In the early hours of one morning in late August 1945, a transport plane from the U.S. military observer group flew from Xi'an to Dongguan Airport in Yan'an. In fact, the main task of this US transport plane was to help Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops transport troops, strategic materials, weapons and ammunition.
On this day, the US military transport plane that temporarily landed in Yan'an happened to meet a few special passengers, and they asked the pilot through an interpreter if they could quickly send several of their generals stranded here to the front line of Taihang Mountain.
Faced with the sudden arrival of passengers and inquiries about the tension of the war on the front, the pilot did not know whether to refuse or to accept. However, when he thought of the urgency of the war ahead, the American pilot, who mistakenly thought that he was still going to fight the Japanese army, after a short thought, readily agreed.
Soon, a group of 20 senior generals boarded the transport plane one after another, preparing to fly to the front line of Taihang Mountain. At this time, Huang Hua, chief of the Central Foreign Affairs Liaison Section, who was in charge of seeing off the pilots, was surprised to find that the passengers who were boarding the plane one after another were actually high-ranking generals of the Communist Party of China, including the famous Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, Chen Geng, Chen Xilian, Xiao Jinguang, Song Shilun, Yang Dezhi, and so on.
As soon as he saw so many important high-ranking generals of the Communist Party, Huang Hua did not dare to slack off in the slightest, lest there be any mistakes on the way, so he immediately submitted a request to Yang Shangkun, secretary general of the Central Military Commission, to accompany him on the flight, so that he could communicate with the US pilots in a timely and accurate manner in the event of an accident on the way.
In this way, the pilot of a US military transport plane unexpectedly and without knowing it, quickly and safely sent 20 high-ranking generals of our party to the front line of Taihang Mountain.
After a four-hour flight, the US military transport plane finally landed safely at the airstrip in Licheng County, Taihang Mountain.
This group of high-ranking CCP generals urgently went to Taihang Mountain to fulfill Chairman Mao's military order on August 24, 1945: to immediately eliminate the strategic threat in the Shangdang area.
Shangdang - strategic location
The Shangdang area is located at the junction of Taihang Mountain and Taiyue Mountain, where the terrain is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. After the surrender of the Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek sent a secret telegram to Yan Xishan, ordering him to take the initiative to occupy the Shangdang area while the Japanese army had not yet withdrawn from Shangdang, and then quickly take the entire territory of Shanxi, so as not to give the Communists a chance to take advantage of it.
As the former king of Shanxi, Yan Xishan led the Jin Sui army to recuperate in Shanxi, just to be his king of Shanxi one day, so Chiang Kai-shek's military order can be said to be in the heart of Yan Xishan.
Chiang Kai-shek also had his own considerations in this regard, that is, as long as Yan Xishan won the Shangdang in one fell swoop and took the entire Changzhi region, it can be said that the upcoming Chongqing negotiations would greatly increase the confidence and bargaining chips for Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang.
As for Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy, our party had a clear view of the fire, so Chairman Mao urgently convened a military conference and put forward the slogan of "fighting the battle of the party and supporting the Chongqing negotiations".
Using US transport planes, more than 20 high-ranking generals of our party quickly arrived at the front line in the Taihang Mountains, and then immediately descended to the counties and districts of the Taihang Mountains to carry out combat work.
Three columns - hands clenched into fists
At this time, Yan Xishan, who was already ambitious, ordered Shi Zebo, the commander of the 19th Army of the Jin Sui Army, to lead 14,000 troops to quickly occupy Shangdang, Changzhi and other areas within five days. In less than half a month, Shi Zebo successively captured most of the areas, including Xiangyuan, Changzhi, Changzi, and Huguan, in a vain attempt to embezzle the fruits of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in one fell swoop.
At this point, Yan Xishan's strategic intention has been clearly revealed, that is, to take Changzhi as the center and vainly attempt to occupy the entire southeastern region of Shanxi, which will pose a direct threat to the liberated areas of Shanxi, Hebei, Shanxi, and Henan.
In order to annihilate Yan Xishan's reactionary army, Liu Bocheng, who hurried to the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region Headquarters on 25 August, immediately instructed that the most urgent task at present was to quickly concentrate and disperse the forces for combat.
When the scattered forces are concentrated, it is like a fist in the hand, and the fist represents strength and indicates victory. To this end, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region organized the main regiment into three main columns, namely the Taihang Column, the Taiyue Column, and the Southern Hebei Column. These three columns have a total of more than 30,000 troops, in addition, 50,000 militia.
