Chapter 18 Fourth, cut off Pingjin

To cut off the connection between Beiping, Tianjin, and Tanggu, and divide and encircle Tianjin and Tanggu, Lin Biao handed over the task of Dongye's first, second, seventh, eighth, ninth, and twelveth columns, with a total of more than 300,000 people.When these troops marched towards their respective destinations, some went quite smoothly, because the enemy fled on the watch, so there was no major battle, such as the case of the Sixth Column.The task of the Sixth Column was to occupy Xianghe, which originally had the 13th Army of the Kuomintang army.The commander of the Thirteenth Army, Shi Jue, was originally defeated by Dongye in the northeast. As soon as he heard that the Dongye army was approaching, he hurriedly retreated to Beiping.

After Dong Yeyi entered the customs, he temporarily lived in Xin'an Town, Baodi County. On December 20, the second day after they moved in, Commander Li Tianyou and Political Commissar Liang Biye held a meeting of cadres above the division level to deploy the tasks assigned by the headquarters to Yizong.The task given to Yizong by the Dongye headquarters is to insert between Beiping and Tianjin as soon as possible, completely cut off the enemies in the two places, and prevent them from approaching, let alone break through.Political commissar Liang Biye said a very important and vivid sentence at the meeting: "Separate it! Divide it! Catch it! Don't let it flee from south to north!"

According to the order of Dongye headquarters, Yizong went south from Baodi to the railway line from Peiping to Tianjin. The first stop was Yangcun Station, about 25 kilometers northwest of Tianjin.It is the intersection of railway and highway, and its geographical location is very important.The Kuomintang army originally had the strength of a division there, but it had been defeated by Dongye Bazong the day before Yizong arrived, so Yizong entered Yangcun smoothly. At this time, the freight cars on the railway had stopped running, but the passenger cars (called ticket cars at the time) were still running.Yizong's avant-garde regiment learned about the situation from the station master, and when a bus from Peiping to Tianjin stopped, they got on the bus and conducted some inspections. Huang Tingliang, the magistrate of Langfang County of the Kuomintang, was found on the bus.The head of my avant-garde regiment asked the county magistrate to send a message to the Kuomintang Tianjin Mayor Du Jianshi and Tianjin Police Commander Chen Changjie after he arrived in Tianjin: The Pingjin Railway will not work from now on!

Rail transport between Peiping and Tianjin was cut off, as was road traffic.Yizong immediately built fortifications nearby, not only completely cutting off the connection between Beiping and Tianjin, but also preparing to meet the possible counterattack of the enemy. The Nine Columns was originally a unit in the eastern Hebei region, and fought in the Jireliao base for a long time during the Anti-Japanese War.In the early days of the War of Liberation, according to the order of the Central Military Commission, under the leadership of Li Yunchang, they left Shanhaiguan Pass and marched into western Liaoning. Later, they became part of the Northeast Field Army and were organized into the Ninth Column in August 1948.After the Liaoshen decisive battle, they lived in Niuzhuang near Yingkou to rest.When they were ordered to enter the customs, after a 16-day trek, they arrived in Qian'an in the east of Jidong.They only rested in Qian'an for two days, and Zhan Caifang, the commander of the Nine Columns, received an order from Dongye Headquarters to rush to Lutai and Tanggu at a speed of 50 kilometers per day to cut off the enemy's escape route from the sea.

On December 13, under the command of commander Zhan Caifang and political commissar Li Zhongquan, the Nine Columns split into two groups and went straight to Beining Road.The 26th Division arrived in Tangshan first, and the enemies in Tangshan had already heard the news and fled. The 78th Regiment, the vanguard of the 26th Division, only took 9 hours to catch up to Lutai again.The enemies of Lutai also abandoned the city and ran wildly.The 78th regiment chased to a place called Qingtuozi and finally caught a part of the enemy and wiped them out immediately.The Seventy-Seventh Regiment chased to the Hangu Iron Bridge, wiped out the enemies guarding the bridge, and then captured Beitang.In this way, all the Beining line areas are under the control of our army.

