In April 1947, the Sixteenth Regiment of the 6th Division of the 2nd Column of the East China Field Army received orders from its superiors and quickly advanced to the Shandong Liberated Area to assist the fraternal troops in fighting against the enemy.
When the Sixteenth Regiment came to the northeast of Mengyin County, Shandong Province, it found that an enemy force had secretly followed it. After reconnaissance, it was learned that this was an elite reinforcement battalion of the Forty-fourth Brigade of the 83rd Division of the Kuomintang, with a total of more than 500 people and fully equipped with American equipment.
The Sixteenth Regiment was trying to destroy the enemy, but they did not expect them to come to the door, and the regimental commander immediately decided to send a battalion to annihilate this enemy.
On the night of April 30, Song Jiakui, the commander of the first battalion, learned that the enemy reinforcement battalion had followed him to the area around the top of the Yellow Cliff, so he sent one company and three companies to launch a surprise attack in the dark of the night.
To the surprise of the first and third companies, the enemy actually stopped advancing at dusk and occupied the commanding heights at the top of the Yellow Cliff, as if to use it as a temporary stronghold.
However, our army was not familiar with the land, and it was nighttime, and it was difficult to find out the terrain at the top of the Yellow Cliff and the distribution of the enemy's firepower for a while, so it could only temporarily stop the attack.
At dawn the next day, after Zhu Zhaoheng, an instructor of the first company, sent a reconnaissance squad to reconnoiter the terrain, he was still not at ease, and he personally took a guard to a nearby village to visit the masses.
When they passed a grass hut in the village, they saw an old man with white hair looking down at the grass, so they stopped to inquire about the situation at the top of the Yellow Cliff.
Unexpectedly, the old man saw that Zhu Zhaoheng and the guards were wearing military uniforms, did not know where they came from, and did not answer the questions, but just shouted ah, indicating that he was deaf and dumb, and could not understand their words.
Zhu Zhaoheng, who came from a reconnaissance background, saw at a glance that the old man was pretending to be deaf and dumb, so he told him well, saying that he was the People's Liberation Army and wanted to come here to fight the Kuomintang.
When the old man heard that it was the People's Liberation Army, he became excited, and immediately told Zhu Zhaoheng that the evening of the first day he led a yellow cow past the top of the Yellow Cliff, and saw many Kuomintang soldiers there with their hands and feet setting up tents and building fortifications, and building a six-foot-high and four-foot-thick wall with stones.
The old man also said breathlessly that his cattle were eating grass when they suddenly pulled a pile of cow dung at the gate of the wall. An officer, who was called "Chief Huang" by the soldiers, rushed out in anger, slapped him twice, and asked the soldiers to forcibly snatch his cattle away, saying that they were full of military food.
Speaking of this, the old man was so angry that he pleaded with the People's Liberation Army to kill all those hunky Kuomintang soldiers.
Zhu Zhaoheng was kind enough to soothe him and told him that the People's Liberation Army had come to suppress this enemy. After he waited for the old man's mood to calm down, he asked him in detail about the enemy's deployment at the top of the Yellow Cliff.
Although the old man did not know how to fight, Zhu Zhaoheng basically grasped the enemy's strength and firepower configuration according to the information he provided.
What made Zhu Zhaoheng even more overjoyed was that the old man also offered that he knew that there was a very hidden path that could lead from the northwest to the top of the Yellow Cliff. Because the trail is covered by bushes on both sides, very few people usually walk.
Zhu Zhaoheng was overjoyed, and immediately let the old man lead the way, and quietly came to the foot of the mountain northwest of the top of the Yellow Cliff, avoiding the eyes of the sentries and finding the hidden path.
Indeed, as the old man said, the path was lined with shrubs and weeds, and it was impossible to see that it could lead to the top of the mountain, so it became a blind spot for the enemy's defense.
After sending the old man home, Zhu Zhaoheng immediately returned to the unit and reported the situation he had to the battalion commander Song Jiakui.
Song Jiakui was very happy and decided to take action that night and launch an attack on the enemy.
The specific arrangements were: Three companies carried out a feint attack on the south side of the yellow cliff top; the first company, under the leadership of Zhu Zhaoheng, quietly touched the mountain from the hidden path in the northwest and launched a surprise attack on the enemy; the second company ambushed the east side of the yellow cliff top and was responsible for cutting off the enemy's escape route.
After dark, each company enters the designated area separately according to the established deployment.
At exactly eight o'clock in the evening, Song Jiakui formally issued a general offensive order, and the three companies took the lead in launching an attack in the south, which played a role in containing most of the enemy's troops.
At the same time, under the leadership of Zhu Zhaoheng, Yilian unknowingly climbed from the hidden path to the top of the Yellow Cliff near the top of the mountain.
Because the trail was too hidden, the enemy was not aware of its presence at all, and only sent a few sentries to patrol the south. A company of commanders and fighters did not have much strength to solve the sentries, and then swerved back to the side of the enemy's main position and launched a surprise attack with lightning speed.
The enemy never expected that there would be a plagiarism of the People's Liberation Army's Heavenly Descendants suddenly coming out from behind, although they had an absolute superiority in strength, but this sudden blow made them suddenly chaotic, and they were beaten like headless flies in a row.
The three companies saw the gunshots at the top of the mountain, knew that the first company had already succeeded in the raid, and launched a more violent impact from the south, and it took only a few minutes to rush to the top of the mountain, forming a front-and-forth attack with the first company.
Some of the enemies saw that the situation was not good, and wanted to take advantage of the chaos to sneak out from the east, but they did not expect to enter the trap laid by the second company, except for a few people who were killed on the spot, the rest were taken prisoner.
The battle lasted only 25 minutes before it was all over, and a reinforcement battalion known as the enemy's elite totaled more than 500 people, including the enemy battalion commander Huang Zelin, who did not slip through the net, and all of them were annihilated by the People's Liberation Army.
After the battle, the battalion commander Song Jiakui, while praising Zhu Zhaoheng for leading a series of surprising victories, also pointed out that the battle was won in only 25 minutes, and it must be thanked to the old master who provided the enemy's intelligence and secret route.
After the enemy battalion commander Huang Zelin learned of the origin of the matter, he shook his head and sighed: "I didn't expect that because I couldn't stand a pile of cow dung, I bullied the old man in a rage, causing a chain reaction, but causing serious consequences for the destruction of the whole camp. ”
Reference Materials: "Documentary of the East China Liberation War", "Tiger Howling Blood Field: Records of the Conquest of the East China Field Army"