Chapter 41 4. Three battles to determine victory

After 1948, the military situation of the Kuomintang went from bad to worse, and the whole party was very pessimistic about the war situation.After years of war, the CCP has full confidence in a decisive military battle with the Kuomintang. The first battle of the decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Communist armies still started from the northeast.Before the Liaoshen Campaign, Wei Lihuang, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General", had four corps under his jurisdiction, with a total of 14 armies, 44 divisions and 550,000 people.The Northeast Kuomintang Army was divided into three isolated areas of Changchun, Jinzhou, and Shenyang. There was no strategic rear, and it was cut off from the customs. It was difficult to obtain logistical supplies. The morale of the soldiers was low.

In February 1948, Chiang Kai-shek once decided to withdraw the main force of the Northeast to Jinzhou, and he could rely on North China to solve the supply.Chiang Kai-shek even had an idea that if the situation was unfavorable, he could retreat across the board.Wei Lihuang believes that retreating in front of the enemy is a taboo for military strategists. At the same time, he is not very sure whether he can retreat for a long distance, and dare not take the risk of retreat leading to failure, so he advocates sticking to it.Wei Lihuang's proposition was supported by most of the Northeast Kuomintang generals, and Chiang Kai-shek was in a dilemma for a while, and it was difficult to make a decision.

Later, Chiang Kai-shek was eager to get through the Shen-Jin line, and withdrew his main force to Jinzhou, leaving only the 53rd Army and the 207th Division of the 6th Army to guard Shenyang.The remaining armies and special forces such as chariots, artillery, armored vehicles, and cavalry were organized into a mobile corps under the command of Liao Yaoxiang, ready to retreat at any time. At that time, the CCP occupied most of the land, population, and railways in the Northeast, and the number of troops was close to one million. Large regiments and regular operations were already able to be implemented.The most important thing is that the CCP has established its own rear supply base in the Northeast for a long time. This was a theater where the CCP had absolute strength against the Kuomintang at that time.From a strategic point of view, Lin Biao believed that Changchun was an isolated city, and he was eager to take it within half a month.

Faced with the Northeast Field Army's intensive deployment of the Changchun War, the Kuomintang garrison in Changchun hoped to abandon Changchun and retreat to Shenyang, but did not get the consent of Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang.Changchun was besieged. During this period, the Kuomintang defenders attacked many times to grab food and were beaten back.The Changchun garrison of the Kuomintang was swollen from hunger.While besieging Changchun, the Northeast Field Army quickly deployed the next battle strategy, staying behind with 2 columns and 6 divisions to continue besieging Changchun. Under the command of Mao Zedong, they went south with all their strength, attacked the Beining line, and captured Jinzhou with all their strength. In this way, the Liaoshen Campaign The curtain officially kicked off.

The Northeast Field Army successively conquered Changli and Beidaihe in Hebei, Suizhong and Xingcheng in Liaoning Province, cut off the Liaoxi Corridor, and completed the siege of Jinzhou and Yixian. Chiang Kai-shek was concentrating on dealing with the Jinan Campaign launched by the East China Field Army on September 16, and was overwhelmed by the enemy on both sides.The situation at the time was that if Chiang Kai-shek wanted to save Jinan, he would not care about the Northeast.The siege of Jinzhou can only be relieved if Wei Lihuang goes out of western Liaoning via Shenjin Road.Wei Lihuang disagreed with Jiang on the issue of Northeast China. He believed that the siege of Jinzhou should be resolved directly by dispatching troops from within the pass. After the siege was resolved, he would join forces with Jinzhou troops and leave the Daling River to attack Dahushan. Then the main force of Shenyang would send troops to join the troops advancing eastward. , so he did not obey Jiang's order.

It is said that Wei Lihuang was suspected of being pro-communist. Although he held an important position to suppress the communist party, he did not take action for a long time.During Wei Lihuang's stay in the Northeast, Jiang placed a large number of spies around him, and Wei Lihuang had difficulty mobilizing troops with full authority, so he had to resist orders from time to time, delaying time and delaying the opportunity of the war. Fan Hanjie in Jinzhou was so besieged that he couldn't breathe. He called Jiang many times for help. Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity of summoning Wei Lihuang for a meeting and forced him to send troops from Shenyang to support Jinzhou. Wei Lihuang was very good and still refused to obey orders.In the end, Chiang Kai-shek had to airlift the 49th Army to Jinzhou for reinforcements. Of course, he still did not give up letting Wei Lihuang send troops to rescue the siege, and asked Chief of Staff Gu Zhutong to personally supervise the battle in Shenyang and implement Chiang Kai-shek's orders.During Gu Zhutong's stay in Shenyang, he repeatedly called Northeast generals to watch the meeting, and asked Wei to send troops to advance along Shenjin Road to break the siege of Jinzhou. Even with Chiang Kai-shek's consent, they never dared to agree to withdraw to Yingkou. The two were in a stalemate. Gu Zhutong wanted to see Wei Lihuang send troops to western Liaoning, but there was still no hope, so he had to return to Nanjing to return to Chiang Kai-shek.

