In an ancient courtyard in Licheng, Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Li Da and other generals received Wang Dingnan, who was a servant of the wind and dust.
Liu and Deng were very satisfied with Wang Dingnan's achievements in the "military movement" work over the years, and they were even more consolation with the handwritten letters he brought to Gao Shuxun on this long-distance trek. After listening to Wang Dingnan's report, he also asked in detail about Gao Shuxun's thoughts and situation.
Liu and Deng deeply felt that in the upcoming "Pinghan Campaign," Gao Shuxun's New Eighth Army would be in a pivotal position.
Commander Liu Bocheng was accustomed to pacing and thinking at the same time, but Commissar Deng Xiaoping listened intently.
If Gao Shuxun had only fought a slack battle in this battle, he would have only been able to weaken the enemy's attacking power; if he could lead an uprising, he would have been able to strengthen the offensive power of our army and put the other two kuomintang armies (the Thirtieth Army and the Forty Army) to death!
Can you instigate the Gao Shuxun uprising? He was not a pawn or an ordinary official, but a deputy commander of the theater with tens of thousands of troops and the commander of the New Eighth Army.
If you take time and do your work slowly, you may be able to say that Gao Shuxun, now the military situation on the Pinghan Road is urgent, and it is necessary to promote this matter as soon as possible! Time is short, and there are few Communists in Gao Shuxun's army, and this matter is very difficult!
Commander Liu Bocheng gently told Wang Dingnan of the grim situation at that time: "Chiang Kai-shek has mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops and is preparing to attack our liberated areas. The two armies of Hu Zongnan in the First Theater of Operations have already concentrated at the southern end of Tongpu Road and are preparing to go north; the three armies of Sun Lianzhong's department in the Eleventh Theater have gathered in the Xinxiang area, and Gao Shuxun's New Eighth Army is also inside. ”
This made Wang Dingnan quite nervous, he did not expect to leave Gao Shuxun for only 20 days, but the situation became so complicated, he had no idea for a while, and could only listen to Liu and Deng's orders!
Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping clearly put forward the issue of instigating the Gao Shuxun uprising, saying: "You have come just in time, and we are also ready to do this work." In order to repel Chiang Kai-shek's offensive and isolate Chiang Kai-shek politically, it is necessary to open up a new front in the Kuomintang army, first of all to win over the non-concubine troops who are ostracized and discriminated against by Chiang Kai-shek, and to win over all the Kuomintang generals who can win over to stand under the banner of peace and democracy. The Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao demanded that achievements be made quickly in this work. Therefore, you must hurry back to Xinxiang and do a good job in Gao Shuxun's work. ”
Wang Dingnan reported to Liu and Deng that the underground party members lurking in Gao Shuxun's New Eighth Army, in addition to him and his wife Tang Hongqiang, had relations with the party organization in the past, and now they are still inclined to revolution, including The two regimental commanders under Gao Shuxun, Tian Shuxiao and Zhou Shuyi.
Deng Xiaoping immediately decided: Wang Dingnan, Tang Hongqiang, Tian Shuqing, and Zhou Shuyi would establish a "party working group for the gao shuxun uprising" and appoint Wang Dingnan as its leader.
In mid-October 1945, Wang Dingnan left the Taihang Mountains with a handwritten letter from Commander Liu Bocheng to Gao Shuxun and comrades Lu Zhan and Xin Liangzhi, who had been sent by Liu and Deng to work with, left the Taihang Mountains and returned to Gao Shuxun.
At this time, Gao Shuxun's New Eighth Army had been transferred from Nanzhao to Xinxiang, Henan, to join Sun Lianzhong's Headquarters of the Commander of the Eleventh Theater; there were also the Thirty Army of Ma Fa V and Lu Chongyi's Forty Army stationed here; there were troops stationed in large and small villages and streets inside and outside Xinxiang City, and the traffic of military vehicles was tightly guarded, which was completely in a state of imminent battle before the attack. Only after 8 years of war and chaos, xinxiang old and old, seeing that the war will spread again, is even more panicked and does not know what to do.
The army still had to go north, and Gao Shuxun knew that every step of the way would touch the mine, and he was anxiously waiting for Wang Dingnan! It's been more than two months since I went out, why haven't I come back? Soldiers are in chaos, there will be no accidents, right?
On this day, Wang Dingnan returned in dust. Gao Shuxun hurried out of the inner chamber, grabbed Wang Dingnan's hand, and said in a low and urgent voice: "This is the eleventh theater commander's headquarters, you should not stay here for a long time, your wife lives in a business outside the city, you will go to her immediately." I'll go back and we'll talk more. ”
Gao Shuxun sent several guards to send them out of the city. That afternoon, he also braved the rain to come to Wang Dingnan's residence.
As soon as he entered the house, he asked impatiently, "Have you seen General Peng?" ”
"This trip does not dishonor the king's order!" Wang Dingnan replied implicitly. From Gao Shuxun's anxious look, he could see that he was in a difficult situation.
