In the summer of 1947, on the eve of Liu Deng's army advancing thousands of miles into Dabie Mountain, the situation of the War of Liberation changed, and a strategic counterattack was on the verge of breaking out.
On August 6, Chen Yi, commander and political commissar of the East China Field Army, sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission:
"I think that our party has not created many outstanding military figures in the past twenty years or so, but recently Su Yu and Chen Geng have come to the fore one after another, and they have a great future, and will advance side by side with Peng (Dehuai), Liu (Bocheng), and Lin (Biao), which is a great harvest for our party and the people."
Mr. Chen's sentence is very heavy, but it also makes people slightly confused.
First of all, during the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and liberation, there were many famous generals of our party and our army, so why did General Manager Chen say that there were not many outstanding military experts? Is Chen Yi's requirements too high?
Secondly, in the eyes of Elder Chen, how can the newly rising Chen Geng and Su Yu be compared with the meritorious elders Peng, Liu, and Lin?
As we all know, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, and Lin Biao have all made outstanding achievements in battle, and none of them are well-known god-of-war figures in our army: Peng Dehuai rose from the Xiang Army, pioneered the revolution, made many achievements during the Long March, and was the main leader of the Hundred Regiments War. Chairman Mao personally gave a poem: "The mountains are high and the road is far and deep, and the large army is running in a long line, who dares to cross the sword and stand on the horse, only I am General Peng." "How magnificent!
Needless to mention, Liu Bocheng was known as the "God of War" in his youth; since he was a child, he led his army to seize the Jinsha River in a skillful manner during the Long March period, and repeatedly broke through the Japanese army's sweep during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, making our rear area as solid as a rock; Lin Biao had the courage and strategy, made many surprise attacks, and made a name for himself inside and outside the Pingguan Great Victory, and even Chairman Mao was deeply impressed by this "hairy boy." It can be said that with President Zhu sitting in the center, it is not an exaggeration to call these three people the "Three Tigers" of our army.
Chen Geng and Su Yu were both outstanding generals cultivated by our party in the revolutionary war, and they belonged to the talents of later generations. In terms of seniority, it is not as good as the above three tigers, but the military leadership ability is not to be spared, and just by virtue of the word "advancing side by side" by General Chen Yi, we can see the importance and appreciation of the second general. Next, let us enter the war era and see the bold ambitions of the two "tigers of the People's Liberation Army".
Speaking of Chen Geng, we have to mention his famous "First Brigade in the Great War"; at that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had just been won, the situation was very good, and the leaders met with the capital to discuss the grand plan and draw up a blueprint for democracy and republicanism, but wise people could see that Chiang Kai-shek's heart was not dead, that the peace talks on the founding of the country were false, and that delaying the deployment of the front was true.
Sure enough, after only half a year, Chiang Kai-shek openly tore up the contract and launched a large-scale attack on the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains, with the intention of catching the Communists off guard and reaping the benefits of a quick siege of the city. Relying on the support of the Americans and the plundering of materials in the Japanese-descending areas, the strength of the Kuomintang army increased greatly, sitting on American weapons and German weapons, and rampaged with aircraft cannons and tank armor. And the sword pointed to the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains, and it was hu Zongnan, commander of the Kuomintang First Theater, who extended its claws to Jinnan's troops.
Who is Hu Zongnan? Presumably, everyone is no stranger. Hu Zongnan is a graduate of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, known as "the first protégé of Tianzi", and is deeply loved by President Jiang. During the ten-year agrarian revolution, as an important staff officer and wing of Chiang Kai-shek's "suppression of bandits," he caused heavy casualties in the Red Army.
This person was also brave during the War of Resistance, but the heart of the Commonwealth has never died, and he once plotted a surprise attack on Yan'an in 1943, and gave up for reasons, otherwise the situation would be unimaginable. On the eve of the Liberation War, the former King of the Northwest had become the commander of the Kuomintang First Theater of Operations above ten thousand people, holding 4 group armies, 16 armies, 42 divisions, and 5 special corps, roughly estimated at 450,000 people, and well-equipped. This time, the north entered the Jin Dynasty, and the troops of Yan Xishan launched an attack, and the Taiyue column where Chen Geng was sitting was the first to bear the brunt of it against the Jinji-Hebei Luyu base area.
Interestingly, this Hu Zongnan and Chen Geng have been in contact for a long time, and Mustard was born early. Dating back to the time of the first phase of Huangpu, the two were sworn enemies, because they despised Hu Zongnan's counter-revolutionary ideas, and Chen Geng, who was full of vigor and fierce temperament, always confronted each other, spit fiercely, and fought hard for this, and the two were considered to have formed a bond since their student days.
However, this "trump card" that Chiang Kai-shek used to use against Japan has always been useless to Chen Geng. During the repeated confrontations during the Long March, Hu Zongnan's ferocious attacks were repeatedly defused and repelled by Chen Geng's troops. And this time the tip of the needle against Mai Mang, one is the battle of allegiance of the jiang clan's top brand lackeys, and the other is the battle of guarding the southern gate of Yan'an, which is bound to be extremely anxious.
