From February to April 1949, the whole army was reorganized one after another. The Northwest, Central Plains, East China, and Northeast Field Armies were successively renamed the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Field Armies. The Central Plains Field Army was renamed the 2nd Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Corps. Our regiment was renamed the 155th Regiment of the 52nd Division of the 18th Army of the 5th Corps in the Shenqiu area of Henan, with regiment commander Liang Tingzuo, I as political commissar, deputy regiment commander Zhang Tingjia, deputy political commissar Yang Jun, chief of staff Zhang Tingjia (concurrently), and director of the Political Department Li Chuanen. It has jurisdiction over 3 battalions, 9 infantry companies, 3 machine gun companies, guard companies, communication companies, artillery companies, baggage companies, and health teams, with a total of 2,445 people.
Within the formation of the division, our regiment set out from Shaoyang, Hunan, on 3 November and marched to Zhijiang in a nine-day journey, where it launched a political mobilization to march into the southwest, thoroughly implemented the spirit of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, profoundly understood the important strategic significance of marching into the southwest and the hardships and glory of the march, and prevented and corrected the ideas of arrogance, stagnation, and pleasure in the growth of a small number of cadres. We made full use of the time to hold classes, discussions, and summing-up in an orderly manner, and praised good people and good deeds, thus enhancing the class consciousness and policy level of the troops, especially the cadres. The regiment printed and distributed tabloids and leaflets, and the propaganda team and the company's cultural and entertainment backbone carried out propaganda and agitation during the march, which took various forms and was very active. The leaders of our regiment are also very happy, more determined, and more confident.
On November 13, our regiment set out from Zhijiang within the formation of the division and advanced rapidly along the Hunan-Guizhou Highway. On the road I was advancing, there were endless mountains and mountains, some places were steep cliffs and rugged plank roads, and some places were deep mountains and jungles, sparsely populated, inconvenient transportation, and supplies were difficult, and it rained for days and the roads were muddy, which made it very difficult for the troops to move and supply. However, under the slogan of "seizing time with the enemy, competing for speed, and resolutely completing the task of encirclement," all comrades united as one, rushed to be the first, did not be delayed by difficulties, and advanced according to the predetermined plan.
In order to confuse Chiang Kai-shek, after liberating Nanjing and Shanghai, I returned to Xuzhou in the north and made a big noise to go west, and after arriving in Zhengzhou, I turned off the radio station and went south. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek did not believe it at the beginning.
Before marching into the southwest, the regimental party committee educated the troops on the policy of the new district, the united front policy, and the policy of nationalities. After the troops entered the Miao area in eastern Qiandong, they saw with their own eyes the miserable life of the Miao compatriots under the discrimination of the Kuomintang reactionaries. With great class sympathy, the commanders and fighters preferred to starve themselves rather than collect food from the Miao people, and took the initiative to give them some oil, salt, clothing, and daily necessities. On the 24th, our regiment rushed into Guiyang. On the 27th, they arrived in Qianxi. On December 4, on the way to Bijie, 2 Yeqian pointed to the telegram: "I have occupied Chongqing. In the future, the focus of operations will be on the west, and after occupying Luzhou and Yibin, we should strive to quickly occupy the three counties of Leshan, Jiajiang, and Emei, and completely cut off the highway line of the enemy's retreat to the south. Therefore, the 18th Army should take a shortcut and go straight out of Yibin. "In accordance with the orders of Ye Si and the army, our regiment rushed to Yibin with the main force of the division. At this time, after more than a month of continuous marching, the troops were extremely physically exhausted. In order to speed up the march and fight the last major battle on the mainland, the regimental party committee temporarily held an emergency enlarged meeting and a meeting of activists in Gumang, Yunnan, mobilized the commanders and fighters of the regiment for a forced march, and put forward the slogan of "marching to Yibin in four days and completing the roundabout tasks assigned by the superiors." The commanders and fighters of the whole regiment were in high spirits, and the leaders of our regiment took the lead in leaving livestock, marched with backpacks with the cadres of the battalion, climbed several mountains every day, traveled more than 120 miles, and rushed forward more than 500 miles in four days with the spirit of hardship, crossed the Yangtze River in the north, and finally arrived in Yibin on December 11, and immediately controlled Cuiping Mountain, the commanding heights in the north of Yibin City. At the same time, the troops of the 156th Regiment also entered the line of Lizhuang on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
On the way from Bijie to Yibin, the 18th Army received a telegram from the 16th Army on the 10th: All 7,000 people of the 72nd Army and the 233rd Division of the enemy's Yibin defenders were sent by their commander Guo Rugui to Nanxi to contact the uprising this morning (10th).
