Chapter 5 3. Smash Chiang Kai-shek's key offensive

In 1947, when the Liberation War was in full swing, Chiang Kai-shek no longer carried out a full-scale offensive that was too long and failed everywhere, but changed to a focused offensive.Chiang Kai-shek arranged his main forces in a dumbbell shape, that is, concentrated forces at the east and west ends, and carried out key attacks on the east and west wings.60 brigades of 450,000 people were used in the east, and the target was our Shandong liberated area; 34 brigades of 230,000 people were used in the west, and the target was Yan'an in northern Shaanxi, where the Central Committee of our party is located.Between the east and west wings, our army is blocked by the 2,000-mile Yellow River defense line from Fenglingdu to Jinan.

Yan'an in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was the seat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the revolutionary center of the people of the whole country at that time. It was a thorn in Chiang Kai-shek's side and a thorn in his flesh. In March 1947, 20 brigades from the south of Hu Zong, the most trusted descendant of the Jiang family, 12 brigades from the Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang Groups in the northwest Xingyuan, and two brigades from the Deng Baoshan Department of the KMT headquarters in the Shanxi-Shanxi-Sui Border Region of Yulin, sent to Shaanxi The Ganning and Ningxia border areas were encircled and advanced together.The main forces were the Reorganized First Army and the Reorganized 29th Army under the command of Hu Zongnan, attacking north from Yichuan and Luochuan, with a total of 15 brigades and more than 140,000 people.

At this time, our party commanded a total of 1.68 million troops, but they were distributed in various liberated areas.The troops in northern Shaanxi have only one column and four field brigades, with a total of more than 17,000 people; in addition, there are three local brigades.In order to deal with Hu Zongnan, the central government dispatched the Jinsui Second Column from Jinsui to northern Shaanxi. However, no matter in terms of the number of troops or the comparison of weapons and equipment, our army is still far behind, with only one-tenth of the enemy's strength.However, northern Shaanxi is an old revolutionary base area with a good mass base. In addition, the terrain is complex, the area is vast, and there is a lot of room for maneuver. Our army also has its own advantages.At this time, Mao Zedong's policy against the enemy was to boldly lure the enemy to go deep, abandon Yan'an when necessary, and deal with the enemy in the mountainous areas of northern Shaanxi, until Hu Zongnan was dragged dizzy and exhausted, and then looked for opportunities to annihilate him.Mao Zedong also believed that no matter how difficult it was, the Party Central Committee and himself must stay in northern Shaanxi, because this could not only contain Hu Zongnan's main force, but also boost the morale of other battlefields.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that the troops from the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the Jinsui Border Region would form the Northwest Liberation Army, with Peng Dehuai, vice chairman of the Military Commission, as the commander and political commissar, and Xi Zhongxun, secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, as the deputy political commissar.

On March 13, Hu Zongnan launched an attack on Yan'an and sent planes to bomb all parts of Yan'an.After successive resistances and the completion of an orderly transfer and the evacuation of the masses, our army withdrew from Yan'an on March 19 to lure the enemy northward. On March 24, our army pulled up the pockets in Qinghuabian and wiped out the 31st Brigade of the enemy. Nearly 3,000 people did not slip through the net. The brigade commander Li Jiyun was captured alive by me.In particular, the 300,000 rounds of ammunition seized played a significant role in solving the ammunition problem of our army. On April 14, the 135th Brigade of the enemy was caught in an ambush by our army in Yangmahe again. 4,700 people were wiped out by me, and the brigade commander Mai Zongyu was taken prisoner. On May 2, our army took the initiative to conquer Panlong again, wiped out more than 6,700 people from the 167th Brigade and other troops defending the enemy, and captured Li Kungang, the commander of the brigade.Our army's three battles and three victories wiped out more than 14,000 enemy troops, while our army only suffered more than 2,200 casualties.At the same time, the Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang troops who attacked our Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region from the northwest were also repelled by me, and more than 2,400 people were wiped out.The victories of three battles and three victories greatly dealt a blow to Hu Zongnan's arrogance, and also turned the situation in northern Shaanxi into safety.

While Mao Zedong was leading Hu Zongnan's nose around in the ravines in northern Shaanxi, the Central Military Commission headed by Mao Zedong was still directing military operations across the country.On March 26, shortly after the central government withdrew from Yan'an, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made an important decision in Zaolingou, Qingjian, northern Shaanxi, and decided to divide the leading members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China into three temporary working teams: Mao Zedong , Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi formed the Central Front Committee, which continued to stay in northern Shaanxi to direct operations in various battlefields across the country; Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, and Dong Biwu formed the Central Working Committee, which went to Pingshan County, Hebei to carry out the work entrusted by the Central Committee; Ye Jianying, Yang Shangkun, etc. The rear committee went to the northwest of Shanxi to coordinate the rear work and was responsible for the supply of materials on the battlefield in northern Shaanxi.

The Shandong battlefield was another focus besides the northern Shaanxi battlefield at that time.Chiang Kai-shek's attempt was to completely push our army to the north of the Yellow River, and then occupy the entire Shandong.For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek set up the Xuzhou Command Post of the Army General Command, and the Army Commander-in-Chief Gu Zhutong unified the command of a total of 450,000 troops.Under the command of Chen Yi, Su Yu and others, our soldiers and civilians in East China lured the enemy to go deep in the face of the enemy's menacing and powerful offensive, and patiently seized opportunities.The enemy's offensive started in late March. Gu Zhutong adopted the method of "strengthening the depth, approaching densely, fighting steadily, and advancing step by step", and was very careful.

Our army waited patiently, and for nearly two months, it has not fought a decisive battle with the enemy.It was not until May 11 that he made up his mind and deployed the famous Menglianggu Battle with the style of "taking the head of the general from among a million troops".At that time, Tang Enbo, the commander of the enemy's First Corps, decided to use the reorganized 74th Division as the main force to go north from Mengyin to capture Tanbu on the Yimeng Highway. The whole First Corps followed.Our army surrounded it with five columns and cut off its retreat.After the 74th Division was besieged, the enemy mobilized ten reorganized divisions to help the 74th Division, and a fierce battle broke out in Menglianggu.After two days of careful deployment and heroic fighting by our army, the 74th Division was finally wiped out by me, and the division commander Zhang Lingfu was killed by me.In this battle, our army wiped out more than 38,000 enemies.In particular, the annihilation of the 74th Division caused a great shock among the Jiang army. The Jiang army in the Shandong area did not dare to attack for a full 40 days.This is because the Seventy-Fourth Division is one of the "five main forces" of the entire Jiang army (i.e., the Eighteenth Army, the Fifth Army, the New First Army, the New Sixth Army, and the reorganized Seventy-fourth Division), and it has the most outstanding forces at that time. The American equipment, was once named "Model Army" by Chiang Kai-shek, and served as the heavy duty of guarding Nanjing.Therefore, even Chiang Kai-shek said that the annihilation of the 74th Division was "the most painful and regrettable thing" and an "irreparable loss."He ordered the dismissal of Tang Enbo's position as the commander of the First Corps, and specially invited Japanese war criminals and former commander-in-chief of the Japanese Invasion Army Neiji Okamura to formulate a new battle plan for the Shandong battlefield.

While repelling the key attacks of Jiang's army in northern Shaanxi and Shandong, under the unified deployment of the Central Military Commission, our army launched offensives against the enemy in northern Henan, southern Shanxi, Jinchaji and northeast regions, and achieved great success. Several victories.