Author: Zhong Yi
General Liao Zhengguo's life is quite legendary, leaving many legendary anecdotes. He participated in the Battle of Laiwu, the Battle of Menglianggu, the Battle of Huaihai, the Battle of Crossing the River and many other battles. After the founding of New China, he held a number of important positions, and finally served as the commander of the artillery of the Nanjing Military Region. In 1955, Liao Zhengguo was awarded the rank of major general.
Founding Major General Liao Zhengguo
Throughout the military career of General Liao Zhengguo, there are three legendary achievements that cannot be erased.
In May 1939, the Sixth Regiment of the Third Detachment of the New Fourth Army was ordered to march from Maoshan to the outskirts of Shanghai under the name of "Jiangnan Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army" (referred to as Jiangkang), and Liao Zhengguo served as the detachment leader of the second detachment of jiangsu resistance.
In July of the same year, the Japanese soldiers divided into four routes and besieged the Jiangsu resistance forces. In order to crush the intentions of the Japanese Kou, Liao Zhengguo ambushed his forces in the Qingpu area. The Japanese who entered the Qingpu area fell into the ambush circle in an instant, and suffered heavy losses.
Liao Zhengguo saw that he had achieved his combat objectives, so he ordered a retreat. But as they were preparing to retreat, a sudden change occurred. Jiang's Xu Leisheng troops took advantage of the fire and looting, and cooperated with the Japanese to attack the Jiang resistance troops. The practice of Xu Leisheng's troops greatly annoyed Liao Zhengguo, who was originally the same as the reborn, and he was too anxious to fry each other, not to mention that under the background of the invasion of foreign enemies, some people really did not deserve to be Chinese.
In this situation of pinch attack, Liao Zhengguo believed that compared with the Japanese Kou, the weaker Chiang's troops were a more suitable breakthrough. So he led the Jiang Kang forces to launch a fierce offensive against Xu Leisheng's troops. Chiang's troops could not resist and could only run. So Liao Zhengguo took two companies and a machine gun platoon to pursue them all the way to dark, making Chiang's troops cry bitterly.
When Liao Zhengguo stopped pursuing, he found that they had come to a strange place: a large open space with several bungalows standing on top of it, surrounded by barbed wire. Liao Zhengguo hurriedly inquired about the underground organization in the army, and only then did he know that this was Hongqiao Airport.
The Japanese army invaded and occupied Shanghai
Hongqiao Airport is one of the bases of the Japanese-Kou Air Force, and if Hongqiao Airfield is destroyed, then our army will have an even more advantage in the local battlefield. Liao Zhengguo then led his troops to encircle the airport from the side, and the puppet army in charge of the guard slept like pigs at this time, and did not find Liao Zhengguo's troops entering the airport.
Liao Zhengguo tied up the puppet soldiers and locked them up in a closed room. In order to find out the situation at Hongqiao Airport, Liao Zhengguo asked the troops to conduct a separate search. As a result, there was not even a single Japanese at Hongqiao Airport, and only 4 Japanese Kou planes parked at the airport were found. The reason why the Japanese were confident that the puppet army would guard the airport was because they had bunkers in the area around the airport. In the event of an emergency, the Japanese Kou is fully capable of controlling the airport.
Liao Zhengguo and the others who found the plane were overjoyed, and as a result, the noise of the soldiers aroused the vigilance of the Japanese Kou in the bunker, and the Japanese Kou sounded the alarm. Amid the piercing sirens, fierce fire was fired at Liao Zhengguo's troops.
On an empty airport, it's easy to be a moving target! Liao Zhengguo immediately ordered everyone to hide behind the plane. However, although they temporarily avoided the fire of the Japanese Kou, it was difficult to get out. Liao Zhengguo had the opportunity to burn the plane and cover the retreat of the troops through burning smoke.
Hongqiao Airport in flames
So the soldiers opened the gasoline barrel next to the plane and poured all the gasoline on the plane. When all four planes were stained with gasoline, Liao Zhengguo immediately ignited the planes. Thick smoke and soaring fire soon filled the entire airport, and Liao Zhengguo left Hongqiao Airport safely with his troops under the cover of smoke.
In the spring of 1944, the Soviet-Chinese anti-Japanese base areas prepared to launch the Cheqiao Campaign. Under the arrangement of the organization, Liao Zhengguo led a column composed of the first brigade and one regiment of the New Fourth Army, the special service battalion of the third sub-district, and the first battalion of the Taixian Independent Regiment to fight at Luhuatan, northwest of Cheqiao, to block the Japanese in Huaiyin and Huai'an.
Luhuatan is only a short 5 kilometers away from the axle, which is the only way for the Japanese Kou to reinforce the bridge. Liao Zhengguo knew very well that if he did not block the Japanese Kou, then our army would fall into an unfavorable situation in the Battle of Cheqiao. So he firmly said to the soldiers: "We don't have cannons, so grab a cannon from the enemy's hands, where there is cannon sound, where there is organic gunfire, you will fight wherever you go, kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and swear to fight to the death!" ”
Near Luhuatan is a clearing with an open field of view, and only some small earth bags and ditches can be used as cover. These places that could be used as cover had always required troops to defend, but Liao Zhengguo did the opposite. He did not hold these places, but planted mines in all these places. Because he expected that the Japanese would inevitably use these places, as long as the Japanese came to these places, what awaited them was the explosion of landmines.
