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The Chinese military writer Wang Zongren was very researched on the Battle of Pingjin and wrote some works about the Battle of Pingjin, and in one of his documentary works he wrote:
"Fu Zuoyi escaped from here in an armored vehicle. At that time, PLA soldiers heard the news and chased forward, stopped the enemy, and captured more than 30 armored vehicles. However, the warriors were still one step late, and only ten minutes apart, allowing Fu Zuoyi to escape.
Then, more than a month later, Peiping was peacefully liberated. When Fu Zuoyi talked to a PLA column commander about his experience that night, he said he had actually escaped in an armored vehicle.
Fu Zuoyi recalled: That day, the weather was very cold, the sky was drifting with snowflakes, and he was wearing a military coat. Inside the house he could even hear the shouts coming in from outside the car. It was the shouts of PLA soldiers. They were banging on the wall of a nearby armored vehicle with something, shouting, "Come out, we'll treat the prisoners favorably!"
Fu Zuoyi said he had not seen any means used by PLA soldiers to turn armored vehicles into their booty. He went away later. But Fu Zuoyi did not tell the column commander how he had gone. ”
Let's imagine that if Fu Zuoyi, who was sitting in an armored vehicle that night, did not escape, but became a prisoner of the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, would the history of the Later Battle of Pingjin still be the current version?
However, after all, hypotheses are hypotheses, and history can never be changed. But we have to ask, why did Fu Zuoyi escape in just ten minutes?
To this end, the author opened the thick military history, consulted a large number of materials, and found that it was actually our army that was delayed by ten minutes because of the capture of a drama squad alive, thus allowing Fu Zuoyi to escape.
Let's travel through the tunnel of time and return to the days of December 1948, when the guns were under fire.
On the afternoon of December 13, 1948, when the ancient capital of Beiping was already a little cold, and when the sun was about to fall, Wan Yi, commander of the 5th Column of the Northeast Field Army, and Liu Xingyuan, political commissar, ordered his 13th Division to attack from the area west of Shahe Town to Wang'er Mountain and Hongshan Pass, and the 15th Division attacked from Guzizhuang and Lü Gezhuang southeast of Shahe to the direction of Zhengbaiqi Village and Qinghe City.
As far as the target of the 15th Division was concerned, the focus and difficulty was Qinghe Station, which was fortified because of its fortifications. After receiving the task, Wang Zhenxiang, commander of the 15th Division, immediately rushed to the forward position of our army at Qinghe Station.
Wang Zhenxiang has a lot of combat experience, and he is handsome. Sword eyebrows, big eyes, high nose bridge, speaking, crisp and sharp, loud voice. At that time, he was only 36 years old, don't look at his youth, but he was an old revolutionary.
Wang Zhenxiang was born in November 1912 in Yuncheng County, Shandong Province. In early 1931, he joined the Twenty-sixth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army in Jining. At the end of the same year, he joined the Red Army with the Twenty-sixth Route Army after the uprising in Ningdu, Jiangxi.
During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, he successively served as the commander of the cavalry company of the Fifth Army of the Red Army, the commander of the cavalry company, the commander of the guard battalion of the Fifth Red Army, the staff officer of the headquarters of the Red Ninth Army, and the chief of staff of the 282nd Regiment of the Red Ninth Army.
He participated in the third, fourth, and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns of the Red Army and was seriously wounded in the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign. Later, he served as the commander of the cavalry battalion of the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front, and the chief of the training section of the cavalry division of the Red Fourth Front, and participated in the Long March.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he successively served as a company commander and instructor of the cavalry regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, a battalion commander of the cavalry regiment of the 129th Division, a deputy regimental commander and regimental commander of the cavalry regiment, and the captain of the 2nd Team of cadres of the 129th Division.
During the Liberation War, he advanced with his troops to the northeast. He commanded the troops to participate in the Battle of Benxi, the Battle of Sibao Linjiang, and the Battle of Liaoshen, and successively served as the deputy commander of the Shenyang Workers' Corps of the Northeast Democratic United Army, the commander of the Third Division of the Liaodong Military Region, and the commander of the 15th Division of the Fifth Column of the Northeast Field Army.
In the Liaoshen Campaign, Wang Zhenxiang led his troops to pursue Liao Yaoxiang's corps, commanded the 15th Division to carry out a surprise attack in two ways, killing and wounding 700 Nationalist troops, capturing 1792 Nationalist troops, and capturing Wen Xiaoshan, deputy commander of the Kuomintang New 1st Army.
