In late August 1945, Luo Ronghuan ordered the Eighth Route Army of Shandong to return to the Liberated Areas and sweep away the remnants of the enemy occupying the Liberated Areas. In the past few days, the various armies have fought smoothly, and good news has been frequently reported, but Linyi City under the eyes of the eyes has been unable to attack for a long time.
This made him very anxious.
On August 16, the Japanese troops in Linyi City fled to Zaozhuang, where only two security brigades of puppet troops were stationed. Xu Lansheng and Shao Zihou, the leaders of the two brigades, brought Wang Hongjiu's troops under the banner of the Kuomintang into the city, and the three puppet armies totaled more than 2,000 people. On August 17, luzhong and binhai troops of the Eighth Route Army attacked Linyi and quickly occupied the four sides of the city. Then, twice, they attacked the city walls. Due to inadequate preparations and the consolidation of the fortifications of the city, many casualties were inflicted and no attack was made. Wang Hongjiu, Xu Lansheng, and Shao Zihou were all traitors who had committed the most heinous crimes, and seeing that the Eighth Route Army had lost twice, they were even more rampant and refused to surrender.
The commander of the Linyi front of the Eighth Route Army was Li Zuopeng, chief of staff of the 115th Division Headquarters. He worked in the General Staff Office during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, rising from chief of the reconnaissance section to chief of the operations section to chief of staff. In peacetime, when it comes to strategy and tactics, luo Ronghuan sent him to the Linyi front to command the siege of the city, but he was unable to attack it repeatedly and was helpless.
Luo Ronghuan was very annoyed and called many times to supervise, but Li Zuopeng still did not work.
By early September, all the large armies were victorious, and there was still no progress on the Linyi front. Luo Ronghuan was angry and anxious, and sent a telegram to ask Li Zuopeng. Li recalled that on the one hand, he was digging trenches and pillboxes to suppress the enemy and launch a political offensive in the forward position; on the other hand, he was carrying out earthwork in the northwest corner of the city and preparing to dig the tunnel under the city wall, but the tunnel operation encountered difficulties and had not yet been dug.
At this time, the headquarters of the Shandong Military Region moved to Dadian Village in Junan County, only a few dozen miles away from Linyi. Luo Ronghuan, who was sick on the bed, could no longer lie down, rolled over and got out of bed, called for the guards, and said loudly:
"Prepare your horse and go to Linyi!"
The guard went out for a spin and came back and said,
"Report chief, can't find the groom."
"If you can't find the groom, go and bring the cattle!" Luo Ronghuan said unhappily.
"I don't know where the cattle went."
Luo Ronghuan finally got angry: "You guys are doing something, go and find me the horse!" ”
The guards stood still.
It turned out that he had just been ordered to prepare a horse, and when he walked outside the door, he happened to meet Luo Ronghuan's wife, Lin Yueqin. Lin Yueqin heard that Luo Ronghuan was going to the front line of Linyi, knowing that he was seriously ill and could not ride a horse at all, so he was so anxious that he had no choice but to ask the breeder to take the cattle away. When the guards saw that Luo Ronghuan was angry, they had no choice but to tell the truth:
"It was Assistant Forester who told him to take the horse away."
Luo Ronghuan reprimanded angrily, "Play the piano indiscriminately!" Are you listening to me? Or listen to Lin Yueqin? ”
Lin Yueqin saw the situation and immediately came in from outside the door and said, "It's not about the guards." ”
"You, you..." Luo Ronghuan couldn't say anything more, and suddenly roared, "You, you're really playing the piano and making up your own mind!" ”
"The doctor said that your condition has worsened, and you should pay attention to rest."
Luo Ronghuan was still angry: "Rest, Linyi can't open, how can I rest?!"
When Li Yu heard the news, he also rushed over, so that he could talk about evil words, and only then did he dispel Luo Ronghuan's idea of personally coming to the front.
On the Linyi front, when they heard that Commander Luo was angry, they finally summoned up the momentum and braved the enemy's artillery fire to dig tunnels day and night, and finally dug under the city wall and planted 4,000 kilograms of black explosives.
In the early morning of September 10, in the northwest corner of Linyi City, "Boom! "In the sound of the explosion of the earth, the city wall exploded into a large gap of more than 30 meters wide. Riding on the smoke and dust, the siege commandos rushed to the base of the wall to occupy the breakthrough. The traitor Wang Hongjiu struggled to the death, driving a large number of puppet troops to compete for a breakthrough. The two sides fought fiercely for two hours. The troops occupying the breakthrough of the Eighth Route Army ran out of grenades, but the follow-up troops did not rush up, and the breakthrough was still retaken by the enemy.
That night, the Eighth Route Army continued to attack, once again rushed into the breakthrough, carried out continuous blasting, and then entered the street battle, so it fought house by house. The puppet army cast poison gas five times, but it still failed to save the fate of annihilation. On the morning of September 11, the Eighth Route Army occupied the whole city, annihilated more than 2,000 puppet troops, and captured the traitors Xu Lansheng and Shao Zihou alive.
The Battle of Linyi took 25 days to end in victory. Later, Luo Ronghuan summed up the liberation of Linyi in the First World War, and reviewed whether it was a mistake for him to send Li Zuopeng to be a commander, saying:
"Li Zuopeng has been sitting in the organ for a long time, and he can only talk on paper and lack actual combat experience. After arriving in the northeast, it was time for him to go down to the army to exercise. ”
Later, Luo Ronghuan led his troops to the northeast, and indeed Li Zuopeng was sent down to the field troops and tempered into a general.