The Huaihai Campaign has a very solid position in China's military history, and for the War of Liberation, this is also the only victory battle of the People's Liberation Army in the three major battles when the strength is less than that of the Kuomintang army.
However, when Su Yu wrote his memoirs in his later years, he did not include the content of the Huaihai Campaign.
Huaihai strategic decision-making
It can be said that the Huaihai Campaign was both a struggle with the enemy and a battle of wits with the enemy; as the supreme commander, Chairman Mao carried forward his collective wisdom after fully understanding the situation, was good at making use of the correct opinions of his subordinates, and gave full play to the initiative of the front-line commanders, so that the battle was able to achieve a complete victory.
The Huaihai Campaign is not a matter that can be decided by a pat on the head, it has a definite development process, and military historians also have the saying of "small Huaihai" and "big Huaihai".
The first person to propose to launch the Huaihai Campaign was Su Yu himself.
It was on September 24, 1948, when the Huaye army had already broken into Jinan City for street fighting, Su Yu keenly judged that the liberation of Jinan was a sure thing, and the 180,000 troops sent by Xuzhou in the direction of "suppressing the general" were likely to stop the operation.
After careful consideration, Su Yu reported the situation to the East China Bureau and the Central Plains Bureau: "If the enemy stops the northern aid, then we will take the next step." ”
Here, Su Yu put forward four suggestions, including the content of the "Huaihai Campaign," which was specifically divided into two stages: The first stage was to focus on attacking and occupying Lianghuai, taking advantage of the victory to recover Gaoyou and other places, and the main force of the whole army was located on both sides of the line from Suqian to the canal station, so as to annihilate the enemy who might come to help; if the enemy did not come to reinforce or the operation was over, then the second step of the campaign would be carried out, and the Huaihai Campaign would be completed with three columns, and the whole army would be transferred to rest and recuperate.
Soon after, Su Yu sent another telegram, believing that it was very necessary to hold the Huaihai Campaign.
In those days, Chairman Mao also fell into deep thought, and he did something that everyone expected: expanding the "Huaihai Campaign" two-part trilogy into a trilogy, not only agreeing with Su Yu's first plan, but also integrating the third plan that Su Yu was not sure of.
However, even at this time, the "Huaihai Campaign" discussed by Chairman Mao, Su Yu, Liu Bocheng and other major leaders was still only a "small Huaihai".
At the end of October, Su Yu decided to use the strategy of attacking the east and attacking the west to annihilate Huang Baitao's army, and the battle was imminent, Chiang Kai-shek and others realized that the situation was not right, and at the suggestion of Gu Zhutong, Lianyungang and other places were abandoned.
Su Yu judged the situation, changed the time of the attack from November 8 to November 6, and then sent the operational arrangements to the Central Military Commission.
At the time, Su Yu's approach was "cut first and then played", and it was likely that he was reprimanded as an unorganized and undisciplined act.
However, Chairman Mao admired Su Yu's quick decision very much, and also instructed: Agree to your plan, unless there is a particularly big change, act according to the plan.
Su Yu was also deeply impressed by this incident, and he also said of Chairman Mao: "Chairman Mao always had a comprehensive view and grasp of the overall situation of the war, and he also paid attention to proceeding from the actual situation on the battlefield everywhere. ”
Later historical materials have also proved from many sources: the 2 days won are extremely precious 2 days.
On the other hand, the Kuomintang was not sitting and being beaten, Du Yuming was also a famous general, he came to Xuzhou urgently on the evening of November 10 to command, and the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's "suppression" was still Liu Zhi on the surface.
According to the situation at that time, Du Yuming formulated a plan to retreat to the southwest of Xuzhou and then rely on the Huai River to attack the PLA.
If you deduce it, Du Yuming's idea is indeed not wrong, he is a powerful opponent.
However, from December 3, Chiang Kai-shek sent planes to deliver handwritten letters, ordering the troops to turn to Suixikou for reinforcements, Du Yuming's eyes were dark, and he had to change his combat deployment, and he gave up the use of subjective initiative, which was equivalent to giving up the opportunity to win the war.
From this inflection point, we can also see the differences between the KMT and the CCP.
The Kuomintang army was only responsible to Chiang Kai-shek from top to bottom, and Chiang Kai-shek's slightest word could change the course of the war, and all the generals had to carry it out mechanically, even if they knew that their ideas were right, they still wouldn't point it out to their faces.
The PLA troops from top to bottom are only responsible for the victory of the revolution, under this kind of thinking, both Chairman Mao and Su Yu will have full thinking, they will also respect each other's opinions, when Su Yu temporarily decided to change his mind, Chairman Mao's first reaction was also praise.
On November 9, after Chairman Mao received Su Yu's telegram from Qi Chen, his attitude of annihilating Liu Zhi's heavy army group north of the Huai River became even more resolute, and he immediately replied with a concise and concise message: We should strive to annihilate the enemy's main force near Xuzhou, and do not let it flee south.
With this reply, Su Yu was able to completely spread his fists and feet, and "Little Huaihai" completely evolved into "Big Huaihai".
On November 22, Huang Baitao's corps was wiped out, while Li Mi's corps, Qiu Qingquan's corps, and Sun Yuanliang's corps were retreating in the Xuzhou area; in early December, when Huang Wei's corps was destroyed, Du Yuming's group was besieged in Yongcheng Chenguanzhuang, but Li Yannian's and Liu Ruming's corps were very passive and were not willing to save their allies at all.
After all, if they risked going to be besieged, Chiang Kai-shek blamed no one for eating and walking.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA), however, not only used the military method to attack the enemy, but also made great political efforts to disintegrate the Kuomintang from within.
