Author: Unsentimental
Founding Lieutenant General Nie Fengzhi followed Xu Shiyou for 18 years from the time he joined the Red Army. In the long years, Nie Fengzhi, who had both wisdom and courage in fighting in the waves, gradually stood out and became Xu Shiyou's most relied cadre, conquering the west in the east and the west and the south and the north, and made outstanding military achievements. However, although Xu Shiyou, who ruled the army extremely strictly, greatly appreciated Nie Fengzhi, he never praised him, as if Nie Fengzhi should have made great achievements no matter how much he had made. And Nie Fengzhi had long been accustomed to this, and felt that as long as Commander Xu did not open his mouth to train people, he would be thankful.
Lieutenant General Nie Fengzhi
In the summer of 1948, HuaYe was preparing to launch the Battle of Jinan, and the chairman personally designated Xu Shiyou, commander of the Shandong Corps, as the commander-in-chief of the siege. Nie Fengzhi's Huaye 9th Column was also included in the siege group, and was ordered to join Forces with Zhou Zhijian's Huaye 13th Column to attack from the east of Jinan.
Known as the "Spring City", Jinan City is strongly defended and has sufficient grain and ammunition reserves. Wang Yaowu, commander of the enemy's 2nd Appeasement Zone, performed brilliantly during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and reorganized the 74th Army, a new unit upgraded from a local unit, into an iron army ranked as one of the "five main forces" of Chiang Kai-shek's army. At this time, he had 110,000 troops in Jinan to stand for help, and was an opponent that should not be underestimated.
At the meeting of Huaye cadres held before the war, many generals believed that it would take at least 3 months to capture Jinan. The headquarters also said in a telegram about the Battle of Jinan on August 15: "The whole campaign should be fought in about 1 month, but it must be prepared to fight for 2 months to 3 months." ”
Xu Shiyou in the war years
At the meeting, Nie Fengzhi said in a surprising way: "In my personal opinion, the battle does not have to be fought for so long. In 15 to 20 days, you may be able to beat Down Jinan Province! As soon as this remark came out, the venue was full of laughter, and Nie Fengzhi was ridiculed by the generals present. Guo Huaruo, who had a high level of military theoretical attainment and had served as a high counselor by the chairman's side for a long time, smiled and patted Nie Fengzhi's shoulder and said, "Old Nie, Takami, Takami!" Xu Shiyou, who presided over the meeting, did not comment on this, neither breaking the siege for his love nor reprimanding him for seriously underestimating the enemy.
In fact, Nie Fengzhi had never been the kind of person who spoke out. If that were the case, he would not be trusted and reused by Xu Shiyou. The reason why Nie Fengzhi had a different judgment on the course of the Jinan campaign was because he felt that the enemy in Jinan had become a turtle in an urn, and his sense of perseverance was bound to be scattered or even shaken; with Su Yu commanding 180,000 reinforcement troops, our attack group had no worries and could attack the city wholeheartedly; at present, Jinan has become a lonely boat in the hinterland of the Shandong Liberated Area, and if the enemy wants to quickly reinforce Jinan, it can only be described as a cup of water and a car; and the 9 columns and 13 columns I used to attack the city have gone through the attack on Yanzhou and Weixian County, and the ability to attack the stronghold has made great progress. The 3 columns were known for their strong points, and they were able to rise to a higher level in the Battle of Kaifeng. In addition, the entire Shandong Liberated Area can concentrate human, material, and financial resources to support the attack, so don't look at our siege group compared with the defending enemy, the superiority of troops is not very obvious, but the comprehensive strength of the two sides is not the same.
When Xu Shiyou formulated the siege plan for Jinan, he clearly stipulated that in the first stage, superior forces would be concentrated to attack the airfield in the western suburbs of Jinan, and the main force would not be used on the eastern front. After the perimeter has been cleared, it will develop according to the war situation and use the main force in the direction that is most conducive to our army's breakthrough. However, when Nie Fengzhi issued combat orders to the divisions of the 9th Column, he made a big stroke and changed the "assist" of the eastern front to "main attack". The heads of all divisions also attended the pre-war meeting, so after receiving the order, they called Nie Fengzhi one after another and asked if the combat staff officer had written the order incorrectly. As a result, Nie Fengzhi replied uniformly: "Yes, we are the main attacker." ”
Large corps are engaged in regular combat, and military discipline must be strict. Xu Shiyou, who heard about this, came to Nie Fengzhi to "ask the teacher for questioning." Nie Fengzhi did not hesitate to explain: Wang Yaowu is cunning and old,000, and he is by no means a mediocre person. To compete with such a strong opponent, we must suppress him in courage and surpass him in strategy. Previously, the 9 columns learned through the interrogation of prisoners that Wang Yaowu had formulated a defensive strategy of "narrowing the defensive circle, strengthening the main points, reserving strong troops, and counterattacking at the right time". At present, however, Wang Yaowu is most anxious about finding out where the main direction of our army's attack is. If we attack only from the western front, he can immediately transfer the reserve to the west, which will increase the difficulty in the real direction of attack of our army. And if our army attacks on both the east and the west at the same time, and attacks on both sides, his deployment may be disrupted. Moreover, "assist" is changed to "main attack", first, do not increase the number of troops, and second, there is no need to increase equipment investment, which is nothing more than to let the troops carry forward the spirit of bravely shouldering heavy burdens and continuous combat, so that victory can become more certain.
