Chapter 311 10. Changed the plan to attack Lianggu to capture Tianjin

After all the main forces of the Northeast Field Army entered the customs, the Central Military Commission deployed four columns in the southeast of Beiping and Tongxian to cut off the connection between Pingjin and Tongjin; surrounded Tanggu with three columns, cut off the connection between Tianjin and Tanggu, and the connection between Lutai and Tanggu. Always ready to take over Pingjin. In accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission, the first step after the main force of the Northeast Field Army entered the pass was to attack and annihilate the enemies in Tanggu.

Tanggu faces the Bohai Sea in the east and the Haihe River in the south. It is the only retreat for the enemy of Tianjin. After reconnaissance of the Tanggu defenders and the terrain, it was found that the Tanggu rivers and ditches are criss-crossed and there are many ponds. In an attempt to use the People's Liberation Army to attack Tanggu and Dagu to break through.Therefore, the Central Military Commission dispatched the main forces of the 2nd and 3rd North China Corps to participate in the Battle of Pingjin after the Xinbaoan and Zhangjiakou battles; on the other hand, it decided to postpone the attack on Tanggu and Dagu to prevent the enemies of Pingjintang from breaking out and escaping. On December 29, the Central Military Commission officially decided to "abandon the plan to attack Lianggu and concentrate five columns to capture Tianjin". ("Battle of Pingjin", p. 229)

At this point, the Northeast Field Army had made up its mind to capture Tianjin, and decided that the chief of staff, Liu Yalou, would take command of the capture of Tianjin. The attack on Tianjin was scheduled to start about 10 days later. On the 30th, Liu Yalou led 5 columns, 22 divisions and 2 artillery divisions with a total of more than 340,000 people, and transferred troops to surround Tianjin: 1 longitudinal Yangliuqing advance; 2 Advance Wang Qingtuo vertically; 7 The vertical snake advances; 8. Advance the Hangou vertically; 9 Advance vertically to Darenzhuang and Dasi;

The cannons advanced toward Yangcun. The target is the main points around Tianjin.There are a large area of ​​the enemy's main points, but the key points are Yangcun, Baitangkou, and Junliang City. The geographical location of Yangcun is very important. It is located 25 kilometers northwest of Tianjin on the Pingjin Railway and highway trunk line.The enemy entered and exited Tianjin, and the People's Liberation Army attacked Tianjin, and they all settled here. After the first part of the 8th Zong rushed to Yangcun, it wiped out one division and two regiments of the newly formed 105th Army of the defending enemy, cutting off the passage for the Tianjin defending enemy and the Beiping defending enemy to communicate with each other or even meet at one place.

By capturing Baitangkou, the enemy of Tianjin can be blocked from retreating to Dagukou. 8 Zongyi set off from Wuqing, and marched straight to Baitangkou, a major southeast traffic road in Tianjin.The enemy of Tianjin must pass through this place if they want to break through to Baitangkou. 8. Some troops were deployed vertically, and very strong fortifications were built along both sides of the Jintang Highway.In order to be safe, Lin Biao also ordered the 12th vertical to be transferred between Tianjin and Junliang City to prevent the enemy from escaping to Tanggu. The Northeast Field Army moved the command post of the war to the mulberry garden east of Yangliuqing, which is only 20 miles away from downtown Tianjin.

At the beginning of January 1949, Liu Yalou convened a meeting in Yangliuqing with the commanders of the various columns participating in the general attack on Tianjin, and conducted detailed research on Tianjin's enemy situation, terrain and other issues, in order to make no mistakes in the battle and achieve the goal of quickly annihilating the enemy. At this time, the Tianjin Underground Party of the Communist Party of China had already provided the meeting with a report on various aspects of the Tianjin garrison, including detailed descriptions of the location, shape, and garrison strength of each bunker in Tianjin City Defense.The report said: "Tianjin City is 25 miles long from north to south, and more than 10 miles wide from east to west. It is a rectangle. All kinds of high-rise buildings are in the south, and ordinary bungalows are in the middle. In the north, the weak troops are placed in the south, and its defensive characteristics are: strong troops in the north, strong fortifications in the south, and normal in the middle.”

According to the characteristics of Tianjin being long from north to south and narrow from east to west, everyone believes that strengthening the attacking forces on the east and west sides can cut off the defenders at the middle, disrupt the enemy's defense system, and freely expand our own forces to the two wings to avoid congestion.Therefore, the meeting decided that the deployment for attacking Tianjin is: first implement the east-west advance, and cut off the enemy's defense system at the middle.Then, use the method of fighting from the south to the north, implement the policy of dividing first and then encircling and annihilating, and the policy of "eat the meat first and then gnaw the bones" to annihilate the Tianjin defenders one by one.

In terms of the specific deployment of troops, Liu Yalou decided to advance from east to west with 4 columns: 1st and 2nd columns broke through from the Hepingmen area in the west of Tianjin side by side, and advanced from west to east; 7th and 8th columns entered from the Minquanmen area in the east of Tianjin , advancing from east to west; the two armies met at Jintang Bridge.The other column will attack northward from the Jianzishan line in the south of Tianjin; one column will serve as a reserve team. After this meeting, the division commanders of each column, according to their respective tasks, went to the frontier area of ​​Tianjin's enemy city defense, personally inspected the terrain and the situation of the enemy's fortifications, and decided to wipe out the support points on the periphery of Tianjin's city defense first, and provide a better defense for the siege troops. open the way.