Chapter 81 3. The contest between Chen Geng and Yu Hanmou in Yangcheng

The battle of Hengbao has not yet ended, and the East Road Army of Siye has already opened the curtain of marching into Guangdong. Guangdong borders Hunan and Jiangxi to the north, Fujian to the northeast, Guangxi to the west, the South China Sea to the south, Vietnam, and Malaysia and the Philippines across the sea.The terrain in the territory is high in the north and low in the south, with criss-crossing rivers and rivers, and the water and land transportation is relatively developed. There are both advantages and disadvantages for large corps operations. Because of the important strategic position of Guangdong, the Kuomintang ruling group headed by Chiang Kai-shek has attached great importance to it for many years.As early as January 21, 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek "retired", he appointed Xue Yue as the chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government, and Yu Hanmou, the commander-in-chief of the army, as the director of the Guangzhou Appeasement Office.After Xue Yue and Yu Hanmou took office, they vigorously expanded their forces, rebuilt the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th armies, and expanded the 15 security regiments in the province into 5 security divisions (with 20 security regiments under their jurisdiction), in order to strengthen the defense of Guangdong. of troops. From February to April, the Kuomintang government successively withdrew from Nanjing to Guangzhou. Acting President Li Zongren, Premier of the Executive Council and Minister of Defense He Yingqin, Chief of Staff Gu Zhutong and other military and political officials gathered in Guangzhou.

On August 31, the Kuomintang government changed the Guangzhou Appeasement Office into the South China Military and Political Chief Office, appointed Yu Hanmou as the South China Military and Political Chief, and unified command of the army, sea and air forces in Guangdong. From July to September, Chiang Kai-shek also flew to Guangzhou three times to convene The military and political officials of the Kuomintang formulated the "Plan for Reversing the Situation" in an attempt to defend Guangzhou with all their strength. On September 8, Chiang Kai-shek called Gu Zhutong: The existing troops stationed in Guangdong should be concentrated to defend the revolutionary base in Guangzhou. This is the highest guiding principle of the current military and revolutionary strategy to suppress the Communist Party. The organizational systems of the 39th, 63rd, and 109th armies must not be used separately, so as not to fall into a passive position and be defeated by bandits one by one.All deployments in the future should be carried out according to this principle, so as to ensure the revolutionary base.

At that time, the Kuomintang army entrenched in Guangdong had 3 corps and 11 armies, about 120,000 people, and more than 20,000 local armed forces, with a total strength of about 150,000 people.Following the instructions of the Ministry of National Defense, Yu Hanmou placed his main force on the line from Guangzhou to Qujiang (now Shaoguan City) on the Guangdong-Han Railway, forming three lines of defense to control the railways, highways and waterways from Hunan and Jiangxi to Guangdong, in an attempt to prevent the PLA from advancing.Its military deployment is as follows: Defend Qujiang, Shixing, Nanxiong, and Lechang with the 39th and 63rd armies to form the first line of defense; the 4th Corps of Shen Fazao (under the jurisdiction of the 23rd and 70th armies) who fled from Jiangxi to Guangdong deployed defense against Yingde and Wengyuan The area constituted the second line of defense; Liu Anqi's 21st Corps (under the jurisdiction of the 32nd and 50th armies) retreated from Qingdao to the south defended Huaxian and Conghua, forming the third line of defense; the 109th army and the guard regiment defended Guangzhou.In addition, Hu Lian's 12th Corps (under the jurisdiction of the 10th and 18th armies) was located in Chao'an and Shantou to support the Guangzhou side.The 62nd and 64th armies are located in Zhanjiang and Hainan Island respectively, ensuring their retreat to the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan Island.

The war was about to break out, and the city of Guangzhou was in chaos, and the generals of both the enemy and us were dispatching troops. At this time, under the guidance of the Central Military Commission's operational policy of large detours and encirclement, the Front Committee of the Four Fields decided: With the 13th, 14th, and 15th armies of the 4th Corps of the Second Field Army, the 43rd and 44th Armies of the 15th Corps of the Fourth Field Army, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou Column, a total of 220,000 people formed the East Route Army and approached Guangzhou. On July 17, the Front Committee of the Four Fields reported to the Central Military Commission the combat plan for attacking Guangdong:

