On the one hand, this shows Li Yunlong's daring to fight and invade, and on the other hand, it also reflects the difficulty of attacking Taiyuan. In August 1948, the People's Liberation Army began to attack Taiyuan, but after suffering many casualties, it failed to capture Taiyua

There is such a passage in the TV series " Bright Sword ". When the protagonist Li Yunlong was attacking Ping'an City in Shanxi, his comrade Ding Wei once teased him and said: "This kid Li Yunlong, if you give him another division, he will dare to attack Taiyuan! ”

On the one hand, this shows Li Yunlong’s daring to fight and invade, and on the other hand, it also reflects the difficulty of attacking Taiyuan.

In August 1948, the People's Liberation Army began to attack Taiyuan, but after suffering many casualties, it failed to capture Taiyuan, which showed that Taiyuan controlled by Yan Xishan was difficult to attack.

Photo of Li Yunlong's "Bright Sword"

At this time, Hu Yaobang, a comrade in the party, stood up and advocated the use of "heart attack" , which became the magic weapon to overcome the problem of Taiyuan.

So, how exactly does Hu Yaobang's "war on the mind" work? What are the causes and consequences of this incident? Taiyuan Battle What else is worth knowing? Today, I invite all readers to follow the author's footsteps, enter the Battle of Taiyuan, and appreciate Hu Yaobang's "war of hearts and minds."

Hu Yaobang is like

1. Pre-war issues: Victory in struggle at the cost of life

In 1948, General Xu Xiangqian led the First Corps of the North China Field Army and launched successive campaigns in Shanxi, Linfen, Jinzhong, Yuncheng and other battles. , and annihilated more than 100,000 Yan Xishan's troops. Under such a situation, only Taiyuan in Shanxi fell under Yan Xishan's jurisdiction. The People's Liberation Army troops poured in like a tide towards Taiyuan City guarded by Yan Xishan.

html In August, in order to adapt to the development of the new situation, the main force of the North China Military Region was organized into three corps: the first, second, and third corps. Through the newly appointed generals, the first corps was headed by Xu Xiangqian who concurrently served as political commissar and commander, and Hu Yaobang served as director of the political department. It has jurisdiction over the 8th, 13th and 15th columns, with a total of more than 80,000 people under its control.

Yan Xishan like

In order to liberate Taiyuan as soon as possible, the Taiyuan Front Committee of the Communist Party of China was established on July 28 with the approval of the Central Military Commission. Xu Xiang was the former secretary of the committee, and Hu Yaobang and other five members were committee members.

htmlOn August 4, an enlarged meeting of the committee was held in a village in Yuci County. The meeting conveyed the Central Military Commission's combat policy for Taiyuan's "siege, disintegration, and military attack" and ordered all units to ideologically, tactically, and Prepare for the attack on Taiyuan in terms of medical support and other logistical work.

Taiyuan is located in the middle of the Taiyuan Basin. It is surrounded by high mountains on the east, west and north sides, forming a natural barrier that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, it is also located in a strategic location in North China and has always been a battleground for military strategists. It occupies an important position in China's military history.

Taiyuan Basin Topographic Map

In order to protect his "hometown", Yan Xishan set up a bunker construction bureau in Taiyuan and built more than 5,000 various bunkers. The city's fortresses are densely packed and interconnected, building a strong line of defense in Taiyuan City. Therefore, Yan Xishan boasted that Taiyuan was a "bunker" city that could withstand an army of 1.5 million people.

In addition, Yan Xishan garrisoned 5 armies and 16 divisions in Taiyuan, with a total of more than 100,000 people, and more than 3,600 artillery pieces of various calibers. The force is very sufficient.

Under the slogan "Attack Taiyuan City, capture Yan Xishan alive, and liberate all of Shanxi", Hu Yaobang, director of the Political Department of the First Corps, began to make pre-war deployments. First, he came to the Thirteenth Column on August 17, inquired in detail about the basic situation of the troops, and solicited their opinions on the attack on Taiyuan and ideological mobilization work.

The bunker left by Yan Xishan

Secondly, he presided over the corps political work meeting . The meeting focused on summarizing the basic experience of Linfen's attack on and deployed the political work related to the attack on Taiyuan.Since a large number of prisoners were incorporated into the army at this time, only by solving the problem of prisoners in ideological and political work can the successful completion of the task of attacking Taiyuan be ensured.

Finally, he conducted more than two months of training work for the troops. During the training period, by paying close attention to the relationship between the party and the masses and the political and ideological education of soldiers, problems such as the phenomenon of soldiers fleeing at the grassroots level, the tense relationship between officers and soldiers, and the phenomenon of soldiers being free and disorganized have been greatly improved, ensuring the effectiveness of the party in this army. lead.

