229 Battle Southwest China

229 Battle Southwest (Middle)

The 16th Division of the Five Corps is the main force of the Hubei Army's westward into Guizhou. Yang Xingcheng, the revolutionary of the commander of the Guizhou Uprising.

At that time, the Wuchang Revolutionary Army and the Qing army were in full swing, and most of the uprising new troops in Guizhou had gone north to help in the battle: one went to Wuchang through Hunan with Yang Xingcheng, the governor of Guizhou, and Yang Dudu was originally from Xiushan, Sichuan, but he was not from Guizhou. He is similar to Mr. Zhu. He also pretended to be Songtao, Guizhou, sneaked into Guizhou Wubei School, and then sent to Japan to study. Therefore, although he once served as the governor after the revolution, his position in the exclusive Guizhou was unstable, so he had to go out to the province to help.

Under the cover of the Hunan Army organized by Tan Yanmin, the 16th Division crossed the Xiangjiang River from Pingxiang and Liling through Zhuzhou to the Hengyang and Shaoyang areas. Then it used friendly troops to move through the southwest of Hunan as a cover and marched west in a hidden place. At the end of the first month, it entered the Qianyang, Hongjiang, Huitong and Dongkou areas of western Hunan to prepare to march on Guizhou.

At that time, Liu Shixian, who defended Guizhou, judged that when the Hubei army marched towards Guizhou, it mainly marched west along the Xiangqian Highway. That is, the two regiments armed with their Guizhou regiments are deployed in Xindianping, Huang County, Yuping and Sansui, Zhenyuan and Shibing areas in Guizhou. Another regiment is stationed in Huangping and Jiuzhou as a reserve team. It also uses its patrol battalion stationed in Guiyang as a maneuver.

Liu Shixian's combat deployment is an attempt to take advantage of the dangerous terrain of Qiandong to form a high-level and deep defense posture, focusing on the Huangju, Sansui and Huangping sections of Xiangqian Highway, and forming a Qiandong defense line with the enemy in the southwest of Jinping to prevent the Hubei army from advancing.

According to Yang Fan's combat intention, Yang Kun, the commander of the Five Corps, decided to first break through the Qiandong defense line, open a large detour, and then advance deep into the enemy.

Yang Xingcheng of the 16th Division, in accordance with the combat intention of the Corps, formulated the army's combat plan: the 46th Regiment followed the direction of Tuokou Town, Wengdong, Wazhai and Sansui, went straight into the enemy's side, cooperated with the 17th Division to annihilate the enemy, and then advanced west along the Xiangqian Highway; the 48th Regiment attacked from the mouth of the cave to the direction of Tianzhu and Jianhe, and was responsible for the enemy in the south. Alert; the 47th Regiment is the second echelon, followed up with the 46th Regiment.

On February 3, the troops began to march fiercely towards Guizhou.

Under the strong offensive suddenly launched by the Hubei army, the defense of Chuanxiang, Hubei Huanghuju and Zhongtidao, Guizhou escort Liu Shixian, Yuan Shikai's envoy Guizhou patrol envoy Long Jianzhang and others rushed to Chengdu one after another. Chen Eunuch was shocked to hear that.

According to Yuan Shikai's judgment, the main force of the Hubei army will attack from the north of Sichuan, but now the Hubei army has launched an offensive in the east.

Chen Eunuch muttered in his heart: "The soldiers are not tired of fraud. Is this the main attack or a tamp; is this a tamp;

After a long silence, Chen Yan looked at the "military division" standing beside him, "Master" and other staff under the tents of the Sichuan patrol envoy, and asked, "In the direction of North Sichuan, what's the news about the Sichuan army?"

The "military division" replied: "After contacting the Chief Secretary of the First Affairs Department, it is informed that there is no sign of the attack by the Hubei army in the north of Sichuan at present. Qinling and Dabashan defense lines are An Ruotai Mountain..."

Chen Yan's analysis: If the eastern front is a sumption, then the main attack of the Hubei army will soon start on the northern line; if there is no movement on the northern front recently, it means that the main attack direction of the Hubei army is indeed on the east line. Therefore, Chen Yan is very concerned about the situation on the North Line.

