Author: Moments of War
At the enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee in September 1948, Chairman Mao specifically asked Comrade Xu Xiangqian in his speech: "You are only so many people, and you are a tired division, but you annihilated 100,000 yan enemies in 1 month, and the regular army alone killed 8 of his brigades." Tell me, how was this Jinzhong campaign fought?"
Today, I will talk about the key battle that determined the entire Shanxi war situation - the Battle of Jinzhong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > trapped beast</h1>
After the victory in the Battle of Linfen in May 1948, the area under Yan Xishan's control, except for Datong, which was isolated in the north of Jin, was only the Jinzhong region, which was composed of 14 county seats centered on Taiyuan. At this time, the fertile fields in Jinzhong were about to mature, and Yan Xishan had to vigorously store grain in order to survive, so grabbing grain and grabbing Ding became the main goal of the Yan army.
Yan Xishan family portrait
To this end, Yan Xishan, with all the remaining strength of 5 military headquarters, 14 divisions, 3 provisional general units, 22 security regiments, and 21 security guard brigades, totaling about 130,000 people, built a large number of blockhouses at various town points and traffic arteries, and blocked the mountain passes around Jinzhong.
Among them, the main forces of the 34th, 61st, and 19th, 33rd, and 43rd Armies, as well as the provisional 8th, 9th, and 10th General Corps, were distributed in the towns along the Yuci-Lingshi Railway and the Taiyuan-Xiaoyi Highway; and 13 regiments of the 34th, 43rd, and 61st Armies (including Yan Xishan's "pro-training division" and "pro-training artillery regiment") formed a "blitzkrieg regiment" to conduct mobile operations.
Among them, the 10th General Brigade was the Japanese Shanxi troops that Yan Xishan retained after the victory of the War of Resistance, and at the beginning Yan Xishan even wanted to leave all 57,000 Japanese troops behind. After the elimination of the old and weak and the ideologically unstable, more than 2,200 elite Japanese troops were formed into the Security General Command, and after the Battle of Yangquan in June 1947, the original 10th General Brigade was annihilated. The commander was Yuan Quanxin, the former commander of the Independent 14th Brigade of the Japanese army invading China, who changed his name to Yuan Quanfu and served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Shanxi Field Army.
Japanese forces of the 10th General Brigade
This unit is still well organized, thoroughly brainwashed and tenacious, skilled in combat skills, and has a long combat experience with the Eighth Route Army, and is the backbone of other ordinary units when fighting.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="90" > a tired and weak brigade</h1>
On May 20, in accordance with the decision of the CPC Central Committee on May 9, in order to meet the needs of the liberation war from strategic defense to strategic offensive, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region and the Jin-Ji Luyu Military Region merged to form the North China Military Region. Nie Rongzhen was appointed commander, Bo Yibo was appointed political commissar, and Xu was appointed as the first deputy commander. The troops were reorganized into the North China First Corps, but the main force was still the 8th Column and the 13th Column plus the taiyue military region troops, the Beiyue and Taihang military regions, and the shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Jinsui joint defense military region, totaling more than 60,000 people in 49 regiments.
Since the victory at the Battle of Linfen, Xu Shuai had been preparing to deliver a fatal blow to Yan Xishan to match the situation on other battlefields. However, the troops in the Battle of Linfen suffered heavy losses, and the 72-day battle process was not so smooth, and the troops were extremely tired. More importantly, the number of heavy weapons, especially artillery, was still insufficient, which was still the case of the Jinji Luyu Artillery Regiment, which was composed of artillery units specially left behind during the Battle of Western Henan by Chen Geng.
The number of mountain field guns above 75 mm is very small, mainly mortars, which are extremely unfavorable for offensive battles. The blasting experience of the Yuncheng and Linfen campaigns was not applicable to all cities, and the time was too long and inefficient, which was not conducive to ending the battle as soon as possible.
Xu Shuai had long had the idea of annihilating the enemy in large numbers in mobile warfare, and the current wheat harvest was the best time for the Yan army to break away from the fortifications and be divided and annihilated in the field battle. Therefore, Xu Shuai led his troops north to Jinzhong to meet the main force of the Jin Sui army that was about to go south.
