During the founding general award in 1955, all the generals had strict criteria for awarding their ranks, but there was one general who was deeply respected by Chairman Mao and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and this general was Pi Dingjun. The reason why Pi Dingjun was awarded a military rank is inseparable from his outstanding performance in the Central Plains Breakthrough.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the people of the whole country were eager to build a peaceful, democratic, free, prosperous and strong New China, but the Kuomintang reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek constantly dispatched troops and generals to launch attacks on the Liberated Areas. The strategic position of the Central Plains Liberated Area is very important, east to the Jinpu Railway, adjacent to the Central China Liberated Area; north to Longhai Road, facing the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Liberated Area; south to the Yangtze River, holding the important town of Wuhan; west of Sichuan and Shaanxi, becoming a southwest barrier.
By June 1946, ninety percent of the base areas in the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains had been occupied by the enemy, leaving only a narrow mountainous area that stretched for more than a hundred miles, and the organs of the Central Plains Bureau, the troops of the military region, and the families of the rear areas were influx of 60,000 or 70,000 people, grain, and supplies, and soon fell into trouble. In order to ensure the logistical supply of the Central Plains Military Region, the central authorities have made the greatest efforts to raise a large amount of grain from the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, the Taihang Military Region, and the Liberated Areas of Shandong, thus temporarily alleviating the logistical supply problems of the Central Plains Military Region.
However, Chiang Kai-shek also stepped up the blockade and attack on the Central Plains Military Region, and Chiang Kai-shek successively mobilized 12 armies, 21 divisions, a total of 300,000 troops, built tens of thousands of pillboxes, built fortifications for 10 kilometers, and surrounded 60,000 Central Plains People's Liberation Army regiments. In mid-June, Chiang Kai-shek had completed preparations for reorganizing the army and expanding its equipment, and secretly ordered Chen Qian, director of the Wuhan Camp, and Liu Zhi, director of the Zhengzhou Appeasement Office, to concentrate superior forces and surround and annihilate the Central Plains Military Region.
On June 21, in the face of a large-scale attack by the Kuomintang army, the Central Plains Bureau sent a long telegram to the central government, asking for an active breakthrough. On June 23, Chairman Mao sent a reply telegram, demanding that the Central Plains Military Region immediately break through. After receiving the instructions of the central authorities, the Central Plains Military Region immediately deployed a breakthrough operation, and the main force of the Central Plains Military Region was divided into north and south roads by Li Xiannian and Wang Shusheng to break through to the west, but such a large-scale breakthrough operation would certainly arouse the vigilance of the Kuomintang army.
The reason why the first brigade was allowed to cover the retreat of the main force was because this unit was the main force of the Central Plains Military Region, and the brigade commander Pi Dingjun joined the Red Army at the age of 15. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the 30-year-old Pi Dingjun led the Eighth Route Army's Yuxi Anti-Japanese Independent Detachment out of Taihang, galloping between Songji, from more than 1,700 people to nearly 20,000 people, and successively won a series of victories in ambushing Cao Village, attacking the airfield at night, raiding Heishi Pass, liberating Dengfeng, and establishing the anti-Japanese base area in western Henan.
On the afternoon of June 24, 1946, after receiving orders from the commander of the column, Brigade Commander Pi Dingjun and Political Commissar Xu Zirong looked for and studied the battle plan. At that time, there were two breakout plans, one was to go west like the main force, but it was likely that the purpose of containing the enemy for three days would not be achieved. There was also a plan, that is, to go east and meet the Central China Field Army and the New Fourth Army led by Su Yu, but this road must pass through the enemy-occupied area for thousands of miles, which is also a dangerous move, and finally Pi Dingjun chose this road.
On June 26, the enemy began to attack the Central Plains Military Region, and Pi Dingjun led a brigade pretending to be the main force to block the enemy's main force. On the 27th, it rained heavily, the enemy army stopped attacking, that night, Pi Dingjun quietly withdrew the forward troops, quickly marched 15 kilometers to the southwest, the troops deliberately dropped things, attracted the enemy to come to besiege, on the 28th, Pi Dingjun led the troops to hide in Liu Jiachong, which only had six households, and did not make fire for 24 hours, so that the enemy lost the target of pursuit. On the same day, the Central Plains Military Region called to inform that the main force had crossed the Pinghan Road, and the leather brigade chose to break through on its own.
