Chapter 39 2. How to fight in the Northeast

The decisive battle will be fought in the Northeast, but how?How to decide the battle plan? At this time, the 550,000 Kuomintang troops in the Northeast were divided and surrounded by our army in three areas. The specific situation was as follows: in the Changchun area, there were basically no other strongholds around. Guan Zheng Dongguo led a total of 6 divisions of the New Seventh Army and the Sixtyth Army to defend, plus 3 brigades of local troops and some returning regiments. , also known as the Beining line area, with Jinzhou as the center, Shanhaiguan in the south, and Yixian in the north. Fan Hanjie, deputy commander in chief of the Northeast "Suppression General", director of the Jinzhou command post and commander of the Sixth Corps, led the 93rd Army and the 50th Corps. The Fourth Army, the New Fifth Army, and the New Eighth Army have four armies, 14 divisions, and other troops to defend, with a total strength of about 150,000. In the Shenyang area, there are also several strongholds in Tieling, Xinmin, Benxi, and Fushun. Commander-in-Chief Wei Lihuang and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Liao Yaoxiang led the Eighth Corps (under the jurisdiction of the 53rd Army), the Ninth Corps (under the jurisdiction of the New Third Army and the New Sixth Army), the New First Army, the Forty-ninth Army, and the Fifty-second Army. The reorganized 207th Division of the 1st Army, the 71st Army, and the Youth Army has a total of 24 divisions and the troops directly under the "Suppression General" and other troops to defend and support other areas. The total strength is about 300,000.In addition, the First and Fourth Brigades of the First Military Region of the Air Force stationed in Shenyang each have a total of 45 fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft to support operations in the entire region.The Second Military Region of the Air Force stationed in Peiping also has the task of supporting operations in the Northeast.

As early as before the winter offensive was over, that is, in the spring and summer of 1948, Mao Zedong was already thinking about how to fight in the Northeast. Of course, Lin Biao was also thinking about how to fight in the Northeast. The consideration of Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission is mainly based on the need to wipe out all the Kuomintang troops in the Northeast in the Northeast, and prevent them from entering the customs to increase the pressure in the customs.As early as February 7, 1948, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Liu Yalou at the headquarters of the Northeast Field Army after seeing the victory of the Northeast Field Army's Fourth Column and Sixth Column in conquering Liaoyang. While congratulating the victory, Mao Zedong once To put it this way: we must pay attention to "preparing to deal with the situation in which the enemy army retreats from the northeast to the north of China", "for our military's strategic interests, it is beneficial to seal off Jiang's army in the northeast and annihilate them one by one."This was Mao Zedong's earliest intention for the direction of the next war in the Northeast.Lin Biao also fully agreed with Mao Zedong's intention at the time.In his telegram to Mao Zedong on February 10, he said: "We agree and believe that it is more beneficial to the operations in the Northeast and the overall situation to keep the enemy's blockade in the Northeast for annihilation and try to attract the enemy to go out for reinforcements. All future combat operations This shall prevail." However, Mao Zedong was only considering this issue at this time, and he had not yet made up his mind.

This kind of undecided consideration is more clearly reflected in the "Circular on the Situation" that he drafted for the Central Committee and sent to the whole party on March 20.The report said: The Northeast Corps "has begun to rest and reorganize. Once the rest and reorganization are completed, it may attack Changchun or the enemy on the Beining Road."That is to say, there are two directions: one is Changchun, and the other is the Beining line.And if you want to achieve the original idea of ​​"closing Jiang's army and annihilating them in the northeast", you can only fight the Beining line.

The Northeast Bureau headed by Lin Biao is also considering how to play.Since the Kuomintang troops in the Northeast were all concentrated in three areas at this time, and Wei Lihuang was very experienced in preventing the troops from leaving the city easily, it was impossible for our army to fight small battles or to fight mobile warfare, so we could only do so in these three areas. one of the selected. On April 18, in a report to the Central Committee jointly signed by the heads of the Northeast Bureau Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Gao Gang, Chen Yun, Li Fuchun, Liu Yalou, and Tan Zheng, the Northeast Bureau's attitude towards this major issue was stated: "At present, only Changchun's method is better", "Other opinions have also been considered in depth, and they are all considered inappropriate".This report is very long, and the opinions are very detailed and specific.

