During the Liberation War, our army swept through the Kuomintang army with the momentum of destruction and decay, and won an overwhelming victory.
(The Volunteer Army used artillery in the Liberation War)
But we cannot blindly belittle the Kuomintang army, that is, we are not responsible for the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army who have shed blood and sacrificed.
During the Liberation War, there was a very tragic urban offensive that caused nearly 20,000 casualties in our army, that is, the Battle of Taiyuan.
During the campaign, many powerful brigades of the People's Liberation Army will fight deer, many founding generals will fight in Taiyuan, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers gathered at the front, creating countless glorious deeds that can be sung and wept, and a number of heroic figures have emerged, leaving us with a precious spiritual legacy.
Under the siege of the fortifications for nearly seven months, General Xu Qianqian overcame many difficulties and paid a huge price, completely destroyed the "kingdom" that Yan Xishan had built for nearly 40 years, and took the last fortress that Chiang Kai-shek praised as the "iron wall of the copper wall", laying the foundation for the comprehensive victory of the North China War.
This protracted war presents us with a picture of benevolence, cruelty, dependence, betrayal and other aspects, which can be called the battle of human nature, and I will tell you about it next.
First, the pre-war situation
In the summer of 1948, the land of Shanxi was very sweltering, and the "King of Shanxi" Yan Xishan was more urgent like ants on a hot pot, and it turned out that at this time, the People's Liberation Army had already connected with many important towns such as Linfen and was approaching its old nest - Taiyuan, and clear-eyed people could see that it was only a matter of time before Taiyuan was liberated.
Yan Xishan hurriedly asked for help from other Kuomintang forces nearby, but in the context of the imminent liberation of the whole country, he could not take care of it, who would rescue him?
It is better to seek others than to seek oneself, Yan Xishan did not want to give up the "kingdom" he had been running for many years, so he was ready to "trap the beast and fight"!
First of all, Yan Xishan held a mobilization meeting for all the senior officers, and gave each of them a bottle of acute poison, and as long as the soldiers were defeated, they drank it on their necks to show their "loyalty."
Second, Yan Xishan held a press conference and placed a coffin at the entrance to emulate Zuo Zongtang's efforts to recover Xinjiang.
(Yan Xishan displays a table of poisons)
During the meeting, Yan Xishan placed hundreds of bottles of poison on the table, vowing to fight to the death to defend Taiyuan, and if he failed, he would go to Huangquan Road with his subordinates.
In the end, Yan Xishan made a careful military deployment and even gathered many Surrendered Japanese Devils.
At the suggestion of the devils, Yan Xishan established the Overseer Team, stipulating that as long as the soldiers on the front line did not obey the order, or the speed of movement was slow, the Overseer Clan could be shot on the spot.
Why did Yan Xishan dare to act so boldly? He really has some capital.
(The first on the right is Yan Xishan, and in the middle is Chiang Kai-shek)
The first is that Taiyuan is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the north, east and west, the city is built near the Fenhe River, the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is a natural military fortress, and it has been a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times.
Second, Yan Xishan belongs to a "strange thing" among the warlords; he does not love the jiangshan and the beauty of the people, but he likes to engage in management and education, and he does a very good job.
It is said that the officials and generals of Shanxi at that time were "not loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, only loyal to Yan Xishan." "
Therefore, under the mobilization of Yan Xishan, these generals did not want to die in battle one by one, causing great trouble to the PLA.
Third, in the early days of the Liberation War, Yan Xishan focused on the defense of Taiyuan, and he built a circular defense line stretching for hundreds of miles within a depth of 15 kilometers, centered on the urban area of Taiyuan.
(Wartime bunkers)
There are more than 100 strongholds and more than 5,000 bunkers on this defensive line, and the various fortresses and strongholds are at each other's corners, forming a powerful firepower network.
Not only that, Yan Xishan also hoarded a large number of materials and built a number of military airfields in the surrounding areas, which was simply armed to the teeth.
Objectively speaking, Yan Xishan still has a few good cards in his hand, so he still has the confidence to start a war with the People's Liberation Army.
Second, the two armies are at war, do not cut each other?
For the safety of the 300,000 innocent residents of Taiyuan City, and also for the sake of the fewer descendants of the Chinese people to meet each other, the North China Military Region took the initiative to send Wang Shiying, deputy chief of staff, to the peace talks.
