Fighting Longgang, the Huainan detachment captured the enemy's "Chinese New Year's Eve meal"

Author: Jiang Ruirong, Jiang Haizhou (CPPCC Jinhu County, Jiangsu Province)

In July 1947, Li Shinong and Wei Ran led some armed forces and a group of local cadres from Shandong to the Huaibao area, and in accordance with the decision of the East China Bureau of the CPC, established the Huainan Working Committee of the CPC and the Huainan Detachment of the East China Military Region of the People's Liberation Army, with Li Shiningong as the secretary of the Huainan Working Committee and political commissar of the detachment, Yang Xiaochun as the commander of the Huainan detachment, Wei Ran as the deputy commander, Xu Suzhi as the director of the Political Department, and Zhang Baiye as the chief of staff. A heroic lion team was born.

Fighting in the land of Huainan

Immediately after the huainan detachment was formed, it plunged into the struggle to restore the base areas, launched successive offensives against the enemy, won successive battles, and quickly restored a large area of the base area. Wherever the troops went, warehouses were opened to release grain, land reform was carried out against hegemony, and the mood of the masses was very high, and they joined the army one after another, and soon they expanded 4 squadrons and established the Xu (盱) Lai (安)Jia (Shan) General Brigade. In October, Li Shiyan, political commissar of the 12th Column and 34th Brigade of the People's Liberation Army,Huaye, led the 100th Regiment from northern Jiangsu south to Huainan, arrived in Huaibao, cooperated with the Huainan detachment, laid down Yinji, and recovered Taji, Minqiao, Tugou and other places. The Huainan detachment rushed back to Maba on New Year's Day 1948 to meet the 100 regiment.

After that, the 100 regiment, the Huainan detachment, the Xulaijia general brigade, and the local district and township armed forces successively joined forces to launch an offensive against the enemy and retake a large number of townships and mountainous areas occupied by the enemy. In this regard, the masses in Huainan once made up a smooth remark to satirize the enemy, saying: "The first-class enemy fled into Nanjing and Zhenjiang, the second-class enemy fled to Chuxian and Mingguang, and the third-class enemy fled to Tongcheng and Longgang." ”

In accordance with the development of the revolutionary situation, the Huainan Working Committee of the CPC decided, after study, to eliminate the enemy at Longgang. The battle was scheduled to take place on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, with the Huainan detachment in charge of the main attack, and the 100 regiment serving as reinforcements.

To "have a double meaning of the Spring Festival"

On February 7, 1948 (the 28th day of the lunar month), the headquarters of the Huainan detachment notified the convening of a meeting of cadres at or above the company level. After the people arrived, Commander Yang Xiaochun said to everyone: "Comrades, it is the first anniversary of our deep battle behind enemy lines, and the day after tomorrow we will celebrate the Spring Festival again, and the party committee of the Huainan detachment has decided to lay down the town of Longgang in Tianchang County and have a Spring Festival of double significance!" The atmosphere of the venue immediately became lively. Subsequently, Xu Suzhi, director of the political department of the detachment, carried out pre-war mobilization, and he said to the comrades present: "Fighting a war during the Spring Festival is a good opportunity and a glorious task of our People's Liberation Army. After reconnaissance, during the Spring Festival, the enemy troops in Longgang Town were distracted and paralyzed, and some officers went so far as to go home for the New Year, and the number of enemies standing guard and guarding posts was also markedly reduced. Our operation will be completely unexpected by the enemy. We have many favorable conditions, this battle is well fought, and then there is a victorious Spring Festival. The words made the commanders and fighters present immediately excited. Then, Deputy Commander Wei Ran made combat arrangements for the various units participating in the battle.

At 21:00 on the 8th (the 29th day of the lunar month), the Huainan detachment participating in the battle secretly arrived at the designated position, but at this time, an unexpected situation occurred. It turned out that although the number of enemy sentries had decreased, they had hung many gasoline lamps on the obstacles of the forward position outside the town, which made it more difficult for the commandos to use the cover of the night to crawl forward. The detachment headquarters immediately decided to change the deployment and organize sharpshooters to launch a feint attack to knock out the lights, and to find out the firepower of the enemy's forward positions. At 9:30 a.m., the battle began as two red-and-green signal shells from the detachment's command post lifted off. The sharpshooters aimed at the gasoline lamp and pulled the trigger, and in a few moments they all extinguished the gasoline lamp. Most of the defenders had just eaten dinner, and many of them were drunk. Hearing the gunshots, the enemy commander reluctantly got up and ordered the soldiers to enter the position. The enemy blindly fired outside the town, and the location of the fire point was suddenly exposed. The fire support group in charge of the cover immediately concentrated machine gun fire and fired fiercely, hitting the enemy in the forward position without lifting his head. The commandos immediately moved, pushing the "earth tanks" forward. They crossed the trenches, cut the barbed wire, and quickly crawled to the dead end outside the enemy bunker, and then shoved grenades into the firing holes of the bunkers. After a few loud noises, there was a cry from the bunker: "Don't fight, we surrender!" The commandos quickly surrounded the enemy's bunkers while ordering the remnants of the enemy inside to surrender. After a while, the remnants of the bunker, according to the instructions of the Plaster, first threw out their guns, and then fished out and became prisoners. Not long after, the enemy's forward positions were all broken through, and the troops developed in depth.

