This is one of the largest encirclement wars in human history. Our army directly encircled a province, with a total encirclement area of nearly 500,000 square kilometers!
This was the last major battle of my country's Liberation War. Our army wiped out a total of 900,000 enemies and achieved world-shaking results!
And Lao Jiang was beaten to the point of retreating, and in the end he had no choice but to run away!
This battle is exactly Southwestern battle.
The national army deployed
Starting from the summer of 1949, in order to completely drive away the national army in Sichuan area and end the rule of the Kuomintang reactionaries on the mainland, the great man decided to launch a major campaign in the southwest to destroy the 900,000 disabled soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek. The army was wiped out in Sichuan Province.
The terrain in Sichuan is complex, which once made the poet Li Taibai sigh "The road to Shu is difficult, and it is difficult to reach the sky."
Since ancient times, people entering Sichuan have mostly come from the direction of northern Sichuan. Therefore, Lao Jiang directly dispatched his confidant Hu Zongnan to lead three main corps of the national army, totaling 160,000 people, to set up two lines of defense in northern Sichuan.
The first line of defense is in the Qinling area, where a total of seven armies are deployed.
The second line of defense is the deployment of five newly formed armies of the 7th Corps in the Micang Mountain and Daba Mountain areas. After
completed the deployment, Hu Zongnan and Lao Jiang were very satisfied with their arrangement, calling it "Oriental Maginot Line of Defense " . But historically, France's Maginot Line did not play any role, and so did theirs.
At that time, the core strength of the national army gathered in the entire northern Sichuan, with more than 160,000 people. In the eastern Sichuan area, Chiang Kai-shek only arranged one army of the 19th Corps to guard the Zhenyuan area.
In the western Sichuan area, there are many armed forces represented by Liu Wenhui and Deng Xihou. They have been here all year round and are so powerful that even Chiang Kai-shek has contacted them many times, hoping to get their assistance.
In the southern Sichuan area, Lao Chiang arranged for Guo Rugui to lead the 22nd Corps 2 Army to be stationed in the Yibin area to be used as a mobile force.
This man was Chiang Kai-shek's "confidant general" and he repeatedly assumed important responsibilities within the national army. The previous Huaihai Campaign was the detailed battle plan formulated by him.
Lao Chiang arranged for him to be here in order to preserve his retreat to Yunnan.
But he didn't know that Guo Rugui had a "surprise" waiting for him to discover.
After such an arrangement, Lao Jiang naturally felt that he could sit back and relax. He even dreamed of "holding the southwest and making Chongqing his capital" in an attempt to compete with our army.
However, the great man had already anticipated Chiang Kai-shek's plan.
In order to completely surround the National Army in Sichuan and not let anyone escape, the great man carefully planned and woven a "big pocket" specially for the National Army.
Our army's countermeasures
At the beginning of the march, the great man arranged for our army to publicize it, saying that The 18th Corps and the 7th Army led by He Long were actively preparing for war in Baoji, and planned to enter Sichuan directly from the north.
This route in northern Sichuan was historically the best route into Sichuan. Therefore, after receiving this information, the national army believed this statement without strict investigation.
But what they didn't expect was that the 18th Corps arranged by our army in the north was only to act as the "bottom of the pocket" and was responsible for containing the main force of the national army.
The real trump card is the main force of the Second Field Army led by Liu Deng.
Before the battle began, the great man issued a special order to the two men, requiring them to lead the army in "big detour and big encirclement" military actions, while liberating the areas along the way, while moving the army to the eastern Sichuan area. Waiting for the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the enemy, becoming the core force of our army entering Sichuan.
Under this order, the two of them also came up with a clever idea. They first set off from Nanjing and arrived at Xuzhou with great fanfare. They made publicity along the way and pretended to support the offensive troops in northern Sichuan.
When he arrived in Zhengzhou, Liu Bocheng also attended local activities and specifically emphasized the news that he was going to Sichuan.
