On May 27, 1949, with the remnants of the Kuomintang defenders in the Pudong area being completely eliminated, Liu Changyi, deputy commander of the Songhu Garrison, led his troops to surrender, and the 16-day Battle of Shanghai was successfully won.
The liberation of Shanghai was hailed as "a miracle in the history of war". On the one hand, it is free from the previous scene of wars and bloodshed, and the city and the people are all safe and sound. On the other hand, the battle was so intense and difficult that the plan failed twice, and even Chairman Mao personally ordered the suspension of the siege and the long-term consideration.
So, what really happened during the liberation of Shanghai? What are the considerations behind Chairman Mao's delayed action?
At the beginning of 1949, with the successive victories in the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin, the results of the Liberation War were already on the horizon. In four months, our army annihilated more than 1.54 million Kuomintang troops, almost completely destroying the main military forces of the enemy army. The liberated areas in the northeast, north China, northwest China, and north of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have also been connected, and victory is within reach.
On April 20 of the same year, with Deng Xiaoping as general secretary and Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Su Yu, and Tan Zhenlin as the general former members, he led an army of 1.2 million people to formally launch the Campaign to Cross the River, which pointed to Nanjing and Shanghai, the political and economic centers of the Nationalist government. The intention is to "capture the thief before the king" and completely crush the Kuomintang reactionaries from the root.
Subsequently, after only 3 days of bloody struggle, our army successfully overthrew the National Government and liberated Nanjing. However, just as our army was preparing to take advantage of the victory to pursue and seize Shanghai, Chairman Mao suddenly called off the offensive plan and ordered him to stand still.
This sudden decision shocked many people. Even at the end of the same year, when Chairman Mao first visited the Soviet Union, Stalin specifically asked: "At that time, the opportunity was so favorable, why didn't you seize Shanghai immediately?" ”
Guess what Chairman Mao's answer was? "Shanghai has a population of more than 6 million people, and if We liberate Shanghai, we will have to feed so many people, where will we get so much food and money," he said. What is so bad about this burden that Chiang Kai-shek continues to carry? ”
Presumably, Stalin never imagined that the reason why Chairman Mao "gave up" the liberation of Shanghai would be so secular and grounded.
In fact, such a simple answer fully demonstrates the differences between China and the Soviet Union. Although China and the Soviet Union are both socialist countries, the path of change and the inner core are actually very different. The Soviet Union relied mainly on the working class and focused on the development of heavy industry. The Communist Party of China, on the other hand, relies mainly on the strength of the broad masses of peasants, as evidenced by the revolutionary road of "the countryside encircling the cities" and the establishment of revolutionary base areas such as Jinggangshan.
Not only that, after a hundred years of aggression in China at that time, the industrial base had long been destroyed by war, and what gold and silver were snatched up by the great powers and the unequal treaties they proposed. Not to mention the self-made Communist Party, the war "millet plus rifle" is really not an exaggeration at all. Therefore, the actual situation does not allow our army to rush forward at all, after all, our party, which adheres to "putting people first and ruling for the people," must consider the problems of the people's lives after the war.
It is precisely for this reason that Chairman Mao was repeatedly ridiculed by Stalin as a "Mai Qilin Marxist." The so-called Mai QiLin refers to margarine, and its hidden meaning is impure and unauthentic. Stalin believed that only by basing itself on the working class was true socialism. For this reason, after learning that Chairman Mao had abandoned the offensive because he was worried about the livelihood of the people of Shanghai, Stalin was furious and directly asked: "Are you still a Marxist?" ”
Of course, although our party and our army put the people in the first place and cared about the people's livelihood, they also pursued the principle of "coming out of power from the barrel of a gun" and fought all the way through the battle in a down-to-earth manner. Correspondingly, even if the post-war grain supply is really a problem, our army will not be able to choose to give in and retreat and make a wedding dress for the enemy.
In fact, Chairman Mao's "theory of food shortages" is only one of the superficial reasons for the suspension of the offensive, and can be regarded as an answer that avoids the truth and avoids the truth. After all, people's hearts were separated, and even if China and the Soviet Union were good friends at that time and were good brothers in the same camp, our army had no reason to explain the crucial strategic countermeasures to the Soviet side.
So, what was the real reason why Chairman Mao suddenly ordered the liberation of Shanghai at the end of April 1949? The answer to this question is, in fact, in the final analysis, 6 words - "Shanghai is too important".
