Author: Forget about the jianghu
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a battle for the founding of New China and the promotion of its might, and it also gave birth to many special branches of the armed forces.
In this contest of great disparity in strength, the artillery, which Stalin hailed as the "god of war," played a huge role.
In front of the volunteer artillery, Kuang Yumin, director of the artillery command post, Yan Fu, commander of the 7th Artillery Division, and other front-line commanders, while the hero behind the scenes was the Fu general Chen Xilian. The "small steel cannon" of our army defeated the cannons of the 17-nation coalition army.
General Chen Xilian
Female writer Zhang Ailing has a famous saying, "Fame should be achieved early", which is not contrary to Chen Xilian at all.
Chen Xilian, born in 1915 in the famous "General County" Huang'an, Hubei Province, joined the guerrilla group of Xu Haidong and Zhan Caifang at the age of 14, followed Zhan Caifang to Qiliping, the birthplace of the Red Fourth, and joined the Red Army.
In June 1930, in the battle of Yangjiazhai, Chen Xilian, who was on the battlefield for the first time, lay on the ground and did not dare to move, and the captain Sun Yuqing encouraged him not to be afraid and taught him how to charge the battlefield. In this battle, Guo Rudong's 2 companies were annihilated, and Chen Xilian was also trained.
In August, Xu Xiangqianhong's 1st Division annihilated most of the enemy's 2 regiments at Huang'an Sigudun. After several battles in succession, 15-year-old Chen Xilian was famous for his bravery, and the battalion commander Gao Hanchu commented: The little fat man is small and ambitious, and he is brave in fighting, just like a small steel cannon!
In October 1930, when the Red Army laid siege to Guangshan County, Chen Xilian met Sun Yuqing, the company commander, sun Yuqing took out a few copper plates to invite guests, and Chen Xilian and more than 10 people also made some money, bought a few fritters, a bowl of chicken blood soup for everyone to taste. Unexpectedly, he was beaten as a member of the "Eating and Drinking Committee" and was about to be executed, but fortunately, the inspecting military commander Xu Xiangqian stopped the arrest.
Xu Xiangqian said that a few poor children ran out to make a revolution, is it not that they are hungry and eat something together, let go of those who are caught, and are not allowed to be arrested if they are not caught. A sentence saved Chen Xilian, and until his old age, Chen Xilian never forgot it.
Young Chen Xilian
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Xilian served as the commander of the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army.
In October 1937, the 22-year-old Chen Xilian attacked Yangmingbao at night, blew up 24 Japanese aircraft, effectively cooperated with the Xinkou battlefield, was commended by the headquarters, and Nanjing also rewarded Dayang with 20,000 yuan. This was followed by Shentou Ridge, Xiangtangpu, and the Hundred Regiments War.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Xilian served as the commander of the 3rd Column and participated in the battles of Shangdang, Handan, and Southwest Lu. In 1947, he marched into Dabie Mountain, opening up the situation in Wanxi. In April 1947, the Battle of Northern Henan completely annihilated the enemy's 2nd Rapid Column.
In the Battle of Huaihai, Chen Xi jointly attacked and occupied Su County, and led the 1st and 3rd Columns of the Western Group and the 13th Column of Huaye to surround and annihilate Huang Wei.
In February 1949, Chen Xilian suppressed the "madman" Wang Jinshan and became the commander of the 3rd Corps, at the age of 34, the youngest corps commander. After crossing the river, he detoured to the southwest and captured the "capital" of Chongqing, becoming the first secretary and mayor of Chongqing.
Night attack on Yangming Fort
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Jinshan (left) was united with Chen Xi
Artillery is known as the "god of war" and often determines the victory or defeat and course of war.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army suffered from the lack of heavy weapons. During the liberation period, the Linfen and Taiyuan battles were stalemated without cannons, and the Huaihai Campaign finally relied on the Sanye cannons to solve the problem.
On the contrary, the Liaoshen Campaign hit the Jinzhou cannon to show its might, and the Pingjin Campaign cannon helped to take Tianjin in 29 hours.
In April 1950, our army decided to build a strong artillery corps. The artillery at the helm, the chairman, first thought of the "small steel cannons" of the Red Army, such a tiger would be responsible for artillery, of course, an expert. When Chen Xilian received the chairman's order, he was nervous and worried that he did not have the experience of commanding a single branch of the army and was afraid that he would not be able to do a good job. Chief Liu Deng exhorted him that as long as the revolution needed it, he would not be able to learn by doing.
