introduction
In 1946, the War of Liberation broke out, and the People's Liberation Army, known as a million heroes, attacked from north to south and from east to west, mobilizing ordinary people from all over the country to join it and besieging Chiang Kai-shek in the ocean of people's war. The Liaoshen Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign, and the Pingjin Campaign were launched rapidly in turn, and the People's Liberation Army, which was like a bamboo, was invincible all the way, liberating countless areas, countless villages, and countless cities.
However, it should be said that in the Liberation War, the most difficult and tragic battle fought by the People's Liberation Army was the battle to liberate Taiyuan. Marshal Xu Qianqian, the commander of this campaign, even called out that "the Battle of Taiyuan was the most painful battle he ever fought." Why did Marshal Xu Qianqian say this about the Taiyuan Campaign, and how did Marshal Xu Qianqian command the campaign? Today we will talk about the story of Marshal Xu Qianqian and the Battle of Taiyuan.
On the eve of the Great War
Yan Jun's operation in Taiyuan
Yan Xishan's troops had been operating in Shanxi for more than decades before the Liberation War, especially Taiyuan City, which was the place that Yan Xishan attached the most importance to. In the streets and alleys of Taiyuan City, Yan Xishan built countless machine gun bunkers and bunkers, and the Taiyuan area was narrow from east to west and long from north to south. Taiyuan City is sandwiched between two large mountains in the east and west.
Yan Xishan built countless deep ditch barriers, thousands of gun towers and bunkers, and several square kilometers of minefields on Wohu Mountain in the northern part of Taiyuan. In the cattle and camel villages in the east of Taiyuan City, heavy troops were sent to guard it.
On the eve of the great battle, Yan Xishan sent people to strengthen the walls of Taiyuan City and forcibly expropriated 20,000 defenders. It can be said that Taiyuan City at this time is already impregnable.
Yan Xishan was also notoriously shrewd in shanxi's military employment, and all the soldiers in his department were generals from Shanxi, and the officials appointed were basically Yan Xishan's compatriots or cronies. The strategy for governing the military is to use Yan Xishan's experience when he studied at the officer school in Japan.
Powerful firepower configuration and strong defense system, plus loyal soldiers. Undoubtedly, it has increased the endless difficulty for the liberation of Taiyuan City.
Xu Shuai's troops
Xu Shuai's troops, who were stationed in central China during the Liberation War, had the basic task of keeping a close eye on Yan Xishan's 300,000 troops.
Xu Shuai's vision was still relatively lofty, and he saw that if the Kuomintang defenders in the Pingjin area were defeated, Yan Xishan would not necessarily go to support, but if the Kuomintang army in East China collapsed, Yan Xishan would definitely go south. (Because there is a military town of Datong in the north of Shanxi, it can be used as a buffer area for Yan Xishan, while the southern region has few troops, and the southern Jin region is Yan Xishan's grain bag.) ）
So Xu Shuai decided to take a step ahead and capture the southern Jin region. In February 1948, Xu Shuai commanded two columns and the troops of the Taiyue Military Region, a total of 53,000 people, and launched the campaign to liberate Linfen, the initial stage of the campaign was not smooth, Yan Xishan was well aware of the lack of troops in the southern Jin region, and sent 15,000 more people to garrison Linfen as early as before the war. At this time, Linfen, which was garrisoned by 25,000 people, became a stumbling block for the People's Liberation Army to liberate Shanxi.
Xu Shuai saw that he could not attack for a long time, so he ordered the soldiers to work in the soil, dig tunnels and advance, and when they reached Linfen City, they blew up the city wall with explosives, and the army rushed into Linfen City, and Linfen was liberated.
Battle of Taiyuan
Capture 100,000 troops
The loss of the Jinnan region made Yan Xishan feel anxious, so he expanded his army again, expanding the defenders in the Jinzhong region to more than 100,000 people.
In June 1948, Xu Shuai marched north and hit the Jinzhong region all the way. The 100,000 Kuomintang troops in the Jinzhong region guarded the yuci, Taigu, and Wusu airports.
In order to lure the Kuomintang troops out of the city, Xu Shuai staged a "wheat snatching war". The Jinzhong region was a grain-producing region, and Yan Xishan's 100,000-strong army had to rely on Jinzhong to eat. Yan Xishan saw that Xu Shuai's troops were harvesting wheat in the Jinzhong region, and he finally could not sit still and sent a large army to fight. Yan Xishan's move was exactly in the middle of Xu Shuai's plan, and without any effort, 100,000 Kuomintang troops were completely annihilated.
Strive for peace
The victory in the Battle of Jinzhong gave Great encouragement to Xu Shuai's troops. Next goal: "Taiyuan". Taiyuan is an ancient city with a history of more than 2,500 years, and there are ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties everywhere, and Taiyuan City has a high historical and cultural value.
Faced with such a situation, Xu Shuai had considered peacefully liberating Taiyuan City before the war. Xu Shuai asked the North China Bureau for instructions: "If Yan Xishan can surrender, reduce our casualties, and preserve the Taiyuan military industry and various historical sites, its manpower and material resources will be used by us, and the benefits will be great." It is proposed to order Zhao Chengshou to surrender, and what are the contents and conditions of it, please give instructions as soon as possible so that it can be obeyed. Helplessly, Yan Xishan was very stubborn, not only refusing to surrender, but also killing those who went to the peace talks.
Soldiers are under the city
In October 1948, the Battle of Taiyuan began. Xu Shuai was a native of Shanxi, and he knew that the most critical point in attacking Taiyuan was in Dongshan. Xu Shuai expected that Yan Xishan would be heavily guarded in Dongshan, so he changed his strategy and attacked from both the north and the south, gradually encroaching on the Nationalist defenders in Dongshan.
Xu Shuai's strategy was very correct, and the offensive of the large army in the south was very smooth, taking the airfield, the small shop, and the army to Yangjiapu. The northern region was also invaded by Zhangzitou, and the two fronts marched to the east mountain.
The war in the east was not going well, and the rugged And difficult Crouching Tiger Mountain in the northeast was held dead in the hands of the Yan army, and the troops had to pay a rather tragic price for each step forward. Numerous machine gun bunkers took turns to strafe, causing more than half of the troops to suffer casualties. The cow-camel village facing directly to the east was the strongest fortress of the Yan army. Xu Shuai's troops were dragged to death here.
The battle of Higashiyama dragged on until mid-October. With the continuous reinforcement of the 7th, 13th, and 15th Columns and the Jinzhong Military Region, the Niutuo Village was finally laid, and the city of Taiyuan was in full view.
On April 20, 1949, the general attack to liberate Taiyuan City sounded. Xu Shuai continued to attack the city in the method of interspersing north and south, and this time the siege was smooth, and the troops quickly occupied xiaodongmen. However, the street battles in Taiyuan City were very fierce, and the Yan army's Ming Fort and Dark Fort in the city made Xu Shuai's troops suffer a lot, and the troops not only had to face the enemy's frontal fire, but also prevented the cold guns fired from time to time in the dark fort. Xu Shuai's troops fought very hard in Taiyuan Lane, and after thousands of casualties, they completely liberated Taiyuan City.
epilogue
After the founding of New China, whenever Xu Shuai recalled the attack on Taiyuan, his face would darken, and 45,000 casualties made the old marshal who had suffered a lot of wind and frost.
Today, we should always remember that peace is not easy to come by, and we should not let the heroes who fought for peace shed blood and then shed tears.