The Battle of Laiwu was the most single-time battle in the East China Battlefield, in which our army killed, wounded, or captured more than 50,000 enemy soldiers.
The general who created such a record of fiasco in the nationalist army was Li Xianzhou, who was not a mediocre general, and according to various information after the war, Li Xianzhou originally had three offensive routes, so why did he have to choose to step into the most dangerous one and send huaye a head in vain?
As the most crucial link in the battle, how did Su Yu determine from the three routes that Li Xianzhou would take the most dangerous and deadly one? The following is a one-by-one argument for the kings.
First, Li Xianzhou was not the protagonist of the battle
When it comes to the Battle of Laiwu and the tragic Li Xianzhou, in fact, he was not the protagonist of the entire battle at the beginning.
In early 1947, the Kuomintang army planned a Battle of Lunan, which aimed to eliminate the East China Field Army in 15 days.
At first, there was nothing wrong with Laiwu in this battle, and the main force of the nationalist army was not Li Xianzhou. The combat target of the East China Field Army was not Li Xianzhou, and even Li Xianzhou was not a really powerful front-line general. In the end, the result is like this, allowing a pure supporting role to come to the foreground and becoming the focus of attention of the enemy and us, which shows the strangeness of war.
At the Battle of Lunan, the main points of the nationalist army's plan were as follows.
1. The primary goal is to occupy the capital of the Cpc Shandong Liberated Area: Linyi.
2. Secondary goal, eliminate the main force of Chen Su's army. (This belongs to the target of hitting if you can fight, and if you can't fight, you should be bragging)
3. The distribution of troops is divided into three roads: the southern line (Lunan), the western front (southwest Lunan), and the northern line (Jinan), with the southern line as the main line, the northern line as the secondary, and the western front as the second.
4. The total strength of the army is 15 integrated divisions (armies), with a total of 310,000 people.
Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to the Battle of Lunan and sent Chen Cheng, the chief of staff, to personally sit in Xuzhou, and the governor of the three roads attacked in a combined manner, in order to take Linyi and eliminate Chen Su in a short period of time.
Two of the five main forces of the Kuomintang army participated in the battle, namely Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division and Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division. Another strong force in the Southern Front Corps, Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, although it was not one of the five main forces, its combat effectiveness was also quite strong, and it had been fighting against Su Yu since the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and had not suffered much loss.
In Chiang Kai-shek's and Chen Cheng's plan, it was to use these three main forces as heavy weapons to defeat Chen Su.
So what plane is Li Xianzhou in?
Li Xianzhou was then the deputy commander of the Kuomintang Second Appeasement District, the deputy of Wang Yaowu, the commander of the Ersui District, and the commander of the northern front of the Lunan Huiguo Army.
Li Xianzhou was a native of Changqing, Shandong (Changqing is now a municipal district of Jinan, Shandong), and was born in Huangpu I. After the end of the War of Resistance, his subordinates lost their troops and were symbolically promoted to deputy commander. Wang Yaowu, on the other hand, was the third phase of Huangpu, a disciple of Li Xianzhou, with shallow seniority. When such an official, Li Xianzhou was undoubtedly very depressed.
There are more stubborn ones. The three armies in the Ersui District, the 73rd Army was Wang Yaowu's old base, the 12th Army was the old northeast army, and the 46th Army was the Gui clan, all of which had no intersection with Li Xianzhou, who could not move their command, and Wang Yaowu did not want to give him powers, he was basically an idle officer who was not paid by the air chief.
However, such a person suddenly became the focus of attention in the Battle of Laiwu. The specific process is really a bit of a joke.
Second, Chen Cheng pushed Li Xianzhou into the Eye of the Storm
Li Xianzhou's entry into Laiwu came from a dispute between Chen Cheng and Wang Yaowu.
Realistically speaking, there was no loophole in the Plan for the Battle of Lunan presented by the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense.
At the heart of the plan was a decisive battle on the southern front, not a combined attack, because the forces on the western and northern fronts were too weak. Because wang jingjiu's corps on the western front has never fought any big battles and its strength is not strong, there will be no more talk here, only the southern and northern fronts.