Hu Yaobang’s investigation

In the end, since Hu Yaobang took office as the director of the Political Department of the First Corps, the pre-war preparations for the Taiyuan Battle have been carried out in an orderly manner, and the work assigned by Xu Xiangxiang has been successfully completed. The Taiyuan Battle is about to begin!

After completing the pre-war preparations, Xu Xiangqian saw Yan Xishan's lax defense at the moment, and made a decisive decision to launch the Taiyuan Battle in advance, preparing to attack Yan Xishan's troops along three routes.

To this end, Hu Yaobang drafted the "Emergency Mobilization Order to Attack Taiyuan" overnight, calling on all soldiers to immediately join the battle to attack Taiyuan. On October 5, the Battle of Taiyuan started. Hu Yaobang went to the front line to give a mobilization speech, saying: "We will not stop this battle until we capture the enemy and Taiyuan!" After the news, they immediately launched a defensive counterattack. But what he didn't expect was that before our army launched the most violent attack, a "traitor" appeared within his army. During the battle of , Yan Xishan's general Zhao Rui led his troops to stage a battlefield uprising, which shook the entire defense of Taiyuan City.

After our army got the good news, Xu Xiangqian immediately sent Hu Yaobang to the uprising troop assembly point to do Zhao Rui's work. This work is very important. If it can be done well, it will directly disintegrate the core strength of Yan Xishan's army.

After Marshal Xu Xiangxiang

arrived at the assembly point, Hu Yaobang was enlightened by reason and moved by emotion, began his first "war of hearts and minds." He first promised Zhao Rui with words that the CCP would welcome their joining and surrender, and won the trust of Zhao Rui's troops; then he took practical actions and gave Zhao Rui 5 million Yuan in southern Hebei currency as a reward, lifting the restrictions of Zhao Rui and others. No worries.

Eventually, Zhao Rui's uprising force was reorganized into the Independent Second Detachment of the First Corps of the North China Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Zhao Rui served as the detachment commander and Han Peiyi served as the detachment's political commissar.

html In late November, Xu Xiangqian suffered a recurrence of severe pleurisy. Chairman Mao asked him to rest in peace and not to worry about work, and handed over all the burden of work to Hu Yaobang.

Taiyuan location

From then on, Hu Yaobang, Zhou Shidi, and Chen Manyuan formed a command headquarters and took over Xu Xiangqian's work. Based on the experience of attacking Linfen summarized by Xu Xiangqian, they used new tactics and gnawed down Yan Xishan's "Bunker Mountain" step by step.

At that time, the People's Liberation Army's artillery shells were rare and very precious. Every shell fired required approval from superiors. It was under such difficult conditions that after 19 days and nights of fierce fighting between Hu Yaobang and others, our army finally captured the south of the city. All strategic strongholds were captured in Dongshan and more than 20,000 enemies were annihilated.

Although this war was finally won, the price was not small. We paid heavy battle losses, and every step of progress came at the cost of the lives of soldiers. Although Xu Xiangqian is recuperating from illness, he is also worried about this, fearing that our war sacrifices will continue to increase.

Zhou Shidi is like

At night, Xu Xiangqian called Hu Yaobang to his room.He said to Hu Yaobang earnestly: "Comrade Yaobang, the situation in the Taiyuan battle is severe. Although our side has achieved some victories, there are still many difficulties. How do you plan to deal with them?"

Hu Yaobang replied: "Chief, I plan to continue According to our tactics, fire cover, small group assault, individual soldier blasting , we are not afraid of sacrifice and advance in an all-round way."

Xu Xiangqian said worriedly: "Although this has achieved some war results, our army has already suffered very serious casualties. If this continues, I'm afraid I won't be able to resist it in the end!"

Hu Yaobang scratched his head and replied to Xu Xiangqian: "Do you mean that the price of the Taiyuan War was too heavy?"

Marshal Xu Xiangqian nodded when he was young. , "Every soldier is raised by his parents with great pains. Although sacrifice is inevitable in war, our party must put protecting the lives of soldiers in the first place in war."

Hu Yaobang rolled his eyes and said calmly: "Ideological and political work has always been the strength of our party. Zhao Rui's surrender gave me some inspiration. We can try 'psychological warfare' to instigate the enemy's important generals."

"Are you talking about psychological warfare?" Xu Xiangqian asked .

