Author: Shen Du
I don't know when it appeared that "Chen Mingren was stronger than Lin Biao in battle", and he took the opportunity to take the defeat of our army in attacking Siping, which was held by Chen Mingren's 71st Army during the Northeast Liberation War, as evidence. So what are the facts?
Chen Mingren has a straight personality and is brave in battle. In the 1944 western Yunnan counterattack, Chen Mingren, as deputy commander, commanded the 71st Army to attack Songshan, the Japanese army rushed from Tengchong to support, the 87th Division of the 71st Army, which was responsible for blocking the Japanese army, was defeated and retreated, and the division commander Zhang Shaoxun asked Chen Mingren to abandon his position and retreat.
Chen Mingren strictly ordered Zhang Shaoxun to hold his position and take a step back from military law. Zhang Shaoxun was helpless and directly called Chen Mingren's superior, Song Xilian, commander of the 11th Army. Song Xilian softened his heart and allowed Zhang Shaoxun to retreat in a critical situation. Who knows, Chen Mingren just wanted to use the telephone, because the lines were parallel, and after hearing the conversation between Song and Zhang, Chen Mingren directly shouted on the phone, "No matter what, you can't do this, and the commander-in-chief can't deal with this problem directly." Song Xilian listened, and even did not dare to insist on his own opinion, and Zhang Shaoxun saw that the war situation was critical, he was helpless, and chose to shoot himself, fortunately, he did not aim at the heart and was rescued. After the war, Chen Mingren became famous in one fell swoop and became the commander of the 71st Army.
Chen Mingren, who revolted in the War of Liberation, was made a general in 1955
Chen Mingren was a man in the War of Resistance, and by the time of the Liberation War, this personality made him suffer losses in the camp of Chiang Kai-shek's army, plus he thought that he could turn the tide. His younger brother Chen Mingxin said that as long as Du Yuming said a few kind words to Chen Mingren, Chen Mingren would fight desperately. Before the siege of Xie Dehui, Du Yuming said to Chen Mingren, "Except for Commander Chen, no one can break this siege", in fact, because he commanded the New 1st Army and the New 6th Army. Chen Mingren listened, and without saying a word, he rushed up with the 71st Army, and as a result, the two main divisions under his command were almost wiped out. When Huaide was besieged, Du Yuming said, "Commander Chen will definitely succeed when he goes to break the siege.", Chen Mingren's blood rushed up as soon as he heard it, and he plunged headlong into it, and as a result, the troops just replenished by the 71st Army were wiped out again.
After the Battle of Siping, Chen Mingren gave the soldiers medals
In fact, after Chen Mingren arrived in the northeast, he was repeatedly severely damaged by our army. In mid-March 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's New 1st Army and 71st Army successively arrived in the northeast battlefield, making the strength of Chiang Kai-shek's army in the northeast far exceed our army, and the equipment was incomparable to our army. At this time, the Soviet army has begun to return home, and our army is gradually taking over the cities occupied by the Soviet army. Old Chiang ordered the Chiang kai-shek army in the northeast to attack, in an attempt to forcibly seize the city and destroy our army by virtue of its strong superiority in troops. The task of the 71st Army (owed to the 88th Division) was to march along the line of Faku and Bamian City, along with the New 1st Army, which was north along the Medium and Long Railway, and the destination was Siping, which had just been occupied by our army. On the surface, the momentum of the various armies of the Chiang Kai-shek Army was like a rainbow, but it was early spring, the ice and snow melted, resulting in muddy roads, and the mechanized troops of the Chiang Kai-shek Army were miserable.
