"Liang Huai has already been lost, and it is not a good time to fight Zhang Lingfu at this time!"
"Zhang Lingfu's Seventy-fourth Division is already an army of fatigue, and the two decisive battles have been fought against Lianshui, and its vitality has been seriously injured, and I think this is an opportunity to annihilate the Seventy-fourth Division!"
Group photo of Chen Yi and Su Yu
Chen Yi and Su Yu were engaged in a heated discussion about the next battle plan of the whole army, and Chen Yi believed that our army had won a great victory in the Battle of Subei and annihilated an integrated division of the enemy, and now it was time to expand the results of the battle and march towards Lunan.
Su Yu thought that Zhang Lingfu's Seventy-fourth Division was too troublesome, first capturing Lianghuai, and now taking Lianshui, and must find an opportunity to annihilate the enemy's Seventy-fourth Division.
This was the first major military conference after the establishment of the East China Field Army, and at the meeting, there was a fierce discussion about the different suggestions of Chen Yi and Su Yu, and Wang Bicheng lost the Lianshui in World War II, at this time he strongly supported the annihilation of Zhang Lingfu's Seventy-fourth Division first, and Tao Yong and others also meant this.
General Song Shilun held that the situation in the Lunan region is critical, and the most important thing is to stabilize the situation in Lunan with the advanced army, and if Lunan is lost, the space for our army's activities will be further compressed.
According to the diary of General Song Shilun: "This meeting was the first time that most of the generals of the East China Field Army had gathered and held a meeting, and everyone had their own ideas about the whole course of the war, And Elder Su was right, and General Chen was also right, so he could only hand over two proposals to the Central Committee for decision. ”
After chen yi and Su Yu reported their different suggestions to the central authorities, Chairman Mao also held a meeting for this purpose, attended by Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, and Liu Shaoqi.
The reason for chairman Mao's decision was: "Our army lost the Battle of Lianghuai, and the situation at that time had to preserve central China, so it was of little significance to march into Lunan." However, after our army won the victory in the Northern Jiangsu Campaign, the situation was reversed again, the enemy lost the possibility of advancing into Shuyang, and the situation in Northern Jiangsu and Central Jiangsu eased somewhat. ”
After Chen Yi and Su Yu received Chairman Mao's reply, they immediately unified their opinions on marching into Lunan, and Su Yu also smiled and said, "Commander Chen! You and the chairman want to go together! I completely follow your advice! ”
Chen Yi smiled and said generously, "I just have to grasp the big strategic policy, and the specific battlefield command is inseparable from you Su Yu!" With you there, we in the East China Field Army can win the victory! ”
Chairman Mao once said, "Chen Su! Chen Su! Chen Yi and Su Yu are invincible in the world together, and they must not be separated! ”
Facts have proved that Chairman Mao's vision is very precise!
In the Battle of Subei, an integrated division led by Dai Ziqi was completely annihilated by our army, and Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division did not suffer too many losses, which Xue Yue believed was already a blessing in misfortune.
According to the battle plan drawn up by the Kuomintang Nanjing Staff, the main task of the troops led by Xue Yue was to occupy the Lianghuai and Shandong regions, and the soldiers and horses of Li Mo'an were stationed in the northern Jiangsu region and directly approached Yancheng.
At present, although Li Mo'an was defeated by Su Yu in the Battle of Suzhong, strategically he completed the combat mission, so the pressure came to Xue Yue's side.
In the Battle of Subei, our army won a great victory and crushed Xue Yue's attempt to enter Suqian in the east, and Xue Yue decided to march into the Lunan region at this time, occupying Zaozhuang and other places first, and seeking the opportunity to fight with our army.
Photo of Xue Yue
This time Xue Yue sent the strongest mechanic division under his command, the Kuomintang 26th Division led by Ma Liwu.
The Kuomintang 26th Division, the whole army is equipped with American equipment, the combat effectiveness is no less than the Kuomintang's "five main forces", in addition, what really makes Ma Liwu feel confident is a rapid column under his command, this fast column has a large number of heavy weapons, there are more than thirty tanks alone, and there are hundreds of various howitzers.
