In early February 1951, on the Korean Peninsula, on the south bank of the Han River, tens of thousands of sons and daughters of the Dian Army and the U.S. troops armed to the teeth were fighting in blood. Peng Dehuai, commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, was silently waiting for a person at the headquarters of the 50th Army, and Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 50th Army, hurriedly walked in, and General Peng: "Going to the front line again?" Zeng Zesheng: "Yes, Mr. Peng, I was wrong, I should have stayed at the headquarters." Mr. Peng: "What is the casualty figure?" Zeng Zesheng: "The 50th Army can withstand it." ”
Mr. Peng was angry and shouted, "Give me casualty figures." ”
The staff officers next to him hurriedly handed over the casualty figures that the 50th Army had just counted, and General Manager Peng was even more angry and asked Zeng Zesheng: "The casualties are so large, why don't you report to me, why don't you ask the headquarters for assistance." ”
Zeng Zesheng: "I asked what is the use, the US military bombed so frequently, domestic materials can not come in, General Peng, you do not have it now." Draw supplies from other units, what about other troops. Peng Dehuai: "The 50th Army is a good example, worthy of the dian army that severely damaged the Japanese at Yuwang Mountain." But you shouldn't have other ideas.
I Peng Dehuai have never regarded your 50th Army as a harem, I also came out of the old army, since you have come here, you will be treated the same as other PLA troops
No one will look at you differently. ”
Zeng Zesheng did not expect Peng to say such a thing, and the grievances he had suffered before were also released at once, and the commanders and fighters of the 50 Army next to him also cried, Zeng Zesheng said: "The 50 Army can finally raise its head in front of the brother troops." ”
1. The Dian Army's strong brigade
Mention the 50th Army, then we have to mention his predecessor, the 60th Army of the Dian Army. In the late Qing Dynasty, in order to save its decadent feudal rule, the Qing government established many new-style armies and new-style military academies, and Yunnan also established a new army, and the core figure of the Yunnan New Army was Cai Yi.
At that time, Yunnan also established a new military academy, that is, the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall, and later some of the instructors of the Huangpu Military Academy went out from here, of course, the Baoding Military Academy, the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, the Japanese Army University, and the Northeast Lecture Hall also had many instructors in Huangpu.
The later commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, The Founding Marshal Zhu De, although a native of Sichuan, graduated from the Yunnan Army's Daowu Hall and was once a subordinate of the famous Yunnan general Cai Yi.
The Participation of the Dian Army in major historical events such as the Xinhai Revolution and the Patriotic Movement is of great significance to the development of China's modern history. Later, Yunnan was controlled by Long Yun, which was also a local force on the divided side, and it was not until the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression that Chiang Kai-shek subdued the local forces in Yunnan.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance in 1937, Wang Longyun of Yunnan immediately said that he could send 100,000 troops and 300,000 Zhuangding. This number was not much compared to the Sichuan Army, the Gui Army and other troops, but at that time, the local army in Yunnan did not have 100,000 people, and Long Yun was equivalent to taking out all his family foundations.
Second, the bloody War of Resistance
Since there were not many local troops in Yunnan at the beginning, only one army was initially reorganized, that is, the 60th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
This army consisted of 40,000 people, and the elite strength of the Dian Army was all in this unit, and Long Yun's cousin Lu Han served as the first commander of the 60th Army of the Dian Army
。 Long Yun also spent a lot of money to buy a batch of French weapons from the French.
When this unit first left Yunnan, it was well-equipped and disciplined. In order to boost the enthusiasm of the people of the whole country for resisting the war, Chiang Kai-shek transferred this unit to Wuhan for several consecutive days of military parades. However, the 60th Army was dissatisfied with acting as an honor guard and repeatedly requested to go to the front to fight the Japanese army.
On April 18, 1938, after the 60th Army of the Yunnan Army got off at Taierzhuang South Station (Che yan shan) by train,
Driving directly to the area of Puwang and Xingjialou (present-day Xinglou) east of Taierzhuang on the east bank of the canal, they assembled to prepare to take over the defense of Tang Enbo's 20th Army and Yu Xuezhong's Third Army.
There has always been a serious factional struggle within the Kuomintang, and all sides want to preserve their strength, and even during the war of resistance, this situation has not changed.
Before the 60th Army of the Dian Army could take up the defense, Tang Enbo and Yu Xuezhong led their troops to withdraw from the position without authorization, resulting in more than 4,000 Japanese companies carrying more than 30 cannons and more than 20 tanks, taking advantage of the situation. One regiment of the 60th Army at the forefront was ambushed by the Japanese and suffered heavy losses.
However, the 60th Army of the Dian Army quickly stabilized the battle line and blocked the attack of the Japanese Isogu Division and the Banyuan Division with more than 50,000 people in the Yuwangshan area. Compared with other local armies, the weapons and equipment of the 60th Army are very good, but under the three-dimensional offensive of the Japanese army, it is still very difficult to fight, and in the first ten days, the Japanese army first went up to the Itagaki Division, and then the Isoya Division took over the Itagaki Division, and the 60th Army killed an average of thousands of officers and men every day.