On the morning of the 11th, representatives of the 16th Army accompanied Xu Kongjia and others to return to Yibin from Nanxi by steamer, and first docked at the south bank according to the signal of the 156th Regiment. After studying, Lu Dingfa, deputy director of the Political Department of the 156th Regiment, and Xu Dakui, an operational staff officer, entered Yibin with the ship. After negotiation, four agreements were reached: 1. The 72nd Army was reorganized under Liu Deng's order, 2. The fortifications around the city were dismantled, 3. The troops on the outer mountains were included in the city, and 4. The ships were prepared to receive the People's Liberation Army to cross the river. On the evening of the 11th, the regiment telegraphed the negotiated agreement to the corps and divisions. As a result of the uprising of the Kuomintang 72nd Army, Yibin was peacefully liberated.
When our group arrived in Yibin, we learned that Song Xilian, director of the Kuomintang Sichuan-Hunan-Hubei Border Region Pacification Office, led a remnant of more than 7,000 people to cross the Minjiang River from Niuxichang south west of Yibin on December 6, and on the 7th, they fled in the direction of the key along the mountainous area south of the Minjiang River, intending to join up with the southern part of Huzong, or flee to Xichang and Yunnan.
Song Xilian and Hu Zongnan were the last two groups of the Kuomintang on the mainland, and Chiang Kai-shek pinned his hopes on them in Chongqing, sending Chiang Ching-kuo from Chongqing to Song Xilian's troops to pacify, encourage, and cheer up. When Song Xilian withdrew from Hubei to the west, there were two corps of about 200,000 people, and the main force was annihilated by our 3rd Corps and the 4th Field Division in the Sichuan-Hunan-Hubei border and the Nanchuan area southeast of Chongqing, and now there are less than 10,000 people. The general trend has gone, Song Xilian is powerless to save the fate of defeat, and has not listened to Chiang Kai-shek's dispatch, but fled for his life. Originally, after the remnants of Song Xilian withdrew to the Yibin area, they wanted to settle in Yibin, but as soon as they heard Guo Rugui's tone, they immediately changed their minds and did not dare to enter Yibin. In order to annihilate the remnants of Song Xilian, the army and division ordered our regiment to set out from Yibin on December 12, carry out parallel pursuit of the remnants of Song along the west bank of the Minjiang River, strive to intercept their escape route, and annihilate the Song troops with the cooperation of the 158th Regiment (starting from Baishuxi on the 12th) and the 154th Regiment (only receiving the order to set off immediately on the 15th). Our regiment was also lightly armed (the radio station was also left) and pursued westward at a speed of 100 to 150 miles a day, regardless of fatigue and without fear of falling behind and attrition, and following the pursuit. When they entered Cooperfield, they learned that the enemy had fled westward. Under the circumstance that the goal is relatively clear, we will further lightly equip and follow the spirit of rapid assault unique to our regiment and advance with multi-channel attacks. The main force advanced to attack Qingshui Creek in Jianwei County through Yuebo and Maliuchang, and the other road pursued the enemy through the iron furnace field and the drum squeezing field. The troops marched in a hurry, eating raw rice to satisfy their hunger, and as a result, it took two days to catch up with the enemy's four- or five-day journey. Shi Xiong, the deputy commander of the regiment, led the 2nd battalion near Qingshuixi to catch up with the remnants of the Song Dynasty who had fled west from the vicinity of Yibin in the early 8 days. After two hours of fighting, the enemy's 5 county security teams were annihilated, and Song Xilian Mafu was captured, and it was learned that the Song Department fled west along the north bank of the Mabian River from Qingshui River at about 14 o'clock on the 14th.
