Changchun is located in the hinterland of northeast China, in the middle of the Songliao Plain, and is a railway transportation hub in northeast China, which has an extremely important strategic position. After the September 18 Incident, the northeast fell, Japan built the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo in Changchun, and improved the power system and water supply system in the city, the Kwantung Army also built many permanent fortifications here, and the Kuomintang army continued to strengthen the defense of Changchun after occupying Changchun.
On January 1, 1948, the Northeast Democratic United Army was renamed the Northeast People's Liberation Army
Northeast Military District
and the Northeast Field Army, with the former Headquarters of the Democratic Coalition Army as the military region and the leading organ of the field army, Lin Biaoren
Commander
He was also the political commissar, and Lin Biaoren
He is also the political commissar, Gao Gang is the first deputy commander and deputy political commissar, Lu Zhengcao, Zhou Baozhong, Xiao Jinguang are the deputy commanders, and Luo Ronghuan is the first deputy political commissar.
Chen yun
Li Fuchun served as deputy political commissar, Liu Yalou and Wu Xiuquan as chiefs of staff, and Tan Zheng as director of the political department.
By the summer of 1948, the total strength of the People's Liberation Army in the northeast reached 1.03 million, of which there were 12 infantry columns, 15 independent divisions, 1 artillery column, 1 railway column, 3 cavalry divisions, 1 tank regiment, etc. in the field army, a total of more than 700,000 people, controlling most of the cities and almost all rural areas in the northeast, while the Kuomintang army had only more than 500,000 troops in the northeast, occupying only jinzhou, Changchun, Shenyang, Benxi, Huludao and other major cities and key areas along the railway.
On April 18, 1948, the Northeast Bureau and the Northeast Military Region discussed the strategic point of attack. On April 24, the Northeast Field Army captured the two airfields of Xiaohelong and Dafangshen, cutting off air transport between Changchun and Shenyang. However, due to the equal strength of the People's Liberation Army and the nationalist forces besieging Changchun, Dongye realized that Changchun could not attack strongly, but should adopt a policy of siege to trap the Changchun defenders in the city.
On May 30, Dongzong issued an order to the besieging forces in Changchun to seal Changchun tightly, ordering independent divisions to block all roads and build fortifications in the suburbs of Changchun with battalion units, and the main forces to control the airfield outside the city, and control the free roads inside the city with long-range artillery fire, prohibiting grain, vegetables, and fuel from entering the enemy-occupied areas.
On June 5, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan once again issued instructions to besiege and blockade Changchun, delineating within 50 kilometers of Changchun City as a blockade area, prohibiting the free passage of people, vehicles and horses, severing commercial relations between the outside world and Changchun City, and strictly prohibiting the flow of grain, firewood, and other means of subsistence into Changchun. On June 22, the besieging forces entered the designated position and began a total blockade of Changchun. At this time, there were still 400,000 people in Changchun, of which 100,000 were Kuomintang troops, their families, and left-behind personnel.
Guarding Changchun was the First Corps of the Kuomintang Army, commander Zheng Dongguo, whose troops were mainly the New Seventh Army and the 60Th Army withdrawn from Yongfeng, with a total of 60,000 troops, and 40,000 local troops, with a total strength of 100,000 troops. Zheng Dongguo took the Changchun garrison as two garrison areas with Central Avenue, the 60th Army in the east and the New Seventh Army in the west, and the headquarters was located in the Central Bank Building.
The PLA troops besieging Changchun consisted of the 6th, 18th Division, the 34th Division of the 12th Column, and the 35th Division, as well as the Independent 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Divisions; an encirclement circle was divided into two parts, with the independent 6th, 8th, and 9th Divisions besieging the eastern region, and the 18th Division of the Sixth Column as a mobile unit; the 7th and 10th Independent Divisions encircling the western region; the 34th Division of the Twelfth Column, and the 35th Division as mobile units were arranged as mobile units in the direction of the enemy's main breakthrough in the west and southwest of the city, and the rest of the troops formed a second encirclement circle on the periphery, which completed a 45-kilometer radius centered on the Great Wall The blockade circle with a depth of 25 kilometers prohibits grain, vegetables, fuel, cattle and horses and other materials from entering the city. A middle ground was formed between the checkpoints of the People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang Army.
After the Great Wall was besieged, the city was in a state of panic, and the Kuomintang army's Changchun defenders could only rely on airdrops for food, and at least 40 sorties a day had to be dispatched to meet the needs of the military. However, because the airdrop aircraft were often fired by the PLA anti-aircraft artillery unit and anti-aircraft machine guns, these aircraft did not dare to fly low and could only be airdropped at a high altitude, resulting in a lot of grain and materials being put into the PLA positions outside the city.
The Kuomintang defenders in the city were well aware of the importance of grain at this time, and they rushed to buy grain in the city while conducting household registration and registration of surplus grain. As soon as Changchun was besieged, Zheng Dongguo, Changchun Mayor Shang Chuandao, and others formulated grain management measures, stipulating that the people should have a limit on the amount of grain they could store until the end of September, and that the surplus grain must be sold to the government as military food, and that grain trading must also be set in accordance with government pricing, and that grain prices should not be inflated, and those who violate the law will be severely punished.
After the promulgation of Zheng Dongguo's grain management measures, instead of curbing the rise in grain prices, it led to panic among the people, and grain prices soared, and by the end of September, the price of a kilogram of sorghum rice had risen thousands of times. The New Seventh Army had been stationed in the city for a relatively early time and had a considerable amount of grain, but the 60th Army had just entered the city and did not have much grain, so it began to rob the people of grain in the urban area, and to see whose house was smoking, they went to grab grain.
The people of the whole city had no food to eat, and there was no firewood for cooking and heating, and the Kuomintang army troops began to demolish the houses of the common people, and some three- and four-story wooden buildings were forcibly demolished by the Kuomintang troops. Some streets and areas of houses were demolished by the Kuomintang army, and even the coffins in the cemetery were dug up, and the people rushed to the street.
On September 11, 1948, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan issued an order to the besieging forces in front, demanding that the Changchun refugees be released from the city. As soon as the checkpoint of the blockade line was opened, hungry refugees flocked out, and in order to accommodate these refugees, the siege forces and local governments set up dozens of refugee shelters in the front and rear, distributing 4,000 tons of grain, 500 kilograms of salt and 6 yuan of relief money, pulling a group of dying refugees back from the line of death.
During the Siege of Changchun, no less than 100,000 ordinary people starved to death, but the Kuomintang troops, police and agents in the city still sang and danced and lived a luxurious life.
On the evening of October 17, the dinner table of the monk Zheng Dongguo preached was four dishes and one soup; on the 33rd birthday of Guan Mengling, inspector general of the Military Command Inspection Office, a table of wine banquets cost 90 billion yuan (northeast circulation coupons); Xiang Naiguang, director of the Changchun Station of the Kuomintang Military Unification, asked for a big supplement in the summer and set up three tables of full sheep at a time; the quartermaster of the new 38th Division, during the siege of the city, set up a banquet and married two Japanese women as concubines at a time.
After the liberation of Changchun on October 19, the warehouse of the New Seventh Army was opened, and "it contained rice, white noodles, canned food, biscuits, sugar, and many barrels of soybean oil", enough to be used until the end of December, but there was no distribution to the people. During the siege, 100,000 people starved to death, but none of the city's 100,000 troops, police gendarme agents, military dependents, and government officials starved to death.