Chapter 3 1. Xibaipo

In the early days of the Liberation War, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi left the northern Shaanxi plateau where they had lived for 13 years on March 21, 1948, and headed eastward, crossing the Yellow River eastward, stopping and going, Stopping and stopping, they arrived at their destination on May 27, 1948 - Xibaipo in the North China Liberated Area. At this time, the Liberated Areas of North China had already connected the original Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Hebei liberated areas into one piece. Except for a few large cities, they were basically controlled by our army, and there were also powerful underground forces of our party in the big cities organizations and supporters.

In May 1948, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China merged the leading groups of the two base areas of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu to form the North China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. third secretary.A unified North China Military Region was established, with Nie Rongzhen as commander, Bo Yibo as political commissar, Xu Xiangqian, Teng Daiyuan, and Xiao Ke as deputy commanders, Zhao Erlu as chief of staff, and Luo Ruiqing as director of the Political Department.The North China Administrative Committee (later renamed the North China People's Government) was established, with Dong Biwu as chairman.At this time, the North China Field Army had grown to 11 infantry columns, with a total of more than 460,000 local troops.

Xibaipo is located in a small village in Pingshan County, northwest of today's Shijiazhuang, with the Taihang Mountains in the west and the North China Plain in the east.Behind it is a hill full of trees; in front of it is the continuously flowing Hutuo River.At that time, this small village had only more than 50 households. It was quiet and secluded, and it was the old base of our party. The Central Working Committee headed by Zhu De and Liu Shaoqi had already lived here. The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Headquarters, the highest military command in North China at that time, and the future North China Military Region Headquarters were located in Nanzhuang, Fuping County, nearby.When Mao Zedong and others came here, the "Five Secretaries" of the Central Committee, namely Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi, would all be here, and this place became the general headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party to direct the national revolution.

Mao Zedong was very satisfied with this peaceful small village surrounded by mountains and water. He said to Liu Shaoqi who was already working here: "The Xibaipo you chose is an ideal headquarters." Comrade Tong Xiaopeng had the following memory about the situation of the headquarters: In order to meet the needs of commanding major battles, in the courtyard near Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, the administrative department built a five-room Military Commission War Room, which is the largest office of the Central Committee and the Military Commission.Due to the front committee, working committee, and rear committee (press: the front committee, working committee, and rear committee refer to an important division of labor when the CPC Central Committee moved to northern Shaanxi in March and April 1948, it was decided that Liu Shaoqi and Zhu De would form the Central Working Committee. , went to the Taihang area to carry out the work entrusted by the central government, mainly to guide the construction of various base areas and land reform, generally referred to as "Working Committee", and the later working place of the Working Committee was in Xibaipo; The staff formed the Central Rear Committee, temporarily stationed in the northwest of Shanxi Province, and coordinated the rear work in the Linxian area. It is generally referred to as the "rear committee"; The war in the North and the whole country (generally referred to as the "front committee") has a dozen or so staff members concentrated, and the combat department is divided into departments such as operations, intelligence, and war history materials. They all surround several large wooden tables and work intensively day and night. .Military maps of various battlefields were hung on the surrounding walls. The staff officers on duty used small blue and red flags to insert the positions of the enemy and our troops on the maps. Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and Yang Shangkun (Ye Jianying went to Shijiazhuang to run a military academy) often visited Learn about the enemy's situation and the battle situation from the staff officers here, and study the combat plan with them. ...Under the personal leadership of Zhou Enlai (Note: Zhou Enlai was not only one of the "five secretaries" of the Central Committee at this time, but also the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and the chief of the general staff), the comrades in the Operation Department of the Military Commission, with seriousness, nervousness, accuracy, and effective The work style has completed the task.

In addition to reporting the battle situation to Mao Zedong every day, Zhou Enlai often went to Mao Zedong's bungalow to report and discuss face to face.Mao Zedong sometimes went to Zhou Enlai's small office to discuss the situation of the war. It was in this small village with only more than 50 farming households that Zhou Enlai said something like this: We may be the smallest headquarters in the world, but we command the largest battles in the world.Our headquarters, firstly, does not send out guns, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, secondly, thirdly, thirdly, thirdly, thirdly, it does not send out any distribution of rations.

