In mid-January 1947, in order to eliminate the main force of Huaye, Lao Chiang mobilized the strength of 23 integrated divisions to launch the "Battle of Lunan". In order to show the importance attached to this battle, Chen Cheng, then chief of staff of the Nationalist Army, personally took command, and these hundreds of thousands of troops were organized into a number of assault groups, of which 8 reorganized divisions commanded by Ou Zhen, commander of the reorganized 19th Army, were the main attack groups, and the target was Linyi, the capital of the Central China Liberated Area.
Despite the absolute superiority of troops, Chen Cheng was still not at ease, and for the sake of safety, he ordered Wang Yaowu to dispatch three armies from the "Second Appeasement Zone" to the south, so that the north and south could attack and eliminate the main force of Huaye in one fell swoop. Wang Yaowu's troops were already insufficient, and now Chen Cheng wanted him to take out three armies to participate in the battle, so he was very dissatisfied in his heart, but he did not dare to disobey. Therefore, he handed over the 12th, 46th, and 73rd Armies to his deputy commander Li Xianzhou, who led his troops south.
Before leaving, Wang Yaowu repeatedly told Li Xianzhou to watch more and walk slowly, and not to rush too hard and be ambushed by the People's Liberation Army. Li Xianzhou graduated from the first phase of Huangpu, Wang Yaowu only graduated in the third term, as his own little master and disciple as a deputy, Li Xianzhou was originally dissatisfied in his heart, and now when he saw Wang Yaowu so afraid of his head and tail, he looked down on him even more. Therefore, after leading his troops out of Jinan, he ran wildly and occupied Laiwu, Mengyin and Xintai successively. At this time, because the nationalist troops on the southern front were too dense, our army had no fighters to find for a while, and Li Xianzhou on the northern front broke through alone and became the best target for annihilating the enemy.
Su Yu keenly seized this fighter, stayed in Linyi with the 2nd and 3rd columns, and posed a posture of fighting Chen Cheng, but the main force secretly went north and directly attacked Li Xianzhou, and finally surrounded Li's troops of more than 50,000 people in Laiwu. Only then did Li Xianzhou regret not listening to Wang Yaowu's advice. Since Laiwu had very little grain in reserve, it was impossible to hold on, so Li Xianzhou decided to lead his troops to break through to the north, meet the 12th Army at Tusikou, and then retreat to Jinan in a group.
At about 11:00 a.m. on February 23, 1947, more than 50,000 people from LiBu came to the Gaojiawa area, which was less than ten kilometers away from the Mouth of The Silk, and Li Xianzhou grew a breath and thought that he would be able to get out of danger immediately. Unexpectedly, at this moment, suddenly the guns fired in unison, and the 1st, 4th, and 8th columns of Huaye came out from all sides, encircling the enemy. Li Xianzhou led his troops to resist stubbornly, and on the other hand, he ordered the 12th Army in Tusikou to quickly reinforce. The 12th Army had already been seriously injured by the blows of our Huaye 6 Column before, and this time it was again blocked by the strong resistance of the 9th Column as soon as it was launched.
Because he could not win the main offensive task, the commander of the 9th Column, Nie Fengzhi, had already suppressed a stomach fire, at this time he saw the enemy 12th Army moving, immediately ordered the troops to rush and fight, and quickly repelled the enemy. At this time, Li Xianzhou's troops had been defeated by our army, and the enemy troops were fleeing everywhere in the mountains. Nie Fengzhi immediately led the main force of the column to pursue and suppress the remnants of the enemy, and captured the commander of the Kuomintang 46th Army in one fell swoop, all of which were American weapons and equipment, and their combat effectiveness was strong, and they were a trump card in Wang Yaowu's hands. I didn't expect to be able to catch a big fish, and Nie Fengzhi was happy.
However, just as he was about to interrogate the commander, he received a call from Commander Chen Yi of Huaye. Chen Yi not only did not praise Nie Fengzhi, but also scolded him angrily, and said, "That military commander, don't talk about the name, let him go immediately!" Although Nie Fengzhi did not understand this, he still carried out the order. It was not until he was awarded the title in 1955 that he learned that the military commander who was captured by himself 8 years ago was named Han Liancheng, which Jiang Weiguo called "the longest and most dangerous co-spy who hid around the old president."
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