Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Thousands of sails race to break through the defense line of the Yangtze River in one fell swoop

Millions of troops are ready to fight, everything is ready.Just as the bow was ready to go, on April 10, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram to the General Front Committee: The peace agreement is expected to be signed on the 15th, and crossing the river will be postponed for half a month or a month, and asked the General Front Committee to explain the mobilization. After the Battle of Pingjin, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to resign and step down, retreating behind the scenes.Li Zongren, acting president of the Kuomintang, sent peace talks representatives to Beijing for peace talks.The Chinese Communist Party has long seen through Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to negotiate peace: that is to prevent our army from advancing in order to gain breathing time.

Sure enough, on April 20, 1949, the final amendment to the domestic peace agreement proposed by the Chinese Communist Party delegation was rejected by the Kuomintang government. Under such circumstances, Mao Zedong and Zhu De issued the "Order to March to the Nation" to the Chinese People's Liberation Army: 1. Advance bravely and resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly and completely wipe out all Kuomintang counter-revolutionaries who dare to resist in China.faction, liberate the people of the whole country, and defend the independence and integrity of China's territorial sovereignty.

2. Forge ahead and arrest all persistent war criminals.No matter where they fled, they must be apprehended and brought to justice.punish according to law. ... Mao Zedong's marching order was quickly spread throughout the positions on the front line of the Yangtze River and the villages and towns on the north bank of the Yangtze River through radios, loudspeakers, mimeographed newspapers and leaflets, and aroused warm cheers among all the commanders and fighters.Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, and Gu Jingsheng, political commissar, immediately held an oath meeting.Qin Jiwei personally handed over the two big red flags of the military party committee "Fight across the Yangtze River and liberate the whole of China" to the two assault regiments, and personally went to the front to encourage all the commanders and fighters.The soldiers held the red flag and shouted slogans: "Fight across the Yangtze River and liberate the whole of China!"

The 3rd Company of the 130th Regiment, which belongs to the 15th Army, has already won the glorious task of crossing the river assault company. After hearing the marching order, the instructor held the red flag awarded by the superior and solemnly announced to the soldiers and boatmen of the whole company: "This red flag is Mao Zedong's command. The chairman's call is also a firm order, asking us to go to the south of the Yangtze River tonight! This task was invited by us with a few letters of request. The superior cares about us and trusts us. This is our honor." The chief sailor Zhang Guozheng said excitedly: "The opportunity for me to join the party has come. When the ship arrives in the middle of the river, I will be responsible for supporting everyone to the south bank and planting the red flag at the breach."

The soldier Wang Wucai swore to the red flag: "Liberating Jiangnan is liberating my hometown, and I have to climb over there!" The boatman also said: "Have fought the Yangtze River, you honor me? Honor, in case I get injured, I will send everyone across the river while lying on the boat!" In the afternoon of that day, cannons of various calibers lined up in an endless row on the north bank of the Yangtze River. That night, the army commanders and fighters who served as the advance team for the cross-river operation sat until dawn, and no one slept.Some are doing homework, and some are busy frying rice to prepare food for the long-distance march after crossing the river.

At some point, the rooster crowed, and the day the soldiers had been looking forward to day and night finally came. At dawn on April 21, there was a thick fog, and the Yangtze River, villages, woods and fields could not be seen when looking up.From the morning, I could only hear the noise of people in the village. Through the slowly disappearing mist, I saw some farmers in the village carrying burdens, some leading livestock, supporting the old and the young. They retreated one after another.This is to avoid mass losses after the war is fought. An atmosphere of approaching war quickly spread.

The artillery unit responsible for the rapid fire attack was already ready.After the fog cleared, the sun was shining brightly, and the howitzers had already been laid out on the position.The Yangtze River, which is pointed at by the muzzle, is now rolling with torrents and turbulent waves, like the roar of war drums, shocking people's hearts.On the opposite bank, the Kuomintang army formation is densely covered with subway wire mesh, and there are groups of large and small bunkers. Looking through the binoculars, the Kuomintang army is driving a group of migrant workers to reinforce the fortifications, and the atmosphere is very tense.

From time to time, two patrol gunboats of the Kuomintang Army sailed up from the upper reaches, flying the flag of the blue sky and white sun, and blindly fired a few shots towards the north bank, and then sailed downriver like a big water rat, apparently to deal with errands. Under the command of Liu Bocheng, the three corps of the Second Field Army launched a focused attack on the enemy at the same time on the evening of the 21st from Madang in the west and Guichi in the east. The connection between the Tang and Bai groups. Yang Yong and Su Zhenhua commanded the 15th Corps of the 5th Corps and the 4th Corps to cross the river from Wangjiang to the west of Anqing City and assault the enemy on the south bank. The main force of the Corps crossed the river, and then returned to Jian.

