242 Four Battles Next

The ditch defense line in Handan has all been broken through.

On the eve of the launch of the general attack, Li Xiang called Lin Tiechang and instructed others: "(i) After breaking through the inner city ditch, you must push, insert and beat hard to prevent the enemy from breathing for half a minute; (ii) be fully prepared for street fighting; (iii) completely annihilate all enemies, including the return regiment."

"Yes!" Commander Lin Tiechang put down the phone and immediately ordered: "Sent a small number of troops to continue to besiege and attack the remaining strongholds, and all the rest of the troops will quickly advance to the second line of defense!"

At night, under the cover of the night, all departments of the National Revolutionary Army began a large-scale "local work" in the face of wind and rain.

In order to get close to the frontier of the defenders, a large-scale local work industry began.

The first echelon is unfolded at the enemy's front. First, it digs the lying-fire bunkers, and then gradually forms knee-fire and vertical-fire bunkers. Then some bunkers are added to the bunkers, and then the bunkers and bunkers are connected horizontally to build them into trenches. The second echelon builds longitudinal traffic trenches, while traffic trenches outside the range of enemy fire are built by militia and migrant workers.

I can't imagine what a strange scene it is. The siege tactics of digging trenches and tunnels from attacking targets from thousands of meters away are extremely ancient in the history of human war. There was no sound of guns during the excavation, and there was silence in the night, but the excavation was carried out on a huge scale. On the open land about 2,000 meters outside the second line of defense in Shijiazhuang, thousands of soldiers and farmers sweated like rain, but quietly.

Kuomintang officers and soldiers are already very familiar with this kind of tactics. They call this kind of operation "transformation of terrain": they dug wide, deep and long tunnels, which stretched densely to the front of the Beiyang garrison, and the soil dug was used to fill the defense trenches of the defenders. They also need to dig out all kinds of bunkers in the tunnel, dig them into single bunkers, then dig them into wellbore and then pull them out into a T-shaped shape, so that the passageway and bunker are connected to each other. When the tunnel was dug close to the defenders' defensive positions and defensive trenches, they dug out a huge explosive chamber and then put in thousands of kilograms of black explosives. The technicians of the engineering force lay on the tunnel and calculated the thickness of the soil layer and the power of the explosives over and over again to achieve the most ideal blasting effect they imagined.

The next day, when Chaohui dispersed the morning fog, he looked around and saw that yesterday was a flat field. It was completely different overnight, as if it had experienced a magical change: countless bunkers and crisscrossed trenches and traffic ditches, all over the open land with a depth of 2,000 meters between the inner and outer ditches.

The Beiyang garrison poked out of the front trench and couldn't help but feel lost. Someone immediately reported to Wang Luxiu, the commander of the Third Brigade. Wang Yuxiu couldn't believe it anyway. When he came to the front in person, he was really shocked. He couldn't figure out what methods the Kuomintang army had used and how much manpower had been used to dig such a dense and long traffic trench on the outside of his second line of defense overnight. What's more frightening is that his troops didn't catch any movement overnight.

Wang Yuxiu knew that the big thing was not good, so he immediately ran back to the headquarters and sent more than 40 telegrams for help to the friends and neighbors around Handan. However, at dawn, Wang Yuxiu was even more afraid, because except for Luoyang's Zhao Ti's call back to make him "suffering for help", Beijing Yuan Shikai and Xinyang Duan Qirui did not reply.

The sun sank in the west, and the red light was like fire. The powerful artillery of the National Revolutionary Army suddenly roared, and the general attack on the inner ditch began.

The artillery bombarded fiercely according to the targets of their respective performance and division of labor: mountain shells roared at the enemy's high bunkers; the shells of combat defense and infantry guns roared and exploded on the enemy's low bunkers and fire points; light machine guns blocked the enemy's bunker holes; mortar shells blossomed in the enemy's field scattered positions; heavy artillery Carry out suppressive shooting at the depth of the enemy. Internal blasting goes hand in hand with external blasting. Handan trembled in the deafening sound of cannons and explosions. There was red light everywhere, thick smoke everywhere, and rubble flying everywhere.

With the overall breakthrough of all kinds of attacking troops, the battle immediately began on the third defense line in the city, and the two sides competed for each house by one. Ma Hongkui led two reconnaissance companies deep into the city. They groped for two hours in the chaotic and strange city and occupied a high water tower at midnight.

Soon, the scouts came back breathlessly and reported that they had caught the brigade commander and deputy brigade commander of the Third Brigade. Ma Hongkui rushed over and lit a flashlight. There were indeed two generals among the prisoners. Wang Yuxiu looked unlucky and raped by his wife in bed.

Ma Hongkui said to Wang Yuxiu domineeringly, "On behalf of the front-line headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army, I order you to write to your troops immediately to surrender."

Wang Yuxiu pulled his eyelids and ignored the stinky stinky doll general of the Kuomintang, who didn't even have hair.

Ma Hongkui was on fire. His big-brimmed hat fell, rolled up his sleeves and rushed up, and slapped loudly: "Next door to Mahler, I can't kill you!"

Wang Yuxiu covered his swollen face and felt that his front teeth were a little loose, and there was a salty smell at the corners of his mouth. There was a bubble of tears in his eyes, and asked his staff to send it to his subordinates.

