Author: Zhuge Murafu
Statement: Soldiers say original, plagiarism will be investigated
The general account in various military history articles about the "Siege and Annihilation of Western Liaoning" in the Liaoshen Campaign is that more than 110,000 people in 5 armies of Liao Yaoxiang's Ninth Corps were completely annihilated, which is actually not rigorous enough. Because in the operational sequence of the Liao Corps, there are actually 6 corps numbers, namely the New First Army, the New Sixth Army, the 49th Army, the 52nd Army, the 71st Army, and the 207th Division (army level) of the Youth Army. Among the troops of Chiang Kai-shek's army that were wiped out in western Liaoning, they did not include the elite 52nd Army of the Central Army, because this unit did not go west with the Liao Corps to "aid Jin".
Commander of the 52nd Army, Liu Yuzhang
Chiang Kai-shek's army is known as the elite of the "five main forces", including the New First Army and the New Sixth Army under the jurisdiction of the Liao Corps, and the 52nd Army is the starting unit of the Huangpu Phase I Guan Linzheng, whose predecessor is the six teaching regiments established by the Nanjing Central Military Academy, both in terms of equipment and quality, and are not inferior to the so-called five main forces, so it is called the "sixth main force". Successive military commanders Guan Linzheng, Zhang Yaoming, Zhao Gongwu, Qin Yizhi, etc. were not of the Huangpu clan, and when the Liaoshen Campaign began, the commander at the time was Liu Yuzhang of the Huangpu Ivy.
Who is Liu Yuzhang? This person is a Shaanxi Xingping person, Huangpu Phase IV infantry section graduates, together with Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian and other shaanxi generals of the fourth period, participated in the Northern Expedition War, the Central Plains War, etc., in 1933 the Great Wall War was already the infantry battalion commander of Huang Jie's 2nd Division, can be regarded as the old man of the 52nd Army system. During the Central Plains War, Liu Yuzhang was wounded for the second time, and after recovering from his wounds, his hair fell out, and since then, the name of "Liu Guangtou" has not gone away, and he has been promoted to commander in 1945, but he was dismissed in 1947 when Chen Cheng presided over the northeast, and was not reinstated as the commander of the 52nd Army until September 1948, before the Liaoshen Campaign began.
Commander of the 9th Corps Liao Yaoxiang
In January 1948, Liao Yaoxiang's corps was expanded from the original two corps (the New Third Army and the New Sixth Army) to six corps and four other brigades, and the name was also renamed the Ninth Corps in the unified sequence with the Guannei troops, becoming the only mobile corps of chiang kai-shek's army in the northeast battlefield. Although the headquarters of the Ninth Corps and most of the men and horses were stationed in Shenyang, Liu Yuzhang's 52nd Army was actually stationed in Liaoyang, which was a "satellite city" more than 60 kilometers away from Shenyang and an important barrier to defend the defense of Shenyang.
After the Northeast Field Army attacked Jinzhou, on October 14, 1948, Liao Yaoxiang was ordered to lead his troops to form the "WestWard Advance Corps" to come out of Shenyang to aid Jinzhou, and the troops acting together totaled more than 110,000 people in five armies and 12 divisions, so the "WestWard Advance Corps" was actually not exactly equal to the Ninth Corps. In particular, the 52nd Army was not quickly rebuilt, and the cunning "bald general" Liu Yuzhang crossed the rank and proposed to Wei Lihuang that he command the 52nd Army to attack Zhanyingkou from the south: "With Yingkou as the rear, if necessary, it can protect Liaonan", Wei Lihuang hesitated until the night of October 22, and finally approved the 52nd Army's combat plan.
Su Jing, director of the Higashino Operations Division
After receiving the order, Liu Yuzhang led the army and its subordinate 2nd Division and 25th Division, a total of more than 24,000 people, and the whole army marched south from Liaoyang and Anshan at dawn on October 23, without fierce fighting, so that it was easy to completely occupy Yingkou on the evening of October 24. However, the 52nd Army dragged itself not to the Black Mountain and the Big Tiger Mountain area to return to the construction, but it unusually attacked and occupied Yingkou with extremely rapid movements, which made people wonder that Liu Yuzhang may have already had a small plan to escape from the northeast battlefield and escape by sea.
In fact, as early as the beginning of the Battle of Jinzhou, Xibaipo had repeatedly sent the Dongye Command to pay attention to the blockade of Yingkou, because it was the only sea retreat route for the Chiang Kai-shek army in the northeast (Dalian was under Soviet control). In order to carry out this instruction, Lin Biao specially ordered the independent 2nd Division, which was near Montenegro, to quickly reinforce Yingkou, and at the same time sent Su Jing, the most trusted chief of the Noji Operations Division, with a heavy artillery company from the Jinzhou front to join the 2nd Division to strengthen the command and firepower of this local force.
