In the War of Liberation, Chen Su's Huaye was mentioned, which had always been the main force of our army in containing the national army in the Guan, and had repeatedly created miracles on the battlefields of East China and the Central Plains. In the case that the enemy was strong and I was weak, Hua Ye, commanded by Su Yu and Chen Lao, was able to move and annihilate the enemy in a difficult environment and achieved many great victories.
For example, in the battles of Lunan and Subei, the enemy's rapid column was annihilated in a roundabout operation, and the captured equipment also formed the first special forces column of our army; in the Laiwu Campaign, it avoided the real and attacked the false, annihilated the Li Xianzhou group, and directly took Xue Yue, director of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office and the god of war of the national army, directly defeated the class.
In the subsequent Huaihai Campaign, 600,000 to 800,000 were eaten raw by the national army Xuzhou, and then took advantage of the situation to cross the Yangtze River, liberate Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, and take the southeast half of the wall in one fell swoop.
Powerful Huaye troops
But if we look at Huaye's war history, we will find that compared with the surprising victory in the first year of the Liberation War and the devastation in the third year, the performance of Huaye led by Su Yu in the second year was relatively struggling and difficult, and there were even many battles such as the battles of Nanma and Linqu, which we did not want to mention.
So many people may ask, why is it so difficult for Huaye to fight in the second year of the Liberation War, compared with the successive battles in the first year of the Liberation War?
Huaye in the second year of the Liberation War
From July 1947 to June 1948, the second year of the War of Liberation, our army destroyed a total of 1.52 million enemies, including 936,000 regular troops of the National Army and 585,000 irregular troops (non-field troops such as local pacification units).
This record is a significant improvement from 1.12 million in 1946.
Prisoner of the Nationalist Army in the War of Liberation
In the annihilation of the enemy, the majority is still occupied by Mr. Chen's Shanye and Su Yu's Central China Field Army after the merger.
However, compared with the list of 430,000 enemies destroyed in the first year of Huaye, the number of enemies destroyed in the second year has declined, although there are no specific statistics, but according to the statistics and participation of the two corps inside and outside Huaye at that time, the number of enemies destroyed was less than the 430,000 in the first year.
Moreover, compared with the headquarters of the eight integrated divisions (corps) of the regular army that annihilated the enemy in the first year, namely: the 26th, 46th, 49th, 51st, 69th, 72nd, 73rd, and 74th divisions, and the 31st integrated brigades, in the second year of the Liberation War, Huaye completely annihilated the enemy with only 4 integrated divisions (7th, 66th, 75th, and 45th divisions). ）
It is 1 times less than the first year.
Captured national army in the Battle of Laiwu
In the process of fighting on the outside front, Huaye certainly achieved good results.
For example, in the battle of Shatuji, Su Yu commanded the 1st and 4th columns to encircle and eliminate most of the enemy's reorganized 57th Division, annihilating more than 10,000 enemies, and in 1948, on the battlefield of the Central Plains, Su Yu also began to fight boldly, in the Great War of Eastern Henan, Chen Shiqu's 3rd and 8th Columns conquered Kaifeng, and completely annihilated the 66th Division and some security forces of the Kaifeng defenders.
At the same time, after the victory of the Jiaodong Defense Battle, the 13th and 9th columns of the 13th and 9th columns besieged the integrated 45th division of the Weixian defenders in the Shandong counteroffensive and annihilated them all.
13 columns in the Weixian campaign
But in the second year of the Liberation War, there were more battles.
In August 1947, in the Feixian Campaign commanded by Tao Yong and Ye Fei, the 4th Column attacked the enemy and reorganized a brigade of the 59th Division unsuccessfully, and finally fought a war of attrition; in the same month, the Tengxian Campaign was launched, and the 1st and 4th Columns also failed to expand the results, and only 1,000 enemies were annihilated.
The 1st and 4th Columns made little progress in southwest Lu, and the 10th Column encountered the 5th Army, the ace of the National Army, in Liangshan, and withdrew from the battlefield with 2,000 casualties in the 10th Column after a bloody battle.
Even if he is as strong as General Su Yu, it is very difficult to fight.
