Chapter 10 3. The prelude has been opened

According to Ye Jianying, the official start of the decisive battle was September 12, 1948, which lasted four months and nineteen days.However, the prelude to the decisive battle had begun long before that. From September 8 to 13, 1948, in Xibaipo Village, where the headquarters of the Chinese revolution was located, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held the first Politburo meeting since it withdrew from Yan'an.Attending the meeting were: Politburo members (7 people) Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Peng Zhen, Dong Biwu; Central Committee members and alternate members of the Central Committee (14 people): Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, He Long, Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Bo Yibo, Zeng Shan , Deng Yingchao, Teng Daiyuan, Rao Shushi, Liao Chengzhi, Chen Boda, Liu Lantao; in addition to other central staff Li Weihan, Yang Shangkun and other 10 people.Except for a few leaders in the Northeast battlefield such as Lin Biao, Chen Yun, Luo Ronghuan, Gao Gang, Zhang Wentian, etc., and Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Su Yu, etc. who were unable to escape from the battlefield, almost all important cadres of the CCP attended the meeting.

Mao Zedong made an important report at the meeting. He said: "Our strategic policy is to overthrow the Kuomintang. The strategic task is to advance the army, increase production by an inch, strengthen discipline, transition from guerrilla warfare to regular warfare, and build an army of five million. Annihilate 500 brigades of the enemy's regular army and completely defeat the Kuomintang in about five years." As the chief of staff of the Central Military Commission, Zhou Enlai made a speech on the specific military plan at the meeting.He said that the central government's plan is to "direct the war to continue to the Kuomintang ruled areas" and "should prepare for several decisive battles."Liu Shaoqi also said that overthrowing the Kuomintang and unifying the whole of China used to be a propaganda slogan, but now it is on the agenda.Now it is necessary to prepare for a big battle, and destroy two or three of his corps at a time.

The September meeting made full preparations ideologically, politically, militarily, and organizationally for the final overthrow of Chiang Kai-shek and the establishment of a new China. It was a general mobilization for a decisive battle with the Chiang dynasty. In the minds of Mao Zedong and other leaders of the Central Military Commission, how will this decisive battle be fought?According to the discussions at the September meeting and the "Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the September Meeting" drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the war will be fought north of the Yangtze River, especially in the Northeast and North China. Xuzhou in the Central Plains and Beining Line in the Northeast will soon be Possibly the center of the battle.Why such a decision was made instead of letting the army fight across the Yangtze River to expand the liberated areas?One of the key reasons is that our army must aim to eliminate a large number of the enemy's vital forces, rather than gain or lose in one city or one place.At that time, the distribution of the main force of the Kuomintang was as mentioned above, almost all in the north of the Yangtze River. The Wei Lihuang Group in the Northeast, the Fu Zuoyi Group in North China, and the Liu Zhi Group in Central China were all based on several large cities with strategic positions. Army confrontation, as Ye Jianying later analyzed in retrospect:

In order to continue to wipe out the enemy in large numbers and fundamentally overthrow the reactionary Kuomintang government, the People's Liberation Army must attack the enemy's well-fortified large cities and fight against the enemy's powerful mobile corps.Therefore, whether to dare to fight a big battle that our army has never fought before, whether to dare to conquer the enemy's big cities, whether to dare to annihilate the enemy's powerful groups, whether to dare to win greater victories, has become the strategic decision of our army at that time. major issues.At this time, the Kuomintang's Nanking Military Conference in August 1948 discussed retreating to the Northeast, securing central China, insisting on Shenyang until the end of October, and observing the development of the current situation. mentorship program.

Under such circumstances, is it to allow the enemy to realize their plan to withdraw their existing troops to the pass or to the south of the Yangtze River, so that we lose the opportunity and increase the trouble for our army to fight in the future?Or before the enemy has had time to make a decision to escape, should we act decisively, seize the golden opportunity, organize strategic decisive battles, and eliminate the powerful strategic groups of the enemy?Comrade Mao Zedong resolutely seized this opportunity for a strategic decisive battle based on his scientific analysis of the war situation, and successively organized the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin.

