On September 18, 1947, Xiao Quanfu, commander of the 26th Division of the Ninth Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army (who became a founding major general in 1955), suddenly received an order from zhan Caifang, commander of the column: immediately lead the whole division to set off, and limit itself to the southeast of Yangjiazi, west of Jinzhou, before dawn on the 22nd, and set up ambush positions there to block the enemy from Jinxi and Xingcheng.
When Xiao Quanfu was preparing to set out, he received a telegram from Huang Yongsheng, commander of the Eighth Column: The Eighth Column plans to encircle and annihilate the forty-ninth army of the famous Kuomintang general Chen Cheng at the Yang family's staff, and whether this battle can succeed depends on whether you can block the reinforcement of the enemy.
Huang Yongsheng's words are full of worry for three reasons:
First, the weapons and equipment of the Ninth Column divisions were inferior to those of the Eighth Column, let alone the enemy's Forty-ninth Army, especially the lack of heavy weapons, and there were only seven or eight mountain guns in the whole column.
Second, before the establishment of the Ninth Column, it had long insisted on guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, lacked experience in confronting the enemy's ace troops head-on, and was fighting with Chen Cheng's concubines for the first time.
Third, at that time, the enemy army still had a great superiority in strength on the northeast battlefield, and the morale was not dispersed, and once the enemy came to the aid from Jinxi and Xingcheng, it would not only destroy the plan of the Eighth Column to destroy the enemy's Forty-ninth Army, but also make it impossible for the Eighth Column and the Ninth Column to escape.
Xiao Quanfu understood that Huang Yongsheng was very unsteady in his heart about the arduous task of sending the Twenty-sixth Division to take charge of the rescue from his superiors.
He secretly made up his mind: No matter how much difficulty we overcome, we must fight this battle well, and we must not let Huang Yongsheng look down on him, let alone disappoint his superiors!
However, when Xiao Quanfu told the division and regiment cadres of the order from his superiors, everyone began to "complain" and complain that the leader of the column did not understand the actual situation.
Some people say that we have been marching for many consecutive days to fight for the customs clearance, driving for more than a thousand miles, and the commanders and fighters of the whole division have long been exhausted.
Some people say that at present, we are still more than 300 miles away from the scheduled blockade battlefield, and our superiors have only given us three days, which is too tight.
It is also said that now that the rain is pouring down and the troops are rushing in the rain, the speed of the march will inevitably be greatly affected. What's more, the enemy's mechanized troops could not advance in the heavy rain...
While everyone was "complaining", General Xiao Quanfu's eyes were always staring at the battle map, concentrating on the details of the battle plan, especially how to choose the location of the ambush.
In his mind, he did not consider whether to fight this problem at all, but only thought about how to fight this battle.
Xiao Quanfu's eyes were fixed on the three small characters of "Wuling Mountain" on the map, and he suddenly widened his eyes, slammed the table, and said loudly: "This is the real place where soldiers must fight!" If our army wants to encircle and annihilate the enemy, it must seize this place, and success or failure is in this move! ”
Everyone was startled, stopped talking and gathered around, looking at the division commander in confusion.
Chief of Staff Wu Wenhua said: "The place referred to by the division commander is called Wuling Mountain, with an altitude of 524 meters, this mountain is 32 huali away from Yang Jiazi and 20 hua li from Jinxi, which is the only way for the enemy of Jinxi to reinforce Yang Jiazi." ”
Xiao Quanfu nodded, and said to the crowd with a solemn face: "The location of Wuling Mountain is as important as a human throat!" Once the enemy of Jinxi was allowed to occupy the Wuling Mountain in front of us, it was equivalent to being choked by the enemy's throat, and the consequences were unimaginable! ”
The crowd looked at the map carefully, and although they did not speak, they all nodded silently, indicating that they fully agreed with the division commander's opinion.
"I know that the task entrusted to us by our superiors is extremely arduous, but no matter how big the difficulties are, we must also overcome them with all our strength!"
Xiao Quanfu suddenly stood up and issued a loud order: "The troops will set off immediately and advance at full speed towards Wuling Mountain!" As long as there is still one living person in the whole division, it must seize the Five Ridges Mountain! ”
For the next three days and three nights, Xiao Quanfu led the tired division of the Twenty-sixth Division and braved the heavy rain to march rapidly towards the Wuling Mountains. Along the way, there were constantly cadres and fighters who fell due to physical exhaustion, but the troops did not stop advancing.
During the day on the 21st, the units of the Twenty-sixth Division successively arrived at the foot of Wuling Mountain. After dark, the whole division began to climb the main peak of Wuling Mountain.
The second company of the first battalion of the Seventy-sixth Regiment took the lead in climbing up as the sharp knife company of the whole division, and only then did they find that one of the enemy companies had just climbed halfway up the mountain.
"It's hanging!" The commander of the Second Company couldn't help but take a breath of cool air, "As long as you are half an hour late and the enemy seizes the commanding heights on the top of the mountain, then both the Eighth Column and the Ninth Column may fall into an unpredictable situation!" ”
Zhu Riliang, commander of the Seventy-sixth Regiment, learned of this situation and immediately organized troops to launch a rapid fire attack on the enemy climbing the mountain. The enemy was defenseless at all, and when he was struck by this sudden blow, he was hastily defeated and retreated down the mountain.
Zhu Riliang climbed the main peak position and couldn't help but marvel: "This terrain is too important, fortunately we arrived in time!" The division commander is so divine! ”
At dawn the next day, the enemy dispatched as many as 7 regiments of troops from Jinxi to launch a frenzied attack on the Twenty-sixth Division stationed at the Wuling Mountain position. Heavy artillery bombardment, armored vehicles charging, infantry group charging... The enemy resorted to various means of attack, but Xiao Quanfu commanded the soldiers of the Twenty-sixth Division to fight hard.
Because the Twenty-sixth Division fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, and seized the favorable terrain of Wuling Mountain, it relied on rudimentary weapons such as the Three-Eighth Great Cover and the HanyangZao to block the onslaught of the enemy's 7 regiments for more than 30 hours, and won the division's first major victory since it left the customs.
It was precisely because the Twenty-sixth Division held the Defense Line of Wuling Mountain that the Eighth Column was relieved to look back and annihilated the enemy's Forty-ninth Army in one fell swoop, giving chen Cheng, a famous Kuomintang general, a blow in the head.
Reference historical materials: "Chronicle of the Conquest of the Fourth Field Army", "Four Fields Archives , Fourth Field Army", "Records of Xiao Quanfu's Conquest", etc