Chapter 122 2. Yan'an enters a state of combat readiness

On June 26, 1946, after completing preparations for a large-scale civil war, Chiang Kai-shek tore off the mask of "peace" and tore up the "Armistice Agreement" signed by the KMT and the Communist Party. An all-out attack and a civil war on a national scale began, and the Chinese people's wish to build their own homeland under the green shade of the tree of peace fell through in vain. Facing the all-out civil war provoked by Chiang Kai-shek, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China first determined the correct policy of smashing the all-out attack of the Kuomintang army with a war of self-defense and restoring domestic peace. On July 20, 1946, Mao Zedong drafted an intra-party directive for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to "Smash Chiang Kai-shek's Offensive with a War of Self-Defense," stating: "Only after Chiang Kai-shek's offensive is completely crushed in a war of self-defense can the Chinese people gain peace." Our party and our army are preparing everything to smash Chiang Kai-shek's attack and strive for peace. Although Chiang Kai-shek has American aid, his people's hearts are not going well, his morale is not high, and his economy is in difficulty. There is also a solution to the economy. Therefore, we can defeat Chiang Kai-shek. The whole party should have full confidence in this." ("Selected Works of Mao Zedong", Volume 4)

The flames of a large-scale civil war first ignited in the Central Plains.At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek concentrated 200,000 troops from 19 brigades to continue to encircle and block the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia liberated areas and wait for opportunities to launch attacks. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area is bordered by the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the east, the Huanjiang River in the west, the Weibei Mountains in the south, and the Great Wall in the north. It includes more than 20 counties in northern Shaanxi, Gansu, and eastern Ningxia, with an area of ​​about 98,600 square kilometers and a population of about 1.5 million. Owns 19 cities.The liberated area is part of the Loess Plateau, with an average altitude of 800 to 1,200 meters.Due to the long-term erosion of rivers such as the Luo River, Yan River, and Wuding River, a variety of complex terrains with ravines and ravines have been formed, with interlaced mountains and ridges and few roads.As early as the period of the Agrarian Revolution, this was the old base established by the Communist Party of China and the Red Army of Chinese Workers and Peasants, and also the foothold of the Red Army's 25,000-mile Long March.Yan'an, the capital of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area, has been the seat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission since the end of the Agrarian Revolutionary War.

At that time, the deployment of the Kuomintang army was: 12 brigades of 140,000 people in the south of Hu Zong, commander of the first war zone, stationed on the southern line of the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area; more than 50,000 people from Ma Hongkui, deputy director of the Northwest Xingyuan, stationed on the western front of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area.Hu Zongnan, the main force surrounding the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area, in addition to continuous harassment and invasion, also attempted to use sneak attacks to attack Yan'an on a large scale. Now the atmosphere in Yan'an is very different from when the Anti-Japanese War was won. The cloud of war enveloped the entire city and the entire Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area.At this time, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Shanxi-Sui Joint Defense Force had only 5 brigades and more than 28,000 people.

Faced with the increasingly serious threat of war, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia liberated areas set off an unprecedented upsurge of war preparations. On June 3, 1946, the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instructions on Urgent Mobilization to Prepare for War and Defend Border Areas", which exposed the Kuomintang army's plot to attack Yan'an, and called on the soldiers and civilians in the liberated areas to prepare to crush the enemy's attack. On August 16, the "Liberation Daily" published an editorial titled "People in the Liberated Areas Mobilize to Smash Chiang Kai-shek's Offensive", pointing out that when Chiang Kai-shek broke the peace and democracy agreement and ignited the flames of civil war, the task of the army and civilians in the Liberated Areas was to mobilize all strength, crush Chiang Kai-shek's offensive, and win the war of self-defense.