Author: Mo Guyan
The Battle of Wandong, which took place in the summer of 1948, was the most stifling battle of Liu Bocheng's military career. This battle originally had the opportunity to create a brilliant record of annihilating the enemy's first corps, but the final results were disappointing, so much so that Liu Bocheng said in the summary of the campaign, "This is a major lesson of failing to grasp the law of development of the basic situation and losing the direction of campaign guidance."
It was this battle that Nakano did not fight well, so that Su Yu's Huaye 1 Corps became the core main force of the Central Plains Decisive Battle. Why?
Su Yu during the Liberation War
Let's first look at why we are fighting this battle.
Since July 1947, when the two large armies of Liu Deng and Chen Su switched to the outside offensive, the entire mode of operation would be completely changed. Proceeding from the lessons learned in previous operations, the headquarters issued instructions: "Disperse the big enemy, make the enemy's main force exhausted, annihilate the small enemy, and enable me to gain the opportunity to annihilate the majority of the enemy's regular army's first brigade, second brigade, one regiment, and two regiments, and extensively annihilate the militia regiments and armor protection." Our army should "disperse and annihilate the enemy in columns and brigades."
The foothold of this policy is "accumulating small victories into big victories." In view of the fact that during this period our army was still in the stage of transition from mobile warfare to position warfare, and did not yet have the ability to conduct a decisive battle with the enemy's heavy military groups, especially the lack of combat capability to attack fortifications, this operational policy is a pragmatic move. However, in the process of implementation, it was found that this seemingly pragmatic method of warfare could not be used. why? Only because the situation on the battlefield has undergone profound changes.
As the focus of operations on the southern front falls on the Central Plains, which is flat, undefendable, and easily accessible, the forces of the two warring sides will inevitably become more and more concentrated. In fact, since 1948, the combat operations of both sides have been based on corps as units, often tens of thousands of horses. Jiang Jun has learned the lesson of the past when the army ventured alone and was annihilated, and there are very few brigades, regiments, and other small units acting alone, thus causing our army to have the embarrassment of "the big ones can't eat, and the small ones can't eat."
Since the small battle of "small risk and low return" can no longer be fought, it is necessary to have the courage to accept the challenge and take the initiative to fight the big battle of "high risk and high return". Therefore, Su Yu "boldly and directly" to the headquarters, opposed Huaye's crossing of the river, and put forward the proposal of "several forces to cooperate or concentrate on combat", which was also supported by Liu Deng. After careful consideration, the headquarters basically accepted this suggestion, and decided that the Su Yu Corps, which was undergoing reorganization, would not be able to stop the river for the time being, join the Central Plains Operation, and "assemble and fight a big battle" with Liu Deng.
The strategic shift from a small battle to a big one requires a battle of considerable scale to verify its feasibility. Therefore, Su Yu proposed a plan to attack Qiu Qingquan's 5th Army, that is, to use the Huaye Chen (Shiyu) and Tang (Liang) corps as bait to attract the 5th Army located in Shangqiu to the south, Su Yu led the Huaye 1 Corps to cross the Yellow River south, and when the 5th Army was folded and intercepted, he would join the Chen Tang Corps in attacking north and south to annihilate the 5th Army.
In the entire Central Plains battlefield, the biggest threat to our army was the 5th Army of Qiu Qingquan, as well as Hu Lian's 18th Army. Su Yuda's 5th Army needed to concentrate at least 5 or 6 columns, and there were really no extra troops on hand to contain it, and once Hu Lian joined the battlefield of eastern Henan, the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, Su Yu wanted to fight the 5th Army, and could not do without Nakano's cooperation.
The chairman was very clear about Su Yu's difficulties, so he sent a telegram to Liu Deng: "The focus of the summer operation is to assist the Su Corps in annihilating the Fifth Army", asking them to "really monitor the 18th Army" and prevent it from reinforcing the 5th Army. Obviously, the chairman's intention is to use Su Yu to sing the protagonist and Liu Deng to sing the supporting role.