The Deng Hua Corps is planning to pass through Ganzhou and East Guangxi with two armies, and prepare to leave Renhua and Lechang. After arriving in East Guangxi, if the Kuomintang troops in Youxian County and Chaling do not retreat, they will go straight to Chenzhou and Yongxing, and prepare to leave from Renhua and Lechang. Cut off the Kuomintang army's retreat from south to north; after arriving in eastern Guangxi, if the Kuomintang army has retreated, it will advance to Renhua and Lechang via Rucheng, and the other army will advance through Chongyi, Shangyou, and Shixing... On July 21, the Central Military Commission replied to Lin Biao, Deng Zihui, Xiao Ke, and Zhao Erlu and told Liu Bocheng, Song Renqiong, Zhang Jichun, Li Da, and the South China Branch:

(1) Agree with the entire deployment policy of your July 17th telegram (received on the 21st). (2) It is right for Chen Geng and Deng Hua to enter Guangdong by two routes, but please pay attention to the road and food situation in Guiyang, East Guangxi.If there is any difficulty, Chen Gengzhi's heavy weapons and large luggage can go south along Deng Hua's road, while Deng Hua can find an auxiliary road on the east side besides Nanshi Avenue. (3) After Chen and Deng entered Guangdong, they planned to attack Guangzhou with Chen's corps from Beijiang and Deng's corps from Dongjiang (possibly having to occupy Huizhou first). For example, half a month to a month), meet with the South China branch, agree to take over the entire deployment of Guangzhou and the whole province, and deploy cadres.Please refer the above to Chen and Deng for attention.

(4) The Chen and Deng corps quickly communicated with the Fangfang Radio Station of the South China Branch Bureau, and connected with the Military Commission. (5) The South China branch immediately moved from Meixian to Nanxiong to meet Chen and Deng and discuss everything. (6) Comrade Ye Jianying should be ordered to go to Guangdong early. In order to strengthen the unified leadership of the party, government and military work in Guangdong and Guangxi, on August 1, the central government appointed Ye Jianying, Zhang Yunyi, and Fang Fang as the first, second, and third secretaries of the South China Branch Bureau.

On September 7, Ye Jianying held a combat meeting in Ganzhou.Fang Fang, Chen Geng, Guo Tianmin, Liu Zhijian, Deng Hua, Lai Chuanzhu, Hong Xuezhi, Xiao Xiangrong, Zeng Sheng, Lei Jingtian and others attended the meeting.The meeting clarified the battle plan for the liberation of Guangdong, and telegraphed the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, Lin Biao and Deng Zihui the next day: (1) Regarding the issue of the liberation of Guangdong, in accordance with the intention of the Military Commission, we first eliminated the enemies of Beijiang and Dongjiang, occupied Qujiang and Huiyang, created conditions for a peaceful solution, and strived for a peaceful solution.At the same time, prepare to deal with the stubborn enemy who sticks to Guangzhou.

(2) Assembling, because the Fourth Corps and the Fifteenth Corps are too far apart, in order to achieve simultaneous deployment and advance side by side, a pincer encirclement is suddenly implemented, and must be assembled first.The assembly areas are the Nankang and Xinfeng areas of the 15th Corps, and the 4th Corps, except that the 15th Corps first assembled in Nanxiong area, the main force waits for the 15th Corps to pass, and gathers on the line of Renhua and Rucheng.The Guangdong and Guangxi columns assembled in the area south of Xingguo.The above can be completed by the end of September.

(3) Combat plan: 1. If the enemy defends the Qujiang and Yingde lines and resists stubbornly, one of the four corps will detour from the west of the railway to the enemy's left side; the main force will advance along the Yuehan Road and the east and west sides.The Fifteenth Corps moved from Sannan to Yingde or to the north to cut off the enemy's return route, seeking to annihilate four of the enemy's armies.Use the Guangdong-Guangzhou column to detour south through Huiyang and occupy Huizhou in camera.When necessary, strengthen it with an army.The main force of the South China Branch actively feigned an attack in the direction of Chaoshan to contain and confuse the enemy. 2. If the enemy concentrates the main force to retreat to Guangzhou and Humen, we will use the 4th Corps to go south along the Yuehan Road to the north and west of Guangzhou, the 15th Corps to the east of Guangzhou, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou column to the south of Guangzhou. Cut off the connection between Guangzhou and Humen, and join forces to annihilate the enemies of Guangzhou.The troops of the South China Branch are still monitoring and suppressing the Chaoshan enemy. 3. The engineering units of the 4th and 15th Corps will divide and repair the two main highways from Ganzhou to Guangzhou via Qujiang, Wengyuan, and Conghua, and from Nankang to Guangzhou via Longnan, Heping, and Heyuan to facilitate transportation.

