Li Tianxia, a native of Taicang, Jiangsu Province, graduated from Huangpu Phase III and is a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek.
At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the commander of the 100th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and in 1946 the 100th Army was reorganized into the reorganized 83rd Division, with Li Tianxia as the commander of the division, and the division was also one of the first units of the Nationalist Army to change into American weapons, which shows that the combat effectiveness of the division is also a relatively strong group in the Nationalist Army.
Chiang Kai-shek and Li Tianxia
In June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek set off a full-scale civil war, and Li Tianxia led the reorganized 83rd Division to March to Taixing in the central Soviet Region and assigned it to Li Mo'an Group Army.
In July of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek decided to launch a comprehensive attack on the liberated areas of central Jiangsu, appointed Li Mo'an as the commander-in-chief, and under his jurisdiction five integrated divisions and another integrated brigade, about 120,000 people, attacked in three ways to central Jiangsu.
Li Tianxia's task of reorganizing the 83rd Division was to attack from Taixing, cooperate with the 99th Brigade to occupy Huangqiao, and then attack Rugao with Wang Tiehan's integrated 49th Division.
Li Tianxia was overwhelmed
Although the reorganized 83rd Division is not the top unit of the Nationalist Army, it is definitely an elite in the Li Mo'an Group Army, and we see that Huang Baitao, commander of the reorganized 25th Division, is neither a Baoding department nor a Huangpu department, and a typical miscellaneous army background, and likewise, Wang Tiehan's reorganized 49th Division is the former headquarters of the former Northeast Army. And Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division was a concubine unit dressed in beautiful weapons, so naturally it was a bit arrogant, so she made a wild statement:
"I can also touch Su Yu in a group."
The New Fourth Army in central Soviet Union
In Li Tianxia's impression, the New Fourth Army (Central China Field Army) led by Su Yu was just a group of guerrillas, and it was okay to fight guerrillas, and if it really opened up a frontal fight, the New Fourth Army would certainly not be the opponent of his mechanic division.
He thought that he had received further education at the Whampoa Military Academy, and then received teaching and training from the US military, and with the combination of the us weapons that had just been re-equipped with advanced US weapons, was it not handy to fight a group of guerrillas with backward equipment?
In mid-July 1947, two regiments of the 19th Brigade of Li Tianxia's reorganized vanguard of the 83rd Division had marched to Xuanjiapu and Taixing respectively, and began to build fortifications, waiting for follow-up troops to follow up.
At this time, it was not only Li Tianxia, but also Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, who believed that he had sent 120,000 troops to attack Suzhong, while Su Yu had only 30,000 people, and Suzhong was a plain, so there was no danger to defend, there was nowhere to hide, and the New Fourth Army, which could only fight guerrillas, was certainly not an opponent of his mechanic division on the plain. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek believed that as long as the troops advanced steadily, three weeks would be enough to occupy Soviet Central.
At this time, Su Yu, who was commanding the operation at the Headquarters of the Central China Field Army, roughly understood the offensive plan of the Kuomintang army through the information intercepted by the intelligence department, and the enemy divided his troops and advanced, and the best way was to concentrate his forces and break the enemy's way. In the past, in the face of the enemy's encirclement and suppression separately, it was generally to fight the weak and not to fight the strong, but this time
Su Yu did the opposite
Su Yu decided to attack the most elite reorganized 83rd Division of Li Mo'an Group Army first.
Did Li Tianxia say that a regiment would have to touch Su Yu? Su Yu met his demands, and on the night of July 13, Su Yu ordered 15 regiments of Tao Yong's 1st Division, Wang Bicheng's 6th Division, and Guan Wenwei's 7th Column to quietly advance to the vicinity of Taixing and Xuanjiabao. At this time, the enemy of Taixing was the 57th Regiment of the 19th Brigade of the 83rd Division, the enemy of Xuanjiabao was the 56th Regiment of the 19th Brigade and the attached Brigade Headquarters Mountain Artillery Battalion, and the 19th Brigade Headquarters was in the area around the port. Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division had not yet been fully assembled in Taixing, and the main force of the 63rd Brigade under his command had not yet reached the battlefield, so it was an excellent opportunity to annihilate the 19th Brigade.
Su Yu ordered Tao Yong's 1st Division to attack Xuanjiabao and Wang Bicheng's 6th Division to attack Taixing, and the remaining main forces of the two divisions gathered west of Xuanjiabao to prepare to ambush the main force of the 19th Brigade that came to the rescue. Guan Wenwei's 7th column advanced to the north of Xuanjiabao, preparing to block the enemy troops who came south to rescue and ensure the safety of the main flank.