In this "smallest headquarters in the world", after commanding two major battles in the distance, Mao Zedong and the leaders of the Central Military Commission turned their attention to their side, to the North China battlefield where they were located.In Zhou Enlai's words, "It's time to solve Fu Zuoyi." At this time, the North China battlefield was a confrontation between two armies with a clear distinction between Wei and Wei. On the one hand were the troops of the North China Military Region under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and on the other were the troops of the KMT’s North China “Bandit Suppression Headquarters.” The two sides had been fighting for three years.

North China was the anti-Japanese front line during the Anti-Japanese War, and it was also the area where the Communist Party of China established the most anti-Japanese base areas during the Anti-Japanese War. The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was established here for a long time.The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Anti-Japanese Base Area established by the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army was once praised by Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission as a "model base area". Two large anti-Japanese base areas.The people's armed forces cultivated in these three base areas and other anti-Japanese base areas continued to grow and become the main foundation of the People's Liberation Army of the North China Military Region during the War of Liberation.

Due to the large number of bases in the North China region, the formation of troops has changed several times. In order to help readers understand the general changes in the formation of the main force of the North China Military Region, and to avoid confusion when understanding the war process, here is a brief introduction to the main force of the North China Military Region. . Most of the main forces of the North China Military Region are troops from the former Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and there are also troops from the former Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region.As early as October 1945, when the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region established four secondary military regions, the main forces of the original Hebei-Luyu Military Region, the Southern Hebei Military Region, the Taihang Military Region, and the Taiyue Military Region were organized into four field battles. column.Specifically, Yang Dezhi was the commander and Su Zhenhua was the political commissar of the first column, Chen Zaidao was the commander, Song Renqiong was the political commissar of the second column, Chen Xilian was the commander, Peng Tao was the political commissar of the third column, and Chen Geng was the commander. , Xie Fuzhi served as political commissar of the fourth column.The second, third, and fourth columns were the main forces of the Central Plains Field Army and the Second Field Army, while the first column, according to the national struggle situation at that time, went northward under the instructions of the Central Military Commission, preparing to enter the Northeast and open up the Northeast Liberated Area.Yizong set off northward on November 10, and after arriving in the Jinchaji region, he stayed in the Jinchaji Military Region due to changes in the situation. In December, Comrade Yang Dezhi of the First Column stayed in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region to work in accordance with the Central Committee's decision. Most of the troops of the First Column were led by Su Zhenhua to the south and returned to the organizational system of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region.

In October 1945, according to the needs of the war at that time, the Central Military Commission decided to organize the main force of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region into two field armies.The First Field Army is directly commanded by Nie Rongzhen, commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and has three columns under its jurisdiction, namely Yang Chengwu Column, Guo Tianmin Column, and Chen Zhengxiang Column.Xiao Ke was the commander of the Second Field Army, Luo Ruiqing was the political commissar, and it also had three columns under it, namely Liu Daosheng's column, Huang Shoufa's column, and Zhao Erlu's column.These two field armies became the basic force of the main force of the North China Military Region.Since the Second Field Army was fighting in Rehe and western Liaoning at that time, the central government decided to set up the Jireliao Central Branch and the Jireliao Military Region. The Jireliao Military Region was still commanded by Xiao Ke, and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Second Field Army was renamed. Jireliao Second Field Army.

In March 1946, the Central Military Commission required each military region to implement the plan for reorganizing the army. The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region had Nie Rongzhen as commander and political commissar, Xiao Ke as deputy commander, Liu Lantao and Luo Ruiqing as deputy political commissars, Tang Yanjie as chief of staff, and Zhu Liangcai as director of the political department. .Except for several independent brigades belonging to the second-level military region, the main forces of the original two field armies were all organized into four field columns to form the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army. Commander Xiao Ke, Political Commissar Luo Ruiqing, Chief of Staff Geng Biao, Director of the Political Department Pan Zili.The heads of the next four columns are:

