Fierce Battle on the Second Battlefield - He Jinnian (I)

I. Rampant Banditry And Disasters Flood the River

In August 1946, the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee appointed me commander of the Hejiang Military Region. It was three volts and it was raining continuously. We took a truck from Harbin to Jiamusi, the seat of the military district organs. On the road, I encountered bandits several times, stopping and walking, five hundred kilometers away, three days and three nights.

During the three-day journey, we relied on the rickety asphalt-smelling open car board, allowing the rain to blow and occasionally choke on the smoke from the locomotive. The lake is wet, sweltering, and "mosquitoes, oxflies and small bites, three shifts a day", stirring everyone can not rest. However, this gave me enough time to think about the daunting task I faced.

Not long ago, I was ordered to lead a group of military cadres to the northeast to participate in the war. From Zhangjiakou, we arrived in Qiqihar via Chengde, Longhua, Chifeng and Baichengzi. There, I met Chen Yun, Li Fuchun, Huang Kecheng and other leading comrades. Later, in Harbin, I listened to the important instructions of the PARTY Central Committee and Chairman Mao on "establishing a consolidated base area in northeast China" and the "July Seven" resolution of the Northeast Bureau conveyed by the meeting of cadres of the Northeast Bureau. The talks of these leading comrades and the documents conveyed at the meeting enabled me to have a relatively comprehensive understanding of the situation and tasks in the entire northeast, to know that the main policy of struggle in the northeast at present is to "give way to the big road and occupy the two compartments," and to recognize the mobilization of the masses and the establishment of consolidated base areas. Four months earlier, Chiang Kai-shek had torn up the armistice, taken over Siping, Changchun and Jilin, and controlled a vast area south of the Songhua River. At present, the enemy is the advantage, I am the inferior, and the enemy and us are facing each other on both sides of the Songhua River. Whether or not we can establish a consolidated rear strategic base in the five northern Manchu provinces of Suining (later mudanjiang), Hejiang, Songjiang, Nenjiang, and Longjiang is already a key issue that has a bearing on whether our party can gain a foothold in the northeast. The vast majority of the members of one band after another are pseudo-military police, traitors, spies or habitual bandits. After Japan surrendered, the Kuomintang incorporated them. These bandits, with a large number and considerable influence, used the deep mountains and dense forests as a base to rob the masses, kill cadres, harass the people, and disturb the people's hearts, in order to prepare for Chiang Kai-shek's frontal attack. If the bandits are not eliminated and the masses are frightened and feared, it will be difficult to mobilize them, and the base areas will not be able to consolidate them. Faced with this serious situation, the Northeast Bureau and the headquarters of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army decided to mobilize troops and go deep into the mountains to completely eliminate these stubborn bandits.

That is what I am going to do in the Hejiang region. This task is not to fight against the regular Kuomintang troops on the frontal battlefield, but to deal with thousands of bandits on the second battlefield in the deep mountains and dense forests...

With a long whistle, the slow train finally reached Jiamusi. The Songhua River Bridge in the western suburbs has not been repaired after it was blown up by the Japanese army. The station is deserted. We carried our luggage, walked out of the station, then crossed the river by ferry and hired a Russian-style four-wheeled carriage to the headquarters of the Hejiang Military Region.

The city of Jiamusi is not very large, and due to the harassment and destruction of bandits, the city is full of a war atmosphere. Sandbags were piled up at the gates of the important organs, guarded by sentries with live ammunition.

At that time, the secretary of the Hejiang Provincial CPC Committee and the political commissar of the Hejiang Military Region was Comrade Zhang Wentian (the name used in Hejiang is Zhang Pingzhi). He was a member of the Politburo of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party, and although I had not worked under his direct leadership in the past, I was familiar with him. In 1936, when he was at the University of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, Comrade Wen Tian gave us a lecture on "The Basic Problems of the Chinese Revolution." He has a high theoretical level, has rich experience in struggle, is kind and approachable. After this meeting, he briefed me in detail on the situation in the Hejiang area and repeatedly stressed: "Hejiang is the strategic rear of our northeast. The construction of the Hejiang base area has a very important bearing on the success or failure of our party and our army in the northeast, and we must change the chaotic situation here. At present, the most important task in mobilizing the masses and establishing base areas is to eliminate banditry. ”

