The Battle of Subei annihilated more than 20,000 enemies at a time, which was the beginning of the war of liberation and the beginning of the war of annihilation, and marked the transition from passive to active. It had a major impact on the future war situation. Sixty years later, it is a great honor for our company to be able to participate in such a major victory.
During the Battle of Subei, our company was the ninth battalion and ninth company of the 77th Regiment of the Ninth Column of the Central China Field Army, and I was the instructor.
Shortly after the Lianshui Defense War, he was ordered to the Liutang River to resist the Kuomintang New Seventh Army to defend the Liutang River crossing, and to cover the local cadres, sub-district armed forces and masses of the Central China Seventh Sub-district in Huaibei to cross the canal and withdraw east of the Liutang River. After completing the mission, he was transferred to Shaodianzi to conduct ideological mobilization education and prepare for a major battle; first of all, he further exposed Chiang Kai-shek's crime of launching a civil war against the people, learned to sing Chiang Kai-shek's "Ten Counts of Traitorous Crimes" to arouse hatred toward the enemy and determination to kill the enemy, and at the same time carried out ideological education on operational guidance, making it clear that movement warfare does not count the gains and losses of one city and one place, but all of which are in the growth of the living forces, the enemy's living forces are destroyed, and all victories are ours.
The movement defense operation in the previous period was to cast a big net, and the bigger the net, the more fish we caught; now when we are fighting a big battle, that is, the chief of the field army collects the big net and catches the big fish, and our company is the foot of the net, and it must be solid and firm, and we must not let the fish slip through the net under our net.
This requires that when we start a fight, we must be able to defend and attack, and we must be able to make sacrifices at all costs and resolutely complete the task. Strengthen the determination to fight and the confidence of victory. We have two slogans; one is to win the battle to avenge the fathers and fellow villagers in Huaibei, and the other is to win the battle to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Commander-in-Chief Zhu. Everyone was very determined and emotional. Actively complete all combat preparations.
Old comrades-in-arms gathered in Sihong: Pan Daohong, Li Jianfeng, Niu Jinchuan
The battle began, we were ordered to fight and block the attack on The Mountain, our ninth company was in the northwest corner of the Mountain, the fourth company was in the northeast corner, organized a defense, two and a half days a night, resisted the enemy's attack twice, both were repelled. The fourth company was more intense, and we even had less head-on pressure.
In the afternoon of the next day, we received orders that the brother troops had arrived, asking us to withdraw from our positions, and encountering enemy artillery interception, neither to hesitate nor to be safe, and the company commander asked me to take two and three platoons and heavy machine guns to retreat first along the small forest of the depression in front of the left, and he took a platoon behind, retreated along the small ditch in front of the right, and met at a large black zhuangzi (the name of the place is not clear) northeast of the mountain, and assembled and waited.
In the second half of the night, we received a notice to go to Shaodianzi to participate in the defense, and we organized a defensive position in a large village on a high slope southwest of Shaodianzi, which was a sandstone ground, very difficult to dig, and at noon the enemy attacked, we resolutely resisted and held the position, the deputy company commander Comrade Wulin and more than a dozen comrades were wounded, and three comrades in the second row were sacrificed. Because of the attack of friendly neighboring troops, there was no enemy in front of us, and at about three o'clock in the afternoon we received orders, the troops attacked Xiao lizhuang at night, the three battalions attacked, our ninth company attacked, deputy battalion commander Zhou Jing, took us to a high house, to observe the terrain and surrounding conditions, the east side of the village is a dry pond, there are some remnant walls and broken walls, the terrain is not complicated, it is the enemy's artillery position, Deputy Battalion Commander Zhou decided that the Ninth Company attacked from the northeast corner, and said that the comrades of the Second Column attacked from the northwest corner, and after entering, they developed to the south, pay attention not to misunderstand.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, when entering the assault point and distinguishing specific tasks for the squad, several successive shells of the enemy landed near our commando team, and the communicator Su Shicai was killed by a large adobe hit on the head by the shell, and another communicator, Su Xuesen, was also killed by shrapnel in the chest. When the time came, the assault began, and a breakthrough was successful.
There were only a few wounded on the enemy's artillery positions, and the rest ran away, and we shouted happily: We have captured the cannons! There were also people on the other side who shouted that the cannon was captured by us, which was a bit of an argument, and it just so happened that a chief with a guard arrived and said very humorously: "You all say that the cannon was captured by you, so whoever you can carry will carry it!" ”。
No one can carry it, there is no need to say. At this time we received an order: the comrades of the three battalions were all withdrawn, and the task of cleaning up the battlefield was taken care of by the younger troops. We had to withdraw, the prisoners were not captured, and the cannons were not returned. I feel sorry, but we have completed the assault mission, and everyone is very happy.
Just after arriving at the battalion headquarters, I heard that Comrade Zhou Jing, the deputy battalion commander, had died behind the commando, and I was very sad and indignant. It is necessary to resolutely eliminate Dai Zhiqi to avenge the sacrifice of comrades. The general attack of the troops on the headquarters of the enemy's 69th Division, our company has no specific task, covering the brother company on the periphery to prevent the enemy from escaping. The task was there, but it wasn't strong enough. After a while, I heard that the assault troops did not enter at once, and I thought that it was time for us to get on, but it turned out that it was still not wheeled. In the end, all the enemies of Renhe Weizi were annihilated, and our company was not allowed to enter. Although the final assault mission of the whole campaign was not turned, we participated in the whole process of the entire campaign and contributed our strength to the major victory of the Subei Campaign. Today, 60 years later, looking back, I also feel very honored.
After the victory in the Battle of Subei, our troops drove to the shore of Luoma Lake to summarize the battle and prepare for another battle. Soon after receiving instructions from their superiors: The main force of the field army was transferred to Lunan, and the Ninth Column (commander Zhang Zhen) formed a Huaibei advancing detachment to fight back Huaibei (Sihong), carry out guerrilla warfare, restore and rebuild the Liberated Areas in Huaibei, coordinate with the overall situation of the war, contain and strike at the enemy's troop strength, and ensure a big battle on the frontal battlefield.
"Forward" to "back" is the distinction of tasks, the purpose is to win the battle, and the tasks are glorious. We were ordered to join the Huaibei Advance Detachment to fight guerrilla warfare behind the enemy in Huaibei, singing the song: "The four major victories, our army won the initiative..." On January 18, 1947, we followed the old chief Rao Zijian to cross the canal and carry out the new task of guerrilla warfare behind the enemy in Huaibei.
(Li Jianfeng in November 2006)