(Wang Shiying)
Seeing Xu Xiangqian, Wang Shiying said his thoughts: "I am a native of Shanxi, a fellow of Yan Xishan, and I have dealt with Yan Xishan many times before, and now Taiyuan is under siege, so the possibility of successful negotiations is very high!" "
Xu Xiangqian did not speak directly after listening to Wang Shiying's thoughts, and after careful consideration, Xu Xiangqian denied Wang Shiying's views and listed three reasons:
First, Yan Xishan has more than 100,000 horses and horses, and more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers are retained, and the strength should not be underestimated, and he also believes that his army still has the strength of a war.
Second, Yan Xishan spent more than ten years to establish a defensive line that stretched for hundreds of miles, and there were more than 5,000 fortresses and more than a hundred strongholds on the defensive line, and it was very difficult to attack it.
Third, Yan Xishan was a resolute "anti-communist element"; I (Xu Xiangqian) and he were also fellow countrymen, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, I did Yan Xishan's work through various relationships, but I always found nothing.
(Elderly Yan Xishan)
Xu Xiangqian's reason is very practical, he believes that if Wang Shiying goes to meet Yan Xishan, it is tantamount to a sheep entering the tiger's mouth and seeking his own death.
But after being decided, Wang Shiying was still not ready to give up, and he decided to try Yan Xishan's attitude in a different way.
Wang Shiying invited Yan Xishan's former tutor, who was over eighty years old, a talent from the late Qing Dynasty, who was well educated and highly respected in the local area.
When asked if he would like to persuade Yan Xishan to surrender, the old gentleman said that he was willing to go to persuade the people of Taiyuan to stay away from the suffering of war.
Therefore, Xu Xiangqian personally wrote a letter to Yan Xishan and handed it to the old man, to the effect that Taiyuan was an isolated city, and advised him to clearly understand the overall situation and put the lives of 300,000 people in Taiyuan first, or to settle it through peaceful negotiations.
However, after Yan Xishan read Xu Xiangqian's handwritten letter, he turned a crossed face, disregarded the former teacher-student relationship, and directly pressed Lao Xiucai out and shot him.
Lao Weng's death made Wang Shiying very shocked and regretful, if it were not for Xu Xiangqian's persuasion, the death might have been himself.
Xu Xiangqian said loudly: "If the reactionaries do not fight or fall, we will only take one road - fight!"
(Xu Xiangqian old photo)
Third, Dongshan overcome difficulties
Due to the tension of the war, Xu Qianqian suffered from serious illness, often suffering from chest pain, unable to eat, and not sleeping well, but this did not affect him from sticking to the front line.
In this campaign, Xu moved 17 brigades, totaling 80,000 people, to prepare for the liberation of Taiyuan in October.
Yan Xishan quickly gathered 130,000 troops and equipped with more than 600 cannons by capturing Zhuangding and merging local troops into the regular army.
On October 2, Yan Xishan's troops of 7 divisions on the east side of the Fenhe River and around Fenglingdu quietly advanced south, intending to launch a blitzkrieg.
However, the enemy's military operations were fully seen by our army. The next day, our army units used the "frog jump" tactic to advance in the direction of Xiaodian Town and Qiuzhuang on the north side, and on the 5th, the People's Liberation Army reached the enemy's defensive position at the Fenhe River.
(Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army who charged)
At this time, the Yan army almost poured out of the nest and tried in vain to launch a "blitzkrieg", but they did not know that our army had already circled behind it and the soldiers had descended on the city.
Taking advantage of the emptiness of the enemy's defensive positions, our army, in order to seize the powerful fighters, divided its troops into three routes and pounced on the enemy troops.
Crossing the Fenhe River all the way, directly into the north of Xiaodian Town, attacking the enemy's old nest, and the other way straight into the nearby Wusu airport, the enemy formed a north-south attack posture, but also cut off Taiyuan's aid line to the enemy army, and finally directly impacted the enemy troops in the opposition.
Since then, the People's Liberation Army has launched three roads in unison, and a large net covering the sky has firmly encircled the enemy in the encirclement.
In less than a day, our army eliminated two enemy divisions, one each of the 72nd Division, and the provisional 49th Division, and then our army continued to expand the results of the battle, capturing the Wusu airfield and facing the enemy's Dongshan fortress circle.
In the liberation of Taiyuan, the battle for Dongshan was the most intense. Dongshan is a natural barrier to Taiyuan.
