One day in early August 1949, a military plane took off from Hengyang Airport and flew towards the hinterland of Xiangxi . The passengers on the plane were a heavyweight figure in the Kuomintang government, the chief of the military and political affairs of East China and the head of the office of the Public Administration Bai Chongxi . At this time, below this route, Bai Chongxi's main force of the Guangxi clan, more than 200,000 people were building a line of defense, preparing to make a last fight with the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which had already crossed the Yangtze River.
Bai Chongxi
At this critical moment, Bai Chongxi, as the military commander-in-chief, left the front line and flew to western Hunan. What exactly does Bai Chongxi want to do in this industry? Little did he know that Bai Chongxi carried a secret order on this trip, and the issuer of the secret order was Chiang Kai-shek , which had already announced that he had stepped down but still controlled the situation remotely.
It turned out that a few days ago, on August 4, Chiang Kai-shek received an urgent telegram from Bai Chongxi, and learned that the Kuomintang’s Hunan Provincial Government Chairman Cheng Qian and the First Corps Commander Chen Mingren led their troops to revolt, and Changsha was able to be liberated peacefully. This news was like a bolt from the blue.
South China is the place where the two major armies of the Kuomintang are entrenched, one is the Bai Chongxi Group and the other is the Yu Hanmou Group. The two groups have nearly 400,000 or 500,000 people in total. Among them, Bai Chongxi's group has about 300,000 people, and his troops are mainly deployed in Jiangxi and southern Hubei, including Changsha, Guizhou and Hunan. Then we can see that if Changsha is captured by our army, or after the Changsha Uprising, its entire midline will be broken and the situation will be critical.
In order to reverse the defeat, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly ordered Bai Chongxi to launch a response plan. According to this response plan, the Kuomintang will establish 15 key guerrilla bases in the mainland to jointly fight against the People's Liberation Army. Among them, Xiangxi is a region that Chiang Kai-shek had high expectations.
The peaks are undulating, the rivers are dense, and the caves are deep. Since ancient times, it has been a place with high mountains and far away from the emperor, and bandits are rampant. By around 1949, there were 100,000 bandits and local armed forces in western Hunan. The secret order issued by Chiang Kai-shek to Bai Chongxi was to recruit bandits from western Hunan to fight against the People's Liberation Army that was advancing southwest.
Bai Chongxi landed at Zhijiang Airport with Chiang Kai-shek's secret order.
Zhijiang Although it is a small town in the hinterland of western Hunan, it has become a focus of attention several times in modern Chinese history. During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhijiang Airport was the second largest military airport for the Allied forces in the Far East, which made the Japanese army frightened. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the representatives of the Japanese invaders surrendered to the in Zhijiang.
When the pointer points to August 1949, this small city once again stood at a historical node and entered the sight of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The People's Liberation Army wants to march into the southwest, which is the only way to go, and the Kuomintang wants to gather in the southwest, which is the focus of defense. In order to win over the bandits and defend Jiangxi, Bai Chongxi brought 100,000 silver dollars and a large number of guns during this trip. After he flew to the general, he immediately convened a joint meeting of military and political affairs in Xiangxi. Most of the people attending the meeting were giant bandit leaders in Xiangxi. At the meeting, Bai Chongxi organized 100,000 bandits and local armed forces in western Hunan into three temporary troops and two temporary troops, requiring them to defend themselves along the Hunan-Guizhou and Hunan-Guizhou and Hunan-Cizhou and Hunan-Chuan Highways, destroy all road bridges and traffic roads, and build a civil defense Great Wall to prevent the People's Liberation Army from advancing westward.
In order to further win over and utilize the grass-headed kings entrenched in western Hunan, Bai Chongxi not only promoted them to the title, but also sent money to send guns and cannons, but even became brothers with Yang Yongqing, the bandit leader who had been wiped out for many years.
Who is this Yang Yongqing? Why does Bai Chongxi value him so much?
Like most bandits, Yang Yongqing is native to Zhijiang, Xiangxi, but he is not an ordinary bandit. Northern Expedition , Yang Yongqing was promoted to Lieutenant General Division Command because of his bravery in combat and good command. Later, due to the reduction of the troops, he was demoted to brigade commander. In a fit of anger, Yang Yongqing returned to his hometown with more than 20 guns with more than a dozen confidants to become a bandit. At the same time, he became the leader of the feudal gangs in the Zhijiang area to revive the Chu-Han Palace. He had more than 20,000 gang members under his jurisdiction, and he became the local emperor of Zhijiang.
Bai Chongxi wants to control Zhijiang to radiate to western Hunan, so he is the first person he thinks of. After Bai Chongxi convened the Zhijiang meeting, Yang Yongqing transformed himself and was appointed as the commander of Zhijiang's security. Not only did he command the armed forces of nearly 20,000 people, but the bandits in the surrounding areas of Mayang, Huangxian and other places were also under his command.
