Chapter 14 Concentrate on Taihang and Hebei, Shandong and Yu to strive for victory in the Battle of Ping-Han[1]

(October 17, 27, 29, 1945) Comrades from the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Central Bureau: A successful Shangdang campaign[2] was fought under your leadership, which made it possible for our army to strive for an equal or greater victory next time.All the forces under your leadership must focus on Taihang and Hebei-Shandong-Yu to win the Ping-Han Campaign except for Taiyue's full-scale battle with Pulu to win the victory it deserves.The upcoming new Ping-Han campaign is to oppose the attack of the main force of the Kuomintang and to strive for the realization of a peaceful situation.The outcome of this battle is extremely important to the overall situation.You must be prepared to spend more than one and a half months, and in several consecutive battles, strive to wipe out about half or more of the 80,000 stubborn troops before you can solve the problem.Hope to use the experience of the Shangdang campaign to mobilize the Taihang, Hebei, Shandong and Henan districts with all their strength, under the personal command of Liu Deng[3], carefully organize each battle, and win the second Shangdang campaign.Several of the 80,000 tenacious troops have strong combat effectiveness and should not be underestimated.But the stubborn army is new, unfamiliar with the geography and people's conditions, different systems, difficult to replenish, eager to win, and despising our army, so I have a gap to take advantage of.I hope to encourage the army and the people to unite and seize the opportunity to strive for victory in the Ping-Han Campaign with the spirit of the above party's campaign.

central You Xiao Two Liu, Deng, Bo, Zhang, Li [4]: Youyou electricity [5] learned.Deploy well, wait for the follow-up to arrive, and recharge your energy. At that time, the enemy will be hungry and tired, and his weaknesses will be exposed. If we concentrate our main force to find weaknesses and annihilate one or two divisions, the enemy's spirit will definitely be frustrated.Shijiazhuang Hu Department[6] Youyou sent a telegram to Hu[7], leading a division to cooperate with Hou Ruyong[8] to advance to Gaoyi to meet Anyang's northward troops.Its combat power is not as good as the enemy in the face, and local troops can be used to delay its actions.There are a total of eight divisions in Shijiazhuang and Xinxiang, and six divisions in your face-to-face, a total of no more than fourteen divisions.When you annihilate one or two stubborn divisions in front of you, reinforcements from the north and the south may arise. You must be prepared to annihilate a total of four or five divisions in successive battles to change the situation.On the Suiyuan[9] side, Nie and He[10] had more than 50,000 armies. They fought on the 18th, and the enemy was very tenacious. At first, they only wiped out one regiment, defeated a cavalry division, an infantry division and several miscellaneous units, and fought hard for a week. , occupied Fengzhen and Liangcheng, and conquered Jining on the 24th, and the situation changed immediately.He Wending's [11] 26th Division (Jiang's Division) was annihilated by me in Zhuozishan, Fu Zuoyi's [12] main force of the 101st Division and the 32nd Division fled westward, and I was pursuing Guisui [13].In Hubei and Henan, the field column of our fifth division has been formed, occupied Tongbai, joined Wang Dai and Wang Zhen[14], and has ordered them to act freely to cooperate with you in fighting.I hope you will pay attention to mobilizing the people to participate in the war, fortify the enemy's walls and clear the country, and concentrate all possible forces to defeat the enemy in front of you.Food planning requires long-term planning.

Military Commission unitary feeling Three Liu, Deng: Three divisions of the 16th Army were sent to the south. After entering Gaoyi, it is estimated that one division will be located in Lincheng, Baixiang, and Gaoyi to cover the rear and flanks, and two divisions will advance southward.If I use local corps and militia mine warfare to make a powerful strike, making them mistakenly think that I have the main force in the area, I will be able to delay for many days and dare not let go. I will buy time to wipe out the enemy in front of me, and then wipe out the reinforcements , is still beneficial.You have six divisions in front of you, plus two divisions of the 16th Army, so the total is no more than eight divisions. As long as I adopt various annihilation policies and concentrate the absolute superiority of troops to annihilate one division at a time, after two or three battles and annihilate two or three divisions, the entire army will be wiped out. Things are bound to change.

Military Commission twenty nine Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The Battle of Ping-Han, also known as the Battle of Handan.In October 1945, the Kuomintang army marching northward along the Ping-Han Railway from Xinxiang attacked Handan, the central city of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Liberated Area, in an attempt to quickly open up the Ping-Han Railway.On October 24, the main forces of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region encircled the 30th, 40th and New Eighth Armies of the Kuomintang Army south of Handan.On the 30th, Gao Shuxun, deputy commander-in-chief of the 11th theater of the Kuomintang Army and commander of the New Eighth Army, led an uprising of about 10,000 people from the army and the Hebei People's Army.The battle ended on November 2, and more than 20,000 Kuomintang troops were wiped out, and Ma Fawu, deputy commander of the 11th theater and commander of the 40th army, was captured.

[2] Battle of Shangdang, see note [8] on page 35 of this volume. [3] Liu, referring to Liu Bocheng (1892-1986), a native of Kaixian, Sichuan, who was then the commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region.Deng, referring to Deng Xiaoping, was born in 1904 in Guang'an, Sichuan, and served as a political commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region at that time. [4] Bo, referring to Bo Yibo, born in 1908 in Dingxiang, Shanxi, was the first deputy political commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region.Zhang, refers to Zhang Jichun (1900-1968), a native of Yizhang, Hunan, who was then the second deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region.Li, referring to Li Da (1905-1994), a native of Meixian County, Shaanxi Province, was the chief of staff of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region at that time.

[5] Refers to the telegram sent by Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Bo Yibo, Zhang Jichun, and Li Da to the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China on October 26, 1945. [6] Hu Department refers to the 3rd Army and the 16th Army of the Kuomintang Army Hu Zongnan who entered Shijiazhuang at that time. [7] Hu, referring to Hu Zongnan, who was then the commander-in-chief of the first theater of the Kuomintang army. [8] Hou Ruyong was the commander-in-chief of the advance army of the first theater of the Kuomintang army at that time. [9] Suiyuan, that is, Suiyuan Province, see note [3] on page 17 of this volume.

[10] Nie, refers to Nie Rongzhen (1899-1992), a native of Jiangjin, Sichuan, who was then the commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.He, refers to He Long (1896-1969), a native of Sangzhi, Hunan, who was the commander of the Jinsui Field Army at that time. [11] He Wending, then commander of the 67th Army of the Kuomintang Army. [12] Fu Zuoyi was the commander-in-chief of the 11th War Zone of the Kuomintang Army at that time. [13] Guisui, now Hohhot. [14] Wang, referring to Wang Shusheng (1905-1974), a native of Macheng, Hubei, who was then the commander of the Henan Military Region.Dai, referring to Dai Jiying, born in 1907 in Huang'an (now Hong'an), Hubei, was a political commissar of the Henan Military Region at the time.Wang Zhen (1908-1993), born in Liuyang, Hunan, was the commander of the southward detachment of the Eighth Route Army.