There are four officially recognized field armies in the history of our military, namely the Northwest, Central Plains, East China, Northeast Field Army , which were later adapted into one to four fields . Although the North China Field Army was also very strong, it failed to keep pace with the first four field armies.
Apart from this, there seems to be no large-scale field army. In fact, this is not the case. Today we will talk about the fifth largest field army that briefly existed in the history of our army from a collection collected by Su Yu.
1. Su Yuās collection
This collection is an autograph written by Mao Zedong.
Speaking of collecting, Su Yu during the Liberation War era really had a hobby of collecting. However, what General Su collected was not antiques, calligraphy and paintings, but military documents, especially formal or informal documents with Chairman Mao. . Perhaps in General Su's view, Chairman Mao's handwriting or personally drafted telegrams are priceless treasures.
After the founding of New China, General Zhang Zhen once visited General Su, who was the Chief of General Staff at the time. During the chat, he recalled fighting in East China and accidentally mentioned the fifth field army established by our army that year. Not to mention ordinary people, even the senior generals at the time didn't know much about this army.
General Su asked his wife Chu Qing to take out a document he had treasured for several years. Zhang Zhen took a look and saw that it was Chairman Mao's own handwriting about the establishment of the Southeast Field Army.
The specific content is:
Southeast Field Army, commander and political commissar Chen Yi, deputy commander Su Yu.
The First Corps of the Southeast Field Army, including the 1st, 4th and 6th columns, commander and political commissar Su Yu, deputy commander Ye Fei, chief of staff Zhang Zhen, and director of the Political Department Zhong Qiguang.
The Second Corps of the Southeast Field Army, including the 3rd, 8th, and 10th columns, is tentatively scheduled to set out in February or March 1949, and the candidates are temporarily decided.
Southeast Branch of the Party, Secretary Su Yu, Deputy Secretaries Ye Fei and Jin Ming.
Judging from the historical pictures, this document is not like a normal telegram or order. It has a specific letterhead, writing time, and the signatures of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission. Moreover, the order for appointment within the party and the order for appointment in the army were issued together. It does not seem to be a formal order. . It is possible that it was a preliminary consideration proposed by Chairman Mao and sent to other leading comrades of the Central Committee for consideration.
When Zhang Zhen saw it, he was filled with emotions, which brought back deep memories.
This document with not many words is the testimony of the fifth field army with the nature of a front army that briefly appeared in the history of our army.
The Southeast Field Army was officially established in about January 1948, but it was discontinued not long after. It was stopped in about May 1948, and it only existed for more than 4 months.
You must know that the rise and fall of a field army at the front level is a very serious matter and involves a wide range of things. Especially for the Southeast Field Army, the six main columns allocated by the central government are all the main forces of Huaye. The first column, Ye Fei's command, is the first-class main force trained by Su Yu when he was in Central China. He destroyed Li Xianzhou , destroyed Zhang Lingfu , Fighting and Hu Lian will make the national army frightened wherever they go.
Allocating these main columns to the Southeast Field Army shows the great determination of the central government.
So why did it go from strength to strength in just four months?
Speaking of this matter, some people may know a little bit about it. Su Yu spoke out boldly and changed the central government's decision. However, the twists and turns of the process and the entanglement of Su Yu's mental journey are much more exciting than this simple result.
2. The conflict of ideas
First of all, we have to talk about the conflict of ideas between Su Yu and Chairman Mao.
In December 1947, Su Yu and Chairman Mao began to consider the overall strategic issues of the liberation war.
In January 1948, Su Yu plucked up the courage and sent a letter of recommendation to the central government, which stated that the next step was to adjust the strategy in the Central Plains and concentrate forces on a war of annihilation.
Because the date of the submission was the day of the child's raising according to the domestic telegraph timing rules at that time, it was called the "child's raising telegram".
"Zi Yang Dian" contains thousands of words and describes Su Yu's basic views on the situation in Shandong and the Central Plains.We will no longer quote the original text. The general idea is that Chiang Kai-shek adjusted his strategy and concentrated his elite corps to use concentration against concentration, which made us very embarrassed. Why is
embarrassed? Chiang Kai-shek's army has railways and roads that can be used. Normally, the army is stationed in one place, but in case of war, it will go out to rescue. Because trains can always run faster than human legs, they can always be concentrated, making it impossible for our army to find a suitable opportunity to annihilate the enemy.
Although our army of Chen Su, Chen Xie, Liu and Deng is active in the Central Plains, it is impossible to always gather together. Any one of these armies is not enough to destroy the enemy's collection of several main reorganized divisions. When concentrating forces for combat, the cost of maneuvering is much higher than that of the enemy. Only by running desperately can the purpose of concentrating forces be achieved. But if you fight like this, once, twice, maybe three or five times, you can survive, but how much more?
