On April 1, 1947, the East China Field Army began to move south according to the deployment, intending to eliminate Tang Enbo's 1st Corps. Tang Enbo sensed Huaye's intentions, and instead of sending troops back to reinforcements, he transferred the two armies to Linyi and moved closer together, so that Huaye's troops could not divide and annihilate the enemy.
(Tombaugh)
Due to the contraction of Tang Enbo's corps, it did not follow the battle plan originally designed by Su Yu. Therefore, the South China Field Army's southward march did not achieve the expected results, and Su Yu had to order the abandonment of this plan.
(Su Yu)
Just as Su Yu was considering the next battle plan, intelligence from the Kuomintang army reached the headquarters, which said that the reorganized 72nd Division of Wang Jingjiu, commander of the 2nd Corps of the Kuomintang Army, was preparing to go to Tai'an to carry out garrison tasks. After receiving the information, Su Yu hurriedly expanded the map and saw the position of the reorganized 72nd Division, which was in a relatively isolated position in the left wing of the Kuomintang army. In the face of this piece of fat meat sent to the mouth, there is no reason not to eat it.
(Wang Jingjiu)
He decided to take the integrated 72nd Division stationed in Tai'an first. He circled around to the flank of Wang Jingjiu's regiment, which had just been transferred to Shandong, seized the weak link in his left flank and attacked the reorganized 72nd Division occupying Tai'an.
(Yang Wenyu)
In May 1946, when the Kuomintang army was reorganized, the 72nd Army was renamed the reorganized 72nd Division, and the commander of the army, Fu Yi, was dismissed from his post, and Yang Wenhu, a general of the Chen Cheng Military Group of the Central Army and deputy commander of the 94th Army, was transferred to succeed him as the commander of the reorganized 72nd Division.
Although the reorganized 72nd Division is a miscellaneous army, its combat effectiveness is very strong and it is the main force of the Sichuan Army. Although it has not occupied any equipment advantage since its establishment, it is good at fighting in the mountains. Once such a team has the advantage of terrain, it is still very effective to run to the mountain.
And what kind of terrain is around Tai'an? Surrounded by mountains, it is precisely conducive to this Sichuan army to exert its own characteristics. Therefore, such a force made the powerful HuaYe feel a little tricky for a while.
Its occupation of terrain has advantages and disadvantages for it, and the terrain and fortifications of Tai'an are conducive to sticking to it, but there is Mount Tai in the north and The Laolai Mountain in the south, which is not conducive to its mutual support with the Wang Yaowu Department of Jinan and the Qingquan Department of Qiu Qingquan in Qufu, and is conducive to huaye's division and encirclement.
Tai'an, where they were stationed, was located on the Jinpu Railway Line, connected to Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, in the north, and Xuzhou, the important town of Huaihai in the south, and has been a place of contention since ancient times. For the Kuomintang, Tai'an was also a base for providing logistical support for the Kuomintang troops on both sides of the Jinpu Railway, and its importance was self-evident.
The reorganized 72nd Division built a complete fortification in Tai'an, and in the words of Yang Wenyao, commander of the reorganized 72nd Division: "The defense of the city of Tai'an is impregnable, and the communist army can never break through." ”
Indeed, the Tai'an city wall is more than 8 feet high, the moat is wide and deep, surrounded by barbed wire, the city wall and the city gate protrusion and the main streets and alleys are densely forted, and the Xiguan also has walls and trenches. In addition to the dense bunkers at the top of the mountain, there are two deer villages and a barbed wire fence, and there are trenches and large pillboxes at the foot of the mountain, and the firepower can directly block the trenches and open land at the foot of the mountain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
On April 20, 1947, the Battle of Taimon began.
At 16:00 on April 22, the battle was launched. The Special Task Force Regiment of the Auxiliary Column of the Twenty-eighth Division and the Second Regiment of the Luzhong 1st Brigade launched an attack from the east, south, and north of the city to the enemy's supporting positions outside the city, and the Eighty-third Regiment of the Twenty-eighth Division concentrated the strength of two battalions to attack the enemy from north to south.
Our Twenty-ninth Division launched an attack from the southwest, west, and northwest of the city to the enemy's strongholds outside the city and mount Artemisia. That night, the two divisions captured the fortified positions of enemy villages outside the city, such as Sanlizhuang, Liuzhuang, Fengtai, Weijia, and Jiuzhen, annihilated one of the enemy's troops, and approached Mount Artemisia. The next day, the 23rd, the enemy lifted my siege of Tai'an City and Mount Artemisia. With the support of aircraft and artillery, we concentrated our forces to attack the Wei family and the old town near the Artemisia Mountains.
The Eighty-fifth regiment and the eighty-sixth regiment of our twenty-ninth division launched a counterattack. In the morning, the enemy attacked several times, but was repelled and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. In the afternoon, the enemy repeatedly attacked the Wei family and the old town. To strengthen the defense of Mount Artemisia and the city walls. Took the initiative to shrink the positions outside the city such as Qilipu, Jade Emperor Temple, and Wang Zhuang. In the evening our army continued to attack the enemy. Two battalions of the Eighty-fifth Regiment of our Twenty-ninth Division attacked the summit of Mount Artemisia in one fell swoop and captured part of the enemy's fortress positions.
On 24 April, more than 100 artillery pieces, towed by armored vehicles and trucks, were pulled down Mount Artemisia and lined up in a gun line. In charge of commanding the artillery position was Commander Chen Ruiting, who had served as the commander of the artillery regiment in his early years in the Nationalist camp and was extremely skilled and professional in artillery command. The Tai'an artillery battle under his command was the first professional artillery attack in Huaye's history. Under the order of Commander Chen, all kinds of shells under the mountain fell like raindrops to the position of the 72nd Division of Arthuri Mountain, and the accuracy of the ballistic trajectory made the enemy troops scream and scream, and in less than half an hour, the 72nd Division could not hold on, so it had to abandon the position on Mount Arthuri and flee down the mountain to the city of Tai'an to escape.
In the course of the battle, Yang Wenyu begged for reinforcements several times, and all the Jiang troops near Tai'an were unable to be saved, and the reorganized 75th Division and the reorganized 85th Division, which were only 1 day away from Tai'an, remained stationary.
After three days of fierce fighting, except for the newly formed 15th Brigade, which escaped this disaster because of its garrison in Feicheng, the division headquarters, the division's directly subordinate units, the reorganized 34th Brigade, and the newly organized 13th Brigade were completely annihilated by the People's Liberation Army in Tai'an City, and Lieutenant General Yang Wenyu, commander of the division, and Zhu Shunkun, deputy division commander, were captured.