After Wang Zhenxiang led the troops into the customs, the troops were invincible, and he paid special attention to reducing casualties in the battle. After reaching the front of the Qinghe River, he looked at the terrain and saw the strong fortifications of the Qinghe River, and he planned to transfer the artillery battalion of the division to support and bombard the enemy in the station. When he told Zhang Zhichao, the leader of the 43rd Regiment, this meaning, Zhang Zhichao, the leader of the 43rd Regiment, hurriedly expressed his position:
"Commander, rest assured, we will definitely be able to take it down!"
Zhang Zhichao meant that he did not need the support of the artillery battalion of the division headquarters.
As soon as Wang Zhenxiang heard it, he knew Zhang Zhichao's meaning: "Rest assured, they will not grab credit with you." ”
At that time, it was the end of the Liberation War, and the most important thing in the troops was to have combat achievements; for a single battle, there were so many battle achievements, and the more one unit participated, the more battle achievements would be divided, so many troops were willing to fight alone.
Zhang Zhichao's little nine-nine was suddenly broken by the division commander, and he hurriedly said: "Division commander, I don't mean that, I mean, isn't it a reinforcement battalion of the enemy?" A piece of cake, we were absolutely able to get the job done. ”
Wang Zhenxiang was a little unhappy when he heard this, and said solemnly: "If you attack hard, how many casualties will there be?" Did you know why there are artillerymen, which can reduce casualties? ”
When Zhang Zhichao saw Wang Zhenxiang's serious expression, he did not dare to speak at the moment, just at this moment, Xia Xianming, chief of the operations section of the 15th Division, ran over and said:
"The division commander, the Higashino Command, called and ordered our division to immediately stop attacking, stand by and make no mistakes."
Before Wang Zhenxiang could answer, Chief Xia said, "Commander Wan of the Column wants you to go to him immediately." ”
Wang Zhenxiang knew that there must be some top-secret task, otherwise he would not be in such a hurry to go by himself, usually by telegram or telephone notification.
Wang Zhenxiang immediately ordered Zhang Zhichao, commander of the 43rd Regiment, to send people to monitor the enemy, and the main force rested in hiding, then turned on his horse and rushed toward the column headquarters.
The headquarters of the 5th Column of the Northeast Field Army was located in several bungalows in Beixinzhuang on the south bank of the Sha river, and Wang Zhenxiang rode a jujube red war horse. Qinghe was not far from Beixinzhuang, and he arrived quickly.
Commander Wan Yi was already waiting for him in the simple headquarters, and when he saw The commander of Wang Zhenxiang's division arrive, he hurriedly asked:
"How about the troops?"
Wang Zhenxiang replied, "All arranged." What's new this time? ”
Wan Yi said: "The front-line command has decided that tonight the 11th Column will attack from the direction of Baijiayao, Taizhou, and Tancun, and the mission is to capture Shijingshan. Our column thus went straight south into the Tiancun and Hejia tomb areas to seize Fengtai -- note that it was preemptive, not captured. To grab is to be fast, the soldiers are fast, and they are unexpected!"
Wang Zhenxiang smiled: "Guarantee to complete the task!" ”
Wan Yi smiled: "If it were such a simple task, I would not have specifically called you from the front to the headquarters, I am now entrusting you with a top-secret task, according to our internal report, Fu Zuoyi's headquarters is in a courtyard near the princess's tomb, you must quickly surround this area, and strive to capture Fu Zuoyi alive. ”
Wang Zhenxiang heard the spirit: "Well, I will immediately organize the troops, we must catch this big fish, and also let our 15th Division show its face." ”
Wan Yi said solemnly: "The order to capture Fu Zuoyi alive is not from me, it is lin zong, I tell you, this is a difficult task, you can use this opportunity to show your face, but you must not show your face, and expose your ass, then you will lose your face." ”
War has always been that we have enemies and enemies have us, and at that time, the intelligence work responsible for Fu Zuoyi's department was mainly the responsibility of the North China Military Region's City Engineering Department.
The head of the City Work Department of the North China Military Region is Liu Ren, a native of the Tujia family, who was arrested in 1930 and persisted in his struggle in prison. The Kuomintang authorities were forced to acquit themselves in 1932 and continued to work on the covert front. However, he was treated unfairly after liberation.
In October 1948, he promptly reported to the Central Committee important information that the enemy had tried to sneak attack the Party Central Committee and Xibaipo, the seat of Chairman Mao, and the Central Committee immediately took measures to smash the enemy's conspiracy.
Because of Liu Renzhuo's effective work, some officers and soldiers in Fu Zuo's rebel army became the eyeliner of our army, and Fu Zuoyi's intelligence at the Princess Tomb Headquarters was passed on from the inside.