It is impossible to always use two legs to compete with the enemy's wheels. This is a military law and an objective reality.
Regarding this situation, Su Yu has four suggestions:
First, the three armies of the Central Plains should be centralized and commanded, and they should look for opportunities to annihilate the enemy all the way as soon as possible to reverse the situation in the Central Plains.
Second, strengthen the construction of technical arms, such as armored forces .
Third, build solid base areas in the Central Plains and Shandong, and deploy a large number of military cadres to support the construction of the governments in the liberated areas.
Fourth, build a unified army and break down the barriers of the major field armies.
Chairman Mao received the telegram and immediately forwarded it to Zhou, Zhu, Ren, Liu and other central leaders for circulation. After reading it, several leaders felt that Su Yu dared to step out of the position of deputy commander of the front army and comprehensively consider the entire Central Plains operation. The pattern was admirable, surprising, and exciting. At the same time, several leaders also smiled. This Su Yu posed a big problem for Chairman Mao.
Almost at the same time that Su Yu wrote a letter proposing to manage the war situation in the Central Plains, Chairman Mao also proposed a ground-breaking strategy that changed the tug-of-war situation in the Central Plains: advancing behind enemy lines for the second time.
This is different from the advance of Liu and Deng's army into the Dabie Mountains. The direction of the advance was to cross the Yangtze River to attack the south of the Yangtze River and go straight to the heart of the Kuomintang-controlled area.
Chairman Mao proposed such an idea at a meeting held in December 1947 and discussed it with several leaders of the central government. Everyone was excited about such a strategic design that broke through normal thinking and unanimously agreed with the chairman's idea.
At this time, Commander Chen Yi of Huaye came to the central station. Chairman Mao immediately proposed to him the strategic idea of āāadvancing to the southeast. Chen Yi's reaction was the same as that of Zhou, Zhu, Ren, and Liu, and he was very happy. Chairman Mao wrote a handwritten order and handed it to Chen Yi, roughly clarifying the formation of the Southeast Field Army and sending Su Yu to lead three main columns to form a powerful corps to cross the river first.
This warrant was later kept by Su Yu for many years. After the liberation, Su Yu's wife Chu Qing showed it to General Zhang Zhen.
By coincidence, Su Yu's "Zi Yang Dian" was also sent over at this time.
Chairman Mao forwarded "Zi Yang Dian" to Zhou Enlai and others for circulation, and asked them to discuss and give their own opinions. Chairman Mao also gave special instructions that Zhou and others should read it before sending Mao to him.
"Send Mao again", just three words, shows the huge shock in Chairman Mao's heart.
After everyone circulates it, they give their opinions together, and they are still implemented according to the chairman's arrangements.
Chairman Mao did not express much of his position, but the matter was quickly arranged with the strong execution power unique to our army.
Chen Yi wrote a poem excitedly:
I stayed in Yanggou for a month, and it took a lot of thinking to judge the balance.
The bow is bent and the horse is coiled, so it does not move, just to capture the thief and capture the king.
The North is in full swing, and the competition in the Central Plains is even better.
The victory of five years can be predicted now, and we will send Su Lang to cross the Yangtze River steadily.
Amidst the excitement in the center, Su Yu fell into deep thoughts.
3. Su Yu was unwilling to go south
On January 27, 1948, the order to form the Southeast Field Army was issued to Huaye.
Su Yu's first reaction was not to question, but to quickly implement the central government's order and summon several leaders of the First Corps to convey the deployment tasks.Ye Fei, the commander of the first column of Huaye, and Zhang Zhen, the deputy commander of the second column, were both shocked after hearing this order: it was so unexpected.
especially Ye Fei.
Ye Fei did not expect such an arrangement at all. Ye Fei's biggest worry at that time was that he fought several tough battles in a row, and the troops suffered heavy casualties. Recruiting many captured Kuomintang soldiers, absorbing, digesting, and transforming them was the most important task at that time. Otherwise, if they encountered another tough battle, the troops would not be able to be controlled at all. .
The task given to him by the central government is to quickly cross the Yangtze River to the south. It is planned to cross the river into Xiangxi at several sections from Yichang to Jianli , or to cross the river from Honghu and Mianyang areas. Hubei , first spent half a year or a year in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, and then reached the borders of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi in several stages in the form of a leap forward.
Zhang Zhen is another kind of trouble.
Su Yu named him to be the chief of staff of the First Corps of the Southeast Field Army. At that time, there were many people who wanted to leave Zhang Zhen.
Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin wanted him to be promoted to column commander in the Huaye Shandong Corps.
