Under the command of General Xu Shiyou of the East China Field Army, there is a legendary general who is both wise and courageous, and who dares to fight and fight. He joined the jute revolution at the age of 15 and experienced the anti-encirclement and suppression struggle, the march of the Long March, the anti-Japanese beacon, the liberation of all China, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. From an ordinary soldier who grew up in the crucible of revolution, he was Nie Fengzhi, who was jokingly called "General Of the Black Tiger".
However, Nie Fengzhi, who was recognized as both wise and courageous, made a surprising remark at the meeting on the deployment of the Battle of Jinan in Huaye, proposing to lay siege to Jinan within 15 to 20 days! It caused everyone to laugh.
Why did everyone laugh at Nie Fengzhi's remarks? Because the city of Jinan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the soldiers are well fed.
Jinan is easy to defend and difficult to attack
After two years of competition in the War of Liberation, by the autumn of 1948, the situation on the battlefield had undergone major changes. The Kuomintang was at a military, political, and economic disadvantage. The balance of power between the Kuomintang and the Communists leaned toward the Communist side.
At that time, Jinan was the northern gate of the Kuomintang's East China Battlefield, with convenient transportation, guarding the intersection of the Jinpu and Jiaoji railways, and was an isolated stronghold between the East China Liberated Area and the North China Liberated Area, so Chiang Kai-shek regarded Jinan as the key to the defense system.
Chiang Kai-shek personally arranged the defense of Jinan, sent people to build a permanent defense engineering system with a total area of more than 600 square kilometers of support points, and built permanent fortifications outside the city.
In addition, the air force was also sent to support the bombing, and the whole city of Jinan was like an iron walnut, which was difficult to smash open.
Jinan not only built strong fortifications, but also stationed 1 army, 3 divisions, 10 brigades and 4 security brigades under the jurisdiction of the Second Appeasement District of the Nationalist Army, together with other units totaling more than 110,000 people, and the 100,000 defenders were equipped with American weapons, and their combat effectiveness could not be underestimated.
Attacking such a large city as Jinan, which is strongly fortified and heavily guarded, has no precedent in the history of the People's Liberation Army's warfare, and whether or not it can seize a big city like Jinan is a severe test of the People's Liberation Army's ability to tackle tough problems.
In a telegram to the East China Field Army, the central authorities proposed that the time for conquering Jinan could be stipulated in three ways, that is, twenty days, one month, and two months.
Almost everyone thinks: Jinan City, it is not easy to fight.
15 to 20 days to lay down Jinan!
Therefore, Nie Fengzhi proposed at the meeting that 15 to 20 days to lay down Jinan was indeed surprising.
After liberation, General Nie Fengzhi recalled the scene at that time in his memoirs: "I was ridiculed by everyone! ”
General Guo Huaruo, General Nie Fengzhi's old comrade-in-arms, joked and said, "Respect Nie Brother, Brother Gaomi!" "Hand a glass of water to Nie Fengzhi."
Guo Huaruo, a famous military figure in our party, has a unique understanding of "Sun Tzu" and other military books, and is highly respected among generals.
This joke did not matter, and the other generals attending the meeting also laughed.
In fact, during the Battle of Zhoucun, General Nie began to learn more about the defense of the Kuomintang troops in Jinan. Zhoucun captured a brigade-level officer who had just been transferred from Jinan to Zhoucun, and he was familiar with the situation in Jinan.
As a result, within a few days, General Nie's desk was piled up with information on Jinan's city defense fortifications, troop deployment, troop characteristics, and internal relations. At this time, the Ninth Column was still 100 kilometers away from Jinan.
After defeating Wei County in April, General Nie withdrew his troops to the outskirts. According to the siege deployment, he led cadres and soldiers to discuss and study how to cross the moat, how to approach the city wall, how to cooperate with the infantry, how to break through, and how to develop in depth.
When the soldiers were near Jinan, General Nie disguised himself as a farmer to collect manure and went deep into the outskirts of Jinan to scout with the head of the reconnaissance section. In General Nie's mind, he had long wanted to attack Jinan. Therefore, Nie Fengzhi said that the 15 to 20 days to lay siege to Jinan was by no means a matter of lip service, but he already had a detailed plan in his heart.
Assists become the main attack
On August 29, the last day of the Qufu Conference, Hua Ye agreed to the deployment of the Jinan Campaign and decided to take Jinan as the main goal and strive to conquer it in a short period of time.
Huaye's attacking forces were divided into two groups, East and West, and the East China 9 Column Led by Nie Fengzhi belonged to the East Group, and the task was to assist.
Nie Fengzhi did not say anything at the meeting, saying that he would follow Hua Ye's instructions.
However, in the orders given by Nie Fengzhi to the column headquarters and to the divisions under the column, he cleverly changed the "assist" to "main" and the assist into the main attack.
The division commander received the commander's order, and everyone was a little confused, how did the order change, was it the boss who gave the wrong order?
After the order, Nie Fengzhi reported the matter to Xu Shiyou, the commander-in-chief of the siege, and with the approval of General Xu Shiyou, he said, "Well, just like that, two knives stabbed in together!" ”
Nie Fengzhi held that Wang Yaowu is a soldier in the Kuomintang who can recruit good soldiers and has always fought hard battles, so the positions of our army's main attack and assist can be exchanged at any time, and it is even more unexpected that as long as the troops fight actively, assists can be changed into the main attack. Moreover, for the combat morale of the troops, the main attack can certainly play an encouraging role.
Liberation of Jinan
The Battle of Jinan was launched on September 16, 1948, the east and west groups launched an attack at midnight at the same time, Nie Fengzhi led the East China 9 column actively, bravely attacked, and fought a bloody battle in Jinan, of which the 9th column 73 regiment dared to fight and was awarded the honorary title of the first regiment in Jinan after the war.
Under the heroic struggle of the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, at about 18:00 on the 24th, the whole city of Jinan was liberated, and only 8 days and 8 nights passed since the beginning of the battle.
The conquest of Jinan in 8 days and 8 nights not only surprised the Kuomintang military and political leaders, but even the interior of our army was unexpected.
The commissioner sent by Yan'an to Jinan heard the news of the liberation of Jinan halfway through, did not dare to believe it, thought that the news was wrong, and did not really believe it until the newspaper published the news.
After the battle, General Guo Huaruo saw the results of the 9 columns and said to General Nie Fengzhi with admiration: "Old Nie Is indeed high-minded! ”
The Battle of Jinan, launched by the revolutionaries of the older generation represented by General Nie Fengzhi, annihilated the nationalist heavy army group for the first time and shocked the whole country, and people could not believe that a large city under heavy military control had been lost so quickly.
The victory in the Battle of Jinan brought our two major liberated areas of North China and East China together, had a major impact on the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin, shook the confidence of the Nationalist army in sticking to the big cities, and caused the Kuomintang defenders in Changchun, Shenyang, Jinzhou, Baoding, Taiyuan, and other cities that were in the same situation in Jinan at that time to have a huge negative effect.