When the army suppressed the territory, Chen Geng was strategizing and was not in a hurry to send troops. He was acutely aware of the disharmony of the camp within the place. Before Yan Xishan and Hu Zongnan could meet, the seeds of contradiction had already been revealed. On the one hand, Yan Xishan wanted to borrow Hu Zongnan's strength to open up the Tongpu Railway and profit on his own; on the other hand, he was afraid that Hu Zongnan would put himself together and secretly dig up the wall for himself, so the two parts seemed to be realistic, but they were separated, each playing their own wishful thinking, and the snake was not moving forward, and it was impossible to form a joint force. Chen Geng's path was very simple, that is, to divide the dragon into eight sections and break them one by one.
Soon Hu Bing attacked first, but he was not in a hurry to clash, but only repeatedly tried to make attempts, and the vanguard army arrogantly advanced northward. Chen Geng resolutely sent five brigades to strike, still eating in small bites, and between Wenxi and Xia County, only one brigade or even one regiment was eliminated at a time, five days and five nights, five battles and five victories, completely wiping out the vigor of the enemy's "Central Army." Taking advantage of the victory to pursue, after another ten days, after a hard battle, the remaining three elite brigades of the enemy were finally eliminated, which was for the sake of the great victory of The Summer and the morale was great.
Hu Zongnan was naturally not satisfied and sent his own elite main force, the First Brigade. This first brigade is not simple, it is the trump card unit in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, and it is also the old capital of Hu Zongnan's fortune, all equipped with beautiful weapons, and the attack cannot be said to be strong, and the defense cannot be said to be solid. This posture clearly shows that it is necessary to rebuild morale with real swords and guns. But Chen Geng is not a vegetarian, he is playing such an ace unit. After the first brigade was laid, Hu Zongnan's plan failed, and the military's morale was unstable.
Although the military strength was strong, Hu Zongnan still made old mistakes, and the First Brigade did not coordinate well with other troops, but instead attacked alone on the Linfu Highway. On this day, Chen Geng paced in the barracks for a long time. He silently recited Mao Zedong's famous phrase "Attack with twice, triple, quadruple, and sometimes even five or six times the enemy's strength", but at this time, the many legions of Hubu Yanbu are looking at each other, will the enemy take advantage of the chaos to cut off our back road and stage a drama to encircle Wei and save Zhao?
In the end, Chen Geng weighed the pros and cons and boldly ordered the concentration of superior forces to surround and annihilate the First Brigade.
At midnight on the same day, our army took the surprise of killing the second regiment of the first brigade of the enemy army gathered in Guanque Village with four times the strength of the enemy, and then used a brigade to divide and encircle a battalion of the enemy. The fiercest battle took place between our Thirty-first Regiment and the enemy's main force, and the battle situation once heated up to a white-knife battle, and the soldiers of our army bravely fought bravely, and they killed the famous fierce general of the enemy army "Wang Yawu" in one night and captured hundreds of enemy soldiers.
At this time, the first regiment of the enemy's first brigade rushed to the aid of the second regiment and marched to Chenyan. The enemy leader gave the order to die, "Strengthen the artillery fire, be sure to advance!" ”。 At this time, our army deciphered the enemy's telegram through the radio and learned of the purpose of the enemy's first regiment to "pretend to attack and withdraw and retain strength.", so Chen Geng sent a telegram to Zhou Xizhe: Act immediately and annihilate the enemy army!
Under Chen Geng's planning, our army retreated while fighting, lured the enemy into our encirclement, and attacked fiercely. The enemy struggled to the death, broke through fourteen times in a row, and all of our army was forcefully repelled. At this time, Chen Geng sent another telegram to the front line, inspiring the soldiers, bravely counterattacking against Chen Yan, and attacking the village in one fell swoop, completely disrupting the enemy's retreat plan, and finally capturing the enemy leader Huang Zhengcheng alive.
This battle completely annihilated Hu Zongnan's elite troops, who were known as the "first brigade under heaven," and at the same time fully demonstrated the "strange" characteristics of Chen Geng's use of troops, sitting firmly on the big plate, attacking them separately, and destroying the arrogance of the enemy army. Even the captured Huang Zhengcheng said helplessly: "You don't follow the rules when you fight." ”
Subsequently, Chen Geng's troops became more and more courageous, and in the future, together with Liu Deng's army, they advanced into the Central Plains, forming an important attack point of the zigzag attack, and made great contributions to the strategic counteroffensive.
And just when Lu Yu of Jinji and Hebei packed up his bags and went south and inserted himself into the chest of the Nationalist area, a team had already quietly crossed the Yellow River in the east and entered Shandong.
In January 1947, Huaye and Shanye were formally merged into the East China Field Army, with Chen Yi as commander. Since then, the new Fourth Army and the Shandong Eighth Route Army have become history.
