During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Eighth Route Army's ammunition reserves were quite scarce, and the main source was captured from the enemy army.
However, capturing weapons and bullets is not an easy task, and many of our army's weapons cannot be paired with enemy bullets, and bullets that cannot be matched cannot be used.
The Japanese were well aware that the Eighth Route Army was not full of ammunition, and even deliberately set traps to ambush the soldiers who were picking up bullets on the battlefield of our army.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army was holding a miscellaneous light weapon of the "Ten Thousand Nations" brand, and it would often fall into the dilemma of having guns and no bullets.
Of course, the arsenals in the base areas of the Eighth Route Army also produced bullets, but they were far from enough to consume ammunition.
arsenal
On August 14, 1945, Emperor Hirohito of Japan promulgated the Edict of the End of the War, announcing unconditional surrender. However, both the Japanese army and the puppet army surrendered to the Kuomintang, and our army did not receive much guns and ammunition.
The problem of weapons and ammunition of the Eighth Route Army is still prominent. The main force did not receive more than ten rounds of ammunition per capita. There are even fewer local troops.
On August 16, Yan Xishan invaded and occupied the counties of Changzhi and Huguan liberated by the Eighth Route Army from the puppet army, hoping to seize the fruits of our army's victory.
Naturally, our army will not tolerate it. Liu Bocheng ordered:
"Resolutely eliminate the Yanxishan department that invaded Changzhi and its surrounding areas, and retake Changzhi and the county towns."
Liu Bocheng
Therefore, the center of the battle belonged to Shangdang County, so it was called the Shangdang Campaign.
In the Shangdang Campaign, the commanders of our army frequently came up with brilliant plans. The capture of millions of rounds of ammunition in one battle had a major impact on the War of Liberation.
Causes of the Shangdang Campaign
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng led the 129th Division to create an anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines in the Changzhi area.
The Changzhi area is an old revolutionary area, with the Taihang Mountains to the east and the Taiyue Mountains to the south. Because of its rugged mountainous terrain and rugged terrain, it has been a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times.
After Japan surrendered, Yan Xishan believed that his opportunity to occupy southeastern Jin as "Emperor Tu" had come.
Yan Xishan has ruled Shanxi for 30 years, and in the middle and late stages of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he has been avoiding war and recuperating.
"Taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese Kou have not yet completely withdrawn from the Shangdang area, our side will first seize the Shangdang, and then seize Shanxi with the help of the Shangdang's sufficient military resources and grain."
On August 16, 1945, Chiang Kai-shek issued a secret order from Yan Xishan, which was exactly in line with Yan Xishan's wishes.
It should be known that at this time Chiang Kai-shek was preparing to carry out a northward strategy to negotiate with the Communists in Chongqing, and Yan Xishan's occupation of the Shangdang area could add chips to the Kuomintang in the negotiations.
August 16, 1945. In the name of the Japanese puppet army, Yan Xishan ordered Shi Zebo, commander of the 19th Army, to lead 3 divisions and 2 columns, totaling more than 14,000 people, to invade the Changzhi area.
Japanese puppet army
Many puppet armies were Yan Xishan's troops before they defected to the Japanese puppet army, and the process of Shi Zebo's absorption of the Japanese puppet army was very smooth.
With the cooperation of the Japanese puppet army, Shi Zebo led the army from Linfen to invade, and in late August occupied the cities of Xiangyuan, Lucheng, Changzhi, Changzi, Huguan, and Tunliu.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concentrated its leadership and response to the invasion of Yan Xishan's army. On August 20, the Jiluyu Military Region was established, with Deng Xiaoping as political commissar and Liu Bocheng as commander.
At that time, the People's Liberation Army was quite numerous, but the organization was scattered.
On the day liu Bocheng took office, he said: "The most urgent task now is to concentrate the troops, and forming a fist is victory." ”
Therefore, the main forces in Taihang, Taiyue, Ji'nan and other areas were organized into three field columns with a total of 31,000 people. Another 50,000 militia were mobilized to cooperate in the operation. Preparations were made for resolutely eliminating the Yan Xishan forces in Changzhi and the surrounding areas and retaking the Shangdang area.
