Chapter 64 Why did the 25th division come late?

The insurgents who rushed out of the position headed down the mountain to hide and kill them.The commander couldn't help wondering: Why did the 11th Army fight so suddenly, but why did it fight so late? It turned out that the 25th Division of the 11th Army, which received the task of jointly attacking the enemy in Huichang, set off from Ruijinyi. Because of the unfamiliar terrain and it was night, it walked a long way before realizing that it had taken the wrong way to Luokou. The division commander Zhou Shidi and the party representative Li Shuoxun suddenly became nervous, and immediately ordered the troops to turn around and turn in the direction of Huichang.Although the rapid march turned into a trot, it was still too late.When the vanguard climbed a big mountain, they heard fierce gunfire from the direction of Huichang.Zhou Shidi thought badly, and looked back at Li Shuoxun, who was also anxious.

They sent another order to the troops: "Hurry up, keep up, and run forward!" This is a tried and tested army, and the veterans in the queue also know "bad dishes", and they all urged each other: "Go, go!" When they reached the west of Nanshanling, a staff officer sent by Commander Ye Ting and Nie Rongzhen's party representative was already standing at the intersection. When he saw Zhou and Li, he ignored the salute and told them to rush to the headquarters to accept the task. They ordered The troops stopped advancing, and the heads of all regiments and party representatives were asked to come to the division headquarters to wait for orders.The two of them followed the army staff to the command post.

On the way, the staff officer of the army pointed to a hill to the west of the top of Nanshan Ridge and said: "The artillery position of the 11th Army is on this hill, and the headquarters is near the artillery position. The artillery position has a very large target, and the enemy's shells and bullets often fall on the headquarters. Nearby, you should pay attention when you go there." As the staff officer said, when they approached the command post, they saw that the cannons were lined up on the top of the hill with their muzzles pointing forward, and the artillery soldiers were standing beside the cannons, waiting to fire.This made them even more nervous.

"The battle is so tense, why are you here now?" Ye Ting asked sternly. Ye Ting was still angry when they stood in front of the tense-faced Ye Ting and reported that the troops had lost their way and marched forward without even a bite of food.Originally, in the Battle of Rentian, the 11th Army was late, which caused He Long's 20th Army to open fire alone and almost suffered disaster; but this time it was a decisive battle, and the main force of the 11th Army was late again.He, Ye Ting, is a strong person, and he never wants to fall behind others when it comes to leading troops to fight. If his troops arrive late and delay the battle, even if others don't tell him, he will feel bad.

After listening to the report of the two men, he was still not angry and said: "This kind of mistake shouldn't have happened in the first place—what's the point of eating! First go to the battlefield and defeat the enemy!" This is a criticism that is heavier than scolding. . Zhou Enlai was worried that the 25th Division would get lost, so he first invited a commoner to be a guide and lead a cadre to meet the 25th Division.After an hour, no one came back, so they sent a second group of people to look for them from another road.The second group included the staff officer.He didn't want to see these unhappiness inside.So he smoothed things over: "It's okay, let's not talk about this, now we want to talk about how to fight the enemy. The mission of your 25th Division has been discussed, and Comrade Ye Ting will tell you." The tense atmosphere gradually eased.

Ye Ting said: "I can't tell you to rest. You have to go into battle immediately. There are many enemies on the northeast side of the city, and the troops commanded by Comrade Zhu De fought fiercely there." The enemy, the highlands to the south and north of the top of the mountain are also enemies." He pointed to the highlands to the west and said: "There is the position of the 24th Division. They fought tenaciously, and there were some casualties. They are now confronting the enemy. .” Following Ye Ting's gesture, everyone almost turned around.Ye Ting pointed to Zhai Dong to the south of the headquarters and said, "That hill is occupied by the enemy, and we don't have any troops there."