When the adjutant guards retreated and there was no one around, Wang Dingnan lowered his voice and said, "Deputy Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai has long been transferred back to Yan'an, and I met chen Yi, Liu Bocheng, and Deng Xiaoping this time. Commander Liu Bocheng also has a handwritten letter to you! He carefully read Commander Liu Bocheng's letter, felt deeply relieved, and felt supported. At this time, the secret agents of the Central Command of the Military Command were all over Xinxiang and beyond, and Gao Shuxun was naturally under surveillance. He read it several more times before he regrettably burned the precious letter.
The three armies (the New Eighth Army, the Thirtieth Army, and the Forty Army) to which Sun Lianzhong belonged to the Eleventh Theater had been ordered to advance north, and it was impossible to delay or pull the troops away in violation of the orders. Gao Shuxun is quite difficult.
Wang Dingnan also frankly pointed out to him: "This is Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy, if you fight with the Eighth Route Army, if you are not defeated, you will also damage the troops, and they will be better able to take care of you in the future; if you are destroyed by the Eighth Route Army, it will be right in their arms." ”
Gao Shuxun said that he had long understood that he would not be fooled by this, and after repeated discussions with Wang Dingnan, he proposed a plan to take advantage of chiang kai-shek's official title of "commander-in-chief of the Jicha Theater" to lead his New Eighth Army and the Hebei Nationalist Army to march north along the Pinghan Road from Xinxiang and forcibly reorganize and bring all the scattered Kuomintang troops and puppet troops in the areas they passed to the Jicha area, so that those places would become undefended urban and rural areas, so that the Communist Eighth Route Army could be stationed. After arriving in the area around the Great Wall, he openly cooperated with the Communist Party.
Wang Dingnan also felt that the New Eighth Army was now crowded with the eleventh theater commander's headquarters and the thirty and forty armies, and it was difficult to move, and they could only act on the camera on the way north, but the matter was very important, and they could not be the master. Wang Dingnan, Lu Zhan, and Xin Liangzhi took Gao Shuxun's letter to Commander Liu Bocheng, then entered the Taihang Mountains and went to Chi'an Village in Xiangxian County to ask Liu, Deng, and Li Da for instructions.
In order to stop the Kuomintang troops heading north along the Pinghan Road, the Ji'nan Column with Du Yide as its commander and the Jiluyu Column with Song Renqian as its commander had assembled on the Pinghan Road, and the troops of the Seventh Sub-district of the Taihang Military Region (Commander Zhang Tingfa) and the Eighth Sub-district (Commander Huang Xinyou) had also been deployed north and south of the Zhanghe River.
Wang Dingnan saw the scene of the army gathering and the clouds of war in the Kuomintang area, and here he also saw the Situation of the Eighth Route Army and the Militia of the Former Branch Moving in an Endless Stream to the Pinghan Road, which made him deeply feel that a great war was imminent, and it was even more necessary to speed up the work of winning the uprising of Gao Shuxun's troops.
In The village of Tagang in Xiangxian County, he found comrades from the military region and asked them to convey Gao Shuxun's opinion to Chiefs Liu and Deng as soon as possible.
After studying, Liu and Deng agreed with Gao Shuxun's suggestion, but only allowed him to follow the route we specified, and was not allowed to take other troops.
Wang Dingnan hurried back to Gao Shuxun to resume his life.
Gao Shuxun was very happy to hear that Liu and Deng agreed to his request. He decided to lead his troops north along the Pinghan Road, and after he went to Shijiazhuang and ordered the Japanese army to surrender their weapons, he continued north. He hoped that the Eighth Route Army would stop the Kuomintang troops from behind and let his New Eighth Army move alone...
Wang Dingnan also followed Gao Shuxun's advice and reported to Taihang in a secret document.
However, Chiang Kai-shek's deployment was to order the three armies of the Eleventh Theater (the New Eighth Army, the Thirtieth Army, and the Forty Army) to advance in tandem, and strictly ordered that "immediately go north without mistakes."
Gao Shuxun had no choice but to lead his New Eighth Army and the two armies to march from Xinxiang on October 14.
This undermined Liu and Deng's stipulation that only Gao Shuxun should be allowed to go north.
Wang Dingnan was also anxious. He walked with Gao Shuxun for 3 days, and after arriving in Tangyin, he entered the Taihang Mountains on October 17 to meet Liu and Deng.
At this time, the Shangdang Campaign had ended in victory, and Liu and Deng also returned to Chi'an Village in Xiangxian County to mobilize their troops to the east to Pinghan Road.
Wang Dingnan came at the right time. Chiefs Liu and Deng are in urgent need of understanding the specific movements of the Three Armies of the Kuomintang!
On October 17, Liu and Deng received a long telegram from Chairman Mao in Yan'an on the deployment of the Pinghan Campaign, which emphatically pointed out: "The outcome of this campaign has an extremely important bearing on the overall situation. You must be prepared to annihilate about half or more of the 80,000 recalcitrant troops in more than a month and a half, in many consecutive battles, to solve the problem. Chairman Mao also specially instructed in the telegram: "Under the personal command of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, we will organize various battles with precision..."
