In 1946, in the Battle of Subei, although Huaye struck one of the enemy's four-way offensive army, it did not change the aggressive trend of the other three roads, and the situation was still very grim.
How does Huaye get rid of the passive situation?
Only to continue to fight a great annihilation war, hitting the enemy hard.
Weighing the war situation, the CCP took aim at Lunan from top to bottom.
The enemy forces attacking Lunan on this route were the enemy's entire 26th Division, the 51st Division, and the entire 33rd Division. Among them, the entire 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column were Chiang Kai-shek's concubine troops, commanded by division commander Ma Liwu, all equipped in American style, and were the main force of the enemy's three divisions. By eliminating it, the war situation in East China can improve.
However, the entire 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column are strong enemies and have combat effectiveness, can they fight it?
Su Yu believed that Huaye had an advantage in fighting it: First, it was a prominent situation alone and unfavorable to it; second, it had contradictions with the reorganized 59th Division, and once it was beaten, the latter would not actively reinforce; third, to fight a strong enemy first, our army had unfavorable factors but also favorable conditions, especially at the beginning of the campaign, Huaye could concentrate 27 main regiments. In this way, 6 regiments of the enemy were defeated with 27 regiments, and the strength of the enemy was 4 and a half times that of the enemy, and they had absolute superiority.
HuaYe's operational deployment against the common soldiers, the first to annihilate the strong enemy Ma Liwubu, was thus determined.
On January 2, 1947, the Battle of Lunan began.
All the troops participating in the battle traveled at night, marched in covertly, went to the designated areas to assemble and stand by, and suddenly launched an attack as soon as the battle began, quickly encircling and dividing them, and annihilating the enemy in each case.
Unexpectedly, when Tao Yong, commander of the 1st Division, led his troops across the Longhai Road, they were discovered by enemy air reconnaissance. He hurriedly asked Su Yu: "Do you want to continue to travel day and night?" ”
Su Yu replied, "Keep walking." ”
Why?
Su Yu decided to make a plan and create the illusion of the enemy. To this end, he ordered Tao Yong: "Continue to march during the day with the battalion company as a unit." ”
Seeing this scene, Ma Liwu analyzed: "The communist army has always acted at night, but now it is marching during the day, and the communist army has been defeated and retreated to Shandong, and it is impossible to fight again." ”
As a result, Huaye's main force encircled and attacked two hours in advance. After a night of fierce fighting, the entire 26th Division headquarters and most of the two brigades were annihilated, and the entire 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column were surrounded in a small area.
On 4 January, Hua Ye launched a general offensive against the remnants.
As a result, before the general offensive began, the sky suddenly rained and snowed, and the pits were covered with snow, and the roads were muddy and difficult to navigate. The staff officer asked Su Yu: "Has the plan changed?" ”
Su Yu said decisively, "Unchanged! This is God's help for us. Rain and snow make the roads difficult to navigate, trapping the enemy's heavy equipment there, making it even harder to escape. ”
Huaye's various units were ordered to attack in the snow and quickly annihilated the 1st Rapid Column, known as the "essence of the national army.".
At this time, Ma Liwu was still cowering in Zaozhuang.
The original battle plan did not have an attack on Zaozhuang, only a plan to attack Yi County. Su Yu could not only conquer Yi County, and I would have to conquer Zaozhuang before I could change the tide of the war. Because Zaozhuang was one of the enemy's important strongholds in Lunan, located on the flank of Huaye's attack direction, if it was not captured, the enemy army could rely on this stronghold to attack Huaye from the flank. Therefore, Su Yu decided to continue the battle and capture Yixian and Zaozhuang at the same time.
On the night of January 9, the Battle of Yixian launched an attack, and Huaye spent only two hours to completely annihilate the enemy defenders and capture the enemy lieutenant general's division commander Ma Liwu alive. At this time, the enemy 51st Division stationed at Zaozhuang was still arrogantly boasting that Zaozhuang was "impregnable." At the same time, the enemy's 11th Division, the 64th Division, the 74th Division, and other strong enemies have all sent reinforcements to Zaozhuang.
On the afternoon of 19 January, Su Yu ordered Hua Ye to launch a general offensive against the zaozhuang defenders. By 13:00 on the 20th, the enemy's entire 51st Division headquarters and two regiments had been annihilated, and 3,700 officers and men below Lieutenant General Zhou Yuying had been captured alive. As soon as Hua Ye attacked Zaozhuang, the enemy reinforcements were so frightened that they did not dare to advance boldly.
At this point, the Battle of Lunan ended in victory. Hua Ye completely annihilated more than 53,000 people from the enemy's entire 26th Division, the entire 51st Division, and the 1st Rapid Column, captured two lieutenant general division commanders alive, and created a new record for the number of enemies annihilated in one campaign on the East China Battlefield. Chairman Mao called Chen Yi and Su Yu twice:
"Zaozhuang was conquered, and the 51st Division was completely annihilated, which was very good and comforting." I hope that the meritorious soil will be rewarded."
"Lunan is victorious, the situation is open, I have seized the initiative, and the enemy has fallen into passivity."