After the Liberation War entered its second year, more and more Nationalist generals were surrounded on the battlefield, such as Zhang Lingfu on Meng Lianggu, Song Ruike in Yangshan, Fan Hanjie in Jinzhou, and Guo Jingyun in the new security. After these people were surrounded by the People's Liberation Army, the Nationalist army organized an encirclement operation. Throughout the Liberation War, the Nationalist army carried out hundreds of large and small siege break operations, but only four were successful. So who directed these four times?
Huang Baitao rescued Hu Lian at the Battle of Nanma. After the reorganized 74th Division was annihilated, Su Yu aimed at the reorganized 11th Division, but Hu Lian was very alert and escaped from the edge of the Huaye encirclement several times. In mid-July 1947, Hua Ye finally found a fighter plane and surrounded Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division in the Nanma area. Under the onslaught of Hua Ye's three columns, Hu Lian gradually lost strength and hurriedly asked Chen Cheng for help. The reorganized 11th Division was Chen Cheng's consort unit, and in order to rescue Hu Lian, he urgently ordered Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, Shen Chengnian's reorganized 75th Division, and Wang Lingyun's reorganized 9th Division to advance toward Nanma.
Among the three reorganized divisions, Huang Baitao was the most active, he led his troops day and night, arrived at the battlefield and launched a continuous onslaught against the 7 columns responsible for blocking the reinforcements, and finally broke through the position of the 7 columns and rescued Hu Lian from the encirclement of Huaye. The Battle of Nanma also became the most successful encirclement operation of the Nationalist army since the beginning of the Liberation War. After the war, Su Yu criticized the 7 columns responsible for reinforcements: "The troops we reinforced were not very strong, and even when the enemy and we were equal in strength, we could not stop him (Huang Baitao)."
At the Battle of Suiqi, Huang Baitao rescued the 72nd Division of Ou Shou Nian's army. At the end of June 1948, Hua Ye took the initiative to withdraw from Kaifeng, and Qiu Qingquan's Fifth Army and Ou Shou Nian Corps followed suit. Qiu Qingquan made great contributions, the marching speed was extremely fast, Ou Shounian was afraid of being ambushed by our army, stopped and went, and quickly pulled away from Qiu Qingquan for tens of kilometers. Su Yu keenly grasped the fighter plane, surrounded the Ou Shou Nian Regiment, and after a fierce battle of day and night, annihilated the main force of the Ou Shou Nian Corps, and Ou Shou Nian himself was captured by our army.
At this time, the remnants of the 72nd Division of ou Shounian Regiment were still stubbornly resisting in the area of the Tiefo Temple, and in order to rescue this unit, Lao Jiang mobilized multiple reinforcements, including Hu Lian, Qiu Qingquan, and Wu Shaozhou, to attack the Tiefo Temple. Among these reinforcements, the most active was still Huang Baitao, who broke through the blocking position of the 11th Column of Nakano and rescued the 72nd Division from the Tiefo Temple, which later became the main force of Qiu Qingquan's corps. Later, Huang Baitao repelled the siege of Huaye's three columns at DiqiuDian, and was thus awarded a Qingtian White Sun Medal.
In the Battle of Yulin, Zhong Song successfully relieved Deng Baoshan. At the end of July 1947, Peng Dehuai commanded three columns of the Northwest Field Army, the newly organized Fourth Brigade, the Teaching Brigade, and the Fourth and Sixth Regiments of suide sub-districts, totaling more than 45,000 people, to launch a siege against Yulin. At that time, there were more than 15,000 defenders in Yulin City, and our army had an absolute advantage. After two days of fierce fighting, our army cleared the outlying strongholds and pushed straight for Yulin City. In order to relieve Deng Baoshan, Hu Zongnan ordered Zhong Song to lead the reorganized 36th Division to rush to Yulin.
After learning that Zhong Song had moved, Peng Dehuai decided to besiege the city to help, he thought that Zhong Song was heavily equipped and would definitely march along the road between Yuhe Fort and Zhenchuan Fort, so he ambushed the heavy troops here. However, Zhong Song was very cunning, and he studied the tactics of our army to encircle the points and provide assistance very thoroughly, and he did not let go of the spacious highway, but detoured northwest of Hengshan along the south bank of the Wuding River, and then plunged into the desert, and after three days of rapid marching, he arrived at Yulin City. At this time, our army's reinforcements were still in the area of Yuhe Fort, and the besieging troops were facing the danger of being caught between the enemy's internal and external attacks.
Xu Qiangqian besieged Yuncheng, and Zhong Song successfully relieved the defenders. On October 8, 1947, Xu Xiangqian surrounded Yuncheng from the east, west, and north with the 23rd Brigade and 24th Brigade of the 8th Column, the 3rd Independent Brigade of Jinsui, and the Third Military Subdistrict of the Taiyue Military Region, and used another force to control the first line of the Yellow River crossings such as Sanmenxia, Maojindu, and Fenglingdu, and block the reinforcements in the south of Huzong. At that time, there were more than 12,000 defenders in Yuncheng, of which the main force was three regiments in the south of Huzong, and the rest were local security forces.
Under the onslaught of the People's Liberation Army, the enemy could not support it, and rushed to the rescue of Hu Zongnan. Hu Zongnan didn't even think about it, so he entrusted the task of breaking the siege to Zhong Song. Zhong Song led his troops from Lingbao and Shaanxi County across the Yellow River to Yuncheng, Xu Xiangqian decided to encircle the reinforcements, with the main force to enter the Pinglu ambush, at that time Wang Zhen's second column was resting in southern Jinnan, and was also ordered to join the reinforcement sequence. But Zhong Song was very cunning, he gave up his heavy equipment, led his troops to advance along the trail with light equipment, left our army's reinforcements behind, and lifted the siege of Yuncheng in one fell swoop.
During the entire Liberation War, the nationalist army organized hundreds of siege break-up operations, but many of the troops who broke the siege did not contribute to self-preservation, coupled with the heroic resistance of our reinforcements, so the siege relief operation was rarely successful. Huang Baitao rescued Hu Lian and Ou Shounian's 72nd Division with his bravery, and Zhong Song relieved the sieges of Yulin and Yuncheng with his keen sense of smell and cunning marching route, and these four siege breaks were a rare highlight of the Nationalist army during the entire liberation war.