preface
In 1949, Bai Chongxi, who had returned to Guilin, Guangxi, was in a bad mood, and he watched as the People's Liberation Army had broken through the Guangdong-Guangdong joint defense line in just a few months. Now that Guangzhou has been lost, how can Guangxi still be preserved? Bai Chongxi deeply felt that his end was not far away.
Mountain rain is about to blow all over the building
After the victory in the Battle of Guangdong, Bai Chongxi's remnants of the defeated army had to retreat back to his old lair, Guangxi, and it was at this time that the Central Military Commission sent another telegram to the Former Committee of the Four Fields:
If Bai Chongxi concentrates all his efforts on defending the Lingling and Jeonju areas, you can concentrate your forces to march south and try to catch the enemy. If Bai Chongxi, in view of the lessons of this elite annihilation, retreats on a large scale to the line of Guilin and Liuzhou, it seems inappropriate for our army to concentrate on advancing, but it is advisable to advance in two directions in parallel, with one way out of the north of Liuzhou and one way out of Guilin, and the two roads can still concentrate on fighting at any time, so that the white bandits cannot retreat to Guizhou.
After receiving the telegram from the Central Military Commission, the Former Committee of the Four Fields made the following decision:
With the 12th Corps, the 13th Corps, the 4th Corps of the Second Field Army, the GuidianQian Column, and the Guangdong-Guibian Column, a total of 9 armies and 30 divisions of more than 400,000 people marched to Guangxi in three roads: west, north and south.
For Bai Chongxi, Lin Biao and Chen Geng have been his "mortal enemies" for many years, and his heart is extremely worried.
But as a warrior, Bai Chongxi knew in his heart that Guangxi was his hometown and the base camp he had worked hard to run for most of his life. If you don't make up your mind to fight the PEOPLE's Liberation Army to the death and give it up, this will at least be difficult to face.
However, a decisive battle is definitely not so easy, and Bai Chongxi considers that the current military is unstable, morale is low, and its combat capability has been greatly reduced.
However, just when Bai Chongxi was sad, the Four Fields Former Committee had made a battle plan for marching into Guangxi, and its specific troop deployment was as follows:
(1) The two corps of the 13th Corps first annihilated the 100th Army and the 103rd Army of Tongdao and Jingxian, and then quickly advanced toward the Sien and Hechi areas, and continued to advance towards the line of Baise and Guode, and the first step was to strive to cut off the enemy's way back to Yunnan.
(2) Chen Geng's first vanguard army set out around the tenth and advanced to the line of Yulin and Bobai to prevent the enemy from retreating to the Leizhou Peninsula. Then, according to the situation, it will advance towards Nanning. If the enemy has a move to retreat to Qinzhou and Beihai, it will advance to Qinzhou or Lianzhou, and the other two armies will respond in the rear.
(3) Our three armies of 40, 41, and 45, after the vanguard of Cheng Zihua's department and Chen Geng's army have exceeded, will then march out and intend to advance with one army through Daozhou, Yongming, Gongcheng, Pingle, and Lipu; advance along the Xianggui Road with one army, and advance with one army along the area north of the Xianggui Road. The three divisions of the 49th Army were prepared to be placed on the second line, swinging along both sides of the Xianggui Road, to serve as bandits and cover transportation and grain collection.
Li Zongren telegraphed Bai Chongxi to Chongqing, and Chiang Kai-shek was furious: They have ruined the reputation of someone in chiang
At this time, Bai Chongxi really couldn't think of any tricks, nor could he come up with any practical guangxi defense plan. At this time, Li Zongren suddenly sent a telegram from Chongqing, inviting him to go and conspire against the plan.
The day after Bai Chongxi flew to Chongqing, he told Li Zongren: "Tonight we have a meeting here to discuss the advance and retreat of Duke Degong (Li Zongren) and Chiang Kai-shek. ”
That evening, Li Zongren summoned Li Hanling, Liu Shiyi, Qiu Changwei, and other Gui people to a meeting at the official residence of the Shangqing Temple, and Cheng Siyuan flew from Hong Kong to Chongqing and also attended the meeting.