In the early morning of March 5 of the same year, the Battle of Cheqiao began. The Japanese in Huai'an City, under the leadership of Yamazawa Daisaku, immediately reinforced the Japanese troops in Cheqiao. At about 3 p.m., Riko entered Luhua Beach. The Japanese then quickly used the earthen bales and ditches in the vicinity as cover to resist. In less than a few moments, the mines exploded one after another, and the Japanese were blown to the ground and suffered heavy losses.
The warriors of the Battle of Cheqiao
Seeing this, Yamazawa Daisaku immediately sent someone to bring in about eight hundred Japanese koku to support him. After the Japanese stabilized their positions, they concentrated their firepower on our frontal positions, in a vain attempt to open a breakthrough and reinforce the bridge. Liao Zhengguo resolutely did not give the Japanese any opportunity to take advantage of it, and led his troops to repel several enemy attacks.
After a day and a night of fighting, Liao Zhengguo annihilated more than 400 Japanese Kou and captured 24 Japanese Ko, and Yamazawa Daisaku returned to Huai'an City in a daze. In addition, Liao Zhengguo captured a Type 92 infantry gun and a large amount of guns and ammunition. Liao Zhengguo's successful blockade helped our army finally win the Battle of Cheqiao.
In May 1947, in order to break chiang's key offensive, the East China Field Army launched the Battle of Menglianggu with five columns to encircle and annihilate Chiang's reorganized 74th Division. Liao Zhengguo was then the commander of Huaye's 1st Column 1st Division, responsible for leading his troops into the depths of the enemy army, disconnecting Chiang's reorganized 25th Division from the reorganized 74th Division, and resisting the reinforcements of Chiang's 65th Reorganized 65th Division to the reorganized 74th Division.
The warriors in the Battle of Menglianggu
Liao Zhengguo actually had only three regiments in his hands, and his opponents were two integrated divisions. The huge gap in equipment and numbers doomed Liao Zhengguo to fight this battle extremely difficult. If Liao Zhengguo could not stop Chiang's troops, then the main force of our army in Menglianggu would fall into a situation of being attacked by the enemy on its stomach and back, so Liao Zhengguo had no way to retreat, only to fight to the end.
In order to rescue the Seventy-fourth Division, Chiang immediately ordered the reorganized Twenty-fifth Division to attack with all its troops, intending to use the tactics of the sea of people to break through Liao Zhengguo's blockade. At the beginning of the war, Chiang's 25th Division quickly occupied Liao Zhengguo's Sanshandian and junction pier positions with a huge numerical superiority, and then occupied the boundary plate and attacked the mountainside of Tianma Mountain all the way.
After passing through Tianma Mountain, it was Meng Lianggu's position, and the situation on the battlefield was extremely dangerous for Liao Zhengguo. At this time, Liao Zhengguo's troops were tight, and even the chief of staff, clerks, and cooks in the division went to the battlefield, and there were simply not enough troops to resist the attacking Chiang Kai-shek troops.
Meng Lianggu Battlefield
At the moment of crisis, a battalion of the 4th Column and 28th Regiment passed by Liao Zhengguo and rushed to Meng Lianggu for support. Liao Zhengguo immediately grabbed the battalion commander of this battalion and ordered him to immediately support Tianma Mountain. The battalion commander said helplessly: "My battalion was ordered to attack Meng Lianggu, the task is urgent, and I have no way to support Tianma Mountain." ”
After Liao Zhengguo listened, he said eagerly: "At this time, Tianma Mountain is more important, if the enemy crosses Tianma Mountain, then we will lose the whole situation." How can the local gain and loss be compared with the overall gain and loss! ”
The battalion commander realized the seriousness of the problem and immediately led his troops to support Tianma Mountain. Soon after, because of the addition of this battalion, Tianma Mountain was finally successfully defended. The Chiang kai-shek troops across the mountain could no longer support Meng Lianggu, and the more than 30,000 people of Chiang's reorganized 74th Division at Menglianggu were eventually completely annihilated by our army.
In addition, Liao Zhengguo became a one-armed general out of an accident.
After the Battle of Huangqiao, our army captured a batch of American-made grenades from Chiang Kai-shek. In order to let the soldiers know about this grenade, Liao Zhengguo took the grenade and explained it to the soldiers. Suddenly, the grenade in Liao Zhengguo's hand rose up in white smoke, and it looked like it was about to explode.
Liao Zhengguo did not throw the grenade out, but held it high in his right hand. When the explosion sounded, Liao Zhengguo's right hand was directly blown to the point of blurring flesh and blood. Since then, Liao Zhengguo has become a one-armed general. When someone asked him why he didn't throw the grenade out, Liao Zhengguo said calmly: "There are fighters inside and outside the room, throwing them out will hurt them!" ”