Chapter 29 5. The General Front Committee of Pingjin was established

On January 7, 1949, in a telegram to the Central Military Commission, Lin Biao gave a comprehensive report on how to attack Tianjin, which is also the general plan of our army to attack Tianjin.The telegram said: The report on the combat situation and deployment in Tianjin is as follows: (1) There are about 60,000 enemy regular troops in Tianjin, nearly 10,000 special forces, nearly 15,000 local troops, and 15,000 people's self-defense forces (not separated from production), a total of about 110,000. The 86th Army, 92nd Division, and 184th Division are all old numbers and new units that were wiped out in the Northeast.The 57th Division, one of the 62nd Army, is in Beiping. Now only the 151st Division is strong in Tianjin, and the remaining two divisions are even weaker (Note: The statistics of the enemy's situation at that time were slightly inaccurate, and none of the defenders in Tianjin In the 92nd Division, the total number of defenders in Tianjin should be about 130,000).

(2) The enemy's 86th Army is distributed in the eastern half of the city, the 62nd Army is distributed in the northwest of the city, the 43rd Division is in the west of the city, and the 184th Division is in the south of the city. (3) Ten Hua Li from east to west and 25 Li from north to south in downtown Tianjin. (4) The enemy's strong garrison is in the north, his weak garrison is in the south, the enemy's strong buildings are in the south, and the weak point of the enemy's entire position is in the middle.The defenses and buildings in the enemy's central area are not strong, and our army can deploy a large force from the east and west to attack the enemy's central area, so the main attack is selected in the central area.

(5) Our army originally planned to attack with 5 columns, but because our 12th column voluntarily requested to participate in the attack on Tianjin; since the establishment of this column, it has not fought a major battle and asked to take this opportunity to exercise, so it was allowed to use two divisions join.In addition, Liu Yalou asked the Sixth Column to have a division that is good at street fighting to participate in the attack on Tianjin, and it has also been agreed.Therefore, I have slightly too many troops to attack Tianjin (a total of 23 divisions and all artillery).However, it is estimated that the enemies in Peiping and Tanggu dare not reinforce, even if they are reinforced, they will be enough to deal with it, so although there are slightly more troops, it will not be a problem.Our army plans to attack side by side with about two columns of troops from west to east, side by side with about two columns of troops from east to west, and attack from north to south with the strength of three or four regiments, and attack from south to south with the strength of three or four regiments. Attack north.Our main force is to strive for assaults from the east and the west. First, annihilate the enemy in the central area and cut off the enemy from the north to the south.If the battle develops easily, attack the enemies in the northern and southern positions at the same time in the second step.

(6) At present, most of the troops are conducting assault drills, and one part has begun to gradually attack the periphery and dig traffic ditches.It is planned to attack on the 13th.The enemy defends a large city with a population of nearly 2 million (3 times larger than Jinan and 10 times larger than Jinzhou) with a force of more than 100,000. It must be weak and easy to break through and develop, and our army has an absolute advantage over the enemy. , so the entire battle should be resolved quickly. (7) In order to try to attack Beiping before the thaw, it is planned that after the battle in Tianjin, apart from forcing a part of the Tanggu enemy back, the main force will move quickly to the vicinity of Beiping to prepare to attack the city. The "four-nine" of "counting nine" here refers to attacking the city when the weather is the coldest, because the freezing in the moat is conducive to our army's attack) and it is impossible to attack the city.However, if our army can cut off the water source of the Beiping city moat from outside the city, it will still start in early February as originally planned.Whether the water source can be cut off is currently under investigation.