Liu Bocheng added: "These enemies were discovered later. If the enemies are not defeated, they will steal our way." Ye Ting continued to arrange: "You send the 75th Regiment to attack Zhaidong, and quickly occupy this hill; the 73rd Regiment attacks the enemy north of the 2531 highland; Huichang City. We must occupy Huichang today. You also need to send someone to get in touch with Comrade Zhu De.” Nie Rongzhen said from the side: "This battle is very important, and your tasks are very heavy. The troops are already tired from walking, and they must mobilize for battle. Party members and regiment members must set an example to ensure that the combat tasks are completed and Huichang will be defeated."

Zhou Enlai asked again: "The army is very tired, but Huichang must be defeated, are you sure?" Zhou Shidi and Li Shuoxun were holding back their energy, and replied at the same time: "We promise the party that Huichang will be captured!" I haven't seen Zhou Enlai for some days, because Zhou Silai has lost a lot of weight because of the wobble a few days ago, but he is still in good spirits. His timely intervention made Ye Ting calm down.When they walked out of the command post, Zhou and Li just wanted to go into battle as soon as possible to recover the losses caused by getting lost.When they returned to the division headquarters, the heads of the various regiments were already waiting here, and after accepting the task, they split up and took action.

The 75th regiment first attacked the enemy of Zhaichong, captured a hill with a heroic movement, and occupied a favorable terrain.The Seventy-Fourth Regiment quickly entered the northern end of the Nanshan Ridge on the left wing of the Seventy-three Regiment, launched an attack on the enemy, and captured an enemy position; according to the pre-arrangement, they sent a staff officer and a group of people to get in touch with the troops on Zhu De's side . After the 73rd regiment occupied several hills in a row, they stormed several important hills north of the 2531 highland.These hills are the barriers to the northwest of Huichang City and the enemy's main position. The enemy has built many solid fortifications in this area, equipped with a lot of troops and strong firepower.The Seventy-Third Regiment organized several attacks, but were all beaten back.

Zhou Shidi and Li Shuoxun were anxious.Order the seventy-three regiment to divide into two groups and attack from the enemy's two wings.The division command post is located on a hill about 1,000 meters west of the enemy's main position. The 73rd regiment and the heavy machine gun company are also on this hill.Looking forward, they saw that the enemy was relying on the fortifications and firing at the attacking troops with intensive firepower. As soon as a few soldiers approached the front, they were swept down by bullets;The troops are advancing foot by foot and approaching inch by inch. This scene can't help but remind people of the bloody battle of the Ye Ting Independence Regiment at Tingsi Bridge, Hesheng Bridge, and under the city of Wuchang a year ago.