Li Zongren asked: "What is the new situation in Hong Kong?" ”
Cheng Siyuan said: "The chief representative of the United Nations, Jiang Tingdi, recently wrote to Gu Mengyu, inviting Gu to jointly form the China Democratic Party. ”
Bai Chongxi asked: "Is there any change in US policy?" ”
Washington held a roundtable last month to discuss China policy, chaired by Gissep, who was responsible for drafting the White Paper on U.S.-China Relations, and there were two opinions. First, in order to recognize the new regime of the CHINESE Communists, represented by Rosinger and Gissep; second, to not be eager to recognize the new regime of the CHINESE Communists, to wait and see the current situation, represented by Statson.
On the Taiwan issue, Secretary of State Acheson consulted Stuart Layden for his opinion. Situ Leiden suggested that the policy of not aiding Chiang Kai-shek be maintained, with Wu Guozhen replacing Chen Cheng in charge, and the United States aiding Wu and not aiding Chiang kai-shek and Chen. This is the background of Jiang Tingdi's desire to form a Democratic Party, and he hopes to replace the Kuomintang with a Democratic Party. ”
Listening to Chen Siyuan's words, Li Zongren said angrily: "The United States has lost confidence in the party controlled by President Jiang, so some people want to form a new party, but judging from the current situation, the mountain of the United States is unreliable." ”
Cheng Siyuan said: "There is another situation, recently President Jiang wanted to reinstate, he invited Hu Shi to Taipei, speculating about the possible repercussions of the United States on his reinstatement. ”
In this regard, Li Zongren said: "President Jiang reinstated his post at his own convenience, and I insisted on the position of not 'persuading him to advance'. ”
Bai Chongxi said: "Since Chiang Kai-shek went down, it has nominally been the government of Princess De, but in fact, the government has come out of nowhere, and the situation has become worse and worse. Jiang will not relinquish power after all, and if this stalemate continues, we will all die without a place to die.
The communist army has come to Guangxi, and for the sake of Sangui's father and elder, the dispute between Jiang and Gui should be over at this point.
”
After this meeting, Bai Chongxi and Wu Zhongxin reached an agreement at the White Mansion:
1. Chiang Kai-shek's reinstatement;
2. Li Zongren went abroad;
3. Bai Chongxi replaced Yan Xishan as chief executive officer and minister of national defense.
On November 4, Wu Zhongxin went to Taipei with the agreement documents to reinstate Chiang Kai-shek.
After reading Bai Chongxi's plan, Chiang Kai-shek scolded: "Bai Jiansheng wants to be the chief executive, but it cannot be written into the agreement as a condition." Li Zongren also cannot go abroad, and there are already enough people who are engaged in conspiracies abroad, that is, they have ruined the reputation of jiang someone. ”
On November 5, Bai Chongxi convened a military conference in Guilin.
At the meeting, Li Pinxian and Huang Jie advocated assembling their troops in Longzhou and Baise and turning westward into Yunnan, while most of the generals advocated moving from the Leizhou Peninsula to Hainan Island.
Finally, Bai Chongxi said: "Liu Bocheng of the communist army has entered Sichuan, and the southwest will not be guaranteed sooner or later. There was no longer any place safe on the mainland, so I decided to adopt the plan of retreating to Hainan Island. President Jiang runs Taiwan Island, we can also run Hainan Island, and once World War III breaks out, we will soon be able to fight back to our hometown in Guangxi. ”
In this way, Bai Chongxi determined a plan for fleeing south to Hainan Island, and in order to carry out this operational goal, he also formulated the policy of attacking Chen Geng's corps first, and ordered the 3rd and 11th corps to move south secretly to prepare to launch the so-called "South Road Offensive."
At that time, Hainan Island was different from today, an almost barbaric island, the island was originally short of materials, and later after the remnants of the Cantonese army fled to the island, the situation of food shortage here was further aggravated.
