As mentioned above, Liao Yaoxiang's corps stood still for five days before they began to attack the black mountain and the great tiger mountain defense line.
Defending the black mountain and the big tiger mountain defense line was Liang Xingchu's tenth column and the Inner Mongolia cavalry division. On the morning of the 22nd, the three divisions of the Tenth Column all arrived at the designated area, and the three divisions of the Tenth Column were not well equipped, only machine guns, rifles, and grenades; the artillery only had 3 artillery battalions with their own, more than 30 guns, and the shells were not enough. The frontal width of the Black Mountain and Big Tiger Mountain defense line is about 16 kilometers, and such a wide defense line only uses 40,000 troops to defend, and the strength is even more stretched. The bita hill defense line, which was only 8 kilometers wide, Lin Biao released two columns and two independent divisions for a total of more than 80,000 people.
During the Montenegrin blockade battle, the artillery of our army can be seen to be dominated by mountain artillery
Not only that, the combat effectiveness of Liao Yaoxiang's corps was far stronger than Hou Jingru's EastWard Advance Corps!
Liao Yaoxiang had two of the five main forces of the Kuomintang army- the New First Army and the New Sixth Army, with a total strength of 5 armies, 12 divisions, and another 3 brigades of more than 120,000 people, and was also equipped with a large number of combat weapons, such as the heavy artillery regiment and the chariot regiment directly under the corps. On the other hand, the Tenth Column of our army is a unit that has just been established for a year, has not gone through any vicious battles or major wars, and has three divisions under its jurisdiction: 28, 29, and 30, of which Korean fighters, peasants who have turned over, and liberation fighters each account for one-third of the troops, as well as many veteran 359 brigades and veteran soldiers of the Northern Manchuria Bandits.
There is also a small episode here, during the Battle of Jiangnan three times, the independent 1st Division, the predecessor of the Tenth Column, encountered the retreating 87th Division of the 71st Army when it was on the task of interspersing the encirclement, and did not dare to boldly block the enemy, but pulled the troops away from the enemy and watched the 87th Division escape. Afterwards, Lin Biao was very angry: "Where did the fighting atmosphere of the 359th Brigade of the Independent 1st Division go?" It's still like a main force! Therefore, Liang Xing, commander of the 1st Column 1st Division, was specially transferred to the commander of the 1st Column, in order to make the 1st Column famous. Lin Biao sent a telegram at 10 o'clock on the 20th to Order Liang Xingchu: Sticking to the Black Mountain and the Great Tiger Mountain, we must not take a step back, hoping to carry forward the spirit of the old 359 Brigade, and the lost positions will immediately counterattack and retake, and we must not hesitate.
Liang Xingchu, before taking over as commander of the Tenth Column, was the commander of the 1st Column 1st Division
The only advantage is the terrain! The only way to do this is to build strong fortifications!
The Black Mountain and the Great Tiger Mountain were like a pair of pliers that clamped down on Liao Yaoxiang's corps, which could only attack through a narrow corridor, resulting in insufficient attack power. Liang Xingchu swung the three divisions on the first line, and each division adopted a combat formation of two echelons, two regiments in the first line, and one regiment acting as a reserve team in the rear, ready to carry out counterattack tasks. Liang Xingchu placed the 28th Division, the most powerful division in the middle, which was a rolling hilly area with a commanding height of a stone mountain with no grass, code-named "One Zero One Highland". On the west side of the 28th Division is Dabaitaizi, and on the east side is Gaojiatun.
More than 2,000 local people, together with my ten columns, carried wooden planks and pulled rails to build fortifications in a mighty way. After two days of hard work, more than a dozen fire points were built in the Gaojiatun area alone, each of which was paved with a layer of steel rails, several layers of wooden planks and one meter-thick soil, and a series of fortifications such as trenches, machine gun bunkers, command posts, observation posts, and ambulance stations were also built.
Brutal outpost fighting!
