The Fifth Chapter of Marshal Peng Dehuai's Story

Three battles and three victories to strengthen the military might

In the early morning of March 19, 1947, the defense forces of the Northwest Field Army withdrew from Yan'an. On the same day, Hu Zongnan's army occupied Yan'an.

But all he had to do was an empty city at great cost.

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing was dancing happily. He called to reward Hu Zongnan and also rewarded Hu Zongnan with a large medal. Hu Zongnan also believes that this is the first major achievement of his life. In order to "celebrate the victory", the firecrackers in Xi'an City were all set off by him.

Just when Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan were overwhelmed, the Northwest Field Army began to dig graves for the enemy in the vast mountainous area north of Yan'an.

One battle and one victory: Qinghua Gong closed the door and beat the dog

Even before the evacuation of Yan'an, the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao wisely foresaw that the enemy would be even more arrogant when he entered Yan'an. In order to realize its beautiful dream of "restoring" northern Shaanxi, it is inevitable to make every effort to find the main force of our field army for a decisive battle. Therefore, the Party Central Committee instructed the Northwest Field Army that, in addition to using some troops to maintain contact with the enemy in the northwest direction of Yan'an and lure the enemy to go deeper, the main force should gather covertly in the northeast direction of Yan'an and wait for the opportunity to annihilate the enemy.

In accordance with this intention of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, General Peng issued an order before withdrawing from Yan'an in the early morning of March 19: (1) The first column was assembled in the area north of Ansai northwest of Yan'an, and the second battalion of the second regiment of the only brigade was sent to pretend to cover the retreat of the main force of the field army and lure the enemy's main force to the northwest of Yan'an. (2) The Second Column, the Teaching Brigade, and the New Fourth Brigade, assembled and stood by in the area around Qinghua In the area east of Yan'an and northeast china, respectively.

After Hu Zongnan entered yan'an, he really forgot about it, believing that the northwest field army was already "vulnerable to a blow," and immediately moved his forward command post from Luochuan to Yan'an, gathered the main force near Yan'an, looked for the northwest field army to fight a decisive battle, and regarded the second regiment and the second battalion of the first column of the single brigade that was retreating from the direction of Ansai as the main force of the northwest field army, and immediately sent the strength of 5 brigades, led by Dong Zhao, commander of the first army, to follow the northward advance from Yan'an to the direction of Ansai.

On the evening of March 20, the Northwest Field Army radio intercepted and deciphered Hu Zongnan's telegram ordering his 31st Brigade to arrive at Qinghua on the 24th and establish a stronghold there.

Mr. Peng received the telegram, clenched his fists and said excitedly: "Wow, it has finally been delivered to the door!" Eat this guy!"

Late at night, in the cave and under the oil lamp, Peng Zong and other leading comrades of the field army studied the enemy's situation on the map. Soon, a campaign command plan of "sounding east and attacking west" was formed. Peng always wanted to seize this fighter. Annihilated the enemy in the Qinghua Mountains and fought the first battle after the evacuation of Yan'an.

On the one hand, he reported to the Party Central Committee, and at the same time ordered all units of the field army to enter the designated combat area to hide before dawn on the 23rd, and to block the news and make preparations for the war. He also ordered the troops in the direction of Anse to pretend to cover the retreat of the main force, and to create a more ingenious illusion of the retreat of the large troops, and to continue the five enemy brigades to Anse

Qinghua Is located more than fifty miles northeast of Yan'an, flanked by rolling mountains, which is convenient for troops to conceal and attack, and is an ideal battlefield for ambushes. As long as the Thirty-first Brigade comes in, don't think about going out again.

At this time, all the combat troops had already followed General Peng's orders and all entered the ambush positions, and the eastern, western, and northern fronts were all covered like iron barrels by the Northwest Field Army, opening only one opening in the south, and only waiting for the enemy to enter, they could close the door and beat the dogs, and General Peng humorously said to Wang Zhen, commander of the Second Column, "You Wang Zhen only need to stand on the top of the hill and shout: Li Jiyun (Commander of the Thirty-first Brigade), where are you going!" You'll be able to fight it one, beautiful annihilation battle!"

