The Central Plains Breakthrough kicked off the prelude to a full-scale civil war, and 50,000 troops of the Central Plains Military Region broke through. Wang Shusheng, deputy commander of the military region and commander of the first column, led the Southern Route Army to break through to the Fangxian area, meet with the troops of the Jianghan Military Region, and create a base area in northwest Hubei.
After the establishment of the Northwest Hubei Military Region, Wang Shusheng served as commander and political commissar, the first deputy commander was Liu Changyi, and the chief of staff was Zhang Caiqian.
It was very difficult for the troops to reach northwest Hubei, the enemy army imposed an economic blockade here, all kinds of materials could not be replenished, and the northwest of Hubei was sparsely populated, and the troops were always chased by the enemy.
The troops spent all day in the mountains, shooting one shot to change places, not eating well, not sleeping well, and extremely tired. The thinking of the troops fluctuated very badly, and they all shouted that they would go to the plains to fight a big battle.
As a deputy commander, Liu Changyi was known as "live Zhang Fei", with an urgent personality, and sometimes launched complaints, turning around in the barren mountains and wild mountains every day. Wang Shusheng can only do everyone's ideological work, we can't fight a big battle, we can contain the enemy.
Liu Changyi did not care about these things, his thinking was always twisted, and he shouted that he wanted to fight a big battle. During a transfer, he was only five or six miles away from the enemy, and the troops were exhausted, so he asked the troops to stop and rest, and he slept in the dark. When Wang Shusheng learned of this, he quickly told him to get up and move immediately.
He said that he had come just in time and that he was trying to fight the enemy. Wang Shusheng said: You are in the arms of the enemy in this way, but you can't do this. Liu Changyi was very depressed in his heart, and finally let the troops move.
In fact, Liu Changyi was under great pressure, and he undertook a very heavy task, in his words: The heavier the burden I carry, the lighter the burden of other units. He led his troops to restrain the enemy from running all over the mountain, and the enemy offered a reward of 50,000 oceans to catch him.
In order to better contain the enemy and destroy the enemy, he had three no fights, no good food and no fights, no drinks and no fights, and no good sleep. Only with sufficient physical strength can you compete with the enemy.
Liu Changyi, who was promoted to the position of first deputy commander, took advantage of his lack of attention to engage in a contest with the enemy, and the result was "one thousand wounds to the enemy and eight hundred self-inflicted losses."
The troops fought guerrilla warfare under harsh conditions, and there were also many losses, but it was extremely difficult for the soldiers to be replenished.
For this reason, there were only two roads before them, one to continue to insist; the other, leaving a small amount of continuous, the main force to fight on the outside. The superiors agreed to go to Dabie Mountain to fight guerrilla warfare, Liu Changyi and Zhang Caiqian each led one, and Wang Shusheng turned from Shandong to the Liberated Area of North China to recuperate due to illness.
Before Wang Shusheng left, the one who reassured him the most was Liu Changyi, who wrote to him to advise him to be cautious.
From then on, Liu Changyi led his troops to Dabie Mountain and went to work in western Anhui. Not long after, he was transferred to liu deng's 3rd column as the deputy commander of the column, participating in the Battle of Huaihai and the Battle of Crossing the River.