As mentioned above, Liao Yaoxiang gave the order to attack The Black Mountain and the Great Tiger Mountain on the 22nd, so why did our army have two days to build fortifications on the 22nd and 23rd? On the one hand, it was because Liao Yaoxiang's corps was as slow as ever, and on the other hand, it was the successful outpost battle of our army that held the enemy behind.
Liao Yaoxiang believed that our army did not have many troops, and it would not be a problem to take Montenegro within one day, so he only sent a brigade of the 203rd Division of the Youth Army with a heavy artillery regiment directly under the regiment to attack the front, and two divisions of the 71st Army to attack Gaojiatun on the flank. On the morning of the 23rd, the vanguard of the Kuomintang army only went south from Fangshan Town and bumped into the vigilance position of the 7th Company of the 82nd Regiment of our 28th Division, which was on a guard mission and had no strong fortifications.
Montenegro resisted the deployment of the enemy and us
In the morning, the enemy, with the strength of two battalions, launched three attacks on The Peak Mountain, all of which were repelled by the cleverly organized fire of the 7 companies. Due to the casualties of the 8 squads guarding the main peak, the ammunition was exhausted, and the main peak of the top mountain was lost. The remaining personnel of the 7th Company had to retreat to a small high ground in the rear to hold firm, and in the afternoon the enemy launched two more attacks, and the soldiers of the 7th Company ran out of ammunition and engaged in a white-knife battle with the enemy, they were slightly wounded and could not get out of the line of fire, they were seriously wounded and did not cry or cry, but insisted until dusk, after most of the casualties of the personnel, withdrew from the position. After the battle of the 7th Company, only a dozen soldiers remained, none of them unharmed, and the heroic battle of the 7th Company won a precious day of time for the main position.
The first day of the full line of attack! Defensive fulcrum lost!
In the early morning of the 24th, the enemy launched an all-out attack on our army's defensive line with 4 divisions and 5 artillery regiments, and the Montenegrin blockade battle officially began! The Kuomintang army concentrated its heavy artillery with absolute superiority, and the first artillery preparation destroyed most of the fortifications on the three high ground in Gaojiatun, and the 2nd Battalion of the 84th Regiment guarding the front line suffered heavy casualties, and the Kuomintang army tried to break through our army's defense line under the cover of fierce artillery fire.
After the artillery was prepared, the Nationalist infantry began to attack. Rushing to the front was the 203rd Division of the Youth Army, and the 169th Division of the New 6th Army was the reserve. The 203rd Division of the Al-Shabaab Launched a charge against the defensive positions of the 28th Division with 3 battalions, aiming directly at the '101 Heights'. Guarding the 101 heights were two platoons of the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 84th Regiment, who had suffered more than half of the casualties due to heavy artillery fire. However, he still bravely repelled the enemy's four attacks, destroyed several times the enemy himself, and finally died heroically because of the lack of support. The enemy occupied the high ground at 14:00.
Painting depicting the Battle of Montenegro
After the fall of the 101 heights, the flanks of the 4 companies on the 92 heights were exposed, and they were attacked from both sides by the enemy. The enemy 207th Division attacked continuously, regardless of casualties, and approached the position of 4 companies. The 4th Company suffered heavy casualties, leaving only 6 soldiers left in the whole company, under the leadership of Li Yongfa, the commander of the 1st Platoon, raised his rifle and engaged in a white-knife battle with the enemy. Li Yongfa used his bayonet to fight down five or six enemies in a row, and suffered three serious wounds, and died on the 92nd high ground. The Ninety-Two Heights were lost at 14:00.
After the enemy occupied the Ninety-Two Heights, he attacked the Ninety-Zero Heights. At this time, there was another round of fierce artillery attack, and only 10 soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 82nd Regiment guarding the 90th Heights were left, and the position was bombed without any place to rely, they rolled in and out of the crater, throwing grenades at the enemy one by one. Soon the grenades were gone, and only bayonets were used up for the final fight. At 16:20, The Ninety Heights were lost.
That is to say, the three support points of the Gaojiatun position have all been lost, the Gaojiatun position has been broken, and the entire Montenegrin defense line is in danger! In order to save the crisis, Liang Xingchu had to make an unusual decision!