Shanghai is located on the central and eastern coast of China, is the center of the north and south coasts of the mainland, where the Yangtze River and the Huangpu River meet into the sea, with unique geographical advantages. As early as the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Shanghai has prospered, and Songjiang Province, known as the "predecessor of Shanghai Beach", was once the largest cotton spinning center in the country.
After the defeat of the Opium War in 1842 and the Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Maguan, which humiliated the country, Shanghai became the first treaty port opened to the outside world after China broke away from the "closed country" policy. With the signing of the Treaty of Wangxia and the Treaty of Huangpu in 1844, the United States and France also entered the five major treaty ports (Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou).
Westerners established numerous concessions in Shanghai, and introduced a large amount of capital, built roads, improved infrastructure, developed commerce, and even the work-study trend that was popular in France during the May Fourth Movement also needed to take a boat at the Shanghai dock. Thanks to this, Shanghai's industry, commerce and finance have been able to develop freely and prosperously for a long time, and various advanced ideas have also taken the lead in spreading here.
By 1949, Shanghai had become the economic center of China and the Far East, known as the "First International Metropolis of the Far East". The more than 6 million people gathered here also include a considerable proportion of overseas Chinese. Coupled with its special status as "the birthplace of the Communist Party of China and the original origin of the Communist Party of China", it is enough to see how important and critical Shanghai is.
At the same time, although the Kuomintang had already lost all its strength and strength at that time, Chiang Kai-shek did not tie his hands. He regarded Shanghai as the last fortress, tried to hold on here, fight a tug-of-war with our army, and then wait for the opportunity to turn the tables against the wind.
It is understood that as early as April 26, 1949, after the liberation of Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek immediately summoned Tang Enbo, commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison, Zhou Zhirou, commander of the Air Force, gui Yongqing, commander of the Navy, and other close generals to Fuxing Island to discuss the defense plan for Shanghai. In the next few days, he even called the officers of the Shanghai Nationalist Regiment and above to him one by one, and personally deployed the battle plan of "defending Greater Shanghai."
Chiang Kai-shek issued a death order saying that the Kuomintang army must hold shanghai for more than half a year to wait for changes in the international situation. The international situation that Chiang Kai-shek is looking forward to is presumably the intervention and help of the United States.
It is worth mentioning that in order to stimulate the will and enthusiasm of the Nationalist army to the greatest extent, Chiang Kai-shek constantly cheered up the officers and men, promising that he would stay in Shanghai to personally command and advance and retreat with everyone. In order to increase credibility, Chiang Kai-shek even called his two sons to Shanghai, putting Chiang Ching-kuo in charge of Shanghai's important political affairs, and Jiang Weiguo as deputy commander of the armored corps. The whole look of really coexisting and dying with the Nationalist Army and Shanghai was once very bloody and touching. However, within a few days of saying this, before our army could enter Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek sneaked to Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, early in the morning of May 7, which really can be said to have brought "saying one thing and doing one thing" to the extreme.
Of course, although Chiang Kai-shek rebelled, it did not affect the confidence of Tang Enbo, a second-class general of the Republic of China Army, in occupying Shanghai. As the commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison, that is, the supreme commander of the Nationalist army in the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou region, he built a tight fortification in Shanghai early on.
It is understood that the Nationalist army has built more than 4,000 reinforced concrete bunkers, more than 10,000 bunker bunkers, and buried tens of thousands of mines in the surrounding areas. Aircraft, warships, and armored units were all ready to go, and another 200,000 troops were stationed in various parts of the city. The level of defense was so high that Tombaugh himself could not help but show off triumphantly: "Shanghai is a city with iron walls, and it is going to become the second stalingrad."
The battle for Stalingrad must have been heard of. This was the most important turning point in the Second World War and the bloodiest battle in recent history (more than 2 million casualties), and there was no one. On July 17, 1942, Nazi Germany sent an army of 1.5 million in an attempt to seize Stalingrad, the traffic choke point of central and southern Soviet Union. After more than 7 months of bloody fighting, the Soviets finally defeated the Germans and defended Stalingrad.
The comparison of Tombaugh with Stalingrad undoubtedly fully reflects his determination to occupy Shanghai and his confidence in the Shanghai fortifications.
Imagine, under such circumstances, if our army were as hard and rigid as in previous battles, it would inevitably lead to a large-scale hot war. At that time, China's largest and most prosperous city will be in ruins and devastated, and industry, infrastructure and transportation will be completely paralyzed. Of the more than 6 million innocent people, I don't know how many will be affected by the war. It is possible that because of the mistaken injury of foreign nationals, they will be seized by hostile countries, play on the topic, and take advantage of the fire to rob.
