1948 
2 15, the arrogant Huang Wei Corps was completely wiped out in Shuangduiji, and he himself was captured alive by the People's Liberation Army. At this time, there was a direct line commander in the corps. Because he was deeply trusted and valued by Chiang Kai-shek , he was unwilling to be captured. When there was no hope of breaking out, he thought of "dying to apologize."
But when he jumped into the river to die, he found that the river beach was too shallow and the water was not over the top, and the revolver worn on his waist could not be used, so he had to close his eyes and wait for death in the river. At night, when the night was dim, the temperature in winter also dropped sharply. He couldn't bear the cold and had to climb to the shore to find a place to rest.
But before he walked 100 meters, a group of People's Liberation Army rushed out from the side. After seeing him, two soldiers came out and quickly captured him. After that, the two of them held an arm and led him for more than 10 seconds. , and was sent directly to the People's Liberation Army headquarters. The army commander ultimately failed in his attempt to die and was captured.
After he was captured, he reported his name and military position. Only then did I find out that this person was none other than: Commander of the Eighteenth Army of the National Army Yang Botao .
Although he stood on the opposite side of the people during the War of Liberation, whether in the previous War of Resistance Against Japan or the subsequent War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, he was a legendary figure with great military exploits, and he was worthy of the title of "National Hero" .
1. Confucian general Yang Botao
Hunan is one of the birthplaces of the modern Chinese revolution. It is nourished by the rich Hunan culture and has many local people with lofty ideals.
In their life philosophy of "cultivation, governance, and world peace", they created great achievements that are admired by later generations. Chairman Mao, Peng Dehuai, He Long, Luo Ronghuan, Su Yu, etc. are all typical representatives, and Yang Botao is also a Hunanese. .
On April 19, 1909, he was born into a peasant family in Zhijiang County, Hunan Province. As the sixth child of the Yang family, he had three sisters and two brothers. His father was honest and honest, and his mother was smart and virtuous. Although he lived in poverty, , but their family lives a very stable life.
Just because his father died of illness at the age of 40, the burden of the family fell on the shoulders of his mother, Liu.
- As the saying goes, "Children from poor families become masters early." As a child, Yang Botao began to grow up after experiencing family changes. At the age of 7, he became a master at farm work, whether it was planting rice in the fields, herding cattle, hoeing, etc. He knows everything.
Picture source: film and television drama
His mother Liu was open-minded and paid special attention to her children's education, but she could not afford the expenses. Later, with the support of relatives and friends in her hometown, Yang Botao was able to attend Hehuachi Primary School in the city.
And he lived up to expectations, and later entered the Provincial No. 9 United Middle School with a good score of "first place". After only one year of schooling, he was forced to drop out because he could not afford the tuition.
That era happened to be in the turbulent historical process of the founding of the Republic of China and the melee war between warlords. This had a certain impact on the thinking of many young people. Of course, it also affected Yang Botao, who was determined to change the current situation of the country's embarrassment.
As the Northern Expedition progressed, Yang Botao, who was only 16 years old, learned that the Tenth Army of the Revolutionary Army led by Wang Tianpei was about to go to the front line to fight. He resolutely chose to join the army and started his career as a "student of the training regiment." Military career.
always kept in mind his mother's teachings of "men should strive for self-improvement" and never gave up on improving and training himself even in the military camp. In 1927, he joined the Cheng Qian Sixth Army Teaching Corps to study, and then entered the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy, and then became a student of the 14th batch of the Army University in 1935.
In 1937, the national contradictions between China and Japan replaced the internal contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party as the biggest challenge facing China at that time.
At this critical moment of life and death, the Communist Party of China held high the Anti-Japanese National United Front flag and launched a national salvation movement to "stop the civil war and unite with the outside world", which ultimately led to the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Against this background, Yang Botao temporarily gave up his studies and came to Shanghai to become the battalion commander of the Eighteenth Army Commander Luo Zhuoying , and then served as the army staff officer. After arriving at the front line, he braved the hail of bullets, gathered military intelligence, and practiced himself. After the war on the front line came to an end, he returned to Army University to successfully complete his studies.
