In order to strengthen the armed struggle forces in the Central Plains, we followed the instructions of the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong. LI Xiannian. The 5th Division of the former New Fourth Army led by Zheng Weisan, the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army led by Wang Zhen and Wang Shoudao, and the henan military region troops led by Wang Shusheng and others met the division in October 1945 in the Tongbai Mountains. Immediately, the Central Plains Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was established, which had two field columns and three military regions under its jurisdiction, with a total of more than 60,000 field armies and local armies.
In November 1947, Li Xiannian was in the Eyu-Shaanxi base area
In this regard, Chiang Kai-shek said worriedly: "According to this, the Chinese Communists can go north out of the Huanghuai Plain to disturb the Central Plains and go south to Wuhan to spy on the two lakes; they can go west with jujube to control Jingxiang; and they can cut off the main artery of the Central Plains on our army's Pinghan Road." ”
It was precisely because the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains were in danger and rushed to the ground that it was a serious obstacle for the Kuomintang army to invade the Liberated Areas of East China, North China, and Northeast China to seize the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance.
On January 10, 1946, the Kuomintang and the Communists formally signed an armistice agreement and issued an armistice order. However, after the armistice order was issued, the Kuomintang army continued to violate the contract and encroach on and attack the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains.
Chiang Kai-shek ordered Cheng Qian, chairman of the Wuhan campaign, to cooperate with Liu Zhi, director of the Suijin Office in Zhengzhou, to concentrate six armies, and more than 200,000 people adopted a strategy of encircling them with iron arms in an attempt to starve and trap the soldiers and civilians in the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains.
Under the attack and encroachment of the Kuomintang army, the strategic activity space of the Central Plains Military Region was shrinking day by day, and it was compressed into a narrow area of only two hundred miles centered on Xuanhuadian.
After the three armies converged, in response to Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy, Li Xiannian and Zheng Weisan considered withdrawing from this liberated area in the hinterland of the Kuomintang-ruled area. However, the CPC Central Committee took into account that the Central Plains Military Region not only pinned down a large number of Kuomintang troops, but also made more Kuomintang troops dare not rush north. The more the Central Plains Military Region persists, the more the troops in North China will be able to seize some more territory and surrender more Japanese and pseudo-armed forces, and the strength of our army will be even stronger. Therefore, it was decided that the troops of the Central Plains Military Region should be prepared to "persist for a period of one year and not make plans for major transfers."
At the end of April 1946, Chiang Kai-shek decided to start a civil war in the Central Plains. It was planned to annihilate Li Xiannian's forces in one fell swoop from May 5 to 9, and increase the number of Kuomintang troops participating in the "encirclement and suppression" to 11 armies totaling 300,000 people.
At the critical juncture when the civil war in the Central Plains was about to erupt, Zhou Enlai, Marshall's representative Bai Lude, and the Kuomintang representative Wang Tianming arrived at Xuanhuadian on May 8 to inspect.
On May 10, the representatives of the three sides signed the "Hankou Agreement" in Hankou, stipulating that the Kuomintang and the Communists should immediately stop military clashes and establish the 32nd Executive Group to be stationed in Xuanhuadian to supervise the implementation of the armistice.
However, before the ink of the "Hankou Agreement" dried, Chiang Kai-shek planned a new operational deployment.
On June 21, Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Liu Zhi to command the troops to assemble. The units in charge of the attack secretly completed the encirclement form and preparation for the attack before June 22, in an attempt to encircle and annihilate us in one fell swoop.
After all the deployment was halted, the spokesman of the relevant Department of the Kuomintang triumphantly declared to the outside world that "China will have an amazing move in 48 hours."