At this time the three columns were facing a serious problem, although the columns were composed of veteran soldiers who had experienced hundreds of battles, and there was no problem of combat mood, but each regiment was less than two battalions.
What is even more fatal is that the field columns are poorly equipped, mostly carrying miscellaneous brands of light machine guns.
In particular, there was a shortage of bullets, and the Taihang Column could only get 2 to 3 rounds of ammunition per soldier on average. The ammunition situation in other columns was also much worse.
Light machine gun
On the other hand, Shi Zebo's side had sophisticated American ordnance and also collected the Japanese ordnance of the surrendered puppet army. Shi Zebo led 16,000 troops to occupy the Shangdang area. Among them, 11,000 people were stationed in Changzhi City, and more than 1,000 defenders were arranged in each of the five surrounding cities.
Unplug Satellite City
Changzhi was the capital of the Shangdang region, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was the key fortified city of the Japanese army, with high walls, deep trenches, and complete and strong fortifications. It was in this way that Szepo took the city as his main stronghold.
And Liu Bocheng is quite aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and us. Our army did not have much ammunition, so we could not directly fight Changzhi, but first pulled out the "soft nails" around us and seized bullets, artillery, and other materials.
"The strength of the other side is firepower, they are good at building fortifications, and the old walls and the fortresses built by the Japanese army. Our army lacks ammunition, and this battle cannot be fought hard. ”
"We must give full play to our own advantages; our army is good at field warfare and dares to fight white-knife warfare; moreover, this battle is not far from our base area, and we should give full play to the role of the intelligence department."
For many years, the Eighth Route Army was engaged in guerrilla warfare, and the next battle would be a large-scale movement war, and it would also be a battle against the city. Many warriors will certainly be unfamiliar with this method of warfare.
Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping carefully studied the operational characteristics of Yan Xishan's troops and made a detailed analysis:
"Yan Xishan's troops are good at defense, and they will build pillboxes in the shape of characters, control powerful reserves, and carry out counter-assaults. In addition, it has a stronghold on the periphery, forming a corner with the bunker. ”
"Therefore, our army has to fight continuous urban battles in order to eliminate them. This kind of combat is a delicate and unpleasant skill battle, but it must not be thick and leafy, and rush in a dense formation. ”
The counterattack began on August 27, the Taihang column surrounded Xiangyuan City, and before the counterattack began, the intelligence department personnel captured a large number of Yan fang soldiers in the liberated areas, and clarified the military deployment of the enemy troops defending the city.
Not only that, Zhai Pinsan, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army in the city, was "blind" before the war began. Within a 20-mile radius of Xiangyuan City, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cut off pedestrian traffic in every village. Information outside Xiangyuan City was completely blocked.
Until the night of the 29th, the Kuomintang troops in the city could not determine the movement of the People's Liberation Army, and they were still spreading rumors.
"I heard that the Eighth Route Army is coming to fight Xiangyuan."
It was not until that night, when the People's Liberation Army really came to attack the city, that the defenders of the city woke up from their dreams, and Xiangyuan was easily captured by our army without the preparation of the enemy defenders.
Relying on the gap in intelligence work between the two sides, our army won the victory.
In the Battle of Shangdang, our army attacked and captured the city
On September 10, 1945, the Battle of Shangdang officially began, and Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping planned to first pull out several surrounding satellite cities, leaving the defenders of Changzhi alone.
In the early morning of the 11th, the Taihang column, under the command of Chen Xilian, launched an attack on the county seat of Tunliu County, and our army first blew a gap in the city wall with artillery fire, and then charged en masse, and began a street battle with the enemy in the county town.
The enemy did not seem to have learned of the information that the People's Liberation Army had come to attack the city before being shelled, the 1,000 defenders in the city were not opponents at all, the enemy army resisted for a while in the street battle and was annihilated, and only a small number of soldiers escorted the commander of the enemy's provisional 38th Division to escape. Our army successfully took Tunliu.
The commanders of the enemy divisions who remained in Tun made repeated contact with Changzhi.
