Author: Yang Yi
From February to June 1945, the New Fourth Army Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region led by Su Yu fought three mobile battles in the Tianmu Mountains of Zhejiang Province, meticulously planning and repeatedly surprised troops, eliminating more than 12,000 Kuomintang recalcitrant troops and fighting a very beautiful war of annihilation. The Battle of Tianmushan enabled the New Fourth Army to realize the strategic transformation from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare as early as possible, tempered the troops, accumulated experience, and made preparations for large-scale corps operations in the Liberation War.
Advance into Zhejiang and reorganize the layout. The Tianmu Mountains wind from Anhui into Zhejiang, located in the middle of Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, including the MoganShan and Wulin Mountains, which are the only places to enter and exit Zhejiang and Anhui. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Tianmu Mountains were the boundary between the Kuomintang 3rd Theater and the Japanese puppet ruling area, and their military status was prominent. In the second half of 1944, the world anti-fascist war saw the dawn of victory. The Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong sent a telegram to the Central China Bureau and the New Fourth Army Headquarters, explicitly requesting the New Fourth Army to go deep into southern Jiangsu and carry out its work at Tianmu Mountain. This layout sought to resist the Japanese and Kosovo on the southeast coast and open up new anti-Japanese base areas.
On December 27, 1944, Su Yu, commander of the 1st Division of the New Fourth Army, led the main force to cross the Yangtze River south. On January 6, 1945, Su Yu led his troops to Changxing, Zhejiang Province, to meet Wang Bicheng's 16th Brigade. On February 5, a meeting was held to establish the New Fourth Army's Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region, with Su Yu as commander and political commissar, Ye Fei as deputy commander, Liu Xian as chief of staff, and Zhong Qiguang as director of the Political Department, and the troops were organized into 3 columns. The Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region of the New Fourth Army unified the anti-Japanese struggle in southern Jiangsu, western Zhejiang, eastern Zhejiang, and southern Anhui, and the headquarters, political department, and supply department were located in Yangfeng Village, Huaikan Township, Changxing. After the establishment of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region, it extensively mobilized the masses, carried out fruitful conscription work, and took the Tianmu Mountains as the strategic layout direction.
Concentrate your forces and fight only one way. On February 10, 1945, the 1st and 3rd Columns of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region set out from Changxing and marched towards the occupied areas of western Zhejiang, advancing into Moganshan and Tianmushan respectively. The Kuomintang reactionaries did not die, and the arrival of the New Fourth Army caused them to panic. Gu Zhutong, commander of the Kuomintang 3rd Theater of Operations, ordered the Kuomintang Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui Advance Army to mobilize the strength of 5 regiments (3 regiments of the 62nd Division, 1 Zhejiang Security Regiment, and 1 regiment of the "Zhongyi National Salvation Army") to attack the 7th Detachment of the 3rd Column of the Fenghuangshan Column in Shangbao, Xiaofeng Area. The 7th detachment fought bravely and fought bravely, immediately counterattacked, and defeated the troops of the "Loyal National Salvation Army" and the 62nd Division, and after the arrival of The Tao Yong reinforcements dispatched by Su Yu, they joined forces to counter-"encircle and suppress" the 62nd Division, won a great victory, and occupied Xiaofeng County. This was the first stage of the Battle of Tianmushan, which annihilated more than 1,700 enemy personnel, captured more than 1,300 people, and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition.
The Kuomintang reactionaries were not willing to accept defeat, and Gu Zhutong once again ordered Tao Liu, commander of the 28th Army, to increase his troops to carry out "encirclement and suppression." On March 3, 1945, Tao Liu assembled 12 regiments (belonging to the 192nd Division, the 52nd Division, the 62nd Division, etc.), more than 32,000 people, and attacked Xiaofeng in 4 routes, of which the main force was 1 regiment each of the 52nd Division and the 192nd Division, which were heavily armed and well-trained units. Su Yu's tactics are very concise: with him coming a few ways, I only fight one way. The 8th detachment blocked the attack of the "Zhongyi National Salvation Army", and Su Yu concentrated the main forces of the 1st and 3rd columns to encircle and annihilate Tao Liu's 156th Regiment. The 3rd Column encountered the enemy's 156th Regiment at Huangnichong, seized the favorable terrain, attacked the enemy first, annihilated most of the enemy regiment, and captured a large number of weapons, equipment and military supplies. The remnants of the enemy retreated again, and our army skillfully captured Tianmu Mountain. The second phase of the Battle of Tianmushan ended.
