Nie Fengzhi was the most prominent of the founding lieutenant generals.
General Nie was not tall and had a mediocre appearance, and in the Liberation War, he took 9 columns and fought many famous battles. Many of the battles he commanded were written into literary and film works, such as "Southern Expedition to the North", "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River", "Battle of Shanghai", and "Long Sky And Wings".
In the Battle of Jinan, the main commander was Xu Shiyou, but Nie Fengzhi's role was crucial and even affected the course of the campaign.
By the middle of 1948, on all battlefields across the country, the PLA had changed from strategic defense to strategic offensive. At this time, most of the whole territory of Shandong was in the hands of our army, and only the provincial capital Jinan City was occupied by the Nationalist army. The garrison was about 110,000 men. The defending general was the famous Wang Yaowu.
Wang Yaowu was by no means an idle man among the Kuomintang generals, and he was the commander of the Kuomintang 74th Army (reorganized 74th Division). At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Yaowu was the commander of the 51st Division of the 74th Army, and he led his troops to participate in the defense of Shanghai, and then participated in the defense of Wuhan, sniping at the Japanese army in De'an, Jiangxi, and inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese Kou, then known as the "Great Victory of De'an".
In the Battle of Shanggao, Wang Yaowu, commander of the 74th Army, led his troops to withstand the Japanese offensive at Shanggao County, north of Xiapi Bridge, among which the officers and men of the 58th Division of the 74th Army commanded by Zhang Lingfu suffered heavy casualties, and Wang Yaowu once ordered to "hold on to the last person". And personally rushed to the forefront to command the battle. After the battle, the 74th Army was awarded the "Flying Tiger Banner", and Wang Yaowu and Zhang Lingfu were commended.
At that time, the famous anti-war generals in Shandong were said to be "three Li and one king", the three Li were Li Xianzhou, Li Yannian, and Li Yutang, and the first king was Wang Yaowu. There is a saying that "three plums are not as good as one king", which shows Wang Yaowu's military ability.
In September 1948, Huaye decided to take Jinan Province and liberate all of Shandong. Concentrate 180,000 troops to provide reinforcements, and form four groups with troops such as the 3rd Column and the 10th Column. Five groups were formed with 9 columns and 13 columns, with a total of 140,000 troops fighting in Jinan, unified under the command of Xu Shiyou, commander of the Shandong Corps, Tan Zhenlin, political commissar, and Wang Jian'an, deputy commander.
It is really a famous general against a famous general, and a fierce battle is imminent.
At this time, Nie Fengzhi was promoted to commander of the 9th Column for exactly one year.
At 12:00 midnight on September 16, the siege troops received Xu Shiyou's general offensive order.
On the eve of the attack on Jinan, almost all the generals believed that it was necessary to capture such a strong, 110,000 people, and a strategic place occupied by Wang Yaowu for two or three months.
Nie Fengzhi did not think otherwise, he said, in 15 to 20 days, you can conquer Jinan.
The generals laughed and said that he did not know the height of the sky. Guo Huaruo, deputy commander of the 6th Column, an expert in military theory who later served as vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences, poured a cup of boiling water and brought it to Nie Fengzhi, laughing: "Brother Nie, Takami, toast you with a cup of tea." ”
The battle began, and at this time, the task given to Nie Fengzhi 9 column by his superiors was "assist". But Nie Fengzhi made a big stroke of the pen, that is, changed the task to "main attack".
On the eastern front, the 9th column first broke through from the south side of the east gate, and one company landed on the head of the city, because the follow-up troops did not catch up, and the company that landed on the city had to fight alone and fight with the enemy's white blade. However, in the end, because they were outnumbered, and the Kuomintang defenders were also extremely tenacious, all of this company was sacrificed. The 74th Regiment of the 25th Division of the 9th Column braved the enemy's bullet rain and attacked three times in a row, all of which were defeated.
On the western front, Zhou Zhijian's 13th Column 37th Division successively attacked the head of the city with two battalions, and was frantically counterattacked by the enemy, most of which suffered casualties, and the breakthrough was reoccupied by the enemy.
The rest of the columns encountered stubborn resistance from the enemy when they attacked, and failed to open the breakthrough.
At this time, the Nationalist army took advantage of its air superiority to indiscriminately bombard our positions day and night, and our attacking troops were completely exposed to enemy fire.
Our troops have been fighting for seven days and seven nights, and have not been rested or replenished, and the casualties of each column are very large. Some leaders believe that we should take a break for a while, readjust our deployment, and fight again.
Xu Shiyou resolutely disagreed with the idea of resting and urging him to continue the attack without stopping. He held that our army has great difficulties and the enemy's difficulties are even greater, depending on whose determination is stronger than whom, and victory is often won in the last five minutes!
Xu Shiyou's opinion was also strongly supported by political commissar Tan Zhenlin.
However, the key is to look at the siege troops. Xu Shiyou called Nie Fengzhi of the 9th column and Zhou Zhijian of the 13th column respectively to ask for their opinions.
Nie Fengzhi and Zhou Zhijian saw that their troops had suffered heavy casualties and were very distressed, and they originally wanted to withdraw. The two agreed to get Commander Xu to take the initiative to withdraw, and Zhou Zhijian pushed Nie Fengzhi to come forward. At this moment, Xu Shiyou called to solicit opinions, and Nie Fengzhi could hear that Commander Xu's solicitation of opinions was actually to call the following "resolute attack", so he had to say with a hard head: We are organizing forces, preparing to attack the city again, and are determined to attack before dawn!
Nie Fengzhi's decisive answer made Xu Shiyou finally make a final decision, and also decided the course of the Jinan Campaign.
On the 23rd, the 9th Column, the 13th Column and other units launched another charge. The 73rd Regiment of the 9th Column 25th Division, after three surprise attacks, was still not discouraged, and finally in the early morning of the 24th, it first burst to the head of Jinan City, and this regiment was later awarded the title of "Jinan First Regiment".
At 17:00 on the 24th, Jinan was liberated. More than 84,000 enemy soldiers were killed or wounded in battle, and Wang Yaowu and 34 subordinate general-level officers were also captured.
On the day of the conquest of Jinan, Xu Shiyou called Nie Fengzhi and said, "You did a good job in fighting Jinan this time!" Xu Shiyou's rule of the army has always been very strict, and it is easy not to praise people, and Nie Fengzhi has been fighting with him for 18 years, which is the first time he has received praise from him.