On December 18, the Dongye headquarters ordered the 29th Division of the Ninth Column and the Tenth Column to intervene between Tianjin and Junliang City to capture Junliang City and prevent the enemy from advancing eastward.The Nine Columns immediately dispatched. When they arrived at Junliang City, most of the enemies stationed in Junliang City had already fled westward to Tianjin, and our army only wiped out the few remaining enemies. On the night of the 20th, the 25th Division of the Ninth Column braved the enemy's powerful firepower to forcibly break through the Haihe defense line, hit Jinnan, and swept the enemies in the Xianshuigu and Nankai areas.The six brigades of the enemy Xincheng Salt Police surrendered without a fight.In this way, our army completely controlled the Jinnan area.The 27th Division swept Xiditou, Fanjiazhuang, Cuijia Wharf and Zhangguizhuang Airport in the eastern Jin area within two days.The independent Seventh Division belonging to the Nine Columns was stationed in Yangliuqing in the west of Jinxi.

The Nine Columns liberated a large area of ​​Tianjin within 10 days, wiped out more than 9,700 enemies, and seized a large amount of supplies.More importantly, he successfully completed the important task of cutting off the connection between Tianjin and Tanggu arranged by the superiors, and surrounded the 130,000 Kuomintang troops in Tianjin. According to the deployment of the Military Commission, in order to completely cut off the enemy's escape from the sea, Tanggu and Dagu must also be captured.The Dongye headquarters issued an order that the seventh and second verticals should attack Tanggu, and the ninth vertical should attack Dagu, completely occupying the outlets of Lianggu.Lin Biao also designated Deng Hua, the commander of the Seventh Column, and Wu Fushan, the political commissar, as the front-line commanders of the attack on Lianggu.However, after Deng Hua and Wu Fushan led the Seven Columns to capture Tangshan and occupy Lutai and Hangu, they, together with the heads of other columns, put forward opposite opinions to the Military Commission, believing that the two should not be fought.

When Qizong arrived at the Beitang area for reconnaissance and survey, he found that the Lianggu area was close to the sea in the east, and the south and north were wide grasslands or salt flats facing the sea. It was basically a water town full of ditches, and it did not freeze in winter. And the tide coming from the sea.Fighting in this area is not convenient for walking on foot, building fortifications, and it is not convenient for large corps to carry out operations. The enemy has already used the buildings in Lianggu and the best local terrain to build a deep defense system on the salt flats. There was also artillery support from the sea (at that time there was the Kuomintang Navy's Third Fleet commanded by Ma Jizhuang in Bohai Bay).If our army launches an attack on the enemy, it will completely expose the troops on the endless flat salt flats, and the enemy will use crossfire against us, and we will inevitably suffer great casualties.

The headquarters of the enemy's 17th Corps are all set up on warships at sea, and they may escape from the sea at any time.At that time, our army did not have the ability to fight at sea, and could not cut off the enemy's rear, so it could not completely wipe out the enemy.Therefore, this kind of battle is difficult to fight, and you must be fully prepared to fight it.In order to further find out the situation, Deng Hua carried out a tentative attack.First let the 20th Division attack the beach station, wiped out more than 700 enemies and injured more than 600 people; the 21st Division attacked Xinhe Town in the northwest of Tanggu, wiped out more than 140 enemies and injured more than 400 people.Under such circumstances, Deng Hua invited the leaders of the Second and Ninth Columns to conduct a field investigation after studying with the leaders of the Seventh Column. Everyone agreed that it was not appropriate to attack Tanggu under such conditions.On December 25th, Qizong, on behalf of Erzong and Jiuzong, truthfully reported the situation to Dongye headquarters and suggested not to fight the two.

Lin Biao forwarded this suggestion to the Central Military Commission on the same day.The next night, Mao Zedong replied to Lin Biao, saying, "At present, it is difficult to attack Lianggu. We should postpone the attack on Lianggu, and please consider retreating our troops approaching Lianggu. If the enemy sees that we do not attack They may not run away. After a few days, the seaside will be frozen, and then consider whether to attack. The enemy only has 5 divisions (note: Hou Jingru's 17th Corps was stationed in Lianggu at that time. There was a Corps Headquarters, 3 divisions of the 87th Army, and The newly formed 318th Division and the Independent 95th Division have a total strength of more than 50,000 people), even if they escape from the sea, it doesn’t matter.”

