Chapter 6 4. To kill the enemy's hinterland

In the first year when Chiang Kai-shek launched a full-scale civil war, that is, from June 1946 to July 1947, our army wiped out more than 970,000 regular troops above the battalion and more than 340,000 irregular troops above the battalion all over the country. , Adding the two together, a total of 1.32 million enemy troops were wiped out, and 202 general-level officers of the enemy were killed and captured.The enemy's total strength has fallen from 4.3 million at the beginning of the civil war to 3.7 million, while our army has risen from 1.2 million to 1.95 million.However, the most important victory is to repel the enemy's key offensive plan, weaken the enemy's effective strength, and gradually grasp the initiative in the war.

On July 21, 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the former committee in Xiaohe Village, Jingbian County, northern Shaanxi, which was later called the "Xiaohe Village Meeting".Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Peng Dehuai, He Long, Chen Geng, Xi Zhongxun, Lu Dingyi, Yang Shangkun and others attended the meeting.The meeting seriously discussed the central government's plan of "holding a nationwide counter-offensive, using the main force to fight to the outer lines, leading the war to the Kuomintang area, and annihilating a large number of enemies on the outer lines." .It was decided that Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping would lead the troops to cross the Yellow River from the Central Plains, advance into the Dabie Mountains, and penetrate directly into the enemy's chest; The Yellow River advances into the west of Henan.This is the three armies going south, attacking the enemy in the weak part of the center of the dumbbell-shaped layout of the Jiang army, cooperating in the vast area of ​​Jianghuai and Han, and annihilating the enemy from the outside.At the same time, Peng Dehuai in northern Shaanxi attacked Yulin and transferred Hu Zongnan to the north; Xu Shiyou launched an offensive in Jiaodong and transferred the enemy to the sea to support the three armies going south.This is the "two wings containment" on the westernmost and easternmost sides.After the meeting in Xiaohe Village, our army's outer-line combat plan to launch a full-scale attack on Jiang's army was launched in various places one after another.

Chiang Kai-shek stretched out two fists, which exposed his chest.Our three armies going south are like three sharp knives piercing his chest. According to the decision of the Xiaohe Village meeting, in late July, Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission called Liu, Deng, Chen, and Su: ... Immediately gather the whole army to rest for about ten days. Except for clearing out small enemies and militias passing by, we will not attack Longhai, the east of the New Yellow River, or Pinghan Road.Determined not to go to the rear, take half a month's journey straight out of the Dabie Mountains, occupy dozens of counties centered on the Dabie Mountains, clear out militia groups, mobilize the masses, establish base areas, and attract the enemy to attack us and fight mobile warfare.

This is the beginning of the famous "thousand-mile leap into the Dabie Mountains" operation in the history of our army. The plan to leap thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains had been formed in Mao Zedong's mind before the meeting in Xiaohe Village.So as early as May, preparations were already underway. On June 21, Liu and Deng carried out pre-war mobilization and deployment, commanding the army to prepare to forcibly cross the Yellow River. On the night of June 30th, Liu and Deng led the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Field Army's first, second, third, and sixth columns with a total of 120,000 athletes to march from Zhangqiu Town to the east of Yanggu in the southern Shandong area to the north of Heze. The eight ferries between Linpu and Jizhou forcibly crossed the Yellow River at the same time.Taking Yuncheng and going down to Cao County, it took 28 days to complete the expected Battle of Southwest Shandong, wiped out more than 60,000 enemies, smashed the defense line of Jiang's army, and opened the way to enter the Dabie Mountains.After a short-term rest, on August 11 they crossed the Longhai Road, passed through the Yellow River flooding area, and crossed the Shahe, Ruhe, and Huaihe rivers. During this period, they went all the way and fought all the way. Entered the Dabie Mountains at the junction of Henan, Hubei, and Anhui provinces.Under very difficult conditions, the army immediately mobilized the masses on the basis of the old areas of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, established political power, organized local armed forces, and established new base areas.By the end of September, 23 county towns had been liberated, and local democratic regimes in 17 counties had been established, initially gaining a firm foothold.

