At the beginning of the Liberation War, Hu Zongnan commanded more than 200,000 troops to attack Yan'an, the holy land of the Red Revolution. Since our army did not have many troops, in order to preserve the living forces, especially to ensure the safety of the chiefs, we took the initiative to choose to withdraw from Yan'an. But a year later, our army fought back and retaken Yan'an. Later, for various reasons, our army will direct the station to move east and make Xibaipo the garrison of the chiefs. However, during the Xibaipo period, our army was even surrounded and suppressed by the enemy's heavy troops, so how did our army deal with it? What is the course and final result of this event?
First, the war ahead was tight, and Fu Zuoyi plotted to raid Xibaipo in order to break the situation
It was October 1948. At this time, the Liaoshen Campaign had already begun, and our army in the northeast was like an autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, launching an all-out attack on the Kuomintang-ruled areas in the northeast. The enemy forces in the northeast region are like dogs that have lost their families, and they can only curl up in changchun, Shenyang and other big cities to sit and wait for death. The deterioration of the war situation also made Chiang Kai-shek anxious, and he also knew that the northeast was basically impossible to hold, so he took the initiative to go to Beiping to discuss the next step of the war with Fu Zuoyi. Chiang Kai-shek believes that once the northeast is lost, where can north China go? The Northeast Field Army and the North China Field Army are strongly united, how should Fu Zuoyi resist?
Therefore, he wanted Fu Zuoyi to transfer the remaining 500,000 to 600,000 troops to the area south of the Yangtze River to strengthen the military strength of the south and lay the foundation for resisting the PLA to go south. Fu Zuoyi did not agree, because he had been in North China for many years, and he was also very familiar with this area, and he did not want to leave like this; in addition, in his early years, he and Old Jiang had also fought against each other, and he was the one who lost in the Central Plains War, if he also went to Jiangnan, what would he do? Can you still command hundreds of thousands of troops like you are now?
Therefore, Fu Zuoyi thought of a strange move, that is, to raid Xibaipo, which is not far from the Beiping area and is not strongly guarded, to strive to destroy the headquarters of our army in one go and change the unfavorable situation on the current battlefield. After Fu Zuoyi's persuasion, Chiang Kai-shek also agreed to his request to suspend the withdrawal of the North China army to the area south of the Yangtze River and approve its action.
(This picture shows the former site of the central center of our army in Xibaipo)
Second, the enemy army kept it strictly confidential, but it was intercepted by our intelligence personnel
In fact, for Xibaipo, Fu Zuoyi had long thought about raiding, but for various reasons it could not be achieved. Just by taking this opportunity, Fu Zuoyi could finally make a big punch. If we can control all the main chiefs of our army through a surprise attack, then it may be a very heavy blow to our army, and it may even turn the situation of the entire war around, so Fu Zuoyi is very important to this battle.
In order to ensure the success of the operation, he prepared a series of battle plans. In this battle he dispatched about 100,000 troops, including a very large number of very powerful cavalry units. The purpose was to take Xibaipo in one fell swoop in a very short period of time by giving full play to the advantages of the mobility of these cavalry units, without giving our army reinforcements a chance to react. It has to be said that Fu Zuoyi's move was a trick, and at that time, the North China Field Army was stationed in various places, which was relatively scattered. There were not many troops around the headquarters, only about 10,000 people, and it was impossible for more than 10,000 people to resist the attack of 100,000 people, and it would take several days for other troops stationed in various places to come to reinforcements.
The two-legged man is always no better than the four-legged horse, and the enemy's marching speed is certainly much higher than that of our army. As the saying goes, "After this village, there is no such shop", Fu Zuoyi knew that the opportunity was very rare, and he was very cautious. Ostensibly he kept the incident an absolute secret, and he ordered all combat troops to transmit information by encryption when transmitting information by telegram, without giving our army the opportunity to intercept the telegram. On the other hand, the mobilization of 100,000 people always attracted the attention of many parties, so he claimed that these 100,000 people were used to defend Yan Xishan, so that the PLA would think that this was just an ordinary military operation.
Despite many efforts to block the news, it was still in vain. The intelligence system cultivated over the years in our army has finally played a very crucial role, not only foiling the enemy's conspiracy and protecting the safety of the head of the headquarters, but also casting a heavy shadow over Fu Zuoyi's psychology, and I am afraid that Fu Zuoyi's subsequent uprisings also have something to do with this.
On October 23, 1949, Fu Zuoyi was basically ready, so he convened a military meeting of the senior officers of the military divisions and brigades involved in the operation, and deployed the details and battle plans of the operation to each unit. Unexpectedly, Fu Zuoyi did not expect that in less than a day, this information would reach the commander of our army. That is to say, the battle had almost lost its meaning to the Kuomintang by this time, and the troops had already declared defeat before they could set out. So who finally got the information out? How did you learn about this? After analyzing, studying, and sorting out the historical materials of that time, there are four ways recognized by society that this information has been revealed to our army.