After Chiang Kai-shek believed all this to be true, Liu and Deng led their troops south again and moved quietly to the Guizhou area.
In this way, the east side of the national army was also tightly surrounded.
In western Sichuan, even before the battle began, our army's troops in Sichuan began to actively carry out ideological work, unite local people, and persuade the local armed forces to launch an uprising.
Chiang Kai-shek would not know that the local armed forces in Sichuan had been closely cooperating with our army during the Anti-Japanese War, and the two sides had deep trust. After receiving the signal from our army, we were even more ready to mobilize troops to respond.
When Chiang Kai-shek was still dreaming of a "safe Western Front", he never imagined that a huge pocket would soon envelope him. At this point, the national army basically has no chance of winning.
So, what should we do if the national army retreats south after being defeated?
Here we have to mention Guo Rugui again.
He was deeply trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, and was actually one of the important undercover agents placed by our army in the local area. As long as our army successfully enters the Sichuan area, his troops will immediately revolt and become the last rope to tighten the "pocket"!
The defense line collapsed
On October 28, 1949, the Southwest Campaign officially started.
In order to support Liu and Deng's troops entering eastern Sichuan and smoothly implement strategic arrangements, under the instructions of the great man, our army assembled a total of 3 armies and two independent divisions , in coordination with the 2 armies of the 3rd Corps of the Second Field Army. , a total of 200,000 people, launched an attack on the 14th and 20th Corps led by Song Xilian.
Our side is divided into two armies this time: the right army includes the 42nd Army, the 50th Army and two divisions, and the left army includes the 11th, 12th and 47th Army.
Faced with our army's attack, Song Xilian misjudged the battle situation and actually tried to mobilize three armies to attack our army's left army in the north of Yongshun along the direction of Longshan.
The frontal battlefield is already strenuous. To easily dispatch the troops at this time is to violate the taboo of military strategists.. Our army keenly seized this opportunity. The 50th Army on the right, with 4 divisions, quickly defeated the enemy who had mobilized troops, with the arrow pointing directly at Xianfeng; while the left army took advantage of the enemy's reinforcements before they arrived, and broke through in one go. Defense, approaching Song Xilian's headquarters.
Now , the national army's defense in Northeast Sichuan can be said to have been completely destroyed . In order to protect himself, Song Xilian had to give up his subsequent arrangements and quickly led the remaining troops to retreat across the board towards the Qianjiang River.
After learning the news, the national army that was ordered to support was immediately dumbfounded: How come all the friendly forces in front and behind retreated before they arrived on the battlefield?
They quickly began to retreat backwards, but because they did not retreat in time, on November 11, this unit was successfully intercepted by our army.
At this time, the national army had no intention of fighting and just fled in a hurry. However, our army was victorious all the way and was in great momentum. The battle was almost one-sided. After several days of fierce fighting, by the 19th, this unit had been completely wiped out by our army.
When retreating to Pengshui County , due to the Wujiang River across the front, the national army had to transport troops across the river overnight. But after several days and nights of transportation, by the time our army was approaching Pengshui County, they still had more than 10,000 people waiting to cross the river.
In order to delay the advance of our army, the national army set off a fire in the local area. The raging flames shot straight into the sky and caused huge damage to Pengshui , an ancient town with a long history.
At the same time, Liu and Deng's army received the good news from the front line. They responded quickly while being happy. They wanted to take advantage of the critical moment when Song Xilian's army was defeated and the enemy's defense lines were in chaos, march directly to Chongqing!
The 10th Army and the 5th Corps, led by the two men, shed their disguise at this time and advanced towards Sichuan along the Zunyi and Guiyang routes respectively.
Since the national army had almost no defense against eastern Sichuan, the defense line was loose. When they saw such a divine soldier appearing in front of them, they immediately became confused.
In less than 10 days, Liu and Deng's armies had already arrived at the gates of Yibin and Luzhou, cutting off the enemy's retreat route to Yunnan.
