Heroic bloody battle for two days and three nights
000 pm on the seventh midnight at midnight on the seventh, the battle between Pingshan, Wushan, and Sixian cities started at the same time, and the Ninth Column also launched an attack on the east side of the city.
The attack deployment of our division is as follows: the 22nd Regiment is the main attacking force, and the north gate of Si County City launched an attack, so as to quickly and bravely break into one stroke. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 24th Regiment are in the second echelons. After the assault is successful, they will be engaged in deep combat in time. The 23rd Regiment, the Division's Special Battalion, Military Guard Battalion and the 24th Regiment, while siegeing the city, attacked Pingshan and Wushan respectively, so as to quickly annihilate the enemy's outer strongholds, so as to ensure the safety of our main attacking force. After the mission is completed, immediately follow the 22nd Regiment to engage in deep combat. Due to the lack of troops in the siege at that time, the division's special battalion was transferred to attack the enemy's peripheral strongholds, so the division's command post's vigilance mission was drawn by the 23rd Regiment. In short, this was indeed a last resort to dispersing troops at that time, but if there was enough time to conduct detailed reconnaissance before the war and to find out that the enemy defending the outer stronghold was a regiment rather than a battalion, there was no need to use the troops of six battalions to attack the periphery. The enemy in the city is the 172nd Division of the Seventh Army, the main force of the Guangxi Division. " Little Zhuge , Bai Chongxi started with one of the troops. This division is equipped with ordinary equipment, but most of the soldiers are veterans over five years, skilled in combat movements, and have independent combat capabilities. The officers are very old and have strong command capabilities. This unit leader is in a garrison at the stronghold. Its characteristics are: strict defense organization, fast fortification construction, and in street fighting, he is accustomed to using private houses to dig up gun holes and build steps and machine gun bunkers in corners, doors and windows. He is good at organizing crossfire networks and cannons, and can launch a counterattack in front of the front line. "Greater Guangxiism" The feudal concept of "the feudal regional influence was profound in this division. It talked about the unity of fellow villagers. It fought with us for a long time during the War of Resistance Against Japan and was extremely politically reactionary. The slogan they put forward was: "Don't surrender the guns, and do not be a prisoner." Since the Chiang Kai-shek army launched a large-scale attack on our Huaibei Liberated Area on July 15, this division took advantage of the opportunity of our army on the northern line and drove straight into our three cities, occupying our three cities in a row without major blows. Therefore, it was extremely arrogant, but it was not good at night and close combat. Our attack time was exactly midnight. As soon as the battle to encircle and annihilate the enemy's outer strongholds began, I received a report from the Second Battalion of the 24th Regiment: "Mushan Ji (a town near Wushan) is invincible. "I immediately ordered them to move closer to Mount Wushan and ready to support the division's special battalion and military guard battalion to capture Mount Wushan at any time.
At the beginning of the battle to attack Mount Wushan, the blasting team of the second company of the division's special battalion bravely jumped to the enemy bunker and leaned the explosive bag on the bunker, but because the fuse and detonator were damp, the blasting failed. At this time, the blasting of the first company in the northeast corner was successful, and the Luchai and the wall were continuously blown up, and the company commander of the second company cleverly and flexibly directed a platoon to follow up immediately. The soldiers rushed into the breakthrough with guns, and a fierce attack, and the remaining enemies fled one after another, and most of the positions in the northeast corner occupied me. However, because the explosives on the second company's side in front of the bunker in the southeast corner failed, the bunker formed a crossfire with a large bunker remaining in the northeast corner , frantically fired at the breakthrough, temporarily blocking the gap.
