In 1947, the third year of the Second Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, the Liberation War entered a period of white-hot, Liu Deng's army led the main force of Jinji and Luyu to cross the Yellow River, travel several places, and advance thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, leaving Xu Xiangqian with only a piece of military order to liberate Shanxi.
Xu Xiangqian, formerly known as Xu Xiangqian, was born in 1901 in a small village in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province, and is a proletarian revolutionary and military figure in China. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1927 and served as an important leader of our Party and army during the Red Army period, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation, and made great contributions to the founding, construction and development of New China.
Then, after Liu Deng's army took away all the main forces, what did Xu Shuai rely on to liberate Shanxi?
Xu Xiangqian
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > sick please see how Xu Shuai wins the strong with the weak</h1>
Summer days in Shanxi are always hot and stuffy, which makes people upset, but Xu Xiangqian is facing the telegram and military orders sent by the Central Military Commission.
At this time, Xu Xiangqian had less than 60,000 horses and horses in his hands, and his weapons and equipment were not at the top level of our army, and most of these 60,000 people were the local armies of Taihang, Beiyue, and Taiyue, who had no experience in fighting large-scale battles, and only the Eighth Column and the Thirteenth Column were our main corps, and such a mixed unit was only second-rate in combat effectiveness.
With a mere 60,000 troops, in order to liberate Shanxi Province, which has a 300,000-strong army and has been made into an iron barrel by Yan Xishan, if others are already panicked, they do not know where to start. But Xu didn't have any distractions in his mind, just planning how to capture Taiyuan and liberate Shanxi.
The liberation of Shanxi can be said to be a struggle between two Wutai County people, on the one hand Xu Xiangqian, who is known as the "Marshal of Cloth", and on the other hand, Yan Xishan, the "great warlord" who ruled Shanxi.
The provinces north of the Yellow River were liberated one after another, and yan Laoxi was still immersed in the dream of continuing to rule Shanxi, and once said unashamedly: "We must hold out until the beginning of the third world war."
Yan Xishan
Yan Xishan's ability to say such a thing is not unfounded, he has stationed more than 100,000 elite troops in the Jinzhong region of Shanxi, and among the Kuomintang troops, the beautiful weapons and equipment that only elite troops are equipped with are not uncommon in the Jinsui Army.
Even the train tracks for transporting troops and grain in Shanxi Province are different from other provinces, and the train tracks in Shanxi are "narrow tracks", while other areas use "wide tracks", and such railways are laid to limit the speed of troop transportation of the People's Liberation Army to attack Shanxi.
What's more, in Shanxi, there is also the Taiyuan Arsenal, one of the three major arsenals in China, submachine guns, grenades, and heavy artillery, which are supplied to Yan Xishan in an all-round way.
Fortresses and fortifications were distributed in various regions of Shanxi, and Yan Xishan took this as an underpinning and wanted to be the tu emperor of Shanxi for another fifty years.
In only two years, Xu Xiangqian shattered Yan Xishan's dream of ruling Shanxi for decades.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" in 40 days >, 60,000 PEOPLE's Liberation Army annihilated 100,000 enemy troops</h1>
The Battle of Jinzhong, a well-known battle in the Liberation War in which few victories were won and many battles, was one of the best examples of expounding "mobile warfare" and laid the foundation for the liberation of Shanxi. Marshal Xu Qianqian used the tactic of transferring the tiger away from the mountain twice to defeat Yan Xishan's troops one after another, without any ability to fight back.
At that time, Shanxi was at the time of the wheat harvest, grain and grass were plentiful, and Yan Xishan's troops had arsenals for weapons supplies, coupled with excellent combat fortifications, which could be described as a difficult "hard bone" to gnaw.
But Xu Shuai did not think so, as early as the end of the three dozen Yuncheng, Xu Xiangqian understood the reality of the Shanxi troops, the battle plan and strategic command had already raised eyebrows, and once said: "I know how many pounds and a few pounds Yan Xishan has."
