In the entire Liaoshen Campaign, it took the People's Liberation Army more than a week to take Jinzhou, and the siege of Changchun was fought for more than five months, while it took only one day to take Shenyang City.
People can't help but ask: Shenyang is the political and economic center of the northeast and the seat of the Kuomintang's "Suppression General" headquarters, so why is Shenyang's urban defense so fragile?
How did the Nationalist army fight this battle? Are they the legendary "soy sauce fighters"?
You know, at that time, there were 130,000 Kuomintang troops guarding Shenyang, the city walls were strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, no matter what, it should not last only one day, it was really unbelievable.
In fact, as soon as Jinzhou was defeated, the Nationalist troops stationed in Shenyang fell into panic.
When the Northeast Field Army surrounded Shenyang on all sides, the Nationalist army in Shenyang was even more panicked and chaotic, and officers at all levels were either entangled, pessimistic, or overwhelmed.
Among them, there were also active main fighters, such as Zhou Fucheng, the supreme commander of the Shenyang Nationalist Army, and the 207th Division of the Youth Army.
There were also spectators, such as Zhou Fucheng's deputy commander and chief of staff, as well as a large number of war-weary Kuomintang middle and senior officers.
Some of them have gone one step ahead and have privately shook hands with the PLA, while others are still trying to find people and opportunities to speak to the PLA.
The most helpless people are middle- and lower-level officers and the vast majority of Nationalist soldiers, who see no "future" but only "more fierceness and less luck".
Because all the "chiefs" have the final say, they can only pray that God has eyes, that the "chiefs" will know the times, and that their lives will be saved.
At this time, Wei Lihuang, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Suppression Campaign, had been transferred back to Nanjing by Chiang Kai-shek, and before leaving, Wei Lihuang hastily handed over the defense of Shenyang to Zhou Fucheng, commander of the Eighth Corps and commander of the 53rd Army.
The 53rd Army was an authentic unit of the Northeast Army, and its commander, Zhou Fucheng, had the heart to stick to Shenyang and show his hand at the "doorstep", but his 53rd Army was no longer a monolith.
His deputy commander Zhao Zhenfan, as well as the chief of staff and the three division commanders, had no intention of fighting anymore, and each was looking for a way back for himself.
On November 1, 1948, the Northeast Field Army began to attack Shenyang, and the siege forces were deployed at the same time as planned, and soon broke through the two lines of defense of the Kuomintang army.
At this time, a series of things happened that made Chiang Kai-shek angry and vomit blood.
If it is said that the battle on the outskirts of Shenyang is still like a war, then after the northeast field army troops invaded Shenyang City, the performance of the nationalist army can be described by the word "unbearable".
First of all, Xu Gengyang, commander of the provisional 53rd Division of the newly organized 1st Army in Shenyang City, announced the uprising, but Zhou Fucheng had not yet returned to His senses, and Wang Lihuan, commander of the 130th Division of his 53rd Army, immediately announced the uprising.
This is good, like a "domino", Shenyang City began to burst out a series of ridiculous stories.
Among them were all kinds of "fancy surrenders" of Kuomintang officers and men.
When dongye officers and men searched and advanced in Shenyang city, they would often emerge from somewhere a group of Kuomintang soldiers, who were waiting for the only way to attack the PLA, not to block, but to "wait for the big driver."
These officers and men of the Nationalist Army would raise the white flags they had prepared long ago, throw away their guns, and "report" to the PLA soldiers.
If they had not waited for the PLA, they would have searched all over the world, even driving trucks, waving white flags, and looking in the direction of the PLA into the city, until the PLA accepted them.
Seeing the People's Liberation Army, some Kuomintang soldiers still looked aggrieved and complained vigorously, "You are coming too slowly, we have all waited for half a day..."
When PLA fighters preached the captivity policy to them, they pulled leaflets out of their pockets: "We all know these rules. ”
There are also some Kuomintang troops who are particularly serious, and they have long prepared rosters of officers and men, piled up their weapons and ammunition neatly, stayed in the garrison, and waited for the Platon Army to come and receive them.
Several heavily armed PLA fighters rushed into the "Suppression General" chariot regiment and saw a row of Kuomintang soldiers lined up with their bare hands and standing by the chariot.
Platon soldiers shouted, "Don't move! ”
The Kuomintang soldier guarding the chariot had an embarrassed face: "We promise not to move, we will hand over these guys to the People's Liberation Army, all the weapons and vehicles are intact." ”
In order to show sincerity, they will also explain: "We did not fire a single shot, if you do not believe, you can check the muzzle of the gun." ”
The Eleventh Regiment of Heavy Artillery of the Kuomintang Army was even more interesting, and when they handed over 18 large-caliber artillery pieces to the People's Liberation Army, they also said the following:
"There are only 36 large-caliber U.S. artillery pieces in total, and 18 cannons have been taken by you in Western Liaoning, and the rest are here.
However, there were also Kuomintang troops who were obstinate and stubborn to the end.
