Author: Shi Qian
Yangliuqing Town, a good romantic name, is quite a bit of a place with water town scenery in Jiangnan.
Yangliuqing Town is located 20 miles west of Jinxi, a river flows through the center of the town, the houses on both sides of the river are different, and the boats on the river come and go. Standing on a high roof, you can use a telescope to see the Tianjin urban area in the distance. A few days ago, the Eighth Column approached the outskirts of Tianjin, concentrated its forces to quickly cut through the chaos, and divided the town by dividing three times and five times. At this time, the scene of war is still in sight. The streets were littered with bricks and tiles, and the traffic trenches and single bunkers left by the enemy were mutilated and in a mess. It was late winter, the branches were yellow, and there was not a little green in the town, and the town of Yangliuqing at this time was extremely incompatible with its charming name.
In fact, this was not the case in yangliuqing town in the past. In the Jin Dynasty, it was called Liukou Town, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Yangliuqing Town. In the ninth year of Qing Yongzheng, it was assigned to Tianjin Prefecture. The Factor Ya River, the Daqing River and the North-South Canal all flow through here, and the water transportation is very convenient. Every autumn, merchant ships from all over the world gather here full of grain and local specialties, which are transferred to Tianjin or sold locally.
Yangliuqing Town is famous for its rich folk paper-cutting and Yangliu youth paintings, and almost every family in the villages within a radius of dozens of miles will be dyed, and every household is good danqing. Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, each family has painted New Year paintings in a family workshop, which has been passed down from generation to generation. Among them, the famous Dai Lian Zeng painting shop has been passed down to the ninth generation during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
In the middle of winter, in the hometown of no willows or Yang Hua's New Year paintings, Liu Yalou built his front-line headquarters. He was appointed commander of the Tianjin front. He will lead 340,000 people and horses, with their strength and wisdom, with their loyalty and sacrifice, to paint a bigger and more beautiful picture, a picture of the liberation of Tianjin.
A vicious battle is imminent, and it is necessary to firmly handle the victory of this vicious battle, and there must be no slightest slackness and negligence, let alone the slightest mistake or mistake. Liu Yalou was busy day and night, he surveyed the terrain, gathered intelligence, studied plans... All the situations had to be sorted out in his head. His exuberant energy and extraordinary wisdom were devoted to this battle.
Liu Yalou knew in his heart that for a senior commander, only a brave and tenacious spirit was far from enough. Since the Liberation War, the scale of the war has become larger and larger, and the degree of modernization has become higher and higher. Resourcefulness, courage, thoroughness and meticulousness are the qualities that commanders must possess, and scientific thinking and modern military knowledge are even more indispensable. During the Red Army period, Liu Yalou once commanded a regiment and a division, when there were only guns and a few small guns, and now he commands 340,000 people in 22 divisions of six columns, not only guns, but also heavy artillery groups, tank groups and engineers.
Ability and quality pushed Liu Yalou to the position of commander of the Tianjin front. As the chief of staff of the Northeast Democratic United Army and the Northeast Field Army, he played an irreplaceable role in every victory of this large army, made irreplaceable contributions, and also underwent tempering and testing. Liu Yalou provided a solid guarantee for the chief with his "strong organizational discipline, strict, thorough and efficient work style, as well as amazing perseverance and excellent organizational ability".
The study of the Soviet Military Academy, the cruel and frequent practice of war, and the cultivation of talented military commanders such as Chairman Mao forged Liu Yalou's ability to command a large army and control war.
Liu Yalou was fully capable of commanding a big battle on his own. Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan trusted him, the Party Central Committee trusted him, and the decision to appoint him commander of the Tianjin front was approved by the Central Military Commission and by Chairman Mao.
For this industrial and commercial city with a population of 2 million, the siege operation must be quickly decided; it must be ensured that the city is less damaged and the people's lives and property are less damaged; and the largest industrial town in north China must be basically handed over to the people in good hands. Many factors must be taken into account, many difficulties must be anticipated in advance, and many unexpected situations must be anticipated in advance. Campaign deployment and tactical maneuvers must be regulated. The enemy's deployment and fortifications should be well understood. The enemy's strength and combat effectiveness must be accurately calculated. Liu Yalou and his comrades-in-arms got together and analyzed the enemy one by one. One army weighs one army after another, one division after another weighs, and one regiment after another weighs.
Liu Yalou's headquarters is like a high-speed machine. The intercom and telephone stand-offs. Commanders and staff officers come in and out. Various pre-war preparation meetings were held one after another. Huge battle maps hung on the walls, and they were painted with all kinds of markings. Liu Yalou often stood in front of the map for a long time, or thought alone or discussed with the commander.
