In 1947, Su Yu decided to lead his troops to attack Tai'an in order to seize an important strategic position in the Liberation War, but when he learned that Hu Lian was among them, the general was inevitably a little troubled.
【Awahiro】
Su Yu wanted to deal with Hu Lian in person, but for various reasons, the task was handed over to Xu Shiyou.
Before the battle began, Su Yuqian told him to be careful of Hu Lian, but Xu Shiyou disagreed and ordered the whole army to pounce, what was the result?
Who is Hu Lian?
Hu Lian can be said to be one of the few generals in the Kuomintang who really has the ability to work hard, and is known for his changeable command strategies and flexible thinking, and is known as the "fox general."
Hu Lian graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, and then joined the national army, serving as a battalion commander and regiment commander, with a very high starting point.
[Hu Lian in his youth]
In the early days, Hu Lian commanded troops, participated in the military encirclement and suppression of the central revolutionary base areas, and "dealed" with our party troops relatively early, and was well aware of our army's combat Xi and the command strategies and styles of well-known generals.
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was fully launched, Hu Lian was reused, mainly undertaking anti-Japanese work in many aspects.
For example, during the Battle of Songhu, the troops led by Hu Lian used all kinds of battlefield equipment to use damaged tanks as bunkers to prevent the Japanese infantry from advancing.
It's just that because the gap between the weapons level of the two sides is too large,
【Hu Lian left one】
Hu Lian showed amazing courage at this time, he organized a group of death squads, blew up enemy tanks with grenades, and survived to the death, successfully preventing multiple rounds of Japanese attacks.
During this period, Hu Lian's subordinates set a record of repelling more than ten enemy attacks in one night, and made his name known.
In 1938, Hu Lian had been promoted to brigade commander, and his headquarters was in Jiuhua Mountain, but because the Japanese invaders were building various fortifications on the riverbank of his front-line troops, he realized that something was wrong, and immediately returned to the headquarters to discuss it.
【Hu Lian Middle】
In addition, he vigorously and resolutely produced a number of combat plans against the Japanese invaders, and commanded the soldiers step by step to pull out the Japanese invaders' firepower points by the river.
Hu Lian's combat strategy was also very flexible, and he had soldiers disguise themselves as fishermen and lay mines on the river that night.
After a year of hard work, the navy's special forces blew up more than 60 Japanese warships on the Yangtze River, Anhui and Jiangxi rivers, among which Hu Lian's troops played a crucial role.
Hu Lian and Hu Zongnan are known as "Erhu", and they are nicknamed "King of Kinmen" and "King of Northwest" respectively.
There was a saying among the national army: "Ten kings of the northwest are not worth one king of Kinmen."
Xu Shiyou's self-confidence
After the War of Liberation began, Hu Lian naturally became a senior general of the Kuomintang and undertook important front-line command work.
For such a person, as well as his heroic deeds of the Anti-Japanese War, how could Xu Shiyou not know, but why did he still disagree?
On the one hand, he has a considerable degree of confidence in his command ability, which comes from years of war experience.
In terms of war experience alone, Xu Shiyou's qualifications are not lower than Hu Lian's, the former's career is not as smooth sailing as Hu Lian, in his early years, he accidentally beat the landlord to death, and was forced to run away from home and wander around.
When he was still a minor, Xu Shiyou went to the warlord Wu Peifu's army as a soldier, and since then he has started his military life, and Hu Lian has not yet gone to the Whampoa Military Academy at this time!
When Xu Shiyou was 20 years old, he served as a company commander, and in 1927, he transferred to the Communist Party of China, successively served as a company commander and battalion commander, and participated in the struggle to create the Hubei-Henan Border Soviet Region.
Whether it was the Red Army's Long March in the early days or the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression later, Xu Shiyou was active in it, and showed excellent command ability in the war, and was a communist who could stand the test.
How difficult it is to go all the way, Xu Shiyou knows very well that now that the Liberation War has entered a critical period, Xu Shiyou can be described as strategizing for this war.
Although Hu Lian is well-known and his age is not much different from Xu Shiyou, the former is not as rich as the latter in terms of life experience and military life, and it is reasonable to be "looked down upon" by Xu Shiyou.
On the other hand, Su Yu also has excellent command skills, but he suffered a small loss in the duel with Hu Lian, which made him take Hu Lian very seriously.
Of course, it is not that Su Yu is not confident, on the contrary, this is a sign of his humility.
[Su Yu is humble, not arrogant or impatient]
On the other hand, Xu Shiyou also has his own plans, and after he received the task assigned by the Party Central Committee, he already had an idea in his heart.
Win in the end
This time, the central government gave Xu Shiyou the task of blocking Hu Lian's troops, and the other side had already used armored vehicles and tanks, and the troops were moving very fast.
The troops led by Xu Shiyou
At that time, the People's Liberation Army relied on a pair of legs to move, and it was naturally not as flexible as the Kuomintang troops, even so Hu Lian did not underestimate the People's Liberation Army, and only rested for one night in the process of hurrying.
But in one night, Hu Lian's troops lost in the next mission.
Because they still underestimated the spirit of hardship and hard work of the People's Liberation Army after all, Xu Shiyou led the troops to Baima Pass overnight, which was faster than Hu Lian's troops.
After the People's Liberation Army entered this area, as Xu Shiyou expected, they would arrive faster than the Kuomintang army, and built fortifications overnight.
When Hu Lian's troops passed by, Xu Shiyou directly ordered all the PLA soldiers to open fire and defeat them before the other party fully reacted.
However, Hu Lian did not panic, and after a brief analysis of the situation, he immediately organized and coordinated the Kuomintang army to counterattack.
In many rounds of attacks, the troops of the two sides fought evenly matched, but you must know that Hu Lian carried as many as 30,000 troops this time, while Xu Shiyou only had less than 10,000 people, so he blocked them near Baima Pass.
Later, after the fall of Tai'an, Hu Lian had to evacuate with his troops, and the battle finally ended with Xu Shiyou's army victorious.
Resources:
[1] Li Songlin, Editor-in-Chief, Dictionary of the History of the Chinese Kuomintang, Hefei: Anhui People's Publishing House
[2] Li Xin, ed., History of the Republic of China, Biography of People, Vol. 3, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2011. Hu Lian's Biography"
[3] Communist Party of China News Network: "Counting the CCP's Swordsman Generals: Xu Shiyou Kills Japanese Officers in One Sword"