Because of this, when Bai Chongxi decided to lead his troops to the island, he was first opposed by Yu Hanmou and Xue Yue, because Bai Chongxi had 200,000 regular troops and 100,000 local troops under his command at that time, which was definitely not a small number.
Not only that, Chiang Kai-shek also did not agree to let the Gui clan run Hainan Island, because in this way, the gateway to Guangxi would be opened, and the two provinces of Qian and Yunnan would not be able to keep it.
Bai Chongxi wanted to reconcile jiang and Li contradictions, Li Zongren: I don't want to see him
On November 6, the Siye West Road Army began to move south, and the factional struggle within the Kuomintang especially made Bai Chongxi feel anxious, and although his military strategy had been finalized, it could not be implemented at all due to the obstruction of the Cantonese generals. It was Chiang Kai-shek who was behind the Cantonese system, so Bai Chongxi had to concentrate on resolving the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren.
On the 11th, Li Zongren flew from Kunming to Guilin.
On the 12th, the members of the Gui clan of culture and armed forces met to discuss the advance and retreat of President Li Dai. In this regard, Bai Chongxi proposed two plans:
First, Gui Qiandian and Hainan Island were connected to each other, forming a situation of their own, in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek.
Second, Li Zongren went abroad, and the situation in the southwest was handed over to Bai Chongxi to prepare for the aftermath.
The people attending the meeting talked about the two plans proposed by Bai Chongxi for a long time, and felt that neither of them was the best method. However, even Bai Chongxi, who has always been known as "Little Zhuge Ge", could not make up his mind, and others would have no way out.
On the 13th, continuing the meeting to discuss, Li Zongren said: "The situation is so urgent, we are not allowed to spend time here!" The morale of the people in the southwest has collapsed, the number and quality of troops are far from being the enemy of the communist army, and the so-called "self-reliance" is not enough, so the first plan is unrealistic. I myself was determined to go to the United States for medical treatment, and Guangxi was supported by Jiansheng (Bai Chongxi) alone. ”
Seeing that Li Zongren was leaving, Bai Chongxi said: "We have no objection to the fact that Duke De wants to go abroad, but we ask to fly to Haikou to say goodbye to Chen Jitang, Yu Hanmou, and Xue Yue before going to Hong Kong." They originally opposed our going to Hainan Island, but now they have taken a step back and let us defend the Leizhou Peninsula. ”
On the 14th, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Chongqing from Taipei and called Bai Chongxi: "
Yesterday, I heard that Guiyang was in danger, And Chuandong was in a tight position, and it was already flying in Chongqing on this day, and I hope that De Lin (Li Zongren) will fly to Chongqing on the same day, plan the overall situation, and ask my brother to promote the fight.
At this time, Li Zongren was saying goodbye to his old subordinates in Nanning, and Bai Chongxi called from Guilin and said: "President Jiang arrived in Chongqing, and called to ask Duke De to go to Chongqing to discuss the state of the country on the same day. ”
However, in response to Chiang Kai-shek's invitation, Li Zongren said:
I don't want to see him again!
On the 16th, Li Zongren flew to Haikou again to bid farewell to Yu Hanmou and Xue Yue. On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Huang Jie to Chongqing and ordered him to lead the 1st Corps to aid Guizhou. Huang Jie urgently telegraphed Bai Chongxi: "The president ordered the ministry to plan the battle of the friendly forces on the Guizhou side, and first take a shortcut to Yishan and Nandan with a powerful one. ”
On the 19th, Bai Chongxi went to Nanning and asked Li Zongren to suspend his departure abroad, saying: "You are still the acting president, sent by the central center, can you make some political arrangements first, and then go abroad?" ”
In this regard, Li Zongren replied: "There is no need for this, according to the Constitution, when the president leaves office, the chief executive can act on his behalf, and when I arrive in Hong Kong, I will send this message to Yan Baichuan (Yan Xishan). ”
On the 20th, Li Zongren boarded a plane and left Guangxi. On the day of Li Zongren's departure, Bai Chongxi flew to Chongqing to report to Chiang Kai-shek.
