In the War of Liberation, Chiang Kai-shek was defeated and retreated to the last pass- the natural danger of the Yangtze River. Chiang Kai-shek believed that the natural defense line of the Yangtze River was impregnable, and it would be difficult for the communist army to fly across the river with its wings, hoping to make a final attempt by relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River. He once proudly said to his favorite general Tang Enbo: "As long as this defensive line is defended, the communist army will have to look at Jiang Xing and sigh." Tang Enbo also replied confidently: "Please rest assured that it will not be a problem to guard the natural danger." Chiang Kai-shek smiled and said, "With your words, I will be satisfied." "In fact, where do they know that our party has already planted a reliable internal line at the top of the Kuomintang military command, and the capture of the Yangtze River natural danger has long been in the planning of our army."
In the inner line lurking in our party, there are two key figures who are indispensable. One was Wu Zhongxi, a veteran general who had followed Zhang Fakui on the Northern Expedition, who served as chief of staff and division commander of the Fourth Army Division of the National Revolutionary Army. Wu Zhongxi was resourceful and astute, and in the battles of Tingsi Bridge, HeSheng Bridge, and Wuchang, he became a famous general of the Kuomintang army with his witty and heroic skills, thus gaining the high trust of Chiang Kai-shek and rising step by step. During the Liberation War, Wu Zhongxi entered the top echelons of the Kuomintang military leadership as a lieutenant general.
The other was Xu Ximiao, the son of a Kuomintang elder, whose uncle had been Chiang Kai-shek's chief, so Chiang Kai-shek looked at the Xu family differently. When he was young, Xu Xiyi was very dignified, intelligent, and capable, and he was deeply loved by Soong Mei-ling and was also Chiang Kai-shek's proud protégé. In October 1943, the Kuomintang sent 40 aviation technicians to study in the United States, and Xu Xiyi was personally nominated by Chiang Kai-shek and included in the list of the first batch of personnel to go to the United States. In fact, the young and promising Xu Xiyi is already an excellent Communist Party member of our party. With the approval of the party organization, Xu Xiyi gladly went to the United States.
In the autumn of 1946, Xu Xiyi returned to China. Chiang Kai-shek personally arranged for him to be the chief of the second section of the Sixth Department of the Ministry of National Defense. Xu Xiyi took advantage of his position to come into contact with a large number of various military secrets of the kuomintang top brass. In order to control a young senior officer like Xu Xiyi and prevent him from being "reddened" by the Communists, the Kuomintang military command agents installed beautiful female agents around Xu Ximiao in a vain attempt to bribe him with pornography. The resourceful Xu Xiyi soon discovered the secret agent's plot, and with the consent of the party organization, he planned it, but instead obtained a lot of important information from the female agent.
The intelligence came directly from Tombaugh's side
In 1948, the defeat of the Kuomintang was gradually determined. Around the Xuzhou region of the Yangtze River, a major decisive battle was brewing between the Kuomintang and the Communists. It was precisely on the occasion of the Kuomintang's employment that Chiang Kai-shek personally transferred Wu Zhongxi to the headquarters of the Xuzhou Suppression Communist Party. After performing his duties, Wu Zhongxi, on the one hand, actively coped with various tasks of the Kuomintang's defensive operations and put on a show of others; on the other hand, he secretly contacted Pan Hannian, the head of the underground party in the Hong Kong intelligence sub-bureau, and through underground intelligence channels, passed on various important military intelligence of the Kuomintang to our party.
After the "Battle of Xu Beng" in January 1949, a small number of key Kuomintang members, represented by Tang Enbo, commander of the Jinglu Garrison, with the support of Chiang Kai-shek, insisted on abandoning Jiangbei and concentrating their forces to hold the Yangtze River Graben. The patriots led by Chen Yi were tit-for-tat and opposed Chiang Kai-shek's burning of the war to Jiangnan. Tang Enbo was a student of Chen Yi, so Chen Yi had a wish for him. But Tang Entang was a famous "black head" in the Kuomintang army, who was black and had a darker heart. On the surface, he adopted the opposition of his mentor Chen Yi and others to the civil war, expressing his willingness to contribute to national peace; secretly, he informed Chiang Kai-shek, provoked Chiang Kai-shek, and brutally suppressed Chen Yi and others. Tang Enbo's actions convinced Chiang Kai-shek that he was a loyal executor, and Chiang Kai-shek subsequently appointed Tang Enbo as the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang suppression of the Communists.
