enemy used two or three battalions for each charge. With the support of heavy artillery, they captured Stone Mountain and Jiuer Highland at 3 pm. He can try his best to defend the 101 Heights.When the fortifications were completely destroyed by the enemy's artillery fire, the soldiers only relied on the bomb craters on the position as a little cover, fighting the enemy with grenades and bayonets one by one. The fighters of the two companies on the high ground fought until there were only 5 people left without a single bullet. The high ground finally fell, and Gaojiatun all fell into the enemy's hands at 4:20 p.m.At this extremely urgent moment, Division Commander He Qingji concentrated 12 mountain cannons to bombard the 101 Highland violently, and then ordered the deputy head of the 84th Regiment, Lan Qin, who had almost wiped out the entire regiment, to command the 82nd Regiment. The two battalions counterattacked Gaojiatun.With the belief that they must fight to the death to defend Montenegro, the soldiers rushed to the three commanding heights mentioned above while the enemy was not gaining a firm foothold. snatched it back. The first day of fighting ended with the enemy making no progress.Because in the position in the northwest of Montenegro, our 29th Division blocked the attack of the 91st Division of the 71st Army of the enemy; .Because the enemy's 91st Division fought too badly, Liao Yaoxiang ordered the commander of the division, Dai Hairong, to be executed on the spot.It was only because Dai took the opportunity to escape in the chaos before his execution that he was not shot that day. That night, the ten vertical cadres held a summary meeting of the day's battle.Everyone agreed that tomorrow's battle will be more intense, and the focus of the enemy's attack will still be Gaojiatun.Due to the strong artillery fire of the enemy, our army's fortifications have basically been destroyed. Tomorrow's battle cannot rely too much on positional fortifications.In addition, according to intelligence, Liao Yaoxiang has transferred the 169th Division of the New Sixth Army, one of the five trump cards of the Kuomintang Army, to the front line. It is very likely that the 169th Division will replace today's 207th Division of the Youth Army tomorrow.Based on the above situation, Liang Xingchu decided that Gaojiatun would still be defended by the 28th Division, but the 84th Regiment would be withdrawn and the 82nd Regiment would be on top.The troops can't rest tonight, and have to rush to repair the fortifications overnight.In tomorrow's battle, only a small number of forces will defend the high ground, while the majority of the force will hide in the trenches behind the high ground, and launch a counter-charge against the charging enemy whenever there is an opportunity.At the meeting, the Dongye headquarters also conveyed the instructions after listening to the report on the battle situation of the Ten Columns that day: "I hope you will carry forward your tenacious spirit and stick to your positions. As long as you hold on to Black Mountain and Dahu Mountain, the retreating enemies will be wiped out. The army is marching north." When the meeting was about to adjourn, Liang Xingchu said to the cadres: "Tomorrow is a decisive day. If we say that we were hit by a thousand-pound bomb today, tomorrow we will definitely be hit by a ten-thousand-pound bomb. But no matter how much the pressure is, as long as the main force does not arrive, we will definitely hold on." The soldiers of the ten verticals At this time, the cotton-padded clothes had not been changed, and the night in the northeast in late October was already quite cold. On this night, the commanders at all levels of the column and the cadres of the organs took off the cotton-padded clothes they were wearing, and took off the fleece The blankets were taken down and all were delivered to the soldiers in the front trenches. On October 25, Liao Yaoxiang devoted all his energy to attacking Gaojiatun with the 169th Division of the New Sixth Army as the vanguard on the frontal battlefield.The 169th Division not only had the artillery support of the New Sixth Army, but also the artillery support of the New First Army. At dawn, the enemy's artillery bombarded them until 8 o'clock.The huge roar deafened the ears of some soldiers of our army and caused bleeding.The artillery bombardment did not stop, and 10 more planes flew in to carry out low-altitude bombing in turn.Since the enemy's firepower and military strength are much higher than our army, the enemy adopted the method of herding sheep and charging with a regiment of troops, even when our army and the enemy army fought hand-to-hand with each other on the position. Carry out intensive bombardment, let their infantry die with our army as cannon fodder, so as to weaken the vitality of our army.In this case, our army suffered heavy casualties.On the 92nd Highland, all the 5th company of my 82nd regiment died, and none survived, and the position was also captured.On the 101 Heights, our army repelled more than 20 enemy attacks in a row at a high cost. 101 Heights is still the commanding heights for both sides to compete for.Our army can clearly see and hear such a scandal on the high ground: Li Tao, the commander of the New Sixth Army, saw that he could not attack for a long time, so he organized a death squad on the ground. Death Squad, participants, each rewarded with 100,000 yuan! The first one to rush up will add double!" "An extra 50,000 per person!" "An extra 100,000 yuan per person!" In this way, they finally made up a team. The death squad of more than 300 people rushed to the high ground again after a burst of shelling.When the enemy rushed to the front of the position, after a burst of grenades, they also shouted: "The poor brothers captured by the Kuomintang, you have been deceived! You are here to die, leaving your wives and children behind!" The power of the grenades Coupled with the effect of this kind of shouting, no matter how much money the enemy's war supervisor gave in the back, the death squad still became a death squad and retreated.Under such circumstances, the New Sixth Army came to the last resort, forming a "pioneer loyal to the party and country" with Kuomintang party members and officers above the lieutenant rank in the army to repeatedly charge.Because the enemy's fire support was too strong, they finally rushed to the high ground.As a result, more than 100 soldiers of our army, led by Battalion Commander Hou Changlu, started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, fighting with bayonets and smashing stones. The vanguard loyal to the party and country finally fought with their hands, their legs became weak, and they were suppressed by our army again.However, our army has fewer and fewer fighters on the high ground, and one battalion is almost wiped out. The enemy's artillery fire has cut off the position on the high ground by several feet (after two days of repeated shelling, the height of the 101 high ground has been reduced. Two meters, it became a ninety-nine highland), our army's guards became more and more difficult, and cadres and soldiers were either killed or injured.At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy besieged the highland on three sides, and the highland was occupied by the enemy again. As soon as the "Jiujiu Highland" was lost, Gaojiatun was occupied by the enemy for the second time.If the Gaojiatun could not defend, the other positions of the Ten Columns would also be difficult to defend.Liang Xingchu and Zhou Chiping decided to take Gaojiatun back at dusk no matter what after studying with the 28th Division Commander He and other leading cadres.However, the 28th Division no longer has a reserve team.Therefore, Liang Xingchu transferred a battalion from the 89th Regiment, and the 28th Division also concentrated all the forces that could be concentrated.The mountain artillery battalion of the column boldly launched indirect fire without ever firing indirect fire across mountains.The enemy took Gaojiatun with great difficulty, and they were resting after the capture. They did not expect our army to launch a counterattack immediately.At 6 pm, our army suddenly launched a counterattack in four directions. After 50 minutes of fierce fighting, several strongholds in Gaojiatun returned to the hands of Shizong.This counterattack went relatively smoothly. After our army succeeded, Liao Yaoxiang did not invest new troops to compete with the Ten Columns again.The officers and soldiers of the ten columns did not know at this time that new changes were taking place in the Northeast War situation, and the task of "defending for three days" on their shoulders had been successfully completed. After a night of silence, at 3 a.m. the next day, Ten Columns received an urgent telegram from the headquarters of Dongye: "The main force of the eastward advance has arrived, and the enemy has retreated to the east. Hope to cooperate with the main force and launch a pursuit from the front of Montenegro." That is to say , Lin Biao's original calculation was very accurate. The Black Mountain blockade only needed three days, and as long as it lasted for three days, the goal would be achieved.This is because Liao Yaoxiang used his main force to storm the Montenegro battlefield for three days, but he didn't make any progress. He had no new way, and he lost the confidence to fight again, and Dongye's main force had already arrived from Jinzhou quickly. near him.In this case, if he fights Montenegro again, he may be surrounded by Dongye.In order to survive, he decided to abandon his plan to go west to Jinzhou, and no longer took the road to Yingkou through Heishan, but decided to flee to Tai'an and Dawa in the southeast, and tried to escape by sea from Yingkou.Therefore, at dusk on the 25th, Liao Yaoxiang made up his mind not to attack Montenegro, but deployed troops to reverse direction, the tail of the team became the leader, and marched southeast.Ten Zong did not dare to relax in this situation. In order to catch the enemy as quickly as possible, it launched a pursuit to the enemy only one hour later, that is, at 4 o'clock in the morning. Although the Black Mountain blocking battle lasted only three days, it was a battle of decisive significance in the entire Liaoshen Campaign, because it blocked the way for the Liao Yaoxiang Corps to flee south, and won an extremely valuable three sky.The Black Mountain blockade, like the Tashan blockade, was the most difficult and cruel battle in the entire Liaoshen Campaign.Among them, the three-day blocking battle of the 28th Division in Gaojiatun was another particularly brutal battle.Ten Columns is a newly formed force, the opponent is the elite of the Kuomintang army, and the ratio of the enemy and our forces is 5:1.The eighty-two and eighty-four regiments guarding Gaojiatun repelled five enemy divisions, and the eighty-three and eighty-fifth regiments guarding Dabaitai also repelled two divisions of the 71st Army. .In the Montenegro position, our army killed and injured a total of 8,015 enemies (the tenth column captured 6,299 alive in the Montenegro area during the pursuit), and our tenth column also paid the price of 4,100 casualties (in the battle, 400 people were also sacrificed. A number of migrant workers fully supported).The Heishan blocking battle played a prestige and achieved results, which not only made Dongye Shizong famous all over the world, but also made Heishan, a formerly unknown county, a well-known and well-known battlefield.