Marshal Xu Qianqian
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="91" > the principal knows best about the expelled teacher</h1>
Xu Shuai and Yan Xishan were Fellow Villagers of Wutai, and Xu Shuai initially studied teacher training, and after graduation, he was expelled from the then teacher school principal Yan Xishan for propagating communism, so he went to the Whampoa Military Academy. Therefore, Xu Shuai has a deep understanding of Yan Xishan - Yan is a little clever, seeing small profits and forgetting righteousness; and the self-proclaimed dancing on three eggs is actually a very poor overall view and a narrow vision.
Therefore, Xu Shuai first gave Yan an illusion that the Platon Army had suffered heavy casualties, so he was ready to go to the northwest battlefield to meet the rest of the troops. So in Fengling ferry our army built ships, collected grain, trained troops, and released some of the previous prisoners, so that they inadvertently learned that our army had suffered heavy losses and did not want to continue fighting in Shanxi. Yan Xishan was indeed deceived into believing that our army had no combat effectiveness without a relatively long period of rest.
On June 11, the troops of the Lüliang Military Region bypassed the fortifications around Zihongkou and Baishiling and besieged the town of Gaoyang between Xiaoyi and Fenyang, two false moves that made Yan Xishan think that our army was using a partial division to attract and contain the main force of the Jin army and cover our army's westward crossing of the Yellow River. However, in this way, this force had taiyuan fortifications in front of it and Zihongkou in the back, and it was isolated among the Jin army, and it was not difficult to swallow it at all.
On June 13, the blitzkrieg regiment set out from the three directions of Fenyang, Xiaoyi, Jiexiu, and Pingyao, and advanced towards the town of Gaoyang, and the troops of the Lüliang Military Region struggled to block the attack, and by the 17th, a confrontation situation was formed. On June 18, the Battle of Jinzhong was officially launched. The 8th Column and the 13th Column, the main force of the regiment, which was advancing from the north, bypassed the enemy's Hongkou Fortress and went straight down to the ping and qi areas, including the three cities of Pingyao, Jiexiu, and Qixian.
On the 19th, it approached the Tongpu Railway and waited for the opportunity to annihilate the main force of the blitzkrieg regiment that was returning. The troops of the Beiyue and Taihang Military Regions and the two brigades of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Jinsui Joint Defense Military Region broke the railway between Yuci and Taigu and Taiyuan to Xinxian respectively, and stopped the enemy troops in the direction of Taiyuan who were reinforcing the south. Yan Xishan found that the main force of our army, which had thought that the westward crossing of the Yellow River, was so close to Taiyuan, and panicked and ordered the blitzkrieg corps to return to help immediately.
Our army in battle
On the 20th, the blitzkrieg regiment retreated at night, and on the 21st, when the pro-training division and the pro-training artillery regiment entered the area north of Zhanglan Town, the troops of the 8th Column and the Taiyue Military Region immediately launched an attack, and most of the fierce battle was annihilated for 3 hours, and the rest retreated into Zhanglan Town. On the 24th, it was annihilated along with the new regiment of the provisional 45th Division stationed here. In this battle, more than 7,000 enemy troops were annihilated, and 24 mountain artillery pieces and 12 heavy mortars were captured.
During this time, other troops also annihilated a large number of enemy troops. At this point, the first phase of the Jinzhong Campaign was successfully concluded, and our army annihilated more than 17,000 Jin troops and suffered more than 4,000 casualties.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="92" > the largest battle with the formed Japanese army after the end of the War of Resistance</h1>
When Yan Xishan heard the news, he was furious and frightened, and urgently ordered Zhao Chengshou, deputy director of the "Appeasement" Office and deputy commander of the Shanxi Provincial Security Department, commander-in-chief of the Field Army, and Yuan Quanxin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Field Army, to take command in Taigu.
In order to seek a decisive battle with the troops of the North China Military Region between Qixian and Pingyao, on the 25th, the 34th Army was moved north from Pingyao, and the 33rd Army was received from Qixian to the south and assembled in the Hongshan area; the provisional 10th General Brigade entered Dongguan Town from Taigu. On the 26th, the 33rd and 34th Armies attacked Haokai, Baicheng, Xinsheng and other places east of Hongshan. And to learn the lessons of the previous battles, Zhao Chengshou relied on the railway and concentrated his troops to advance at a rapid pace without giving our army an opportunity to divide and annihilate.