Zhijiang Conference demarcated this defense zone at that time, because the Kuomintang had two armies in western Hunan at that time, and they were also ragged miscellaneous troops at that time. Bai Chongxi asked them to join forces with these bandits and each set up a defense zone.
The scheming and conceited Yang Yongqing also knew that these bandits were not regular soldiers after all, and it was difficult to compete with the People's Liberation Army, so he formulated another sinister "chicken cage" plan.
What is the "chicken cage" plan? This chicken coop refers to Yang Yongqing's nest, and it is also a must-pass place for the People's Liberation Army to advance into the southwest - Zhijiang. Yang Yongqing planned to withdraw the defenders of Zhijiang first and open the "cage". When the People's Liberation Army enters here, he will send troops to close the cage gate and eliminate the People's Liberation Army in Zhijiang, creating a miracle to prevent the revolutionary army from advancing westward, and report good news to Chief Bai.
In order to realize this chicken cage plan, Yang Yongqing retreated most of the team into the mountains and hid it, leaving only a few hundred people ambushed inside and outside Zhijiang City to prepare for internal response, and waited for the People's Liberation Army to "draw" in.
1949 In mid-September, the Fourth Field Army of the People's Liberation Army began to encircle Bai Chongxi's Guangxi army. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of troops of the Second Field Army were also assembled in northern Hunan and prepared to advance towards Guizhou and Sichuan. In order to ensure the safety of the flanks of the Second Field Army's southward army, the superiors ordered the 47th Army of the Fourth Field Army to enter western Hunan.
At this time, Yang Yongqing, who was in charge of Zhijiang, couldn't sit still. He formed a bloody alliance with Bai Chongxi and accepted the Kuomintang's appointment as the commander of Zhijiang's security. Just one month later, the People's Liberation Army entered Xiangxi. How should we do our next move?
Just as Yang Yongqing was thinking about it, another news came one after another. The People's Liberation Army troops were about to lie down, and Yang Yongqing hurriedly ordered the evacuation to Jiangcheng. As soon as the People's Liberation Army entered the Zhijiang area, he immediately sent his deputy commander Pan Zhuangfei to lead two regiments to prepare to close the "chicken cage".
However, at this time the 47th Army had obtained information and sent 5 battalions of troops in advance to carry out long-distance raids on Pan Zhuangfei's two regiments. After the fierce battle, the People's Liberation Army troops wiped out more than 800 bandits and seized more than 500 guns. Yang Yongqing's plan to chicken cage went completely bankrupt.
Just five days after Yang Yongqing fled, the 140th Division of the 47th Army of the People's Liberation Army, the 139th Division and the 141st Division entered Sichuan to fight with the Second Field Army.
On October 26, the Zhijiang County People's Government was established and 6 district governments were established in urban and rural areas. However, Yang Yongqing, who was retreating in the mountains, was not willing to fail. He relied on his former name as the commander of the security, and recruited bandits and the remnants of the Kuomintang, waited for an opportunity to continue to counterattack and destroy the new people's regime. It is said that Yang Yongqing gathered 96 bandits together at that time, with a total of 6,300 people.
One morning in January 1950, the mayor of Zhijiang District 3 led a team of more than 50 people to the countryside to carry out work. On the way, the intelligence personnel of the Yang Yongqing bandit gang discovered their whereabouts, and then more than 500 bandits followed and launched an attack on the squad, and a fierce battle began.
From the beginning of the sun to the setting sun, the battle lasted for more than 9 hours. The People's Liberation Army was outnumbered and unfamiliar with the terrain, 23 soldiers died in this battle.
Continuous attacks and destruction incidents have shrouded a layer of turbulence on the newly liberated Xiangxi region, and the new people's regime is facing severe tests.
People's Liberation Army commanders and fighters have long been prepared for the severe situation of banditry in western Hunan. Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the Second Field Army to pass by Xiangxi. When inspecting the 47th Army, they pointed out that the bandits in western Hunan and the remnants of the Kuomintang were mixed and their activities were rampant, and they were the "cecum" in Hunan. To open the passage to march into the southwest, it is necessary to eliminate the bandits in western Hunan and completely cut off the cecum.
However, during the period when the 47th Army had just entered Xiangxi bandit suppression , they suffered a lot of losses due to unfamiliarity in the place, lack of experience in fighting bandits, and shortage of troops. It was not until the 139th Division and 141st Division of the 47th Army that marched into Sichuan to fight in early 1950 that the situation of being in poverty was reversed. On February 1, 1950, the 47th Army issued a political mobilization order to suppress bandits and decided to launch a heavy blow to completely eliminate the stubborn bandits in western Hunan.
