In October 1948, the Northwest Field Army, under the command of Peng Lao, launched the Libei Campaign to the south of the Kuomintang Huzong.
Hu Zongnan frequently dispatched troops and generals, posing a decisive posture, with Pucheng and Dali as the center, and built a defensive line of 20 kilometers in front and 30 kilometers deep east of the Luo River and north of Dali City, in a vain attempt to prevent the commanders of the Northwest Field Army from driving straight into Shangluo and ensuring the safety of Xi'an.
The Kuomintang newspaper triumphantly declared that Hu Zongnan had reorganized three armies in the northwest, with a total strength of 70,000 to 100,000 troops, and would do his best to contain the offensive of the communist army.
You have your ghost tricks, I have my old ideas. Peng Dehuai adhered to the principle of tit-for-tat confrontation and decided to tear a hole in Hu Zongnan's blood-soaked Libei defensive belt in order to achieve the pace of the Northwest Field Army's march.
Peng Dehuai's attempt to tear the opening in the Northern Defense Belt of Libei was not randomly torn, and it was very well torn.
Peng Dehuai's first tear was to annihilate the enemy's newly tigged Seventeenth Army and Thirty-eighth Army.
In accordance with Peng Dehuai's decision, the Headquarters of the Northwest Field Army quickly came up with a combat plan, with the first column as the protagonist and selecting the breakthrough point from the front; the second column, the third column, the fourth column, and the sixth column were encircled by two wings.
Of course, this time is different from the past, neither a siege nor a mountain, but a village facing a horse and a flat river, the earthen mound as the support point, and there is a solid defense system.
What is even more different from the past is that in the past, people always attacked them unprepared and surprised, but now people are opening a pocket and saying that they want to lure the PEOPLE's Liberation Army into the bait.
What to do? "Military democracy!" Peng Dehuai delegated the problem very early.
He Bingyan (admiral of the first column) "opened up the road of speech" in the unit, and the cadres at all levels discussed it very warmly.
The brilliant plan of Huang Xinting (lieutenant general of the 358th Brigade) began with a grumbling remark.
Huang Xinting looked at the dense enemy defense line on the map, and for a moment he couldn't think of any way to break the enemy, so he grumbled angrily: "Raised by a thief!" I don't believe that the enemy really has the ability to turn the front of dozens of miles into an iron plate! ”
The speaker has no intention, the listener is intentional, he Bingyan, who is looking down and pondering carefully, suddenly his eyes lit up - yes! The fortifications of the defensive positions on the plains are either built along the hills or followed the villages, one village and one support point, and there must be a place where there is no close connection between the villages!
He immediately encouraged Huang Xinting in a tone of approval: "Yes! What's the unbreakable iron plate, go ahead and talk about your thoughts! ”
Huang Xinting was stunned, and did not expect that he casually sent a complaint, but it aroused the interest of the commander.
He followed the train of thought just now and said, "Since it is not a monolithic piece, there must be a seam to drill." Why don't we send a small army, find a crack in it, drill it into the heart of the enemy, and give it a hard time? ”
"Ahhh! Good idea, just use this trick against the enemy! Huang Xinting's idea made He Bingyan's heart blossom, and he patted his thigh and said: "As soon as the enemy panics, the prepared system will also be chaotic!" ”
Political Commissar Liao Hansheng (lieutenant general in 1955) praised one after another: "The enemy has changed from being prepared to being unprepared, we have changed from passive to active, taking advantage of chaos, and taking advantage of the opportunity to divide and annihilate!" ”
Liu Tongshu, deputy chief of the second section of the column headquarters, continued: "If it is true, it is like Sun Wukong drilling into the belly of the iron fan princess, touching wherever he wants, and kicking which critical part he wants!" ”
That evening, in accordance with He Bingyan's instructions, Liu Tongshu took the chief and deputy section chiefs of the reconnaissance departments of the brigades under the column, more than a dozen staff officers, telegraph operators, and radio stations, as well as three reconnaissance companies, and formed a reconnaissance squadron and quietly set off.
They went deep into the depths of the enemy and made it clear how the enemy's defensive deployment and the future troops would penetrate deeply.
After returning, Peng Dehuai listened carefully to the report, pondered for half a moment, and said that the plan should be changed: "The first column is still the main character, but instead of breaking through from the front, it is a detour behind the enemy and breaking through from behind; the second, third, fourth, and sixth columns are still encircled from the two wings, and the original combat plan remains unchanged." ”
He pointed out that this tactic of detouring behind enemy lines is what Huang Xinting called "finding a crack to drill into."
At 20:00 on October 4, yizhong, following the route returned from Liu Tongshu's reconnaissance, found the "crack" that could be drilled, and unconsciously interspersed between the enemy fortifications and the fortifications in the area of Xiangu Temple and Macun Town in Xiguan.
Xiguan garrisoned a company of the Seventeenth Army, the three regiments and one battalion of the Single Brigade attacked from the east and south, and the second battalion attacked from the west and north sides, encircling a company of enemy regiments, and in less than 10 minutes, the battle was over.
Subsequently, our army continued to advance deep into the enemy, the 358th Brigade reached Chenjiapo, and the 1st Brigade reached Zhangjiapo, launched an attack on the Forty-eighth Brigade of the Enemy's Seventeenth Army, and quickly dispersed this enemy army.
When Kang Zhuang, commander of the enemy's Seventeenth Army, learned of this news, he immediately asked the Thirty-eighth Army for help, but the Thirty-eighth Army ignored it, and Kang Zhuang had to command his troops to retreat to the southwest.
This retreat was really a defeat, and the troops of the Seventeenth Army moved one after another, desperately moving south.
This night, the speed of the battle was completely unexpected by He Bingyan and Peng Dehuai. The first column was almost a long drive, and the entire defense system of the enemy army was beaten to pieces.
He Bingyan promptly organized his troops to take advantage of the victory to pursue, and the fleeing enemy army had no way out, so they had to raise their hands and surrender.
By the morning of October 5, the enemy's Seventeenth Army and Thirty-eighth Army, which had just been attacked by Hu Zongnantige, had all been annihilated. At this point, the area west of the Yellow River and east of the Luo River was completely liberated.
After the end of this battle, Peng Dehuai and He Bingyan once again praised Huang Xinting, praising him for the tactic of "finding a crack to drill into" that he proposed, which disintegrated the enemy's defense line and enabled our army to achieve this great victory.