Just before the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in early August 1948, the high-level military meeting of the Kuomintang government was also held in Nanjing.Since Chiang Kai-shek, 120 people including He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, Bai Chongxi, Tang Enbo, Du Yuming, Fan Hanjie, Song Xilian, Huang Wei, Sun Liren, Huang Baitao, Zhou Zhirou, Gui Yongqing, and Wang Shuming attended the meeting.According to the memory of Song Xilian, a participant of the meeting, "Chiang Kai-shek's speech at the opening of the meeting was full of frustration, and he completely lost confidence in the future."However, when Chiang Kai-shek accused his subordinates, he frankly admitted that "many high-ranking military officers received a lot of money, extravagant and dissolute, and indulged in wine and sex, which made the generals arrogant, the discipline corrupted, and the army lacked fighting spirit."He also frankly warned his subordinates: "Now the 'communist bandits' are becoming stronger and more rampant, if you don't wake up and don't work hard, it will be a problem whether you can hold meetings here again by this time next year. If the Communist Party takes control of China, we will die without a place to die.” So he asked everyone to “help each other in difficult times” and “rescue the crisis”.Of course, the senior generals who attended the meeting also talked a lot. Song Xilian said: "There is a general impression that almost all the speakers are complaining about the difficulties of their units, asking the Ministry of National Defense to increase troops, and asking for new troops to be formed. Designation, weapons, recruits, rations, equipment, vehicles, and ammunition... In a word, it is all difficult, dangerous, and difficult." The final strategic plan is: stop the strategic offensive and merge the troops into several A powerful mobile corps deployed defenses north of the Yangtze River to prevent the communist army from crossing the river and attack the communist army with camera.

The Supreme Military Conference held by the Kuomintang authorities this time did not achieve any substantive results, but only exacerbated the wavering and frustration of the participants' confidence in the war situation.For example, Fu Zuoyi, commander of Chiang Kai-shek's "General Headquarters for Suppressing Bandits in Beiping," had the idea of ​​breaking up with Chiang Kai-shek after this meeting. Before the decisive battle officially started, our People's Liberation Army played a high-pitched prelude, which is the liberation of Jinan. In the summer of 1948, our East China Field Army Corps of Chen Shiju and Tang Liang first fought the Battle of Wanxi.Immediately afterwards, the Suyu Corps of the East China Field Army, together with the Chen Geng Corps of the Central Plains Field Army, fought the Battle of Wandong.Then, Su Yu unified the command of the East China Field Army and the Central Plains troops of the Central Plains Field Army to attack Kaifeng, an important military town.Chiang Kai-shek personally supervised the battle in the air in a plane, bombarded the urban area, and ordered Qiu Qingquan Corps, Sun Yuanliang Corps, Hu Lian Corps, and Liu Ruming Corps to reinforce Kaifeng.

