Chapter 47 3. The secret action plan of the Kuomintang army

On June 26, 1946, after completing various war preparations, Chiang Kai-shek completely tore off his peace mask and ordered about 25 divisions of the Kuomintang army to attack our Central Plains troops, and a large-scale civil war across the country began. Relying on the Kuomintang's temporary advantages in military and economic power, Chiang Kai-shek once designed a schedule of "elimination of the Communist Party in one year" that was ridiculed by later generations: Eliminate the Li Xiannian faction in the Central Plains within 48 hours at the end of June; Razed the Liberated Areas in North Jiangsu for two weeks in mid-July;

Open Jinpu Road and Jiaoji Road for 3 weeks in August; In September, Jireliao and Hebei-Shandong-Henan Liberated Areas were wiped out. The East China Liberated Area includes central Jiangsu, northern Jiangsu, Huainan, Huaibei and the entire province of Shandong, with the Yangtze River to the south and Pingjin to the north, and its strategic position is very important.The Central China Field Army and the Shandong Field Army formed a powerful heavy army group, directly threatening the heartland of the Kuomintang-Nanjing and Shanghai.As soon as the civil war began, Chiang Kai-shek directed his attack on the East China Liberated Areas.As a result, the elite national army with millions of American equipment rushed towards the East China Liberated Area wave after wave like rolling waves.

Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking for the East China Liberated Area was to implement gradual compression from south to north. First, the main force of the Central China People's Liberation Army would be driven across the north of Longhai Road, and then together with the Kuomintang army going south on the Jiaoji Line, they would be gathered and wiped out in the central Shandong area, so as to relieve their peacefulness. The "confidential trouble" in the heartland of Shanghai and Hangzhou. So in June 1946, after Chen Cheng became the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of National Defense of the Nationalist Government, he actively deployed military attacks on the liberated areas.Gu Zhutong, director of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office, was transferred to be the commander-in-chief of the army, and Xue Yue took over his last post; Tang Enbo, the first appeasement commander, was transferred to be the commander-in-chief of the Nanjing Garrison, and his last post was taken over by Li Mo'an.According to Luo Jueyuan, Director of the KMT’s 1st Appeasement Zone Headquarters Office and Director of the Advance Command Post, at this time, Tang Enbo had drawn up the combat plan for attacking the Central Soviet Liberated Area based on the intention of the Ministry of National Defense. When deploying this plan, Xue Yue said: “At the same time All military operations of the Communist Party in wars must be kept absolutely secret, the Communist Party is very powerful, and its intelligence is very flexible. In the past, they would know if we didn’t move.” Series 3).

Li Mo'an, the commander of the 1st Appeasement District of the Kuomintang Army stationed in Changzhou, received an order from his superior, Xuzhou Appeasement Office Xue Yue, to go secretly to discuss the action plan for attacking Suzhong. On June 24th, Li Moan saw Xue Yue. Xue Yue called him into the inner room, had a secret conversation for a while, and handed a large sealed envelope to Li Moan and his chief of staff, Luo Jueyuan, and said: "This is our plan based on the intention of the Ministry of National Defense. Plan, you will open it when you return to the headquarters, and you must keep it absolutely secret." Li Mo'an obeyed the order and returned to Changzhou before opening the envelope, only to see a battle plan and plan inside.Huang Botao's 25th Division is required to attack Shaobo and Gaoyou from Yangzhou; Li Tianxia's 83rd Division uses Taixing as a base to attack Xinghua; Wang Tiehan's 49th Division uses Nantong as a base to attack Rugao, Hai'an and other places; the time of operation is set at 7 15th. (Luo Jueyuan: "Memories of the Kuomintang Army's Invasion of Northern Jiangsu", in the third series of "Jiangban Literature and History Materials")

However, there was still a problem with Li Mo'an's confidentiality work. On July 10, 1946, our Central China Field Army confirmed that Jiang Jun would attack Rugao and Hai'an in four ways within three or four days: the enemy reorganized the 19th Brigade of the 83rd Division from Taixing, Xuan In Jiabao, the 99th Brigade of the 66th Division will attack the Huangqiao area from Jingjiang; the 148th Brigade of the 25th Division will attack Jiangyan from the east of Taizhou; the 49th Division will attack Rugao from Nantong and Baipu in the north.After occupying the above areas, they will continue to attack Hai'an.