In the history of our army, most of the battles have been deadly battles between the enemy and us, and the fights are very fierce, after all, this is a matter of life and death for everyone.
But there were also some battles that were won in a more relaxed situation, with short time and small casualties. Of course, it is very difficult to do this, which requires the correct decision-making of the commander and the perfect execution of tactics by all combatants.
In the War of Liberation, there were wonderful examples of our army in which one regiment annihilated two regiments of the enemy (both the enemy and us were cavalry regiments), and the whole process took an extremely short time, which is a rare example in military history of accelerating victory by chance. This example was also compiled into the red classic reading "Spark of Fire" after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
It was in July 1947, when our army had launched a full-scale strategic offensive against the enemy.
The 23rd Cavalry Regiment of the 7th Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army was ordered by its superiors, led by regimental commander Zhao Bing'an (colonel in 1955 and promoted to colonel in 1960), to operate south of Siping and west of Tieling, responsible for harassing the enemy's rear, disrupting its lines of communication, and so on.
As for which enemies to fight and how many enemies to destroy, the leader of the column did not give Zhao Bing'an a clear request.
But no one expected that Zhao Bing'an led the Twenty-third Regiment to bring surprises to the leader of the column.
This morning, the Twenty-third Regiment advanced southwest along the Liao River, taking the initiative to look for the enemy. When they came to a small village called a three-sided boat, they were surprised to find that under a large camphor tree at the entrance of the village, four enemy soldiers had set up a table and played mahjong.
The scouts sneaked over and effortlessly captured the four enemy soldiers, and after interrogation, they learned that the two cavalry regiments of the enemy had just been inhabited in the village, with a total of more than 1,000 people.
This enemy originally planned to go to Shenyang, but because of the heavy rains that caused the Liao River to rise so fiercely that they could not cross the river, they had to stay here.
After further reconnaissance, it was found that the enemy not only drove away the villagers, but also robbed many ordinary people of their pigs, sheep, and chickens, and were eating and drinking heavily.
Zhao Bing'an was overjoyed: he wanted to find the enemy, but he did not expect that the enemy was in front of him. The cavalry regiment against the cavalry regiment just happened to meet the opponent, then attack it unprepared, and fight a battle painfully and quickly!
But Zhao Bing'an also knew that the enemy had absolute superiority in strength and weapons, and it was not easy to deal with them, and it was necessary to adopt very targeted tactics to defeat them.
So, what tactics are appropriate? Although the time was tight (the enemy could find our army at any time, and it would be difficult to fight with a guard), Zhao Bing'an did not rush to attack, but first checked the surrounding terrain.
He climbed up to a nearby high ground with a few company cadres, observed the terrain with a telescope, and couldn't help but be overjoyed: This is really a place made in heaven to annihilate the enemy!
Originally, this was a basin surrounded by mountains on all sides, the Liao River with its surging water in the south, the mountains that warhorses could not climb to the southwest, the twenty-three regiments in the east, and the mountains with relatively low slopes in the northwest.
That is to say, if our army blocks the east and northwest, then the enemy will be like drilling into the net of heaven and earth, and there will be no escape at all.
Zhao Bing'an immediately deployed the battle: the first company and the second company, two cavalry companies, quietly swerved back to the northwest and rushed to the village from a commanding height on the mountain; the third company entered the village from the south along the Liao River, and the four companies used machine guns to control the commanding heights in the east, a hill, and then launched a fierce attack from the front.
Although the troops were small, Zhao Bing'an's platoon was almost seamless, like casting a large net over the enemy's head.
The tactic was simple and straightforward, and the companies quickly moved after accepting the task and quickly entered the designated combat position.
At 10:30, the battle officially began.
The four companies took the lead in seizing the hills to the east, set up machine guns, and blocked one of the most convenient roads for the enemy to escape from the village.
The first and second companies also successfully detoured back to the northwest, and more than two hundred cavalry galloped down from the mountain on horseback, and the momentum was extremely majestic!
The three companies also smoothly followed the river and entered the village from the south.
By this point, the companies of the Twenty-third Regiment had completed a three-sided encirclement of the enemy in the village (there were no troops in the southwest, but there were high mountains where the enemy could not pass).
When the soldiers shouted slogans and entered the village with a thunderous momentum, the enemy panicked and ran out of the houses to fight, and many of the enemy soldiers did not even wear clothes and shoes, and even could not find their weapons and horses, and the whole village became a pot of porridge.
Twenty-three regiments of cavalry soldiers with rifles, grenades and sabers charged and punched, and wherever the men and horses went, many enemies were killed and wounded, and most of them were running around the village with their heads in their hands. When they found that the whole village had been surrounded by our legions and there was no way to escape, they surrendered their weapons.
From the time our army launched the charge to the end of the battle, the whole process took only 15 minutes. In this battle, more than 800 enemy soldiers were captured, and the two cavalry commanders were taken prisoner. Interestingly, after these two people were captured, they actually took out the small bronze Buddha that they had collected close to and lamented: "After so many years of fighting, I didn't expect to be planted in a small village, and the amulet did not work!" ”
At the celebration meeting of the Seventh Column, political commissar Tao Zhu solemnly praised Zhao Bing'an, praising him for his good command and skillful use of tactics, annihilating two enemy cavalry regiments in 15 minutes, creating a wonderful example of a clever victory and accelerated victory.
He also announced a special reward for the Twenty-third Regiment of Cavalry: three pounds of beef were given to every officer and soldier of the regiment, one to celebrate the victory and the other to improve their lives.
The commanders and fighters of the Twenty-third Regiment all said happily: It is a wonderful feeling to win the battle and eat a big meal!