introduction
In the Battle of Huaihai, the East China Field Army paid a huge price to take Lianzhuang. Under the leadership of Huang Baitao, the Kuomintang 7th Corps performed very strongly in this battle. "Mencius Devoted": "There are many people chasing tigers. Tiger negative, Mo dares to pick. The Kuomintang 7th Corps suffered more than 80% casualties in this battle, and the People's Liberation Army's East China Field Army also paid the price of more than 60,000 casualties.
01
After 1948, the confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had begun to appear one-sided. At that time, many battles for the Kuomintang were not to lose, but to concede defeat. At that time, there was a saying of "seeking contact", which meant that the Kuomintang troops often did not avoid the Communist army, but would take the initiative to encounter the PLA troops that came to attack. The main reason for this is that as long as the two sides have contact on the battlefield, the Kuomintang army can be "defeated and captured" or "defeated and surrendered", so that the Kuomintang soldiers can also save their lives.
▲ Liberation War
In 1949 this phenomenon was very common in the southwest, and within three months 900,000 Nationalist troops surrendered their weapons, many of them as a result of "seeking contact". However, this is not to say that the Kuomintang troops had given up resistance in the late civil war, in fact, some generals and troops were still quite tenacious. "The Great Armageddon: The Battle of Huaihai" records: "The first punch I Huaye threw at the Xuzhou Liu Zhi clique was directed at the enemy's Seventh Corps, that is, the Huang Baitao Corps. ”
▲Huang Baitao
In 1948, nearly 100,000 Kuomintang officers and soldiers participated in the Battle of Nianzhuang between the People's Liberation Army and Huang Baitao's Corps. Many people believe that the Battle of Nianzhuang was not only the late stage of the War of Resistance, but also the most tenacious and tragic battle of the Kuomintang army in the entire period of civil war. So where does this statement come from? We can make a comparison from the data. The offensive and defensive battle that took place in Jinan, Shandong in September 1948 was also a famous and fierce battle. At that time, more than 23,000 Kuomintang soldiers were killed or wounded under the city of Jinan.
02
This was already more than 20 percent of the total strength of the Kuomintang troops in the war at that time, and this battle was already a fairly bloody manifestation of the Kuomintang army in the civil war. In the Battle of Nianzhuang, about 65,000 Kuomintang soldiers were killed or injured, which has exceeded 80% of all the combatants! Not to mention that in the civil war, that is, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang army rarely appeared such a unit, and when the Kuomintang army confronted the Japanese army, it usually withdrew the troops after reaching 50% casualties.
▲Illustration of the Battle of Nianzhuang
The situation in which the formed corps was close to total annihilation was almost unprecedented, so it can be seen that the Battle of Nianzhuang, which took place in 1948, was fought extremely fiercely. This situation had a lot to do with the terrain where Nianzhuang was located at that time, as well as the commander of the Kuomintang army, Huang Baitao. This battle, which took place in 1948, allowed the place to be recorded in various history books. Located in the east of Xuzhou, Nianzhuang has many rivers converging and spreading tributaries throughout the village, which is a relatively peculiar water village terrain.
▲Schematic map of the terrain of The Mill Village
Before the battle began, Huang Baitao ordered his men to build a large number of bunkers and machine gun fire points in the village, which were distributed on the terrain of the village, and many communist soldiers who entered the mill were not only frequently attacked, but also unable to find machine gun holes. The structure of these bunkers is very elaborate, and it is specially designed for the tactical characteristics of the People's Liberation Army. The Platon has always dared to brave enemy fire to creep forward and then leap forward at close range.
03
These bunkers have specially set up fire ports in the position of the ground, causing great damage to the People's Liberation Army. Not only that, but the PLA could no longer use this tactic to advance forward, resulting in a much less efficient way of destroying its bunker groups. Due to his long-term battle with Huaye, Huang Baitao was very familiar with the tactics of the People's Liberation Army. So he adopted very targeted tactics, he would order a sudden release of the opening to let the PLA's assault troops in, and then quickly intercept the successors.
▲ The People's Liberation Army is raiding
The intruding troops were attacked by siege, and the PLA suffered losses from battalion-level commandos on many occasions. Moreover, this tactic will also cause the PLA to be unable to judge whether this is a real defense break or a conspiracy of the other side when it really tears up the opening and makes a breakthrough. This, in turn, allowed the Kuomintang troops to seize the opportunity to either attack again or repair the defensive line.
▲North China Field Army
This is also the reason why Huang Baitao stayed in Nianzhuang, because he was very familiar with Huaye, so he arranged a highly targeted tactical design in Nianzhuang. In all wars there have always been troops ready to fight, are strong enemies. If Huang Baitao broke away from the fortifications of the mill, his troops would inevitably be annihilated by the People's Liberation Army in a very short time.
epilogue
Huang Baitao was a famous ruthless man, and there was also a wicked army commander Under him, Liu Liu Zhenxiang, and the entire 7 Corps was determined to die in Nianzhuang. Huang Baitao was quite popular in his army, and his soldiers were very united, especially the 25th Army and the 64th Army. They inflicted a huge blow on the People's Liberation Army's Huaye troops, and in the two-week offensive and defensive battle, the ratio of losses between the Kuomintang and the Communists was basically 1:1. On November 22, 1948, the Battle of Nianzhuang finally ended, and Huang Baitao was killed. There is also a saying that in fact, Huang Baitao committed suicide by raising a gun.