If we look back at the situation in northeast China during the Liberation War, we will find that from 1945 to 1946, more than 200,000 nationalist troops led by Du Yuming, commander of the Northeast Security Command, came with a menacing force and launched an all-out offensive against our army; after the summer of 1947, our army launched a comprehensive counterattack against the nationalist army until the end of 1948, when it was completely annihilated and the entire northeast was liberated.
So, before the summer of 1947, what happened that led our army to turn the unfavorable tide of the war in one fell swoop and seize the initiative in the northeast battlefield?
This is because, from the end of 1946 to the spring of 1947, a battle called "Three Lower Jiangnan, Four Bao Linjiang" took place.
To be precise, "three under the Jiangnan, four bao Linjiang" is a series of battles, but this series of battles took place in the same time period, have a close connection with each other, in order to facilitate the narrative, put them together.
How did "three under the Jiangnan, four bao Linjiang" started? It all started on December 27, 1946.
One
On this day, under the orders of Du Yuming, Zheng Dongguo, deputy commander of northeast security, commanded six divisions of the New 6th Army, the 60th Army, the 52nd Army, and the 71st Army to attack the Linjiang area. The Linjiang area here refers to a county-level city under the jurisdiction of baishan city in jilin province today. In the early days of the Liberation War, it was the command center of our army's South Manchuria Military Region.
Zheng Dongguo's move was, on the one hand, to force our army's Southern Manchuria Military Region to carry out a decisive battle, and on the other hand, to open up the transportation route from Tonghua to Ji'an. Most of the American mechanized troops of the Nationalist army are very dependent on the integrity of transportation routes. Traffic lines are interrupted, and they will not be able to move.
At that time, the 3rd column and the 4th column, which were subordinate to the South Manchuria Military Region, adopted the operational policy of coordinating internal and external lines, pursuing the enemy and dispersing, and then seeking opportunities to annihilate, and then maneuvering with the Nationalist army. After more than ten large and small battles, the 3rd column and 4th column decisively attacked and annihilated more than 7,000 enemy troops.
This is "one guarantee linjiang".
When the South Manchuria Military Region was carrying out the "one guarantee on the Linjiang River," the 1st Column, the 2nd Column, the 6th Column, and the 3 independent divisions of the main units of our army located in the Northern Manchuria region crossed the Songhua River on January 5, 1947, in accordance with the general principle of "persisting in Southern Manchuria, consolidating Northern Manchuria, fighting north and north, fighting north and south, and closely cooperating with the south and south to attack the enemy." Taking advantage of the favorable opportunity that the surface of the Songhua River was already frozen on a large scale, they crossed the Songhua River on January 5, 1947, and fought in coordination with the 3rd and 4th Columns south of the Songhua River. In the battle, our army eliminated two regiments (112 regiments and 113 regiments) of the New 1st Army of the Ace Army of the Nationalist Army by means of encirclement and reinforcement, totaling more than 2,300 people.
People used to call the area south of the Songhua River "Jiangnan", so the military operation of the main force of our army was called "The Lower Jiangnan".
The main force of our army "struck Jiangnan" and forced the Nationalist army to stop its attack on the Linjiang area. "One jiangnan, one protection linjiang" ended with the victory of our army.
Two
After this failure, Du Yuming was still not dead hearted. In order to get rid of the dilemma of two-sided operation and rush to solve the problem of southern Manchuria, he gathered his superior forces to attack the Linjiang area three times on January 30, 1947, February 13, 1947, and March 26, 1947.
The 3rd and 4th Columns, which were active in the Southern Manchuria region, were not afraid, adhered to the way of coordinating operations between the inner and outer lines, and looked for opportunities to annihilate the enemy in the movement and annihilate the enemy piecemeal. Destroy 1 regiment today, kill most of the division tomorrow, the enemy will fight less and less, and our army will fight more and more.
This is the "two guarantees Linjiang", "three guarantees Linjiang" and "four guarantees Linjiang".
When the 3rd column and 4th column of the South Manchuria Military Region insisted on fighting the enemy, the 1st column, 2nd column, 6th column, and 3 independent divisions of the main force of our army were not idle, and crossed the Songhua River twice on February 21 and March 2, and entered the south of the Songhua River to participate in the operation. While effectively assisting the 3rd and 4th Columns of the South Manchuria Military Region, they dealt a heavy blow to the Nationalist army.
It is worth mentioning that on March 8, after the 1st column and 2nd column of our army "went down to Jiangnan three times", they once planned to attack Nong'an. Outside the city of Dehui, our army found an enemy convoy of unknown origin. Since the main force of our army wanted to attack Nong'an, only a small part of the army was arranged to attack this convoy, and as a result, this convoy fled.
Afterwards, our army learned through the captured enemy soldiers that Du Yuming's car was also in this convoy. If our army had been able to send a little more troops at that time, it would have been impossible to capture Du Yuming in advance.
This is the "second lower Jiangnan" and "three lower Jiangnan".
In the "three lower Jiangnan, four guarantees Linjiang", our army has achieved brilliant results. From December 27, 1946 to April 3, 1947, which lasted more than three months, our army dispatched 5 columns and some independent divisions to fight continuously with more than 100,000 national troops, annihilated more than 50,000 enemy troops, and curbed the enemy's offensive posture.
From the autumn of 1945, Du Yuming mobilized more than 200,000 people from 7 armies into the northeast region. In the battle of "three down the Jiangnan And four bao Linjiang", Du Yuming suffered serious losses and was no longer able to take the initiative to launch an attack on our army. Since then, Du Yuming has entered the stage of strategic defense, and our army has entered the stage of strategic offensive.