That evening, Bai Chongxi spoke through the radio station:
I flew to Nanning on the former president's telegram to express condolences to President Li Dai on his illness and to urge him to return to Chongqing to discuss the state of affairs. After receiving the telegram, He flew from Guilin to Nanning yesterday to extend his condolences to Acting President Li, to report the president's will, the acting president's consolation to the president, and the telegram from people from all walks of life. However, due to the increasing disease of stomach ulcers, the duodenum is still bleeding from time to time, and it is difficult to support physically. It was originally planned to send Director Li Pin Xian Fei Yu Jin Gurudwara President to face everything. After his arrival in Yong (Guangxi), Director Li Pinxian first suspended the trip, and he came to Chongqing to resume his life... The acting president, who had already flown to Hong Kong this morning for medical treatment, told him to act as President Chen in person, saying that he would meet in times of difficulty and danger, and that he would not be able to return to Chongqing to save the current crisis with the president and the government and all the military and the people, and he was particularly sorry.
Li Zongren's sudden departure aroused public opinion, and people at home and abroad believed that the matter was related to Chiang Kai-shek. Later, Chiang Kai-shek decided to send Juzheng and Zhu Jiahua to Hong Kong to "retain," but Li Zongren did not buy Chiang Kai-shek's account at all.
After the Liberation Army liberated Guangxi, Bai Chongxi fled to Taiwan in defeat
Seeing that the People's Liberation Army is about to approach Guangxi.
On November 12, Lin Biao sent a telegram to Chen Geng and others: "The 14th and 15th armies of the 4th Corps should immediately and quickly advance to Gaozhou, so as to cooperate with the 13th Army to first annihilate the enemy in the Bobai area, and then advance to Nanning according to the situation or use the 4th Corps in the Bobai area to block the Gui enemy going south with all its strength... The 15th Corps will send one or two divisions to Deqing, which will be under your command and cooperate in the battle. ”
At this time, Bai Chongxi's troops were moving southward, and the Four Fields Front Committee immediately adjusted its combat deployment according to the changes in the enemy's situation:
One part of the Western Route Army continued to advance along the Qiangui border towards Guode and Baise to cut off the Road of Baibu to Yunnan in the west; the other went east straight into the heart of Guangxi and captured Liuzhou.
The Northern Route Army quickly moved south, the main force took Guilin directly along the Xianggui Railway, and the 40th Army went straight to Wuzhou to fight in response to the Southern Route Army.
The main force of the 4th Corps of the Southern Route Army immediately assembled in the Xinyi and Maoming areas, and a division of the 13th Army was used to build fortifications at Lianjiang as a blockade; the 43rd Army of the 15th Corps secretly marched westward at night and to the northeast of Xinyi.
The People's Liberation Army marched straight in and gave chase. With the 38th Army and the 39th Army of the People's Liberation Army rushing to the junction of southern Hunan and northern Guangdong, the campaign to liberate Guangxi officially began.
Although Bai Chongxi made full use of the complex terrain of Guangxi's mountains, he laid out a thorough defense and carried out a powerful counterattack. However, the opponent he faced was Lin Biao, who not only had an extremely detailed battle plan, but even considered the enemy's escape route, and also deployed heavy troops to block the attack, which Bai Chongxi did not expect.
At this time, the main force of the Gui army moved south, the west road and the north road were mainly pursuit battles, and the south side would form a decisive battle in Guangdong and Guizhou.
On November 10, the Western Route Army occupied Jing County, and the 17th Corps of the defenders abandoned the battle and fled south. On the 13th, Ke rongjiang and Conghua annihilated a part of the enemy's security forces. Subsequently, the 38th Army continued to advance, pursuing the 17th Corps; the 39th Army turned southeast and approached Liuzhou.
