In early June 1949, after crossing the Yangtze River, the Four Wild Forces of the People's Liberation Army prepared to pursue the Gui warlord Bai Chongxi group in a big way.
However, in the middle of the summer in July, the Shino Army encountered an unexpected and serious difficulty, that is, a large number of non-combat attrition caused by the high incidence of disease caused by the unsatisfactory water and soil and the hot weather.
Because a considerable number of the Shino generals were northerners, most of them were northeasterners. When they went south, they were in the hot summer season, and they could not adapt to the natural environment of hot, rainy, mountainous, watery and mosquito-like. In addition, many of them are not accustomed to eating rice, and nutrition cannot keep up, resulting in a high incidence of injuries.
According to statistics, the number of sick people in the Four Fields Force in July was as high as 52,800, which is equivalent to the strength of an entire army withdrawing from the battle sequence.
Xiao Ke (1955), the first chief of staff of Shiye, frowned with zhao Erlu (general in 1955) and expressed deep concern about the situation of the troops: "Alas, the troops have such serious problems at a critical moment, how can they complete the task of the great roundabout and encirclement operation proposed by the supreme commander?" ”
When the two chiefs of staff were discussing this big problem, Tan Zheng (1955 general), deputy political commissar of Shiye and director of the political (administrative) department, listened quietly for a long time and suddenly interjected: "I would like to suggest that the troops suspend their march, rest in front of the enemy, restore their physical strength, and treat their diseases. ”
When Xiao Ke heard this, he was happy, but immediately showed a melancholy look, and said: "Your suggestion is good, and we have had this experience in the past: Every time the army marches and fights for a period of time, it is necessary to take a break in time, so that the physical strength of the troops can remain durable and conducive to continuing to march and fight." Just today, in the current situation, can it stop? ”
Tan Zheng didn't quite understand his words, and then said, "How can you not stop?" ”
Xiao Ke picked up the marker pole, walked to the front of the operational map hanging on the wall, pointed to some points and lines on the map, and said: "You see, the operational objective proposed by the Japanese Military Commission on July 16 is to require our army to fight continuously, advance hand in hand, and hit the line of Ganzhou, Chenzhou, and Yongzhou in one go, so that Baibu will be in a situation where our army is fiercely pursued, caught off guard, and annihilated by us. Now that we are far from this goal, why should we stop?
"Speaking of difficulties, there are also difficulties in the battle of crossing the river in Erye and Sanye, and people have persisted in fighting for more than a month in the rainy rain in Jiangnan, fighting from jiangbei to Jiangxi, Fujian, liberating Shanghai, and the whole of Jiangnan in one go, and we now have the opportunity to directly pound Hunan.
"The original battle plan is so grand, and now that the enemy's heavy army has not been annihilated, the entire field army will come to a halt. How can this be reported to the Central Military Commission, and can it be said that if the weather is hot, there can be no war? What a joke! ”
Xiao Ke continued: "There is another point: the centrifugal retreat of the enemy's two corps, Song Xilian and Hu Lian, has caused a huge gap in Bai Chongxi's two wings, and the enemy army is shrinking sharply and adjusting its strength. At this time, it was a great opportunity for me to take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold and launch an attack, and at this time, I called a halt, even the chiefs of Lin (Biao) and Deng (Zihui) were not easy to accept! ”
Xiao Ke also said: "There is another point: it is reported that Changsha Cheng (Qian) and Chen Mingren are brewing peace and righteousness, is it beneficial or unfavorable for us to stop and promote this matter?" This also needs to be reconsidered and observed. ”
Speaking of this, Xiao Ke put down the marker pole, turned to Tan Zheng and said, "The above is the war situation we are facing." In the face of this situation, although I, like you, deeply felt that the troops should stop, rest, and then advance, I did not dare to rush to put forward this proposal. ”
Indeed, Shaw was telling the truth. However, the physical exertion of the troops is so great, the attrition of non-combat personnel is so great, and the difficulties of marching and fighting in the middle of the summer are so great, how can our army not come to pause for a rest and escape the season of "summer combat," which is taboo for soldiers? Didn't the Battles of Yisha and Xianggan provide enough lessons in this regard?
Xiao, Zhao, and Tan bowed their heads and pondered for a long time, and Tan Zheng suddenly raised his head and said, "I have a plan, and I should be able to persuade Lin, Deng, and even the Central Military Commission and the supreme chief to accept our proposal." ”
When Xiao and Zhao heard about it, they were very interested and asked, "What is the plan?" Tan Zheng said: "Emphasize accepting the historical lessons of Cao Cao's 830,000 horse soldiers defeating the Yangtze River that year!" ”
Shaw asked, "How do you mean that?" ”
Tan Zheng said: "It is the historical lesson that the Cao Army's troops are sick and weakened in combat effectiveness, so they eventually lead to defeat!" ”
However, Xiao and Zhao still could not understand that their understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms was still stuck in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", believing that although there were descriptions of Sun Wu's combined forces burning Chibi and Cao Cao's army defeating the Yangtze River, they could only attribute the reason for Cao Cao's defeat to Cao Cao's arrogance and arrogance, and the soldiers did not practice water warfare, and there was no epidemic of disease.
Only then did Tan Zheng understand the meaning of Xiao and Zhao's words of "not being on the side", and hastened to explain that there was no record of disease prevalence in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but there were relevant history books. When the records of the history books are more comprehensive and more in line with historical facts, they are also the situations that we should pay more attention to.
For example, the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Chronicle of Emperor Wu says: "Gong (Cao Cao) went to Chibi, which was not conducive to preparation for war. So the great plague, the officials and soldiers died, but the army was returned. ”
This refers to Cao Cao's voluntary withdrawal from Chibi due to the "great epidemic".
The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Biography of the Ancestors says: "The First Lord sent Zhuge Liang to marry Sun Quan, to fight with Cao Gong at Chibi, to destroy it, and to burn his boats and ships." The first lord and the Wu army marched together on land and water, chasing after Nan County, when the epidemic occurred, the northern army died a lot, and the Cao army was led back. ”
What is said here is that in the Battle of Chibi, Cao's army lost, although it was due to Zhou Yu's fire attack, but also because of the disease, many officials died, and Cao Cao had to retreat north.
In addition, the biography of Wu Lord and the biography of Zhou Yu have mentioned this point.
Looking at these accounts, they are roughly the same. It is said that during the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's army lost its combat effectiveness due to the spread of the disease, and was defeated when Chibi and Sun Liu's allies encountered it.
When Xiao and Zhao heard this, they felt that Tan Zheng was right, nodded his head continuously, and admired this "old master" in front of them from the bottom of his heart.
The next day, the "Proposal on the Rest of the Four Wild Troops in Front of the Enemy," jointly signed by Xiao Ke, Tan Zheng, Zhao Erlu, and Tao Zhu, was sent to Lin Biao and Deng Zihui.
The gist of this proposal is: To accept the historical lessons of Cao Cao's 830,000 horsemen defeating the Yangtze River, it is recommended that the entire Siye army use the summer vacation to recuperate in front of the enemy, restore physical strength, prevent and control diseases, and carry out a mass campaign to strengthen the army and horses; and lay a solid foundation for conscientiously implementing the operational policy of the supreme leader and the roundabout encirclement and completely eliminating the Bai Chongxi reactionary clique.
After reading it, Lin and Deng felt that this proposal was reasonable and well-founded, and immediately "agreed" to it and forwarded it to the Central Military Commission.
On the third day, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram to "approve" the proposal. Thus a "strong army and strong horse movement" was launched on an unprecedented scale and in front of the enemy throughout the Four Fields Army.