The decisive battle in the Battle of Liaoshen was the Battle of West Liaoning. In this battle, the Northeast Field Army wiped out more than 100,000 people in the Ninth Corps of Liao Yaoxiang, and eliminated the absolute main force of the Northeast Kuomintang army.
This battle clearly reflects the powerful combat effectiveness of the Northeast Field Army. However, the defeated general Liao Yaoxiang believed that the main force was fighting hard, and the national army was not afraid of the communist army. The reason for the defeat was that the three chiefs quarreled, and the 100,000 army was so dizzy and confused that they were defeated.
I. Three chiefs quarreling
The three chiefs quarreling mentioned by Liao Yaoxiang refers to the dispute between Chiang Kai-shek, the commander of the Northeast "General Suppression" Wei Lihuang, and the deputy commander Du Yuming .
What are you arguing about? The direction of the main force of the Shenyang National Army.
In February 1948, the Northeast Field Army entered the periphery of Shenyang, and the situation of the Northeast Kuomintang Army became more and more unfavorable. How can the battle continue? To fight or not to fight? Chiang Kai-shek first had a disagreement with Wei Lihuang, the newly appointed commander of the Northeast "Chief-in-Chief".
Chiang Kai-shek believes that it is difficult to hold on to the Northeast, and he must evacuate Shenyang while the liberation is not encircled. The specific plan is:
The first step is to withdraw to Jinzhou and join Fan Hanjie.
The second step is to withdraw to the pass and join the Fu Zuoyi Department in North China to form an absolute advantage over Nie Rongzhen's Department in North China.
The third step is to solve the problem of North China, and then move the main force of the Northeast Army to the south, change the situation in East China, and break the arms with Chen Yisu.
Jiang's idea was strongly opposed by Wei Lihuang.
Wei Lihuang's idea is that Shenyang's urban defense facilities are relatively strong, and the three cities of Shenyang, Changchun, and Jinzhou still have more than 400,000 national army leaders, and they can still fight with the Communist army.
As long as there is a delay, the main force of Shenyang can move northward and rescue the main force of Zheng Dongguo in Changchun. When the time comes, they will cooperate with Fu Zuoyi in North China. The North China team will attack Shanhaiguan, and Wei Lihuang can withdraw all the main force of Northeast China.
Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang in the spring of 1948,A meeting of senior military officers and above was convened, demanding that the decision to withdraw from Shenyang be carried out quickly and to stick to Jinzhou.
Wei Lihuang objected, and Lao Jiang was very dissatisfied. However, Wei Lihuang is a brilliant general. He gave a few irrefutable reasons:
First, the national army was afraid of being beaten by the 101st. If he did not dare to leave the city, he might be wiped out.
Second, Changchun is surrounded by water. If Shenyang's main force is withdrawn, Changchun will collapse immediately. This will end the party-state's credibility in the northeast. Not only the rural areas are all inclined to the CCP, but even the people's hearts in big cities also fall to the CCP.
Third, withdraw from Shenyang to Jinzhou. There are three big rivers in the middle. Now it is the thawing and flooding period, and the mud is muddy. The heavy equipment of the national army moves too slowly, and it is easy to be encircled and annihilated by the Communist army.
The people who attended the meeting nodded when they heard it, and it was true. Wei Lihuang was known as Chiang Kai-shek's Five Tigers, and he was unambiguous when he beat the Japanese. Since he said so, the big guys can only believe it.
Even Chiang Kai-shek could not refute it, so he had to compromise and asked Wei Lihuang to complete the army training within one month. After the army had considerable combat effectiveness, Liao Yaoxiang led the main force to retreat to Jinzhou in order to prevent the collapse of Changchun Zheng Dongguo, and Shenyang remained. A second-class corps defended.
This is a dispute between Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang, in fact, both of them are a bit extreme.
Chiang Kai-shek's strategy was too rush, and Wei Lihuang was too slow to fundamentally solve the Northeast problem.