On October 2, an angry Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang, convened a military meeting, and decided to ship 7 divisions from Huludao from North China to Shandong, plus 4 divisions from the 54th Army of Huludao, making a total of 4 armies and 11 divisions to form the "East Under the command of Hou Jingru, commander of the 17th Corps in North China, 5 armies, 11 divisions and 3 cavalry brigades in the Shenyang area formed the "West Marching Corps", commanded by Liao Yaoxixiang, commander of the 9th Corps. , to solve the siege of Jinzhou.At the military summit convened in the evening, Chiang Kai-shek gave a dinner-like speech for the last time: "I came to Shenyang this time to rescue you. In the past, you couldn't find the main force of the Communist bandits. Now the main force of the Northeast Communist bandits has concentrated in the Liaoxi Corridor. This is an opportunity for you to make contributions to the party and the country. I believe that you can use the spirit of fighting in the past and fight with the Kuomintang troops in the pass. You will surely succeed. Regarding the assistance of the air force and the supply of logistics, Commander-in-Chief Zhou and Commander-in-Chief Guo have already agreed with You are ready. If you can't fight this time, then, see you in the next life."

Before Chiang Kai-shek left from Shenyang, he also learned from Liao Yaoxiang alone.Jiang said to Liao: "This time the Shenyang army is out of Liaoxi and the siege of Jinzhou is completely entrusted to you. If there is any delay, you are the only one who will ask." Before, we must deal a big blow to the Northeast Communist Army, and we must have a decisive battle, otherwise there will be problems in North China. On the same day that Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang, that is, in the early morning of October 2, the train from the headquarters of the Northeast Field Army arrived west of Zhengjiatun.At this time, Lin Biao got a report that in Huludao, the enemy had 4 new divisions.Lin Biao was worried that Jinzhou would be flanked by the enemy from Shenyang, Jinxi, and Huludao before it was captured. By then, the troops would run out of fuel, and a large number of vehicles, tanks, and heavy artillery would not be able to withdraw.So he ordered the train to stop moving forward.After discussion, Luo and Liu agreed to attack Jinzhou according to the original plan.

Huludao and Tashan were taken by Lin Biao's troops one after another. On October 14, Liu Yalou issued a general attack order.The Dongye artillery bombarded the intended target in Jinzhou City vertically.The next day, Jinzhou City was conquered, more than 100,000 Kuomintang defenders were wiped out, and General Fan Hanjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" and director of the Jinzhou Command Post, and Lieutenant General Lu Junquan, commander of the 6th Corps, were captured.When Hou Jing heard that Jinzhou had fallen, he temporarily retreated to Jinxi and Huludao.

Chiang Kai-shek watched Jinzhou fall, hurriedly flew to Shenyang, and then issued an order to Changchun guard Zheng Dongguo, ordering him to lead his troops to break through the encirclement and withdraw southward immediately, otherwise he would be subject to "severe military discipline sanctions".The Changchun garrison launched an uprising and voluntarily surrendered to the Communist Party. Changchun was liberated without a single soldier. Subsequently, the troops of Dongye quickly advanced to Shenyang and surrounded them quickly.The next day, an attack was launched on Shenyang.Almost all the Kuomintang troops surrendered, except for the 207th Division of the 6th Army who resisted stubbornly, but was quickly wiped out by the People's Liberation Army.The Liaoshen Campaign lasted 52 days. The Northeast Field Army annihilated more than 472,000 national troops at the cost of 69,000 casualties, of which 56,800 were killed and wounded, 324,300 were captured, 64,900 surrendered, and 26,000 rebelled. Captured 186 senior military officers above major general level.The National Army lost a total of 1 Northeast "Bandit Suppression" General Headquarters, 1 Northeast "Suppression General" Jinzhou Command, a Hebei-Liaore Border Region Headquarters, 4 Corps Headquarters, 11 Military Headquarters and 36 Divisions.In addition, there is a cavalry headquarters, 5 artillery regiments, tank regiments and other special forces units.Lost 4,709 pieces of artillery, 13,347 light and heavy machine guns and 175,361 other guns.

