Chapter 40 3. The offense and defense are easy to set, and the mountains and rivers change hands

After the outbreak of the all-out civil war, there was a disparity in strength between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Our army fought in the early stage with a stable style.Mao Zedong once had such a positioning for the overall situation of the war: foreign wars must be fought for a long time to wear down the enemy;The Kuomintang army's war goals and methods were extremely inconsistent, resulting in a large number of strategic mistakes and repeated defeats. The psychological changes of the senior Kuomintang generals were complicated. From their confidence in the future of the war at the beginning of the war, and their arrogance and contempt for the CCP, they were shocked by the CCP’s combat effectiveness and record. The gloomy battlefield situation made the combat morale extremely low.Moreover, there are many contradictions within the Kuomintang, constant partisan disputes, international aid cannot achieve breakthroughs, and crises continue.Our army insists on not focusing on lost ground and attaches great importance to the strategy and tactics of eliminating vital forces, gradually reversing the unfavorable situation in the early stage of the war.After smashing the key offensive of the Kuomintang army, our side launched a strategic offensive on the Central Plains battlefield in a timely manner, thus turning from defensive to offensive, realizing a major turning point in the war process.

In the military contest between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Northeast is representative.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Northeast became the top priority of the overall post-war work, and the CCP first deployed large-scale troops to the Northeast.Chiang Kai-shek, on the other hand, focused his deployment of troops on rich areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, preparing to take over the Northeast directly from the hands of the Soviet Red Army.Of course, the Northeast is a region with fertile land, rich products, and more developed industries than the interior. Many Kuomintang generals also wanted to get a share of the pie after the Soviet troops repelled the Japanese invaders.

The Northeast has a vast territory. The Kuomintang has seven armies in the Northeast with 200,000 people. In addition to the special forces and the wrong place, the total number is not more than 400,000.After the consumption of the war, the Kuomintang was unable to launch a large-scale offensive in the Northeast, and most towns could only defend with regiments and battalions.Moreover, the Kuomintang was not effective in fighting in the pass, and its troops were restrained. It was impossible to increase its troops to the Northeast for a while. It could only rely on the advantages of modern transportation in the Northeast, especially the relatively developed railway transportation, to gather troops at key points of transportation, and to deploy reinforcements at any time to make up for the shortage of troops. Dilemma.

Siping is located in the center of the South Manchuria Plain, connecting three railway lines. It is a transportation hub between east, west, south, north and Manchuria, and is an important place for the Kuomintang army to go north from Shenyang to Changchun, Harbin, and Qiqihar.During the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, our leaders hoped to resolve the Northeast peacefully through negotiations, and fight less wars.Later, the Communist Party realized that the peace talks were hopeless, so it tried its best to stick to Siping.In the situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, insisting on fighting positional defense warfare is almost unprecedented in the history of the Communist Party after the Zunyi Conference.

Our army did not have an advantage in the Northeast battlefield. After the Kuomintang's last attack on our southern Manchurian base area, Lin Biao assessed the situation and believed that the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive in the Northeast had arrived.Lin Biao immediately deployed, took the initiative to attack, and carried out continuous offensive operations and increasingly large-scale annihilation battles, hoping to change the situation in the Northeast through a major reversal.At that time, at the time of the Menglianggu Battle, the Kuomintang's north-south connection would be blocked, Changchun and Jilin would be isolated, and the Northeast defense system would no longer be complete.The Kuomintang learned from past experience and acted more cautiously. The Northeast Democratic Coalition Army failed to capture the opportunity. At this time, Siping was unable to attack for a long time.The CCP did not have much experience in urban battles, and it was difficult to achieve the expected goals. Lin Biao decisively decided to stop the attack.