Liu Xiuzhi, a villager near Yuwang Mountain, said in a later interview: "The little Japanese devils attacked for more than 10 days, but they did not capture Yuwang Mountain. After the war, when we returned to the village, every family had the remains of Yunnan soldiers, so we buried them in the three bunkers they dug during the war, burying more than 4,000 people in total. ”
The Battle of Yuwangshan lasted for a total of 27 days, and the 60th Army of the Dian Army killed and wounded 14,000 Japanese troops, but the 60th Army also suffered heavy losses, with 13,869 dead soldiers killed and more than 5,000 wounded, with an average of more than 1,000 killed every day.
Among them, Major General Chen Zhongshu, regimental commander Yan Jiaxun, Dong Wenying, Mo Zhaoheng, Long Yunjie, Chen Jieru, deputy regimental commander Huang Yunlong, and other generals were martyred in this battle.
After the Yuwangshan Blockade, the 60th Army participated in the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Nanchang, the First Battle of Changsha, and the Winter Offensive of 1939. After the victory of the War of Resistance, this unit was sent to Vietnam to be surrendered, and the artillery unit of the 60th Army also fought a battle with the French army in Vietnam's coastal defense, and severely damaged the French army at a small cost.
Third, regain a new life
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to divide the local forces in Yunnan, sent the 60th Army to the northeast to fight a civil war. In the northeast, Chiang Kai-shek again wanted to borrow the hands of the People's Liberation Army to eliminate this Dian army unit. The 60th Army was also ostracized everywhere in the northeast, and both supplies and weapons were distributed to them last.
In 1946, Pan Shuoduan, commander of the 184th Division of the 60th Army of the Yunnan Army (an underground party member), led an uprising. During the Liaoshen Campaign in 1948, the 60th Army of the Dian Army revolted under the leadership of its commander Zeng Zesheng.
After the uprising of the 60th Army, it was reorganized into the Siye 50th Army, the commander of which was still Zeng Zesheng, and Xu Wenlie, director of the Political Department of the Northeast Military and Political University, served as the political commissar of the 50th Army
。 In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of this unit, Shino also transferred many backbones from other armies to the 50th Army.
In September 1949, the 50th Army was reorganized and participated in the campaign to liberate the Great Southwest. In the Battle of Western Hubei and the Battle of Chengdu, the 50th Army annihilated tens of thousands of enemy troops, forced the landing of a large number of Kuomintang troops, and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition. After the end of the major war in the great southwest, Chairman Mao ordered the troops of the whole country to shift to productive activities to help the localities restore their economic production capacity and reduce their burdens. Under the orders of the Central South Military Region and the Siye Command, the 50th Army went to Hubei to build water conservancy projects, carry out production activities, and take charge of the task of suppressing bandits.
In late September 1950, the superior ordered the 50th Army to enter the Korean War.
The 50th Army quickly gathered together the troops scattered in Hubei and other places to carry out tasks such as water conservancy, production, and suppression of bandits, and rushed north by train to be transferred to the newly established "Northeast Border Defense Army" structure.
4. Enter the DPRK and participate in the war
When the 50th Army arrived in the northeast, according to the instructions of the Northeast Military Region, the 50th Army did not participate in the war that year, but stayed in the northeast, ready to receive the Soviet artillery, and reorganized into an artillery unit.
At 10 p.m. on October 24, 1950,
Xu Wenlie, political commissar of the military, received a call from Gao Gang, political commissar of the Northeast Military Region, and ordered the 50th Army to immediately restore its original equipment and immediately take the train that had been sent to the Border of China and north Korea to make an emergency advance.
As soon as the first train arrived in Ji'an, the troops received an order from their superiors without maps, without translations, without operational mobilization, and without any preparation for all supplies: immediately cross the river and participate in the first battle.
By the time the 50th Army reached the designated area, the first battle was over, so in this battle, the 50th Army did not achieve much success. However, in the second campaign, all three divisions of the 50th Army were airlifted, which was in stark contrast to the 38th Army, which annihilated more than 10,000 enemies and captured thousands of American troops.
After the end of the second campaign, the 50th Army fell into a trough, and some soldiers also made up a smooth sentence: "Take the road of confusion, eat confused food, fight confused battles, and be confused in Korea." ”
The soldiers down to the bottom, up to the commander of the 50th Army, Zeng Zesheng, were very upset, Zeng Zesheng was already embarrassed by his identity as a general of the rebel troops, and every time he held a meeting, he was hiding in a corner. After this battle, he felt even more humiliated. Some backbone cadres who had been transferred from other units made reports one after another and demanded to return to their original units, but they were all suppressed by the political commissar Xu Wenlie, who immediately carried out ideological rectification of the whole army, which raised the morale of the 50th Army again.
In the Third Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the 50th Army severely damaged the British 29th Brigade, completely annihilated a British heavy tank battalion with an infantry battalion, and captured several British "Centurions" tanks that were the most advanced in the world at that time. When the war report was reported to the volunteer army headquarters, Peng Dehuai and Deng Hua, Hong Xuezhi, Han Xianchu and other generals looked at each other and did not speak, and finally Mr. Peng finally couldn't bear it.