"Yes," Hu Yaobang replied, "The enemy's ideology has always been not as firm as our soldiers, and their will is very weak, so we can put some effort in this area, increase propaganda, and induce them to surrender voluntarily."

Psychological Warfare

Xu Xiangqian's eyes suddenly lit up. He coughed twice and said to Hu Yaobang: "It sounds like a good idea. Comrade Yaobang will be solely responsible for this matter."

Hu Yaobang replied: "Yes, chief, I promise to complete the task."

The above is the war situation before Hu Yaobang's "heart attack" began in the Battle of Taiyuan. So how does Hu Yaobang's "war on the mind" unfold? What was the final result? Please read on.

2. War Situation: "War on Heart and Mind" Disintegrates Yan Jun Thirty Thousand People

In order to win this "War on Heart and Mind", Hu Yaobang thought hard all day long and tried his best to design a complete set of working methods and do a good job in politics. Mobilize the work, and then carefully organize and implement it to achieve practical results.

Hu Yaobang mobilized the masses

At a military meeting, Hu Yaobang gave an inspiring speech. He compared the political offensive against the enemy to a special battle - a "war of hearts and minds" and called on everyone to cheer up and fight against the enemy. This was fought as a real battle, and he also proposed that political offensive was one of the four elements that could successfully capture Taiyuan.

At the same time, Hu Yaobang summarized the combat objectives, objects, strategies, methods and other aspects of the enemy's political offensive into ten key points, and elaborated on them in the following meeting.

First of all, he made an important analysis of the reasons why it is necessary to strengthen the political offensive against the enemy. First, because our army has suffered heavy casualties and the war situation is severe, political offensive is an important means to effectively reduce casualties;

Photos of the Battle of Taiyuan

Second, Taiyuan has now become an isolated city. The officers and soldiers are very pessimistic and are fleeing seriously. Very good conditions for the enemy to carry out political offensive;

The third is Yan Xishan's army and the people of Taiyuan. Many people have been deceived by Yan Xishan. They "demonized" our party and they must tell them the actual situation in order to win the war. .

Secondly, regarding the issue of targets, Hu Yaobang believes that it is mainly Yan Xishan’s army, as well as their party and government personnel, police military police , small and medium-sized spies, etc. Anyone who is likely to surrender or rebel will become the target of our military’s political strategy. .

Finally, it is a question of methods and strategies.Hu Yaobang used the words "pervasive" to summarize it. He felt that if there was a gap, he should get in immediately, so that he could discover endless treasures.

Yan Xishan's "Bunker War"

When discussing how to attack the enemy's heart, Hu Yaobang emphasized that it should be based on the enemy's internal situation, "come from the prisoners and go to the enemy's army." The specific method is to start from the captured soldiers. , allowing the prisoners to become our army's staff and advisors, so that they can hit the enemy's heart even more, and ultimately receive double the effect.

Regarding the issue of dispatch, Hu Yaobang said that there are three types of people who can be dispatched to Taiyuan. One is the captain-level officers of Yan Jun who were captured by me. The number of these people is small, and we are not afraid of their rebellion; if some of them It works, because they have a high status and are of great value;

PLA prisoners

The second category of people are relatives and friends of the enemy. These people can bring letters in and explain the true situation of our army. Since they are not soldiers, They will not be captured by the enemy and used as troops to increase the number of enemy soldiers.

In the end, Yan Jun's seriously injured were rescued and sent back, which could cause certain trouble to the enemy.

At the end of the meeting, Hu Yaobang also announced the establishment of a committee to fight against the enemy under his own guidance. This committee played a great role in future psychological warfare and exerted special effects.

After the meeting, Hu Yaobang began to carry out specific work. The first was the ideological work on Huang Qiaosong, commander of the 30th Army of the general stationed in Taiyuan. Hu Yaobang was personally responsible for this matter.

Huang Qiaosong is like

Huang Qiaosong performed well in the Anti-Japanese War. He was a very honest general and had a deployment friendship with Gao Shuxun, the general of the Handan Uprising. Hu Yaobang found Gao Shuxun and hoped that he could write to Huang Qiaosong to persuade him to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side.

Gao Shuxun readily agreed. He wrote to Huang Qiaosong: "I hope you can make a decisive decision, raise the banner of uprising, and return to the side of the revolution." Huang Qiaosong had long been dissatisfied with the brutal rule of Yan Xishan and Chiang Kai-shek and hoped to rescue him. The citizens of Taiyuan were in dire straits, so they readily agreed.