Deputy Commander Du Yuming has different opinions from Jiang and Wei.
Du Yuming, like Chiang Kai-shek, had no confidence to defend the Northeast, and deep down he was willing to retreat. But on the issue of how to retreat, Du Yuming and Wei Lihuang had the same views. Retreating from Shenyang to Jinzhou was purely seeking death.
Once the national army is out of the city, it can't run and beat the Communist army, and it can't beat the Communist army. What does this mean?
Du Yuming has a unique path to withdraw troops: Yingkou.
At that time, Dongye did not have a strong force in southern Liaoning. If the main force of Shenyang wanted to withdraw, they would rush south quickly and evacuated from Yingkou Port by crossing the river at Yingkou Port. No matter how powerful the communist army is, they don’t have a navy.When the time comes, I can only sigh.
These three people have a direct bearing on the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the Northeast Kuomintang Army in their words and deeds, and their strategic concepts are different. Can the fate of the national army be better?
In all fairness, among the three divergent opinions, Du Yuming is the most objective and most operable. But why didn't Chiang Kai-shek adopt it?
2. Liao Yaoxiang was also biased by Chiang Kai-shek
Liao Yaoxiang did not understand at first, he and Du Yuming had similar views, and at the beginning he had prepared to cross the sea and retreat from Yingkou. Liao and Du had the experience of working together in the expeditionary force, and Du Yuming took a series of measures at the beginning of entering the Northeast, and the 101st of the Communist Party can be said to be equal.
If he is allowed to choose, he will definitely choose Du Yuming's strategy.
So why is Chiang Kai-shek unwilling to listen?
Liao Yaoxiang was puzzled at first, but it was not until Chiang Kai-shek talked to him once that he realized it.
Chiang Kai-shek waited for several months, waiting for Wei Lihuang to finish training the new army to leave Shenyang and withdraw westward, but there was no sign of any movement.
Chiang Kai-shek flew to Shenyang with a group of military officers and asked Wei Lihuang face-to-face why he did not execute the order. Wei Lihuang is naturally still the same old rhetoric, trying to get through and continue to defend Shenyang. Chiang Kai-shek was furious and cursed the Northeast troops for not observing the command. Wei Lihuang had to order the troops to be assembled and prepare to march west.
Chiang Kai-shek knew that Wei Lihuang was a violation of yang and yin, so he summoned Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the Westward Corps, to talk alone. It was during this conversation that Liao Yaoxiang understood Chiang Kai-shek's true intentions.
Chiang Kai-shek first asked Liao Yaoxiang what he thought of moving west to Jinzhou and opening up the Liaoxi Corridor.
Liao Yaoxiang believes that Jinzhou has too much resistance, and the main force of the Communist army is there, and it cannot easily withdraw westward.
Chiang Kai-shek was annoyed as he spoke: "Why, you are my student, even you don't listen to my orders?"
Liao Yaoxiang said: "I will definitely implement the retreat strategy set by the principal."
Chiang Kai-shek is only slightly relieved.
Liao Yaoxiang plucked up the courage and said: "But retreating from Jinzhou is not safe.The main force of the Communist army is eager to try Jinzhou. We are not sure to get through Jinzhou and Jinxi in the field. Moreover, this is not the only way to withdraw troops. The best route seems to be the Yingkou proposed by Deputy Commander Du. The Communist Army does not have much strength in southern Liaoning.
Chiang Kai-shek said angrily: "You know that walking from Yingkou, how can I know that it is convenient?" First, to open up the Liaoxi Corridor from Jinzhou is to ensure the passage of Shen and Chang's main forces withdrawing westward. Second, we have to crack down on the Lin Luo bandits in Jinzhou. The fall of Jinan has shown that the previous practice of defending the big city is no longer feasible. We must dare to defeat the enemy decisively in the field.
Liao Yaoxiang took a sigh of relief when he heard it.