The enemy in the central artillery tower on the mountain on the main mountain also kept throwing the six O guns. The Type 88 hand artillery shells were thrown down, making me unable to get close. At this time, my explosives were used up and I could not blow up this artillery tower that poses great threat to my commando. The enemy relied on the fierce firepower, and the first company failed to fight and was forced to retreat. There was only one platoon in the second company and one squad in the first company. Under the leadership of the battalion instructor, they repelled the enemy's multiple counterattacks and nailed them firmly to the breakthrough. The sky gradually became brighter, and the unexploded explosive packs of the second company standing on the bunker in the southeast corner were revealed from the dawn. The soldiers were witty and decisive, and immediately concentrated the light and heavy machine guns to fire the explosives, "Boom! boom! "With the deafening noise, the bunkers went into the sky, and the first and second companies took the opportunity to break through again. The enemy was shaken and broke through to the northwest corner. The third company, who was waiting for the battle, immediately gave the enemy a head-on attack with fierce fire. The remaining enemy retreated to a large bunker in the northeast corner, trying to resist stubbornly. I used to burn the bunker and gasoline bottle to fire, and the enemy was forced to surrender. At this point, the enemy in Wushan was completely wiped out.
When the news of the victory of capturing Mount Lao reached the division command post, the battle between Pingshan and Pingshanji was coming to an end. The deployment of the 23rd Regiment was to use the first battalion to attack Pingshanji, the third battalion to attack Pingshan, and the second battalion as the reserve team. Pingshan is divided into two hills in the east and west. Each hill has a small bad guy, each stationed in the enemy with a reinforced platoon, equipped with heavy machine guns, one, light machine guns, and two hand cannons. The Third Battalion attacked Xiaopingzi, Shantou, Pingshan from the northeast from the 9th and 12th companies, and the Tenth and 11th companies attacked Xiaoyazi, Shantou, from the northwest from the 10th and 11th companies. Under the power of my continuous blasting, Lu Chai and the wall were blown up a large gap, and the troops quickly broke into it. The enemy was very stubborn and refused to surrender the gun. After four of our companies fought fiercely for forty minutes, only two were captured alive: the enemy, and the other two reinforced platoons were all shot dead.
There are also two large and small embankments at Pingshan Club at the foot of Pingshan Mountain. There are four anti-aircraft artillery towers at the four corners of Xiaowei, which are guarded by a deputy battalion commander of the enemy. Before the attack began, the Second Company soldiers used the cover of night to steal the grenade and under the enemy's deer firewood and wooden stakes. As soon as the attack signal was sent, the grenade was immediately pulled, and the deer firewood and wooden stakes were blown up. The second row rushed into the teeth with smoke and began to explode the artillery tower in the northwest corner. The first blaster advanced heavily under the enemy's firepower, leaned the explosive pack against the edge of the artillery tower, and pulled the fuse suddenly, but the explosive failed due to moisture. The second blaster sent another pack of explosives, but it still did not explode. The third blaster was quick to learn, grabbed a grenade and rushed forward, detonated the damp explosive with the grenade, and destroyed the artillery tower with a bang.
At the same time, the explosives were used up in the row of attacking the artillery tower in the southeast corner. What to do? Several soldiers carried a two-meter-high ladder, quickly stood beside the artillery tower, followed the ladder to the top, stuffed grenades from the hole of the gun into the artillery tower, killing and injuring more than ten enemies, and the rest were forced to surrender their guns. The other enemies were compressed in the artillery tower in the northeast corner and still resisted stubbornly. Under the supervision of the enemy's deputy battalion commander, they charged at me three times, and were all repelled by my brave soldiers. The enemy completely collapsed. At this point, the defending enemy of Daxuzi could no longer support it under the fierce attack. Pai Xiao, except for some of the enemies breaking through, the rest were wiped out by me. The entire Pingshan and Wushan fought for more than five hours, and an enemy reinforced battalion was solved by the entire suburbs. In this battle, due to the moisture of the explosives, the operational problems were extended and the casualties of our army increased.
