Chapter 67 1. Wei Lihuang also slipped away

When the Liao Yaoxiang Corps was besieged in the west of Liaoning, the overall situation in the Northeast had been decided, and it was not far from being liberated. Shenyang, the isolated city guarded by Wei Lihuang, was already in a precarious state.The Northeast at this time, just as Chiang Kai-shek wrote in his diary on October 26: "The entire army in the Northeast seems to be trapped in the fate of ink exhaustion. Anxiety in every inch, I really don't know where to stop!" At this time, most of the Kuomintang troops in the Shenyang area had been incorporated into Liao Yaoxiang's westward marching regiment and marched to western Liaoning, where they were about to be wiped out by our Northeast Field Army.The main force guarding Shenyang is Zhou Fucheng's Eighth Corps, but the main force of this Corps is only the 53rd Army, which is still commanded by Zhou Fucheng, with a total strength of more than 40,000.The 53rd Army is the old department of Zhang Xueliang of the Northeast Army. The officers in the army are basically from the Northeast, so they are quite dedicated to the task of guarding Shenyang that Wei Lihuang originally entrusted to them.

On October 27, Wei Lihuang knew from the report of the Air Force's observations in the air that the Liao Yaoxiang Corps must be finished.The next day, Pan Yukun, commander of the New First Army, and Long Tianwu, commander of the New Third Army, who escaped from the battlefield in western Liaoning by chance, fled back to Shenyang and brought back the most detailed information about the annihilation of Liao Yaoxiang's corps.At this time, Wei Lihuang, apart from repeating what he had said many times, "I told the chairman long ago that the entire army would be wiped out as soon as he left the Liaoxi Corridor. He didn't believe it. I made a sign of the cross, but he didn't believe it. Now you Look, didn't I hit the mark?" Besides, there was only one thing in consideration, which was to fly away from Shenyang as soon as possible.He knew that as long as the Dongye army could draw out a little troops on the battlefield in western Liaoning, they would quickly target Shenyang.

Yes, after our army encircled and wiped out the Liao Yaoxiang Corps, Dongye's 1st, 2nd, and 12th Columns had already rushed towards Shenyang under Lin Biao's order.The first column received the order on October 28, the second column received the order on October 31, and the twelfth column received the order on October 29.In order to catch up with the last battle in the northeast, they ran and marched at the fastest speed, and even crossed the river without taking off their clothes.You know, in the northeast land at the end of October, the river has already started to freeze. At this time, the Kuomintang army still had an important commander on the Northeast battlefield, Du Yuming, who had just been transferred from Xuzhou to the Northeast by Chiang Kai-shek.Because the relationship between him and Wei Lihuang is not well coordinated, he often lives in Huludao under the name of the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" and the commander of the Jireliao Border Region. Attack east and rescue Liao Yaoxiang Corps.

Hou Jingru Corps was very negative about this task, and our East Field Second Corps resolutely blocked it, so there has been no progress.After learning that Liao Yaoxiang's corps was besieged, Du Yuming understood that he could only try to clean up the mess. On October 27, Chiang Kai-shek sent a plane to bring Du Yuming to Peiping, asking him to organize sea transportation to transport the troops from Huludao to Yingkou, and to coordinate the withdrawal of Liao Yaoxiang's corps from Yingkou.Du Yuming thought it was impossible and refused to accept this order.Chiang Kai-shek asked Du Yuming to go to Shenyang again, and asked Zhou Fucheng to stick to Shenyang.Du Yuming flew to Shenyang on the same day, and discussed with Wei Lihuang about defending Shenyang.Wei Lihuang thought that there was no other way but to let Zhou Fucheng defend to the death, and Zhou Fucheng was willing to defend Shenyang.As for whether they could keep it, everyone knew it in their hearts, but they didn't say it clearly. Anyway, Wei Lihuang was ready to leave Shenyang.

On October 30, Chiang Kai-shek sent Du Yuming to Shenyang to supervise the defense.Before Du Yuming's plane flew over Shenyang, he received two calls from the Air Force, saying that the Shenyang airport was in chaos and the plane could no longer land, and he was asked to return to Huludao.Du Yuming estimated that Shenyang would fall soon, so he had to ask Chiang Kai-shek for instructions, so he flew directly to Peiping, met Chiang Kai-shek at the airport, reported to Chiang the chaos in Shenyang city he had seen from the air, and suggested that Wei Lihuang be picked up .At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had to reluctantly agree to take care of the face of the Kuomintang (because by the end of October 1948, among the military and political officials of the Kuomintang, no general commander-in-chief had been captured).However, this afternoon, after Wei Lihuang fled to Huludao from a small airport in Shenyang City, Chiang Kai-shek scolded Wei Lihuang for running away.When Shenyang was conquered by me in Dongye, Chiang Kai-shek even issued such an order:

"Wei Lihuang, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast 'Suppression General', was hesitant, lost his military plane, and lost an important town, so he was immediately dismissed and investigated." For this decision of Chiang Kai-shek, many senior officials of the Kuomintang, including Du Yuming, were deeply chilled. .