Here the peaks are lined up, the ravines are longitudinal, and the terrain is high, one can overlook the whole city, which is conducive to laying out the battle plan, and the other can rush down from multiple hills and cooperate with each other to fight a siege and annihilation war, it can be said that taking dongshan is the key to victory.
Yan Xishan is well aware of the importance of Dongshan, and he once said: "If Dongshan is lost, Taiyuan will be lost."
(The bunker that still stands on Dongshan is in a strategic position)
Therefore, Yan Xishan built four major fortresses in Dongshan very early - ox camel village, small kiln head, naoma, and mountain head.
Dozens of bunkers have been built next to each fortress, which can fight independently or support each other, with almost no dead ends in firepower and very strong combat effectiveness.
Yan Xishan called this construction method "SaiZhongsai," and also boasted that this hundred-mile defensive line could "resist the enemy with 100,000 elite troops, and it is actually the first fortification in North China."
After research, Xu Xiangqian decided to attack the four major fortresses from the southeast, northeast, and east directions, so that the enemy could not take care of each other, and then found the weakness, tore the gap, and then swallowed the entire line.
(PLA soldiers in the Battle of Dongshan)
On the 16th, the vanguard of the People's Liberation Army launched a surprise attack and effectively surrounded the niutuo village with a thunderous momentum.
After two days and two nights of bloody fighting, our army basically took the niutuozhai fortress and the surrounding positions.
In a short period of time, a large fortress was lost, and the enemy army was very unwilling, so it launched several counterattacks.
On the 21st, the enemy launched a general offensive with the strength of three regiments, and in one day, more than 10,000 shells were concentrated, and some Japanese companies despicablely fired "biphenyl" poison gas bombs at our army, which were eventually repelled by our army one by one.
After that, the enemy army was still not dead-hearted, continued to counterattack, and under the repeated bombardment of aircraft and artillery, all the fortifications around the Niutuozhai fortress were basically bombed.
(Taiyuan Niutuozhai Fortress Ruins)
In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, our army also took the initiative to retreat after inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy.
In order to avoid the fall of the cattle and camels again, Yan Xishan demanded that heavy defenses continue to be laid around the four major fortresses, and that the various fortresses should cooperate with each other and support each other.
On the 26th, the People's Liberation Army launched a general offensive, and this unprecedented and tragic fierce battle lasted for 17 days and nights, the main forces of both sides were put into battle, and hundreds of cannons were also pushed to the battlefield.
(PLA fighters fighting)
The battle was fought extremely hard and tenaciously, and some positions were constantly attacked and retaken, and they were repeatedly sawn.
Seeing that Dongshan was about to be captured, Yan Xishan jumped like a thunderbolt and rudely shot Jiang Xiaolin and others who had abandoned their positions to shock the hearts of the troops.
But in front of the People's Liberation Army, no matter what the reactionaries do, they are tantamount to using their mantis arms as a car.
On November 13, our army won the Battle of Dongshan, annihilating more than 22,000 enemy troops and inflicting about 8,000 casualties on our army.
After this battle, the Dongshan scorched earth was three feet, the grass and trees were destroyed, and the trees were not completed, and the People's Liberation Army won the victory with its tenacious will to fight.
4. The Song of Loyalty
At this time, our army also won the victory in the Liaoshen Campaign, and Fu Zuoyi, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang in north China, had basically become the "commander of the light pole."
The central authorities considered that if Taiyuan was liberated again at this time, Fu Zuoyi was bound to become a bird of fright.
If Fu Zuoyi had made a battle of trapped beasts, not many lives would have been ruined, so he ordered the suspension of the attack on Taiyuan, but only surrounded the urban area to increase the chips for the peaceful liberation of Taiyuan.
Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission proposed to Yan Xishan for six consecutive times a plan for the peaceful settlement of Taiyuan, which showed the magnanimity of the new government and the sincerity of striving for peace, but Yan Xishan refused.
Despite the lack of success in communication, the PLA conducted peace propaganda on the front line, striving to minimize the losses of the war.
(Huang Qiao Song)
Under the broad-mindedness of our party, there were many uprisings of the Yan army, and many enemy commanders surrendered one after another, including a Kuomintang commander named Huang Qiaosong and a PEOPLE's Liberation Army chief named Jin Fu who composed a heroic symphony for us that could be sung and wept.
Huang Qiaosong was the commander of the Kuomintang 30th Army, very active in the War of Resistance Against Japan, fought bloody battles with the Japanese army in Places such as Niangziguan in Shanxi and Taierzhuang in Shandong, made outstanding military achievements, and was one of the few tiger generals who could fight by the Kuomintang.
