In June 1946, the Central Plains Liberation War began.
In the beginning, Chiang Kai-shek originally wanted to use the Kuomintang army to drag the Central Plains Liberation Army of the Communist Party of China, and through this means, he completed his own arrangement of the entire Chinese war situation, so that the Kuomintang army could smoothly march to north And northeast China, and thus make the Kuomintang army occupy a priority position in the strategic posture of the whole of China. It has to be said that Chiang Kai-shek's calculation was played very well, but it is a pity that the PLA army in the Central Plains completely smashed chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy and won the battle to defend the Central Plains.
In this long-lasting and hugely costly defense war in the Central Plains, the Central Plains People's Liberation Army did not hold the base area in the end, which should be logically characterized as a failed war in the Central Plains breakthrough, but in fact it was not.
In the history of the Communist Party of China, we generally believe that the breakthrough in the Central Plains was the first large-scale war opened by our Party in the War of Liberation, which has great epoch-making significance and symbolism in the historical process of liberating all of China. As the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains Military Region, Li Xiannian was the one who commanded the campaign of the Central Plains breakthrough, so what was the evaluation of him?
After the founding of New China, even though the Central Plains Liberation War did not achieve unexpected results, many founding fathers had a positive understanding and judgment of Li Xiannian, and no one ever said that there was anything wrong with Li Xiannian's command style and combat style in this battle, and everyone's evaluation of him was positive. So, what kind of war was the Central Plains Breakthrough? What role did Li Xiannian play in this war, so that he was later unanimously recognized by the generals? Let's go with us.
Let's first talk about the composition of the troops involved in the breakthrough of the Central Plains. Unlike the troops of the Northeast Field Army or the North China Military Region, the Central Plains Field Army participating in the Central Plains Breakthrough was not the same well-trained unit and military force at the beginning. Rather, the force was formed on an ad hoc basis. The soldiers in the unit came from different military regions and branches, some of them were once the New Fourth Army, and some were once the Eighth Route Army. Due to the differences in the ranks and other types of troops and the problems from various military regions, the strength of the troops in the Central Plains breakthrough is not strong, and if we want to achieve good results and achievements in the Central Plains breakthrough, this means that Li Xiannian and other leaders of the Central Plains Military Region have skillful tactics and amazing strategic thinking, are familiar with the military strength and military strategy of each campaign, and are not allowed to make a single mistake.
This also doomed the difference between the Central Plains Breakthrough War and the Red Army's Long March and other huge battles, not only can not pool forces, concentrate on attacking the Kuomintang army, but on the contrary, it is necessary to have both the main and secondary, multi-road operations, lengthening the front line and other basic strategies and tactics, investing huge efforts in each campaign, gradually narrowing the gap with the Kuomintang army, and finally defeating the Kuomintang army.
In fact, if you want to clarify the incident of the central plains breakthrough, you must follow
Tongbai Mountain will be a teacher
Speaking of. At that time, the three armies met at Tongbai Mountain, which was actually a matter of last resort. As early as August 1945, the Eight-Year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression between China and Japan came to an end. Japan became a defeated country and China became a victorious country. But then came the war within China. The already less intimate cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was even more absent. At that time, the Kuomintang army did not experience a large-scale battle in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the loss of the Strength of the Kuomintang Army in the War of Resistance Against Japan was not obvious. On the other hand, due to the reasons of active resistance against Japan, many officers and men of our army were killed and injured in the War of Resistance, and the overall military strength was greatly reduced. Coupled with the fact that the Chinese Communist Party was founded later than the Kuomintang, its overall military and political strength was inferior to that of the Kuomintang. Therefore, when Japan's external troubles disappeared, the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party became even more prominent. The military and political strength of the Kuomintang is stronger than that of the Communist Party of China, which means that our Party is in a very unfavorable position.
Therefore, it is necessary to combine several large troops in the country, after all, it is difficult to stand alone. Only by pooling military forces can we avoid the kuomintang troops from breaking down one by one and gain a little superiority in the strategic layout of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. With this in mind,
Cmc
Finally, an order was issued to carry out the Chinese Communist army near the Tongbai Mountains
Overall meeting division
。
So why did you choose Tongbai Mountain? Mainly for two reasons. First, the Area of Tongbai Mountainous Area is very large, and the Communist Party of China has become accustomed to guerrilla warfare, and meeting divisions in Tongbai Mountainous Areas has a great advantage in the preservation and integrity of the military strength of our Party's army. The second reason was that in the Tongbai Mountains, the overall strength of the Kuomintang army was relatively weak and easy to attack. Because it is in a mountainous area, the Generals of the Kuomintang Army have less oil and water in this place. Upon hearing of Japan's surrender, Chiang Kai-shek did not allow the Chinese Communist Party to accept the surrender, and in the end it was only the Kuomintang squadron that accepted Japan's surrender. Therefore, many of the Kuomintang troops stationed in the Tongbai Mountains ran to nearby cities and accepted the surrender of Japan, thus satisfying the pockets of the army generals themselves. For these two reasons,
The Central Military Commission's choice of the Tongbai Mountains was undoubtedly a correct decision
So which three armies are the main divisions of the three armies? In fact, the word three in China means many. This means that several large Chinese troops have come to the Tongbai Military Region to meet the division, and there are four main military forces. The first one is
Wang Shusheng
The troops of the Henan Military Region, led by more than 10,000 troops, gradually moved south from the western region of Henan to the Tongbai area of Henan. The second branch is the Jiluyu Military Region in the western part of the Yellow River
Yang Jin
The army led by the Jiluyu Military Region and the Japanese army often fought guerrilla warfare, and they approached the nearest area from the guerrilla area to the southwest region. The third branch is
Hunan National Salvation Army
The force moved north and gradually reached the Tongbai Mountains. The fourth armed force, and the largest army armed force, is the Fifth Army of the New Fourth Army led by Li Xiannian. Li Xiannian had previously led the army to fight against the Japanese and Kuomintang troops in the area around Wuhan, and the Communist forces in other areas had always been in a state of remote proximity, with almost no contact, and belonged to a lone army. nevertheless
Li Xiannian
Still leading the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army, it has been fighting against the Kuomintang army and the Japanese invading army.
