Chapter 63 3. Catch fish at the gate

When Ten Zong was fighting fiercely with the enemy with flesh and blood in Heishan and Dahushan, the Dongye army on Beining Road was marching eastward from Jinzhou at full speed.In order not to cause the roads to be too congested when the army is moving, the Dongye headquarters arranged the eastward army into two echelons: the first column, the third column, the eight column, the six column and the seventeenth division were the first echelon, and the second column, seven columns, nine columns, The artillery column is the second echelon.The first echelon set off on October 21, and the second echelon set off the next day.In order to keep the same echelon from being too crowded, the Dongye headquarters divided the eastward army into three routes to advance at the same time: all the way along the railway line of Beining Road to Dahu Mountain, all the way to Heishan along the parallel road, and all the way to Yixian and Qinghemen. East.In order to catch up with and surround the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, the two echelons walked 150 kilometers in four days in a rapid march with full armor.On the 23rd and 24th, the columns successively arrived at Beizhen and approached the Liao Yaoxiang Corps.However, where each column is going to attack, where to wipe out the enemy, how to divide and cooperate with the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, and what are the specific tasks of each column? give an order.The reason why Lin Biao did not give orders to the troops was because the specific positions and specific movements of the troops of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps were still unclear, and observation was still needed.

At this moment when the military situation is changing rapidly, Lin Biao has two key points in his mind: one is whether the enemy will return to Shenyang?One is whether it will rush to Yingkou?As long as any one of these openings is broken through, the task of completely annihilating the Liao Corps will be impossible to complete.Of the two possibilities, the most worrisome is the former.Lin Biao handed over the task of preventing the enemy from retreating to Shenyang to the Six Columns led by Huang Yongsheng and Lai Chuanzhu. At this time, there were only two divisions in the Sixth Column (the 17th Division, known as the "Tiger Attacking the Fortification", was transferred to Jinzhou by the Dongye Headquarters to fight fortifications and had not yet been returned to the organizational system). In the general battle of the Liao Corps, he served as the task of "holding the rear" arranged by the general arrangement of "stopping the front, holding the rear, and attacking the middle".That is, when the Ten Columns "stopped the vanguard" of the Liao Corps in the Montenegro area, they closely monitored the enemy behind the enemy's advance, strictly prevented the enemy from retreating, and resolutely cut off the enemy's retreat. At 7:00 p.m. on October 24, Huang Yongsheng received a telegram from the Dongye headquarters. In order to prevent Liao Yaoxiang from retreating from the southeast of Dahu Mountain to Tai'an when he was unable to advance in Montenegro, he ordered the Sixth Column to immediately advance southward at the speed of a forced march. Insert between Xinlitun and deploy defenses in the Guojia shack and Kaoshantun to resolutely block the enemy's telegrams retreating to the southeast.After Huang Yongsheng received the telegram, he immediately led his troops to set off.Arriving at the designated location at noon the next day, they received a telegram when they were repairing the fortifications at dusk, ordering them to rush to the Lijia shack to the east of Dahu Mountain before dawn the next day, cut off the enemy's retreat, and attack the enemy, forming a Our army's front and back attack against the enemy.Huang Yongsheng knew that the situation of the battle was changing rapidly, and there was no delay, so he ordered the troops to divide into two groups, left and right, and set off immediately, all of them were lightly packed, and marched as fast as possible.He also ordered the troops to ignore the situation no matter what they encountered on the way, and they must arrive at the designated place at the designated time.Because he left in a hurry, Huang Yongsheng had no time to call back the Dongye headquarters, so he took the troops on the road.This night, in order to hurry, Liuzong threw away clothes, quilts and grain bags, and basically ran forward. Some people in the team had cramps and some vomited blood, but the Sixteenth Division of Liuzong insisted on running at 4 o'clock in the morning on the 25th. Arriving at a village called Yao's shack, they fought with the enemy and the new army.And this place is exactly where it was supposed to arrive.After two hours of fighting, the 46th Regiment of the 16th Division solved a battalion of the New Third Army in this village.

