Fu Zuoyi "Tiger Head Division"
Meet Zheng Weishan's "Night Tiger"
Tragic
Shijiazhuang was captured by Zheng Weishan, and old Jiang was furious
On November 26, 1947, the elder Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Beiping, and in a fit of rage, he abolished the two appeasement offices of Baoding and Zhangjiakou, established the headquarters of the "suppression of bandits" in North China, and appointed Fu Zuoyi as the commander-in-chief.
Fu Zuoyi is naturally not a vegetarian, although he is not Huangpu Sheng, nor is he an old Jiang Concubine, but he is a veteran of the battlefield. As soon as he took office, he began to line up troops, and he divided the 7 armies and 52 integrated divisions under his jurisdiction into 3 corps, and unified command against the 3 field columns in the Jin-Cha-Ji base area.
Fu Zuoyi asked the adjutant next to him, "Which unit is fighting here?" Who is the commander? ”
The adjutant replied: "3 columns, the commander is Zheng Weishan."
"Is Zheng Weishan the same person who served as a garrison commander in Zhangjiakou a year ago?"
"It's him"
"This man is good at mountain warfare and night warfare, known as the "Night Tiger", this is the plain and it is daytime to see how he fights"
The Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region also studied and deployed local troops, and increased the field troops from 3 columns to 4 columns. At this time, Lin Biao in the northeast began to counterattack, and Chiang Kai-shek ordered Fu Zuoyi to send troops out of the customs to support. The Central Military Commission ordered Nie Rongzhen's forces in Jinchaji to drag Fu Zuoyi.
Field Command Yang Chengwu suggested: "Let the 3 columns go up"
Yang Dezhi said: "This time let him be a reserve team"
Luo Ruiqing agreed.
Yang Dezhi ordered all the troops to attack Baoding, and the 3 columns were hidden and standby.
The attacking troops attacked the city all the way, and Fu Zuoyi could not sit still, and sent 4 armies to slowly move south. Since then, the north has been empty, and the opportunity is rare. Yang Dezhi ordered the attacking troops to stop attacking Baoding and instead attack Xiongxian and Baxian to the east, and the 3 columns attacked laishui in the north, and the other troops all moved closer to the 3rd column to respond.
Zheng Weishan considered that Laishui County belonged to a famous historical and cultural city, and did not plan to attack the city by shelling. It was planned to draw the defenders out of the city and settle the battle outside the city.
On January 11, 1948, night fell, and the defenders of the 3 vertical positions outside the city launched an attack, but they did not think that the defenders would collapse into the city without fighting, and they would collapse into the city and not come out.
Zheng Weishan's plan failed, so he had to order the battle to be stopped and find another way. The next morning, a rare fog enveloped the position, and nothing could be seen. Suddenly, there was a dense sound of gunfire and explosions from the southeast, and Zheng Weishan asked, "What is the situation?" The staff officer quickly called and asked, the 9th Brigade reported: "An enemy rushed over to attack the Juma River Bridge, what kind of enemy does not listen, it may be a vigilante group"
Zheng Weishan instructed: "Solve it quickly, don't affect the fight of a big battle"
Soon, the 9th Brigade called again, saying that the position of the Juma River Bridge had been lost, and Zheng Weishan wondered, can the militia regiment have such a strong combat effectiveness? Find out quickly!
Still not at ease, Zheng Weishan personally grabbed the phone and called Chen Fangren, the commander of the 9th Brigade: "Brigadier Chen! Beaten for half a day, do not know who the other party is? ”
Chen Fangren was criticized, and quickly let people arrest several prisoners, and when he saw that all the captives had the "Tiger Head" logo on their left arms and helmets, they were surprised: "It turned out to be the Tiger Head Division!"
The Kuomintang 35th Army was Fu Zuoyi's concubine, starting as a unit, well-equipped and strong in combat effectiveness, of which the 32nd Division was known as the "Tiger Head Division", which was good at attacking, and the flags, clothing, helmets, badges, equipment, and vehicles were all printed with the "Tiger Head" logo.
Knowing that Fu Zuoyi's "Tiger Head Master" had arrived, Zheng Weishan was excited and energetic, and finally the big fish came. Although the Tiger Head Division was powerful, it only had the strength of one division, and it was a lone army, while Zheng Weishan had 3 brigades of troops, which occupied an absolute advantage, and had already sharpened his knife.
Zheng Weishan made a decisive decision to postpone the attack on Laishui and solve the "Tiger Head Division" first. The report was called to Noji and was quickly approved.
Taking advantage of the heavy fog, Zheng Weishan lined up his troops to quietly surround the "Tiger Head Division" and requested the 1st column and the 2nd Column to block the reinforcements behind the TigerHead Division, so that the "Tiger Head Division" became a real lone army.
Yang Dezhi learned of the situation and said, "The enemy is interspersing so quickly!" Immediately issued instructions, ordering Zheng Weishan to fight with confidence, and to use two columns of 2 and 4 to contain and block possible reinforcements.
Indeed, the sneak attack was Fu Zuoyi's best trick, and he wanted to take advantage of the fog to launch a surprise attack on the 3rd Column.
