After the end of the three major battles, our army, which had been reorganized, began the battle of crossing the Yangtze River with millions of male divisions. In the Battle of the Crossing River, our army did not encounter much resistance wherever it went, and it liberated Nanjing in less than 3 days. The whole of Ninghu-Hangzhou, except for Shanghai, the largest city at that time, has been completely liberated by our army. In the face of the overwhelming 3-field army, Lao Jiang hoarded 200,000 troops in Shanghai, vowing to build it into an outpost of the Nationalist counterattack and "Stalingrad in the East". At that time, Tang Enbo, commander of the Shanghai garrison, even made a big fuss: even if the three field armies were all on the ground, the nationalist army that controlled the advantages of sea and air could hold out for more than three months.
Tang Enbo, who is known to have guarded Shanghai for 3 months
However, after the entire Shanghai campaign was fought, Su Yu only took half a month (16 days) to liberate the entire territory of Shanghai, and if it were not for the fact that the Shanghai urban area could not be attacked by heavy weapons in order to avoid the erosion of the Shanghai urban area, this time could be advanced to less than 10 days.
So whether it was 10 days or 16 days, why was Tang Enbo's vow to defend Shanghai for 3 months at that time, and it was only about half a month before he was liberated by Su Yu?
Hard power varies widely
Any slogan and promise must be based on absolute strength, and for Tang Enbo, he obviously does not have the hard power of this absolutely irresistible Su Yu army. According to the records of the war, Tang Enbo's troops in Shanghai had 8 armies and 25 divisions, plus nearly 200,000 special forces.
And our army is responsible for attacking the 9th and 10th Corps, adding up to only 300,000 people, the ratio of strength is 1.5:1, according to the "ten encircle, five attack" in the art of war, the attacking our army does not seem to have the advantage, plus Shanghai itself is a coastal city, the national army can get support from the sea and air.
But this is not the case!
Our army is full of morale and morale
One point to be noted here is that the Shanghai troops of the Nationalist Army are all cobbled together.
Although in the Battle of Shanghai, the Nationalist Navy's First Fleet had more than 30 warships, only a few supported the Yuepu Battlefield, and the rest were transferred in the port and gold, basically limited shore support. The Air Force still has 4 brigades in Shanghai, about 130 or so aircraft, but less than half of the aircraft that can take off and fight, and the airfield is still within the range of our artillery.
Therefore, the so-called conditions for the so-called national army to support each other in Shanghai operations are not established.
Our army mobilized before the battle
Don't look at the Fact that although the Tang Enbo Group has a strength of 200,000 troops, many units have been reorganized after being annihilated by our army, or have been rebuilt in Jiangnan after suffering heavy blows from our army, and their combat effectiveness is not strong. Among these 8 armies, the strongest combat effectiveness is the 52nd Army, which is known as the sixth main force, and the 54th Army of the Central Department, which is semi-american, but one of these two armies has been severely damaged many times in Liaoshen, and the other is still in the Zhoushan Islands. Of the remaining 37th Army, 21st Army, 12th Army, and 75th Army, the 37th Army was reorganized from the Grand Duke's Youth Army, and although its establishment time was short, its combat effectiveness was ok; the 21st Army was seriously damaged by our army in the Battle of crossing the River; the 12th Army and the 75th Army were also newly formed and lacked combat experience; the remaining 51st and 123rd Armies were completely fishy troops.
Trying to hold Shanghai with a demoralized 200,000 troops is a pipe dream.
The Nationalists guarding Shanghai were transporting artillery
On the other hand, on the other hand, on the other hand, 2 major corps joined forces, and the battle was directly commanded by General Su Yu.
In the battle sequence of our army, the 9th Corps and the 10th Corps, in this battle, our 3 fields are the aces. Among them, 9 corps (the prototype of the movie "Chosin Lake") are still the strongest corps in 3 fields. The 9th Corps was under the command of the 20th-27-31-33rd Corps, with a total of 12 divisions. Among them, the 20th and 27th armies have always been the aces in Su Yu's hands, and during the Huaye period, these two armies were the number one main force of the Su Yu Corps and the Shandong Corps, and both participated in the battles of Lunan, MengLianggu and Huaihai.
The 10th Corps was the (26-28-29-33 Corps). Among them, the 28th Army is Huaye's well-known team that can fight hard battles, the so-called "platoon artillery does not move, it must be 10 columns" is them, and after the Battle of the River Crossing, the 28th Army has been constantly replenished, at that time, the 3 fields from top to bottom did not put the enemy in their eyes, thinking that they could take Shanghai without effort. After the Battle of Huaihai, the 28th Army grew to 70,000 men, each regiment had 5,000 or 6,000 men, and the armament was the best in Sanye.
General Su Yu personally commanded the Battle of Shanghai (stills)
Moreover, for the sake of safety, Su Yu also sent additional troops from other corps and the 23rd Army (4th Column) and the 26th Army (8th Column), the first-class main forces of these two Huaye. That is to say, for the sake of shanghai battle safety, all the 5 first-class armies in the 3 fields except the 24th Army came (20, 23, 26 and 27).
Moreover, after the three major battles, the equipment of the three fields has achieved a counter-overtake of the national army. Taking the reorganized 3 fields and one army as an example, according to the decision of the Central Military Commission, there is an army of about 30,000 people (except for artillery regiments), but at present, it is difficult to unify the whole country, and for the time being, it can be unified according to a field army. Each of our corps consisted of nine infantry regiments and another artillery regiment, totaling about 35,000 men. This standard is equivalent to the level of the national army or the elite main force.