It turned out that Chiang Kai-shek was still confused and confident and believed that the Kuomintang army still had an advantage in strength. Withdraw it, and even want to graze the grass. Hit the rabbits and fight the communist army before leaving. How could it be possible!
When Chiang Kai-shek saw Liao Yaoxiang’s doubts, he encouraged him to say that the national army has an absolute advantage in heavy weapons, air force, and navy. There are many, but we don’t have to be afraid. The Hou Jingru Corps in the pass has arrived at Huludao and formed the Dongjin Corps and marched towards Jinzhou. At this time, the Liao Corps further marched towards Jinzhou with more than 100,000 people. The east-west advance will surely be able to defeat Jinzhou. Lin Luo’s main force.
After Jiang Jieshi stated his deployment, he once again used his most accustomed spiritual opium law to instigate Liao Yaoxiang: "During the Northern Expedition (referring to the Northern Expedition in 1927), our forces and equipment were far inferior to the Northern Warlords. But the army is everywhere, invincible. Now that there are soldiers and artillery, they will surely be able to overcome difficulties and defeat the enemy. "
Liao Yaoxiang listened to Chiang Kai-shek’s remarks, and his thoughts were a little loose. Especially Chiang Kai-shek’s words of advancing things and weapon superiority are not completely unreasonable from a military point of view. Liao Yaoxiang nodded, indicating that he absolutely obeyed the principal’s order.
Chiang Kai-shek breathed a sigh of relief.
3. Anxious 101
The upper class of the Jiang army was confused, and our army was also not relaxed.
Regarding the blockade of the Northeast Army in Jinzhou, before the war broke out,101 had a fierce argument with the great man. After repeated communication, 101 decided to abandon the idea of playing Changchun first and transfer the main force to the west of Liaoning to attack Jinzhou.
However, war is not a matter of wishful thinking. How the main force of the East Field fights Jinzhou and how long it can take to fight down depends on the face of the national army.
If Wei Lihuang desperately sent troops westward and Hou Jingru marched east quickly, the regiment quickly conquered Tashan and reached Jinzhou, then the situation would be completely messed up. Eastward and Westward two major groups, 101 is more concerned about the movement of the Westward Corps, that is, Liao Yaoxiang.
According to Chiang Kai-shek's order, Liao Yaoxiang led his troops out of Shenyang and marched westward. Instead of taking a shortcut to directly reinforce Jinzhou, the flying troops suddenly captured Zhangwu. Lin and Luo were surprised by this.
Where is Zhangwu?
Zhangwu County is northwest of Shenyang. It is the logistics supply center of Dongye and the main throat of the railway line between Dongye and Harbin.
101 It was originally expected that after Liao Yaoxiang left Shenyang, there were two possibilities, either to advance to the west of Liaoning to reinforce Jinzhou, or to advance passively and withdraw to Shenyang after Jinzhou fell. Now Liao Bingtuan actually wants to mobilize Dongye against the guest.
Lin, Luo, and Liu analyzed that Liao Yaoxiang’s move shows that the Kuomintang army still has the ambition to compete with the main force of our army.
Offense is the best defense. Liao Yaoxiang’s magic trick has greatly interfered with the strategic direction of our army. What if the logistics route is really broken if you sit back and ignore it? Dongye’s main force in Jinzhou at that time was as many as five or six hundred thousand. With such a huge army, the daily consumption of weapons and ammunition was amazing. Even food was not enough to eat. If the continuous supply of the rear cannot be guaranteed, it will be recruited only on the spot. It is absolutely not enough.
101 decided to quickly send troops to the Zhangwu and Xinlitun areas to block the Liao Corps and prevent it from further damaging the communication lines.
Later with the liberation of Jinzhou, the situation was further complicated. Why? The high-ranking Kuomintang army quarreled again.
The original intention of the Liao Bingtuan was to go west to relieve the siege. Now that Jinzhou is gone, there is no way to solve the siege. Where can the Liao Bingtuan go?