"The Eighth Route Army is coming menacingly, and our unit is about to fall!" Request reinforcements! ”
A corner of Changzhi City during the War of Resistance
However, the Yan army of Changzhi did not dare to move, because each county town was tens of kilometers apart, and it was difficult for large troops to attack. So I can only watch as Tunliu is conquered.
On the 13th, Chen Geng and Xie Fuzhi led the Taiyue column to attack the eldest son, and the city walls of the eldest son were strong, so our army had to seize the outlying strongholds first.
Chen Geng came up with a good way to siege the city:
"Part of our army pretended to attack at the North Gate to attract local forces, while another part of the troops stood by at the West Gate, and then sent people to dig tunnels from the West Gate houses, and installed explosive packs after digging under the walls of the West Gate!"
The plan went fairly smoothly, and the enemy commander had no information about the outside of the city, and it was not at all certain how many PLA troops were outside the city. The enemy forces inside the city were drawn all their attention by the People's Liberation Army outside the north gate.
With a loud bang, the west gate city wall in Changzi County was blown out of a huge gap, and the troops who had been waiting at the west gate earlier charged through the gap into the city. The troops in the city had no sense of resistance and soon surrendered.
On the other side, Chen Zaidao also commanded the Ji'nan column to capture Lucheng.
With the Taihang Column taking Huguan on the 19th, the three field columns of our army liberated all satellite cities around Changzhi. Changzhi City is already a turtle in an urn.
After laying down five cities, the People's Liberation Army captured a lot of weapons and ammunition, and finally temporarily got rid of the dilemma of less than three rounds of ammunition per capita.
However, the total number of bullets is still not optimistic, and if we want to launch a tough battle against Changzhi, the current stock of bullets is still far from enough.
Surround the point to help
After capturing satellite city, Liu Bocheng commanded three columns to surround Changzhi. And ordered:
"The Jinan column was from the southeast, the Taihang column was in the northwest, the Taiyue column was from the southwest, and the three sides besieged Changzhi City"
The enemy's fortifications are strong, and our army has very little ammunition, in order to avoid too much loss of troops, Liu Bocheng stressed:
"Lure the enemy to the outside, and resolutely destroy the enemy in the field."
Soon, our army uprooted many strongholds outside Changzhi City.
Inside Changzhi City, Shi Zebo, commander of the Nineteenth Army, scratched his head in a hurry, and it was only nine days, and the five surrounding cities were all breached by the People's Liberation Army.
Shi Zebo only sent 6,000 people to reinforce at the beginning, but as soon as he came into contact with the People's Liberation Army, he was frightened back by the fierce and cunning guerrilla play of the other side, and he no longer dared to go out of the city to help.
In desperation, Shi Zebo called Yan Xishan for help.
"Although our unit resisted stubbornly, the ammunition consumption was huge, and we asked for reinforcements."
When Yan Xishan heard the news of Changzhi, he hurriedly asked Peng Yubin, deputy commander of the Seventh Army, to lead 8 divisions from Taiyuan to reinforce.
Because Shi Zebo specifically mentioned that the Changzhi defenders were short of ammunition, Yan Xishan specially ordered the 23,000-strong reinforcements to bring a large number of guns and ammunition.
Yan Xishan sent reinforcements as Expected by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.
"Changzhi this bone will not gnaw on him first, let's eat the fat meat in front of us first!"
Changzhi
Liu Bocheng decided to encircle the point to help. Commanding Chen Geng and Chen Xilian to lead two columns to lay ambushes at Laoye Mountain and Mopan Pass.
Peng Yubin's reinforcements carried a large amount of guns and ammunition to help Shi Zebo defend the city, and also brought two artillery regiments. Each infantryman carried two pieces of ammunition, and some infantry even carried more than 300 rounds of ammunition.
But Peng Yubin did not expect that his support army did not occupy the time, location, and people.
During the anti-Japanese period, the Yan army hooked up with the Japanese army and tried to avoid war. The soldiers under his command were heartless, and the officers only wanted to be promoted and rich. Even Xu Yongchang, head of the Kuomintang Military Command Department, couldn't look down.
