In June 1948, the East China Field Army launched the famous Battle of Eastern Henan in military history. No one expected that in this campaign, the command post of a division of our army would actually successfully escape from the enemy's eyes.
Before the battle began, the 1st Division of the 1st Column, led by the one-armed general Liao Zhengguo, went to the area around the Tiefo Temple to intercept the nationalist reorganized 72nd Division.
The troops had just reached the halfway point when they suddenly found that the famous Kuomintang general Huang Baitao had led the reorganized Twenty-fifth Division to reinforce, and Liao Zhengguo immediately made a decision and ordered the soldiers of the First Division to intercept the attack in three ways.
The enemy and us fought a fierce battle in the area of Wang Laoji, and the first division, under the command of Liao Zhengguo, fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, firmly occupying the initiative.
The reorganized Seventy-second Division was met with a head-on attack by our army, and could no longer take care of reinforcing other enemies, so it could only concentrate on dealing with the Huaye First Division. Huang Baitao was very annoyed and ordered his troops to send cannons and aircraft to bombard Huaye's first division.
Liao Zhengguo is a well-known fierce general in our army, and he has always had the habit of commanding the front in fighting wars, and the division command post is located at the front. When the enemy fired heavily with artillery fire, shells also fell near the division command post, although they were not directly hit, but they were also full of dangers, which made the cadres and fighters impatient, and they persuaded the division commanders to retreat from the division command post.
Liao Zhengguo calmly replied, "What a panic! Let's figure out the situation first! ”
Instead of retreating, he took his telescope to the front to observe the enemy situation and calmly redeployed his forces.
At this time, the entire position was filled with smoke and dust, the explosion of artillery shells sounded continuously, and the enemy planes continued to strafe and bomb in the air. After a while, the enemy's infantry came out and poured into our position like a tidal wave.
At the critical moment, Liao Zhengguo ordered the second company of the special service battalion: "The position is the rear, there is no way to retreat, we must repulse the enemy!" ”
The commanders and fighters of the Second Company were not afraid of danger, had no intention of retreating, and were full of morale and bravely fought back against the enemy.
At this time, the division command post had been blown up by enemy shells, leaving only a few sections of ruins and broken walls. Liao Zhengguo heard someone else shouting inside, knowing that it was Deputy Division Commander Chen Ting who was using a telephone to report the battle situation to the column headquarters.
As soon as he entered the command post, he heard the voice of Commander Ye Fei coming from the other end of the microphone: "You stopped the enemy, this is right." But the enemy is bombarding with cannons, so you should also hide! ”
Liao Zhengguo walked over quickly, took the microphone and said, "Report commander, if you don't fight back the enemy, we will resolutely not retreat!" ”
As soon as the words were finished, there was no sound at the end of the microphone, and it was obvious that the telephone line had been blown off by the enemy.
At this moment, a group of enemies had rushed to the west of the command post (it was later learned that the enemy was the reorganized Seventy-second Division), and Liao Zhengguo immediately led the combat staff, clerks, and officers of the division headquarters to bravely and fearlessly rush to the enemy.
Although this was not a conventional combat unit, everyone understood that once the division command post was lost, the consequences would be unimaginable, and everyone was aroused to have the strongest will to fight, and after a fierce battle, they actually repelled all the enemies who had sneaked in.
Later, Huang Baitao learned of this incident with great remorse: originally, whether the entire Seventy-second Division or the entire Twenty-fifth Division had the opportunity to destroy the headquarters of the Huaye First Division in one fell swoop, but it was wasted in vain.
Although the enemy has been repulsed, but the crisis has not yet been lifted, at any time may be attacked by the enemy, the combat staff officer asked Liao Zhengguo: "Division Commander, let's move the command post backwards, shall we?" ”
Liao Zhengguo replied without hesitation: "Where to move?" Now that the whole division has been unfolded, we must resolutely resist the enemy on our stomachs and backs, otherwise the whole division will collapse in a thousand miles! ”
The situation at that time was indeed as Liao Zhengguo said, and Huaye's first division was already in the predicament of being attacked from the belly and back—there was a whole twenty-fifth division in the front and a whole seventy-second division in the back.
At that time, an integrated division of the Kuomintang was equivalent to the strength of one army of the People's Liberation Army, which meant that the Huaye First Division actually fought hard against the enemies of the two armies with the strength of a division in a small area.
Under such a desperate situation, Liao Zhengguo, as the supreme commander of the whole division, insisted on a practice - vowing to the death and refusing to retreat from the division command post, which greatly encouraged all the cadres and fighters, and they did not need to do any more mobilization at all, and fought with all their strength to fight the enemy to the death.
Incredibly, after three days of fighting side by side with the soldiers, huaye's first division miraculously resisted the enemy equivalent to two armies, and successfully separated the two enemies and completed the task of blocking.
What was extremely admirable was that Liao Zhengguo's division command office had never moved its nest during the three days of bloody battles.
After the battle, He Kexi, deputy commander of the First Column, said in surprise: "Under such a desperate situation, we will never retreat, and we will not move our nests for three days of bitter fighting. ”
Commander Ye Fei smiled and said, "It is not a matter of boldness, but such a general is also the most reassuring!" ”