Text | Shi Hai Documentary
Edited by | Shi Hai Documentary
In 1947, the Kuomintang gathered 700,000 troops to encircle and suppress the liberated areas of Shandong and northern Shaanxi, and Chairman Mao was frantically hunted down by the enemy.
All this must start from the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communists; when the War of Resistance Against Japan was won, there was no common enemy, and the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communists began to stand out; from the beginning of the enemy being strong and we were weak to the current division of the struggle, Chiang Kai-shek began to be a little unable to sit still.
Since January 1945, the Kuomintang has not stopped oppressing and attacking our party, and for a time the sword was raging, and the form of confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party frightened many people, fearing that a large-scale civil war would occur if they were not careful, and some intermediaries hoped that the two sides could sit calmly together and talk and find a plan acceptable to both sides.
Our Party has always shown a positive attitude toward the views of these intermediaries, and is even willing to make some compromises; China, which has just experienced the War of Resistance Against Japan, can no longer afford to ignite the flames of war again, and the common people are already bitter enough that no one is willing to set off a civil war.
But "the tree wants to be quiet and the wind is not stopping" and "people do not hurt the tiger's will, the tiger hurts people's hearts.", Chiang Kai-shek did not think so; he demanded that Chairman Mao want to go to Nanjing for negotiations, and if he did not go, he could use this as an excuse to say that we refused to negotiate, took the opportunity to launch a civil war, and threw the responsibility on our heads.
Although we knew that Chiang Kai-shek did not have good intentions, Chairman Mao still went, on the one hand, he still had illusions about the Kuomintang, hoping to make every effort to make peace in this country, on the other hand, it was to expose Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy of fake peace, and we were not prepared at that time, once Chiang Kai-shek moved ahead of time, we could easily suffer losses, and the negotiations could play a role in delaying time.
From August 29, 1945 to October 10, 1945, after 43 days of negotiations, the Two Sides reached a common opinion and signed the Double Tenth Agreement, ushering in a brief period of peace in The land of China.
At the end of June 1946, the Kuomintang brazenly tore up the "Double Tenth Agreement", gathered a large number of troops and began to attack our liberated areas, and a full-scale civil war began.
In March 1947, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Hu Zongnan to attack Yan'an, and Hu Zongnan gathered 34 brigades and 250,000 troops to launch a comprehensive attack on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area, of which Hu Zongnan led 15 brigades and 140,000 troops as the main force, mainly attacking the revolutionary holy land of Yan'an, with 5 brigades as garrison tasks, and 12 brigades of the "Northwest Double Horse" from Gansu and Ningxia to the southeast to assist the operation.
At that time, there were only more than 20,000 troops in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area, 20,000 vs. 250,000, and there was no chance of winning the battle at all, plus there was a world of difference in weapons and equipment, and it was already impossible to hold Yan'an, and how to evacuate safely was already imminent.
In fact, Chairman Mao had already thought of abandoning Yan'an long ago after the surrender of the Japanese army; he knew Chiang Kai-shek's character too well, the Wolf Ambitions of the Kuomintang could not tolerate us at all, and there would inevitably be a war between the Kuomintang and the Communists.
As early as November 18, 1946, Chairman Mao had drafted a plan to temporarily abandon Yan'an, and once the original plan could not be done, he wanted to move to Chengde, Hebei, but the plan could not catch up with the changes, the Kuomintang troops moved north in large numbers, the form of the northeast underwent great changes, and there was no way to plan but to run aground.
This time it is really a critical moment of life and death, and it is already urgent to abandon Yan'an.
However, many comrades cannot understand the decision to abandon Yan'an, as a revolutionary holy land, they feel that withdrawing from Yan'an means conceding defeat, they are not afraid of death, and even shouted the slogan of "swearing to die to defend Yan'an".
Chairman Mao understands everyone's mood that if there is really a way, who is willing to go gray and slippery, but not being afraid of death does not mean that we must sacrifice in vain, knowing that we cannot do anything, and preserving strength is the last word.
