Author: Unsentimental
Liu Yalou, the founding general and the first commander of our army's air force, was a member of the Red 1Staffen as early as the agrarian revolution. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, organizationally, with a long-term view, a number of young generals with outstanding military merits and promising prospects were selected from the whole army and sent to the Chinese class of the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union to study, and they were reserved as future military backbone generals. Liu Yalou is one of them.
Liu Yalou during the Red Army period
Later, Lin Shichang went to the Soviet Union to recuperate, and he and Liu Yalou, his former right-hand man, would be reunited in a foreign country, studying and living together for several years. During the Liberation War, when Lin happened to meet Liu Yalou, who entered the northeast with the Soviet army and held the rank of major of the Soviet army, he left him as his chief of staff without thinking. During the three-year Liberation War in the northeast, he did his best to assist the chief officer and won one victory after another, not only completely reversing the northeast theater, but also making the northeast the first strategic area in the country to liberate the whole territory.
As the prestige of "Siye 101" continued to rise in the northeast, Liu Yalou's status also rose and became the "three leaders" in our army in the northeast after Lin and Luo. However, Liu Yalou was not satisfied with his own performance, and he felt that he was very unhappy in doing tedious and boring headquarters work in the rear all day long, and he was particularly eager to get the opportunity to command the troops alone and show his skills on the battlefield.
The opportunity soon came. In the Battle of Pingjin, Liu Yalou was appointed by Lin as the commander of the Tianjin front, responsible for commanding nearly half of the field troops in siye. Liu Yalou cherished such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and threw himself wholeheartedly into the pre-war preparations.
According to the plan of the headquarters, the 2nd and 3rd Corps of North China attacked and annihilated Xinbao'an and Zhangjiakou respectively on the Pingzhang Line, annihilated all of Fu Zuoyi's basic troops, and sealed the passage for the enemy's Pingjin clique to flee to Suiyuan, and then the Northeast Field Army attacked Tanggu first, cutting off the idea of the beiping enemy's heavy army clique fleeing from the sea, so as to negotiate with Fu Zuoyi and resolve the Pingjin issue as peacefully as possible.
However, when Liu Yalou sent the Dongye 7th Column and the 12th Column to attack Tanggu first, the commanders of these two columns, Deng Hua and Zhong Wei, both reflected to him after surveying the terrain on the spot: The area north of Tanggu that I was planned to attack was open, the rivers crisscrossed, and the salt pans were continuous, and it was not frozen in winter, which was inconvenient for large troops to move to meet the enemy, nor could they build fortifications, let alone form a four-sided encirclement of the defending enemy. Moreover, the defending general Hou Jingru set up his headquarters on warships, and the five divisions defending the enemy could not only get naval gun support, but also board the ship at any time to escape, so the attack on Tanggu would certainly have heavy casualties, long time, and small results, in vain to enhance the confidence of the enemy defending Pingjin and damage our morale, so it was recommended to fight Tianjin instead.
After receiving the report, Liu Yalou did not forward it to Lin, but personally ran to the front line of Tanggu to investigate, and after mastering the first-hand information, he was convinced that not only would he not be able to achieve a major victory in fighting Tanggu, but would also allow the tianjin defenders to win a breathing opportunity to further strengthen the city defense system, and increase the difficulty of our army to fight Tianjin thereafter. Therefore, he proposed to Lin, Luo, and Nie that he hoped to change the idea to the headquarters to fight Tianjin. After communicating with the headquarters, Lin finally agreed to Liu Yalou's proposal.
At that time, Tianjin Wei was narrow from north to south, narrow from east to west, and most of the open water depressions outside the city wall, and the Haihe River ran through the urban area from northwest to southeast. After taking office, the defending general Chen Changjie further expanded on the basis of the fortifications left behind by the Japanese army and the defense system built by his predecessor, not only stripping off all the houses within 1,000 meters of the tianjin outer positions, cutting down all the trees, and obtaining the materials needed to strengthen the fortifications while clearing the firing boundary, but also laying more than 100,000 mines in the forefront of the confrontation between the two armies, transforming the city's strong reinforced concrete buildings into a resistance hub, and hoarding more grain bombs and drinking water inside to facilitate long-term perseverance. His most vicious move was to close the moat while introducing canal water into the moat, causing the moat to widen and deepen sharply, reaching a maximum depth of 3 meters. In order to prevent the moat from becoming "smooth" due to ice, Chen Changjie also forced the people of Tianjin to work every day to smash the ice, and even let the defenders use grenades to blow up the ice.