The troops on the southern front are very elaborate, and it is the so-called "rotten grapes with hard walnuts".
That is to say, the main force of the troops is divided into three roads: left, center and right, and the core main forces of each road are the entire 11th Division, the 74th Division and the 25th Division. In addition to the main force, several sub-divisions were equipped. All roads marched in unison, echoing back and forth, marching slowly, as long as one way engaged the communist army, the other two immediately pounced on the combined attack.
The three main divisions, including the 11th Division, were the hard walnuts in the rotten grapes, and were responsible for sucking the communists with strong firepower.
There was nothing wrong with playing like this. The bad thing is that Chen Cheng's spleen and stomach are too big.
While commanding the main army of the southern front to attack to the north, Chen Cheng ordered Wang Yaowu of the Ersui District to send troops south, and the north and south joined forces to compress Huaye in the Luzhong area and gather and annihilate them.
Wang Yaowu's troops were not much, and since Su Yu led the central Chinese troops into Shandong to merge with Chen Yi, the two sides fought several battles, and Wang Yaowu felt that HuaYe's troops were strong, and did not dare to confront them hard, only satisfied with defending Jinan, Qingdao, Zichuan and other cities, and would not easily dispatch the main force to provoke Chen Su.
Wang Yaowu asked Chen Cheng what he was thinking, and was he not afraid that Su Yu would turn around and bite the troops in the Ersui District? It should be known that in the Battle of Subei, which had just been defeated, Dai Zhiqi's entire 69th Division was dug up and eaten by Su Yu from the heavy army group in the process of chasing Su Yu on all sides.
Chen Cheng said contemptuously that the Nationalist army had won a great victory in Lunan, successfully conquered Linyi, and annihilated 15 brigades of Chen Su, and at present Chen Su had sent troops to attack westward, preparing to cross the canal and move closer to Liu Deng. At this time, there is no longer a north-south attack, let alone when.
Wang Yaowu was half-convinced.
Is what Chen Cheng said true? Half-truths and half-lies.
The Kuomintang army gathered heavy troops to attack Linyi, and Chen Su's commander had the intention of fighting several major annihilation battles in Lunan, destroying the entire 11th Division or other main divisions, and then disintegrating the enemy's offensive. However, judging from the actual situation, the enemy was very determined and the goal was very firm, that is, in order to capture Linyi, Su Yu carried out several confusion and pretense, but failed to rip apart the enemy's strength. In this situation, Huaye's main force voluntarily abandoned Linyi, and the main force withdrew to Luzhong.
Chen Cheng took Linyi Empty City, but did not fight much encounter, as for the so-called annihilation of Chen Su's 15 brigades, it was pure nonsense.
Chen Cheng said this not only to Wang Yaowu, but also to Chiang Kai-shek, so much so that Chiang Kai-shek was deeply inspired by the so-called "Lunan Victory" and demanded that the Shandong Nationalist army quickly encircle and annihilate Chen Su in the Yimeng Mountains.
But Wang Yaowu marched cautiously, not believing that Hua Ye would fight such a simple battle, and it was outrageous to be annihilated 15 brigades in a few days. Although the strength of the national army on the southern front is strong, it is not strong enough to do so. He carefully advised Chen Cheng, saying that Chen Su might not have suffered heavy losses, and it was very likely that he was posing a trance array. The national army on the northern front is not strong, and it is not advisable to venture south to prevent it from being ambushed by the communist army.
Chen Cheng was very angry when he received the telegram, believing that Wang Yaowu was saving his strength, and immediately called Wang Yaowu with great voice:
"Our army fought against the enemy in northern Jiangsu and southern Lunan, annihilating a large number of enemies, the enemy's heart was scattered, the lack of food and ammunition, and it was no longer able to fight with our main forces. It is necessary to strengthen the defense of the Yellow River, so that it does not cross the north of the Yellow River, and then annihilate it in the area south of the Yellow River. The commander sent an army into Laiwu and an army into Xintai to lure the enemy to attack, so as not to allow it to continue to the north. After our defenders have attracted the enemy, they will quickly reinforce them with their troops and annihilate them by attacking inside and outside. ”
Wang Yaowu was very uneasy.
