On May 26, 1948, a meeting of the field army front committee was being held in Luochuan, Shaanxi Province, to summarize the just-concluded Battle of Xifu, and Commander Peng Dehuai had a somber face, and no one dared to speak.
After speaking for a few minutes, Peng Dehuai suddenly said in a loud voice: "Wang Shitai, as the person in charge of the four verticals, you have caused serious losses to the revolution, and you should have cut off your brain!" Wang Shitai was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and immediately stood up. So, why did Peng Dehuai lose so much temper? Was Wang Shitai beheaded?
In March 1948, the Northwest Field Army won a complete victory in Yichuan, and after analyzing the situation of the two armies, Peng Dehuai immediately decided to launch the Battle of the Foothills of the Huanglong Mountains in order to annihilate the living forces of Huzong's southern team and solve the problem of our army's combat food and supply difficulties.
Peng Dehuai immediately issued an order to encircle the enemy's city, and then to mobilize the enemy's main force to annihilate in the movement, to wait for the opportunity to retake Yan'an.
Soon, the Northwest Field Army came to encircle the city of Luochuan occupied by the Kuomintang, but the Kuomintang 61st Brigade stationed in Luochuan relied on its strong firepower and terrain advantages to resist desperately, while the Northwest Field Army failed several sieges because of its lack of siege equipment, and finally formed a situation of confrontation between the enemy and us.
The Kuomintang in Luochuan thought that they could not continue to be consumed in this way, so they immediately requested Hu Zongnan's support, and after Hu Zongnan received a telegram from Luochuan in a hurry, he ordered Pei Changhui of the 5th Corps to support him, but Pei Changhui had fought with Peng Dehuai and was afraid of being annihilated in the field battle, so he did not dare to go to Luochuan at all, and only told Hu Zongnan that his troops were rushing to Luochuan and had actually stayed on the road.
In the absence of the achievement of both goals, Peng Dehuai decided to change the strategic deployment in a timely manner, and decided to take advantage of the fact that the main forces in the south of Huzong were in other areas, and stride forward to Xifu, which has been a place of contention since ancient times. However, deputy commander Zhao Shoushan said: "Although the troops in Xifu are weak, we are currently fighting in the combined part of Hu Zongnan and Ma Bufang, so we should not go too deep, otherwise there will be certain dangers." ”
Peng Dehuai believes that this statement is reasonable, but Hu Zongnan and Ma Bufang have a vendetta, the two of them may not necessarily join forces, and now is the best time to attack Xifu. Peng Dehuai said at the strategic meeting: "This time Xifu is to transfer the tiger away from the mountain, which can not only threaten Hu Zongnan's strategic rear, but also make him lose the supply base, so that he cannot take care of Yan'an, and finally forced to withdraw." ”
The warriors were furious, believing that they would be able to capture Yan'an and hit Hu Zongnan hard this time, and at this time a danger was quietly approaching the Northwest Field Army.
According to the strategic deployment of the field army, the third column of the Northwest Field Army continued to besiege Luochuan, the second and fourth columns were the left road, the first column was the middle road, and the sixth column was the right road.
Baoji is Hu Zongnan's strategic transportation hub in the northwest, where many arsenals have been built and a large number of military materials have been stored, and the guards in Baoji are Hu Zongnan's fierce generals, extremely fierce and arrogant.
Hu Zongnan did not expect that Peng Dehuai would suddenly attack Baoji, and he decided to shrink the defensive line and abandon Yan'an. Despite this, the Northwest Field Army was still in the upper hand, and Hu Zongnan immediately informed Xu Bao, who was defending the city, that reinforcements from the Ma family army would arrive immediately, allowing Xu Bao to hold Baoji with the existing strength.
Late on the night of April 25, the 1st and 2nd Columns of the Northwest Field Army launched a fierce attack on Baoji. The next morning, the first column and the second column successively attacked the city, Xu Bao saw the situation, immediately transferred the division headquarters to the ironclad car, ready to flee west, but just drove out, because the railway was damaged, it was impossible to continue to advance.
Therefore, Xu Bao prepared to leave in an ironclad car, but as soon as he opened the iron frame door, he was hit by the shells of our army, seriously injured and fell to the ground, and soon after he died. After Xu Bao's death, the Kuomintang Baoji garrison also collapsed, and the people in the city greeted the People's Liberation Army with joy, Baoji was liberated, and our army was given enough ammunition and materials to use for two years.
So far, Peng Dehuai's strategic intention of moving the tiger away from the mountain put forward at the military conference in Malan Town has been basically realized, not only successfully occupying Baoji, but also striking at the enemy's offensive momentum, which has greatly increased the morale of our army's officers and men.
