In the Battle of crossing the river, the most commendable thing is probably the reconnaissance of the river crossing.
If "a million male teachers crossing the river" is a majestic movement, then the advance reconnaissance of crossing the river is the prelude to this movement.
The General Front Committee pointed out that if we can covertly cross a battalion to Jiangnan before crossing the river, we will be able to further ascertain and grasp the enemy's situation, which will be of great significance to encouraging the commanders and fighters of the whole army to cross the river to fight, and at the same time the troops crossing the river will be able to cooperate with the large army in crossing the river.
According to Zhong Xidong, former director of the Political Department of the 27th Army of the Ninth Corps, during the preparations for the river crossing operation, all units of the whole army organized a total of 10 smuggling trips, of which 8 were successful, and the advance reconnaissance camp that crossed the river on the night of 6 April carried out guerrilla activities behind enemy lines, and the significance of victory was even greater. These 10 smugglings, on the one hand, captured more than 30 prisoners, and a battalion inserted itself behind the enemy's back to understand the enemy's situation; on the other hand, it proved with facts: the Yangtze River can be crossed, several people can cross a wooden boat, and a battalion can also cross, thus strengthening the confidence of the large army in smuggling and forced crossing...
This advance reconnaissance battalion was a unit of the 27th Army of the Ninth Corps. The 27th Army is so famous that many people still can't forget it.
The commander of the 27th Army was Nie Fengzhi.
Nie Fengzhi is a member of the Tiger General.
One day, Nie Fengzhi went to the Linjiangba Command Post by the river to inspect the work, and during the meal, the cook brought a small dish of fried greens and a small plate of leeks scrambled eggs. Nie Fengzhi wondered, in March and April, where did the green vegetables and leeks come from?
The comrades at the command post told him that this was a dish on the south bank of the Yangtze River, a dish that the scouts did not grasp their "tongue" and brought back with their hands when they crossed the river to reconnoiter.
This meal touched the mind of Commander Nie Jun, and the idea of sending a battalion across the river was germinated at this moment. In the past, the troops sent out scattered personnel, which could not play a big role, so we simply sent a battalion over.
More than 30 years later, The chief of staff of the 242nd Regiment of the 81st Division of the 27th Army at that time, Elder Zhang Chen, still clearly remembers the days and nights when he led the reconnaissance battalion to cross the river in advance. He recalled: "In early March 1949, Commander Nie Fengzhi and Political Commissar Liu Haotian were in the war room of the Linjiangba Command Post in Wuwei County, and they gave me and Mu Sirong the task of reconnaissance across the river in advance.
"Commander Nie first told us about the situation. He then said: The Three Fields and the Corps instructed that in order to further understand the enemy's situation along the river and in depth, terrain, water conditions, and residents, the army should take the reconnaissance detachment as the backbone and form a reconnaissance detachment, which should be personally grasped by the responsible cadres of the army. Launch a comprehensive reconnaissance campaign. He also announced the decision of the military party committee, and led by Me and Mu Sirong, three reconnaissance squads from the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Army and the 79th and 81st Divisions were dispatched to form the 'Advance Crossing River Brigade' to cross the river first to carry out reconnaissance tasks.
"At that time, under the pseudonym Ya Bing, I was appointed as the captain of the advance river crossing brigade and the provisional party secretary, and Mu Sirong was appointed as the deputy captain and deputy secretary of the provisional party committee.
In addition, the troops also dressed up in disguise, changing to the costumes of the Kuomintang soldiers captured from the Battle of Huaihai and one-third wearing plain clothes; collecting a large amount of silver dollars; making dry food; and carrying a radio station, equipped with two confidential cadres and codes.
"We worked day and night to complete the preparations for crossing the river quickly, accurately and in an orderly manner. On April 4, a grand oath-taking ceremony was held in Yejiadun, Jiangbei, Wuwei County. Military commander Nie Fengzhi, political commissar Liu Haotian, chief of staff Li Yuan, and political department director Zhong Xidong all attended the meeting.