On the morning of the 24th, the second battalion of the second regiment of the single brigade retreated while fighting, and finally "led" the five brigades of the enemy to Anse. Surprisingly, the ambush troops waited until dusk, still not seeing the enemy's shadow. The commanders and fighters wondered in their hearts: Did the enemy change its plans? Mr. Peng shook his head firmly and said, "No. We must grasp the psychology of the enemy! Hu Zongnan is a guy who is a good and happy worker, how can he not move according to the soldiers... He will definitely come. Not coming today is probably an accidental reason. Just as General Peng expected, according to reconnaissance, it turned out that the enemy's Thirty-first Brigade had stopped halfway to supply grain.

At about 10:00 a.m. the next morning, nearly 3,000 enemy troops obediently entered the "pocket" arranged by General Peng. The regimental trumpets of our army suddenly sounded, the guns and artillery opened fire at the same time, the Dusi Brigade tightly tied the "pockets" in the south, and the main force rushed toward the enemy from the mountains on the east and west sides, in a situation of overwhelming mountains and seas, and cut the enemy into sections at once. The enemy was crushed in a ravine and became a mess.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the enemy army was completely annihilated, and Li Jiyun, the commander of the Thirty-first Brigade, was captured. The entire battle was fought cleanly, with few casualties and many captures, and was called "one of the model examples" by Xinhua at the time. When the battle was over, Mr. Peng hummed the song cheerfully and said to the staff officers: "Hu Zongnan said that the communist army was vulnerable," in fact, he was a stupid guy who was vulnerable!"

World War II and Two Victories: Sheep Ma River Tiger Mouth Grabs Food

In the Battle of Qinghua, Hu Zongnan was hit in the head and was beaten to the point of Venus. The only consolation he felt was that the whereabouts of the main force of the communist army had finally been clarified. He learned the lessons of Qinghua's failure: First, the troops were no longer dispersed; second, they walked through the mountains and mountains during the day and easily did not go down the ravines; third, they slept on the top of the mountains at night, built fortifications, and made steady progress. He believed that this would not only avoid being scattered and isolated and annihilated, but also find the main force of the Northwest Field Army for a decisive battle.

Enemies change and I change. General Peng saw through Hu Zongnan's "new old technique" and took corresponding countermeasures: Organizing small units to constantly harass the enemy's regiments, so that the enemy was often in a state of panic and anxiety and very tiredness, and at the same time ordered the main force of the field army to hide in a convenient location and patiently wait for the fighters. Mr. Peng said, "If you jump again and again in the form of a large force of rollers, I will let you push and grind in circles while rolling, and lead you away as a little donkey."

Hu Zongnan's tens of thousands of troops flew everywhere, climbed up and down among countless mountain fruits, slept in the wilderness, nibbled on dry food, and exhausted their strength and suffering. Hu Zongnan judged that the main force of the Northwest Field Army had shifted to the north of Yan'an, so he concentrated the main force of 8 brigades to move to the northwest, and ordered the 135th Brigade, which remained at Wayaobao, to go south to respond in an attempt to attack from the north and south, and to destroy the Northwest Field Army north of Yan'an.

General Peng envisioned that if the main force of the enemy army in the south and north was drawn to the north of Panlong, our army could fight an ambush battle south of Wayao Fort and wipe out the enemy's 135th Brigade, which was planning to go south.