After more than ten hours, there was still no movement in the north of Sichuan. Chen Huan realized the seriousness of the problem and immediately called the confidential secretary and dictated three telegrams:

A letter was sent to Beijing, informing the eastern situation of the "Southwest Defense Line" and requesting President Yuan to attack the madman Li as soon as possible to reduce the pressure on the southwest.

The second letter was sent to the three generals and four regiment commanders of the Eastern Front, telling them: "The Eastern Front is the lifeblood of Sichuan Foundation and must be defended."

The third letter was sent to Zhou Jun, the first thing of the Sichuan Army, which ordered the corps to transport the Jijiang River from the north and east of Sichuan to prepare for reinforcements.

According to Chen Yan's instructions, Huang Yuju was determined to concentrate his superior forces to launch an offensive against the E army in the direction of Yongshun. To this end, he transferred the 122nd Regiment to Zhongxian District, Sichuan Province to make up; the 124th Regiment blocked the Right Group of the E Army; transferred the 118th Regiment to Longshan and Laifeng, so that the 2nd Regiment went south from Xianfeng, and the 15th Regiment went to Shadaogou north of Laifeng, ordered the 79th Regiment to move west to Hefeng, and prepared to concentrate the four main regiments from the north from the 6th. The south launched an attack on the two regiments of the 47th Division of the Hubei Army.

In response to Huang Yu's attempt to launch an attack on the 47th Division, Li Xiping and Yang Fan's troops cooperated closely.

Li Xiping ordered the 47th Division to stop standby in Zhaotouzhai and car washing, and called Yang Fan on the 5th: "Whether the enemy plans to attack Yongshun or not, our three regiments hope to be able to pull out two or three regiments of troops and quickly occupy Youyang and advance to the Qianjiang River. If the enemy does not attack the Yongshun area, it will go straight from Xiyang to Pengshui and its northeast. , cut off the enemy's retreat." In order to unify the operational command, the two regiments of our 47th Division should be under the unified command and deployment of Yang Fan.

Yang Fan took the first regiment of the 12th Division to go out of Xiushan and Youyang through Yongsui, and then went straight out of Pengshui. The first regiment of the 11th Division rushed to the areas of Dayong and Sangzhi, and cooperated with the two regiments of the 47th Division. The two sides agreed to launch an attack on the Sichuan army in Longshan and Laifeng from the 10th.

According to the unified deployment, the Hubei army launched a fierce attack at the same time, breaking through the front-line defense of the Huanghu Group in one fell swoop. Acting as the 50th and 42nd Divisions of the right attack, they quickly captured the enemy's defense points such as Jianshi and Enshi, and continued to advance towards Xianfeng. As the 11th and 12th regiments of the left attack, they captured Xiushan, went straight to the Qianjiang River, and formed a north-south attack with the right army.

On February 7, Huang Hu, who was stunned by the Hubei army, woke up. Seeing that his troops were about to be surrounded by the Hubei army, he hurriedly deployed his troops to retreat to the west of the Wujiang River in an attempt to retreat to the Qianjiang River, Lianghekou, Gongtan and Pengshui areas to organize defense.

In this area, the mountains are continuous, the terrain is dangerous, and there are Tangyan River and the Yu River as natural barriers. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is known as the throat of Sichuan and Hunan.

After Li Xiping and Zeng Gao found that the Sichuan troops in Laifeng and Longshan areas began to withdraw to the west on the morning of the 8th, they ordered the 47th Division to launch a pursuit, requiring them to advance south at a speed of more than 100 miles every day, and stressed that the pursuit must be prepared to go straight to the areas of Fengdu and Fuling, and annihilate all the enemies along the Yangtze River and the Wujiang River. At the same time, inform Yang Fan of the situation.

On the 8th, the Southwest Operations Conference in Changde, Hunan Province is in progress. Yang Fan and other legion leaders also arrived in Changde by plane from Hanzhong and were preparing to follow up after the 3rd Corps. The upcoming combat meeting is mainly based on the progress of the war in the past week to determine the next course of action.