The 207th Division of the Kuomintang Youth Army was one of them, and they were also the only Kuomintang troops in Shenyang to carry to the end.
The Youth Army was a close confidant of the "prince" Chiang Ching-kuo, they were well-equipped, loyal to the Father and Son of the Chiang family, and occupied favorable terrain, so the 207th Division once caused a lot of casualties to the PLA.
However, no matter how strong the 207th Division was, it could not withstand the increasingly fierce attacks of the Platon Army, and in the end, the division commander Dai Pu fled alone, and the following 13,000 officers and men became prisoners of the PLA.
There is also a kind of Kuomintang officers and soldiers in Shenyang City, who have long been completely demoralized and have long had the idea of surrendering their guns and surrendering.
However, they are very concerned about one thing, and that is the issue of "treatment".
There is a big difference between the so-called "treatment" and "uprising" and "surrender," and these Kuomintang generals have pondered this very clearly, so they have tried to try to "bargain and sell for a price."
Mao Zhiquan, commander of the Kuomintang's Second Garrison in the northeast, fell into this situation.
Except for the 207th Division, they were the tougher Nationalist troops in Shenyang, and since the People's Liberation Army attacked the city, this unit had not stopped resisting.
Later, as more and more PLA troops marched into Shenyang City, seeing that the general trend was gone, Mao Zhiquan, commander of the Second Column, made up his mind - not to fight!
He sent people to negotiate with the Platon, promising to lay down his arms immediately, but put forward an additional condition, asking the PLA to recognize him as an "uprising in the line of fire."
The PLA rejected this request on the spot for the simple reason that until the negotiations were underway, the Second Column of the Northeast Garrison had not completely stopped resisting.
Therefore, the second column only laid down its weapons at this time, which can only be regarded as "surrender" at best, and cannot be called an "uprising".
Mao Zhiquan insisted on his own conditions, and had to admit that he was an "uprising" before agreeing to lay down his arms.
Just when the two sides disagreed and the stalemate was reached, Mao Zhiquan's backyard caught fire, and his second column was in a succession of situations.
Many officers and men suspected that their commanders did not understand current affairs and were "grinding" in their work, so they secretly ran to the People's Liberation Army and handed over their guns, and more and more people surrendered and surrendered their guns.
Mao Zhiquan panicked, in this way, it would not take much time, and he would not have much negotiation capital.
Therefore, Mao Zhiquan changed the condition to "ensure the safety of his own personal and property with his subordinates."
There was already such a clause in our army's captivity policy, so the People's Liberation Army agreed to his request.
Speaking of Zhou Fucheng, the supreme commander of the Kuomintang army in Shenyang, his situation is even more comical.
Before the capture of Shenyang, our army sent Zhou Fucheng's eldest daughter back to Shenyang to persuade Zhou Fucheng to revolt.
Zhou Fucheng learned that his daughter was actually a Communist Party, and even pulled out a pistol to shoot his daughter, and in the end, under the persuasion of everyone, it did not cause a tragedy, but Zhou Fucheng still forced his daughter away from Shenyang.
When the People's Liberation Army invaded Shenyang, Zhou Fucheng had in fact become the commander of the light pole.
His deputy commander, chief of staff, and the three division commanders were unwilling to fight any more, and even his company advised him: "The national army has no hope, forget about the uprising."
At this time, Zhou Fucheng was still struggling with the issue of whether to lay down his weapons.
In all the entanglement and helplessness, he gave all the command to the deputy commander, and he hid in a bank.
When PLA fighters caught him, Zhou Fucheng did not hide his identity, but only lied, saying that he was "in contact with your army about the uprising" and asking the PLA to give him "uprising" treatment.
The soldiers laughed and escorted him to the headquarters.
On the morning of November 2, with the peaceful liberation of Shenyang, the largest city in northeast China, the whole territory of northeast China was liberated.
Looking back at the Shenyang Campaign, although the Kuomintang had more than 100,000 troops, it had no fighting spirit and was about to collapse at a touch, except for the 207th Division of the Youth Army, which still fought a few battles, the rest of the troops were basically in this state:
Uprising - the officers and soldiers saw the situation clearly and took the initiative to choose to withdraw from the battle, or counterattack;
Surrender - officers and soldiers, under pressure, lay down their weapons and withdraw from the battle in a passive manner;
In addition, except for a very small number of lucky escapees, the recalcitrant people were either wiped out by the Platon Army or finally passively chose to surrender their guns.
These Kuomintang officers and soldiers had no way to retreat, and they were not willing to "fight to the death and kill themselves to become benevolent," and surrendering their weapons was their only choice.
What's more, under the powerful propaganda offensive of the People's Liberation Army, almost all the Kuomintang officers and soldiers knew these four words - surrender their guns and do not kill!
Because there was no major battle, a few days later, Shenyang City returned to normal living order.
The first strategic decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Communists in the War of Liberation thus came to an end, and this was the beginning of the imminent completion of the Kuomintang.
The subsequent Battles of Pingjin and Huaihai directly sent the Kuomintang regime to the road of no return.