Chapter 12 Chapter 11 Southwest Chase and Annihilation

He Long wanted to catch him all he could do, and deployed a strategy of slowing down the south of Hu Zong on the northern line.Slow first and then tight, the Eighteenth Corps entered Sichuan and pursued it thousands of miles away.Hu Zongnan cried and scolded Chiang Kai-shek.Miraculously, four squads of the 180th Division of the Eighteenth Corps defeated one enemy army.The 552nd Regiment of the 60th Army surrendered to the 38th Army, the trump card of the Kuomintang.Deng Xiaoping ordered: Before He Long and the 18th Corps entered Chengdu, no soldier or soldier from the second field could enter first.

On November 10, 1949, the ancient city of Xi'an in late autumn was already a bit cold.This is the first autumn after the founding of New China. In He Long's office, the phone rang suddenly, and He Long picked up the receiver.The call was from Zhou Shidi, Commander of the Eighteenth Corps, from the front line. Zhou Shidi: "Boss He, Liu Deng's army is fighting very lively on the front line. We received a report from the frontline troops that the enemy has already begun to retreat." He Long took off the pipe from his mouth and said with a smile: "Why, are you in a hurry? The policy Chairman Mao gave us is to slow down first and then quickly. Our task now is: how to make the enemy escape slower. If you rush to catch up, Hu Zongnan Wouldn't it be faster to retreat to the south? Old Zhou, hold on to your strength first, and you'll be the one to run by then!"

This time to attack Hu Zongnan, the Military Commission specially dispatched the Eighteenth Corps (attached to the Seventh Army of the First Field and other departments) to undertake the final pursuit mission, under the unified command of He Long.But what made the front-line generals anxious was that the time for pursuit could not be early. They had to wait until Liu and Deng's army captured Chongqing on the southern line and blocked the enemy's escape route to the Vietnam-Myanmar border.This is a pain for the Eighteenth Corps. They attacked Qinling several times, and it was clearly within their reach, but they could only attack but not take it.Hu Zongnan boasted proudly about this: He Long's 18th Corps repeatedly attacked the Qinling Mountains and suffered setbacks, and our defenses were impenetrable.

The Eighteenth Corps was fully capable of breaking through the northern front and fighting in Chengdu.At that time, the Corps had jurisdiction over the 60th Army, 61st Army, and 62nd Army. The deputy commander and chief of staff of the Corps was Chen Manyuan, and the director of the Political Department was Hu Yaobang. Coincidentally, Yang Yong, Hu Yaobang's cousin, was commanding the Fifth Corps of the Second Field Army at this time to outflank Hu Zongnan's rear from the Hunan-Guizhou line.Both brothers made great contributions to the liberation of the Southwest. The 18th Corps is waiting for the good news from the Corps of Erye, and there are more expectations.

On November 15, Guiyang was liberated. On November 19, Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered Hu Zongnan's group to withdraw southward from the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains into Sichuan, and airlifted the First Army to protect Chongqing. On November 28, the main force of Song Xilian and Luo Guangwen Group was wiped out. On November 30, Chongqing was liberated.The enemy's rear has been cut off so far.It's time to pursue the enemy retreating south! "Move out immediately and pursue them fiercely!" Boss He issued the pursuit order. On December 3, the Eighteenth Corps divided into three groups and began to pursue the southward pursuit.

Right road: The 62nd Army pursues southward via Bikou, Motianling, and Jiangyou; Middle Road: The 60th Army crosses Daba Mountain from the south of Gucheng and pursues southward; the Seventh Army advances southward in two routes from the Tianshui area: all the way to Chengdu In the direction, cooperate with the 62nd Army on the right to fight; all the way to Huixian and Jianyang, cooperate with the 60th Army in the middle. The three-way army traveled day and night, traveling hundreds of miles a day, flying over Daba Mountain, breaking through Jianmen Pass, crossing the Jialing River, and finally arrived at the assembly area encircling Chengdu on December 21, 10 days ahead of schedule.

Hu Zongnan knew that he was not Peng Dehuai's opponent after two battles in Shanzhong and Fumei.Hu Zongnan, who ran to Hanzhong, had already lost confidence in the battle situation. Like all the senior generals of the Kuomintang, the CCP treated Hu Zongnan first by instigating rebellion, and then fighting again.Zhou Enlai personally selected personnel to sneak into Hanzhong and encourage Hu Zongnan to turn against the water. Hu Zongnan was actually moved.In the reception room of Hanzhong Hantai, he has received representatives of the CCP three times.The third time, while talking, Hu Zongnan suddenly burst into tears.While weeping, he said intermittently: "Scholars die for their confidantes! I can't stop thinking about the principal, and I can't be sorry, I'm sorry, principal!..."

