What is Huang Baitao's military strength? The answer to this question many people have different views, General Su Yu has defeated Huang Baitao on the battlefield three times, although Huang Baitao was a defeated general under Su Yu, but General Su Yu never felt that Huang Baitao's ability was not good, on the contrary, Su Yu twice gave Huang Baitao a high evaluation.
In the late stages of the Battle of Eastern Henan in 1947, Huang Baitao and Hu Lian appeared one after another, and Su Yuqi attacked Kaifeng successfully, killing the enemy twice and a Hui horse gun, and the final result was to surround and annihilate the District Shounian Regiment.
Photo of General Su Yu
However, just when Su Yu led his troops and Ou Shounian to carry out the final decisive battle, Huang Baitao's corps suddenly appeared in the battlefield of eastern Henan as a surprise soldier, and the appearance of Huang Baitao surprised Su Yu, at that time, the East China Field Army had completed the division of troops, and all the troops led by Su Yu were used in the battle of the siege area of Shou Nian, so Huang Baitao came to support, Su Yu temporarily did not have enough troops to block the attack, su Yu immediately ordered the main force to temporarily withdraw from the siege.
Su Yu's original judgment was that Huang Baitao's corps would not reinforce Kaifeng, but yanzhou. At that time, the East China Field Army was divided into two parts, one part of which was formed into the Shandong Corps, with Xu Shiyou as the commander and Tan Zhenlin as the political commissar, and the other part belonged to the Western Front Group of the East China Field Army, still led by Chen Yi and Su Yu.
After our army's surprise attack on Kaifeng was successful, many of the enemy's corps rushed to the battlefield of eastern Henan to reinforce, such as Qiu Qingquan's corps, Hu Lian's 11th Division, and other units, that is to say, Su Yu pinned down many of the enemy's main forces in the eastern Henan region, so that the enemy's strength in other areas appeared empty.
First Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping quickly seized the fighter plane and led the Central Plains Field Army to launch the Xiangfan Campaign, which resulted in the annihilation of 20,000 enemies, followed by the Shandong Corps led by Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin, who took advantage of the enemy's lack of troops in Yanzhou and launched the Yanzhou Campaign.
For a time, there were wars everywhere in the Central Plains, Kaifeng was taken by Su Yu, Xiangyang and Fancheng were taken by Liu Bocheng, and Yanzhou was soon to be captured by Xu Shiyou, and the Kuomintang was already in a panic at this time, and the sudden change in the situation made Gu Zhutong, then commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Army, not know which to rescue first.
At that time, Huang Baitao was the commander of the Kuomintang 25th Army, and in order to concentrate his forces to provide support, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the original personnel of the 25th Army to be used as the base, and at the same time urgently transferred the Kuomintang Rapid Third Column and the 2nd Traffic Police Corps to jointly form the Seventh Corps, with Huang Baitao as the commander of the corps.
At that time, the location of Huang Baitao's corps was very close to Yanzhou and far from Kaifeng, Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin were leading the main force of the Shandong Corps to attack Yanzhou, Su Yu thought that Huang Baitao's corps would definitely support Yanzhou nearby, but what he did not expect was that Huang Baitao actually gave up his nearby and far away and led his troops to the battlefield of eastern Henan.
However, Su Yu's reaction was extremely rapid, he carefully analyzed the marching route of Huang Baitao's corps, Su Yu said to Chen Yi with a smile: "Huang Baitao's move is really powerful, but unfortunately he is still a step too late, in terms of time, we first annihilate the District Shou Nian Corps, and then order a retreat is completely too late!" ”
Just as Su Yu predicted, when Huang Baitao's corps approached, our army had already annihilated the Ou Shou Nian Corps to the point where it was almost complete, and Ou Shou Nian himself was captured alive by our army.
As soon as Huang Baitao arrived in the eastern Henan region, he immediately got in touch with Qiu Qingquan, and he invited Qiu Qingquan to launch an attack on our army together, but Qiu Qingquan hesitated, and Huang Baitao decided to lead his troops to directly rescue Ou Shounian, at this time Huang Baitao did not know that Ou Shounian had been defeated and captured.