The 40th Army of the Northern Route Army marched south on the 15th and made a long-distance attack on Wuzhou to join the Battle of the Southern Route Army to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Gui Army. The 41st and 45th Armies set out on November 18 and marched south along xianggui road.
The 123rd Division, the vanguard of the 41st Army, advanced south at a rate of 120 miles a day. The next day, the division broke through the defensive line north of Xing'an in one fell swoop. The 14th, 46th, 71st, and 97th units of the enemy forces in northern Guizhou fled in a hurry.
Guilin lost, Liuzhou lost... Bai Chongxi faced an increasingly irreparable defeat.
But even so, Bai Chongxi still demanded that the troops attack south at all costs, and they continued to launch fierce attacks on the People's Liberation Army with strong fire support, trying to open the passage for the sea to withdraw to Hainan Island and force Chen Geng's army into the sea.
Heaven did not go according to people's wishes, and Bai Chongxi's right-hand man also took Zhang Gan as a prisoner. Under this situation, Bai Chongxi could only look at the mountains and rivers of his hometown and wept bitterly, and then led the remnants to continue to flee for their lives.
After the People's Liberation Army captured Nanning in Beihai, Bai Chongxi was so anxious that he threw heavy sums of money to rent ships and demanded that all troops retreat, but did not wait for the shadow, which had a lot to do with the riots that occurred during the retreat of the Gui army during this period.
On December 14, the 39-day Battle of Guangxi ended, in which the PLA annihilated 172,900 enemy troops, including 160,000 prisoners, 4 generals killed, 78 captured officers, captured 1,285 artillery pieces, 53,000 guns, shot down 2 planes, captured 1,176 cars, and wounded 18 ships.
At the end of 1949, the Gui warlords were defeated on the mainland, and all the soldiers under Bai Chongxi were "eaten", and they had become the street rats that everyone shouted and beat on the mainland.
At this critical juncture, Chiang Kai-shek threw an olive branch to Bai Chongxi asking him to go to Taiwan and promised to make him defense minister. In a telegram sent by Chiang Kai-shek to Bai Chongxi, it was written:
The country is in a hurry, and Taipei wants to reorganize the cabinet and hopes to go to Taiwan as soon as possible to discuss major plans.
For Bai Chongxi, the four words of "restructuring the cabinet" are right in his mind, which indicates that he still has a chance to turn over. After much hesitation, Bai Chongxi gritted his teeth and decided to go to Taiwan.
The "Defense Minister" is undoubtedly an excellent temptation for Bai Chongxi, but there must be a hook under the bait. The reason why Chiang Kai-shek made such a decision was that he did not want people like Bai Chongxi to stay on the mainland, but at the same time he did not dare to really use him.
Bai Chongxi was clear about Chiang Kai-shek as a person, and knew that he was not a broad-minded person, but he always held a fluke mentality.
After coming to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek was dumbfounded, and Chiang Kai-shek promised that his defense minister would first become the director of the Strategy Committee, and then be reappointed as a member of the Kuomintang Central Committee, gradually losing his power.
But even so, Chiang Kai-shek was still uneasy about Bai Chongxi, and closely monitored him to grasp Bai Chongxi's movements.
Bai Chongxi did not expect that he would lead the soldiers to fight for a lifetime, but he would be harassed by spies at all times. It was not until later that these spies began to blatantly monitor him, and Bai Chongxi felt great insults and irony.
In 1962, the death of his wife Ma Peizhang was undoubtedly a huge blow to Bai Chongxi, who was already 69 years old, and his mental state underwent a great change, often sitting alone and not speaking.
On December 2, 1966, Bai Chongxi was found dead at home by his aide-de-camp at the age of 74. And his death is a mystery that has been debated endlessly to this day.
At Bai Chongxi's public sacrifice ceremony, Chiang Kai-shek was the first to offer flowers to his body, and raised his forehead to "remember the Xun you". And the 40-year-long feud between them finally came to an end with the death of Bai Chongxi.