In 1946, the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army was strong and strong, with more than 400,000 troops in its heyday. Under the leadership of Liu Bocheng, he achieved quite good results, was good at annihilating the enemy in a large number of movements, and could fight large-scale battles.
In the second year of the Liberation War, for the sake of the overall situation of the whole country, this large army carried out a thousand-mile great leap forward, far away from the base areas of our army and fighting in the hinterland of the nationalist army near the Yangtze River. While the other field armies continued to develop, their strength was constantly decreasing, and the degree of hardship was comparable to that of the Long March:
1. Long-distance marching, heavy weapons can not pass through the yellow pan area, almost all thrown, the attack ability of the troops is greatly reduced.
2. Far from the old base area, it is difficult to supply, and when I first arrived at Dabie Mountain, I could not raise grain.
3. There is no rear, and the wounded cannot be resettled after the war.
4. In the new base areas, it is difficult to replenish the source of troops.
5. The troops are fighting continuously, and there is no safe area to rest.
Bai Chongxi of the Nationalist Army was a famous general, and in view of the lack of guns and ammunition in our army, the lack of firepower, and the fact that it had an unstable foothold and a deep foundation, he continuously sent troops to carry out liquidation and suppression, and did not give our army time to rest. During this period, our army was in a very difficult situation, the soldiers were afraid of war, and Liu Bocheng and other leaders also tried their best to avoid big battles. Because the battle will certainly have a large number of wounded, stay in the troops, drag down the whole army. For example, if the wounded were left in the homes of the people, the vigilante groups were very cruel, often searching from house to house, killing many people, and engaging in joint sitting.
In August 1947, it entered the Dabie Mountains, and at the end of February 1948, the troops withdrew. On August 11, 1948, Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Deng Zihui, and Zhang Jichun reported to Yan'an on the Report to the CPC Central Committee on the Combat Strength and Rectification and Training of Central Plains Troops.
Central: When the first, second, third, and sixth columns of the former Liu Deng Field Army advanced southward, except for the first column, which had four brigades and twelve infantry regiments and another cavalry regiment, the remaining three columns were three brigades and nine regiments, with a total of thirteen brigades, thirty-nine infantry regiments, and one cavalry regiment. Each regiment has a mortar company, the brigade has an artillery company, the column has an artillery battalion, and each column has a teaching regiment. The number of each infantry regiment ranged from two to two to five hundred, totaling about 110,000 people. Twelve infantry regiments and four teaching regiments of the two brigade headquarters in Dabie Mountain, as well as a large number of other divisional, political, supply, and guard cadres, totaling more than 33,000. After seven months of fighting at Dabie Mountain, the remaining main forces crossed the Huai River in all north by the end of March this year, and the four columns crossed the Huai River in total with eleven brigades (the first column lacked nineteen brigades, the second column lacked five brigades), twenty-seven infantry regiments (three regiments each missing three regiments in the third and sixth columns), and one cavalry regiment. After the first column, two regiments remained in Huaixi District, leaving now twenty-five infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment. The number of troops and weapons was greatly reduced; the number of men per regiment was between one thousand and fifteen hundred. The four columns totaled about 50,000 men. Rifles, light and heavy machine guns were reduced by half, artillery was reduced by two-thirds or even three-quarters, and the maximum number of rifles in a company was forty, and the general thirty-thousand was almost equal to the weapons of a platoon. Heavy machine gun companies had as few as two and as many as four per company. Each column rifle had 4,000 to 4,800 rifles, heavy machine guns ranging from 30 to 60, and light machine guns from more than 310 to 400 to 400. There are four fewer mountain cannons and more than seven. B. The general situation and combat strength of the current brigades are: three regiments of the first column of the first brigade (its first regiment is the foundation of the Red Fifth Regiment and is good at attacking), and two regiments of the second brigade (the fourth regiment is the foundation of the Red Twelfth Regiment, which can attack and defend), which were originally the main forces and had strong combat strength. Except for the number and vitality of the First Brigade, which remained unchanged, the Second Brigade had weakened somewhat, but its equipment had weakened and it still had its bare hands. The two regiments of the Twenty-second Brigade were originally the main forces of the Seventh Column, and their numbers, weapons, and combat strength were greatly weakened, and more than half of them were bare-handed. The fourth brigade and the sixth brigade of the second column each have three regiments, and their numbers and weapons have been somewhat weakened compared with the past, and they have recently recovered somewhat, and their combat effectiveness is not weak. There are two regiments of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Brigades