Author: Hammer Jack
In October 1947, Chen Geng's corps arrived near Nanzhao and Fangcheng, and suddenly learned that Li Tiejun, commander of the 5th Corps, led 7 brigades of troops to kill our location. Born in Meixian County, Guangdong Province, Li Tiejun was cautious in the use of soldiers and had a high prestige in Chiang Kai-shek's army. Not only that, he is also a graduate of The First Phase of Huangpu, and he is a classmate of Chen Geng. Strangely, Li Tiejun was never called "Chen Geng" in the army, but honored him as "Big Brother Chen". When the two armies faced each other, Li Tiejun arranged tasks at the battle meeting, sometimes nervously asking his subordinates to "be careful of Big Brother Chen and not be deceived", and sometimes he would confidently point to the map and say, "Brother Chen can't run away." In the face of such a superior, his subordinates felt both helpless and funny.
Li Tiejun's 5th Corps was the elite of Chiang Kai-shek's army, which was equipped with all-American weapons. In order to subdue this "Guangdong fox", it is necessary to find a capable person. Chen Geng thought about it again and again, and finally found Chen Kang, the commander of the 13th Brigade, and entrusted him with the task of "Morning Glory in Western Henan". To put it simply, Chen Geng was the 13th And 25th Brigade disguised as the main force of the corps, operating in Wanxi, looking for opportunities to introduce Li Tiejun into Funiu Mountain.
Chen Kang also knew that this task was not easy. After all, the total strength of the 13th and 25th Brigades was only five or six thousand, but they were facing the superior and well-equipped Chiang Kai-shek army, so they must not fight with it brutally, but can only outwit it.
Before leaving, Chen Geng repeatedly demanded: We must drag this "fat cow" down and perform this drama well.
Chen Kang (1911-2002), a native of Guangji, Hubei, was a founding lieutenant general
The main force of Chen Geng's army marched towards Xuchang
On November 14, 1947, the 13th and 25th brigades in charge of "Morning Glory" separated from the main force and advanced along Nanzhao, Liucun Town, and Dashiqiao toward Zhenping. In order to deceive the enemy, along the way, the two brigades divided into multiple marches, and slowly advanced forward with a huge "fan". As a result, the road to Wanxi is full of bustling crowds, so it is not busy.
In the evening, the crowd also broke the previous discipline, and the cadres and fighters talked and sang freely, trying to attract the attention of Li Tie's military department. However, the 13th Brigade was so noisy that it was more than 20 kilometers away from Nanzhao, and there was no trace of Jiang Jun. Is something wrong? Chen Kang had no choice but to order the various departments to camp and prepare to make a fire to cook.
After the main force of the brigade was settled, Chen Kang specially sent a battalion to return according to the original road, leaving marks and footprints in the villages and villages along the way. The main force was busy repairing the pot table, and every soldier was very busy. After repairing, the cooking of cooking, the boiling of boiling water, the boiling of water, the non-cooking of water also simply brought a lot of firewood, and forced the pot to be set on the fire. For a time, the camp was full of smoke and red. The originally quiet village is very lively.
The people stationed in the garrison began to spread everywhere: the Eighth Route Army came, there were more than 100,000 people, and the livestock alone were more than a dozen miles long! The news of the army passing by did not go away, and the more it spread, the more bizarre it became.
Another day passed, and the 13th Brigade still did not find the whereabouts of Li Tiejun. It turned out that on the way south, the cautious Li Tiejun was deliberately inquiring into the false reality of Chen Geng's army. Not only did multiple troops be dispatched to search on the ground, but also requested air support and took field photos for their reference from time to time. Looking around, only the 13th and 25th Brigades, which were full of fanfare, were found by him, and the rest of the units had no news. So he asked the main force to stand still and send only 1 brigade to stalk at a distance. After this brigade caught up, it found that the surrounding villages were full of horseshoe prints, footprints, and many abandoned pots and stoves, so it concluded that the main force of our Chen Geng Corps was here, and rushed back to report.