On June 20, while blocking reinforcements from the outside, our army captured the entire urban area of ​​Kaifeng City except Gulongting, the commanding height in the center of the city.At this time, Su Yu, in addition to leaving one division to attack Gulongting, ordered the withdrawal of the main force of the siege, the Huaye Three Columns and Eight Columns, plus the Ten Columns and the Liangguang Column (the Liangguang Column was originally an anti-Japanese war in Guangdong Province during the Anti-Japanese War of our party. Armed, that is, the famous Dongjiang column. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, according to the armistice agreement reached by the KMT and the Communist Party during the peace talks, all retreated northward. On July 5, 1946, the main force of the Dongjiang column, 2583 people, retreated northward to Yantai by sea and entered our Shandong liberated area , incorporated into the New Fourth Army and the Shandong Military Region at that time, still known as the Dongjiang Column. The team continued to expand during the battle. In August 1947, it was incorporated into the Shandong Field Army and renamed the Liangguang Column. Commander Zeng Sheng, political commissar Lei Jingtian) formed a resistance The corps consisted of Huaye 1st, 4th, 6th, and Nakano 11th corps, which formed an assault corps to encircle and annihilate Chiang Kai-shek's newly formed District Shounian Corps from eastern Henan to aid Kaifeng.At this time, the Kuomintang army's attention was focused on the battle of Kaifeng. On June 22, Kaifeng Gulong Pavilion was captured and the whole city of Kaifeng was liberated.But our army quickly withdrew from Kaifeng again.Moreover, according to Su Yu's order, Huaye's Three Corps (i.e., Chen Shiju and Tang Liang Corps) intentionally let go of the enemy Qiu Qingquan Corps, which had been blocked by our army in the Lanfeng area, and allowed them to enter Kaifeng.At the same time, the assault corps of our army, under the unified command of Ye Fei, the commander of Huaye First Column, suddenly launched a strong attack on the District Shounian Corps in the Suixian area.This retreat and attack was completely beyond Chiang Kai-shek's expectations.He immediately ordered 200,000 troops to go to the rescue.And our army has already prepared nearly 300,000 troops, and the two sides will start a big battle in the Central Plains. This big battle is the famous Battle of Eastern Henan, and it is also the biggest battle since the beginning of the War of Liberation.Counting from the attack on Kaifeng on June 17, the Battle of Eastern Henan lasted for 20 days and nights. Our army wiped out the Ou Shounian Corps, and Ou Shounian was captured (this is also the first time our army took prisoners in the War of Liberation. The corps commander of the Kuomintang army), Huang Baitao's corps and Qiu Qingquan's corps were severely damaged. The Fifth Army, one of the five main forces of Jiang's army, was defeated by me. Huang Baitao's corps was almost taken away by our army. Our army wiped out a total of 94,000 enemies .

After the Battle of Eastern Henan, in order to cut off the connection between Xuzhou and Shandong, to connect the entire Shandong liberated area, to gain further experience in fighting big battles and attacking big cities, and more importantly, in order to solve Jinan, our army did not Worrying about the future, he can free up his hands to devote his strength to the battle in the direction of Huaihai.Our army decided to attack Jinan. Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, is a strategic hub connecting the three major battlefields of East China, Central Plains, and North China. Since the Japanese occupation period, a large number of strong fortifications have been continuously built, and the Kuomintang army has expanded and reinforced them on the basis. , moats, modern power grids, mines, plus various types of bunkers, the defense system is very strong.

The main general of the Kuomintang defenders in Jinan is Wang Yaowu, commander of the Second Appeasement District of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office. Although Wang Yaowu was only a graduate of the third batch of Whampoa, he had made great contributions in the past against the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and in the war against Japan. He was the first of all Whampoa students to serve as the commander of the front army and the chairman of the province.However, the situation in Shandong at this time could no longer make Wang Yaowu optimistic, because the army under Wang Yaowu's jurisdiction had been defeated by our army many times in the Battle of Laiwu, the Battle of Menglianggu, and the Battle of Southwest Shandong. He already knew the power of Chen Yi and Su Yu.Therefore, although Jinan has a solid defense system with a depth of more than ten kilometers, although he has worked hard in Jinan for many years, he still does not have much confidence in Jinan's defense.Since the Battle of Eastern Henan, he has clearly noticed that the East China Field Army is gathering towards Luxi, and Su Yu's next target is probably Jinan, which he is defending.With a light on his back, he hurriedly flew to Nanjing, reported the military situation to Chiang Kai-shek, and asked for reinforcements.

