In December 1948, The Huaihai Campaign The second phase of the Shuangdui Battle was coming to an end. The 12th Corps, the ace corps of the national army, was on the eve of collapse. At the last moment, Huang Wei and the senior generals of his regiment took the tank escape. On the way to escape, the tank in which Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army of the National Army, malfunctioned. Faced with the constant pursuit of the People's Liberation Army, Yang Botao staggered to a river under the protection of soldiers.
Unwilling to become a prisoner of our army, Yang Botao jumped into the river. When he emerged from the water, he found a row of black holes above his head with gun muzzles pointed at him. He had no choice but to go ashore to accept the prisoner. He was later imprisoned in the Gongdelin War Criminals Center in Beijing.
In 1950, the situation on the Korean peninsula became very tense. Mao Zedong decided to send volunteer troops to North Korea out of hesitation. At this time, some national army generals began to make preparations. They believed that the US military was invincible, so that the national army might make a comeback. Out of national justice, Yang Botao took the initiative to write a 60,000-word "Research on U.S. Army Tactics" based on his understanding of the U.S. military, so as to facilitate the volunteers entering North Korea as a reference for fighting the U.S. military.
What is the origin of Yang Botao? From being stubborn to actively writing strategies and tactics to deal with the US military, why did Yang Botao make such a huge change?
Born in a humble background, he dreamed of joining the army to serve the country.
Yang Botao was a descendant of the Dong ethnic group. He was born in 1909 in a peasant family in Zhijiang County, Hunan Province. Yang Botao's childhood was very miserable. His father died young when he was young, and his mother worked hard to raise him up alone. His life was extremely difficult.
When he was old enough to study, his mother frugally allowed Yang Botao to finish elementary school. After graduating from elementary school, although Yang Botao excelled in studies, he barely attended junior high school for one year and had to drop out because his family really couldn't take the blame. At that time, the revolutionary trend in Hunan was already very strong. In this atmosphere, Yang Botao also had the idea of joining the army, but he suffered from no good way out.
In 1926, Yang Botao was recommended by his fellow villagers and learned that General Wang Tianpei, who was also a Dong nationality, served in the Guizhou Army. His Tenth Army Teaching Corps was recruiting students, so Yang Botao happily went.
After the Northern Expedition began, the 10th Regiment of the Guizhou Army was reorganized into the 10th Army. General Wang Tianpei swore in Hongjiang, Hunan, and fought from Hunan to Hubei. He successively captured more than a dozen military towns such as Changde and Lizhou, and became an independent regiment with Ye Ting. The equally famous Northern Expedition Iron Army. It was during this period that Yang Botao accumulated a lot of practical experience on the battlefield.
In 1927, General Wang Tianpei's ambition was not fulfilled and he did not die on the battlefield of the Northern Expedition. However, he was excluded and implicated in the split of Ninghan and was secretly killed by He Yingqin in Hangzhou. At this time, Yang Botao was only 18 years old. Having lost his backbone in the military, he decided to study in Cheng Qian's Sixth Army Teaching Corps. After graduation, he was appointed as a platoon leader.
After the outbreak of the Central Plains War in 1930, Yang Botao's unit was incorporated into the battle order of the Eighteenth Army. Soon Yang Botao was promoted to company commander for his meritorious service on the battlefield in the Central Plains. Since the Eighteenth Army was the army on which and Chen Cheng made their fortune, Yang Botao's performance was favored by Chen Cheng at the time. After the Central Plains War, Yang Botao was sent to the 14th phase of Nanjing Army University for further studies.
Iron-blooded resistance to Japan, from battalion commander to ace army division commander
Comprehensive After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Botao, full of enthusiasm, proposed a temporary suspension of school to the school, saying that he would go to the Songhu front line to fulfill the responsibilities of a soldier . The school leaders of Nanjing Army University saw Yang Botao's ambition and were moved by his patriotism. They immediately approved a long leave note for him, allowing him to return to the military school at any time after the war to continue his studies. In this way, Yang Botao returned to the 18th Army. The then army commander Luo Zhuoying appointed him as a battalion commander, leading his troops to fight the Japanese invaders in Luodian.
Although Luodian is a small place, it plays a vital role in the overall situation of the Songhu Battle. Once Luodian is lost, the national army will be completely passive in the Songhu battlefield.Yang Botao, who knew the key to this, set an example and led his troops to defend Luodian, setting up the battalion command post directly on the position, just to organize losses and counterattack the Japanese army at any time.
Unfortunately, the Japanese army has an overwhelming advantage over our army in terms of weapons and equipment. During the day, the Japanese army used aircraft and heavy artillery shells to coordinate operations, which brought great resistance to Yang Botao's counterattack. The troops suffered great damage and had no choice but to Yang Botao had no choice but to lead his troops to temporarily withdraw from the position. At night, Yang Botao saw that the Japanese army's equipment advantages were difficult to use, so he often took advantage of the darkness to recapture Luodian.
In this way, Yang Botao and the Japanese army fought repeatedly on the battlefield of Luodian, and Luodian also changed hands several times in the hands of Yang Botao and the Japanese army. With the courage to face death, Yang Botao just could not let the Japanese army move forward. His tenacious military style was recognized by the top brass of the national army at that time. After the Battle of Songhu, Yang Botao was promoted from a battalion commander to a colonel and chief of staff.