On the other side, Lin Biao was nervously adjusting his deployment to deal with Chiang Kai-shek's offensive. He commanded the 3rd column and 4th column of the Liaodong Military Region to defend Benxi, and at the same time mobilized Huang Kecheng's 3rd Division, Yang Guofu's 7th Division, Liang Xingchu's 1st Division, and Wan Yi's Column to block The Jiang army that pounced on Siping. On 4 April, the 71st Army occupied Faku and continued to advance alongside the New 1st Army. On April 8, the 38th Division of the New 1st Army marched to the area of Xinglongquan and WickerGou and was besieged by 12 regiments of our army, the 38th Division was the ace division of Chiang Kai-shek's army, fully equipped with American weapons, and had performed well in the battlefields of Burma and Western Yunnan. Division commander Li Hong reacted relatively quickly, realizing that he had been surrounded, quickly organized a counterattack, and then withdrew as quickly as possible, losing only a few companies. Our army was small in strength, and seeing that it had lost its suddenness, the ambush troops quickly withdrew to avoid being bitten by the enemy.
Our army is poorly equipped, but morale is high
After the New 1st Army was ambushed by our army, Zheng Dongguo, who was the deputy commander of the Northeast Security Command, judged that our army should have moved to the front of the direction of the 71st Army's march, and Zheng Dongguo reminded the 71st Army to be careful of our army's ambush, and he himself concentrated on the attack on Siping. What he did not expect was that the 71st Army would turn a deaf ear to his reminder. The army marched in columns in the order of the 87th Division, the Army Headquarters, and the 91st Division, and the queue was extremely long, making it difficult to support each other. On April 9, the vanguard of the 87th Division was ambushed by our army, and the division commander Huang Yan ordered the troops to establish a defense in the area of Yangjiawopu.
Even when the 87th Division was under attack by our army, the 91st Division was still slowly crossing the Liao River. On the 10th, the enemy who had lifted the crisis began to counterattack, and our army gradually retreated according to the pre-war deployment to lure the enemy deeper. The enemy continued to advance under the continuous resistance of our army, and our army chose the final decisive battle site in the area of Jinshan Fort and Dawa, where the terrain was undulating and the swamps formed by the freshly melted snow and water were scattered everywhere, which was not conducive to the enemy's mobility and deployment.
On the 15th, the enemy launched an attack on Jinshan Fort, and when the first regiment arrived near Dawa, it asked the local people whether there were any enemy troops nearby. What they don't know is that many of the people in the market are dressed up by the officers and men of our army. When our army saw that the enemy was unguarded, at the sound of an order, the plainclothes team set out to disarm the enemy. A total of 14 regiments of our army suddenly launched an attack on the enemy, dividing the enemy and encircling the various small villages in the Area of Dawa. In order to offset the enemy's superiority in firepower, our army rested during the day and attacked at night.
Chiang Kai-shek's mortar positions
Huang Yan commanded the counterattack while calling for support, at this time the rear of the 91st Division sent a regiment to support, but our army did not give the enemy the opportunity to converge, the large number of casualties of the officers made Chiang Kai-shek's army morale seriously scattered, they fled in all directions, not only lost their positions, but also rushed those positions that had not yet been lost. The two sides fought fiercely until the morning of the 16th, the 87th Division suffered heavy losses, the deputy division commander and chief of staff were captured, Huang Yan only led a small number of troops to escape, and a regiment of the 91st Division that came to support was also completely annihilated. Our army killed and wounded more than 2,400 enemy personnel, captured more than 2,000 people, and captured more than 30 cars.
The first battle of the 71st Army to the northeast ended in a crushing defeat, while the commander Chen Mingren was in Shenyang at this time, and this situation was also secretly reported to Chiang Kai-shek. Old Jiang questioned Du Mingming, and Du Yuming did not forget to give Chen Mingren cover, saying that before the battle, he had sent a car to send Chen Mingren to the front line, but in fact Chen Mingren only arrived at the front line on the 18th, and the remnants of the army would continue to advance. Perhaps later Chen Mingren was willing to be fooled by Du Yuming, but also because Du Yuming helped himself, and his handle was held by the other party. In a sense, this battle was the first confrontation between Chen Mingren and Lin Biao, and neither of them was on the front line, but the performance of his troops was very different. Needless to say, the final outcome of the battle says it all.
Huang Kecheng (second from left), Tan Zheng (first from left) and Chen Mingren (third from left) in 1958