After the Baiyi Pavilion meeting, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping began to formulate a campaign plan for taking the initiative to attack the enemy, and decided to launch the Huaxian Campaign first. They analyzed that Liu Ruming's troops had been repeatedly attacked by our army and had become a bird of fright, and that he was closely drawn close to Wang Jingjiu's troops, and it was quite difficult to annihilate them individually; Sun Zhen's units were weak in combat effectiveness, relatively paralyzed, scattered in garrisons, and easy to concentrate on annihilating. It was decided to annihilate the first and two brigades of Sun Zhen's group. In light of the enemy's deployment, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping decided to adopt the tactic of "fierce tiger digging out their hearts" in campaign guidance, carrying out long-distance attacks on the enemy, that is, avoiding the enemy's frontal strongholds, suddenly penetrating into the depth of his defense, first attacking and annihilating the enemy's command center, attracting his subordinate units to come to his aid or forcing him to flee, and annihilating them in the course of the movement. On November 12, Liu and Deng issued a basic order for the Battle of Huaxian County, ordering the units to "concentrate on attacking Sun Zhen's clique."
The Battle of Huaxian County was launched on the night of the 18th. Without the enemy noticing, the main force of Liu Deng's army relied on the cover of the masses to suddenly penetrate into the enemy's defense depth of 40 kilometers, divided the enemy, and launched a fierce attack at dawn on the 19th. After 4 days and 5 nights of fierce fighting, the enemy was annihilated 1. 20,000 people, disrupted the enemy's plan to advance north to open the Pinghan Road, and ended in victory on the 22nd. After the battle, Liu Bocheng said in a conversation with Xinhua News Agency's frontline reporters:
"In this battle of Huaxian County, we also play strangely. We ignored the outstretched hands, we brushed past their hands, through their little strongholds, and at once we hugged his waist, and the tiger plucked his heart and hit his roots. Zhu Lou, Shao Erzhai, and Shangguancun were solved at once, eliminating their brigade headquarters and headquarters headquarters, and capturing brigade commander Yang Xianming, deputy brigade commander Li Keyuan, and commander He Kousan. ”
Liu Bo continued to talk about Chiang Kai-shek's use of troops and the great victory of our army. He said:
"Chiang Kai-shek and his people cannot infer from human reason. What he said always had to be heard in the opposite direction, and he acted according to the 'push back map'. I fought 5 battles with him in a hundred days, wiping out 11 of his brigades. In the first battle he took the battalion step by step and was annihilated by two and a half brigades. In the second battle, he switched to a long chase and was annihilated by 4 brigades. The third battle was still forced to advance side by side, and 1 and a half brigades were eaten. In the fourth battle, Juannan was annihilated by another 1 and a half brigades. In the fifth battle, it was again a battalion step by step, and two more brigades were annihilated. In short, his tactics are that this set cannot be exchanged for that set, and some two sets have a little. The Sichuan dialect is called 'turn over the scum, turn over the scum of the cowhide'. However, his Achilles heel is counter-revolution, traitorous dictatorship, the loss of people's hearts, and he will eventually fail!"
On November 23, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping reported to the Central Military Commission on the Battle of Shuixian County, reporting that they used the tactic of "fierce tiger digging out their hearts" to enter their deep equipment from the joint department of the three enemies, decompose and split, hit their head, and unexpectedly began a strong attack of pincers, smashing the enemy's command organs, forcing the enemy who had lost control to quickly disintegrate, collapse, or surrender, and then annihilate the enemy as quickly as possible. According to the report, "This operation is purely a strong attack on the enemy who occupies the strong strongholds of the permanent fortifications, and has provided many new lessons for our army in future operations." ”
In the five battles and five victories, Liu Deng's army captured a large number of Kuomintang troops, and many people joined Liu Deng's army. Among the captives, many senior officers, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, treated each other with courtesy. When Zhao Xitian, the commander of Chiang Kai-shek's concubine Zhao Xitian, who had been captured in the Battle of Dingtao, was sent to the military region, Liu Bocheng immediately went to see him and personally arranged to take good care of his wounds and live a good life. Zhao Xitian was very grateful, and then wrote to the officers and men of The Jiang Army, saying: "Fortunately, the officers and men of the Eighth Route Army can still treat each other as friends, and I and the officers and men of the Third and Forty-seventh Divisions here, regardless of their living and eating, have been entertained for a very long time, and have not been insulted at all." The wounded were healed. 'Lay down your arms and be a friend!' For the slogans and actions of the officers and men of the Eighth Route Army, this was beyond our expectations. ”
After Capturing Brigadier Liu Guangxin of the Miscellaneous Army during the Battle of Juancheng, Liu Bocheng and Li Da personally went to work and together with Deng Xiaoping set up a banquet for Liu Guangxin to visit the Liberated Areas.
