In early 1947, after Peng Dehuai led the Northwest Field Army to win three battles and three victories in northern Shaanxi, Hu Zongnan and other units did not dare to easily attack and fight a sports war with Xiye, and Hu Zongnan also knew that playing sports warfare with Xiye would sooner or later be exhausted, and the battles that had been fought for several days were not only played by Peng Dehuai, but also the rear strongholds were secretly attacked by the Northwest Field Army, so they shrank in various important towns.
In July 1947, the central authorities instructed Peng Dehuai's Northwest Field Army to attract Hu Zongnan's army to northern Shaanxi, because the Chen Geng Corps of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army was preparing to cross the Yellow River and open up the Eyu-Shaanxi base area. It must be very difficult to attract Hu Zongnan's heavy troops, and a simple raid is certainly useless, Peng Dehuai has selected a target, and fighting there will definitely lead Hu Zongnan out.
First of all, let's look at the important geographical location of Yulin, which is located in the border area between Shaanxi and the outer Mongolian region of Serbia and is an important stronghold for the Kuomintang to intercept the People's Liberation Army in northern Shaanxi. If Yulin is occupied by the Northwest Field Army, then the Northwest Field Army will have a large area of depth in the north and have no worries, so Chiang Kai-shek cannot sit idly by and ignore Yulin's gains and losses.
On August 6, 1947, the Northwest Field Army launched an attack on the outskirts of Yulin, besieging Yulin City on the 7th and attacking the city on the 10th. Due to the strong walls, the Northwest Field Army lacked artillery support. In addition, Yulin had the main force of Deng Baoshan's 22nd Army and the 28th Brigade of the 36th Division in the city at that time, with a total of more than 15,000 people. Therefore, after many days of fierce fighting, the Northwest Field Army failed to conquer Yulin.
Although Yulin was unsuccessful in attacking the stronghold, hu Zongnan's main force was finally mobilized. Hu Zongnan ordered the reorganized 1st Division, the reorganized 90th Division, the reorganized 36th Division, and the 12th And 55th Brigade to advance in the direction of Suide, after which the reorganized 1st Division was left to garrison Suide, while the rest of the main force, under the leadership of Liu Jie, commander of the 29th Army, advanced to Jia County, preparing for reinforcements east of Yulin. Zhong Song led two brigades of the reorganized 36th Division across the Wuding River, when Peng Dehuai asked Luo Yuanfa to lead the teaching brigade to Hengshan to prepare to intercept Zhong Song's troops.
(The entire Thirty-sixth Division under the command of Zhong Songqi, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, was stationed in the Luochuan area for a long time, and constantly harassed the Guanzhong and Yanzhi sub-districts, and at that time, in order to take care of the united front, our side tolerated it many times, thus fueling the arrogance of the division, so at the beginning of the outbreak of the civil war, the unit was extremely arrogant.) Zhong Song also said that "the communist army can eat other units, but it can't move the Thirty-sixth Division")
This Zhong Song still had two brushes, when Zhong Song found that Luo Yuanfa had laid out a tight defensive line along the Wuding River, he actually made an unexpected move, Zhong Song directly led the reorganized 36th Division all the way to the west, crossed the defense line of Luo Yuanfa's teaching brigade, crossed the Great Wall into the desert, and then crossed the desert to Yulin. This situation did not even happen to Peng Dehuai, but it was not so easy to lead a large army into the desert, and if it was not done well, the entire army would be destroyed. At that time, although Hu Zongnan sent planes all the way to airdrop large cakes to Zhong Songbu, the water source was not easy to airdrop, and it was difficult to swallow the large cakes. But now I don't know what method Zhong Song used, but he successfully brought the reorganized 36th Division to Yulin.
Because he did not expect that Zhong Song's troops would take the desert to reach Yulin, Peng Dehuai ordered the Northwest Field Army to temporarily abandon the siege of Yulin. As soon as Nishino withdrew from the siege, Zhong Song was even more proud, believing that it was he who had sent divine soldiers to scare away Nishino's troops, and coupled with the Kuomintang media's hype of Zhong Song, saying that he would relieve the siege of Yulin without a fight, he completely drifted away, and he did not know who he was.
Zhong Song led his army south alone, and General Peng decided to ambush the 36th Division
Zhong Song's troops only reached Yulin on August 13, and received an order: "The main force of the communist army is in the southeastern area of Yulin, preparing to flee north, and asks to cooperate with Liu Jie's troops to encircle and annihilate the main force of Xiye," Zhong Song, who was blown into the sky, directly ordered the troops to go south from Yulin on the 14th. The reorganized 36th Division, which had just crossed the desert, was pulled hard by division commander Zhong Song to set off again before it was too late to rest, and really wanted the horses to run and the horses not to eat grass.
