As we all know, the famous three major battles were the three most important strategic decisive battles in the Liberation War, after which the veterans that the Nationalist army could fight were lost, and Chiang Kai-shek's rule on the mainland collapsed.
However, this is not to say that our army has always been in a weak position before the three major battles; our army has been in a process of changing from weak to strong in the liberation war, and before the three major battles, there have been battles to turn the situation around in various theaters.
In the Battle of Shajiadian that broke out in August 1947, Peng Dehuai commanded the Northwest Field Army to completely annihilate more than 6,000 people in the 36th Division of the Kuomintang Army, which fundamentally changed the situation in the Northwest. After the battle, Hu Zongnan was a little frightened in his heart, and he returned to Xi'an from Yan'an, and handed over all the affairs of northern Shaanxi to the commander of the reorganized 29th Army and the first student of Huangpu
Liu Jie
。
In the end, after being unable to recover the situation, Liu Jie chose to pull a grenade and commit suicide, which is also regrettable. In fact, Liu Jie was still relatively friendly to our party during the anti-Japanese period, but unfortunately he did not go to the side of the people.
Born in Taoyuan, Hunan In 1906, Liu Jie was admitted to the Hunan Army Lecture Hall in 1923, and the following year he went south to apply for the Huangpu Military Academy and became a student of the first batch. Among his classmates were Xu Xiangqian, Chen Geng, Du Yuming, Hu Zongnan and many other influential figures.
After graduating from Huangpu, Liu Jie always followed Chiang Kai-shek, and in the Northern Expedition War, he made many meritorious contributions without fear of death, so his position was also promoted repeatedly. Wei Lihuang was his direct superior for a long time, and there was only one sentence to evaluate him:
It's a nerve in the brain.
This statement has both praise and depreciation, but liu jie's character is well summarized, as long as he believes that things will be done to the end, do not think about flexibility and do not want other methods.
In the fourth "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang against the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, Liu Jie was already a division commander, but he still ran to the front line to command. During a battle, Liu Jie's right eye was shot by a stray catapult, and the eyeball was surgically removed with a false eye, so he also had the nickname of "One-Eyed General".
In 1933, the ambitions of the Japanese invasion of China continued to expand, and began to use troops at various passes of the Great Wall on a large scale, and Chiang Kai-shek, under the pressure of domestic public conditions, mobilized the 2nd, 25th, and 83rd Divisions of the Central Army to form the 17th Army to fight against Japan on the Great Wall, of which Liu Jie was the commander of the 83rd Division.
The 83rd Division was the most numerous and well-equipped of the 17th Army, resisted for the longest time, and suffered the heaviest damage. It fought a bloody battle with the Japanese on the south Tianmen front for more than a month, causing the Japanese to pay more than 2,000 casualties, and during this time, the Japanese only advanced more than 600 meters to the South Tianmen.
This result was generally quite good, but after the battle, Liu Jie saw that his men had suffered too many casualties, and he felt very guilty in his heart, so he wanted to die to comfort the brothers. Fortunately, when he drew his pistol, fu Zhaoqian, the chief of staff, was beside him and rushed over to grab his weapon.
From this incident, we can also see that Liu Jie's personality is more extreme, and it is no wonder that he later chose to commit suicide in the Liberation War.
After that, Liu Jie was quite smooth sailing, and in 1935 he was awarded the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun and was awarded the Major General, and the following year he was promoted to lieutenant general, although this speed was not as popular as Hu Zongnan, but it was also reused in the Huangpu Phase I.
In 1937, when the All-out War of Resistance broke out, Liu Jie led his troops to participate in the Battle of Xinkou, because of his excellent performance, he rose to the next level after the war to become the commander of the 93rd Army. At the same time, during the Battle of Xinkou, Liu Jie saw that the Eighth Route Army disregarded his personal life and death for the sake of national righteousness, and his heart was very shocked, and his impression of the Communist Party of China also changed.
At the beginning of 1940, Liu Jie was ordered to lead the 93rd Army to garrison Yangcheng, and Chiang Kai-shek asked him to step up the blockade of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, but at this time, Liu Jie only had anti-Japanese thoughts in mind, so he showed great hesitation.