In July 1938, Yang Botao officially graduated. In the following years, he successively served as staff officer of the 11th Division of the 18th Army, commander of the 553rd Regiment of the 185th Division of the 94th Army, chief of staff of the 185th Division, and commander of the 11th Division of the 18th Army. , and are highly regarded by senior officials of the national army such as Huang Wei, Hu Lian, Chen Cheng, etc.
When he was marching, Yang Botao always liked to bring a pile of books. Whenever he had free time, he would take out a few books to read. Therefore, his comrades nicknamed him a "bookworm". But for such a Confucian general, had the upper hand in the battle with the Japanese invaders.
For example, when he was stationed in Yichang, Hubei Province and confronted the Japanese army across the river, he repeatedly seized the opportunity to raid the Japanese army's logistics supply lines and strongholds, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy; and for example, during the battle of Changde, he participated in formulating combat plans and made suggestions to help Chen Cheng recover. Changde .
In combat, Yang Botao was always able to apply the military theories he had learned to actual combat, inflicting heavy blows to the Japanese army and achieving remarkable results.
2. The Battle of Xuefeng Mountain became famous all over the world
In April 1945, in order to seize the strategic location Zhijiang Airport , the Japanese army launched the famous Battle of Xuefeng Mountain in Western Hunan. The victory of this battle not only promoted the country's prestige, but also made the country famous. He became famous.
At that time, the Eighteenth Army was ordered to participate in the encirclement mission. In order to deal with the invading enemy, Yang Botao personally led the 11th Division to charge forward, and quickly formulated two attack targets: one was the traffic artery Shanmen Town , and the other was the road from Shaoyang to Dongkou Wire. Once these two places are taken, the Japanese army will be isolated and helpless.
When the army first arrived near Shanmen Town, the 11th Division was attacked by the Japanese army.
During the fierce battle, a Japanese infantry regiment came to support. Upon seeing this, Yang Botao immediately cleared the enemy in front of him and turned his attention to this regiment. At that time, the enemy had been occupying favorable terrain to resist. Yang Botao personally led the soldiers to step forward bravely and even engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. During the
period, Yang Botao seized the enemy's mobilization and inflicted heavy losses on them, and then annihilated most of the regiment. In addition to capturing more than 60 Japanese soldiers alive, he also seized some firearms such as mountain cannons and , which was a good start.
The next day, Yang Botao took advantage of his victory to launch a fierce attack on the mountain pass. After being attacked from two sides and prompting the enemy to flee south, he quickly ordered the pursuit to continue. Since the Japanese invaders were bloated with supplies and had weak maneuverability in mountainous terrain, he divided his forces to intercept and annihilate the enemy. After capturing the mountain gate, horses and were seized, as well as countless weapons.
The important site of the mountain gate is the "throat" of the Japanese right flank position. Once captured, all transportation and supplies will be blocked. The Japanese invaders will naturally not abandon it, so they immediately ordered the Xuefeng Mountain frontline troops to immediately gather heavy forces for the attack. Counterattack, trying to take back this traffic chokepoint.
Faced with a powerful enemy, Yang Botao avoided reality and organized a firepower network to respond. The Japanese army could not figure out the main position of the 11th Division for a while, but due to time constraints, they had to advance rashly. At this time, Yang Botao ordered a counterattack. The Japanese army, who did not know the terrain, had no power to fight back and had to flee in all directions.
After Shanmen Town was stabilized, Yang Botao seized to win the second strategic goal, namely: the highway from Shaoyang to Dongkou.
At that time, the Japanese army was heavily guarding every hilltop and village nearby. However, Yang Botao's 11th Division was all equipped with beautiful weapons and equipment, so he simply attacked directly. With the coordinated operation of the Chinese and American mixed air forces, the 11th Division dominated the battlefield and the Japanese invaders suffered heavy losses.
Afterwards, under the cover of the air force, the 11th Division launched a fierce attack on Shixiajiang City, a key point on the highway, and captured it in one fell swoop. After that, the communication lines on which the Japanese army relied for survival were completely cut off, and an encirclement of the Japanese army was formed. The various units of the national army continued to compress the encirclement, and the enemy was completely defeated.
At this time, Yang Botao was more confident and was building new fortifications according to the battlefield situation, planning to wait for the opportunity to close the network. But at this time, his superiors did not want to continue to delay the war, so they gave him an order: abandon Shixiajiang City, and the 11th Division concentrated all its efforts. Attack the enemy from the side.
