Chapter 33 9. "Tianjin Way"

Tianjin was quickly captured by our army.The success of this battle not only played a great role in promoting the peaceful settlement of the Peiping issue, but also played a great role in the process of liberating the whole of China in the future.Because, in the liberation of Tianjin this time, there are many things that can be learned and learned from the liberation of other big cities, which was called the "Tianjin way" by Mao Zedong. More than a month after Tianjin was liberated, at the famous Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Xibaipo, Mao Zedong summed up the next step to solve the Kuomintang combat troops and liberate the whole of China as the liberation of Tianjin, Beiping and Suiyuan in the Pingjin Campaign Three, he said:

After the Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin battles, the main force of the Kuomintang army has been wiped out.The Kuomintang's combat troops are only about one million left, distributed in the vast area from Xinjiang to Taiwan and on the long front.There are no more than three ways to deal with the over one million Kuomintang troops in the future: Tianjin, Peiping and Suiyuan. According to Mao Zedong's summary, the main feature of the "Tianjin Way" is "dealing with the enemy by fighting."However, if you take a closer look, you will see that the reason why our army was able to successfully liberate and take over Tianjin, the largest industrial and commercial city in North China, involved many specific steps and experiences that can be learned when liberating other cities in the future.Because of this, it will become a "Tianjin way" for future imitation.

First of all, under the unified leadership of the Pingjin Front Command, various preparations were made for the liberation of Tianjin.After the liberation of Tianjin, Liu Yalou made it clear in his "Summary of Tianjin Combat Experience and Lessons" that "political, tactical, and equipment preparations" were carried out.Some of these preparations are common and must be carried out before every major combat mission.However, the battle of Tianjin was a little different from the past, because Tianjin is a large industrial and commercial city in my country, and the situation is more complicated than any city attacked in the past. A lot of preparation work in the political aspect was never done before, or Rarely seen in the past.These are the things that must be taken seriously in the future.For example: there are a small number of foreigners living in Tianjin, foreign enterprises and real estate, and foreign concessions.How the siege troops should be treated has never been encountered before.

Therefore, on January 5, when preparing to attack Tianjin, Liu Yalou put forward three opinions after studying them, and reported them to the Central Military Commission through Lin Biao and Tan Zheng.These three opinions are: (1) The streets and houses that the enemy has fortified and used to resist, regardless of whether they used to be a concession or not, and whether the houses belong to Chinese or foreigners, and no matter which country's flag is planted on them, They all attack in the same way. (2) We should not dare to fire artillery at a stubborn enemy because we are afraid that the shells will accidentally fall into the houses of foreigners. (3) Houses with foreign flags that have not been fortified or resisted by the enemy do not need to enter, but if necessary, people can be sent to monitor at appropriate locations.

After research, the central government agreed with Liu Yalou's opinion.However, what the central government considers more is that there are a large number of factories in Tianjin, and these factories should be preserved as much as possible to play a role in the economic construction of New China.And the enemy built a large number of fortifications in these factories as defensive strongholds.For this reason, Mao Zedong sent the following telegrams to Lin Biao and Tan Zheng the next day: (1) The three points mentioned by Liu Yalou are correct. (2) What we are worried about is the factory area. If the enemy occupies the factory and resists stubbornly, our army must wipe out the enemy, even if the factory is damaged.However, if the enemy forces in other areas of Tianjin have been eliminated, and only the enemy forces in the factory area are left, and the method of persuading surrender may be adopted, then the method of persuading surrender should be tried to reduce damage.

After Mao Zedong sent the above-mentioned telegram, he felt that there was still the problem of protecting the schools as much as possible, because there are a large number of schools such as Nankai University in the urban area of ​​Tianjin.Therefore, Mao Zedong sent another telegram specifically explaining how to "reduce the degree of damage to the school". It is precisely because the central government and the front line paid enough attention to how to protect factories and schools without affecting operations, and the underground party in the city also worked hard to protect factories and schools. Therefore, when Tianjin was liberated, factories and schools were Protected as much as possible.

