Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Encirclement but not annihilation, the final fight

The heads of the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army are probably in the best mood these days.Shuangduiji, where the Huangwei Corps is located, and Chenguanzhuang, where the Du Yuming Group is located, are geographically separated by less than 35 kilometers. However, with the close cooperation of the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army, Du Yuming and Huang Wei failed to close together in the end.After the Huangwei Corps was wiped out, the situation in which the three battlefields of the Huaihai Campaign were fought at the same time was changed, and our army gained full combat initiative.Su Yu commanded the East China Field Army troops to encircle and wipe out the Du Yuming Group. As of December 13, one-third of the enemy and one regiment had been wiped out, and 40,000 enemies had been captured.

However, to the surprise of Liu, Chen, Deng, and Su, when the battle was going smoothly, Mao Zedong suddenly called on December 11, ordering: "After the annihilation of Huang Wei, leave Qiu Qingquan, Du Yuming's command, The rest of the corps of Li Mi and Sun Yuanliang will not make final arrangements for annihilation within two weeks." It was like a game that was going well and was about to score, and the leader of one team suddenly asked for a "timeout", which was very frustrating! But who are the heads of the General Front Committee?Mao Zedong called "suspension", so there is a mystery in it.Everyone felt that Mao Zedong must have a more important move.The Battle of Huaihai should leave some aftertaste, Zhu Bajie cannot eat ginseng fruit—swallow it whole.

Mao Zedong really had a better game to play.On the Northeast battlefield, Mao Zedong ate 470,000 troops of Chiang Kai-shek; on the Huaihai battlefield, the 550,000 troops that were annihilated and besieged had no power to recover.At this time, Mao Zedong had already fixed his eyes on Fu Zuoyi's hundreds of thousands of troops on the North China Plain.But Chiang Kai-shek is definitely not stupid.Chiang Kai-shek, who was on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in his early years, knew that the Huaihai battlefield was already a bottomless pit, and no matter how much he invested, he would never return.Therefore, he had already made the worst plan, and he wanted to withdraw hundreds of thousands of troops from North China. Commander-in-Chief Du Yuming (second from left).The Huaihai Campaign won a complete victory to the south of the Yangtze River to realize the situation of the Northern and Southern Dynasties of "government across the river".But Mao Zedong wanted to delay Chiang Kai-shek's decisive battle, and this was the wonderful stop of the Huaihai battlefield.Therefore, Mao Zedong ordered Yang Chengwu and Li Jingquan's corps to stop attacking Suiyuan; ordered Xu Qianqian's corps to delay the attack on Taiyuan; ordered Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan's Northeast Field Army to quickly enter the pass;The telegram requested: "You can concentrate the entire East China Field Army and rest for a whole day to recharge your batteries, and then annihilate Du Yuming's group in one fell swoop. As long as Du's troops do not make a big breakthrough, you should rest until the beginning of next month, about Ziwei (January 5 It is more appropriate to start attacking around the day).

On December 17, the General Front Committee held a meeting in Caiwa, southwest of Xiao County, where the East China Field Army Command was stationed, and Deng Xiaoping presided over the meeting.Su Yu and Liu Bocheng have not seen each other for 17 years. When the two old comrades-in-arms met this time, the two pairs of big hands were tightly held together, and they did not let go for a long time.They reunited when the Huaihai Campaign was about to win a complete victory. They excitedly recalled the Long March and the three-year guerrilla war in the south, and studied the plan for crossing the river in the next summer and their opinions on the reorganization of the troops.After the meeting, Liu Bocheng and Chen Yi went to Xibaipo, Pingshan, Hebei to report to the Party Central Committee, and Deng Xiaoping returned to Xiaolizhuang, west of Su County where the Central Plains Field Army Command was stationed.

The heavy snow, which covered thousands of miles of wilderness, was covered with silver.The howling cold wind also brought a serious survival crisis to the officers and soldiers of Du Yuming's troops who were trapped in a tight siege and lost logistical supplies.The troops were hungry and cold, and their morale was low.Su Yu seems to be the only Yaxing who is looking at the snow scene.He was walking outside the village in the snow, and suddenly he wondered, isn't the heavy snow all over the sky the mighty army that God helped him to fight?He immediately hurried back to his command post, with the guards running behind him panting.