By this time, the Battle of Siping had ended, and Chiang Kai-shek was ready to let go and fight in Guannei. Therefore, when Chen Cheng presented Liu Zhi's battle plan to Chiang Kai-shek, Jiang Jie said with great ambition: "Du Yuming hit Lin Biao's board in the northeast, and this time I saw Liu Zhi's eagle catching chickens." ”
However, Chiang Kai-shek still did not dare to take Li Xiannian lightly, saying: "Li Xiannian should not be taken lightly, his vitality is very tenacious, and when the Ma family army was heavily encircled and suppressed, this Li Xiannian led a small group of troops to break through and run to Xinjiang." Chiang Kai-shek particularly stressed: "This time you can't let him run again." ”
With 60,000 troops with inferior equipment, the Central Plains Military Region was in an extremely dangerous situation in the face of the division and encirclement of the 300,000 superiorly equipped Kuomintang troops.
In 1955, when our army was awarded the rank, Zheng Weisan did not have a military rank, but his rank was the same as that of a marshal.
In the form of "legal transfer" hopelessness, the only way out is armed breakthrough. After much discussion, it was decided that on June 26, the troops would break through from the west in two ways. Li Xiannian, commander of the Central Plains Military Region, led the Northern Route Army to break through to the west through southern Henan, and Wang Shusheng, deputy commander of the Central Plains Military Region, led the Southern Route Army to break through to the west through central Hubei.
To break through to the west is to advance closer to the Qinling and Wudang Mountain areas, and then turn into the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region or enter the Sichuan River, this road is long, the mountains are dangerous, the land is barren and the people are poor, and from the surface there are many unfavorable factors, but it is precisely because of this that the Kuomintang army may be neglectful of precautions.
The military situation was like fire, and after the direction of the breakthrough was determined, Li Xiannian urgently sent a telegram to the central authorities. On June 23, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China urgently telegraphed the Central Plains Bureau: "Agree to break through immediately, the sooner the better, don't have any worries, survival first, victory first." In the future, everything is up to you to decide, do not ask for instructions, so as not to delay the fighter. I hope to fight in unity and wish you victory! ”
Li Xiannian was born in 1909 to a poor peasant family in Huang'an, Hubei Province. In 1927, he led the peasants to participate in the famous jute uprising, and then moved with the Red Fourth Front, successively participating in the creation of the revolutionary base areas of Eyuwan and Sichuan-Shaanxi.
In the tempering of the blood and fire of the revolutionary war, Li Xiannian grew into the youngest military political commissar of the Red Fourth Front. After the defeat of the Western Route Army, he was ordered to lead the remnants of the Western Route Army to Xinjiang through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, and was praised by Mao Zedong as "the general did not get off the horse".
Wang Shusheng (1905-1974) was a native of Macheng, Hubei Province, and a founding general.
At this time, Li Xiannian thought most about how to suddenly and covertly break through, the Kuomintang army had been besieging the Central Plains troops for a long time, building layers of defensive lines, and the 32nd Execution Group of the Military Investigation Department was still stationed in Xuanhuadian. The representatives of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek are known as "mediation, but in fact they are the eyes and ears, and they have been closely following all kinds of signs related to the operations of the Central Plains Military Region. It was very difficult for tens of thousands of horses from the Central Plains Military Region to unknowingly withdraw from Xuanhuadian under their noses.
On June 23, Li Xiannian and Wang Zhen urgently summoned Wu Chengzhong, commander of the 2nd Independent Brigade in Eastern Hubei, and Zhang Tixue, political commissar, to assign tasks. The 2nd Independent Brigade was ordered to be responsible for the vigilance of the first line of Lüwangcheng and Fota Mountain south of Xuanhuadian, to cover the safe evacuation of the head organs and main forces of the Central Plains Military Region of the Central Plains Bureau, and then to break out to the east to the Liberated Areas of East China.
In addition, Li Xiannian also arranged a "special mission" to ask Zhang Tixue to play Zhuge Liang once and sing an "empty city plan" in Xuanhua Shop.
