The Battle of Siping (i.e., the Third Siping Battle) that took place in June 1947 was a controversial battle in the history of our army, but the performance of the famous General Li Tianyou (who became the founding general of New China in 1955) in this battle was not lacking in remarkable points.
On June 5 of that year, Lin Shuai ordered Li Tianyou to be the commander-in-chief of the siege and commanded the 1st Column, 7th Column, and 6th Column 17th Divisions to attack SipingCheng.
At that time, Lin Shuai estimated that the enemy of Siping had only four regiments with combat effectiveness, so it was still very certain that the seven divisions of our army would fight its four regiments. In fact, there were 40,000 defenders of Siping, mainly the Seventy-first Army under the command of Chen Mingren, plus some local security regiments.
On June 8, Li Tianyou commanded the siege forces to surround Siping City. He marked a location on the military map with a pencil and said to the operations staff officer Chen Jindu: "You take an engineer platoon and build a command post at this location." ”
When Chen Jindu saw the position marked by Li Tianyou, which was very close to the enemy's forward position, he couldn't help but take a breath of cool air and said to Li Tianyou: "Commander, this... It's too close to the frontier! ”
"In order to make it easier to grasp the situation, you should finish it quickly, and I will go in tonight!" Li Tianyou said very calmly.
Chen Jindu came to the field with a platoon of engineers, and saw that the terrain here was high and the field of vision was wide, and it was indeed a good place to observe the enemy's situation and command the battle. If we are engaged in exercises and training, this is an ideal command post, but now it is actual combat! Too close to the enemy, too dangerous.
Just as he was worried, the enemy fired a shell, and a shell exploded not far from him, and a powerful wave of air threw him to the ground. By the time he got up again, one of the messengers next to him had been shot and killed.
Before the command post could be repaired, a man died. When the sappers who repaired the command post saw this situation, they refused to move their shovels and said to Chen Jindu, "This is too dangerous here, we must think about the safety of the commander, let's change the place quickly!" ”
Chen Jindu knew that the things that Li Tianyou had set were difficult to change, but thinking of Li Tianyou's safety, he couldn't care less about being criticized, returned to Li Tianyou's side, and said to him: "Commander, that place is too close to the enemy, the enemy just opened artillery bombardment, and some soldiers have died!" Gotta change places! ”
Li Tianyou was silent for a moment and asked, "What is the view there?" ”
Chen Jindu replied: "The line of sight is very good, and I can directly observe the combat situation of the First Division and the Second Division. ”
Li Tianyou nodded and said, "Then set up the command post there, and don't choose any other place." ”
Seeing that Chen Jindu was still worried, Li Tianyou patiently said: "This fight against Siping is the first time we have hit a city that the enemy is strongly defending, and we must fight well." The more we command from the front, the more we can understand the situation and deal with problems in a timely manner. Don't just think about security, think more about the big picture. Go get the job done! ”
Chen Jindu returned to the middle of the sapper platoon and conveyed Li Tianyou's instructions.
The engineering platoon braved enemy artillery fire to build the shelter, and at dusk, the command post was finally built, although simple, but very practical.
As soon as the fortifications were repaired, Li Tianyou arrived with the personnel of the headquarters. Li Tianyou walked over to the observation hole and looked at it for a while, then said satisfactorily, "Good, very good!" ”
Chen Mingren, the enemy commander who defended the city, was not an idle man, and he knew how to use his superiority in equipment to deal with the People's Liberation Army.
To this end, he transferred dozens of aircraft, repeatedly conducted reconnaissance within a range of 10 kilometers of the Siping Ring City, and carried out fierce bombardment of those areas where command posts might be established.
Chen Mingren did not expect that Li Tianyou had set up the siege command post under his eyes, only 300 meters away from the enemy's forward position! This move is too bold. Of course, Chen Mingren's plane would never drop a bomb here, because the slightest deviation would cause the bomb to fall on their own people.
In the later battles, there was also such an episode: our army captured a prisoner, and the soldiers immediately escorted him to Li Tianyou.
But the prisoner said anxiously, "Hurry up, take me to see your regimental commander, even if it's a battalion commander!" In his opinion, the place in front of him is at most a command post at the level of a company of the People's Liberation Army.
Everyone understood the meaning of the captive, and their hearts were secretly laughing, but Li Tianyou said, "Oh, if you want to explain the situation, just tell me!" ”
Through the reactions of the people, he concluded that Li Tianyou was the highest-ranking of these people in front of him, but he could not imagine that this person was the commander-in-chief of the siege, and at most he was a regimental commander, so he pretended to be mysterious and said: "I do have a situation to report to the commander of your army, can it be regarded as a manifestation of my atonement for my sins?" ”
"It depends on what you're reporting." Li Tianyou said quietly.
"That little highland in the back is where your general headquarters is located, right?" This matter has been determined by our planes, and a bombing of this place is about to be carried out! Please inform the commander-in-chief of your army immediately, if you do not transfer it again, it will be too late! The captive said flatteringly.
Hearing these words, everyone burst into laughter, and even Li Tianyou couldn't help but be a little stoic.
When this person learned that the place in front of him was actually the general headquarters of the people's liberation army, he was immediately shocked.
He really couldn't believe that the Platon's practice of setting up a general headquarters was so bold, and he couldn't believe that Li Tianyou would command the operation in a place close to the enemy that could be dropped by artillery fire at any time.
He muttered, "That doesn't make sense!" The exercise code clearly stated that the regimental command post should also be located at least 10 miles away from the opposing position, not to mention that this is your military command post! You guys are so good at fighting! ”
In short, Li Tianyou's approach was not agreed by his subordinates (Chen Jindu and others), the enemy general (Chen Mingren) could not imagine it, and the captives did not believe it.
Although the Siping Offensive Ended with our army paying a relatively high price and withdrawing from Siping, the siege troops, under the command of Li Tianyou, destroyed countless strong fortifications of the enemy, annihilated tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, and captured more than 6,000 enemy personnel.
This battle also fought Chen Mingren, a fierce general, who was also terrified, and it is said that after he escaped death, he once choked and trembled at the reporter's voice: "Lao Tzu has been a QiuBa for twenty-eight years, and this is the first time he has fought such a hard battle!" ”