He sent someone to consult Pang Jingtang, director of the Kuomintang Shandong Provincial Party Department, and Pang Jingtang was very dissatisfied when he saw the battle plan drawn up by the Ministry of National Defense.
Pang Jingtang was a native of Heze, Shandong, and had studied Shandong's military geography and war history, so Wang Yaowu asked him for advice.
Pang believes that since ancient times, the contender for Shandong lies in controlling the core area from Jinan to Qingzhou, and attacking south from the Jinan and Qingyi lines, with three classic routes.
First, from Linqu to the south out of Muling Pass, remote control of the Yimeng Mountains. At that time, Emperor Liu Yu of the Song Dynasty northernly attacked Southern Yan, and it was through this route. The terrain of the Yimeng Mountains is complex, and the Area around Linqu is high and controlling the throat north of the Yimeng Mountains. This is a route that takes less effort and is the best at containment. The purpose of the troops along this road is to control the mouth without going deep, as long as the Linqu line is sealed, it will form a trend of closing the door and stealing.
Second, from the first line of Mount Taishan and The Mountain of Lailai, attack the first line of Jining and Yanzhou. The road had reached Rusi, and to the west was a vast plain, facilitating the penetration of highly mobile troops. Historically, the Northern Wei Dynasty attacked Shandong of the Southern Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty attacked the Song Dynasty from the south, all of which passed through Jinan to the south, and first solved the Luxi area, which could seal Luzhong to death. Nowadays, the national army is in an advantageous position in equipment and has a powerful mechanized corps, and it is also dignified and has no obvious flaws in this road.
Third, from Jinan to Laiwu and Benxintai, this is a shortcut, you can quickly attack Lunan and realize the plan of the north-south encirclement. However, the disadvantage is that the Laiwu and Xintai lines are hilly areas, and the terrain is rugged, like a valley, which is very conducive to the enemy's ambush, and heavy troops should not pass through here.
Doesn't Wang Yaowu know the merits and demerits of these three routes? The reason why he asked Pang Jingtang for advice was to take advantage of his relationship with the CC department to put pressure on Chen Cheng from the political level to change his plan to rush into the army, especially to take Laiwu to enter the army.
Chen Cheng did not eat this set at all.
Although the Chen Family Party and the CC Department of the Second Chen Family under the Chiang Family are of high status, Chiang Kai-shek has always pursued a divide-and-rule strategy, conniving at the big men of various factions under his command to fight and balance each other. Chen Cheng was a big man in the civil engineering department, and he was also a powerful faction on the top side of the Kuomintang, and Wang Yaowu did not do this, and when he asked Pang Jingtang, he angered Chen Cheng even more.
When Chen Cheng sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek's military favorite, Chen Cheng, and with the addition of Lunan's great victory, Chiang Kai-shek had a hot head and wrote a handwritten letter demanding that Wang Yaowu must unconditionally carry out Chen Cheng's orders, send troops out of Laiwu within a time limit, and attack the north and south together.
This would kill Wang Yaowu.
Of the three armies under Wang Yaowu, except for the 73rd Army, which was reliable, the other two were not effective in combat. Such a way of playing, once gone, will definitely be sent to death. Wang Yaowu played a trick and sent deputy commander Li Xianzhou as a front-line commander on the grounds that he needed to sit in Jinan, and led three armies into Laiwu.
Li Xianzhou, a leisurely wanderer, did not understand what was going on, and suddenly became involved in the center of the storm and became the focus of attention of all parties.
Third, Chen Yi and Su Yu shifted the spearhead from the southern line to the northern line
After talking about the situation of the enemy, let's look at the situation of our army.
Su Yu's spearhead was originally on the southern front, but how did it move to the northern front?
As the capital of the East China Liberated Area, Linyi is not only of great political symbolic significance, but also the general hub of the Shandong Liberated Area and the base of the East China Field Army. Unless you have to, you can't give up lightly.