On the morning of 13 April, General Peng summoned the commanders of the columns and brigades to a meeting at the headquarters of the Field Army to study how to fight the battle. He said: "This is a battle of predators. Judging from the advance of the main enemy force, the 135th Brigade is likely to go south along the Wa (Kiln Fort) Pan (Long) Avenue. We must find it in this place before it can get closer to the main enemy force..." Peng Zong pointed to the Yangma River area south of The Wayao Fort on the map with a branch, and waved his left hand down forcefully, "Annihilate it in one fell swoop!" ”

At dawn on April 14, the units of our army arrived at their designated positions. At 8 o'clock, the enemy's 135th Brigade left The Wa Yao Fort and rushed along the highlands on both sides of the Wa Pan Avenue. At about 10 o'clock, the small detachment that served as a lure to the enemy with the Northwest Field Army received fire. The enemy troops advanced while fighting, and all of them entered the ambush area of our army north of the Yangma River. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire was loud, and our army descended like a divine soldier from heaven and pressed the enemy from all sides, but the enemy army could not advance forward and retreat, and could only urgently send Hu Zongnan to rescue.

Hu Zongnan urgently ordered all the troops to go to the rescue. But the enemy troops who arrived first were stubbornly overwhelmed by our reinforcements, and their dry eyes could not pass. By 4 p.m., more than 4,000 members of the enemy's 135th Brigade had all been annihilated. When General Manager Peng learned that the enemy's acting brigade commander had been captured by our army, he smiled and said, "At this moment, I will not want him to act as an agent." When the enemy rescue troops came to the Yangma River, they saw a miserable scene after the total destruction of another integrated brigade.

Three battles and three victories: the dragon attacks the bones

In late April, the Kuomintang troops reconnaissance from the air found that a group of ships were concentrated at the crossings of the Yellow River in the northeast direction of northern Shaanxi, and its headquarters concluded that "the CPC Central Committee and its main forces have begun to cross the Yellow River in the east one after another." To this end, Hu Zong's southern army was ordered to move rapidly north, and the Twenty-second Army moved south to respond, forming a situation of attacking from the north and the south, in an attempt to annihilate the CPC Central Committee and the Northwest Field Army on the banks of the Yellow River in one fell swoop.

Hu Zongnan, who was distressed by the loss of troops at the Yangma River, ordered Liu Jie and Dong Zhao to lead nine brigades to attack north from Panlong and Yongping on April 26.

In view of the movement of the enemy's main force, General Peng quickly drew up a battle plan to lure the enemy's main force north and take advantage of the false attack on the dragon. This plan was approved by Chairman Mao. General Manager Peng first devised the strategy of "widely dispatching the tiger away from the mountain", disguised as the main force with a part of the troops, retreated to the north, and deliberately discarded the armbands, symbols, and worn-out clothes of some troops along the way, creating illusions and luring the enemy's main force to speed up the north. Away from the town of Panlong.

The town of Panlong, northeast of Yan'an, is in a small basin surrounded by mountains, with steep terrain, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Hu Zongnan set up his front supply station here. After every "armed parade," Jiang Hujun had to come here to make supplies. The 167th Brigade of the defending enemy was the main force of Hu Zongnan, well-equipped, and with the high ground around Panlong, many bunker fortifications were built to form a solid defense system.

The attack on Panlong was the first offensive battle on the northwest battlefield. General Peng analyzed that when the Northwest Field Army attacked Panlong, the enemy troops heading north were bound to turn around and come back to help, but it would take three or four days to arrive at the earliest. The dragon must be defeated before enemy reinforcements arrive. He told the commanders of various units on many occasions: "If this battle is fought well, not only will we be able to eat one brigade of Hu Zongnan again, but we will also be able to obtain a large number of military supplies and replenish and improve our army's equipment and supplies."

He also repeatedly told the troops that Panlong had strong fortifications, and hu Zongnan's elite troops were serving as garrisons. If we eat two pieces of fat in the battle of Qinghua Andanghe, then the battle of Panlong must be prepared to gnaw on the bones. We must earnestly make all preparations for tackling tough problems and fighting hard battles, and we must never take the enemy lightly.

