Author: Zhou Jianwei
In the Battle of Huaihai, the 4 columns led by Chen Geng had a unit known for fighting the blockade war, that is, the 13th Brigade and the 38th Regiment And One Battalion of the 13th Brigade led by Zhang Yingcai.
In the Battle of Huaihai, the first battalion won two pennants of "combining wisdom and courage, not giving way to every inch of land" and "attacking like a cone and defending like a nail", and was also awarded the title of "Steel Battalion" by the General Front Committee.
Before and after the Huaihai Campaign, it was divided into three stages, annihilating more than 500,000 enemy troops, and one battalion participated in the first two stages of the battle.
The first stage, from November 6 to November 22, 1948, was the annihilation of Huang Baitao's corps, while cutting off the Xuben railway line, leaving Liu Zhi's corps in a situation of being cut and surrounded.
On November 12, Zhang Yingcai, commander of the first battalion, led an order to Xiaolizhuang, north of Su County, with the task of cutting off the Xu Beng Line and dividing the enemy so that the enemy would not have a chance to escape. After receiving instructions from his superiors, he quickly led the whole battalion to Xiaolizhuang. After arriving at the designated position, it was found that a large number of enemy troops were preparing to cross the railway line, which was sun Yuanliang's vanguard force, the 41st Army and the 122nd Division, with a large number of troops.
Zhang Yingcai commanded the company to ambush in separate routes, preparing for more points of annihilation, and did not give the enemy the opportunity to converge. The companies of the first battalion were quickly deployed and ambushed at stations, culverts, subgrade slopes and other points of attack.
After the enemy discovered our army, our army took the initiative to launch several attacks, only to disturb the enemy and cause psychological fear to the enemy, and then wait for the opportunity to launch a strong attack on the enemy, so as to achieve the effect of one against three or even one against ten.
After the battle began, the enemy's several fierce assaults were suppressed by our army, and the enemy tried to break through in different directions, but our army formed a large encirclement, and several times the enemy army was surrounded by our army. Sun Yuanliang's vanguard force had completely lost its direction, charging everywhere but hitting walls everywhere.
Zhang Yingcai led a battalion and firmly guarded the railway line, tightly entangling the enemy's troops near the railway line. In one day, the two sides launched more than 10 battles, and a battalion of casualties was less than 100 people, of which more than 40 people were killed and more than 40 were injured. However, more than 500 enemy troops were annihilated, and some enemy troops were captured, and a batch of guns and ammunition were captured. In order to cut off the Xu beng line, in the course of the battle, the first battalion bombed the railway line from time to time, and the railway line was interrupted by the bombing, and successfully completed the task of attacking the first battalion entrusted by the superior.
The second phase lasted from November 23 to December 15, 1948, with the main battle of annihilating Huang Wei's corps and capturing Huang Wei and others, while forming an encirclement of Du Yuming's corps.
The main result of the first battalion was that after December 2, the first battalion, according to the instructions of its superiors, went to Xiaozhangzhuang in su nan to change its defenses and replace the brother company that had been fighting for several days.
When the first battalion arrived at Xiaozhangzhuang, it found that there were almost no intact houses around, and the fields and roads in front of them were blown up by artillery and small pits. It can be seen that the previous battles here were very fierce.
After settling in the team, Zhang Yingcai immediately summoned the cadres of each company to study the battle plan. In light of the enemy's strength and deployment in the Xiaozhangzhuang area, after discussion, it was decided that 1 commando team and 1 firepower team would be formed by each company, and several groups would be set up under each team in preparation for the top at any time.
That night, Zhang Yingcai sent 2 assault teams to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, attacking the enemy at the opportunity, disturbing the enemy's rest, and keeping the enemy in a state of panic at all times.
The 2 groups returned to report that the enemy fortifications were relatively strong, and there were constantly enemy patrols walking around, and they retreated after a short engagement. The reason is that when the enemy is prepared, he will launch a hasty attack, and there will be no chance to open a breakthrough, and he will increase the fearless casualties.
At midnight, Zhang Yingcai decided to sneak attack again. Deploy the team to attack head-on, arrange a group of fire to detour back to the enemy's rear, and block the enemy's escape. The frontal assault team soon arrived at the planned location, and sure enough, the enemy had relaxed his guard.
As soon as Zhang Yingcai gave the order, the enemy who was caught off guard was immediately confused, panicked and organized confrontation, and some enemies began to retreat to the rear. After a fierce battle, a squad of fighters took the lead in opening the enemy's blockade and rushed in.
Seeing this, the enemy troops jumped into the trenches to take shelter. There are also some enemies who try to block our army's attack with heavy machine guns. After seeing the position of the enemy's heavy machine gunners, our army fired several shells in a row, knocked out the enemy machine gunners, and rushed up, seizing one light and heavy machine gun each, clearing the biggest obstacle for launching an all-out attack.
Just as the soldiers were about to show their skills, the enemy's shells suddenly concentrated on our position. Zhang Yingcai could only let everyone lie down on the ground and find a cover to protect themselves.
After a burst of shells, the enemy began to retreat to the main camp in the rear, only to be intercepted by the blocking team arranged in advance by our army, and was forced to retreat to the camp.
The enemy then fired a smoke screen at our position in an attempt to provide our air force with a position for our army. After Zhang Yingcai saw through the enemy's plan, he quickly fired back a number of smoke screen shells at the enemy camp, and then ordered our army to quickly move to a trench to hide.
After a while, 3 planes flew in the air and dropped several bombs towards the place where the smoke was rising. It is conceivable that if our army had not seen through the enemy's plan, moved in time and dropped smoke screen shells at the enemy's camp, it would have been our army that would have been killed and wounded in pieces. The battle lasted all day, and the enemy's will to break through had been significantly weakened, which was the perfect opportunity for our army to launch a strong offensive. Zhang Yingcai reorganized the team, arranged the seriously injured personnel, and led the other personnel to launch a final onslaught, quickly annihilating the last group of enemies.
The battle lasted until midnight, and finally took the enemy camp in Xiaozhangzhuang. Nearly 1,000 enemy troops were annihilated and nearly 200 enemy troops were captured.
With a team of 500 people, the first battalion annihilated the enemy who was 3 times more than itself, and achieved a good battle of one to three.
On December 11, the 1st Battalion received orders to assist the brother column in encircling and annihilating Shenzhuang. The first battalion had already figured out the enemy's combat laws, and in just one day, it joined forces with the brother column to completely annihilate the enemy's division, creating an excellent Record of Shen Zhuang.
When attacking Yang Weizi, a battalion sacrificed many people, but the first battalion did not give up. Instead, he organized a sharp knife class and vowed to take down Yang Weizi to death. All the members of the 1st Company, 1st Platoon, and 2nd Squad attacked in batches, and the front fell on the top of the back, insisting on one day and one night, beating the enemy troops who could not continue to fight until they surrendered, and the commander of the enemy's 14th Army, Xiong Shouchun, and other high-ranking officers were killed in the battle.
Such a brave forward charge and such a fearless attack were fully praised by the column and the General Front Committee, and not only were awarded the pennant of "attacking like a cone and defending like a nail." In light of the overall performance of the first battalion in the early stage, the General Front Committee and the column decided to record a great meritorious service for all the officers and men of the 38th regiment and the first battalion of the 13th Brigade of the 4th Column, and award the battalion the glorious title of "Steel Battalion".
Battalion commander Zhang Yingcai is a famous combat hero of our army, who has won 9 special merits and 3 battle heroes, and is known as the "King of Soldiers". The fact that a battalion can receive so many honors is inseparable from Zhang Yingcai's "wisdom and courage and demonstration by example".
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】