Back at the command post, he asked the combat staff to draft a telegram to the Military Commission, suggesting that the troops should rest for 10 days, so as to achieve the purpose of getting stronger as we fight and weakening the enemy as we fight.In this way, the final attack on Du Yuming can win the final victory at the least cost. During the 20-day rest and reorganization of the battlefield, the East China Field Army conducted in-depth education on the situation and tasks, restored and reorganized the combat organization, condolences to the troops, improved life on the battlefield, carried out military democracy, improved the combat plan, prepared for combat, launched a fierce political offensive, and disintegrated enemy.

The Central Plains People's Condolences Group condolences to the People's Liberation Army on the front line of Huaihai After Du Yuming fell into a tight siege, he called Chiang Kai-shek several times to request airdrops of supplies.Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram back and said: "My brother's food and ammunition cannot be air-dropped. We must not hope for this. We should bravely and quickly break through the bandits in front of us and go south to join forces with Huang Baitao's corps. Don't delay." Qiu Qingquan was so angry that he slapped the table and cursed: "The Ministry of National Defense is a bastard, the old man is also confused, there is no food and ammunition, how can hundreds of thousands of troops fight with fire sticks on empty stomachs?!"

On December 6, Du Yuming called Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi and Sun Yuanliang to a meeting to study how to break through.At the meeting, it was decided to break out separately and gather in Fuyang.That night, the two armies and four divisions of Sun Yuanliang's corps, a total of 320,000 people, broke out to the northwest with divisions as units.After crossing the river, they were intercepted by fierce firepower from the People's Liberation Army.Most of the enemy troops that rushed over were wiped out, two army commanders were captured, and only Sun Yuanliang led dozens of people to escape.The rest of the troops saw that the situation was not good, and when they were about to retreat, they were unexpectedly hit by a rain of bullets from the position of the 5th Army of Qiu Qingquan Corps. They were attacked from both sides and suffered heavy casualties. Scattered into various units.

At this time, the news that the Huangwei Corps was wiped out spread to Chen Guanzhuang several times. Du Yuming is well aware of the importance of the existence of the Huangwei Corps to him.Therefore, a power call was sent to Liu Zhi to inquire about the situation of the Huangwei Corps.Liu Zhi quickly called back and said: "Hu Lian's corps broke through the encirclement, except for Hu Lian who went to Bengbu alone, and the rest have no whereabouts."Huang Baitao's corps broke through the encirclement without a trace, and now Huang Wei's corps is also missing.To break through is to be wiped out: Sun Yuanliang's Corps in the north and Huang Wei's Corps in the south both commented on this sentence successively.

Du Yuming couldn't help but feel a bit sad.He looked up at the gray sky with flakes of snow outside the window, and shivered uncontrollably.He recalled that Badawi, head of the U.S. advisory group to the Kuomintang government, had made a profound estimate of China's war situation in November: "(The Kuomintang) has not lost a single battle due to lack of ammunition or equipment. In my opinion, these Military fiascos can all be attributed to the worst leadership in the world and many other factors that lower morale. These factors lead to a complete loss of the will to fight." The Yankee!Du Yuming cursed subconsciously and somewhat indignantly from the bottom of his heart.Although Du Yuming hated Badawi's unlucky "crow's mouth", he still nodded thoughtfully, feeling bitter in his heart.

The orderly came in and refilled a cup of tea for him. He looked at the rising heat and began to think wildly again.Why didn't Chiang Kai-shek order him and Huang Wei to break out at the same time?Huang Wei and his troops have rich combat experience and excellent weapons. If the troops in the northern and southern encirclements break through at the same time, the current scale of the PLA may lose sight of the other. It should be said that there is great hope of breaking out, at least Can rush out quite a lot of troops.But Chiang Kai-shek only cared about Huang Wei, not his two corps.Thinking of this, he couldn't help feeling angry. With the cool wind blowing from outside the window, his head suddenly felt much clearer.He began to think about the most important issue in front of him: once the PLA wiped out the Huangwei Corps, it might send all its troops to Chenguanzhuang.How to deal with this serious problem?Du Yuming was worried. He knew that on December 16, Chiang Kai-shek had ordered Li Yannian's and Liu Ruming's corps to retreat to the south bank of the Huaihe River to cover the construction of fortifications by the Jiang defense troops. On the 20th, the 99th, 96th, 56th, and 68th armies were ordered to guard the Huaihe River, and the 28th army was ordered to occupy the bridgehead in Pukou. Shipped from Hankou to Wuhu and assembled.The above situation shows that Chiang Kai-shek, seeing that the defeat