If you want to say that the most outrageous battle in the Liberation War, it is the Battle of Laiwu. Wang Yaowu once said: "Don't talk about 50,000 people, it's 50,000 pigs, and you can't catch them all in one night!"
But Li Xianzhou's army of 50,000 was captured overnight, and Li Xianzhou himself was also captured.
Why did the Laiwu Battle go so smoothly and who played a major role in the Laiwu Campaign?
The principal loves the general
Chiang Kai-shek was a little sick. If he trusts someone, he will trust that person even if he has a loophole.
Unless someone puts the evidence on the table, and it has to be ironclad, Chiang Kai-shek will not lift his trust in that person. Otherwise, even if the man betrayed him, he would try to persuade him to go back.
But if he doesn't trust a person, even if that person is born and dies for him, and fights for him, he still won't trust this person.
No matter how good others praise this person, Chiang Kai-shek doesn't trust him. Even if he gave his life for Chiang Kai-shek, he still had to sneer at his coy attitude.
Han Liancheng is a person who is trusted by Chiang Kai-shek. The origin of his relationship with Chiang Kai-shek still starts with the Whampoa Military Academy.
Back then, Han Liancheng dropped out of private school and wanted to find a way to save the country. Feng Yuxiang served as the border supervisor in the northwest, which ignited Han Liancheng's enthusiasm.
Since then, joining the army to serve the country has become his life creed. At that time, the biggest force in Gansu was the Ma Jiajun led by Ma Hongkui.
Although Han Liancheng wanted to go to Feng Yuxiang, his parents said that they didn't want him to leave. Han Liancheng was very disappointed and kept sullen.
In the end, his parents borrowed him a high school diploma and sent him to Ma Hongkui's officer training team. Feng Yuxiang, with the support of the Soviet Union, intended to start the Northern Expedition.
After the five original oaths, Feng Yuxiang invited our party personnel to join the Northwest Army. Han Liancheng met Liu Zhidan by mistake.
In Liu Zhidan's mouth, Han Liancheng understood the purpose of the national revolution and understood many revolutionary truths. With the improvement of Han Liancheng's ideological consciousness, Liu Zhidan planned to let him join the party.
But before he could join the party, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke down. Feng Yuxiang implemented the policy of purging the party, and Liu Zhidan and others were "sent out of the country with gifts".
Because he once saved Feng Yuxiang's life, Feng Yuxiang saved Han Liancheng. In Feng Yuxiang's heart, Han Liancheng was willing to risk his life to save him, so he would not betray him easily.
During the Central Plains War, he saved Chiang Kai-shek by mistake. Since then, Han Liancheng has completely fallen into the eyes of Chiang Kai-shek.
Especially when Chiang Kai-shek learned that Han Liancheng was not from the Whampoa Military Academy, he directly added him to the list of the third phase of Whampoa.
This is not a simple sentence, but the file of the Whampoa Military Academy was established for Han Liancheng, and his name was written on the third batch of graduates.
No matter who comes to see and check, Han Liancheng will only be a graduate of the third phase of Whampoa. And with the identity of a student of the Whampoa Military Academy, he ascended to the sky in one step and became a descendant of Chiang Kai-shek.
This kind of thing is something that ordinary people would not dare to think of. But Han Liancheng relied on his life-saving grace to Chiang Kai-shek and became Chiang Kai-shek's confidant.
Chiang Kai-shek trusted Han Liancheng, and in the Battle of Laiwu, after Li Xianzhou's army was annihilated, Han Liancheng returned alone. Even so, Chiang Kai-shek did not suspect Han Liancheng, but praised him.
Until He Yingqin had the exact evidence, he did not dare to publicly arrest Han Liancheng.
The "Laiwu Campaign" made great contributions
In fact, there are two unsolved mysteries in the Battle of Laiwu: first, how did Li Xianzhou annihilate the entire army in one night, and second, where did Han Liancheng go?
In the entire Laiwu Campaign, only one Han Liancheng ran away. After Li Xianzhou was captured, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. He didn't think so.
As the commander of the corps, he couldn't run away. Why did Han Liancheng run away? Could it be that he saved Su Yu's life just as he saved Chiang Kai-shek and Feng Yuxiang?
Li Xianzhou couldn't figure it out, in fact, not only Li Xianzhou, many people couldn't understand the reason why Han Liancheng was able to run back to Nanjing safe and sound.
This question, in fact, has been faintly answered after Li Xianzhou was captured. After all, Han Liancheng was the reason for the defeat in the Battle of Laiwu.
At the beginning of the Battle of Laiwu, our army was still in a very weak stage. The "Double Tenth Agreement" signed in order to buy time did not achieve much in the end.
But sitting back and waiting for death has never been the style of our army, and what our army is best at is seizing opportunities in difficult situations. In 1946, Lao Chiang raised troops to invade the liberated areas.
At first, our army was really caught off guard. Because the equipment and numbers were inferior to the enemy, our army suffered heavy losses at the very beginning.
In December of the same year, our army took the initiative to launch the Subei Campaign. The victory in the Battle of Subei greatly boosted the morale of our army, which had been sluggish since the beginning of the war.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Central Committee decided to take advantage of the opportunity to expand the situation of the war, while Chiang Kai-shek wanted to destroy the strength of our army in Shandong and attempt to completely recover Shandong.
In order to destroy our army, Chiang Kai-shek sent his own descendants. Among these troops, the most elite should be the Xue Yue Corps.
There was not only a large amount of American-style equipment, but also a considerable amount of artillery and tanks. With such an army, Xue Yue was very confident that he could destroy our army.