In 1955, Wang Zhen was appointed deputy chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and was awarded the rank of general
On June 24, Li Xiannian entrusted Wang Shusheng to convey the task to Pi Dingjun, commander of the 1st Column and 1st Brigade, and Xu Zirong, political commissar. The First Brigade must carry out the task of containing the enemy and covering the westward advance of the whole army. It is necessary to use all means to drag the enemy down and confuse the enemy, so that the enemy will not be able to find the main direction of action of our army within three days. After three days, the main force crossed the Pinghan Road, and the first brigade could either follow the main force to the west according to the situation, or break through in other directions, or insist on fighting guerrillas at Dabie Mountain.
Pi Dingjun was in danger of being ordered, and without hesitation, he issued a sonorous oath to Wang Shusheng, "Please rest assured chief, we will resolutely complete the task!" ”
Pi Dingjun was born in 1914 to a poor peasant family in Jinzhai County, Anhui Province. In 1929, he joined the Red Army at the age of 15, and when he participated in the Long March, he was already the leader of the Second Regiment of the Red Army University Instructor. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Pi Dingjun successively served as the commander of the special agent regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the Seventh Division of the Fifth Subdistrict of the Taihang Military Region, and the commander of the Yuxi Detachment of the Eighth Route Army.
In October 1945, Pi Dingjun led the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Detachment of the Eighth Route Army to the Tongbai Mountains and was organized as the First Brigade of the First Column of the Central Plains Military Region, with Pi Dingjun as the brigade commander, which was therefore called "Pi Brigade".
At that time, Pi Dingjun's comrades-in-arms once gave him three nicknames. The first is "Leather Monkey", which describes Pi Dingjun as a war-loving brain and agile combat. The second nickname is "Skin Tiger", describing him as experienced in hundreds of battles, brave and good at fighting, and outstanding in battle. The third nickname is "Skinny Donkey", describing him as stubborn, personality, and integrity. Therefore, some people also respect Pi Dingjun as "General of the Three Skins".
The significance and danger of the task of allowing a brigade of about 6,000 men to face hundreds of thousands of enemy troops is obvious, that is, to sacrifice the part and preserve the whole. This was a decision made as a last resort to ensure the safe transfer of the main forces and organs under the heavy pressure of the enemy.
The Central Plains Military Region and the Central Military Commission can be said to have basically shown no hope for the survival of the First Brigade.
After explaining the task and sending Pi Dingjun and Xu Zirong out of the house, Wang Shusheng whispered to them, "Several cadres of the brigade, each prepared a set of plain clothes." "The commander was really worried about them, and they were in danger in the course of the battle. On the way back, Pi Dingjun said to Xu Zirong, "We are not ready to wear plainclothes."
After Being ordered, Pi Dingjun held a meeting of the brigade's party committee overnight in Baique Garden to convey the orders of his superiors, analyze the situation of the enemy and us, study and formulate specific files for cover, and the direction of his own breakthrough.
After repeated research, it was determined to go east. Although there were more than 100,000 Kuomintang armies in the east, the threat was not small, but the mountains of Dabie Mountain could conceal the march of the troops. Moreover, Dabie Mountain was the cradle of the Red Army at that time, the mass base was good, Pi Dingjun and many people in the brigade were Dabie Mountain people, familiar with the local geography and people's conditions, and only by breaking through to the east could we effectively contain the enemy's troops, make them lose sight of one or the other, and fundamentally reduce the pressure on the main force advancing westward. In addition, another advantage of the eastward breakthrough is that the enemy was unexpected, and this plan completely surprised the enemy, and finally created a miracle in the history of war.
Wang Shoudao, a native of Liuyang, Hunan, served as the second minister of the Ministry of Communications of the People's Republic of China, with the rank of vice-state.
Since the early morning of June 25, while building large-scale fortifications along the Baiqueyuan and Popi River lines, the 1st Brigade has sent troops to pretend to be the main force to drive from west to east, and deliberately dragged branches with horses to raise smoke and dust, creating the illusion of an emergency mobilization of thousands of troops and horses. In the evening, Pi Dingjun quietly pulled the troops back and made a round-trip parade, giving the besieging Kuomintang army the illusion that Li Xiannian's main force would break through to the liberated areas of Eastern China, Yuwan, and Suzhou.
When Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Liu Zhi to surround and annihilate Li Xiannian, he asked him to order an army of 70,000 or 80,000 to prepare to block Li Xiannian, who was "bound to flee east." A reenactment of the main force of the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui in 1941.
This wonderful performance of the "Leather Brigade" really fooled Liu Zhi, who believed that "the communist army really broke through to the east, and Li Xiannian threw himself into the net!" ”
In May 1932, Liu Zhi launched the fourth "encirclement and suppression" of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, and the Red Army of Eyu-Anhui was forced to move to the Sichuan-Shaanxi region. Liu Zhi's character was "Jingfu", so in order to commend Liu Zhi for this battle, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately set up a "Jingfu County" in Henan.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Liu Zhi was the commander-in-chief of the Second Army of the First Theater. He retreated all the way from the outskirts of Beiping to Baoding, and then fled to Henan with his troops, when people ridiculed him as a "long-distance running general". After The surrender of Japan, Liu Zhishi came to work because he listened to Chiang Kai-shek very much, and Chiang Kai-shek reused him. He was ordered to lead his troops out of western Hubei at the same time, take southern Henan, and go north along the Pinghan Road to "be surrendered", and after arriving in Zhengzhou, he became the director of the Appeasement Office. Not only was he not unlucky to lose the battle, but he was able to be promoted, so Liu Zhi was given another elegant title, and his colleagues called him "Fu General".
In order to repay Chiang Kai-shek's kindness, Liu Zhi worked very hard when he surrounded and annihilated the Central Plains troops.
At dawn on June 26, 1946, the Kuomintang soldiers divided into four routes with Xuanhuadian as the target and launched a large-scale siege of the Liberated Area of the Central Plains. Liu Zhi placed the primary target of the attack in the area of the Popi River and the Baique Garden.
Three regiments of the first brigade held their positions and fought back bravely, and on the 27th, the enemy attack was blocked by heavy rain. That night, Pi Dingjun quietly withdrew his forward troops and rendezvoused with Liu Jiachong, southeast of Baique Garden.
On the 28th, after the rain passed, the first brigade marched south from Liu Jia to the rear of the enemy and reached Xiaojieling, the throat of the Jute Highway at noon. The commanders and fighters of the "leather brigade" fought bravely in the face of the enemy's heavy troops, so that the enemy had to pay a heavy price for every step forward, and after three consecutive days of stubborn resistance, the main force of our army had crossed the Pinghan Railway and advanced westward. After successfully completing the cover task, the "leather brigade" began to break through to the east in a big stride.
Pi Dingjun, a founding lieutenant general, was killed in the line of duty on July 7, 1976, while directing military exercises in Fujian, at the age of 62.
At the same time as the first brigade fought, the battle of Pagoda Hill at the southern gate of Xuanhuadian also began. The Kuomintang troops moved from the mouth of the river and launched a fierce attack on the 2nd Independent Brigade in eastern Hubei. The first unit of the 2nd Brigade stationed at the Stupa Hill position fought resolutely and firmly controlled the position in its own hands.
Before the battle began, Xuanhuadian, where the leading organ of the Central Plains Military Region was located, was still very calm and orderly as usual, and there was no unusual phenomenon. In fact, Li Xiannian and Wang Zhen had already commanded the organs directly under the military region to covertly enter the assembly area of the breakthrough, and Zhang Tixue had already led the first unit of the 2nd Independent Brigade of eastern Hubei to Xuanhuadian before dawn on the 26th, and secretly took over the defense.
On the evening of 26 July, in order to confuse the US deputies, the Central Plains Military Region specially invited all the personnel of the 32nd Enforcement Group to the auditorium of the Military Region to watch theatrical performances. Li Xiannian, accompanied by Zhang Tixue, was still walking in the streets of Xuanhua shop, and representative Mei Jiang saw that Xuanhua shop was as quiet as ever and did not care.