At this time, the enemy situation is clear, and we all know it in our hearts. I immediately decided that the troops would rest, have a full meal, and sleep soundly for a few hours, and at the same time we would meet to prepare for the battle to encircle and annihilate the Song army. The troops were streamlined again, leaving the horses and radio stations behind to organize containment. Shi Xiong, deputy commander of the regiment, led the 2nd Battalion to advance parallel to the enemy from the hill on the right side of the Mabian River (the enemy was at the bottom of the mountain along the Mabian River, and our 2nd Battalion was on the mountain), and then inserted itself in front of the enemy and intercepted the enemy; I, Deputy Political Commissar Yang Jun, Chief of Staff Xiao Meng, and Director Li Chuan'en led the 1st Battalion and 3rd Battalion to pursue from the halfway point between the enemy and the 2nd Battalion; the guard company served as a rear guard; and the operational staff officer Chen Yuankao led the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion to search and advance from the enemy's left side.
The troops set out at 2 o'clock on the 15th, and after dawn, they caught up with the Song Department near the Diao'er Dam on the bank of the Mabian River, more than 30 miles west of Qingshui Creek. I immediately decided to fight, the 2nd battalion blocked the head, the 3rd battalion blocked the waist, and the 1st battalion attacked the rear, surrounded most of the Song people, and compressed them in a narrow valley along the river. Taking advantage of the enemy's surprise and panic, our 1st and 3rd battalions fought down from the mountain, causing the enemy to turn on their backs and become dizzy. After one hour of fighting, 2,131 people from the 2nd Battalion, Communication Battalion, Engineer Battalion, Military and Political Cadre School, and Teaching Corps of the Song Guard Regiment were annihilated, and 1 lieutenant general, 2 major generals, and 15 colonel-level officers were captured. Because it was necessary to continue the pursuit of the Song tribe that had not been annihilated, although the prisoners, weapons and other captured materials were assigned to deal with them, they could not take care of them. The comrades of the 1st Battalion asked the battalion commander Liu Guangtong for instructions on what to do with the captured weapons? After thinking about it, he replied that he would throw them into the river!
On the 16th, our regiment continued to pursue the remnants of the enemy to the foot of the hill east of Huangdan. At this time, gunshots rang out in the place where the battle was fought, gossiping, talking about whether the prisoners had escaped, and some said that the prisoners had been intercepted, because I also misjudged them, and felt that they had just won such a big victory, and the prisoners had problems, but unfortunately, it was decided that the troops would turn back and deal with it before advancing. Staff Officer Chen Yuankao, who had just rushed 20 kilometers back and had brought the 1st Battalion and 3rd Company to ensure the safety of the left flank, came up, and they said that they had a misunderstanding with the guard company guarding the prisoners, and that their own men had fought with each other. When I heard this, I was so remorseful that I immediately asked my troops to turn back and pursue the enemy forward. The big mistake that caused this battle was caused by my misjudgment, and I can only learn a lesson.
