@秦楚刊号
In May 1946, the Xuanhuadian negotiations broke down completely. Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Liu Zhi, director of the Zhengzhou Appeasement Office, to unify the command of the Fifth Sui District and the Sixth Sui District of the Wuhan Xingying Camp, and mobilized 11 armies, 26 divisions, and more than 300,000 troops in a vain attempt to encircle and annihilate our Central Plains Liberation Army. In the face of sudden changes, the Central Plains Bureau quickly telegraphed the grim situation to the central authorities. On June 23, Chairman Mao Zedong, in the name of the Party Central Committee, sent a telegram to the Central Plains Bureau: "On the 21st, I learned that what I saw was very good, and agreed to break through immediately, and the sooner the better. Survival first, victory first. All future actions are up to you to decide, do not ask for instructions, so as not to delay the timing. May you fight in unity and wish you victory." In accordance with the instructions of the restoration, the Central Plains Bureau immediately led its subordinate troops to divide into two roads, north and south, broke through the blockade line of the Pinghan Railway and marched westward, and carried out a major strategic transfer.
The South Road troops, composed of more than 10,000 people from the First Column, the Second Brigade, and the Third Brigade, under the leadership of Wang Shusheng, crossed the Pinghan Railway blockade line from xiaogan and Huayuan, broke through the siege, and entered the Wudang Mountain area with ravines.
Under the leadership of li xiannian, commander of the Central Plains Military Region, and Zheng Weisan, acting secretary of the Central Plains Bureau, the 13th Brigade, the 15th Brigade, the 45th Regiment, the 359th Brigade, and the Cadre Brigade of the 2nd Column directly under the party and government organs of the Central Plains Bureau, the North Road troops tore open the Pinghan Railway blockade line from the Areas of Guangshui and Xinyang, traveled day and night, crossed the Tianhe Estuary before the intercepted enemy, and marched west through the Cangtai area to southern Shaanxi.
After Liu Zhi's plan for the Central Plains Operation failed, he urgently ordered three integrated divisions to follow up and pursue, and then sent a mixed brigade to reach Neixiang by car to intercept it, trying to take advantage of the Danjiang natural danger to stop our army from advancing. Fearing that this plan would fail, Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered Hu Zongnan, director of the Xi'an Appeasement Office, to lead the Sixty-first Brigade of the Reorganized Ninetieth Division and the First Brigade of the Reorganized First Division stationed in the Tongguan area to deploy in the Jingziguan, Abalone Ridge, and Nanhuatang areas to carry out ambushes in an attempt to prevent the Troops of the Northern Road from entering Shaanxi.
In the face of the enemy's encirclement, pursuit, and interception, Li Xiannian commanded Ruoding decisively divided the northern road troops into two wings and scattered the breakthrough. Wang Zhen led the 359th Brigade, the Guard Regiment of the Central Plains Military Region, and the Cadre Brigade, with a total of more than 10,000 people as the right wing, taking jingziguan, abalone ridge, and shanyang to advance toward Zhen'an and squeezing water. Li Xiannian and Zheng Weisan led the Central Plains Bureau, the 13th Brigade of the 2nd Column of the Central Plains Military Region, the 45th Regiment of the 15th Brigade, and the Guard Regiment, a total of more than 7,000 people marched for the left wing to Nanhuatang and Manchuanguan in the direction of Ningshan.
The left wing of the North Road troops led by Li Xiannian marched to Huaichuan County, Henan, but was blocked by the mighty Dan River, which ran through the north and south. At the critical moment when the great river was crossed, the enemy was blocked in front of him, and there were pursuing soldiers in the rear, Li Xiannian calmly and calmly raised his telescope, repeatedly observed on the surface of the river, looked for a ferry crossing the river, and prepared to forcibly cross the Danjiang River. At 19:00 on July 13, the river crossing began. Xia Shihou led the Thirty-seventh Regiment, braved the enemy's gunfire and bullets to forcibly cross to the opposite bank, destroyed the enemy who had set up obstacles, and controlled the ferry. Subsequently, the large troops successfully crossed the river from Ma Jie, Li Guanqiao, and other places, leaving the pursuing enemy on the opposite bank.
After Chiang Kai-shek learned of the success of Li Xiannian's troops in crossing the Danjiang River, he sent a telegram on July 14 to Liu Zhi and Hu Zongnan: "We must encircle and annihilate Li Xiannian's troops south of Jingziguan." ”
Liu Zhi and Hu Zongnan deployed the 144th Brigade of the 76th Division and the 51st Brigade of the 90th Reorganized Division in the areas of Manchuanguan, Baoyuling, and Nanhuatang to form three lines of defense to carry out ambushes, and ordered the reorganized 3rd And 41st Divisions to serve as strategic reserves, waiting for dispatch and coordination to form a joint encirclement posture against our army.
