The Liberation War developed to the autumn of 1948, and the balance of forces between the enemy and the enemy had undergone tremendous changes, and our army had turned from a disadvantage to an advantage.Following the Liaoshen Campaign, our army organized another strategic decisive battle: the Huaihai Campaign. The Huaihai Campaign was fought in a vast area centered on Xuzhou, starting from Haizhou in the east, reaching Shangqiu in the west, starting from Lincheng (now Xuecheng) in the north, and reaching Huaihe River in the south.In this battle, the Kuomintang invested 7 corps, 1 appeasement zone, 30 armies and 75 divisions, claiming 800,000 troops.

These troops are distributed on the "cross" where the Longhai and Jinpu railways intersect.The participating troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army include 16 columns of the East China Field Army (equivalent to the army), 7 columns of the Central Plains Field Army, and local armed forces, a total of about 600,000 people.The battle began on November 6, 1948 and ended on January 10, 1949. It lasted 65 days and wiped out 5 corps and 22 armies of the Kuomintang elite troops (including 56 divisions, of which 4 and a half divisions revolted), about 55 50,000 people. Liberated most of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu north of the Yangtze River.The battle process is divided into three stages.

In the first stage, from November 6 to 22, 1948, the East China Field Army, with the cooperation of the Central Plains Field Army, wiped out the Huang Baitao Department of the 7th Corps of the Kuomintang in the Nianzhuangwei area east of Xuzhou, and isolated Xuzhou. In the second stage, from November 23 to December 15, the Central Plains Field Army, with the cooperation of the East China Field Army, encircled and wiped out the Huangwei Corps in the Shuangduiji area in the southwest of Su County, and wiped out the Sun Yuanliang Corps in the Mengji area. The third stage was from January 6 to 10, 1949. With the cooperation of the Central Plains Field Army, the East China Field Army surrounded and wiped out the two corps of Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi who fled west from Xuzhou in the Qinglongji and Dongguanzhuang areas in the northeast of Yongcheng.

As early as October 11, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Mao clearly pointed out: "The focus of the first phase of the Huaihai Campaign is to concentrate forces to annihilate Huang Baitao's corps and complete a breakthrough in the middle." On October 14, the acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army Su Yu held a battle meeting in Qufu to determine the first phase of the battle plan: use 7 columns to carry out major assaults on Xin'an Town and Ahu area, annihilate Huang Baitao's corps; use 3 columns to attack the Canal Station and the area west of it, Divide the connection between Huang Baitao and Li Mi's corps; use the Shandong Corps to command the 7th, 10th, and 13th verticals to attack Taierzhuang's 3rd appeasement area troops, then forcibly cross the canal, go straight out of Longhai Road, cut off the retreat of Huangwei's corps, and block Xuzhou's east aid The enemy, with two columns and troops from the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, cooperated with the main force of the Central Plains Field Army to push into Xuzhou.

Our army received the combat instruction and immediately deployed the troops on the battlefield.However, Chiang Kai-shek gathered several of his main corps in the Xuzhou area to form a heavy corps, trying to keep me from chewing and breaking up. On November 7, the People's Liberation Army captured Pi County.The next morning, wading to Nianzhuang Wei Mao Zedong was very clear about the situation on the battlefield. His mind was in Xuzhou, but his eyes were on the vast areas outside Xuzhou.Mao Zedong was paying attention to the two important cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng.Zhengzhou and Kaifeng are the transportation hubs of the Longhai Line and the Pinghan Line, and it is the strategic location of the Kuomintang in the Central Plains.Mao Zedong was keenly aware that if the enemies in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng were not wiped out first, our army would be threatened from the side.Therefore, he decided to capture Zhengzhou and Kaifeng before launching a large-scale campaign, and the Central Plains Field Army would cooperate with the East China Field Army to fight.

On October 13, Deng Xiaoping, political commissar of the Central Plains Field Army, returned to western Henan after attending the September meeting from Xibaipo, and called the leading cadres of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th columns to hold a meeting in Zaojiaoshu Village, Baofeng County, southwest of Zhengzhou.At this meeting, Political Commissar Deng conveyed the spirit of the September meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and decided to reorganize the entire army. In Liu Bocheng's words, "reorganize the army before the war."At the same time, in order to cooperate with the East China Field Army to fight a big battle, a plan to fight Zhengzhou was studied and deployed.

