By 1948, the balance of the war had tilted in the direction of the CCP, and the KMT had reached the end of its rope. However, there were still more than 400,000 troops on hu zongnan's side in the northwest region, trying to make a dying struggle.
Peng Laozong, commander-in-chief of the Northwest Field Army, repeatedly considered starting from the 36th Division of "Zhong Song who could not die" or not.
Zhong Song's 36th Division is no longer the previous 36th Division, and since the old 36th Division was annihilated by our army at Shajiadian, Hu Zongnan, in order to save face, ordered Zhong Song, who had returned from defeat on the battlefield, to reorganize a 36th Division under the name of the 36th Division, with jurisdiction over the 28th Brigade, the 165th Brigade, the 123rd Brigade, and the division's direct subordinate units.
In July 1948, Zhong Song led the new 36th Division into Hutishan. He ordered the 28th Brigade to occupy the position on the left at Weiqiao, Fengyuan, and Hutishan in Chengcheng; the 165th Brigade to occupy the position on the right, on the east side of Huti Mountain and east to Xiongcun and Liuzhuang; the division's direct subordinate unit was located in Dongliu Village, about 3 miles south of Huti Mountain; and the 123rd Brigade was the division reserve.
The brigade commander of the 28th Brigade was Li Gui, a native of Xinhua County, Hunan Province. He was the cousin of Li Wen, deputy commander of the North China "Suppression General" and commander of the Beiping City Defense. After graduating from the special training class of the Northwest Wartime Cadre Training Corps, he was admitted to the sixth phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, and successively served as a platoon commander and company commander of the 10th Division of the 4th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, a military training instructor and battalion commander of Fudan University in Shanghai, a deputy regimental commander of the Supplementary 1st Regiment of the 90th Army, the commander of the 82nd Regiment of the 28th Division of the 90th Army, the commander of the Heavy Regiment, the deputy commander of the 28th Division, the deputy brigade commander of the reorganized 28th Brigade, and the major general headquarters of the Northwest Officers Headquarters. In 1948, he was appointed brigade commander of the 28th Brigade of the reorganized 36th Division.
However, Zhong Song did not know that the brigade commander under his command, dissatisfied with reality, had joined the "Three People's Comrades Federation", that is, the underground party of the Kuomintang.
On August 8, 1948, our Northwest Field Army launched an attack in the direction of Huti Mountain with the strength of four columns.
Li Gui's 28th Brigade served as a garrison for the main position at Huti Mountain. In accordance with the arrangements of the Cpc and the Kuomintang Revolutionary Organization, when the main force of the Northwest Field Army attacked Huti Mountain, he shut down the radio station and retreated ahead of schedule, resulting in heavy losses to Zhong Song's division and the loss of Huti Mountain. Zhong Song led the reorganized 36th Division to retreat to Yangjiawa, and the reorganized 28th Brigade was withdrawn to the line from Tahulin to Lujing, but the 28th Division withdrew to Chengcheng, 20 kilometers away, resulting in Zhong Song's troops being annihilated 9,800 people at Yangjiawo, Major General Zhu Xia being killed, Major General Zhang Xianjue, Major General Gao Shan Li Xiu, and Major General Regiment Commander Chen Dingyi being captured, and even Ma Guorong, the leader of the Ninth Group of Field Observation sent by the Ministry of National Defense, was also captured, and only Zhong Song, who had rich experience in escaping and "could not die", escaped again at a critical juncture.
In this battle, due to Li Zhi's early retreat, the 36th Division was annihilated by our army by two-thirds. Such a defeat made Hu Zongnan lose face. On August 25, hu Zongnan, who was in a state of rage, led a large number of senior staff members, including the chief of staff of the Xi'an Sui Bureau, Shen Ce, deputy chief of staff, and a large number of senior staff members, including the chief of staff, the chief of the operations section, the chief of the intelligence section, and the chief of the adjutant officers, as well as a law enforcement team, a prison cart, handcuffs, leg shackles, and other weapons, to Dali in a murderous spirit.
At the review meeting, Hu Zongnan rebuked Li Gui for not sticking to the main position of Huti Mountain, nor obeying the order to relieve the siege of Liu Jia'ou, and retreated his troops more than 20 kilometers without authorization; in the emergency situation of the division's front line combat, he did not send reinforcements to attack, affecting the entire war situation, and handed Li Gui over to the military law for trial, and on the spot announced that he would be executed three days later.
In the text, the author also explained that Li Wen, Li Gui's cousin, was Hu Zongnan's Huangpu classmate, and he was also the deputy commander of the North China "Suppression General" and the commander of the Beiping City Defense, and after the news reached his cousin Li Wen, Li Wen immediately called and asked Hu Zongnan to look at li Gui in the face of his old classmates. In addition, the various ways of talking and pasting have also come, and Hu Zongnan, under pressure from all sides, can only withdraw his life and transfer it to a military court for trial.
Before the trial in the military court, Li Zhi defected to Yan'an three months later due to the vigorous rescue efforts of our party and the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee.
After defecting to the revolution, Li Gui successively served as deputy director of the Xi'an Municipal Sports Committee of Shaanxi Province, chairman of the Xi'an Municipal Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, vice chairman of the Xi'an Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, member of the Standing Committee of the Xi'an Municipal People's Congress, member of the Central Unity Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and adviser to the Huangpu Alumni Association of Shaanxi Province, and enjoyed his old age in peace.