"I don't want casualty figures, I just want Tower Hill". This somewhat ruthless sentence reveals the cruelty of the Tashan battlefield at that time.
With the strength of 2 columns and 2 independent divisions, the Northeast Field Army resisted the attack of the enemy's 11 divisions, and after six days and nights of bloody fighting, thousands of our troops lost their combat capability, but fortunately, the position was never taken away by the enemy.
At the height of the fighting, Cheng Zihua, who was commanding at the front, sent telegrams to the field army headquarters many times to report the situation, hoping to send troops to help in time.
The commander-in-chief once considered throwing the reserve into the battlefield in a column, but after thinking about it again and again, in the end "the general reserve force did not move".
Tashan can be said to be related to the victory or defeat of the entire Liaoshen Campaign, seeing that the Dongye front line suffered heavy casualties and the risk of being broken through, why can the commander-in-chief still calm down and not send a column to play?
1. The deployment of Tower Hill
On September 12, 1948, Dongye launched the Liaoshen Campaign, planning to capture Jinzhou first, cut off the land route for the Northeast National Army to withdraw to Guannai, and achieve the purpose of "closing the door and fighting dogs".
Chiang Kai-shek was very anxious when he heard the news, and personally went back and forth between Beiping, Huludao, and Shenyang, hoping to mobilize the mobile troops in his hand to fight a decisive battle with Dongye.
The key to victory in the Northeast Battlefield lies in Jinzhou, and the key to Jinzhou lies in Tashan. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek organized 11 divisions of the Houjing Rudong Advance Corps in Huludao, and flew here to supervise the battle, vowing to take Tashan and relieve the siege of Jinzhou.
In order to cope with this powerful offensive, the Dongye Command sent the 4th and 11th Columns and the 4th and 6th Independent Divisions of the Jireliao Military Region to garrison Tashan, and the 4th Column was responsible for the frontal defense.
Although the task was arduous, the 4th Column was not afraid, and after arriving in the Tashan area, the Party Committee of the 4th Column issued a "Letter to All Column Commanders and Fighters" to everyone, demanding that they defend to the end at all costs.
On October 10, the battle officially began, and the Kuomintang first gathered the firepower of the navy, land and air force to bombard Tashan indiscriminately, and the fortifications that Dongye had built with great difficulty were destroyed in an instant.
When the bombardment was over, the infantry of the national army rushed up, and the 4th Column of the East Field had not yet recovered from the loud noise and the air waves, and immediately raised its guns again and began to counterattack, and the enemy had to pay a great price for every step forward.
After a long fight, nothing has changed except for the remains. This result did not come to any surprise to all the top leaders of the Kuomintang.
Before the battle began, its navy, land and air generals on the cruiser Chongqing all swore that the battle could be easily won, but the reality was the opposite, and they were at a loss for a while.
Fan Hanjie also sent urgent telegrams from Jinzhou repeatedly, and Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to ask the troops to press on it desperately.
2. Fierce battles
Hu Qicai, deputy commander of the 4th Column, later recalled: The guns of the Chongqing ship were so powerful that one cannon destroyed a company in the Tashan position. The high-intensity firepower covered, and even on several occasions accidentally bombed the national army's own units.
Of course, they still had a certain effect in fighting like this, and several important front-line positions in Dongye were broken through by the national army, and the commanders and fighters on the positions were almost wiped out.
In order to stabilize the defensive line, the second-line troops of Higashino immediately rushed over again and repeatedly fought with the enemy. In this constant tug-of-war, the positions were stained red with the blood of both the enemy and us.
The PLA's will to fight was relatively resolute, and the troops in the front were exhausted, and the fighters in the rear then rushed forward, and to the rear, non-combatants such as heralds, cooks, and grooms also fought with guns.
On the side of the national army, the warlords were mobilized to drive the soldiers to rush forward, and a trench and a mound were often piled up with hundreds of lives.