Su Yu's original plan was to take the initiative to attack the southern front with a force, attack Hao Pengju's headquarters on the flank of the right side, attract the main force on the right side, Huang Baitao's entire 25th Division, to return to reinforcements, and then find an opportunity to eat Huang Baitao in the movement.
Su Yu's action was very fast, sending 2 columns to attack quickly, and it took only one day and night to completely annihilate Hao Peng's 20,000 men and horses.
Unexpectedly, Chen Cheng was not moved, and did not send a single soldier to rescue him.
There are two reasons for this:
First, Chen Cheng was very determined, and he was riveted to conquer Linyi, not to be confused by the local battle on the flanks.
Second, Hao Pengju rebelled and rebelled, surrendering to the Japanese devils as a puppet army during the War of Resistance, and surrendering to the Nationalist army anyway after the end of the War of Resistance. At the beginning of 1946, he surrendered to the Ccp, and at the beginning of the Battle of Lunan, he felt that HuaYe could not resist the Nationalist army, killed the liaison cadres of the CCP and defected, and defected to the Kuomintang again.
Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Cheng both hated this rebellious villain, and although they accepted Hao Pengju's surrender, they did not pay him or give him grain or ammunition, so he stationed himself in Lunan as a vanguard in attacking Huaye. To put it bluntly, it is to let him fight against the communist army until it is exhausted. Therefore, when Hua Ye attacked this unit, Chen Cheng did not care at all.
This plan to lure the enemy, although it ate a force of enemy troops, did not achieve the set goal. Su Yu then launched a second plan, withdrawing the main force to the north of Linyi, waiting for the enemy to advance north in all directions, and then choosing the opportunity to destroy one of the enemy's parts.
Chen Cheng did not have patience this time, and the large army launched, attacking northward, engaging our army's containment troops who remained in Linyi, and then entering the occupied city of Linyi. These moves were all made before Chen Cheng asked Wang Yaowu to send troops south, and Su Yu did not know that the enemy was going to press against the northern front.
Unexpectedly, after the Nationalist army conquered Linyi, it was still extremely cautious and pushed north in a dense formation. HuaYe no longer had the opportunity to annihilate the enemy on the southern front.
In their telegraph communication with the central authorities, Chen Yi and Su Yu both felt that it seemed inappropriate to hold such a heavy hand and not fight; if they continued to stalemate with the enemy on the southern front and moved back and forth in Luzhong, in case the enemy on the northern front made any moves and destroyed our old base area in the Yimeng Mountains, and our army fell into a rear-line operation, then the overall situation in the Shandong Liberated Area would be dangerous.
For this reason, Chen Yi and Su Yu held that it was necessary to turn troops north, completely get rid of the enemy on the southern front, and first concentrate on destroying the 73rd Army or any of the other two armies on the northern front to ensure the safety of the northern front, and then turn around to solve the enemy on the southern front.
The central authorities highly agreed with Chen Su's views and supported their swift action.
Su Yu then quickly began to formulate a plan for the northern offensive.
Then the problem ensued, to the northern front to fight a decisive battle, where is the battlefield choice? Where will Wang Yaowu's troops enter from?
Su Yu did not know the three routes that Pang Jingtang said, and could only judge from the actual situation on the battlefield.
So how did Su Yu come to this conclusion?
Fourth, Su Yu expected the enemy to be in the middle
There are many conditions that need to be referred to in anticipation of the enemy on the battlefield, and there are roughly the following aspects:
1. Weather, terrain, traffic conditions, support routes, etc., these are all objective situations.
2. The deployment of enemy forces, the orientation between the various departments, and the orientation of the enemy's and our forces.
3. The command characteristics of enemy commanders, the combat style of front-line generals.
4. Political factors, foreign aid situation.
5. The gap between the technical level of the enemy and us.
These factors, it is difficult to say which aspect is in the absolute primary position, often affecting each other and combining with each other.
For example, in 1946, the Central Plains Military Region and the Central China Military Region broke through at the same time, the overall situation was similar, they were all cramped in a limited area, and the enemy's troop strength was several times or even dozens of times more than our side, but because Su Yu had a great psychological advantage over the commander of the Kuomintang army, the other side's command was not centralized and unified enough, and the Central China Military Region achieved good results in seven battles and seven victories.