Yang Botao did not dare to disobey the instructions from his superiors, but this caused a gap in the encirclement, allowing some remnants of the Japanese army to flee along the road, failing to completely annihilate the enemy. Although there are still shortcomings in the United States, the flaws cannot be concealed. The victory of Xuefengshan Battle is definitely of historic significance. It is valuable both for improving international reputation and dampening the fighting spirit of the Japanese aggressors.
In this large-scale encirclement and annihilation battle, Yang Botao's 11th Division performed bravely. Although it suffered more than 400 casualties, it achieved the result of cutting off the enemy's retreat and unexpectedly winning, which is eye-catching.
Therefore, during the break of the war, not only Wang Yaowu personally held a grand celebration meeting for Yang Botao's troops, but even the Minister of Military and Political Affairs Chen Cheng specially summoned him. In short, for Yang Botao, the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain in Western Hunan was recorded in his combat resume. A classic battle in.
On August 15, 1945, two months after the Battle of Xuefengshan, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. After the Japanese begging envoy Imai Takeo and his delegation came to Zhijiang and surrendered to the commander-in-chief of the China Theater He Yingqin . At that time, He Yingqin divided the Japanese-occupied area into fifteen surrender areas, and Yang Botao was responsible for the surrender of Hunan Yin tens of thousands of Japanese invaders.
html September 15th is definitely the most exciting day in Yang Botao's life, because the Japanese surrender ceremony was held on this day.
On that day, Yang Botao set up a long table early in the middle of the hall of his headquarters. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese Army Division commander and his entourage arrived outside the door. They stood at attention together, took off their hats and bowed to the commander Yang Botao, and then the ceremony began.
It is worth mentioning that there was an episode at the beginning of the ceremony.
At that time, the Japanese division commander presented the letter of surrender with both hands, and then quickly took off a pistol, a battle knife and a 12-fold telescope, and presented them to Yang Botao with both hands raised.
Yang Botao had never expected this to happen before, so he was embarrassed and planned to stand up and go to pick it up. However, the adjutant reacted quickly and quickly transferred from outside the auditorium to Yang Botao's side to pick up the thing. Yang Botao calmly calmed down and faced it. The division commander nodded in acceptance.
During the ceremony, Yang Botao did not make any speech, so there was a moment of silence. After the Japanese representative finished his speech and bowed again, the surrender ceremony of the Chinese army officially ended.
3. After being captured, he offered a plan to deal with the US military.
It was originally thought that the Japanese surrender would usher in real peace in China. However, because Chiang Kai-shek was always unwilling to give up his dictatorship and was always hostile to the Communist Party, the Liberation War broke out. According to the adjustment of the army organization, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, and Yang Botao was also changed from the original 11th Division Commander to the brigade commander.
After that, Yang Botao was ordered to go to southwestern Shandong to fight against the Communist troops. He participated in a series of battles such as Dabie Mountain, Suqian and Longguji. When the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China entered a critical period, the reorganized 11th Division regained the designation of the 18th Army and was incorporated into the Huangwei Corps. At this time, Yang Botao was officially promoted to the commander of the 18th Army.
During the Huaihai War, the Huangwei Corps was almost completely wiped out. As we mentioned before, Yang Botao failed to commit suicide in the Shuangdui Battle and was captured by People's Liberation Army soldiers.In accordance with our army's policy, after Yang Botao was captured and reported his name and military position, he was sent to the rear to study in the training team of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
In September 1949, Yang Botao was sent to the People's Liberation Army Officer Training Brigade in Guang'anmen, Beijing for reform. At that time, the teaching brigade often held lectures on remembering hardships and thinking about sweet things. Yang Botao, who was born in a poor family and was raised by his mother, was deeply inspired by it and would often cry while watching it...
During this period of transformation During his career, Yang Botao actively sought progress in his thinking and deeply reflected on his past actions. Therefore, he was much "docile" compared to Huang Wei, Wen Qiang and others. Not only did he plead guilty earlier, but he also often received praise from the teaching team. Outstanding performance among high-level war criminals.
What is even more commendable is that Yang Botao, who loved learning and understood tactical theory, even started writing books to contribute to the country at that time.