On the second day, on December 26, Liu Yalou, chief of staff of the East Field Headquarters, and Xiao Hua, commander of the special forces, led some staff and combat cadres to the headquarters of the Seventh Column, listened to relevant reports, inspected the terrain together, and studied the The enemy's situation analyzed the pros and cons of fighting and not fighting.In the end, we came to a consistent conclusion: the gains outweigh the losses.If you fight two buys, it will cause heavy casualties to the troops.If we do not fight the two wars, as long as our army captures Tianjin and completely cuts off the enemy's eastward escape route in the Beiping area, most of the enemies will not be able to escape by sea, and only a very small number of enemies who are already on the seashore will be able to escape by sea. Escape, the enemy's escape will not reverse the fate of the Fu Zuoyi Group in North China, and it is irrelevant to the overall development.What's more, after we have wiped out most of the enemies in the Tianjin area, it is not too late to use other methods to deal with the enemies in Lianggu, because whether these enemies are eliminated sooner or later is irrelevant to the overall situation.In this way, Liu Yalou, Xiao Hua, Deng Hua and others jointly signed a report to the Central Military Commission, stating in detail the terrain characteristics of the Lianggu area and the enemy's defense situation, and formally put forward a proposal to delay the attack on Lianggu.Three days later, the Central Military Commission called Dongye headquarters: "It is correct to abandon the plan to attack Lianggu and concentrate five columns to capture Tianjin." The other troops in Dongye also achieved the planned results in the division and cutting off of the enemy: the Second Column and the Seventh Column, commanded by Commander Liu Zhen and Political Commissar Wu Faxian, inserted into the Beitang area, placing the troops in a position to cut off Tianjin and The location of Tanggu; the Ten Columns under the command of Commander Liang Xingchu and Political Commissar Zhou Chiping captured Junliang City and Xinhe Town, an important stronghold between Tianjin and Tanggu, and captured Xinhe Gunpowder Depot, which is known as one of the "Four Major Gunpowder Depots" of the Kuomintang Army The Eighth Column, commanded by commander Huang Yongsheng and political commissar Qiu Huizuo, captured Yangcun and Yangliuqing, important strongholds on the Pingjin line, and occupied Beitangkou at dawn on December 20. In this way, as of December 20, 1948, the Dongye columns had wiped out a large number of enemies, and all of them had arrived at the predetermined position, completing the comprehensive "separation without encirclement" of the enemies in the Pingjin area before December 25 as required by the Central Military Commission. "The task has laid a solid foundation for the next battle.At the same time, the North China Second Corps and the Third Corps on the western front also completed their planned strategic goals.For this reason, Mao Zedong, in the name of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, sent the following congratulatory message to the front line in North China: Comrades Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Nie Rongzhen, Bo Yibo and all comrades of the Northeast People's Liberation Army and the North China People's Liberation Army: After occupying Shenyang and completing the great task of liberating the entire Northeast, our powerful Northeast People's Liberation Army immediately marched towards North China, joined with the North China People's Liberation Army, and used unexpected means to divide and encircle all the enemy forces in Fu Zuoyi's system one by one. In a short period of time, 14 whole divisions of the enemy's regular army were wiped out, and Shanhaiguan, Qinhuangdao, Luanxian, Tangshan, Lutai, Junliangcheng, Gubeikou, Miyun, Huairou, Shunyi, Tongxian, Zhangjiakou, Zhangbei, Wanquan, Huaihe were liberated. An, Xuanhua, Zhuolu, Xinbaoan, Huailai, Nankou, Changping, Mentougou, Nanyuan, Fengtai, Wanping, Changxindian, Liangxiang, Fangshan, Zhuoxian, Daxing, Langfang, Wuqing, Anci, Jinghai Such famous cities, important towns, county governments and vast villages have caused the enemy troops in Beiping, Tianjin and Tanggu to fall into the siege of our army. If they do not surrender, they will be wiped out by us.All these great achievements are worthy of congratulations.I hope you will continue to work hard to fight for the complete annihilation of the bandit army and the liberation of Peiping!