On the evening of November 2, Huang Qiaosong sent his confidant Wang Zhenyu out of the city to contact the leader of the First Corps of the North China Field Army. After Hu Yaobang met with Wang Zhenyu, he showed him the letter Xu Xiangqian wrote to Huang Qiaosong, and discussed the uprising plan with Wang Zhenyu.

Huang Qiaosong Statue

Wang Zhenyu replied: " Military Seat has deployed and mobilized among his cronies. There is currently no one who opposes the uprising. He plans to use his most reliable troops to surround Yan Xishan's command organization and force him to Yan Xishan handed over command. If Yan Xishan did not agree, he would be prepared to use force to solve it. After hearing this, Hu Yaobang said: "Representative Wang, this matter is of great importance. Please convey to Commander Huang that Yan Xishan has ruled Shanxi for nearly 40 years." , has a certain political foundation. For so many years, no other force has been able to challenge him in Shanxi. This shows that his rule is solid, and I heard that his political skills are very strong. You must remind Commander Huang to be careful!"

Gao Shuxun interjected from the side: "Director Hu's words are very reasonable. You should return to the city as soon as possible and remind Commander Huang to be careful!" They immediately revolted, handed over the two east gates, and led the People's Liberation Army into the city to besiege Yan Xishan's ministries. After the uprising was completed, the Thirty Army assembled outside the city to undergo reorganization.

Wang Zhenyu proposed that in order to strengthen communication inside and outside the city and exchange intelligence, the People's Liberation Army needs to send a cadre with him into the city to be responsible for receiving the uprising troops.

After Hu Yaobang finished talking to Wang Zhenyu, he immediately found Xu Xiangqian and said to Xu Xiangqian: "Chief, I hope to go to the city in person to assist Huang Qiaosong in the uprising."

The Battle of Taiyuan is in progress

Xu Xiangqian did not immediately agree, but asked: "This matter The stakes are high, and it is extremely dangerous to enter the city. As a senior leading cadre of our party, are you sure you want to go there in person?"

Hu Yaobang frowned and nodded and said: "It is at the critical moment of the uprising that I, as a party leader, want to go there in person? As a cadre, and as a party member, I will go through fire and water, no matter what!"

After making the promise in front of Xu Xiangqian, Hu Yaobang told his wife Li Zhao: "My recent mission. I am entering Taiyuan City to carry out the enemy's uprising work, trying to reduce the casualties of our army and disintegrate Yan Xishan's troops. It may be a disaster for me, so you have to take care of yourself."

Hu Yaobang's wife Li Zhao

Li Zhao was surprised. His eyes widened and he said, "Why are you going? Is it your own idea? Or is it a task assigned by the organization?"

Hu Yaobang said solemnly: "It was my own request. At this critical moment, as a Communist Party member, I , Of course, it is the responsibility of the leader."

Li Zhao nodded and said to Hu Yaobang: "Okay, I support your decision. There are many dangers here. Don't worry about me and your family. Take care of yourself and come back safely. , Let us feel at ease."

When Hu Yaobang reported his request to Xu Xiangqian again, Xu Xiangqian ultimately did not agree to his request because he was the director of the Political Department of the Corps and had more important things to do. After much consideration, Xu Xiangqian decided to send Jin Fu, the chief of staff of the Eighth Column, as our army's liaison representative, and entered Taiyuan City with Wang Zhenyu.

Jin Fuxiang

After our army and Huang Qiaosong's army had negotiated, the unfortunate thing finally happened. Dai Bingnan, who was single-handedly promoted by Huang Qiaosong as the commander of the 27th Division, reported the secret to Yan Xishan. After Yan Xishan found out, he arrested Huang Qiaosong, Wang Zhenyu, Jin Fu and others.

Yan Xishan found Xu Xiangqian's letters from Huang Qiaosong, and mistakenly thought that Jin Fu was Hu Yaobang, a senior general of the Communist Party of China. He was very happy and escorted them to Nanjing and handed them over to Chiang Kai-shek.

When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, he sentenced "Hu Yaobang", Huang Qiaosong, and Wang Zhenyu to death. Soon after, the three were killed by Chiang Kai-shek at Yuhuatai. Before his execution, Jin Fu was still unyielding, raising his arms and shouting: "Long live the Communist Party!"

Hu Yaobang and his wife outside Taiyuan heard the news, denounced the crimes of Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan, and vowed to avenge the three.

Chiang Kai-shek statue

After that, Hu Yaobang did not give up the "war on the mind" because of the failure of Huang Qiaosong's uprising. He directed all ministries to set up political offensive committees and political offensive working groups, and the mass "war on the mind" was officially launched.