Let’s talk about the siege battle on this side. While attacking the peripheral strongholds, the battle to attack Si County City also started. The 22nd Regiment launched an attack on the North Gate with the first battalion and the second battalion to the North Gate with the third battalion following after the first battalion. The breakthrough was very successful. The first battalion used for five minutes and the second battalion had ten minutes, and the breakthrough was opened. The breakthrough is so fast, which is a close combination of firepower cover, blasting and assault. At the beginning of the battle, the assault troops used sneak attacks and blasted the target under the cover of night and quietly approached the target and exploded Lu Chai. When the first pack of explosives exploded and caused the old friend to find out, I had prepared all kinds of light and heavy firearms to fire together and wiped the enemy's firepower. The second blaster took advantage of the moment when the enemy's fire weakened and jumped into the bridgehead to blast.
Almost at the same time, using gunpowders to cover the fire, the third and fourth blasters jumped up and followed closely and rushed to the city gate. Before the enemy could react, boom! Boom! Two loud noises, the sandbag that blocked the city gate flew up and the gap opened. This blasting method is one after another, closely linked, so that the enemy has no chance to breathe, and we name it "Serial Blasting". It requires each blaster to be very clear about its blasting mark, accurately calculate, and choose the road and time for assault. This kind of "Serial Blasting" was not available during the War of Resistance Against Japan, because most of the strongholds of the Japanese and puppet troops were independent high bunkers, and there were few sub-defense facilities. Most of the fortifications built by the Kuomintang army were low-voltage bunkers, and were equipped with sub-defense facilities such as barbed wire, deer firewood, and wooden piles. At this time, it was obviously impossible to use single blasting only. Only "serial blasting" can open the gap. It was created and gradually developed to combat with the Chiang Kai-shek's army.As soon as the breakthrough opening was opened, the commando rushed towards the city gate, occupied the commanding heights of the city gate tower, expanded the breakthrough opening, and protected the second echelon to follow up. The first brigade, which broke through the north gate, developed east along the street, and the second brigade developed west along the street. The Second Battalion and the Second {14th Regiment, which broke through the northwest gate, quickly entered the depths. The sound of gunfire and explosions turned into chaos in the enemy. I captured more than 400 enemies in one night.
The seventh day and the night is until dawn, and the two peripheral strongholds and two siege breakthroughs are relatively easy to fight in all four directions. The results of all the enemies on the periphery have been reported one after another, and the news is exciting. But the report on the battle between Wushan and Pingshan caused me to worry. Why? Because the results of the battle show that the enemies in Pingshan and Wushan are only one reinforcement battalion, two fewer than expected. Correspondingly, the defending enemies in the city are two more battalions than expected. This clearly shows that most of the main forces of the 172nd Division are in Si County. They have sufficient ammunition and have preset fortifications, familiarity with the terrain, and waiting for labor. This will inevitably add more difficulties to the capture of the city. Obviously, relying solely on the 22nd and 24th Regiments, the five battalions of the total number of troops cannot be solved.
I decided to speed up the implementation of the scheduled plan, and ordered the 23rd Regiment, the 3rd Battalion, and the 24th Regiment of the Second Echelon of the Division to quickly set off from Pingshan and Wushan to move closer to Sa County, and entered the position of the 22nd Regiment of the Siege, and prepared to enter the city to fight after dusk on the eighth day, and cooperate with the 22nd Regiment and the 24th Regiment to launch a general attack. Of course, in this way, the task of the 23rd Regiment was quite heavy. One battle had just finished the battle and had to be put into another more intense battle. However, the regiment commander Chen Shifa and political commissar Wang Liusheng said to me firmly: "No matter how arduous the task is, how much casualties the troops are, we are determined to complete the task!"
City broke through, and we captured about half of the area in the city. Previous worries quickly became reality. The Guangxi Army is good at alley formations. We have heard of it in advance, but we have never fought with it. After dawn, the enemy quickly woke up from the chaos and relied on his superior artillery fire to counterattack at me with his favorable terrain and the fortifications. The enemy's planes also came to assist in the war, and bombs continued to land on our positions, while our division's artillery was blocked by the rain, mud and mud. We had not arrived yet, so we could not organize artillery fire to suppress and fire.