Since then, Lin Biao has stuck to his handy sports tactics more, and our army has launched more offensives. As expected, important changes have taken place in the Northeast War situation.Soon after the Battle of Siping ended, the Northeast became the CCP's first theater of overall superiority in the country. defensive.Some people in the Kuomintang even advocated abandoning the Northeast and concentrating troops in the pass.Chiang Kai-shek believes that abandoning the Northeast will lose the barrier of North China, which will definitely affect the overall situation of the war. He continues to send troops to the Northeast, and also conducts a comprehensive reorganization of the original troops. The combat effectiveness of the new troops is not high. , On the Northeast battlefield, the Kuomintang army has shown signs of decline.

According to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in 1947, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the main force of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Liberation Army, crossed the Yellow River, and marched thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains. In the Shaanxi-Hubei border area, soon, Chen Yi and Su Yu led the main force of the East China Field Army to attack the Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu areas. The action of Liu Deng's troops crossing the south of the river attracted the Kuomintang to deploy 4 reorganized divisions from the front line in Luzhong for reinforcements. In addition, the Kuomintang mobilized troops from other places and concentrated 8 reorganized divisions, preparing to encircle and wipe out Liu Deng's troops, or drive them back. North of the Yellow River.Liu Deng's troops were exhausted from repeated battles. The roads in the Dabie Mountains were rugged, and there were many rivers in the Central Plains, and many of them were flooded by the Yellow River. The war was greatly affected by the environment.It was a very hot season, and it was often rainy.When it rains, the roads are muddy, which is not conducive to quick action; when the weather is fine, the scorching sun is hot and the heat is hard to bear, and there is a lack of supplies along the way, so Liu Deng's troops marched very hard.

It just made the Kuomintang uncertain about Liu Deng's army. They thought that the army was forced to helpless under the pressure of the army, so they had to flee south, just behind Liu Deng's buttocks, and did not deploy heavy troops in front.It wasn't until Liu and Deng's army crossed the Shahe River that the Kuomintang troops discovered the strategic intentions of Liu and Deng's army.In order to speed up the march, Liu Deng's troops marched lightly. For the enemy troops who followed only a few tens of kilometers away, if they could not win in terms of speed, they would be in danger if they crossed the river first, and the situation was very critical.Liu Deng commanded the troops to blow up all the heavy equipment before the Kuomintang had the authority to deploy defenses. They marched lightly, crossed the Huaihe River, and reached the Dabie Mountain area at the junction of the three provinces of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, completing the breakthrough task.

In order to cooperate with the actions of Liu Deng's troops, and also to mobilize the Kuomintang troops concentrated on the Shandong battlefield, the East China Field Army looked for fighter opportunities.In the spirit of only fighting small battles and not big ones, destroy the ruling foundation of the Kuomintang.The outside troops of the East China Field Army suffered heavy losses due to repeated hard battles, so they continued to rest.Mao Zedong was deeply anxious, and called Chen Yi and Su Yu many times, asking them to rush to the southwestern part of Shandong as soon as possible, and command the East China Field Army's outside troops to advance rapidly, without hesitating fatigue, without rest, without replenishment, and immediately cross the river to relieve the pressure on Liu Deng's troops.

According to the instructions of the central government, Chen Xie's troops were actively active with the purpose of establishing base areas in western Henan, southern Shaanxi, and northern Hubei, echoing Liu Deng's troops in the Dabie Mountains. The CCP's three-way army advanced into the Central Plains and finally stopped the Kuomintang's offensive in northern Shaanxi and Shandong.Afterwards, the troops of Liu Deng, Chen Su, and Chen Xie made a massive attack, forcing the Kuomintang to transfer troops from Shandong to the Dabie Mountains, and from northern Shaanxi to Guanzhong, and continue to maintain the offensive against these two places. At this time, the Kuomintang was already exhausted up.Mao Zedong proposed that in the future, the outer line will be turned into an offensive. After that, the problem that the CCP needs to solve militarily is not how to break the attack of the Kuomintang army, but how to fight with large corps to destroy the main force of the Kuomintang and conquer its fortified cities .