Even so, Li Tiejun still refused to be deceived. He only sent spies to move around to inquire about military information, but he did not move the main force.
At that time, the main force of our Chen Geng Corps was already moving toward Yecheng and Fangcheng, preparing to take Luohe, Xuchang, and other cities, and if Li Tiejun could not be quickly "led away," it would not be long before Li Tiejun would recognize our army's intentions, and it would be difficult to do so at that time. Chen Kang also had no choice but to lead the staff team to a combat meeting for several hours, but he still did not have a good idea.
Just when he was in a hurry, a telegram sent by Chen Geng gave him great inspiration. There were only six words on the telegram: Please will not be as good as the radical general.
It was these six words that opened Chen Kang.5 On the evening of the 16th, he ordered: "Resolutely capture Zhenping!" ”
The 13th Brigade was ordered to quickly encircle the county seat of Zhenping and launch an attack on it in the early morning of the next day. Before the siege, the 13th Brigade had only 3 mountain guns, and the shells were even more valuable. But This time, Chen Kang was open-minded, and all kinds of artillery and heavy weapons took turns to attack Zhenping. After a brief bombardment, the soldiers launched a fierce charge toward Zhenping, and used explosive canisters and explosives to open several openings in The fortifications of Chiang Kai-shek's army, and then rushed through the breakthrough and advanced deeper. Seeing the situation, Jiang Jun, who was defending the city, asked Li Tiejun for help one after another, saying that he had been hit by hundreds of enemy artillery pieces and hoped to quickly reinforce." ”
The battle was very smooth, and by dawn on the 17th, Zhenping was liberated. More than a thousand Chiang Kai-shek troops became prisoners of our army.
Li Tiejun finally took the bait.
Yuxi morning glory meter
On the occasion of the "Western Henan Morning Glory", Liu Deng's army took the opportunity to advance into the Dabie Mountains
After conquering Zhenping, Chen Kang ordered the opening of warehouses to release grain to the common people. By the time the 3rd Division of Chiang Kai-shek's army arrived in a hurry, the 13th Brigade had already replenished its supplies and ammunition and was advancing westward.
On November 19, Chen Geng again asked the troops to advance into Neixiang, this time the 25th Brigade as the main attack, and the 13th Brigade as an assist. The enemy's reorganized 3rd Division learned that Neixiang was in a hurry and hurried to help. On the 20th, before dawn, the inner countryside was liberated. Once again, the enemy pounced.
Subsequently, the 13th and 25th brigades attracted Li Tie's army to advance towards Chimei Town. This place is a pass from Neixiang to the depths of Funiu Mountain, and when you enter Funiu Mountain, the enemy's large army cannot be deployed. On the 22nd, Li Tiejun ordered all units to throw away their heavy guns and heavy artillery, and to pursue the "main force of Chen Geng's corps" with light equipment. He himself came to yuguankou to supervise the battle.
After walking around the mountains for half a month, Li Tiejun finally realized that the situation was not right. However, Chen Geng's corps had already connected to 23 towns, including Xuchang and Luohe, and seeing that Li Tiejun was going to run, Chen Geng once again ordered that the 13th and 25th brigades of the "morning glory" be changed to "fighting cattle." After a day and night of forced marching and a 100-kilometer drive, the troops finally met with Huaye's troops on December 23 and immediately launched an attack. At 8:00 p.m. on the 25th, except for Li Tiejun and a small number of remnants who escaped, a total of 9,300 people from the regimental headquarters of the enemy's 5th Corps and the 3rd Reorganized Division were annihilated.
"Big Brother Chen" destroyed a regiment of "Little Brother Li", and Chen Kang was also indispensable. The move of "morning glory in western Henan" not only made Chiang's "Central Plains Decisive Battle Plan" come to naught, but also allowed me to connect the liberated areas on the west side of the Pinghan Line into a line, laying the foundation for the liberation of Nanyang by our army in 1948.
After the liberation of Xuchang, our army counted some of the captured materials of Chiang Kai-shek's army
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