in the north of the Yangtze River was irretrievable, was determined to shrink his troops, strengthen the Yangtze River defense line, and secure Nanjing and Shanghai. He had no intention of saving Chen Guanzhuang's troops. "The old man is going to guard Jianghuai wholeheartedly." Of course, Du Yuming is the clearest about this point.In this way, as of mid-December, only the Du Yuming Group in the Chenguanzhuang area remained on the Huaihai battlefield.Chiang Kai-shek looked at the Du Yuming group surrounded by groups, and it was a pity to abandon it, but it was difficult to save it. Seeing that the defeat in the north of the Yangtze River was doomed, he still "started from the overall interests of the party and the country", decided to part with it, and transferred the troops between the Jianghuai River to the south. Strengthen the defense line of the Yangtze River. The people of the Central Plains pushed small carts to transport ammunition and goods, and made important contributions to the victory of the war. The Du Yuming Group, which was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army, still had 5 armies and 14 divisions of the Qiu Qingquan Corps and 3 armies of the Li Mi Corps. The strength of 8 divisions, but in a situation of shortage of food and ammunition.Hundreds of thousands of people need 150,000 kilograms of rice every day, and even porridge needs more than 50,000 kilograms.Du Yuming repeatedly called Chiang Kai-shek to airdrop food bombs, but the planes dispatched up to 120 sorties a day, and Chen Guanzhuang had 300,000 besieged troops. The minimum needs of ten thousand people, when divided equally, can only meet the needs of one meal per person per day.Because the encirclement is a 10-kilometer frame, sometimes due to the wind direction, it is impossible to guarantee the accuracy of the airdrop. In addition, the pilots dare not fly low under my anti-air fire, and many airdrops fall on the PLA positions.Therefore, over the issue of food distribution, disputes often arose between corps and corps, or between corps, divisions, brigades, and regiments.In order to compete for the air-dropped rice and pancakes, the various ministries sometimes even set up machine guns to kill each other.In order to satisfy their hunger, all the troops had to slaughter the army horses, even the bark and horse skins were eaten up, and more and more soldiers died of starvation and freezing. The most miserable ones are the Kuomintang party and government officials who retreated westward with the army from Xuzhou and the men and women who blindly followed the army when they retreated from Haizhou. They also wanted to eat, but they were not on the roster. What should we do?At this time, everyone regrets that they have thrown themselves into the trap and asked for trouble, but it is too late.But Qiu Qingquan took the opportunity to incorporate the men among them into the army as supplementary soldiers.To this end, a temporary brigade was also established, and the station commander Geng Wenzhe was appointed as the brigade commander.Although those people knew that being a soldier was a job, but food had become the first need at this time, so they had to serve as soldiers and drink a bowl of gruel from the big pot in the barracks.The most pitiful thing is those female students and other women, who are not qualified to work hard, so they are forced to exchange their bodies for food from the officers and soldiers.Here and now, almost everything, including flesh, is on the market, and as long as there is food in hand, it can be exchanged for other people's valuables or other wants.Those officers who had a way to get food took advantage of the opportunity to plunder and do everything. Beginning on December 20th, the battle zone became more rainy and snowy, the temperature dropped sharply, and a large number of enemy soldiers froze to death and starved to death.The People's Liberation Army used the New Year's Gala, beat gongs and drums, and sang loudly. It carried out fire-line propaganda and position broadcasts, allowing newly liberated soldiers to show up to persuade them to surrender, release prisoners in an organized manner, and bring propaganda materials back. Large-scale slogans and cartoons were used to launch "propaganda bombs" with 60 guns, and even telephones were set up in enemy positions for propaganda.Inspired by the powerful political offensive of the People's Liberation Army, squads, rows and even companies of officers and soldiers of the Du Yuming Group crossed the line of fire and surrendered to the People's Liberation Army in spite of the strict blockade and brutal suppression.In the 20 days from December 16 to January 5 of the following year, more than 14,000 people surrendered one after another, which is equivalent to the strength of two divisions, with an average of more than 700 people per day. Du Yuming said that the political offensive of the People's Liberation Army caused suspicion and panic within the Kuomintang army.Liu Zhi also said that the People's Liberation Army's strategy and feints, internal instigation against the Kuomintang army, propaganda before the battle, and food delivery, etc., "their benefits in combat are equivalent to an invisible increase of 100,000 troops." On December 15, 1948, the second phase of the Huaihai Campaign ended successfully.Our army annihilated 1 