In March 1947, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to change his all-out offensive to a key offensive in northern Shaanxi and the liberated areas of Shandong, known as the "Double Spear Offensive". Among them, the Shandong Liberated Area was divided into two parts, namely the military base in the Yimeng Mountains and the transportation supply base in Jiaodong. In the face of the offensive, after Huaye won the great victory of Menglianggu, the inner line troops under the command of Su Yu lost successively in Nanma and Linqu, the troops were very tired, the casualties were large, the battlefield situation deteriorated sharply, and the Yimeng Mountains were lost, so they had to move to the north of Jiaoji Road and the Zhucheng area for rest.
The temporary setback of the Huaye Inner Line forces caused Chiang Kai-shek to miscalculate again, so he turned the focus of the offensive to Jiaodong. Chiang Kai-shek personally went to Qingdao to preside over the formulation of the "September Offensive" operational plan, under the command of Fan Hanjie, deputy commander-in-chief of the army, 20 brigades formed the Jiaodong Corps, and with the cooperation of the navy and air force, from Weixian (now Weifang) to Qingdao to attack the Jiaodong liberated area.
Surrounded by the sea on three sides and with a mountainous hinterland, the Jiaodong area is not only a sea and land supply line from outside the PLA to the inside of the pass, but also an important military production and rear base of the East China Field Army. From 1946 to 1947, the Jiaodong Arsenal produced 4,330 grenadiers, 327 artillery pieces, 510,000 shells, and 4.24 million bullets. In 1948 alone, Jiaodong produced 472 artillery pieces, 968,000 shells, and 66,000 100-mm mortar shells. In 1947, Chen Yi and Su Yu telegraphed to the Central Committee: Huaye's hundreds of thousands of troops, artillery shells, explosives and bullets were supplied, and at least seven-tenths depended on Jiaodong. It can be seen that if Jiaodong is not guaranteed, the Shandong base will be lost.
The location of Jiaodong is important, and the national army is pressing, but the entire strength of the East China East Front Corps defending Jiaodong is only 4 columns and 2 divisions commanded by Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin. Moreover, the four main columns were separated in two places, and there was a great disparity between the offensive and defensive strength of the enemy and us, so how should this battle be fought? Chiefs Xu and Tan were determined to adopt the tactics of blocking and attacking in an attempt to lure the enemy deep and seek an opportunity to annihilate the enemy while delaying the enemy's advance. But the national army has also learned to be obedient after being beaten many times, and Fan Hanjie is also a famous general, who is well versed in the art of war. He invented the tactics of "combing the grate and pushing flat," with four reorganized divisions as the front echelon, and two divisions closely following, advancing in four directions in parallel and intensively pushing flat, in a vain attempt to press our army to the east of the peninsula step by step.
Not to mention, this formation of the national army is really effective, Xu Shiyou is not easy to seize the 157th Brigade of the entire 64th Division of the Guangdong Army, which has relatively weak combat effectiveness into Zhucheng, to launch an attack, and the fierce battle is fought for a day and two nights, but he still failed to end the battle before the arrival of the national reinforcements, and in order to avoid the whole army falling into passivity, he had to withdraw his troops. After the defeat in the first battle, the national army pressed forward step by step, and the Jiaodong base area was only a small area of less than 75 kilometers from east to west and less than 40 kilometers from north to south, and the strategic room for maneuver was getting smaller and smaller. But hope is often bred in despair, and Chairman Mao and Xu Shiyou, who were closely watching the war situation, discovered the fighter plane at the same time.
As a result of the PLA's attack, the 8th and 9th Divisions of the Nationalist Army shrank their battle lines, and an 8-kilometer gap appeared between the two divisions! The opportunity was fleeting, and Xu Shiyou immediately ordered the main forces of the 9th and 13th Columns to take advantage of the cover of the night to quickly maneuver more than 60 kilometers in one night, jump from the inner line to the outer line, and get rid of the unfavorable situation of being surrounded by the sea on three sides and surrounded on one side. On September 24, the 2nd and 7th Columns marched north from Zhucheng to the Zhuyang area and joined the 9th Column. Fan Hanjie never dreamed that the two main columns of the People's Liberation Army would be able to pass quietly in this gap, and he was still dreaming of encirclement and suppression, who knew that the main force of the Jiaodong People's Liberation Army had raised a big stick behind him!
On October 2, the reorganized 64th Division was surrounded by the 2nd, 9th and 1st Columns Independent Division, and 2 regiments were annihilated. On the 8th, the 2nd Column encircled and annihilated the 211th Brigade of the 45th Division of the reinforcements at Shanyangzhuang, killing and capturing more than 8,000 people. The 7th Column and the Independent Division were in Zhangzhuang, Mutun, Xuejiaji, and Zhengjiazhuang, and the 156th Brigade of the 64th Division and the 212th Brigade of the 45th Division were reorganized. The 13th Column conquered the county town and completely annihilated the defenders and reorganized the 8th Division and 1 regiment. The 10th Division of the 4th Column conquered Zhucheng and annihilated more than 3,000 defenders. In just ten days, Fan Hanjie lost more than 12,000 people in a daze. Although the national army still has an advantage in strength at this time, it has fallen into the embarrassing situation of being attacked by the enemy on its back, and it must continue to march east step by step, and it is necessary to guard against the sudden attack of our army from the flank, and the initiative on the battlefield has been transferred to our army's side, and Fan Hanjie's arrogant plan of "destroying the communist army's eastern front corps within a month" before the war has become a joke.
In the three-month battle, the national army never found the opportunity to fight the main force of the PLA. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao, Xu Shiyou and others, on the other hand, guided the situation according to the situation, adapted measures to local conditions, and changed according to the enemy, proceeded from the actual conditions of the battlefield to select combat targets, adjusted the combat style in a timely manner, and successively completed the tactical transformation from a blocking battle to an assault battle, from an encirclement battle to a reinforcement war, and from a defensive war to a pursuit war, and so on, so that "whichever enemy is easy to fight, we will fight whichever enemy is easy to fight" and "where it is advantageous to annihilate the enemy, we will annihilate the enemy." Make the most of your limited forces.
The art of war cloud "impermanence", Xu Shiyou did it!