Thinking is running at high speed, thinking is splashing sparks, thinking is condensing and focusing. The mobility and flexibility of the chief of staff and the commander's immediate decision are combined with Liu Yalou without contradiction. Caution does not mean being conjured up in imagination, and being meticulous does not mean shrinking one's hands and feet. War is art, the art of the struggle between steel and will, the art of condensation of wisdom and ability, the art of casting ideals and sacrifices, and the art of alternating destruction and rebirth. For thousands of years, war has created heroes, and war has created a new world.
It was late at night, the cold stars were twinkling outside, and the oil lamps in the house were dim.
Liu Yalou took away the staff officers, guards, and correspondents around him, and he asked a person to calm down and make a final systematic and complete sorting out of the enemy's situation: Tianjin's rivers are long and long, the terrain is complex, and there are strong fortifications and many tall buildings that the enemy has built year after year, and it is a city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
The upcoming Battle of Tianjin is a large-scale battle in the water network area.
Tianjin is surrounded by a vast coastal depression and a water network area that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is difficult for the combat operations of the large corps and multiple arms.
The terrain of Tianjin is complex, and it is cut into many pieces by the Yongding River, Daqing River, Ziya River, Baihe River and Canal.
Chen Changjie, commander of the tianjin enemy defense, vigorously increased the city defense from the autumn of 1947, dug a moat around the city with a width of ten meters and a depth of four or five meters, and put it into the canal river and the Haihe River tide, and the water depth was often maintained at about three meters.
The inner side of the Tianjin moat is connected to an earthen wall, the bottom of the river to the top of the wall is six or seven meters high, the wall is attached to the power grid, every 20 to 30 meters there is a bunker, there are blockboxes outside the moat, there are several barbed wire, power grids and deer blocks, tens of thousands of mines are buried around the perimeter, and the villages within five miles of the city are burned, creating a no-man's land.
There are more than 380 large bunkers in the moat outside Tianjin, and there are about 1,000 bunkers in the city and in depth, and the deep bunker group reaches the core fortification area.
Chen Changjie boasted that Tianjin's defense was as strong as a fortress and impregnable. He thought that with such complex terrain, strong fortifications and 130,000 troops, he could hold on. Therefore, after being besieged, he still refused to surrender and continued to resist.
Chen Changjie was indeed very proud of his "great Tianjin fortressification", and the city fortification map in Tianjin was written with four big characters of "impenetrable". When Chiang Kai-shek passed through Tianjin during the Liaoshen Campaign, he also praised the city fortifications in Tianjin.
Is this "Great tianjin fortress" impeccable? Liu Yalou developed his own broad thinking space: the Tianjin area was about 70 square kilometers, and Chen Changjie was garrisoned with about 130,000 people in 10 divisions of two armies with a total strength of two armies. Of these 10 divisions, except for the 151st Division, which did not suffer a major blow, the remaining 67th Division, 43rd Division, 26th Division, 284th Division, 293rd Division, and 184th Division were all severely damaged or annihilated by us in previous operations, and the 184th Division was annihilated four times and rebuilt. Three other divisions were formed temporarily before and after the siege of Tianjin, of which the 305th Division was reorganized from the local security forces, and the 326th Division and the 333rd Division were composed of scattered soldiers who fled back to Guannei in the northeast. These troops were defending isolated cities, their morale was low, their combat effectiveness was not strong, and their front line was 90 miles long, and their strength was insufficient and overstretched. And our attack on Tianjin is 340,000 people in 22 divisions. The ratio of troop strength is 340,000 to 130,000, or 2.6:1.
Well! Liu Yalou nodded slightly, then strolled to the window, pushed open two dilapidated windows and doors with both hands, and looked directly at Tianjin City in the dark night: the shape of Tianjin City is long from north to south, narrow from east to west. 25 miles north-south and 10-mile east-west. Tall buildings are mostly in the south, general bungalows are in the center, the north is open, and the south is mostly a water network area. Because Chen Changjie judged that the main direction of the PLA's offensive was in the north, he placed the Sixty-second Army of Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, which had strong combat effectiveness, in the central and northern parts, and the weak troops in the south. Generally speaking, the enemy's troop deployment and defensive fortifications are characterized by the fact that the northern forces and combat effectiveness are relatively strong; the southern troops and combat effectiveness are not strong, but the fortifications are relatively strong; the central part has few troops, weak combat effectiveness, and weak defensive fortifications.
It is New Year's Day, and traditional Chinese customs are known as the day of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. At his headquarters, Liu Yalou was to convene a combat conference to decide the fate of the Tianjin Campaign.
The meeting room was temporary and simple. In the middle of the room was a long table with a teapot and a few teacups, and a military map hung on the wall. The leaders of the columns and divisions came and sat in a room full of people. Liu Yalou shook hands with every commander present at the meeting.