After Receiving this information, Liu Ren felt that the stakes were very high, he did not dare to delay, and immediately reported the situation, Lin Biao quickly got the information, he checked the map, and found that the nearest unit to the Princess Tomb was Wan Yi's 5th Column, so he gave the task of capturing Fu Zuoyi alive to the 5th Column.
Wan Yi, commander of the 5th Column, saw that the 15th Division was closest to the Princess Tomb, so he gave this task to the 15th Division, and since this operation was highly confidential, he had to convey it to Wang Zhenxiang, the commander of the 15th Division.
Wang Zhenxiang wanted to leave after accepting the task, and Wan Yi instructed: "This operation belongs to the top secret of the top secret, do not convey it to the troops, the main commander of the mission will know it, so as not to leak the news, and tonight will act without delay."
"Understood!" Wang Zhenxiang answered loudly and gave a military salute.
"If Fu Zuoyi cannot be captured, the troops should not stop, you must immediately capture Fengtai and cut off the connection between Beiping and Tianjin, remember to remember!"
After Wang Zhenxiang returned to the division headquarters, he immediately held a meeting with the division's political commissar, chief of staff, and others to study it; this combat operation had two tasks: One was to capture Fu Zuoyi alive, and the other was to seize Fengtai, and the key to all this lay in one word: "Fast!" ”
Everyone looked at the map, and this time there were two key points, one was the princess tomb, and the other was Fengtai.
The Princess Tomb is located outside the Fuxing Gate, west of Tiananmen Gate, the geographical location is extremely important, historically called Wang Zuo Village, renamed Yuanjia Village at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and renamed Princess Tomb during the Japanese and Pseudo-Japanese periods.
Princess Tomb This place originally had the mausoleum of two princesses of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Renzong Jiaqing. The cultural relics department has carried out archaeological excavations of the princess's tomb, and with reference to historical data, it has been confirmed that the place was named after the two princesses of the Qing Renzong Jiaqing Emperor who were buried in the past.
Fengtai is located in the south of Beiping City, famous for the Qing Dynasty Fengtai Town, it is the southern gate of Beiping, is the communication between Pingjin, Pinghan, Pingsui three major railways and transportation hubs, but also the location of the largest military warehouse defended by the enemy in Beiping.
The enemy not only concentrated a large amount of ammunition, grain, weapons, and military supplies here, but also stationed the 271st Division and 272nd Division of the 101st Army under the command of Wang Fenggang, the 3rd Regiment of Tanks and Tanks directly under the "Suppression General" of North China, and the Army Hospital.
The rapid occupation of Fengtai by our army meant that the connection between the enemy and the enemy in Pingjin was cut off, the escape route of the enemy in Peiping was blocked, and the encirclement of Beiping was completed. Therefore, this battle is of great significance.
Wang Zhenxiang asked the chief of staff to quickly issue a combat task, and asked the troops to keep in mind the word "grab," that is, not to entangle with the enemy, to advance quickly, to capture Fu Zuoyi alive, and to capture Fengtai.
As the saying goes, the military situation is urgent, and at 6:30 p.m. that night, Wang Zhenxiang led his troops to set off.
As most of them passed through the Summer Palace, the enemy guarding the Red Mountain Pass fired at Wang Zhenxiang's troops, and the sound of gunfire was incessant. Wang Zhenxiang ordered the troops, ignoring them, that they must reach the Princess Tomb tomorrow morning.
At the moment, the troops quickly crossed the mountain pass, passed the line of Xiangshan and the Summer Palace, and then plunged south from Hongmen Village.
These anomalous actions of the People's Liberation Army puzzled the enemy guarding the Red Mountain Pass, and they immediately reported these situations. And reported all the way to Fu Zuoyi.
When the vanguard of the 15th Division reached the area around Dongran Village, a unit was suddenly inserted in the middle of the way. Since it was nighttime, black grunts, and no one paid any attention to anyone.
So the two armies advanced in the same direction, and both sides were in a hurry, and neither of them paid attention to where the other parallel force came from and who they were. Everyone just walked in the same direction. And all of them tacitly believe that they are their own troops.
On the night march, the discipline of the two units suddenly showed that the plaster troops of the People's Liberation Army had special regulations, and no sound was allowed to be made when marching, otherwise they would be engaged in by military law, which was a rule handed down from the red army period, and it was precisely by virtue of this strict regulation that our army often carried out a wide range of interspersed detours without being discovered by the enemy, and the Menglianggu Campaign was a typical example.
