In September 1945, the Eighth Route Army's Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region launched the Shangdang Campaign, besieging the enemy army lieutenant general Shi Zebo in Changzhi, Shanxi. Yan Xishan was horrified and sent more than 20,000 troops, led by Peng Yubin, a famous general of the Jin Sui Army, to March from Taiyuan day and night to Changzhi in an attempt to rescue Shi Zebo and fight a decisive battle with the Eighth Route Army.
Liu Zhong, a famous general of our army and brigade commander of the 386th Brigade (one of the Ten Great Tiger Generals of Yiye), immediately led his troops to evacuate Changzhi Beiguan and quickly marched toward Laoye Mountain, the only dangerous terrain north of Changzhi.
When the 386th Brigade arrived, it found that the enemy had taken laoye Mountain one step ahead of it. When they learned that the eighth route army was advancing northward, they stopped advancing southward and decided to build fortifications on the spot in an attempt to steadily advance towards Changzhi.
It pays off! Liu Zhong ordered an onslaught against the enemy who occupied Laoye Mountain.
The 772nd Regiment attacked from the west, the 20th Regiment and the Shimin Independent Regiment attacked from the east, and the 14th Regiment of the Taihang Army attacked from the front.
Because the enemy occupied favorable terrain and concentrated firepower, several attacks were never able to gnaw down this hard bone, on the contrary, each regiment suffered more casualties, and the two sides confronted each other on the beams of Laoye Mountain.
Liu Zhong, seeing that the strong attack did not work, ordered the troops to suspend the siege to avoid unnecessary casualties. He and Chu Daming, the leader of the Twenty Regiments, made some deliberations and decided to change it to night raids to win with wisdom.
It was night, and After Chu Daming led a company of warriors to quietly detour the enemy's flank, he occupied two small mountain beams in the northeast corner of Laoye Mountain with a sudden move, cutting off the enemy's contact with its main force to the north, and controlling the water source of Laoye Mountain.
The defenders of Laoye Mountain were surrounded and isolated, and their drinking water was cut off, so they desperately counterattacked our army, but they were all repelled. After a few rounds, the enemy's heart began to waver.
On October 6, just as Liu Zhong reorganized his forces to prepare for another attack, the defending enemy was afraid of being completely annihilated, and finally gave up his position and fled to the east in a hurry.
Liu Zhong moved the brigade command post to Laoye Ridge, and before he could catch his breath, he stood on the commanding heights and raised his telescope to observe the enemy's situation.
To the east, the cannon rumbled and the smoke filled the air, and the enemy's brigade was moving south along the road.
Suddenly, a bright spot in the northeast direction that did not know what was emitted flashed. This fleeting detail suddenly alerted Liu Zhong, who carefully observed and searched through the telescope.
Don't look at it, don't tighten it, look at it and be shocked! Liu Zhong noticed that a small group of enemies was moving north, and the piercing highlight was the flash of the foreign oil barrel on the enemy's back.
The enemy brigade is going south, why are some squads going north instead? Are they playing any tricks?
Liu Zhong, who had served as the head of the reconnaissance section, did not hesitate at all; on the one hand, he immediately sent a reconnaissance detachment to the north to find out the situation, and on the other hand, he repeatedly pondered whether the enemy wanted to retreat to the north, "pretending to be the south and solidifying the north."
He carefully analyzed the battles of the past three days, and since the enemy was unable to advance towards Changzhi any longer and could not solve Shi Zebo's siege, then Peng Yubin was not a fool, would he throw himself into a cage again and follow Shi Zebo to his death? It seems that they are indeed retreating north.
From a small detail, Liu Zhong saw through the enemy's tricks. The situation is very important, without further ado, and it must be reported to the superiors as soon as possible!
Liu Zhong immediately dialed Commander Chen's phone: "Report commander, the enemy is trying to flee north. ”
"What? Is there a basis for the enemy to flee? Commander Chen asked rhetorically.
"I personally observed that the enemy was moving north." Liu Zhong said without any ambiguity.
The other end of the phone hesitated for a moment, and soon Commander Chen's voice came again: "You clarify the situation, I will go to you immediately." ”
Liu Zhong believed in his own judgment, so before Commander Chen arrived, he had already made preparations for the operation in the troops.
Two hours later, Commander Chen rushed to Laoye Ridge with his staff officers, and Liu Zhong pointed out the enemy's movements to Commander Chen one by one.
At this time, the reconnaissance detachment also returned, reporting: "It has been found that a small group of enemies in the north is going north with their luggage and burdens. ”
Commander Chen groaned and raised an eyebrow, looked at Liu Zhong, and said in a stern and decisive tone, "Well, Liu Zhong, the enemy is beginning to retreat." You immediately led twenty regiments north along the left side of the road, and in any case you must rush ahead of the enemy and block the enemy who is retreating north, so that we can concentrate the main force of the whole army and completely annihilate the fleeing enemy! ”
Liu Zhong led the twenty regiments to immediately set off in plain clothes, and the remaining regiments were handed over to the command of Political Commissar Zhang Zuyu.
Late that night, the troops arrived at the old base area of Tuluo Village, and the fighters grabbed an enemy deserter. Liu Zhong personally interrogated him and learned that the enemy brigade had come from the south and tried to sneak north back to Qin County.
Get ahead of the enemy! Liu Zhong was overjoyed, and immediately set up a defense in The Village of Tuluo, hurried to repair the fortifications, and ordered all battalions and regimental subordinate units: "This is a big blockade battle, and we must make up our minds to resolutely annihilate the enemy fleeing north at all costs and complete the task of blocking the attack!" ”
On October 8, just after dawn, a large number of enemies did indeed come north, slowly assembling on the depressions on both sides of the village of Tuluo, and in a short while 20,000 people gathered.
"With more than ten times more troops, the task of blocking the attack is arduous!" Liu Zhong knew very well in his heart that what was coming was an arduous blockade battle, and the key to whether he could annihilate the enemy fleeing north and ensure the complete victory of the entire battle was whether a regiment in his hand could block the strong enemy.
Liu Zhong decisively gave the order to attack, and the enemy also launched a crazy attack under the cover of dense artillery fire.
The soldiers of the Twenty Regiments controlled the favorable terrain and used the fortifications that had long been repaired to crush the enemy soldiers who rushed to the front of the position again and again, and then organized a counter-attack of company after company, and launched a white-knife battle with the enemy.
From morning to afternoon, eight group charges organized by the enemy were repelled by the heroic commanders and fighters of the Twentieth Regiment. The position was held, and the fleeing enemy was forcibly blocked.
In the evening, the troops of the Taihang, Taiyue, and Southern Hebei military regions all arrived and surrounded the enemy regiments, and in addition to Peng Yubin and a dozen of his bodyguards and entourage who fled, more than 20,000 horses of the 23rd Army and the 83rd Army of the Jin Sui Army who were trying to flee to Qin County were all annihilated by our army.
The famous general Liu Zhong led a regiment of troops to block the enemy ten times more than himself, and won valuable time for the entire campaign.
The commanders of the Taiyue Military Region and the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region all sent congratulatory telegrams to Liu Zhong, praising him for seeing through the enemy's trick of pretending to be the south and the north from a fleeting detail, and then the blockade battle in Tuluo Village, which he commanded, fought very well, creating another wonderful example of our army with a small number of battles, and setting up a miraculous feat.