In addition to the bloodiness of the soldiers on the battlefield, what is more important is the correct judgment and control of the situation, and blindly charging into the battlefield is often just a vain death. During the Liberation War, there was a famous battle that caused more than 1,200 casualties due to the general's biased judgment of the situation, causing huge losses to the army's combat strength, which was the famous Battle of Qingshuping.
This is a typical case of operational failure, from the officers down to the soldiers have misestimated the enemy's combat capability, under the conditions of the situation is still unclear, with only a sense of enthusiasm and determination to confront the enemy tit-for-tat, the officers commanding the operation are blinded by the victory in front of them, make a wrong judgment, and finally cause irreparable results.
Rush to chase
In 1948, in order to pursue the Kuomintang troops moving south, the central government began to plan to send the Northeast Field Army in the north to the southern battlefield.
At the end of the year, there was a plan in the Huaihai Campaign document that the Northeast Field Army would rest for two months after completing the Pingjin Campaign in January and February, start marching south along the Pinghan Road in May, join the Jianghan Campaign in June and July, and successfully cross the river in August. In the plan, the Northeast Field Army will take the Hubei region of Hunan in the first step, and the second step will be to take liangguang.
In the actual campaign, the Northeast Field Army, which was experienced in combat, marched all the way, while at the same time, some Kuomintang officials also under the influence of the Communist Party recognized who was the party that really did things for the people.
On August 4, 1949, Chen Mingren, commander of the First Corps of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Changsha, and Cheng Qian, then chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, were influenced by communist ideology and decided to lead an uprising of 70,000 people.
The peaceful liberation of Changsha greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the People's Liberation Army to go south, and at the same time, it also caused a considerable blow to the remnants of the Kuomintang troops. In order to save the situation, the remnants of Guilin, to which Bai Chongxi belonged, began to use unscrupulous coercion and inducements against the rebels, and eventually 40,000 people chose to defect here in the confusion.
Faced with this situation, the Fourth Field Army decided to stabilize Chen Mingren's soldiers and cover their retreat while pursuing the defecting troops. When formulating the battle plan, Zhong Wei, commander of the 49th Army, proposed to his superiors to pursue Baoqing, Yongfeng, and Jieling.
Zhong Wei is a well-known militant in the party, and his temper is also notoriously grumpy. Because he was not in line with the leader, he took his family and guards to leave the team without authorization and went to northern Jiangsu to surrender to his old superior Huang Kecheng.
His fighting style is fierce, he dares to fight and dare to fight, and is deeply appreciated by Lin Zong. At that time, Lin Zong valued his command talent and decided to promote him to deputy commander, and Zhong Wei actually replied to Lin Zong that he would be a commander if he wanted to do it, otherwise he would also be a division commander.
Although Zhong Wei's reply was quite offensive, Lin Zong still appointed him as the commander of the Twelfth Column, and he was also the only person in the Shiye army who was directly promoted from division commander to commander.
In the face of the plan handed in by Zhong Wei, the organization naturally did not slacken off, and Cheng Zihua, commander of the 13th Corps, reported the plan while carefully studying it, and did not have time to reply to Zhong Wei in time. But Zhong Wei is an acute child,
When he saw that the organization did not reply, he all acquiesced, turned around and led the 49th Army to pursue the enemy
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Unclear circumstances
Zhong Wei only cared about leading his troops forward, but he did not know that there was a fierce tiger lurking between the mountains and forests on the road ahead.
After Lin Zong got Zhong Wei's attack plan, he carefully studied and found that the elite troops of the other side were on the road pursued by the 49th Army, and it was inevitable to rush forward to fight.
Lin Zong immediately asked Cheng Zihua to inform the 49th Army that it must find out the situation and not blindly advance. However, by the time the 49th Army received the order, the 146th Division, which was at the forefront, had already rushed through Yongfeng and reached Qingshuping
On August 15, the 146th Advance Division had been marching rapidly for several days, and for the soldiers from the north, the heat in the south was unbearable, and the soldiers looked weak in the sun.
When the battalion commander saw this scene, he naturally felt sorry for his soldiers, and seeing that there was no trace of the enemy nearby, he took the opportunity to lead the troops through the valley road without arranging for personnel to occupy the commanding heights.
Unfortunately, the 236th Division of the enemy 46th Army was ambushed above the valley, and the 146th Division was hit by the enemy from above, and after the troops quickly concealed and engaged the main force, they began to engage the other side fiercely.