In the ranks of the national army, the rank of colonel generally corresponds to the position of regiment commander, while the battalion commander is generally held by the rank of major. Yang Botao has been promoted to two ranks in a row during the Songhu Battle. It is not difficult to see what Yang Botao did in the Songhu battlefield. contribution. This year, Yang Botao was only 28 years old.
After this battle, Yang Botao successively moved to Wannan, Nanchang , Yichang and other places, confronting the Japanese army head-on. He also dared to lead his troops to attack the Japanese army, destroyed and attacked Japanese military strongholds, and achieved considerable results.
Yang Botao's heroic fighting and calm response to the enemy have been widely recognized by the top brass of the national army. In a few years, he has gradually grown from a chief of staff to the chief of staff of the Eighty-sixth Army. In 1943, Yang Botao served as the Chief of Staff at Chen Cheng's Sixth Theater Headquarters. He single-handedly planned and formulated the battle plan for the Battle of Changde. In the end, the battle plan was successfully adopted and Changde was successfully recovered. At this time, Huang Botao and Yang Botao were appointed. He is the commander of the 11th Division of the 18th Army.
In May 1945, the Anti-Japanese War had reached the strategic counter-offensive stage. The Chinese and American air forces used their Zhijiang Airport to completely occupy the air superiority and frequently blew up the Japanese army's railway transportation lines. Under this situation, the Japanese army tried to seize Zhijiang Airport in order to break our army's superiority in the air.
Yang Botao is from Zhijiang, Hunan. When he received the order to fight in his hometown, he was a little excited, because for him it was both for his country and his family. As the ace division of the 18th Army, the 11th Division bore the brunt and became the vanguard. In order to get to the front line of the Battle of Western Hunan as soon as possible, Yang Botao ordered the troops to march at a speed of 40 kilometers per day. The national officers and soldiers below also had high morale, saying one by one:
"Zhijiang is the division commander's hometown. We must win this battle and cannot let the division commander embarrass himself in front of the villagers!"
In this battle, , General Yang Botao not only regained Tianmen City in one fell swoop, but also annihilated an infantry regiment and baggage troops of the Japanese army, successfully contributing to the great victory in Xuefeng Mountain.
was defeated and captured, and took the initiative to write a 60,000-word strategy of destroying the United States.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Botao was sent to southwestern Shandong and the Dabie Mountains to fight with the People's Liberation Army. In July 1948, Yang Botao was awarded the rank of major general and successfully succeeded Hu Lian as the commander of the reorganized 11th Division. Although it seems that the position is still division commander, the reorganized division is different from the ordinary division. It is actually the establishment of an army. After 1948, it was restored to the 18th Army.
The reorganized division is a special division-level unit. The reason why there is such a strange establishment is because after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, there was a strong nationwide call for the reduction of the reorganized army. At the same time, in order to downsize our party's army in the name of the country, Chiang Kai-shek Only then did he come up with such a deceptive disarmament policy.
In September 1948, the first phase of the Huaihai Campaign The Nianzhuang Battle began. The heavy-duty National Army troops actively rescued Huang Baitao's regiment. However, they were strongly blocked by the Huaye troops and could not enter the central battlefield of the Nianzhuang Battle. Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to give up. The battle situation in Huaihai fell into decline, so they made a desperate move and asked Huang Wei's regiment to come to relieve the siege.
Regrettably, just when Huang Wei's Corps was leading the mechanized corps to advance rapidly, the Central Plains Field Army had already set up pocket formations, waiting for Huang Wei to drill them himself; East China Field Army also specially selected 4 mobile corps, and together Join the battle to encircle and annihilate Huang Wei. In the end, Huang Wei's Corps was completely defeated, and the executives of the 12th Corps fled in tanks. This was the scene at the beginning of the article.
After Yang Botao was arrested, he actually did not directly admit his identity at first. He lied that he was a secretary of the 21st Corps. After hearing this, the People's Liberation Army looked Yang Botao up and down. When asked about his mink coat and leather shoes, After what happened, Yang Botao simply admitted his identity.
"Prick up your ears and listen carefully, I am Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army."
After being taken to the prisoner of war camp, Yang Botao felt extremely depressed and therefore had a very pessimistic view of the future. Later, he described his state in his memoirs:
"My thoughts and emotions at the time were very pessimistic and negative, like a prisoner waiting to be sentenced, just waiting for time. I often regretted my attempted suicide during the Shuangduiji breakout, and complained that there was no Go and die alone. Today, you are wandering on the wrong road, walking like a zombie, and your spirit is very painful. Every time you die, you feel like you have lost something. "
After Yang Botao was imprisoned as a war criminal in Gongdelin, he, like most of the national army generals, believed that the victory of the People's Liberation Army was a fluke. Everything comes down to "luck". However, when he learned that the Americans, who had always been superior, had been defeated by our army one after another after fighting against the volunteers, he suddenly realized that he had just lost to a truly strong man.
At this time, a hidden sense of national pride surged in his heart, and he felt that he should do something for the volunteers. Since Yang Botao's 18th Army is an all-American mechanized force and is very clear about the U.S. military's combat methods, he took the initiative to write a more than 60,000-word report based on his own experience - "On U.S. Army Tactics." "Research" to help the Volunteer Army win the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea .
I have to say that Yang Botao's report did play a key role in the Volunteer Army, especially the application of two major tactics, which made the Volunteer Army more comfortable in the subsequent war with the US military.
In December 1959, Yang Botao became the first national army general to receive amnesty in Gongdelin due to his active reform. In 2000, General Yang Botao died of illness at the age of 91.