Chiang Kai-shek, who has many years of combat experience, is of course very aware of the importance of Jinan, a strategic location, and he has already sensed that both sides have concentrated a large number of troops in the Xuzhou area. There will be a big battle.If Jinan can be in his own hands, it will not only drag Su Yu's hundreds of thousands of troops to Shandong, but also make Su Yu worry about future wars, so Chiang Kai-shek decided to increase his troops for Wang Yaowu.In order to seize time, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Air Force Commander Wang Shuming to arrange a large number of airlift forces, and soon transported a reorganized division and two brigades from Qingdao and Xuzhou to Jinan, bringing the strength of Wang Yaowu to three whole divisions and five brigades. A total of 110,000 people.At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Du Yuming, the deputy commander of Xuzhou's "Suppression General", to command the three corps of Huang Baitao, Li Mi, and Qiu Qingquan, a total of 170,000 people, to form the so-called "Suppression Corps".In addition, Chiang Kai-shek also ordered his air force to use Jinan and Qingdao as bases and Beiping and Xuzhou as auxiliary bases to concentrate 162 fighter jets and 42 heavy bombers as air strike and support forces.Therefore, Wang Yaowu strengthened his confidence and devoted all his energy to the defense of Jinan, waiting for the East China Field Army to attack Jinan. The situation is obvious. Both sides have spotted this move, and both regard the battle in Jinan as an indispensable prelude to a future battle in Xuzhou. Jinan's offensive and defensive battle will be a vicious one. In Xibaipo, Mao Zedong and the head of the Central Military Commission have been watching Su Yu's headquarters in Jining at that time, because they also agreed that Jinan must be liberated, but "this is a serious battle."Because the main trouble in fighting Jinan is not the 110,000 defenders in Jinan, but that as soon as our army starts in Jinan, a large number of Chiang Kai-shek's reinforcements in the Xuzhou area will inevitably go north. Making our army's fortified battle under the city of Jinan a passive situation is a major issue that should be considered emphatically.For this reason, telegrams between the Central Military Commission and the heads of the East China Field Army continued, and after repeated research, the battle plan was finally determined.In this battle, Su Yu was in charge of the general command, and Xu Shiyou was in charge of the siege command.The siege force is mainly based on the Shandong Corps, with a total of 140,000 people in 50 regiments; the reinforcement force is more than 90 regiments with 180,000 people. The main area for aid is placed between Yanzhou and Juye (now Juye), with the canal in between, so that the enemy can be actively wiped out in the east or west of the river.The siege is divided into two stages: the first stage first captures the airport in the west of the city, cutting off the enemy's air support channel; the second stage is to attack the city again.The entire campaign should be completed in one month, but preparations must be made for three months.In addition, the Central Military Commission also ordered the Central Plains Field Army to make preparations. If Chiang Kai-shek wanted to mobilize the Zhang Zhen Corps and Sun Yuanliang Corps from Zhengzhou and Xinyang to support Shandong, they would stop them and cooperate with the East China Field Army in Jinan.During the September meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in Xibaipo, telegrams from the Central Military Commission and the Huaye front continued. The specific plan for the entire campaign was completed during the intense preparations for the September meeting. On September 2, Mao Zedong gave a reply of "complete agreement" on the finalized combat plan of the East China Field Army.On the same day, the East China Field Army issued a combat order to start operations. The siege commander of the Jinan Campaign was Xu Shiyou. Xu Shiyou served as the commander of the siege corps that attacked Jinan, and Su Yu gave him six and a half columns, as well as most of the special forces columns and some local troops, with a total of 140,000 people.Xu Shiyou divided the 140,000 people into two groups, east and west: the eastern siege army was commanded by Nine Columns commander Nie Fengzhi and political commissar Liu Haotian, and the west siege army was commanded by Tenth Column commander Song Shilun and political commissar Liu Peishan. On September 7, Xu Shiyou issued an order to attack Jinan.This day was the day before the Politburo meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was officially held in Xibaipo.When the Politburo meeting officially opened, our army of hundreds of thousands was