The Battle of Laiwu was the most classic battle of the People's Liberation Army, in which Huaye annihilated nearly 60,000 enemy troops and captured Li Xianzhou, deputy commander of the Kuomintang Second Appeasement District, alive. The battle was very tortuous, and when Su Yu talked about the Battle of Laiwu in his later years, he once recalled that Ou Zhen, the commander of the Kuomintang Southern Front, was not a generalist. His tactical arrangements forced Su Yu to be helpless, and Su Yu made seven revisions to his battle plan.
Who is Ou Zhen?
Ou Zhen had served as a platoon leader under Sun Yat-sen, and served in the Ye Ting Independent Regiment during the Great Revolution, and he was very smart at fighting.
Ou Zhen was a Confucian general of the Kuomintang, who had been teaching in Zhoutian, Guangdong for several years, and often kept his hands on books during battles, and loved to write some poems. Under the influence of Sun Yat-sen, he threw pen from Rong. After graduating from The martial arts hall, he served as a battalion commander in Ye Ting's independent regiment. In the Battle of Tingsi Bridge in the Northern Expedition, he led his troops to attack the enemy's main position at night, fought with the enemy's white blade, occupied the bridgehead, and controlled the strategic location of Wuhan's import and export. During the siege of Wuchang, Ou Zhen served as the captain of the death squad and took the lead in attacking the city, he was the first soldier to bravely climb the city wall, and besieged the city of Wuchang for more than a month. In the subsequent Battles of The German Officers and the Fierce Battle of Linying, Ou Zhen used limited troops to reinforce friendly forces at a time of war crisis and save the dying war situation.
In 1935, he was awarded the rank of major general by the Nationalist government, and in 1936 he was promoted to lieutenant general of the Kuomintang and served as the commander of the 90th Division.
In the War of Resistance Against Japan, he also made many military achievements. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang 10th Army and the commander of the integrated 39th Army.
Su Yu almost fell for Ou Zhen and was forced to be helpless by Ou Zhen
In the second half of 1946, the Kuomintang's offensives in Shandong were repeatedly defeated by our army. In order to save some face, Chiang Kai-shek tried to mobilize heavy troops to fight several victorious battles in Shandong. The Battle of Laiwu took place against this background.
Chiang Kai-shek ordered Wang Yaowu of Jinan to send troops from Jinan to the south, and Chen Cheng of Xuzhou to send troops from Xuzhou to the north, and the two lines of soldiers and horses attacked Huaye Suyubu, with the target directly aimed at Linyi. Linyi is the only big city controlled by our army in Shandong and the capital of the Shandong Military Region, and Linyi has played a strategic pivot role in the entire Jiaodong Liberated Area, Luzhong Liberated Area, and Lunan Liberated Area. Therefore, Chen Yi and Su Yu and others discussed and had to keep Linyi.
The Kuomintang army dispatched 23 integrated divisions, and one integrated division was actually the strength of an army, about 20,000 to 30,000 people, with a total strength of about 250,000 people. The kuomintang southern front was relatively strong, accounting for about 150,000 troops, and the commander was the famous general Ou Zhen.
Su Yu's decision to protect Linyi hit Ou Zhen's heart!
Ou Zhen was very familiar with our army's fighting routine, in order to avoid the troops being divided and annihilated by our army. Ou Zhen ordered the various departments to maintain close contact, pushing flat on the first line and cooperating with each other to form an iron plate. Just like this, little by little, Su Yu could no longer take advantage of the opportunity.
The PLA's strength and equipment must lag behind the Kuomintang army, and this will inevitably force our army to confront the Kuomintang army. And this is exactly what Ou Zhen wanted, to fight a war of attrition, the Kuomintang people have a lot of firepower, and our army can't afford to consume.
The Kuomintang also dispatched an air force to indiscriminately bomb Linyi for more than a week. Ou Zhen's move forced Su Yu to be helpless, whether Linyi should defend it in the end? How should this battle be fought?
