History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
November 23, 1948, was a day of great historical significance in the history of the Northeast Field Army. There are more than 700,000 people in 10 infantry columns and special forces units, 150,000 military and civilian workers, more than 1,000 artillery pieces, more than 40 tanks and armored vehicles, and more than 3,000 cars. There are more than 8,000 horse-drawn carriages and more than 100,000 war horses. On this day, this huge contingent bid farewell to the bright northeast land that they had exchanged for blood and sweat, and rushed to North China with the momentum of swallowing mountains and rivers, and then embarked on a journey.
Temporarily release Tanggu to fight Tianjin
After the Northeast Field Army entered the pass, the North China Field Army divided and surrounded more than 500,000 Kuomintang troops in five isolated points: Zhangjiakou, Xinbao'an, Beiping, Tianjin, and Tanggu. The People's Liberation Army conquered Xinbao'an and Zhangjiakou, followed by Tanggu and Tianjin. Tanggu is the estuary of the East China Sea River in Tianjin, an important maritime port in North China, and the only outlet for the South China Nationalist army to withdraw from the sea. However, the east of Tanggu is close to the sea, and the other three sides are water canals and salt ponds, which cannot form an encirclement against the enemy, nor is it convenient for large troops to be deployed. At the same time, judging that the Kuomintang troops in Beiping and Tianjin had the possibility of breaking through, our army decided to monitor Tanggu with a small number of troops and concentrate its forces to attack Tianjin first.
Tianjin is not only an important town in North China, but also the gateway to Beiping. It is 120 kilometers away from Beiping in the west and 40 kilometers away from Tanggu in the east, and its strategic position is very important. During the Liberation War, it was an important military base for the Kuomintang to march into north and northeast China.
In April 1947, in order to strengthen the defense of Tianjin, Shangguan Yunxiang, deputy director of the Kuomintang Baoding Sui Bureau and director of the Tianjin Command Post, and Du Jianshi, mayor of Tianjin, presided over the construction of the "Tianjin City Defense Fortification Line", which was 24.5 kilometers long from north to south and 5 kilometers wide from east to west, forming an oblique peak waist-shaped pillbox line, with a total of more than 1,000 large and small pillboxes, and between the large bunkers on the inner wall, scattered pit shelters and traffic trenches and roads were built, which were connected together to facilitate the use of cars to transport personnel, ammunition, and grain supplies. Along this ring line, an earthen wall was constructed, which was 4 meters high and 2 meters wide. A moat was dug outside the earthen wall, and the moat was 3 meters deep, and the project took 8 months to complete, costing 80 billion yuan in French currency.
After the Northeast Field Army entered the pass, Chen Changjie, commander of the Tianjin Garrison, lamented that the Northeast Field Army's artillery fire force was strong, and it spent billions of yuan in French tender to build dozens of reinforced concrete blockhouses in the west and northwest of the city. In mid-December 1948, the People's Liberation Army surrounded Tianjin, and Chen Changjie even built a large number of civil engineering projects, forcibly recruiting 7,000 to 8,000 migrant workers every day, together with the defenders of various defense zones, taking the Tianjin Ring City Bunker Fortifications as the main position line, adding bunker group strongholds to the front of the position, building communication trenches and barbed wire, and laying tens of thousands of mines in the front of the city defense line, forming a mine area of tens of meters wide and 42 kilometers long around the city, and laying more mines on the main roads and front positions of the main positions. Make Tianjin a bunker position with strong fortifications.
On January 3, 1949, the siege units of the Northeast Field Army began to sweep the outer strongholds of Tianjin City. Intermittent gunfire rang out until January 12, Zeng Xinyao, Wanxinzhuang, Ash Dui, Zhang Badu, Dongjuzi, Yingpan, Li Qizhuang, Zhao Xingkan, Lingjiazhuang, Sanyuancun, Ding Zigu, Wang Kuochang, SitaiYao, Fanjiapu, Wangjiaba, Beixinzhuang, Wujiazui, Jiangjia Brick Kiln, Zhejiang Cemetery, Shandong Yidi and other peripheral strongholds were liquidated, annihilating more than 4,800 Kuomintang troops.
