Chapter 44 9. Inventory

A total of more than 10,000 enemies were wiped out in this campaign.This battle restrained more than 300,000 Kuomintang troops, preventing them from going straight to attack our North China and East China Liberated Areas, thereby deploying and consolidating North China and striving for the overall strategic situation in Northeast China, completing the strategic transformation from the National Liberation War to the People's Liberation War, and striving for the most precious time.Afterwards, the People's Liberation Army of the Central Plains broke through the encirclement, turned to outside operations, and carried out strategic containment tasks. It went through five provinces and moved to war for two years, disrupting the strategic deployment of the Kuomintang reactionaries to launch an all-out civil war.It mobilized the three forces of Cheng Qian, Liu Zhi, and Hu Zongnan, and successively restrained 32 reorganized brigades of the Kuomintang Army, forcing Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan to postpone the attack on North China and Yan'an, thereby crushing the all-out attack of the Kuomintang Army for the brothers inside. , Seizing the victory in the self-defense war created favorable conditions and played an important strategic role.

On September 12, 1946, the "Liberation Daily" published an editorial "Jiang's Army Must Be Defeated" for the breakout of the Central Plains, the Battle of Central Soviet Union, and the Great Victory of the Longhai Line. The role. The Jiang army must be defeated, and the situation that our army must win is settled." The breakout of the Central Plains is an event of great significance in the history of the party and the military. It is a wise strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao at a major turning point in the Chinese revolution. The major victory of the "Southern Anhui Incident" conspiracy.

On October 1, 1946, Mao Zedong commented on the breakout of the Central Plains in the "Three-month Summary" and said: "Our Central Plains Liberation Army has overcome difficulties and hardships with incomparable perseverance. Except for one part that has been transferred to the old liberated areas, the main force is in southern Shaanxi and western Hubei. area, established two guerrilla base areas. In addition, there are troops in eastern Hubei and central Hubei that insist on guerrilla warfare. These have greatly assisted and are continuing to assist the operations in the old liberated areas, and will play a greater role in the long-term war in the future. effect."

In January 1947, Liu Shaoqi said in his speech on the Central Plains issue that the strategic role played by the Central Plains’ insistence on breaking out of the Central Plains was no less important than forming a few columns in North China and winning a few battles. On May 28 of the same year, the Party Central Committee sent a message of condolences to the Central Plains troops, saying: "Under extremely difficult conditions, our ministries in the Central Plains implemented the central strategic intentions and persisted in guerrilla warfare. They once restrained more than 30 brigades of Chiang Kai-shek's regular army, making our main force in North China and Central China Overcoming the most difficult period of Chiang Kai-shek's offensive played a great strategic role. All the commanders and fighters who participated in this heroic struggle are admired by the people of the whole country."

In November 1947, after our army switched to a strategic offensive, Chen Yi said in a speech to some cadres of the 5th Division of the former New Fourth Army in Huaiyang that the Central Plains troops had held back Chiang Kai-shek's 300,000 main force for more than ten months. The Battle of Shangdang, the Battle of Handan and the seven battles and seven victories in East China created favorable conditions.I dare say that without the strategic containment of the Central Plains troops, there might not have been victories in the Shangdang Battle, the Handan Battle, and the seven battles and seven victories in East China.At a critical moment in history, the Central Plains troops completed the strategic containment task, and made great contributions to defending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and Yan'an, cooperating with various liberated areas in combat, and the party's revolutionary cause.