At this time, the news slowly reached Lao Jiang's ears.
He was shocked when he learned that our army had penetrated deep into the hinterland. He had previously been doing "hold the southwest and make Chongqing the capital" . He quickly ordered Hu Zongnan in northern Sichuan to lead his army to shrink the defense line and urgently return to defend Chongqing. At the same time, he ordered Song Xilian to defend eastern Sichuan. , we must not let our troops enter Sichuan.
In order to resist on the verge of death, Song Xilian decided to fortify himself in a dangerous place near Wulong, Baima Mountain.
Fierce Battle at Baima Mountain
Baima Mountain is located in the southwest of Wulong County, close to Wujiang River and backed by Chongqing. The mountain roads along the way are rugged and steep, making it a natural fortress.
After Song Xilian led his remaining troops to retreat to Baima Mountain, he immediately set up defenses layer by layer, trying to take advantage of Baima Mountain's geographical location to wait for work and block our army that would arrive later.
But he forgot one extremely important thing: In mountain warfare and mobile warfare, what ability does the Chinese army have to compete with our army?
As early as November 21, the 141st Division of our 47th Army had completed the task of crossing the river and arrived at the White Horse Mountain defense line. That night, while the enemy was still waiting for our army to "cross the river", the unit directly took advantage of the night to launch attacks on Chaotianwang and Fengchuiling in Baima Mountain.
At this time, the enemy troops on the mountain were still sleeping. They heard the sound of gunfire coming from outside, and for a moment they didn't know what was happening.
Our soldiers have long been accustomed to night fighting in long-term battles. When the enemy walked out of the camp in panic, they directly launched a fierce attack on them.
In order to block the enemy's retreat, a reconnaissance platoon of our army deliberately went to the rear of the enemy's position and launched a surprise attack from behind the enemy.
It was dark at that time, and I couldn't see my fingers. The enemy could only see the muzzle flashes of our troops everywhere and the shouts of our troops everywhere, and could not even think of resisting.
After three hours of fierce fighting, our army occupied the commanding heights here and tore two holes in the enemy's defense line.
At this time, the enemy's formation has been cut into three sections by our side, and the head and tail cannot look at each other. In order to completely annihilate the enemy, our troops began to encircle the enemies in the encirclement, and quickly swept the battlefield with their numerical advantage.
It snowed in Baima Mountain a few days ago, and the roads were muddy and difficult to navigate. The enemy artillery unit stationed in the Daluoya area learned of the collapse of the defense line and wanted to go to support.
When the enemy was halfway through, our soldiers who were ambushing on both sides suddenly jumped up, like a group of tigers descending from the mountain, and launched an assault on the enemy's artillery. The bullets from submachine guns and machine guns formed like raindrops in the air, causing the national army to suffer a large number of casualties.
The originally well-equipped artillery unit was dispersed by our army before it even took the field. The fleeing enemies lost their way in the mountains and fell from the cliff one after another. They either died on the spot or broke their limbs. The scene was very miserable.
Song Xilian, who was stationed at the rear, was stunned after receiving the information. He was originally full of confidence in the defense line of Baima Mountain, but he did not expect to be breached by our army in an instant.
When our army broke through the Leopard Rock defense line and began to march towards the enemy's base camp, Song Xilian could only forget about Chiang Kai-shek's order to "defend Eastern Sichuan" and led the remaining troops to retreat to Nanchuan, Chongqing.
In the Battle of Baima Mountain, our army relied on high-intensity marches, night battles, mountain battles and other methods to kill more than 3,000 enemies and capture nearly 20,000 prisoners in just three days and two nights.
The hundreds of war horses, more than 20 transport ships, and an ammunition depot that the national army had hoarded here were all captured by our army, and we gained a lot. No wonder the great man once said, "Without guns or cannons, the enemy will make them for us!"