Originally, when the 2nd Battalion, which had chased to the slope of Huangdandong Mountain, received the order to retreat, it had already seen Song Xilian fleeing west on a big horse, and a company commander (Liu Shiqiang) was in a mood at that time, and he sat down and did not leave, and Wang Yongxiang, the deputy battalion commander, said to him, you are a soldier, and it is your duty to obey orders, and the troops are like you, how can they fight! Of course, when the situation became clear later, and I heard that the Song Department was being pursued according to the original plan, this company commander was even more energetic. After the troops caught up with Huang Dan, I learned in a shop that there was a path to take the bowstring, from which you could go straight to the main road and take the avenue Cizhuping and Tongjiezi on the back of the bow, so that you could destroy the enemy in large groups. The 1st Avant-garde Battalion caught up with the enemy near Tongjiezi, but they also misjudged that the enemy walking in front was not a large force, so they did not open fire until they felt that it was the enemy's rearguard, and only destroyed more than 100 enemies. That night, the troops were starving, and despite the cold and extreme fatigue, they pursued the enemy at Wudu Creek. To the west of Tongjiezi, it is bordered by high mountains and steep walls on the left and deep valleys of the Dadu River on the right, and it is impossible to surpass the enemy's front.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 18th, the 3rd Battalion of the Avant-garde was at Laoyaxi, 4 miles east of Maoping, and the 7th Company's strong attack was blocked. At this time, I rushed to the 3rd Battalion, assisted the battalion commander Zhu Xingzhen in commanding, and ordered the 9th Company to detour to the enemy's side, and the 7th Company still attacked from the front, broke through the resistance of the Song Division, and captured more than 200 enemies. Our 3rd Battalion also paid a great price, with more than half of the casualties of the 7th Company and 2nd Platoon, and only more than 30 people left in the 9th Company. At this time, we continued to understand the terrain and estimated that the Song Department would cross the Dadu River north at Shaping (Ebian) and flee along the road to Xichang. On the night of the 18th, I decided to pursue the enemy with the 2nd Battalion to Shapingwei, and the main force of the regiment would not follow up, but directly cross the Dadu River north at Daheba, 2 miles north of Maoping, and enter Xinchang on the opposite bank of the Shaping Highway to intercept the Song Department. At 18 o'clock on the 19th, the 2nd Battalion pursued to Shaping and saw that the Song Department was crossing the river, so it took the 5th and 6th Companies to make a detour to the west, cut off the Song Department that had crossed the river and fled westward, and ordered the 4th Company to rush straight to the crossing point. At this time, there was a lot of gunfire on the north bank, and it turned out that the 139th Regiment of the 47th Division of the 16th Army rushed from Leshan to fight with our 4th Company in Xinchang for a while. After clarifying the situation, all the Song troops who crossed the river were annihilated, and Song Xilian was intercepted by the 139th Regiment. The Song Department, which had not crossed the river, was completely annihilated by the 2nd battalion of our regiment and captured more than 400 enemies. At this time, I led the main force of the regiment to the new field. Just when I recognized Song Xilian, I was already standing in front of Song Xilian, and Xu Zhongyu, the head of the 139th Regiment (political commissar Wang Shang, we don't know each other), pointed at me and said to Song Xilian, he is the commander chasing you. Song Xilian immediately asked me, "Are you the army commander?" I said, "No, I am the commander of the 155th Regiment of the 52nd Division of the 18th Army." When Song Xilian heard this, he was surprised and immediately sat down, in fact, he regretted it, and said to himself, if he knew that it was a regiment, it would not be like this. In this battle of Shaping, our regiment and the 139th regiment unexpectedly cooperated, annihilating more than 2,000 enemies, and more than 10 generals including Song Xilian were captured.
At this point, the pursuit of Song Xilian's troops (200,000 people were annihilated by the 3rd Corps and the 4th Field Division one after another, and some ran away) ended. Our regiment has several characteristics in this operation: First, it resolutely carries out its orders, and even if it loses contact with its superiors and fraternal units cannot come up, it is not afraid to fight in isolation, but has to do everything possible to accomplish its tasks; second, it is necessary to do a good job in the work of cadres and troops, ensure that the top and bottom are unanimous, and they are full of enthusiasm and work together with enthusiasm; third, in the course of the movement, the mountainous areas are pursued from a long distance, and it is inconvenient to make a roundabout, so they have to chase after them fiercely, and they have to repeatedly reduce their personnel lightly and starve; fourth, we have won more with less, and our large regiment of more than 2,000 people has less than 1,000 people left in the end, that is, so many people have pursued and annihilated the Kuomintang Sui Administration, which spanned three provinces, and they have held on to it, covering more than 500 miles, and fighting six battles in eight daysIt was not easy to annihilate more than 4,700 people in the Song Dynasty. In short, it depends on everyone's consciousness, wisdom, determination, perseverance, tenacity, and the spirit of revolutionary heroism that dares to fight and is not afraid of fighting. In the early stage, with the cooperation of the 158th Regiment of the 53rd Division and the 139th Regiment of the 16th Army in the later stage, the remnants of Song Xilian were completely annihilated. After the war, our regiment was praised by Commander Yang Yong of the 5th Corps, who said: "The annihilation of Song Xilian's troops this time is mainly due to the 155th Regiment. "But the mistake of command in this battle was that after I heard the battle of more than 2,000 enemies annihilated in Jiao'erba, the gunfire was loud (and it was later understood that it was a misunderstanding), so I decided to retreat 20 kilometers and lost the opportunity to catch up with the enemy at Huangdan. Although some comrades explained that it was inevitable, I still regretted it and blamed myself.