However, the Central Plains Military Region was under the unified command of Liu Zhi, and because of the political influence of the Kuomintang army's first battle, Chiang Kai-shek constantly personally supervised that the Kuomintang army's actions were more orderly than in central China, and the overall synergy was brought into play, and even if the commander was an incompetent person like Liu Zhi, our army in the Central Plains could only choose to break through in three ways.
This is a very different state of war caused by roughly the same objective circumstances, caused by different subjective conditions.
Su Yu is an expert in the use of soldiers, and his understanding and cognition of objective conditions will definitely not be inferior to Wang Yaowu and Pang Jingtang, who are natives of Shandong, so Li Xianzhou may have entered the army on three routes, su Yu can at least know roughly.
In other words, when the battle began on the northern front, the general orientation of the battlefield could be basically determined.
The next step is how to judge the maximum probability of the enemy's route of entry.
This requires comprehensive consideration of the war intentions of Chen Cheng, Wang Yaowu, and other enemy generals.
Chen Cheng's intention has been fully exposed, that is, to attack the enemy and save, first take Linyi, the capital of East China, which is a political goal; and then take the Luzhong Mountains and deprive the East China Field Army of its base area, which is a military goal. After conquering Linyi, if you continue to attack north, there are only two directions for the army, one is the first line of Laiwu Xintai, and the other is the first line of Linqu Yiyuan (to the north is the Linqu mentioned by Pang Jingtang).
According to Chen Cheng's intention preference, it was natural that the sooner the battle was fought, the better, and the Kuomintang newspapers preached that the Lunan problem would be resolved in 15 days. Taking the Mengyin line, the route is relatively circuitous, and it is difficult to quickly find the main force of Huaye between the lofty mountains and mountains.
The Laiwu Xintai line is the closest, Wang Yaowu's three armies from Jinan south 70 kilometers, you can reach Laiwu, and then go forward 30 kilometers to reach Xintai, and then connect with the National Army on the Linyi front, and will be in Mengyin County, the core base of Huaye, to seize Chen Su's main force at the fastest speed.
Judging from this perspective, Su Yu could roughly guess that Wang Yaowu and Li Xianzhou on the northern front might march from Laiwu.
But the most confusing aspect of subjective conditions is volatility.
What if there were people in the Nationalist camp who understood, explained the situation to Chen Cheng, pointed out the danger of laiwu Xintai's front line, and Chen Cheng suddenly changed his intentions? Hua Ye ran to Laiwu, maybe he would pounce. Once the air is emptied, the danger is even greater, and the base area in the Mengshan Mountains in the south is lost in the south and the Mengshan Mountain base in the east.
Based on the dynamics of some nationalist troops on the northern front, Su Yu analyzed and judged that the enemy might move south along the Laiwu front.
What information did Su Yu detect? Li Xianzhou rubbed on the front line of Boshan Mountain.
Boshan is close to Zichuan, Laiwu to the southwest, Jiaoji Line to the north, and Qingzhou and Linqu to the east. Li Xianzhou was ordered to lead an army to set off, and has been wandering around boshan, sending only a 46th division forward to occupy Laiwu City.
Li Xianzhou was not a mediocre person, and he also saw the danger of entering Laiwu, so he was reluctant to go south.
It was Bo Shan's awkward position of not coming back and forth that made Su Yu suddenly realize the true intentions of Wang Yaowu and Li Xianzhou.
If Wang and Li are determined to seal the northern throat of the Yimeng Mountains by Qing and Lin, then they will never stay in Boshan.
If you had already made up your mind to enter Laiwu, how could you cross Laiwu City and walk to Boshan?
The enemy must be in a dilemma and does not know which way to go.
What should not be done is that Li Xianzhou took out a 46th division to occupy Laiwu, which seemed to be just to strengthen defense, but revealed the true intentions of Wang and Li.
Based on this information, Su Yu boldly judged that the enemy would definitely go south along Laiwu Xintai. Therefore, the power was sent to the central government, and the main force north of Linyi was all moved north to Laiwu, ready to solve the enemy on the northern front here.