In July 1947, after the division of troops in July, Su Yu led the 2nd, 6th, 7th and 9th columns to besiege Hu Lian's integrated 11th Division in Nanma, but during the offensive because of the rain and the reinforcement of the 7th Vertical Defense Line was torn apart, resulting in our army had to retreat, in the process of retreat, Su Yu besieged Li Mi's integrated 8th Division in the Linqu area, but it was also a long time to attack, these two battles of our army casualties of 21,000, annihilation of 14,000 enemies.
The machine gun position of our army in the Battle of Nanma
In the Battle of Tushanji, once again facing Hu Lian's iron bucket formation, the weakness of our army's outer line corps lacking heavy weapons was once again exposed, although many enemies were annihilated in this battle, but still did not achieve the intended combat effect of the 11th Division, destroying 3,000 enemies and 4,000 casualties.
After entering 1948, Su Yu fought beautifully in the Eastern Henan Campaign, although the Kaifeng Battle in the previous stage and the integrated 75th Division of the Annihilation District Shounian fought very beautifully, but in the final Battle of Diqiudian (Suiqi Campaign), Huang Baitao's integrated 25th Division, which failed to completely annihilate the rescue, and at the same time, because of the reinforcement of the integrated 5th Army, the troops did not retreat in time, and the 1st, 4th and 6th columns of this battle all suffered losses to varying degrees. In his post-war recollections, General Pi Dingjun described it as:
"Annihilated an integrated division of the enemy, but it itself lost 3 brothers ......."
So what is the reason why our army fought so hard in the second year of the Liberation War, and even the performance of Su Yu, the god of war, was not as amazing as before?
Su Yu in the second year of the Liberation War had a heavy burden
A wilderness to explore in the mud
In the second year of the Liberation War, for our army in the Guannai, not only Huaye, but also Zhongye, the combat mode underwent a subversive change, that is
From strategic defense to strategic offense.
And this transformation is both active and passive.
Why?
In the first year of the Liberation War, our army had 97 integrated brigades (divisions) of the enemy army, plus the puppet army and local security forces, totaling 1.12 million people. In the course of the operation, our army adopted the strategy of "exchanging space for time" and fought with the enemy Zhou Xuan in the liberated areas, and at the cost of more than 300,000 casualties, thwarted the enemy's key offensives, especially in northern Shaanxi, northeast China, and east China.
To put it bluntly, the enemy's attack not only did not cause substantial damage to our army, but on the contrary, it suffered heavy casualties.
Captured national troops
Take the division of troops between our and enemy armies as an example
After a year of hard fighting, the enemy's total strength has dropped from 4.3 million at the beginning of the war to 3.73 million. The number of regular troops of the national army in charge of the offensive has also dropped from 2 million to less than 1.5 million, and there are only 40 integrated brigades for mobile operations. After a year of fighting and tempering, the total strength of our army has expanded from 1.2 million at the beginning of the war in 1946 to 1.95 million, and the front-line field mobile combat units have also increased from 610,000 to 1 million.
In fact, in the comparison of mobile forces, our army has an advantage.
The so-called "take advantage of your illness to kill you." Since the advantage lies in us, our army must definitely take the initiative to attack, burn the flames of war to the national control area, and start a strategic counteroffensive.
The three-way army strategically counterattacked the Central Plains
It is true that our army has an advantage, but in the second year of the Liberation War, this advantage is not obvious, and the reason why we want to counterattack is actually a last resort.
As for the reason for such a passive counteroffensive, it also lies in:
It is becoming more and more difficult to fight in the base areas
Already when summing up the combat experience of the first year, the chairman said this
"Since the war has penetrated deep into the central areas of the liberated areas, the harsh war and the destruction of the enemy have caused great damage to the liberated areas. Villages are dilapidated, land is abandoned, people are displaced and homeless, and life is very difficult. The limited rear economy can no longer meet the growing demand for manpower and materials at the front. In such a situation, it is necessary to find a way out and change from passive defense to active attack.
Serious Chairman (still)
As a matter of fact, not only the chairman, but also the commanders of the various theaters of operations, in addition to victory, also perceived that the battle was becoming more and more difficult to fight.