marching towards the city of Jinan. On the night of September 15th, our east and west siege armies approached the outskirts of Jinan from Jining, Wenshang, Tai'an, and Laiwu respectively. On the night of the 16th, suddenly launched an attack on the defenders and quickly broke through the periphery.After two days of destroying the enemy's fortifications layer by layer, the Western Group Army approached the airport on the 18th, and the artillery fire prevented the enemy's aircraft from taking off and landing freely.Chiang Kai-shek's air support to transport troops to Jinan could only be stopped.The East Group Army has occupied Maoling Mountain, Yanchi Mountain, Huilong Mountain and other key points, and went straight to the outer city.While Wang Yaowu was defending the airport and the city with all his strength, something unexpected happened to Wang Yaowu: On the 19th, Wu Huawen, the commander of the 96th Army who was ordered to guard the Xicheng District, led three brigades of more than 20,000 people to declare an uprising. The Wu Huawen uprising was the first uprising of the Kuomintang army when the War of Liberation entered the decisive battle, and the first commander of the Kuomintang army who revolted on a large-scale battlefield in the entire War of Liberation (October 30, 1945, Deputy Commander of the 11th War Zone of the Kuomintang Chief Gao Shuxun's Handan Uprising was an uprising on the eve of the civil war, and there was no war between the two sides), which caused a great shock at that time. Wu Huawen's uprising was a big event at that time, because it was not only beneficial to the liberation of Jinan, but also could shake and disintegrate other generals of Chiang Kai-shek's clique.Wu Huawen has committed major crimes against our party and the people in history, but as long as he can repent and turn to the light, our party still welcomes him.This played a very important role in accelerating the differentiation of the Chiang Kai-shek clique.Zhu De once said about Wu Huawen's uprising, "It played a considerable role in my victory over Jinan. In the future, we will need such an uprising."Another function of the Wu Huawen Uprising is to demonstrate the powerful power of our party in political work.After the uprising of the Ministry of Culture of Wuhua, after reorganization, it became the 35th Army of the People's Liberation Army. Later, it merged with the Luzhongnan Column of the former East China Field Army and was still called the 35th Army. Wu Huawen still served as the commander of the army, and several of his subordinates still served as deputy Army commanders and division commanders, after the help, education and overall rectification of the cadres sent by our army, the troops took on a new look. They not only participated in the Battle of Huaihai, the Battle of Crossing the River and the liberation of Nanjing, but also occupied Chiang Kai-shek’s presidential palace on April 24, 1949. It was the revolutionary fighters of the 35th Army who planted the red flag over the gate of Chiang Kai-shek's presidential palace. Due to Wu Huawen's uprising, the west gate of Jinan was opened and Wang Yaowu's defense system was broken, and the battle situation in Jinan took a sudden turn for the worse. On September 20, the defenders outside Jinan were wiped out by me. On the night of the 22nd, our army used heavy artillery and tanks (I dispatched 4 tanks in Jiuzong, which was the first time our army used tanks in a siege) to cooperate with the continuous blasting of infantry to break through the outer city in one fell swoop.Since Jinan's inner city is 15 meters high, it was hollowed out and built into a three-story machine gun fortification. A 40-minute assault on the enemy positions was carried out, and then the siege began.At dawn the next day, we broke into the inner city. After fierce street fighting, the 2nd Battalion of the 73rd Regiment of the Ninth Column first attacked the Shandong Provincial Government. At 17:00 on the 24th, the whole city of Jinan was liberated.However, there is no Wang Yaowu in the provincial government, and there is no Wang Yaowu in the city search. It turned out that when our army entered the city, Wang Yaowu knew that the annihilation of the whole army was inevitable, so he disguised himself as a small businessman and escaped from Jinan City among the citizens, heading towards Qingdao.Since Wang Yaowu was from Shandong, and he was good at mixing things up, he kept hanging out among the common people for several days before he was caught by our army in Shouguang County and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.After Wang Yaowu was captured, he regretted that he failed to revolt with Wu Huawen. He said in a letter to Wu Huawen: "The gentleman is a guest, and the younger brother is a prisoner. If you rebel and tell me, can't