In short, it is precisely because of Shanghai's special status and importance that Chairman Mao kicked the door and stepped on the brakes outside Shanghai. Subsequently, Chairman Mao proposed: "To fight Shanghai, we must fight in literature and not in arms, and we should fight not only a military battle, but also an outstanding political battle, not only to destroy the enemy, but also to preserve the city, but also to win the hearts and minds of the people." The core requirements, and thus planned a specific combat plan for Wen Da.
At that time, General Chen Yi made a very interesting analogy. He said that the Battle of Shanghai was like fighting rats in a porcelain shop, you have to catch rats, but you have to be careful not to break the precious porcelain. Apparently, the porcelain shop refers to the whole of Shanghai, the rats are the Kuomintang army, and the porcelain represents the prosperous urban area. In other words, what our army has to do is to lead the rats to the outer area where the porcelain is not placed, and then encircle and annihilate them in one fell swoop.
It should be noted, however, that this method did not happen overnight. As we all know, "finding the enemy's weak points and striking with precision" is an important part of Chairman Mao's tactics, and seeking advantages and avoiding harm is also the instinctive nature of all animals.
According to the defense deployment of the Nationalist army, the northernmost baoshan and Jiading districts are the center, the northeast and northwest sides are the most tightly defended areas, and the southern part is relatively loose. Stemming from this situation, Su Yu first prepared two sets of plans.
One is the more traditional encirclement and attrition tactics. Two corps of the East China Field Army and a total of 400,000 soldiers went to encircle Shanghai and block all the communication routes of the Nationalist army. By cutting off its source of supplies to consume the enemy's physical strength and will, thereby achieving the effect of doing more with less.
The second is to go through Jiangsu Province, around the southern region of Shanghai, where The defense is weak, and then liberate Shanghai by attacking and fighting hard and making a quick decision.
If you look at the outcome of the victory or defeat alone, both options are relatively safe. However, on a large scale, they more or less violated Chairman Mao's purpose of "fighting with letters." First, the siege of the city is not only the enemy, but also the people and expatriates in the city. If the siege is too short, it will not be able to achieve the effect of depleting the enemy's combat strength; but if the siege is too long, it will definitely cause panic among the masses, and perhaps it will also force the national army dogs to jump the wall and make some big things in the city.
Second, the core urban area of Shanghai is located in the north, and the main forces of the Nationalist army are also distributed in the north. If our army attacks from the south, there are two kinds of final situations: either we will meet the Nationalist army directly around downtown Shanghai and have a fight, or we will stop in the south and wait, and then watch the Nationalist army redeploy its forces to the periphery of downtown Shanghai. It boils down to the long-term stalemate or jeopardizes both the two outcomes of the urban area.
In short, after reading several sets of plans, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou, and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De unanimously finalized the third plan of "catching rats in porcelain shops." The specific step is to directly attack the Wusongkou area of baoshan District, where the Nationalist army is most heavily defended (garrisoning 90,000 troops), and then fight the grass and snakes, attract all the main forces of the Nationalist army, and then surround the two corps from both flanks and cooperate to implement the encirclement, and finally annihilate the enemy army in the Wusongkou area.
After half a month of meticulous planning, the Battle of Shanghai finally officially began on May 12. For the next 16 days, the soldiers of our army braved sacrifices, braved the overwhelming artillery fire, and attacked all the way according to the original plan. On May 27, Shanghai was successfully liberated.
It should be noted that in order to protect the safety of the people to the greatest extent, the people's property is defended. In the Shanghai Campaign, our army not only chose to launch an attack on the enemy's hardest fortress, but also firmly implemented Chairman Mao's "three no's demands" -- no artillery, no explosions, and no heavy weapons.
Even after the victory in the battle and the liberation of Shanghai, Chairman Mao still adhered to the purpose of "not disturbing the people's lives" and demanded that the soldiers "not enter the people's houses." In the photos left by the media, the pictures of the PLA soldiers who have fought countless days and nights, one by one, sleeping on the streets and curling up on the ground to rest, are deeply sad and touching.
Let me ask you which country, which government, which army in the world still thinks so much about the people. Even the Western media could not help but praise angrily: "In the face of such a strict military discipline and no offense against the people, what will the Kuomintang do to fight them?" ”