10 elite armies fully loaded, 8 armies with incomplete large numbers and lack of actual combat, the advantage is in me!
The elite of the three fields marching to Shanghai
Comparison of the states of the warring parties
Of course, hard power is on the one hand, and the state of the two sides in the battle is also the key point to determine victory or defeat, but at this point, the gap between the national army is more obvious.
The first is that almost no one in the old Chiang camp thinks that they may still be able to hold Shanghai.
Although Chiang, when he cheered up Tang Enbo, who was fighting on the front line, said that the international community would intervene in the war situation, in fact, the US military had long been extremely disappointed in old Chiang, and Stuart Redden returned to China disappointedly, and even Bada Wei, who had always supported old Chiang, said pessimistically before the Battle of the Crossing River:
"Not a single battle since I came to office has failed because of a lack of ammunition or equipment. It seems to me that their military collapse can be attributed entirely to the world's most clumsy leadership, as well as many other morale-destroying factors that have caused a complete loss of will to fight... Chiang has lost his political support and his masses."
General Bartawi (stills)
The international community is not optimistic about Old Chiang Kai-shek, and his cronies are even less optimistic that they can hold Shanghai:
At the mobilization meeting for the Defenders of Shanghai, the elder Jiang vowed that "Shanghai's strategic and economic position is important, and the troops guarding Shanghai are abundant, the military materials are sufficient, and the positions are also solid." As long as we hold out for three months to half a year, the situation will certainly change in a favorable direction. During that time, he said that he talked to these generals all day and did ideological work, but except for what Tombaugh pretended to understand, everyone else was worried.
Cai Wenzhi, then director of the Third Department of the Ministry of National Defense, believed that the defense of Shanghai by hundreds of thousands of troops was a dead end, there was no way out before, there was a sea after that, and everyone had to jump into the sea and even because of the problem of defending Shanghai, Tang Enbo could not refute it, and finally could only move out of the old Jiang's handwriting and said: "The president has no intention of defending Shanghai to sacrifice strength, as long as the gold and silver are transported, this responsibility is borne by me." You chiefs and colleagues, please go to Guangdong." These officers were so angry that they said that the old Chiang Kai-shek had lived and died together with Shanghai, but in fact, it was not to transfer the treasure and let them be cannon fodder...
General Cai Wenzhi who angered Tang Enbo (stills)
Secondly, the people of Shanghai have long had enough of the national army
We all know that Lao Jiang made his fortune by relying on Shanghai, but in fact, after entering the Liberation War, the prestige of Lao Jiang among the shanghai people has long since fallen to the bottom, and in the financial crisis that began in 1946, the inaction of the top brass of the Nationalist military made prices soar, inflation, and the people were in deep trouble, and Lao Jiang also supported those big families to monopolize the Shanghai economy, and the people had long complained.
The people of Shanghai under the financial crisis
During the Battle of Shanghai, in order to repair the bunkers, the Nationalist army found that many bunkers and residents' houses were built together or very close, which seriously affected shooting and line of sight, which was densely populated in the Shanghai area at that time, which was inevitable. However, Tang Enbo still demolished all these houses and buildings, causing a large number of people to be homeless, but anyone who dared to stop it was arrested. Moreover, during the operation, Tang Enbo also forcibly requisitioned civilian houses as military barracks and headquarters to take advantage of the opportunity to accumulate wealth, resulting in 800,000 people in Shanghai being homeless.
The people had had enough of Tombaugh, and so did the soldiers below.
In order to force them to fight, Tang Enbo also issued a "10-killing order" to surrender and sit down without permission, making these officers and men even more confused about their future. Therefore, when our army attacked Shanghai, when Tang Enbo left, a large number of soldiers revolted, and the people welcomed the People's Liberation Army into the city. The so-called "people's will, this is so."
Nationalist troops captured after the Battle of the River Crossing
Finally, the layout of our army in Shanghai.
Shanghai is the old Chiang Kai-shek's money root, but it is also one of the earliest origins of our army and our party, during the Great Revolution, the workers' pickets, and then to the activities of the Red regime, Shanghai, an inclusive and open city, still retains a lot of revolutionary fire. Although Tang Enbo created many tragic cases that shocked China and foreign countries before the Shanghai Campaign, there were still a large number of underground party members and advancing masses who were doing their best for our army to liberate Shanghai. Some of them provided maps, some joined our army, and some served as guides to lead our army through the streets and alleys.
Before the liberation of Shanghai, the Nationalist army caused a tragic case
According to the Shanghai Local Chronicle:
On the eve of the liberation of Shanghai, more than 9,000 underground party members and nearly 100,000 activists from the party's peripheral groups, people's security teams, and people's propaganda teams formed a powerful force, providing a reliable organizational guarantee for cooperating with the People's Liberation Army in liberating and taking over Shanghai.
The Shanghai military and civilians welcomed our army into the city
Before the Battle of Shanghai, Tang Enbo and Chiang Kai-shek threatened to turn Shanghai into the "Stalingrad of the East" in an attempt to use the Battle of Shanghai as an outpost for their counteroffens. However, Shanghai, which claimed to be able to defend for half a year, was conquered by our army in only half a month, completely shattering its dream of yellow sorghum.
The reason why our army was able to take Shanghai without bloodshed, in addition to the absolute support of hard power, is that the policies of our party and our army are all the aspirations of the people, and the decadent national army has long been abandoned by the times and the people...