corps headquarters, 4 military headquarters, and 11 entire divisions (one of which revolted), with a total of more than 100,000 people; blocking and partially annihilating the enemy from the north and the south, our army began the third phase of the Huaihai Campaign .As the New Year approached in 1949, the soldiers of the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army were gearing up, preparing to further expand their victories.However, in the territory occupied by Du Yuming Group in the Huaihai battlefield, there was no festive atmosphere, and some were just busy before seeking to break out. On the 17th, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Du Yuming: "Your younger brother should not act alone, that is, send someone to Beijing to teach the opportunity face-to-face." After Du Yuming received the call, he sent the chief of staff of the headquarters to fly to Nanjing the next day to take orders. On the afternoon of the 19th, Comfy Cunji and Dong Mingde, Director of Communications of the Ministry of Air Force, returned from Nanjing on a C47 plane.Comfort Cun and Dong Mingde came here this time, bringing two letters from Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Shuming to Du Yuming.Chiang Kai-shek said in the letter that since Du Yuming's troops were besieged, he had tried his best, but all the troops in North China, Central China, and Northwest China were restrained by the "communist army" and could not be deployed.The only way at present is to concentrate our forces to break through under the cover of the air force.This time the Air Force will do its best to cover and drop gas bombs.How to implement it will be discussed in detail by Dong Mingde.Wang Shuming's letter was relatively simple. The letter said: "The principal is very concerned about my brother and Qiu and Li Bingtuan. He is determined to use the air force to cover my brother's breakout. Now he is sending Dong Mingde to discuss everything with my brother. Dong is a good friend of my brother. Please share everything with me. Let’s talk about it clearly, and I can try my best to support you.” After reading the letter, Du Yuming called Zheng Xiguang, the director of the third department of the headquarters, and discussed with Dong Mingde the plan to release poison gas bombs by land and air to break out of the siege.Since the release of poisonous gas is a violation of international conventions, it was stipulated on the spot that poison gas bombs are "Type A bombs" and other bombs are called "Type B bombs". .In order to prevent poison gas bombs from accidentally injuring one's own side, land and air contact signals were also stipulated. Dong Mingde and others discussed the cruel murder plot in detail, and planned to fly back to Nanjing the next day to return to his mission. Unexpectedly, it was very rainy that night, and it rained for ten days, and the plane could not take off. After the Huangwei Corps was wiped out, in order to cooperate with the launch of the Pingjin Campaign, the Huaihai frontline troops took a 20-day rest.During this period, the People's Liberation Army launched a powerful political offensive against the besieged Du Yuming Group, winning over ten thousand Kuomintang officers and soldiers to surrender.This is a letter from the Political Department of the East China Field Army to Du Yuming Due to the weather, the airdrops were also completely stopped, and the problem of food for officers and soldiers of the Du Yuming Group became increasingly serious.They began to dig up the food buried by the common people everywhere, and then slaughtered the army horses. Thousands of army horses were killed within a few days.In the end, nothing was eaten, and the weather still showed no signs of getting better.Chiang Kai-shek took great pains, specially transported advanced radar from the United States, temporarily trained a few paratroopers to use it, and then airdropped it to Chenguanzhuang with the radar, intending to use the radar to instruct the plane to drop food. Unexpectedly, this advanced machine would fail as soon as it landed. The paratrooper who learned a little bit of fur, bowed and bowed to the radar, this thing just didn't live up to it, and didn't even say a word. Since December 16, although our East China Field Army stopped its armed attack on the Du Yuming Group, its political offensive has become more powerful.In particular, Mao Zedong, who was born as a teacher, was very enthusiastic. He drafted the "Urging Du Yuming and Others to Surrender" for the headquarters of the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army, and repeatedly broadcast to the besieged positions of Du Yuming Group: General Du Yuming, General Qiu Qingquan, General Li Mi and the commanders, division commanders and regimental commanders of the Qiu and Li corps: You are now at the end of your rope.Huang Wei's army was wiped out on the night of the 15th, and Li Yannian's army turned around and fled south. It is hopeless for you to get closer to them.Do you want to break out?The People's Liberation Army is everywhere, how can they break through?You have tried to break through these days, what is the result?Your planes and tanks are useless.We have more planes and tanks than you. These are cannons and explosives. People call these planes and tanks. Aren’t they ten times more powerful than your foreign