Chen Xilian and Xie Fuzhi commanded the two armies of the 3rd Corps to cross the river from the east of Anqing to Zongyang Town and Shijitou to attack the enemy on the south bank. , its main force should quickly take a shortcut, go straight to Wuhu via Jing County and Nanling, first take over the 9th Corps to monitor the enemy in Wuhu, and cooperate with the 4th Corps to capture Wuhu and prepare to attack Nanjing. Chen Geng commanded two armies of the 4th Corps to cross the river in the Wangjiang and Susong areas. After crossing the river, he joined the 15th Army and cooperated with the 3rd Corps to attack the enemies of Wuhu and Nanjing.

At 5:30 in the afternoon, the artillery groups of Erye began to test fire, and the torrential rain of shells directly hit the target. At 17:30, the artillery switched to destructive fire.On the main assault areas in the upper and lower reaches of Anqing, hundreds of cannons spewed out tongues of fire one after another, making earth-shattering bangs.The artillery shells poured over the enemy's position on the opposite bank, and the clouds of smoke gathered in an instant to form a thick black smoke screen, rising and expanding continuously.After a full hour of fierce bombardment, most of the enemy's fortresses on the south bank were destroyed, and the enemy's artillery fire appeared extremely weak.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army's great battle across the river has officially begun! In the evening, the sun sinks into the river, and a ray of sunset glow seems to be afraid of the flames of war, and it will disappear as soon as it emerges.The sky is slowly darkening, and the river bank is full of voices, red flags?Roll, a jubilation.The soldiers of the assault force were full of energy. They wore steel helmets, were fully armed, and carried earthen buoys—bamboo tubes—on their backs.Some held red flags, and the flags fluttered with the wind, "cracking!"The boats that had been prepared to hide in the river branch were driven by the boatman, one after another slowly approached the pier.The important parts on the ship are bound up with cotton batting to avoid shrapnel.The family members of the boatmen who came to see them off, drilled around, looking for their relatives in the crowd.When you find your relatives, there are endless things to talk about. Thousands of exhortations, thousands of exhortations, relatives and the People's Liberation Army should work together to fight across the Yangtze River and return safely.Some pulled the soldiers to talk, and stuffed eggs into the soldiers' pockets.The soldiers boarded the boat, and the boss of the boat took out the rooster that had been prepared, chopped off the head of the rooster, and dripped the blood of the rooster on the big wine-filled pot?Here, he held it up high and made an oath with the soldiers, and then "Gudu, Gudu" took turns to finish the wine and wipe their mouths, full of boldness. The twilight was dim, and the sky gradually became completely dark. There was no moon, no stars, only the lights on the shore and on the boat flickered. At 8:30, the majestic and loud "March of the People's Liberation Army" sounded from the Zhudu Assault Base.With an order, ships of all sizes, carrying soldiers, paddled into the Yangtze River one by one, unfurled their tents and raised their sails, and took advantage of the wind to head straight for the south of the Yangtze River, and soon disappeared in the darkness. On the surface of the surging river, thousands of boats are dispatched in an instant.The commanders and fighters of the second field cooperated closely with the boatman, turned the oars and flew straight to the opposite bank.The terrified Kuomintang army resisted in a panic, firing some sporadic shells, causing little splashes on the river.Several planes came to scout and drop bombs, and several gunboats also came to attack and harass.But under our army's resolute counterattack, the planes and gunboats fled in a hurry, and the artillery fire on the other side gradually fell silent.As the ship passed the middle stream, the remaining artillery and machine guns of the Kuomintang army resumed firing again, in an attempt to make a final struggle.The assault fleet immediately concentrated all kinds of weapons to fight back, directly covering the charge.The warriors carried forward the fearless spirit of fighting for themselves and sacrificing their lives, braved the rain of bullets and braved the waves to advance.Some ships were hit, and they rowed while rushing to repair them, and some even jumped into the water to swim.The leading ships of each ministry crossed the Yangtze River in only 15 to 30 minutes, landed separately and forcibly landed, and quickly seized the beachhead.The six infantry regiments that successfully landed on the first voyage had less than 10 casualties. Erye crossed the river so smoothly, thanks to his well-prepared.As early as the night of April 20, Zhou Xihan, commander of the 13th Army of the advance force, ordered his troops to attack Babaozhou at 1 am on the 21st. At 0 o'clock in the morning on the 21st, the river embankment was dug open.In order to avoid the strong point of the enemy's firepower, more than 100 wooden boats were dragged upstream for 1 kilometer, and