Chapter 224 4. Abandoning Southwest Shandong and changing to Kaifeng

On May 24, our 3rd and 8th columns moved towards Huaiyang as planned.Qiu Qingquan was overjoyed when he saw our army go deep into its hinterland, and the main force immediately went south to block the attack, hoping to join forces with the Hu Lian Corps in the Zhumadian area south of Xuchang to attack our 3rd and 8th columns from north to south.At this time, our columns north of the Yellow River quickly crossed the Yellow River on May 30 and 31 when the main force of Qiu Qingquan's corps went south.The enemy has been fooled. After our Huaye 1st Corps crossed the Yellow River, Chiang Kai-shek was shocked and urgently ordered the main force of Qiu Qingquan Corps and the reorganized 75th Division to return north to meet our troops crossing the river.At the same time, a brigade of the 83rd Division, 25th Division, 72nd Division and 63rd Division was added and adjusted to the southwest of Shandong Province in an attempt to fight a decisive battle with our troops crossing the river.

However, in our Huaye headquarters, the acting commander Su Yu was calm and unfazed. He laughed and said, "The enemy has been fooled again!" It turned out that long before crossing the river, Comrade Su Yu had already considered that although the Qiu Qingquan Corps had certain conditions for finding and annihilating the enemy, there were many disadvantages, mainly because the main force of our army had not yet been concentrated.To annihilate the 5th Army, the assault group needed at least 4 to 5 columns, and the total strength of our army at that time was no more than 6 columns.In the case of no danger to defend the plain area, it is difficult to prevent the enemy's massive reinforcements with 1 and 2 columns.If we fight hard, our army may fall into a passive position.

Therefore, Su Yu had another plan in mind: that is, to fully prepare mentally and materially for the 5th Army, and at the same time carefully formulate a combat plan of "opening the seal first, then destroying and aiding the enemy".That is to say, first use part of the main force to attack from the enemy's side and capture Kaifeng, which is relatively weak in the enemy's garrison corps and is in a key part of the enemy's defense, so that the enemy must rescue it.After we have surrounded and wiped out Kaifeng and defended the enemy, we will concentrate our forces on the movement to find a way to wipe out the enemy who comes to help.In this way, on the one hand, we can use the 5th Army to stimulate the morale of our army. If we can fight, we can fight. The enemy's illusion that our army is going to fight him in the southwestern area of ​​​​Shandong draws the enemy's attention to southwestern Shandong, and our army can surprise the enemy in Kaifeng.Sure enough, the enemy was fooled again!

On June 15, our 3rd and 8th Columns had reached the south of the Longhai Line between Tongxu, Suixian and Qixian counties, only one or two days away from Kaifeng, and most of the enemy troops were rushing to Luzhou southwest.According to the actual situation on the battlefield, Chief Huaye resolutely abandoned his plan to fight in the southwestern part of Shandong, and changed his determination to fight in the eastern part of Henan: form a siege group with the 3rd and 8th columns, and take Kaifeng by means of raids; The 9th Column of the Field Army inserted between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng to block Sun Yuanliang's Corps who might come to aid Zhengzhou; the 11th Column of the Nakano Commanded the 1st Independent Brigade of the Hebei-Shandong-Yuan Military Region in the Juye area, and then went south to contain Qiu Qingquan's Corps from the side ; use the 1st, 4th and 6th columns of the Huaye 1st Corps to quickly enter the Dingtao, Caoxian, Minquan, and Kaocheng (now Guyang) areas between the enemy's siege, and use mobile defense to resolutely block Qiu The Qingquan Corps went west to aid Kaifeng; the rest of the troops actively cooperated with the main force by destroying railways and other methods.

In order to cooperate with the Battle of Kaifeng, the Nakano decided to use the 10th column of Huaye to enter the Shangcai area from Wuyang, and cooperate with the Nakano 1st Corps to contain the enemy's northern reinforcements from the Hulian Corps; the Shandong Corps and the North Jiangsu Corps also used offensive actions to attract enemy reinforcements and support the main force fight. While giving orders to the troops, Su Yu reported this determination to the Central Military Commission and the Central Plains Military Region. On the morning of June 17, the Central Military Commission replied that it fully agreed with Su Yu's deployment, and pointed out: "This is the correct policy under the current situation" and "In case of emergency, handle it independently without asking for instructions."