On February 23, 1947, when Wang Yaowu learned that our army had annihilated more than 50,000 enemy troops in the Laiwu area in just 3 days, and completely smashed the enemy's plot to occupy our Lunan Liberated Area, he couldn't help but burst out in scolding, more than 50,000 people! It was only 3 days to be eaten, even 50,000 pigs ran around in the wild, they could not catch it in 3 days, right? However, the facts are in front of us, and our army is so brave.
In January 1947, old Chiang Kai-shek was strong and strong on his own side, and he was very confident that after experiencing the battles of Subei and Lunan in a short period of time, although the East China Field Army had won victories, it was absolutely seriously injured and difficult to fight again. Therefore, we constantly dispatched troops and generals in an attempt to seize the liberated areas of eastern China through the Second Battle of Lunan.
Lao Jiang, the commander of the transport brigade, not only personally commanded, but also made Chen Cheng the chief of staff, and drew up a battle plan to advance hand in hand and shrink the encirclement layer by layer.
At that time, the available strength of our East China Field Army was 190,000, and the available strength of the reactionaries was 240,000; in addition, the enemy army was well-equipped and soon formed a three-sided encirclement of china, and the situation was very critical. Comrades Chen Yi and Su Yu, then chiefs of our East China Field Army, faced the menacing enemy army, reported to the party Central Committee on the one hand, and gathered people and horses to discuss countermeasures.
Soon, the East China Field Army formulated three plans to resist the enemy: first, to strike at the enemy's weak ribs and to disrupt the enemy's deployment by focusing on the grass on the wall of the enemy's 42nd Group Army; second, to concentrate its forces in the Linyi area and strike hard at the enemy's Ou Zhen Corps; and third, to go north and attack the enemy Li Xianzhou Corps. While presenting the battle plan to the Party Central Committee, the East China Field Army sent troops to attack the enemy's 42nd Group Army and captured Hao Pengju, commander of the enemy corps, alive.
It was thought that after hitting two divisions of the enemy's 42nd Army, the Ou Zhen Corps on the southern front would quickly come to the aid of the east in accordance with our army's pre-war thinking, and our army would take the opportunity to open a gap in the southern front and smash the enemy's conspiracy. Unexpectedly, the enemy troops on the southern front did not save themselves when they saw death, but instead concentrated their forces on the spot, and the variables were so great that they exceeded the imagination of Chen Shuai and Su Shuai.
In accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission and in light of the terrain of Lunan and the enemy's situation at that time, the East China Field Army made a combat deployment centered on Linyi, waiting for an opportunity to concentrate its forces, and strike hard at the Ou Zhen Corps on the southern front and foil the enemy's plot. Armed forces in the north and southwest attacked from all sides, constantly harassing the enemy army and buying time for the large troops.
Battlefield dynamics are rapidly changing. Huaye's army had just made preparations for the war, and the enemy's operational arrangements had undergone major changes, which was very much in line with the old Chiang Kai-shek's personal habit of leading troops to fight. Chairman Mao soon pointed out that it was necessary to abandon the original plan, adopt the strategy of bullying hard and avoiding softness, and go north to attack Li Xianzhou's corps and disintegrate the enemy's fighting spirit.
The two chiefs of our army, Chen Yi and Su Yu, have been fighting behind enemy lines for many years, and even in the most difficult times, they can calmly cope with them, and at present, the enemy's 3rd Road army is still led by my nose. If our army wants to seek opportunities to strike at its main force in the course of movement, it is naturally not difficult.
Before giving way to Linyi, the main force of the East China Field Army put up a posture of a decisive battle with the Southern Front Corps, and the officers and men of the whole army desperately dug trenches and repaired fortifications during the day, completely confusing the enemy on the southern front, while the enemies on the northern and western fronts accelerated their pace of advance. The enemy did not expect that the main force of our army abandoned Linyi City at night and quietly went north.
At the same time, our army used local militia forces to line up troops in the Yanzhou area, so that the enemy in front of them mistakenly believed that our East China Field Army wanted to meet with the Jin-Cha-Ji Liberated Area.
When the front-line troops of the Li Xianzhou Corps on the northern front came into contact with the vanguard troops of our army, our army made full use of its terrain advantages to counter-encircle the enemy's vanguard troops in the enemy's encirclement circle, and suddenly lost sight of the enemy, and lao Chiang, in addition to being angry, could no longer figure out the specific direction of the main force of our East China Field Army.
