Chapter 203 Chapter 23 The Battle of Yichuan: Changing the Situation of the Northwest Battlefield

From July 1947, the People's Liberation Army shifted from defense to offense.The war is no longer mainly fought in the liberated areas, but in the areas ruled by the Kuomintang.This is a turning point in history.This strategic turning point marks that "the Chinese revolution has entered a new climax period." ("Selected Works of Mao Zedong", Volume 4, p. 1257) Judging from the comprehensive record announced by the People's Liberation Army Headquarters, during the six months from July to December 1947, an average of 9 brigades were wiped out per month (in 1946, an average of 8 brigades were wiped out per month).

Amid the victories of the People's Liberation Army and the climax of the people's revolution, in order to completely defeat Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang and prepare for national victory from all aspects, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi, from December 25 to 28, 1947. Yangjiagou held an enlarged meeting. The meeting focused on discussing and adopting Mao Zedong's written report "The Current Situation and Our Tasks" submitted to the meeting.The report analyzed the international and domestic situation, and profoundly clarified the party's programs and policies in military affairs, land reform, party consolidation, economy, and united front under the new situation.

According to the spirit of the December meeting, in January 1948, Peng Dehuai presided over an enlarged meeting of the Front Committee of the Northwest Field Army in Yangjiagou.In his report, Peng Dehuai reviewed the course of the battle from the resistance war south of Yan'an to the second attack on Yulin, and summed up four points of experience concisely: "The commander must be familiar with the enemy, us, the people's conditions, and the terrain." "Be good at seducing the enemy according to the enemy's intentions to achieve your own goals"; "Be good at defeating the enemy one by one, attacking the weak first and then the strong, and don't think about swallowing them all at once"; "Don't be too big. As long as you are united; you have to practice well and use it properly.”

At the meeting, Peng Dehuai emphasized the need to implement the party's urban policies, pointing out that the implementation of our urban policies will affect the direction of businessmen in large and medium-sized cities in Northwest China.In the countryside, "I would rather go hungry than touch the middle peasants."All vertical and brigade party committees are required to pay attention to discipline education. The Enlarged Meeting of the Front Committee proposed the basic tasks of the Northwest Field Army's transfer to outer lines, one is to destroy the enemy in large numbers; the other is to establish base areas.From the perspective of principles and policies, the meeting made specific regulations and necessary preparations for the development of new districts and cities in the northwest.

A few days later, Peng Dehuai convened the relevant personnel of the Northwest Field Army Command to study the next step in detail. Peng Dehuai spoke first.He said: "After 9 months of fighting, the Northwest Field Army has wiped out 61,000 people from Chiang Kai-shek's regular army and more than 10,000 people from the irregular army, forcing Hu Zong to defend some points in the south, adopting "mobile defense" deployment, and falling into a passive position. The field army is now increasing. to more than 75,000. The ratio of the enemy's strength to our own has changed from about 10:1 to 5:1. Although the situation that the enemy is large and we are small still exists, the Northwest Field Army has begun to grasp the initiative on the battlefield. The war led to the Kuomintang-ruled areas, and the subjective and objective conditions for mass annihilation of the enemy on the outer lines were fully met. When switching to outer lines, there are three directions to choose from: attacking Yulin in the north, going out to Longdong in the west, and going out to central Shaanxi in the south. Let’s talk about it next. Let’s talk, which direction is more beneficial to attack?”

The participants spoke one after another. Some suggested attacking Yan'an, saying that the recovery of Yan'an would have a great political impact; After listening to the discussion, Peng Dehuai said: The enemy has been entrenched in Yan'an for nearly a year, has built strong fortifications, and has more than 10,000 troops on defense. Attacking Yan'an will cost a lot of casualties, and it is not too late.There was a shortage of food on the way to attack Longdong; fighting with the "two horses" cavalry might not lead to a battle of annihilation, and Hu Zongnan's strength was not exhausted, so if we attacked at both ends, we would have to fight a war of attrition.

As he spoke, he approached the map, drew a circle on the map south of Yan'an, and then said: "Although Hu Zongnan's fortifications in Yichuan and Hancheng are strong, they are inferior to Yan'an and have insufficient troops. Huanglongshan Road It is rough and difficult to walk, and it is convenient for us to ambush if the enemy reinforces. Now that the enemy occupies the Yellow River ferry, if we make good use of it, a surprise soldier (referring to Wang Zhen's second column in Shanxi at that time) will come by surprise." In the end, he said: We want to attack Yichuan and Tiaoluochuan (enemies); annihilate Liu Kan and recover Yan'an.

After discussion, everyone believed that going south to central Shaanxi and marching towards Huanglong Mountain was indeed a good move to grasp the overall situation and have a long-term vision. In this way, the idea of ​​attacking Yichuan was initially born.