At this time, Song Xilian retreated from western Hubei into Sichuan to defend southeastern Sichuan, and his troops were under the jurisdiction of the Southwest Chief Executive's Office. Song Xilian was also a first-year student in Whampoa. Since the Northern Expedition, he has fought dozens of important battles. He was awarded the Blue Sky and White Sun Medal, which was highly appreciated by Chiang Kai-shek.At this time, he still had 200,000 troops in his hands. On August 11, Song Xilian secretly flew to Hanzhong, and hid in a secret room with Hu Zongnan to plan the retreat. Song Xilian said: "The army can't fight now. The army is defeated like a mountain. They will have no confidence and no fighting spirit. If there is a real fight, you and I will not be Du Yuming, but Qiu Qingquan. Either we will be captured by others, or we will be shot down. .”

"Then what do you think should be done?" Hu Zongnan always asked people what to do when it came to a critical moment.Song Dianchuan said to him: "Brother Qinzhai, you are still talking to my little brother. I heard in Chongqing that you have long wanted to flee to Burma..." "We discussed several times, but there were two problems that could not be resolved. One was that my troops had been fighting in the Northwest desert for a long time, and they were not familiar with the terrain and living habits of the Yunnan-Myanmar border; the other was that the principal would not approve... "

"You are not familiar with me. I am familiar with it." Song Xilian patted Hu Zongnan's back excitedly, and said, "Did you forget that when I was fighting the Japanese army, I led the Eleventh Group Army to participate in the Chinese Expeditionary Force and stayed on the Yunnan-Myanmar border for three or four years." "It's true!" Hu Zongnan shouted: "As long as the principal approves, then our two troops will be saved." After Song Xilian left, U.S. Republican Senator Nolan also came to Hanzhong. When inspecting the southern part of Hu Zong, he publicly said to Hu Zong: "As long as you have three corps preserved on the mainland, there is hope for the revival of the Republic of China against the Communist Party. We It may be suggested to President Truman that military assistance be directed to you."

