Chapter 4 3. Liu Deng decided to join the party first

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the current situation developed rapidly, and the original local military and political institutions could no longer adapt to the needs of the new situation.The central government considered reorganizing the various bases and establishing a new central bureau and military region. After the "Seventh National Congress" ended, the central government was planning work in this area and making personnel arrangements. The Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu base area was one of the seven larger anti-Japanese base areas in the country at that time.Including Taihang, Taiyue, Hebei, Shandong and Henan, and southern Hebei 4 divisions.The area under its jurisdiction starts from the Tongpu Railway in the west and is adjacent to the Jinsui base area; it reaches the Jinpu Railway in the east and connects with the Shandong base area; it extends to Zhengtai Road and Shide Road in the north and is adjacent to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base area;By the time of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, these four divisions were basically connected together, controlling more than 80 counties, with a population of 24 million, nearly 300,000 troops, and about 400,000 militiamen.This strategic area is in the middle of echoing with other bases on all sides, and it is also the gate of North China, blocking the northward advance of the Kuomintang army.In Liu Bocheng's words, this place is "the place of the Four Wars".

Seeing the importance of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan region, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided on August 20 to abolish the original Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and establish the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Central Bureau, with Deng Xiaoping as secretary and Bo Yibo as deputy secretary.Under the leadership of the Central Bureau, the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region was established, with Commander Liu Bocheng, Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping, First Deputy Commander Teng Daiyuan, Second Deputy Commander Wang Hongkun, First Deputy Political Commissar Bo Yibo, Second Deputy Political Commissar Zhang Jichun, Chief of Staff Li Da, Director of the Political Department Zhang Jichun, Deputy Director Wang Xinting.

After the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Central Bureau and the military regions were established, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made adjustments to the personnel arrangements of each military region.After the personnel adjustments were completed, the rapid development of the situation made the leaders and main generals of each theater restless in Yan'an, eager to return to their respective posts immediately.The front has repeatedly urged the chiefs to come back as soon as possible.Li Da, Chief of Staff of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, called Liu Deng: "To organize a large army and command a powerful field army, we urgently need key cadres. Please take Chen Xilian and other comrades back to Taihang."

At this time, it happened that a plane of the US military observation team flew from Xi'an to Yan'an to perform official duties.The central government made an urgent decision: Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Lin Biao, Chen Yi, Chen Geng, Bo Yibo and other generals returned to their respective regions by U.S. military transport plane. On August 25, 1945, at about one or two o'clock in the morning, the dilapidated American-made Douglas cargo plane pierced through the clouds and fog, crossed the night sky, and finally stopped at the Changning Temporary Airport in Licheng, Southeast Shanxi.

Li Da, chief of staff of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region, sent a cavalry platoon to pick up Chief Liu Deng and the leaders of the military region.Lin Biao, Chen Yi and others will transfer from here to other strategic areas. After Liu Deng and the chiefs of the military region got off the plane, they went directly to the headquarters of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region in Chi'an Village, Shexian County, and rushed to the war room. While listening to the reports of the staff officers, Liu Bocheng made marks on the combat map, muttering: "This Shi Zebo is fast enough! You see, he has occupied the six cities of Shangdang, set up his chief department in Changzhi, put two divisions of more than 10,000 people, and surrounded the eldest son and Tunliu with heavy troops. There are more than 1,000 to 2,000 people, and Xiangyuan, Lucheng, and Huguan are security forces, with less than 1,000 people. It seems that he has completed the defense system, and the next step is to invade southeast Shanxi and attack the Taihang Mountains."

When Liu Bocheng said: "Jiang's army came directly to our liberated areas of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan. There were two armies. One was Hu Zongnan, and there were three armies. They crossed the Yellow River in the north and marched northward along the Tongpu line; the other was Sun Lianzhong. Seven armies are gathering in Zhengzhou and Xinxiang, preparing to break through the Northern Han line. How should we fight this first battle?" The military district and column leaders who had just got off the plane chattered.Opinions can be divided into two sides. One side says that we must attack the party first, so as not to be attacked by the enemy and tigers and wolves; One careless move, the whole game will be lost, and the problem will be big.

