Interpretation of the Liaoshen Campaign (3): Encircling points to fight for assistance, the Communists quickly attacked Jinjin; it was retreating or defending, and the Kuomintang could not escape with its wings
According to the historical reality at that time, the Northeast Nationalist Army only had the ability to temporarily hold on to the city with a strong position, and it was completely impossible to attack and fight and win the battle. Under such circumstances, Lao Jiang ordered the concentration of forces to withdraw to Jinzhou, which could not only connect with the North China National Army, but also completely seal Lin Biao's 700,000 troops outside the Guan, thus ensuring the stability of North China. Strategically, this has its rational ingredients. Of course, withdrawing from Jinzhou is not without risks, but no matter how big the risk, it is always much easier than trying to regain Jinzhou after being occupied by Lin Biao.
Having just completed a year-long overseas travel expedition, Wei Lihuang, the second-rank general in the army who was appointed commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" (the so-called overseas inspection was actually just that Old Chiang Kai-shek deprived him of his military power and drove him out of the country), as a senior general who had fought for decades and commanded one-third of the Kuomintang troops, he could not fail to understand this reason, but he always refused to carry out this order. Half a year ago, Chen Cheng, the chief of staff, ambitiously took up the post of director of the Northeast Expedition, trying to fight Lin Biao to the death, and as a result, the troops were annihilated. With the lessons of the previous car, Wei Lihuang always firmly believed that as long as he did not attack and did not move, Lin Biao could not take him. At this time, Lin Biao really couldn't find the fighter to carry out the mobile war because he couldn't hold out. The strategy of sticking to Shenyang was brought to the extreme by Wei Lihuang, and no matter which stronghold was surrounded and annihilated, he could not come to his aid, watching Shenyang become an isolated island.
The reasons for Wei's failure to evacuate the main force from Shenyang to Jinzhou were very complicated and even puzzling, but two things were certain: First, the hundred thousand brothers in Changchun could not be left alone. And if Shenyang sends troops to take changchun to break through and then withdraw from Jinzhou together, then "just like the well to save people, Changchun can not be saved, Shenyang will certainly be unstable"; second, the huge army, but also with their families, it is good to be able to travel five kilometers a day on foot. The three big water side enemies of the Beiliao River, the Huanyang River, and the Xinkai River acted on the side of the three major rivers, and once they encountered an attack, wouldn't adults cry and cry? Before reaching Jinzhou, there is a possibility of being divided and annihilated. When the time comes to withdraw from Jinzhou, the main force in Shenyang has also been sent, and who will bear this historical responsibility? These two points were the high-sounding reasons for his confrontation with Old Jiang. The Northeast National Army has reached such a point that it cannot attack, defend, and cannot even withdraw. "For today's sake, Shenyang can only stick to it to protect itself." As for Changchun, the government is currently being asked to strengthen air transport. "As for the capacity of the air transport and the cost of machinery and fuel, what is the matter with him as a commander-in-chief of the theater?"
When Lin Biao's army was assembling under Jinzhou, Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the Ninth Corps, made a relatively good suggestion: the communist army gathered the main force to besiege Jinzhou, and the area around Changchun and southern Liaoning was relatively empty. The nearly 300,000 nationalist troops in Shenyang are concentrated and can be assembled within two days. To attack and occupy Yingkou in one fell swoop, one can get the necessary supplies from the sea, the other can go north through the Panshan and Gou Gangzi to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, and the third can retreat from the sea when the situation is unfavorable. At the same time, Changchun can also take the opportunity to break through and assemble Shenyang.
In fact, Old Jiang was already determined to abandon the northeast, but he did not explain to Wei that he needed his subordinates to put forward this proposal and then make a reluctant approval to shirk his responsibility. Of course, no one dared to make such a suggestion. Lin Biao had already pounced on Jinzhou, and the entire northeast was in jeopardy. His intention was not simply to retreat safely from the northeast, but to have a decisive battle with Lin Biao in Jinzhou and consume Lin Biao's strength, otherwise there would be problems in North China. Therefore, he rejected Liao Yaoxiang's proposal, and strongly ordered Wei and Liao to go west out of Shenyang, and to cooperate with the eastward advance of Huludao to attack our army, and Liao had no choice but to lead his troops out to the west.
At this time, at the west tower hill of Jinzhou, we blocked the fourth column and eleventh column of the Huludao East Advance Corps, and blocked the repeated onslaught of the eleventh division of the Kuomintang army commanded by Hou Jingru, commander of the Seventeenth Corps, with four divisions. The Eastward Advance Corps was strong, heavily artilleryized, and provided fire support from the navy and air force, but it was unable to advance until the liberation of the entire northeast.
Fearing Lin Biao's tactics of reinforcement, Liao did not attack southwest at great speed, but first to the west, then to the north, in the opposite direction of Jinzhou. In any case, this kind of action could not see the mystery in it, and his reason was that the Jinhu troops had not yet met the division, and the strategy of attacking the communist army from east to west could not be coordinated in time and space. At this time, it was necessary to first occupy the Zhangwu and Xinlitun lines and destroy the railway, cut off the supply line of the communist army, and cause chaos to the communist army besieging Jinzhou. Our army had already made preparations for this, and in order not to stimulate Liao Yaoxiang to quickly reinforce Jinzhou, Lin Biao even decided to cede the county seat of Zhangwu to him. Mao Zedong had even great contempt for the reinforcements of the Liao Corps: as long as he occupied Zhangwu, it would inevitably take five days, and it would be impossible to come to Jinzhou when he wanted to reinforce jinzhou.
After thirty-one hours of fierce fighting, Jinzhou was liberated, and the 184th Division of the Sixth Corps attached to the 60th Army, which belonged to Fan Hanjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" and director of the Jinzhou Command Post, was annihilated. Shen Xiangkui, commander of the New Eighth Army, escaped from the battlefield, and Fan, commander of the Sixth Corps, Lu Junquan, and Commander of the Ninety-third Army, Sheng Jiaxing, were captured. When the generals of the EastWard Advance Corps learned of this, they waited in horror for Lin Biao to turn around and fight him. At this time, Lao Jiang only had a 60% certainty of ordering the Liao and Hu forces to retake Jinzhou. Dare to fight a decisive battle with a 60% certainty? He was either confused or confused. The Central Committee and Lin Biao believed that as long as the Liao Corps was completely annihilated, the overall situation in the northeast would be decided, so they decided to resolutely block the Eastern Advance Corps, and when the Liao Corps went further, when it was farther away from Shenyang, the main force besieging Jinzhou turned around and launched an attack on it to annihilate it.
Liao suddenly found that Jinzhou in the front had suddenly disappeared, and Shenyang in the back had a considerable distance, and the entire corps was in a dilemma in the cold wind whistling in the wilderness, and the Kuomintang headquarters had begun emergency consultations with their own interests. It was normal for the generals to have different views among themselves, but if it happened within the Communist Party, a unified will and firm action would soon be formed, and it would turn into endless quarrels within the Kuomintang. Old Jiang insisted on recovering Jinzhou, Wei insisted on holding Shenyang, and Liao insisted on retreating to Yingkou. In the end, the only consensus reached was that no matter whether they entered Jinzhou, retreated from Yingkou, or returned to Shenyang, they must first defeat Montenegro.
Author: Jiao Feng, thank you to the author for authorizing the use of the article