The People's Liberation Army was in a state of disarray, and after fighting the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek's defeat was decided. Although the People's Liberation Army has conquered the Central Plains, the northwest region, the southwest region, and the area south of the Yangtze River have not yet been liberated. Northern China is left with Shanxi, and the liberation of Taiyuan is crucial.
Taiyuan is the home of Shanxi's rich man Yan Xishan, but also the political and cultural center of Shanxi, Yan Xishan operated in Shanxi for 38 years, Taiyuan City is a castle of iron, surrounded by countless fortresses and trenches, the defense system is very perfect, coupled with the well-equipped 100,000 Kuomintang troops, making Taiyuan an easy to defend and difficult to attack city.
Yan Xishan The picture comes from the Internet
In October 1948, Xu Qianqian led 80,000 troops to besiege Taiyuan City. The Pla.D. liberated other cities in Shanxi very easily, but Taiyuan was different. Xu Xiangqian did not underestimate Yan Xishan, and adopted a strategy of steady and steady fighting, step by step to pull out the fortresses outside Taiyuan City, but the defenders of these fortresses were very tenacious, bringing a lot of trouble to the People's Liberation Army, although taiyuan was besieged as an isolated city, but it was still unable to attack for a long time. In order to pull out the fortress outside the city, PLA soldiers rushed to the fort carrying explosives packages, causing considerable losses to the PLA.
For these reasons, Taiyuan City became the most difficult city in the Liberation War.
Why is Taiyuan City the hardest city to beat?
Taiyuan City is densely fortified in military buildings
1. Taiyuan garrison situation
After interviewing Taiyuan, the American reporter came to this conclusion: "
Anyone who arrives in Taiyuan will be amazed by the countless bunkers, high, low, round, triangular, buried in the ground, forming an incredible network of fire.
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Taiyuan is located in the northern part of the Jinzhong Plain, east of the Han Mountains, west of the Fenhe River, south of the mountain peaks, the northern terrain undulating. Taiyuan City was not only operated by Yan Xishan, but also the Japanese army built a solid military defense system here. With Taiyuan as ZTE, surrounded by forts such as the Twin Towers on the outskirts of the city, Crouching Tiger Mountain, Scissors Bay, and Iron and Steel Works as support points. More than 5,000 bunkers were built around the city, and there were barbed wire, mines and other obstacles, forming a crisscrossing defense system.
Yan Xishan also shouted:
"One day the earth turns, and one more day of our fortifications" and "Every position must be built into a permanent fortification that can withstand ten thousand shells!" ”
The bunker outside Taiyuan City The picture comes from the Internet
Yan Xishan also mobilized the whole city to resist the People's Liberation Army, formulated the strategy of all soldiers in the city, regardless of men, women and children, must participate in the defense of the city, formulated the slogan of "restoring the province with the city, restoring the country with the province", and at the same time formulated strict military discipline, killing those who retreated, killing those who surrendered, and killing those who violated the order... What is even more ridiculous is that Yan Xishan prepared a coffin for himself, swore to defend Taiyuan to the death, and threatened: "If you are unsuccessful, you will become a ren." What is disgraceful is that Yan Xishan also let more than 1,000 Japanese troops led by Japanese war criminal Lieutenant General Imamura and Major General Wada Yan join the "Taiyuan Defense War." Yan Xishan's behavior, thinking that he was going to coexist and die with Taiyuan, was unexpected that two months before the People's Liberation Army attacked the city, Yan Xishan flew to Nanjing.
Taiyuan gathered 100,000 elite troops, a total of 6 armies and 16 divisions, as well as security regiments and civil guards.
II. Situation of the People's Liberation Army:
Photo of the Taiyuan Frontline General Front Committee Picture from the Internet
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On April 20, 949, Xu Xiangqian, Yang Dezhi, Hu Yaobang and others formed the General Front Committee of the Taiyuan Front, and because Xu Xiangqian became ill from labor, he replaced Peng Dehuai as the commander and commanded 400,000 troops including the 18th, 19th, and 20th Corps and the Seventh Army of the Northwest Military Region.