Fierce battle Xuanjia Fort
According to the intelligence, Tao Yong knew that there was probably only one battalion of the enemy army near Xuanjiabao, so he ordered the 8th Regiment of the Third Brigade to launch a tentative attack on Xuanjiabao, and the fierce battle lasted for one day, and little progress was made. The 56th Regiment was the most elite part of the reorganized 83rd Division, and in the face of our army's attack, all kinds of firearms were used, coupled with the powerful firepower of the mountain artillery battalion, the 8th Regiment temporarily withdrew.
After dawn, Tao Yong ordered the troops to retreat, and it turned out that the enemy troops in Xuanjia fort were not less than one battalion, but one regiment plus one mountain artillery battalion. Tao Yong immediately transferred the 7th and 9th regiments to prepare to launch a general offensive with these three regiments in the evening.
At this time, Li Tianxia was even more proud, and he asked Zhong Xiongfei, the commander of the 56 regiment under his command, how the front line was fighting, and Zhong Xiongfeng reported: "Don't worry, the small units of the communist army are just harassing, under our strong firepower, the communist army has been repelled." And assured Li Tianxia:
"If the Communists can retake Xuanjiabao from me, they can carry guns and not send a single bullet into Nanjing!"
Li Tianxia also felt that Su Yu certainly did not dare to take the initiative to send him to the door to fight his reorganized 83rd Division, which should be the usual attack and harassment of the communist army.
On the night of July 14, Tao Yong commanded the various units to launch a more powerful offensive, ordering the 8th Regiment to continue to take the lead from the east, the 7th Regiment from the northwest, and the 9th Regiment from the southwest. To the southwest was a weak area of enemy defense, and the second battalion of the 7th Regiment quietly sneaked forward and sneaked down on the enemy bunker. Seeing that the southwest side was attacked by 7 regiments, the enemy army tore open the enemy's defense line from the east in a panic, broke into the enemy position, completely annihilated the 56 regiments, and captured the enemy major general Zhong Xiongfei.
Attack Taixing City
At the same time as Tao Yong's 1st Division launched an attack, at 9 p.m. on July 13, Wang Bicheng commanded three regiments of the 16th Brigade of the 6th Division to attack the enemy 57th Regiment in Taixing. Taixing City has a 7-meter-high wall, and the 57th Regiment has also built many bunkers on the periphery, so it is difficult to attack the stronghold.
It was also a night of fighting that failed to capture Taixing, but only pulled out some bunkers on the outskirts. On July 14, Wang Bicheng ordered the artillery to be concentrated and concentrated on bombarding a corner of the city wall of Taixing City, and finally tore a hole in the wall. After xu Changyuan served as the captain, formed a commando team, and rushed to the torn opening, Xu Changyuan after climbing the city wall, set up machine guns on the battlements, repelled the enemy counterattack, covered the rest of the commandos to advance, and then the taixing city defense was breached, and most of the enemy's 57 regiment was annihilated.
It was only at this point that Li Tianxia understood that the original direction of Taixing was Su Yu leading Huaye's main force, but by this time it was too late, the two main regiments of the 19th Brigade had already been eaten by Huaye, and Huaye captured more than 3,200 people, including Zhong Xiongfei, the commander of the 19th Brigade, and gave the enemy 19th Brigade a annihilating blow.
Post-war summary: Soldiers are not tired of deception
The proud Li Tianxia originally thought that Su Yu did not dare to fight his reorganized 83rd Division first, and thought that Su Yu was only engaged in raiding and harassing operations, but he did not expect that the Central China Field Army had annihilated his two regiments in less than 60 hours.
On The day of July 13, Su Yu asked the attacking troops not to fight too hard, pretending not to be able to defeat the enemy army, so that the Nationalist army thought that their firepower had completely suppressed our army's attack. It made the Nationalist army feel proud that our army still attacked the city with the kind of guerrilla attack, and at the same time could also confuse the enemy's judgment, so that Li Mo'an thought that our army was attacking from the east to the west, so he induced Li Mo'an to make a wrong judgment, thinking that Su Yu wanted to fight wang Tiehan's reorganized 49th Division in the far south, so he immediately ordered the reorganized 49th Division to retreat.
But Su Yu's plan, how could Li Mo'an think through it so easily. After Li Mo'an was deceived, Su Yu immediately killed another horse gun, and on July 14, Su Yu immediately concentrated his troops and launched a real general attack on the enemy troops in Taixing and Xuanjiabao, catching the enemy troops who were taken lightly and annihilating them in one fell swoop.
Su Yu made full use of the offensive tactics to the fullest, made full use of the proud and light enemy's heart of the reorganized 83rd Division, seized this weakness, and delivered a fatal blow.