Photo of Huang Baitao
A difficult problem facing Su Yu was, how to deal with Huang Baitao's corps, is it a battle? Is it withdrawn? Su Yu silently drew on the map, and Chen Yi stood at the door of the headquarters to stop all the people who came in to report, which was the tacit understanding unique to Chen Yi and Su Yu, Chen Yi knew that Su Yu needed an absolutely quiet environment at every critical moment to consider the next action.
When Su Yu took the initiative to stand up and call out to Chen Yi, Chen Yi knew that the matter had already come to an end, Su Yu had already thought of a way to deal with Huang Baitao's corps, Su Yu's original tightening brow was also stretched out, and he said to Chen Yi: "At present, retreat is the most stable way, Huang Baitao must have anticipated the next move of our army, we might as well do the opposite and hit Huang Baitao by surprise!" ”
This is Su Yu's way of using troops, he has always been amazing, the whimsical tactics he came up with always made everyone think of, Chen Yi was silent for a moment and asked: "If we continue to fight, how many layers of certainty will our army have in victory?" ”
Su Yu said: "Hu Lian's 11th Division is relatively far away from us, he poses no threat to the soldiers of our army, the only thing that makes me scrupulous is the Qiu Qingquan Corps, if he and Huang Baitao go hand in hand, then our army can only retreat, but according to the intelligence in the front, Qiu Qingquan has not moved in the past two days, I think this person will not march for the time being, and our chances of victory are still very large!" ”
Chen Yi immediately agreed to Su Yu's suggestion, and the main forces of the East China Field Army regrouped to prepare for the next big battle. At this time, Huang Baitao Xilin was marching rapidly, he himself was on his toes, Huang Baitao thought that this battle was promising, and he felt that Su Yu would definitely not think that he would come from a long distance.
Unfortunately, Huang Baitao still underestimated Su Yu's ability, coupled with his failure to grasp the news that the District Shounian Corps had been annihilated in time, from the perspective of opportunity, Huang Baitao actually could not take advantage.
What is a dangerous battle? It is not a dangerous battle to fight at all costs! Instead, you can find the most suitable fighter in the dangerous situation you are facing, and the battle that is won against the norm is called a dangerous battle!
Faced with the arrival of the fighters, Su Yu did not hesitate at all, and he immediately conveyed the new battle plan he had formulated to each column, and the specific battle plan could be summarized into the following three points:
In order to prevent Qiu Qingquan's corps from suddenly reinforcing Huang Baitao, the 3rd and 10th columns of Huaye were ordered to quickly go to the eastern front to set up a blocking position, on the one hand, to monitor Qiu Qingquan's actions, and on the other hand, to block Qiu Qingquan's men and horses at any time.
Another unit that might join Huang Baitao's corps was the Nationalist reorganized 75th Division, which ordered the main force of Huaye's 8th Column and the strength of a division of the Sixth Column to immediately go to the He Qitun area to annihilate the remaining men of the enemy 75th Division.
As for Huang Baitao's corps, although they appeared as strange soldiers, Su Yu analyzed their long-distance march, their foothold was unstable, and they were suitable for encircling them with superior troops, and ordered huaye's 1st, 4th, and 6th columns to detour from three directions to form a closed encirclement of Huang Baitao's corps.
In this battle plan, Su Yu used the three strongest columns in Huaye to encircle Huang Baitao's corps, the commander of the first column was General Ye Fei, the commander of the 4th column was General Tao Yong, and the commander of the 6th column was General Wang Bicheng.