In order to appease the emotions of these comrades and to carry out the evacuation task more effectively, the Party Central Committee decided to hold a ten-thousand-person congress in Yan'an.
At the meeting, President Peng delivered a speech entitled "We Will Certainly Be Able to Win the Battle," expounding to everyone the stakes and telling everyone that the Party Central Committee only temporarily withdrew from Yan'an and not to abandon Yan'an, let alone abandon the fruits of the revolution.
This is our party's consistent policy: "Stay in the green mountains and not be afraid of running out of firewood.", don't focus on the gains and losses of one city and one place, we must look at the problems in a comprehensive way, if we take all our strength and fight hard with Hu Zongnan, even if we really block it, then it will be a heavy loss, the troops will be defeated, what is the use of such a victory, as long as the people are still there, there is still hope.
After many explanations by the leaders, the comrades' resistance gradually disappeared and the revolutionary fighting spirit was rekindled.
On March 11, the Kuomintang Air Force began to bomb Yan'an, and at 4 p.m., under the cover of P-47 fighters, B-25 bombers arrived over Yan'an and dropped seven bombs.
"When the break continues, it will be chaotic", since it has been decided to withdraw from Yan'an, it is necessary to evacuate quickly. On the evening of March 18, 1947, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou led a large army and began to embark on the road to northern Shaanxi.
After a few days of baptism of fire, Yan'an was already in ruins, and when the time was ripe, Hu Zongnan began to attack Yan'an on a large scale, but what he did not know was that At this time, Yan'an had become an empty city, and Chairman Mao had already slipped out under his eyes.
Seeing that Yan'an had become an empty city, Hu Zongnan thought that Chairman Mao was afraid of him, fled overnight, and shamelessly said "Northern Shaanxi Victory", and even had the face to ask Chiang Kai-shek for credit. But failing to catch Chairman Mao made him unable to give up and start looking for people all over the world.
Hu Zongnan
According to Hu Zongnan's idea, he had more than 100,000 troops in his hands, and it was a mechanized force, and it should be easy to find Chairman Mao, but reality gave a slap in the face, and after several months, he did not even see a personal shadow, and even when he was closest to Chairman Mao, he was deceived by Chairman Mao again with the "empty city plan".
Hu Zongnan sent tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to search for Chairman Mao's figure near Yan'an, but he did not even see a personal shadow for 3 months, and Hu Zongnan, who was not willing, sent his general Liu Jie to lead 4 and a half brigades to start a careful search of one hill after another, digging three feet into the ground to find Chairman Mao.
To say that Liu Jie is also a personal figure, he is a general under Hu Zongnan, for many years he has been leading his troops stationed in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, he is very familiar with the boundaries of northern Shaanxi, and he can even be called "old northern Shaanxi".
At that time, the troops responsible for protecting Chairman Mao only had 4 companies and more than 400 people, and in the face of the Kuomintang mad dog-like pursuit, no one dared to take it lightly, after all, once discovered by the enemy, it was difficult to rely on more than 400 people to protect Chairman Mao from the siege of tens of thousands of troops, so everyone was extra careful.
Liu Jie
However, when moving to Xiaohe Village, they still encountered the enemy's pursuing troops, fortunately, at that time, the storm was upright, and it was night, the field of vision was obstructed, Chairman Mao immediately sent a deputy staff officer of the detachment to lead a platoon of fighters to the southwest, the soldiers opened fire to attract the enemy, the enemy was really deceived, following the direction of the gunfire farther and farther, and the fighters who attracted the enemy not only had no casualties, but even captured eight enemies.
After this pursuit, everyone was more careful, and decided to rest in Xiaohe Village for a while, because Xiaohe Village had just been searched by the Kuomintang, and Xiaohe Village was still safe for a short time.
On July 21, 1947, in response to the enemy's offensive, the Party Central Committee held a meeting in Xiaohe Village, the purpose of which was to solve the strategic objectives of the future PLA and the expansion of the army.