When the enemy's main force formed a phalanx of tens of miles and followed the false main force of the Northwest Field Army to the north, the field headquarters led by General Peng was stationed in a small mountain village called Xinzhuang on the edge of the enemy's phalanx. The reconnaissance kept sending 100,000 reports of the enemy's situation, saying that this place was only a few hills away from the enemy, only about a kilometer away, and could be attacked at any time by the release of troops. Mr. Peng said casually: "The enemy does not dare to come down the ravine, and he is afraid that we will fight him." He was still lying on the resistance, thinking about the plan and details of the battle to attack the dragon. After a while, the scout reported that the enemy was all over, and Mr. Peng jumped up from the pit and said loudly: "The road is facing the sky, and each side is halfway." The enemy is going north, we're going south. ”

On April 29, General Peng issued operational orders: the 1st Column, the 2nd Column's 4th Brigade, and the New 4th Brigade attacked Panlong, and the Instruction Brigade and the 359th Brigade respectively blocked the enemy from the north and south who might come to help. On 30 April, the Northwest Field Army surrounded the town of Panlong with lightning.

On May 1, heavy rains continued throughout the day, and the attack was postponed. On the afternoon of May 2, the rain stopped. General Peng ordered that dusk begin to attack!

Due to the lack of artillery cover, the fighting lasted until the next morning, and our army only captured some of the enemy's forward positions. The enemy shrank to the main position to resist, and our attacking troops really hit the hard bones.

General Peng ordered that the attacks should be stopped, and all units should convene military democratic meetings to mobilize commanders and fighters to offer ideas and suggestions. In accordance with the various effective methods put forward by everyone, General Manager Peng readjusted his deployment, improved his tactics, and launched a fierce attack on the enemy again.

On the afternoon of the 4th, it was already 3 o'clock, and Mr. Peng had not yet eaten lunch, still walking back and forth in front of the map, thinking. The comrades in the headquarters all know that whenever Peng was considering a major issue or the battle was not going well, he always frowned, did not speak, did not eat, did not sleep, and kept walking back and forth. At such a time, no one should disturb him.

In the evening, the sound of gunfire on the hill gradually subsided. The Second Column reported that the Fourth Brigade had completely occupied the enemy's main position on the hill. When the good news came, Peng Zong's brow suddenly stretched out. He hurriedly drafted a telegram to report the progress of the battle to the Party Central Committee, and at the same time issued an order to the troops to advance with victory and completely annihilate the enemy.

At this time, the Northwest Field Army was condescending and pounced on the enemy in the town of Panlong from the surrounding hills. At 12:00 midnight, all the enemies in the town were eliminated, and the battle of Panlong was victorious.

In this battle, more than 1,300 enemies were killed and wounded. Li Nigang, commander of the enemy's 167th Brigade, known as one of Hu Zongnan's "Four Great Kongs," and more than 6,700 officers and men were all taken prisoner. Weapons and ammunition, food, clothing and medicines captured during the fighting piled up.

Mr. Peng read the report on the results of the battle, threw the red and blue pencil in his hand on the Kang table, and hummed happily, the clever guards quickly brought hot dishes and rice. Mr. Peng waved his hand and said, "Okay, now it's time to eat."

The stupid Hu Zongnan originally thought that the dragon was indestructible, and it was not until May 4 that Li Kungang repeatedly called for help, and he ordered Liu Jiedong Zhao to go south to rescue him. It's too late. When enemy reinforcements arrived on May 8, Panlong was already an empty city.

On May 8, a Xinhua reporter wrote such an oil poem in the article "Commenting on the Great Victory of The Dragon": "Hu Man Hu Is Not Useful, and the Yanyu Highway cannot be beaten." Lost the dragon lost Suide, a trip two empty. Six thousand officers and men were taken prisoner, and nine and a half brigades were like bears. It hurt Yulin Deng Baoshan, not up and down in mid-air. ”

Only one and a half months after the Party Central Committee withdrew from Yan'an, the Northwest Field Army, under the condition that the enemy was strong and we were weak, and the balance of forces was very different, it won three great victories in the battles of Qinghua, Yangmahe, and Panlong, annihilating more than 17,000 enemy troops. This not only stabilized the war situation in northern Shaanxi, greatly encouraged the confidence of the military and people in northern Shaanxi in victory, and also laid the foundation for winning future victories.