I rebel too?" After being captured for 50 days, under the education of the Shandong Liberation Army Officer Training Group run by our army, he delivered a radio speech to the whole country on our East China Xinhua Radio Station.The full text is as follows: I am Wang Yaowu, the former chairman of the Shandong Province of the Kuomintang and the commander of the Second Appeasement Zone. I would like to take this opportunity to make a brief report to you today.First of all, I will explain the reasons for the failure of Jinan this time.There are 100,000 troops defending Jinan, and there are not too many materials related to combat. The suburban fortifications have been continuously built for two years, but they were all wiped out after only 8 days of fighting.Even if Wu Huawen did not revolt, he would be annihilated soon.What is the reason for this?Because the national army has no ideals and beliefs, it is against the people and the masses, and the PLA's heroic sacrifice and superior skills for the people are really admirable.The so-called those who win the people prosper, and those who lose the people perish, so the battle ended very quickly.Secondly, I would like to give Mr. Jiang some advice.During the Northern Expedition and the Anti-Japanese War, you cooperated with the Communist Party for a period of time, so you succeeded.But you insist on dictatorship, and you plan completely for the four major families, so there are many wars and disasters, and there is no clean land in the whole country.In order to obtain military and economic foreign aid, they did not hesitate to sign so many humiliating treaties with the US imperialists, ruining the happiness of their children and grandchildren.Judging from the current situation, the Kuomintang is doomed to fail, and it would be unwise to make a final struggle.It is best to order the national Kuomintang army to surrender unconditionally to the People's Liberation Army immediately, so that the country can immediately restore peace, and the country and the nation can preserve a little more vitality. As an important city in East China, our army took only 8 days to conquer Jinan.When Chiang Kai-shek heard the news of Wu Huawen's uprising, he already knew that Jinan would be lost, and that our army's reinforcements were waiting for him, so he didn't urge Du Yuming to lead his troops north to aid Jinan.When Jinan had been conquered, only one of the three corps originally deployed by Chiang Kai-shek to aid the army was in motion, and the other two were still gathering.Therefore, our army's original plan to fight, aid and annihilate the enemy failed to materialize.In this regard, the East China Field Army has a little regret.However, in addition to providing useful experience for the future on the issue of how to fight tough battles, the Battle of Jinan also provided useful experience on how to use the internal contradictions of the enemy to divide and disintegrate the enemy, so that some of the enemy can revolt or surrender on the battlefield, so as to reduce the Our casualties, protecting the city from destruction also provide very useful insights.Judging from the specific results of the battle, a total of 104,000 enemies were wiped out in this battle, and 23 senior enemy generals were captured (in addition to Wang Yaowu, there were also his deputy commander Mou Zhongheng, and Pang Jingtang, chairman of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee of the Kuomintang, etc.).Since the Kuomintang troops in Heze, Linyi, Yantai and other places all fled after the liberation of Jinan, the whole of Shandong, except Qingdao, fell into our hands, completely connecting the two liberated areas of North China and East China. The next move comes with great convenience.Of course, our army also paid a price in this tough battle. Wang Jiwen, commander of the Eighth Division of the Third Column, and Xu Haishan, political commissar of the 37th Division of the Thirteenth Column, died honorably in the battle. The Battle of Jinan was carried out during the general mobilization meeting of the Xibaipo September Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.The great success of the Battle of Jinan not only greatly encouraged the generals of our army present at the meeting, but also dispelled some doubts about our army's ability to attack big cities during the discussion at the meeting.According to Mao Zedong's revised and approved Xinhua News Agency editorial "Celebrating the Great Victory of the Liberation of Jinan", "No Kuomintang city can resist the attack of the People's Liberation Army", including "Beijing, Tianjin, and Shenyang".Therefore, Zhou Enlai, Chief of the General Staff of the Central Military Commission: "The victory of the Jinan Battle opened the prelude to the strategic decisive battle of the People's War of Liberation."