At the end of April 1946, the Northeast Nationalist (Main) Coalition Army and Chiang Kai-shek's army fought an unprecedented fierce battle in Siping.
The enemy constantly launched fierce attacks, and our army fought extremely bravely and tenaciously to defend Siping.
The headquarters of the Northeast Coalition Army was stationed in Pear Tree, 40 miles away from Siping, and Commander-in-Chief Lin paid close attention to the progress of the war every day and was ready to obey the command of his superiors at any time.
In the afternoon of this day, Li (Zuo Peng), director of the General Staff Office of the General Headquarters, excitedly said to Lin Zong: "General Manager Lin, I have just received a telegram saying that the Seventh Division has liberated Changchun. ”
Lin Zong stared at the map, did not speak for a while, the chief of staff did not know what Lin Zong was thinking, did not dare to say anything more, and turned to leave.
Lin Zong suddenly cried out: "Wait, you stay!" ”
The chief of staff turned back, and Lin Zong, with his hands cut back, paced back and forth in the house, thinking: "After the liberation of Changchun, I will have one more division in my hand, that is, Yang Guofu's Seventh Division." Now that the enemy and I are facing each other, what do you think this means? ”
The chief of staff was stunned and did not seem to understand Lin Zong's meaning.
Lin Zong did not wait for him to answer, but asked himself and replied: "This shows that the strength of the enemy and us is equal, and now that we have one more division, we have a heavy weight on the balance of the enemy's and our troops." ”
His emotions rose and he said loudly, "You immediately send a telegram to Yang Guofu, one is to congratulate the liberation of Changchun, and to pass on orders to commend all the commanders and fighters; the other is to make Yang Guofu's Seventh Division leave a battalion or a regiment, and the main force rushes to the three forests north of Siping." ”
Why did Lin Zong let Yang Guofu lead the Seventh Division to the Three Forests?
Located in the northwest of Siping, about 2 kilometers away from Siping City, these three forests are an east-west long-arm-shaped highland with a total area of less than 1 square kilometer, which is the commanding height of Siping Northwest.
It is no exaggeration to say that the gains and losses of the Three Dao Linzi are related to the gains and losses of the entire Battle of Siping.
Once this place is lost, the enemy will carry out a comprehensive encirclement of Siping and can cut off our army's supply line from a commanding height, leaving our army in an extremely unfavorable situation.
At that time, the Seventh Brigade of the Third Division of our army occupied this important place, and although the enemy's New First Army and the Seventy-first Army formed an encirclement posture on Siping, because the three forests were still in the hands of our army, they were unable to attack Siping.
The 30th and 38th Divisions of the New First Army began to use artillery to bombard, 40,000 shells blew up the communication ditch, the mud on the mountain was almost overturned seven or eight times, and the weeds were burned to the ground.
Sun Liren, the commander of the New First Army, held aloft the telescope and scanned the three forests like a filter, and when he was sure that there was no shadow in the three forests, he organized his troops to attack.
Unexpectedly, the People's Liberation Army seemed to have already guessed Sun Liren's thoughts and launched a firm and effective counterattack against the new First Army. As a result, all 18 of the enemy's charges were killed by our bayonets.
For this reason, the Seventh Brigade of our army also paid a considerable price of casualties, and many companies were almost wiped out.
Although the three forests have become a scorched earth, they are firmly in the hands of our army.
My Northeast Bureau's Northeast Daily wrote in eye-catching extra-large font on the front page that read, "Seven Brigades are here, Four Flats are here!" ”
The two armies fought, the position was preserved, but the attrition of the battle was quite serious, and the commander of the Seventh Brigade, Peng Mingji, was anxious to ask Lin Zong again and again for more troops.
However, as soon as the two sides started the war, the troops were tense everywhere, so where did Lin Zong go to transfer his men and horses?
When General Lin heard the chief of staff say that Changchun had been liberated, he immediately ordered yang Guofu's main force to be transferred to Sandaolinzi to reinforce the Seventh Brigade.
After Yang Guofu received Lin Zong's urgent telegram, he assembled his team within 20 minutes, and a division rushed to Siping without stopping.
There were trains connecting Changchun to Siping, and Yang Guofu had a hard time finding a train, so he first transported a regiment to three forests to solve the urgent need.
At this time, Sun Liren was organizing the army and air force to cooperate and launch a new attack on the three forest trees.
Like a hen laying eggs, the plane dropped countless bombs on the positions of the Seventh Brigade, and suddenly burst into flames. The fortifications that our army has just repaired have suddenly become a flat land.
After the plane, it was followed by a group charge. Sun Liren formed a regiment of troops into 3 squares, and under the cover of tanks, the black pressure was pressed into the three forest.
The soldiers of the Seventh Brigade were poorly armed, and in the face of the behemoths such as tanks, they had to retreat, and the positions were inevitably lost.
Just at the moment of this thousand gunshots, a thunder rescuer appeared in time!
Yang Guofu arrived with the Seventh Division, and they were like divine soldiers descending from heaven, killing the generals from the enemy's flank and rear, and the situation was like a sea of mountains.
When the officers and men of the Seventh Brigade saw that the reinforcements had come and killed, their confidence was immediately doubled, and the officers and men, with the cooperation of the Seventh Division, attacked back and forth, ate a regiment of the enemy, and recaptured the position.
As our army added a division of troops to the three forests, a situation of confrontation between the state and the communists was formed.
The Seventh Division played the role of thunder rescue, causing the situation in the three forests to take a sharp turn for the worse, angering Zheng Dongguo, a famous general of the Nationalist army and deputy commander of the northeast camp, who suddenly fainted in the command post after hearing the news.
Why is Zheng Dongguo so anxious? The reason for this is truly intriguing.
It should be known that at that time, most of the war zones in the country implemented the national (communist) armistice agreement and stopped fighting one after another, with the exception of the northeast.
In order to spare no effort to continue to "suppress" the Communists in the northeast, Lao Chiang ignored the armistice agreement between the two sides in order to achieve his goal of completely eliminating our army in the northeast.
Under the guise of crusading against bandits, Lao Jiang forced Du Yuming to eliminate our army in the northeast within a certain period of time. Du Yuming was hospitalized due to illness and had to be commanded by Xiong Shihui.
Xiong Shihui was a civilian official who knew nothing about fighting. After receiving the order, his eyes rolled, his heart was calculated, and he immediately issued an order to transfer the command responsibility for the Battle of Siping to Zheng Dongguo's head.
The sharp turn of the battlefield situation, coupled with internal intrigues, undoubtedly brought heavy pressure to Zheng Dongguo. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that this famous general of the National Army fainted at the command post.