Chapter 143 3. The operation of Huaye to lure the enemy failed to be realized

In late March, the Kuomintang army launched a key attack on the Shandong liberated area.By early April, the Xuzhou-Jinan section of the Jinpu Railway was opened, the Lunan Mountains were occupied, and the Linyi-Yanzhou Highway was opened, basically achieving its first strategic goal. On March 27, Chen Yi and others who had already arrived at the headquarters of the East China Military Region called Su Yu and Tan Zhenlin (deputy political commissars of the East China Field Army) and reported to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao Zedong that the East China Field Army had launched a major offensive in Jiaoji. If the rest of the road can come to an end, then combat issues should be considered. In early April, if the enemy's 5th Army and other units have arrived at the Jinan line and concentrated their efforts to repair the Jinpu Road, and the enemy in Jinan intends to occupy the Jiaoji line again, our army may consider that there is a large gap between the enemy's divisions to facilitate Split, and the 1st Corps, which is far away from the 2nd and 3rd Corps, attacked between Linyi, Donghai, and Xin'an.

The next day, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin, and Chief of Staff Chen Shiju called the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chen Yi, Rao Shushi, Zhang Yunyi (Zhang Yunyi, deputy commander of the East China Military Region), and Li Yu, proposing: "In order to smash the stubborn attempt, extend the stubborn defense line and force the stubborn to disperse. Troop strength and support for the struggle in central China, in order to obtain possible material and manpower support for long-term operations in central China, we plan to use 3 columns (2, 7, and 8 columns with a total of 82,000 people) to extend into Tancheng, the dock, and Xin'an Town. After arriving at Xin'an Town, head west Expand, occupy the canal line, and then ferry westward, threatening the situation in the southern section of Jinpu, and lure the 74th and 83rd divisions to the south." "With our main force of five columns (1, 3, 4, 6, 9), assemble In the southeast of Mengyin and northwest of Linyi, wait to annihilate the 74th and 83rd Divisions on the southern front, or annihilate the 11th Division that is reinforced from Surabaya to the southeast, or annihilate the 5th Army that is advancing eastward from Dawenkou. The above deployment was on April 1 The campaign will start on the 14th, and it will start around the 14th. How about it? Please repeat.” ("Suyu Chen Shiju's Report to the Central Committee, Chen Rao and Zhangli on the Combat Deployment in Mid-April", March 28, 1947) The Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China replied and agreed to the deployment.

On April 1, the East China Field Army began to march south.However, the southward movement was detected by the Kuomintang army on April 3.Subsequently, the 1st Corps of the Kuomintang Army began to shrink to the Linyi area and turned to defense.In order to strengthen the defensive strength of the 1st Corps, Gu Zhutong urgently transferred the 7th Army and the reorganized 48th Division to the east near Linyi on April 10, and the reorganized 9th Division advanced to the Xin'an Town area.At the same time, Chen Cheng, Chief of Staff of the Kuomintang Army, decided: the 5th Army of the 2nd Corps moved eastward to Taiping, preparing to attack Mengyin; the reorganized 11th Division of the 3rd Corps moved eastward to Fei County, preparing to attack Qingtuo Temple, threatening East China The back of the field army.

Therefore, the East China Field Army's attempt to go south failed to materialize, and the three columns going south stopped waiting at the lines of Xintai, Mengyin, and Shizilu.