The Kuomintang troops, on the other hand, are not well disciplined, and there are many people who talk on the march, smoke cigarettes, sneak a sip of wine, and even secretly become deserters.
At this time, our army heard a person from that unit whispering, "How can they run so fast?" ”
The one said, "Don't you run fast?" One step late, the little life is long gone! If it were you, you'd have to run to the death."
This one said: "That's what I said, but I'm suffering on two legs." ”
The one said, "Fuck, Lao Tzu wasn't killed by the communists, he was about to run to death!"
A battalion commander of the 15th Division saw that someone in the unit was talking, and he just wanted to seriously criticize it, but after listening to the words behind, he understood that this unit was the Kuomintang army.
And the warriors also heard that the group that had advanced parallel to them was actually the enemy!
Our army has received strict training, so everyone is particularly calm, pretending that nothing has happened, and continues to move forward. As they walked, they bit their ears one by one from front to back and whispered that the team on the same road was the enemy.
When the words were almost heard, the battalion commander shouted:
"Capture the prisoners!" Then one team immediately surrounded the other. Until this time the enemy was still in the dark. The enemy said, "Don't get me wrong, it's all your own people!"
The warriors said, "Who is your own man with you?" Raise your hand and surrender your gun without killing!"
Afterwards, after counting, the 15th Division unexpectedly took the sheep in its hands on the way and captured more than 500 enemy people at once. It turned out that these enemies were the remnants of the 104th Army, which was annihilated by the brother troops outside the Great Wall.
Although this situation could not be avoided, it still delayed the march of the vanguard troops.
By the morning of the next day, on the morning of December 14, the northwest wind had blown and the sky was covered with snowflakes, and the troops did not stop and went straight to the princess's grave.
The troops marched to the north of the Princess Tomb, and Wang Zhenxiang received a report from the 43rd Regiment of the vanguard troops, saying that there was a situation ahead and that 10 carriages had come.
Sure enough, after a while, there was the sound of a carriage ding Ding Ding local through the wind and sand, at this time it was already dawn, unable to bypass, so Wang Zhenxiang made a gesture to take it down.
The two companies in the front were like two sharp knives, which were rapidly pushed forward from both sides with lightning speed. The enemy in the car was still dozing off, and as soon as his eyes opened, he became a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army without firing a gun.
According to the prisoners' confessions, these prisoners did not expect that the People's Liberation Army would appear here, and they said that after a while, their battalion commander and two companies would pass by by car and send the drama class that comforted them into the city, and these prisoners confessed that this drama class sang at Fu Zuoyi last night.
At this time, Wang Zhenxiang was faced with a choice, one was to directly lead the troops directly to the princess's grave, and the other was to capture this drama class alive on the road, ask about the situation and then arrest Fu Zuoyi.
In the end, everyone decided to capture this drama class alive to find out the situation, after all, the area of the princess tomb is not small, if there is no accurate position of Fu Zuoyi, it is difficult to capture alive, and it is also possible to annihilate the enemy's two companies.
And if you rush forward directly, you will inevitably be discovered by these two companies, and once the fire fight will inevitably delay the time, there will certainly be no convenience in this place to surround and annihilate. Wang Zhenxiang found that this place was also a good place to carry out siege and annihilation.
Immediately, Wang Zhenxiang sent people to escort the prisoners, and then organized troops to quickly occupy the favorable terrain on both sides of the highway, Wang Zhenxiang ordered that in the middle of the road, a carriage should be released, and when everything was deployed, the enemy would come, and it would take about a few minutes before and after.
After a while, as if agreed in advance, the enemy drove more than a dozen large trucks along the road, without even sending a guard detachment, and gradually entered the encirclement of our army.
In the blink of an eye, the group reached the carriage where our army had parked, and since the carriage blocked the way, the enemy stopped, and a man who looked like an officer jumped from the cab of the front of a car, kicked at the carriage with his foot, and shouted:
"Whose car is this, who dares to block Lao Tzu's way?"
He shouted and shouted and suddenly stopped shouting, because he did not dare to shout. He saw a sudden, cold crowd of People's Liberation Army troops appearing on the side of the highway, and they pointed guns at him, and he swallowed the words that he did not have time to finish shouting into his stomach. Now it's the turn of the PLA soldiers to shout, "Don't move, raise your hands!"
The enemy obediently surrendered his weapons and surrendered. In less than 10 minutes to resolve the battle, Wang Zhenxiang's troops captured more than 300 enemy soldiers, captured 8 trucks, 2 jeeps, as well as horse-drawn carriages, camels and other military supplies.
