Editor's Note
70 years ago, the Chinese nation ushered in a great turning point from backwardness to progress. Now, looking back at the historical moments intertwined with the trumpets of victory and rejoicing, all the glory that pervaded Liberation Day, and the different stories that occurred, are worth re-searching and examining. Starting today, The Dahe Newspaper and Dahe Client launched a special series of reports on "Opening a New Chapter in History", which traces the process of Henan's central city regaining its new life and hooks the people's yearning and vision for a beautiful new life in New China.
□ planning city operation management center co-ordinated Meng Ran to execute the Dahe Newspaper and Dahe client reporter Cao Jie Li Xiaobo Wentu
In the current April, thousands of peonies are spitting out fragrant and blooming in the streets and alleys of Luoyang. In April 1948, Luoyang was a different story...
71 years ago, as a machine gunner in the first company of the 21st Regiment of the Eighth Division of the Third Column of the East China Field Army, Yang Xizhong directly participated in the liberation of Luoyang.
Yesterday, in the spacious and tidy hospital ward, the 89-year-old Yang Xizhong told the story of the spring 71 years ago, the moment of Luoyang's liberation.
The 17-year-old machine gunner took part in the attack on the east gate of Luoyang
"The veterans of the East China Field Army who participated in the campaign to liberate Luoyang in those years may now be the only one left in Luoyang." Yang Xizhong said.
In 1947, the People's Liberation Army turned to a strategic offensive, and the three major armies of Liu Deng, Chen Su and Chen Xie advanced into the Central Plains. At the beginning of 1948, most of the Kuomintang troops on the Central Plains battlefield were pinned down, and only Luoyang was defended by the regular Kuomintang army on the nearly 400-kilometer front from Tongguan to Zhengzhou.
The 206th Division of the Kuomintang Youth Army stationed in Luoyang was directly controlled by Chiang Kai-shek's father and son, and the division commander, Qiu Xingxiang, was called "Qiu Tiger" by Chiang Kai-shek. In order to firmly defend Luoyang, under the guidance of the US military advisory group, Qiu Xingxiang laid out a double-layered bag-shaped position. He boasted in the newspapers that "Luoyang is impregnable."
In March 1948, the 21st Regiment of the 8th Division of the 3rd Column of the East China Field Army began to attack Luoyang. Yang Xizhong was a machine gunner in the first company of the Twenty-first Regiment, and his main task was to cooperate with the first battalion of the Twenty-third Regiment to attack the east gate of Luoyang.
Yang Xizhong said that on March 9, the troops forcibly crossed the Luo River, and Zhang Ming, commander of the first battalion of the 23rd Regiment, led officers above the platoon level to inspect the terrain outside the east gate of Luoyang and formulate a battle plan. As a machine gunner, he was placed in the northeast corner of the East Gate to suppress enemy fire on the city walls and cover the siege forces for blasting.
"The east gate is the focus of the Kuomintang army's city defense, in order to clear the periphery shooting obstacles, the enemy army demolished civilian houses, and more than 10 defensive barriers were set up outside the city wall, covered with obstacles such as resisting horses and barbed wire." Yang Xizhong said that at 19:00 on March 11, the sky had just darkened, and the troops launched an attack until the East Gate was conquered in the early morning of the next day.
According to the Luoyang Revolutionary Martyrs' Deeds Exhibition Hall, after the People's Liberation Army broke through the Luoyang City Gate, Qiu Xingxiang led the main force of the 206th Division of more than 5,000 people to retreat to the core position in the northwest corner of the city, relying on solid fortifications and perfect facilities, in an attempt to hold on to help. On the night of March 13, 1948, the two attacks of the People's Liberation Army failed to work, and at 16:30 on the 14th, the People's Liberation Army concentrated all its artillery and bombarded them fiercely for 40 minutes, and more than 10,000 shells landed on the position of 100 meters square. Lieutenant General Qiu Xingxiang of the 206th Division, and Liu Huandong, commissioner of Luoyang and commander of major general security, were captured. The Battle of Luoyang was launched on March 8 and ended on the night of March 14, and after seven days and nights of fierce fighting, the city of Luoyang, which the Kuomintang army called itself "impregnable", annihilated more than 20,000 enemy troops and captured more than 15,000 enemy troops.