(8) After the Tianjin battle, it is planned to use the twelve columns as the garrison. The above report is the general plan for our army to attack Tianjin. Here are a few explanations: (1) The report stated that the general offensive was scheduled for January 13, which was later changed to the 14th; (2) the report stated that two divisions of the Twelfth Column participated in the attack on Tianjin, which was later changed to one division (That is, the thirty-four divisions of the twelve verticals), so the total strength of our army participating in the attack on Tianjin is not 23 divisions, but 22 divisions. (3) According to the report, Liu Yalou asked the Sixth Column to send a division capable of street fighting, and Lin Biao agreed. The situation is as follows:

After the Six Columns entered the customs, the Dongye headquarters gave the Six Columns the task of preparing to attack Beiping after cutting off the connection between Beiping and Tianjin, and it was the main attack together with the Three Columns, which was stationed in Matou Town at that time.The division Liu Yalou wants refers to the Seventeenth Division of the Sixth Column.This division was the general reserve team in the Northeast's attack on Siping, and it successfully completed the task of expanding the breakthrough, capturing the enemy's core defense area, and annihilating the enemy's 71st Army headquarters. It played very well.When attacking Jinzhou, this division also served as the general reserve team, and played a prominent role in boldly inserting, interspersing and dividing, and disrupting the enemy's command and deployment.After the battle, the Dongye Headquarters specially rewarded him and awarded him the title of "Tiger Conqueror".It is precisely because the 17th Division has such excellent attacking skills that Liu Yalou wanted it to come to the front line in Tianjin.After the Sixth Column received the order from Dongye Headquarters on January 3, Commander Hong Xuezhi and Political Commissar Lai Chuanzhu personally brought the 17th Division Commander Long Shujin and Division Political Commissar Xu Binzhou to lead the 17th Division to Yang Liuqing, the frontline headquarters in Tianjin, to accept the task.

Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attached great importance to the battle of Tianjin and the upcoming liberation of Beiping. For this reason, they sent two important telegrams to the front lines of Beiping and Tianjin on January 10. One is to follow the precedent of the Huaihai battlefield and establish the Pingjin General Front Committee.Telegram says: Lin, Luo, and Nie, the corps on the Pingjin front line, the Pingjin and Tianjin city committees and military management committees, the North China Bureau, and the Northeast Bureau: In order to unify the leadership to capture Pingjin and to manage all work in Ping, Tianjin, Tang and their surrounding areas for a period of time (about 3 months) later, the Central Committee decided to form the General Front Committee with Comrades Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Nie Rongzhen. The secretary, all military, political, financial, economic, food, currency, diplomatic, cultural, party affairs and other important tasks are under his jurisdiction, with one authority to avoid differences.The two municipal committees and the two military control committees directly consulted the General Front Committee for the above-mentioned work, and the General Front Committee was responsible to the Central Committee.The General Front Committee and the North China Bureau have a parallel relationship, and have matters resolved by letter or face to face.

The other telegram was drafted by Zhou Enlai. The telegram gave clear instructions on several important issues concerning the takeover of Pingjin and unified leadership of Pingjin area, such as military management, security, logistics, currency, supplies, and local work. All this shows that the Chinese Communist Party is not only preparing to liberate Ping An and Tianjin, but is also fully prepared for taking over Ping An and Tianjin in an all-round way. A new situation in North China is coming soon. Since Chen Changjie, the defender of the Tianjin Kuomintang, and others rejected a letter signed by Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan on January 11 urging them to send representatives to negotiate peace, the door to a peaceful settlement of the Tianjin issue was closed.Our Pingjin Front Command decided to attack Tianjin immediately, and reported this opinion to the Central Military Commission.

On January 12, Mao Zedong sent such a telegram: If the enemy of Tianjin can accept your condition of disarming within a time limit, you can occupy Tianjin without attacking.If the enemy cannot accept your conditions, you should capture Tianjin within a reasonable time. On January 13, Lin Biao issued an official order to attack Tianjin to the Tianjin frontline troops: Liu, commander of the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th Columns and 17th Division, reported to the Central Committee: (1) The enemy in Tianjin has no sincerity in surrender and is only delaying time. (2) All ministries should start attacking tomorrow as planned and resolutely annihilate the enemy.