"Today, the big officers demand territory, the petty officers are ready to take advantage of themselves, and the laws are like hair and there are many drawbacks, there is no moral track on the top, and it is impossible to defend it at the bottom!"
On September 15, Peng Yubin led reinforcements from Qi County, and along the way, flash floods broke out, the roads were muddy, and the soldiers were carrying heavy ammunition and suffering.
Not only that, but the residents along the way are "firm and clear". The Yan army did not catch many coolies to transport grain, grass and ammunition, nor did it have food replenishment. The soldiers were hungry and cold, and they were more and more discouraged from fighting.
Peng Yubin did not want to care about the soldiers under him, after all, Yan Xishan's orders were the most important, peng Yubin frantically urged the troops to move forward, without the slightest expectation that they had fallen into the pocket formation of the People's Liberation Army.
On October 2, the main force of the People's Liberation Army 's reinforcements encountered enemy forces northwest of Tunliu, and Liu Bocheng instructed the PLA's left and right flanks to give way to the front and lure the enemy deeper, and then the two columns detoured from the flanks to encircle the reinforcements, trapping the reinforcements in the area from Laoye Mountain and Mopan'an to yulin.
Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng
At first, Liu Bocheng thought that the reinforcements had only 3 divisions and about 7,000 people, but later realized that it was more than 20,000 people in 8 divisions. The total number of enemies and reinforcements in the city is even greater than the number of the People's Liberation Army!
He immediately adjusted his deployment and transferred 6,000 men from the besieged Ji'nan Column to reinforce to ensure that there was a local superiority in troops.
The Taihang and Taiyue columns soon fought the enemy at the two hills of Laoye Ridge and Mopan' An, but the Yan army had no other skills, and when the turtle had a set, it quickly established a field fortification at the top of the mountain, and held the hill with a large amount of ammunition reserves.
Our army's ammunition reserves were far inferior to those of the Yan army, and Liu Bocheng resolutely adopted the strategy of "attacking at night and defending by day", taking advantage of the fact that the enemy was forced to get close at close range at night, firing cold guns, and then snatching away the enemy's ammunition.
In order to avoid fighting a battle of siege and attrition, Liu Bocheng specially "encircled three ques and one" and released a "way of life" to induce the enemy to break through.
As soon as the enemy left the fortifications, our army and the enemy began a campaign annihilation war in the field.
The water source of Peng Yubin's troops was cut off by the Platon Army, and there was not enough food, and his officers and soldiers had already been beaten to the ground, and the scouts actually came up with the conclusion that "the PLA has six columns and more than a dozen mountain artillery!" " ridiculous conclusion.
Peng Yubin was frightened and decided to break through from the "road to life" given by the People's Liberation Army.
Liu Bocheng knew that psychological tactics had succeeded, the People's Liberation Army had also occupied the ambush point at the top of the hill in advance, and the enemy's powerful firepower could not be unleashed when the fortifications were launched, and this reinforcement army failed to set off any storms and was successfully annihilated by our army.
The Taiyuan reinforcements were annihilated by the People's Liberation Army, and Shi Zebo, who was guarding Changzhi, fell into despair and called Yan Xishan:
"I am afraid that giving up the party is the end, and not giving up is also the end, we must boost morale and escape from death!"
Yan Xishan
On October 7, Shi Zebo led his troops to flee southwest from Changzhi in the heavy rain at night, and the People's Liberation Army had already designed a pocket array to surround and intercept Shi Zebo.
On October 12, the People's Liberation Army completely annihilated the enemy army east of the Qin River, and Shi Zebo was captured, so that more than 10,000 yan troops defending the city were really "finished".
A million bullets were captured in one battle
The Battle of Shangdang was a large-scale annihilation of the Kuomintang Yan Xishan' forces. The battle loss ratio between the People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang Army reached 4:35, and it was a complete victory.
Our army annihilated more than 35,000 enemy troops. Of these, 31,000 were taken prisoner. Yan Xishan lost one-third of his army in the First Battle. Originally, 8 corps could only be reorganized into 5 corps.