The battalion commander was brought to Wang Zhenxiang, who asked, "Is Fu Zuoyi in front?" ”
The battalion commander was tough, he just didn't speak, but looking at the muzzle of the PLA's black hole hole, the drama class and the drama boys could say it out, for them, everywhere is singing, why should they die for Fu Zuoyi?
It turned out that after the Northeast Field Army entered the pass, Fu Zuoyi's troops were floating in the military mood, especially after the Northeast Field Army reached the north of Beiping, which made many troops lose their fighting spirit.
In order to boost morale and at the same time to ease his nervous mood, Fu Zuoyi ordered his men to find a drama class in Beiping City and go to fengtai to perform condolences to the troops, and performed at Fu Zuoyi's "Suppression General" last night.
Originally, he was still ready to let the drama ban perform a few more performances, but last night, the troops at the Red Pass reported that there seemed to be a communist attack to the south, which surprised Fu Zuoyi, but thinking that the surrounding area was his own troops, as well as armored vehicles, his heart seemed to be fixed, and he decided to leave early the next morning.
Fu Zuoyi himself was a very strategic general, and for the sake of safety, he decided to let a battalion of troops escort the drama squad back to Beiping, secretly letting one of his guard squads ride far behind on horseback, and as soon as the situation was discovered, it would immediately return.
The battalion commander who escorted the group let a company of props and other supplies performed by the drama class go first, and he followed with the drama class and other items, but he did not know that there was a guard class behind him.
Fu Zuoyi's guard squad vaguely saw that the troops in front of them were surrounded by our army, knew that things were not good, and immediately shot at our army, and suddenly a fierce gunshot sounded.
The purpose of the guard squad's firing was, of course, to give warning, and under the fierce fire of our army, the guard squad was killed twice, and the rest of them quickly retreated backwards on horseback.
Our army then followed, but the enemy was fast on horseback and familiar with the terrain, and our army marched mainly on foot.
Our army pursued for less than 20 minutes, only to see a compound in front of it, and the prisoners said that it was the large courtyard of Fu Zuoyi's headquarters for "suppressing bandits."
There were not many houses in the area at that time, and many of them were weeds and crops, so the compound was conspicuous. Although the courtyard wall of the compound is not very high, it is very strong. There were several houses in the yard irregularly erected, and the roof ridge was very steep, as if it had been built in imitation of a foreign church, and it looked a bit unusual.
Under the attack of our army, the enemy in the courtyard was quickly eliminated by our army, but our army captured only one platoon of the remaining enemy and an aide-de-camp wearing the rank of major.
According to this adjutant, Fu Zuoyi was indeed at this headquarters, but ten minutes before they arrived, he had just fled to Beiping. And it was walked in an armored vehicle.
This made Wang Zhenxiang very annoyed and wanted to order a chase, but he did not know which direction he was running in, not to mention the speed of the armored vehicle, it was difficult for our army to catch up on foot, even if the horse could catch up, how could it cause damage to the armored vehicle with light weapons.
Wang Zhenxiang thought about it for a moment and decided: Fu Zuoyi will run away, but he must complete the second task and seize Fengtai.
After the Fengtai defenders knew that Fu Zuoyi had escaped, they still had the fighting spirit to hold on, and under the fierce offensive of our army, they scattered like birds and beasts, and our army quickly captured Fengtai.
Afterwards, Wang Zhenxiang self-examined and said that if it were not for the delay of ten minutes in capturing the drama squad alive, it would have been entirely possible for our army to capture Fu Zuoyi alive.
When the situation was reported to Lin Biao, Lin Biao did not criticize it, but only said four words: Life should not be extinguished.
Usually, if the battle fails to complete the task, Lin Biao usually has to severely criticize, why is there no criticism this time?
In addition to the objective reasons for this, Wang Zhenxiang learned afterwards that at that time, there were different opinions at the top level on whether to capture Fu Zuoyi alive. Because once Fu Zuoyi is captured alive, then the Pingjin defenders will be leaderless, and chaos will inevitably occur in Beiping City, which will cause damage to Beiping.
On the other hand, if Chiang Kai-shek's generals, such as Shi Jue and others, were to replace Fu Zuoyi, then they would inevitably resist to the end, which would not be conducive to the peaceful liberation of Peiping by our army.
Because of this, Lin Biao was unusual and did not criticize Wan Yi, commander of the 5th Column, and of course, Wan Yi did not criticize Wang Zhenxiang.
Tianxuan is the author's pen name, who has studied history and philosophy and is welcome to pay attention to it.