The liberation of the Northeast is the liberation of the whole territory, and it cannot but be said to be a great victory.He liberated a large population, a wide area, and a great influence, which laid the foundation for the future liberation of the whole country.The Kuomintang troops withdrew from the Northeast across the board, and Wei Lihuang was investigated by Chiang Kai-shek. The Battle of Huaihai was the second strategic offensive campaign against the Kuomintang. During the War of Liberation, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the East China, and the Central Plains Field Army centered on Xuzhou, covering Haizhou in the east, Shangqiu in the west, Lincheng in the north, and Huaihe River in the south. The area has always been a battleground for military strategists and the center of the Kuomintang's military deployment. According to the instructions of the Central Committee, the Huaihai Campaign was divided into three stages. After careful consideration, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to Su Yu: "The focus of the first stage of this campaign is to concentrate forces to destroy Huang Botao's corps and complete a breakthrough in the middle." In that single practice, to the east of him was the surging sea, and at first glance, it was a target to be annihilated by hand. More than 10 columns of the East China Field Army marched southward in multiple directions, interfering with Huang Botao's contact signal. To put it bluntly, it means that you cannot come to foreign aid, so let's close the door and beat the dog.In the north of Xuzhou, those underground parties lurking in the Kuomintang also launched an uprising, and opened the Kuomintang Canal route at once.At this time, the main force of the East China Field Army also moved south quickly, occupying a strong terrain.As soon as the Kuomintang stationed in Xuzhou found signs of the main force of the Communist Party moving south, they immediately began to move.But the Ministry of National Defense of Nanjing didn't do it, so Huang Botao had to wait for the 44th Army to withdraw westward from Haizhou.Huang Botao was so anxious that his head was sweating, the Communist Party's various armies had already surrounded me. The East China Field Army had already crossed the Bulao River, captured Daxujia and other places east of Xuzhou, and completely cut off the retreat of Huang Botao's corps.Seeing this situation, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly ordered Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi's corps to rescue them, but they couldn't quench their thirst far away. Chiang Kai-shek asked Huang Botao to fight to the death with the People's Liberation Army. In order to prevent Huang Botao's head, newspapers with Huang Botao's military uniform photos and Chiang Kai-shek's commendation orders were air-dropped on the battlefield every day.Huang Botao was said to be the ever-victorious general in Chiang Kai-shek's mouth, with fierce battles and first-class command.Huang Botao dug into the opponent's forward position by virtue of the rush-repaired trenches and trenches.Then use the twilight as a cover to get close to the enemy, capture them point by point, and annihilate them one by one. On the night of November 16, 1948, our army launched a general attack on Huang Botao's troops.Huang Botao was loyal to the end, even at the last moment, he was still expressing his determination to fight hard to the end to Chiang Kai-shek by radio.Chiang Kai-shek has completely bought Huang Botao. The fierce battle continued until the 19th. Huang Botao, who was dressed in a general's uniform, was in a state of anxiety, like a trapped animal.Until the end, Huang Botao never broke out, and the 120,000 army was completely lost.In despair, Huang Botao drew his gun and committed suicide.Before committing suicide, Huang Botao took out a business card, wrote "Huang Botao will serve the country with all his loyalty" on the back, and handed it to Yang Tingyan, deputy commander of the 25th Army of the Kuomintang, and asked him to pass it on to Chiang Kai-shek. This was Huang Botao's last words. At Huang Botao's memorial service, he cried so much that his nose flowed out. It turned out that Huang Botao was not a student of Whampoa. Lao Jiang really hoped that some students of Whampoa would die in battle like Huang Botao, so as to save the face of Huangpu Military Academy. . After solving Huang Botao, the second phase of the CCP's goal is to focus on Huang Wei's army.Huang Wei is an important general of the Chen Cheng family of the Kuomintang. Among the five main forces of the Kuomintang, the only one controlled by Chen Cheng is the Eighteenth Army.Huang Wei has served as the commander of the Eighteenth Army since 1938. Huang Wei was successful at a young age, and he didn't know why Chen Lifu, the veteran of the Kuomintang, had taken a fancy to him, and he almost became the son-in-law of the Chen family. Xiao Huang, who is in his thirties, became the commander of the army, and it can be said that he is on the rise.But when it comes to fighting, Huang Wei is really mediocre. Huang Wei was originally