Chapter 66 6. There were also mistakes in the great victory

Liao Yaoxiang's Liaoxi Corps was wiped out, which was a huge victory for the Northeast Field Army.However, this victory was not perfect. While achieving this victory, Dongye also made a mistake, and it was not a small mistake. This mistake was to let the enemy's 52nd Army escape at Yingkou. The 52nd Army was one of the first Kuomintang armies to enter the Northeast, and it was also the unit stationed in Shenyang after the withdrawal of the Soviet Red Army. Since then, it has been active in the vicinity of Shenyang. Except for sending a division to participate in the Battle of Siping, it has never fought any major battles. , The organizational system and equipment of the troops are relatively complete.At the beginning of the Liaoxi War, Wei Lihuang gave the 52nd Army the task of maintaining the rear of the Liao Yaoxiang Corps in the Xinmin area.Liu Yuzhang, the commander of the 52nd Army, knew that Wei Lihuang had always planned to retreat from Yingkou, so Liu Yuzhang offered to Wei Lihuang that he was willing to lead the 52nd Army to open the passage to Yingkou, so as to ensure that the Liaoxi Corps could retreat from Yingkou when necessary. retreat.Wei Lihuang agreed to Liu Yuzhang's plan, and the 52nd Army set off from Liaoyang and Anshan at dawn on October 23. On the way, they encountered only a little resistance from our local armed forces, and easily occupied Yingkou on the evening of the 24th, controlling the Liao Chuanshu, chief of staff of the army, was also appointed as the mayor of Yingkou, and at the same time built fortifications in various strongholds.On the one hand, prepare to deal with the possible attack of Dongye, and on the other hand, prepare to retreat from the sea.

Yingkou was the only sea passage through which the Kuomintang troops in the Northeast could escape, and its importance is very obvious.After the Battle of Jinzhou, Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission instructed Lin Biao many times that troops must be sent to occupy Yingkou.It is not that Lin Biao did not understand this point. As we mentioned earlier, he sent the Second Independent Division stationed in Panshan, the nearest to Yingkou, and Su Jing, the chief of staff at the headquarters.At that time, the Second Independent Division did indeed cut off the enemy's access to Yingkou.However, when the Heishan blockade started, Lin Biao believed that our army could block Liao Yaoxiang's corps in the Heishan and Dahushan areas, and that it was impossible for Liao Yaoxiang to escape from Yingkou, so he ordered the Second Independent Division to return and join the flanking Liao corps near Xinmin.At this time, the 52nd Army happened to go south to Yingkou, took advantage of the fact that our army did not have a large army in Yingkou, and occupied Yingkou. On October 25, when Lin Biao learned that the 52nd Army occupied Yingkou, the battle to encircle and wipe out Liao Yaoxiang was reaching its climax, and he could not send troops south immediately, but he still reported the truth to the Central Committee.Mao Zedong severely criticized Lin Biao in the telegram that day, and gave clear instructions:

You had no idea in advance that the enemy would take Yingkou as one of the routes of retreat. After we counted telegrams and pointed it out, and based on the inaccurate news that the 52nd Army was marching westward, you neglected to control Yingkou, which caused the troops of the 52nd Army to occupy Yingkou on the 24th. Yingkou is not a small loss. ...Where are the independent divisions in Changchun now?We believe that these independent divisions should quickly pass through the vicinity of Tieling and march southward to regain Yingkou, Niuzhuang, and Haicheng, and place the main force between Dahushan and Yingkou to cooperate with your main force to attack the enemy.

After Lin Biao received Mao Zedong's telegram, he knew that the problem was not small, but it was too late to transfer troops from Changchun, and the combat effectiveness of the independent division was not very strong, so he ordered the Twelve Columns stationed near Gongzhuling to monitor the enemy in Shenyang to go south immediately.Zhong Wei, the commander of the 12th Column, did not dare to neglect, and immediately led his troops to set off.Unexpectedly, the railway has been destroyed, and the train cannot pass, only walking.By the time Twelve Zong arrived at Tieling, it was already October 30.

