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In 1948, after the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, the number of prisoners of war counted by the People's Liberation Army and reached 320,000.
For such a large group of captives, Lin Biao also had other thoughts in his heart. In addition to selecting suitable ones to enter our army, he also "carefully selected" 60,000 prisoners and released them directly.
These 60,000 captives were re-invested in the camp of the national army, and even appeared in the follow-up battle between us and the national army, but Lin Biao was not worried about the impact of their war on the PLA, but was able to make Fu Zuoyi's 130,000 army rout.
60,000 people have been able to form a large-scale team, why did Lin Biao want to let them go, and how did these 60,000 people make Fu Zuoyi's 130,000 army defeated?
Pay attention and take a look at Lin Biao's plan behind the release of 60,000 prisoners.
Liaoshen Campaign
After Japan's surrender, Lao Chiang ignored the actual situation of the country, brazenly tore up the contract and launched a civil war.
After the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek seized power in the party, and when he gained the highest power in the Kuomintang, he insisted on launching a revolutionary coup d'état despite the opposition of various high-ranking officials in the party.
For him, the elimination of the Communist Party will allow him to take sole control of China. Don't look at the War of Resistance Against Japan, the two parties could still reluctantly cooperate, in fact, before Japan surrendered, Lao Chiang's ambitions were exposed.
At that time, there were often sneak attacks on the New Fourth Army by troops of the Nationalist Army, which caused losses to the New Fourth Army, and in the context of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the act of sneaking up on our army was bound to be tacitly approved by Lao Chiang.
Therefore, after Japan's surrender, both sides had other ideas in their minds on the question of how the KMT and the CCP should govern the country. And at that time, external forces were also intervening.
The so-called external forces refer to the two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, and as far as these two countries are concerned, their idea is that the KMT and the CPC "divide the river and rule by dividing the river," that is, the two parties will take the Yangtze River as the boundary, and each side will be in charge of one side, which will be beneficial for the two countries to divide their interests in Asia.
However, our party and Lao Chiang do not agree with this point, and the chairman understands that once the "river is drawn and ruled by the river," it will inevitably lead to the division of China's territory, and perhaps it will become two countries, and for now, North Korea and South Korea are the best examples.
And Chiang Kai-shek was not willing, he just wanted to hold the power of China alone and realize his dictatorship in the whole of China.
Therefore, after the surrender of Japan, our army has not relaxed its vigilance, and the chairman also predicted that there would be a war between us and the Kuomintang, so our party also needs to prepare in advance.
After Japan's surrender, Northeast China became the target of contention between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, because it had been occupied by Japan for more than ten years, and there was a large number of heavy industry bases left by the Japanese army. Therefore, being able to take the northeast means that the strength of our army will be further strengthened, and the possibility of victory in the war will be further increased.
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, the Northeast naturally became an important location for the war between the two parties.
In August 1948, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had controlled 97 percent of the land and 86 percent of the population in Northeast China.
The Kuomintang also had 4 corps, 14 corps and 44 divisions in the northeast, with a total strength of about 550,000 troops, and because our army had cut them apart in the previous war, these troops were mainly distributed in Shenyang, Changchun and Jinzhou.
Our army occupies part of the Bac Ninh Railway, which will not only make it impossible for these three cities to communicate with each other, but also cut off the road from Changchun and Shenyang to Shanhaiguan, and the soldiers in these cities will rely on air supplies during that time.
Proceeding from the situation of the war in the whole country, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held that the time had come for us to launch a strategic decisive battle with the Kuomintang, and after discussion, everyone unanimously agreed that the decisive battle would be held in the northeast battlefield first, and that the Northeast Field Army would destroy the remaining national troops in these cities one by one.
The Northeast Field Army was the expeditionary force of the Liaoshen Campaign, and Lin Biao was the commander-in-chief of the Liaoshen Campaign.
This war first went south to attack Jinzhou, so Lin Biao left part of his troops to continue to besiege Changchun, but then led the main force to the south, and the field army launched an attack on the national army on a front of more than 300 kilometers from Yixian to Luanxian, cutting off the Beining Road and directly isolating Jinzhou.
The predicament of Jinzhou also woke up Chiang Kai-shek, he was unwilling to outwit Jinzhou, so he sent troops from Jinxi, Huludao and other positions to Jinzhou reinforcements, once Jinzhou was lost, the troops they left in the northeast could not be withdrawn, this is the strategy of "closing the door and beating the dog" designated by our party.