An officer's leak. Eyousan, the brigade commander of the Twelfth Cavalry Brigade, was one of the four main forces under Fu Zuoyi, and had participated in many battles with Fu Zuoyi, and he also participated in this battle. But this time he actually made a very serious mistake, and he even casually leaked out the battle plan, and our army passed it to Xibaipo as soon as it learned the news. It is said that when Xibaipo received the news, the meeting had just ended less than three hours ago.
The people around Fu Zuoyi. Liu Guangguo had been working in Fu Zuoyi's staff office, so he could get news of many of the troops' operations. When the telegram was copied, he learned of the operation, and for safety reasons, he wrote down some of the general contents of the operation, and then transmitted it to Xibaipo through the traffic station.
The underground party of our army under the military command. This person is a spy of the Kuomintang infiltrating into our army, but in fact, she is an underground party member of our army, and her usual task is to lurk in the Shijiazhuang area and observe some of the developments of our army in peacetime.
On the day of Fu Zuoyi's meeting, she received a message from the military commander that Fu Zuoyi might attack Shijiazhuang at any time, asking him to provide some information on the deployment of our army for reference when the Kuomintang troops attacked. She immediately reported the news to Xibaipo.
A logistical supply commander of the Nationalist army. This person was also a spy of our army who was ambushed inside the Kuomintang. Because of the need for combat, he was informed to allocate weapons and equipment, and when he was transferred, he learned that Fu Zuoyi was going to attack Shijiazhuang, so he reported it to Xibaipo.
Third, our army will dispatch troops to meet the enemy, and the sneak attack plan will be declared bankrupt
Of these four intelligences, two were Shijiazhuang, and two were coming straight to Xibaipo. Although not the same, it can be understood that Fu Zuoyi will launch a large-scale military operation. Our army immediately made a corresponding battle plan after receiving these information, and the troops around Xibaipo quickly entered the battle after receiving the order. Seven of them were responsible for blocking the attack, while the third column was responsible for reinforcements. In order to continue to enhance the overall combat strength of our army, Commander Nie mobilized reinforcements on the one hand, and on the other hand, let some troops take the initiative to launch an attack on the enemy army, deliberately posing as an illusion of entering the customs, thus attracting Fu Zuoyi's attention and making it impossible to take care of both the head and the tail.
Sure enough, Fu Zuoyi's main force received some resistance, not only was the time a day later than expected, but all the troops stopped marching. Because the enemy's Twelfth Brigade was deep alone, it encountered the main force of our Seventh Column and was defeated by the People's Liberation Army. Within three days of the expedition, the units on the expedition encountered stubborn resistance from our army and were unable to advance. Fu Zuoyi did not expect that such a classified battle plan would end up at this point. At the same time, the chairman of our army also made public through the Xinhua News Agency the main contents of the current war to the whole society. Fu Zuoyi also finally learned that it was leaked. In the face of our army, which was waiting in a strict position, the surprise attack had no meaning, so we had to withdraw our troops and return to Beiping in ashes.
Fu Zuoyi's failure was mainly due to intelligence leaks, so were there other reasons besides that? Let's try to analyze it.
The situation in the national army is very critical. Some people say that Fu Zuoyi has 600,000 troops under him, why only 100,000 troops are dispatched this time, if all 600,000 people are sent to the battlefield, even if our army no matter how defensive it is, it will be difficult to resist the 600,000 troops in Xibaipo. However, it is impossible to dispatch six hundred thousand. Because the Liaoshen Campaign was almost over at that time, the Northeast Field Army could enter the pass at any time and rush to the Pingjin area. Once in the pass, Fu Zuoyi also needed a lot of troops to deal with it, and once the People's Liberation Army knew that Beiping City was empty, it was possible to launch an attack on Beiping at any time. In addition, although there are 600,000 troops, many of them are just recruited and have no actual combat effectiveness, so it is not easy for Fu Zuoyi to send 100,000 troops.
The high command of our army is decisive, and the tactical execution of the PLA is very in place. After learning the intelligence of the enemy's attack, the deployment of our army is also very in place and rapid, and immediately makes a very correct strategic choice according to the existing situation, from commanding the existing troops to block the enemy, to directing the reinforcement of the troops, to directing other units to take the initiative to launch an attack on the enemy, the tactical level is very clear, through this method of layer by layer, the enemy army can not take into account both end and end, and the combat effect is greatly reduced. At the same time, the PLA can always maintain order when fighting, so that the orders of the superiors can be better implemented and better combat effectiveness can be brought into play.
Yan'an has learned from the past and has rich experience. When Hu Zongnan attacked Yan'an, our army successfully escaped from danger, and this time is no exception. On the contrary, compared with the yan'an time, our army has made some progress. When the top brass of our army entered Xibaipo, they deliberately reduced the number of cadres in the organs, which enabled the PLA to provide better cover and the chiefs to withdraw quickly when the enemy launched an attack