Eight "empty city plans" in the history of our army

Zhuge Liang's "empty city plan" is a well-known strategy and a well-known example of war. Time is like an arrow, the years are changing, and the revolutionaries of the older generation of our army have also performed wonderful scenes of "empty city plans" with extraordinary wisdom and strategy.

1. Mao Zedong's "Empty City Plan": Three Telecommunications to Retreat from the Enemy

In the second half of 1948, our army won major victories in various theaters, and Chiang Kai-shek was in internal and external difficulties. In October, the Party Central Committee moved to Xibaipo, not far from Shijiazhuang. After grasping this information, Chiang Kai-shek immediately secretly ordered Fu Zuoyi, commander of the "Suppression Chief" in North China, to attack Shijiazhuang and Xibaipo with an army of 100,000 in the hope of destroying our central organs. In fact, Shijiazhuang was an empty city at that time, and the nearest main force of the Party Central Committee was also thousands of miles away. If the main force is transferred back, it will disrupt all the plans of our army, and it will be difficult to quench the thirst of the near and near water.

In the face of this situation, Mao Zedong showed outstanding commander-in-chief demeanor; on the one hand, he ordered the organs to make preparations for evacuation, and on the other hand, he personally wrote three short messages for the Xinhua News Agency, including "Chiang Fu Bandit Army Vainly Attempts to Assault Shijiazhuang," "Chiefs of North China Call on the People along the Baoshi Line to Prepare to Fight the Bandit Army's Advance," and "Commenting on Chiang Fu Bandit Army's Dream of Sneak Attack on Shijiazhuang," exposing Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy and stating that our army is in full battle and ready to fight at any time.

When Jiang Fu learned about it, he knew that the plan had been revealed, so he had to order the withdrawal of the troops.

2. Zhu De's "Empty City Plan": The trumpets from all sides broke the enemy's courage

In the spring of 1936, the headquarters and general hospital of the Red Fourth Front Army were stationed in Menggong Town, northwest Sichuan. The town is surrounded by mountains on all sides, especially the North Mountain, which is frighteningly steep.

One morning, Zhu De was participating in a basketball game when suddenly several gunshots rang out from the foot of the mountain to the north. It turned out that a group of enemies attempted to sneak attack our rear hospitals while the main forces of our army were out to fight.

The enemy is strong and we are weak, and except for a guard company in the rear, there are all staff members and wounded and sick of the organs, and the comrades cannot help but be a little anxious. However, Zhu De was very calm and calm. He quickly assembled his troops, gave the order to fight, and immediately went into battle after giving a special account to several of the commanders.

When the enemy entered not far from Menggong Town, Zhu De took the lead in shouting to kill the enemy, and at the same time, a loud charge sounded in the mountains. Some of the warriors rushed down the mountain from the dense forest with bayonets and some with wooden sticks. When the enemy saw it, he thought that he had been ambushed, and the formation immediately went into disarray. The enemy died and ran, and many more obediently became prisoners.

3. He Long's "empty city plan": retreat from the city to lure the enemy and kill the enemy's head

In mid-July 1929, Xiang Ziyun, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Hunan First Garrison Army, led his army to attack Sangzhi in a vain attempt to compete with the main force of the Red Fourth Army. In view of Xiang Ziyun's arrogant weakness, the army commander He Long set up an "empty city plan" to lure the enemy into taking the bait. On the evening of the 14th, the Red Fourth Army closely monitored the enemy's movements, withdrew from the county seat in advance, and prepared for an ambush in the north of the city. On the morning of the 15th, Xiang Ziyun mistakenly led his troops to occupy Sangzhi City, which was facing water and surrounded by mountains on three sides, and immediately reported to his superiors. When all the enemies marched into the empty city, He Long led his troops to attack from the north of the city, like a divine soldier descending from the sky. Xiang Ziyun saw that the situation was not good, and fled to the Chixi River with the remnants of the army, which coincided with the dark and heavy rain, and the river rose sharply, and finally Xiang Ziyun fell into the water and died.

Fourth, Peng Dehuai's "empty city plan": talk and laugh to solve the siege

In mid-June 1949, our army successfully occupied Xi'an. In order to save the passive situation, Hu Zongnan gathered a large army to frantically counterattack the ancient city of Xi'an, forming a situation of encirclement on all sides.

At that time, the defenders of Xi'an of our army did not have many troops, and it was difficult to predict the outcome or defeat. At this time, Peng Dehuai urgently met with the Xinhua News Agency reporter and said in a mocking tone: "Ma Jiyuan that playboy, we welcome him to Xi'an." There are so many lambs, fine wine, and beautiful girls in Xi'an!"

The reporter did not understand very much: This is the important speech that the commander is going to make? After calming down and pondering carefully, he understood the intention of Peng Dehuai's "empty city plan," and finally wrote a news article with the title of "The commander of the Yiye front made a speech and welcomed Ma Ji's aid to Xi'an." The speech, which was broadcast on the radio and published on the front page of the newspaper of the Northwest Bureau, confused the enemy and relieved Xi'an.

5. Chen Yi's "Empty City Plan": Densely packed with sentinels to confuse the enemy's company

In July 1940, Chen Yi had led the main force of southern Jiangsu to cross the river to the north. Due to the urgency of this operation, the hospital was temporarily left in the Maoshan area. Chen Yi was relieved of the wounded and sick in the hospital, and returned to the rear hospital with the guards.