The meeting was first introduced by the young chief of staff. He said: "Since we launched an attack on February 1, the 5th Corps and the 10th Division have liberated Fenghuang, Huang County in western Hunan, Gangren, Zhenyuan and other counties in western Hunan; the main force of the 3rd Corps and the 47th Army of Siye have captured Laifeng, Xianfeng and Xiushan, Youyang and other places in Sichuan. District. Judging from the general situation, the enemy's 'southwest defense line' has been broken through from the center. At present, the troops are advancing towards the enemy's defense line.

A young chief of staff was elected to the staff because of his quick thinking, accurate memory, concise expression and logical and rigorous style. He can analyze the complicated situation and always report the most critical issues and the latest progress to the commander.

Yang Fan then talked about his judgment and determination to take the next step. He believes: "In the case that the main force of the enemy army in Sichuan and Guizhou retreats to the border of Guizhou and Yunnan, the focus of our current battle is still to cut off the retreat of Huang Huju and Liu Xianshi's retreat to Yunnan, and strive to annihilate it on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Therefore, our troops, especially those responsible for obstructing the enemy, must compete for time and speed with the fleeing enemy, otherwise they will lose the initiative formed by the attack. In particular, the 5th Corps, after capturing Guiyang, will continue to chase and annihilate the fleeing enemy, resolutely intercept the enemy, and create conditions for me to annihilate hundreds of thousands of enemy troops in Sichuan and Guizhou.

In the end, he did not forget to mobilize and said, "Our troops have a glorious tradition. We have driven thousands of miles in the defense of Hubei and chased the Beiyang Army many times! This long-distance pursuit of the enemy is the right time to give full play to our advantages. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen political work, stimulate morale, and improve the confidence of the vast number of fighters in liberating the southwest and carrying out the revolution to the end; on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen logistical support. At present, it is spring in the south, and it is rainy. Under such conditions, the troops march continuously and consume a lot of physical strength. Therefore, our logistics departments at all levels should ensure the supply and health of soldiers, and must not lose big things because of small things.

Chen Xiaochun, the commander of the 3rd Corps, was ordered to command the right group to fight, that is, to make a deployment at 19:00 on the 8th: after the 12th Division occupied Youyang, it quickly marched along both sides of the Wujiang River to Pengshui; the 47th Division should immediately intercept the two rivers and south of the Qianjiang River to the west of the Qianjiang River; the 47th Division of the 11th Division followed up; each pursuit force You should be light, overcome all difficulties, and move forward at the same time. As long as you can catch the enemy, you will be a victory.

As a result, two completely different scenarios appeared on the battlefield of Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan.

The Hubei army inserted into the enemy's defense line at a marching speed of more than 100 miles a day. On the roads and paths leading to the depth of the enemy's defense line, on narrow sections such as mountain streames and passes, sometimes several troops march side by side. You compete with each other for fear of falling behind. There is only one thought in the mind of the cadres and soldiers: "Forward, forward, chase and annihilate the fleeing enemy, and liberate the southwest!"

The enemy fled to the west in groups. At the beginning, the retreat was still organized and organized; but as the speed of running accelerated, everyone had to take care of each other. On a few highways, the scattered soldiers running from east to west are endlessly flowing. The older official took his wife to run in front of him in a carriage. The big or small official ran on the horse, and the small official and the soldier ran on two legs in the back.

The capture of Qianjiang River, Pengshui and other key points is the key to cutting off the enemy's west retreat.

In order to speed up the speed, the commander of the 12th Division ordered the 36th Regiment to drive in by car, gallop along the Chuanxiang Highway, and occupy Qiancheng, Yongsui, Xiushan and other places on the 9th. At the same time, the 34th and 35th regiments of the division followed Dayong. Yongshun. Baoqing and Yongsui line attacked and followed the 36th Regiment to follow up. On the 14th, the division's westward troops captured Gongtan and took advantage of the victory to cross Wujiang and Jiangxi Province.