When the War of Liberation was carried out in 1949, our army successively formed 19 field regiments. Among the commanders of these 19 corps, 18 participated in the 1955 grand award, of which 15 were generals, and Chen Geng, Xu Guangda and Xiao Jinguang became generals. However, Cheng Zihua, who had served as the commander of the 13th Corps of Shiye, did not participate in the award ceremony, and regrettably lost the rank of general. The main reason why Cheng Zihua did not attend the award ceremony was that he left the army at the end of 1949 and moved to local work.
So why did Cheng Zihua leave the army at the end of 1949 and transfer to local work? This is related to the battle of Miyun. Before the Battle of Pingjin, Fu Zuoyi had hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, of which the 35th Army of his concubine was the strongest. In order to transfer the 35th Army from Beiping to eliminate, Chairman Mao sent a telegram ordering Yang Chengwu to lead his troops to attack Zhangjiakou. If our army captures Zhangjiakou, Fu Zuoyi's rear road to Suiyuan will be cut off. Therefore, when the Zhangjiakou general Sun Lanfeng asked Fu Zuoyi for help, he did not hesitate to send Guo Jingyun's 35th Army.
At that time, Fu Zuoyi judged that the Northeast Field Army would have to rest for at least three months after the end of the Liaoshen Campaign before entering the customs operation, so he was relieved and bold to let the 35th Army rush to zhangjiakou. However, to Fu Zuoyi's surprise, the advance corps of Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong in the Northeast Field Army had secretly entered the customs before the Liaoshen Campaign was over, and had already arrived near Jixian County. Therefore, guo Jingyun had just led the 35th Army out of Beiping, and Chairman Mao sent a telegram ordering Cheng Zihua's corps to "quickly surpass the enemy on the Miyun, Huairou, and Shunyi lines and advance toward the Yanqing and Huailai areas" in order to block the retreat route of the 35th Army.
In this telegram, Chairman Mao explicitly asked Cheng Zihua's advance corps to "surpass the enemy of Miyun", but Cheng Zihua believed that the Baihe and Chaohe rivers near Miyun were the necessary places for the troops to advance westward, and taking Miyun would relieve the troops' worries. At the same time, the investigation learned that the defenders in Miyun City only had the strength of a security regiment, so they decided to take Miyun and then advance to Huailai. On December 2, the 31st Division of the 11th Column of Cheng Zihua's Advance Corps, led by division commander Ou Fufu, launched an attack on the enemy defending Miyun.
It is said that a division in Higashino's fight against the enemy and a security regiment is a matter of grasping hands, but after the battle was launched, the enemy's situation changed greatly. The three regiments of the enemy 13th Army stationed at the outer stronghold of Miyun all shrank back into Miyun City, so that the enemy army in the city suddenly increased to more than 7,000 people, the 31st Division's attack was blocked, and the battle was deadlocked. After Cheng Zihua received the battle report, he immediately ordered the remaining 32nd and 33rd Divisions of the 11th Column to immediately enter the battle and attack Miyun.
After three days of bitter fighting, our army finally captured Miyun, annihilated more than 7,000 enemy troops, and suffered 1,143 casualties. After learning that the PLA troops attacking Miyun were all wearing dog skin hats, Fu Zuoyi was shocked, and he was keenly aware that the main force of the Northeast Field Army had entered the customs in advance, so he hurriedly sent a telegram to Guo Jingyun, asking him to return to Beiping quickly, and at the same time sent An Chunshan to lead the 104th Army to respond. On December 6, Guo Jingyun led the 35th Army from Zhangjiakou, at this time Cheng Zihua's advance corps was still far from Huailai, and if the 35th Army fled into Beiping, it would have a very adverse impact on the battle situation.
Chairman Mao was very angry when he heard this news, and immediately sent a telegram to Cheng Zihua: "You (referring to Cheng Huang) have given Yang (referring to Yang Chengwu) and Li Dian Ling several times, which are not in accordance with the specific circumstances, and all of them conflict with the Regulations of the Central Military Commission on cutting off Zhang Xuan's two enemies. Now that Yang Li has allowed the 35th Army to flee eastward, he does not know whether Yang (referring to Yang Dezhi) Luo Geng can stop the enemy at the new security guard, and you yourself will not fight Miyun with the rear guards, but with the vanguard army to fight Miyun, causing delays. In this case, it may be that you have not yet arrived, and the 35th Army and the enemy of Huailai have fled east together, and you will have nothing to do when you arrive, and you will go back and forth empty-handedly. Nevertheless, you must rush in by the starry night. I hope that Yang Luogeng can seize the main forces of the 35th Army and the 104th Army on the Lower Garden and the New Security Line as early as the night of the sixth or seventh day, and the enemy of Huailai has not run away, and you can cooperate with Yang Luogeng to annihilate the enemy. ”
From this telegram, we can see Chairman Mao's dissatisfaction with the unauthorized attack on Miyun by Cheng Zihua's advance troops. In fact, if it were not for Zheng Weishan of the North China 3rd Column attacking in time and blocking An Chun Mountain in the area of horse pen and alkali beach, Guo Jingyun would really have been rescued. In the Miyun Battle, Cheng Zihua almost lost a lot of money because of a small loss, and after the war, he was severely criticized by his superiors. Later, although Cheng Zihua served as the commander of the 13th Corps of Siye, he was transferred from the army before the Battle of Guangxi was completed, transferred to Shanxi, and never returned to work in the army, so when he was awarded the title in 1955, he regrettably lost the rank of general.