In the 52-day battle, the strength of the Kuomintang and the Communists in the battle reached more than 1 million, and in the Liaoshen Campaign that occurred in mid-September 1948, the autumn wind of the Northeast Field Army swept away the main force of the Kuomintang, and the three northeastern provinces were liberated, and since then the balance of victory in the liberation war has tilted to the People's Liberation Army.
In the fierce Liaoshen Campaign, an iron-blooded famous general stood out and once again appeared in front of the eyes of the Chinese people, he won the title of "Tashan Tiger" with the Tashan Sniper Battle, and was even known as "Little Kutuzov", he was the Four Wild Tiger Generals, Lin Biao's love general Hu Qicai.
This issue will take you to understand the legendary deeds of the older generation of revolutionaries General Hu Qicai, if you are a reader who likes to understand history, you may wish to calm down and read it, maybe you will gain something.
Founding Lieutenant General Hu Qicai - General Uniform
Hu Qicai, whose original name was Hu Qicai, was born in September 1914 in a poor peasant family in Hong'an, Hubei Province, where his father was a sharecropper in a landlord's family.
In that era, the life of the sharecroppers was very difficult, and when Hu Qicai was young, their family only managed to make ends meet by helping the landlord farm and running a small tofu factory.
When he was young, his mother died of illness, and he had to help his father work from an early age, but fortunately, the family still let him go to private school, although he only studied for a few years, but it was this learning experience that changed the fate of his life.
When he was in school, his enlightenment teacher was Zhang Chufeng, a communist party member, and under the influence of the teacher, Hu Qicai also began to have some understanding of communism.
But the good times were not long, in 1929 the teacher was arrested, Hu Qicai personally saw the teacher was brutally killed, which made him suffer a great blow, only 16 years old, he was full of anger, chose to take the teacher's original path, through the relationship of the Young Pioneers, officially joined the Red Army.
Hu Qicai's choice was initially opposed by his family, his father was very difficult to support the family, and after the death of his mother, the family not only had an elderly grandfather, but also a long-term illness and a bad older brother and two young sisters. In the face of his father's obstruction, he said: "Without joining the Red Army, everyone has no way to live!" ”
After joining the Red Army, Hu Qicai started from an ordinary soldier a little bit, because of his childhood experience, he developed a hard-working personality, which made Hu Qicai gradually become famous in the Red Army.
Hu Qicai in his youth
At the age of 19, he began the famous Long March with the Red Army, and at this time Hu Qicai was already a regimental political commissar of the Fourth Front, he had no good family, no good education, no study abroad, or the experience of attending a military school. Typical local military talents promoted by local leaders.
After the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Hu Qicai rushed to Shandong and began the Luzhong War of Resistance for more than seven years.
In this process, his progress was very obvious, and he also began to show his toughness in fighting, Hu Qicai successively commanded Ge Zhuang and other battles, and dealt a bitter blow to the Japanese army in Shandong, and at the same time, under his command, the Luzhong base area began to take shape slowly.
At that time, there was a folk song of the War of Resistance in Shandong:
Hu Qicai, really brave;
Commanded the eight-way yeyuan.
Kill the Devil Thirty-Three;
Capture a translator alive.
The main thing is that in 1945, Hu Qicai commanded the encirclement point to help, took Yeyuan in one fell swoop, and captured "Ma Daya" alive, of which 33 Japanese troops were killed 32, and the other became a prisoner.
Yeyuan World War, killed japanese troops, Hu Qicai personally took a photo
With the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the central authorities also began to target the northeast, and the Luzhong base area under the responsibility of Hu Qicai and others was also one of the important forces that later formed the Northeast Field Army.
At that time, the Kuomintang had already begun to prepare to provoke a civil war, gathered troops to prepare to invade the Liberated Areas at any time, and the People's Liberation Army also began to prepare for the battle, and before Luo Ronghuan entered the northeast, he specially hand-picked Hu Qicai to go to the northeast together, so Hu Qicai left Shandong, where he had been fighting for many years, and rushed to report to the Liaodong Military Region, but he did not expect that he would soon usher in an important battle of his life.
At that time, the Kuomintang had gathered more than 100,000 troops and began a large-scale attack on the Liaodong Military Region, trying to destroy the base area established by the People's Liberation Army in the northeast.
Although the Northeast Field Army had just been formed, its strength was not the same as before, and Hu Qicai's troops received a batch of weapons from the Kwantung Army. The fourth column he was in had a strong artillery regiment. In fact, very early on, Hu Qicai was very interested in artillery, just arrived in the northeast, he was also mainly responsible for the column artillery, and he was also optimistic about the war that would happen in the northeast next.