Our army of Liu and Deng crossed the Yellow River south and went straight into the Dabie Mountains, which opened the prelude to our army's strategic counter-offensive and shocked the whole country.In the words of Leighton Stuart, the US ambassador to China at the time and who had lived in China for 50 years, "it may become the most eye-catching one of the top ten news in the world in 1947".why?This is because this action shows that the Chinese People's Liberation Army has changed from a strategic defense to a strategic counter-offensive. The tip of the Chinese People's Liberation Army has pointed directly at the heart of the Kuomintang's rule in Nanjing and Shanghai.Chiang Kai-shek also said in a speech in early November: If Liu and Deng "can really occupy the Dabie Mountains, the east can threaten Gyeonggi, the west can threaten Wuhan, and the south can hinder the transportation of the Yangtze River, which will be a great threat to the government strategically."Chiang Kai-shek was very clear on this point, so he held a special review meeting to suppress bandits in the Dabie Mountains, and established the Jiujiang Command of the Ministry of National Defense. The Minister of National Defense Bai Chongxi was also the director, and commanded 33 brigades to besiege and suppress the Dabie Mountains.

In order to deal with Chiang Kai-shek's "total force war", the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to deploy the Tenth and Twelfth Columns of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Field Army to support the Dabie Mountains under the leadership of Li Xiannian and Wang Hongkun, and sent the Eleventh Column and the East China Field Army's Ten Columns to escort A batch of new soldiers and a large number of logistical supplies are coming.By the end of the year, Liu and Deng's army was divided into two groups. Liu Bocheng led his army across the Huaihe River to fight on the outside; Deng Xiaoping led his army to stay in the Dabie Mountains and fight on the inside.The two armies cooperated with each other and won repeated battles, which bankrupted all the tricks of Chiang Kai-shek and Bai Chongxi one by one.More importantly, the offensive and defensive system of the Kuomintang army was completely disrupted, so that the initiative of the war was further in the hands of the CCP.It was not until the spring of the following year that Liu and Deng's armies successively transferred their main force out of the Dabie Mountains according to the unified arrangement of the central government to participate in the great battle in the Central Plains.

While Liu and Deng's armies advanced into the Dabie Mountains, the other two of the three sharp knives that our army turned to attack from the outside were also killing the enemy's hinterland. Commander Chen Geng and political commissar Xie Fuzhi led a combat group with four verticals and nine verticals as the main force. On August 20 and 23, they smuggled and forcibly crossed the Yellow River in two routes in southern Shanxi, pointing directly at the border between Henan and Shaanxi, and pushing Luoyang to the east. , West forced Xi'an. At the beginning of September, the Chen Geng Combat Group marched westward, annihilating more than 30,000 enemy Shaanxi Corps in half a month.When Chiang Kai-shek personally flew to Xi'an to dispatch troops to protect Xi'an, the Chen Geng Combat Group returned to the division and directed the main force to the west of Henan. 8 special agencies and 39 county regimes were established, the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Military Region was established, 8 military divisions were formed, and new bases were established.

The 6 columns of the East China Field Army headed by Chen Yi and Su Yu formed the outer line corps, first wiped out the enemy in the southwest of Shandong, and then turned to the border areas of Henan, Anhui and the Soviet Union, mobilized the masses, carried out land reform, established 3 special agencies, and 3 military divisions. The liberated areas with a population of more than 10 million connected the bases of Hubei, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and central Jiangsu, making full preparations for the next bigger battle. Among the three sharp knives in the finished font at that time, Liu Deng's army had the heaviest task and the greatest pressure.

