In September 1945, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the units of the First Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army were reorganized into the Second Column of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army, and the founding general Guo Tianmin served as commander and political commissar at that time, under the jurisdiction of the Fourth and Fifth Brigades. After the outbreak of the Liberation War, in the face of the fierce attack of the superior enemy, the results of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army of the People's Liberation Army were not very satisfactory, and it was not until the Battle of Qingfengdian that broke out in the autumn of 1947 that the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army was humiliated and fought a painful and happy turnaround battle.
On October 11, 1947, the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army ordered the 2nd Column to advance into Xushui and prepare to besiege the city for reinforcements. After clearing the perimeter, the second column quickly formed a siege against the Kuomintang army and attacked for three consecutive days. Three days later, reinforcements from the Nationalist 94th Army stationed at Gucheng and the 16th Army stationed at Rongcheng began to move towards Xushui. At 6 p.m. that night, the field army headquarters called and ordered the 2nd Column and 4th Brigade to withdraw from the siege battle. Immediately head north to join the battle for reinforcements.
After receiving the order, the Fourth Brigade rushed to the designated area without stopping, and joined other fraternal troops in the Xinglongzhuang area of Rongcheng. At this time, information was received that Luo Lirong, commander of the Third Army of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Shijiazhuang, led the main seventh division and a regiment under his command to Baoding in an attempt to attack the People's Liberation Army from north to south. The Kuomintang army in Shijiazhuang came out! As the enemy changed, the commander of the Noji Division immediately mobilized the main force of six brigades south of Wangdu and prepared to ambush the Kuomintang Third Army there.
All the troops who received the order set off for the south, but the Fourth Brigade encountered trouble, and at this time the Fourth Brigade was still fighting with the Kuomintang army on the northern front, and was firmly bitten by the Sixteenth Army of the Kuomintang Army. Noji called again and ordered the four brigades not to fall in love with the war and to move south quickly. However, it was not until 7 p.m. that the main force of the Fourth Brigade handed over the defense tasks in the areas of Duancun and Beizhangcun to the brother troops, and they did not rest for a moment before taking advantage of the night to rush south.
The officers and men of the Fourth Brigade, who had been fighting for eight days and nights, were tired and sleepy, but the whole brigade understood that whoever walked fast and whoever could endure fatigue at this time would be able to win victory. So Brigade Commander Xiao Yingtang asked the troops to hold a meeting and mobilize while walking. The field propaganda team also encouraged everyone on the side of the road, and cadres and party members took the lead in the front.
At that time, the mass base of the People's Liberation Army was very good, and boiling water tanks were put in the villages of each village along the way, and the villagers took out the nest heads, pickles, eggs, etc. that they were reluctant to eat, and stuffed them into the hands of the soldiers. They forcibly marched 80 kilometers day and night, and arrived at the predetermined area at 3 p.m. on the 19th. Many veterans said they slept while walking.
In the end, the Third Army of the Kuomintang Army was surrounded by the main force of the People's Liberation Army in more than ten villages, including Qingfengdian and Southwest He. At dawn on the 20th, the 4th Column of the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army, the 6th Brigade of the 2nd Column, and the 9th Brigade of the 3rd Column simultaneously launched an attack on the Kuomintang army, and successfully reduced it to a small area of the South Joint Camp, Gao Jiazuo, and the Eastern and Southwest Hecun Villages.
At this time, the Fourth Brigade received orders to march more than 20 kilometers in a hurry, crossed the Tang River in the evening of the same day, and then made a swift and courageous move to directly attack the southwest Village of the Third Army, the Seventh Division, and the southwest Village where two regiments were stationed.
In the early morning of the 21st, brigade commander Xiao Yingtang led two regiments to launch a strong attack from the southwest corner and south of the village. Under the cover of artillery, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 10th Regiment and the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 12th Regiment first burst into the village, seized several houses, and approached the Nationalist army headquarters. Luo Lirong, commander of the Kuomintang Third Army, personally went to the front line to supervise the battle and commanded the troops to counterattack. At this time, the Nationalist army of nearby Gao Jiazuo was retreating to the southwest, blocking the breakthrough. The intruding troops of our army formed an internal and external attack, and the short troops were connected, and the casualties of the breakthrough troops of the four brigades increased sharply.
Under the stubborn resistance of the enemy, the battle was fought extremely fiercely. The deputy regimental commander and director of the Political Department of the Twelfth Regiment of the People's Liberation Army were martyred, two battalion commanders of the Tenth Regiment also died heroically, and Yue Zhong, commander of the Ninth Company of the Twelfth Regiment, after breaking his legs, pulled a grenade and died with the enemy. Wei Chengke, the commander of a company, commanded the whole company to fight bloodily against the frenzied Kuomintang troops, and stubbornly held a courtyard at the head of the village, wedging into the heart of the enemy like a steel nail, crushing the repeated counterattacks of the Kuomintang army from company to battalion, killing hundreds of enemy soldiers, and only more than 20 people were left in the end of the battle.
Brigadier Xiao Yingtang, well aware of the importance of this nail, kept at the telephone, listening to the situation report from the breakthrough point, and ordered the artillery to concentrate fire and dispatch follow-up troops to support a company. On the morning of the 21st, the Eleventh Regiment of the Fourth Brigade arrived and immediately joined the battle at the breakthrough point held by the 1st company of the Twelfth Regiment. At 4:30 a.m. on the 22nd, the People's Liberation Army launched a general offensive from all sides in an overwhelming manner to the southwest of the enemy's last stronghold. At 7 o'clock, the main force of the fourth brigade slammed into the nationalist army headquarters, completely disrupting its defense system, at this time the brother brigades also invaded the village one after another, quickly divided it, and annihilated each one, and the kuomintang army commander Luo Lirong led hundreds of people to break through to the southeast corner and escape, but in the end it was difficult to escape the fate of being captured. At 11:30 p.m. that night, the fighting ended.
In the entire Battle of Qingfengdian, the four brigades first encircled the point to lure reinforcements, then blocked the strong enemy in the north, and finally flew south to directly attack the enemy's army headquarters, which played an important role in accelerating the victory process of the campaign. At the campaign summary meeting, Yang Chengwu, political commissar of the Noji Division, made this evaluation of the fourth brigade: "In the southwest joint battle, a total of six brigades participated, and everyone had merit. But the most difficult and arduous task was the fourth brigade. They walked a particularly long distance, and they were particularly fast, and when they arrived, they joined the battle, although they captured the least, but when they were credited, the Fourth Brigade should be credited with first-class merit. ”
In the First Battle of Qingfengdian, the 10th Regiment of the 4th Brigade and the 12th Regiment honored the collective meritorious service, and respectively won the award flags of "brave and resolute" and "brave as a tiger", and the 1st Company of the 12th Regiment was also named "Wei Chengke Hero Company" by the column, and the collective great merit was recorded.