In 1946, the Liberation War broke out, and in the Liberation War, the most famous were the Liaoshen Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign. Among the three major battles, the most difficult one was the Battle of Huaihai. Why is the Battle of Huaihai the most difficult to fight? One only needs to look at who the Kuomintang generals were.
Not too weak, the Eastern God of War
After the end of the Second World War, war traffickers and madmen are imprisoned, criminals are tried, and peace will be restored to the world again - in the hearts of Chinese people, things should have developed this way, but in the reactionaries' struggle for power and profit, now that the war is over, a new war will be provoked!
In 1946, the War of Liberation broke out, and a new burst of artillery fire was set off on the Chinese soil where the War of Resistance Against Japan had just ended, only this time our opponent was no longer a fierce Japanese, but a brother of the same origin.
The Liberation War lasted four years, and the total major battles were the three battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin, and among the three major battles, the one with the most casualties and the most arduous attack was the Huaihai Campaign.
The Battle of Huaihai was the campaign in which the PLA suffered the heaviest sacrifices, annihilated the largest number of enemies, had the greatest political impact, and had the most complicated war style. The enemies faced by the People's Liberation Army in the Huaihai Campaign were not weak, on the contrary, they were also very strong, as can be understood by looking at the generals of the Nationalist army who participated in the battle.
The first is the extremely famous general of the Kuomintang, Du Yuming, who is known as the "God of War in the East". Born in 1904, Du Yuming graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, in 1926, Du Yuming participated in the Northern Expedition, and then fought for many years, defeated warlords, and resisted Japan.
In 1936, at the age of 32, Du Yuming was awarded the rank of major general. In 1939, Du Yuming led the Fifth Army of the Armored Force to meet the Japanese Kou Fifth Division at Kunlun Pass.
The war was fierce, not only the Japanese Kou were well-equipped, the Fifth Army led by Du Yuming was also well-trained, equipped with various types of heavy weapons, after a fierce exchange of fire, the war finally ended with the fifth county killing the brigade commander Masao Nakamura, and it was also this battle that Du Yuming became famous in the first battle.
In the ensuing War of Resistance Against Japan, Du Yuming won successive victories, and was even known by the Japanese as the "God of War of the East", which alone was enough to prove his strength.
Miscellaneous Regiment, General Baitao
In the Battle of Huaihai, Huang Baitao, whose impressive war capabilities with the mixed-card corps broke out, could not be underestimated. Born in 1900, Huang Baitao graduated from the 9th Mixed Brigade Study Barracks of the Jiangxi Army, the Fifth Phase of the Jiangsu Provincial Officers' Teaching Corps, and the Special Phase III of the Central Army University.
Unlike other Kuomintang generals from famous schools, Huang Baitao can be regarded as a "miscellaneous general", but this does not affect his strength at all.
Initially, Huang Baitao served Zhang Zongchang, who switched to Chiang Kai-shek after being destroyed by Chiang Kai-shek, and fought with Su Yu and Liu Bocheng, and the most outstanding highlight was the Jiaodong sweep, when Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division was dominating Jiaodong, and almost no Jiaodong's People's Liberation Army could compete with it.
After being transferred to the Central Plains by Chiang Kai-shek, he fought against Liu Bocheng many times and made outstanding achievements in battle. In the subsequent Battle of Eastern Henan, it was a surprise attack on Eastern Henan, which forced Su Yu to withdraw and join forces with the famous Kuomintang general Qiu Qingquan to repel most of Su Yu's troops.
This was a rare local war victory in the Kuomintang civil war, and although it was still a defeat in the overall campaign, it could not hide Huang Baitao's personal ability. As the leader of the Fifth Corps who was the first to be fought, Huang Baitao did not live up to his own inner faith and fought to the last moment.
On November 6, 1948, Thirteen Columns of Huaye besieged Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps stationed in Xin'an with lightning speed, marking the outbreak of the Battle of Huaihai. As the first corps to encounter battle, Huang Baitao, who had strong self-control, not only did not panic, but ordered the evacuation of Xin'an and the transfer to Xuzhou.
This decisive move even shocked Su Yu, who was chased by the People's Liberation Army overnight, and finally gave Huang Baitao a major blow when he crossed the river. When the Seventh Corps withdrew to Nianzhuang, Huang Baitao, who was fierce, made up his mind and counterattacked at Nianzhuang.
From November 11 to the night of November 21, the Bloody Battle of Mill Zhuang lasted for ten days, and during these ten days, the entire Mill Village was like a battlefield millstone, swallowing the warriors on both sides and spitting out flesh and blood.
Although the war ended with the annihilation of Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps and Huang Baitao's suicide, the People's Liberation Army also paid a tragic price of more than 60,000 casualties, which was rare in local wars and even more unique in the Huaihai Campaign. Huang Baitao's strength can be imagined.
Mad Dog Qingquan, Fox Hu Lian
In addition to Du Yuming and Huang Baitao, the mad dog Qiu Qingquan and the fox Hu Lian were also well-known Kuomintang generals. Qiu Qingquan, a native of Yongjia, Zhejiang, was born in 1902, because of his arrogant and violent personality, he did not want to die in battle, and was also known as "Qiu Crazy Maniac" and "Mad Dog".
Qiu Qingquan was also a southern conquest of the northern war, but he not only had rich practical combat experience, but also possessed extremely strong theoretical knowledge! Qiu Qingquan is proficient in English and German, good at poetry, and has written a series of military works such as "Theory of Building the Army" and "A Collection of Teaching War", which is not only a battlefield general, but also a talent in the army, and his strength is also extraordinary.
And Hu Lian was one of the two generals who were highly evaluated by Chairman Mao, who defeated the three regiments of Sanye in the Battle of Kinmen and was known as the "King of Kinmen"! In the Battle of Huaihai, in the face of the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, Hu Lian proposed the "hedgehog snake method" to deal with the current situation.
Hu Lian believes that the People's Liberation Army is like a snake, and the Kuomintang army is like a hedgehog, as long as the encircled snake is opened and cut into a section and dissolved, the war can be won. Although Hu Lian's method in the face of the "iron pocket" finally failed, it should not be underestimated because of his military quality and strength.
The most noteworthy thing is that Liu Bocheng hunted foxes four times, but all of them let Hu Lian escape, and even escaped the assassination of a time bomb when he was the ambassador of Vietnam, and he was a Kuomintang general with a very strong ability to save his life.
brief summary:
There is nothing wrong with admitting that the enemy is strong, the enemy is strong, but our Party and our army, which have the idea of guarding the people, liberating China, and sprinkling the light of socialism all over the land of China, are stronger than the enemy! Our strength does not depend on equipment, quantity, and tactics, but on faith, on ideals, and on the future!
Behind the People's Liberation Army is the look of expectation of hundreds of millions of people, the sweat of countless days and nights of hard work, and the revolutionary flame that has never weakened from the collapse of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of New China! Even though the enemy is very strong, we with faith and lofty ideals will only be stronger than the enemy!