of the Third Column, and each brigade is very strong in combat strength, and the Nineteenth Regiment of the Seventh Brigade, the Twenty-second Regiment of the Eighth Brigade, and the Twenty-fifth Regiment of the Ninth Brigade are all strong, especially the Nineteenth Regiment, and although the vitality can be maintained, the numbers and weapons are not as good as before, and there are still many unarmed hands. The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth brigades of the Sixth Column each had two regiments, and the number and weapons were somewhat reduced, but the vitality and combat strength could still be maintained, and the combat strength of Xiangyang should be improved. Its Sixteenth Brigade was very strong, and the rest were second. In addition, the four brigades of the fourth column, except for the three regiments of the tenth brigade, the eleventh, thirteenth and twenty-second brigades each had two regiments, for a total of nine regiments. Four infantry companies per battalion, one machine gun company. There were more than 9,500 rifle guns, 116 heavy machines, 60 mortars, 16 mountain guns, 2 field guns, and 7 battle and defense guns. The Twenty-Eighth Regiment of its Tenth Brigade was the most powerful, and it was all in the mountainous plains. The commander of the twenty-ninth regiment fought in the depths of the village war, afraid of the mountains. The 31st Regiment and the 32nd Regiment of the 11th Brigade were also strong in combat. The combat strength of the Thirteenth Brigade is not weak. The Twenty-second Brigade is a rising star and has great prospects for development. There were more than 31,000 men in total, except for 1,900 in the 65th regiment of the 22nd Brigade, the remaining 8 regiments were all more than 2,000 men, and the 28th regiment had 2,800 men. The 26th and 27th Brigades of the Ninth Column had three regiments each, for a total of six infantry regiments. The number of personnel and equipment is relatively abundant, there are four mountain guns, two chemical guns, each regiment has eight to 10 mortars, each battalion has six heavy aircraft, and one still has five machine guns for aircraft, and the combat effectiveness is not weak. The 26th Brigade is stronger. More than 20,000 people are rising stars.
The report is long and tells the story of How Nakano's forces have changed over the past year:
Part A: Before advancing south, four main columns totaled 39 infantry regiments and 1 cavalry regiment. Each regiment numbered 2,000 to 2,500 people, as well as a brigade artillery company, a column artillery battalion, a column teaching regiment, a total of more than 110,000 combat troops, which can be described as well-armed and strong. When he returned to the Central Plains in March 1948, he left behind 2 brigade headquarters, 14 infantry regiments, 4 instruction regiments, and nearly 40,000 troops. The main force consisted of only 25 infantry regiments and 1 cavalry regiment, each with 1,000 to 1,500 men, for a total of 50,000 men. The rifles of each column, the light and heavy machine guns were reduced by half, and only a few mountain guns were fired.
Part B: After nearly half a year of rest and recovery of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th columns, only some regiments were restored to their original state, and most of the regimental numbers, weapons, and combat strength were greatly weakened, and even many soldiers were bare-handed.
The 4th column has the strongest troops, with 9 regiments, more than 30,000 people, rifles, light and heavy machine guns, and various guns, and the strongest combat effectiveness. The 9th Column was established on August 15, 1947, and since its establishment, it has been following the 4th Column and fighting under the leadership of Chen Geng. The column had 6 regiments, more than 20,000 men, and good weapons.
This report makes people cry, in the same period, a column in Huaye was usually 3,400 people, a column in Dongye was usually 4,500 people, and only a column in Nakano was only more than 10,000 people. This is a "skinny dog division" that has no oil to eat, is often hungry, even cadres carry a rice pocket, is seriously short of guns and ammunition, and may encounter the main force of the enemy army at any time, and is harassed by vigilante groups from time to time.
This force, after the great victory in the southwest of Lu in the late summer of 1947, killed the mountains thousands of miles away with 100,000 hula. Under Liu Shuai's personal leadership, only four field columns (1, 2, 3, and 6) persisted for a year. The newly formed 10th and 12th columns went south to support and turned into local troops to open up the Tongbai and Jianghan base areas.
In May 1948, our army established the Central Plains Military Region, which has jurisdiction over many newly liberated areas such as Eyu, Western Anhui, Western Henan, Yuwansu, Tongbai, Jianghan, and Southern Shaanxi. These newly liberated areas were opened up by Liu Shuai to the south, and Chen Geng turned to the Central Plains. Counting the 10th column and the 12th column, the liberated areas opened up to the south left 67,000 troops, and these places became the source of troops, grain aid and logistical support bases for our army during the decisive battle in the Central Plains. It was this division of dogs that destroyed the rear of the Nationalist army, thus hastening the demise of the Nationalist army and making a major contribution to the victory of our army.
Three months after this report, Liu Shuai led this division of dogs, which had just recovered some physical strength, to participate in the Battle of Huaihai and fight for the liberation of the whole country.