Huang Yongsheng arrived at Yu's shack, the temporary command post of the 16th Division, at 9:00 a.m., just as the reconnaissance team captured a group of enemy troops, including a major general.Huang Yongsheng asked about the situation carefully, and couldn't help being secretly surprised. It turned out that the battalion they fought was the vanguard of the large corps of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps that was about to retreat to the southeast.That is to say, the six verticals' running and marching that night was not in vain, and finally completed the task assigned by the headquarters and intercepted the enemy.The Sixth Column is going to stop the powerful Liao Yaoxiang Corps here.However, the Sixth Column had only two divisions at this time, and they had to go into battle before they had time to repair the fortifications, and there were five enemy armies in front of them.Under such circumstances, Huang Yongsheng and Lai Chuanzhu could not have any hesitation, and immediately commanded the troops to fight, nailing them like a nail to the Lijiashan Railway Station, the only place the enemy should pass through to escape to the southeast, blocking the enemy.The sixteenth division was tasked with blocking the enemy from the front, and Li Zuopeng, the deputy commander of the column, served as the front-line commander.The Eighteenth Division made an assault in the northeast direction, because the enemy was trying to escape from the northeast direction after being blocked in the Lijia shack.

During the two nights and one day, Liu Zong marched 125 kilometers forcibly, and had no time to bury pots and cook food, nor did he have time to set up radio stations, so he was unable to report to Dongye headquarters.Lin Biao couldn't get any news from Liu Zong. He didn't know whether Liu Zong had intercepted the enemy on the east side of Dahu Mountain, or whether the enemy had escaped from the east.Chief of Staff Liu Yalou even said when he was in a hurry, "If the enemy escapes, Huang Yongsheng must be shot"!It was not until 6 pm on the 26th that the telegram from Liuzong was sent to Dongye headquarters, and Lin Biao knew that Liuzong had intercepted Liao Yaoxiang and was in a bloody battle.Lin Biao immediately replied to the Six Columns: "At 18:00 on the 26th, I received the telegram. I hope you will hold on tenaciously, counterattack bravely, maintain your position, and annihilate the enemy. All our columns can join the battle one after another."

After Liao Yaoxiang failed to attack Heishan, he knew that it was impossible to advance to Jinzhou, and at this time the Eastern Army was pressing towards him from the west.So his plan is to return the troops to the Xinmin area first, stick to the east bank of the Liao River, and then organize the troops to retreat from Yingkou or Shenyang, because he still doesn't know which way will work.When he informed Wei Lihuang of this plan, Wei Lihuang agreed to go to Yingkou first, and return to Shenyang as a last resort.Therefore, the first task of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps at this time is to open up the passage to Shenyang or to Yingkou.

Lijia shack is the only way from Heishan to Shenyang.The 14th Division of the New Third Army, the pioneer of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, encountered the resolute resistance of our Sixth Column here and was unable to pass.Long Tianwu, the commander of the New Army, had no choice but to join the New First Army to make a detour to the northwest to break through the Zhai's shack.This news was known to my Sixth Zong, and the 54th Regiment of the 18th Division was immediately dispatched to run forward, occupy the position, and block the enemy. The enemy invested mainly in the New Third Army, New First Army and New Sixth Army. In order to escape for their lives, they rushed in battalions and regiments. Our army had no fortifications, so they fought in bomb craters, or piled up corpses as bunkers. .When you run out of ammunition, find ammunition from the enemy's corpse. On the 26th, the Sixth Column fought in these two positions. Nine companies of the Sixteenth Division fought with less than 10 people left. Glorious sacrifice, still sticking to the position.Our army repelled 14 consecutive enemy attacks in the Lijia shack all day and night. It was not until 4 o'clock in the morning on the 27th that the fifth column and the tenth column came up to attack. The plan to take the road and escape collapsed.

The successful blockade completed by the Six Columns at a very high price (in this battle, the Six Columns killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 10,000 people) created good conditions for our army to completely wipe out the Liao Yaoxiang Corps. Great work, was highly praised by Dongye headquarters.In particular, the Sixteenth Division was rewarded by an order from the East Field Headquarters.They "demonstrated supreme bravery," the order said. While the Sixth Column successfully blocked the enemy's attempt to flee eastward, the enemy's escape route to Yingkou was also cut off by our army.It was the Second Independent Division of the Northeast Field Army that cut off this retreat.