In order to actively support Liu Deng's army, during the 22 days in the middle and late December, Chen Su's army and Chen Xie's army on the east and west jointly launched a battle to destroy the Ping-Han line and the Longhai line, and wiped out more than 45,000 enemies. Liberated more than 50 county towns and destroyed more than 420 kilometers of railways, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to send 13 brigades from Dabie Mountain to help.By the end of 1947, the three armies cooperated closely on the Central Plains battlefield, wiped out more than 190,000 enemy troops, liberated more than 100 county towns, established 4 military regions, 26 military divisions and democratic regimes at all levels. The region basically connected the liberated areas into one piece, forming a powerful Central Plains liberated area, attracting 90 of the more than 160 brigades of the Kuomintang army's southern line to its surroundings, and our army's initiative was further expanded.On the last day of 1947, the three armies of Liu Deng, Chen Su, and Chen Xie successfully joined forces in the Queshan area of ​​​​Henan Province.

From December 25th to 28th, 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an important working meeting in Yangjiagou, Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Peng Dehuai, He Long, Lu Dingyi, Lin Boqu, Zhang Zongxun, Xi Zhongxun, Ma Mingfang , Ye Jianying, Zhang Desheng and others attended the meeting.The meeting discussed Mao Zedong's written report "The Current Situation and Our Tasks", in which Mao Zedong pointed out: The revolutionary war of the Chinese people has now reached a turning point.This means that the Chinese People's Liberation Army has repelled the attack of millions of reactionary troops of Chiang Kai-shek, the lackey of the United States, and turned itself into a counter-offensive. ... This is a turning point in history.This was the turning point when Chiang Kai-shek's 20 years of counter-revolutionary rule went from development to elimination, and this was the turning point from the development to elimination of imperialist rule in China over the past 100 years.