In addition to killing our siege troops, enemy artillery fire focused on bombarding the bridge passages at the north gate. The contact between our assault troops and outside the city was interrupted by artillery fire, and the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment was also forced to stagnate due to the enemy's dense artillery fire on the edge of the city. Immediately afterwards, under the command of the division commander Zhu Nairui , the enemy organized all the mobile troops in the city into three counterattack teams. In addition, Zhu formed a "successful death squad" of 20 people, using each person to send 200 silver dollars to . It was covered with light and heavy machine guns, and opened the way and counterattacked me in turn. Its madness and intensity were rarely encountered by our troops. The active attacks of the 22nd Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the 24th Regiment, which remained in the city, turned into passive defense, and fought fiercely with the counterattacking enemies.
Because we had no artillery, the enemy's artillery fire and aircraft were very rampant. Bombs and shells poured on our army's positions like raindrops. Six planes kept firing and bombing. Most of the houses on our positions were defeated, leaving only a piece of rubble, and the troops suffered heavy casualties. The enemy's infantry and artillery cooperated in a coordinated manner. When the infantry developed to a place, they planted a small white flag as a mark. The artillery fire immediately extended and bombarded to find positions. The infantry immediately organized a further counterattack, trying to defeat the troops entering the city step by step and expel them from the city. In the fierce alley, the enemy competed with us one yard, one yard, one house, one house. The battle formed a stalemate, and several of our division leaders were anxious.
Is the warriors not fighting bravely enough? Absolutely not. We clearly know that several troops fought bravely and tenaciously, and were very outstanding. The cadres all led the way and the combat command was at the forefront. Many cadres in the company were injured and killed, the squad platoon leader was automatically acting, and the squad platoon leader was injured and killed, and the soldiers elected the commander themselves to fight again. The company commander and instructor of the 1st Company of the 24th Regiment were seriously injured during the battle, with only 30 or 40 people left in the company.
At this time, the enemy moved back from the two Hebei Provinces and surrounded him, trying to surround him. In this kind of love, the platoon leader Guo Jisheng (later for the famous combat hero of the country) stood up and said passionately to the soldiers: "Comrades! Now the whole company obeys my command and get a bayonet! We must use the bayonet to fight the enemy down and avenge the company commander and instructor!" After that, he led the whole company to rush towards the enemy group. After a fierce battle, he finally repelled the enemy's counterattack again. The second platoon of the 22nd Regiment had all bullets and grenades, leaving only fifteen people, and they still stood firm and forced to fight the enemy with bayonets. The soldier Zhang Xuean (later the tank hero in the battle of Lunan) picked up the old friend's six-O shells, took off the fuse safety needle, and threw it to the enemy. Many soldiers were injured and did not fall into the fire.
The soldier Li Jihai did not eat or drink for a day after being injured, and still stood on the position. The enemy rushed to him, he raised his gun and stood up with all his might and shouted, "Wounded comrades, grab the gun as long as they can climb and prepare to resist. We would rather fight to the death than let the enemy catch an angry one!" With his inspiration, many wounded people stood up from the pool of blood and faced the enemy. Wang Xuefu, a seriously injured third company soldier, couldn't move anymore. He said passionately to the squad leader: "What should I do? Before the war, I said that if my leg breaks, I have to destroy the enemy, but now I can't move anymore." Then, he turned to his comrades around him, "You should avenge me!" These words greatly inspired the decisive belief of the uninjured commanders and fighters. Their unanimous slogan was: "Stay and die with the positions, and defend the wounded and bleeding comrades!" In front of my brave iron warrior, the enemy did not dare to fight for bayonets. They often left a body and retreated, but soon they relied on their superior artillery fire and troops to counterattack.
On the eighth day, the troops fought bloody battles and repelled more than a dozen counterattacks from the enemy, and even the water in the city was stained with blood!