The Kuomintang, which had experienced several defeats, also realized that the Northwest Field Army at this time was advancing westward in a big way, causing the troops to stay away from the rear, which could easily lead to a situation of isolation and helplessness, so they immediately seized the opportunity. Chiang Kai-shek ordered Hu Zongnan to concentrate the strength of 10 brigades of the main Kuomintang army in the northwest and march to Baoji, including Ma Jiyuan's troops, who were Ma Bufang's only son.
No one expected Hu Zongnan and Ma Bufang to join forces, after all, they were deeply contradictory, and this also made the Northwest Field Army face unprecedented challenges.
But Peng Dehuai had no fear, and he said at the combat meeting: "In the past, I tried to besiege the city several times to help, but this time I finally mobilized all the enemy's troops, and since they came, we will fight together." Peng Dehuai's words instantly filled the soldiers with confidence.
After analyzing the current situation, Peng Dehuai decided to buy time to let the main force rest for a while, and then look for an opportunity to annihilate the Hu Zongnan clique, so that after crushing the Kuomintang's attempt to attack, the main force went north to the Linyou Mountains to establish a base area.
The key to achieving this goal was to set up an ambush between Fufeng County and Fengxiang County to resist the Kuomintang's Pei Changhui. According to Peng Dehuai's orders, the 1st Police Brigade, the 3rd Police Brigade and the 2nd Column 6th Brigade of the 4th Column of the Northwest Field Army were used to resist the four integrated divisions of pei changhui regiment moving westward.
Although there is a huge disparity in the strength of the enemy and ourselves, because our army has fought many battles in which less wins more, if we resolutely resist, there is still hope for victory.
However, the fourth column led by Wang Shitai had problems at this time. he
After receiving Peng Dehuai's order, he rushed to Fufeng County with his troops to prepare for the defense of this area of Xinglin Town. Wang Shitai knew that the enemy army was so large that it was impossible to arrange defenses as usual in battles, so he dispersed his limited forces into many small teams to defend.
When Pei Changhui's corps arrived at xinglin town, they found that our army's defense was very loose, and the distance between the team and the team was too far, which made it impossible for the four columns to quickly integrate to fight the enemy together. Therefore, Pei Chang would immediately issue an order for the main force to break through from the right side of the four-column defense, and the four-column defense was quickly breached.
Under such circumstances, Wang Shitai was unable to resist Pei Changhui's brigade, so without reporting to his superiors and informing the 6th Brigade of the friendly neighboring troops, he withdrew with the four columns to the northeastern mountains of Qishan County without authorization.
Therefore, there was a huge gap in our army's defense, and after the fourth column retreated, Pei Chang would look up to the sky and laugh: "I didn't expect the communist army to escape so quickly!" The Kuomintang generals were also very proud, and they went straight to Baoji under the orders of Pei Changhui.
The 18th Regiment of the Independent 6th Brigade, which was in charge of defense in Fengxiang County, saw that the large troops of the Kuomintang were attacking them, which surprised the 18th Regiment, shouldn't There be Wang Shitai in Xinglin Town to resist? How did the Kuomintang troops come here so quickly? At this time, they did not know that Wang Shitai had already retreated.
Too late to think about so much, the 18th Regiment had to face the difficulties and stubbornly resist the attack of Pei Changhui's troops, but fortunately, the new 4th Brigade of the 6th Column came to support, which alleviated the plight of the Du 6 Brigade, and after a fierce battle, snipped the Kuomintang in an area of five or six kilometers away from Fengxiang County.
Nevertheless, due to Wang Shitai's easy retreat, it still caused a large number of casualties among the soldiers of our army.
On April 27, Pei Changhui's headquarters made a comeback and continued to approach Fengxiang County, and the left side of the Northwest Field Army failed to succeed in sniping, while the right side was also hit, which led to the main force of our army completely falling into a passive position.
Seeing that the battle situation had deteriorated so quickly, Peng Dehuai immediately made a decision and decided to withdraw from Baoji. Before withdrawing, he ordered the first and second columns to blow up all the arsenals, arsenals, and military supplies that were too late to be transported, leaving no supplies for the enemy.
In order to ensure the infallibility of the evacuation task, Peng Dehuai specially emphasized the concentration of one regiment, the withdrawal of one regiment, the concentration of one brigade, and the withdrawal of one brigade. By the evening of the same day, the retreat work had been almost done, and the gunfire outside Baoji City was getting closer and closer, and Peng Dehuai was still organizing the evacuation work inside the city.
The personnel of the field guard urged Peng Dehuai to leave quickly, but because there was no contact between one team, Peng Dehuai insisted on sending the telegram out and then left, and asked the guards for pistols, saying to the guards: "As long as the troops can all withdraw, I have nothing myself, I can also take the guard battalion to fight guerrillas." ”
It was not until the news of the retreat was notified to all the columns that Peng Dehuai was relieved to evacuate Baoji.