At this time, the main force of the Central Plains Military Region was advancing westward in the name of "exercises." Leaders such as Li Xiannian and Zheng Weisan led the Central Plains Bureau, the organs of the Central Plains Military Region, and the guard troops to quietly evacuate Xuanhuadian at midnight that day.
After the transfer of the Central Plains organs, Zhang Tixue sang a "empty city plan" in Xuanhuadian. On the 28th, the US representative of the 32nd Executive Group suddenly made a request to our side, saying that he would meet with General Li Xiannian. Our side replied to him: "General Lee is not in good health today, and we will meet again another day." ”
The REPRESENTATIVE of the Us side began to be suspicious and met again the next day. This time, I really met Li Xiannian, and the Americans dispelled their suspicions. In fact, Li Xiannian had already left the Xuanhua shop for dozens of miles, just to dispel the suspicion of Mei Jiang, he worked tirelessly to rush back to the Xuanhua shop at night and performed a good play of "meeting guests in the sick".
On the afternoon of 29 July, Zhang Tixue estimated that the large troops had approached the Pinghan Railway, set up a banquet to entertain the US and Chiang Kai-shek deputies, and solemnly announced that "General Li Xiannian has led the troops of the Central Plains Military Region to break through." The US and Chiang Kai-shek deputies were stunned. After the banquet, Zhang Tixue sent someone to escort the representative of Mei Jiang out of XuanhuaDian, and then led the cover troops to quickly move.
Zhang Tixue was appointed governor of Hubei Province and secretary of the Secretariat of the Provincial Party Committee in 1956, and later concurrently served as executive secretary, acting first secretary, deputy secretary of the party committee of the Wuhan Military Region, secretary of the party committee and political commissar of the provincial military region.
At this time, the Northern Route Army led by Li Xiannian reached the Wushengguan to Liulin section of the Pinghan Railway west of Xuanhuadian. This area has a large number of group fortifications with longitudinal ravines and dangerous terrain, which Liu Zhi prides itself on as a "steel defense line".
After detailed reconnaissance, the Northern Route Army decided to cross this defensive line in two ways. The Central Plains Bureau, the Central Plains Military Region, the leading organs of the Second Column, and the 45th Regiment of the 13th Brigade and the 15th Brigade broke through the area north of Liulin Station. The 359th Brigade and the Cadre Brigade broke through Lijiazhai, south of Liulin and north of Wushengguan.
Li Xiannian entrusted the task of the first stop of the breakthrough to the 37th Regiment of the 13th Brigade of Xiao Yong and Good Fighting. This regiment was a steel team of the fifth division of the former New Fourth Army, and the regimental commander was Xia Shihou, who was brave in combat and commanded well.
On the afternoon of the 29th, the troops concealed themselves and attacked the starting point, and launched a surprise attack at dusk. The enemy hid in the fortifications and relied on intensive firepower to block the advance of the breakthrough troops. Xia Shihou commanded his troops to attack the enemy's "bunkers" with "earth tanks" made of quilts and square tables, destroying the fortifications of the five groups of the Kuomintang army in only half an hour, and opening the passage for the main force to pass through the blockade line.
By 9:00 a.m. on the 30th, all the Northern Road Army led by Li Xiannian had passed through the Pinghan Railway. At the same time, Wang Zhen led another branch of the Northern Route Army to violently break through the blockade line of the Kuomintang army near Lijiazhai at 8 p.m. on the 29th. The main force surrounded the defenders of Lijiazhai and suddenly launched a fierce attack to annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop, opening the passage.
The Northern Route Army passed the blockade line of the Pinghan Railway relatively easily, but the Southern Route Army led by Wang Shusheng did not go very well on the road. Originally planned to meet the 27th with the 15th Brigade of the 2nd Column and the 43rd Regiment in the Yangpingkou area, due to the obstruction of the Kuomintang troops on the way, coupled with the torrential rain pouring down the muddy roads, it was delayed for a day, until the afternoon of the 28th, the two units would not meet in the northeast area of Yangpingkou.
