In the winter of 1946, on the way north to Daliji in Suining County, Jiangsu Province, the wheels of the people supporting the front line of the People's Liberation Army rolled.
The creaking sound of the trolleys converged into a huge symphony, roaring towards the Xuzhou battlefield.
The big trucks couldn't drive to the road full of cars, and they were parked on the slope against the earthen wall at the mouth of the town.
"Why stop? Don't know the task is urgent? Hurry up and drive forward! ”
The staff of the headquarters and the political department, which were packed with trucks, rushed to the front line to open the headquarters, and could not help but clap the canopy cover of the cab and shout.
"Can't drive!" From the cab, the voice of Zhang Aiping, deputy commander of the Central China Military Region (who became a founding general in 1955): "Wait until the car in front of you is gone."
The people on the side of the car heard that they had to wait and wanted to get out of the car.
Deputy Commander Zhang opened the car door, stuck his head out and shouted, "Don't get out of the car!" Send someone to buy something to eat. As soon as the road opens, we'll be right away..."
Before he could finish speaking, there was suddenly no sound.
"Not good!" Sun Gongfei, the director of operations, looked at the probe and shouted.
It turned out that the car was sliding down the slope in the mud, rubbing against the wall, and the door of the car hurt deputy commander Zhang's head. The back of the old cotton hat had been soaked with blood, and the brim of the hat was crushed.
When the driver saw that the chief was seriously injured, he hurriedly changed the brakes to reverse the car so that the door could be released.
"Can't reverse!" While shouting to stop the driver, Director Sun jumped out of the car with Xie Shengkun, director of the organization department of the military region, and directed the people in the car to come down and push the cart backwards.
Seeing that Deputy Commander Zhang was relieved, he said to the panicked driver: "If you want to reverse the car, you have to start." As soon as it starts, even if the car is a little closer, it must be squeezed! ”
Deputy Commander Zhang, who was unconscious, was rescued by the Minister of Health and Industry, and it took more than 20 minutes before he gradually woke up.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw that the comrades were all surrounding themselves with concern, and the car was still parked there, struggling to get up: "The car must go immediately!" ”
He knew his responsibilities well in his heart.
Li Zongren's famous general Li Pinxian was marching north from Bengbu with 2 divisions of Nationalist troops to open the Jinpu Road and forcibly occupy Xuzhou before the "January Agreement" of the Kuomintang armistice.
In order to intercept Li Pinxian and crush the Kuomintang plot, the Central China Military Region decided to have Zhang Aiping lead Wang Bicheng and Zhang Zhen in 2 columns, 1 brigade, and 1 cavalry regiment under the unified command of Commander Chen Yi and carry out an interception operation on the southern front of Xuzhou.
The troops on the front line were waiting for Zhang Aiping, could he not be in a hurry?
Seeing that he was injured and delayed, he urged one after another: "Hurry up and leave!" He said as he got up and got into the car. But before he could get up, he fainted again.
The health minister said: "The injury is so bad that it can no longer go. ”
"So, what to do?" The chief of operations was so anxious that he scratched his scalp.
"Listen to me, go!" Minister Wang beckoned people to carry Deputy Commander Zhang on a stretcher to the field hospital in Daliji.
After arriving at the hospital, Deputy Commander Zhang could not get up. Chen Laozong's headquarters was in the north of Xuzhou, and the plan for the entire campaign was drawn up, and there was no need to delay.
"Alas!" He helplessly pounded the stretcher: "Set up the radio, I will direct here!" The radio was removed from the car, and the Southern Front Command was opened in the field hospital.
"Communicate with all sides immediately, and I will get the battle situation immediately." Report my location to Mr. Chen and the Military Region, but don't say that I was injured. ”
"Yes!" After the chief of operations agreed, he hesitated again: "But..."
"I must not influence the whole campaign because of me!" Deputy Commander Zhang waved his hand and said emphatically.
In accordance with the orders transmitted by the air waves, the troops of the Central China Military Region began to fight with the enemy in a large-scale movement.
The imposing Li Pinxian was intercepted and struck by unexpected stubborn interception and blows, and angrily urged his "Changsheng Army" to pounce more frantically, while secretly admiring the magic of his opponent's use of troops.
However, Li Pinxian, a well-known general of the Nationalist army who had been in the battlefield for a long time, did not expect that the main general who fought against him was lying on a hospital bed after being seriously injured, enduring serious injuries and commanding the battle.
In the Da Li Ji Field Hospital, Zhang Aiping's thinking was racing throughout the battlefield.
He listened quietly to every battle situation reported by the Chief of Operations, inquired carefully about every change between the enemy and us, silently thought about the possible movements of the enemy and the countermeasures to be taken by our side, and then dictated to the Chief of Operations the well-thought-out orders for the movement of the troops.
Sun Gongfei was recording the determination of the chief, and he was impressed by the chief's familiarity with the troops and geography. As long as a pair of deputy commanders Zhang said where the troops were now and where the enemy was, he understood. For the terrain, landforms, villages, rivers, roads, bridges... They are all very knowledgeable, and they are as accurate as they are on military maps.
In fact, before Zhang Aiping each oral command, she did not know how many times she had checked it in her mind.
He was familiar with northern Jiangsu, not only because he had crossed the battlefield with the Japanese invading army, and grasping the time and place was the true color of the commander; more importantly, it was condensed here with his love and hatred, ideals and affection.
Three days later, the battle was fierce. Despite the persuasion of the minister of health and doctors, Zhang Aiping insisted on getting up and writing her own telegram after listening to the war situation.
He endured the intense pain, propped up his swollen head, grasped the pen in his hand, and wrote it one by one.
But every stroke he wrote, it was like there were countless steel needles pricking in his head. He had to pause, and then he gritted his teeth and wrote down, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead on the telegraph paper.
Sun Gongfei, an iron-clad tough guy, couldn't help but burst into tears when he received the telegram.
Telegram after telegram turned the general's tenacity into the strong action of the troops, and turned the general's crystal beads of sweat into swirling bullets. The whole battlefield, arranged according to his strokes, moved forward smoothly.
Three days, five days, seven days, nine days... The troops of Li Pinxian's two divisions could not break through the PLA's defensive line, and after being defeated, they shrank south.
The successful blockade of the southern front ensured the victory of the northern front, and General Manager Chen sent a telegram to Congratulate Jie, praising Zhang Aiping for leading the troops to achieve an important victory.
It was not until the end of the war that Mr. Chen learned that Zhang Aiping had suffered a serious head injury and immediately sent someone to send him to the Soviet Union for treatment.