Peng Dehuai saw this tired division, but also a lone army to advance, this is not meat sent to the mouth, at this time Nishino due to the defeat in the attack on Yulin, in urgent need of a victory to inspire the army, the soldiers also believe that Peng will always surprise victory to destroy the enemy. Peng Dehuai originally planned to ambush the reorganized 36th Division at Guide fort south of Yulin, but he did not expect that Zhong Song was still very cunning, so he directly detoured the Wuding River, then seized the Yuhe Fort, and then went south along the Wuding River to reach the Zhenchuan Fort.
On August 17, Liu Jie and his main force had reached Jia County. On the other side, the reorganized 36th Division, which had already reached Zhenchuan Fort, began to advance eastward, preparing to attack Xiye with Liu Jie's troops. On August 18, Zhong Song ordered the 123rd Brigade and the 429th Regiment to advance to Wushanpu as the vanguard, and he followed up with the division headquarters and the 165th Division.
After Peng Dehuai discovered Zhong Song's movements, he immediately began to deploy. First of all, if the enemy wants to go to Wushanpu, he will definitely have to pass through Shajiadian, and the terrain of Shajiadian is a good place to fight ambushes. Peng Dehuai ordered the vanguard of the 36th Division to be released first, and then ambushed the main force of Zhong Songbu at Shajiadian. The specific arrangements are as follows: the 1st and 2nd Columns of the main force of Nishino set up an ambush near Shajiadian; the New 4th Brigade and the Instruction Brigade prepared to block the enemy reinforcements and ensure the safety of the 1st and 2nd Columns; the 3rd Column and the local units of the Suide Military Region were responsible for containing the 123rd Brigade and the 439th Regiment of the 36th Division.
Shajiadian encircled and annihilated the reorganized 36th Division
On August 19, Zhong Song found himself surrounded by signs of Northwest Field Army activity, and he felt that he might be surrounded by Nishino, so he urgently ordered the vanguard troops to return to help. However, Liu Ziqi, the commander of the 123rd Brigade, was afraid that the marching army at night would be surrounded by Peng Dehuai for reinforcements, so he did not dare to return to the rescue, and only let the 439th Regiment go to the rescue. In the early morning of August 20, Peng Dehuai ordered the 1st and 2nd Columns to launch an attack on the Zhong Song department of Shajiadian, and Zhang Zongxun and Wang Zhen respectively led their troops to attack the enemy troops in Shajiadian from the north and south. By 10:00 a.m. on the 20th, the outer positions of the reorganized 36th Division were all occupied by our army, and Zhong Song's troops were compressed to the area around Zhangping Village and Changxinzhuang Village.
On the one hand, after dawn, Liu Ziqi also led the 123rd Brigade to return to the division headquarters for reinforcements, and had reached the Changjia Alpine area, less than 3 kilometers from the location of the 36th Division's division headquarters. As the enemy 123rd Brigade advanced, it was intercepted head-on by the new 4th Brigade. The army concentrated artillery fire on the Changjia Mountain, and the two sides launched a fierce battle, once the enemy was combined, then the plan to encircle and annihilate the 36th Division may fail.
Peng Dehuai immediately ordered Luo Yuanfa to lead the teaching brigade to support. In the face of the attack of two brigades of our army, Liu Ziqi's 123rd Brigade began to be unable to resist and began to flee into the ravine, but our army had already ambushed the troops in the ditch, and finally the brigade commander Liu Ziqi was also captured and taken prisoner. At the same time, Zhang Zongxun and Wang Zhen led the 1st and 2nd columns to launch another attack on the main force of the 36th Division, and the battle continued until the afternoon of the 20th, when Zhong Song saw that the reinforcements were delayed, he prepared to break through. However, at this time, the 36th Division was already in disarray, and the breakthrough immediately became a rout, but this cunning Zhong Song was really fatal, and he and the 165th Brigade Commander Li Riji actually took advantage of the chaos. Worthy of being a person who can walk out of the desert, I have to admire that this ability to escape and survive is too strong.
After successfully encircling and annihilating the 36th Division, Xu Guangda's three columns and local troops of the Suide Military Region, which were responsible for blocking the attack at Oolongpu, also successfully retreated on the night of the 20th, and the Battle of Shajiadian ended. In this battle, the Northwest Field Army annihilated more than 6,000 Kuomintang troops. (Some readers may have doubts about how only 6,000 people, because at that time, Shajiadian only had the direct subordinate troops of the 36th Division plus the 165th Brigade, and when the 123rd Brigade of Changjiashan was surrounded, the enemy fled everywhere, and many people ran, probably annihilating a regiment)
Conclusion: Although the number of enemies was annihilated in detail, the Battle of Shajiadian was the beginning of the Northwest Field Army's transition from internal defense to internal counter-offensive. The Northwest Field Army's most difficult internal defensive phase has finally passed.