The course of the campaign
The 63rd Army of the People's Liberation Army attacked the Twin Pagoda Temple from all sides, and the 559th Regiment of the 187th Division detonated the pre-buried explosives and attacked from the southeast corner. The 560th Regiment used mortars to knock out the Meihua Pillbox, and the 559th Regiment went straight into the enemy's core position.
The Twin Pagoda Temple is the most difficult to fight, the enemy army has a total of 4400 people, there is the 43rd Army's military headquarters, the 49th Division, the 70th Division, the 72nd Division each a regiment, the commander is Liu Xiaozeng, the enemy with the Twin Pagoda Temple as the center, with the surrounding fortresses as the position, stubbornly defended.
The image of the Twin Pagoda Temple comes from the Internet
The 187th Division attacked the east and west sides of the Twin Pagoda Temple to attract enemy fire, the 189th Division seized the opportunity to capture the positions on the west and south sides of the Tower, and 565 and 566 formed three sharp knife companies to attack the enemy headquarters, capturing 80 people including qi Guochao, deputy division commander, and Wang Zhengang, the deputy division commander, and the two companies surrendered.
At the same time, 9 companies of the 566th Regiment attacked the enemy headquarters and captured the commander Liu Xiaozeng alive.
The fierce generals of the 63rd Army besieged the Twin Pagoda Temple, went forward and followed, occupied 12 bunkers and bunkers, annihilated more than 100 enemy people, and planted the red flag on the ancient pagoda. The capture of the Twin Pagoda Temple killed a total of 575 enemy soldiers and captured 3,900 officers below the rank of commander of the enemy army.
The People's Liberation Army Breaks Into Enemy Positions The picture comes from the Internet
After occupying the Twin Pagoda Temple, the People's Liberation Army was faced with the Taiyuan City Gate, which Yan Xishan called the "Iron Gate", which consisted of the WengCheng of Taiyuan City, with three gates, forming a huge fortress, and 6 bunkers next to it, equipped with mortars, heavy machine guns, flamethrowers and other weapons.
On April 24, the 3 vertical "Iron Gate" began to attack, and the Taiyuan general attack began. The sharp knife company of the 563rd Regiment carried the 180-kilogram ladder straight to this big "iron gate", the soldiers desperately threw grenades inside, this big "iron gate" was blown open by our army a hole, the follow-up troops heard the order to enter the city, rushed up, and it took 40 minutes for the red flag to fly at the head of the city!
As the city gate was breached, and the various armies of the 63rd Army rushed directly into the puppet provincial capital, Wang Jingguo, the commander of the Taiyuan garrison, saw that the general situation had gone, and wanted to make a final struggle, ordering three tanks to rush out.
The People's Liberation Army invaded the puppet provincial capital The picture comes from the Internet
The liberation of Taiyuan took more than four hours from beginning to end, but during these four hours, both sides paid a terrible price.
Short comments
The Battle of Taiyuan lasted more than six months, and our army suffered 45,000 casualties, of which 36,000 were killed in street battles and fortress battles with the Kuomintang. It was the longest-lasting, fiercest and most costly urban offensive in the Liberation War. At the same time, 138,000 enemy troops were annihilated, and the casualties of the two armies totaled 170,000 people, which can be imagined how difficult this urban offensive battle is!
After the end of the campaign, Xu Xiangqian was full of emotions whenever he mentioned this matter, and the Battle of Taiyuan that year was delayed again and again because of his own physical reasons, and it was with the help of Boss Peng that Taiyuan was liberated in advance.
After the liberation of Taiyuan, the Kuomintang army in Datong, seeing that it was not an opponent of the People's Liberation Army, decided to surrender to our army and the Kuomintang uprising in Suiyuan may be the result of the Kuomintang's general trend and the desire of the people of the world!
Since ancient times, Taiyuan has been a place where soldiers and families must contend, and the liberation of Taiyuan has accumulated valuable experience for our army in tackling tough battles in cities and provided valuable experience for the PLA to liberate other cities in the future.