spread out on the bank of the Yangtze River without anyone noticing.Dozens of artillery pieces are ready to shoot at their respective targets. At 1:40 a.m., an order to "start the boat" was issued, and countless black shadows all rushed towards the beach of Babaozhou amidst the "squeak" of oars and boats moving the river water. About 300 meters away from the enemy's beachhead, the enemy discovered the fleet and fired with light and heavy machine guns.The mountain artillery, mortars, and heavy machine guns on the north bank of the PLA poured towards the enemy's beachhead like a torrent of steel according to the targets calibrated before the battle. The first shell group accurately destroyed several large bunkers protruding from the enemy's front.At the same time, dozens of flames on the bow were also shooting fiercely at the enemy.Immediately, almost all the main firepower points on the enemy's beachhead were wiped out or blocked by the artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army, leaving only two hidden bunkers, a few single-person bunkers, and a trench less than 60 meters away, and the enemy was still firing intermittently inside. "Quick paddle, move forward!" "The Yangtze River can't stop a hero!" "Come on! It's docked, come on!" Amidst the sound of guns and guns, a sentence of slogans was like a heavy hammer, hitting the burning hearts of the commanders and fighters.The oars were broken and the shovel was used to row the boat faster; the boat was broken and blocked with cotton wool, but it still rushed to the opposite shore. It took only 15 minutes to set foot on the south of the Yangtze River on the 1,000-meter-wide river?Nationalist army positions. The battle was fierce, and the concealed enemy's firepower continued to cause casualties to the PLA, but when it was exposed, it was immediately destroyed.The defenders of a battalion on Babaozhou were all wiped out before dawn. At noon, three enemy gunboats came from the direction of Jiujiang, and shot at Babaozhou while going down the river.Gu Shuiwu, the head of the leading regiment, ordered all kinds of artillery to advance to the line along the river on the south bank of Babaozhou, and slammed the enemy boats.The enemy boats didn't dare to fight, they were so frightened that they screamed strangely, panted heavily, and fled westward with thick smoke. After taking Jiangxinzhou, Chen Geng ordered the troops to cross the river with the large troops on the night of the 21st according to the scheduled plan. At 16:45 on the 21st, Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, personally organized artillery fire on the artillery position, destroying the lighthouse on the south bank. At about 21 o'clock, the assault troops took advantage of the night, and the warships all launched, pointing directly at the opposite bank.With the support of our powerful artillery fire, the commando went straight to the center of the river and bravely advanced. It took only 15 to 30 minutes to cross the natural danger of the Yangtze River and quickly occupied the enemy's beachhead and key points. The two companies of the 130th Regiment of the 44th Division of the 15th Army landed first, quickly occupied the lighthouse support point, and wiped out the enemy.The regiment, with 5 companies and 1 platoon, landed alone 500 meters from Xiangshan Mountain. Regardless of the threat from the enemy on all sides, it resolutely and bravely attacked Xiangshan and threatened the enemy's back. After the 1st Battalion of the 131st Regiment landed, they cooperated with the two companies of the 130th Regiment to occupy Huangshan, and successfully inserted the red flag on Xiangshan and Huangshan. At 22:00, Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, reported to Chen Geng: "We have successfully crossed the river! Now we are advancing deep into the enemy." At 24:00, Qin Jiwei reported again: "The troops have passed 5 regiments and are progressing smoothly. Our army has passed 2 divisions, and I have to cross the river to command." At this time, the 13th Army commanded by Zhou Xihan also passed two regiments, occupied the positions of Babaozhou and No. 3zhou, and seized a lot of mountain artillery, howitzers and various weapons. He himself also crossed the river to command. In the evening of the same day, Chen Geng moved the command post of the Corps forward to a small village one mile north of Huayang Town, and continued to conduct combat command.He ordered the Qin and Zhou armies via wireless phone: "You must catch up with the enemy's 68th army and wipe them out completely, otherwise it will not be a complete victory." At dawn on the 25th, Chen Geng led several capable staff members to cross the river by boat.At that time, there were frequent enemy plane activities, and some staff officers were worried about the safety of the commander, and suggested that there is no need to rush across the river.Chen Geng said: "This is a historic battle, and my command position must be at the front." Chen Geng and others took a wooden boat, braved the wind and waves, braved the bombing and strafing of enemy planes, and soon arrived at the south bank of the Yangtze River.Chen Geng wrote in his diary on this day: "In the twilight of the morning, the fish entered