Chapter 26 2. Liu Yalou went to the front line

Out of consideration of the specific situation in North China, according to Mao Zedong's original vision, whether it is Beiping or Tianjin, there are two possibilities to attack by force and solve it through peaceful means.From the perspective of Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, it is of course hoped that it can be resolved peacefully, because this can well protect the famous cultural ancient city of Beiping, the future capital of new China, and Tianjin, the northern city. The largest industrial and commercial city, reducing the loss of people's lives and property.However, whether it is war or peace depends on the development of the actual situation in the end, and mainly depends on the attitude of the other party.As Mao Zedong said: "After all, we are not the enemy's chief of staff." From our perspective, we can only adopt the policy of "actively negotiating and basing ourselves on fighting", because peace must be achieved with strong force As a backing, without strong force, it is impossible for the enemy to sit down and negotiate.

Xinbao has been defeated, Zhangjiakou has been defeated, Peiping and Tianjin have been surrounded, and the outlet to Tanggu has also been cut off.In the face of the reality that soldiers are approaching the city, Fu Zuoyi is also willing to negotiate peace with us.However, the progress of the negotiations was not fast, and Fu Zuoyi was still unable to make a final decision, and the war on the Pingjin front could not move forward for the time being. Mao Zedong had long been optimistic about a move, that is, if the peace negotiations in Beiping were blocked and the enemies in Tianjin refused to take the road of peace, Tianjin would be attacked first.Therefore, he clearly stated in his telegram to Lin Biao on December 29: "It is absolutely correct to abandon the plan to attack Lianggu and concentrate five columns to capture Tianjin."

Why should we consider playing Tianjin first?Here are several reasons: (1) Tianjin’s troops are basically the Kuomintang’s central military system, and it is difficult for these troops to lay down their weapons and walk the road of peace; (2) fighting Tianjin can give Beiping’s central military system more than 100,000 troops A blow to the head, let them be more honest, dare not make any big moves, and follow Fu Zuoyi on the road of peace; (3) Attacking Tianjin is also the most powerful promotion for Fu Zuoyi's road of peace; (4) After Tianjin is defeated, Beiping will be Completely lost support, becoming an isolated city, whether it is a peaceful or forceful solution, is much more convenient, and for Fu Zuoyi, all his fantasies are impossible to exist.

After Mao Zedong's approval, Lin Biao commanded 5 columns, 22 divisions, and two artillery divisions of the Pao Column, with a total of more than 340,000 people. On January 2, 1949, he completed the siege of Tianjin: one column was in Yangliuqing, The second column is in Wangqingtuo, the seventh column is in Huantuo, the eighth column is in Hangou, the ninth column is in Darenzhuang and Dasi, and the Pao column is in Yangcun.Lin Biao waited for an order from the Central Military Commission. However, attacking Tianjin was not an easy task. This was not only because the enemy had built many fortifications and had many rivers, making it difficult to attack, but also because Tianjin was a megacity with a population of 2 million at that time. , is a special city juxtaposed with Beiping (similar to today's central municipality), with well-developed industries, commerce, culture and education, and a number of foreign nationals. The situation is complicated. Our army must minimize this big city in battle Suffering losses allows various facilities in the city to serve the construction of New China as soon as possible, so it is difficult for our army to fight in battles, especially street battles after entering the city.

In order to make all kinds of preparations for fighting Tianjin and to command the battle against Tianjin well, Lin Biao decided that Liu Yalou would be the front-line commander of the attack on Tianjin and be responsible for the overall work of fighting Tianjin. After Liu Yalou accepted the mission, he set up his headquarters in Yangliuqing, west of Tianjin.Yangliuqing is a well-known small town about 10 kilometers away from Tianjin. It is the production and distribution center of the famous Yangliuqing painting in my country.There is a small river in the town that runs through the middle of the street, and it has a bit of the scenery of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River in normal times.However, at this time, the atmosphere of war has been completely shrouded.

When Liu Yalou led the staff and combat personnel to make a serious investigation and research on the enemy's defense situation in Tianjin, he found that the biggest obstacle to the siege of the city was not the enemy's fortifications, but water. Chinese who have a little bit of historical knowledge know that Tianjin, an industrial and commercial city that only emerged in modern times, prospered gradually because of the water transportation of the Haihe River system and the sea port of Tanggu.Within the urban and suburban areas of Tianjin, there are not only the well-known Haihe River, but also the Yongding River, Ziya River, North Canal, South Canal, Daqing River, and Baihe River. Therefore, the whole Tianjin is not only divided by rivers, but also low-lying. , It is not conducive to large corps operations.In order to strengthen the defense, the Kuomintang defenders dug a new moat using some of the original river channels a month ago. The moat is 22.5 kilometers long, 10 meters wide and 3 meters deep.After the enemy built the moat, they blocked the waterway from the moat to the Haihe River, keeping the water depth in the moat at more than 2 meters.In the cold winter, this moat became the main obstacle for our army to attack Tianjin.At this time, the enemies in the city of Tianjin did not know where a large amount of water was introduced into the moat, causing the water in the moat to surge, and the overflowing water poured in a large amount to the southwest of the city, and even flooded both sides of the road from Tianjin to Baoding.This not only caused difficulties for the siege, but also extremely unfavorable for the deployment of the troops before the siege.Later, under the guidance of a local old man, Yi Zong found the Tangguantun Sluice Gate on the South Canal in Sanyuan Village, south of Jinghai, and closed the gate of the intake sluice so that the water from the South Canal flowed into the Alkaline River and out to the sea instead of into the moat. Only then did the floods in Tianjin City at that time be solved.

After solving the temporary flood, we have to figure out how to cross the moat and other rivers in the city.Therefore, all the troops mobilized everyone to work together, and within three days, various river crossing tools such as reed bridges, gasoline barrel bridges, door plank bridges, and ladder bridges were created according to local conditions and materials.Among them, the reed bridge is the best tool for crossing the river made by the soldiers.There are reeds everywhere in the suburbs of Tianjin. The reeds in winter have dried up and have great buoyancy. If you tie a few bundles of reeds into a reed bridge, you don’t need any skills. You can see it at a glance, and you can pass an infantry company in 3 minutes. sinking.The front-line headquarters discovered this good method, and immediately held a live reed bridge performance in Yizong, so that all troops could learn this technique, and each company organized a bridge-building team to solve the problem of crossing the river in combat.

While solving the problem of crossing the river, various troops dug a large number of traffic trenches in the ice and snow, and transformed the terrain on the offensive road. Around January 10, 1949, basically all outlying strongholds were pulled out, and preparations were made for the siege.