Author: Mo Guyan
There is an impressive scene in the movie " Decisive Battle ": Huaye Acting Commander Su Yu gave a death order on the phone: "At any cost, occupy Cao Ba episode!" As the camera turned, the commander of the 7th Corps of the Chiang Army Huang Baitao also grabbed the phone and shouted: "If people die, you must keep it for me!"
In the entire Huaihai Battle , Cao Ba episode is the first key point. If Huang Baitao occupied this point, he would open the passage to escape west and perhaps he would be able to escape, and the Huaihai Campaign that Su Yu carefully planned would not be opened. In the end, the one who completely blocked Huang Baitao's chances was the death order of the 13th Column of Huaye and Su Yu, who was given to them.
13 Column was only upgraded from a local force to field army in the fall of 1947, and is the youngest unit in Huaye. They and their mothers, including the 9th Column of Huaye and the 4th Column of Dongye, are both soldiers of Jiaodong. The soldiers from all over the country are recognized as the most capable of fighting in the Northeast and Shandong, and the Shandong soldiers are the most powerful in the Jiaodong soldiers, so the 13th Column quickly became the rising star in Huaye. When fighting , Laiyang , the 7th vertical line basically broke the severity, and the victory was achieved by the final conclusion of the 13th vertical line; when fighting Yanzhou, the 13th vertical line's ability was amazing; when fighting Jinan, the 13th vertical line's limelight completely overshadowed the 3rd vertical line and the 10th vertical line, and the 9th vertical line won the title of " Jinan First Group ", and the 13th vertical line was not convinced. When the
13 received the order to occupy Cao Baji, they were still hundreds of miles away from Cao Baji and had to cross the canal on the way. Despite the difficulties, they arrived on time. The commander of the column, Zhou Zhijian, gave the order to the 38th Division of the vanguard, which regiment went to the first and fought first, and the fastest 114th Regiment took the lead in attacking the north gate.
The 44th Division of the 100th Army of the Chiang Army, which is the "Empressive Second Division", is all veterans, with a lot of experience in fighting and hard work, and is a difficult opponent. The villages in northern Jiangsu are full of water moats. The Chiang Kai-shek army made full use of this terrain feature. Deer forts and barbed wire were set up outside the trenches, bunker bunkers were built under the fence, and various firepower points were connected by traffic trenches. This is a new topic for the Shandong troops.
The battle process is full of dangers. The 1st Battalion of the 114th Regiment successfully broke through the north gate, but the enemy division commander Liu Shenghe organized a suicide squad to counterattack and soon sealed the breakthrough. The 1st Battalion was trapped in a heavy siege, with only a few dozen people left, and his lives were hanging on the line. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions repeatedly attacked and finally opened the breakthrough. As a result, when they were developing in depth, they were suppressed by fire and could not move. There were too few people left at the breakthrough, and they were immediately blocked by the enemy.
114 Regiment could not open the situation at the north gate, and the 115th Regiment of the 39th Division who hit the south gate could not attack. Just when the battle was in a stalemate, the anxious Zhou Zhijian received a report from the 38th Division: the 112th Regiment arrived.
13 Column has two strongest regiments, one is the 109th Regiment of the 37th Division, which is the famous " Jinan Second Regiment ", and the other is the 112th Regiment of the 38th Division. They don’t need to use ordinary battles. Once they are used, they need to solve the battle.
112 regiment ran for a day, and was exhausted and had no time to eat, so they joined the battle. The main force is the main force, and the 112th Regiment opened up the situation as soon as it came into battle. They quickly rushed in and rushed all the way, first rescued the one trapped in the wall, then captured two large bunkers of the enemy and a mountain cannon position, and the entire regiment was put into deep battle.
heard that the 112th regiment had entered, and Zhou Zhijian was completely relieved. In the end, 3,000 defenders were wiped out, and the division commander Liu Shenghe also died under the rifle of guns, but the result was that the person died and did not defend him.
captures Cao Baji, marking that Huang Baitao's hope of withdrawing to Xuzhou was completely shattered, and he could only concentrate his troops in Nianzhuangwei to fight the trapped beasts. In the Huaihai War, the 13th Column made its first contribution. However, Cao Baji also exposed the serious problems with the troops' tactical methods in the water net village operations, and this problem was exposed more thoroughly in the subsequent battle to attack and annihilate the Yellow Corps.
to fight against Huang Baitao, the 13th Column is one of the main attacking troops. Their mission is to capture small villages such as Xiaosongzhuang, Dasongzhuang, Hetaizi and Houhuangtan.It was these small villages that seemed to be within reach that allowed the 13th Column to leave Maicheng, and even in , Zhou Zhijian sighed in his memoir many years later: "The big river has come over, but I drank a few sips of water in the small river."