Wei Wei, chief of staff of the 93rd Army, was an underground member of the CCP, and he saw what Liu Jie was thinking, so he urged Liu Jie to make good friends with the CCP and be consistent with the outside world. Liu Jie was deeply impressed by this, so he did not carry out Chiang Kai-shek's plan, but often used military materials to help the Eighth Route Army, and when the Eighth Route Army launched the "Hundred Regiments War," he also sent troops to contain the Japanese Kou, which can also be regarded as a contribution to our party.
Liu Jie's behavior eventually spread to Chiang Kai-shek, and the old Chiang Kai-shek was very surprised by this, so he asked the military commanders to investigate, and the reply was that Liu Jie was seduced by Wei Wei.
Chiang Kai-shek was furious, and immediately ordered Wei Wei to go to the Central Training Regiment for training with He Yingqin, and Liu Jie was well aware of the principal's personality and knew that Wei Wei's life would certainly not be guaranteed if he went, so he politely refused this order on the grounds that "the front line is busy with war and cannot be left lightly."
Jiang and He did not give up on this, and once again gave the order in a stern tone, and Liu Jie saw that he could not shirk it, so he directly showed the electric order to Wei Wei and gave it to the other side's horses.
At the practice banquet, Liu Jie said emotionally:
I have worked with Chief of Staff Wei for many years, and I am like a brother, but now because of my different ideas, he is leaving, and we have to separate. Here I can assure you that during the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, I will resolutely resist Japan and will not fight a civil war. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, if the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China fight for the world, I will still fight for the Three People's Principles to the end, and I hope that we will not meet each other on the battlefield in the future.
Putting aside the camp, Liu Jie's national righteousness, feelings for friends, and loyalty to his superiors are all qualified. Unfortunately, his 'wish' was not fulfilled.
Liu Jie blatantly let Wei Wei go, and Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he immediately dismissed him and sent him back to the Army University for training.
Fortunately, Hu Zongnan's friendship with Liu Jie was very good, and with the help of Hu Zongnan, Liu Jie resumed his tenure as commander-in-chief of the 36th Group Army, and in the following years he fought against the Japanese in North China, achieving great success and winning the reputation of "outstanding anti-Japanese general".
In the spring of 1946, Liu Jie was transferred to the commander-in-chief of the 37th Group Army, and the garrison of his troops was the first line of the attack on Yan'an, and he and the Chinese Communists finally met with the sword soldiers.
In March 1947, Hu Zongnan launched a major attack on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and Liu Jiebu was one of the two main forces under his command. However, hu Zongnan's hundreds of thousands of troops were led by the nose of the Northwest Field Army with only 30,000 people in northern Shaanxi, and more than 20,000 people were lost in less than half a year.
After the Battle of Shajiadian, Hu Zongnan had lost confidence in annihilating the Northwest Field Army, so after deploying his forces at the key points of Yan'an, Luochuan, and Yichuan in October of that year, Hu Zongnan returned to Xi'an. Since then, the main person in charge of the Kuomintang in northern Shaanxi has become Liu Jie, commander of the reorganized 29th Army. (The integrated 29th Army was formed from the downsizing of the 37th Army)
At the beginning of 1948, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China ordered the main force to move to the outside line to fight, Peng Dehuai decided to take the initiative to attack, he calmly analyzed the enemy's deployment, and believed that at present, the Nationalist army still has four brigades in Yan'an, and with strong city defenses, our army will not be able to attack for a long time.
However, the enemy in Yichuan has only two regiments, and it is close to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Liberated Area and the Jinnan Liberated Area, and once there is a change, it can also receive timely support.
Therefore, the Northwest Field Army launched the Yiwa Campaign, aiming to eliminate the Yichuan defenders and the enemy aided by Luochuan's eastern aid, and to connect the two liberated areas of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Southern Jin.
On February 22, the 3rd and 6th Columns of the Northwest Field Army served as the main offensive in the direction of Yichuan, the 1st and 4th Columns waited for help in the designated area north of Wazi Street, and the 2nd Column forcibly crossed the Yellow River to the southwest of Yichuan.