Conquered the enemy's office and captured a lot

Before dawn on the 9th (lunar Chinese New Year's Eve), the Huainan detachment had completely seized the outer positions, launched an attack on the town, and engaged in street battles with the defending enemy. Since there were no heavy weapons to attack the stronghold, the battalions exchanged fire with the defending enemy on the one hand, and on the other hand, they threw in troops to carry out "soil work", using the method of digging walls and punching holes to bypass the front of the enemy's fire points, and launching attacks on the enemy from the flanks, which received very good results. By about 6 a.m., the Plakmen had gradually advanced, and a company had reached the enemy district office in the center of the town. The warriors first suppressed the enemy with firepower, drove the defender away from the tall courtyard wall, and then immediately dug the wall, quickly digging 5 holes in the wall. The soldiers looked inward through the hole in the wall and found that there were more than 50 enemies hiding in the fortifications in the courtyard under the command of the enemy township chief, ready to continue their stubborn resistance. The company commander immediately ordered the deputy platoon commander to lead two squads to eliminate this enemy force. The deputy platoon commander first asked several soldiers to quickly bring in two machine guns and 3 submachine guns to shoot at the enemy at the same time, and while the enemy was panicking and dodging, the soldiers threw grenades into the courtyard, and dozens of enemies were immediately beaten to cry. The warriors immediately climbed the fence and rushed into the courtyard, and in a loud shout of "surrender their guns and don't kill", the remnants of the enemy obediently raised their hands and surrendered. The deputy platoon commander found that the enemy township chief was not among the prisoners, and immediately ordered the soldiers to search all corners. Soon, the warriors found two more enemies from the room—one was hiding in a wooden cabinet, and the other was hiding under the bed of the enemy township chief. When capturing the enemy township chief alive, the soldiers found that in order to protect himself, the guy had taken down the toilet and buckled it upside down on his head.

By about 10:00 a.m., the Huainan detachment had basically eliminated the enemy in the town, and all the remnants of the enemy were compressed into the core bunker. The command immediately instructed the companies to maintain their positions, rest in place, and prepare to launch a final general offensive. Soon, the comrades of the cooking class brought a steaming lunch to the front-line comrades- When the warriors looked, the food was quite sumptuous, and there were delicious meats, chickens, geese, ducks, fish and so on. The warriors asked as they ate, where did they get so much delicious food? The comrades of the cooking class explained that in order to Chinese New Year's Eve the enemy ate and drank heavily at night, and hoarded a large amount of food in the district office. After the seizure of the district office, the food was seized. After receiving the news, the detachment headquarters ordered the cooking squad to immediately prepare food and send it to the soldiers at the front. The head of the cooking class shouted: "Comrades have worked hard, come and eat!" The enemy knows that we are coming to Longgang for the New Year, and has prepared so many delicious food for us, everyone just let go of their stomachs and eat! It's just that the dishes and chopsticks are not enough, so let's grab it with our hands and eat it! A warrior said, "I heard that the big rice balls here are also delicious!" The cooking squad leader replied, "Rest assured! As long as you destroy all the enemies, the big tangyuan tube is full. ”

Surrounded on all sides, annihilating the stubborn enemy

At 2 p.m., the former enemy headquarters of the detachment held a field mobilization meeting for cadres at and above the company level to study how to take down the enemy's core bunker in two hours. After study, the command made combat arrangements: the second battalion occupied the southeast highlands of the big pillbox to prevent the enemy from breaking through from here; the seventh and eighth companies of the third battalion carried out an ambush northwest of the bunker, with the ninth company taking the lead. After accepting the task, Xu Zhengfa, commander of the Ninth Company, went to investigate the situation around the big pillbox and found that the enemy had set fire to all the houses within tens of meters around the big pillbox, and the fire was very fierce. Back at the position, Xu Zhengfa summoned the platoon leaders to study, and some comrades believed that the enemy's burning of the houses was to increase the difficulty of the PLA's attack, but it also blocked its own line of sight, and the PLA could also use the fire and smoke as a cover to find appropriate lines to conceal and approach the enemy. Everyone listened in unison. After choosing the assault route, the soldiers collected the utensils containing water, carried water to extinguish the fire of several nearby houses, and the three long platoons of the Ninth Company Wang Youcai assault team each brought a number of grenades, and with the help of the cover of fire and smoke, secretly advanced to a position only 30 meters away from the enemy bunker to hide.

At 3:30 p.m., the general offensive began. Six machine guns opened fire at the same time, and the assault group, under the cover of fire, swerved back to the dead end of the fire under the big bunker, aimed at the window on the second floor of the big bunker and accurately threw a grenade into it. After a few loud noises, smoke billowed from the enemy bunker. While the enemy was in a panic, the follow-up troops immediately followed up and surrounded the enemy's large bunker and attacked hard. The enemy in the bunker was terrified, and seeing that the gate of the bunker had been blocked by the PLA, they rushed out along the wall blown through by the PLA, desperately broke through, and quickly entered the ambush positions of the Seventh Company and the Eighth Company. After being blocked by fighters of the Seventh and Eighth Companies, the remnants of the enemy fled to the southeastern highlands. The commanders and fighters of the Second Battalion gave the enemy a head-on blow and killed the enemy captain who ran the fastest on the spot. When the enemy saw this, they raised their hands and surrendered. The total attack was over in less than 20 minutes. In this battle, the Huainan detachment eliminated a Kuomintang security unit and the district and township self-defense forces, killed and wounded more than 300 enemy personnel, captured more than 60 people below the enemy's deputy brigade commander alive, captured 10 machine guns, more than 200 rifles, thousands of bullets, and the enemy's "Chinese New Year's Eve meal."

The next day, the Huainan detachment held a summary meeting to celebrate the victory of Longgang and celebrate the Spring Festival. At the meeting, Yang Xiaochun, commander of the Huainan detachment, conferred on Wang Youcai, commander of the three battalions and nine companies and three platoons, a battle hero and a god grenadier, a glorious title at the meeting. The warriors said happily, "This is really a double Meaning Spring Festival!" ”

Source: People's Political Consultative Conference Daily