In August 1947, the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army (i.e., Liu Deng's army) set out from southwest Lu and advanced towards the Dabie Mountain area. However, when this large army came to the bank of the Huai River, it found that it encountered a big problem.
Originally, the Huai River could be waded through on foot, but before the troops crossed the river, the upstream suddenly swelled due to heavy rain, and the water flow was very turbulent.
The troops only have a dozen or so small wooden boats that have survived the enemy's ransacking, and if they want to rely on them to transport 120,000 soldiers across the river in one or two days, it is nothing short of a fantasy!
At this moment, the enemy troops of a total of 19 brigades had caught up closely, and their vanguard troops were only 30 miles away from the Huai River crossing, and they had already engaged the rear guard troops of our army.
The situation is really 100,000 urgent! The troops must cross the river immediately, and all the troops must cross it in two days, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable!
The 18th Brigade, which was the vanguard brigade, received an order from Chief of Staff Li Da that it must cross the Huai River by 12 o'clock that night.
Xiao Yongyin, commander of the 18th Brigade, personally ran to direct the soldiers to cross the river, but after some attempts, he concluded that the whole brigade relied on only a dozen wooden boats, and it would be difficult to cross before 12 o'clock in any case.
He reported the specific difficulties to Li Da, who pondered for half a moment and promised to postpone the completion of the 18th Brigade's crossing of the river until 2 p.m.
Xiao Yongyin continued to command the troops to race against the clock, and according to the progress at that time, he estimated that the soldiers of the whole brigade could barely finish the crossing on time.
But at this moment, a strong wind suddenly blew on the Huai River, and the river was like a water monster stirring up the wind and waves, setting off a wave of volts. The boats swirled in the waves, some were thrown to the top of the waves, and then fell down, and the speed of the troops crossing the river plummeted!
If the vanguard brigade takes up more than one night, what about the rest of the troops!
Xiao Yongyin had no choice but to return to the brigade command post to find another way. Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked away, he saw that the room was full of people, and the commanders of the Wild Division, including Commander Liu (Bocheng), had come.
Everyone seems to be old friends and seems to be unknown, for half a day no one said a word, while looking at each other, while thinking about how to solve the problem in front of them.
After half a day, Commander Liu suddenly broke the tense and dull atmosphere, stared at Xiao Yongyin and asked, "Is it really impossible to wade into the Huai River in vain?" ”
"The river is too deep to paddle." Xiao Yongyin replied affirmatively based on what he had learned on the ground.
"Is it the same deep everywhere?" Can't it be in vain? ”
"At this time, the water of the Huai River soared, and according to the people on both sides of the river, no one dared to wade across the river at this time."
"So, have you done field reconnaissance or tried it?"
"I've scouted and tried, and it really doesn't work." Xiao Yongyin replied.
Next, Commander Liu carefully and thoughtfully inquired about the situation of crossing the river, and finally asked: "Have you found a guide to investigate?" Have you asked a few more fellows? ”
Commander Liu did not want to sit still any longer, so he personally came to the river, stood in a place with higher terrain, looked at the mighty turbid waves rushing eastward, and was silent for a while.
Then he took a long bamboo pole and took two guards with horse lanterns to the ferry and boarded a small boat.
Next, people saw from a distance that there was a tall black shadow on the ship, moving up and down the side of the boat, not knowing what it was doing.
Time passed minute by minute, and the boat was still paddling back and forth in the river...
Suddenly, the familiar cry from the boat was heard: "You can build a bridge in the river!" I tried many places and the river wasn't that deep! ”
At this time, the talents on the shore suddenly realized that it was Commander Liu, who was the commander of the army, who was personally probing the depth of the river in the face of the wind and waves!
After exploring the water potential, Commander Liu found that the water of the Huai River had begun to recede, and the heavy water when the troops arrived was caused by heavy rains upstream. He immediately shouted at the people on the shore: "Immediately inform Chief of Staff Li and tell him to command the troops to resolutely build a bridge!" ”
After shouting, he still felt unsteady in his heart, but he was afraid that the people on the north shore would not be able to hear clearly, so he immediately took out a pen and paper and wrote down a written order and sent guards to the shore.
After Commander Liu got off the ship, he wrote a brief letter to Li Da: "We must do everything we can to put up the bridge as soon as possible!" He also added circles around these two sentences to attract the attention of the recipient.
After the letter was sent, he said in a stern tone to the people standing by: "Thick branches and leaves will kill people!" It's going to kill people!" ”
Xiao Yongyin was commanding the troops to seize the time to build a bridge with a sense of shame, when suddenly someone sent a brief letter from Commander Liu, which read: "Immediately inform Staff Officer Li that the upstream can wade across the river, there is no need to build a bridge, and order the troops to quickly wade in vain!" ”
It turned out that Commander Liu had been observing the crossing of the river on the riverbank, and he had seen a groom fall behind and grope for himself to cross the river from somewhere upstream. He immediately wrote a brief letter to let Xiao Yongyin know about the situation.
Xiao Yongyin was overjoyed and found the place where the groom waded through the water, and the 18th Brigade immediately began to wade in vain. After they crossed the river, the follow-up troops also began to wade across the river.
Commander Liu stood on the top of the mountain and looked down at the waves in the river, and after watching the mighty 120,000 soldiers successfully cross the Huai River, he couldn't help but smile on his face.
Commander Liu used this strict scientific attitude to govern the army during his decades-long career as a military commander. This time, it was precisely because of his carefulness and rigor that as the commander-in-chief, he personally did the "small thing" of exploring the river, and only then did he discover the fact that "the river is not deep, and you can build a bridge", and then further discovered the fact that "you can do it in vain", and solved the big problem of crossing the river for the 120,000 troops in a limited time.
At this moment, a staff officer came to report: "Most of the enemy's men and horses have rushed to the north bank of the Huai River, but our army has all passed, and the river has suddenly risen, blocking the 19 brigades of the enemy army on the north bank, and they can only lament that they are one step late!" ”
Commander Liu laughed and said humorously, "This is really the spirit of Toma (Kesi) in heaven!" ”