On New Year's Day 1949, Liu Xianquan, commander of the 114th Division of the 38th Army of the Fourth Field Army (who became the founding major general in 1955), suddenly received a notice to go to the military headquarters for a meeting.
Deputy Division Commander Cao Canzhang (awarded the rank of major general in 1955 and promoted to major general in 1961) knew that this meeting must be to discuss the battle plan to fight Tianjin, and he stopped Liu Xianquan and deliberately joked: "Division commander, you must not drop the chain when you go this time!" ”
"What chain did you drop?" Liu Xianquan pretended not to understand.
"What chains can be dropped?" You know in your heart that if you can't win the main combat mission this time in Tianjin, then your division commander can..."
"Then my division commander is too incompetent, right?" Liu Xianquan smiled and said, "You can rest assured, this time I will win the main combat mission no matter what!" ”
In fact, Liu Xianquan has always been a very calm commander, but he knew that the commanders and fighters of the 114th Division were eager to fight, so as soon as he arrived at the military headquarters, he said to the commander Li Tianyou (who was awarded the rank of general in 1955): "Commander, don't leave us aside in this battle!" ”
Li Tianyou glanced at him, "When did you hang out?" Do you want to nibble on the bones or do you want to eat meat? ”
Liu Xianquan didn't know how to answer, so he had to say: "It's okay to gnaw on bones, and it's okay to eat meat, as long as you don't let us sit idle." ”
After the operational meeting began, Li Tianyou and other military leaders really pointed out that they really wanted to fight Tianjin this time, but when it came to the link of assigning combat tasks, Liu Xianquan was dumbfounded.
Originally, Liu Yalou, commander-in-chief of the Tianjin front, had decided that the 112nd And 113rd Divisions of the 38th Army would be responsible for the main attack, while the 114th Division and the 128th Division of the 43rd Army would serve as reserves.
Liu Xianquan was anxious: "Commander, didn't you say that we would let the 114th Division gnaw on bones and eat meat?" Why let us be the reserve team again? ”
Li Tianyou said solemnly: "You must understand that this battle is different from the past, the enemy's fortifications in Tianjin are extremely strong, and for this reason, he has bragged about the 'great Tianjin fortress'. The main task of the reserve team is to enter the city for in-depth combat after the main attack troops have opened the breakthrough, which is a very difficult task, which is equivalent to letting you gnaw the hardest bones! ”
"Got it!" Liu Xianquan smiled embarrassedly, "As long as I can chew on the bone, I'll go back to the job!" ”
January 14 was the day when our army launched a general offensive against the enemy in Tianjin. In the early morning of this day, Liu Xianquan led the whole division to the designated position in accordance with the pre-war deployment and was hiddenly on standby in the area of Li Jia Tomb and Hada Camp.
At 9:00 a.m., the general offensive battle officially began, and the military command post constantly reported on the battle situation. By 12:00 noon, the two assault divisions had successfully opened a breakthrough of more than 700 meters wide, indicating that the battle was advancing much more smoothly than expected.
However, what made Liu Xianquan, Cao Canzhang, and others more and more anxious was that the military department never mentioned anything about the reserve in several briefings.
Seeing that the brother troops were all marching in high spirits and constantly expanding their achievements, Liu Xianquan could no longer bear it and went straight to the military command post to ask for a task.
However, the commander of the army, Li Tianyou, deliberately ignored Liu Xianquan, and it was not until the sun was west that Li Tianyou said to Liu Xianquan: "The assault division has been stubbornly resisted by the enemy in the waterworks area, and now it is up to your reserve force to go up and destroy the enemy's Eighty-sixth Army south of the Central Plains Company!" ”
Liu Xianquan was overjoyed: "Good! I'll arrange it right away! ”
Subsequently, Liu Xianquan immediately rushed to his command post and followed the 341st Regiment south from Xiguan Avenue to the front line to command the battle.
As the battle unfolded in full swing, good news kept coming from the regiments.
The 341st Regiment conquered several fortresses such as haiguang temple and 44 hospital where the enemy was stationed, and when it rushed into a building, it found that it was a division headquarters of the enemy's 86th Army.
Li Changrong, the squad leader of the 8th Company of the 342nd Regiment, fought the most resolutely and charged the hardest, and even rushed into a compound alone, forcing all the more than 800 enemies in the courtyard to surrender their weapons and surrender, setting a record for the 38th Army to capture the enemy alone.
Sun Hongdao, the commander of the 340 Regiment, personally led a battalion to attack Yuehua Middle School, an important support point for the enemy, and without continuous blasting or artillery bombardment, it took less than three hours to annihilate all the defenders, capture wang Zhixi, the commander of the Kuomintang Major General Division, alive, and let the educational facility of Yuehua Middle School be well preserved.
Subsequently, the fifth company of the second battalion of the regiment attacked the Haihe Bridge with a single blow and destroyed all the enemies in a building at the head of the bridge.
To Liu Xianquan's great delight, when the troops were inspecting the prisoners in this building, they found a basement in which two big figures were hidden: One was Lin Weili, commander of the Kuomintang 62nd Army, and the other was Liu Yunhan, commander of the Kuomintang 86th Army and deputy commander of the Tianjin Garrison Command, and a large number of weapons, ammunition, cars and other booty were also captured.
When Liu Xianquan reported the good news that the 114th Division had seized the two commanders of the enemy army at a time and reported it to the military commander, Li Tianyou laughed loudly: "Good you Liu Xianquan, your 114th Division has not only gnawed off the hard bones, but also ate big fat meat, this time you should be satisfied, right?" ”
Liu Xianquan also laughed and said, "Satisfied! satisfied! So satisfied! ”