Wei Guoqing, who was preparing to go to northern Jiangsu to form a new corps, wanted Zhang Zhen to go to northern Jiangsu with him to become the leader of the corps.
Deng Zihui told Zhang Zhen that the East China Bureau was planning to merge the Huainan and Huaibei military regions into the Jianghuai Military Region, and asked Zhang Zhen to be the commander there.
Zhang Zhen said in his memoirs that he was in trouble for happiness at the time, and what he wanted to go to most was Huaibei. He had been in Huaibei during the Anti-Japanese War and was very familiar with the situation there. Once the Southeast Field Army was formed, all his ideas came to nothing.
As soon as Zhang Zhen left, Su Yu took him with him every day to study the matter of crossing the river and leaping forward.
Facts have completely proved Zhang Zhen's gold content. Several companies are vying for it because Zhang Zhen's military ability is quite outstanding.
After studying for a period of time, Su and Zhang felt that crossing the river in Hubei was not appropriate and too circuitous. Moreover, the troops of Bai Chongxi in Central China were very strong. Our army would hit them head-on, and it would be too difficult to move to Fujian and Zhejiang. Su Yu and Zhang Zhen worked out a new method: from Anhui and Jiangsu sections of the Yangtze River, directly break through the river defenses and kill in the Nanjing area. This way they can achieve greater surprise in the battle. I donāt know if the suggestion
was later submitted to the central government.
But Zhang Zhen discovered that Su Yu had been preoccupied with things. Although he had been pushing for crossing the Yangtze River south, he did not raise his brows and hid in the war room for several days in a daze looking at the map.
One day, Su Yu suddenly said to Zhang Zhen, if we have 40,000 or 50,000 casualties, even if we cross the Yangtze River and only take 30,000 to 40,000 people with us, what's the use?
Zhang Zhen was a little confused. The troops hadn't been dispatched yet, so why did they say we would sacrifice so many people.
He didn't know what Su Yu was thinking about, and he didn't dare to say more.
4. Li Xiannian's lecture
The newly established Southeast Field Army was a little confused ideologically. Su Yu did not take the initiative to unify everyone's thoughts because he had not thought about it well.
At this moment, Li Xiannian passed through Puyang County, Henan Province on his way north, and met Su Yu at the Huaye Headquarters. Su Yu immediately asked him to make a report to the cadres at division level and above, the content of which was the situation of Liu and Deng's army advancing into the Central Plains.
After Li Xiannian broke through from the Central Plains, he followed Liu and Deng's army south to the Dabie Mountains. However, he encountered difficulties again and was besieged by a heavy force commanded by Bai Chongxi. Although Liu and Deng's army tenaciously persisted in the Dabie Mountains, their troops suffered considerable losses. The nearly 140,000 field troops were divided into companies and suffered casualties. When they moved out of the Dabie Mountains, only more than 70,000 people were left.
Most of the leaders of the newly formed Southeast Field Military Division and above participated in this report. In connection with the upcoming second strategic advance, everyone felt that the future was unpredictable and dangerous.
Just when the army was enveloped in worries about the unknown, Su Yu suddenly changed.
After Li Xiannian finished his report, Su Yu had a special exchange with him. Li Xiannian said that going south directly may not be smooth. If there are several big battles between Huanghuai and the Kuomintang army, it may be more beneficial to go south again.
What Li Xiannian said was heart-piercing and heartbreaking!
Liu and Deng's advance into the Dabie Mountains was certainly a great strategic victory, but in the process of advancing southward, they were too quick and sudden, and did not fight any annihilation battles along the way, which led to the enemy following them with heavy troops. After entering the Dabie Mountains, they encountered Bai Chongxi, a ruthless character. The battle was very difficult to fight.
Su Yu changed his mind decisively after hearing these opinions.
then turned around and reported a strange telegram to the central government.
This telegram has three parts.
The first part talks about the timing of crossing the river and leaping forward.
The second part talks about the possibility and favorable conditions of annihilating the enemy in the Central Plains.
The third part talks about the location of crossing the river, which is changed to crossing the river near Jiangyin, Pukou and other places. The weird thing about
is the layout of the content.
The second part is off topic and has nothing to do with crossing the river!
When Chairman Mao received this telegram, he understood at a glance that Su Yu had different opinions. This second part of his was to subtly reiterate to the central government that he "raised power" and still wanted to fight a war of annihilation in the Central Plains.
However, the central government was determined. Chairman Mao ignored this cryptic telegram and still ordered Su Yu to work together to prepare to cross the Yangtze River and march south.
Su Yuās true attitude was probably best understood by Zhang Zhen in Huaye at that time.
The reason is probably Su Yuās confused statement of ā40,000 to 50,000 casualtiesā. After Li Xiannian gave his report, Zhang Zhen also made an estimate.