At the end of May 1948, the People's Liberation Army had just won the Victory in the Battle of Linfen, and Xu Xiangqian could not wait to command the troops and move north to Jinzhong.
Considering that the troops in the Shanxi region had fought several major battles in succession, the soldiers felt physically and mentally exhausted, and thoughtfully put forward the strategic goal of "annihilating 1-2 divisions of the enemy army."
Xu Xiangqian assured his superiors that the goal of the Jinzhong Campaign was to annihilate 4-6 enemy divisions.
The PLA General Staff and Marshal Xu Qianqian studied and concluded that Yan Xishan was a strategic plan centered on Taiyuan and radiating the entire Jinzhong region, and they keenly discovered the loopholes in it and proposed tactical arrangements to show weakness and lure the enemy and annihilate them one by one.
Xu Shuai
In early June 1948, Marshal Xu Qianqian was training newly recruited recruits, and he asked his troops to go down to check the preparation of ships, weapons, ammunition, and food, creating the illusion that they were leaving across the Yellow River.
Xu Shuai arranged another team to secretly bypass the fortresses and fortifications near Taiyuan in the early hours of the morning, taking advantage of the night, to attack Fenyang and Xiaoyi.
As everyone knows, this is a "smoke bomb" thrown in order to lure the enemy troops defending the city.
Knowing that Fenyang and Xiaoyi had been attacked, and that the PLA troops were preparing to cross the Yellow River, Yan Xishan thought that Xu Xiangqian saw that Taiyuan City was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and prepared to withdraw from Jinzhong. He quickly dispatched elite legions to pursue the PLA troops, in a vain attempt to crush Xu Shuai's troops along the Yellow River.
Xu Xiangqian learned that there were troops pursuing our army behind him, but instead of issuing an order to hold their positions and prepare to attack the pursuing enemy troops head-on, he commanded the troops to drive west. The westward troops attacked Pingyao, Jiexiu, and Qixian counties west of Taiyuan, and the three cities were successively captured by the People's Liberation Army.
Yan Xishan, sitting in Taiyuan, thought that a large number of PLA troops had crossed the river and left, and the remaining troops in the Jinzhong area were only scattered soldiers, but his subordinates hurriedly reported that three cities had fallen into the hands of the PLA.
Yan Xishan felt bad, worried that Taiyuan would be besieged, afraid that Xu Xiangqian's plan had been hit, so he quickly ordered the pursuing legions to rush back to Taiyuan, but it was too late.
At this time, the pursuing troops had already spread their formations and were ready to attack our troops, but they received a military order from their superiors to withdraw their troops, so they had to collect their troops and hurried back to Taiyuan. At this time, the enemy army was already in disarray and should not be bothered.
On the way back to Taiyuan, Xu Xiangqian had already arranged the "pocket array" and was waiting for the enemy to take the initiative to fall into the net.
After Xu Xiangqian received the news that the enemy army had turned around and retreated, he understood that the strategy had worked, so he quickly commanded the enemy troops to change direction and drive the enemy troops to the ambushed position.
Soon, the enemy army burrowed headlong into the "big urn" prepared by our army in the Pingyao area, and then the Platon Army surrounded and blocked it, and the ambush troops in the front were also ready for battle, and our army successfully surrounded the pro-training division and the pro-training artillery regiment to which Yan Xishan belonged.
After more than three hours of fierce fighting, nearly 7,000 enemy troops were annihilated and more than 4,000 enemy troops, including Major General Chen Zhendong, were captured. Among them, the artillery corps active in the anti-communist front were all annihilated at Pingyao.
When Yan Xishan learned that the regiment sent out had suffered heavy casualties, and Shi Changsheng had been captured, the company commander sighed, "I Yan Baichuan bai lived for sixty-five years."
The first plan to move the tiger away from the mountain and annihilate more than 11,000 enemy troops who were captured could be described as a complete victory, but at this time, there were still more than 100,000 enemy troops stationed near Taiyuan City, which should not be underestimated.