Jinan defender Wang Yaowu
This remark made Xu Shiyou silent. After turning back to study with Tan Zhenlin, the political commissar of the Shandong Corps, he formally adopted Nie Fengzhi's opinion. Xu Shiyou said, "Just fight like this!" One knife in the west and one knife in the east. Two knives poked inwards, poking at its internal organs! ”
On the night of September 16, a tough battle on the outskirts of Jinan began. Nie Fengzhi commanded 2 regiments in the 9th column to directly insert Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Jinan. The 3rd column and the 10th column of the western front were interspersed with multiple roads, and soon approached the enemy's western suburban airfield. At first, Wang Yaowu judged that the main force of our siege was in the west, so he sent the two main brigades as reserves to the western front overnight. Unexpectedly, the positions of Maoling Mountain and Yanchi Mountain in the eastern suburbs were lost overnight, and he concluded that the east was the main direction of our army's attack, so he immediately ordered the two main brigades that had just arrived at the western front to return to the east to assist.
As soon as the two brigades, which were already tired, arrived in the eastern suburbs, they were defeated by the long-awaited main force of the 9 Columns. As the war was raging in the eastern suburbs, Wang Yaowu received a mourning report from the western front: the airfield had been controlled by PLA artillery fire, and the air passage between Jinan and the outside world had been cut off. At this time, the commanders of the enemy forces on the eastern and western fronts all asked Wang Yaowu for help, saying that the main force of the People's Liberation Army was on their side, which made Wang Yaowu anxious and annoyed, and he really could not guess which side was the real main direction of our army's attack. He could never have imagined that the general reserve he had carefully prepared would be so passively led by our army's nose from east to west and from west to east, exhausted and exhausted.
At dusk on September 22, I attacked the outer city of Jinan on both the east and west lines at the same time. After a night of fierce fighting, the defending enemy finally lost its strength and was forced to retreat to the inner city. At dusk on the 23rd, the battle against the inner city began. Nie Fengzhi mobilized the troops: The time for a decisive battle has arrived, and we must fight to the death! Wang Yaowu, who was trapped in the beast, also issued a death order to the remnants again: one step is not allowed to retreat! Kill the disobedient!
From dusk to late at night, I failed to open a breakthrough on both the east and west lines. The defending enemy suffered many casualties, and the casualties of our siege troops were not small, and some of the main attacking companies only had more than 10 people left. In view of the setbacks suffered by our army on all fronts, it was suggested that the troops should be withdrawn first, and after resting and replenishing, the attack should be resumed.
Xu Shiyou couldn't make up his mind about this, so he called Nie Fengzhi to hear his opinion. After discussing with the members of the 9th Column Party Committee, Nie Fengzhi believed that he still had 5 regiments with a complete structure at hand, and the commanders and fighters were full of morale and were summing up the lessons of setbacks one by one and re-studying the way of play. Strike again, and there should be no problem. At this moment, the remnants of the enemy turtle are shrinking in the inner city, and the destruction is imminent, and the fear and panic in their hearts are self-evident. As long as we bravely ascend to the head of the city with a force and tear open a hole, the physical and spiritual defense lines of the defending enemy will collapse in an instant.
After unifying his opinions, Nie Fengzhi picked up the phone and solemnly suggested on behalf of 9 vertical Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin that they would make another surprise attack and not give the enemy a chance to breathe. Subsequently, he placed the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division, the strongest of the 9th Column, in the main direction of the assault, and concentrated the firepower of the whole column to support it. At 1:30 a.m. on the 24th, the 9th Column once again launched a surprise attack on the inner city of Jinan from the east. At 2:25 a.m., the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 73rd Regiment finally planted the red flag embroidered with the words "Break into Jinan Province and Capture Wang Yaowu Alive" on the head of the inner city wall of Jinan. On the afternoon of the 24th, the city of Jinan was all returned to the hands of the people.
Counting down, the Jinan Campaign ended after only 8 days and nights, which not only shocked the whole country and caused a strong psychological shock in the enemy camp, but also shortened the time by more than half compared with Nie Fengzhi's pre-war estimates.
At the end of the battle, Nie Fengzhi was looking around the battlefield when a messenger came to him sweating profusely to inform him: "Commander Xu is calling everywhere to find you!" Nie Fengzhi thought that there was a new task, and he trotted back to the command post. After wanting to call the corps, he only heard Xu Shiyou shouting loudly on the other end of the phone: "Nie Fengzhi! This time to play Jinan, you played well! Then, there was a "clucking" sound on the phone, followed by a busy tone.
Nie Fengzhi was confused on the spot. After following Commander Xu for many years, this is the first time to praise himself, and he is really a little uncomfortable for a while! Come to think of it, this may be a kind of compensation for Xu Shiyou's ridicule of Nie Fengzhi before the battle.
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