Ma Liwu received the order to launch a direct attack on our army's Linyi through Zaozhuang, Yixian and other places, and the generals of our army stationed in Linyi at that time were Zhang Yunyi and Chen Shiqu, who had received this information very early, so they built a strong defensive line in Linyi in advance, but Ma Liwu's troops had powerful heavy weapons, and once he was sent to the city, it was still unknown whether Linyi could be saved.
In the middle of December 1946, Chairman Mao sent a telegram again, in which he said: "All the troops in Lunan and other places are handed over to Su Yu's command, and we must fight this battle well; if we can fight a few more victorious battles on the inside line, it will be extremely beneficial for our army to switch to the outer line in the future!" ”
Chairman Mao clearly pointed out in his telegram that the commander of this battle would not make a second choice, or that Su Yu would take up this heavy task!
After receiving the order, Su Yu pondered bitterly, which way did he choose to fight the enemy? Su Yu was well aware of the current situation, the enemy's two main forces on the southern front, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division in Suqian, and Zhang Lingfu's 74th Division at Chen Shi'an.
In addition, in the direction of Lianshui, the Nationalist Seventh Army and the 28th Division under Xue Yue were resting as reserves, and the most critical was the western front, where Ma Liwu's 26th Division plus a fast column had been stationed east of Yixian County, and could attack Linyi at any time.
On the western front, there were not only Ma Liwu's troops, Zhou Yuying's 51st Division was entrenched near Zaozhuang, and Feng Zhi'an's 77th and 59th Divisions were stationed in Taierzhuang.
That is to say, on the western front, the enemy had the strength of 4 divisions, of which the main attack was Ma Liwu's 26th Division, and the other three divisions were tasked with coordinating Ma Liwu's attack on Linyi.
Su Yu never fought a battle that he was not sure of, and before each big battle he would seriously analyze the situation of the enemy and us, Su Yu said: "Zhang Lingfu's troops were seriously injured, and the march into Shuyang was just an illusion, used to confuse our army, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division did not dare to act rashly, and in the Battle of Subei, Hu Lian was almost surrounded by our army, and the real fatal thing was the enemy's four divisions on the western front!" ”
It turned out that Su Yu's analysis was correct, and after careful consideration, Su Yu decided to put the main annihilation target on the Western Front, so who was hit first?
According to su Yu's previous style, it was generally to choose the weaker part of the enemy to annihilate, if this line of thinking is followed, then the first to bear the brunt of it should be Zhou Yuying's 51st Division, or the two divisions under Feng Zhi'an.
But Su Yu realized a problem, can annihilating the enemy really solve the problem? Linyi is the capital of our army in the Liberated Area of Shandong, and if Ma Liwu attacks Linyi at all costs, even if he annihilates the enemy's weak brigades, he will not be able to change the situation.
"Just fight Ma Liwu's 26th Division!"
Su Yu's broken drink attracted the attention of the other staff in the command headquarters, and Chen Yi on the side did not speak, and he never interfered with Su Yu when he was seriously thinking.
Chen Yi smiled and asked, "Decided?" Then do it boldly! I will order all troops to cooperate fully! ”
Photo of Ma Liwu
This was the tacit understanding between Chen Yi and Su Yu, who nodded and said, "Whether the situation in Lunan can be stabilized or not depends entirely on this battle!" This time, I chose to fight the enemy's strongest troops first, and there was still no small risk! ”
Soldiers are in danger! At this time, Su Yu already had a detailed battle plan in mind, and this battle plan was a bold adventure!
At this moment, chairman Mao's telegram from the Party Central Committee arrived again, which read: "In dealing with the enemy's north-south attack, we should choose to break its side first, and the reorganized 74th Division will be delayed, then our army should turn to the Lunan region, and if the situation in Lunan is stabilized, even if all parts of northern Jiangsu are lost, it is not a big deal." In addition, when our army marches into Lunan, it should concentrate at least 25 regiments of troops to attack Ma Liwu's 26th Division first, and only when the siege of Linyi is lifted can our army go out of Huaibei! ”
Coincide with! Once again, Chairman Mao and Su Yu's ideas coincided!
Let's act! Unity of purpose, unity of the general, any battle can be won!