Secondly, after the troops entered the big cities, how to maintain strict discipline was another big issue that must be paid attention to at that time.At this time, with the strong support of the local party committee and the people in the liberated areas, our army has a unified solution for logistics supply, so we can no longer use the old methods in the past to let the troops raise food supplies by themselves. new discipline.For this reason, as early as January 2, Lin Biao and Tan Zheng made clear disciplinary regulations on the troops that might enter Peiping and Tianjin: Troops entering the city must prepare a squad or half a squad as a unit to guard the organs and warehouses. They should be educated in strict discipline, pay attention to neat clothing, and pay attention to etiquette.It is not allowed to move things in the house, not to eat on the street, not to defecate indiscriminately, not to enter private houses, and not to take needles from the masses.

Due to the strict discipline education given to the troops before the siege, the troops entered Tianjin with excellent discipline and basically achieved no crimes.Here is a very typical example: Before the war, the political and industrial departments of the army adopted many methods in order to impress the majority of soldiers on the enforcement of discipline.One of the ways is to make up some jingles for everyone to sing.Some of the sentences are as follows: "I haven't eaten for three days, and I ran into a fruit (note: that is, pastry and other food) store. I can't fight when I am hungry. What do you do? The answer is 'No crime in autumn'."

There is another example that was widely circulated in Tianjin at that time, and it was almost a household name: when the sound of guns stopped, the citizens of Tianjin took to the streets one after another.At this time, someone found a watch hanging on a tree, and there was a note next to the watch, which read: I picked up this watch when I was cleaning up the battlefield, and the owner could not be found.I still have a task, so I can't wait here for a long time, so I have to hang the watch on the tree and ask the owner of the watch to pick it up. At that time, according to Mao Zedong's telegram to Lin Biao on December 17, 1948, the clear instructions that important facilities such as factories and schools in the city must be "full attention to protection" "all intact" and prepared a lot of documents printed on it. A note with the words "untouched" was sent to each class.Whenever the soldiers see various houses and materials that should be protected, they will paste a note like this to show their attention. "Untouched" became a basic requirement for commanders and fighters when they entered the city.

Comrade Tan Zheng said when recalling the situation at that time: During the attack on Tianjin, our military officers and fighters managed to protect the city's industries, commerce, factories and schools, strictly abide by the city's policies and disciplines, and kept everything intact, which was commended by the Central Military Commission.After the battle, Liu Yalou and I gave a special report on the serious implementation of urban policy and discipline by the troops.The Central Military Commission notified the Central Bureaus and the field armies, pointing out that all the troops who attacked Tianjin, those who fought bravely and had good discipline should be commended and congratulated.

Third, even before the siege, the Central and Pingjin Front Commands made full preparations to take over Tianjin as soon as possible and orderly after it was captured.As mentioned earlier, the central government has already appointed a strong cadre team to take over Tianjin, and the North China Bureau has already transferred and prepared a large number of cadres from all over the country, making preparations for entering Tianjin.Therefore, when our siege troops entered Tianjin, our takeover cadres followed behind and took over all key departments as soon as possible. On January 14, the day of the siege, Huang Kecheng, secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee appointed by the central government and director of the Tianjin Military Control Commission, and Huang Jing, the mayor of Tianjin, led a group of cadres to the frontline headquarters of Liu Yalou to discuss some important issues of the takeover The connection is done. On the 15th, the day when Chen Changjie was captured alive and Tianjin was liberated, the receivers entered the urban area of ​​Tianjin. On January 15, with Huang Kecheng as director, Tan Zheng and Huang Jing as deputy directors, and Huang Huoqing, Zhang Youyu, Li Jukui as members, the Tianjin Military Control Commission of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was established in Tianjin and issued the first announcement. Also on January 15, the Tianjin Municipal Government with Huang Jing as mayor and Zhang Youyu as deputy mayor was also announced.The Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau was established at the same time. In this way, our party and our army successfully took over Tianjin, the largest industrial and commercial city in North China, with the fastest speed and the most orderly work, and successfully launched the plan that had been drawn up in advance to "take over and establish the government, stabilize order, resume production, and carry out democratic reform." reform" as the takeover work of the policy. Resolutely conquer it by force and take it over in a swift and orderly manner.This "Tianjin way" of liberating large cities provides useful experience for our army to capture other large cities in the future.