planes and tanks?Your Sun Yuanliang corps is finished, and more than half of your remaining two corps have been wounded and captured.Although you have forced many idle personnel and young students from Xuzhou into the army, how can these people fight?For more than ten days, under our encirclement and blows, your position has been greatly reduced.You only have such a small area, no more than a dozen Li in a straight line, so many people are crowded together, one of our shells can kill a bunch of you.Your wounded soldiers and their family members follow you and complain endlessly.Your soldiers and many cadres don't want to fight anymore.You who are deputy commander-in-chief, corps commanders, army commanders, division commanders, and regimental commanders should show compassion for your subordinates and their families, cherish their lives, find a way out for them earlier, and stop calling them Made a senseless sacrifice. Now that Huang Wei's corps has been completely wiped out, and Li Yannian's corps has fled to Bengbu, we can concentrate a force several times yours to attack you.We have only fought for forty days this time, and you have already lost ten divisions of Huang Baitao, eleven divisions of Huang Wei, four divisions of Sun Yuanliang, four divisions of Feng Zhian, two divisions of Sun Liangcheng, one division of Liu Ruming, and one division of Suxian. , one division from Lingbi, you lost a total of thirty-four entire divisions.Among them, except He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia led three and a half divisions to revolt, Liao Yunzhou led one division to revolt, Sun Liangcheng led one division to surrender, Zhao Biguang and Huang Zihua each led half a division to surrender, the remaining twenty-seven and a half divisions were all annihilated by our army .You have seen with your own eyes the fate of Huang Baitao's, Huang Wei's and Sun Yuanliang's corps.You should follow the example of General Zheng Dongguo in Changchun, learn from the example of Commander Sun Liangcheng, Commander Zhao Biguang, and Commander Huang Zihua this time, and immediately order the entire army to lay down their weapons and stop resisting. This army can guarantee the safety of all your senior officers and soldiers.Only in this way is your only way out.Think about it!If it feels good to you, do it.If you still want to fight, then fight again, after all, you will be dealt with. The sound of the position broadcasting horn was blowing towards the enemy camp with gusts of wind, and the officers and soldiers of the Du Yuming Group all pricked up their ears to listen.A few diehard officers brandished pistols and shouted angrily in the field: "Don't listen, damn it, don't listen!" But no one paid any attention to their complaints, and they had to leave angrily. The sound of the broadcast continued to spread in the wind. Some people were secretly happy, while others were downcast. Everyone was thinking about their own thoughts. Since the Huangwei Corps was wiped out by the People's Liberation Army, Chiang Kai-shek has repeatedly ordered Du Yuming to lead his troops to break through.Du Yuming understands that not breaking through is naturally a dead end, but breaking through is also a dead end, and even this kind of death will come faster and the loss will be worse.However, the military order was hard to violate, and he still had no choice but to order the various corps to make preparations before breaking out. During this period, Qiu Qingquan came to Du Yuming and said: "Chen Yi sent you a letter, and I have burned it." Du asked: "What is the content?" Qiu said: "It's not the same thing! Persuading them to surrender, who surrendered to the Communist Army!" Another day, Li Mi called Du Yuming and said, "Chen Yi sent someone to bring a letter and come in from the front line. It was an officer who was captured from the 13th Corps. "Du asked: "What did he say?" Li said: "He was so frightened that he couldn't tell. There was some truth in the letter. I'll send him here for you to ask." Sent it to Du Yuming.Du Yuming saw that the beginning of Chen Yi's letter was very polite, and there were some words in the middle that Du Yuming thought were threatening.The letter mentioned "Why do you serve the four major families instead of the people", which inspired him a bit.Du Yuming's heart moved, if he could save the troops of the two corps, he could also surrender. Du Yuming immediately handed over the officer to Wen Qiang, the deputy chief of staff, for interrogation, and he took the letter to test Qiu Qingquan's attitude.Qiu Qingquan took it and read half of it, but without saying a word, tore up the letter and burned it.Du Yuming thought that Qiu Qingquan had always been the person sent by Chiang Kai-shek to contain him, domineering and arrogant, and had many conflicts with him in the past, sometimes confronting him head-on.This time in the siege, Qiu Qingquan asked for instructions on everything, and his performance was not bad, but not to the extent of showing his heart.Du Yuming was so upset that he said goodbye and left. When New Year’s Day came in 1949, the siege troops of the People’s Liberation Army were full of joy. Even the trenches and shelters were pasted with couplets written on red paper. I couldn't help but secretly went to the kitchen to "reconnaissance". After being scolded and scolded in good