Continuous uprisings
After Song Xilian was quickly defeated, it was Hu Zongnan's turn to return to the defense. He was dumbfounded. He gave up his careful defense in northern Sichuan and returned to Sichuan overnight to provide support. As a result, the ground was lost before the people arrived?
At this time, the defense line deployed by the national army in northern Sichuan truly became the "Maginot Line of Defense." After Hu Zongnan withdrew, the 18th Corps led by He Long advanced directly into Sichuan, with an unobstructed path, and went straight to the last line of defense in the north of Chengdu, Mianyang .
At this time, the northern and eastern areas of Sichuan have been completely captured by our army, and the war situation can be said to be basically stable. And the foreshadowing that our army laid in the Sichuan area is now happening.
At the beginning of our army's southwest campaign, Guo Rugui, who was ordered to station in Yibin, carried out ideological work in the army. After witnessing the numerous atrocities committed by the national army, this team immediately expressed their participation in the uprising.
So, when Liu and Deng's armies came to the city, Guo Rugui directly led his troops to revolt. On the spot, Chiang Kai-shek's "reliable backing" became a "strong cage" surrounding him. Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he cursed Guo Ru. Rose "is a traitor."
In western Sichuan, local forces such as Liu Wenhui and Deng Xihou realized that the situation had been decided, and immediately announced an uprising, blocking the way for the national army to retreat westward. At this point, our army has surrounded the entire Sichuan Province, trapping the national army firmly in its pocket, and will annihilate them all when the time comes.
Destroying the Stubborn Enemy
After realizing that something was wrong, Chiang Kai-shek left the mainland by plane overnight and fled to Treasure Island . The remaining hundreds of thousands of troops were all regarded as abandoned by him. This behavior undoubtedly chilled the hearts of the soldiers of the national army.
In addition, in order to peacefully liberate Chengdu, our army called on the enemy forces in the city to surrender, which also gave these abandoned soldiers the desire to live.
So, except for Hu Zongnan's Li Wen and troops who led a breakout, the rest of the national army did little resistance and chose to surrender.
Let’s talk about Li Wen. This person was Hu Zongnan’s confidant. At that time, he was mainly responsible for leading the 5th Corps of the National Army.
After Hu Zongnan ordered an "all-out breakout", the other generals defected one after another. Only he led the remaining troops to break out in multiple directions.
After understanding the situation, Marshal Liu Bocheng directly pointed out that no matter how many enemies there were, they could only break through Qionglai. As long as our army defends Qionglai, we will never let a single enemy leave.
This is indeed the case. In the early morning of December 24, the enemy's scattered breakout troops finally merged near Qionglai and launched a frantic attack on our positions.
At this time, their retreat in Chengdu was cut off, and they were bent on escaping. In a short period of time, they exploded with powerful fighting power. The two sides launched a fierce battle in Qionglai.
The enemies launched rounds of crazy charges towards our army. They rushed towards our position with red eyes and roaring. But our soldiers are like a huge rock, "Let him be strong, let him be strong, the breeze blows on the hills" , no matter how the enemy attacks, our soldiers can always repel them.
The battle lasted all day. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, Li Wen had no choice but to surrender to our army. At this point, the massive Southwest Campaign has come to a successful end.
In this battle, our army suffered only 10,000 casualties, but managed to kill 900,000 enemies. This is an extremely rare situation in the history of war. The reason is the great man's excellent control of the war situation and our army's ideological work on the local armed forces.
And the great man relied on his outstanding strategic talent to successfully achieve another miracle in the history of war. Such strategies can be called gods!
References:
Wang Shuzeng "The War of Liberation"
Yuan Jiang "Several Characteristics of the Strategic Guidelines for Marching into the Southwest"
Fang Xueqin "A Brief Discussion on the United Front Work of the Southwest Campaign in the War of Liberation"
He Yimin and Guo Mingpan "Chiang Kai-shek's Southwest Military Strategy and Strategy at the End of 1949" Analysis of the reasons for its failure》