After all, all the way through, the early equipment was ridiculously poor, but it was still able to defeat one strong enemy after another, and now that the army has changed its appearance, it can fight better in the face of the Kuomintang army.
But the harsh reality woke up Hu Qicai and other generals, and in early 1946, in the battle with the Kuomintang, they faced the New Sixth Army, which was very strong among the five main forces, when Liao Yaoxiang's New Sixth Army landed from Qinhuangdao and quickly launched an attack on the Liaodong Military Region.
Liao Yaoxiang
The New Sixth Army is not a blown-out army, they not only received American equipment, but also received long-term American training, and in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, they also fought in many places and had very rich combat experience.
In the early days of facing the counterattack of the Northeast Field Army, the excellent equipment and extremely high combat quality of the New Sixth Army also posed a great threat to the Platon Army. Even after they fell into positions, the fortifications they established were the product of guidance from the U.S. army. Hu Qicai first entered the northeast and encountered such an opponent and suffered a big loss.
In the initial battle between the two sides, the PLA suffered heavy casualties, and the dense fire network composed of the American machine guns and submachine guns of the New Sixth Army caused countless PLA fighters to lose their lives. In the icy northeast battlefield, they even took out the terrifying weapon of flamethrower, which brought a greater threat to the PLA's operations.
Hu Qicai led his troops in a bloody battle with the New Sixth Army in Shaling, and he also began to realize the shortcomings of the PLA at that time, the troops were not only in the gap in equipment, but because the PLA had long been dominated by guerrilla warfare, in the process of transitioning to a frontal campaign, the experience of the troops was indeed insufficient.
The artillery he valued the most also exposed many problems in the battle, and even the cannons were difficult to hit accurately. However, although the Northeast Field Army was very passive in the early stage, it soon made timely adjustments and began to find ways to deal with a strong enemy.
Hu Qicai officially became the commander of the fourth column a few months later, and soon, the tiger of the Northeast Army began to threaten, and he not only lost his shame, but also helped the Northeast Field Army turn the tide of the war.
Hu Qicai
At that time, the combination of the four columns was very interesting, Hu Qicai and Han Xianchu, two fierce generals, served as the main and deputy commanders, and their opponents this time were also very famous, the 25th Division of the Kuomintang 52nd Army, known as the "Thousand Li Colt", which had achieved many brilliant achievements under the leadership of Guan Linzheng and other famous generals.
They are even more like our army, very good at running and interspersing the way of playing, and there are few units in the Kuomintang army that can match the marching speed of our army. In the face of the 25th Division, which was not inferior in strength, Hu Qicai boldly chose to concentrate his forces to surround and annihilate the "Thousand Mile Colt". But after all, the other side is also an army that can fight, and soon the main force of the 25th Division quickly fell into position, and Hu Qicai chose Xinkailing as a new battlefield to surround the 25th Division, which is a narrow valley area, which is very suitable for encirclement and annihilation.
However, after the 25th Division found it besieged, it quickly chose to seize the mountainous heights, and it was difficult for the four columns to attack, at this time the snow was flying, it was too difficult to take the position of the 25th Division, and the troops around the Kuomintang also quickly moved closer, but formed a situation of 100,000 troops surrounding the four columns.
At this difficult moment, Han Xianchu advocated resolutely eating the 25th Division, which was undoubtedly an extremely risky idea, so Han Xianchu and many people within the unit began to argue, Hu Qicai initially did not agree to fight resolutely, but he was then impressed by Han Xianchu's idea, and finally tried to resist the crowd, against the pressure of being surrounded, he continued to attack the 25th Division, he sent all the reserves of the army, and the personnel who could be used were put into the battlefield, and finally the four columns successfully ate the "Thousand Mile Foal".
The significance of this battle was very great, not only because of the strength of the 25th Division, but also because on the northeast battlefield, the People's Liberation Army had not yet established a precedent for the elimination of a Kuomintang division, and the Fourth Column became the first unit to complete this feat. Hu Qicai and Han Xianchu, two tough men, were also completely famous in the northeast battlefield after this battle, but what really made Hu Qicai shine was a famous sniper battle that took place in the Liaoshen Campaign.
More than a year after the end of the Xinkailing Campaign and the full-scale outbreak of the Liaoshen Campaign, Chairman Mao decided to start with Jinzhou first, close the gates to the northeast, and completely annihilate the Kuomintang troops in the northeast. The risk of attacking Jinzhou is also very great, Jinzhou is a key place in the northeast, and even if Chiang Kai-shek no longer understands the military, he understands that the gains and losses of Jinzhou will have a bearing on the overall situation in the northeast.