The war room was filled with smoke, and the thoughts of the commanders seemed to be entangled with each other like the smoke. The two sides were at odds, and it was difficult to unify for a while. The roosters in Chi'an Village crowed one after another, and it was almost dawn.Discussed for a long time, but did not form a unified opinion.The generals who had been running all night were indeed a little tired, and some simply yawned.Liu Deng said: "Let's go back and rest first. We will have a meeting to study and decide how to fight this battle." After everyone left, the coaches Liu and Deng were still sleepy.

Liu Bocheng paced slowly in the room, pondering: "It seems that it is still difficult to decide whether to launch the Shangdang campaign. However, I think there is still time to fight the Shangdang campaign. Hu Zongnan is busy The division of troops can be temporarily put aside. The key is Sun Lianzhong. He used to be in the west of Hubei with hundreds of thousands of people. It is not easy to turn around and go north temporarily. There is no one month that we can’t come. With this one month, we can hit the party, one If it cannot be defeated within a month, it will be left alone, its surroundings will be cleared, and the local troops will surround it."

Deng Xiaoping said: "I think it's ok, first go to the party, and then go back to the Shiping-Han line." Liu Bocheng immediately wanted to contact Li Da, who was commanding the attack on the Japanese and puppet strongholds in Duan Village, Wuxiang County.Li Da obviously didn't sleep all night, and his voice was a little hoarse. After a few brief conversations, Liu Bocheng said to Li Da in an unquestionable tone: "Your top priority now is to capture Xiangyuan as soon as possible, open a gap in the north of Shangdang, and then gather the main forces of the Taihang Military Region on the spot so that they can join forces. The Taiyue and Southern Hebei Military Region troops are preparing for the Shangdang battle."

The idea was made up, and on the third day, Liu Deng once again called a meeting of generals from all walks of life to unify their understanding and make deployments. The war room of the military region in Chi'an Village is actually an ordinary private house.Some of these generals who commanded thousands of troops sat around the Eight Immortals Table, and some sat down on a bench at random.In front of each person is a large bowl of boiled water. Liu Bocheng got straight to the point and said: "Chiang Kai-shek's army marched along the four railways, and rushed towards us with four claws outstretched. Their football was kicked at the gate of our North China Liberated Area. We must guard the gate, defend the North China Liberated Area, and cover our Northeast Liberated Area." The strategy is unfolding. Indeed, Pinghan and Tongpu are the main direction of our battle, but the problem now is that Yan Xishan invaded and occupied the six cities of Shangdang, which is like sticking a knife in our back. Liang, if we don't pull out this knife, and the troubles in our hearts are still in place, how can we calm down and divide our troops into Ping Han and Tong Pu to guard the gate?"

Deng Xiaoping didn't talk much, but every word was powerful.He said: "The fundamental issue is who will get the fruits of victory in the War of Resistance. Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan stretched out their hands to grab them, and they must not be allowed to snatch them away." Liu Bocheng pointed to Chen Geng, Chen Xilian, and Chen Zaidao, and said: "You 'three Chen' are all here, and this is the basic strength of this campaign. We used to fight guerrilla warfare, but now we are fighting concentrated mobile warfare. We are used to small battles. Now we are in a hurry to fight a big battle. Whether we can win or not depends on you. After Commander Zhu issued a counterattack order in Yan'an on the 9th of this month, I immediately sent Taihang, Taiyue, southern Hebei, Hebei and Lu The military districts in Henan have issued telegrams requesting you to quickly expand your forces, concentrate and disperse the combat troops as soon as possible, and form a field corps. We are now fighting, building, and training to form three field columns of Taihang, Taiyue, and Southern Hebei as soon as possible. Guarantee the needs of Shangdang’s combat forces. Now it’s time to see who can concentrate quickly, and if they gather together, they will win if they form a fist.” Deng Xiaoping went on to say: "It is mainly at the first level of your column commanders. If you want to fight, you can fight well, and if you can't fight well, you can change the commander. Make it clear in advance that orders and prohibitions should be made. This is a large corps battle, and individuals cannot do whatever they want. You immediately return to the army to carry out the battle." Combat mobilization." In this way, the determination of the Shangdang campaign was settled.