From July 7 to 16, 1948, the 6th column of the Central Plains field army broke the historical practice of "attacking Xiangyang, we must seize Nanshan first", and adopted such tactics as "taking advantage of the gap to defeat the enemy, leaving the mountain to attack the city, smashing the city with heavy fists, and dividing and encircling and annihilating" to conquer Xiangyang and annihilate more than 14000 Kuomintang troops. The victory of this battle established a forward base for our army to cross the river and enter Sichuan. At the same time, it cut off the connection between the Kuomintang army baichongxi group in Central China and the Northwest zhangzhizhong group, blocking the retreat of the Kuomintang army from the Han River basin to the south. Take advantage of the gap and attack the city against the mountain. In mid and late June 1948, the East China Field Army and the Central Plains field army jointly launched the East Henan campaign. In order to reinforce Kaifeng and save the district Shounian Corps besieged by our army, Chiang Kai Shek urgently dispatched Hu Lian and Wu Shaozhou Corps from Runan and Zhumadian to the north to rush to the east of Henan. In Xiangyang, Fancheng and other places in the middle of the Han River Basin, only three brigades and some security groups in the 15th appeasement area of the Kuomintang are left to defend, and their strength is relatively weak. The Central Plains field army seized this favorable opportunity and launched the Xiangfan campaign on July 3. On that day, all Kuomintang troops in Xiangyang area were forced back to Xiangyang City and the surrounding mountains. Xiangyang ancient city connects Guanzhong and Luoyang in the north, Shashi and Yichang in the south, Wuhan in the East and Sichuan Shaanxi Avenue in the West. Its strategic position is very important. Xiangyang City is surrounded by the Han River on the East, North and northwest of the city, surrounded by mountains on the South and southwest of the city. The terrain is complex, dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Only the west of the city has a narrow corridor about 4 kilometers long. Relying on natural obstacles, combined with fortification construction and troop deployment, Xiangyang defense formed a deep echelon ring defense system with the Han River and peripheral highlands as the barrier, the moat outside the city wall as the support, the bunker, moat and other solid fortifications as the backbone, and the landmine, barbed wire, Luzhai and other obstacles as the supplement. In order to prevent the Kuomintang army from fleeing south in a hurry under the strong offensive of our army, the head of the Central Plains field army and the Tongbai military region ordered Wang Jinshan, the commander of the 6th column, to command the 6th column, the 12th brigade in southern Shaanxi, the 3rd Division of the Tongbai military region and other forces in a unified manner, and to conquer Xiangyang according to the steps of clearing the periphery and attacking the city against the mountain. According to the defense characteristics of Xiangyang defense, Wang Jinshan decided to use the tactical means of side-by-side assault and brave impact. First, he concentrated his troops and firepower to launch a major attack along dashantou and Hutou mountains towards Yangyu mountain, and then the main force made a key breakthrough from the south gate to wipe out the Xiangyang defense. On the night of July 7, the 6th column launched an attack on the periphery of the enemy defense in Xiangyang, and the leading force of the 17th brigade successfully attacked and occupied Wanshan mountain in the west of the city, forcing the defenders to abandon the mountain and flee. However, Xiangyang's peripheral defensive forces were held by danger, and through the release of poison gas, fire suppression, obstacle blocking and other means, the casualties of our attack forces were large and the progress was slow. Change according to the situation, "abandon the mountain and attack the city". After carefully analyzing the battlefield situation, the commander of the 6th column boldly decided to break the historical practice of "attacking Xiangyang first, we must seize Nanshan Mountain", adopt the tactical means of taking the tiger out of the heart, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, clamping down on the East pass, and feigning to attack the south of the city, and implement the "mountain abandonment and city siege" operation, so as to avoid the Highlands surrounding the south of the city and open up the corridor in the west of the city to attack the city directly. From July 7 to 13, the 12th brigade and the third division of Tongbai Military Region adopted a steady and steady method of warfare, successively controlling the positions of Fenghuang Mountain and Tiemao mountain in the south of the city, effectively containing and confusing the enemy in the south of the city. The 18th brigade, under the cover of the third division of Tongbai military region, secretly went straight into the east of the city, risking the risk of fighting back to the water, seized the East barrier and the City dike with sudden and violent actions, established the starting position of the East attack, and received the 28th Brigade of the friendly neighbor to cross the Han River. The 17th brigade concentrated its elite forces and directly