With collective wisdom and efforts, our army seized the southern highlands of YuepuDong in one fell swoop

Source: People's Liberation Army Daily WeChat, People's Liberation Army News And Communication Center Rong Media

In May 1949, after our army was swept into the important town of Yuepu, every point occupied had to be repeatedly contested. In the face of the enemy's strong fortifications, if the tactical means of rapid attack and pounce are not changed, the casualties of the troops may be even greater. We promptly reported this idea to Comrade Ye Fei, commander of the Corps, and asked the Corps to increase the 254th Regiment serving as the defense of Suzhou City to participate in the battle.

On the evening of May 17, a rapid telephone ringing sounded, and I picked up the microphone and listened to the voice of Commander Ye Fei. He told me that in this battle against Wu Song, the Twenty-ninth Army fought very well, reflecting the brave and tenacious fighting style. At the same time, he also told me that the General Front Committee had issued instructions on the tenth day: Under our pincer-shaped offensive, it is difficult for the Enemy in Shanghai to escape, and our army should not be in a hurry to attack Shanghai, but should make full preparations, and then carry out an attack on the enemy's strong fortifications.

We immediately conveyed this important decision of our superiors to all units, demanding that all regiments in the front be in a strict position, speed up the operation of close-up operations, carry forward military democracy on the one hand, sum up lessons learned from the bottom up, and actively practice all kinds of combat actions to attack the fortifications.

From the seventeenth to the twenty-first day, it was rainy continuously. In the past few days, except for the three regiments belonging to the Eighty-sixth Division, which have repeatedly fought with the enemy and successively captured the two strongholds of Wujiazhai and Xuzhai and several enemy forts near Tangzhai, there have been no major battles. There was a lot of water in the traffic trenches, and the soldiers were covered in mud and wet. Fighting day and night, the warriors were so sleepy, and everyone's eyes were covered with red blood.

One day at noon, Comrade Liang Lingguang and I went to the front line for a walk, only to see that everyone was shouting something in groups of three or five, and when we got closer, it turned out that we were holding a "Zhuge Liang meeting." Everyone is talking about how to break down obstacles, blow up bunkers, fight tanks... Looking at all this in front of me, I didn't want to leave for a long time, and I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes. What a warrior! It's like the Red Army of that year! After carrying forward military democracy and pre-war training, the whole army has unified its tactical guiding ideology from top to bottom, and changed the movement tactics of rapid attack and fierce attack to a method of attacking forts and attacking forts.

The day before the general offensive, I ordered that the artillery regiment and the howitzer regiment dispatched by Sanye be pulled up and aimed at the high ground south of Yuepu's pudong. All the commanders and fighters of the 253rd Regiment, which were responsible for attacking the high ground, carried out close-quarters operations day and night, and some fortifications were dug until they reached forty or fifty meters in front of the enemy's bunkers. The 260th Regiment and the 254th Regiment that assisted them were also prepared for various battles.

On the night of May 23, the general offensive of the Shanghai Campaign began. At six o'clock in the afternoon of this day, our army launched an attack on the high ground. Mountain artillery groups located in the northwest and southwest directions of the highlands carried out destructive fire on the highlands with dense crossfire, and two artillery battalions located directly north fired suppressively at the enemy on the highlands and blocked the reinforcements with powerful firepower. After the mountain guns were fired, the howitzers fired. Powerful artillery fire bombarded the heights fiercely. Under the soaring fire, I saw thick smoke coming out of the bunker and soaring into the sky. Many enemies were shocked and cried wolf.

When the howitzer completed the seventh discharge, the explosive groups of each battalion and company immediately jumped out of the bunker, quickly engaged the enemy, and carried out the blasting of the obstacles. With the loud sound of the explosion, the infantry plunged straight into the enemy fort. Before launching an attack on the heights, the army decided that the 253rd Regiment would take on the main offensive task, and the 2nd Battalion would be the main attack battalion. As soon as the troops launched an attack, the front was Song Linqi, the instructor of the second battalion of the 253rd Regiment, and The deputy battalion commander, Yin Bailun, leading the fourth and fifth companies respectively. The warriors of these two companies, one of whom approached the enemy fort, some of them delivered explosive packages; some of them climbed to the top of the enemy fort and threw grenades at the gun holes; and some of them used long bamboo poles to pick up cluster grenades to blow up the muzzles of the enemy fort's guns. The whole battle was very well organized. By eight o'clock in the evening, I had occupied all the high ground, annihilated one battalion of the enemy, blown up sixteen enemy forts, and politically disintegrated one enemy fort, while I suffered only eleven casualties.

But the enemy was not reconciled, and in order to retake the high ground, from eight o'clock in the morning of the twenty-fourth to the dusk, a total of more than one regiment of troops was dispatched, and under the cover of nine tanks, the troops were divided into four roads and counterattacked us three times in a row. In the battle to hold the high ground, the second battalion suffered a certain number of casualties, and in the end only seventy or eighty people remained. These comrades are determined to coexist and die with the highlands and will never retreat from the highlands. After a day of fierce fighting, our army still firmly held the high ground.

(This article is selected from "Spark of Fire", slightly abridged; "Spark of Fire" is a red classic written by Mao Zedong, written by Zhu De, and written with the blood and life of countless revolutionary predecessors, vividly reproducing the heroic and earth-shattering revolutionary story, carrying the genetic blood of our party and our army, and containing a great revolutionary spirit.) ）

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