Su Yu felt that Chairman Mao's idea was very wise, and this battle must be won with absolute superiority in troops, so Su Yu also transferred Wang Jian'an's troops from the Luzhong region back and went all out to deal with Ma Liwu's 26th Division!
Su Yu's specific operational plan was as follows:
- Ordered HuaYe's 1st Column, 8th Division, and 1st Division to secretly go north, first to meet the 4th and 9th Divisions under Wang Jian'an, to detour from the two wings of Linyi, enter the designated position, and wait for the order before launching an attack on Ma Liwu's troops.
- Wei Guoqing was ordered to lead huaye's second column, sixth division, and ninth column to set up a defensive line in the Shuyang area, unify it under the command of Tan Zhenlin, and keep a close eye on the movements of the enemy's 74th and 11th divisions.
- The two divisions of Wang Jian'an's division in Luzhong divided the strength of three regiments and fortified Zaozhuang to prevent Zhou Yuying and Feng Zhi'an from supporting Ma Liwu's 26th Division.
After reading the battle plan in detail, Chen Yi said, "The biggest difficulty in this battle lies in the march! Our army went north to encircle Ma Liwu's 26th Division, and the traces of the march must be hidden! Only in this way can we ensure the victory of this battle! ”
Chen Yi's words hit the nail on the head, and Su Yu nodded in agreement. According to the previous marching style of our army, it has always been a day break and a rapid march at night, but this time because of the tight time, Su Yu could only order the whole army to advance day and night and quickly advance in the direction of Yixian County.
In this way, the problem arose, the enemy discovered the whereabouts of our army's northward movement, Xue Yue soon received this military report, and Song Shilun immediately reported to Su Yu: "I am afraid that the action of our army has been detected by the enemy, what should be done next?" ”
Su Yu calmly issued an instruction: "If you find it, you will find it!" We'll keep counting and keep speeding up the march! In this battle, we have the superiority of troops, as long as the enemy's 26th Division does not retreat! ”
Photograph of General Su Yu's military uniform
Xue Yue made a mistake after receiving the report, and the judgment he gave was: "Huaye has experienced many major battles in central China, and its troops have plummeted, it seems that they can no longer stay in central China, and are anxious to retreat to Shandong!" ”
According to Xue Yue's judgment, it can be seen that su Yu's plan was successful.
It was not xue yue who made this mistake, but Su Yu had long been prepared to induce Xue Yue to make a wrong judgment.
The time is close to the New Year's Day of 1947, and at su Yu's request, even if it is New Year's Day, the troops cannot stop marching. Looking at Ma Liwu's side, he is now very arrogant, in Ma Liwu's view, his 26th Division is strong in combat, and this attack on Linyi is simply too much to use.
The arrogant soldiers will be defeated! Ma Liwu did not perceive that the situation was changing rapidly, and he ordered his troops to advance rapidly towards Linyi, so that the position of the 26th Division was extremely convex, and the distance between the 51st and 77th Divisions on both wings was getting wider and wider.
Not only that, but soon a very ridiculous thing happened, because on New Year's Day, Ma Liwu actually broke away from the troops, threw his headquarters in Majiazhuang, and came to the rear alone to organize a lively New Year's Day ball, and the large troops suddenly stopped and did not leave.
On January 1, 1947, Ma Liwu held a grand banquet in the rear of Yixian County, which was attended by several important generals of the 26th Division, and a group of people celebrated the New Year with joy.
The next day, Ma Liwu also called Li Yutang, the commander of the 27th Army, who took his old superior to eat, drink and have fun, the two were extremely happy, that afternoon Li Yutang left, Ma Liwu did not intend to return to the front line to command, and leisurely called the theater troupe to perform Peking Opera in the evening.
Just when Ma Liwu was looking up, Li Yutang's phone came: "What the hell?" The front is fighting! Hua Ye's troops had already broken through the first line of defense! ”
Ma Liwu was in a hurry, and after hanging up the phone, his heart was full of doubts: "What famous halls are Chen Yi and Su Yu doing?" How did it come so fast? Supposedly they'll have at least three more days to arrive! ”
Ma Liwu hurriedly prepared to return to the front line by truck with two companies of troops, and he had been contacting his division headquarters in Majiazhuang, but the telephone line had long been cut off by our army, and no one could be contacted at all.