These villages were connected, all in the northwest of Nianzhuang. The defenders were the 63rd Division of the 100th Army, with a total of less than 3,000 people. Several villages are all in the water network, with ditches between the houses where boats can be run, and jungles around the village, all connected by traffic trenches. The terrain and fortifications are exactly the same as Cao Baji.
The Huaye troops in the Huaihai Battle
The battle started from Xiaosongzhuang, and after annihilated 200 enemies, they attacked Dasongzhuang. Zhou Zhijian came to Xiaosongzhuang at this time and the scene he saw was shocking: Xiaosongzhuang was almost bloody, but he didn't expect that so many people would die in a small village. The 110th Regiment and the 111th Regiment of the 37th Division jointly captured Dasongzhuang, and only 240 prisoners were captured in total, which shows how tenacious the enemy's resistance was.
Jiang Jun fled to Hetaizi in Xiaosongzhuang and Dasongzhuang. This was a small village with only about 20 households, but it caused significant losses to the Huaye troops.
Nianzhuang battle diagram
13 Column gathered two regiments of the 38th Division and one regiment of the 39th Division to attack Hetaizi. After fighting for two days and two nights, the entire line was frustrated, with huge casualties, and had to withdraw from the battle. As soon as the sky was dawn, Zhou Zhijian took the guards to the command post of the main attack battalion of the 38th Division to see the terrain. In the telescope, there were dense bodies lying on the open ground of hundreds of meters, all in the offensive formation. Abandoning the bodies of comrades-in-arms is by no means a tradition of our army, but the battle is so fierce that it is impossible to take back the bodies of comrades-in-arms in time when retreating, so we can only restrain ourselves after the war.
Zhou Zhijian felt heavy in his heart. After returning to the column command post, he received a call from Su Yu. Su Yu was angry rarely and criticized sternly on the phone: "At the beginning of the attack, your troops suffered so much casualties and progress was very slow. Go and rectify them before fighting." The
13 Column did not defeat the Hetai, which became an unprecedented coward since their establishment. The remnants of Chiang's army stationed in Hetaizi later retreated to Huangtan and were finally wiped out by the 6th Column. The 13th Column had no chance to take revenge.
13 Column withdrew to the southeast of Cao Baji for renovation, held a meeting of cadres above the camp to summarize the battles since Cao Baji. This meeting did not hold anyone accountable, nor did anyone be held brave, but just emphasized the need to summarize the experience and lessons learned. Zhou Zhijian concluded that the reason for the loss is that he did not adapt to the characteristics of water network village combat. It is not possible to use the old method of siege in the open land. It is a waste of time to rush to death on the open land. The most urgent task is to study tactical methods of plain combat, such as near-term operation.
Zhou Zhijian during the War of Liberation
In the battle to siege Huang Baitao's corps, each column of the Huaye suffered losses. Old troops like the 4th Column suffered greater losses than the 13th Column. This is because the water net village combat is a new topic for each unit. The 13th Column has no experience, and other units have no experience. Since its establishment, the 13th Column has won consecutive victories and has been smooth sailing. After a setback, it will inevitably affect morale. The reason why Su Yu took the 13th Column down and rested was ultimately due to the protection of this army.
In the battle to encircle and annihilate Huang Wei's corps, the 13th Column became the main force again. They have summarized the experience and lessons of the plain combat, and this time they fought very well. Therefore, in the process of military growth, defeating wars is also a lesson that must be learned.
[Deeply cultivate the history of war, promote positive energy, welcome to submit articles, private messages will be replied]
