The Three Great Battles were the famous battles of the Chinese Liberation War, and the People's Liberation Army, which had been in a weak position, completely ended the Kuomintang's rule in China through these three battles. Among them, the Liaoshen Campaign was the first of the three major battles to start the war, and the people responsible for commanding this battle on both sides were also the best generals in the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Communist Party was responsible for this battle by Lin Biao, one of the ten marshals, and the Kuomintang had Wei Lihuang, one of Chiang Kai-shek's five tiger generals, in charge.
Battle of Liaoshen
Although the Liaoshen Campaign was the first campaign launched in the Liberation War, its influence was no less than that of the Pingjin Campaign and the Huaihai Campaign, and it may even be even worse, because judging from the results of the war, it was precisely because the People's Liberation Army achieved fruitful results in this battle that the success of the next two battles was guaranteed, and at the same time this campaign was also the beginning of the reversal of the strength of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The Communists also defeated the Kuomintang's many offensives, but in this year the Kuomintang still had a lot of military power, on the one hand, because most of the big cities in the north and south were still in their hands at that time, and they were still economically stronger than China; on the other hand, the assistance of the United States had been transfusing blood for the Kuomintang, so from the military and economic point of view, the Communist Party was still much weaker than the Kuomintang, so the seizure of the northeast became the key goal of the Communist Party in 1948
U.S. aid to the Kuomintang
Because the northeast was the base of China's heavy industry at that time. It is the main production area of the military industry and other civilian industries, before the liberation of the northeast, most of the Communist Party's base areas were in the countryside, and the economic structure was mainly agriculture and handicrafts, so although the Communist Party had achieved many victories in the first two years, the division of strength in the rural areas was still too weak, and once these base areas were all lost, the Communist Party was not far from being destroyed, because the Kuomintang also consumed the Communist Party at that time by fighting for the economy alone. However, if the northeast is occupied, the Communist Party's economy will have a backing, and it will be more certain to engage the Kuomintang in the future and develop the economy, and the Kuomintang side will not lack outstanding generals and talents, and they also know the importance of the northeast very well. The northeast is not only China's industrial foundation, but also contains a large number of minerals, economically very important to the Kuomintang, in addition, in terms of geographical location, the northeast and north China are the existence of cold teeth, once the northeast is lost, north China will also be in danger
Northeast Heavy Industry
In addition, Chiang Kai-shek also said at that time that the northeast was the beginning of the Chinese revolution, and that china's 30-year revolution began here, and whoever could occupy this place would belong to whom the victory of the Chinese revolution belonged, so it can be seen that although Chiang Kai-shek was unsightly in military command, he especially liked to interfere too much in the command of the front-line generals, but his strategic vision was not worse than anyone, at least above the standard
In order to take the northeast as their own, both sides sent their elite generals, and in addition, both parties advocated placing the first battle of the decisive battle in the northeast, and there was another reason, that is, the northeast was a vacuum zone for the two parties at that time, so after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, both sides did not have time to fully control the northeast. Although the Kuomintang controlled many large cities such as Shenyang, Changchun, and Jinzhou, the military strength was not superior to that of the Communists, and even weaker than the other side in field battles, so Wei Lihuang, who was in charge of the northeast operation, adopted the strategy of sticking to the big cities, intending to drag the PEOPLE's Liberation Army to death with a war of attrition. Under such circumstances, Chairman Mao preferred to end the Liaoshen Campaign as soon as possible, not only to end it, but also to completely annihilate the Kuomintang troops in the northeast through this campaign in preparation for the next two battles.
Wei Lihuang was in command
In fact, from the perspective of the strategic situation, the Communist Party at that time could not afford to wait than the Kuomintang, because once the time for the war of liberation to start was further delayed, the civil war would turn into a protracted war. The United States and the Soviet Union are likely to send troops to intervene in the war situation, and once such an outcome occurs, China's end is likely to fall into the situation on the Korean Peninsula and form a long-term division. This was not Chairman Mao's unfounded fear at the time, but the most likely outcome, because the United States had sent 27,000 people to Qingdao at that time, and this force was considered a front-line force before the United States could enter the war. And the US ambassador to China Stuart Layden also repeatedly instigated the United States to participate in the war, if it were not for the Fact that the Kuomintang had lost a million troops in only one year, because the defeat was too fast for the United States to prepare, it is estimated that the United States' participation in the war would only be a matter of raising its hands
U.S. military in China
Therefore, how to fight the Liaoshen Campaign well became Chairman Mao's biggest headache, and the result of this battle was to strive for the complete annihilation of the Kuomintang army in the northeast, not just to defeat it, because if the Kuomintang army in the northeast just withdrew from the northeast and then moved to north or east China. Then in the Battle of Huaihai, the Communists had to deal with all the Kuomintang troops, including the main force in the northeast. The strategic situation was very unfavorable to the Communists, so after consulting with the senior Communist generals, Chairman Mao initially wanted Lin Biao to attack Jinzhou and directly cut off the back road for the Kuomintang to withdraw from the northeast. In this way, he created an opportunity to annihilate the Kuomintang army in the northeast