Before the attack on Jinzhou, we expected that Lao Chiang would give reinforcements to Jinzhou, so we divided the northern and southern lines of reinforcements, and they constantly disrupted the march of the reinforcements by holding on to the defense and mobile warfare on the way to Jinzhou.
On the other side, the field army fought fiercely with the national army in Jinzhou for 31 hours, successfully annihilated more than 100,000 enemy troops, and cut off the door for the national army in the northeast and northeast to retreat to Guannai.
A large number of prisoners of war
After the end of the First World War in Jinzhou, the overall situation of the Liaoshen Campaign had been decided, and as the People's Liberation Army continued to take Fushun, Liaoyang and other peripheral strongholds of Shenyang, Shenyang was close at hand. On November 2, the People's Liberation Army successfully captured Shenyang, and on the same day, Yingkou was successfully liberated, and the Liaoshen Campaign was declared a success.
In the entire Liaoshen Campaign, the People's Liberation Army basically annihilated the elite troops of the Nationalist Army in the northeast, of which 320,000 were captured.
In particular, in the battle of Jinzhou, the PLA troops broke through Jinzhou in only 31 hours, and those soldiers of the national army had already been frightened by the offensive of the PLA, and more than 100,000 enemies were annihilated in this battle.
Among them, more than 19,000 enemy soldiers were killed and 80,000 prisoners were captured, and such a huge number of prisoners was also a challenge to the PLA.
The full 320,000 prisoners actually had little effect on the field army, compared to when we were just in the northeast, the field army was sparse in strength, and it was even more inferior to the national army, so the field army at that time urgently needed to expand its strength, and the national army captured on the battlefield at this time played a role.
We can educate and train the prisoners of war and let them join the ranks of the field army, but in 1948 the Northeast Field Army was sufficient, and we did not have a large demand for prisoners of war.
Basically every column was at full strength and did not need to be replenished by prisoners of war.
And it is not necessarily a good thing to directly arrange such a large number of prisoners of war into the ranks of the People's Liberation Army.
The education that the prisoners of war had received in the ranks of the national army was completely different from ours, and we still had to reform their thinking, and the modes of war to which they adapted were also different, all of which required our army to spend time and energy to cultivate.
However, our army has already decided to start a strategic decisive battle, and in the coming days we will break out many large-scale battles with the Kuomintang, and the PLA should actively prepare for the subsequent war, instead of spending time and energy on educating prisoners, so that the burden on our army will also increase, and perhaps it will delay the course of the war.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) already has a policy of giving preferential treatment to prisoners, and according to our army's regulations, we can open up our minds to those soldiers who take the initiative to revolt and are willing to surrender to the People's Liberation Army, and we can also join the ranks of the PLA.
As for the prisoners of war who are unwilling to join our army, then give them the money to return to their hometowns and let them leave on their own.
The 320,000 soldiers in the Liaoshen Campaign were not easy to handle, and the daily living expenses of the 320,000 people alone were a huge expense, which overwhelmed the financial resources of the Northeast Field Army.
Lin Biao also knew that we were not capable of completely absorbing this group of prisoners, so he ordered that those soldiers who could not be educated or had improper thoughts, including those who were not capable of fighting, would be given a sum of money for their journey, and they would not be recruited.
After layers of investigation by the army, 60,000 people were finally released from the army.
Among these 60,000 people, they are either old and weak soldiers who are incapable of fighting, or they are the national army that wants to solve ideological problems; these people not only do not have a firm sense of combat, but they are swaying from side to side ideologically, and they are also tainted with many bad habits, such as prostitution, gambling, trouble, and fighting.
In short, not only can they not charge in the war, but staying in the army may also corrode the will of the PLA, and when they are reformed, they know that the PLA will not kill them, so they make all kinds of gags and tricks, so the PLA is also very helpless, so they simply let this group of people go.
So during the march of the People's Liberation Army, there were some funny scenes.
On the road of the People's Liberation Army, you can often see some stragglers of the national army, they walk on the road in twos and threes, talking and laughing, and when they see the People's Liberation Army passing by, these soldiers wearing national army uniforms will also give way to the People's Liberation Army.
The People's Liberation Army also told them not to stay too long on the road and to go home quickly. Speaking of the problem of home, these released national soldiers also lamented, now that the whole country is fighting, where do they still have a home?
The national army really had nowhere to go, so the 60,000 national army wanted to go in the direction of Tianjin and Beiping, and it happened that Fu Zuoyi and many national troops were in Tianjin and Beiping.
