In September 1937, when Ren Bi was in the Eighth Route Army's office in Taiyuan, Shanxi, he thought he had encountered a "ghost". This "ghost" is Duan Suquan, who was considered to have died 3 years ago, and Ren Bishi personally participated in his memorial service. However, the dead will not live, when Duan Suquan did not die, but lost contact with the organization, comrades-in-arms thought he had died, in fact, Duan Suquan returned to his hometown after being separated, and lived for 4 years with the help of his father and friends, and also married a daughter-in-law.
In his later years, Duan Suquan
In the Red Army, although it is not an isolated case for an 18-year-old to become a division commander, there are very few, like Duan Suquan, who became a division political commissar at the age of 18. In October 1934, Duan Suquan was appointed as the political commissar of the Qiandong Independent Division, which can be said to be extremely rare in the ranks. However, the good times were not long, in order to cover the large troops, the independent division was heavily surrounded by enemy troops, the division commander Wang Guangguang was captured and sacrificed, and Duan Suquan went through all kinds of difficulties and dangers to get back a life.
Duan Suquan hid here to escape the pursuit
It is reasonable to say that if an 18-year-old is a division commander or a division political commissar, if he lives to be awarded the title of 55 years, it is not unusual to be awarded a general, at least he should be a lieutenant general, but he only granted Duan Suquan a major general, and it was "temporarily granted". It is said that Duan Suquan was dissatisfied at that time, and even directly took off the general star and threw it away. Some people think that this has a lot to do with the fact that he has been out of the team for 3 years, but things are far from simple.
There is a famous passage about the Northeast Field Army. During the attack on Jinzhou, Liu Yalou called the Eighth Column and ordered the Eighth Column to block the airport. Duan Suquan, commander of the Eighth Column who answered the phone, replied to him: Report to the chief of staff, the two airports in Jinzhou, one can use one can not be used, blockade which one? It made Liu Yalou cry and laugh, and many people laughed at Duan Suquan for not using his brain.
Maoshan, one of the most important positions in Jinzhou at that time
In 1947, Duan Suquan was originally the commander and political commissar of the Jirecha Military Region, and in December Duan Suquan received an order to urgently go to Chaoyang for a meeting. At the meeting, he was appointed commander of the Eighth Column of Dongye and took over Huang's position. Huang is Lin Zong's love general and is very good at fighting, but his life is too casual and has a personality, and no one except Lin Zong is obedient.
Because the Eighth Column did not listen to the greetings when fighting with the Jirecha Military Region before, there were problems in the operation, which caused dissatisfaction in the Jirecha Sub-Bureau. At the repeated insistence of the sub-bureau, Lin Zong removed Huang from the post of commander of the eighth column and recommended Duan Suquan by the sub-bureau. This was not in line with Lin Zong's wishes, but it was not good to quarrel with the Jirecha Sub-Bureau, so he had to sprinkle his anger on Duan Suquan.
After the battle of Jinjin began, the Eighth Column, with the cooperation of the Ninth Column, was responsible for clearing the enemy troops on the outskirts of Northern Jinbei. On 25 September, the Eighth Column received orders to blockade the airport. Duan Suquan committed a crime against Meng, because at this time the eighth column was in the northeast corner of Jinzhou, close to the old jinzhou airport near Jintun, while the new airport was in the northwest corner, and the ninth column was near there.
Duan Suquan suspected that the chief remembered the wrong airport location, so he asked a question, and the result was a laughing stock. Later, due to the differences between Duan Suquan and the Dongye Command, coupled with the sudden change of the enemy situation, the airfield has not been blocked, and the enemy used the airport to airdrop 2 regiments of troops.
The present appearance of Jinzhou Airport
In addition to this joke, the movie "The Battle of Liaoshen in The Great Armageddon" also has such a plot: Dongye Telegraph soldiers overheard that the enemy had taken Niulang Mountain, but Liu Yalou did not receive a report from the troops below. Lin Zong ordered him to investigate and deal with it, but Luo Ronghuan asked him to go. After Luo Ronghuan arrived, the position had already been retaken, and it turned out that after losing the position, everyone wanted to take it back first and then report it, who knew that the Dongye Command had overheard the news that the enemy had captured Niulang Mountain.
This Niulang Mountain was actually the Little Bauhinia Mountain, and it was Duan Suquan's Eight Columns that had lost their positions. Luo Ronghuan understood the thoughts of the generals below, so he did not let Liu Yalou, who was angry with Lei Gong, go, but slowly bought time for the Eight Columns to regain their positions. This incident later became an incident that Duan Suquan was criticized for.
However, Duan Suquan's bad luck is not over. On October 14, the general offensive began, and most of the several columns attacking Jinzhou quickly broke through the outer defenses of Jinzhou and rushed into the city. Only the eight columns were unable to break through, so that Xi Baipo knew that only the eight columns in the main attacking force could not attack, which made Lin Zong very faceless. At the post-war summary meeting on October 18, The Eighth Column was severely criticized by Lin Zong.
But in fact, the contribution of the eight verticals is quite large. After the general offensive began, the Eighth Column was responsible for breaking through from the east of the city. The main forces of the enemy were concentrated here, as well as a large number of heavy artillery. On the contrary, the eighth column itself had fewer artillery pieces, while the first column artillery regiment supporting the eighth column was blocked by the Daling River and could not be put in place for a long time. The commanders and fighters of the Eighth Column almost used their teeth to bite open the enemy's outer defense line, and although they entered Jinzhou at the latest, they also captured 7,000 enemy troops, killed and wounded more than 3,000 enemy soldiers, and suffered more than 6,000 casualties. In his later years, Duan Suquan often mentioned the sacrifice of the Eight Columns in the Battle of Jinjin, hoping to save the image of his brothers.
After the battle of Jinjin, Duan Suquan led the eight columns into the task of encircling and annihilating Liao Yaoxiang's western advancing corps. Because Lin Zong did not consider the sudden turn of the Liao corps to Yingkou at first, after Liao Yaoxiang suddenly turned, it was difficult to complete the encirclement of Liao Yaoxiang for a while. At this time, the Eighth Column stood up, and the 23rd Division, led by division commander Zhong Mingbiao, stopped the 105th Division of the Liao Corps' strategic forward 49th Army.
After a scuffle, Zheng Tingdi, commander of the 49th Army, insisted that this was the main force of Dongye, causing Wei Lihuang to make a wrong judgment and order Liao Yaoxiang to return to Shenyang. The sacrifice of the Eighth Column bought time for other troops to surround the Liao Corps, making Liao Yaoxiang completely lose the opportunity to flee to Yingkou. Two days later, the Eighth Column attacked for a long time to prevent the Liao Corps from crossing the Liao River and making it impossible to withdraw to Shenyang.
During the Liaoshen Campaign, although the Eight Columns made many mistakes, their contributions were also enormous. For various reasons, Duan Suquan was severely criticized by Lin Zong, and even received a telegram that "military orders should be tightened", which made people feel sad and aggrieved for him.
Duan Suquan was only awarded the rank of major general in 1955, although it was related to his unauthorized departure from the ranks for more than three years, but in fact, it was also greatly related to his bad luck on the battlefield, repeated mistakes, and inadvertent involvement in the contradictions of his superiors.