In the Shangdang Campaign, our army's tactics were exquisite, a large number of enemy troops were captured, and the guns and ammunition of the enemy's support for Changzhi were all captured by our army.
Chen Xilian
After the war, Chen Xilian excitedly told Chen Geng: "We have captured more than one hundred thousand rounds of ammunition! ”
Not only one million rounds of ammunition, but also 74 guns, 2,200 light and heavy machine guns, 16,000 long and short guns and a large number of military supplies were captured.
The Shangdang campaign made the People's Liberation Army, which was in short supply of bullets, "get rich"!
This battle has helped the PLA very much.
Our army, with thirty-one thousand troops and fifty thousand militiamen, defeated the enemy with a great inferior equipment and crushed the ambitions of Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan in their vain attempt to seize the fruits of our army's victory.
Some of the weapons captured in the Battle of Shangdang
The large amount of materials captured in the Shangdang campaign greatly released the combat effectiveness of the People's Liberation Army, and our army had greater confidence to fight against the Kuomintang.
Chiang Kai-shek knew of the defeat of the party campaign on Yan Xishan, and his attitude toward Yan Xishan was even more indifferent, first, they themselves had contradictions, and Yan Xishan was worried that Chiang Kai-shek would threaten his position in Shanxi.
Second, the complete defeat of Yan Xishan in the Shangdang Campaign not only failed to fulfill Chiang Kai-shek's original intention of destroying the effective forces of the People's Liberation Army as expected, but also allowed the People's Liberation Army to capture a large number of military materials, which affected the Chongqing negotiations.
The 1 million bullets greatly increased the Communist Party's bargaining chips in Chongqing.
It indirectly led to the signing of the "Double Tenth Agreement" between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, delayed the outbreak of the civil war, and won precious time for our army to win the victory in the War of Liberation.
Chongqing negotiations
One of the most difficult points in the Shangdang campaign was the lack of ammunition, which was evident in the initial attack on satellite cities, with only a few rounds of ammunition per person, and when it was finished, it was necessary to rush up and fight a white-knife battle.
If there are enough bullets, why fight so hard.
Although under excellent command, our army has successfully used its strengths and avoided its weaknesses. First, he used the intelligence department's information gap and siege tricks to capture the satellite city to obtain some supplies. Again, when encircling and suppressing reinforcements, the offensive battle was turned into a sports battle.
But Chen Geng said, "If the Taihang Column could have 200,000 bullets, the Mill PanYuan would have been captured by our army long ago!" These 1 million rounds of ammunition are enough for us to fight two more battles on the party! ”
The poor are interspersed with tactics, and the rich are bombarded with firepower. The PLA would rather consume more ammunition than the lives of its fighters.
Chen Geng
In this one battle alone, the main force of the People's Liberation Army was equipped with machine guns, and the captured one million bullets were distributed to the soldiers. The People's Liberation Army finally bid farewell to the days when the bullets were less than half a magazine.
The 74 guns were distributed to the artillery unit, and the overall firepower of the artillery was more than double that of the previous one.
The "Wanguo brand" rifle replaced by the main force can also arm the militia and local troops, which will make an important contribution to the principle of "developing to the north and defending to the south" put forward by the CPC Central Committee in the future.
Before the Shangdang campaign, the Plakmen was short of ammunition, and it had to fight and pay attention to the captured materials. Often caught in the dilemma of winning battles, but also running out of bullets.
After this battle, our army greatly alleviated the bullet shortage, not only consolidated the rear area of the Jin-Hebei Luyu Liberated Area, but also completed the transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare. The abundance of bullets also makes the offensive a tactic of choice.
Mao Zedong
Chairman Mao spoke highly of the Shangdang campaign:
"Our policy is set long ago. Tit-for-tat, every inch of land must be fought. ”
"This time, we were right, we fought, and we were right, we fought well. Wipe out all thirteen of their divisions! ”
"When people call, we fight, and fight for peace!"
The one million rounds of ammunition captured in the Shangdang campaign gave our army a more adequate material basis for peace and liberation.