The Kuomintang army was already very chaotic, and commanders at all levels, including Du Yuming, in addition to using material rewards to entrap officers and soldiers, even used feudal superstitions, but the continuous defeat and retreat of the front line also made everyone more and more suspicious.
Compared with the People's Liberation Army, whose morale is high, although the number of troops of the Kuomintang army is in this position, their combat capability has been constantly declining.
As the supreme commander of the Huaihai Campaign, although Su Yu and Du Yuming had similarities in many aspects, the battles they experienced were different and the political environment in which they lived was also different, so they had great differences in thinking and combat methods.
Liu Bocheng even had a vivid metaphor during the Huaihai Campaign: "Eat the encircled Huang Wei Corps, surround the Du Yuming group in the south, and block the Li Yannian Corps in the north, this is called eating one, clipping one, and watching one." ”
On January 10, 1949, the Huaihai Campaign ended with a complete victory of the People's Liberation Army, and the Xuzhou "Suppression General" was almost completely annihilated, and only Li Yannian and Liu Ruming took advantage of the chaos to escape.
The thrilling battle is rarely mentioned in Su Yu's memoirs
Unlike many founding generals who recalled their proud battles, as the biggest protagonist of the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu rarely mentioned the Huaihai Campaign in his later years, and he was usually silent.
The last time Su Yu's secretary saw him was on January 15, 1984, when the 77-year-old Su Yu was already lying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, and the secretary could only look at him through the window with tears in his eyes.
On the afternoon of 5 February, he received a phone call saying that General Su Yu had died in the afternoon.
After the cremation of the body, the ashes were also mixed with 3 shrapnel, the big one was the size of a soybean, and the small two were also the size of a mung bean, and the secretary also said: "General Su Yu was wounded 6 times in the war, and even he didn't know about the existence of these 3 shrapnel. ”
On February 25, General Su Yu's wife, Chu Qing, and others held a small meeting to study how to fulfill Su Yu's last wish: to publish his memoirs.
In fact, this was proposed by General Su Yu in 1976, when he was seriously ill and just recovered, so he decided to dictate his memoirs, and then sorted them out by Chu Qing and the staff, but he did not expect that he had a sudden cerebral hemorrhage 5 years later, and then there were repeated cerebral thrombosis.
Chu Qing knew Su Yu very well, so as long as he found that Su Yu was clear-headed, he immediately asked a question for Su Yu to answer orally.
In 1988, the 400,000-word memoir was finally released to the public, reviewing the major war battles that Su Yu experienced and commanded, except for the Huaihai Campaign.
Chu Qing once said personally: "Su Yu told me many times that I don't want to write articles about the Huaihai Campaign, I don't want to read books about the Huaihai Campaign, and I don't want to watch related movies." ”
However, when many veteran comrades saw the memoirs, they all said, "Writing realistically, comprehensively and profoundly, this is a military book left by Su Yu to future generations." ”
However, some veteran comrades frowned and asked: "Why didn't you write about the Huaihai Campaign? It was the most crucial battle in the War of Liberation." ”
Perhaps, this has a great deal to do with Su Yu's ideology.
First, in the eyes of General Su Yu, at the time of the Huaihai Campaign, he already had 600,000 troops in his hands, which was not a hardship, and the most difficult moment was three years of guerrilla warfare.
During that time, he could face danger at all times, and he never forgot this memory.
Second, Su Yu has been low-key all his life and has never been greedy for merit.
In terms of temperament, Su Yu, who was excellent in the large corps, was the most low-key, as early as during the Red Army, he had close contact with Chairman Mao, but at that time he hardly bothered Chairman Mao; and later, when he was the chief of staff, he rarely spoke because he could not change the situation.
Later, Su Yu was always humble to his position, and when Chen Yi went to the Central Plains Military Region, Su Yu also hoped to let Chen Yi serve as the commander, so on the eve of the founding of New China, there were still some reporters and deputies who did not know Su Yu because he was too low-key.
As a crushing victory, Su Yu thinks that's what he should do in this position.
Third, the Huaihai Campaign was a model of cooperation within the PLA, and it was by no means the credit of any one person.
In Su Yu's heart, if there was no Chairman Mao's consent and trust, then there would be no later "Great Huaihai", and Liu Bocheng has always cooperated on the side, coupled with the strong support of millions of people in the old area, these together constitute the victory of the Huaihai battlefield, and he only played a role in command and coordination.
Even if Su Yu had these ideas, everyone still adhered to Chairman Mao's evaluation of the year, "In the Huaihai Campaign, Comrade Su Yu made the first contribution." ”
Therefore, in order to make up for the lack of Huaihai Campaign in the "Memoirs of Su Yu's War", the memoirs were republished in 2007, and Chu Qing added his "Su Yu Talks about the Huaihai Campaign" and General Su Yu's posthumous work "Qinyuanchun Huaihai Campaign".
Among them, there are a few sentences: the first annihilation of Zhuang Botao, see where Xu Shuangweng and turtles fled; Xiaowei came to the aid of the east, and the loss of troops was in vain; Shuangdui Huang Wei, called Jiang Yan's lineage, was destroyed in the rear, and it was difficult for General Du to break through the siege; and the time was forced to destroy the Jiang dynasty, just tonight.
This can also be seen that in the heart of General Su Yu, the Huaihai Battle is of great significance.
Resources
Mao Zedong, Su Yu and Huaihai War Decision-making Xia Xingxing; Zhang Ning's Party History (Part I)
Why did the 1988 edition of "Memoirs of the Suyu War" not mention the Huaihai Campaign, People's Daily Online