At dawn on July 17, Li Xiannian led the left wing of the North Road into the nanhuatang area of Yun County. At this time, the vanguard suddenly came to report: "The Jade Emperor Mountain and the mountains in the southwest of it have been occupied by the south of Huzong, and our army has been encircled on all sides." Li Xiannian hurried to the forward position, inspected the terrain, analyzed the enemy's situation, formulated a battle plan, and resolutely decided that the Thirty-seventh Regiment would take the main offensive, seize the main position of YuhuangShan, and kill a bloody road to cover the Central Plains Bureau's party, government, and military organs and the main forces to break through the siege; the Thirty-eighth Regiment and the Thirty-ninth Regiment would serve as flanking cover; the First Guard Battalion would serve as a companion to attack and contain the enemy; and the Forty-fifth Regiment would serve as the right wing cover and cut off the rear to intercept the reinforcements of the enemy.
After receiving the order, Xia Shihou, commander of the Thirty-seventh Regiment, immediately sent Chen Dezhi, commander of the third battalion, to lead his troops into the foot of the Jade Emperor Mountain, attack the mountain with all his might, seize the commanding heights, and seize the main position. The reinforcement battalion of the 1st Brigade of the Southern Huzong Brigade, guarding the top of the Jade Emperor Mountain, found that the people under the mountain were crowded and immediately took advantage of the favorable terrain to shoot. Chen Dezhi, commander of the third battalion, immediately made a decision and concentrated all the machine guns to return fire on the top of the mountain, suppressing the enemy's fire back. When the enemy saw that our army wanted to seize the position, he once again concentrated his firepower and bombarded it wildly, so that the attacking troops could not move, and finally retreated because they were outnumbered. In the face of the superior terrain, well-equipped, and several times larger than my enemy situation, Li Xiannian said with a serious look: "The tiger wants to block Wu Song's way, and Wu Song is still holding a tiger fighting stick in his hand!" We must have the courage of Wu Song to fight the tiger, desperately attack the Jade Emperor Mountain, kill a bloody road, and break through! ”
At 15:00 on the same day, the battle began again. Our army's 17 heavy machine guns and 4 mortars attacked the top of the Jade Emperor Mountain at the same time. The Thirty-seventh Regiment, under the cover of flank troops, launched a charge against the main position of Jade Emperor Mountain. Hundreds of grenades were thrown densely at the enemy group, and with the sound of a booming explosion, the enemy's firepower was significantly weakened. At this time, the Thirty-eighth Regiment, which was acting as a flank cover, and the Thirty-ninth Regiment seized the fighter plane to launch an attack from the right flank, and the bullets poured down like raindrops on the entire Jade Emperor Mountain, and the shells flew through like meteors, the tree poles exploded, the barren grass ignited, the rocks flew, the ground overturned, the smoke rolled over the mountains, and the cannons, trumpets, and shouts of killing converged into one piece, shaking the mountains and shaking the earth.
The fighting was fierce. Thirty-seventh regiment and one battalion of soldiers rushed to the front, and immediately fell more than a dozen. Xue Guobin, an instructor of the first battalion, was shot in the abdomen, and his intestines flowed out of the wound, and while he stuffed the intestines with his hands, he shouted: "Comrades, rush! Do not give the enemy a chance to breathe.".
The slopes of Jade Emperor Mountain are steep and sparse, and it is extremely difficult to climb covertly. Li Junshan, commander of the second battalion, endured the pain and commanded the soldiers to brave the enemy's gunfire and bullets to dig out a string of small ridges leading to the top of the mountain with bayonets and butts, even if the sharp knife squad climbed on the ridge. When the sharp knife squad was only ten meters away from the enemy position, the soldiers jumped up, threw dozens of grenades, and immediately took advantage of the smoke of the explosion to rush into the position and fight with the enemy.
Just as the battalion was about to take the main position, an enemy burst out of the left hill, and they fired wildly with machine guns, crushing the second battalion to the point of attacking and retreating. Battalion commander Li Junshan quickly led a squad to attack the enemy flank in a roundabout way. He had just taken a few steps out of the way, when he was shot and killed, and none of the fighters who went with him survived. At this critical moment, Li Xiannian and Xia Shihou led the first and third battalions from the middle of the mountain to kill and crush the enemy. Qian Yunyan, the commander of the first battalion, had red eyes, grabbed the machine gun in the hands of the soldiers, fired angrily at the enemy position, and then led the soldiers to pounce on the building ditch, killed the enemy who was assisting, and quickly occupied the forward position.