Admiring the Communist Party's determination to resist Japan, although Huang Qiaosong was a member of the Kuomintang, he had a very good relationship with the Communist Party, and once he preached to the Communists: "After you return to Yan'an, please tell Chairman Mao that I will take the road of Yan'an in the future!" "
(Statue of Huangqiao Pine standing in Taiyuan)
After the outbreak of the civil war, Huang Qiaosong was very dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's act of openly tearing up the peace treaty.
Once Huang Qiaosong said to a friend: "I have waited for half my life, and now I will fight a civil war for Chiang Kai-shek, when will the country be at peace and when will the people be able to survive." "
Therefore, when accepting the task of supporting Taiyuan, Huang Qiaosong refused, and later under the repeated persuasion of his superior Hu Zongnan, Huang Qiaosong reluctantly agreed.
As soon as he arrived in Taiyuan, Huang Qiaosong received a letter of persuasion from our party, in which he was deeply touched by his righteousness.
Huang Qiaosong immediately replied: "In order to save the 300,000 people in Taiyuan, our army is willing to revolt and stand on the stand of justice and the people. "
Unexpectedly, this matter was reported by His subordinate Huang Qiaosong's subordinate, Dai Bingnan.
Yan Xishan was horrified when he found out, and immediately summoned Huang Qiaosong in the name of convening a military conference.
As soon as Huang Qiaosong appeared, the people next to him rushed up, tied him up, and then searched for the letters of the uprising from his body.
(Elderly Huangqiao Pine)
Yan Xishan took the letter and asked Huang Qiaosong: "Commander Huang Jun, Committee Member Jiang attaches great importance to you, and after arriving in Taiyuan, I will not treat you thinly, so why do you want to revolt now?" "
Huang Qiao Song said calmly: "Good men do good things, I don't want to go into civil war, I want to abandon the dark and cast light." But the matter has come to this point, there is nothing to say, you look at it! "
Yan Xishan took Huang Qiaosong to prison and quickly searched for Huang Qiaosong's connector, and our party Jinfu and Wang Zhengzhong were unfortunately arrested.
Yan Xishan immediately asked Nanjing for instructions on how to deal with it, and Chiang Kai-shek directly ordered it to be brought to Nanjing.
In Nanjing, the two were brutally tortured and tortured, and in order to spy on intelligence, the Kuomintang even broke two of Jinfu's arms, but Jinfu showed the style of a communist and did not leak a single bit of news.
Huang Qiaosong's performance is also commendable, he did not have the slightest remorse or frustration for his rebellious behavior, but showed the spirit of sacrificing his life for righteousness and vowing to die, he is by no means a man who sees the wind and makes the rudder, but an iron-boned soldier who is responsible for the country and the people!
In court, when the Kuomintang judge asked Huang Qiaosong why he had treason, he laughed: "I have not committed treason, I just don't want to fight a civil war, and Chinese people also hate the civil war!" "
After speaking, Huang Qiaosong stared at the judge and said, "Mr. Jinfu was invited by me, if you want to kill me, you will kill me, why should You convict Mr. Jinfu?" "
(Martyr Jinfu)
Jin Fu said loudly, "Commander Huang, you are not guilty, I am not guilty, they are guilty, and they should be killed!" Death will not frighten us, and the whole country will be liberated! Someone will avenge us! "
In the end, the court sentenced two people to death for "surrendering to the communist army" and "inciting the soldiers", and both refused to sign the confirmation.
Before taking up his righteousness, Huang Qiaosong said to his family: "You don't have to be sad, I have finally found the light, I have finally found the truth, for the truth, I died for what I deserved!" "
On November 27, two tough men who had never known each other but shared common ideals looked at each other and smiled at each other on the execution ground and generously went to justice.
Before leaving, they chanted: "Long live the liberation of Nanjing" and "Long live communism"!
In Huang Qiaosong's prison, there was a handkerchief with the inscription: "Death without regret", and in his suicide note, he wrote: "It is rare to die in Jinling City for justice!" "
Huang Qiaosong, a general who had been a warrior all his life, once wrote a poem: "The hero's service is just a few feet away, and the durian flower is originally stained red with blood!" "It can also be regarded as a true portrayal of my life."