Tianjin and Beiping are already economically developed, and there are still a large number of military officers and their families living here, so these two cities are safe for the time being, and there are still a lot of supplies, so there should be no problem in life.
60,000 prisoners of the National Army joined the ranks of the National Army again, in fact, they did not intend to be enemies of the PLA, but there was really no way out, so they could only do so.
Seeing the failure of the Liaoshen Campaign, Fu Zuoyi defended the Pingjin area alone, and he was also anxious, now there were 60,000 prisoners to join him, and he happened to lack troops, so he armed all the 60,000 soldiers, hoping that they could contribute to the battle against the People's Liberation Army.
Defeat Fu Zuoyi
60,000 captives returned to the ranks of the national army, will their addition increase the combat effectiveness of the national army?
These 60,000 captives were also "carefully selected" by us, in fact, we also know what they look like, even if all 60,000 people are released, they will not be able to set off a storm.
After the 60,000 national troops entered the city, it actually caused certain problems to the order in the city, if there was a choice, Fu Zuoyi was probably unwilling to accept them, but he had reached the point where he had no choice.
Soon after the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign began, Fu Zuoyi estimated the situation, and believed that the possibility of the People's Liberation Army winning the Huaihai Campaign was still very high, and once it was won, the next step would be to start the Pingjin Campaign.
Compared with the strength of the People's Liberation Army, his troops are not much, although he knows that these soldiers in his hands are not the opponent of the People's Liberation Army, but he is a little more at ease, in line with the idea of increasing the number of troops, he still accepted the 60,000 people.
At that time, Fu Zuoyi could not have imagined that these 60,000 people would not only be unable to fight, but would also cause chaos for him in the rear.
In January 1949, the war on the outskirts of Tianjin began, and Chen Changjie, who was in charge of commanding the defense of the soldiers, believed that he had a full 130,000 troops in his hands, and it was not a big problem to defend a Tianjin.
But he didn't think that among the 130,000 troops, 60,000 were former prisoners of war, not to mention that they had no combat effectiveness at all, and they had already been frightened by the People's Liberation Army during the Liaoshen Campaign.
On the 14th, when Chen Changjie was still leading his troops to defend Tianjin, this group of prisoners also began to play their role.
They did not stand with the soldiers defending the city to resist at the first time, but tried to take advantage of the war to seek their own interests, and many people looted treasures in the streets and alleys of Tianjin, and also spread remarks unfavorable to the national army.
Because they were beaten too much by the Northeast Field Army, they were afraid when they mentioned the People's Liberation Army, and they also passed on this fear to other soldiers, what "Lin Biao and the Northeast Field Army are too powerful, those people are desperate to fight, hurry up." ”
Or "the PLA will not kill people casually, as long as you have not killed the PLA, people will not kill you, and they will let you go if you surrender directly, there is no need to fight hard"
After all, the national army was indeed stronger than the PLA at that time, but with the continuous growth of the PLA, especially in the War of Liberation, the strength of the army has grown unprecedentedly in recent years.
The previous Liaoshen Campaign and Huaihai Campaign were defeated by the national army one after another, so these words began to spread among the national army, and their confidence in the national army gradually decreased.
Once public opinion tears the hole, it will be difficult to make up for it, especially the ability of the People's Liberation Army on the other side, and many soldiers who firmly guard Tianjin have also begun to waver.
After all, there is a direct risk of death in a war, but if you surrender voluntarily, the PLA will not kill people at all, and you can also give you travel expenses to go home by yourself.
The People's Liberation Army united as one, and the national army guarding Tianjin had already been discouraged, in order to break through Tianjin, Liu Yalou even took out the most advanced artillery to fire at Tianjin.
In just 29 hours, the People's Liberation Army successfully took Tianjin.
The loss of Tianjin made Fu Zuoyi completely panicked, he didn't expect Tianjin to lose so badly, and what also surprised him was that this defeat in Tianjin actually began to rout from within.
The First Battle of Tianjin made Fu Zuoyi understand that he had completely lost the strength to confront the PLA, which was also an important reason why he was willing to negotiate the peaceful liberation of Beiping.
As the saying goes, "attacking the heart is the supreme thing"; as long as the morale of the army is unstable, no matter how powerful the army is, it will fail, and the fact that the PLA can grow up in a desperate situation is not only the reason for their internal unity, but also the inevitable result of the unity of the army and the people.
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