After discussing with Song Xilian the plan to transfer to the Yunnan-Myanmar border, and with the promise of the American ally, Hu Zongnan felt that he was saved, so he immediately turned his back on him and threw the PLA negotiator into prison. On August 24, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek flew from Guangzhou to Chongqing to deploy military work for the southwestern half of the country. On the afternoon of the 25th, Hu Zongnan and Song Xilian made an appointment to go to the cave "Linyuan" on Linsen Road to meet Chiang Kai-shek. Just as Hu Zongnan expected, when Chiang Kai-shek heard about the plan to transfer to Yunnan and Burma, he exclaimed: "What are you talking about? Are you giving Sichuan and half of the southwestern country to the Communist Party?" "No, it's not hand in hand. It's really...Sichuan is no better than Taiwan, Hainan Island or Zhoushan. The Communist Party can surround us on all sides. We have to think about it!" "No, no! Absolutely not!" Chiang Kai-shek resolutely denied the plans of Hu Zongnan and Song Xilian. The first admonition failed, and Hu Zongnan made a second admonition.But Chiang Kai-shek didn't listen at all, and severely ordered Hu Zongnan to stick to Sichuan, Chengdu and Chongqing.Then he comforted me with kind words: "As long as we stick to it for 6 months, World War III will break out, and Peking and Shanghai are ours again." Now, who would believe the lie of "the outbreak of the Third World War"? After Hu Zongnan's escape plan went bankrupt, he had a premonition that his fate was inevitable, and when he returned to Hanzhong, he locked himself in a room in Hantai without seeing anyone.He drew the curtains, lit red candles, sometimes hummed a few lines of Beijing opera, and sometimes called Chiang Kai-shek "foolish", "His hundreds of thousands of troops were destroyed by him..." The wonderful and interesting pursuit began. On December 25, Chen Kefei, commander of the Second Battalion of the 539th Regiment of the 180th Division of the 18th Corps, led three squads of four companies and two platoons and one reconnaissance squad of the regiment. Guanghan, to perform the task of receiving an artillery battalion from the surrendered enemy army. When the car drove to Lianshan Town, there were people everywhere in the town, on both sides of the road, and there were more than 10,000 people, all of them were officers and soldiers of the Jiang army.How is this going?Battalion Commander Chen thought to himself, is this the target of our surrender?Then I thought about it: No, it is impossible for a battalion to have so many. When the car was only 20 or 30 meters away from Jiang Jun, they were still sitting and lying down without moving.From their exhausted looks, one can tell that they have come after a long march. At this time, two messengers ran over, stood at attention with a "click", and respectfully reported to Chen Kefei: "Report sir, our army commander sent me to contact you. We are the Temporary Eighth Army that just arrived from Hubei. May I ask you..." Obviously, they have not realized that they are facing their enemy, the People's Liberation Army.It is necessary to strive for the initiative and dare to win more with less... The tactical terms of encounters flashed through the mind of Battalion Commander Chen. "Sweep!" Chen Kefei jumped out of the car and shouted. The fighters jumped out of the car and threw themselves on the enemy.While firing his guns, Chen Kefei divided the forces of the four squads into three groups: all the way to attack the enemy commander's location; all the way to rush into the town; all the way to rush towards a large area of ​​enemies outside the town. All the soldiers vigilantly grabbed almost all the enemy's machine guns and shouted while shooting: "We are the People's Liberation Army. We will not kill the prisoners if we hand them over. Don't run away. Stand aside obediently!" The cries of the People's Liberation Army are everywhere, and the cries and begging for mercy of the National Army are everywhere.This cry really worked, and the enemy surrendered at the very beginning. The enemy at this time would never have imagined that there were only 4 squads of the People's Liberation Army in front of them.Otherwise, even if the strength of an army, not to mention firing guns, even ran towards them, the forty or fifty of them would not be able to withstand it.The point is that they don't know how many PLA troops are coming, they just feel that bullets are coming from many directions.The panicked enemy is naturally the feeling of the grass and trees. Liu Yinghai, a soldier from Squad Six, rushed into a yard by himself. Five minutes later, he handed over the guns of a battalion and walked out with more than 300 prisoners.Battalion Commander Chen Kefei divided the captives into officers and soldiers, and held them in two places. At this time, the enemies who had not disarmed became alert and counterattacked from several directions.Interestingly, the captives watched as if they were watching a monkey show, admiring how the PLA dealt with their brothers. The enemy counterattacking to the west highland was rushing to the sixth squadron highland. One guy boldly climbed up to the sixth squadron's position, straightened his back, took a bayonet from Liu Yinghai, and rolled down the slope.This frightened the other enemies to crawl on the ground and couldn't leave without shouting.Liu Yinghai shouted at the enemy below: "Get up and surrender, you are welcome." A company commander at the foot of the slope said: "Okay, just don't shoot." He held a white towel on the stab of the gun, and led a group of national troops with their heads bowed, and raised their hands to surrender.At that time, the commander of the Temporary Eighth Army, surrounded by his cronies and followers, had already fled without a trace with a group of defeated soldiers. In this way, four squads of the People's Liberation Army defeated an enemy army and captured more than 2,200 people. This is also a rare example of brilliant warfare in the history of world warfare. The open space outside Lianshan Town was filled with black captives and piles of guns and ammunition. If Chiang Kai-shek saw this situation, how would he feel? On December 27, with the uprising in Jianyang led by Li Zhen, commander of the 18th Corps of the Kuomintang, the Battle of Chengdu ended.Our army took Chengdu without bloodshed. After the liberation of Chengdu, Deng Xiaoping promptly instructed Yang Yong’s Fifth Corps and the Second Field Corps: “Before the Eighteenth Corps led by Mr. He entered Chengdu, none of our Second Field troops were allowed to enter Chengdu. Return to Chongqing." Obviously, Deng Xiaoping wanted to give