In order to further consolidate the base area and prevent the enemy from counterattacking, Su Yu twice sent telegrams to the New Fourth Army Headquarters requesting support, and after the New Fourth Army Headquarters reported to the Central Military Commission and Mao Zedong for approval, on April 7, Ye Fei led the second group of troops to cross the river south, and in late April arrived at the village of Tianhuangpingjing, where he met with Su Yu and formed the 4th Column. In this way, under the leadership of Su Yu, the Jiangnan area was connected, and the strength of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region reached more than 20,000 people, and the troops also accumulated experience in the annihilation war, laying the foundation for the victory of the third phase of the Tianmushan Campaign.
Repeated surprises, casting classics. Chiang Kai-shek was deeply worried about the two battles that preceded the Battle of Tianmushan. In May 1945, he ordered Shangguan Yunxiang, deputy commander of the 3rd Theater, to mobilize 45 regiments and more than 75,000 men from 15 divisions, and to transfer Li Jue, commander of the 19th Group Army, as the commander of the former enemy to attack the New Fourth Army, and the third phase of the Battle of Tianmushan broke out.
Take the initiative and seize important places. On May 20, the enemy army entered xindeng and built bunkers in and around the city to cut off the connection between western Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang. In order to seize important places, achieve communication, and attack the enemy's momentum, Su Yu decided to take the initiative to attack, and sent Ye Fei to lead his troops to fight fiercely with the 79th Division of the Kuomintang Army in the Xindeng area.
Pretend to be defeated and retreat, and lure the enemy deeper. Xindeng Castle was lost, Shangguan Yunxiang was greatly alarmed, and sent 2 commandos fully equipped with American equipment (1 commando team is equivalent to the formation of 1 division) to assist the 79th Division, and the two sides fought fiercely in Xindeng City, with heavy losses, while the enemy army was still adding troops to Xindeng City. In the absence of superiority in the face-to-face fortifications, in order to concentrate his forces to choose favorable terrain and timing to fight the enemy, Su Yu decided to avoid the enemy's front, and on June 4, all the troops withdrew from Xindeng and returned to Lin'an to rest, on June 8, they withdrew from Lin'an, and on June 15, they withdrew from the entire eastern and western Tianmu Mountains and came to the Xiaofeng area to assemble. Because Li Jue was cautious and suspicious, in the process of evacuation, Su Yu ordered the troops to deliberately release the prisoners, let the retreating troops deliberately quarrel and even fight, and also threw the altar jars on the road disguised as the illusion of our army's rout.
Concentrate your strength and move to break through. After firmly believing that our army was hastily defeated and retreated, the enemy attacked in three ways, providing conditions for our army to carry out mobile warfare, form a comparative advantage, and annihilate the enemy's living forces. The "Loyal National Salvation Army" and the 28th Army in the middle of the enemy's road had already been attacked by our army and did not dare to advance easily. The 52nd Division of the enemy's western road advanced alone, and Su Yuxian commanded the blockade of the east and the west. On the night of June 20, our army concentrated 6 regiments of troops to attack the 52nd Division, and after a day of fierce fighting, most of the 52nd Division, which was stained with the blood of the New Fourth Army in the Anhui Incident, was annihilated. Su Yu then commanded to block the west and fight the east, and deliberately let the enemy's east road army enter the Xiaofeng area, and the main force turned to the east road to surround and annihilate the enemy army. The third phase of the Battle of Tianmushan was successful, annihilating more than 6,800 enemy troops.
The Battle of Tianmushan was a classic example of a campaign to show weakness and arrogance to the enemy, lure the enemy deeper, seek opportunities to annihilate the enemy, and concentrate troops to break through each other. The victory in the Battle of Tianmu Mountain was inseparable from Su Yu's superb command ability, and it was also inseparable from ye Fei, Wang Bicheng, Tao Yong, and other famous generals who judged the hour and sized up the situation, united and cooperated, and were brave and good at fighting, and even more so, they fully implemented and applied the strategy and tactics of launching and relying on the people's people's war.
The Tianmushan Campaign was not large in scale, but Su Yu attached great importance to it, and he later wrote in his memoirs: This battle was "one of the important battles in which some of our main forces in central China were trained and grown, and it was through the victorious practice of the Tianmushan Campaign that we realized the strategic change from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare as early as possible, and made ideological and tactical preparations for Chiang Kai-shek's later all-round and large-scale war against us." The Battle of Tianmushan fulfilled the strategic task of developing to the southeast entrusted by the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong, established the anti-Japanese base area in western Zhejiang, and made it one of the 19 major anti-Japanese base areas in the country. The Battle of Tianmushan trained and tempered a large number of new Fourth Army officers and local cadres who could conscript good battles, and set a precedent and prepared for the large-scale corps movement operations in the Liberation War. After the Battle of Tianmushan, Mao Zedong predicted that Comrade Su Yu would be able to command an army of 400,000 to 500,000 in the future. A few years later, at the Battle of Huaihai, Mao Zedong's prediction came true. (Yang Yi)
Source: Learning Times