Zheng Weishan ordered the 9th Brigade to quickly seize the Juma River Bridge and cut off the contact between the "Tiger Head Division" and the Nationalist troops on the other side. However, the commander of the "Tiger Head Division" did not think so, believing that the Juma River had frozen and could be passed freely, and that it was of little significance to occupy the bridge. So there is no fierce competition. But Zheng Weishan understood that no matter how thick the ice on the river surface was, it only needed a few shells.
At the same time, he also ordered the troops to send a small force to constantly harass the "Tiger Head Division", make small fights, run away as soon as they hit, and did not allow the use of heavy weapons, so they tossed and turned all night.
Whenever the "Tiger Head Division" harassed, it returned fire with heavy weapons, and the guns and cannons fired in unison, and anyway, the fog was too big to see, it could not be hit, and the ammunition was wasted in vain. They also thought that Zheng Weishan's troops were not beaten.
However, such tactics, the soldiers at the bottom did not agree, and the direct charge of the temperament was quickly injured, and there were many casualties. The wounded were quickly carried off the battlefield, and someone in the darkness asked, "How come I was wounded so much?"
Only to see someone reply: "What a battle this fight is!" There were so many casualties before it started, and it was said that it was a tiger general, and I think it was a cat licking food."
Political Commissar Hu Yaobang heard this and joked: "Commander Zheng, our soldiers are of a high level, and they have seen through your plan."
Zheng Weishan said, "I'm afraid Fu Zuoyi is still in the dark."
"Cat licking food" is a strategy, many soldiers do not understand, Hu Yaobang quickly ordered, ordering the troops to strictly implement the order, there must be no mistakes!
By 5 o'clock in the morning, it was almost dawn, and the ammunition of the "Tiger Head Division" was almost exhausted. Zheng Weishan ordered: "Fight!"
60 artillery pieces were fired in unison, and after 20 minutes of shelling, the tanks and cannons of the "Tiger Head Division" were blown over, and then the gun heads were turned to fire on the river surface, and the ice surface of the Juma River shattered, and it was no longer possible to cross the river from the ice.
All the troops of the 3rd Column rushed to the "Tiger Head Division" in the encirclement circle, and fought with the absolute superiority of troops, and the two sides were strong enemies of each other, and the battle was extremely tragic and tragic!
After dawn, everyone was stunned by the scene in front of them, 72 PLA bayonets and 72 "Tiger Head Division" soldiers stabbed into each other's chests at the same time, and 98 PLA cadres above the platoon level were killed. Locals built tombstones here, known as the tomb of the "Seventy-two Heroes" and the tomb of the "Ninety-Eight Generals".
However, at that time, an officer of the "Tiger Head Division" hid in the vegetable cellar and was able to escape, and later he followed the Kuomintang to Taiwan. In 1988, he made a special trip back from Taiwan to the place where they had fought, burning paper and incense to remember the dead, but the local villagers told him a message:
After the great battle, Zheng Weishan and Hu Yaobang ordered the 3rd Column to clean the soldiers of the "Tiger Head Division," that is, the heroic sacrifice of the Kuomintang 32nd Division, one by one, and then bury them on the spot wrapped in white cloth. After the veteran listened, tears filled his eyes.
The "Tiger Head Division" met the "Night Tiger", and the tragedy can be imagined.
In this battle, the 94th Regiment of the "Tiger Head Division" was annihilated, and the reserve unit was also annihilated, and the division commander Li Mingding panicked and sent his chief of staff Wang Huanxuan to ask for help from Lu Yinglu, commander of the 35th Army. Because the ice on the river surface was broken, it was impossible to cross the river, Lu Yinglu only gave a company of troops, and Wang Huanxuan broke out and scolded: "A company is a fart."
Li Mingding, who was surrounded by the regiment, asked Fu Zuoyi for help again, and Fu Zuoyi replied: "Stick to help, the planes and cavalry will arrive soon!"
The plane did come, but the ground fog was too big to see the enemy and us, so we threw some bombs and ran away.
The kuomintang new cavalry 4th Division did come, but the river could not cross, can only take the bridge to attack, Zheng Weishan sent more than 20 machine guns to strafe together, the cavalry fell piece by piece, and could not break through.
In addition, the encirclement and annihilation of the "Tiger Head Division" was also accelerated, and the scope was gradually reduced, and finally the "Iron and Steel First Battalion" of the 23rd Regiment of the People's Liberation Army rushed into the headquarters of the "Tiger Head Division". The remnants of the Kuomintang troops began to flee, and the division commander Li Mingding still held a small banner to command the artillery to stubbornly resist, resulting in a shell exploding around him, and Li Mingding was killed on the spot.
In this battle, all the "Tiger Head Divisions" were annihilated, and all but two companies were spared across the river. The commander of the 35th Army, Lu Yinglu, was also besieged and asked Fu Zuoyi for help, but Fu ignored him, and Lu committed suicide.
Fu Zuoyi was grief-stricken, the ace troops, the division commander was killed, and the commander committed suicide.