The Second Independent Division had accepted orders from the East Field Headquarters before the start of the war, under the command of Su Jing, the chief of staff of the East Field Headquarters sent by Lin Biao (considering that the Second Independent Division did not have heavy artillery, Lin Biao also asked Su Jing to bring a heavy artillery battalion ) starting from Panshan, heading south to Yingkou, and quickly deployed defenses in Yingkou to prevent the enemy from escaping from Yingkou by sea. On October 22, Lin Biao believed that Liao Yaoxiang had not retreated to Yingkou at this time, and ordered them to go north from Yingkou, and they were still on standby in the Panshan area to block the enemy who might flee south from Dahushan.The Second Independent Division waited in Panshan from the 23rd to the 25th, and has not yet received a new order from Dongye Headquarters.After discussing with Commander Zuo Ye, Su Jing decided to take the initiative to move north to meet the enemy.In hindsight, their initiative was entirely correct.Because they had just walked for most of the day, that is, when they arrived in Tai'an at 10 pm on the 25th, they encountered a very tired enemy army retreating southward on the road.When I caught the prisoners and asked them, I knew it was the vanguard regiment of the 105th Division of the 49th Army of the enemy, and behind them was the enemy's large army retreating to Yingkou.Zuo Ye immediately deployed his troops and fought fiercely. The enemy troops who had no intention of fighting scattered and fled immediately.Zuo Ye had no intention of catching deserters, and quickly led his troops to attack the enemy's rear, completely defeating the enemy's 105th Division.Zheng Tingji, the commander of the enemy's 49th Army, was originally arranged by Liao Yaoxiang to lead the 49th Army in front of the whole corps to open the way, but Zheng Tingji was timid and afraid of death, and did not dare to act with the army. Instead, the New Sixth Army followed the 49th Army. The 22nd Division moved behind, so he didn't even know that one of his divisions was defeated by our army.He didn't know that one of his divisions was gone until my Second Independent Division broke up the 22nd Division in a village called Sanjiazi, but at this time it was too late for him to organize a counterattack, because the main force of our army, the Eighth Column, also Came here on orders.Ba Zong was ordered to march towards Tai'an on the 24th. On the way, he encountered the 49th enemy army in a village called Liujianfang, and resolutely stopped the enemy army there, preventing the enemy from advancing any further.Zheng Tingji did not dare to report the real situation to Liao Yaoxiang, but reported to Wei Lihuang in Shenyang, saying that the road to Yingkou had been blocked.Instead of ordering Zheng Tingji to continue to open the way, Wei Lihuang ordered Zheng to withdraw to Shenyang.As a result, the 49th Army and the 22nd Division of the New Sixth Army and the 14th Division of the New Third Army stopped advancing and retreated after finding their way.In this way, under the resolute resistance of our Second Independent Division, the road for the Liao Yaoxiang Corps to go south to Yingkou was completely cut off.

When the road to Shenyang in the east and the road to Yingkou in the south are cut off by our army, it is as if the two gates of a pond have been closed, and the fish in the pond can only swim or swim in the pond. Jump, can't get out anymore, the fisherman by the pond is about to cast a net to catch fish.At this time, the Liao Yaoxiang Corps was completely surrounded by our army in an area of ​​about 120 square kilometers to the east of Heishan and Dahushan, to the south of Wuliangdian, to the north of the Weijia shack, and to the west of the Lijia shack.Moreover, our main force has all arrived around the Liao Corps and is on standby.At that time, the layout of our army was: one vertical, two verticals, three verticals, ten verticals, and artillery verticals were on the front of Montenegro, attacking from west to east; seven verticals, eight verticals, and nine verticals were south of Dahu Mountain, attacking from south to north The five and six verticals are on the Beining line, attacking from east to west; in the north, there are twelve verticals and a dozen independent divisions commanded by Xiao Jinguang who went south from Changchun, waiting for Liao Yaoxiang.However, analyzing from all aspects, it is impossible for Liao Yaoxiang to go north, because there is no way out for him in the north.