Chiang Kai-shek insisted on his own opinion and asked Liao Yaoxiang to continue westward and cooperate with Hou Jingru Corps to advance east and west.Hit Jinzhou and retake Jinzhou.
This is really a big tone. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers can't defend Jinzhou. Now they can't help themselves and attack Jinzhou with weak forces. It's a idiot.
Therefore, Wei Lihuang strongly opposed and wanted to bring Liao Bingtuan back to Shenyang and defend Shenyang again.
The Liao Yaoxiang Corps has become the key to the entire Northeast battlefield at this time. Where the 100,000 people in his hand are going, affects the attention of all parties.
What does Liao think?
He didn't want to go west at first. After Jinzhou was lost, he was even more reluctant to go west. If he is a little clearer, he will know that there is only a dead end to go west.
It is not realistic to ask him to return to Shenyang. Dongye has already sent a few main columns to copy the way back to Shenyang.
Liao Yaoxiang repeatedly discussed with Wei Lihuang, including Chiang Kai-shek, and clearly pointed out that it is no longer feasible to retreat to Shenyang and march into Jinzhou. For the present plan, the only way to survive is to rapidly shrink the troops and enter Yingkou south. This is the only way to survive.
Chiang Kai-shek was helpless here, and Du Yuming also repeatedly suggested to him that the exit to Yingkou is a more correct route. He also said euphemistically that if 300,000 horses can be withdrawn from Yingkou, and then this army can be pulled to Huludao for a second eastward advance, so that Hou Jingru, Liao Yaoxiang and other troops can attack Jinzhou, and they will surely seize Jinzhou. come back.
Du Yuming is relatively docile and obeys Chiang Kai-shek's words, so Chiang Kai-shek is accustomed to listening to him. He thinks this suggestion is good, so he agrees.
IV. Ghost Elf Liao Yaoxiang
On October 22, 1948, after Liao Yaoxiang wasted nearly 7 days in Xinnalitun and Zhangwu, he finally obtained the unified opinions of the "insurgency" in the northeast and Chiang Kai-shek. In. Liao quickly sent troops to attack Montenegro. Montenegro was the only way to go south to Yingkou. As long as this place was taken, the eastern army could be sealed off and the Kuomintang army could advance southward smoothly.
101 also admitted that he miscalculated.
In his previous calculations, Liao Yaoxiang's next move is most likely Shenyang, followed by Jinzhou, and finally Yingkou. Unexpectedly, this person really has a set, and he chose the most unlikely possibility.
Even so,101 still did not dare to make the final decision, because Liao Yaoxiang was very ghostly. Even though he had moved most of his troops to the south, he still attacked Montenegro with the main force, assuming that he would not stop without taking down Montenegro.
The road to Jinzhou has been opened after he lay down Black Mountain. Could it be that Liao Yaoxiang is going south to the west, and he wants to transfer the main force of Dongye to Liaonan, so he will take the opportunity to take Jinzhou?
is too messy, too messy. 101 is as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. If it is really missed and Liao Yaoxiang is sent to Jinzhou, then the overall view of the Liaoshen Campaign will be regained by the Kuomintang.
The Montenegrin blocking battle is going on fiercely, and 101 is also engaged in difficult battles in mind. How to deploy troops?
Some absurd theories that have been circulated believe that 101 is already in mind, and that Liao Yaoxiang’s direction of troops has long been judged. It is pure nonsense. The war is like a torrent of arrogance. Go in that direction. Those who are in the game don’t know it. I can master all changes just like playing chess.
What does Liao Yaoxiang think? Since I want to withdraw south from Yingkou, I should run south without looking back. Why do I change the direction halfway and pull the main force out to attack Montenegro?
First, he wanted to block the main force in the East and Ye, and wanted to leave a road as unobstructed as possible for the Corps and Shenyang rear troops to pass quickly.
Second, he was able to advance south, and he could only implement it on the premise of coaxing Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek wanted him to go south while retaining the possibility of going west, so he had to use all his strength to hit the important place of Montenegro and give Chiang a one. explain.