After the defeat of the troops led by Xu Xiangqian, Yan Xishan sent his beloved general Zhao Chengshou to unify the command of various units and regiments to fight and launch a counterattack against the People's Liberation Army. He repeatedly told Zhao Chengshou that he could no longer divide his troops into troops, should not repeat the mistakes of the last time, and could no longer give the PLA the opportunity to divide the enemy and break through.
Zhao Chengshou shrunk his troops in the south of Taiyuan, and did not dare to go south to engage Xu Qianqian's army, and his morale had fallen by more than half.
Seeing that the enemy had changed into a slightly smaller "turtle shell", Xu Xiangqian had no choice but to use the tactics of dispatching the tiger away from the mountain to lure the enemy to annihilate.
Xu Xiangqian ordered the main force to advance north, stationed at the yuci and Taigu lines, narrowed the distance with Zhao Chengshou's army, and sent a force to ambush the enemy's rear, evade the enemy's reconnaissance, and wait for the order to attack.
Zhao Chengshou was already afraid that his troops were too far away from Taiyuan City to return to Taiyuan in time.
The distance between the people's liberation army garrison and the attack of its own troops was close at hand, which could give Zhao Chengshou and Yan Xishan a great reassurance pill, believing that this distance could be attacked and retreated, and even if the troops failed in attacking south, they could also retreat to Taiyuan City.
Zhao Chengshou
With this in mind, Zhao Chengshou ordered on June 30 that the whole army should attack the enemy in the south, and Xu Xiangqian was calm and self-assured, and taught Zhao Chengshou a lesson with his superb command art, and he commanded the troops to fight with the enemy army, destroy the enemy army in the movement, and give full play to the true meaning of "movement warfare."
Xu Shuai slowly led the enemy out of the Taiyuan area, and then sent a small force to cut off the railway line near Taiyuan, and the ambushed troops took advantage of the situation to attack the rear of the enemy army and encircle the points to help. Zhao Chengshou saw that "the backyard was on fire", and he was confused and hurriedly commanded the troops to return to help.
Xu Shuai was like a god, and the main force stationed in the Taigu area was waiting for this opportunity.
The enemy troops who were hurrying back stepped into the position of the forty-first regiment of our army, and the regimental commander saw that the time had come, and quickly commanded the battalions and companies to attack, leaving the enemy in the encirclement.
At this time, the soldiers of the Forty-first Regiment had fought a major battle for several days in a row, their bodies and minds were already exhausted, and the bombers sent by Yan Xishan were still circling on their heads, and what supported the soldiers to continue fighting was the spirit of sacrifice and tenacious willpower.
However, if Zhao Chengshou's main force was allowed to break through from the Taigu area, then the battles of the previous few days and the sacrifices of the soldiers would all be wasted, and the tactical plan made by Xu Xiangqian would also be in vain.
In order to leave the enemy behind, all the officers and men of the Forty-first Regiment had to fight to the death!
The firepower of our army was so fierce, and the soldiers were defending it to the death, Zhao Chengshou thought that the main force of our army wanted to change direction as soon as it arrived here, and commanded the troops to break through in the direction of Xugou, but they just collided with the main force of our army.
A military expert who is good at command will not let go of any fleeting fighter, Xu Xiangqian quickly commanded the army, surrounded the enemy army, and did not let a bird fly out of the encirclement.
Yan Xishan learned that Zhao Chengshou was besieged and hurriedly sent the defenders of Taiyuan City to support him, but the defenders saw the PLA soldiers and retreated back into the city, and Zhao Chengshou was already gone.
From July 3 to 10, 1948, in just six days, our army successively crushed the nine divisions under Yan Xishan with 60,000 enemies and 100,000 enemies, annihilated more than 30,000 enemy troops, and captured more than 80,000 people, successfully completing the targets set by the central authorities.