Deng Gong's words were more direct
"After a year of fighting on the inside line, the peasants have not seen many chickens, pigs, and livestock, and there are fewer trees in the villages. ”
Therefore, in order to reduce the burden on the base areas, it has become an active choice to bring the flames of war to the national control areas.
However, the strategic offensive is easy to say, but it is very difficult for Hua Ye and Su Yu, who are fighting on the front line.
In particular, leaving Shandong, a model base area, and going deep into the Kuomintang region is like fighting outside the familiar comfort zone (base area), and for our army, which relies on the masses, going to the Kuomintang region is tantamount to an infinite water.
Deng Gong in Dabie Mountain, living a very hard life (stills)
And the series of problems highlighted by this are also the most direct problems that led to the decrease in Huaye's performance in the second year, and these problems have plagued Huaye throughout the year.
First of all, there is the issue of morale.
From August to November 1947, the progress of the Huaye Online Corps was not smooth, and many people began to complain about it.
Some cadres said:
"Athletic warfare, athletic warfare, only luck but not war. I walked in an arc, the enemy walked in a straight line, the enemy walked one, and we walked three (referring to the circle of the Western Corps around Shanxian and Caoxian, walking in circles, and the enemy passing through the city and taking shortcuts), day and night, fatigue. ”
Some comrades said:
"There is a lot of water in southwest Lu, and the loaches have become dragons. Wu Huawen used to be a defeated soldier under our subordinates, and now he dares to chase after our ass. ”
Huaye troops on the march
Then there is the issue of provisions
After the Huaye troops entered the national control area, the first thing they faced was the problem of fake food supply, and it was imminent.
At the beginning, after Ye Fei's troops crossed the Longhai Line and entered southwest Luxi, the people in many villages fled because they did not understand the policies of our army, and for a large army of more than 100,000 people, food was a big problem. There were no local cadres in the liberated areas to raise food for us, and the troops could only spend money to buy it, but the people were unwilling to sell it to us because of currency, policies, and fear of reprisals, resulting in many times Ye Fei's regiment fighting hungry.
In addition to food and grass, the supply of ammunition, weapon parts and other equipment is also a troublesome matter.
The duration of each campaign was very short, and many battles were fought to the point of white-heat, but they fell short because of the problems of supplies and food.
Our army fought very the outside line
Finally, there is the issue of division of troops
In the first year of the Liberation War, after Su Yu merged with Mr. Chen to form Huaye, he would prepare 9-12 columns for each battle, and he had the overwhelming advantage in terms of troops.
The effect was also immediate, and the three important battles of Lunan, Laiwu and Menglianggu were victorious.
However, after the division of troops in July, Huaye was forced to divide into the inner line corps (Xu Tan) and the outer line corps, the outer line corps, and also divided into the Su Yu Corps, the Chen (Shiqu) Tang (Tang) Corps and the Wei Guoqing Corps in northern Jiangsu. At the beginning, Su Yu reorganized the 11th Division and the 8th Division, mainly because the number of troops was too small, which had to be put on hold to fight in the liberated area, and the two Hu Lian were not enough for Su Yu to eat.
Units of the National Army in the Nationalist Region
So, because of the shift in strategic tasks
In the first half of the year (July 1947-January 1948), Shandong and Henan were in a state of encountering water and fields, and the spirit of fighting a big battle was insufficient, so the number of enemies destroyed was not much.
Of course, the reason why Su Yu is called the god of war is also because of his analysis of the current situation, in 1948, when he was conducting winter training, he sent a letter to the central government, advocating fighting in the river, believing that now Huaye has adapted to fighting on the outside line, and the time has come for a decisive battle with the national army.
Su Yu's proposal was quickly agreed to by the chairman, and this was the basis for the victory of the Eastern Henan Campaign and the subsequent Jinan and Huaihai Campaigns.
Su Yu, who is fighting on the outside and looks solemn (stills)
Just as the chairman compared the War of Liberation to climbing a mountain pass, Huaye's second year of combat was uphill, and after climbing to the top of the mountain, it was the way down the mountain to victory.