In the history of our army, there was a very peculiar dispatch of troops: a deputy commander actually commanded two columns to fight "against the guests", and the commander of the brother column also came under his command, but in the end he won a great victory that shocked the whole army, which became a good story in military history.
This deputy commander is a generation of famous generals Han Xianchu. This incident occurred in March 1947, during the famous "Four Guarantees Linjiang" operation.
After the enemy's three offenses against Linjiang were crushed by our army in the northeast, they were not dead-hearted, and they mobilized troops from all over Jilin, Changchun, and Cha'nan, and cobbled together as many as 11 divisions, totaling more than 20 regiments, and invaded Linjiang for the fourth time.
This time, the enemy's strength was much larger than the previous three invasions, which can be said to be unprecedented in scale. This is undoubtedly a very serious problem for our army.
At that time, the third and fourth columns of the Liaodong Military Region were placed in front of the enemy, but only one division of the fourth column could fight (the other two divisions fought behind enemy lines), plus the three divisions of the third column, the total strength was only 13 to 14 regiments, and there was still a big gap compared with the enemy army.
In response to this situation, the South Manchuria Sub-Bureau held an emergency meeting to discuss combat deployment.
At this meeting, everyone believed that at this time, we are indeed facing many difficulties, and what is in front of us is a hard battle, but no matter what, we must fight this battle well and win the victory of the "Four Guarantees and Linjiang."
So which unit and which general will command the battle? The result of the discussion was that the third column and the fourth column jointly established a front-line command, and Zeng Kelin, commander of the third column, and Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the fourth column, served as the main and deputy commanders respectively.
This arrangement was very clear and reasonable, and immediately after the meeting, the South Manchuria Sub-Bureau sent a telegram informing Han Xianchu to discuss with Zeng Kelin the specific plan for the battle.
On March 31, Han Xianchu received this telegram, and on the same day he rushed to the location of the Headquarters of the Three Columns and held a combat conference with Zeng Kelin and others.
As soon as the meeting was open, there was an unexpected situation, and there was a disagreement over which enemy to concentrate on first, and a very fierce debate occurred.
Zeng Kelin advocated the first attack on the enemy's provisional Twentieth Division, which was in the position of the flank of the middle road, and their equipment was inferior to that of other enemy troops, and their combat effectiveness was weaker. The other commanders of the three columns also agreed with this view, after all, this is a relatively safe approach.
Han Xianchu, on the other hand, held the viewpoint that "whoever is the hardest will destroy whom first," holding that the eighty-ninth division of Chiang Kai-shek's lineage, which is the main force in the middle of the road, is equipped with US weapons and equipment, and its combat effectiveness is naturally much stronger than that of other enemies.
Zeng Kelin questioned that if our army first fought the enemy's Eighty-ninth Division, it would have to settle the battle within one day, otherwise the enemy troops from all other roads would come to reinforce, and our army would fall into the enemy's heavy encirclement, so the risk of fighting was too high.
Han Xianchu always adhered to his view, believing that although the enemy's Eighty-ninth Division seemed to be the strongest, they had two fatal weaknesses: one was pretentious and arrogant and light enemy; the other was that they had just come to Southern Manchuria and were not familiar with our army.
As for how to deal with this enemy, Han Xianchu also had his own thinking, that is, to buy time as much as possible, to lure the enemy to the favorable terrain of our army, and to give an extremely sudden head-on blow, so as to achieve the goal of a quick battle and a quick decision.
Just as the so-called "snake fights first and heads first", if we can first destroy the main offensive force of the enemy's Eighty-fourth Division, then we can solve the rest of the enemy more smoothly and crush the enemy's all-round attack in one fell swoop.
Under the circumstance that neither of the two opinions could convince the other, Zeng Kelin and Han Xianchu had no choice but to send telegrams of their respective views to their superiors for instructions.
It is worth mentioning that the performance of Han Xianchu and Zeng Kelin in this process is commendable.
Theoretically, it should be the three columns that "pick the big beams", while Han Xianchu only participated in the battle with a division of the four columns, and Han Xianchu was only the deputy commander of the four columns. Even if this battle is not fought, it will certainly be the commander of the three columns who bears the main responsibility.
However, Han Xianchu was a very responsible and conscientious military commander, and he did not dare to insist on his own opinions because he was a "supporting role", but had the courage to take responsibility and put forward his own views without reservation.
General Zeng Kelin fully demonstrated his open-mindedness and generosity, and he did not "deceive the guest" because Han Xianchu was a "guest" and his position was under him. Since you have different views, then I am not eager to deny you, nor will I reject you, and I must let both sides have the right and opportunity to express their respective opinions.
After Xiao Jinguang, commander of the Liaodong Military Region, and Chen (Yun), political commissar, received the telegram sent by Zeng and Han, they immediately conducted in-depth and meticulous discussions.
Militarily, Xiao Jinguang was mainly responsible, so Xiao Jinguang, the later founding general, also played a decisive role in handling the opinions of Zeng and Han.
After studying, Xiao and Chen felt that Han Xianchu's plan of "hitting the snake first and hitting the head first" could strike more effectively at the invading enemy, and immediately replied to the decision to deploy the Battle of Sibao Linjiang according to the plan proposed by Han Xianchu.
"The three armies must not be without commanders", so who will command this operation? Xiao and Chen decided to take Han Xianchu as the main force, and he would unify the command of the three columns and the fourth column.
The deputy commander "anti-guest-oriented" command of the main commander, this matter seems unreasonable, incredible, but it just happened. It must be admitted that Xiao Jinguang and Chen Yun, the two chiefs, dared to break the rules and regulations of their posts and levels, and it is also worth praising for their innovative arrangements.
Two days later, Xiao and Chen received a good news from the front--the third column and the fourth column, under the unified command of Han Xianchu, after 10 hours of fierce fighting, completely annihilated the enemy's 89th Division plus a regiment of the 54th Division in the Hongshi Gongzi area, and then repelled two enemy divisions that came to reinforcement.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first impressive result of our army's first battle in the northeast battlefield of total annihilation of the enemy, a whole division and then a whole regiment. What is even more amazing is that our army achieved a great victory in this battle to annihilate more than 10,000 enemy troops, but only paid a small price of 300 casualties.
The development of the war was indeed just as Han Xianchu had envisioned before the war, and after the Eighty-ninth Division was "one pot end", various other enemies were frightened and retreated. This also fundamentally reversed the offensive and defensive situation between the enemy and us in the southern Manchuria region, and created very favorable conditions for our army's strategic counteroffensive on the northeast battlefield. The "Four Guarantees of Linjiang" commanded by Han Xianchu became a great victory for the whole army.