Lin Biao was on the front line
However, this choice was opposed by Lin Biao, because Lin Biao used troops to stabilize, and he believed that if he directly attacked Jinzhou, because Jinzhou's geographical location was after Changchun, the marching army must bypass Changchun, Zhangwu, Fuxin and other places. These areas were home to Nationalist troops, and once these troops attacked the Communist logistics, the Communists would be in a situation of being attacked from the belly and back, and for the Communists, who were good at mobile warfare, they would be encircled. It is not impossible for the PLA troops to use interspersed tactics to the extreme, but in this way, the PLA's heavy weapons will fall into the hands of the Kuomintang, and the subsequent battles will not be fought. Therefore, Lin Biao personally suggested taking Changchun first, and only after stabilizing the back road did he find a way to attack other regions, except for Lin Biao, almost all the generals opposed a direct attack on Jinzhou at the beginning of the Liaoshen Campaign, because this move was too dangerous. The results of winning the war are enormous, but the risk of losing the battle is also unbearable for the Communist Party. In the end, weighing the pros and cons, Chairman Mao also had to agree to the suggestions of Lin Biao and others
Chairman Mao was in Yan'an
Lin Biao then began to besiege Changchun, and Wei Lihuang, who was in charge of the war in the northeast, began to insist on losing the defense, because the situation in the northeast at that time was also unfavorable to Wei Lihuang, and before Wei Lihuang took office, Chiang Kai-shek had successively appointed Du Yuming and Chen Cheng as commanders-in-chief of the northeast. However, it was still unable to stop the Communist offensive, and until Wei Lihuang came to power, the northeast almost became the world of the Communist Party. Some of the surrounding cities are almost occupied, the Kuomintang has the ability to control only Changchun, Jinzhou and Shenyang, these three places are the foundation of the Kuomintang to temporarily control the northeast, any one is lost, the situation in the northeast will be precarious, which is also the reason why Wei Lihuang had to choose to die after taking office.
Map of the Liaoshen Campaign
After Lin Biao began to besiege Changchun in July 1948 and reached September, his patience was still gradually exhausted, and he felt that it was not the way to go on, so he decided to follow Chairman Mao's original plan. Launched an attack on Jinzhou's Beining County in search of fighters to annihilate the enemy who came to his aid. Chairman Mao saw that Lin Biao had abandoned the siege of Changchun, so he immediately issued a new order, so he attacked with the main force of the Northeast Field Army with all his might, and when Wei Lihuang commanded the support of the Shenyang and Changchun troops, he looked for an opportunity to annihilate the main Kuomintang force in the northeast in one fell swoop
Platon artillery positions
In this way, Lin Biao led the field troops to the south quickly, running 700 kilometers in less than a few days, first knocking down Beining County, and then using interspersed tactics to eliminate other urban areas in Jinzhou and achieve a heavy siege of Jinzhou. Upon hearing this news, Chiang Kai-shek immediately issued an order to Wei Lihuang to lead the troops of Shenyang and Changchun to support Jinzhou, but for Wei Lihuang, who had already made up his mind to defend the three cities, he naturally refused Chiang Kai-shek's order. However, out of surprise, Fu Zuoyi, who was in North China at this time, suddenly reinforced the northeast, a move that no one had expected. Fu Zuoyi's participation in the war gave Wei Lihuang great spiritual encouragement, originally he was worried that his troops would not be able to defeat the Communists, but now Fu Zuoyi was willing to lead troops to support Wei Lihuang and did not dare to sit idly by, and immediately sent troops to reinforce Jinzhou in two ways, one was responsible for cutting off the other side's supply line from Zhangwu, and the other way was the main force directly attacking Lin Biao, while Fu Zuoyi was advancing on land and water, attacking Beining County to open up the passage to reinforce Jinzhou
Fu Zuoyi (left)
Lin Biao saw that he was caught in the stage of being trapped in the front and back of the package, and he was suddenly a little unable to hold back, and planned to lead the return to Changchun, but in this way, the Northeast Field Army would not only delay the fighters, but also fall into strategic passivity because of the sudden withdrawal of troops, because the situation of attacking Jinzhou at this time had already begun. If the troops were to be withdrawn suddenly, how their troops would be transferred back was a problem, so when chairman Mao heard the news, he was quite angry and sent two telegrams to Lin Biao overnight, detailing the importance of attacking Jinzhou In Chairman Mao's view, Jinzhou and Shenyang and Changchun were interdependent, so even if it was a retreat to attack Jinzhou, the northeast. Wei Lihuang did not dare to mobilize all the Shenyang or Changchun troops to support, and it was inevitable that he would have to leave a part of the troops in the city to prevent Shenyang or Changchun from losing, but if he directly attacked Changchun and then attacked Jinzhou without Changchun's worries, Shenyang's troops would go all out to the south, but Lin Biao would be even more difficult to fight
Victory in the Battle of Liaoshen
At Chairman Mao's request, Lin Biao also decided to make a desperate bet to put all the hopes of the war in Jinzhou, and in this battle, all 250,000 troops of the Northeast Field Army were thrown down, and finally Jinzhou was taken at the cost of 20,000 casualties, and the Northeast Kuomintang without Jinzhou was also annihilated by the Communist Army step by step in the subsequent battles, completely reversing the military strength comparison and strategic posture of the Kuomintang
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