On February 19, the 77th Division of the enemy's Li Xianzhou Division went deep into the area of Hezhuang alone, and our army mobilized the strength of 4 divisions, first using small units to harass and lure the enemy to pursue, distracting the enemy's attention, and then sniping with large troops, as a result, the enemy's division was destroyed on the same day.
On the morning of the 20th, the main force of our army quickly gathered the strength of 21 divisions and attacked in all directions. Although the commander of the enemy on the northern front, Li Xianzhou, only had 7 divisions of troops left, but he had aircraft and tanks, and did not pay attention to the main force of our army at all, as a result, as a result, as soon as they fought, Li Xianzhou's troops were defeated like mountains and shrunk in Laiwu City.
On the 22nd, our army used the strength of 16 divisions to pretend to move north of Laiwu, the central line slowed down the speed of the march, and the two wings quickly moved north and closed together, forming a pocket array relying on the northern communication artery of Laiwu, forming a three-sided encirclement of the enemy army in Laiwu.
Unwilling to be defeated, Old Chiang Found that the main force of the East China Field Army was just north of Laiwu, he sent the Supervision Team to the front line to supervise the battle, and on the other hand organized people and horses to continue to resist. However, the location of the ambush of the East China Field Army was a narrow valley passage, and the enemy army entered the ambush area and was only beaten.
Seeing that the general trend had gone, Old Jiang immediately ordered Wang Yaowu's troops in Jinan to set out along the Jiaoji Railway to plan for Li Xianzhou's troops to break through in the direction of Jinan. On the morning of the 23rd, the enemy chief Li Xianzhou believed that our army could not run their planes and tanks on two legs, so he rushed out and broke through in the direction of Kouzhen.
However, as soon as they left the city, the enemy troops fell into chaos due to the narrow roads. It coincided with the successful planning of the political workers of our army to oppose the enemy's 46th Army. The enemy Li Xianzhou basically lost its fighting spirit, and most of them were bent on fleeing for their lives.
At 10:00 a.m., the enemy's vanguard troops arrived in the Gaojiawa area, and our sniper unit immediately opened fire, making it immobile. At noon, all the horses of Li Xianzhou's troops left Laiwu City, and 4 divisions of our army immediately took this city, effectively avoiding contact between the enemy on the north and south lines.
Immediately afterward, our army shrunk the pocket array, fired all kinds of artillery in unison, and in only 5 hours, annihilated the main force of the enemy Li Xianzhou's troops and captured the enemy general Li Xianzhou alive. Han Jun, commander of the 73rd Army under Li Xianzhou, threw away his armor and led more than a thousand people in the direction of Boshan, when he was completely annihilated by the 9th Column of our army.
In the Battle of Laiwu, the East China Field Army killed, wounded, or captured 56,000 enemies in only 3 days at the cost of more than 6,000 casualties, completely smashing the reactionaries' plot to seize our Lunan Liberated Area. When Wang Yaowu, the enemy chieftain of Jinan, learned that Li Xianzhou's troops had been completely annihilated by our army, he was frightened into a cold sweat, which was a bit incredible, but he did not dare to offend old Jiang, so he had to scold Li Xianzhou's troops for being useless.
At this point, the second Lunan Campaign launched by the enemy has basically come to an end, and the East China Field Army has annihilated more than 80,000 enemy troops on all fronts at the cost of more than 8,000 casualties, providing valuable experience for our army to comprehensively counterattack and liberate all of China.
Of course, in the Second Battle of Lunan, our army was able to achieve such brilliant results, which is closely related to the strong support of the local people. According to statistics, from the beginning of January to the end of February 1947, a total of 600,000 ordinary people took the initiative to undertake the work of transporting grain, grass and ammunition and treating the wounded of our army, so that the East China Field Army could devote themselves to the battle.
On the other hand, the enemy army, seeing death and not saving, disturbing the people everywhere, has been completely abandoned by the people, and early surrender is their only way out.
Resources:
[1] Research Committee on the Collection of Party History Materials of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee. Battle of Laiwu[M].Shandong People's Publishing House, 1986
[2] Laiwu Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, Research Committee on the Collection of Party History Materials. The People of Laiwu in the Battle of Laiwu[M].Shandong People's Publishing House, 1986
Zhao Liang,Gao Longchao,Li Sheng. Su Yu on the Battle of Laiwu[J].Spring and Autumn, 1997(02):19-22