On October 14, Deng Xiaoping, Political Commissar of the Central Plains Field Army, and Commander Liu Bocheng, and First Deputy Commander Chen Yi jointly studied the operation and carried out a specific division of labor: it was decided that Chen and Deng would lead the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 9th columns of the Central Plains Field Army to go north to Zhengzhou. Prepare to use offensive means to attract Sun Yuanliang's and Qiu Qingquan's corps to return to aid.Liu Bocheng, Deng Zihui, and Li Da led the 2nd and 6th Columns and the Central Plains Military Region to contain Zhang Gan's Corps and Huang Wei Corps in western Henan.

On October 18, the Central Plains Field Army issued the basic order for Zhengzhou operations.Yang Yong, Su Zhenhua, Chen Xilian, Yan Hongyan, Chen Geng, Xie Fuzhi, Qin Jiwei, Li Chunfang and other columns entered the designated location, and with the cooperation of the 14th Column of the North China Field Army and nearby local troops, they quickly entered combat preparations. The next afternoon, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, and Zhang Jichun set off from Zaojiaoshu Village in a jeep seized from the Kuomintang, and rushed to the front line. On October 21, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yi's main force going north, together with the 14th column that cooperated with the operation, a total of 100,000 horses, approached Zhengzhou.

The People's Liberation Army Signal Corps is conveying combat orders Our army's brigade troops approached the city and surrounded Zhengzhou on the night of the 21st.At dawn, more than 10,000 people, including the 106th Division of the 40th Army, the 268th Division of the 99th Army, and the Zhengzhou Garrison Command, abandoned the city and broke through to the north.The person in charge of attacking the city from the north was Qin Jiwei's Department of the 9th Column. After he found out that the enemy was about to flee, he adjusted his deployment and asked Deng Xiaoping for instructions by phone.

Qin Jiwei's tone was calm and confident. He had already set up ambush circles in Xuegang and Sujiatun, waiting for the enemy to sneak in. When Deng Xiaoping learned of the enemy's situation, he acted decisively and decided to change the planned urban battle to a field chase and annihilation battle. He then instructed Qin Jiwei: "We must annihilate the enemy in the movement, and we must not let the enemy run away!" Qin Jiwei said easily and confidently: "My net has been formed." Chen Yi took the phone from Deng Xiaoping and told Qin Jiwei to fight the battle well.