faith by the old cooking squad leader, I turned back secretly happily, and was greeted with ridicule by a group of veterans.The heads of all the columns came to the front line to express condolences, which raised the morale of the soldiers even higher.Several soldiers who had just been liberated gathered together and murmured secretly: "Look, the two sides are different. It would be strange if such an army didn't win the battle!" But the New Year's bell did not bring any joy to Chiang Kai-shek.In mid-December, the US ambassador to China, Leighton Stuart, suggested that Chiang Kai-shek hand over military and political power to prepare for peace talks; establish the Army, Navy and Air Force Command, with He Yingqin as the commander-in-chief in charge of the military, and Li Zongren as the acting president in charge of politics. On December 24, Bai Chongxi and Cheng Qian sent a telegram inviting Chiang Kai-shek to step down.For Chiang Kai-shek, it was a New Year shrouded in gloomy mood.On New Year's Day, Chiang Kai-shek, who had almost lost his fortune and was exhausted, was forced to propose his intention to step down, and was forced to issue a peace statement.Of course, everyone knows that Chiang Kai-shek is used to playing the trick of "fake peace". Chiang Kai-shek's "peace" is for war, and the New Year's Day peace is just to buy time, regroup forces, and seek a comeback.Just the day before New Year's Day, Mao Zedong solemnly pointed out in his New Year's message to Xinhua News Agency: Carry out the revolution to the end!Then, a resounding voice sounded from the tweeter set up on the Huaihai Frontline PLA position: Even our enemies no longer doubt that the Chinese people will win the final victory in the great war of liberation. War has traveled a tortuous path. ... The enemy will not destroy itself.Neither the Chinese reactionaries nor the aggressive forces of American imperialism in China will withdraw from the stage of history on their own. ... The question now facing the Chinese people, the democratic parties and the people's organizations is whether to carry the revolution through to the end, or to stop the revolution halfway?If we want to carry the revolution to the end, we must use revolutionary methods to resolutely and completely eliminate all reactionary forces, unswervingly insist on overthrowing imperialism, feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism, and overthrowing the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang throughout the country. , Establish a republic under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and led by the worker-peasant alliance throughout the country. ... In 1949, the Chinese People's Liberation Army will march south of the Yangtze River, and will win a greater victory than that in 1948. ………… The feudal oppression of thousands of years and the imperialist oppression of one hundred years will be completely overthrown in our struggle. 1949 was an extremely important year, and we should intensify our efforts. Mao Zedong's articles full of strong Hunan spicy taste greatly encouraged the frontline soldiers, but they also choked up Chiang Kai-shek, who was shouting "peace talks" in vain.Although the government and the opposition were calling for him to step down, and he repeatedly pretended to be on the stage, he still firmly controlled the military power. On January 3, he telegraphed Du Yuming that starting from the 5th, three days of food bombs would be thrown and he must break through. After a rest and a powerful political offensive, the East China Field Army was determined to quickly annihilate the Du Yuming Group and win the Huaihai Campaign by taking advantage of the fact that the enemy had not yet received food and ammunition supplies and was shaken and exhausted. On January 2, with the approval of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, Su Yu, Tan Zhenlin, Chen Shiju, and Zhang Zhen issued an order to attack Du Yuming's group, and decided to take the steps of annihilating Li Mi's corps in the eastern part of the encirclement first, and then attacking Qiu Qingquan's corps.The first combat deployment is: a total of 25 divisions with 10 columns, divided into three assault groups in the east, north, and south, serving as the first-line assault; a total of 17 divisions with 7 columns, used for external line blocking and as Reserve team, and launched a battle at 17:00 on January 6. The Eastern Group's 10th Column Commander Song Shilun and Political Commissar Liu Peishan unified command of the 10th, 3rd, and 4th Columns and the Bohai Column, the Independent 1st and 3rd Brigades of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, and the North Group's 1st Column. The task of encircling and annihilating Li Mi's Corps. The North Group, with Tan Zhenlin and Wang Jian'an as the unified command of the 1st, 9th, and 12th columns, launched an attack from north to southwest. The South Group used Wei Guoqing and Ji Luo to command the 2nd, 8th, and 11th columns, and attacked from south to north. The cold wind howled and swept the earth mercilessly, and the snowflakes floated up again.Du Yuming's soldiers shivered from the cold in traffic ditches, bunkers, and open-air bunkers.A miserable scene filled with despair. At 15:30 on January 6, 1949, the assault groups of the East China Field Army launched a general attack on