On the afternoon of October 26, 1948, commander of the Third Column of the Second Corps of the North China Military Region, Zheng Weishan, suddenly received an urgent telegram from the commander of the Military Region, Nie Rongzhen, : immediately lead the third column and arrive at the city area before the 31st to block the enemy!
Such an urgent tone and arduous task made Zheng Weishan realize immediately: The situation in North China has undergone major changes!
As Zheng Weishan expected, the situation at that time was urgent. Chiang Kai-shek and Fu Zuoyi have just conspired to a very vicious and insidious plan - on the one hand, five divisions were drawn to form the so-called "fast column" and carry an astonishing amount of explosives, and to launch a sudden attack on Shijiazhuang, our army's important location; on the other hand, six divisions were assembled, ready to sneak attack on the Xibaipo District of the Party Central Committee, and attempted to destroy the head of our party and our army in one fell swoop.
Fortunately, the underground workers of our party discovered the vicious plan of Jiang and Fu in time and reported it to the Party Central Committee quickly.
Faced with this crisis, Chairman Mao published articles on Xinhua News Agency , directly making public the conspiracy of the Kuomintang to sneak attack Shijiazhuang, and used a wonderful "empty city plan" , psychologically shocked the enemy .
At the same time, Chairman Mao instructed the North China Military Region troops to draw elite troops and cut off the route of Fu Zuoyi's troops raiding Shijiazhuang, and militarily curb the enemy .
After receiving Nie Rongzhen's instructions, Zheng Weishan felt the situation was serious and immediately assembled the troops and called on all the soldiers of the Third Column to go all out to run to the whole city, "Swear to defend Shijiazhuang to the death!"
At that time, the Third Column was stationed between the mountains and ridges of the Aanshan Fort , at least five hundred miles away from the whole city. For the Third Column, a unit with extremely high execution ability, running 500 miles in four days is no problem, but for a long time before, the Third Column has been in a high-intensity battle, and the commanders and soldiers are in a state of extreme fatigue.
What's more, the road from Aanshan Fort to Mancheng is very difficult to walk. The commanders and soldiers of the Third Column have to defeat Fu Zuoyi's horse and car with two legs. is an impossible task .
But military orders must be absolutely obeyed, and there is no excuse to refuse. Zheng Weishan, the "ruthless man" of the Long March who had crossed grasslands three times and climbed snowy mountains three times during the Red Army period, called on all the soldiers of the throne to carry forward the spirit of the Long March and must arrive at the designated location within the specified time.
Generally speaking, it is impossible for the command organ to be ahead of the army march. However, in order to ensure the completion of the task and break the usual practice, Zheng Weishan drew some personnel from the column command organ to form a team, and he personally led the team to walk in front of the team, with the purpose of discovering and solving problems at any time.
More than 17,000 people in the entire column were marching, and there was no other sound, only the rapid footsteps were heard for a while. They crossed rugged mountains and crossed curved rivers, like surging tides, constantly moving forward and moving forward...
As we all know, it is not difficult to march for a few hours, but the difficult thing is the high-intensity marching that lasts for several days. The first day is often relatively easy, but people have physical and psychological limits. The more difficult it goes on, the greater the challenge to the army.
The kind of commander you have can lead out what kind of troops you can. Zheng Weishan, who is as fierce as a fire, has already tempered the Three Verticals into an iron army with strict discipline and will. The commanders and fighters of the All Verticals only have one common belief in their hearts: overcome all difficulties, strive forward, and must rush to the whole city before the enemy!
On the afternoon of October 28, Zheng Weishan led the Third Column just past Zijing Pass when he suddenly received the latest instructions from Nie Rongzhen: the enemy "fast column" trying to raid Shijiazhuang has completed the assembly in Baoding . The Third Column must speed up the marching speed to have hope of destroying the enemy's conspiracy.
Zheng Weishan did not mention any difficulties, his answer was only one sentence: "No problem, guarantee to complete the task!"
29 at around 3:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the 29th, Zheng Weishan led the leading troops to Kangguan and received the first emergency telegram from the military region: the two ace troops under Fu Zuoyi have set off and will arrive in Baoding that night. The situation of our army is getting worse and worse!
"I understand, we have to run faster!" Zheng Weishan put down the phone and immediately ordered the army: throw away everything else on his body except guns and ammunition! Run, run for me!
No one complained. Under the leadership of Zheng Weishan, who was decisive and fierce, and his nature was like a fire, the Third Ranger continued to run towards the target area, exerting the execution of this iron army "It is as fast as the wind, rushing like fire, and moving like thunder" to the extreme.
30th at dawn, the Third Column finally completed a marching of more than 500 miles within three days, and arrived at the interception site designated by the Central Military Commission - to the west of Wangdu, one day in advance.
However, things have changed significantly. A vanguard of the enemy has crossed Wangdu and is attacking south of Tanghe . Zheng Weishan made a quick decision: the full vertical continues to advance, and must reach the Shahe line close to Shijiazhuang as fast as possible!
The third vertex soldiers, whose physical strength has long been severely overdrawn, are determined to push themselves to their limits under the new mobilization order. must also arrive at Shahe as soon as possible at all costs, defend Shijiazhuang and defend the Party Central Committee!
run! Keep running! Come on and run! Run desperately! Never waste a minute or a second!
move forward! go ahead! Go forward desperately!
In the early morning of the next day, the Third Column finally stood in front of the enemy and arrived at Donggui Village north of the Shahe River and Yanzhao , becoming an steel barrier that prevented the enemy from raiding Shijiazhuang!
Three Verticals are like divine weapons from heaven, completely disrupting Fu Zuoyi's wishful thinking. Although the entire Third Column had less than 20,000 troops, they let Fu Zuoyi see the super execution ability of the People's Liberation Army to quickly mobilize troops. This psychological shock of is far greater than the actual military threat.
Fu Zuoyi was shocked, hesitated, retreated, and sent an emergency telegram asking the troops responsible for the raid of Shijiazhuang to withdraw immediately. His conspiracy with Chiang Kai-shek to attack Shijiazhuang was declared bankrupt, which also led to the entire process of the Liberation War in a direction that was beneficial to our party and our army.
It can be said that although the third column of did not fire a shot, it marched more than 600 miles in four days, and won a major victory that was famous in the history of our army in this life-and-death race with the enemy mechanized troops !
This is a miracle created with footsteps, and it is a victory exchanged for running!