The adjutant of the division headquarters knew that the division commander and the party representatives hadn't eaten, so he quietly asked from the side: "Did you ask someone to send you food?" Li Shuoxun glanced at Zhou Shidi: "The 73rd regiment didn't eat, how can we eat?" He told the adjutant: "We will eat after we defeat Huichang!" Although the 25th Division arrived a bit late, it immediately showed its attack power as soon as it entered the battle.The rest of the ministries are even more powerful.The enemy army in the direction of Zhaiyu was overwhelmed at first, and began to flee across the river.Zhou Shidi ordered the division commander to blow the charge horn, and with the sound of the division headquarters, the charge horns of the regiments, battalions, and companies resounded throughout the hill. On the 73rd Regiment's position, 6 heavy machine guns roared together to cover the troops' charge.After repeated charges, the enemy's main position was captured, and the enemy fled in the direction of Huichang City. The 73rd and 74th regiments quickly pursued Huichang City.This was a huge pursuit battle. Originally, the troops hadn’t eaten for a day, and they were hungry and thirsty. When crossing the river, some people wanted to drink water, and some people took out their water bottles to fill them. Those who came behind urged: “Don’t drink! Stop drinking, if you drink again, the enemy will run away, go, go!" At the same time as the 25th Division attacked, the 24th Division also launched an attack from the west of the city, and occupied Huichang City at 4 pm. Qian Dajun, commander-in-chief of the South Enemy Road, and his remnants fled in the direction of Yunmenling in a panic.Qian Dajun originally went up the mountain in a sedan chair and personally directed the battle, but he didn't expect to be defeated so quickly, so he threw down the sedan chair and hurried down the mountain.Later, Ye Ting felt that it was a pity: if the 25th Division hadn't lost its way and fell behind, Qian Dajun would have become a shackle. After the battle, Commander Zhu De led the troops back to Ruijin, and Ye Ting led the 11th Army to Huichang. While cleaning the battlefield, treating the wounded, and counting supplies, more than 2,000 vanguard troops of the central army led by Huang Shaohong came from Baigewei, and the two sides immediately started fighting.It turned out that Huang Shaohong was the former commander-in-chief of the enemy's interception force this time, and Qian Dajun was only one of the three armies, and the heavy troops were yet to come. After defeating Qian Dajun, the troops urgently needed to rest and reorganize. Suddenly Huang Shaohong came, and the rebel army was forced to fight.The battle continued for several hours, the enemy and the enemy fought fiercely, with mutual casualties, and neither the winner nor the loser.Seeing that the sky was approaching dusk, it was already known from the documents captured by the enemy and the confessions of the prisoners that the enemy had many reinforcements. Ye Ting called Zhou Shidi, the commander of the 25th Division, Li Shuoxun, the representative of the division party, and Chen Yi, the instructor of the 73rd Regiment, to him. He firmly said: "The battle cannot be fought like this. If it continues, it will be disadvantageous. I will concentrate all the machine guns and force Concentrate the artillery and the trumpeters. You must lead all the soldiers and bring the grenades. As soon as the charge trumpet sounds, you will rush forward, and the bayonet battle will be resolved within half an hour. Are you sure?" All three answered in unison: "Yes!" So the machine guns were quickly assembled, and the artillery and buglers were assembled.The soldier drew a grenade from his waist. Ye Ting gave an order, dozens of bronze horns sounded together, machine guns, mortars, and grenades exploded at the same time, and the soldiers rushed down like a storm. This momentum shocked the originally tenacious enemy away and threw away their helmets. A, scattered and fled for their lives.Huang Shaohong's vanguard fell apart again. Ye Ting also organized the non-combatants in the logistics department of the headquarters, each with a gun and 100 rounds of ammunition, and all participated in the battle.He took a light machine gun himself, led the troops to run forward, ran 40 miles in one breath, and opened up with the enemy near Huichang City. The fierce battle lasted for four or five hours, and it was dark when the enemy was defeated. After the battle, Ye Ting ordered the teaching brigade to search the enemy's headquarters, division headquarters, and regiment headquarters. Li Yimin and Captain Xiang Hu led the soldiers and found a division headquarters of the enemy in a city god's temple. When they went in, they found that the enemy had all fled, documents were scattered all over the floor, making a mess, but there were still roast ducks and scrambled eggs on the table. and other foods.Searched everywhere, but found nothing. Commander Xiang ordered the troops to advance quickly. After walking for more than 10 miles, they caught up with a group of enemies. When the gun fired, the enemies were like frightened birds. Some were killed, and most of them ran away in fright. , Guns and ammunition were thrown all over the place.The soldiers have never seen so much "foreign wealth". Those who pick up guns pick up guns, and those who hold ammunition hold ammunition, which actually delays the time for chasing the enemy and makes the enemy run away. When each of them returned to Huichang City with four or five guns on their backs, they were naturally criticized by Ye Ting: "What are you doing with those broken guns? The main purpose is to destroy the enemy. How many enemies have you killed?" Said to the captain that they killed quite a few. "How much?" Ye Ting became serious. "No count." "Send a few people to count, how many were killed? So that they can report to the headquarters." Ye Ting asked Captain Xiang again: "How many prisoners have you captured?" Captain Xiang raised his chest and said, "Two platoon leaders have been captured." Ye Ting smiled, dissatisfied: "Too few!" In the Battle of Huichang, more than 5,000 guns from Qian Dajun's troops were seized, and these guns were handed over to the teaching brigade by the headquarters for safekeeping.Later, Su Yu led a squad to load it on the ship and send it to Dongjiang. Because the rebel army failed later, these guns were also lost.