Chapter 69 3. Dinner with the five secretaries

The liberation of Shenyang marked the liberation of the entire Northeast, and also marked the end of the Liaoshen decisive battle. In the 52-day decisive battle of Liaoshen, our army wiped out a "bandit suppression" general headquarters, a command post, four corps headquarters, 11 military departments, and 33 entire divisions of the Kuomintang's regular troops; it also eliminated the Kuomintang's irregular forces. One garrison headquarters, three provincial security headquarters, one cavalry headquarters, and 13 divisions wiped out a total of more than 472,000 enemy troops, including 324,000 prisoners, including 180 Kuomintang general-level officers.Seized 4,700 various artillery pieces, 16 aircraft, 76 tanks, 151 armored vehicles, more than 2,000 cars, more than 5,600 mules and horses, and more than 100,000 various firearms.What's more, among the Kuomintang troops wiped out by our army, many of them belonged to Chiang Kai-shek's elite (according to: the consensus within the Kuomintang army at that time was that the US armed forces that participated in the expeditionary army during the War of Resistance Against Japan were regarded as Chiang Kai-shek's elite troops. elite troops. On the battlefield of the Northeast Liberation War, there were 8 armies belonging to such elite divisions).The Liaoshen decisive battle was the first major battle fought by our army in history. It not only wiped out a large number of enemies, but also equipped itself in large numbers, providing a reliable guarantee for the next step of the national liberation war.In this decisive battle, our army also paid a big price, sacrificing 14,010 people and injuring 53,327 people.

After the Liaoshen Campaign, our army surpassed the Kuomintang army in number for the first time.At this time, the total strength of our army has exceeded 3 million, while the total strength of the Kuomintang army has dropped to only 2.94 million. On November 2, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a call to all commanders and fighters of the Northeast People's Liberation Army and all Northeast compatriots: Warmly congratulate you for liberating Shenyang, annihilating the defending enemy, and thus accomplishing the great victory of liberating the entire Northeast.Northeast China is the largest center of China's industry, especially heavy industry. With the active assistance of American imperialism, the reactionary Kuomintang government has used great force to seize the Northeast since the winter of 1945. It has successively invested 1.1 million troops and recruited puppet troops and bandits. people.Relying on the unity of all the soldiers and civilians in the front and rear of the Northeast, and fighting bravely, and with the victorious cooperation of the liberated areas in our pass, more than 1 million enemies were wiped out in three years of fighting, and finally all the land in the nine northeastern provinces and 37 million compatriots were liberated. It smashed the dream of the Chinese and American reactionaries to enslave the Northeast people and use the Northeast to provoke an international war, and laid a solid foundation for liberating the whole of China within a few years, and then gradually building China into an industrial country.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China would like to express its gratitude and respect to the soldiers and civilians in the Northeast.I hope you will continue to work hard, cooperate closely with the people in the pass and the People's Liberation Army everywhere, advance side by side, and fight to completely overthrow the rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries, drive out the aggressive forces of American imperialism in China, and fight for the liberation of the whole of China.

The heroes who died in the Northeast Liberation War are immortal! On this day, in Xibaipo, the cooks cooked a sumptuous dinner for the five secretaries. On the table were Mao Zedong's favorite braised pork, fish caught from the Hutuo River, and turtledoves brought by the soldiers. , there are rice noodles meat and sauerkraut fried shredded pork, which is a rare feast in Xibaipo.Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Ren Bishi, the five main leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, happily celebrated the great victory in the Northeast.Mao Zedong said while holding his chopsticks: "Victory in the Northeast, the day when Chiang Kai-shek is finished is not far away."

Twelve days later, on November 14, Mao Zedong wrote in his commentary "Major Changes in China's Military Situation" for Xinhua News Agency: China's military situation has now entered a new turning point, that is, the balance of power between the two sides in the war has undergone fundamental changes.The People's Liberation Army has already had an advantage not only in quality, but also in quantity.This is a sign that the success of the Chinese revolution and the realization of peace in China are approaching. ... This is the result of the heroic fighting of the People's Liberation Army in various battlefields across the country within four months, especially the Suiqi and Jinan campaigns on the southern front, and the Jinzhou, Changchun, Liaoxi and Shenyang battles on the northern front. ... In this way, the course of the war we originally expected was greatly shortened.It was originally estimated that starting from July 1946, it would take about five years to fundamentally overthrow the reactionary Kuomintang government.Now it seems that it only takes about one year from now to completely overthrow the reactionary Kuomintang government.

Mao Zedong's above-mentioned judgments were drawn entirely from a scientific analysis of the objective situation.Not only did it receive the firm support of the entire party and the entire army, but even Du Yuming, an old opponent, admitted in a private conversation with Fu Zuoyi in Beiping after the decisive battle in Liaoshen: "The Communist army in the Northeast has nearly one million. Its power far surpasses that of the communist army in the pass. From a military point of view, the Communist Party will unify China within a year.” A few years later, Chiang Kai-shek, who was looking back on the past in Taiwan, talked about the Northeast War in his book "Soviet Russia in China" , also wrote:

It is a major mistake in our policy and strategy. ... The elite main force of our national army was transferred to the northeast, and they were stuck in a corner, unable to mobilize freely and strive for the initiative. In the end, once the northeast fell, North China fell one after another, and the whole situation was out of control.