Qin Jiwei took the lead and closely watched every move of the enemy in his command post. Qin Jiwei's 9th Column blocked the attack from the North City on the spot according to the division of labor, and the main force of the Central Plains Field Army quickly surrounded the breakout enemy from three sides. Qin Jiwei's blocking locations were located in Xuegang and Sujiatun.This is the key to locking the battlefield and ensuring the complete annihilation of Zhengzhou's defending enemies, and it is the only way to pass through the Yellow River Iron Bridge. At around 7 a.m., two battalions of the enemy's vanguard entered our ambush area.After an hour of fierce fighting, the enemy failed to break through our army's line of defense. At this point, Zhengzhou fleeing the enemy is ready to put all their eggs in one basket and reorganize a larger charge.The Kuomintang army concentrated the main force of the 268th Division of the 99th Army to attack our blocking positions in turn.Qin Jiwei's preset 79th regiment was calm and calm, and boldly counterattacked, repelling the enemy's charge several times, and the position stood still. At 11 a.m., Xiang Shouzhi, commander of the 26th Brigade, reported to Qin Jiwei: The enemy has all left Zhengzhou, and its vanguard troops were blocked by us at Xuegang and Sujiatun. In the wilderness, Houwei has passed Twelve Litun.The enemy is concentrating thousands of troops to attack Sujiatun and Xuegang from multiple directions, and the 79th regiment is under great pressure. The enemies who broke out knew that they were trapped in the net, but at this critical moment, they rushed out desperately.Either the fish dies or the net breaks.Later, even Qin Jiwei, a confident "fisherman", couldn't sit still anymore. He took a combat staff officer to the frontier 26th brigade command post and took command in person. Fighting from dawn to noon, after a morning of fighting, although the corpses left by the enemy were placed in front of the position one by one, the door for the enemy to flee north was still firmly closed. Qin Jiwei personally organized the battle at the command post of the 26th brigade. His rich combat experience told him: the enemy who breaks out and escapes has always been strong at both ends and weak at the middle, and the army is flustered.He personally made some deployments and made a decision to use the main force of the column to attack the middle, and the other parts to divide and surround the enemy.The troops are required to tenaciously block the attack, resolutely counterattack, and keep the people in the position at all costs. After that, every hour, the enemy organized a fierce attack in an attempt to escape. At about 15:00, Qin Jiwei ordered a full-scale assault on the enemy. After a burst of artillery fire, there was a lot of killing, and the enemy scattered and fled in all directions, and it immediately became a field chase and annihilation battle. The enemy has never been able to open the door to flee north.Most of the fleeing enemies were compressed into the old crow Chen. Laoyachen is a large village with more than 500 households. The wall outside the village is as high as a castle. It has become the enemy's last line of defense, but the enemy is at the end of their strength and unable to fight back.Soon Lao Yachen was also breached, and the enemies fled in all directions. Seeing that the main force had been wiped out, the two Kuomintang regiments who came for reinforcements did not dare to come to rescue them, so they quickly withdrew to Mangshan Mountain and defended against danger. 9 After annihilating the enemies of Lao Yachen, the main force of the vertical line pointed the finger at Mangshan to defend the enemy. At 19:00, all the enemy defenders at Mangshan were wiped out except for one company that slipped through the net. When the smoke cleared, Zhengzhou was declared liberated.Our Central Plains Liberated Area and North China Liberated Area are connected together, there is no barrier in the middle, and we can advance and retreat freely between offense and defense.The Central Military Commission and Mao Zedong connected telegrams to encourage: "It is very comforting to occupy Zhengzhou." "After the liberation of Jinan, Jinzhou, and Changchun, Zhengzhou was liberated. I have mastered the two major railway hubs of Longhai and Pinghan, which is extremely beneficial to the entire war situation. Hereby congratulate." After Zhengzhou was conquered, the troops in the fourth appeasement zone defending the enemy in Kaifeng fled. On October 24, our Central Plains Field Army soldiers occupied Kaifeng without bloodshed. After conquering Zhengzhou, winning the Huaihai Campaign became the main combat task of the two armies of the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army. After approving the plan for the Huaihai Campaign, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram on September 28 emphasizing that the entire army's operations, including all logistical work, must be fully prepared before operations can begin.Food and fodder supplies for two to two and a half months must be prepared. On the Huaihai battlefield, everyone knew that there would be a tough battle to fight, and how could it be done without first preparing food and grass. In Xibaipo, Zhou Enlai, vice chairman of the Military Commission, personally presided over the logistics operation meeting of the Huaihai Campaign, and Mao Zedong gave special instructions. In order to ensure the logistics supply, the Central Plains Bureau issued a call for the party, government, military and civilians of the whole region to "all for the war, all for the front line, and all for victory". On October 2, the East China Bureau held a meeting to study the issue of supporting Huaihai frontline operations. The winter of 1948 came very early.In the Central Plains, it was raining continuously and the traffic was blocked.Since the winter clothes could not be transported to the front line in time, thousands of people in each column fell ill due to the cold, and it was even more difficult to supply ammunition.In previous battles, people in the liberated areas and old base areas relied on shoulders and hands, and used ox carts and horse-drawn carts to send hundreds of tons of food and ammunition to the front line.But the current situation is quite different from before. The Central Plains and East China field armies are working together. There are millions of troops and migrant workers in need of supplies, and supplies have become a big problem. Now that the pattern of the Huaihai decisive battle has been formed, the situation on the battlefield will change rapidly.The heads of the Supreme Command are still paying close attention to the logistics supply. On November 9, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to East China, North China, and the Central Plains: We should try our best to annihilate the enemy's main force near Xuzhou, and use all our strength to ensure the supply of our army. Zhou Enlai pointed out that after the Battle of Huaihai