In the Northeast Field Army, commanders and fighters all recognized a fact that need not be debated, and Liu Yalou rarely used a script to speak, thinking while speaking, and when he finished speaking, he recorded it as an article with profound thinking and rigorous logic.
No politeness, no agenda. Liu Yalou opened the door to the theme of the combat meeting: "The second phase of the Pingjin Campaign has begun. The North China Corps had liberated Xinbao and Zhangjiakou, annihilated Fu Zuoyi's ace Thirty-fifth Army, and jammed Fu Zuoyi's group's way back to Sui. Our field army successively liberated Nankou, Fengtai, Tangshan, and Junliangcheng, surrounded Peiping, and cut off the Pingjin connection. At present, we have completed the siege of Tianjin. As long as we take Tianjin, Fu Zuoyi will fall into a desperate situation where he wants to escape, is powerless to fight, and cannot defend. The Battle of Tianjin occupies a decisive position in the overall situation of the Pingjin Campaign, and the task we shoulder is very glorious and arduous. ”
The leaders of the columns and divisions exchanged glances with each other to release their inner excitement, and the venue was still as calm as water.
Liu Yalou walked to the front of the battle map and picked up a wooden stick standing at the base of the wall: "In accordance with Chairman Mao's principle of 'concentrating absolute superiority in every battle, encircling the enemy on all sides, striving to annihilate everything, and not letting the net slip through the net,' and in accordance with the characteristics of the enemy's garrison and the characteristics of the terrain of Tianjin's urban area, as well as the requirement of trying to solve the battle in the shortest possible time and to make the city suffer as little damage as possible, we have decided to place the main direction of attack in the middle of Tianjin city. The operational policy is to advance east and west, cut off the waist, first south and then north, first divide and then surround and annihilate, first eat meat and then gnaw bones. ”
Speaking of this, Liu Yalou suddenly closed the conversation box, scanned the circle of the venue, and then raised his voice: "The main point of this policy is to first seek to penetrate the east and west, in order to disrupt the enemy's defense system and cut off the waist." Since Tianjin is a city with a long north-south and narrow east-west city, strengthening the attack forces on the east and west sides can quickly and reliably seek penetration. Cutting off the enemy's waist can disrupt the enemy's entire defense system and freely expand its forces to both wings. In this way, it will not feel that the front is narrow, the troops cannot be opened, and it will not form a dispersion of troops. In addition to the two main offensive directions of the east and the west, it assisted from south to north with part of the troops and pretended to attack from north to south with a small number of troops. ”
The leaders of the columns and divisions could not help but sigh at their clear operational intentions, concise operational policies, and accurate operational requirements for their chiefs of staff.
Liu Yalou then announced the specific operational arrangements: "Li Tianyou, commander of the First Column, and Liang Biye, political commissar, commanded the First and Second Columns and were assigned two-thirds of the artillery and 20 tanks of the Special Forces Column to form the Western Group, which was the first main direction of attack, breaking through from the northwest of Tianjin and the north and south areas of Pingmen, and attacking from west to east; Deng Hua, commander of the Seventh Column, and Wu Fushan, political commissar, commanded the Seventh and Eighth Columns to form the East Group with one-third of the artillery and 10 tanks, which was the second main direction of attack, and broke through from Tianjin Dongwang and Minzumen. Attack from east to west. The eastern and western groups met at Jintang Bridge, and then divided into the northern and southern half of the city to encircle and annihilate the enemy. The West Group is south, the East Group is seven vertical south, and the eighth is vertical north. Zhan Caifang, commander of the Ninth Column, and Li Zhongquan, political commissar, commanded the Thirty-fourth Division of the Ninth and Twelfth Columns to form the Southern Group, which, in order to assist the direction, broke through from the Jianshanzi area south of Tianjin and went from south to north; the Western Group and the First Part of the Eastern Group and the Yeji Guard Regiment pretended to move north of the city to confuse the enemy. The 17th Division of the 6th Column was a reserve. The main force of the twelfth column was located in the area of Junliangcheng to cut off the Tianjin Tanggu link and intercept the enemy who had broken through from Tianjin to Tanggu. ”
The venue boiled over, and the leaders of the columns and divisions stood up in unison.
With warm applause, the meeting unanimously adopted this well-thought-out battle plan.
Liu Yalou turned his gaze to Liu Zhen, commander of the Second Column, "Liu Zhen, your opponent is the Sixty-second Army, a bone that is difficult to gnaw!" ”
"He has good teeth, no problem." Deng Hua interjected, causing the crowd to laugh.
"It tastes better to chew on bones!" Liu Zhen also replied humorously.
All columns were assigned tasks, and intense pre-war preparations were intense.
About author:Shi Kui, history teacher at colleges and universities, history researcher. He has been cultivating the history of the Party, the Military and the History of War for a long time. History lovers are welcome to exchange criticisms.