First Column Commander Yang Dezhi, Political Commissar Su Zhenhua, Chief of Staff Lu Shaowu, and Director of the Political Department Cui Tianmin. Guo Tianmin, commander and political commissar of the Second Column, Han Wei, deputy commander and chief of staff, and Xiang Zhonghua, director of the Political Department. Yang Chengwu, the commander of the three verticals, and Li Zhimin, the political commissar. Chen Zhengxiang, commander of the Four Columns, and Hu Yaobang, political commissar. According to the needs of the war, in December 1946, the establishment of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army was abolished, and the front operations were directly commanded by the leaders of the military region. In June 1947, the central government decided to re-establish the Jinchaji Field Army, which was the second Jinchaji Field Army, with commander Yang Dezhi, first political commissar Luo Ruiqing, second political commissar Yang Chengwu, chief of staff Geng Biao, and director of the Political Department Pan Zili.There are 3 columns under it, and the leading cadres of each column are as follows: Chen Zhengxiang, commander of the Second Column, Li Zhimin, political commissar, Han Wei, deputy commander and chief of staff, and Xiang Zhonghua, director of the Political Department. Zheng Weishan, the commander of the three verticals, Hu Yaobang, the political commissar, Wen Niansheng, the deputy commander and chief of staff, and Wei Zhen, the director of the Political Department. Zeng Siyu, commander of the Four Columns, Wang Zhao, political commissar, Tang Zian, chief of staff, and Li Chang, director of the Political Department. In November 1947, Commander Nie Rongzhen and other leaders of the military regions jointly issued an order to expand some units of the original second-level military regions into three field columns. Their designations and responsible persons are as follows: First Column Commander Tang Yanjie, Political Commissar Wang Ping, Deputy Commander Xiao Yongjiu, Chief of Staff Zhang Kaijing, and Political Department Director Zhang Liankui. Commander Wen Niansheng of the Sixth Column, Political Commissar Xiang Zhonghua, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff Xiao Xinhuai, Deputy Political Commissar and Director of the Political Department Wang Zifeng. Sun Yi, commander of the Seventh Column, Lin Tie, political commissar, Zhou Biao, deputy commander, Qi Yuanwo, deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department, and Li Bo, chief of staff. In May 1948, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to merge the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Military Region to form the North China Military Region, with Nie Rongzhen as the commander, Bo Yibo as the political commissar, and Xu Xiangqian, Teng Daiyuan and Xiao Ke as the first, second and third respectively. As the deputy commander, Zhao Erlu was the chief of staff and logistics commander, Wang Shiying was the deputy chief of staff, Luo Ruiqing was the director of the Political Department, Cai Shufan was the deputy director of the Political Department, and Huang Jing was the political commissar of the Logistics Department.Under the headquarters, two corps were established. In August 1948, it was decided to divide the Second Corps into the Second Corps and the Third Corps, a total of 3 Corps, the responsible persons are as follows: Xu Xiangqian, commander and political commissar of the First Corps, Zhou Shidi, deputy commander and deputy political commissar, Chen Manyuan, chief of staff, Hu Yaobang, director of the political department, and Yan Jun, director of the logistics department.Under the First Corps, there were eight columns with Wang Xinting as commander and political commissar, thirteen columns with Wei Jie as commander and Xu Zirong as political commissar, and fifteen columns with Liu Zhong as commander and Yuan Ziqin as political commissar. Yang Dezhi, commander of the Second Corps, Luo Ruiqing, political commissar, Geng Biao, chief of staff, Pan Zili, director of the political department, and Dong Yongqing, director of the logistics department.Under the Second Corps, there were three columns with Zheng Weishan as the commander and Wang Zonghuai as the political commissar, and four columns with Zeng Siyu as the commander and Wang Zhao as the political commissar. Yang Chengwu, commander of the Third Corps, Li Jingquan, political commissar, and Li Tianhuan, deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department.Under the Third Corps, there was the first column with Tang Yanjie as the commander and Kuang Fuzhao as the political commissar, the second column with Chen Zhengxiang as the commander and Li Zhimin as the political commissar, and the sixth column with Wen Niansheng as the commander and Xiang Zhonghua as the political commissar vertical. In addition to the above three corps, there are also the Seventh Column directly under the military region, with Sun Yi as the commander and Lin Tie as the political commissar, and the Fourteenth Column with Gan Weihan as the commander and political commissar. In addition to the above main field troops, the North China Military Region also has local troops from the Southern Hebei Military Region, the Central Hebei Military Region, the Beiyue Military Region, the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, the Taihang Military Region, and the Jinzhong Military Region. At this time, on the North China battlefield, Fu Zuoyi, the supreme commander of the Kuomintang North China Army, was also the supreme military and political officer of the Kuomintang in North China.