However, this is equivalent to creating a big problem for Liu Deng. Hu Lian's 18th Army was Nakano's sworn enemy, and in the past many encounters, Nakano was repeatedly hit hard, and almost did not take advantage of half of it, so Nakano officers and men generally had a fear of Hu Lian, and the columns mostly avoided when encountering the 18th Army. Now it is really difficult for them to drag the 18th Army to death.
In view of the difficulty of fighting head-on with the 18th Army, Liu Bocheng once again used the old method of besieging the city to provide assistance, formulated the battle plan of garrisoning (Madian) and Qi (Shan), and attracted the 18th Army through the siege of the 28th Division located in this area, so that it could be as far away from lunan as possible in eastern Henan, so that Su Yu could let go and attack the 5th Army.
The Battle of Chuky was fought quite smoothly, with Nakano capturing Zhumadian in just one day and then besieging Mount Kwa. However, Liu Bocheng, who had always expected things like gods, miscalculated this time - the 18th Army did not go south, but Zhang Yi's army in Nanyang was killed at Qishan.
Compared with Hu Lian, Zhang Yi was a "soft persimmon", so Liu Bocheng was determined to change because of the enemy, giving way to Chen Geng's corps west of Nanyang to follow Zhang Yun's corps to the east, Chen Xilian continued to besiege Qishan, and when Zhang Yi reached the area west of Qishan, he would join Chen Geng's army to carry out a siege.
Chen Shiyu (right) and Chen Geng
In this way, the protagonist and supporting roles of the entire battlefield are completely reversed. The reason why the campaign to garrison Qi was to drag Hu Lian back and ensure that Su Yu would fight Qiu Qingquan. Now that Nakano wants to fight Zhang Yi and Hu Lian is bound to go south, it is necessary to let Chen Tang's army help contain it, and as soon as Chen Tang leaves, Su Yu's plan to fight Qiu Qingquan will be in vain, then the entire battlefield will be dominated by Nakano, and Huaye will cooperate.
Liu Bocheng reported this plan to the headquarters, and the chairman had to choose between "fighting Zhang Yun" or "fighting the 5th Army".
At first, the chairman still supported Su Yu in fighting the 5th Army, but when Zhang Yi's corps had entered the area between the town of Zhangqi and the Tang River, Liu Deng sent a telegram to the headquarters and told Su Yu: "There is a rare opportunity, and all the units in our Central Plains should first guarantee this victory." The chairman also felt that the fighter planes were rare, and the combat effectiveness of the Miscellaneous Army Zhang Yi Corps was certainly inferior to that of Qiu Qingquan's troops, and it was in motion, and it had a greater grasp than fighting the 5th Army, so he sent a telegram to Liu Deng, agreed with this proposition, and ordered Chen and Tang to resolutely block the 18th Army. After receiving the order, Chen Tang's army immediately turned back to the west and blocked Hu Lian.
As a result, Su Yu's plan to "fight the 5th Army" could only be shelved for the time being, and the Huaye Chen Tang Corps would cooperate with Nakano Chen Geng and Chen Xilian to encircle and annihilate Zhang Yun's corps. The battle will take place in the area east of Nanyang, which was called Wancheng in ancient times, so the battle was named the Battle of Wandong.
Zhang Yi's corps belonged to the Gui clan, and the Gui army was generally equipped, but it fought bravely
Let's look at how the battle is fought.
The Zhangyi Corps had jurisdiction over the reorganized 10th, 20th, and 58th Divisions, with about 50,000 people. If Nakano could eat it in one bite, it would be the first time since the Liberation War that a corps of Chiang Kai-shek's army would be completely annihilated. Liu Bocheng mobilized Chen Geng's 4 columns, Chen Zaidao's 2 columns, Wang Hongkun's troops of the Tongbai Military Region, plus the 10 columns of Huaye Song Shilun, which was temporarily under the command of Nakano, and Chen Xilian's 3 columns, which were pretending to attack Qishan, to form two groups in the east and west, and strive to annihilate the enemy in the area west of the first line of Biyang and Yangqi.