The westward movement of the Southern Route Army surprised the Kuomintang army. In order to strengthen the blocking forces along the Wangjiadian Railway, Commander Zhou Yan of the Sixth Appeasement District hastily dispatched troops and ordered the Hankou Air Force to dispatch aircraft to support the ground troops in combat, in an attempt to annihilate the Southern Route Army of the Central Plains Military Region with air-ground three-dimensional firepower in the area east of the Pinghan Railway.
However, under the command of Wang Shusheng, wangjiadian of the Southern Route Army fought fiercely with the kuomintang blockade troops for a day and night, and successfully crossed the Pinghan Railway and marched westward on July 1.
In this way, the main force of the Central Plains Military Region, after a tenacious and courageous attack, crossed the Blockade Line of the Pinghan Railway, which the Kuomintang army had painstakingly operated for more than half a year, before Liu Zhi launched the "July 12" general offensive. They smashed their attempt to "encircle and annihilate" the main force of the Central Plains Military Region in one fell swoop.
Liu Zhi (30 June 1892 – 5 January 1971) was a Native of Ji'an, Jiangxi. Graduated from the Baoding Army Officer School, he is a second-class general in the Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
Chiang Kai-shek was shocked to learn that the main force of the Central Plains Military Region had broken through to the west, and urgently ordered Liu Zhi to dispatch his army to pursue it with all his might.
Liu Zhi judged that the Northern Route Army would gain a foothold in the Tongbai Mountains west of Pinghan Road, and on July 2 mobilized troops to pursue and intercept them, in an attempt to encircle and annihilate the Northern Route Army in the Tianhekou and Gaocheng areas with the cooperation of the air force.
After breaking through the blockade line of the Pinghan Railway, the Northern Route Army carried forward the spirit of continuous combat, marched along the Tongbai Mountain in the rain to the mouth of the Tianhe River, and launched a "race" with the Kuomintang army's forced blockade troops to compete for time and speed. In the end, before the second encirclement circle was formed, it passed through the Tianhekou and Gaocheng areas.
On July 8, the Northern Route Army braved the strafing of enemy aircraft to erect a pontoon bridge and forcibly crossed the Tang and Bai rivers. At this point, the attempt of the Kuomintang army to "encircle and annihilate" the Northern Route Army in the mossy area on the east bank of the White River was bankrupt again.
After the Northern Route Army crossed the White River, due to the enemy's pursuit and blockade, it was decided to divide into two branches in order to speed up the march. Li Xiannian led the 45th Regiment of the 15th Brigade of the 13th Brigade to cover the Central Plains Bureau and the organs of the Central Plains Military Region as the left wing. Wang Zhen led the 359 brigade and the cadre brigade to the right wing and continued to advance westward.
After the left and right wings of the Northern Route Army broke through the Danjiang defense line of the Kuomintang army, they quickly advanced to the line of Jingziguan and Nanhuatang.
Jingziguan and Nanhuatang are located at the junction of Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces, and are the gateway to Shaanxi. The continuous mountains and dangerous terrain here are a key point that the enemy must defend and we must take. Chiang Kai-shek ordered Hu Zongnan, commander of the First Theater, to cooperate with the pursuing troops, and ordered him to "be sure to encircle and annihilate Li Bu south of Zijing Pass."
After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's orders, Hu Zongnan immediately ordered the reorganized 190th Division, which is known as the First Army under Heaven, and other units to rush to Jingziguan, Nanhuatang, Liyuling, and other places to build fortifications according to danger.
On July 17, after Wang Zhen led his troops in a fierce battle with the Kuomintang army at Abalone Ridge, Li Xiannian led his troops to brave heavy rain to enter the vicinity of Yuhuangding in the Nanhuatang area. At the top of the Jade Emperor and its southwestern mountain beams, the Kuomintang army had built fortifications on the basis of danger, and the left and right sides were steep cliffs, and the breakthrough troops were in danger of being completely destroyed.