To this end, the Kuomintang began to organize a large number of troops to rush to Jinzhou to rescue, of which the reinforcements came from two directions, and the most critical road was the army from the front line of Jinxi. It was only 20 kilometers from Jinzhou, and the Nationalists deployed 11 divisions of troops on the Jinxi front, and also sent submarines to support the army's battles at any time.
As a key place between Jinzhou and Jinxi, Tashan is just a small village composed of 100 families, and the highest location around it is only more than 200 meters, and it also has a large area of open land.
Since Tashan is the only place for Jinxi to pass through Jinzhou, blocking the enemy here has become the key to the Battle of Jinzhou, the Kuomintang has taken Tashan, Jinxi's reinforcements can support Jinzhou, and it is very difficult for the People's Liberation Army to take Jinzhou. Chairman Mao pointed out the importance of Tashan before arranging the jinzhou war, and if he held it, the hope of taking Jinzhou would be even greater.
The most impressive thing is undoubtedly Lin Biao's sentence in "Armageddon": "What I want is not the number of casualties, I want Tashan." At that time, with the return of Wu Kehua, Hu Qicai was changed to the deputy commander of the fourth column, he was recuperating from his wounds at that time, but the great battle was imminent, Lin Biao hand-picked Hu Qicai to lead his troops to Tashan to command the battle, and Hu Qicai set out with illness.
Hu Qicai listened to the regimental commander's report before the battle in the Tashan Trench
At the beginning of the tashan defense, Hu Qicai had already seen the focus of the defense, he keenly found that the troops ignored the frontal defense of the village, and immediately sent additional troops to garrison the Tashan Fort, Hu Qicai was very concerned about the construction of the troops' fortifications, and even personally bombarded the fortifications of the troops with cannons to test whether the fortifications were passed.
He, Wu Kehua and others also found that the terrain of Tashan Mountain was not good, and they arranged the army to defend frontally here, completely exposed to the artillery fire of the Kuomintang, so they changed the layout of the defensive line, and according to the Tashan Fort that Hu Qicai had previously arranged, relying on the railway bridgehead, Baitai Mountain and other places to form a new defensive line. He also reorganized the troop configuration of the troops, relying on the formation to prepare enough reserves, and sure enough, after the battle began, the Kuomintang's offensive thinking was completely understood by Hu Qicai.
Using the cover of artillery fire, the Nationalist reinforcements first carried out a large-scale bombardment of the fortifications of the positions, and then organized a dense reunion of formations. At this time, Hu Qicai's emphasis on artillery also played an effect, and before the Tashan sniper war began, the Platon Army already had a certain advantage in artillery.
While the fourth column was guarding Tashan, Hu Qicai also said that there was no more reinforcements here, and it was better to add more artillery to them than to add reinforcements to them. The Kuomintang troops completely despised the PLA's fortifications and firepower, and they even made only half an hour of artillery preparation, although they had the artillery support of the air force and ships, but this support lacked sustainability, and many of them only fired a few shots and left. Therefore, at the beginning of the engagement, the artillery of the two sides engaged in a fierce artillery battle, and the firepower superiority of the Nationalist army could not be revealed, even if the position of Tashan was attacked fiercely with artillery fire, but in the face of Hu Qicai's carefully arranged position, these artillery pieces did not have a greater effect.
Tower Hill Blockade Battle
Even so, the will of the Kuomintang army to take Tashan was still very firm, and initially their main direction of attack was Tashan Village, Baitai Mountain and the railway bridgehead. The 54th Army and the 62nd Army made many charge to the positions using dense formations, and from the beginning their casualties were very heavy, and soon all the reserves were transferred to the front line.
At the most intense time, the two sides also began a white-knife battle in the positions, and some positions changed hands many times, but they never broke through the defense line of Tashan. The two sides began to fight for two days and two nights from October 10, and Hu Qicai's defense line successfully blocked the first stage of the nationalist onslaught, but he also knew very well that the real battle had just begun.
Sure enough, after a day's rest, the Nationalist army immediately adjusted the deployment of the offensive, still using the dense tactics of the sea of people. But Hu Qicai took advantage of the day's rest to let the army immediately build fortifications, and at this time, the defenses of the People's Liberation Army were already a barrier that they could not cross.
Their defensive firepower has also exceeded the imagination of the Nationalist army, such as the fortifications in addition to barbed wire, mines and other conventional facilities. Because the casualties of the first phase of the troops guarding Tower Hill were not small, the firepower was increased, such as the Tower Hill Fort Defense Line equipped with 16 heavy machine guns, 49 light machine guns, dozens of various body barrel guns and regimental mortars.