Under the order of Su Yu, the main force of our army launched a fierce attack from all directions, Huaye's Eighth Division launched an attack on the Shangyan area, where two battalions of the enemy were stationed, and the Eighth Division used the strength of two regiments to encircle the enemy's two battalions, and the enemy tightened step by step, and finally was completely annihilated by our army in a village.
Tao Yong led the first column of Huaye launched a fierce attack on Bian Zhuang, because the enemy set up a strong fortification in Bian Zhuang, Tao Yong ordered the artillery to attack forward, our army captured a large number of enemy artillery in the Battle of Subei, which just came in handy at this time, hundreds of shells fell, the enemy defense line of Bian Zhuang was blown into a mess, and then the soldiers of the first column quickly charged and took Bian Zhuang at once.
At dawn on January 3, Luzhong's troops also made good progress, and the two divisions occupied Pingshan, Shichenggu, and Shilongshan respectively, and directly controlled the commanding heights north of Yixian County.
At this point in the battle, the enemy's defeat is basically determined, and what remains is to annihilate the enemy's living forces step by step.
Ma Liwu could not get through the telephone of the division headquarters, so he had to run to Li Yutang and use the military-level communication system and the front line to get in touch, at the same time he also asked Xue Yue to temporarily retreat, Xue Yue agreed to his request, but could Ma Liwu really escape?
Ma Liwu has his own set of special retreat tactics, he ordered the rapid column to be pulled to the front, dozens of tanks in the troops of the outside line back and forth, as soon as the target is found immediately open fire, Ma Liwu called this tactic "meat slime tactics", meaning to use steel and people to collide.
At this time, it was raining heavily, and Tao Yong called the Huaye command headquarters to inquire: "The rain is very heavy! Should our offensive stop for a moment? ”
Su Yu said emphatically, "Don't stop!" Want to deal with enemy tanks, now is the best chance! When it rains heavily, the roads become muddy, and enemy tanks and heavy weapons are bound to get stuck in the mud and can't be used. ”
Su Yu's idea was that unlike others, Tao Yong led his troops to continue to attack, and the real situation was exactly the same as Su Yu said, and the tanks under Ma Liwu's command were already stuck in the mud and could not move.
The ensuing battle took on a one-sided situation, and our army was like a bamboo, driving the enemy's large troops into a huge encirclement, and various forms of fighting continued to break out, and finally completely annihilated Ma Liwu's 26th Division.
Ma Liwu himself disguised himself and prepared to escape, but he was also captured alive by our army!
It is reasonable to say that the war should come to an end at this stage, but Su Yu's strategic vision is precise, he believes that the morale of our army is high under the great victory, and we should quickly launch an offensive to attack Zaozhuang.
After a week of fierce fighting, the enemy's 51st Division was also annihilated, our army liberated Zaozhuang, this battle lasted 18 days, our army annihilated two integrated divisions of the enemy, plus the results of the reinforcements in various places, a total of 53,000 enemy annihilations.
A precious photograph of Chen Yi and the captured tank
Moreover, our army also captured the equipment of the enemy's rapid column, dozens of tanks and hundreds of artillery pieces. Chen Yi was very happy, he and Su Yu came together to see these captured equipment, Su Yu said: "Boss Chen! I'll take a picture of you!" ”
So he left a precious photo of Chen Yi sitting on a tank.
Chairman Mao soon received the successful report of the Battle of Lunan, and after reading the description of the whole process, he was very excited, and then he patted the table and said: "Su Yu is really getting more and more able to fight!" ”
After Su Yu knew that Ma Liwu had been captured, and heard that when our army was attacking, he was still holding a dance party in the rear, Su Yu smiled and said, "This man is really mediocre!" ”
When Hua Ye's main force launched an onslaught on Yi County, Xue Yue woke up like a dream, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I am on Su Yu's pawn!" Now that the two divisions under his command had all been annihilated and the two division commanders had been captured alive, Xue Yue knew that he had lost control of the Jinpu Line and would certainly not be able to escape the fate of being dismissed.