He Long the honor of entering the city. On December 30, a grand and enthusiastic entry ceremony was held in Chengdu.In the convertible American jeep, He Long was smiling all over his face, and his unique beard was neatly trimmed.He thanked Erye's big brother for giving him this honor, and he also thanked the Eighteenth Corps for honoring him everywhere.Chengdu, the last decisive battle on the mainland of China, ended with the brilliant victory of our army.With the liberation of Chengdu, the Southwest Campaign did not end here. The 180th Division of the 18th Corps and the 552nd Regiment of the 180th Division wittily wiped out the 38th Army of Hu Zongnan's trump card is a good story in the Great Southwest Campaign. In January 1950, the Southwest Campaign was coming to an end.Many Kuomintang troops either surrendered or revolted. However, Li Zhenxi, the commander of the 38th Army, was a diehard. He ignored He Long's letter to persuade him to surrender, and led the remnants to flee to the Maowen area, trying to sneak abroad along the deep mountains and dense forests. After learning of this situation, the 180th Division asked its superiors, and quickly dispatched the 552nd Regiment and the Divisional Reconnaissance Company, which was rushing to repair Dujiangyan, to cross Mao County and intercept the 38th Army of the Hu Division. In mid-January, the 552nd Regiment headed northward along the Minjiang River from Guanxian County and rushed towards the Maowen area. On the morning of the 19th, the troops entered near the county seat of Maoxian County, and found that the main force of the 38th Army had fled to Huilong Mountain in the east of Maoxian County.So, the whole regiment and mules and horses marched into the county town at dawn, and walked back and forth on the street a few times. People shouted and horses shouted, as if thousands of troops were stationed in the city. On the evening of the 20th, the main force of the regiment launched an attack on Huilong Mountain. At this time, radio played an important role.The radio communication of the People's Liberation Army is called "Maoxian Frontline Command" to the regiment headquarters, the division-directed reconnaissance company and each battalion are called "XX Divisions", and the six ethnic minority detachments (each with one or two hundred people) that cooperate in combat are called "independent troops". One regiment...six regiments", the attacking troops shouted the positions of the above-mentioned troops and commanders from the foot of the mountain, which made Li Zhenxi on the mountain terrified when he heard it from the radio, and couldn't tell how many people the People's Liberation Army had come. The two sides were in a stalemate until dawn on the 22nd, when four enemies came down from the mountain with white flags. The sentinel of the second battalion who was in charge of the attack shouted sharply: "Stop! What are you doing?" "No, don't shoot. Please talk to the commander of the People's Liberation Army. Our commander has something to say." "Who is here?" "Deputy Division Commander, the representative sent by Commander Li." "Come here two people, the rest are not allowed to move." The enemy's deputy commander came over with an adjutant.The regiment sent two government officials to negotiate with them as the director of the headquarters. The enemy's deputy division commander said: "Our Commander Li is very grateful for Commander He Long's lenient policy. We ask you to cease fire first. Commander Li is willing to lead an uprising on the battlefield." The "Director" of the People's Liberation Army laughed and said, "What time is it, are you still talking about the uprising? Go back and tell Li Zhenxi that only surrender is allowed, not uprising, and you must beat us to the end." condition.The deputy commander of the enemy hurriedly said: "Please don't fire, don't fire, brother, go back and report to Commander Li." He hurried up the mountain. Li Zhenxi couldn't bear it any longer. At noon, he sent the deputy army commander and the previous deputy division commander down the mountain to sign the surrender letter. Jiang Gang and political commissar Zhang Min of our 552nd Regiment received them as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the Mao County Frontline Headquarters, and really frightened them. Many wires were pulled around the headquarters of the regiment command post, many bamboo poles were erected on the house, and many "antennas" were erected to show that the command had several radio stations working, and called a certain minister and a certain director loudly. On the morning of the 23rd, Chiang Kai-shek's 38th Army, a total of more than 5,000 officers and soldiers, walked out of the valley and put all the well-equipped American weapons on the ground.Li Zhenxi leaned on crutches, covered his eyes with the brim of his hat, bowed to the "commander" and "political commissar" of the People's Liberation Army, then sighed and said, "We have failed." Commander Jiang Gang said: "If you are one step late, we will launch a general offensive." Li Zhenxi said: "Yes! Yes! Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. If you can fight, you will fight, and if you can't fight, you will surrender! But I, Li Zhenxi, can finally be worthy of Chiang Kai-shek. I can't even raise an uprising, so I can only be a general." These few words caused everyone to burst into laughter. In order to prevent mutiny, the staff members of the regiment carefully marked several interesting marching route maps and sent them to the enemy army and division headquarters. According to the marching sequence, the reconnaissance company and battalions of our division were marked as ×× divisions, and the divisions of Li Zhenxi's army were marked as ×× divisions. Marching in the middle, marking the minority detachment as 6 independent regiments, marching on the left and right mountain ridges, serving as flank guards "guard".Li Zhenxi didn't know until the troops returned to the Guanxian garrison that his majestic trump card, the 38th Army, fell into the hands of a regiment of the People's Liberation Army this time. He was so angry that he beat himself on the head: "Damn it, damn it! Soldiers never tire of cheating, I'm so confused!" Zhang Min, the political commissar of the regiment, was a very humorous person. He said: "Why, Commander Li is not convinced? We can pull back to Huilong Mountain and practice with Commander Li again!" Li Zhenxi said with a sad face: "No, no, brother admires your army, admires, admires you! Extremely!" In the pursuit and annihilation of the Southwest, the 180th Division of the 60th Army of the 18th Corps has repeatedly made military exploits, and it can be called a great army.