Zhang Yi has been in the battlefield for a long time, and he is by no means an idle person. When he repelled the attacks of Chen Geng and Wang Hongkun on the north and south flanks on May 29, he was alert to the battle situation, and Chen Xilian's feint attack on Qishan only used two regiments, which also made Zhang Yi highly suspicious and aware that he was at risk of being lured, so he immediately used the news machine to inquire about the situation in Qishan from the Xinyang headquarters.
Zhang Yi, a graduate of the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, was proficient in Japanese, and Zhu Qiping, the chief of staff of the Xinyang Command, also knew Japanese, and the two simply spoke in Japanese. Zhu Qiping warned Zhang Yi not to continue to advance and quickly return to Nanyang. At this time, Zhang Yi had fully understood Liu Bocheng's plan to besiege the city and provide assistance.
The suspicious soldiers under Liu Bocheng's cloth did not let Zhang Yun be deceived, but the suspicious soldiers under Zhang Yibu let Chen Geng be deceived. On the 30th, the first part of Zhang Yi's army disguised the main force to move eastward, and Chen Geng did not know what the plan was, and urgently ordered the 4th, 2nd, and 10th columns to surpass the enemy from both sides and enter the northeast of the Tang River to assemble. After all the main forces of the Chen Geng clique were transferred to the east, the retreat route of Zhang Geng's corps to the west was completely opened. In the early morning of the next day, Zhang Yi's corps suddenly turned around and scurried west, withdrawing to Nanyang without panic. As a result, Liu Bocheng's plan to encircle and annihilate Zhang Yi's corps was completely frustrated.
Zhang Yi during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
However, Song Shilun had some reservations in carrying out Chen Geng's orders, only letting the 2 columns advance eastward, but his own 10 columns marched to the other side, and as a result, the 58th Division of Zhang Yi's regiment was caught in the tail, and more than 5,000 people were annihilated in one fell swoop, which was more or less a certain victory.
In this battle, Nakano mobilized a lot of elite strength, and with the help of Huaye, the number of troops participating in the battle was 100,000, which could be described as ambitious, but the final result was to run away a big fish that was about to be caught, so the whole army felt humiliated, and no one felt that this was a victorious battle. Therefore, in many books describing the Liberation War, the Battle of Wandong will be mentioned in one stroke, or even without mentioning a word, so that many people feel that after the chairman agreed that Su Yu would not be able to stay in the river for the time being, it was Hua Ye who was the protagonist in the Central Plains War, and Nakano has been cooperating.
Nakano Officer
In fact, on the question of how Huaye and Nakano should join hands to fight, the chairman once wavered, whether to focus on Huaye and cooperate with Nakano, or with Nakano as the main force, and With Huaye cooperating? It is also necessary to look at it in detail according to the actual situation. Before the Battle of Wandong, it was originally scheduled to be dominated by the Su Yu Corps, with Nakano cooperating, but Liu Bocheng won the position of protagonist, but unfortunately the Battle of Wandong was not played ideally, which made the chairman feel a little disappointed. In sharp contrast, half a month later, Su Yu crossed the Yellow River south to launch the Battle of Eastern Henan, fought a dangerous battle of pulling teeth from the mouth of a tiger, annihilated 90,000 enemies in one fell swoop, severely damaged The Central Plains Jiang Army, and thus established the core position of the Central Plains in the pursuit of deer.
Of course, this does not mean that Liu Bocheng's command is inferior to Su Yu's, after all, Nakano is close to Dabie Mountain and has too much loss, even if Chen Geng's army joins this fresh force, its combat effectiveness cannot be compared with Huaye, who is strong and strong. The battlefield environment and conditions are different, so naturally it is impossible to mechanically compare and stiffly divide the highs and lows.
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