After the meeting, the military chiefs and the various squads took pictures, and then the meeting was held. The soldiers and civilians raised a toast and wished victory, and some squads of soldiers and shipwrights swore an oath of blood: 'Work together in the same boat, fight across the Yangtze River, and carry the revolution through to the end!' 'Some warriors say: If you don't complete the mission, you won't come back'. The boatman said, 'If you don't send the People's Liberation Army across the river, you won't be raised by people!' Rhetoric goes on and on.
On April 6, the commander of the army issued a battle order to carry out the advance crossing of the river. As night fell, the military chief came to the river and cordially sent us off. Twenty-a-night, I gave the order to go. I led some of the personnel to take eight wooden boats, which were divided into four small arrows at twenty-one and a half hours, and crossed in a one-line formation. At this time, the warriors looked around the river with full concentration... Just then, two shots rang out, and we were all extremely nervous, and our eyes widened, and I immediately realized that the enemy sentries had discovered our movements, and if they did not land quickly, there was a danger that some ships would be sunk in the river. I commanded: 'Go full speed, force the landing'.
"At twenty-one and fifty o'clock, we landed on the river embankment in Ten Mile Field, and with bold and courageous movements, we seized the embankment and pounced on the enemy fort, and after twenty minutes of fierce fighting, we crossed the defending enemy, and the troops quickly crossed the forward defense line on the riverside...
"On this night, we bypassed the bunkers and blockade lines, marched more than sixty miles in one breath, reached the foothills of Lion Mountain in the early morning, climbed to the top of the mountain with a single blow, and entered the Qingliang Temple.
"I drafted a telegram and reported to the chief of the Jiangbei Army by radio on the landing situation and our location.
"The sentry came to report that the enemy was found on the hills on the north, west and east sides. Apparently, the enemy had come to the door.
"Then we started a 'special battle' with the enemy. We were as steady as Tarzan, silent, and placed the sentry outside the mountain gate halfway up the mountainside, swinging around with guns in a big way. The enemy was suspicious of us, but he was afraid of offending the 'regular army' and could not afford to wait, but just shouted at the top of the hill. As soon as he shouted, the clever sentry spoke with a Sichuan accent and scolded them without mercy. The enemy did not work to scare, and occasionally released his gun, our sentry still stood in a conspicuous place and did not withdraw, Xu Wanli pretended to be angry, and reprimanded the enemy in a domineering manner: 'Lao Tzu is the search team of the Eighty-eighth Army, and if you rabbit cub shoots a little skin, we will not finish!' In this way, it was not until more than two o'clock in the afternoon that the troops got up to eat. At less than five o'clock the enemy withdrew.
"We used the magic weapon of guerrilla tactics to carry out a battle of wits and courage with the enemy. We rest in seclusion during the day, carry out activities at night, stop and go, suddenly east and west, wit and flexibility, or avoid direct contact with the enemy, or create illusions to confuse the enemy, if forced to fight, if we do not fight, we will already have to fight, and if we want to fight, we will concentrate all our firepower to deal a heavy blow to the enemy.
"On April 10, we finally got in touch with the local guerrillas. The meeting with the guerrillas has made us more powerful and more powerful.
"We sent people to reconnoiter the deployment of enemy troops, the mobilization of troops, the organization of equipment, combat capability, command system, artillery positions, ship activities, terrain transportation, inland river grain stations, customs and folklore, and so on. Some of this information was drawn into charts, and some were continuously transmitted to the north of the river through radio, thus providing a powerful basis for the main forces to formulate a specific operational plan for crossing the river and landing operations and for the chiefs to make timely and correct determination to cross the river.
"On April 18, we received a telegram from the military headquarters that the army was about to cross the river, and the military department ordered us to capture Longmen Mountain and Ma'anshan (present-day Ant Mountain), destroy the enemy's communications, disrupt the command, and plan to cross the river with the main force. At the same time, through us, we also relayed to the underground party and guerrillas along the river that at 8 p.m. on the twentieth day, the enemy's telephone line was cut off, and a fire was set in the enemy-occupied area, instructing the artillery to shoot at the target.