After our army occupied Chongqing, the Kuomintang troops in the southwest region were shaken and even sought their own way out. Chiang Kai-shek fled Chengdu from Chongqing on 29 November. On the 12th, Chiang Kai-shek handed over command to Hu Zongnan and flew to Taiwan with important government officials. On the 21st, the 16th Corps of the Kuomintang declared an uprising at Jintang. Hu Zongnan held a meeting in Xinjin on the 22nd, and after making arrangements to evacuate to Xichang and Yunnan, he flew to Hainan Island on the 23rd. The Kuomintang troops around Chengdu were leaderless and revolted. But Li Wen, commander of Huzong's 5th Corps in the south, was obstinate and continued to resist. On the evening of the 24th, Li Wen commanded seven armies to break through the encirclement from the Xinjin area along the Sichuan-Kang Highway. On the 26th, on the front line north of Qionglai and Pujiang, the 3rd and 5th Corps of the 2nd Field carried out an offensive on the whole line. On the evening of the 24th, our regiment set out from Jiajiang with its division, and rushed to the Jiangjunmiao, Huilongchang, and Shou'anchang areas between Pujiang and Xinjin through Meishan, and participated in the blocking and annihilation of Li Wen's corps.
On the 26th, they entered the area south of Guyi Town, Qionglai, through Panlongchang, and immediately entered the battle, annihilating the 254th Division of Li Wenbu, and capturing more than 2,000 officers below the rank of three generals, including deputy division commander Chen Ganglin. Li Wen led the remnants of more than 50,000 troops, and laid down his arms and surrendered under the siege of our 10th, 11th, 16th, and 18th armies. Hu Zongnan's 18th Corps declared an uprising east of Chengdu on the same day. At this point, the Battle of Chengdu ended victoriously.
Our regiment marched with the division to the front line of Taihechang north of Meishan, summarized the battle, and prepared to return to the division to take over Yibin. The 2nd Battalion of our regiment caught Li Wen's big black horse, and after I found out, I gave it to Commander Zhang Guohua. Li Jue, the second chief of staff of the 18th Army, served as a cavalryman and took great care of this horse, but it was a pity that he was given a partial diet and died!
[Yin Fatang, a native of Feicheng, Shandong Province, was born in July 1922. He joined the Communist Party of China in June 1938. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he successively served as the political instructor of the Eighth Route Army Company, the secretary of the battalion general branch, the brigade organization officer, the secretary of the general branch of the logistics department, the deputy political commissar and political commissar of the county brigade, the member of the county party committee, and the deputy director of the regimental political department. During the War of Liberation, he successively served as director of the political department of the regiment, political commissar of the regiment, head of the regiment and political commissar. Since February 1950, he has successively served as deputy political commissar of the division, member of the Qamdo Working Committee of the Communist Party of China, deputy director of the People's Liberation Committee of the Qamdo Prefecture, secretary of the Tibet Gyantse Sub-working Committee (later renamed the Prefectural Committee) and political commissar of the Gyantse Military Sub-district, and member of the Tibet Working Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1962, he served as the political commissar of the "Tibet Military Region Advance Command" of the Sino-Indian border self-defense counterattack. In 1963, he was appointed director of the Political Department of the Tibet Military Region. Since 1971, he has successively served as deputy director and director of the Political Department of the Fuzhou Military Region, and director and deputy political commissar of the Political Department of the Jinan Military Region. Since 1980, he has served as the first secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China, deputy political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region and first political commissar of the Tibet Military Region, first secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet Military Region, and chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. In 1985, he was appointed deputy political commissar of the Second Artillery Corps. In 1988, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. He is a member of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th National People's Congress and the 7th and 8th National People's Congress Standing Committee. He is a representative of the 12th and 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and a member of the 12th Central Committee. He was awarded the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Second Class and the Order of Liberation of the Second Class. 】