the remnants of the Du Yuming Group, which had been besieged for many days.The newly captured American cannons formed a huge artillery group, and the muzzles pointed directly at Chen Guanzhuang.Following the commander's order, the artillery group roared, and immediately the mountains roared like a tsunami, and the earth shook.The artillery shell exploded on the enemy's position in Chenguanzhuang, and the flames lit up half of the sky, and most of the enemy's fortifications were razed to ruins.Under the attack of the powerful artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army, Li Mi's corps quickly lost its resistance, and only the 5th Army of Qiu Qingquan's corps could withstand several such bombings, and almost all other troops were thrown into disarray. Under the cover of artillery fire, the various assault troops of the People's Liberation Army bravely rushed into the depths of the enemy's position from different directions with split and interspersed tactics. 2 Zong used 4 divisions to attack Li Mingzhuang, which was a solid fortress in the enemy's outer stronghold, defended by the 287th Regiment of the 70th Army, the main force of Qiu Qingquan's Corps.As soon as the battle started, the enemy blocked the breakthrough of our 4th Division from three directions with intensive firepower, and many PLA soldiers fell on the breakthrough during the charge.However, the brave and fearless officers and soldiers of the 4th Division did not retreat to the front line of the Wuhua Cultural Department of the Kuomintang government army who had uprising in Jinan.After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the enemy was wiped out.Only two and a half hours later, most of the attacking troops completed the scheduled plan, captured 13 villages including Hezhuang, Douao, Lilou, and Limingzhuang, and wiped out 4 entire regiments, most of 7 regiments and two regiments. A total of more than 10,000 people captured more than 7,000 enemies. In the battle to encircle and wipe out Du Yuming's Group, the Subei Corps of Wei Guoqing and Chen Pixian were located in the main direction of the enemy's breakthrough, and the battle was very fierce. On the 7th, various ministries continued to attack the enemy in depth.Du Yuming was hit hard by this and panicked; Li Mi's corps was afraid of being wiped out, so at 9:00 a.m., they abandoned 8 villages including Chenge and Mazhuang, and fled to the south and west in a panic; At 20 o'clock, it began to shrink to the defense zone of Qiu Qingquan Corps.By 22:00, various units of the People's Liberation Army occupied more than 20 enemy strongholds such as Qinglongji, wiped out 3 entire enemy regiments, and captured more than 3,000 enemy people. After two days of fighting on June and July, the People's Liberation Army has wiped out 14 enemy regiments and captured 35 villages. All columns have completed their scheduled attack tasks.The first combat mission, which was originally scheduled to be completed in 3 to 7 days, was completed in less than two days and nights.Annihilated the main force of Li Mi's corps and most of the 72nd Army of Qiu Qingquan's corps located east of the Lu River, the remnants of Li Mi's corps collapsed to the garrison of Qiu Qingquan's corps, causing Qiu Qingquan's corps to fall into great chaos and disrupt the The entire defense system of the Du Yuming Group. On the 8th, when our army was attacking Chenguanzhuang, the heart of the enemy with a fierce offensive, the enemy, under the cover of the air force, coordinated with infantry and tanks, launched a fierce counterattack against our 8th column.Due to the wide position and low troop density, the 8th vertical attack was blocked.Commander Wei Guoqing of the North Jiangsu Corps of the East China Field Army made a decisive decision and decided to transfer troops from the second line to strengthen the 8th vertical, resolutely beat down the enemy's momentum, and reported the situation to the head of the East China Field Army.The head of the East China Field Army instructed that the remnants of the enemy might break out to the west, and the Bohai Column had been ordered to quickly detour westward and enter the battle at the junction of the 8th and 9th Columns. It was under the command of the Northern Jiangsu Corps, and there was no need to use second-line troops.The Northern Subei Corps immediately ordered the Bohai Column, which arrived that night, to deploy quickly in accordance with the deployment of the head of the East China Field Army, and went into battle in Liuji between the 8th and 9th Columns, and the Mengji area west of Wanghuayuan.Order the 8th to attack slowly to show weakness, the 2nd to intensify the attack to the southeast of Chenguanzhuang, and the 11th to build fortifications overnight to attack Lulou, both to lure and suppress, and urge the enemy to go west. The fierce offensive of the People's Liberation Army was beyond Du Yuming's expectation. He saw the entire line of Li Mi's corps collapse, and Qiu Qingquan's corps' defense line was also torn open. He hastily withdrew his troops and adjusted his deployment.At the same time, he asked Chiang Kai-shek to prepare for bombing on the 9th and to drop "Type A bombs" on the 10th to cover the breakout. Qiu Qingquan, who is usually arrogant and arrogant, is like a deflated ball in front of the PLA's fierce attack.He had a premonition