attacked the west gate from the narrow corridor between the southwest highland of the city and the Han River by means of echelon attack, multi-directional direct penetration, repeated competition, etc., successively conquering the West defensive support points such as Biwa mountain, Zhenwu mountain, Zhangjiawan, etc., and opening up the west corridor of the city; Subsequently, the 17th brigade took advantage of the situation to launch an attack on the West Pass of Xiangyang City, and successively occupied the West positions of the city, such as the defending iron Buddha Temple and Tongji Hospital. By the 14th, Xiangyang defending enemy had to give up the mountains and Fancheng strongholds in the south of the city in the face of our army's East-West attack, withdraw troops and shrink to Xiangyang City, and the 6th column took full control of Xiangyang Nanshan without fighting. East meets West, "smash the city with heavy fists". At 20:20 on the 15th, the siege troops, led by artillery fire, launched a general attack on the enemy in Xiangyang City. The 12th and 28th brigades in southern Shaanxi launched assists from the northeast and Southeast corners of the city by erecting floating bridges and feigning. Kang Ze, commander of the 15th appeasement area of the Kuomintang army, mistakenly thought that our army launched the main attack from the east of the city, and urgently dispatched more than 6000 people of the general reserve team in the city to reinforce. With the cooperation of the troops in the east of the city, the 6th column flexibly adopted the combination of concentrated forces, key breakthroughs and decentralized forces, and multi-point heavy attacks. The artillery of the column concentrated all its efforts to suppress and destroy the enemy's firepower points and fortifications near the west gate, and quickly blasted a gap in the city wall. As the first echelon of the siege, the 17th brigade commando took the opportunity to bravely burst into the city, relying on the wall fortifications and positions of the escaping enemy to repel more than 10 counterattacks from the enemy in the west of the city, The breakthrough was consolidated and expanded to ensure that its main force quickly broke into the city. Then, the 16th brigade took the form of self selected assault points in the northwest corner of the city, and the 18th brigade, which was responsible for fighting in the streets of the city, took the opportunity to ascend the city from the South Gate by relying on the Highlands outside the south of the city. At the same time, the 12th and 28th brigades in the east of the city also crossed the moat outside the city wall one after another, breaking through the enemy defense system and entering the city. Divide, encircle and annihilate, and eliminate the remaining enemy. All the troops adopted the tactics of simultaneous attack in multiple directions, circuitous encirclement, and interdiction to attack the enemy in depth in Xiangyang. The four siege troops launched fierce street battles with the enemy from the south, East, West, and northwest of the city. The siege troops flexibly used mortar flat fire, engineering blasting, infantry attack and other methods to destroy the enemy's strongholds, and surrounded and annihilated the recalcitrant enemy piece by piece and area by area by tactical means of interleaving, division, encirclement and so on. At 6:00 on the 16th, most of the enemy defenders were wiped out. Hundreds of people, including the headquarters of the 15th appeasement area of the Kuomintang army and its spy battalion, were compressed to two strongholds, the enemy headquarters of the Yang ancestral hall and the bell and Drum Tower. The remaining enemy tried to rely on favorable terrain and solid fortifications to fight tenaciously. Under the strong military offensive and political propaganda of our army, the enemies who tried to resist tenaciously at the Zhonggulou stronghold had to surrender in full under the condition of weak resistance and hopeless escape. At 16:00, the 18th brigade of the 6th column and the 12th brigade of Southern Shaanxi, with the coordinated support of artillery and engineers, launched an attack on the enemy headquarters of the Yang ancestral hall, the last stronghold of the enemy, blowing down the walls and collapsing the blockhouses. All commandos rushed into the enemy headquarters one after another. After 30 minutes of fierce fighting, the enemy was completely annihilated and captured Kang Ze, the commander of the 15th appeasement area, and Guo Xunqi, the deputy commander. At this point, the battle ended successfully. The uniqueness of the Xiangyang offensive lies in the abnormal use of troops and winning by surprise. The commander of the 6th column did not stick to the conventional siege method of "sweeping the periphery first, and then attacking the city". Instead, he broke the inertial thinking and inherent tradition, made changes according to the situation, and actively broke through the "bottleneck" of the operation. He was not only surprised and unprepared, but also achieved the surprise of the siege, and developed his strengths and circumvented his weaknesses, avoided the strong and attacked the weak, and hit the key points directly, The bitter war of attrition on the periphery was avoided, which has a positive reference for future urban operations. (outlook new era)