He said, "In a hurry, the military situation is going to kill the head!" "Because of this kind of achievement, not to mention the 50th Army, even if it is the 38th Army and the 39th Army, which are the first-class elite units of the People's Liberation Army, it is difficult to achieve such a record."
Of course, Xu Wenlie, the political commissar of the 50th Army, knew that the Volunteer Army Headquarters would be suspicious, so after the battle, he immediately sent someone to take a photo and sent it to the Volunteer Army Headquarters.
5. World War I became famous
After the end of the Third Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, MacArthur began to put his student, Ridgway, in charge of front-line combat missions. Ridgway was different from MacArthur, who had outstanding military ability, modesty and prudence, and the third campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea, it was he who took the initiative to withdraw from Seoul, so that the US army did not suffer heavy casualties.
After the end of the third campaign, the volunteer army after continuous combat, the front line was pulled to the vicinity of the third and seventh lines, logistics supply was very difficult, the domestic second-line troops could not arrive for the time being, the volunteer army or the Siye 13 corps of the army, a total of only 230,000 people. Ridgway also saw this, quickly mobilized 250,000 people, under the cover of a large number of aircraft, tanks and artillery, from west to east to launch an attack on the volunteers.
In the case of weapons and equipment and personnel are inferior to those of the US military,
Peng Dehuai adopted the tactic of "putting the west top and the east" approach. That is to say, only a few troops were placed on the western front to block the main force of the American army, and the main force was quietly transferred to the eastern front, and the South Korean army on the eastern front was put in, and after annihilation, the division and the western front troops were combined to surround the main force of the American and British troops.
This tactical approach did solve the dilemma at that time, but the pressure on the troops on the Western Front would be great. At that time, Han Xianchu, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, also wanted to put the ace unit of the 39th Army on the Western Front, but was rejected by General Peng, who said to Han Xianchu: "The Western Front can only put the ace unit of the 38th Army, so that the Eastern Front can make a quick decision." In the end, Peng Dehuai put the 50th Army on the Western Front, and Han Xianchu was stunned after listening to it, he knew how many tasks were on the Western Front.
On the western front, there are more than 80,000 troops in 4 divisions and 3 brigades of the United States and Britain, these are the most elite forces of the United Nations Army, tanks, artillery and aircraft are very large, and Han Xianchu really has no bottom in his heart when he put the 50th Army, the rebel unit of the Nationalist Army, on the Western Front.
In fact, not only Han Xianchu, but also the commanders and fighters of the 38th Army were shocked when they heard that it was the 50th Army and themselves defending the Han River, and they felt that the consideration of their superiors was not very prudent, and such an important front should not send a Kuomintang army to rebel troops. More importantly, they feared that the U.S. military would threaten their flank security if the 50th Army's defense line was breached by the U.S. military.
The questions of his superiors and friendly forces showed that Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 50th Army, knew better than anyone in his heart, and he also knew that the blockade battle on the south bank of the Han River was the battle of the 50th Army in the People's Liberation Army. If it is done well, the 50th Army can not only rank among the main forces of the People's Liberation Army, but also be able to leave its name in history.
However, the battle was not so easy to fight, and the 4 divisions and 3 brigades of the American and British armies, supported by a large number of artillery, aviation and tank troops, stormed the positions of the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army and the 112th Division of the 38th Army on the 68-kilometer stretch from Nomadori to Lizhou. The dense artillery fire of the US army blew up the positions of the 50th Army, and the earth trembled.
In the face of the enemy army, which was superior in numbers and weapons and equipment, the tiger and wolf division of the 38th Army could naturally resist, but the 50th Army also resisted. The troops of the 50th Army repelled the enemy's attacks again and again, fighting to the death, guarding the position with flesh and blood, and supporting the safety of the entire defense line.
After the US military later investigated that this unit was an uprising unit of the Nationalist Army, it found several spies from Taiwan, took the roster of officers and men of the former 60th Army, shouted names one by one, asked the officers and men of the 50th Army to surrender, and promised a high-ranking officer Houlu, but the officers and men of the 50th Army were still unmoved.
In the end, even Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan had some doubts about whether this was the "Bear 60 Army" under his command.
During the 50-day blockade battle on the south bank of the Han River, seven whole companies, 31 whole platoons, and 138 whole squads of the 50 Army were all wiped out. At the time of entering the DPRK, the entire army of 33,000 officers and men, after one, two, and three battles, especially the fourth fifty-day and night blockade battle in the north and south of the Han River, only 10,033 people were reduced.
In these fifty days, the 50th Army produced a large number of honorable troops and heroic models,
The 447th Regiment was awarded the title of "Baiyun Mountain Regiment" by the Headquarters of the Volunteer Army, the 4th Company of the 444th Regiment was awarded the title of "Repair Mountain Company", the 8th Company of the 445th Regiment was awarded the title of "Heroic and Tenacious Company", the 7th Company of the 450th Regiment was awarded the title of "Combat Hero Company", and the unit produced 476 meritorious heroes or above!
With outstanding achievements, the 50th Army ranked among the main forces of the People's Liberation Army, and Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 50th Army, was cordially received by Chairman Mao twice after returning to China.