At this time, Hu Zongnan was not idle, and the last time he pounced on the air, Chiang Kai-shek paid special attention to it, and even did not hesitate to personally come to Yan'an to supervise the battle.
This time, Hu Zongnan ordered Liu Jie to lead the Seventh Brigade north from Wayaobao and directly to Xiaohe Village in an attempt to encircle Chairman Mao west of the Wuding River, and now that Xiaohe Village was no longer safe, Chairman Mao decided to leave Xiaohe Village and, according to the original plan, follow the Dali River east in the direction of Yulin.
But this road is not easy to walk, this road is the place where the enemy's forces are most concentrated, everyone is uneasy about the chairman's decision, but the chairman thinks that this is the best way, as long as you escape, it is safe, because as time goes on, the encirclement will only become smaller and smaller, and it will be too late to go.
By August 1st, the team of more than 600 people left Xiaohe Village and marched east along the Dajing River, even unusually, marching in the daytime and resting at night, while the Kuomintang troops just rested during the day and searched at night.
However, Hu Zongnan's troops were not all rice barrels, hundreds of people were transferred together, always leaving clues, the party Central Committee's troops were still discovered, Hu Zongnan ordered Liu Jie to pursue him in the rear, and sent planes to bomb along the way.
And this is exactly what Chairman Mao wants to see, with hundreds of people to tie down Liu Jie's tens of thousands of troops, to buy time for other troops, but the risk is too great, it can be said that Chairman Mao regarded himself as "bait", just to lure this big fish to the bait.
On August 17, a team of several hundred people came to the yellow river, in front of the Yellow River obstruction, and then tens of thousands of troops to pursue, it can be said that Chairman Mao's situation is extremely dangerous, some people proposed to cross the Yellow River, avoid pursuing troops, but Chairman Mao did not agree, said: "I have a word first, do not defeat Hu Zongnan, absolutely the Yellow River." "Let's talk about wherever the Yellow River goes, there are enemies everywhere, and since this is the case, then don't cross the Yellow River."
At this time, Liu Jie had already led his army from Wulongpu and came straight to Chairman Mao. Looking at the rushing river, Chairman Mao suddenly changed his strategy and decided to change his original plan and turn from east to northwest.
When they came to the bottom of a big mountain, Chairman Mao directly let the team go up the mountain, and Ren Bishi instructed the last person to erase all the traces of the procession up the mountain, but Chairman Mao stopped him, wanting this trace, why erase it, and found a sign, and then wrote on it, "Mao Zedong went up the mountain from here," and let people insert the sign on the side of the road.
Everyone was very puzzled by the chairman's approach and thought it was too risky, but the chairman was full of pride: I measured that he did not have the courage to chase.
When Liu Jie and his troops chased here and saw the footprints of a place and this sign, the suspicious Liu Jie looked at this sign and thought that this was Chairman Mao's plan to "attack the west with a loud voice", there was no one on the mountain, he must be crossing the Yellow River. So he did not go up the mountain to see, and directly ordered the troops to search along the Yellow River. The chairman on the mountain saw Liu Jie's actions clearly, and waited until Liu Jie left before leading the troops to a safe place.
I have to say that this kind of behavior is very risky, but it also shows more about Chairman Mao's control over people's hearts; in fact, this is not the first time Chairman Mao has used the "empty city plan," and every time Chairman Mao's "empty city plan" has turned danger into ruin, which shows Chairman Mao's far-sightedness.
What happened afterwards proved the correctness of Chairman Mao's "abandonment of Yan'an."
There is a kind of occupation called defeat, Hu Zongnan's occupation of Yan'an is an unprecedented victory on the surface, but in fact he has fallen into a quagmire, in just over a year, 250,000 people were beaten by only 20,000 Northwest Field Army, which was only more than 20,000, and finally ended up in a full loss.
Count the popular characters, and look at the present dynasty.
It is precisely because Chairman Mao's anticipation of things is like a god and his planning is that he can lead the country out of crises again and again and lead the people to victory again and again.