Hu Qicai flexibly used the units' battalions, companies and other combat units to resist the enemy at various levels, and he did not forget to observe the enemy's attack at any time, for example, he found that the offensive posture of the nationalist army was very fierce, but the ability to continue to advance was not enough, so he asked the troops to concentrate their firepower to attack the enemy's second echelon, and destroyed this part, and the enemy's attack had no continuity, which was of great help to the troops to repair the fortifications in time and consolidate the defensive line.
In the second stage of the battle, the nationalist army was also desperate, and the army, navy and air force were also concentrating their forces to frantically attack the Tashan position.
At the most intense time, the five divisions of the Nationalist army took turns to launch attacks, but the result was just as Lin Biao sighed afterwards: "In this battle, you put that battalion in Tashan Village and pressed it well, like a nail!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek
In the face of the PLA's strong defense, Chiang Kai-shek could only helplessly say in the air: "I really did not expect that the three armies, with the cooperation of the navy and air force, would not be able to defeat Tashan." ”
With Hu Qicai blocking Jinxi's reinforcements, Jinzhou was successfully liberated on the 15th, and the victory of the Liaoshen Campaign had no suspense, and the Nationalist army in the northeast could only end up being surrounded. After the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, the four columns that had originally fought a bloody battle with the enemy at Tashan were also one of the first troops to enter the pass, and they then severely damaged Fu Zuoyi's army and made great contributions to the next Battle of Pingjin, but Hu Qicai had been fighting with illness before, and after entering the pass, he also left the army many times to recuperate due to the recurrence of old diseases.
The Tashan sniper battle is undoubtedly the peak moment of Hu Qicai's life, and the first battle is famous and well-known to everyone in China.
After the end of this great war, he was known as the "Tiger of Tashan". In the Northeast Field Army, Hu Qicai's combat style is indeed very tough, initially after he arrived in the northeast, not only received a lot of equipment from the Kwantung Army, Shino suddenly had a lot of artillery, he also actively learned from the Soviet Army the concept of using artillery.
In the battles of Xinkailing and Tashan, he gave full play to the role of artillery to the extreme, he used artillery and infantry coordination to carry out defense in depth at Tashan, which was very similar to the tactical concept of Kutuzov and others, because their styles were also relatively similar, so Hu Qicai was also called "Little Kutuzov" by some experts.
In 1955, Hu Qicai was awarded the rank of lieutenant general at the people's liberation army awarding ceremony. He was awarded the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.
For the award of lieutenant general this time, Hu Qicai himself has no objection, but many readers in the process of understanding Hu Qicai, found that he has made great achievements in battle and his qualifications are also very high, why did he not evaluate the general?
In fact, this is mainly because of a demotion in 1948, and this demotion is not because of Hu Qicai's command mistake or major mistake, but because of physical factors. Hu Qicai was seriously injured 6 times in his life, because his body was too weak, he often had unbearable headaches, and once sought medical treatment everywhere.
When he returned from illness, he served as the deputy commander in the Liaoshen Campaign, which was one of the few demotions in the entire Dongye combat history, and the Tashan Blockade Battle was also served as the deputy commander, and Lin Biao personally fought.
By 1955, when the title was awarded, it was carried out in accordance with the rules established by the state, and only the rank of general was qualified at the rank of regular corps, and the rank of deputy corps was that of lieutenant general.
In addition, after the outbreak of the Korean War, Hu Qicai only went to the Korean battlefield and other places to observe the battle, which only awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
However, the rank was not important to Hu Qicai, until his old age, he still could not forget the original battle at Tashan and the comrades of the four columns, after which he returned to Tashan four times, although he was completely famous because of Tashan, he could never forget the picture of the bodies of his dead comrades after the war being carried down.
Hu Qicai left a photo of his later years when he went to Tower Hill
He also agreed with his comrades-in-arms to be buried together in Tashan after his death.
On July 3, 1997, Hu Qicai died at the age of 83, and according to his last words, he was buried at Tashan with three other generals.
Hu Qicai's life is full of legends, this "Tashan Tiger" is the representative of the People's Liberation Army who dares to fight, he has been injured six times in battle, and he has almost died several times, but his body is still very strong, at the age of eighty, he is still very energetic.
As a native of the famous general, Hu Qicai is very good at learning, especially like calligraphy, this famous general who grew up in the war-torn era, but also rely on this spirit of focus on learning, fearless forward spirit to succeed.
I would like to commemorate Lieutenant General Hu Qicai with this article, where there are good years, but someone carries the weight for you to move forward, today's happiness is not easy to come by, do not forget the martyrs, forge ahead.
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