Seeing that he was about to be forced by Ou Zhen to fight against it, Su Yu decided to abandon Linyi and fight the northern front instead, and the central government resolutely supported it.
To say that General Su Yu is really a golden eye of fire
Su Yu found that the Kuomintang army was heavy in the south and light on the north, and the three armies on the northern front had contradictions, which basically played a leading role. Later, Su Yu was also keenly aware that the loss of Linyi did not really matter, and the loss of the Luzhong base area would plunge more than 200,000 troops into a situation of no rear combat.
The Kuomintang troops on the northern front were rather arrogant, and there were still contradictions between the two kuomintang armies that were deep in the northern front, Li Xianzhou led the 73rd Army to garrison Laiwu, and the Forty-sixth Army to enter Xintai. The 73rd Army was Wang Yaowu's concubine, but the Forty-sixth Army was not, so the Forty-sixth Army was sent to Xintai, which was further south, as cannon fodder.
Su Yu discovered this and decided to abandon Linyi and attack the two armies on the northern front.
In order to deceive Ou Zhen and prevent Ou Zhen from detecting Hua Ye's intention to abandon Linyi's attack on the northern front, the Kuomintang jointly attacked the northern and southern fronts. Su Yu made a gesture that he was going to cross the river to the west and meet Liu Deng's army, and made it look like he was going to fight near Linyi.
Wang Yaowu was worthy of the famous general, and Li Xianzhou was killed by his own people
Su Yu's intentions were detected by Wang Yaowu, who thought that fleeing to the canal was not in line with Su Yu's style. Remembering that his northern front only had two armies of 70,000 men against Huaye's 200,000 men, if Su Yu attacked the northern front, it would be a dead end.
Therefore, Wang Yaowu ordered the northern army to temporarily retreat, retreating the 46th Army into Laiwu, and the 73rd Army Li Xianzhou retreated in the direction of Zibo.
If the two armies of the Kuomintang on the northern front retreated, Su Yu's calculation would be disappointed, and in the face of the aggressiveness of Ou Zhen on the southern front, if the southern front captured Linyi and then echoed the northern front, this battle would be even more difficult to fight, where should Huaye go?
At the crucial moment, the Kuomintang top brass helped Su Yu a great favor, and Chen Cheng, chief of the general staff of the Nationalist army and director of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office, made a sincere contribution, demanding that the northern army must not retreat, but should occupy the two points of Laiwu and Xintai, and cooperate with the southern front corps to annihilate Huaye in the Yimeng Mountains.
In the end, Su Yu decided to aim a little smaller, and only attacked Wang Yaowu's elite Li Xianzhou department of the 73rd Army.
Wang Yaowu was still not at ease, and sent a plane to investigate Hua Ye's movements, and he suddenly found that the situation was not right. Regardless of whether the Ministry of Defense or the General Staff, he hurriedly ordered Xintai's 46th Army to move closer to Li Xianzhou, and then ordered the vanguard of the 73rd Army to withdraw to Laiwu City, and at the same time ordered the Twelfth Army northeast of Laiwu to prepare to take over. Withdraw troops to base camp at any time.
Su Yu later recalled the Battle of Laiwu and praised Wang Yaowu's judgment, saying that this Kuomintang general had a unique vision and that his judgment was consistent with Hua Ye's determination to fight.
However, although Li Xianzhou was the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front Corps, he was very accurate by Su Yu and had contradictions with the 46th Army, which was a subordinate of Bai Chongxi, and the 12th Army was reorganized from the Northeast Army. In addition, the commander of the 46th Army was plotted against by our Party.
In the end, Su Yu's pocket array was completed, Li Xianzhou's troops were in a mess, and more than 60,000 of his men were crowded together, calling every day should not be called the earth and the earth. As soon as Huaye's artillery was fired, the 73rd Army suffered countless casualties, Wang Yaowu's 73rd Army was finally annihilated, and Li Xianzhou was captured alive by our army.