Pi Dingjun immediately led more than 7,000 officers and men of the first brigade out of Liu's house and killed all the way to the rear of the enemy. On June 29, the Leather Brigade broke through the Kuomintang defense line in Xiaojieling, jumped out of the encirclement and suppression of the Kuomintang army's Central Plains base area, and entered the Dabie Mountain area.
On the evening of July 3, Pi Dingjun arrived at The Wujiadian of Jinzhai deep in the Dabie Mountains, and brigade commander Pi Dingjun and deputy brigade commander Fang Shengpu were both from Jinzhai County, Anhui Province, and were very familiar with the customs and landforms of Jinzhai. This was also the base area of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District, and when the local people knew that the former Red Army had come, they welcomed it very much, and with the help of the masses, the soldiers opened the grain depot of the Kuomintang government, replenished the grain urgently needed by the troops, and distributed the surplus grain to the poor masses. The common people enthusiastically helped the soldiers to make straw shoes and mend raincoats, and the leather brigade got a precious three-day rest here.
After resting at Wujiadian, the leather brigade ordered the installation of a radio station to contact the Central Plains Military Region, but I don't know what the reason was, and the radio station could never be contacted. On the third day of rest, the Leather Brigade and the Central Plains Military Region still could not contact each other, so they directly sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission, and the red radio waves immediately sent instructions from the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, and the Central Committee only issued four words: "Go quickly!" Come on! Although there are only four words, it has become Pi Dingjun's guiding light.
On July 7, the brigade crossed the Dabie Mountains and continued to march eastward. On the 9th, the troops arrived at Qingfeng Ridge in Huoshan County, Anhui Province, where the defense was the Anhui Advancing Column of the Kuomintang Army, which was actually reorganized from the puppet army and was not strong in combat effectiveness. Pi Dingjun ordered the 2nd Regiment to ride on the night, climb up from the cliffs on the side, launch a surprise attack on the enemy army, successfully break through the enemy's defense line, rush out of the Dabie Mountain, and enter the Anhui Central Plain.
Although the road on the plains is early, the traffic is in all directions, and it is easy to be surrounded by the enemy. Pi Dingjun ordered everyone to bring only guns and ammunition and a single piece of clothing to quickly pass through the central Anhui Plain. In order to shorten the distance of the troops, the whole brigade was divided into three columns and advanced side by side. Pi Dingjun also drew elite troops from the whole brigade and formed a plainclothes team, wearing the uniform of the Kuomintang army, and reconnoitred the situation for the troops behind.
On the 19th, the troops reached Hongxinpu, east of Jiashan Mountain, in front of the Jinpu Railway, and crossed the last blockade line to reach the Suwan Liberated Area. However, in the early morning of the 20th, the leather brigade was strafed by a column of enemy armored vehicles when crossing the railway, and in danger, the troops who had passed concentrated their fire to attack the enemy, quickly repelled the enemy, and the whole brigade killed a bloody road and rushed out.
After crossing the Jinpu Railway, Pi Dingjun immediately gathered his troops and continued to advance east. In the morning, we arrived at the foot of a small hill in the Three Realms and met the Jiashan Detachment of the Huainan Military Region that came to meet them, and after 24 days of trekking through mountains and wading through the water, overcoming many difficulties and obstacles, experiencing 27 battles of various sizes and 1,500 miles, in addition to being lost, scattered, and casualties, more than 5,000 people successfully arrived at the Liberated Area of Suwan.
The first column and one brigade led by Pi Dingjun was the last unit of the Central Plains Military Region to break through, and the route chosen for the breakthrough was also the most difficult and the longest, up to more than 1500 miles in the national unified area, but it was the first unit among the troops to successfully break through and the most complete preservation. Premier Zhou later said: "Although there is only one brigade in the leather brigade, the central authorities use it as a front!" In 1955, Because of the breakthrough in the Central Plains and the later outstanding merits of the Battle of Menglianggu and the Battle of Shangganling, Mao Zedong personally approved it, and Pi Dingjun was made a lieutenant general.