Fifth, the Yan army was defeated, where is xishan
Seeing that our army had suspended its attack, Yan Xishan began to consolidate the city defenses, seize Zhuangding, and ask Chiang Kai-shek for troops in an attempt to make a dying struggle.
Beginning in February 1949, the Central Military Commission began to increase the number of troops in Taiyuan, and on the eve of the general offensive, there were nearly 330,000 soldiers in the People's Liberation Army, and the generals were even more brilliant.
There were the old revolutionary Zhou Shidi, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Dezhi, who commanded the forced crossing of the Grand Canal, Yang Chengwu, who flew to seize the Luding Bridge, and peng Shaohui, the one-armed general; the front line was like a cloud, plus two founding marshals Peng Dehuai and Xu Xiangqian, who sat in the town, and the soldiers overcame difficulties and took the lead in setting an example, creating a towering monument in the history of war.
On April 20, the People's Liberation Army began a general offensive, and under the tactics of meandering interspersed, divided and encircled, and annihilated one by one, the 40,000 enemy troops outside Taiyuan were wiped out in less than two days.
(Battle of Taiyuan)
On the same day, the front command issued an ultimatum to the enemy, but the enemy refused to surrender.
At 5:30 a.m. on April 24, 1,300 cannons of our army bombarded the Taiyuan city wall in unison, shaking the mountains and the smoke of war.
Under more than an hour of bombardment, a huge gap was opened at the main gate of Taiyuan, and PLA fighters rushed in.
At 8:20, our army seized the commanding heights of the city. Then the soldiers of the 553rd Regiment rushed to the sui office of Yan Xishan, and two soldiers shouted at the entrance and exit: "Surrender your guns and be lenient, resist severe punishment!" "
After a while, Zhao Shiling, the enemy's chief of staff, showed his head, saluted the PLA soldiers, and said: "Our deputy director and commander are here." "
A warrior named Xu Yibao said, "Just be here, I'm here to catch them." At this time, Zhao Shiling's deputy director and commanders Sun Chu and Wang Jingguo came out.
(Walking in front are Sun Chu and Wang Jingguo)
Xu Yibao ordered them to come out quickly. Just as the four companies arrived, the war criminals obediently raised their hands and came out one by one with their heads bowed.
At 10:20, 4 hours after the start of the war, our army captured Taiyuan, captured about 700 enemy leaders and senior generals alive, and since then The city of Taiyuan has been liberated.
So where did Yan Xishan go? On March 29, a month before the liberation of Taiyuan, Yan Xishan put on a play in which he told the surrounding officials: "Li Zongren asked himself to talk about peace, the stakes are very high, and he must leave immediately." "
When asked about the specific time, Yan Xishan patted his chest and said, "I expect to be able to come back in about a week, no more than ten days at most." "
After speaking, he ordered his confidants Liang Huazhi, Sun Chu, Wang Jingguo, and others to set up a five-member working group to temporarily take charge of the overall work in Taiyuan, and he slipped away in the blink of an eye, and never returned.
(Yan Xishan, who grew old in Taiwan)
Due to overwork, Xu Xiangqian's old illness recurred, and in the Taiyuan Liberation Campaign, he often lay on a stretcher to command the battle, did not return to the rear for recuperation, and did not go to Qingdao for treatment until the victory of the war, reflecting the noble feelings of strict self-discipline and bowing to exhaustion.
Peng Dehuai wholeheartedly assisted Xu Xiangqian in the later stages of the war, and immediately after the liberation of Taiyuan, he turned to the northwest, embodying the lofty quality of obeying orders and taking into account the overall situation.
In this war, which lasted for nearly 7 months, our army annihilated and captured 130,000 Kuomintang troops, overthrew Yan Xishan's 38-year "homeland" rule over the people of Shanxi, and those soldiers who shed blood and sacrificed in the War of Liberation will always be remembered by the people!
Resources:
"Illustration of the Best of the Taiyuan Liberation Campaign", April 25, 2020 issue;
"Causes, Causes and Consequences of the Taiyuan War", March 27, 2021;
"Flying Memories - 1949 Nationalist-Communist Showdown - Battle of Taiyuan", April 15, 2009;
"Communist Party of China News Network - Fabric Marshal Xu Xiangqian: Yes and No, Once Sick Commanded the Liberation of the Whole Territory of Shanxi", April 7, 2021
"In the Battle of Taiyuan, after Yan Xishan fled by plane, which five people were left to resist in the negative corner", October 21, 2019;