As far as the whole of Northern Manchuria was concerned at that time, the Hejiang region had the largest number of bandits, the largest number of leaders, and the most rampant sabotage activities. Among the many bandits, especially Xie Wendong, Li Huatang, Zhang Yuxin (nicknamed Zhang Heizi), Sun Rongjiu and other four major bandits are the most numerous, known as the "four flagpoles". There are more than a thousand people per share. They are veritable political bandits. In order to cooperate with the frontal attack of the Kuomintang army, they occupied many towns in Hejiang Province, controlled the water traffic and threatened a considerable part of the railway traffic. Some of the bandits also made banners and armbands in accordance with the number system appointed by the Kuomintang, and prepared to meet the so-called "central receivers." These reactionary bandits, in collusion with various reactionary associations and gangs, carried out reactionary propaganda activities everywhere in the name of the Central Army. Under their deception, many masses believe that Chiang Kai-shek is "orthodox" and the Central Army is a "legitimate card," and lack a correct understanding of our party and our army.

The people in the Hejiang region are extremely poor under the long-term oppression and control of japanese puppets and bandits. Especially in mountainous areas, some families have only one or two "rehabilitative cloth" clothes, some families have only a patch of patched tattered pants, some families of men, women and children cover a torn quilt, and some families have nothing, relying on thatch to cover their bodies from the cold.

My predecessor Comrade Fang Qiang, in order to seize and control Jiamusi, Yilan and other cities, as well as railway and road lines of communication, led the troops to engage in fierce battles with local bandits, achieved great results, and initially opened up the situation. However, none of the main bandits have been arrested, and the bandits still carry out harassment and sabotage activities from time to time. Even outside the city of Jiamusi, where there were gunshots and occasional grenade explosions at night, the situation was still grim.

Soon after I arrived in Hejiang, there were some serious incidents in this area one after another. The first one was the "August 15th Five-Year Plan" incident that occurred in the provincial capital. On that day, Jiamusi City held a "meeting to commemorate the eighth and fifth anniversary of august 15, the first anniversary" attended by more than 30,000 people, and prepared to publicly try seven people after the meeting, including The Japanese war criminal Takeuchi Tokuhai, Gangda Nobukazu and the big traitor, the big secret agent, and the director of the people's livelihood department of the puppet Sanjiang Province, the puppet Sanjiang Governor Lu Zhigan, and the pseudo-Seventh Military District Commander Lü Heng. At first, the meeting was in good order, but when the crime of the traitor Wang Guodong was accused, suddenly someone shot at the front of the rostrum. One of the guards was immediately seriously injured. To prevent the enemy from hijacking the court, law enforcement officers immediately killed seven criminals. At this time, the reactionaries took the opportunity to shoot at the crowd, and our security personnel quickly fired their guns to demonstrate, and the venue was suddenly in chaos, and the crowd rushed to the exit in horror, and some people were trampled to death and injured in the confusion.

Shortly thereafter, there was another Fengxiang riot. In October, Liu Shandong, the bandit leader who was entrenched in the Fengxiang area, led more than 500 bandits to gather in a ravine outside the city, threatening to destroy the Fengxiang people's power and capture the county seat of Fengxiang.

Liu Shandong, whose real name is Liu Guangcai, was originally from Shandong and served as a company commander under Ma Zhanshan. Ma Zhanshan was the brigade commander of the Kuomintang Su Bingwen Division. When the Japanese invaded and occupied our northeast, they would persist in resisting. Su Bingwen and Ma Zhanshan organized the famous Battle of Jiangqiao in Nenjiang, which severely damaged the Japanese army with the support of the people of the whole country. After the defeat at the Battle of Jiangqiao, Liu Shandong led more than a hundred people to Wuyun, Foshan, Ulaga, and Tongjiang, and his banner was the Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army, which was actually a gang of bandits who robbed, plundered, occupied, and raped. Later, Liu Shandong accepted the offer of the puppet Manchu authorities and became the colonel of the puppet army. After the Japanese surrendered, he took advantage of the chaos to collect weapons and recruit troops, which soon grew to more than 500 people, and was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the brigade commander of the sixth brigade of the central army. Within the Liu Shandong gang, they were mainly controlled by the Qinghong Gang and tutoring, and their organization was relatively tight and their equipment was relatively good.