In this fierce bloody battle, it is particularly worth mentioning that Li Yiqin, the leader of the third company and the third platoon of the 23rd Regiment. He is a brave and resourceful commander. His biggest feature is that he is still calm and composed in the emergency situation where the enemy surrounds all sides, he carefully explores and masters the enemy's tactical rules, discovers and uses the enemy's weaknesses, and cleverly organizes and exerts his firepower to suppress and kill the enemy. After the battle began, Li Yiqin led the three platoons to develop with the large army and seized a yard east of North and South Street. This yard is very important for maintaining the front and back contact of the siege troops, and here he issued an order to hold his position. He replied: "With me, Li Yiqin, I will never lose my position!" He immediately organized a row to dig a gun hole on the courtyard wall, which not only concealed himself but also helped to fully exert firepower.
Due to full preparation, when the enemy counterattacked for the first time, Squad Leader Ninth alone defeated seventeen enemies. The enemy's artillery fire was very fierce, so Li Yiqin dispersed the troops and placed them in a relatively hidden place to guard the positions. At the same time, he organized a six-person mobile firepower team (a machine gun group and a bomb drop group), led by him, specializing in attacking the enemy's small counterattack. Wherever the situation was critical, the mobile firepower team would go wherever it was, and in this way, they defeated the enemy six times in a row. The enemy started the seventh counterattack again, approaching the third row of positions very frantically, and even grenades were dropped into the yard. Li Yiqin calmly directed the soldiers to retreat to the house, hung the grenades at the door, and threw them at the enemy group. Taking advantage of the situation when the enemy was panic, Li Yiqin flashed to the door, held the machine gun tightly, and threw six or seven enemies in one round.
In the eighth day, Li Yiqin led the third platoon to repel the enemy nine times, leaving more than forty enemy corpses in front of the position, and only four people in the platoon were injured. The soldiers all said: "With my platoon leader's command, we have confidence and confidence in destroying any powerful enemy." After the war, the entire company elected combat heroes by bean-voting, with 64 people participating in the vote, while Li Yiqin received 143 beans. It turned out that some soldiers threw a few more of them. In this way, Li Yiqin was honorably selected as a Class B combat hero.
At 2:00 p.m. on the 8th, the telephone line of the 22nd Regiment's headquarters to the second battalion in the city was broken by enemy artillery fire. The second battalion lost its command. The northwest gate they guarded was forced to break through by the enemy occupied troops. They crossed the bridge under the enemy's fire. Due to the crowding, some of them swam across the river, causing heavy casualties. At this time, the situation became even more critical, and the enemy's strength was all pressing on the first and third battalions of the Second Regiment. The enemy air and artillery cooperated to focus on the positions of the first and third battalions; on the road leading to the first and third battalions outside the city, and covered the infantry to counterattack even more frantically.
"The first and third battalions suffered great casualties!"
"Most of the positions were captured by the enemy!"
twenty-two traps kept calling for emergency. I said to Bi Qingtang, the leader of the 22nd Regiment: "You should organize your strength immediately and launch another counterattack to restore the original position. The 23rd Regiment will immediately cooperate with you to fight!"
At dusk, the 22nd Regiment gathered the two battalions together and fought back with all their strength to regain most of the lost position. At this time, the 23rd Battalions, the 23rd Battalions and the 24th Battalions, the 24th Battalions, executed the division command to rush into the city and join the battle.
When the 22nd Regiment was in a hurry, I called the Ninth Column on the east side of Sicheng, telling them that the enemy concentrated artillery fire and bombarded the troops who broke into the city. I was in a disadvantaged state and asked them to attack the city from the east to disperse the enemy's firepower. Even though the Ninth Column ordered the troops to attack the enemy in front of them, the water in their direction was very strong and they did not break through several attacks.
At dusk on the 8th, three battalions of the 23rd Regiment newly deployed into the city were restored and developed slightly after a fierce night of fierce fighting. However, because the reinforcements could not be further developed, the enemy and us once again formed a confrontation. Can we continue to fight in the next step? I called Chen Yi and Commander to report the situation, and asked two more regiments to increase their strength and arrive before Huang Xiang tonight. In this way, you can attack Sixian City, otherwise the confrontation will continue in the city, and the troops will suffer heavy casualties and the battle will not be resolved. After receiving the telegram, Commander Chen sent me and Chief of Staff of Song Shilun: "Does the Eighth Division reach the Eighth Division? If the current situation of the Eighth Division plus three regiments of the Second Column, the club attack can annihilate the enemy tonight, then continue to fight. Otherwise, you can consider waiting for the opportunity north of Ling and Si. Because I annihilate the enemy's periphery and kill the enemy in the city, the situation is still a victory. You have the full power to decide."