"At the beginning of the crossing of the river, the soldiers and guerrillas became more and more courageous in the battle, charging behind the enemy's ass, seizing positions, occupying hills, cutting wires, and pounding command posts, so that the enemy's command was interrupted, the enemy was attacked on the stomach and back, the army was scattered, and the position was abandoned. We took the initiative and actively cooperated with the main forces to break through the Yangtze River Graben in one fell swoop. ”
In addition to Zhang Chen, the elderly people who participated in the advance river crossing brigade at that time also told the story of the reconnaissance of the advance crossing of the river, such as Mu Sirong, Liu Haosheng, Che Renshun, Wang Deqing, and Gao Jintang.
Mu Sirong was the chief of the reconnaissance section of the 27th Army at the time, and when he smuggled in on the evening of April 6, he led some of his personnel to cross the river from another place, and the boat to the center of the river was also discovered by the enemy, and they braved the fierce artillery fire and struggled to paddle to the south bank. Unfortunately, the wooden boat on which the fifth squad was riding was hit by enemy shells, and several soldiers died honorably. After landing ashore, he led his troops to join Zhang Chen. The battle experience in the future is almost the same.
Che Renshun was then a political instructor in the reconnaissance battalion of the military headquarters. When talking about the experience of reconnaissance across the river, the old man said with a flying eyebrow:
"On the day the army crossed the river, we began to operate according to the predetermined plan at 18:30. We attacked the top of the mountain, cut the power lines, and set fire to the pile (instructing the north of the river to shoot at the target), and suddenly the enemy's rear became the battlefield of our battle, and the enemy was dizzy and panicked. Because we cut off all the telephone lines leading to the divisions of the enemy's 88th Army's forward defense command post near Fanchang County, the enemy's command was completely interrupted, and the enemy was in a mess, mistakenly believing that the main force of our army had crossed the river, and was so frightened that they abandoned their positions and fled. According to a prisoner's confession, I saw the company commander call the battalion commander and shouted, 'Brothers, run for your life!' The communist army has crossed the river! The battalion headquarters all ran. When the soldiers heard this, they were all frightened, abandoned their positions, ran away with their legs, and raced for their lives one by one; no one expected that on the way to escape, they would be caught by you again, which shows that our company commander analyzed correctly and that the communist army had indeed crossed the river.
Another prisoner said that when their commander heard the fierce gunfire around the command post, he quickly picked up the telephone to inquire about the situation, but several telephones in the command post failed, so angry that he scolded his mother, and sent several groups of people out to check the line, but none of them returned. After a while of artillery fire across from the command post, he looked at his watch, made a silent gesture to the attaché, got into the car together and ran away.
"As a result of our successful completion of the glorious advance reconnaissance task of crossing the river and being commended by our superiors, the military reconnaissance battalion was awarded the first class of collective merit, the reconnaissance battalion was awarded the first class of collective merit, the second company of the reconnaissance battalion was awarded the glorious title of 'pioneer hero company of crossing the river', Ya Bing (Zhang Chen) and Mu Sirong were awarded first class merit, and many other commanders and fighters also made meritorious contributions.
On May 21, 1949, Commander Nie Fengzhi made a "Summary Report on the Battle of crossing the River of the Twenty-seventh Army" at the cadre meeting. In this report, General Nie devoted a great deal of space to reconnaissance of crossing the river. General Nie preached:
At the same time, what we would like to mention in particular is the comrades of the second battlefield, that is, all the comrades who crossed the river in advance by Comrades Ya Bing and Mu Sirong and the reconnaissance battalion under the command of the reconnaissance battalion, and they have made great contributions to our victory in the battle of crossing the river and to the rapid annihilation of the enemy. When crossing the river, they obeyed the order and arrived at the designated location ma'anshan on time, completing the glorious and important task of cooperating with the troops in combat. Given the task of cutting the wires, they obeyed the orders, told them to set fire (causing the enemy to panic), and then torches were everywhere, and a platoon that had fallen behind could take the opportunity to take the big bump. They have established glorious historical sites of outstanding merit, which should be rewarded by the Party and their superiors. ”
The advance river crossing brigade once again made the 27th Army famous.
With the 27th Army's advance river crossing brigade, there was the movie "Reconnaissance of Crossing the River."
"Reconnaissance of Crossing the River" is almost a household name in China, and everyone knows it.
River crossing reconnaissance is indeed legendary. The movie makes it even more legendary.
The power of art is enormous.
The deeds of heroes are famous for thousands of years.