Faced with a crisis, Li Xiannian calmed down and used his killer skills to fight a vicious battle when he was in the Western Route Army of the Red Army, and encouraged all the soldiers with "survival first, victory first". Under the command of Li Xiannian, the soldiers were killed by the enemy in the area of Nanhuatang and Jade Emperor's Peak.
The 718th Regiment and the 719th Regiment of the 359th Brigade fought very fiercely, with hundreds of casualties, and the regimental commander, political commissar, and chief of staff were all sacrificed, and finally a bloody road was finally killed, highlighting the enemy's heavy encirclement.
The Battle of Nanhuatang can be said to be the most critical and heroic battle in the Central Plains Breakthrough Campaign, and this battle enabled our Central Plains Breakthrough Troops to achieve a decisive victory.
On July 28, Li Xiannian led the left wing troops to join the guerrillas in southern Shaanxi, and on August 3, the Yu'e-Shaanxi Military Region was established, creating a guerrilla base area.
Although Wang Zhen's right wing troops were in a difficult situation, they broke through the enemy's blockade many times along the way, and arrived at the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area at the end of August with the help of the troops of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
After crossing the Xiang River in the flow ditch southeast of Yicheng, most of the Southern Route Army successively broke through the blockade of the Kuomintang army in thatched grass prefecture southeast of Yicheng, Baoxinpo south of Nanzhang, and Cangyugou west of Shihua Street in Gucheng, and entered the Wudang Mountains on the 25th. Disperse activities in Zhuxi, Zhushan, Fangxian, Baokang, Nanzhang and other places. In late August, it met with the troops of the Jianghan Military Region, which had broken through from the direction of Anlu, in the southwestern region of Fangxian County to form the Northwest Hubei Military Region.
Another part of the breakthrough force was blocked by the forced crossing of the Xiang River, and instead of going north into the Funiu Mountain area, it met the troops of the Henan Military Region.
When the Kuomintang concentrated its forces to "encircle and suppress" the two main forces of Li Xiannian and Wang Shusheng, who were advancing westward, the first column and one brigade, which was on a cover task, marched eastward under the leadership of Pi Dingjun, creating a legendary record of "leaving the ground to die and then being born."
The "leather brigades" made full use of the contradictions between the enemy's local divisions and intrigues, and took advantage of the cover of the Dabie Mountains to unknowingly intersperse between provinces and provinces and between counties and counties, thus making the Kuomintang army dizzy and overwhelmed.
They crossed the Daniu Mountain, the throat of the E-Anhui border, crossed the Dabie Mountain, defeated the Kuomintang army's repeated pursuit and interception, trekked more than a thousand miles, and crossed the Jinpu Railway into the Suwan Liberated Area on July 20.
Hu Zongnan (12 May 1896 – 14 February 1962), courtesy name Shoushan, was a Han Chinese from Zhenhai, Zhejiang, and a first-class general in the Republic of China Army. One of Chiang Kai-shek's confidants, he was known as Chiang Kai-shek's "Thirteenth Taibao" in the early days of the Republic of China.
The breakthrough of the First Brigade in the Central Plains was the most successful model among the units of the Central Plains Military Region. They were the last to leave the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains, taking the most difficult route, but they were the first to arrive at the Liberated Areas of Suzhou and Anhui, and the troops were also the most completely preserved, which can be said to have created a miracle in the history of our army and even world wars.
This battle also established a prominent British name for the guerrilla-born "leather brigade". Later, Premier Zhou Enlai once said to Pi Dingjun very kindly: "The leather brigade you led really fought in the war, although it is a brigade, but the central authorities use it as a front army." ”
The success of the Central Plains breakthrough can be said to be one of the most brilliant moments in Pi Dingjun's military career.
When New China was awarded the title in 1955, it was originally reported that Pi Dingdu was a major general. After Mao Zedong read it, he specially instructed him to write six words: "Pi has meritorious service, less Jin Zhong"!