At this moment, someone suddenly reported that a company of Kuomintang soldiers was heading towards the village. Chen Yi immediately made a decision: "On the one hand, we must send representatives to reason and fight with them, and on the other hand, we must mobilize all the guards and soldiers and set up sentry posts at the end of the village. ”

Just as Chen Yi expected, when this group of Kuomintang troops came to the edge of the village, they saw a forest of sentry posts everywhere, mistakenly thinking that our main force was stationed here, and they were already afraid of three points. At this time, our wounded and sick and medical personnel shouted to them together, preaching the truth of uniting to resist Japan and fighting the enemy together. As a result, they quietly slipped away.

6. Lai Chuanzhu's "empty city plan": Therefore, an empty city is set up to consume the enemy's strength

In the summer of 1941, the Japanese invaders concentrated more than 50,000 troops and attacked Yancheng, the headquarters of the New Fourth Army, in four ways. Lai Chuanzhu, chief of staff of the New Fourth Army, and Chen Yi, acting commander of the army, decided to withdraw all the military headquarters and its directly subordinate organs from Yancheng and staged a modern "empty city plan" with the Japanese invaders.

On July 12, Lai Chuanzhu led three detachments of anti-university members to block the enemy at the West Gate, and the task was to make a feint to drag the enemy so that our military headquarters could be safely transferred. At nine o'clock in the morning, the enemy dispatched nine planes and kept throwing bombs into the city, and the enemy's artillery also continued to bombard the county seat, but the New Fourth Army had already moved safely. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese invaders attacked Yancheng from both land and water, and as a result, the Japanese invaders who entered the city from land stepped on mines, and those who attacked from the water ran into mines. Lai Chuanzhu led the anti-university members to resist the attack outside the city for a day, and quietly retreated after dark. However, the enemy was so dazed by the mines and mines that not only did they fail to move a single hair of the New Fourth Army, but they themselves suffered dozens of casualties and only captured an empty city that had been blown up by their own aircraft and artillery.

Seventh, Li Xiannian "empty city plan": show the form to confuse the enemy and break through

In June 1946, the Central Plains Field Army with Li Xiannian as its commander held a breakout in accordance with the breakthrough deployment approved by the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao. A few days before the breakout, Li Xiannian ordered Pi Dingjun's troops to pretend that the main force wanted to fight a vicious battle on the eastern front, creating the illusion that the main force was breaking through to the east, so as to confuse and contain the enemy army and conceal the attempt of the main force of the Central Plains Military Region to break through to the west.

On June 26, Zhang Tixue led a battalion of the 2nd Independent Brigade to secretly enter Xuanhuadian to take over the special task of the guard unit. In the afternoon of the same day, Li Xiannian invited the US and Chiang negotiators to the auditorium to watch a play at Xuanhuadian, and after watching the play, he led the negotiators from the three parties on a tour of the night market. Until the afternoon of 29 June, when the breakthrough troops had secretly left Xuanhuadian for two days, our negotiator Ren Shishun was still at the international guest house in Xuanhuadian to thank the US representatives for their "contributions" to Commander Li Xiannian's armistice in the Central Plains.

8. Zhang Yunyi's "empty city plan": calm and wise to retreat from the bandits

In January 1930, Yang Huzi, a bandit from Baise in Guangxi, learned that the main force of the Red Seventh Army was not in the city when he went out to encircle and suppress a large number of bandits, so he gathered more than 3,000 bandits from all walks of life and waited for an opportunity to attack Baise City.

At this time, there were only about 300 Red Army troops in Baise City, and they were still recruits. When Zhang Yunyi, the commander of the Red Seventh Army, learned the news, he ordered the special service company to draw some recruits from the recruit company to form a reinforced company, and each of them brought four soldiers' clothes (yellow, black, new, and old).

The next morning, all of them loaded with guns and ammunition and wearing brand-new military uniforms, went out of the hillside with great fanfare under the leadership of the company commander; at the same time, Zhang Qi, the leader of the cooking squad of the military headquarters, bought 20 piglets from the street and rushed them back to raise them; Zhang Yunyi himself sat at the entrance of the military department, asking someone to get a haircut and shave, and there was no tense atmosphere, let alone any sign of retreat.

Yang Huzi overheard the spies report that the hillside was prosperous and the people's hearts were stable, and the Red Army did not move, and instead of rushing to protect the city, he sent troops out of the city. He was afraid that Zhang Yunyi had set up an ambush, so he urgently ordered to stop the operation and continue to listen to the news. At dusk, the bandit spies saw a group of about 200 Red Army soldiers wearing yellow uniforms, and hurriedly entered Qikuo Village, and soon a group of Red Army soldiers dressed in black came out of the village, also more than 200 people, carrying weapons on their backs.

After the spies entered the city, they saw that more than 200 Red Army troops had left the military headquarters, and a batch of them were opened in the early morning of the next day. After dawn, the spies saw with their own eyes more than 200 veterans in old military uniforms coming out of the military headquarters. He made a rough calculation that there were nearly a thousand Red Army soldiers in the military headquarters, so he quickly slipped out of the hillside to report to Yang Huzi.

Yang Huzi listened to the report of the spies, secretly glad that he did not go to attack the city yesterday, and ordered the bandits to disband immediately and return to their respective hills. In fact, the total number of Red Army troops in the entire mountain city was only about 300 people, but the company commander led the spy company and some recruits to constantly change their clothes to confuse the enemy according to Zhang Yunyi's plan.