At that time, two cavalry companies of our Hegang Independent Regiment were stationed in Fengxiang City, and together with the guards of the county government, there were about 200 armed personnel. However, due to his lack of experience, he relaxed his vigilance and was caught off guard by Liu Shandong into the county seat. After several hours of fighting, most of the cavalry company was scattered, and the other troops suffered heavy casualties, leaving more than forty people to retreat to the courtyard of the county government and hold out for help. However, due to the misjudgment of the reinforcements, Commander Chen of the Hegang Independent Regiment, they withdrew to Hegang after repelling a small group of bandits on the way. Because the reinforcements did not enter Fengxiang in time, the troops in the city were eventually outnumbered, and in addition to the casualties, the remaining two dozen comrades were captured by the enemy.

After receiving the report of the "Fengxiang Incident," Comrade Zhang Wentian immediately led the troops directly under the military region to Hegang by train and rescued them in two ways. All the way straight to Liu Shanshan' retreat from Fengxiang to the mountain- Mingshan; The other way crossed the Dulu River from Wutong Village to Fengxiang. When Liu Shandong learned that our rescue troops had arrived, he left most of my captives behind and fled in the direction of Uraga with only Hu Huiliang (director of the Political Office of the Hegang Independent Regiment), Ye Daosheng (platoon leader), and Xiang Yantian. On the way, Comrades Hu Huiliang and Xiang Yantian were killed, and Comrade Ye Daosheng was not hit, and later he was able to return to the team by chance. In this incident, our Hegang Independent Regiment lost two companies, the county government was destroyed by the enemy, and the county governor Shao Wancai was killed in the battle.

Then, on October 10, there was another incident of Yang Qinghai's bandit rebellion.

Before the September 18 incident, Yang Qinghai was a soldier, and later surrendered to the Japanese and became the squad leader of the puppet army. In September 1940, due to disagreement with his superiors and the propaganda and agitation of the slogan of the Anti-Japanese League of China, he organized a mutiny of some puppet troops. After the mutiny, it was absorbed by the Seventh Army of our Anti-Japanese Coalition. In November of the same year, he crossed the border with his troops and retreated into the territory of Su Yuan. In August 1945, when the Soviet Red Army marched into the northeast, Yang Qinghai came to Yilan with his team and served as the deputy commander of the City Defense Command of the Soviet Army in Yilan, Lieutenant Pei Junheng. After our party went to Yilan to open up work, he successively served as the commander of the Yilan General Brigade of the Sanjiang People's Autonomous Army and the commander of the 19th Regiment. After that, the 19th Regiment was incorporated into the Fifth Detachment of the Hejiang Military Region of the Beijing-North Democratic Coalition Army, and Yang Qinghai served as the deputy commander of the detachment.

Yang Qinghai has always had a serious idea of fame and fortune, embezzled and accepted bribes, became corrupt and noisy, and messed with the relationship between men and women. He thought that making him a deputy commander was to cut his real power, and he was extremely dissatisfied with the organization. In this way, he became the main target of the Kuomintang agents waiting for an opportunity to plot a rebellion. Through the relationship between Yang Qinghai's car captain Luan Fengwen and Yang Qinghai's sister-in-law Xin Aiyu, the enemy made Yang Qinghai hook up with the bandit leader Li Huatang and accepted the Kuomintang's appointment, becoming the "commander of the Hejiang Advancing Army" and "commander of the defense of Hejiang City."