Liu Yuzhang
However, after Liao Yaoxiang's corps was captured, Lin Biao misjudged two tactical misjudgments: First, Liu Yuzhang's 52nd Army would "march west" to join the main force of the corps, and there would no longer be a major enemy situation in the direction of the second camp, so the Du 2nd Division would face a situation of "no battle to fight", so on the 22nd, he ordered Zuo Ye's Du 2nd Division to turn around and insert himself into Xinmin to participate in the encirclement and annihilation of Liao Yaoxiang's corps. The Du 2nd Division was thus ordered to turn from the south to the north, and on the way it almost passed by the enemy's 52nd Army, which led to the opening of the empty gate of Yingkou, and Liu Yuzhang was able to get away with it.
Although the strange soldiers of the Independent 2nd Division suddenly appeared in Panshan and violently attacked the Liao Corps' vanguard 49th Army, which was trying to "turn" toward Yingkou, the heavy artillery company equipped with large-caliber shells made Liao Yaoxiang have the wrong judgment that "the road to Yingkou has been closed by the main force of the People's Liberation Army", and then was annihilated in hesitation, but Yingkou was lost after all. When Dongye Qianzhi found a loophole in the battlefield, the nine main columns to which he belonged were annihilating Liao Yaoxiang, and Lin Biao had no troops to send for a while, so he had to order Zhong Wei's 12th Column, which had moved south from Changchun, to retake Yingkou.
East Field Artillery Unit
However, due to the suspension of the railway, the 12th Column was already far away from the water and could not save the near fire, and on October 25, 1948, Dongyeqian pointed to Xibaipo to report on the latest battle situation: "The troops of the enemy's 52nd Army occupied Haicheng and Niuzhuang on the 23rd, and yesterday (referring to the 24th) they occupied Yingkou, I only had local armed forces in southern Liaoning, and the 2nd Independent Division in Southern Liaoning could no longer occupy Yingkou first." This telegram sent by Lin Biao was actually equivalent to acknowledging his mistakes in tactical arrangements in Yingkou, and was quite interested in reviewing Xibaipo, and at the same time requesting new campaign guidance.
After seeing Lin Biao's telegram, Chairman Mao telephoned back at 18:00 on the same day to give criticism: "You did not anticipate in advance that the enemy would take Yingkou as one of the retreat routes, and after we pointed it out in a number of telegrams, and then on the basis of the inaccurate news of the 52nd Army's westward advance, we neglected to control Yingkou, resulting in the 52nd Army unit occupying Yingkou on the 24th, which is not a small loss. The Northeast Field Army, on the other hand, mobilized troops to pursue and annihilate the enemy's 52nd Army.
Su Jing and his comrades-in-arms
It was not until the early morning of October 31 that the three main columns of Dongye's seventh, eighth, and ninth armies, which had arrived from the western Liaoning battlefield, reached the outskirts of Yingkou and immediately launched an attack on the enemy's 52nd Army, while Liu Yuzhang, in order to hold out the ship to die, carried out a fierce and stubborn resistance, and actually launched five regiments to carry out a counter-assault on all fronts, and the ninth column of the Dongye forward who came from afar was temporarily frustrated. At the same time, the commander-in-chief of the enemy navy, Gui Yongqing, personally led the cruiser "Chongqing" and more than 20 other ships to the port of Yingkou, and the vanguard of the 52nd Army began to board ships on the evening of December 1.
Higashino stabilized his position and deployed to launch a general attack the next day, and the columns and artillery regiments violently bombarded the troops of the 52nd Army that arrived near the coast, and the infantry immediately launched a charge, and Chiang Kai-shek's army fell into chaos, and the officers and men who had boarded the ship were crowded like sardines, and the rear was still desperately trying to get on the ship. In view of the chaotic situation, Liu Yuzhang issued a strict order: each platoon leader must monitor the platoon soldiers of his own company, and after all of them are on board in turn, then the last person follows up, the commander of the battalion, regiment, division, and so on, and the offender is killed on the spot.
Location map of Yingkou and Liaoyang
The fierce fighting lasted until 10:00 a.m. on December 3, when our army eliminated a regiment of the 2nd Division and the 25th Division of the 52nd Army, killing and wounding about 14,000 enemy prisoners, and at the same time the artillery also sank three ships that had just left the harbor, and Liu Yuzhang fled Yingkou with only about 10,000 men of the military headquarters and most of the 25th Division. In fact, the escape of the first part of the 52nd Army did not hinder the overall situation, but it failed to make the Liaoshen Campaign flawless in the art of war, and Lin Biao was criticized by Chairman Mao for this. However, Liu Yuzhang punched his swollen face and became fat, and ran back to brag about it, which was called the "Dunkirk Retreat" in the northeast.
[Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, soldiers say that all parties are welcome to submit articles]