For this battle that achieved such brilliant results, the central authorities praised it as a great victory and gave high praise to the great help to the rest of the battlefield.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62" > the Battle of Taiyuan, the most tragic urban battle</h1>
After more than two months of rest, the number of troops under Xu Qianqian's command also increased to 200,000, and follow-up troops were also coming.
Xu Shuai believed that the time had come to attack Taiyuan.
On September 28, 1948, after xu xiangqian and his staff decided that the guidelines for the siege of Taiyuan were "siege, disintegration, attack, gradual weakening, and then attacking Taiyuan in one fell swoop", which was scheduled to capture Taiyuan before 1949 and liberate Shanxi.
On October 1, 1948, the first anniversary of the founding of New China, Yan Xishan commanded the remaining seven divisions, divided into three routes, to counterattack the People's Liberation Army, Xu Xiangqian reported to the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China for approval, and launched the campaign in advance on October 5.
Taiyuan City is the home of the Jin Sui Army, and Yan Xishan has been operating in Taiyuan City for more than 30 years since he was elected by the revolutionary party as the governor of Shanxi in 1911.
Outside the city, there are nearly 5600 various bunkers, some of which are made of stone, reinforced concrete casting, can effectively defend against the firing of shells, machine gun bullets strafing past, leaving only white dots, such a strong ring fortification, to the PLA soldiers brought considerable trouble.
Taiyuan City is built around the mountains, the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, can be described as a "strong city" like an iron barrel built by Yan Xishan.
Xu Xiangqian originally wanted to adopt the tactic of encircling but not attacking, cutting off the grain supply of the enemy troops defending the city, so that the enemy army would collapse without a fight, but Chiang Kai-shek still needed Yan Xishan's military help at this time, and also sent planes from Shanxi to deliver grain supplies to Taiyuan.
Chiang Kai-shek's general trend has gone, and all provinces of the country have been basically liberated, but the enemy army in Taiyuan City is still stubbornly resisting and refuses to surrender. To this. Xu Shuai ordered the siege of the city, and no matter how difficult the hard bones were, they should be used as turkey tile dogs in front of the People's Liberation Army.
The Jin Sui army shrunk the fortress, never confronted the People's Liberation Army, always relied on combat fortifications, and fought with our army, in order to pull out the bunkers near Taiyuan, our army suffered heavy casualties, Lin Biao also drew an artillery unit from the Northeast Field Army under his command to support the Taiyuan battlefield.
In the spring of 1949, Taiyuan City could not be attacked for a long time, and Xu Xiangqian's body, which was already ill, was worse than a day, and the central government ordered that he must rest for two months.
At this time, Peng Dehuai was finishing a meeting from Beijing, passing through Taiyuan, preparing to go to see his former old comrade-in-arms Xu Xiangqian, who asked Peng Dehuai to stay and continue to command the troops and attack Taiyuan.
After the order to change the position was reported to the Party Central Committee, and after the Central Military Commission approved it, General Peng stayed in Taiyuan to replace Xu Xiangqian in commanding the siege.
After six months of bloody fighting, the People's Liberation Army finally captured Taiyuan on April 24, 1948, and completely liberated Shanxi.
At this time, Yan Xishan had already taken a plane and fled Taiyuan City.
The liberation of Taiyuan lasted for six months, annihilating a total of 130,000 enemy soldiers and capturing more than 70,000 enemy troops, including more than 40 officers at or above the division level, but at the same time, PLA fighters also made great sacrifices, with 45,000 casualties, and after the siege of the city, most of the PLA fighters died in street battles were 36,000, and the number of people lost in attacking Taiyuan far exceeded the battle of crossing the river in the same period.
The victory in the Battle of Taiyuan directly promoted the surrender of the Kuomintang troops in the Datong area and the uprising of the Kuomintang troops in the Suiyuan area, which played an important role and far-reaching significance for the founding of New China.
One cruel war after another will let future generations understand the heroic sacrifices made by the revolutionary martyrs and heroic PLA soldiers, and the great cause pioneered by the revolutionary predecessors must continue to advance.