Organizationally, yang Qinghai's corruption and degeneration mistakes had been seriously criticized and educated, and he was also aware of his banditry activities, but at that time, specific evidence was not yet available. After consulting with Comrade Zhang Wentian, secretary of the provincial party committee, it was decided to transfer Yang Qinghai from Yilan to Jiamusi and let him participate in the training class held by the military region so that he could find out his problems during the study period. Yang Qinghai originally had a ghost in his heart, and after arriving at Jiamusi, he was even more uncertain and restless. He asked me for leave several times without permission, and finally, it was like sneaking back to Yilan.

After Yang Qinghai stole back to Yilan, 100,000 people eagerly prepared for rebellion. He sent Luan Fengwen to contact Li Huatang and asked Li Bandits to go to the county seat to meet him. A few days before Yang's rebellion, Li Huatang used the "transfer of the tiger away from the mountain" to send bandits to attack and harass our two tunzi land reform task forces near Yilan, and lured two battalions of the Yilan Independent Regiment and a cavalry company out one after another. In this way, the city of Yilan was empty, and the remaining troops were only a hundred people.

On the night of Yang Qinghai's rebellion, he forcibly took away more than seventy people from the sixth company of the Yilan Independent Regiment, and cooperated with the bandits sent by Li Huatang to attack the court, the city defense headquarters, the county party committee, the public security bureau, and the prison and Tibet units, but they were resolutely resisted. After midnight, the rebels and bandits felt that there was no bargain to be taken advantage of, and they were afraid that our reinforcements would arrive soon, and they did not dare to stay long, so after robbing a large amount of property and burning the munitions warehouse, they quickly fled the county town of Yilan.

In this rebellion, Comrades such as Wang Zijun, commander of the second battalion of the Yilan Independent Regiment, Wang Ping, commander of the Sixth Company, and Zhang Jianguo, platoon commander, were brutally killed by bandits.

This series of serious incidents, which took place from mid-August to early October, was a very good sobering agent for those comrades who had slackened their minds in the struggle against the bandits, and at the same time, it also further prompted us to make up our minds to straighten out our interior and completely eliminate the bandits, otherwise it would be difficult to establish our base areas.

Second, the wind and snow mountains and forests are poor and poor

After Yang Qinghai escaped from the Jiamusi study class, we had a premonition that there was going to be a problem in Yilan, so we ordered the cavalry brigade of the military region to rush to Taiping Town, about eighty or ninety miles east of Yilan City, to stand by. I rushed by train to the brigade headquarters of the 359th Brigade of Boli, and consulted with the brigade commander Liu Zhuanlian, the political commissar Yan Fusheng, the deputy brigade commander Tan Youlin and He Qingji and other comrades to borrow troops to suppress bandits (a cavalry regiment, an infantry regiment); At the same time, he also proposed to ask Deputy Brigadier Tan Youlin to go with him. Both comrades Liu and Yan immediately agreed. On my way back to Jiamusi by car, I received an urgent letter from Ilan. On October 14, he immediately led the cavalry brigade of the military region from Taiping Town to Yilan and studied the enemy situation with the leading comrades of the county party committee and the independent regiment. According to reconnaissance, after Li Huatang and Yang Qinghai had retreated from Ilan Sar, they were still entrenched in the area of the Darren River and No. 8 in the west of Ilan City, in a vain attempt to wait for an opportunity to attack again. We decided to follow the chase immediately. The troops were ordered to speed up their pre-war preparations, bringing dry food, pickles, and ula grass in addition to weapons. The local government mobilized the masses to bake tortillas for the troops, one pound at a time. Each person brings at least a week's worth of dry food and pickles, and salt without pickles. Ji Jingcao is one of the three treasures of the northeast, and it is indeed worthy of its name. The warriors held the grain grass softly and wrapped it in the machine shoes, which was both soft and warm. After a day of marching, the feet sweated, and at night the grass was taken out to dry, and then it was rolled in, and it was still soft and comfortable to wear, which was a good equipment to prevent freezing feet in winter.

Troops set off as soon as they were ready. I ask the comrades of the Yilan County CPC Committee to convey to Comrade Tan Youlin that after the cavalry regiment and the eighth infantry regiment of the 359th Brigade led by him came up, I asked them to pursue us as soon as possible.