Since the four wild army went all the way south, it has not fought a big battle along the way, this time it is not easy to encounter the opponent, no one considers the strength of the enemy, no one cares about the nearby terrain, everyone is riveted, just want to let go of their hands and feet and fight with the opposite side.
After a night of fighting between the two sides, the enemy's firepower did not decrease in the slightest, and our warring troops began to feel that something was wrong, but the generals of the troops thought that they had caught a big fish, and excitedly bit each other and waited for the arrival of the main force.
Our army only fought with a sense of excitement, but the enemy was calmly making assessments, the war was repeatedly delayed, Bai Chongxi had already seen the situation on the battlefield, and this Platon Army that was engaged with its own army was in his eyes a small sheep that had entered the mouth of the wolf.
Bai Chongxi decided to eat the 146th Division, which was alone and deep into the enemy's hinterland, and he urgently transferred the 171st and 172nd Divisions of the 7th Army from the vicinity, and decided to kill the 146th Division from the two wings.
On the 16th, the Nationalist side began to launch an all-out attack on the 146th Division, and the enemy sent 4 aircraft and 20 cannons to launch a fierce onslaught on the PLA positions. In the face of such fierce enemy fire, the 146th Division, far from realizing the danger of the situation, became even more excited, and they decided to eat this "big fish" no matter what.
The 146th Division had killed the enemy in the front, while the Four Fields troops in the rear, who had seen the situation clearly, were already blushing sharply. Lin zong personally ordered the 146th Division to evacuate as soon as possible, and arranged for the 145th Division to meet them.
However, at this critical juncture, the radio station of the 146th Division malfunctioned and could not be contacted. The 49th Army tried to call every half an hour, but every message was sent out.
Suddenly woke up
In order to bite this "big fish", the 146th Army did not hesitate to engage in a tug-of-war with the enemy, and each hill had to be repeatedly pulled, but gradually, the strength of the 146th Division began to lose to the other side.
On the evening of the 16th, the Nationalist troops, who were not good at night fighting, chose to confront the 146th Division and quietly began to deploy the attack on the 17th. In the early morning of the 17th, the Nationalist troops began a new round of onslaught, and Wang Kuixian, the commander of the 146th Division, finally tasted danger from the artillery fire.
This veteran who had been in the battlefield could hear at once that many of the shells that hit his position were heavy artillery, and according to the sound of the shells whistling past and the place where they fell, it could be seen that these shells came from different artillery positions.
This sense of danger was confirmed at noon, and the radio of the 146th Division was finally operational, and it was only when they were ordered to retreat that they understood what situation they were in. However, even if you understand that you are in danger, you can't rush to choose to retreat, under such fire suppression, choosing to retreat during the day is undoubtedly a choice to die.
Wang Kuixian ordered that no matter what, he would hold out until dark. After receiving the news of the 146th Division, the rear defense forces could only put down their hearts, and the 49th Army immediately sent the 145th Division to Yongfeng to meet the 146th Division.
At this time, the Nationalist troops, which had been fighting the 146th Division for two days, also began to decide to do their best to take the division headquarters, so as not to have too many nights. The enemy tried his best, the firepower suppression suddenly made the battle situation tragic, in just one day, the 146th Division resisted 37 enemy attacks, the two sides fought until dusk, for the commanding heights of the continuous tug-of-war, and finally ushered in the dark.
With the 145th Division, the 146th Division broke out of the siege and escaped the encirclement and suppression of the Nationalist troops. The Nationalist troops, who were not good at night fighting, were worried about falling into a trap, and they suffered heavy casualties after two days of fighting, so they did not choose to pursue.
In this way, after two days of fierce firefighting, the 146th Division finally escaped.
brief summary:
The soldiers of the 145th Division who received the 146th Division knew that the soldiers of the 146th Division had not eaten a single bite of food for the past two days, so they immediately started to cook the fire, but when the meal was ready, the soldiers of the 146th Division were already asleep, and they could not wake up when they were tired.
This fierce exchange of fire resulted in the loss of thousands of people, and the biggest reason for this result was the blind confidence of the 146th Division in the uncertain situation.
After the war, the army began to reflect deeply, realizing its paralysis and rashness to light the enemy. On the battlefield, the root of victory comes from correct command, and correct command must come from correct judgment, and a resolute and light attack by the enemy will only reverse the situation at hand and give up the fruits of victory.