a scholar, with a wooden head and a single tendon in fighting. He likes to fight to the death. In order to restore the passive situation, the Kuomintang army ordered the Huangwei Corps to reinforce Xuzhou.The Huangwei Corps has 120,000 horses, each of which is strong and equipped with American equipment. It is known as the "Auto Corps".Huang Wei, who was originally proud of the spring breeze, deserved to stumble. Someone in his team turned against him, and his own people fought back against him. This became the key to destroying Huang Wei's army.This rebellious comrade is Liao Yunzhou, commander of the 110th Division.Huang Wei and Liao Yunzhou knew each other in 1938. At that time, it was the Battle of Wuhan. Liao Yunzhou was still the commander of the 656th regiment. The Japanese all over the country were red-eyed. Xiao Liao directly went to Huang Wei, the commander of the 18th Army, to borrow guns. .Speaking of Huang Wei's muyu brain, bookish, high-set eyes, and emphasis on factions.I was born in Whampoa, and I saw that although Xiao Liao was a stranger, he was also a student of Whampoa, so he was willing to meet him.When he saw Liao Yunzhou, he really put on airs and questioned him to death, asked left and right, and finally shouted: "Fate!"Furthermore, Liao Yunzhou was indeed a fierce general. Before he came to see Huang Wei, he had just attacked the Japanese army's convoy. He captured a lot and brought Huang Wei a lot of gifts.At the end of the chat between the two, Liao Yunzhou opened his mouth to borrow a gun.At that time, the entire Kuomintang army was also very poor, and there were not many artillery units like Huang Wei. Liao Yunzhou was also poor and crazy, so he found a relationship with Huang Weila, who was not recognized by his relatives.Huang Wei used his "nerd" strength to question Liao Yunzhou's artillery skills, and he was very satisfied with the result.One of his own people, plus "passed the exam", so Huang Wei donated money out of righteousness.Xiao Liao used these eight cannons to ambush the Japanese army, took advantage of the favorable terrain, and used one regiment to beat the entire 27th Division of Little Japan to the point of crying.This battle was introduced in Japanese magazines. According to the records of the Japanese army, the Maruyama Division was unable to move because the first and last vehicles were destroyed, and suffered heavy losses under the attack of the "China Army Artillery Group". Liao Yunzhou became famous because of this battle, and Huang Wei also became famous for knowing people.After that, Liao Yunzhou left Tang Enbo's army and joined Huang Wei's family, becoming Huang Wei's confidant. But Huang Wei never dreamed that Liao Yunzhou was an old Communist Party member and had joined the Party since the 1920s.His immediate superior is General Zhu Rui, the founder of the Chinese Communist Artillery Corps.Not only that, Liao Yunzhou's subordinates hidden a large number of Communist Party members, so when Huang Wei decided to break out, it was reasonable for Liao Yunzhou to turn his back on the water, but it was beyond Huang Weide's expectations.Of course, Xiao Liao was also ruthless and ruthless enough. According to Huang Wei's previous instructions to pick the tanks and cannons first, he only picked the heavy cannons and took them away, and when he turned around, he threw the cannonballs on Huang Weide's head. During the encirclement of the Huangwei Corps, Qiu Qingquan's Corps went south to aid and was attacked by the East China Field Army. Taking advantage of the time, the Kuomintang Xuzhou troops withdrew.Later, they received orders from Chiang Kai-shek and decided to counterattack in order to break through.Poor Du Sunming, this man is considered to be a man with first-class military vision and command ability among the senior generals of the Kuomintang.During the Battle of Huaihai, he was subject to Liu Zhi, the "Xuzhou Suppressor General", and Chiang Kai-shek changed his orders day and night, which made him devastated, at a loss, missed the opportunity, and fell into a predicament.In the end, it was inevitable to escape the fate of destruction. Huang Botao and Huang Wei were the most skilled and loyal in Chiang Kai-shek's army during the Huaihai Campaign, but they were the ones who harmed the Kuomintang.If Huang Botao collapsed in one hit, Qiu Qingquan would not be stuck in Xuzhou at all, and Huang Wei would not come out and sneak into our army's open pocket. If Lao Jiang gave up Huang Botao, at most the strong man would cut his wrist; if Huang Wei surrendered early, Du Shunming might Having crossed the Huaihe River early, together with the troops of Li Yannian and Liu Ruming, the main force of the Kuomintang's mobile warfare still remains, and there is still hope for the southeast half of the river and mountain. However, these are all hypotheses. The two Huang generals fought desperately after being besieged. Wei, thrown into the three corps of Du, Qiu, and Sun!In order to save Du, the Li and Liu corps were disabled again!The Kuomintang was severely injured, and it no longer had the ability to fight strategically.The