On the evening of March 17, superiors
made
The order to withdraw from Luoyang was ordered, and the siege and blocking troops withdrew at the same time. On the morning of the 18th, the enemy occupied the empty city of Luoyang. On April 5, Chen Xie's army attacked Luoyang again, and the defenders abandoned the city and fled, annihilating on the same day. Since then, Luoyang has returned to the embrace of the people.
On the third day after the liberation of Luoyang, Mao Zedong drafted the "Telegram to the Luoyang Frontline Headquarters after Re-Keluoyang" and formulated 9 policies for urban work, which pointed out the direction for our army to do a good job in the management of newly liberated cities.
Handwritten "Remembrance of the Battle of Keluoyang", hoping that future generations will cherish today
Yang Xizhong recalled that after the east gate was breached, the troops launched a street battle in Luoyang City, and other gates were also breached one after another. Wounded by the company's cultural officer, he was appointed acting cultural officer to interview combat heroes on the battlefield.
"After the People's Liberation Army entered the city, ordinary people delivered food and drink to the plausijai near East Avenue, and a newly married couple took out brand-new bedding for the PLA to use." Yang Xizhong said.
After the Battle of Luoyang, Yang Xizhong moved eastward with his troops and participated in the Battle of Kaifeng. After the founding of New China, Yang Xizhong's unit changed jobs on the spot and began to support the construction of the motherland. In 1972, he followed the unit to Luoyang and has lived ever since.
Yang Xizhong said that sometimes he thinks of his comrades-in-arms, who sacrificed for the liberation of Luoyang, who were so young at the time and could not see the great changes in Luoyang after liberation. Yang Xizhong, who is now an 89-year-old man, saw that Luoyang was getting more and more beautiful, and the citizens lived and worked in peace and contentment, and often sighed.
Yang Xizhong's daughter Yang Hua said that in recent years, his father has relied on his memory to change his manuscript several times and successively wrote 30 pages of content, entitled "Remembering the Battle of Keluoyang", hoping to record these things and let future generations remember.
The ancient capital of Luoyang is full of vitality and will always inherit the red gene
At the Luoyang Luowei Military Museum, director Wang Luowei collected a book published by the People's Soldier Publishing House in June 1949, "Liberation of Luoyang".
The book records the fierce fighting that took place in the first Keluoyang of the People's Liberation Army, and also wrote about the scene on the streets of Luoyang after the second Keluoyang. "On the first day after the reconquest of Luoyang, the citizens rushed to the streets, and the walls were plastered with notices, leaflets, and people's pictorials from the People's Liberation Army and the municipal government, and they were surrounded by groups of spectators all day long, and the propagandists held propaganda materials, and before they could be posted, they were rushed to finish..."
The experience of the elderly Yang Xizhong is only a microcosm of the battle to liberate Luoyang. Public information shows that in the two battles to liberate Luoyang, the People's Liberation Army suffered 6,379 casualties.
In that year, the 4th Column and 10th Brigade, 28th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, 5th Company, attacked Ximen, with more than 120 people in the whole company surviving only 19 people, and after the war, they were awarded the title of "Luoyang Hero Company". Later, he participated in the Battle of Huaihai, made outstanding achievements, and is now stationed in a certain place in Yunnan.
71 years later, Luoyang is now giving birth to new vitality. As an old industrial base, Luoyang is constantly good: the strategic positioning of regional central cities, sub-central cities of the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, and national transportation hubs; a number of national strategic planning and platforms such as Zhengluoxin National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone and Zhengluokai Pilot Free Trade Zone have been implemented. At the 13th Henan International Investment Fair, Luoyang got 33 proposed projects and an investment scale of 53.75 billion yuan in one go.
The ancient capital is full of life.