When all the troops reached the designated position, Su Yu issued an order to launch a general attack, and the three columns of our army simultaneously launched a fierce attack on Huang Baitao's corps, Huang Baitao was surprised, he was confused, Huang Baitao understood at this time, Su Yu did not retreat, but took the initiative to launch an attack, Huang Baitao said very surprisedly: "How is this possible?" Why did Su Yu mobilize so many troops, and we didn't even notice it! ”
Su Yu's marching skills are a strange art, this shining point is the same as Lin Biao, Chairman Mao once commented on Su Yu and Lin Biao said: "These two people have different command styles, but in some aspects there are many common points, commanding the army to quickly intersperse the detour is their excellent ability!" ”
The scene where General Su Yu directs the battle in front of the map
Chairman Mao's words were said in 1963, when Yang Chengwu accompanied Chairman Mao and went to Wuhan and other places to inspect, and on the way Chairman Mao said this sentence in a small conversation with Yang Chengwu and others.
At this time, Huang Baitao scolded Qiu Qingquan for his eyes, and at that time he invited Qiu Qingquan to march together, but Qiu Qingquan refused him, and Huang Baitao immediately called the reorganized 75th Division and the Qiu Qingquan Corps, at this time the reorganized 75th Division had been defeated and retreated by our army, and it was difficult to protect itself, and only Qiu Qingquan Corps could support Huang Baitao.
However, when Qiu Qingquan sent troops to rescue him, the troops he sent were blocked by two columns of our army, and they could not advance one step, And Qiu Qingquan knew that he had made a big mistake at this time, and he could only order the troops to quickly pass through the blocking position and go to support Huang Baitao, but the time was already late.
In this battle, Huang Baitao's most admired place for Su Yu appeared, our army's attack speed was very fast, Huang Baitao's two regiments in front of him were annihilated by our army within an hour, at this time Huang Baitao knew that he could not wait for reinforcements, he boldly concentrated his main force in one place and launched a counterattack.
According to past experience, after the Kuomintang troops were surrounded by our army, they generally stuck to ask for help, and even if they wanted to break through, they generally chose three or four directions to break through, but this time Huang Baitao concentrated all his troops to stare at the breakthrough in one direction, which was unexpected by Su Yu and others.
Moreover, huang Baitao's method was really useful, he led his troops out of the heavy siege, and Huang Baitao did not retreat, he led his troops to prepare to counter-encircle a column of our army, Su Yu immediately ordered the whole army to retreat, and the battle of eastern Henan came to an end.
Many years later, Su Yu recalled this battle: "In my military career, there were two times when I commanded the most tense operations, and the danger caused to our army by Huang Baitao's corps after the breakthrough of the Battle of Eastern Henan was one of them! ”
Therefore, in Su Yu's eyes, Huang Baitao's military command ability was not weak! In fact, before the Battle of Eastern Henan, Su Yu and Huang Baitao had already fought twice, one was in the Battle of Suzhong, Huang Baitao was defeated by Su Yu and fled, and the other was in the Battle of Menglianggu, when Su Yu commanded Hua Ye's main force to surround Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, and Huang Baitao's 25th Army was the most active in rescuing Zhang Lingfu's troops, at that time Tao Yong's 4 columns had just a battalion of troops blocking the key position, otherwise Huang Baitao would really succeed.
After the Battle of Eastern Henan, Su Yu believed that Huang Baitao's ability was not under Hu Lian.
Strategic diagram of the Battle of Eastern Henan
Huang Baitao's experience is different from that of Hu Zongnan, Huang Wei, Hu Lian, and others; he was not a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, nor was he a high-achieving student who lectured on martial arts; Huang Baitao was born in the old warlord army, and he once had the disgraceful experience of being captured by Zhang Zongchang; he was not a general trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, and his path to the throne was fought step by step during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
The next duel between Su Yu and Huang Baitao took place in the Battle of Huaihai, and this time, Su Yu became the final winner, and Huang Baitao completely lost everything, including his own life.
Needless to say, the great significance of the Huaihai Campaign is that the most talked about in later generations is about the real reasons for the defeat of the Kuomintang troops, and there are many theories on this issue, but in fact, the reasons that people have summed up are important factors in the kuomintang's defeat.
In the first stage of the Huaihai Campaign, the operational target of our army was directly aimed at the Kuomintang Seventh Corps led by Huang Baitao; with regard to huang Baitao's defeat in this battle, it is fair to say that the entire responsibility cannot be attributed to Huang Baitao alone, but the main responsibility for this is Liu Zhi, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang at that time, and Li Mi, the commander of the Kuomintang 13th Corps at the time.
