Battle of Renshan River: The First Battle of Liberation of Ningxia

In 1949, the revolutionary torrent that liberated all of China swept across the north and south of the great river. Chiang Kai-shek was not willing to accept defeat, and vainly tried to rely on the Hu Zongnan, Ma Bufang, and Ma Hongkui cliques entrenched in Shaanxi Qingning to hold on to the northwest, connect with the southwest, and make a comeback.

However, the northwest battlefield was frequently reported and Xi'an was liberated. Seeing that Hu Zongnan was unable to support himself alone and was gradually defeated and retreated, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Ma Bufang in Qinghai and Ma Hongkui in Ningxia to send troops to assist Hu Zongnan.

At this time, Hu Zongnan was like a bird with a frightened bow, and compared with when he attacked Yan'an two years ago, his arrogance had disappeared. After the Battle of Fumei, the People's Liberation Army annihilated its main force of 43,000 men, and Hu Zongnan had to withdraw the remnants to northern Sichuan and Hanzhong, leaving only one corps entrenched in Baoji.

The SPEARhead of the PLA offensive was directed at Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia. The Qinghai Longdong Corps led by Ma Bufang's son Ma Jiyuan and the Ningxia Corps led by Ma Hongkui's son Ma Dunjing saw that Hu Zongnan's general trend had gone, and there was no hope of aiding Shaanxi, so they went back separately in an attempt to retreat to their old lairs.

In July 1949, the 19th Corps of the First Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army took advantage of the victory to pursue and "pincer Hu beat the horse" and launched the 800-mile pursuit and annihilation battle in Longdong.

At the end of July, the 63rd Army and the 65th Army of the People's Liberation Army pursued the enemy to the area of Sanguankou and Watting south of Guyuan, and the 64th Army of the People's Liberation Army left the Sealand Highway and took the road straight into the county seat of Guyuan, intending to cut off the rear road of the enemy's 128th Army, form an encirclement, and achieve total annihilation.

"This is a step-by-step trick, if successful, Ma Hongkui's old nest Yinchuan will be self-defeating." Qi Yuezhang, deputy director of the Party History Research Office of the Guyuan Municipal Party Committee of Ningxia, introduced.

At that time, Ma Dunjing felt that the danger was imminent, and held an emergency military conference in Kaesong, ordering Ma Guangzong's 11th Army to rush to build a field fortification 10 miles in front and 30 miles deep in the Renshan River overnight, in a vain attempt to stop the PLA offensive and hold the "Gateway to Ningxia" here.

Renshan River is a small village in the ancient town of Pengyang County, Ningxia, and there is a simple road on the edge of the village that is the only way to Guyuan County, so its strategic position is very important. On the left and right of the village are the parrot mouth at an altitude of 1821 meters and the Luojia Mountain at an altitude of 1858 meters, these two large mountains are like iron tongs that choke the middle road and the village.

On August 1, 1949, when the main force of the 64th Army of the People's Liberation Army entered the Renshanhe area, it was intercepted by the 168th Division of the enemy's 11th Army, and found that the enemy was building fortifications here in an attempt to occupy the favorable terrain of the mountainous terrain to block the advance of our army.

At 12:00 noon on the same day, the military headquarters ordered the 191st and 192nd divisions to launch an attack on the defending enemy on the high ground of Parrot Mouth, Luojiashan, and Hala Mountain, in order to break through the enemy's defense line and cut off the retreat of the enemy's 128th Army and other units.

At the beginning of the general offensive, all the cannons were fired in unison, and the mountains shook and shook. About 15 minutes later, the 4th Company and 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 568th Regiment of the 190th Division, which were the main attackers of the left wing, attacked the Parrot Mouth in two ways. The enemy arranged 4 companies of troops at parrot mouth, equipped with two mortars and 4 heavy machine guns to guard against death, and the commanders and fighters braved the rain of bullets and bullets to fight bloodily, and after paying a relatively high price, they finally took No. 1 height.

When the 3rd Battalion attacked another commanding height, a torrential rain overwhelmed the earth, causing flash floods and many soldiers being rushed out of laoyuan. The troops stood still against the torrential rain and continued to attack tenaciously after the rain was slightly less intense. At this time, the defending enemy raised a white flag and surrendered. The battalion commander did not know the plan, and was about to go forward to be surrendered, when the enemy suddenly opened fire, and the battalion commander was shot and killed.

