In April 1947, the task of "three lower jiangnan" of the North Manchurian troops of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army had been completed, and the third and fourth columns remaining in southern Manchuria were unable to fight with the attack of the enemy in Tonghua.
Du Yuming, a famous general of Chiang Kai-shek's army and commander of the Northeast "Suppression Army," mobilized about 100,000 people from each of his 13th Army, the New 6th Army, and the 93rd Army to Southern Manchuria and launched an attack on Linjiang.
Du Yuming's wishful thinking was to first break the siege of Tonghua, then seize Liuhe and other county towns, and then force our third and fourth columns to fight a decisive battle with them in the Tonghua area, and finally capture Linjiang.
This situation is undoubtedly extremely grim for the Northeast United Army.
Because the total strength of the enemy is 11 divisions, a total of 100,000 people. Our army can only dispatch the strength of 4 divisions, and the consumption is too large to be replenished.
However, for the sake of the overall interests, our army must contain the enemy in the southern Manchuria region and be prepared to fight a big war, a hard war, and a vicious war.
Chen (Yun), Xiao Jinguang, and other chiefs of the Liaodong Military Region decided to set up a front-line command center, with Zeng Kelin, commander of the third column, and Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the fourth column, serving as the main and deputy commanders.
After receiving the order, Zeng and Han immediately met together and held a meeting to study the battle plan.
There is no doubt that in the face of the invasion of 100,000 enemy troops, our army must fight, and this does not need to be discussed, and it must be clearly understood -- will the first battle be fought against the enemy's provisional 20th Division or the enemy's 89th Division first?
Two very different views emerged.
Zeng Kelin and most other generals advocated picking a "soft persimmon" first, that is, first dealing with the enemy's provisional 24th Division.
Because this is a Dian-style unit, the combat effectiveness is not strong, and it is deployed on the flank of the main corps, and it is safe to concentrate its forces to annihilate the division first, and it is safe to open the knife from the weak place.
The enemy's 89th Division was Chiang Kai-shek's concubine unit, which was equipped with American weapons and equipment, had strong combat effectiveness, and was close to friendly and neighboring troops. If the battle cannot be resolved within a day, and the reinforcements of the enemy come closer, our army is in danger of being counter-encircled. Therefore, it was very risky to fight the 89th Division first.
However, Han Xianchu did not agree to the strategy of pinching "soft persimmons" first, but insisted on fighting the strong enemy first, that is, the enemy's 89th Division.
He believed that the enemy's 89th Division was the main force of this attack, and if it was destroyed, the enemy's offensive plan might be crushed, which was a crucial battle to insist on southern Manchuria.
This enemy had just been transferred from Rehe, was unfamiliar with the situation, lacked experience in fighting our army, and they were very proud, so that we could lure the enemy deeper.
As long as the enemy's 89th Division is lured to the area of Hongshi Gongzi, which is favorable to our army, and concentrates its forces to make a surprise attack, it is certain that it will win in a relatively short period of time.
Zeng Kelin and others still maintained a steady attitude and advocated hitting the provisional 24th Division first. The two opinions could not be unified for a while, but the two opinions were reported to the Liaodong Military Region at the same time, and the instructions of The chiefs Of Chen and Xiao were requested.
Two hours after the telegram was sent, he received a reply from Chen and Xiao: He completely agreed with Han Xianchu's opinion and decided that Han Xianchu would unify the third and fourth columns and strive to quickly and completely annihilate the enemy's 89th Division.
Following this instruction, Han Xianchu and Zeng Kelin immediately studied the battle plan and made the deployment of the campaign attack: the 8th Division of the Third Column blocked the enemy with one force on the front, the 7th Division attacked from the right wing, the 10th Division of the Fourth Column attacked from the left wing, and the 9th Division of the Third Column blocked the reinforcements of the enemy in the area of Wankou Town south of the Liuhe River.
In order to successfully annihilate the enemy, Han Xianchu decided to induce the enemy's 89th Division to advance one step further and attack again in the Area of Hongshi Stone.
There are two main points for fighting this battle well: First, we must follow the arrogance of the enemy and the arrogance of being eager to enter and occupy Sanyuanpu; second, the troops that lure the enemy to go deep can only use light weapons to show that our army is a local unit.
Indeed, according to Han Xianchu's vision, the enemy quickly entered the ambush area.
At 6 o'clock on April 3, the battle began. Under the bombardment of our powerful artillery fire, the enemy's artillery positions were destroyed, the infantry units were beaten to the point of dizziness, and the enemy's 89th Division was surrounded on all sides by our army.
After 10 hours of fierce fighting, our army completely annihilated the 89th Division and the 162nd Regiment of the 54th Division of Chiang Kai-shek's heavily armed and equipped army, smashing the enemy's plan to attack Linjiang in a frenzied manner, thus reversing the tide of the war in southern Manchuria.
In this battle, Han Xianchu insisted on fighting the 89th Division, and although he was the deputy commander of the Fourth Column and opposed by the majority, he unswervingly insisted on his opinion.
Where is the reason why Han Xianchu insisted on fighting a strong enemy first and not pinching "soft persimmons"? From a number of historical materials, we can analyze the origin of the matter, including three reasons:
First, as long as we first fight the provisional 20th Division, we can ensure the overall interests of our army.
He knew very well that in order to crush the enemy's offensive plan in order to crush the enemy's plan, it would be difficult to change the enemy's offensive intentions by only fighting the provisional 20th Division.
If the 89th Division is completely wiped out and old Chiang Kai-shek is beaten, it is possible to make it change its plan so that it can save Southern Manchuria, which is his basic idea of insisting on fighting the 89th Division.
Of course, it is not easy to make such a big determination, and it is even more difficult for Han Xianchu, who is serving as deputy commander. He has the whole situation in mind, and according to the needs of the overall situation, he vigorously adheres to his opinions.
Practice has proved that his opinion is correct. After this battle, the situation in southern Manchuria was reversed, and the strategic passive situation was turned into an active one.
Second, by enticing the enemy to go deeper, we can turn unfavorable conditions into favorable conditions.
After making up his mind, where to annihilate the 89th Division is an important issue. It will be very difficult to fight in the enemy's heavy army group.
In view of this, Han Xianchu was determined to transfer the 89th Division to the Area of Hongshi Gongzi, which was favorable to our army but unfavorable to the enemy, and annihilated it. Not only are the terrain conditions favorable to our army, but it is also far away from the enemy's main army corps, which is convenient for our army to fight a war of annihilation and reduces the burden of fighting aid.
According to this idea, the main force was first dispatched to camouflage local armed forces to block the enemy, and to lure the enemy by means of running as soon as they hit and retreating while fighting, and as a result, the enemy was lured to the area of Hongshi Gongzi, which constituted a favorable condition for the total annihilation of the 89th Division of our army.
Third, through flexible and ingenious tactics, you can strike a strong enemy.
The campaign deployment was to form a campaign encirclement after the front blocked and the rear interception formed a campaign encirclement, first concentrated the firepower of the three artillery regiments, destroyed the enemy's artillery positions, and beat the enemy's infantry to the point of dizziness, and after interspersing and dividing, bravely attacked, and the result was that in less than half a day, the invincible 89th Division was completely annihilated.
With the correct determination, the tight deployment, the proper command, and the tactical flexibility and cleverness, the annihilation of one of the enemy's main divisions achieved a total victory in the battle at a cost of only 25:1 casualties.