When the battle to encircle and wipe out the Liao Yaoxiang Corps was coming to an end, Lin Biao decided to draw out the Seventh Column, Eighth Column, Ninth Column, and Second Independent Division to go south quickly to cut off the enemy's escape route from Yingkou.However, since there was no bridge on the Liaohe River, Lin Biao ordered Chen Qihan, the commander of the Liaoning Military Region, to erect a pontoon bridge, but the pontoon bridge could not be built immediately, so it took a lot of time for the large troops to cross the river.It was also on the afternoon of October 30 when the fastest marching vanguard of the Nine Columns arrived at Shiqiaozi outside Yingkou.

At this time, the enemy's 52nd Army was ready to retreat from the sea in Yingkou. In order to deal with the main force of our army going south, the Fifty-two Army had already deployed defenses outside the city, and attacked our army first when our army's foothold was not stable. On the night of October 30, our army was unable to launch a major offensive.And that night, the gunboat sent by the enemy's Northeast "Suppressor" from Huludao to pick up the enemy's 52nd Army's front station had already arrived at Yingkou, saying that the transport ship would arrive soon.Therefore, the 52nd Army had the hope of escape, so they desperately resisted our army. On October 31, both the main force of our Ninth Column and the Second Independent Division arrived at Yingkou. Since we were marching in a hurry and had to cross the Liao River, we did not bring heavy weapons with us. When fighting the enemy's 52nd Army, we could not end the battle quickly. On November 1, the enemy's 52nd Army arranged to board the ship while resisting our army.Due to the large number of people and the lack of boats, Liu Yuzhang ordered all the luggage to be abandoned and as many people as possible to be loaded on board. On November 2, the vanguard troops of our Seventh Column and Eighth Column also arrived, and our Ninth Column and Second Independent Division also entered Yingkou, but more than 15,000 enemies had boarded their ships and set out to sea.One of the ships was loaded with more than 3,000 people. Due to the heavy load, the bottom of the ship hit a rock and could not be started. The chaos caused a fire. Most of the more than 3,000 people were burned to death, and the rest of the enemy fled to Huludao.

Therefore, although our army wiped out more than 10,000 people from the 52nd Army in Yingkou and seized a lot of ordnance and supplies, we still let the enemy escape more than 10,000 people.Although the Kuomintang army in the Northeast only lost more than 10,000 people in the decisive battle of Liaoshen, it always left people with deep regret. It is necessary to explain the whereabouts of a group of Kuomintang troops here.After the Tashan blockade, since Jinzhou was already in our hands, there was no need for the Eastward Corps commanded by Hou Jingru in Huludao to attack forward, and it was still in the Huludao area.After the Liao Yaoxiang Corps was wiped out, Du Yuming and Gui Yongqing, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Navy, arranged to transport the troops away.They knew that if they didn't transport it away, it would be difficult to leave after the Huludao port was frozen.These troops included Hou Jingru's 17th Corps, Lin Weichou's 62nd Army, Huang Xiang's 92nd Army, Wang Boxun's 39th Army, Que Hanqian's 54th Army, and Zhu Zhiyi's Independent 90th Army. The Fifth Division, as well as Liu Yuzhang's Fifty-Second Army that had just been transported from Yingkou.Most of these troops were incompletely organized, but they were all transported away by sea in early November. Among them, the 62nd Army, 92nd Army and 95th Independent Division were originally troops from North China, so they were transported to Qinhuangdao and returned to North China. , and the rest went to Shanghai to the Central Plains battlefield.From then on, Chiang Kai-shek established the Jireliao border area headquarters in Huludao, and the command post established by Wei Lihuang in Huludao no longer existed.

It was Du Yuming who directed the firing of the first shot in the civil war in the Northeast, and it was Du Yuming who directed the evacuation of the last Chiang soldier.