Seeing this, Xu Shuai quickly made up his mind and commanded his troops to continue to advance northward, approaching the Yuci and Taigu areas to attract Zhao Chengshou to the south to fight our army. Zhao Chengshou was indeed deceived and commanded the troops to advance across Taigu County to Qi County on June 30, gradually moving away from Taiyuan. Xu Shuai ordered one of our army to detour to the rear of the enemy army, cut off the Qitai Railway, and arranged for the 41st Regiment, the main force of the Taiyue Military Region, to build a position at Dongcun, north of taigu, to prepare to block the enemy's retreat.
At that time, the 41st Regiment did not have time to replenish its rest after a long battle, and was extremely tired, but still accepted the task and prepared for hard fighting. Xu Shuai led the main force into an ambush between Yuci and Xugou.
Japanese forces of the 10th General Corps in combat
Zhao Chengshou suddenly found that the rear road was cut off and the position was in chaos, and he quickly led the retreat. First of all, he fought fiercely with the 41st Regiment in Dongcun, and called for air force support, bombing and bombing in a vain attempt to open the passage. The 41st Regiment fought tenaciously despite fatigue, and some companies fought until only a few people in the end, and Xu Shuai instructed to resolutely resist the enemy and complete the task even if it was exhausted. At this time, the fight is the will to fight, the ability to organize.
The enemy attacked fiercely for four days, but still did not break through the defensive line of our army, and Zhao Chengshou thought that this was the main force of our army, so he wanted to retreat north to Yuci and Xugou, just to break into the encirclement circle woven by the main force of our army. At that time, our army only had about 20,000 people here, and Zhao Chengshou had more than 30,000 people in his department. Xu Shuai ordered the enemy to be trapped on all sides, and then ordered the other units to come and annihilate the enemy as quickly as possible.
After being surrounded, Zhao Chengshou panicked and did not break through from one direction in time, but instead ordered his troops to attack in three directions in an attempt to find out the weak links of our army. Three days of time was thus delayed, at this time the reinforcements of our army did not arrive, and Zhao Chengshou no longer had the possibility of breaking through.
Then began a war of annihilation against the besieged enemy, and during the battle, it was found that the Jin army had a large number of Japanese troops. The brutal rule of Shanxi during the Japanese occupation aroused the great enthusiasm of the participating troops, and the soldiers were not afraid of fatigue and sacrifice to attack the enemy fiercely. In the final stage of the battle, Zhao Chengshou and Yuanquanxin ran to a courtyard, Zhao Chengshou hid in a hidden place, while Yuanquanxin paced alone in the open area thinking about what to do next.
Just at this moment, a shell landed on Yuan Quanxin's side, and the shrapnel cut Yuan Quanxin's stomach and flowed out of her intestines. Motozumi orders his staff officer Tatsuya Mizuno to kill him, and then Mizuno, who kills Motozumi, also commits suicide with a gun.
The 10th General Brigade finally collapsed under the blows of our army, and the rest of the Jin army had no morale and surrendered to our army under the leadership of Zhao Chengshou. By the end of the campaign on the 16th, our army had wiped out a total of more than 100,000 people from 9 divisions of the Jin Army, including more than 80,000 people under the rank of 16 generals led by Zhao Chengshou.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="93" > lay the foundation for Shanxi's final victory</h1>
After the Battle of Jinzhong, our army occupied all 14 counties except Taiyuan, and on the 21st, our army approached the outskirts of Taiyuan and completed the siege of Taiyuan. Yan Xishan's reign in Shanxi is about to end.
Battle heroes
In the telegram sent to the Central Military Commission after the war, Xu Xiangqian admitted that the Jinsui Independent 3rd Brigade, which participated in the Jinzhong Campaign, had more than 6,000 people before the war, and the 7th Independent Brigade had more than 3,000 people, but after the war, the two independent brigades combined were only more than 3,000 people. This is still the case for the local troops, and the situation of the main forces can be imagined.
Of the 18 infantry regiments in the 2 field columns, only 2 regiments had more than 1,000 soldiers. The 65th, 66th, 68th, 70th, and 72nd regiments of the 8th Column had only about 800 soldiers per regiment. There are only 3 company-level commanders of the 67th Regiment of the 8th Column, and only 1 battalion-level cadre. All military and political cadres of the 68th Regiment were either killed or wounded. The company commander of the 69th Regiment also had only 4 men left.