Author: Hammer Jack
The Battle of Zhoucun in the spring of 1948 was described by Xu Shiyou, commander of the Shandong Corps, as a battle that "brought the western section of the Jiaoji Line to life". The commander who played this miracle was none other than Nie Fengzhi, the commander of the Huaye 9 Column, nicknamed "General of the Black Tiger".
Before the battle began, Zhou Cun was regarded by everyone as a difficult bone to gnaw. Located at the center point between Jinan and Weixian on Jiaoji Road, this area is the location of the reorganized 32nd Division of the Jiang Army (including the 141st Brigade, the New 36th Brigade, the 1st Traffic Police Corps, the Zibo Garrison Brigade and some local armed forces), with a total strength of more than 40,000 people. These enemy troops were distributed in Langshan, Boshan, Zhangdian, Qidong and other areas, with a large number of fortifications and strict defenses.
For our army at that time, the small Village of Zhou was the key to winning the battle in the western section of Jiaoji Road. And how to take Zhoucun has become the topic of debate in the Shandong Corps headquarters. At the operational meeting, there were two main viewpoints: one was to clear the outer positions and then launch an attack on Zhoucun and fight steadily; the other was to avoid the peripheral positions and directly attack Zhoucun.
At the meeting, Nie Fengzhi just smoked a cigarette silently. The host Xu Shiyou knew that he had something to say, so he named him and wanted to hear his thoughts.
Nie Fengzhi did not echo the previous two views, but proposed a third method: adopting the "heart-digging tactic" and directly "drilling" into the enemy's stomach and hitting him hard.
Nie Fengzhi
Heart-digging tactics, "drilling" into the enemy's stomach, how to drill? Nie Fengzhi explained that he wanted the 7th Column to attack Zhangdian, cooperate with the 9th Column to take Zhou village, and continue to expand the results after destroying the enemy's division. According to inertial thinking, the enemy's division headquarters is the most heavily guarded place. However, Nie Fengzhi believed that he could do the opposite, take a long-range attack, use the "heart-digging tactics" to fight a quick decision, and quickly take zhou village before the enemy reacted.
This bold method of warfare has been questioned by many. In the end, Xu Shiyou defied the public opinion, finalized the plan, and entrusted the task of attacking Zhou Village to Nie Fengzhi.
On March 1, the 9th column departed from Ye County and headed for Zhou village. Who knew that the weather changed suddenly during the march, and it rained heavily. The avenue was flooded with water and was muddy everywhere. The warriors marched step by step on the road, splashed with mud. Ammunition and quilt clothes were also wet. The further you go to Zhou Village, the heavier the rain will be. Many people even have mud stuck to their shoes, and artillery and machine guns are more difficult to walk. The troops marched overnight, but they only walked a few kilometers, and failed to follow the orders of their superiors to reach the predetermined area.
At dawn on the 11th, the friendly 7 columns launched an attack on Zhangdian and soon succeeded. Jiang Jun of Zhoucun sensed our army's intentions and quickly ordered the troops of Changshan, Zouping, and Qidong to shrink towards Zhoucun. In one day, the original 3,000 troops "swelled" to 15,000 people, five times the original, and even the outside of the village was full of people.
This sudden change gave Nie Fengzhi a difficult problem: to fight, or not to fight?
If you want to fight, the risk is great. However, Nie Fengzhi believed that if the plan to attack Zhou Village was delayed, it would give the enemy a chance to breathe and enable him to strengthen the fortifications. On the other hand, the enemy in the direction of Weixian and Jinan will also continue to reinforce, causing our army to passivity on the entire front.
The troops carried ladders and prepared to attack the city
Our army launched an attack
Nie Fengzhi believed that the heavy rain in front of him was not entirely a bad thing. First, our army launched an attack on a rainy night, which caught the enemy by surprise; second, although the number of enemies in Zhoucun had increased dramatically, they had not yet gained a firm foothold and were not well deployed. Third, after the zhangdian defenders were completely annihilated by us, the defending enemies in Zhoucun would inevitably be shaken, and if our army continued to launch an offensive, it would still occupy the initiative.
Nie Fengzhi decided: Maintain the original plan and attack Zhou Village!
For the sake of safety, Nie Fengzhi still decided to get in touch with his superiors first and then implement it. The column's radio was soaked by heavy rain and malfunctioned, and for a moment it was impossible to get in touch with the corps.
The fighter plane was easy to lose, and at the critical moment, Nie Fengzhi said: "Zhou Cun can't win the battle, and I am fully responsible." ”
According to the deployment, the 73rd and 75th Regiments of the 25th Division of the 9th Column were responsible for attacking from the northeast; the 27th Division attacked from the southeast; and the 76th and 77th Regiments of the 26th Division attacked the town of Yong'an on the western outskirts of Zhoucun. The Special Service Regiment of the East China Military Region, the 16th Regiment of the Bohai Sea, and the 74th and 78th Regiments of the 9th Column were responsible for providing assistance.
In order to speed up the attack, Nie Fengzhi asked all units to adopt the tactics of multi-way strong attack and multi-way breakthrough when attacking Zhou Village. To prevent the troops from hesitating, he asked the Operations Section to order the order twice to emphasize the importance. In this way, the confidence of the officers and men of the 9th Column, which had been "drenched" by the heavy rain, was rekindled.
At dawn on the 12th, the 9th Column suddenly launched an attack on Zhou Village. The 10 attack points selected by the whole column successfully broke through 7 in less than 2 hours, which surprised the enemy division commander Zhou Qingxiang. He could never have imagined that our army would launch such a fierce attack on a rainy night. While arranging for the troops to counterattack, he also ordered the rush to repair the fortifications, trying to wait for help.
However, Zhou Qingxiang was too late, and guns were everywhere outside the village, and from time to time shells fell around the headquarters, which frightened the officers of the Chiang Kai-shek Army. As soon as the forward position was broken by our army, the 9th Column immediately implemented the interspersed encirclement tactic, and soon divided the Zhoucun defenders into 6 pieces, and then annihilated them one by one.
Our army engaged in street battles with the remnants of the enemy
After more than 10 hours of fierce fighting, Zhou Cun was finally defeated by the 9 columns. More than 15,000 enemy troops were annihilated, and the enemy division commander Zhou Qingxiang led several cronies to disguise themselves and escape from the sewage outlet of a fortification. The jeep he was riding in was captured by the 9th column, and the company commander asked around, found that no one would drive, waved his hand and ordered: Go, push to the chief's side! A group of people shouted the trumpet and pushed the jeep to the headquarters, and Nie Fengzhi laughed loudly.
At the operational meeting, Tan Zhenlin, political commissar of the Shandong Corps, specially praised Nie Fengzhi, saying that he had "four major merits" in the Zhoucun War: First, he skillfully used the "heart-digging tactics"; second, he dared to seize the fighter plane and resolutely carried out operational arrangements; third, he made multiple breakthroughs and attacked on multiple roads, which quickly smashed the defenses of Chiang Kai-shek's army; and fourth, he strengthened the troops' determination to fight.
General Nie Fengzhi
Xu Shiyou also specially proposed: "To fight a war, we must be like Nie Fengzhi who is not afraid of sacrifice, like Sun Monkey drilling into the belly of the Iron Fan Princess, tinkering!" He also popularized his "heart-digging tactics" to the whole corps, making it famous for a while.
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