In other words, Liao Yaoxiang's combat guidance is chaotic, and there is no main line.
It's just that he didn't expect that his chaos directly caused the 101 chaos.
chaos against chaos, what a big battle.
However, the situation will not continue to chaos. Liang Xingchu, commander of the Eastfield Ten Columns, has partially moved the overall situation.
Liang Xingchu led the 10th and 1st Vertical Divisions, and the Inner Mongolia Military Region Cavalry Division, and fought for three days and three nights in Montenegro.
Liao Yaoxiang originally thought that the People's Liberation Army in Montenegro was not strong.Therefore, only the New Sixth Army was sent to attack as the main force. Whoever wants to fight is getting worse. The People's Liberation Army on the opposite side fought very stubbornly, and there are signs of increasing strength.
Liao Yaoxiang had to put another main force, the New First Army, into the battle. But until the evening of the 25th, there was still no progress.
The crazy combat performance of the ten verticals made Liao Yaoxiang seriously misjudged. He thought that the main force of the People's Liberation Army in Jinzhou had already reached Montenegro, so Liao Yaoxiang sent the army to quickly change directions, abandon the established plan to capture Montenegro, and use one force to withstand Montenegro. The rest of the People’s Liberation Army accelerated its retreat southward.
Wouldn't it be better if it did this way! Before the main force of the East Ye arrived, with only one tenth column plus two divisions, less than two columns, even if it could bite Liao Yaoxiang a bite, it definitely couldn't hold back this huge corps.
Now, everything is too late.
101 quickly intercepted Liao Yaoxiang's order, and finally determined the direction of Liao's advance, so he quickly ordered the troops to encircle Montenegro and Dahushan.
The first, second, third, seventh and other main columns quickly arrived, and with the assistance of the tenth column, the Liao Corps was blocked in the Hujia shack in Heishan. Subsequently, a dramatic decisive battle began.
5. Two "five main forces" in one pot
Now let's go back and talk about the composition of the Liao Corps.
The Liao Corps is a temporary united corps. Its forces include the New First Army, the New Third Army, the New Sixth Army, the Forty-Ninth Army, and the Seventy-first Army.
Some troops were temporarily transferred from other corps because Jiang asked Liao Yaoxiang to concentrate enough troops to open up the Liaoxi Corridor. Some armies only have part of their troops. For example, the New Sixth Army had been beaten severely by Dongye in the periphery of Shenyang before, and lost part of the regiment-level organization.
The Liao Corps was the strongest among the major regiments of the Kuomintang Army at that time, and contained two of the five main forces: the New First Army and the New Sixth Army (the other three were the reorganization of the 74th Division, the 18th Army, and the Fifth Army).
The new first army. In March 1942,The Fifth, Sixth, and Sixty-Sixth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight against the Japanese. After being frustrated, the New 22nd Division of the Fifth Army and the New 38th Division of the Sixty-Fifth Army retreated to India in August and changed to beautiful equipment. In January 1943, these two divisions formed a new First Army. The army participated in the battles of Menggong, Myitkyina, Bhamo and the opening of the Sino-Indian highway on the China-Myanmar-India border, and its combat effectiveness was quite strong. When Japan surrendered, the newly formed First Army drove to Guangzhou to be surrendered. In February 1946, the army shipped Huludao into the northeast, with more than 36,000 people, and all American equipment.
The New Sixth Army, the new 22nd Division of the First Army was the backbone of the new army. It was expanded in July 1944 near Myitkyina, Myanmar. Liao Yaoxiang was the commander of the army and the new Second Division was under the jurisdiction of the new second division (commander Li Tao) , The fourteenth division (instructor Long Tianwu), the fiftieth division (instructor Pan Yukun). The whole army has more than 40,000 people, beautiful equipment and very strong combat effectiveness.
