In October 1948, when a small village called Tashan in Jinxi County (now Huludao) in Liaoning Province broke out, an extremely fierce battle broke out, which was the "Tashan Blockade Battle" in the annals of history.
The two sides of this battle were attacked by the Kuomintang 100,000 troops, and the defender was the fourth column of the Northeast Field Army.
For the Northeast Field Army, it is of great significance to fight this battle well -- only by holding on to Tashan, a necessary place from Jinzhou to Jinzhou, can the enemy's "Westward Advance Corps" plan to reinforce the besieged enemy in Jinzhou and ensure the victory of the Jinzhou Campaign.
For the generals of the Fourth Column, there was only one task, that is, to resolutely hold Tashan and not let the enemy cross this defensive line within six to seven days, so that the main force of the Northeast Field Army could annihilate the enemy in Jinzhou without distraction and without worry.
The commander of the "Eastern General" sent Hu Qicai( who became the founding lieutenant general in 1955), the famous general who was the best at fighting hard battles, to the position of the 12th Division of the Fourth Column at the forefront of Tashan to personally take command, just to ensure that there was no mistake in this battle.
Although Hu Qicai was the deputy commander of the column, he had always had the habit of commanding the front, so he had no opinion on the arrangement made by his superiors, but on the contrary, he was in the middle of the line.
As soon as Hu Qicai received the order, he immediately went to the command post of the Twelfth Division, and after making corresponding arrangements, he went straight to the Tashan Fort position at the forefront of the entire Tashan defense line.
Although the commander of the Twelfth Division had assigned the Thirty-fourth Battalion to build fortifications on the position of Tashan Fort and reported the relevant situation to Hu Qicai in detail, Hu Qicai never believed the reports he heard, and he must personally go to the position and take a look at it with his own eyes.
"Are the fortifications repaired?" Hu Qicai met with the commander of the first battalion, and without saying a word, the split head asked him the one thing he was most concerned about.
The commander of the first battalion did not expect the deputy commander to actually come to the position in person, but he was still full of confidence in the efforts made to lead the whole battalion in the past few days, and immediately replied: "All repaired!" The division commander, the division political commissar, the division chief of staff, the regimental commander, the regimental political commissar, and the regimental chief of staff have all come to inspect it, and everything is ready! ”
"Everything ready? Just waiting for the enemy to attack? Do you really have so much faith in your fortifications? Hu Qicai frowned and threw a series of question marks.
The commander of the first battalion listened for a moment, but when he thought of the division commander's inspection, he didn't say anything, and immediately replied with his head held high: "Report chief, have confidence!" ”
"Well, now I'll check and see what happens to the fortifications at the forefront of your whole column."
During the conversation, Hu Qicai had already strides to the front of the fortifications, and then slowed down, taking a closer look at this side and taking a serious look at the other side. He also stayed in some places, using his eyes and hands and feet together, checking whether the fortifications were strong enough.
A battalion commander and others followed him, following suit, and their mood was very anxious.
"What about your 60 cannons?" Hu Qicai suddenly turned around, stared at a battalion commander and said, "Move your 60 cannons here, and prepare a few more shells!" ”
This sentence could not help but make the commander of a battalion inexplicable, and the others were also puzzled: At this time, the enemy had not yet appeared, what was the purpose of moving the 60 cannon over? Didn't the deputy commander just say that he wanted to accept the fortifications, and why did he now ask for cannons and shells? What is the purpose?
The commander of the first battalion opened his mouth and just wanted to ask for an understanding, but as soon as he saw Hu Qicai's expression so serious, he did not dare to say anything more, and immediately did as he wanted.
Hu Qicai saw that the 60 guns and shells had been moved, walked to the range of the 60 guns in front of the position, and pointed with his hand: "Put the gun mount here!" Aim your guns at your fortifications! ”
Just when the two artillery soldiers set up their guns and everyone thought that Hu Qi was testing the enemy's attack distance, Hu Qi cai suddenly gave the order: "Reload the shells!" Aim at our position and fire it! ”
Everyone was astonished: What was the deputy commander going to do? Blow up our own hard-won fortifications? This was used to block the enemy's fire, so why didn't the enemy shadow see a single one, and the deputy commander ordered the artillery to destroy his own position?
Hu Qicai waved his right hand hard, interrupting the discussion of the crowd: "Don't be wordy, fire the cannon immediately!" ”
With this order, the two gunners did not dare to mutter, but after filling the shells, they fired a cannon with their heads.
There was a loud "boom" that broke the silence of the entire four-column position before the battle. After the shell exploded, the crowd looked closer and couldn't help but be stunned--a battalion of commanders and fighters thought that the fortifications were very strong had been blasted out of a large hole by this artillery, and trees, straw bales, and stones were blown apart.
Hu Qicai pointed to the already dilapidated fortifications and said to the crowd: "Take a good look, a single six-zero shell has blown up your fortifications like this, and when the enemy sends out artillery and aircraft to bomb them, do you still expect such fortifications to play a half-role?" ”
Everyone bowed their heads in shame and were speechless, and the commander of the battalion, who had previously expressed sufficient confidence in the fortifications, was even more self-conscious.
"O comrades! I know that many of you have fought many battles, but the next battle may be much more arduous and cruel than any of your previous battles! ”
"This is a very complex three-dimensional warfare, we must consider a series of factors such as air defense, anti-artillery, anti-poison, combat, treatment of the wounded, storage and transportation of ammunition, etc., and there is no room for sloppiness!" Otherwise, countless people will be sacrificed in vain! ”
Hu Qi was a commander who loved soldiers like a son, and he had to say something heavier because he didn't want to see our army pay too much of a casualty price.
Finally, he clenched his fists and said, "Comrades, you must understand one thing - at the moment of the Great War, we are by no means as simple as building fortifications, we must build a steel fortress!" ”
When the commander of the first battalion knew that he had made a mistake, he immediately summoned the whole company and made very meticulous and specific arrangements for the reconstruction of the fortifications. Before long, the whole battalion, the whole regiment, and the whole column were enthusiastically stepping up the reconstruction of the fortifications, and the slogan of "building a steel fortress" resounded throughout the Tashan position.
Later, the commanders and fighters of the four columns held Tashan for six days and nights, annihilating more than 7,000 enemy personnel, and achieved the final victory of this blockade war, and even had an important impact on the entire process of the liberation war.
No one can give a quantitative assessment of the effect of Hu Qicai's order to shell his own fortifications, but no one can deny the significance of this cannon.