History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xue Yue, a famous anti-Japanese general of the Nationalist Army with the reputation of "Tiger of Changsha", was praised by later generations for his "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" of enticing the enemy to encircle and annihilate, but General Su Yu during the Liberation War was even better at using this large-scale movement tactic than him.
In 1946, the Kuomintang attacked the Suwan region in four ways, and equipped a number of mechanized corps to strengthen combat effectiveness. However, after experiencing the defeat in the Battle of Subei, in the face of our army's extremely strong counterattack, we had to temporarily turn to strategic defense and seek opportunities to fight again.
At this time, the reorganized 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column of the Kuomintang Army, which were attacking Linyi, the capital of the Shandong Liberated Area, were attacking with the ability of mechanized troops to attack the strongholds, and successively captured many towns in the Liberated Areas, such as Xiangcheng and Bian zhuang; after hearing the news that the reorganized 69th Division had been annihilated in subei, they were forced to turn to the defensive, but they were still fierce, waiting only for a final decisive battle with our army.
Among them, the first rapid column is known as the "essence of the national army", a rare mechanized unit in the national army, and also the heart and liver of Jiang Weiguo, equipped with mechanized equipment such as medium tanks, howitzers, and automobiles, and has strong combat effectiveness.
In the face of this enemy ace unit, which was too aggressive in battle position, General Su Yu decided to gather heavy troops to surround and annihilate this bold force after considering the battlefield situation of the surrounding Nationalist troops.
Chairman Mao also coincided with Su Yu's ideas, and he successively telephoned Chen Yi, Su Yu, and others in the name of the Central Military Commission: "If the Seventy-fourth Division is abandoned and not fought, it seems appropriate to concentrate about 25 regiments of troops to annihilate the Twenty-sixth Division in the Lunan area and force Feng's Public Security Department to retreat." "
The decision has been decided, but how to mobilize heavy troops is a difficult problem. Because at that time, the defense line of the Kuomintang army was in the form of a long snake, coupled with the command of xue Yue, a famous general of the War of Resistance, under the uninterrupted surveillance of its reconnaissance aircraft, it was difficult to avoid his eyes on the large-scale mobilization of troops.
In view of this, General Su Yu made a bold decision to predict Xue Yue's habitual thinking about the PLA: he felt that the PLA generally marched at night, and ordered the troops to continue marching during the day in battalions and companies.
This change in the way of marching really misled Xue Yue's judgment that the People's Liberation Army could not resist after all and would retreat to Shandong.
The strategic judgment error of the main commanders had already deprived the Kuomintang army of the battlefield opportunity, so the arrogance and slack defense of Ma Liwu, commander of the reorganized 26th Division, completely plunged the essence of this nationalist army into a complete disaster.
On New Year's Day 1947, Ma Liwu stationed his division headquarters in Majiazhuang, and after taking Majiazhuang as the center, he built a defensive defensive position centered on tank mobile firepower in a narrow strip of 25 kilometers from east to west, and felt that with his own strong firepower, he was absolutely foolproof.
So Ma Liwu, who was drunk after celebrating New Year's Day with his soldiers, relieved to take the guards to the county town of Yixian to find fun.
The division commander looked like this, and the soldiers under him were even more unscrupulous, drinking and guessing fists one by one, until the intensive artillery of the People's Liberation Army suddenly stunned them on the spot.
Lacking the command of the main general, and in a state of relaxation and slackness, the entire defense line soon lost its unified command. By the 3rd, the 1st Column had quickly encircled the 169th Brigade of the Enemy's Reorganized 26th Division at Bian Zhuang; and the 1st Division had also quickly inserted itself between the Enemy's Reorganized 26th Division and Feng Zhi'an's 33rd Army, and together with the Eighth Division of the Shandong Field Army reached a campaign encirclement and tactical division against the enemy's reorganized 26th Division.
Only then did Xue Yue react to the true intention of the People's Liberation Army, which was to encircle and annihilate the 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column, so he commanded Ma Liwu to retreat to the vicinity of Yixian County while sending aircraft to cover the division's retreat.
However, when the rain and snow were heavy, the roads were muddy, and the armored units of the Kuomintang army were difficult to move, under the onslaught of the People's Liberation Army, except for Ma Liwu who fled to Yixian with 7 tanks, the entire 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column, which were fully equipped with American weapons, were all destroyed.
After that, in the face of the encirclement and annihilation of the superior forces of the People's Liberation Army, the Nationalist 51st Division could not escape the fate of annihilation, and by the 20th, under the siege of the PLA's multiple troops, the entire headquarters of the Nationalist 51st Division and two regiments were also completely destroyed.
In this battle, the Platon Suffered only more than 8,000 casualties, but annihilated 53,530 people in 2 integrated divisions, 4 brigades and 1 rapid column of the Kuomintang Army; captured 24 tanks, about 300 artillery pieces of various kinds, and more than 400 cars, which can be described as a great victory.
Moreover, it was the first record of annihilating two entire divisions of the Kuomintang army in the East China Battlefield, especially the annihilation of the 1st Rapid Column, which greatly dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Kuomintang; the captured mechanized equipment also provided a material basis for the East China Army to form a special forces force.