The deputy commander of this team was Su Yu, who was later known as the "God of War".
Although Su Yu was the deputy commander of the East China Field Army, according to the instructions of the Central Military Commission, he was actually "responsible for the command of the campaign", and he was the main person in charge of the military command in East China. Su Yu used his troops to be good at strategizing, and often looked for ways to defeat the enemy and win victory according to the internal laws of war. This time, he recruited Shandong precisely to consolidate the base of Shandong's base area and at the same time smash the possible enemy's key encirclement and suppression.
Sure enough, after the Kuomintang army collapsed from the battlefield in the Central Plains, it began to draw up key points, concentrate superior forces, and carry out key attacks on the two base areas in northern Shaanxi and Shandong. The 8 reorganized divisions of the 1st Corps, commanded by the famous general Tang Enbo, totaled 200,000 people, were menacing, so how would Su Yu deal with it?
Su Yu knew that at this time, the enemy's heart was full of contradictions, on the one hand, he was eager to attack in order to expand the base of aggression and recover the decline of the attack in the Central Plains; on the other hand, he was afraid of the offensive of the People's Liberation Army, learned the lessons of the past, and became extremely cautious. At this time, the CPC Central Committee clearly saw the situation and gave Su Yu an order: In the current situation, the enemy is anxious, and our side should not be in a hurry.
Under such circumstances, Su Yu seemed to be at ease but resolute. The vanguard of the enemy was the famous Seventy-fourth Division, commanded by Zhang Lingfu. At that time, the generals unanimously discussed to avoid its sharp edge, not to confront the Seventy-fourth Division, but to retreat temporarily, who knew that Su Yu said firmly: "Fight with the Seventy-fourth Division." ”
In fact, Su Yu's Huaye troops had fought the Seventy-fourth Division twice earlier, but they were ultimately defeated. After all, this Seventy-fourth Division was "one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army" and was the most outstanding unit in the Kuomintang War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, known as the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army", and its strength could be imagined. The previous Huaye fought hard with it, and the strength was not enough.
However, this time Su Yu felt that this was not the case, because first of all, our army had a large amount of military strength against the Seventy-fourth Division, which could form a preconceived battle situation of more than one encirclement, and second, the thief captured the king first, although the huge cost of casualties was paid, but once this trump card was lost, the enemy army would definitely be in chaos.
After overwhelming the public opinion, Su Yu ordered a fierce attack on the Seventy-fourth Division, which, in his words, was called "the tiger digging out the heart".
Under the attack of our army, which had an absolute superiority in numbers, Zhang Lingfu led his army to meet the battle, did not move at all, and waited for reinforcements at Meng Lianggu, and waited for the opportunity to retreat from Duozhuang.
Who knew that Su Yudian ordered Huaye's "king tiger" Wang Bicheng to march to Duozhuang in a hurry, and with the momentum of lightning not being able to cover his ears, before Zhang Lingfu and Huang Baitao reacted, he forcibly took Duozhuang and blocked Zhang's retreat, Huaye was all alive, and Zhang Lingfu was not panicked, he wanted to use his heavy weapons and strong firepower to crush Huaye's besieging troops.
Time decided success or failure, Su Yu did not panic, but issued a bloody battle order, for a time, the artillery fire was deafening, the battle was halfway through, and the top of Meng Lianggu's mountain had been cut by shells several feet. Our army insisted on fighting, and time passed minute by minute, and the enemy army gradually lost its heart and complained.
At 2 p.m. on May 16, 1947, our army took the opportunity to launch the third general offensive. Su Yu was ready to retreat if he did not succeed, and ordered all his troops to attack fiercely, and finally captured the enemy's 600 heights, and condescended to clean up the battlefield, the enemy army had gone to scatter everywhere, and Zhang Lingfu was also shot and killed.
In the battle of Meng Lianggu, Hua Ye did not hesitate to exchange the enemy's top card for total annihilation at a relatively large cost of casualties, and cleverly caught the turtle in the urn, so that there was no room for retreat, which showed Su Yu's "God of War" style.
Later, under the leadership of Su Yu, Hua Ye completely thwarted Chiang Kai-shek's plan to take Shandong, and effectively cooperated with the Central Plains army, forming a character-shaped joint force and becoming a strong force for strategic counterattack.
Chairman Mao once humorously commented: "There are two people in China who did not expect this battle, one is Chiang Kai-shek, and the other is Mao Zedong."
It seems that if they can enter the eyes of Mr. Chen, these two are indeed successful. Although our army does not lack outstanding generals, Chen Yi's requirements are higher. In the War of Liberation, Chen Geng and Su Yu, who quickly stood out, one defeated the enemy's "First Brigade under Heaven" in one fell swoop, and the other calmly surrounded and annihilated the Seventy-fourth Ace Division, which made people hate them, highlighting their outstanding military talents and war talents.