In early December 1946, after the Hejiang Military Region of the Northeast United Army completed the pursuit and suppression of Xie Wendong and Zhang Heizi bandits, Tan Youlin, deputy commander-in-chief of the bandits, personally led the Eighth Regiment of the 359th Brigade and the Cavalry Regiment to the mountainous area between Diao Ling, Boli, and Linkou to continue to pursue and suppress the remnants of the bandit leader Li Huatang.
In the middle of winter, the cold wind is fierce, and the snow closes the mountain.
In previous years, when this season began, the bandits were already wearing leather coats, sneaking into secret camps or sneaking into the homes of ordinary people to find fun.
At this time, it was completely different, under the continuous blows of various pursuing and suppressing troops, the bandits had no foothold, no respite, and were exhausted all day long.
The news that Xie Wendong had been captured alive made Li Huatang and his minions even more frightened. In order to facilitate the activities, Li Huatang narrowed the target and divided the bandits into several small groups and acted separately.
In the area of Diao Ling, Boli and Linkou, the mountains are next to the mountains, the ravines are connected to the ravines, there is no one for dozens of miles, plus the snow closes the mountains, it is quite difficult to walk, and it is impossible to walk dozens of miles a day.
Li Huatang sent away the bandits without horses, leaving only a cavalry team of a few dozen people around.
In order to solve the problem of eating, they sometimes suddenly sneaked out of the mountains and forests, grabbed the grain and left. The bandits launched a "mushroom war" with the bandits in the midst of these mountains, forests, seas, and snow fields.
After pursuing and suppressing Xie Wendong and Zhang Heizi, the bandit suppression unit has already explored a lot of experience in suppressing bandits in the mountains, and their morale is high and their morale is high.
Against Li Huatang's cavalry team, only the cavalry regiment was the most suitable.
At that time, the cavalry of the Northeast United Army was newly formed, and the war horses were bought from the people, without special training, and the speed of the enemy's cavalry was at a disadvantage.
Although the bandits' horses were snatched, they ran up and whipped them desperately, threw them away when they were tired, and then went to the common people to grab them. The horses of the bandit troops died one less, and it was very difficult to replenish.
However, the favorable condition for suppressing the bandit troops is that they have the support of the people, and everywhere they go, they will be welcomed by the peasant associations and will not worry about eating and using.
After continuous pursuit, Li Huatang's cavalry team had only 24 men left.
One day in mid-December, Li Huatang led the remnants from sandao to Tuchengzi, where he had a random meal.
After the meal, Li Huatang, who had completely lost confidence, said: "You have relatives and friends, and we will have a period later." ”
The bandit leader Wang Deping and the 6 people left like this, and finally only 18 riders were left with Li Huatang.
When Li Huatang's cavalry team escaped to the vicinity of Dapan Daogou Tangzi, it encountered the communication company of the cavalry regiment of the 359th Brigade.
At that time, the task of the communications company was to deliver radio to the military region, but it did not expect that there was an unexpected gain on the road.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Huatang was afraid that his men's guns would expose him and attract a siege from the bandit troops, so he said to the bandits under his command: "Don't shoot at them, if you are caught up by their cavalry, you will surrender." I have to go first. ”
In this way, the communication company did not bother much, and captured the dozen bandits.
When cleaning up the battlefield and checking the prisoners, Li Huatang was not seen. It turned out that Li Huatang had come again with a golden cicada to shed its shell, brought a close retinue, and left the team to escape.
When Li Huatang fled to the area of DapanDao, although he was carefully disguised, he was unable to escape in the end.
At that time, Yang Binggao, the combat staff officer of the Eighth Regiment of the 359th Brigade, had just returned from searching the mountain and was preparing to return to the garrison for dinner, but unexpectedly, when he went down the mountain, he fell down the road and rolled down the hillside into the valley. Fortunately, with the cushion of trees and snow, Yang Binggao was not injured.
There was only a small road at the bottom of the valley, and Yang Binggao planned to walk back to the regimental headquarters along the road, when he suddenly found that there was a person in front of him hurrying forward.
He rushed forward to ask for directions, but the other party only made an "aaaah" sound, pointing to his ears and mouth, indicating that he was deaf and mute.
Although Yang Binggao could not ask a question, although he was a little disappointed, according to the mass policy of the troops, he could not be forcibly interrogated or detained, so he had to let this person leave.
But he was still unwilling, and when the other party walked out of ten meters away, he suddenly counted his heart.
Yang Binggao picked up a stone from the ground and suddenly threw it at the "deaf and dumb person", hitting the trunk of a large tree behind him, making a "poof" sound.
It is often said that "the deaf are dumb", and it is reasonable to say that deaf and mute people are generally weaker even if they still have some hearing.
However, when the man heard the sound of stones hitting the trunk of the tree, he stopped and looked back behind him.
Yang Binggao was staring closely at the reaction of the "deaf and dumb person", only to see that the moment he turned back, his eyes first instinctively burst out a trace of incomparably sharp cold light, and then he seemed to realize that he had been deceived, and his eyes were inexplicably flustered.
"Stop! What the hell are you? Yang Binggao was already convinced from the movements and eyes of this person that there must be something wrong with him, and without the slightest hesitation, he immediately stopped drinking and pulled out his gun to chase forward.
The "deaf and dumb man" was indeed exposed, quickly flashed into the bushes, and then pulled out his gun to return fire, and a bullet hit Yang Binggao's left arm.
Although his left hand was injured, Yang Binggao immediately threw out a grenade and blew the "deaf and dumb man" to the ground.
At this time, the soldiers of the eighth regiment, one battalion and one company also rushed to the sound, and the crowd rushed up and tied up the "deaf and dumb people".
Later, it was confirmed that this "deaf and mute man" was the bandit leader Li Huatang. However, because he was seriously injured by a grenade, he died during the escort.
Relying on his own wisdom, Yang Binggao used the trick of throwing stones to force Li Huatang to appear in his original form, eliminated this bandit leader, was commended by the general headquarters of the bandits, and was rated as a second-class merit.
When He Jinnian, commander of the Hejiang Military Region, learned of this incident, he decided to entrust Yang Binggao with a heavy responsibility and promoted him to battalion commander.
Previously, Yang Binggao was a deputy company-level cadre when he was an operational staff officer, which was equivalent to a company promotion of three levels (deputy company - company level - deputy battalion level - battalion level).