Peng Dehuai's arrangement was to take into account all the enemy's movements.
The Northwest Field Army was menacing, and Zhang Hanchu, commander of the 24th Brigade of the Yichuan Garrison, rushed to hu Zongnan for help, and Hu Zongnan asked Liu Jie to command the reorganized 29th Army (under the jurisdiction of the 27th Reorganized Army and the Reorganized 90th Division) with a total of more than 24,000 people to break the siege.
In the process of marching, Liu Jie discovered the movements of the People's Liberation Army and believed that there was probably an ambush on the road ahead, so he reported to Hu Zongnan, hoping to retreat. As a result, Hu Zongnan believed that the People's Liberation Army could not eat his more than 20,000 people, so he forced Liu Jie to continue to march towards Yichuan.
Senior officers, including Liu Jie, felt a sense of despair.
On February 29, liu Jiebu came out of Wazi Street and found that a large net was waiting for him.
At 2:00 a.m., Nishino 1st Column attacked Liu Jie's rearguard from west of Wazi Street, and after four hours of fierce fighting, captured Wazi Street and occupied the high ground south of Wazi Street, cutting off Liu Jie's retreat.
Liu Jie understood that his situation was already very dangerous, and after consulting with Wang Yingzun, the commander of the reorganized 27th Division, decided to retreat from the south side of the highway to Huanglong Mountain, but at that time they could not contact Yan Ming, the commander of the reorganized 90th Division. He called the headquarters of the reorganized 90th Division, but was ridiculed by Zeng Wensi, chief of staff of the division:
Before the battle is fought, we want to run, and we have not fought this kind of battle.
It is also more funny to say, the reason why yanming cannot be contacted is because yanming is sleeping. As a result, the breakthrough force was insufficient, and Liu Jie's troops were left behind.
When Liu Jie found himself completely surrounded, he calmly ordered Yan Ming to retake the high ground south of Wazi Street, opening a gap for the troops. His decision was very correct, and there was such a sentence in the later "Battle History of the First Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army":
"If this gap is not quickly blocked, it will leave the enemy with a way to break through and escape."
So on this small highland, the two sides launched an extremely bloody battle, Ren Shihong, commander of the 714th Regiment of the 358th Brigade of Nishino, Wu Zhi'an, chief of staff, Han Pointer, deputy brigade commander of the 53rd Brigade of the Nationalist Army, and He Yixin, commander of the 158th Regiment, were killed here, and there were thousands of casualties on both sides!
In the end, the People's Liberation Army won the victory, and this victory was also very difficult, and in the end, only 13 people were left in the 6th Company of the 714 Regiment who were nailed to the position!
On March 1, Liu Jie's troops were divided and surrounded by the Platon Army, and it was no longer possible to form a unified command, and at 4 p.m., all the positions on both sides of the highway were occupied by the PLA.
When the People's Liberation Army attacked its headquarters with only 100 meters left, Liu Jie's guard troops also all scattered and fled, and he was sad and indignant, picking up a grenade to detonate himself, at the age of 42.
In the entire Battle of Yiwa, the Northwest Field Army annihilated more than 30,000 enemy troops.
Liu Zhenshi, chief of staff of the 29th Army, Li Qiheng, deputy commander of the 27th Division, Zeng Wensi, chief of staff of the 90th Division, and others were captured, while Yan Ming, commander of the 90th Division, Zhou Youzhi, commander of the 31st Brigade, and Li Da, commander of the 47th Brigade, were killed.
This was an unprecedented victory after the Northwest Field Army turned into a strategic offensive, and Chairman Mao praised this battle for changing the situation in the northwest and affecting the entire central plains war situation.
Of course, for an anti-Japanese general like Liu Jie, our army still gave him respect and buried him thickly.
Chiang Kai-shek was also very attentive to Liu Jie, and only two months later he was posthumously promoted to general of the Nationalist Army, and later in Taiwan Chiang Kai-shek once again promoted him to general of the Nationalist Army.
If Liu Jie had chosen the people's side, his achievements would have been even greater, but alas.