The faint tactics formulated by Liu Zhi were the main reason for the annihilation of Huang Baitao's corps, and Huang Baitao received different orders from Liu Zhi on the marching road many times, and Liu Zhi rebelled and changed the direction of the march several times, causing Huang Baitao to turn around in the same place for a long time, which gave me time for Su Yu to gather troops.
It should be known that General Su Yu's ability to grasp the fighter is first-class, Liu Zhi made such a major mistake, Huang Baitao was doomed, when Su Yu learned that Huang Baitao was preparing to cross the canal in the west, he ordered the troops to immediately pursue it, just when Huang Baitao's corps crossed the river halfway, our army launched an attack, and Huang Baitao suffered heavy losses in the first battle.
Su Yu then ordered the Shandong Corps led by Wang Jian'an and Tan Zhenlin, plus 6 columns of Huaye led by Chen Shiqu to encircle Huang Baitao's corps from three directions in the area of Nianzhuang.
Since then, Huang Baitao's fate has a final final conclusion, at this time Liu Zhi ordered the nearest Li Mi Corps to go to Nianzhuang to rescue Huang Baitao's corps, but Li Mi did not march according to the established route, in order to maintain the strength of his own corps, plus he was afraid that his troops would also be annihilated by our army, he chose to retreat from the side of Huang Baitao's corps, which led to Huang Baitao's corps being isolated and helpless.
In addition to military operations, our army's political offensive also achieved great results, and before the encirclement of Huang Baitao's corps and with the efforts of our army, General Zhang Kexia, who had been lurking inside the Kuomintang, led 23,000 people to revolt in Taierzhuang, completely cutting off Huang Baitao's retreat.
Needless to say, the course of this battle is naturally that Huang Baitao's corps was completely annihilated by our army, and Huang Baitao himself was also killed in this battle, and there are two theories about Huang Baitao's death, one is that Huang Baitao led his troops to break through, and was hit by a shell of our army and was directly killed, and the other is that Huang Baitao knew that he could not break through successfully, so he left a suicide note and shot himself.
But no matter which of these two statements is true, Huang Baitao has indeed died in this battle. Many scholars in later generations found out from some sources that after the news of Huang Baitao's death in battle reached Su Yu's ears, Su Yu fainted on the spot and fell to the ground.
According to General Pi Dingjun's diary, this incident is real, general Pi Dingjun wrote: "After the news of Huang Baitao's death came, Commander Su Yu turned pale when he heard about it, and fainted on the ground a few seconds later, when several guards immediately sent Commander Su Yu to the rear for treatment. ”
General Pi Dingjun recorded this incident in detail in his diary, but Su Yu was not Huang Baitao killed and fainted, although General Su Yu had a high evaluation of Huang Baitao's ability, but he would not be sad because of Huang Baitao's death, this matter was just a coincidence, the reason why General Su Yu fainted was that because he commanded the Battle of Huaihai, General Su Yu did not sleep for several days, resulting in the recurrence of old wounds, which made him faint.
It was just that when General Su Yu fainted, someone was just reporting to him about Huang Baitao's killing, so this matter was over-interpreted by future generations.
General Su Yu was wounded in the command many times, and during the Battle of Shuinan, fragments of three shells hit General Su Yu's head, and in the Battle of Huaihai, Su Yu had to command the overall situation, the pressure was very high, and with the continuous hard work, the recurrence of old wounds was the real reason why he fainted.
Therefore, General Su Yu did not serve as the commander-in-chief of the second phase of the Huaihai Campaign, and in the second phase, the main force of the Central Plains Field Army surrounded and annihilated the Huang Wei Corps, which was commanded by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, and Su Yu led part of huaye's main force to take charge of the blockade task.
However, in the third phase of the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu's health improved, and he was once again in charge of the commander-in-chief of the campaign, annihilating all the men and horses of Du Yuming and others.