In order to ensure that this battle was foolproof, Chiang Kai-shek also sent his henchman Chen Cheng. Chen Cheng and Xue Yue conspired, coupled with Wang Yaowu's long-range support, our army was really defeated.
In order to preserve its strength, our army chose not to go head-to-head with the national army, but to concentrate its forces to break through a little. Unexpectedly, this made Chen Cheng mistakenly think that our army was beginning to rout.
At this moment, Chen Cheng was overjoyed, and immediately sent Li Xianzhou's corps to attack. To be on the safe side, he also asked Wang Yaowu to attack our army from both sides.
But Wang Yaowu did not dare to agree with Chen Cheng's thoughts. In Wang Yaowu's view, our army has not yet reached the point of complete defeat.
Chen Cheng rashly sent Li Xianzhou, just to give the opportunity to our army in vain. But Chen Cheng is used to being high and powerful, and he can't listen to others criticize him.
Since Li Xianzhou has been assigned to Chen Cheng's subordinates, he must obey Chen Cheng's orders. Even if Wang Yaowu said that he couldn't send troops, Li Xianzhou didn't take it to heart.
Li Xianzhou's corps was well-equipped, with trucks, artillery, and tanks. But in Shandong, these sophisticated equipment have become a burden.
Without him, Shandong is mountainous, not to mention the difficult and dangerous roads, and they are all very narrow. If you want a large army to pass, you need to stretch the line very long.
Once the queue grows, the danger increases considerably. Because of this, the team is scattered, and there is nothing that cannot be supported in time.
The narrow mountain road made it impossible for the trapped cars to move forward, and the team could easily break in two. This is the situation that makes Su Yu keenly aware of opportunities.
Su Yu used a column as bait to lure Li Xianzhou to chase after our army. The remaining three columns had already set up a pocket array, waiting for Li Xianzhou to come in by himself.
Wang Yaowu keenly discovered this situation, and he sent a telegram to Li Xianzhou, telling him to evacuate quickly. But on the other side, Chen Cheng ordered Li Xianzhou to pursue.
"Wait, wait, wait"
Li Xianzhou was like a meat bun, sandwiched between Wang Yaowu and Chen Cheng. In the end, Li Xianzhou still chose to listen to Chen Cheng and did not withdraw as Wang Yaowu said.
Hearing Chen Cheng, Li Xianzhou completely fell into the encirclement of our army. After being surrounded, Li Xianzhou began to regret listening to Chen Cheng's orders.
But the matter has come to this point, and it is useless for Li Xianzhou to regret it. He can only actively look for ways to save himself and find a way to break out.
At that time, it was Huaye's three columns that surrounded Li Xianzhou. And in Li Xianzhou's hands, there are two armies of about 50,000 people. With this amount of troops, we can still take the opportunity to break through while our army has just completed the encirclement.
But it was difficult for Li Xianzhou to make up his mind, he was afraid that Chen Cheng would be angry with him after breaking through. So how to fight after the breakthrough, Li Xianzhou was rarely at a loss.
What Li Xianzhou has to do now is to seize the time to break through. While the 12th Army was still spitting, it was wisest to quickly break through and join the 12th Army.
When Li Xianzhou finally made up his mind to break through, Han Liancheng said that his 46th Army had not yet been assembled. Without the 46th Army, the 73rd Army simply could not break through alone.
Li Xianzhou had no choice but to wait patiently for the 46th Army to assemble. He asked Han Liancheng how long it would take, and Han Liancheng replied one day.
But a day later, Han Liancheng's troops still hadn't been assembled. If it weren't for Han Liancheng's beautiful weapons with half an army, Li Xianzhou would have thrown him down and ran away by himself.
finally waited for another day, and before breaking through, Han Liancheng suddenly said that there was one less regiment commander. Without waiting for Li Xianzhou's consent, he went to the head of the regiment by himself.
And Han Liancheng went, and never came back. Li Xianzhou couldn't find Han Liancheng, so he took the 73rd Army and the 46th Army to break through together.
At this time, our army had already formed a solid encirclement, and Li Xianzhou's breakthrough had naturally failed. After all, without Han Liancheng, the cooperation between the 46th Army and the 73rd Army was also chaotic.
In this battle, not only the 73rd Army and the 46th Army that followed Li Xianzhou were all annihilated, but even the 12th Army of Tusikou also fell into the encirclement of our army.
Han Liancheng's delay in these times successfully buried Li Xianzhou's corps. And Li Xianzhou didn't know where Han Liancheng had gone in the end.
Where else can Han Liancheng go? Of course, he returned to the headquarters of our army. Although Han Liancheng saved Chiang Kai-shek's life, he could see right from wrong.
Chiang Kai-shek's perverse actions have made the lives of the common people miserable. He knew he couldn't go on like this.
So after reconnecting with the party organization, Han Liancheng has been engaged in secret work. Because of Chiang Kai-shek's identity as a life-saving benefactor, he was like a fish in water in the Kuomintang.
It was also relying on Chiang Kai-shek's trust that Han Liancheng successfully delayed Li Xianzhou's breakthrough time and buried Li Xianzhou's tens of thousands of troops.
And Li Xianzhou didn't think that Han Liancheng might be a member of our party until he was captured. After all, Li Xianzhou could not have thought that even Chiang Kai-shek's life-saving benefactor would choose to go against him!
After that, Han Liancheng went deep into the tiger's den and played a major role in our army's victory in the Battle of Menglianggu.
The times create heroes, and Han Liancheng's life is legendary. His patriotism will forever remain in history for future generations to admire.