In short, the enemy in the Shenyang area is strong, and each stronghold can support each other, so it is not suitable to fight at present; the enemy in the Jinzhou area is also relatively strong, and if the main force of our army goes south to attack Jinzhou, the Changchun defending enemy is likely to withdraw from Changchun. Shenyang will be even more difficult to fight in the future; only Changchun's defense force is weak, and it can be sure to attack the city and prepare for reinforcements. Since the above opinions were made after careful consideration by the Northeast Bureau, Mao Zedong gave them considerable respect.In his reply on April 22, he said:

On the 18th, it was reported.I agree with your opinion of going to Changchun first. ... We agree with you that the reason for attacking Changchun first is that it is more advantageous to attack Changchun first than to attack other places first, not because it is particularly disadvantageous or insurmountable to attack other places first. ... You yourself, especially among the cadres, should only say that under the current circumstances it is more advantageous to attack Changchun first, and you should not emphasize the difficulty of going south to fight, lest you yourself and the cadres will be mentally passive.

This telegram stated that Mao Zedong agreed to attack Changchun first, but it did not mean that this was the best choice.He still places great emphasis on "fighting south". The central government agreed to attack Changchun, so how can Changchun be attacked?Lin Biao's first method was "sleeping", which was to trap Changchun until he had no strength to fight again.The reason for this is that the enemy army is only guarding a city of Changchun. The city has long been surrounded by 5 independent divisions of our army, and there are no other strongholds around to support it. It is difficult to stay in an isolated city for a long time in the besieged environment cut off from external traffic.In order to achieve the goal of trapping Changchun, Lin Biao gave two orders to the besieging troops: one is to pay special attention to cutting off food and firewood to enter the city, and resolutely attack all activities of the enemy going out of the city to grab food; the other is to block Changchun with the cooperation of the Fifth Independent Division Dafangshen Airport.

In this way, the policy of "struggling first and then attacking Changchun" began to be implemented. Changchun guard Zheng Dongguo is of course paying close attention to all actions outside the city.When he learned that our army had frequent activities outside the city, he immediately deployed troops out of the city to grab food and strengthened his troops to defend the airport. On May 21, three divisions of the enemy's New Seventh Army and Sixtyth Army successively left the city to attack northwestward and occupied Xiaohelong Town, 60 miles northwest of Changchun.Zheng Dongguo went there personally to arrange the security of the airport and the food grab.

The method of luring the snake out of the hole finally succeeded. Lin Biao immediately ordered the nearby Six Columns and One Column to launch a decisive battle overnight in the Liaoshen Campaign, hoping to seize the opportunity to eat the enemies of these three divisions. On May 24, the Sixth Column, the First Column, and the Twelfth Column launched an attack on the enemy with the cooperation of several independent divisions.Our army defeated two enemy divisions, completely wiped out the fifty-sixth enemy division, and occupied Dafangshen Airport. On the 25th, the enemy launched a counterattack, which was also defeated by me, and they all had to retreat into the city.Since then, Dafangshen Airport has been controlled by our army, and the air corridor between Changchun and the outside world no longer exists, and some relief can only be provided by airdrops.

Although this battle was won, Lin Biao was not very happy.Because from this battle, he saw that the army in Changchun City was not as unarmed as he had imagined, and he saw the strength of Changchun City's defense system.Our army surrounded the three divisions attacking the enemy with the superior strength of two main columns and several independent divisions, but failed to completely wipe out the enemy.Under the attack of our powerful troops, none of the enemy troops revolted and surrendered.Therefore, Lin Biao said in his report to the Central Committee: "This situation has aroused new vigilance in our understanding of the enemy's combat power, and it proves that our pre-estimation of the enemy's combat power is insufficient." Starting from this estimate, if we implement Changchun A strong attack will cause great losses.Therefore, Lin Biao changed his original idea of ​​attacking Changchun in the near future. He believed that it should not be trapped first before attacking, but should be "sieged for a long time and encircled for a long time", until the defenders had to retreat, and then wiped out during the retreat.

Lin Biao reported his thoughts to the Central Committee in detail, but Mao Zedong thought that Lin Biao had overestimated the difficulties, and Zhu De also believed that Changchun was definitely not impossible to fight.Since both Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan were very cautious on this issue, and formulated a detailed combat plan for besieging Changchun, after repeated discussions, Mao Zedong "basically agreed" in the telegram on June 7. Changchun carried out siege and reinforcements, and did not carry out hard attacks.In the telegram, Mao Zedong still did not forget to ask the Northeast Bureau to prepare for going south to fight in eastern Hebei or in Jinzhou.Mao Zedong has always focused on the direction of the Beining line.