the ship, and the breeze sent southward, galloping like flying. In a short while, the ship landed on the other side and set foot on the land of Jiangnan. I was full of excitement at that time, which was beyond words..." After crossing the river is Xiangshan Mountain, where broken cars and straws burned by the fleeing enemies are scattered all over the ground, and the burned houses are still in flames.Chen Geng decided to set up a command post in a small village in a small valley.Since the village was too small, with only a few scattered families and a dozen or so thatched houses, the work could not be carried out, so the staff suggested to Chen Geng to find a larger village to live in. Chen Geng said: "This place is very good. It is important to buy time to command the battle first. There is no house to support the tarpaulin work. The command cannot be interrupted. There is no house here, so everyone will not fight for the house. During the Long March, no one competed for houses when climbing snow-capped mountains and crossing grasslands. As soon as we arrived in northern Shaanxi, we started fighting. From now on, the more you go to the big cities, the more you will fight for houses. People are not enough, so let’s go to work!" Chen Geng first used a walkie-talkie to talk to Guo Tianmin, the deputy commander of the Corps who was still on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and asked him to quickly lead the Corps headquarters and confidential personnel, combat staff, all communications personnel, and radio stations across the river quickly.In this small village, the headquarters of the 4th Corps worked for two days. Before leaving, Chen Geng said to Peng Yikun, the chief of operations: "Immediately find Commander Zhou and ask him to send a deputy division commander to lead a regiment to garrison in Madang. Don't forget to bring artillery to prevent Bai Chongxi's gunboats from going down the river and cover them. The 14th army crossed the river." The order was conveyed to the 13th Army, and Zhou Xihan said: "All my troops have gone after the enemy, and there are no troops near Madang." At this time, Chen Geng had already left in a small jeep.Peng Yikun had no choice but to contact Li Chengfang, commander of the 14th Army, and asked them to send troops to carry out this task. Li Chengfang said happily: "It doesn't matter. Let's send a deputy division commander to lead a main regiment across the river to Madang to defend and cover the troops crossing the river. Since the 13th Army? Go south to pursue the enemy, and it will be too late to find them back." By 20:00 on the 21st, 16 regiments had passed through and controlled the landing field with a width of more than 200 miles and a depth of 10 to 20 miles.By the 23rd, all the main forces of the two fields had crossed the Yangtze River. On the day when the Second Field Army crossed the river, Liu Bocheng stayed up all night.In the war room, he kept ordering the staff officers to understand the progress of the troops, calculating the voyage, speed and passing troops.When the first voyage report was successful, he immediately asked the troops to act according to the predetermined plan, and ordered "once they reach the south bank, first sweep the enemy with enough troops, expand the breakthrough area, support the friendly neighbors to land, penetrate the enemy's depth, and the remnants of the enemy retreat. ". According to the order of Commander Liu Bocheng, the troops divided up and swept the enemy along the river, while advancing in depth with the main force.The follow-up troops crossed the river and landed one after another to join the continuous attack on the enemy. The Second Field Army and the Third Field Army crossed the Qianli River in parallel at the same time, making the enemy hard to defend.Several breakthroughs shocked the whole line.Tang Enbo saw that the Jiangfang army was about to collapse at the first touch and was in danger of being divided and encircled along the river, so he ordered a general retreat on the afternoon of the 22nd.The troops west of Wuhu retreated to Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and the troops east of Wuhu retreated to Shanghai and Hangzhou respectively. At this point, the Yangtze River Defense Line, which the enemy had painstakingly managed for three and a half months, completely collapsed.The army of one million successfully completed the first phase of the battle of crossing the river. Liu Ruming, who was on the opposite side of Erye, led the 8th Corps to escape the fastest. As soon as the People's Liberation Army crossed the river, he fled with the troops.His army commander and division commander advised him: "Jun Zuo, if you retreat like this, you will be punished for dereliction of duty." He said: "If we continue to fight with the Communist Army, we will lose all our capital. Retreat, just retreat! What are you afraid of, no one can control me now, Chiang Kai-shek is not in power, Li Zongren is in name only, and Tang Enbo does not have his own troops. It’s not about relying on us commanders and army commanders. It’s important to preserve our strength. If we don’t have any soldiers under our command, then no one will talk to us! If you don’t say anything, retreat quickly!”