Brigadier Yang Xianming and Deputy Brigadier Li Keyuan, who were captured in the Battle of Huaxian County, were from Sichuan, and Liu Bocheng specially made a table of Sichuan dishes to entertain them, and asked his old friends in Shuzhong with concern, which made Yang and Li very moved, saying that they would no longer serve as pawns for Chiang Kai-shek to launch a civil war.
The fierce fighting and skillful fighting on the battlefield and the leniency and benevolence after the war convinced the officers and soldiers who had taken prisoners in the battle with Liu Deng's army, and accelerated the division and disintegration within the Kuomintang army. In the work of capturing soldiers, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping seized on Wang Keqin's typical example and launched the "Wang Keqin Campaign" throughout the region. Wang Keqin joined the Eighth Route Army after serving as a soldier in the Kuomintang army for 6 years and being captured. In the Eighth Route Army, after the grievance movement and through personal experience, it was determined to fight to the end for the liberation of the Chinese people. Later, he became a squad leader, not only fighting resolutely and bravely, but also using his life experience in the Kuomintang army and the technical knowledge he learned to help the new soldiers progress, so that the soldiers felt that "following him to fight, not afraid of danger, and have strange ideas in their hearts." The class he led became a model class, and he made many meritorious achievements and became a combat hero. On December 10, Jiefang Daily published an editorial entitled "Universally Launching the Wang Keqin Movement," calling on the whole army to learn from Wang Keqin and promote the Wang Keqin Movement carried out by the Jinji-Hebei Luyu People's Liberation Army.
On December 18, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping received a telegram from Mao Zedong asking Liu Deng's army to go south to seek annihilation of the enemy. On the 20th, Liu Deng issued a basic order to launch the Giant (Wild) Jin (Township) Fish (Taiwan) Campaign on the Longhai Road, ordering the main force to attack the southeastern towns on the 25th, expand the war base and resources, threaten the Xuzhou Longhai Railway, cooperate with our army in northern Jiangsu and mobilize Wang Jingjiu's troops to attack it. On the 30th, the Battle of the Giant Goldfish began, and Liu Deng's army launched an attack on the enemy with a powerful offensive, ignoring the conspiracy of Jiang's army to cross the Yellow River and force Liu Deng's army to review, and continued to attack the enemy on the Longhai Road. Liu Deng used the "attack must be saved" style of play to annihilate the reinforcements of the enemy army.
The campaign lasted until January 16, 1949, annihilating more than 16,000 enemy troops and capturing 9 county seats. On 30 January, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping telegraphed to the Central Military Commission the experience of the Giant Goldfish Campaign, which was summarized in four points: Upholding the initiative in leniency and maneuvering and annihilating the enemy in large numbers; leaders at all levels should foresee the evolution of the situation under the intention of a mobile campaign, act in accordance with the situation, act decisively, and strive to achieve the task of annihilating the enemy; they should use the method of fighting a mobile war in which the enemy must be saved, destroy those who must be saved, and those who attack the enemy must retreat, and eliminate those who retreat; and they must closely coordinate with the East China Theater and take advantage of the contradictions between the enemy Xuzhou and Zhengzhou.
On the third day after the end of the Battle of the Giant Goldfish, that is, on January 18 and 19, Mao Zedong twice telegraphed Liu and Deng, asking them to take advantage of the fact that the enemy Wang Jingjiu and Wang Zhonglian's two armies were still north of the Yellow River to capture the towns that might be conquered in the north and south of the Longhai Road, annihilate as much as possible all the enemies that could be annihilated, and create the north and south of the Longhai Road into mobile battlefields for our army, so as to attract the main forces of the enemy Zheng and Xu Tosui to come to their aid and annihilate them. After receiving this telegram, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping immediately deployed to launch the Yuwan Border Campaign. The campaign was divided into two operational groups, Lubei and Lunan, with Liu Bocheng commanding the Lubei Operational Group and Deng Xiaoping commanding the Lunan Operational Group. The campaign began on 24 January and ended on 11 February, with the two groups of the north and south annihilating the enemy 1. 60,000 people, recaptured the vast area north and south of Longhai Road.
During another four months of fighting from November 1946 to February 1947, Liu Deng's army made great strides and maneuvers on the battlefield of the Jiluyu Inner Line, winning three battles and three victories, recovering 25 county towns, abandoning 24 county seats, and annihilating the enemy4. 40,000 people. After the Battle of Yuwan border, Liu Deng's army was concentrated on the north bank of the Yellow River to rest, and Chiang Kai-shek's army was defending on the south bank of the Yellow River. Facing each other across the river, the war was directed to other war zones.