In this battle, as long as Peng Yubin's reinforcements in the Jin Sui army could not reach the Changzhi area, the Shangdang Campaign, our army would win.
Siege and reinforcements - good news is frequent
On August 27, the Taihang Column suddenly stormed the periphery of Xiangyuan County and fired the first shot of the Shangdang Campaign. The Jin Sui army guarding Xiangyuan County, after holding on for 4 days, was defeated by our Eighth Route Army, and Xiangyuan County was lost. After the victory in the first battle, the three major columns of our army began to attack the outer counties of Changzhi one after another, and by September 19, the counties of Changzi, Tunliu, Huguan, Lucheng and other counties were successively conquered by our Eighth Route Army.
This was the first stage of the Shangdang Campaign, and our army adopted the tactics of "besieging the city and sending reinforcements", and the guerrilla warfare that our army was best at in the past has also changed into a movement war, besieging the outer counties of Changzhi and fighting with the support of the peripheral troops of the Jinsui Army.
From September 20 to October 6, it was the second phase of the Shangdang Campaign. At this stage, our army's tactics are still "besieging the city and sending reinforcements", and this time, it is the county seat of Changzhi that is besieged. Since the 20th, our army began to attack the county seat of Changzhi, and by the 24th, many city gates were breached. Shi Zebo's troops, who were trapped in Changzhi, wanted to break through the siege, but Yan Xishan was unwilling to lose the Shangdang area, and repeatedly asked Shi Zebo to defend this place, and also encouraged morale and said: "Shangdang must fight, Lu'an must be defended, reinforcements must arrive, and the rebels will be defeated." ”
The reinforcements in the Yan Xi Pass refer to the reinforcements of Peng Yubin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Seventh Army.
However, what Shi Zebo didn't know at this time was that Peng Yubin's 20,000 reinforcements only set off from the garrison on September 15, and the road encountered heavy rain and muddy roads, so he had to march on foot. It was not until 12 days later that they finally arrived in Qin County, and the soldiers marched tiredly all the way, and their combat effectiveness had already been greatly reduced.
On October 2, Peng Yubin's reinforcements were ambushed by our army, some of the enemy was annihilated, and the morale of the rest of the troops was soon low.
By October 6, Peng Yubin's reinforcements were almost completely annihilated, only 2,000 people broke through, and the commander-in-chief Peng Yubin was defeated and killed. At this point, Shi Zebo, who was guarding in Changzhi, completely lost hope, and Yan Xishan had to order Shi Zebo to break through.
From October 7 to October 11, it was the third phase of the Shangdang Campaign. The important strategic task at this stage is to encircle and annihilate Changzhi. On the evening of the 7th, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, Shi Zebo decided to lead his troops to break through and flee south, but he was soon defeated by our army, and the troops he led were also beaten to pieces, and they were forced to disperse and fight.
On October 8th, it was Yan Xishan's 62nd birthday, and when his subordinates were ready to give him a lively feast to celebrate his birthday as in previous years, everyone found that Yan Xishan at this time was not interested in birthday fun. Yan Xishan, who was lying stiff on the bed, trembled and groped for the futon next to the pillow, and lamented again and again: "In the first battle of the party, half of the ······ was lost."
At this time, Yan Xishan saw with infinite sadness that his dream of "King of Shanxi" was destined to turn into a pillow of yellow sorghum, and the water and moon mirror were empty.
On October 12, Shi Zebo was captured in the area east of Qinshui County, and most of his troops were annihilated.
At this point, the battle of Shangdang ended victoriously.
When Chairman Mao, who was negotiating in Chongqing, heard of one major victory after another in the Shangdang campaign, he could not hide his joy, and he quietly said excitedly to the comrades around him: "Well fought! The more we win a big victory, the greater our hope of going back." ”
epilogue
In the first battle of the party, our army annihilated more than 40,000 enemy troops, captured millions of rounds of ammunition of various types, captured 16,000 guns of various types, nearly 100 artillery pieces, and countless other types of military supplies, making our army "rich overnight."
The most important thing is that the Shangdang Campaign was the first large-scale self-defense counterattack launched by our army against the Kuomintang army, and it was the first shot we fired to defend the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Since then, the prelude to the War of Liberation has officially begun.
Resources:
"Changzhi Daily: Why U.S. Military Aircraft Will Serve Our Party - The Story Behind the Air Freight in Changning, Licheng"
"Handan Party History Network: The Battle of the Party"
"Communist Party Network: (Second Field Army) Part 1"