Crossing the Yangtze River and heading south, there is no rear, no supply location along the way, and the wounded cannot be arranged. In addition, Nanjing's position is very important. Once our army crosses the river around Nanjing, it will definitely cause a great shock to the enemy. Chiang Kai-shek will definitely mobilize heavy troops to besiege them at all costs.
With three columns of our military region performing such an arduous task, Su Yu said there were 40,000 to 50,000 casualties (about one and a half columns), which was even less.
Zhang Zhen understood that Huaye's destiny had reached an extremely important juncture. During that time, like Su Yu, he was full of worries and worries, and even collapsed from exhaustion. According to Zhang Zhen's memoirs, he even coughed up blood for a while.
The pressure is unprecedented.
5. Chairman Mao finally took back his orders
In April 1948, things came to a head.
At that time, all preparations for the First Corps of the Southeast Field Army to cross the river were in place. All it took was an order from the central government that the troops were about to move south.
looked at the troops who were ready to go, thinking that in the blink of an eye they would embark on a journey full of blood and fire. We are not afraid of sacrifice, but fighting like this would be too costly. Su Yu could no longer hold back, and finally decided to send a message to the central government, asking the central government to take back his order.
Su Yu believed that crossing the Yangtze River and advancing south would not necessarily bring the enemies from the Central Plains back to the south of the Yangtze River, but I would suffer heavy losses of about 50,000 people, which was not cost-effective. If we are determined to inflict 50,000 casualties, we can surely annihilate the enemy's organized strength of three to five armies in the Central Plains at this price. The strength of the five armies is about 100,000. In this way, the situation between the enemy and ourselves in the Central Plains will be fundamentally transformed.
At that time, most of the first-level leaders of the Huaye Corps and the column agreed with Su Yu's analysis. Zhang Zhen and others suggested that everyone jointly submit a letter to the Military Commission.
But Su Yu disagreed. Doing so is suspected of putting pressure on the Military Commission. Su Yu insisted on reporting to the central government in his own name.
This time Su Yu did not beat around the bush and expressed his opinion straight to the point of staying in the Central Plains to fight the war of annihilation.
After receiving the report, Chairman Mao was filled with shock. Su Yu actually dared to do the opposite?
Chairman Mao immediately called Chen Yi and Su Yu to Nanzhuang, Fuping City, Hebei Province to discuss the matter face to face and what to do.
In order to prevent personal inconsideration, Chairman Mao, together with the four central leaders Liu, Zhou, Zhu and Ren, collectively listened to Su Yu's report on stopping crossing the Yangtze River and advancing southward.
Su Yu talked non-stop for several hours, explaining clearly how many sacrifices would be encountered when crossing the river, how much damage it would cause to the main force of Huaye, and the possibility of repeating the mistakes of the anti-Japanese advance team in 1934. He also focused on reporting that if we stay in the Central Plains to fight a war of annihilation, what are the advantages of our army and the disadvantages of the enemy? It is possible for our army to annihilate many enemies.
is reasonable and realistic.
The five secretaries nodded repeatedly, and finally it was decided in person at the meeting that the plan to cross the Yangtze River and march south was suspended, and Su Yu's suggestion would be followed first.
In May 1948, the Central Military Commission informed Huaye that the designation of the Southeast Field Army was deactivated, and Ye Fei and other columns were still commanded by Huaye.
Zhang Zhen had been coughing up blood for many days. When he heard the news, he was so happy that he immediately recovered.
After the plan was changed, Su Yu should be relaxed, but his pressure became even greater.
The Central Committee agreed with Su Yu's opinion and asked him to fight a war of annihilation in the Central Plains. However, this agreement was not in principle, but specified a detailed number of enemies to be annihilated: 100,000 people.
was equivalent to a military order, and Su Yu was under great pressure. He knew that the central government's true intention was to destroy the main force of the Central Plains National Army with Qiu Qingquan's Fifth Army as the core.
After that, Su Yu exhausted his mind and exerted his commanding ability to the extreme. He made a fuss around the eastern Henan area and repeatedly lured Qiu Qingquan the Fifth Army to fight. Qiu Qingquan had been fighting against the Communist army for many years and had not been fooled. But Su Yu did not pounce. He hunted rabbits in the Sui and Qi areas and wiped out more than 90,000 people from the District Shounian Corps.
Chairman Mao's original goal for Su Yu was to annihilate 100,000 enemies in four to eight months. Unexpectedly, Su Yu wiped out 90,000 in two months. Chairman Mao was greatly pleased.
Due to the fundamental changes in the situation in the Central Plains, the plan to cross the river and leap forward was no longer mentioned. The Southeast Field Army, a large force that could have become the fifth largest field army of our army, will always lie in the long river of history.