At that time, when achieved a staged victory in resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, , in order to deepen its understanding of the U.S. military, the teaching brigade organized and established a U.S. military tactics research class among the Kuomintang war criminals. The squad leader of this class at that time was Yang Botao.
The reason why he was selected as the squad leader was not only because of his high ideological consciousness, but also because he once served as the director of the training department of the American Armed Forces Cadres. During the Anti-Japanese War, he had a lot of contact with the US military and was very familiar with the equipment and weapon performance of the US military. The door is clear.
Under his leadership, some war criminals in the research class ( Wu Shaozhou , Qin Daoshan, etc.) worked together to summarize their own opinions and cracking tactics on the US military, and then he wrote it himself.
This "military secret book" has a total of more than 60,000 words and is called "Research on U.S. Army Tactics." There is no doubt that this is a combat material for the US military. It caused a great response at the time, and the teaching brigade even handed over the research results of their group to the central government for review by Chairman Mao and the Central Military Commission.
And these experiences have indeed helped the Volunteer Army know themselves and the enemy, and can take corresponding measures to counterattack as soon as possible. Thanks to this book, the Volunteer Army has taken fewer detours on the battlefield. The victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea must be attributed to Yang Botao.
In 1953, the PLA training team was officially disbanded. Yang Botao received special treatment from the party and the government because of his good performance during the reform period and his great contribution in writing the "secret book". At that time, the government even gave him the privilege of not having to go to a military court to be tried like some war criminals. In 1959, New China announced for the first time an amnesty for Kuomintang prisoners of war, and Yang Botao was undoubtedly among them.
On December 14, 1959, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi and other central leaders cordially received Yang Botao and others, and inquired about their physical condition and family status one by one. In this collective meeting, Yang Botao and others received great education and encouragement.
Later, according to the special care of the central government, Yang Botao became the cultural and historical commissioner of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. His main job was to organize and summarize various past military historical materials, which was also his interest. At that time, "Studying Chairman Mao's Military Works: Records" "The Destruction of Chiang Kai-shek's Army in the War of Liberation", "General Du Yuming", "Minutes of Chen Cheng's Military Group", and "Memoirs of Yang Botao" were all written at this time.
IV. Follow-up
In the 1980s, Yang Botao also served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of the Motherland. These honors also inspired him to continue to fight for the peaceful reunification of the motherland.
On the Central People's Broadcasting Station channel, Yang Botao often delivers speeches based on the political situation to promote the Chinese Communist Party's principles and policies for the peaceful reunification of the motherland to his former comrades in Taiwan.
In 1985, on the occasion of the Spring Festival, Yang Botao also participated in a radio speech with Zheng Dongguo.
At that time, Yang Botao said affectionately on the radio: "Dear senior officers, old colleagues, and old classmates, I am Yang Botao. Time flies so fast. We have said goodbye to 38 winters and summers. This New Year, I would like to express my special wishes to you. I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings to all elders and friends, and wish you good health and longevity in the New Year!”
There was no politics in his words, and he was full of warmth, which deeply moved many old friends in Taiwan and inspired them to have a strong desire for the early realization of the motherland! hope for peaceful reunification.
In addition to his dedicated work on Taiwan, Yang Botao, who was born in a poor family, also invested a lot of energy in the education construction of his hometown. For example, he spent 10,000 yuan to help build Zhijiang Second Kindergarten, and invested 30,000 yuan. Participated in the establishment of the Zhijiang Primary and Secondary School Student Aid Foundation.
Throughout Yang Botao's life, he went through four stages.
As a boy, he followed his mother's instructions and resolutely joined the army to join the revolution; during the national crisis, he stood up and showed his heroism in the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain; during the Liberation War, he was captured in the Battle of Shuangduiji, but finally changed his mind and served the country; in his later years, he We will continue to exert our remaining energy and devote all our efforts to Taiwan and China.
For such a national hero, the country will certainly care about him very much. not only sends him a birthday cake every day every year, but even in 1990, when Yang Botao was 81 years old, the country also sent him a ceramic statue of the longevity star as a birthday gift.
After entering the new century, Yang Botao's birthday After his last period, he died of illness in Beijing on February 20, 2000 at the age of 91. Since then, his legendary life has come to a successful end.