started, there were hundreds of thousands of our troops participating in the war, plus local troops and migrant workers. Logistical support for the Huaihai Campaign. The people at the Yellow River Port in Jinan transported a large amount of food to the front line After Zhengzhou was liberated, Chen Yi and Deng Xiaoping led the main force of the Central Plains Field Army, the 3rd Column of the East China Field Army, and the Guangdong-Guangzhou Column to the east of the Xuzhou and Bengbu lines. They liberated this place on the second day after entering Shangqiu, and the Huaihai Campaign started immediately east of Xuzhou.The demand for war materials has become more and more urgent.For this reason, the Central Plains Military Region decided to vigorously establish a logistics transportation organization, at the expense of weakening other institutions, in order to strengthen the supply of front-line transportation. Subsequently, the Central Plains Military Region decided to establish a transportation command after reporting to the Central Military Commission for approval, and concentrated more than 300 vehicles to form the 1st and 2nd regiments of steam vehicles and the logistics regiment with hundreds of rubber-tyred carts.There are only about forty people in this traffic command, which can be called short and capable.This small traffic command has opened up arteries to continuously transport various materials to the front line. Therefore, such a fragment has been left in the long river of history: One day in November 1948, Yang Guoyu, deputy political commissar of the Transportation Command, and Tian Yumin, the new director of the Zhengzhou Railway Administration, consulted with the original head of the railway station and tried to transport ammunition to the front line by railway.The person in charge said in embarrassment: "Firstly, there is no coal, secondly, the road is blocked, and thirdly, there is no locomotive. There is really no way. The train from Kaifeng East has long been impassable. Not knowing the situation at the next station, the train dared not leave. Besides, when the Kuomintang withdrew, it took away a lot of supplies, and now there is not even a locomotive that can move.” Yang Guoyu and Tian Yumin went to the train station again, and asked the master workers directly for advice, saying to them: "Only by defeating Chiang Kai-shek, can we live a good life. There is a war ahead, and we need to send ammunition and food to the front line, and we need the train to run." , what do you think?" "Medium!" the workers answered loudly. "Is there any coal?" The master workers took Yang Guoyu and the others to see the coal warehouse near the station, and said that if it was guaranteed that no one would take it away privately, the coal could last for 15 days. The workers and masters said that the drivers and locomotives are ready-made, and they are waiting for you to come, but there is a lack of scheduling, and no one dares to start the train. The front team hides the food truck in the woods Tian Yumin said, I am the dispatcher.I also understand things on the railway. After a while, many drivers and firemen were found.With locomotives and drivers that could start, the ammunition for 50 cars was urgently loaded onto the train overnight.The comrade in charge of the shipment said excitedly: "The train is really good. It is not as much as a train to be pulled by dozens of cars and horse-drawn carriages for a month." "Woo—" the siren blared.The first train loaded with ammunition and guards moved slowly.The train departs from Zhengzhou and heads to the front line.The workers also brought in the No. 6 chartered car dedicated to Liu Ruming, the commander of the enemy's Fourth Appeasement Zone, as a pioneer car for exploring the road, and opened the way ahead.The people on the chartered car wrapped the flashlights in red cloth and communicated back and forth. The train had been running all night, 150 kilometers through Kaifeng, and when it came to the east of Lankao, near Minquan, suddenly, gunshots rang out from both sides of the railway, and bullets kept flying overhead.It is estimated that it may be the guerrillas from Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu.The guards on the car shouted loudly: "We are the People's Liberation Army! We are the People's Liberation Army!" They kept waving the red flag.As soon as the words fell, many guerrilla fighters rushed over from both sides of the railway.Hearing that it was the Central Plains Field Army, he was overjoyed, and hastily reinstalled the road spikes that had been removed, fixed the rails, and said with a smile, "It's dangerous! We thought it was the fleeing Kuomintang army. It’s about to overturn.” Amidst the cheers, the train blew its whistle and moved on. The train came to a small station, the station was dark, without any signal lights, the train could not move forward, and slowly stopped.It turned out that the station master had listened to the intimidating propaganda of the Kuomintang, did not understand our party's policies, and was afraid of being arrested and punished, so he hid.With the help of the guerrillas and the masses, I finally found the station master, explained the policy to him, relieved his worries, and asked him to preside over the work.The train passes the station and moves on. The train stops and stops like this, and it will arrive at Shangqiu ahead.However, the phone has been disconnected, the driver did not dare to drive rashly.So, let the No. 6 chartered car carry a class, tentatively enter Shangqiu, and then turn back to guide the train forward.Finally, the train drove into Shangqiu. Since then, the signboard of "Shangqiu Military Station of the Chinese People's Liberation Army" has been officially hung up, and various military supplies have been officially received and allocated. After the work of the military depot was basically completed, the radio station was set up immediately, and reported to Liu Bocheng, Commander Chen Yi, and Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping who were on the front line: "The first train has entered Shangqiu Station from Zhengzhou, and the military depot is set up here." The generals believed that the military depot could advance to Shangqiu so quickly. After calling to verify the confirmation, Liu, Deng, and Chief Chen were very happy, and sent a special instruction to say: "The Shangqiu military depot not only needs to receive supplies from the Central Plains, but also the North China, Hebei, Shandong and Henan military regions, and even East China and Jinan. The goods from Chaji, whether from the army or from the local area, not only guns and ammunition, but also food, fodder, and daily necessities, were transported to Shangqiu for transshipment.” Since then, our army has begun to use railways for busy military transportation. The soldiers and horses did not move, but the food and grass went first.With the full protection of this artery behind the enemy, the gunfire on the Huaihai front line became more intense.