At that time, the strength of a column of the East Wild Forces was comparable to that of the New First Army and the New Sixth Army. However, these two Kuomintang troops were superior to the United States in weapons and equipment, with powerful firepower and logistics and transportation capabilities. Hundreds of trucks.
From this perspective, it can also explain why Liao Yaoxiang went all out to fight Montenegro. Montenegro is the main route of north-south east-west transportation. The Kuomintang army, which is heavily equipped with most of its equipment and mainly relies on public railway transportation, is more dependent on roads than the People’s Liberation Army He must give priority to solving traffic problems.
But these two main forces, after being surrounded by the main forces of the East, only persisted for two days and nights. Why is this?
The opponent is 101.
Liao Bingtuan's whereabouts were not at a fixed time before, although 101 appeared to be decisive. But once the fire broke out, no one of the generals at the same level was an opponent of 101. 101 is very bold, ignoring the fact that the enemy's heavy-armed group Hedgehog gathers in one place, and adopts the tactics of blocking, censoring and hitting the middle.
This method of tactics was once compared by Chen Yi and Su Yu to gnawing iron walnuts in the East China battlefield. The enemy has backbone troops and division-level combat troops. Our army should try to avoid such encirclement wars, because our firepower is not good and easy He couldn't eat, but was surrounded by the enemy's breakthrough.
Different battlefields have different ways of playing.In terms of military strength and firepower, Dongye was undoubtedly the first among the four major field armies at the time. Therefore, he dared to break through the conventions and spread his forces against the enemy without fear of iron walnuts from the encirclement. Top it out.
Facts have proved that 101 is correct.
, as the central breakthrough force, quickly broke into the core circle of the Liao Corps and accidentally destroyed Liao Yaoxiang's Corps, as well as the military headquarters of the New First and New Sixth Army.
The military headquarters were destroyed, and the officers were unable to unify the command of the troops. The 100,000 Kuomintang troops were blind and deaf, and they were not superior in military strength. All of a sudden, they were defeated.
On October 28th, most of the Liao Corps was annihilated, and only less than one army escaped to reach the camp.
Liao Yaoxiang refused to admit defeat and took ten people to flee north in an attempt to return to Shenyang. But under the defense of our army's iron barrels, we finally couldn't escape. Liao Yaoxiang stayed in Zhong'an Village, Heishan County. Because of his accent from different places, his expression was also very nervous. He was finally found out by the hotel and sent to the People's Liberation Army. When captured, Liao wore an old felt hat and a torn padded jacket, and drove a little donkey. The security personnel questioned him and said that he was called "Hu Qingxiang" and came to Shenyang to invest in business.
The guards took the photos and compared them, saying that you are Liao Yaoxiang, so don't deny it. Liao said, I do look a bit like this Liao Yaoxiang, but he is bald on top of his head, but I have not lost my hair, don't believe me.
The guards didn’t believe it, but a convoy happened to come over. Many of the drivers in it were Kuomintang liberation fighters. They called a few drivers to take a look in person. Everyone pointed to Liao Yaoxiang and said, “He is Chief Liao Yaoxiang, yes, in Shenyang. Shi also mobilized us and wanted us to go to Jinzhou!"
Liao Yaoxiang finally failed to get through and became a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army.
After being captured, Liao Yaoxiang once again mentioned the cause of the defeat during Gongdelin’s transformation, saying: “Because these troops are in the marching state, the communication system has not been established in the past, so the Corps Department and After the three important military headquarters were shattered, the commander was in a position where he could no longer command and control the troops. The troops lost their heads and were at a loss as to what to do, resulting in a state of paralysis and disintegration."
But Liao felt deep in his heart. There is still a bit of dissatisfaction,Perhaps he believes that with the main force versus the main force, the national army may not necessarily lose to the People's Liberation Army. It's just because of a command error, it was messed up without much fighting.
His ideas may have some factual basis, but as a professional soldier, he would not have imagined that war is never a simple fight with one shot. After all, strategic competitions, and even political competitions, are the decisions. The root cause of the outcome of the war.
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