Chapter 387 3. Chongqing is liberated, Chengdu is waiting to be attacked

After the Kuomintang government flew from Guangzhou to Chongqing, at the end of October, the People's Liberation Army launched a campaign to attack the Southwest.Chiang Kai-shek was not surprised by the People's Liberation Army's attack on the Southwest. What gave him a great headache was the People's Liberation Army's tactics of attacking east and west, which made him unable to judge where our main attack direction was. In the situation where the whole territory of Hubei and Hunan was liberated and the southwest began to be in a hurry, Yan Xishan, the chief executive of the Kuomintang government, wrote to Chiang Kai-shek in early November, saying: "Although there are military arrangements in eastern Chongqing and eastern Guizhou, there is no certainty. Coming to Chongqing, it is difficult to save." ("Jiang Jingguo's Self-Report", pp. 303-304) Chiang Kai-shek had to fly from Taipei to Chongqing again on November 13, "knowing that there is no hope for him to save him", he still went to "preside over the endgame". ("Jiang Jingguo's Self-Report", pp. 303-304)

On the morning of November 15, Chiang Kai-shek convened an emergency military meeting with Kuomintang military and political officials in Chongqing to discuss strategies for defense and delaying the Communist army's offensive. However, the meeting convened by Chiang Kai-shek did not come up with any brilliant ideas.In addition to passive defense, it is bombing.To block the offensive of the People's Liberation Army by destroying roads is really a desperate move by the desperate. With the news of continuous defeats on the front line, the situation in Chongqing became tense day by day.

According to Chiang Kai-shek's intelligence analysis from various sources, Chongqing will soon be captured by the People's Liberation Army.So he decided to abandon Chongqing and flee to Chengdu.On the one hand, he ordered Mao Renfeng to quickly send people to carry out the explosion and massacre, and on the other hand, he asked Yan Xishan to move the office of the "Executive Yuan" to Chengdu. At 6 o'clock in the morning on November 30, Chiang Kai-shek fled Chongqing, the mountain city that once made him ecstatic. On the day that Chiang Kai-shek flew from Chongqing to Chengdu in a hurry, Chongqing, the so-called accompanying capital of the Kuomintang government, returned to the hands of the people. On December 8, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the leadership of the field army to enter Chongqing.

As soon as Chongqing was liberated, Liu Bocheng's eyes were fixed on Chengdu, where the remnants of the enemy gathered. Due to the rapid liberation of Chongqing and the vast areas of eastern and southern Sichuan, Chiang Kai-shek had to shrink his troops again.He ordered the main force of the regiment from Chongqing and the area north of it to be wiped out by the Fourth Field Army and the 4th Corps of the Second Field Army on the Guangxi-Guangdong border.The Kuomintang army in the southwest was even more isolated and discouraged.The enemy retreating to the west delayed the actions of the People's Liberation Army on the front; ordered Hu Zongnan, Zhang Qun and other troops to retreat to Chengdu, attempting to flee to Xikang and Yunnan.At this time, the Guangxi Campaign in the south of China achieved a major victory. Bai Chongxi, Liu Bocheng, and Deng Xiaoping resolutely refused to give the enemy a chance to breathe, and decided to take advantage of the momentum to launch the Chengdu Campaign. On December 6, ordered the main force of the 5th Corps and the 10th Army to seize Leshan, Qingshen, Pujiang and other places, and attack the enemy from the south, and emphasized: "The key to this battle is to occupy Leshan and completely cut off the enemy's retreat to Xichang, Huili and Yunnan highways.” He also ordered the main force of the 3rd Corps to quickly capture Jianyang, Qionglai, Dayi and other places, and advance towards the enemy from the east and west.At the same time, he telegraphed He Long and Li Jingquan to lead their troops across the Qinling Mountains and head southward, pressing on the enemy from the north.

At the same time as the military strike, the political fight has also achieved great success.Under the unified leadership and deployment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping actively carried out political offensives and instigation against the enemy. On November 21, they put forward four pieces of advice to the military and political personnel of the Southwest Kuomintang, calling on them to stop resisting, turn to the light, reform their mistakes, make meritorious deeds and atone for their crimes, and clearly defined the policy boundaries. , Do not confiscate weapons, concentrate in designated places, and wait for disposal.This had a huge impact in the Kuomintang army.

The first uprising was the local power faction of the Kuomintang. On December 9, Lu Han, chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Government of the Kuomintang, revolted in Kunming.On the same day, Liu Wenhui, chairman of Xikang Province of the Kuomintang, Deng Xihou and Pan Wenhua, deputy directors of the Southwest Military and Political Chief Office, electrified an uprising in Peng County, Sichuan.Their uprising played a decisive role in the disintegration of Chiang Kai-shek's "Great Southwest Line of Defense".In particular, the uprising by Liu Wenhui and others played a very good role in supporting our army's victory in the Chengdu Campaign, encircling and annihilating the Hu Zongnan Group, and accelerating the liberation of the Southwest.