After Mao Zedong summed up the famous "Ten Military Principles" of the People's Liberation Army's operations, he proposed the most basic political program of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which is: Unite workers, peasants, soldiers, students, businessmen, oppressed classes, people's organizations, democratic parties, ethnic minorities, overseas Chinese and other patriotic elements to form a national united front to overthrow the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and establish a democratic coalition government. When the external battles were in full swing, Peng Dehuai's troops, who were in charge of internal battles and defending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, were also constantly launching attacks.In order to unify the command of the Northwest Battlefield, on July 31, 1947, the Northwest Field Corps was named the Northwest Field Army, with Peng Dehuai as the commander and political commissar. secretary.In order to contain the enemy's forces and destroy the enemy's vital forces, Peng Dehuai organized the Battle of Yulin.At that time, Yulin was the seat of the general headquarters of the enemy's Shanxi-Shanxi-Sui Border Region, and the garrison under the command of the commander-in-chief Deng Baoshan had more than 40,000 people. On August 7, the Northwest Field Army approached Yulin from all sides, and Hu Zongnan sent 8 brigades of the main force to the north to rescue.Under Mao Zedong's personal arrangement, Peng Dehuai deployed troops in Shajiadian. On August 20, he wiped out the enemy's reorganized 36th division, wiped out more than 6,000 enemies, and captured Liu Ziqi, major general of the enemy's first, second and third brigades.This battle turned our army's northwest war situation from passive to active, and changed the entire military situation in northern Shaanxi.After the war, Mao Zedong specially re-wrote the poem he wrote to Peng Dehuai in October 1935: "Who dares to slash immediately? Only I, General Peng!" In early October, the Northwest Field Army surrounded the enemy in Qingjian and reorganized the 70th The Sixth Division captured Qingjian on the 11th, wiped out more than 8,000 enemies, and captured Lieutenant General Liao Ang. According to the overall strategy of the Xiaohe Village Conference, "the center breaks through, the two wings contain; the three armies advance, each other's horns", northern Shaanxi is one of the two wings, and the other is the easternmost Jiaodong.Northern Shaanxi is the hinterland of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, while Jiaodong is the rear base of the East China Liberated Area. In order to contain and destroy the enemy, the East China Field Army’s Inner Line Corps, under the command of Commander Xu Shiyou and Political Commissar Tan Zhenlin, mainly targeted the Jiaodong Corps commanded by Fan Hanjie, which was formed by Chiang Kai-shek to end the Shandong War, to attack Jiaodong.Starting in early September, after a series of blocking battles, more than 12,000 enemy troops were wiped out in the Jiaohe Battle in early October, and another 10,000 enemy troops were wiped out in the high-density pursuit battle in Jiao (County) in November.In order to wipe out Jiang's army in the Jiaodong area, he launched the Laiyang Campaign in December and wiped out more than 9,000 enemies.By the end of the year, more than 63,000 enemy troops had been wiped out in more than four months of fighting, which completely shattered the Kuomintang army's attempt to invade Jiaodong. The plan is a strong support for our army's Central Plains war situation. At the same time as our army in the Jianghuai and Hehan regions took the initiative to attack, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army in the north also took the initiative to launch a series of attacks on the enemy.Under the command of Nie Rongzhen, the commander and political commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, with Yang Dezhi as the commander and Luo Ruiqing and Yang Chengwu as the first and second political commissars, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army wiped out more than 5,000 enemies in the Battle of Daqinghe in early September. In mid-October, the third army surrounded the enemy again in Qingfengdian, north of Ding County, and fought fiercely with the surrounded enemy and the enemy who came to rescue for three days, and wiped out more than 21,000 enemies, including the commander of the third army who was captured alive. Luo Lirong, deputy army commander Yang Guangyu and more than 11,000 people below.The Battle of Qingfengdian played a major role in reversing the situation in North China, making our army completely active in the situation.Commander Nie Rongzhen immediately prepared to attack Shijiazhuang after this battle. Shijiazhuang was called Shimen City at that time. It was the hub of the Pinghan, Shide, and Zhengtai railways. There were more than 20,000 enemy defenders.On the basis of the fortifications built by the Japanese invaders, the Jiang army built three lines of defense, with more than 6,000 forts of various kinds.Liu Ying, commander of the city defense of the Kuomintang Army and commander of the 32nd Division, threatened: "Shimen has a city under the city. The Communist Army has no planes and no tanks. With the fortifications of Shimen, the national army can sit and guard for three years." Therefore, the Central Military Commission attached great importance to it. Commander-in-Chief Zhu De went to Anguo to study the siege plan together with Commander Nie Rongzhen and other field army commanders Yang Dezhi, Luo Ruiqing, Yang Chengwu and Geng Biao.From November 6th, our army stormed for 7 days, wiped out more than 24,000 enemies, and finally conquered Shijiazhuang. Liu Ying, the commander of the 32nd Division, signed his surrender after being captured by our army.This battle not only united our two major liberated areas in North China (Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan), but more importantly, gained experience in capturing larger cities. Therefore, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De called it "capturing large cities." An example of ". After the Battle of Shijiazhuang, Chiang Kai-shek immediately rushed to Peiping to clean up the defeat.He dismissed Sun Lianzhong, the commander-in-chief of the 11th theater in Baoding, and appointed Fu Zuoyi, the commander-in-chief of the 10th theater in Zhangjiakou, as the commander-in-chief of the five provinces of Shanxi, Chahar, Hebei, Resui and Sui, and unified command of military operations in North China. Li Zongren, who was not of one mind with him, was also revoked from the post of director of the Beipingyuan.Since then, the north parallel shaft has ceased to exist.In order to give a little color to the newly appointed Fu Zuoyi's wild words of "using the main force against the main force" and "determined to turn defense into offense", and also to hold the enemy so that they cannot go out to cooperate with our Northeast Field Army's winter offensive, our Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army In late December, they stormed the area north of Baoding, severely injuring the 101st Division and the newly-organized Second Division called "one gold and one silver" under the jurisdiction of the 35th Army on which Fu Zuoyi started. Yinglin was forced to commit suicide. The Northeast battlefield is also not calm, we will specifically describe the situation below.