On the evening of October 16, 1946, I led the cavalry brigade and the 1st battalion of the Yilan Independent Regiment from yilan town and crossed the Mudanjiang River in the west. After a night march, dawn reached the Darien River, but pounced. The enemy has sneaked into the area of the big one and the small one. We chased the big and the small one, and the enemy fled again. It was learned from the reconnaissance that the enemy had burrowed into the black blind man's cellar ditch and headed southwest.

We carefully analyzed the enemy's intentions, and Li Huatang's area of activity was mainly in the areas east of the Mudanjiang River, such as Lotus Bubble, Diao Ling, Taipingzhuang, and north to Yilan Town and the Dalian River. They will not be far from the nest. These bandits are all ground snakes, and it is difficult to support themselves without their own territory. Mudanjiang West is a large mountainous area. From the black blind cellar ditch to the west is the Laoye Ridge, the mountains are densely forested, the terrain is dangerous, in that endless primeval forest, people who are not familiar with the terrain, it is difficult to get in and out. We have seen through that Li Huatang, the cunning bandit leader, will not take this risk. He tried to go into the black blind man's cellar ditch and go around in a circle to the west, to lead our army into the deep mountains and old forests, to get a golden cicada out of its shell, and then to re-interrogate the old nest. I decided to make up my mind and leave the Yilan Independent Regiment behind and join it in the Dark Zijiaogou, so that on the one hand, the bandits in the Black Blind Jiaogou could be eliminated, and on the other hand, the passage of Li Huatang's bandits could be blocked. I led the cavalry brigade along the west bank of the Mudanjiang River to the south, passing through Chariba and Wudaohezi to reach Sidaohezi. There, sure enough, the bandits were discovered, and the battle began immediately, and the enemy was wiped out with a single shock. Except for a few captured alive, most of the remaining twenty or thirty bandits were wiped out. After interrogation, it was learned that it was Du Fangting's bandits. Du Fangting himself saw that the situation was not good and fled every day. It turned out to be a nest of small radish heads. Determined not to fight here, we gathered our troops and continued to march.

In the afternoon, it was three lanes. This is a relatively large town on the Mudanjiang River, spanning both sides of the river, so it is divided into the west three roads and the east three roads. There are some small shops and businesses in the town, which are more prosperous. Usually, there are ferries on both sides of the river, and the ferry crossing is for pedestrians. After we arrived at the West Sandao Pass, the river was silent, and there was not a single ferry. The fellow said that the boats were called the bandits to destroy. We found two fellow villagers to lead the way to the river to investigate and see where the water flow was stable and could be waded in vain. Although it is October, in the strict Hejiang area, the river has already formed ice spikes (that is, small pieces of ice floes), which is called the Ling flood season, and the water is cold. We decided to cross the river in the upper reaches of a "swim" (the so-called 潲 is the stone ridge between the two banks of the giant river, and the water flows here, and the bit difference is abrupt, resembling a small waterfall). The deepest part of the river here is about two or three meters, and the water flow is relatively stable. However, in vain, the direction must be corrected, and if you deviate slightly, you will be washed under the water. We planted markers on both sides of the river, marked the route, and the troops began to cross the river. By the time hundreds of horses and warriors had crossed the river, it was almost dark. After contacting the villagers, the group transport officers brought some firewood to make a fire and asked the soldiers to bake their clothes. After preparing for a short rest, continue along the south of the river. Suddenly, there was a fierce sound of gunfire coming from the direction of the Zi'er Stone. I knew that there was a battalion led by the commander of the 14th Regiment of the Mudanjiang Military Region' anti-bandit unit, and it was estimated that they had caught fire with the bandits, and we accelerated our advance, and the troops galloped along the dirt road at the foot of the mountain. I walked with the sharpshooter platoon at the front of the line. The sound of gunfire was getting closer. Suddenly, a row of machine gun bullets swept in from the front, and several soldiers of the sharp platoon were wounded. We immediately dismounted. It was clear that this was an ambush by the enemy. The enemy occupied the hill in front of us, blocked our way from the front, and tried in vain to drive us down the river. I wanted to pass a light machine gun, mounted on a ridge, and while firing at the enemy, I said to the staff officer next to me: "I am here to take cover, and the personnel and guard platoons of the division are left behind." The cavalry brigade immediately retreated, circled from the left to the rear of the enemy's flank, and occupied the large hill on the flank. I pointed to the hill and continued, "You are condescending, and you are going to shoot at the enemy fiercely, and we will attack the enemy before and after." After a while, the sound of gunfire rang out behind the enemy flank, and we also launched an attack from the front. The enemy fled. From the mouths of the captives, we knew that Li Huatang had come to ambush us with more than a hundred bandits after receiving information about our pursuit. Yang Qinghai, on the other hand, led his team to attack Zi'er Lianzi in an attempt to destroy this battalion of our Fourteenth Regiment.