At 11:00 p.m., the defenders of the Beiyang Army in Handan stopped resisting.

So far, Handan and its surrounding areas have all been captured by the National Revolutionary Army.

Handan, which is "blocking Kansai" boasted by the Beiyang Army, was liberated in six days and six nights.

On the situation map of the national strategic counterattack, the flag of the National Revolutionary Army was planted on the large and medium-sized cities occupied by the Beiyang Army for the first time. After Li wanted to publish the "Declaration of Yuan", in just one month, the battlefield of the Central Plains ushered in a great victory, and for a while, the prestige of the National Revolutionary Army was greatly boosted.

The capture of Handan opened the door of the Central Plains, which fundamentally changed the situation of the Central Plains battlefield, thus opening up a new situation for the Central Plains operations.

The day after the end of the battle, Li Xiang called all the commanders of the military region to encourage him. Jia Mian said, "After only a week of fighting, it liberated Handan and annihilated the defenders. This is a great victory and a precedent for seizing big cities. The whole army is specially rewarded."

For any army, after occupying a big city, preventing looting, corruption, ** and destruction has been a huge problem since ancient times.

The headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army in Hubei District issued the "Nine Chapters of the Law" entering Handan:

I. Implement all seizures and return to the public, increase the financial revenue of the border areas, uniformly distribute the winning goods, and resolutely oppose the phenomena of fundamentalism, selfishness, foreign wealth and corruption. We will highly improve our political awareness, not be tempted by all kinds of things, maintain the glorious tradition of hard work, and carry forward the spirit and style of the people's army serving the working people.

II. All actions obey orders and obey the command. All the disciplines and regulations promulgated by the garrison in order must be effectively observed by any unit personnel, and consciously become a model for observing and maintaining order, so as to prevent them from being proud of their achievements and not obeying the command. The confiscation and disposal of all materials, the inventory of household registration and the arrest of counter-revolution are the responsibility of the local party and government organs. The investigation materials can be handed over to the relevant organs, and shall not be handled in private hands for perfection.

3. It is strictly forbidden to destroy machines, factories, hospitals, electric lights, tap water, telephone wires, glass and all urban buildings and equipment (except for military operations). In-depth explanation to the whole army that once the city is liberated, it will be the people's city and owned by the people; in-depth ideological education, educate the whole army to care for materials, care for construction, and oppose acts of destruction. After liberation, Handan has played a great role in the development of production and construction in the liberated areas, prosperity of the economy, and supporting the front line. Any loss will be a loss for the people and must be taken care of.

IV. It is not allowed to use and carry all materials, materials, materials and utensils by yourself. There is only the task of caring for warehouses and storage rooms, and the responsibility of reporting, and the right to use them. All military materials, except those captured on the battlefield, shall be disposed of by the organs of the military region.

V. Do not infringe on urban industry and commerce, do not occupy schools, and do not enter churches. In particular, we should protect the lives and property of the urban poor, speak peacefully, and trade fairly. For the people newly liberated from the long-term rule of Yuan Shikai and the Qing Dynasty, we should be given sympathy and help, and strengthen the publicity and interpretation of the people.

6. After the end of the battle, in addition to arresting the rapist, it is strictly forbidden to shoot or throw bombs without permission. Any test gun must be approved by the garriver or senior military organ.

7. Strengthen combat unity to prevent the occurrence of disunity and disputes between troops, troops and local personnel; emphasize mutual assistance and mutual concessions. If problems occur, they should seek solutions in a calm manner.

8. It is strictly forbidden for individual personnel to wander around teahouses and pubs, especially in the Lao area. They are not allowed to eat and drink, and pay attention to military style and neat military uniforms.

IX. If it is not for special military needs, migrant workers and militiamen are not allowed to enter the city, and they are persuaded and explained in good faith.

The above hope is to contact the eight points of three da discipline, and carry out repeated education among all personnel in the army.

Make ideological preparations, after the discussion of the party committees at all levels, the whole army is mobilized, the organization guarantees, and unanimous compliance.

If there is a violation, it shall be subject to discipline.

However, there are still problems such as "competing for seizure and merit".

Li Xiang specially flew to Handan and made a speech at the cadre meeting above the regiment:

"Open the city, the things seized, the first cannot be broken, the second must be returned to the public, and must not be private. In the future, after the fall of big cities, military management should be implemented for a period of time. While fighting, the new democratic country should be built in this way.

"Fighting a war while building housework", the Kuomintang people have clearly realized from this moment that a brand-new task may be more difficult than a war, and managing a big city after the liberation of a big city will be an important task.

Li wants to return to Wuchang and immediately expand the meeting. This meeting of the Ezhou Kuomintang is of great significance in the history of modern Chinese wars.

Thematic report made by Li Xiang is called "The Current Situation and Our Tasks". Li Xiang put forward the "Ten Military Principles" in this report and once again shamelessly plagiarized the intellectual property rights of great men...

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In the words of later historians and military scientists, this is a military discourse worthy of the pride of General Li's life. It is a military code that guides the Kuomintang army to win the victory of the Liberation War. Its core is the idea of annihilation that "it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers"