Chapter 16 2. Mao Zedong once again criticized Lin Biao

The strategic intention of Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission to "separate but not encircle" the enemy's important strongholds in the Pingjin area, and not to attack the enemy's important strongholds for the time being, was not fully understood and resolutely implemented by all units at the beginning. Yes, the aforementioned Dongye Second Corps attacking Miyun is an example.More importantly, even Lin Biao once had doubts about this. The troops from Dongye who entered the customs with Lin Biao were the first to arrive at the Three Columns and Five Columns. When Lin Biao arrived at Mengjialou in Jixian County, the Three Columns and Five Columns also arrived at Jixian County and Yutian area in East Hebei.Now that the troops have entered the customs, there are enemies everywhere in front of them, and there are big cities such as Beiping and Tianjin that our army needs to capture, at this time we should fight a good battle to cheer up the troops.Therefore, Lin Biao wanted the three verticals and the five verticals to go into battle as soon as possible.Where is the first battle after entering the customs?

After careful consideration, Lin Biao chose Nankou in the northwest of Beiping, which is not only an important stronghold on the Pingsui Line, but also an important passage on the Great Wall Line, and has always been a battleground for military strategists.The garrison at Nankou is the headquarters and two divisions of the enemy's Sixteenth Army, and it is also worthy of Lin Biao's attack. Lin Biao arrived at Mengjialou on the morning of December 7, and that night he sent a telegram to the Military Commission, saying, "The fifth column of my leading column has entered Jixian County today, and the third column has entered north of Fengrun." And the Yutian line. In order to ensure that all Fu Zuoyi and the 16th Army at Nankou will be wiped out, we suggest that the third and fifth columns that arrived first pass through the vicinity of Pinggu and Shunyi immediately, and take part in the battle near Nankou with a journey of five or six days." .

Mao Zedong, who had the habit of working at night, received a telegram from Lin Biao in the early morning of December 8, and was deeply dissatisfied with Lin Biao's actions.Because on the issue of how to fight after Dongye entered the customs, as early as November 26 and 27, Mao Zedong had already sent two telegrams to Lin Biao, explaining the "basic plan" in the early stage of the Pingjin Campaign, especially It is very clear about the task of "the first battle of your main force", which is "Langfang and other places on the Pingjin line", and it is to "cut off Pingjin and encircle Tangshan".Unexpectedly, as soon as Lin Biao entered the customs, he would go to Nankou.

After thinking about it, Mao Zedong sent a long telegram to Lin Biao, saying: You want to use the third and fifth columns to fight the 16th Army, which is not appropriate in terms of the overall plan.Now Fu Zuoyi has 14 infantry divisions and one cavalry division concentrated in Beiping, Zhuoxian, Tongxian, Shunyi, and Nankou areas (the 5 divisions in Xiahuayuan and Huailai are not included). Your first task is to prevent these enemies from fleeing to Tianjin. The method is to occupy the line of Langfang and Xianghe with four columns, and cut off the connection between Pingyang and Tianjin.As long as this move is successful, the 14 enemy divisions in the Beiping District will not be able to escape. ...Under the condition that Ping and Tianjin are not separated, if you, in addition to Cheng and Huang (note: refers to the Dongye Second Corps commanded by Cheng Zihua and Huang Zhiyong, who entered the pass first), use two columns to attack the 16th Army in Nankou , and wiped out the Sixteenth Army, there is a danger that the enemy of Peiping will be forced to flee to Tianjin and Tanggu as soon as possible. ... Therefore, you should wait for the follow-up troops to arrive, and prepare to implement the plan to cut off Ping and Tianjin, encircle Tangshan, and wipe out Lu and Tang.

The development of history often has striking similarities, and the situation at this time is quite similar to that at the beginning of the Liaoshen Campaign: Mao Zedong formulated a comprehensive combat policy, but Lin Biao could not accept it and wanted to compete with Mao Zedong. When Lin Biao got Mao Zedong's telegram criticizing him, he was not ready to accept it, because he thought he was right, and he would not easily deny his conclusion. On December 10, because the Dongye Sizong, which was marching westward to support the Pingsui Line, annihilated four regiments of the Sixteenth Army in Kangzhuang, Lin Biao sent a telegram to Mao Zedong saying: "(1) The headquarters of the Sixteenth Army and the four regiments At 10 o'clock today, our fourth column has been completely wiped out near Kangzhuang. (2) The third and fifth columns have been ordered to advance to the south entrance with all their strength, seize the enemy at the south entrance and prevent the enemy from defeating the enemy and continue to assist the north, and look for opportunities south of the south entrance Annihilate the enemy."

Regarding the changes in the battle situation (the distance between Kangzhuang and Nankou is very close, Kangzhuang is outside the Great Wall, and Nankou is inside the Great Wall), Mao Zedong gave the following extremely simple answer to Lin Biao's claim: "(1) It is agreed that the fifth column will continue to move toward the south entrance today. (2) The third column should not go to the south entrance, but should go to the east of Beiping and the south of Tongxian County. (3) The tenth column will not move. (4) Detailed reasons Another call." A few minutes later, Mao Zedong's "other telegram" came into the hands of Lin Biao. This is Mao Zedong's overall consideration of the Pingjin battlefield after careful consideration, which is the "combat policy on the Pingjin Battle" that we have quoted in full above.In the telegram, Mao Zedong not only adhered to his correct policy and made overall arrangements, but also absorbed the merits of Lin Biao's ideas.He ordered the Five Columns to "continue to advance westward today", but not to attack Nankou, but to "threat the enemies of Beiping, Nankou, and Huairou"; he insisted that "the Three Columns will never go to Nankou" because he wanted the Three Columns to go to Peiping To the east, "threatening Peiping from the northeast".Because at this time, Dongye must complete the task of "separation" as soon as possible, to "threat", not to rush to destroy the enemy and rush to capture the enemy's city.

In order to facilitate the unified command of military operations on the Pingjin front, Mao Zedong drafted an important telegram for the Central Military Commission on the day when the "Operation Policy on the Pingjin Campaign" was issued, and sent it to the leaders of Dongye Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Liu Yalou, Tan Zheng, leaders of the North China Military Region Nie Rongzhen, Bo Yibo, Teng Daiyuan, Zhao Erlu, and the North China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: Our troops in the Northeast are entering the pass one after another, and the battle to attack the enemies of Ping, Tianjin, Zhang and Tang has already begun.This is a huge battle. Not only the field armies in the two regions should be under the unified command of Lin, Luo, Liu, and Tan, but also the seven verticals in Central Hebei and the local corps should be under the unified command.Hope that the North China Military Region immediately ordered the Seventh Column and the Jizhong Military Region (note: at that time, the North China Military Region Seventh Column and the Jizhong Military Region were a leadership team, the commander was Sun Yi, and the political commissar was Lin Tie) to communicate with Lin, Luo, Liu, and Tan Contact the radio station, report the situation to Lin, Luo, Liu, and Tan, and accept the task.The Jizhong Military Region should also send personnel to contact Lin and Luo in Jixian County. The North China Military Region and the North China Bureau should also send personnel to Jixian County to check the situation in Ping and Tianjin, prepare to receive Ping and Tianjin cadres, and manage various policies in Ping and Tianjin. Inform Lin and Luo, and at the same time strengthen radio communication, so that Lin and Luo know all important matters prepared by North China.

Because of Mao Zedong's far-sightedness and precision and meticulousness shown in the article "On the Combat Policy of the Pingjin Campaign", Lin Biao had to accept Mao Zedong's opinions and act according to Mao Zedong's opinions.Therefore, when all the Dongye troops entered the customs, Lin Biao commanded the columns to be divided into left, middle, and right according to Mao Zedong's deployment, and quickly inserted between the major cities to divide and block the enemy. Not around".