Chen Xilian
In April 1950, Chen Xilian was transferred to the commander of the artillery and later the director of the artillery academy.
In less than half a year, the volunteer army crossed the Yalu River to resist the United States and aid Korea. The first batch of 13 Corps, 6 corps and 18 divisions, each division had a 75 mm mountain artillery battalion of 12 guns, 3 mortar companies of 30 guns, plus battalions, companies of mortars a division of about 50 artillery. In addition, 3 independent artillery divisions participated in the battle of 320 artillery pieces, which was a big gap compared with the US coalition forces.
The artillery of the Volunteer Army was small in caliber and the number of shells was very small, and it mainly relied on manpower and animal power to march.
In contrast, the US 8th Army alone has more than 2,900 artillery pieces, nearly half of which are more than 100 mm heavy artillery, 18 240 mm heavy artillery, and a single division of the US Army has 800 guns, which is 16 times that of the Volunteer Army.
In the first battle of Yunshan, 8 regiments of the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army attacked only 2 artillery regiments. In the third battle, the volunteer army 6 corps artillery 6 regiments, surrounded by the U.S. army is also difficult to eat the opponent of a regiment. On the contrary, under the fire of the Us army, the volunteers suffered heavy casualties. In the 4th and 5th battles, under the tactics of the US army 'Van Vliet ammunition quantity', the two sides entered a stalemate.
Volunteer artillery positions
In April 1951, General Manager Peng asked the commanders of all arms to meet on the front line of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
On the way back to China, Chen Xilian was bombed by US planes, and the group took advantage of the night to hide in the trenches and waited for the US planes to fly away before getting back on the car. After returning to China, Chen Xilian selected 8 divisions in China to join the artillery, and set up 8 training bases in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Hebei, and Shandong to conduct short-term surprise attacks and wartime training, and timely support the front line of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
With the arrival of a large number of Soviet-made 122 mm howitzers, the volunteer firepower intensified. By the time of the fifth campaign, the number of volunteer artillery had increased to more than 2,000, as well as rocket artillery regiments. In the Battle of Iron Plains, 24 Katyusha rockets played a key role.
In the Battle of Shangganling at the end of 1952, the US army fired 2 million shells in 43 days with 320 artillery pieces, but still did not take Shangganling. The 133 guns and 24 rocket launchers of the Volunteer Army also fired 400,000 shells, killing and wounding 14,000 enemy troops.
In November 1951, at the Battle of Ma liang Shan, the Volunteer Army had an infantry regiment, supporting 3 artillery regiments and 1 tank battalion. In December, the Chairman pointed out that the victory in the autumn battle, the fierce artillery fire and the accuracy of the shooting were the elements of victory.
In March 1953, at the Battle of T-Zi Shan, a regiment of the Volunteer Army was supported by 12 artillery regiments. By the time of the Jincheng Counterattack in July 1953, the 1,100 guns of the Volunteer Army had formed a 1.7:1 advantage over the United States and South Korea. Then, the 16th Army, the first composite army of the Volunteer Army, tried its hand at the bull knife, and the fierce artillery fire made the coalition feel deterred.
Under such circumstances, the coalition forces had no choice but to negotiate an armistice.
Katyusha rockets
After the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Chen Xilian's cannons could not yet be put into the warehouse and put horses on the South Mountain.
From August 23 to October 5, 1958, 36 battalions of our artillery and 460 artillery of 6 companies of coastal artillery carried out many surprise shelling of 380 guns of Kinmen Hulian.
In 1959, Chen Xilian was transferred to the commander of the Shenyang Military Region. In March 1969, together with Xiao Quanfu, he commanded the Zhenbao Island Self-Defense Counterattack and defended the territory with cannons. In 1973, when the commanders of the eight major military regions were transferred, 7 of whom had participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Li Desheng, commander of the Beijing Military Region, and Chen Xilian, commander of the Shenyang Military Region, were transferred, and the chairman specially asked Chen Xilian to take Li Desheng to the Shenyang Military Region to familiarize himself with the situation.
After that, Chen Xilian was deeply respected and presided over the work of the army many times. On July 28, 1976, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Tangshan, and Chen Xilian took the lead in setting up an earthquake relief command and mobilizing troops to organize earthquake relief.
On June 10, 1999, founding general Chen Xilian died of illness at the age of 85.
[Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, soldiers say that all parties are welcome to submit articles, private messages will be restored]