In the face of Chen Changjie's clamor that "he can hold out for at least half a year," Liu Yalou did not have time to fight with him in the air, but was busy personally going to the front to engage in reconnaissance in front of the enemy. Sometimes, he personally drove a small jeep into the middle of the two armies to observe the terrain and the enemy situation. They will even change into civilian clothes and take a closer look at the enemy fire point. At that time, the 130,000 Tianjin defenders faced hundreds of thousands of elite northeast field troops, and they were quite panicked and could not live forever, shooting at the first wind and grass. Therefore, Liu Yalou's reconnaissance trips in front of the enemy were often full of dangers.
Once, Liu Yalou and his guards met the enemy search team in the middle zone. Fortunately, the other side was also very stunned, did not launch fire at the first time, and Liu Yalou, who reacted very quickly, made the guards throw grenades at the other side one by one, while pulling their throats and shouting: "One battalion from the left, the second battalion rushes from the right, and the third battalion comes with me!" "Scaring the other side mistakenly thought that it had hit the strength of a whole regiment of Dongye, and was frightened to flee quickly, Liu Yalou and others escaped the disaster."
Another night, Liu Yalou and the guards took advantage of the night to touch the terrain outside the Fuxing Gate and alarmed the enemy troops when they passed a cemetery. The other party's flashlight lights covered Liu Yalou, but he had not yet seen the clothes on his body, and he could not distinguish whether he was an enemy or a friend, so he shouted: "Who?" Don't answer Lao Tzu and open fire! ”
Liu Yalou was not afraid of danger, he took the submachine gun in the hands of the guard, raised his hand and shot a shuttle into the sky, and scolded: "Lao Tzu is arresting and investigating, and is arresting fugitives, you are playing flashlights and shouting randomly, exposing the target, and letting the fugitives go, Lao Tzu is the only one who asks!" Taking advantage of the other party's scare, Liu Yalou disappeared into the night with a cigarette with the guards.
These things that rubbed shoulders with the god of death reached the ears of Chief No. 101, and he immediately summoned Liu Yalou and reprimanded him: "Tangtang Chief of Staff, how to demote yourself to a scout." In case there is a bad pool, have you thought about the impact on the battle situation and morale? You can't lose big because of small things! Liu Yalou, who was well aware of Lin's temperament and disposition, knew that his starting point was love and love, and he said every word reasonably, so he did not even dare to argue a word, bowed his head and retreated.
Although it was criticized, the effect of Liu Yalou's personal visit to the frontier investigation and research soon appeared. He meticulously analyzed Tianjin's terrain, enemy situation, enemy defense characteristics, and the habits of the main generals in using troops, and worked out a combat plan for attacking the main attack from east to west, containing the help of the north and the south, first cutting off Tianjin's waist, and then concentrating on clearing up the northern part of Tianjin after destroying the defending enemy in the south.
Liu Yalou in the Battle of Pingjin
At the pre-war meeting held at my Pingjin Front Headquarters, Nie Rongzhen asked whether Dongye could completely liberate Tianjin within 3 days so as to dispel Fu Zuoyi's illusions and cooperate with the secret negotiations we were engaged in with Fu Zuoyi. Liu Yalou, who was already confident, blurted out: "I don't think it takes 3 days, 30 hours is enough." Nie Rongzhen, who was deeply surprised, asked suspiciously, "Is there any joke in the army?" Lin, who was present, did not say a word. Because he knew that his chief of staff was by no means a man of words. Since he said that he could conquer Tianjin in 30 hours, he must have his reason.
As a result, in the end, Tianjin's 130,000 defenders resisted for only 29 hours. The battle time was shortened by a full hour than Liu Yalou's psychological expectations.
Liberate Tianjin
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