After Japan's surrender, the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communists intensified. Faced with a clear order from the Central Military Commission, Li Xiannian did not hesitate to lead his team to the Tongbai area. On the way to the Tongbai Mountains, the new Fourth Army was ambushed by Nationalist troops. In the face of the attack of the Kuomintang army, these four teams watched out for each other and helped each other. Although the war was fierce, they still gradually moved closer to the Tongbai Mountains with firm faith.
From August to October 1945, after two months, the Chinese Communist Party's army finally met in the Tongbai Mountains.
Although after the meeting, the total number of troops was only more than 60,000 people. The number of this army was really vulnerable compared to the number of Kuomintang troops.
After the successful meeting of the division, the Central Military Commission gathered and reorganized these four units to form a new Central Plains Military Region, and Li Xiannian became the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains Military Region. In the entire Battle of Tongbai, there were two main stages of the battle, during which more than 7,000 Kuomintang troops were wiped out. In the first stage, the morale of the soldiers of our army soared, and the Kuomintang squadron was still able to fight bravely and achieved very good results. However, in the second stage, some difficulties were encountered. First of all, the town of Pingshi was lost, and the subsequent adverse situation was also encountered in the Battle of Shuanggou and the Battle of Qi Yi.
There are many reasons why these three battles were not fought well. The first was that in the early period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the various units of the Central Plains Military Region were more adapted to the method of guerrilla warfare in the face of Japanese imperialist aggression, that is, to break through the enemy individually. There is still a difference between the current mode of warfare and the concentrated attack in the campaign with the Kuomintang army, and it is precisely the incompatibility of this mode of warfare that has become a reason for the defeat of the campaign. The second reason is that the troops of the Central Plains Military Region are all formed through these four armed forces, and the run-in between the units has not yet ended, and in the interaction between war cooperation and peacetime operations, soldiers and generals may have some discomfort. The third reason was that at that time, the leading body of the entire Central Plains Military Region had just been established, and the leaders were only familiar with their original units, and they had not yet fully understood the situation of the troops of the entire Military Region.
In combat, because they were not familiar with the situation of the troops and were not fierce enough in combat against the enemy, and the use of strategy and tactics was not extreme enough, it led to the defeat of the war. Ren Zhibin later pointed out in an interview that if he had been more ruthless in commanding the campaign at that time, it would have been possible to win the Battle of Shuanggou. The fourth reason was that the troops of the Central Plains Military Region at that time lacked large-scale weapons and equipment, relied too much on guerrilla warfare and night warfare, and did not attach enough importance to the offensive warfare.
Finally, because the Tongbai Mountains are a newly established theater of operations, when fighting against the Kuomintang troops, our Party's propaganda for the army was not in place enough. The Kuomintang troops generally believed that the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Communists were very great, and that they would be killed after being captured by the Chinese Communists, so their mood of fighting was more serious, and they resolutely resisted and would never surrender. In short, although some of the wars in the Battle of Tongbai were in a position of defeat, on the whole, it was beneficial to the strategic coordination of the entire Chinese region. This point has also been affirmed by the Central Military Commission for its operations.
The Battle of Tongbai was also the most important battle in the Central Plains Breakout Campaign
。 The Central Military Commission is right
Battle of Tongbai
This affirmation also enabled Li Xiannian's men to achieve good results in leading the Central Plains Military Region in a breakthrough.
So in the course of the war, what important role did Li Xiannian play? First of all, since the Central Plains Military Region is composed of four different armed forces, there are also some contradictions and problems of getting along between the troops. There are also some contradictions between ordinary soldiers and between grass-roots leaders. For this point, Li Xiannian's understanding is very in place. However, in the course of the overall war, there were no elements of disunity in the command and operation of the Central Plains Military Region, which was inseparable from Li Xiannian's own command and unity concept. As commander-in-chief of the Central Plains Military Region, Li Xiannian's democratic style was very solid. For both young generals and ordinary soldiers, Li Xiannian gave enough respect. When solving problems such as the materials of the troops, Li Xiannian did not hide anything from himself, only to solve practical problems and did not attach importance to private thoughts.
In short, Li Xiannian's own high style and admired style of work have been recognized by many generals and soldiers, and he has gained important advantages in leading the campaign.
Many people believe that the Central Plains breakthrough is a defeated battle, they believe that it is necessary to preserve the base area in the Central Plains, and the Central Plains breakthrough without holding the base area is a defeated battle. But in fact, the Central Plains region was an area that chiang kai-shek's Kuomintang government attached great importance to, and Chiang invested huge troops for this purpose. Moreover, the overall strength of the Central Plains Military Region is not strong. If you want to win the war, you will definitely pay a huge price. Even so, it is not necessarily a sure victory. For now,
The central plains breakthrough can definitely be called a victorious battle, and li Xiannian's role in it cannot be ignored.