Chairman Mao's telegram said that "the victory or defeat of this campaign has an extremely important bearing on the overall situation" because during this period, several major battlefields in the country were opened, the Eighth Division of the Shandong Military Region was fighting against the Japanese puppet army in Zou County, which refused to hand over guns, and the main force of the New Fourth Army also surrounded and annihilated the enemy puppet army between Bengbu and Xuzhou; and the north China and Jinsui troops commanded by Nie Rongzhen and He Long also launched the Suiyuan Campaign. The two parties of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are most concerned about the northeast. Peng Zhen, who had been appointed secretary of the Northeast Bureau a month ago (September 17), and Chen Yun, Ye Jizhuang, Wu Xiuquan, and other military and political figures had flown from Yan'an to the northeast; the next day (September 18), the CPC Central Committee summoned Lin Biao, Gao Gang, Li Fuchun, Luo Ronghuan, Zhang Wentian, and others scattered in various places to rush to the northeast by land and water. Although there has not been a single shot in the northeast, it will inevitably be a big battlefield in the near future.
Chairman Mao pointed out at the Seventh Party Congress in April 1945: "As long as we have the northeast, then the Chinese revolution has a solid foundation. On August 10, the Soviet Red Army announced the dispatch of troops to the northeast, and commander-in-chief Zhu De issued an order to march to the two provinces of Recha on August 11: General Zhang Xuesi was instructed to lead his troops from the Border of Jicha to Rehe and Liaoning; General Wan Yi led his troops from the Jilu Border Region to Liaoning; and General Li Yunchang marched from the borders of Hebei, Re, and Liaoning to Liaoning and Jilin. By mid-August, Luo Ronghuan, then commander and political commissar of the Shandong Military Region, was sent to lead 50,000 people, and Huang Kecheng, commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army and political commissar, to lead 30,000 people to the northeast by land and sea. As the vanguard of the 16th Sub-district of the Jinreliao Military Region, Zeng Kelin, Tang Kai led 4 regiments of more than 1,500 people, and Li Yunchang led more than 3,100 people to Shenyang, Benxi, Nanman, and Jinzhou in early September, respectively, and coordinated the entry of the large army into the northeast.
On August 31, he appointed General Xiong Shihui as the director of the Northeast Camp, divided the two northeastern provinces into nine provinces (Liaoning, Liaobei, Jilin, Andong, Heilongjiang, Nenjiang, Songjiang, Hejiang, and Xing'an), and appointed Du Yuming, the former commander of the Fifth Group Army and the commander of the Kunming Defense, who had just launched a mutiny in Kunming and ousted Long Yun, the chairman of Yunnan Province, as the commander of the Northeast Security Command, and under his command would be Shi Jue's Thirteenth Army, Zhao Gongwu's Fifty-second Army, Hou Jingru's Ninety-second Army, and Mou Tingfang's Ninety-fourth Army. In addition, Lu Chongyi's 30th Army on the Pinghan Line in Henan was also included in the battle sequence of the Northeast Security Forces, with a total strength of 300,000 troops. Only the Kuomintang army was slow to move, and two and a half months later (November 16), Du Yuming led Shi Jue's Thirteenth Army and Zhao Gongwu's Fifty-second Army to walk out of Shanhaiguan on a cold and windy day.
The news that the Communist army was marching northeast to Chongqing really made it difficult for Chiang Kai-shek to live in peace like ants on a hot pot; during the 8 years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, most of his troops were shrunken in the southwest and northwest, and now they want to seize the far northeast, in addition to relying on the US Air Force and Navy to help transport troops, and at the same time ordering the Japanese puppet troops everywhere not to surrender their weapons to the Communists. He also adopted the method of 'not blaming the past' and incorporated these puppet armies into the "Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army." When the troops in the far southwest could not enter the northeast in large numbers, they could only supervise the military divisions stationed in north and central China to quickly go north to support the northeast battlefield.
Sun Lianzhong, who had always been very docile in turning to Chiang Kai-shek since the Great War of Chiang Kai-shek in 1936, ordered his three armies in the eleventh theater to advance in tandem with each other...
Liu and Deng explained to Wang Dingnan the current grim situation: If these three armies were allowed to go north according to Chiang Kai-shek's deployment and enter the Beiping area, the Kuomintang troops in Pingjin could get out of the customs and enter the northeast. They instructed Wang Dingnan to relay Gao Shuxun's rapid uprising on the spot on the way north.
Deng Xiaoping said to Wang Dingnan in a firm tone: You have to tell General Gao Shuxun that according to the changes and needs of the situation, he does not have to go to the Jicha area, but must cooperate with us to complete the battle deployment of the Party Central Committee to prevent the three armies of the Kuomintang from going north, and to revolt on the spot!
His thick Sichuan accent made the words "uprising on the spot" sonorous and loud, which made Wang Dingnan also shake it, and he deeply felt that the matter of persuading Gao Shuxun to revolt was indeed intolerable, and it was necessary to quickly promote Li immediately to express it to Liu and Deng; I would immediately go back to do Gao Shuxun's work!
Commander Liu added: "This is a great opportunity for General Gao Shuxun to go to the revolution, and we must let him make a decision at the moment!" ”