At dusk, the positions on the top of the Five Emperors Mountain and on both sides of the hill were taken by our army. After a bloody battle, the soldiers finally killed a 2,000-meter-wide breakthrough. Li Xiannian urgently ordered the Thirty-seventh Regiment to hold the passage to block the enemy and cover the breakthrough of the headquarters organs and subordinate units. The Thirty-seventh Regiment stubbornly held out its position for 16 hours, repelling dozens of counterattacks by the enemy until all of our army broke through and the flames of the battle were gradually extinguished.
Although the Battle of Nanhuatang was not the largest, most-used, and longest-consuming battle in the Liberation War, it opened the prelude to the Chinese Liberation War. It was the first military showdown between the Kuomintang and the Communists after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The victory in this war not only disrupted the Kuomintang's military deployment to launch a civil war, foiled the Kuomintang's conspiracy to encircle and annihilate the central plains breakthrough troops in the areas of Jingziguan and Nanhuatang, but more importantly stimulated the determination and fighting spirit of the whole nation to overthrow the Kuomintang rule and establish a new China.
The cost, casualty and material consumption paid by the Battle of Nanhuatang were not the greatest.
But it has created an example of a battle in which the outnumbered and the weak prevail over the strong. The victory in this battle depends not only on the bloody struggle of all officers and men, but also on the commander's majestic strategy and correct command. Looking at the entire battle, Comrade Li Xiannian's extraordinary temperament and military command ability were highlighted everywhere.
From the whole course of the battle, it is not difficult for us to see:
Li Xiannian was thoughtful in his choice of battlefield. The operation in Nanhuatang caused the Kuomintang army vehicles to be impassable and became crippled; the radio signal was interrupted and became a decoration; the aircraft reconnaissance failed and became blind, thus forming a situation in which the front could not be closed in time and the encirclement could not be formed in time. However, our army has a small number of troops, a short battle line, a quick fit, easy evacuation, and easy formation of fists. In addition, our army has both fought mountain warfare. The specialty of guerrilla warfare can also be used as a cover by the mountains and forests, and the offensive can be advanced, and the retreat can be defended, and the enemy's strengths and weaknesses can be used to firmly control the initiative in the war.
Strategic analysis stands tall. Although the Kuomintang threw 50,000 troops around Nanhuatang and formed a closed encirclement posture against our army, the troops were scattered, and the left could not help the right, and the front could not teach the rear. Coupled with the lack of communication between the Allied commanders, the time and place of the operation are almost countless in their minds, and the overall operation has not yet been formed. However, the strength of our army is concentrated in one place, and the time and place of engagement are determined by the situation, and the enemy is strong and we avoid it, and the enemy is weak and we fight.
Tactical arrangements judge the hour and size up the situation. Before the war, Li Xiannian chose the Jade Emperor Mountain, where the enemy was condescending and defensive, as a breakthrough. He ordered his troops to concentrate their forces, seize the main position of the Jade Emperor Mountain at a rapid speed, control the commanding heights, split a passage, and cover the breakthrough and westward advance of the party, government, and military organs and main forces of the Central Plains Bureau. This tactic of concentrating forces and attacking a point is suitable for guerrilla warfare in the mountains and movement in the plains.
The method of warfare is flexible and mobile. All the units participating in the war take into account the overall situation, have a general understanding, take care of the situation before and after, and coordinate left and right, not only dividing the work and being responsible for combat tasks, but also flexible and mobile in the conversion of attack and defense. As the commander-in-chief of the operations, Li Xiannian did not sit in the war room and read the map and listen to the situation, but rushed to the front line, which undoubtedly set an example for all the soldiers to bravely kill the enemy and highlight the heavy siege, and boosted morale.
The victory in the Battle of Nanhuatang was the result of the correct implementation of the central military line by the Central Plains troops, the result of the bloody struggle of the soldiers who participated in the battle, and the result of the application of Li Xiannian's military thinking in actual combat. Throughout the campaign, Li Xiannian's far-sighted military thinking, flexible and mobile strategy and tactics, heroic and decisive command ability, the demeanor of a general who did not panic, and the tenacious style of defeating the enemy were fully demonstrated.
Therefore, the Nanhuatang Breakout Battle is a contest between two strategic ideas, and Li Xiannian's success in danjiang has foreshadowed the failure of Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan in this breakthrough battle!
Please pay attention
Feel free to learn more about the relevant content thank you!