(4) It is recommended that after the Ye Fei Corps capture Xiamen, command a unit to go out to fight in Shantou and Menan, and it is best to move at the same time and feint to the east to cooperate.After receiving the reply from the Central Military Commission, according to the instructions of the Central Military Commission, the Front Committee of the Four Fields handed over the command power of the 4th and 15th Corps to Chen Geng, and the important task of liberating Guangdong fell on Chen Geng's shoulders. Chen Geng is a resolute warrior. According to the actual situation, he made a battle plan for marching into Guangdong in three ways: (1) Use the Fourth Corps as the right-hand army.Beginning on September 30th, they set out successively from Guidong, Shangyou, Nanxiong, and Shixing districts, and wiped out the enemies of Rucheng, Lechang, and Renhua along the way.If the enemy guards the Qujiang, Yingde, and Wengyuan areas, except for the main force of the 14th Army going along the west bank of the Beijiang River, passing through the Yingde and Qingyuan areas to Sanshui, and cutting off the enemy's westward retreat in Guangzhou, the main force of the Corps began at dawn on October 9. Attack and annihilate the enemies of Qujiang from the east, west, south, and south, and then quickly go south to cooperate with the 15th Corps (missing 48th Army) to annihilate the enemies in the Ying and Weng areas, and then go straight to Guangzhou.If the enemy does not defend the Qu, Ying, and Weng areas, we will quickly cooperate with the 15th Corps and advance to the Sanshui, Gaotangwei, and Guilongshi lines on October 20 to form a siege to the northwest of Guangzhou. (2) Take the 15th Corps as the left army.It set out from Nankang and Xinfeng areas on October 1, entered the area east of Wengyuan on October 8, and crossed the north-south line of Yingde according to the situation.If the British and German enemies stick to it, they will cooperate with the right army to annihilate them.If the enemy retreats to the south, we will cooperate with the right-hand army to quickly move south, and on October 20, they will advance to the line of Longyan Cave and Chebei, forming an encirclement of the northeast and east of Guangzhou. (3) The South Route Army is composed of the Guangdong-Guangzhou Column, the Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan Border Column, and the Guangdong Central Column, under the unified command of Zeng, Lei, and Lin.The Guangdong-Guangzhou column set off from the Heping area on October 10, the Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan border column set out from Longchuan and the Guangdong-Central column set out from the Gaoming area, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou column advanced to Dongguan on October 20, broke through the line between Shunde and Foshan, and cut off Guangzhou The enemy retreats to the south, waiting for the main force to annihilate them. Since the main forces of the four fields went straight to southern Hunan, Bai Chongxi shrank the Guangxi troops to the front line of Hengbao, and the defense of Guangdong was entirely in charge of the Yu Hanmou Group. At the beginning of 1949, before Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, Yu Hanmou, the commander-in-chief of the army, was transferred to Guangdong to serve as the director of the Appeasement Office.At that time, the elite of Jiang's army had been lost, and it was imperative to train the new army.Yu Hanmou was a general of Cantonese nationality. He was formerly part of the Cantonese warlord Chen Jitang's former army, and later he was attached to Chiang Kai-shek. He was quite influential in the Cantonese army. After Yu Hanmou deployed the three lines of defense, he made up his mind to prepare for a decisive battle with Chen Geng. On October 2, Chen Geng's vanguard marched southward at a speed of 150 miles a day.The Cantonese army abandoned their formation and fled south, and the first line of defense was breached. On October 6, the 14th Army on the Right occupied Dongchang, and the 13th Army occupied Renhua.On the same day, the Cantonese army abandoned Qujiang again and continued to flee south. On October 7, the 15th Army occupied Qujiang. On October 9, the 14th Army occupied Yingde. At this time, the reconnaissance company of the 127th Division captured two prisoners. After interrogation, it was learned that there was a regiment with American equipment in the Fogang area, about 2,000 people, relying on strong fortifications to prepare to fight to the end. Wang Dongbao, the commander of the 127th Division, immediately reported the situation to the military headquarters, and then ordered the troops to run towards Fogang. After marching in the rain for 140 miles, the division arrived at Fogang on the evening of the 10th and found that the enemy did not show any signs of