Not long after, Chairman Mao issued an order to delay the attack on Taiyuan, with the purpose of stabilizing the enemy and preventing them from fleeing south due to the liberation of Taiyuan. From then on, our troops attacking Taiyuan began to launch a series of political offensives against the enemy.

Taiyuan's political offensive was carried out in an orderly manner under the command of Hu Yaobang. From October 1948 to April 1949, nearly 50 types of propaganda materials and 1 million leaflets were printed and distributed, about 10,000 letters and a large number of "meritorious service certificates" and "strike safety certificates" were sent.

Through these means, our army neutralized nearly 30,000 enemy troops, accounting for approximately 25% of the enemy's strength. Among them, nearly 7,000 people sincerely surrendered to our army.

Propaganda pamphlet of the Eighth Route Army

3. The end of the war: Taiyuan was successfully liberated

In February 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an order to reorganize the First Corps of the North China Field Army into the 18th Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Xu Xiang was the political commissar and commander. Hu Yaobang remains director of the Political Department.

With the liberation of Pingjin, according to the order, we prepared to use the 18th Army Corps as the basis, with the 19th and 20th Army Corps as auxiliary, and were transferred from Pingjin to help liberate Taiyuan at the end of March 1949. At this time, our army liberated Taiyuan. The strength of the troops reached about 250,000 . On April 5, the Taiyuan frontline headquarters held a meeting to analyze the situation between the enemy and ourselves and determine the general offensive plan.

The fierce battle of Taiyuan

Since our army has an absolute advantage over the enemy in terms of military strength, we can now completely surround the city of Taiyuan. Yan Xishan saw that the situation was not good, so he loaded all the doctors, chefs and pet dogs with him on the plane and fled to Nanjing. Wang Jingguo, Wang Jingguo, and others who were guarding Taiyuan City still did not understand the current affairs and tried to resist tenaciously.

html On April 20, the People's Liberation Army launched a general offensive. By the morning of the 22nd, all the fighting on the outskirts of Taiyuan was over. A total of 12 entire enemy divisions were annihilated. The People's Liberation Army arrived at the entrance of Taiyuan City.

In view of the large number of troops participating in the war, education in the city is extremely important. Hu Yaobang reiterated the "Code for Entering the City" to all troops and put forward the requirement to observe discipline when entering the city: "All comrades in the army must strictly abide by discipline and be able to supervise and maintain policy disciplines. , all cadres must be role models in observing discipline and implementing policies. "

Fierce Battle of Taiyuan

At this time, Hu Yaobang was already thinking about how to rebuild Taiyuan. He believed that Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, was an important industrial city in North China. Capturing Taiyuan could effectively support the whole country. During the Liberation War, after a meeting before launching the general offensive, Hu Yaobang found a section chief of the political department of the Corps and asked him to ride on horseback to units above the regiment level on the Taiyuan front line to conduct research.

After the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Peng Dehuai was sent by Chairman Mao back to the front line of Taiyuan for inspection. On April 23, Peng Dehuai came to visit Xu Xiangqian, who was recovering from illness. Xu Xiangqian took advantage of the situation and invited Peng Dehuai to stay and command the siege until Taiyuan was captured. leave. The Central Military Commission approved Xu Xiangqian’s request on the same day.

Peng Dehuai portrait

Peng Dehuai said to Xu Xiangqian: "Tomorrow I will go to the Taiyuan battlefield to survey the terrain. You can choose a young man from among you to accompany me."

Xu Xiangqian replied: "Okay, let Comrade Hu Yaobang accompany you. Go, he is the youngest and is very familiar with the situation here, so he is the most suitable."

In the early morning before the general offensive was launched, Hu Yaobang and Peng Dehuai went to inspect the frontline positions. The two fellow Hunan fellows walked together and discussed strategies. Tactics, while passing through every pass, expressing condolences to the soldiers, encouraging them to move forward bravely and fight the enemy bravely.

Liberation of Taiyuan

At 5:30 in the morning on April 24, the general offensive began. 1,300 cannons roared together, the shells streaked across the night sky like meteors, and the bunkers in Taiyuan City began to collapse one after another.

After four and a half hours of fierce fighting, our army finally liberated Taiyuan City, captured several Yan Jun generals alive in Taiyuan City, and annihilated more than 124,000 enemies. At this point, the Battle of Taiyuan was a complete victory.

The above is the entire process of the Battle of Taiyuan and Hu Yaobang's "war on the mind." If you have anything else you want to know about the Battle of Taiyuan, please leave a message in the comment area to communicate and discuss with the author and readers.