Immediately afterwards, Commander Chen sent three more messages: "I have recently obtained the battle reports of the Eighth Division and the Ninth Column. If I think it is difficult to capture, I can consider gathering Si and It is better to standby north of the spirit, please decide to implement it immediately. "
" If the second column can add two regiments to cooperate with the Eighth Division to organize the general attack, you should firmly resolve the enemy tonight, and if it is impossible, you should retreat. "
" If you have a general attack tonight, you should fight firmly. If you cannot attack tonight, you should retreat."
However, for various reasons, it was not possible to be Na Xiang as instructed by Commander Chen at that time, "adding three regiments of the Second Column" or the Second Column "adding two regiments to cooperate with the Eighth Division to organize the general attack." Since the beginning of the battle, part 4th Brigade of the Second Column approached Xiguan and formed a confrontation with the enemy. The main force was waiting in the Dengzhuang and Qiligou areas southwest of Lucheng. The main force of the Ninth Brigade gathered in the Dahuangjia area northwest of Sacheng, and one of them was responsible for the blocking aid task in the Changzhigou area. Six regiments of the 19th Brigade and the 21st Brigade of the 7th Division were deployed in the area north of Wuqiao between the south of Sicheng and Wuhe, and served as the blocking aid task port. These troops did not have the task of supporting Sicheng before the war. On the morning of the eighth day, an enemy camp lived in Bawang and Dunji. He found that our seventh division had fled to the south gate of Sicheng at noon and entered the west gate of Sicheng, which increased the difficulty of fighting in our city. After the enemy camp entered the city, the enemy was in a very high mood and was very arrogant.
At 12 noon in September, dozens of enemies climbed out of the city wall hole in the northeast corner of the city wall, crossed the river, and cut off the contact between our siege troops. I was determined to put the fifth company, which was the warning task of the division command post, into the battle, and the spy connection was a task for the fifth company. The fifth company will return the establishment after the battle.
At 5:00 p.m. on the 9th, the front-line commander issued an order to withdraw from the battle: "Since the attack on Sicheng has not been successful, I will definitely give up the attack on Sacheng. The main force will scatter the Ling and the areas north of Si to prepare for new maneuvers."
is difficult to attack the city, so you must be more cautious. In order to prevent the old man from taking the opportunity to pursue, our group-level troops covered the retreat in an orderly manner.We ordered the 23rd Regiment to attack the enemy with small forces and fire
forces to cover the main force to withdraw from the battle in an orderly manner. At twelve hours at midnight, all the troops withdrew from Chixian Town.
At this point, the battle in Luxian, which lasted for two days and three nights, was over. Our eighth Division killed and captured more than 3,000 enemies, and I also suffered 2,417 casualties, especially the cadres and backbone injuries, with more than 108 casualties, including four cadres in the regiment, and party members accounted for more than half of the total casualties. Our outstanding political cadres, Comrade Xin Yinmin, director of the Political Department of the 22nd Regiment of the 24th Regiment, Comrade Wei Xiangjiang, secretary of the Party Branch of the 24th Regiment, and others all died heroically in the battle. Such a big defeat was unprecedented in the history of our Eighth Division.
It allowed the enemy to occupy the entire Huaibei District more quickly, and the party and government work in Huaibei also suffered some losses.
Two years later, when I was living in Zhuhao Central Hospital, I flipped through my file box to the summary materials for the Sicheng battle and found my notebook with a letter from Commander Chen Yi to the Eighth Division. Seeing these yellowed manuscripts aroused my memories of the past, and the emotional heat prompted me to pick up my pen and write the first draft of "The Bloody Battle of Sicheng".