On February 10, Huaye's columns began to advance covertly towards laiwu, and were scheduled to enter laiwu on February 16 to encircle and annihilate the enemy.
At this time, Li Xianzhou was still slowly transferring troops to Laiwu, and also entered Laiwu on February 16.
Throughout the history of world wars, how has there ever been such a spectacle, in which the ghosts of the enemy and us have sent gods into a combat zone at the same time? Moreover, the enemy is according to our design, with inferior troops into the encirclement of our superior forces.
Magnificent, Grand Admiral Su Yu!
Fifth, Li Xianzhou was captured
Li Xianzhou was forced to step into the road of death, and there was also the reason for the quarrel between Chen Cheng and Wang Yaowu's upper echelons. But in the Laiwu area, he was humiliated and completely annihilated, and he could only find the reason from his own incompetent command.
The three armies under Li Xianzhou had their own situations.
The 12th Army was an old unit of the Northeast Army, and after being assigned to the Ersui District, wang Yaowu had always been confused and maintained, and it was the first priority to eat enough.
In the end, it was agreed that if Han Liancheng really couldn't avoid seeing each other, he would find a way to break away from the troops and let the 46th Army fall into chaos.
The 73rd Army was Wang Yaowu's concubine, the strongest fighting force, and the most obedient to orders. Li Xianzhou took the 73rd Army as the main force.
At first, Li Xianzhou let the 12th Army rush to the front and occupy Xintai first, but Huo Shouyi, the commander of the 12th Army, deliberately rubbed and did not want to rush to the front as a substitute for the dead ghost. At the critical moment, Li Xianzhou did not show the hardness of life and death, and reached a compromise with Huo Shouyi, withdrawing the 12th Army to defend Laiwu Tusikou (present-day Laiwukou Town), while the 46th Army entered Xintai and the 73rd Army entered Laiwu City.
The most fatal thing is that it is so reversed back and forth, which greatly delays the time.
When the army enters a dangerous place, it must be fought quickly. If Li Xianzhou had not been so abrasive and delayed in time, before Huaye's main force arrived, he would have steadily crossed Laiwu City and entered the south of Xintai and north of Mengyin, and the large army had come out of the canyon, and the danger in the Mengyin Mountains was shared by both sides, and it was difficult for Huaye to choose the opportunity to surround it. Moreover, the distance between Mengyin and Linyi was too close, and even if Su Yu could surround Li Xianzhou's three armies, he would always consider the pursuit of the southern front corps.
Some people will inevitably think of Meng Lianggu, Su Yu risked being counter-encircled by the enemy and annihilated the 74th Division in a dense array of enemies. However, the 74th Division only had 30,000 people, while Li Xianzhou's group had as many as 60,000, and the two situations were not easy to compare.
It was just like this that Hua Ye suddenly launched a siege attack when Li Xianzhou's foothold was unstable and he was about to advance. Li Xianzhou urgently ordered the 46th Army to withdraw from Xintai to Laiwu, but neither army escaped. After three days and nights of fierce fighting, from Li Xianzhou down, the 73rd Army and the 46th Army were all annihilated, killing and wounding more than 10,000 people and capturing 46,805 people, including 2 lieutenant generals (Li Xianzhou and Han Jun) and 7 major generals.
After being captured, Li Xianzhou was received by Chen Yi. Chen Yi instructed the relevant departments to ensure Li's safety and living security, and also held a long talk with him for two hours. While acknowledging the defeat with satisfaction, Li Xianzhou was still a little unwilling after all, and asked Chen Yi how your army expected that we would have to go to Laiwu, and how did it do it to enter the Laiwu region at the same time as our army. Chen Yi smiled, you have to ask us Commander Su about this!
The Battle of Laiwu deeply shocked the Kuomintang army, and most of the enemies on the northern front were annihilated, and Wang Yaowu had no intention of fighting again, and urgently ordered the 12th Army to run more than a hundred miles in one night to withdraw to Jinan City. The mighty Battle of Lunan ended because of the collapse of the northern offensive.
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