On February 22, 1947, the 1st and 8th columns of the East China Field Army received orders from the headquarters to annihilate the enemy who had reinforced Laiwu.
The information received by the headquarters was that the enemy had sent two regiments as the vanguard troops to advance to Nanbailong and Shajiazhuang outside Laiwu City.
Ye Fei, commander of the First Column, immediately dispatched troops and ordered the First and Second Divisions to attack separately, with the goal of completely annihilating the two regiments.
The First Division was responsible for attacking the enemy of The Southern White Dragon, and Liao Zhengguo, a famous general of Huaye and commander of the First Division, personally led two regiments to launch a surprise attack at 9 o'clock that night.
However, the progress of the battle was not smooth, and our army encountered the desperate resistance of the enemy in the street battle, and the situation could not be opened for a long time.
Liao Zhengguo was a very experienced commander, and he stopped from the sound of gunfire on the battlefield, and the enemy encamped in Nanbailong was far more than a regiment.
Sure enough, according to the confession of a prisoner captured at the front, this enemy force was actually the strength of the 193rd and 15th Divisions of the enemy's Seventy-third Army, as many as two divisions!
Liao Zhengguo hurriedly called the column headquarters and reported the situation to Ye Fei.
Unexpectedly, Ye Fei told him that neither the Second Division of the First Column nor the Eighth Column had started a battle at present, that is to say, only Liao Zhengguo's First Division had engaged the enemy.
Liao Zhengguo said angrily, "No wonder we fought so hard in The Southern White Dragon, and the brother troops moved too slowly!" Will the next division fight? ”
Ye Fei immediately asked Huaye's headquarters, and with the approval of Deputy Commander Su, asked the First Division to stop the attack.
But when the armistice order reached the South White Dragon front, it was already 4 a.m. the next day. The First Division had already killed and wounded a large number of enemies in this fierce battle, and it had also paid a considerable casualty price.
On the morning of the same day, Huaye Headquarters also ordered all units to "release" the main forces under the enemy commander-in-chief Li Xianzhou, luring them into the ambush position, thus annihilating them in one fell swoop.
Ye Fei received the order to command the three columns on the west side of the highway and destroy the enemy in the field after the enemy withdrew from Laiwu City.
Ye Fei considered that Liao Zhengguo's first division had suffered a lot of losses in the Battle of Nanbailong, and deliberately called over to take advantage of this opportunity to capture more prisoners and surrender more weapons to make up for the losses.
The person who received Ye Fei's call was Mao Jin, a combat staff officer of the First Division, who wrote down all what Ye Fei said on paper and prepared to send it to Liao Zhengguo for inspection.
When Mao went in to find Liao Zhengguo, the guards told him that the division commander had not slept for three days and three nights, and that he was resting on the door panel and not to wake him.
Mao Jin was embarrassed and said that this was an order from the commander of the column and must be conveyed to the division commander.
Unexpectedly, Liao Zhengguo woke up when he heard the movement, he turned over and sat up, asking Mao Jin to read the contents of the phone to him.
After Mao Jin finished reading, Liao Zhengguo said, "Got it." Then he lay still on the door panel, covered with a cotton coat, and went on to sleep with his head covered.
This move puzzled both Mao Jin and the guards: Didn't the column commander let the division commander lead the troops to "capture more prisoners and surrender more weapons"? Why did the division commander receive the order but ignore it?
At noon on the same day, more than 40,000 horses under Li Xianzhou's command were blocked by Huaye's first column and six columns in a narrow area of more than ten square kilometers, and they could not move at all.
With Su Yu's order, all the troops attacked in full line and launched a fierce attack on the enemy!
However, only Liao Zhengguo was still sleeping with his head covered, and did not issue combat orders to the commanders and fighters of the First Division, and the troops had to stand still.
Mao jin was in a hurry, so he had to explain the situation to chen ting, deputy division commander. Chen Ting understood Liao Zhengguo's temper and knew that he must have his own ideas, and said helplessly: "Continue to wait for the orders of the division commander!" ”
At this time, Hua Ye's army had already beaten all the people and horses under Li Xianzhou to a complete collapse, and launched a breathtaking "capture contest".
Liao Zhengguo's two regimental commanders could not hold back, and quietly sent small troops into the battlefield, taking hundreds of prisoners each.
However, in this famous battle of Laiwu, the first column and the sixth column were full of gains, and only Liao Zhengguo's first column and one division did not gain much benefit.
The commanders and fighters of the First Division did not understand the division commander's approach, but for some reason, Liao Zhengguo never gave a statement.
It wasn't until ten years later that the mystery was solved by Liao Zhengguo himself.
In 1957, veteran Wang Hao happened to meet Liao Zhengguo, a teacher who had become a founding major general, talked about this past in the Battle of Laiwu, and couldn't help asking: "When you didn't let our division participate in the 'Capture and Capture Contest', was it because of the Battle of Nanbailong, the brother troops did not start the battle in time, so that our division suffered a lot of losses. ”
When Liao Zhengguo heard this, he laughed loudly: "To be honest, the practice of the brother troops really makes me a little confused, but there is another reason why I did not let the First Division participate in the pursuit of the enemy." ”
"Why?" Wang Hao asked.
"If you want to capture prisoners, you must catch those who dare to fight and dare to charge and be able to take the lead, so you must fight the enemy's vanguard troops." Isn't that true? ”
"Yes!"
"But if you look at the position of our division in the Battle of Laiwu, the enemy's vanguard troops have long passed, and they can only pursue the enemy who is cowering behind. Most of those troops are old, weak and disabled soldiers who are greedy for life and afraid of death, and even if they are captured and taken more prisoners, they will not be of much use to us, but will be a burden. In this case, it is better not to arrest them! ”
"What's more, our division was seriously attrition in the Battle of Nanbailong, and our superiors were bound to give us additional personnel." If you think about it, were the more than three thousand captives that the Six Columns allocated to us later all relatively capable? Liao Zhengguo said with a smile.
"That's right!" Wang Hao suddenly realized, "On the contrary, the hundreds of prisoners that our two regiments privately went to capture were mostly non-combatants or fallen soldiers such as porters, cooks, and brothers- and sister-in-law, far inferior to the soldiers replenished by the Six Columns!" ”