that the doomsday was coming, and that he was dying, so his mood was even more pessimistic. For several days, he took Chen, a female nurse from the 24th Rear Hospital, to various armies to drink and dance, and fell asleep every day after returning drunk. .One day, he said to Li Hanping, Chief of Staff of the Corps: "It is now a desperate moment, and we have to be prepared for the unexpected. In the future, if I die in battle, you will take command instead of me." Then he said to himself: "I live I’m 48 years old, I’ve seen enough, I’ve had enough fun, I’ve enjoyed everything, even death is worth it!” Afterwards, he drank and drank all day in the shelter to drown his sorrows.The troops reported the battle situation to him, but he yelled with blood-red drunken eyes: "Let all the positions collapse!" On the morning of the 9th, the remnants of the Du Yuming Group attacked Kouzhuang, Guoying, Liulou, Wanghuayuan, and Zuozhai respectively, in an attempt to seize the road and break out to the west.In order to cooperate with the breakout, the Kuomintang Air Force dispatched more than 20 planes to bombard the positions of our 8th and Bohai Columns indiscriminately, and released poison gas. Suddenly, the positions were filled with thick smoke and raging fire. The column and other departments fought tenaciously, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties, making their attempt to break out of the encirclement unsuccessful. On the evening of the 9th, in order not to give the remnant enemy a respite and win the final victory, the East and North groups of the East China Field Army took advantage of the momentum to launch a fierce attack.The first column captured Zhu Xiaozhuang in the afternoon and wiped out a regiment of the enemy's 54th division. It was blocked by the enemy's poison gas and confronted the enemy across the river.The 4th column launched an attack on Huzhuang and Jiazhuang, where the enemy's 70th division was stationed, and then captured Zhulou and Zhu'anlou, forcing the remnants of the enemy's 42nd division in Cuizhuang to surrender.After the 10th Column attacked and wiped out the enemies in Lu Caiyuan and other places, it also marched westward side by side with the 4th Column. At 24:00, the headquarters of the enemy's 72nd Army in Huzhuang surrendered to the 10th Column. At the same time, the 3rd Division of the 1st Column of the East China Field Army launched an attack on the enemy defending Dingzaoyuan.Ding Zaoyuan is the 45th Division of the 5th Army defending the enemy.The enemy resisted desperately, struggled to the death, and counterattacked me 4 times in a row with fierce firepower.In order to wipe them all out, our 3rd Division exerted military pressure on the one hand and wiped out part of the enemy; On the morning of the 10th, more than 3,000 remnants of this so-called elite division, including division commanders and deputy division commanders, were forced to surrender to the PLA.Cui Xianwen, the commander of the enemy division, swept away his former prestige, was hungry and didn't care about face. The first thing he did after surrendering was to ask the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army for steamed buns. In the early morning of the 10th, under the cover of artillery fire, more than 5,000 people from the enemy's 74th Army once again swarmed towards the Wanghuayuan position held by the 18th regiment of our Bohai Column. The commanders and fighters of the 18th regiment fought fiercely with the enemy, but due to the fact that the enemy was outnumbered, the front positions were successively occupied by the enemy.The commander of the Bohai Column was red-eyed. With the cooperation of the 9th Column on the left, he concentrated his forces to counterattack, inflicting great damage on the enemy.At 2 o'clock in the morning, the 10th Column cooperated with the 4th Column to capture Huangzhuanghu of Li Mi Corps. On the 11th, Qiu Qingquan ordered Gao Jiren, the commander of the 70th Army, to personally supervise the battle in Lu Caiyuan, and commanded the 32nd Division Gong Shiying to attack Douao.Under the cover of fierce artillery fire, the deputy commander of the division, He Zhishi, led a regiment to break through our army's position and rushed into Douao Village.At this time, our army organized a violent counterattack and regained the position.The two sides started a hand-to-hand fight, the scene was so tragic that He Zhishi, a professional military officer who had seen the battle, was also terrified after seeing it, and left the battlefield hastily.When the officers and soldiers in the fierce battle saw the supreme commander fleeing, they rushed to the ground and lost their positions.At this time, the Gaoji people ordered the 96th Division to send a regiment to join the battle, and then captured the Douao position again, but suffered heavy casualties.Qiu Qingquan was furious when he heard the news, and immediately dismissed He Zhishi, and ordered Gong Shiying to lead the 32nd Division to guard Li Lou. Without an order, he was not allowed to withdraw, and he was executed on the spot if he violated the order. So far, although the PLA's offensive troops have encountered stubborn resistance from the remnants of Du Yuming's clique, the 3rd, 4th, and 10th columns have approached Du Yuming and Qiu Qingquan's command center, Chenguanzhuang and Chenzhuang.