By the time the Kuomintang "Zhao Zilong Division" went into battle, both sides were group charges, and a white-knuckle battle was launched.
Zhang Wannian, who personally experienced this battle, later recalled very painfully, he said: One company went up, and when he came back, there were only five or six people left, more than a dozen people, basically all of them fought with the enemy, and the entire four columns were very difficult, and there was no complete company in the end.
At that time, there was another small detail, Hu Qicai, deputy commander of the 4th Column, said in his report to the Ye Division that the river of more than 20 meters was already full of corpses, and the smell was very strong, and many of the soldiers who blocked the front-line were smoked and vomited. One can imagine how tragic this battle was.
On October 15, Jinzhou was successfully liberated, and there was no point in attacking again, so the national army retreated one after another. According to statistics after the Eastern Field War, there were only 21 people left in the 4th Vertical and 34th Regiment, and the number of the 35th Regiment was in the early 100s.
4 vertical is to use flesh and blood to ensure the success of Jinzhou's attack. But there is also a question here, since Tower Hill is so important and the 4th is so difficult, why didn't Mr. Lin send reserves to support?
3. Noji's considerations
Although the Tashan front line repeatedly asked for help, and Mr. Lin also thought of mobilizing a column to help, but at the last moment, the sentence "the general reserve does not move". This seems to be a ruthless approach, but in fact, there are deep considerations.
At that time, although Dongye was strong and strong, part of it was guarding against Shenyang, part of it was besieging Changchun, and the main force was attacking Jinzhou, and there was only one column left that could maneuver, which was the trump card of the Yeji Division and the last hole card.
Once a column is used, it means that the battle situation has reached the most dangerous time, and if there is an accident in other directions, Noji will no longer be able to deal with it.
With food in his hands, he is not panicked, and in the same way, there is still a force under the command of Ye Si, at least Mr. Lin and the others will be more confident in the control of the battle situation.
No matter how far it goes, once you are there, you will have a bottom-up. Therefore, as long as Tashan is not completely lost, Yizong will not go up.
In addition, there is one of the most critical factors, although Tashan fought fiercely, the casualties were still within the bearable range of 4 columns. According to the "History of the Third Domestic Revolutionary War of the 41st Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army":
The 12th and 10th Divisions suffered 1,704 and 1,500 casualties respectively due to their main defensive tasks, and the 11th Division was in a better situation with 367 casualties. The 4th column was a force of 40,000 men, and the casualty rate had not yet reached the point of collapsing the troops.
Although this determination is very cruel to the front-line soldiers, as a commander, he will only give priority to the victory of the battle, which is very realistic and helpless.
Noji believes that the 4th Column, and the 4th Column has lived up to this trust and completed the task well. Noji understood the hard work of the 4th Column, and later when the army went south, he made the 4th Column the vanguard of the whole army and won the honor of being the first to enter the customs!
4. Immortal memory
From a certain point of view, this war affected the direction of the war of liberation. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state built a martyr's cemetery on the battlefield site, and many martyrs who died here are buried in the cemetery, and tourists often come to pay their respects later.
The commanders and fighters who have experienced and survived will cry every time they arrive here. There are also Wu Kehua, Mo Wenhua, Hu Qicai, Ouyang Wen, Li Fuze, Jiang Xieyuan, Li Hongmao, Jiao Yushan, and Jiang Minfeng specifically mentioned in their wills that they would be buried in the Tashan Martyrs Cemetery.
They are not only the founding generals of New China, but also the commander of the 4th Column, Wu Kehua, political commissar Mo Wenhua, deputy commander Hu Qicai, deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department Ouyang Wen, chief of staff Li Fuze, commander of the 12th Division of the 4th Column, Jiang Xieyuan, head of the Tashan Heroic Regiment, Jiao Yushan, and political commissar Jiang Minfeng of the Tashan Heroic Regiment.
It must be a comfort to be able to stay with my former comrades-in-arms.