I ordered the troops to march forward in a hurry. When we arrived at Erlizi, Li Huatang and Yang Qinghai lit three piles of fires (the bandits called "wolf smoke") on the back mountain, signaled to the bandits, and then fled in the direction of Lotus Bubble and Moleqi. We first met with Commander Dong, and after about half an hour, the cavalry regiment led by Comrade Tan Youlin also arrived. We are more powerful and confident in destroying the bandits in front of us.

I studied the next action plan with Comrade Tan Youlin and the leading comrades of the cavalry brigade, cavalry regiment and fourteenth regiment. After the meeting, the troops underwent another emergency mobilization. Then, the troops set out from Erqizi and when they reached Moleqi through the lotus bubble, they found that the enemy had entered the Moleqi Ditch and fled in the direction of the Hanchun River. It took us a long time to find an experienced and reliable hunter as a guide. In the afternoon of the same day, the troops entered the Moleqi Ditch and rushed to the Saichun River. The ravine is hard to walk, and the west side of the mountain is full of trees, the bottom of the mountain is broad-leaved forest, and the upper part is coniferous forest. The bottom of the ditch was full of fallen leaves and weeds, and I don't know how thick it was, so I stepped on it and was soft. In some places, it is simply a muddy pond, and it is not up to the knee when you step on it, and you will fall into it without a little hesitation. The warriors moved forward almost crawling. Horses with heavy machine guns and small steel cannons make it more difficult to walk. The troops moved slowly and hard. After walking for more than twenty miles, the sky was getting dark, and a large black mountain stood in front of it. The troops began to climb the mountain. Some comrades were hungry, and while climbing the mountain, they nibbled on a few bites of hard tortillas. The mountain is a primeval forest, ancient trees towering in the sky, branches connected, we are like walking into a large corridor, can not see the sky, can not see the stars and moons, nor can we distinguish between north and south, west and east. The ground is covered with dead leaves, there are decaying wood lying horizontally, and many places are covered with moss, and if you are not careful, you will slip and fall. For the first time in my life, I have entered such a primeval forest. Marching in such a dense forest, it is difficult to walk without an experienced guide. Fortunately, our guide was very skilled, only to see him looking left and right, searching for the marks left by the hunters entering the mountain, and from time to time he used a large axe to cut down the white stubble on the trunk. It turns out that hunters who enter the primeval forest have made special marks for their own direction. They used the axe to cut marks on the trunk in the order of "east one, west two, south three, north four" for the purpose of returning and later when entering the mountain. This is a common rule among hunters. When he encountered a thick pile of dead leaves and could not distinguish where the bandits were going, he would pull out the fluffy dead leaves on the surface, draw a match, see if the leaves inside had been trampled on, and judge whether the bandits had passed by. We walked all the way, observing the skillful movements of this guide all the way, and from him, we learned a lot of ways to search for bandits in the deep mountains and old forests. For example, the meadow tracking method, people and horses step on the grass, the grass is trampled, the direction of the grass falling is the direction of the bandits, and for example, the forest tracking method, the tree leaves fall, flat on the ground, the centaurs step over, that is, form a low depression, the leaves are either trampled, or rolled; Another example is judging from the humidity of horse dung and the degree of frost or freezing ice it hangs, how long the bandits have passed, and so on, all of which were learned from the guide along the way.