loyalty of the two Huang generals backfired, and the "Erhuang" sang a reminder, but unfortunately there was no Resurrection Pill. The Battle of Huaihai was a key battle in the strategic decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Armies.The Communist Party participated in the war with 600,000 troops, and the Kuomintang successively dispatched 800,000 troops, which lasted 65 days.A total of more than 555,000 enemies were wiped out, and Chiang Kai-shek's elite troops on the southern front were wiped out.The Communist army basically liberated the vast areas of East China and the Central Plains north of the Yangtze River, and Nanjing, the ruling center of the Kuomintang, was also under the direct threat of the People's Liberation Army. The Pingjin Campaign against the Kuomintang troops in the Beiping, Tianjin, and Zhangjiakou areas was the last major battle in the strategic decisive battle of the War of Liberation. The Fu Zuoyi Group of North China's "Suppression General" has 1 corps, 13 armies, 46 divisions and more than 500,000 troops. Tanggu is the mouth of the sea channel. The "Suppression General" is headquartered in Beiping, but it is a piece of fat that our army has been thinking about for a long time.Fu Zuoyi is the boss in North China. If the wind is the wind, he doesn't bother to bring bodyguards. He doesn't believe that anyone dares to touch him on his own territory. Prior to this, Chiang Kai-shek proposed to lead his troops to withdraw to the south and strengthen the Yangtze River defense line.Fu Zuoyi was wary of Chiang Kai-shek's rejection of dissidents and inner-party struggles, and he was unwilling to withdraw southward.The defeat of the Kuomintang in the Northeast put great pressure on Fu Zuoyi. Fu Zuoyi was also shocked by the beautiful performance of the People's Liberation Army in the Northeast, and he was already "a bird of fright".For the future defense of North China, Fu Zuoyi made several alternatives.He didn't want to withdraw to the south, so he formulated the policy of praising Pingjin, maintaining Haikou, expanding strength, and observing time changes, and constantly shrinking troops.Fu Zuoyi successively abandoned Chengde, Baoding, Shanhaiguan, Qinhuangdao and other places, and was ready to flee south by sea or flee west to Suiyuan at any time.If Fu Zuoyi voluntarily withdraws, although the People's Liberation Army can win Pingjin without a fight, the Kuomintang's Yangtze River defense line will have more troops, which will be detrimental to future operations.How to stabilize the enemy army in North China so that it does not flee south or west quickly becomes the key to opening up the situation in North China. For Fu Zuoyi, the Communist Party adopted a strategy of fighting and pulling. The deployment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the main force of the Northeast Field Army ended the rest shortly after the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, and commanded divisions to enter the customs in a particularly covert manner.The Northeast Field Army that entered the pass, together with the Second and Third Corps of the North China Military Region, acted swiftly, "encircling without fighting" and "separating without encircling", completing the strategic encirclement and division of Beiping, Tianjin, and Zhangjiakou, and cutting off Fu Zuoyin's south. The passageway for fleeing westward.Troops were also mobilized to be stationed in the Beiping area.Then, our army conquered Zhangjiakou. Before the Battle of Zhangjiakou, we cleaned up the 35th Army, the main force of Fu Zuoyi's lineage, and wiped out the enemy's 11th Corps and 105th Army in Zhangjiakou.On the battlefield, give the North China "suppression general" a blow. At the beginning of 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the Pingjin frontline command group composed of Lin Biao, Luo Rongheng, and Nie Rongzhen to continue to put pressure on Fu Zuoyi strategically. Then, Fu Zuoyi's greatest pressure came.With a strong force, our People's Liberation Army is approaching Tianjin.This was a fierce battle. Liu Yalou commanded 340,000 People's Liberation Army. After a day and night of fierce fighting, he captured Fu Zuoyi's heavily fortified city-Tianjin.All the Kuomintang troops in Tianjin were wiped out, and the Garrison Command was captured. In January 1949, Tianjin was liberated. In order to save the world-famous ancient capital of Beiping from being destroyed, the PLA's powerful military strength and careful combat deployment left Fu Zuoyi with no way out.The loud call for the peaceful liberation of the capital put Fu Zuoyi under tremendous pressure and tests.In the end, the sincerity and patience of the Communist Party moved this man of the moment.Fu Zuoyi made the choice that the people wanted and ordered his troops to accept the adaptation of the Communist Party.Also in January 1949, the People's Liberation Army entered Beiping, and Beiping was liberated peacefully. The Battle of Pingjin solved more than 520,000 Kuomintang troops and basically liberated the entire territory of North China.The victory of this battle is very exciting.