After Tang Enbo took charge of the defense of the Yangtze River, he immediately convened a high-level military conference to issue operational orders to the commanders of the troops along the river, deploy combat tasks, and implement logistical supplies. At the meeting, Tang Enbo repeatedly stressed with a black face: The content involved in the meeting is an important military secret, and if anyone leaks it out, he will be convicted according to the common law and killed. At that time, Tang Enbo could not have dreamed that his most appreciated subordinate Wu Zhongxi was an underground CCP member lurking around him. Tang Enbo never doubted Wu Zhongxi, and he had great trust and respect for Wu. Using the convenience of his identity, Wu Zhongxi came into contact with a large amount of top-secret intelligence, which was continuously sent to the Party Central Committee.
The role of intelligence is inevitably reflected in military operations. On this day, Tang Enbo suddenly held an emergency meeting and said to Wu Zhongxi in a meticulous manner: "There are people within us who share the same. Wu Zhongxi was shocked, but he immediately calmed down and calmly replied, "Impossible, absolutely impossible." What problems can there be with the VIPs personally guarded by the commander-in-chief? Tang Enbo's brow frowned a few times, and he said with a look of embarrassment: "I think it is impossible, but I have to guard against it during the extraordinary period." Since then, Tang Enbo has managed intelligence work more strictly, personally checking all important intelligence, controlling the number of people who come into contact with intelligence, and reviewing and monitoring the actions of intelligence personnel. These actions made it more difficult for Wu Zhongxi to transmit intelligence.
The Kuomintang Yangtze River defense plan is no secret
At the same time, another secret intelligence line, Xu Xiyi, also used his identity conditions to approach the enemy's core department. Xu Ximiao took the initiative to ask Chiang Kai-shek to stay on the Yangtze River to serve the party-state and fight a decisive battle to the end. He also deliberately bit his finger and wrote a pun on the paper that read, "Don't give up until you reach your goal." Chiang Kai-shek was greatly shocked by Xu Xiyi's imminent request for his life, praised him as a proud son of the party-state, and immediately approved him to attend the important meeting as a representative of the Sixth Department of National Defense. Tang Enbo even more sincerely admired Xu Ximiao's move, invited him to directly participate in the work of drawing up a defense battle plan for the Yangtze River, and also asked him to inspect the deployment situation of crossing the river along the river with relevant personnel of the Second, Third, and Ordnance Engineering Bureaus by boat along the river. Objectively, this created favorable conditions for Xu Xiyi to obtain military intelligence such as the defense of the Yangtze River.
On this day, Tang Enbo and Wu Zhongxi went to the left-behind office of the third hall to hold an emergency meeting, and Xu Xiyi was invited to attend. At that time, because of the need for secrecy of underground work, although Xu Xiyi and Wu Zhongxi both worked for the party, they did not know their true identities. The two meet at a meeting and talk to each other, unaware that both sides are actually trying to get intelligence from each other. At the meeting, the person in charge of the Secrecy Bureau proposed three defensive measures: First, a large number of wooden boats in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were lined up and sunk in the river to block the river; second, when necessary, gasoline was poured into the various ferries of the Yangtze River and burned into a fire net to seal the river surface; and third, poison was put into the village wells near the ferries on the south bank of the Yangtze River. After discussion, the meeting concluded by announcing that the first and second would be carried out by the troops and the third by the Secrecy Directorate.
The situation is extremely urgent! As soon as the meeting was over, Xu Ximiao personally drove a jeep to send this important information to his upper line on the pretext of handling military affairs. At midnight on April 20, the Second Field Army commanded by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping and the Third Field Army commanded by Chen Yi and Su Yu, on the basis of information provided by Wu and Xu, led a million male divisions to fly across the Yangtze River and launched a campaign to cross the Yangtze River on a front of more than 500 kilometers, breaking through the Yangtze River Graben defense line in one fell swoop.
The success of the Battle of the Crossing River was due to the contribution of Wu Zhongxi and Xu Ximiao, two intelligence officers.
The defeat of the defense of the Yangtze River put Tang Enbo in a deep dilemma. He was not only scolded by Chiang Kai-shek to the point of bloodshed, but also known as the culprit of the sudden loss of natural danger. Some diehard elements in the Kuomintang have also fallen into the well one after another, calling Tang Enbo a disgrace and a sinner of the party-state. Even his student, Cai Wenzhi, then director of the Third Department of the Ministry of National Defense, pointed at Tang Enbo's nose and angrily rebuked: "Do you still have a face to put on your teacher's stinky shelf?" Which of the cadets recognizes you as a soldier again. ”
Tang Enbo was embattled, thinking in his heart: This is obviously a battle that is won steadily, how can it lose so badly in the end? Until his death, Tombaugh could not solve the mystery in his heart, and even to his death he did not know where he lost. (Text/Ke Yun Yuxin)