After the Liaoshen Campaign began, Jinzhou became the focus of attention of both the enemy and us. If our army can conquer Jinzhou, it can cut off the retreat route of hundreds of thousands of nationalist troops in the northeast and annihilate them on the spot. Of course, Chiang Kai-shek also saw this, and in order to ensure Jinzhou, on the one hand, he encouraged fan Hanjie, the defender of Jinzhou, and asked him to stand firm and wait for help; on the other hand, he mobilized heavy troops to form two reinforcement corps in the east and west, in a vain attempt to fight a decisive battle with our army in the Jinzhou area.
At that time, the enemy in Jinzhou was commanded by the 93rd Army, 2 divisions of the New 8th Army, 1 division of the New 6th Army, and 1 division of the New 6th Army, as well as special forces and logistics units, commanded by Fan Hanjie, deputy commander of the Northeast "Suppression Army"; the Dongjin Corps aiding Jinzhou was 11 divisions commanded by Hou Jingru, commander of the 17th Corps; Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the Ninth Corps, led another 11 divisions to form the Westward Advance Corps. Chiang Kai-shek vainly tried to counter-encircle our army in an east-west manner. In order to cope with the enemy's deployment, the head of our Eastern Field mobilized 6 columns with a total of 250,000 troops to besiege Jinzhou, and at the same time sent some main forces to block the enemy's reinforcements in the Tashan and Xinlitun areas.
On October 9, the Battle of Jinzhou was officially launched, and after four days of hard fighting, our siege troops cleared the periphery and launched a general offensive against Jinzhou on the 14th. With the cooperation of 500 cannons, the Jinzhou city wall was quickly blasted open several gaps, and the troops immediately invaded the urban area and engaged in street battles with the enemy, and after a day of fierce fighting, the jinzhou defenders were completely annihilated, and Fan Hanjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the northeast "Suppression General", Lu Junquan, commander of the Sixth Corps, and Sheng Jiaxing, commander of the 93rd Army, were captured.
In order to prevent fish from slipping through the net, after the battle, the troops carried out a rigorous search according to the demarcated area. At this time, the masses came to report that there was another big enemy figure in the city, who was said to be a deputy commander-in-chief. Led by the crowd, the warriors went to a large mansion and went inside to see an old man in his 60s directing his retinue to pack up his belongings, seemingly preparing to flee. The soldiers immediately stepped forward to control him, and the old man was very calm, saying that his name was Zhang Zuoxiang, and he was indeed the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast Suppression.
Catching a big man who was about to slip through the net, the warriors were happy, and then reported the situation step by step. Soon after, the military chief came, criticized the soldiers in front of the old man, and took the old man to the military headquarters, and not long after, the chief of Lin Luo also arrived, and they not only apologized to the old man, but also personally sent someone to escort him to Tianjin. So why does our army hold Zhang Zuoxiang so highly? It turned out that this man was not only Zhang Zuolin's brother-in-law, but also a close friend of our party; although he hung the name of deputy commander-in-chief in the enemy camp, he secretly did a lot of important work for our army, and his second son also held an important position in the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The warriors did not know who Zhang Zuoxiang was, but the chief knew what he knew, so he treated him with courtesy and sent someone to escort him to Tianjin.