After Peng Dehuai withdrew from Baoji, the Kuomintang's Ma Ji Aid Unit was very rampant, attacking the ranks of the Sixth Column several times, and arrogantly declaring to the outside world: If we do not wipe out the communist forces in northern Shaanxi, Lao Jiang may want to transfer us to the battlefield of Shanxi.
When Chiang Kai-shek learned of this, he thought that this was a great opportunity to create public opinion, so he organized many reporters to interview Ma Jiyuan and vigorously touted Ma Jiyuan in the report, and Hu Zongnan also praised Ma Jiyuan in the telegram as a young hero.
Ma Jiyuan
The arrogance of the enemy made our soldiers indignant, especially Wang Shitai, because his wrong decision in Xinglin Town caused the troops to suffer losses, so he was determined to fight the enemy to the death in the next battle.
In order to ensure the safety of the main forces of the Northwest Field Army, the 4th Column, the Independent 6th Brigade, and the Independent 4th Brigade resisted the Kuomintang army in Fengxiang County as sniper units, and the Kuomintang army, with the support of the air force, launched an air raid on our army, which greatly increased the difficulty of our army's sniper task. However, Wang Shitai stubbornly resisted on the battlefield this time, and together with other columns, repelled dozens of attacks by the Kuomintang army in a row, snipped the Kuomintang army in Fengxiang County, and finally completed the task of covering the main force.
However, in the ensuing battle, the 4th Column made another mistake.
In order to crush the Kuomintang's encirclement and annihilation plan, Peng Dehuai ordered the 4th Column to build a deep field fortification along the road from Tunzi Town to Xiaojin Town, turn into a mobile defense, and cover the main force to assemble at the Li family in Nanzhuang, Zhenyuan County, but the 3rd Police Brigade of the 4th Column did not carry out the task of mobile sniping, and the 5th Regiment of the Brigade disobeyed the order and withdrew to the east of Xiaojin Town, causing Ma Jiyuan's troops to pursue the main force of the Northwest Field Army without hindrance.
In the confrontation with Ma Ji's reinforcements, although the Northwest Field Army finally killed more than a thousand Kuomintang troops, it also made our army pay a painful price.
Under the enemy's reluctant heavy encirclement and suppression, peng Dehuai led the main force of the Northwest Field Army after several days of bitter fighting, and finally transferred the main force to the liberated area of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, getting rid of the passive scene of Hu Zongnan and Ma Ji's reinforcements attacking.
The Battle of Xifu also came to an end, and this operation recaptured Yan'an and annihilated the enemy's living forces; although the results were brilliant, the losses were also relatively serious, and many problems within the Northwest Field Army were also exposed.
Therefore, on May 26, 1948, the Former Committee of the Northwest Field Army held a meeting, the main content of which was to sum up the experience and lessons of the Xifu Campaign and determine the reorganization plan of the troops and the operational policy thereafter.
At the meeting, Peng Dehuai pointed out that although the campaign has achieved great results, there have also been many problems. First of all, Peng Dehuai conducted a self-examination. He believed that it was because he was not fully prepared before the war and did not understand the enemy thoroughly enough, and he did not expect that Ma Bufang and Hu Zongnan would join forces for the sake of interests.
Hearing Peng Dehuai's words, Wang Shitai felt very ashamed, and he bowed his head offstage and did not dare to look at Peng Dehuai, however, Peng Dehuai mentioned him next.
"In particular, the comrades of the Fourth Column adopted a serious liberal attitude, did not carry out the orders of their superiors, lost their advantageous fighters several times, and released the enemy."
Wang Shitai
Then Peng Dehuai walked up to Wang Shitai and said in a loud voice: "Wang Shitai, this kind of behavior of yours is to behead, don't you have a radio?" Why not ask for a report and retreat on your own initiative? ”
Listening to Peng Dehuai's words, everyone present was shocked, afraid that Peng Dehuai would really shoot Wang Shitai in anger. In fact, Peng Dehuai just wanted Wang Shitai to remember this lesson, not really wanted to kill him.
After this incident, Wang Shitai painfully thought about the pain, set strict demands on himself, conducted ideological education within the fourth column, and managed the discipline of the team. Thanks to his continuous efforts, the Fourth Column was renewed and became the most disciplined team in the Northwest Field Army.
In the next few battles, Wang Shitai led the fourth column to repeated victories and made indelible contributions to the liberation of the Great Northwest, and in 1949, Wang Shitai was invited to attend the founding ceremony.
And this news was also brought to him by Peng Dehuai, and Wang Shitai's progress was inseparable from Peng Dehuai's teachings, so he has always been very grateful to Peng Dehuai.
In wang shitai's later years, when interviewed by reporters and mentioned Peng Dehuai, Wang Shitai said with crystal tears in his eyes: "Although Mr. Peng once severely criticized me, it is precisely because of his strict requirements that I am today, and he will always be my mentor and friend." ”