Da Shuao, this inconspicuous place is located in the mountains northwest of Zhijiang County. It is located at the junction of Hunan and Guizhou provinces, with steep mountains and dense forests. Yang Yongqing, who escaped from Zhijiang, regarded this place as his base camp. More than 1,000 people under his command were entrenched in the two nearby mountains, Mao Congzhai and Mayangpo. Although Mao Congzhai is only a hill with an altitude of hundreds of meters, its mountain is steep and only three small paths can reach the top of the mountain. At that time, the bandits built solid fortifications on all three dangerous places on the mountain roads, and put on machine gun , which was really a bit like a man being the only one who could pass the pass and ten thousand men could not drive it. Not only that, the bandits also cut down all the nearby trees and grass, turning the PLA's necessary path into an open area, and digging a large number of trenches in front of the village to facilitate sniping and transporting troops. If the People's Liberation Army attacked, it would inevitably suffer huge casualties.
In order to fight against the People's Liberation Army to the end, Yang Yongqing tried to build this place into a solid fortress. In the mountain nest behind the trenches, there was originally a Tianwang Temple. Yang Yongqing regarded it as a barracks and planted rice on a relatively flat slope next to it, which set off a long-term stance.
In September 1950, the 140th Division of the 47th Army of the People's Liberation Army decided to encircle and suppress the Yang Yongqing bandit gang entrenched in Dashuao and Mao Congzhai. But how can the People's Liberation Army launch an attack on such a mountain-hidden and tightly defended? In order to find out the enemy situation and win by surprise, the troops found local villagers as guides, and Li Yuan, the chief of staff of the 140th Division who came to command the battle, personally discussed the offensive route with the guide.
selected a good route and formulated a specific action plan. The troops decided to raid in real time while the enemy was unprepared.
Under the cover of night, Zeng Qingwen, a guide familiar with the terrain, and a team of soldiers quietly climbed up the mountain along the cliff. From the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, about 1,000 meters away, Zeng Qingwen and 20 soldiers climbed carefully for more than three hours before finally touching the outside of the Heavenly King Temple.
At this time, hundreds of bandits were still sleeping. They regarded the small Tianwang Temple as the safest safe haven and did not believe that the People's Liberation Army could approach the mountain gate or even cross the trenches. However, the sudden fierce attack of the People's Liberation Army instantly shattered the bandits' dreams.
Under the fierce attack of the People's Liberation Army, the bandits caught off guard fled to the Tiger Bay at the foot of the mountain. Tiger Bay is a mountain depression with a trench in the middle. After rushing down from the mountain, bandits wanted to pass through the trench, but the People's Liberation Army soldiers were already ambushing below to block the attack.
Bandits were attacked from front and back, trapped in Tiger Bay and unable to move forward or backward. In the end, some bandits surrendered in a cunning manner, and some bandits who resisted stubbornly were annihilated by the bandit suppression troops.
The bandit suppression battles in Dashuao and Mao Congzhai won a great victory, which strongly shocked the remaining bandit forces. They surrendered to the People's Liberation Army and the People's Government one after another. Yang Yongqing's dream of establishing a long-term base here was completely shattered. However, Yang Yongqing himself escaped by chance and fled to the area around Liangzun in Huang County with some defeated generals.
In order to eliminate Yang Yongqing's stubborn bandits, in early December 1950, the People's Liberation Army's bandit suppression troops and local armed forces took advantage of the victory and surrounded the Liang umbrella area where Yang Yongqing was hiding.
However, because the area where Yang Yongqing was hiding was high and dense, the troops could not find its exact location. Until the afternoon of the third day, a plainclothes team of the reconnaissance company discovered suspicious situations.
plainclothes scouts were investigating in the deep mountains and forests, and they found a woman carrying a basket to deliver food. Speaking of which, the deep forest is missing, who is she delivering food to? With many suspicious points, the investigator was attracted to her.
At this time, a plainclothes scout from Guizhou pretended that he was sent by a bandit from Guizhou to deliver a letter to Yang Yongqing. The woman believed it and took the scouts to Yang Yongqing's hiding place.
After successfully passing several sentries set up by bandits, the investigators soon arrived at the shack where Yang Yongqing lived. The guards were more vigilant. When they saw that the investigator was a new face, they asked them to put their guns on the ground and search them, so they were not allowed to take the guns to see Yang Yongqing.
After entering the shack, the scout said to Yang Yongqing in a Guizhou accent: "I am here to deliver the letter. Guizhou invites Commander Yang to bring his men to take joint action."
When Yang Yongqing heard this, he felt that there would be no problem and immediately relaxed his vigilance. Seeing this opportunity, several scouts suddenly rushed forward and captured Yang Yongqing alive. When the other bandits saw that Yang Yongqing had been arrested, some of them surrendered on the spot, while the other part took the opportunity to scatter and fled, and the bandit group that had harmed Xiangxi for a long time was destroyed.
1950 On December 26, 1950, a public trial meeting of more than 6,000 people was held at the Zhijiang County Stadium, and Yang Yongqing was executed on the spot. At this time, in other areas of western Hunan, the bandit leaders who had been rampant also surrendered or fled in panic during the People's Liberation Army's clearance. From then on, they never dared to come out to harm the people after hiding their names.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 1951, the Xiangxi bandit suppression ceremony was successfully held. After more than a year of more than a year, the Xiangxi bandit suppression finally achieved a decisive victory.