In order not to destroy the integrity of Tianjin's urban area, Liu Yalou, commander-in-chief of our army's campaign, issued an ultimatum to Chen Changjie: Chen Changjie's subordinates should lay down their weapons and must not destroy them; our army guaranteed the safety of the lives and private property of the surrendered officers and men. Chen Changjie, on the other hand, was delusional to let our army give way to a road and let the central army retreat to Tanggu. He also wrote a strong letter to Lin Biao, commander of the Northeast Field Army, and Luo Rongheng, political commissar: Weapons are the second life of soldiers, and laying down weapons is the shame of soldiers. If peace is sought, please send a representative into the city.....
On January 13, 1949, Lin Biao telephoned Liu Yalou and the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 12th Columns: the enemy in Tianjin had no sincerity in surrendering, but was delaying time, and the various departments should begin to attack tomorrow as originally planned, and resolutely annihilate the enemy.
At 9:20 a.m. on January 14, under the order of Liu Yalou, a total of 538 cannons of the special forces of the Northeast Field Army opened fire on the city of Tianjin from three directions at the same time. The entire defensive position of Tianjin City was shrouded in rumbling gunfire and smoke. Tens of millions of shells poured down on Chen Changjie's fortified position, the earth was trembling, and the whole city of Tianjin was trembling.
The shelling lasted for 30 minutes, and the western wall of Hepingmen had been blown up, becoming a slippery slope, the pillbox and the bunker had collapsed, and the mines had been detonated one by one, blowing into a section of barbed wire, twisting from east to west, like a coiled snake. The defenders' artillery fire was completely suppressed and there was no way to return fire.
At exactly 10 o'clock on January 14, 1949, Liu Yalou ordered the general offensive to begin, and the signal bomb passed through the morning fog that was dissipating, and several brilliant light marks were drawn in the air.
Li Tianyou, commander-in-chief of the Jinxi Siege Force and commander of the First Column (38th Army) of the Northeast Field Army, saw the signal in the air and immediately issued an order: Fight!
Hidden in the cemetery west of Tianjin, a PLA artillery unit suddenly spewed out thousands of shells, roaring, and several tanks rumbled and rushed to the forefront of the position. A team of bridge-building detachments quickly rushed out of the hidden place, and in a blink of an eye, the follow-up troops had broken through the moat. The "Red Third Company" of the Sharp Knife Company of the 2nd Division of the First Column took the lead in crossing the Peace Gate and rushing to the tianjin city wall, and at 10:50 the first red flag was planted on the city of Tianjin. Fierce hand-to-hand combat unfolded at various breakouts.
Liu Zhen led the second column to a fierce battle on the north side of the South Canal, and they sacrificed 24 demolition men before blowing up a city wall. Liu Zhen roared with red eyes: "Immediately write down the names of these 24 demolition hands, and after the war, we must remember their great achievements!" Teams of heroic warriors rushed into the city of Tianjin with blood. A few hours later, the seventh, eighth, and ninth columns also stormed the deep alleys of the city, and the sound of gunfire and fighting resounded through the streets and alleys. The battle was fought from morning to dark and from dark to dawn.
At about 2 p.m. on January 15, the Nationalist forces in Tianjin were disarmed. Tianjin, the largest industrial and commercial city in Northern China with a population of 1.8 million at that time, was liberated. The Battle of Tianjin lasted 29 hours from the launch of the general offensive to the end. Thus forcing the peaceful liberation of Peiping to be carried out smoothly.
Our army suffered 23,799 casualties, including 7 at regimental level, 28 at battalion level, 117 at company level, 216 at platoon level, and 3,738 ordinary soldiers, for a total of 4,106. The nationalist defenders of Tianjin were completely annihilated 130977.