In October 1948, the First Corps of the North China Field Army, under the command of Generals Xu Xiangqian, Zhou Shidi, and Chen Manyuan, was ordered to attack Taiyuan, Shanxi, the old lair of the Kuomintang warlord Yan Xishan.
The first difficulty facing our army was to conquer a mountainous area east of Taiyuan City, referred to as "Dongshan" for short.
Do not underestimate this mountain, here is a natural barrier to defend Taiyuan City, especially the cattle and camel villages, mountains, horses, small kilns everywhere, called by the Yan army "four major fortresses", all have heavy garrisons, and the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
As for how to conquer these four major fortresses, although the commanders of the First Corps had repeatedly studied, they had been unable to find a particularly sure battle plan.
In order to know oneself and know the other, the commander Xu Xiangqian listened to the suggestions of local cadres and decided to find several underground party members who were familiar with the local customs and customs to understand the situation.
Not long after, Wang Linshan, Wang Fengwen, and Liu Ercheng, three underground party members, rushed to the corps headquarters under the arrangement of local cadres and came to report on the situation overnight.
However, Wang Linshan and the other three were all peasants, and they knew nothing about the military aspect, nor did they provide many valuable clues.
Although Xu Xiangqian and others seriously learned some information from the three people, they did not help our army's battle plan much.
The next morning, after Chen Manyuan asked Xu Xiangqian for instructions, he said to the three peasants: "You have worked hard, and when you have finished breakfast, I will send a guard squad to send you back!" ”
Wang Linshan said gratefully, "Thank you chief, no need to send, no need to send..."
Chen Manyuan said, "That's not okay, on your way back, there are enemy bunkers and wandering sentries everywhere, and if you are not sent home safely, how can we rest assured!" ”
The shy Wang Linshan hurriedly waved his hand and said, "No, no, we have a path that we have figured out ourselves." ”
Coach Xu Xiangqian had been quietly listening from the side, but he heard the mystery from this polite remark that Wang Linshan casually said, and his eyes lit up at once, and he quickly asked: "What kind of road have you figured out?" ”
"Where the Yan army has bunkers and where there are sentries, we all know everything, as long as we avoid these places, we can safely pass by taking a hidden path." Wang Linshan replied.
Xu Xiangqian said happily, "Are you sure?" ”
"Absolutely!" Wang Linshan replied confidently: "We have been walking this path for several years, and we usually rely on it to carry out underground work in the enemy-occupied areas. ”
Chen Manyuan was overjoyed: "Great, I didn't expect you to develop a 'secret passage'!"
He turned to Xu Xiangqian and said, "Commander, when we attack the Dongshan Fortress, can we make a fuss about this 'secret passage'?" ”
Xu Xiangqian nodded vigorously and said, "You want to go with me." ”
Chen Manyuan suppressed his excitement, took Wang Linshan to the map, pointed to several places and asked him: "Dabeijian, Liugou and Guadigou, can these places take your 'secret path'?" ”
Wang Linshan said, "No problem, some of us have been there in the first two days." ”
"Then donkeys and mules can take that path when they get on their bikes?" This time it was Xu Xiangqian who asked the question.
"I don't dare to say that I have gone far, at least it is no problem to go to the cow and camel village."
"Oh?" Xu Xiangqian and Chen Manyuan asked in unison, "How do you get to Niutuo Village?" ”
"This side is Yulinping, this side is Zhuangzishang, and in the middle is the combined part of the enemy's northern and eastern districts, just not many troops are stationed, and there is a sheep intestine trail running through there, leading to the cow and camel village." Wang Linshan said while comparing with his hands.
"Great!" Chen Manyuan patted his thigh, "The problem is solved!" As long as you can conquer the cow and camel village first, the passage to capture the other three major fortresses will also be opened! ”
Xu Xiangqian smiled and asked Wang Linshan and the other three, "We need more guides, besides the three of you, is there anyone who is familiar with this road?" ”
Wang Linshan asked, "How many people do you need?" ”
Xu Xiangqian silently calculated in his heart and replied, "We are fighting in the corps, and we need no less than 40 guides." ”
Wang Linshan, Wang Fengwen, and Liu Ercheng checked the plan and said, "No problem." ”
Xu Xiangqian was overjoyed, and immediately set up a brilliant plan with the generals -- adopting the tactic of "avoiding the real attack, suddenly wedging in, and interspersing north and south", pretending to attack the main peak of Dongshan Mountain, Hanshan, which was located in the first line of defense of the enemy, and in fact, along the "secret trail" explored by Wang Linshan and others, he quietly rushed to attack the niu hump village, divided the enemy on the first and second lines, and then surrounded and annihilated the enemy on the first line.
This is the method of warfare that makes the enemy feel frightened by the "stuck neck and beheading".
The specific arrangements were: the Eighth Column and the Twenty-fourth Brigade held the enemy at the first line of Hanshan Mountain; the troops of the First Sub-district of Jinzhong pinned down the enemy in other strongholds; the Seventh Column, in coordination with some local armed forces, attacked Niutuozhai along the "secret passage" from Zhuangzishang and Yulinping, and captured the Great Northern Tip with cameras; and the Fifteenth Column was wedged into the first line of Dayaotou to cut off the enemy's retreat route.
At dusk on October 17, the troops of the Seventh Column divided into multiple roads, led by Wang Linshan and 48 other guides, quietly marched along the "secret passage" towards Niutuo Village. They crossed the Lindu Ridge and climbed the mountain, and after only a few hours, they were like heavenly divine soldiers, and they assembled near the ox-camel village.
At 1:30 a.m. the next day, the commanders and fighters of the Seventh Column and The Seventh Brigade, who were on the main offensive task, suddenly launched a general attack on the enemy of the ox-camel village.
The enemy was awakened in his sleep, but he was no longer able to stop our army's fierce offensive, and the battle ended in just over three hours.
At the same time, the 7th Column, 3rd Brigade and 12th Brigade also conquered the Big and Small North Tip and Yulinping respectively.
Yan Xishan was shocked to hear the news, as if he had been hit in the head: "Impossible! No way! Didn't the main force of the communist army want to attack Hanshan? How could it be like the Heavenly Divine Soldiers who captured the Cow Camel Village overnight? ”
What made him even more unwilling to believe was that after the success of the surprise attack on the ox-camel village, our army destroyed the enemy's defense line on the east mountain and liberated its main peak, Hanshan Mountain. A few days later, Taiyuan was liberated.
After the battle, Chen Manyuan said at the celebration meeting: Compared with the situation in the Jinzhong Campaign, our army originally planned to liberate Taiyuan Dongshan, which may have caused tens of thousands of sacrifices, but because Wang Linshan and other underground party members gave a plan to take the "secret passage" and the surprise attack on Niutuozhai was successful, our army only sacrificed 2,000 people in this fierce battle, and greatly accelerated the process of liberating Taiyuan.
Reference materials: "The Battle of Taiyuan Liberation", "Records of the Conquest of the North China Field Army", "Records of the Field Army of the North China Military Region"