The soldiers, seeing the battalion commander lying in a pool of blood, were furious and shouted the slogan "Avenge the battalion commander!" "Avenge the sacrifice of your comrades!" Desperately, he rushed into the enemy position and engaged in a white-knife battle with the enemy. After a fierce battle, he finally occupied the commanding heights and completely annihilated the parrot brother to defend the enemy.

The sharp knife battalion that attacked Renshanhe was the 2nd Battalion of the 574th Regiment of the 192nd Division. The battalion launched several onslaughts, all of which were blocked by the enemy. The fighters were stranded in a ditch about 2 feet wide, exposed to enemy range, and suffered heavy casualties. As the 5th company of the sharp knife company, only the instructor Duan Songkui and 6 soldiers were left.

Duan Songkui, who was both wise and courageous, was not afraid of danger, and taking advantage of the gap between the enemy's shots, 7 people stood up together from the ditch, each of them separated by a few meters, lined up in a row, and rushed to the enemy with a gun, catching the enemy by surprise for a while, and suddenly died and was wounded, some of them held their heads and scurried, some of them knelt on their knees and begged for forgiveness, and the position of Renshan River was successfully occupied by our army.

The 572nd Regiment of the 191st Division, which was the main attack on the right wing, captured the forward position of Luojiashan shortly after the general offensive began. While advancing, the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion was blocked by a deep ditch, with nearly half of the casualties. After about 10 minutes, the 3rd Battalion reorganized the offensive. A dozen or so enemy machine guns formed a dense network of firepower, blocking the way forward for our army.

Most of the commanders and fighters of the 8th Company suffered casualties, and the whole company did not have a completely formed squad, only 5 machine guns were damaged by 4, and all the 60 shells were destroyed. In this case, the surviving warriors, led by the instructor Wang Zhen, launched a new attack with fearless heroism. Machine gunner Wang Huaxing, holding the only remaining machine gun, picked up the enemy's bullets and shot at the same time. At the juncture, the machine gun suddenly stopped ringing! Wang Huaxing looked down and saw that the barrel of the gun had turned red. In a hurry, he peed on the barrel to reduce the temperature of the barrel, and the machine gun "suddenly" shouted again.

Under the cover of machine guns, the commandos sped along the communication trenches between the enemy's second and third lines of defense, and it seemed that they were about to approach the main peak, but the enemy's bullets rained down like raindrops, and the soldiers could not lift their heads. When they were extremely anxious, the enemy's gunfire suddenly stopped, and it turned out that the 574th Regiment that had taken Ren Shanhe arrived in time, detoured back to the enemy's back from the flank, and a burst of grenades solved the enemy on the main peak. After 6 hours of fierce fighting, at dusk, the enemy's field defense system of 10 miles in front and 30 miles in depth was completely destroyed.

At dawn on August 2, 1949, the 64th Army's forward command post communicated with the divisions, and the military headquarters immediately ordered the 190th and 191st Divisions to continue to pursue northwards, occupy and liberate Guyuan City; the 192nd Division was the second echelon; the supplementary training division was responsible for receiving prisoners, cleaning the battlefield, burying martyrs and transporting the wounded, and then followed closely.

The Battle of Renshan River lasted two days and nights, killing and wounding 1,450 "Majia Army," capturing 1,345 prisoners, capturing 28 mortars, 108 light and heavy machine guns, 1,349 rifles and submachine guns, 121 war horses, and other supplies.

The Battle of Renshan River was the first battle of our army to liberate Ningxia, and it was also the most tragic and far-reaching battle. This battle crushed the morale of the "Majia Army" in Ningxia, crushed the Kuomintang defenders, and opened the southern gate to liberate Ningxia.

Qingshan has the honor of burying loyal bones, and the blue blood Dan heart casts loyal souls. In this battle, the 364 commanders and fighters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army sacrificed their precious lives and composed a magnificent song of sorrow for the cause of the liberation of new China; the national spirit they forged with their blood and lives became an eternal light that inspired future generations and enlightened their minds; and the heroic spirit of the revolutionary martyrs who threw their heads and spilled their blood to realize their ideals will forever show future generations and become an inexhaustible driving force for promoting economic and social development.

Source: Ningxia Daily