retreating. Commander Wang came to the front, observed the enemy's position, and immediately ordered: "The 379th Regiment goes straight to the southwest of the city and cuts off the enemy's retreat to Huaxian and Guangzhou. The main force of the 381st Regiment penetrates southward and cooperates with the 379th Regiment to encircle the enemy. The 380th Regiment front Attack the enemy's defensive position. The division guard battalion is the reserve team. The regiments moved quickly and arrived at the designated position overnight to complete the encirclement and division of the enemy." In the early morning of the next day, each regiment had arrived at the designated position. During the night movement, the 379th regiment wiped out one reinforced company, the 381st regiment occupied the old city, and the 380th regiment wiped out one platoon. At the same time that the 127th Division attacked Fogang, Li Zuopeng, commander of the 43rd Army, and Zhang Chiming, political commissar, ordered the 128th Division to bypass Fogang and attack Hua County. At dawn on the 12th, the 128th Division captured Hua County and captured more than 200 enemy security forces. The news that the People's Liberation Army was approaching Guangzhou spread throughout Yangcheng. On October 11, Li Zongren called an emergency meeting.Attending the meeting were Premier Yan Xishan, Chief of Staff Gu Zhutong, Yu Hanmou and Xue Yue from Guangdong and Guangxi.Li Zongren said to Yu Hanmou: "The current situation is serious, and the fall of Guangzhou is imminent. We need to speed up the implementation of the division of office plan. The presidential palace and the Executive Yuan will be temporarily moved to Chongqing, and the central courts will be moved to Hainan Island. Please command Liu Anqi's corps to cover the retreat of government agencies. The staff of the agencies will be within two days After the evacuation is over, to appease people, Dean Yan and I persisted until the 20th." Guangzhou was about to be in chaos again. After learning that Li Zongren was going to move the capital again, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Guangzhou on the 12th, making Li Zongren look bad.He instructed Yan Xishan not to go to Chongqing, but to fly to Taiwan.Yan Xishan obeyed and went to Taiwan as expected.Li Zongren became a polished commander again. The next day, he left Guangzhou regardless of his promise to "pacify people's hearts". On the evening of the 12th, Yu Hanmou organized an emergency military meeting to prepare the troops to go to Hainan Island. At this time, Chief of Staff Gu Zhutong came. Yu Hanmou said: "The commander-in-chief has come very well. We have no choice. How can the broken and incomplete troops resist the army of tigers and wolves? I don't think Guangzhou can keep it." Gu Zhutong said: "There is no need to guard! Before boarding the plane, the president ordered all the Guangzhou troops to withdraw to Hainan Island. You act quickly! Take away as much military supplies as you can, and destroy everything that cannot be taken away. It cannot be left to the communist army!" Gu Zhutong took out another document and said: "The president ordered that Baiyun, Tianhe Airport, military warehouses in Shijing, Shipai, Huangpu and other places must be blown up, as well as major roads and railway bridges in the city. Important factories must be blown up. Those that cannot be transported with the equipment of colleges and universities must be destroyed!" The military and political officials of the Kuomintang all ran away. The next day, Guangzhou was in chaos. The Cantonese army rushed out of the barracks, looted public property everywhere, smashed factories, mines, school equipment, burned warehouses, and bombed bridges. There was a white terror. At this time, the nearest to Guangzhou is the 128th Division of the 43rd Army, which has occupied Hua County and seized the highway bridge. At dawn on the 14th, the division received a telegram from Li Zuopeng, commander of the army, saying that there were a large number of tunnel fortifications in the Longyan Cave, which were built by the Japanese during the Anti-Japanese War. There are currently two divisions of the Jiang Army guarding them. . At 2 pm on the 14th, scouts reported that the enemy troops in the Conghua area were fleeing towards Guangzhou.The 382nd Regiment, the leader of the 128th Division, led by Zhang Shijie, quickly pursued along the road from Huaxian to Guangzhou. After a few rounds, the enemy fled. The Guangdong campaign lasted 34 days from October 2 to November 4. A total of more than 62,000 people from the Yu Hanmou Department were wiped out, including 41,000 prisoners and 17 general-level officers.714 guns of various kinds, more than 30,000 guns (trunks) of various types, more than 150 vehicles, 2.6 million bullets of various types were seized, and 38 counties were liberated.