In the war years, there is a basic requirement for any unit, that is, to operate strictly according to the established combat plan until the completion of the combat task.
However, in reality, due to the complexity and changeability of the battlefield situation, there will always be some unexpected accidental factors, making it difficult for the troops to fully carry out the actions in the direction originally set.
During the Liberation War, a unit was too aggressive and rushed too fiercely, but it caused a series of chain reactions, which had a great impact on the entire war situation, and our army miraculously won two big victories, which was really amazing.
It was in mid-December 1946 that the 1st Column and 3rd Brigade of the Shandong Field Army were ordered by their superiors to send the 8th and 9th Regiments to attack the reorganized 11th Division led by Hu Lian, a famous general of the Nationalist Army.
According to the original idea of brigade commander He Kexi, at that time, the conditions for the three brigades to fight a decisive battle with the enemy were not yet ripe, and two regiments were sent to launch an offensive with the purpose of containing the enemy and creating favorable conditions for the brother troops to surround and annihilate the enemy.
That is to say, the roles set for the eighth and ninth regiments at the beginning are supporting roles, and the protagonists should be the first vertical and one brigade and the second brigade.
No one expected that after the Eighth and Ninth Regiments were ordered to attack, because they had long held their breath to fight a good battle with the enemy, they were eager to fight, and they rushed forward without fear and rashness, and even plunged headlong into the enemy's "heart zone" -- the command post of the enemy's reorganized 11th Division located in Caojiaji!
At that time, in addition to Hu Lian's division headquarters, there was an engineer battalion, a cavalry battalion and an artillery regiment in this command post.
Coincidentally, the Eighth Regiment and the Ninth Regiment interspersed all the way in a roundabout way, and miraculously bypassed several main forces that Hu Lian had placed in front of them and inserted them into the Cao Family Collection.
The Eighth and Ninth Regiments first collided with the enemy's engineering battalion and cavalry battalion, and they rushed up to it with a fierce blow, completely crushing them and taking more than 700 prisoners.
The initial victory boosted the morale of the two regiments, and they fought more and more comfortably, and then they killed the overwhelmed enemy artillery regiment and continued to charge forward, until they were only a few hundred meters away from the enemy division headquarters.
Hu Lianwan did not expect that the position he had carefully laid out would be easily interspersed by the People's Liberation Army in this way, turning his troops into a pot of porridge!
The gunfire became more and more intense, Hu Lian was shocked, he could not judge how many troops the other side had dispatched for a while, and thought that this was the main force of the People's Liberation Army, so he had to urgently transfer the Eighteenth Brigade to "escort".
The enemy and us entangled together, and fought all night, but they could not distinguish between victory and defeat.
It wasn't until it was dark and Hu Lian gathered all aspects of the situation that he woke up like a dream: the People's Liberation Army, which had turned the river and the sea in the Caojiaji area, was not a main force at all, just two regiments!
Annoyed and angry, he immediately ordered the Eighteenth Brigade to frantically counterattack and not eat this part of the People's Liberation Army, so that it was difficult to vent the hatred in his heart.
When the front battle report reached the ears of Ye Fei, commander of the First Column, he was also shocked: The two regiments of the Third Brigade were also too bold, and they actually rushed all the way and hit the enemy's command center!
In order to prevent the Eighth and Ninth Regiments from being besieged by heavy enemy troops, Ye Fei resolutely issued an order to He Kexi: Quickly let these two regiments withdraw from the battle!
Brigade Commander He Kexi realized the seriousness of the situation and personally rushed to the front line to meet him despite the danger. After everyone's efforts, the Eighth and Ninth Regiments finally got rid of the crazy pursuit of the enemy and successfully withdrew from Cao Jiaji.
Although the commanders and fighters of the Eighth and Ninth Regiments felt that this battle was not enough to be fought and deeply regretted that they had not been able to take down Hu Lian's division headquarters, they did not expect at that time that this reckless attack had a major impact on the entire war situation.
Just as the 1st Column was confronting and fighting with the reorganized 11th Division, the Ninth Column and the 2nd Yamano Column of the People's Liberation Army had already surrounded another enemy main force, the Reorganized 69th Division.
Because Hu Lian was overwhelmed by the chaos of the Eighth regiment and the ninth regiment during this period, leaving a mess that needed to be cleaned up, he had no time to take care of the life and death of the Sixty-ninth Division.
As a result, the Sixty-ninth Division was surrounded and beaten to death by various units of Yamano and Huaye.
Although the division commander Dai Zhiqi was also a long-established general, it was the first time he had been beaten so badly that he had to constantly call for help from the two friendly and neighboring units led by Hu Lian and Wu Qiwei.
In order to protect himself, although Wu Qiwei said that he would come to the rescue immediately, in fact, he did not dispatch any people and horses at all, and stayed in place to release his guns and open cannons for a while.
Hu Lian did not want to go to the rescue, but did not expect Chiang Kai-shek to personally call and inquire, so he had to order his three brigades to launch a counterattack against Yamano Yizhong.
Ye Fei immediately led the brigades of the First Column to hold the line of Zhang Lin, Gao Jiawa, and Shen Zhuang, and launched a fierce battle with the reorganized Eleventh Division.
Logically, although the reorganized Eleventh Division was disturbed by the Ninth Regiment and the Ninth Regiment of the Third Brigade, the elites were still there, and they were far stronger than Ye Fei's column in terms of the number of soldiers and weapons and equipment.
Hu Lianman thought that he had a chance to win this battle, but he did not expect that just when the situation was superior, two units of the First Column, Second Brigade, and Fourth Brigade suddenly launched a fierce attack from the flanks, and the fierceness and determination of their offensive far exceeded Hu Lian's expectations, and they actually defeated the reorganized Eleventh Division, which was originally in the ascendancy, and collapsed in its entirety!
Ye Fei forced this enemy force to the canal, and then commanded a column of brigades to turn their guns and participate in the siege of the enemy's Sixty-ninth Division.
In the next two days, not only was the Sixty-ninth Division completely destroyed (our army annihilated more than 21,000 enemy troops), the division commander Dai Zhiqi committed suicide because he could not accept the results of the defeat, and the various units of Shanye and Huaye also took advantage of the situation to beat Hu Lian's Eleventh Division to pieces and withdrew from the Northern Battlefield.
It can be said that due to the "reckless" attack of the Eighth Regiment and the Ninth Regiment of the First Column, The Third Brigade, inserted itself into the depth of the enemy army, but the crooked blow stirred up the entire war situation, and our army achieved brilliant results in losing two Kuomintang ace units in a row.
For such a battle example, even the campaign commander Chen Yi was amazed: "Haha, 'With the right combination, with the odd victory', this battle is strange in the chaotic battle between the two regiments, it is really very unexpected!" ”