On May 16, 1947, a generation of powerful generals Zhang Lingfu was killed on Meng Liangkou in Yimeng Mountain . At the same time, there were 32,000 American 74 reorganized troops known as " Imperial Guard ", and even a groom could not escape.
Such an amazing record shocked Chiang Kai-shek , and the " key attack on " against Shandong's liberated area was left unresolved. Mao Zedong also felt incredible, and he didn't even expect it.
commands wars like playing chess, with bad hands, vulgar hands, wonderful hands, and rare "one of the gods". In this big chess game of the East China Liberation War, General Su Yu, who was responsible for the specific command, undoubtedly made a "god move".
1. Shandong chess game
Since Shandong Field Army and Central China Field Army merged into East China Field Army , our army has won many battles in Shandong. From Subei, Shandong South to Laiwu, Chen Yi and Su Yu cooperated sincerely, and the more they fought, the more they fought, the more they became, the more they became, and the results were getting bigger and bigger, annihilated tens of thousands of elite Kuomintang troops.
However, these battles are just the beginning, and a larger-scale contest is about to begin.
From the perspective of Chiang Kai-shek, they summarized the lessons of continuous failures in the past period and thus changed the established policy. Chiang Kai-shek had to admit that the National Army had underestimated the "Eighth Route Army" in Shandong before. Before this, the National Army had been using the tactic of splitting troops and attacking each other, hoping to plow the courtyard and sweep the caves, gather our army and annihilate it. Unexpectedly, our army concentrated its superior forces and let you come a few ways, and I could only go all the way to eat the Kuomintang army one by one.
Chiang Kai-shek said that the more land the national army occupied, the more the troops were divided, and the People's Liberation Army was restrained everywhere and became passive. However, the People's Liberation Army can concentrate its forces, take the initiative, actively carry out frontal activities in the national army, and defeat them one by one.
The reason is that there is a huge intelligence gap between the National Army and the People's Liberation Army. During the Liberation War, our army's intelligence department made great contributions. In Huaye, the Fourth Squadron in charge of intelligence is Su Yu's most valued unit. As Su Yu's eyes and ears, they deciphered the enemy's codes, eavesdropped on the enemy's telegrams, and knew the enemy well; at the same time, there were a large number of "red agents" lurking within the Kuomintang, and some even went deep into the command center of the Kuomintang, such as Liu Fei and Guo Rugui. Often, Chiang Kai-shek and his aides had just formulated a combat plan, and a copy of the plan had been placed on Mao Zedong's desk.
So for Su Yu, he was like he was driving a high-power military satellite map to fight.
On the other hand, the Kuomintang side knew nothing about the situation of our army. The Kuomintang intelligence department once sent elite troops to carry more than 100 radio stations into the Shandong Liberated Area, but did not even bring out a single radio station. In the liberated areas, we have absolute people's support, and the Kuomintang spies cannot steal even a trace of intelligence. Therefore, for the Kuomintang army, the movements of the East China Field Army are like shrouded in a fog of war, and everything is unknown.
In this context, Chiang Kai-shek decided to restore the safe tactics he used when he "encircled and suppressed" the Central Soviet Area. That is to say, 24 reorganized divisions and 60 brigades have concentrated a total of 455,000 people, including three of the five main forces of the Kuomintang, namely reorganized 74th Division, , Reorganized 11th Division and of the 5th Army, all of which are used in the Shandong battlefield.
At the same time, the Kuomintang army also changed its tactics and adopted the policy of "intensively approaching, strengthening maintenance, steady and steadily advancing", which strengthened the density of troops. With the direct Central Army, the operation of unreliable local miscellaneous military forces, it became a situation of "walnuts and rotten grapes", and it made an arc-line advance.
In this way, the Kuomintang can slowly and unstoppably crush the entire Yimeng Mountains like an stone mill . If Huaye chooses to fight to the decisive battle, it will undoubtedly be ruthlessly crushed by the national army with superior numbers, weapons and supplies; if Huaye does not resist, he may be expelled from Shandong.
For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek also reblocked the old road of Huayuankou that exploded during the Anti-Japanese War, forcing The Yellow River to be transformed into the old road of Henan and Shandong provinces. This will cut off the ties between Shandong and the liberated areas of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan.
According to Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking, he drove Chen Yi and Su Yu's army from Yimeng Mountain to the Yellow River, and then gathered and annihilated it. Its strategy is of remarkable significance. In this way, Huaye's intelligence advantage also became invisible. In the face of absolute power, all strategies are not good. If the national army can really advance steadily, there is actually no good way for the Huaye.
Chiang Kai-shek threatened:
"After two battles, Chen Yi was seriously injured, he entered Yimeng Mountain and dealt with me in the way of the mountain king. We swept him all in the Yimeng Mountains."
Therefore, the Kuomintang army used 7 reorganized divisions to carry the garrison of important nodes, and concentrated 17 reorganized divisions with a total of 255,000 troops as the mobile force swept Shandong. Among them, this mobile force is also divided into three mobile corpses, with the 74th Division, the 11th Division and the Fifth Army as the core, and is commanded by Tang Enbo , Wang Jingjiu , and Ou Zhen .
From the perspective of strategic situation, Tang Enbo is north of Linyi , the Ouzhen Corps is from Sishui to northeast, and Wang Jingjiu is from Tai'an to east, surrounding the main force of the wilderness in an arc.
The black clouds are crushing the city and want to destroy it. Faced with such a strong enemy and Chiang Kai-shek's vicious plan, what kind of trick will Su Yu, who is responsible for specific command and repeatedly fight "Immortal Battles"?
2. Su Yu's clever hands
The enemy is coming in full force, but Chen Yi and Su Yu have already decided on countermeasures, hoping to attract, mobilize, exhaust and confuse the enemy through continuous movement and temptation, so that the enemy can reveal their flaws. This is a very skilled tactic since the Red Army era.
From the beginning of the battle to the beginning of May, Chen and Su commanded 10 columns of Huaye, a total of 270,000 troops, circulating in the Shandong Liberated Area, and dealing with the enemy in southern Shandong and Yimeng Mountains, east and west, playing to get, avoiding the real and taking advantage of the situation, fighting if it is beneficial, and withdrawing if it is unfavorable.
Chen Yi vividly called this tactic "dragon lantern": our army wielded colorful balls to motivate, and the enemy was circling and rolling like a long dragon, using this method to mobilize and confuse the enemy.
However, this time, the Kuomintang army was not deceived and maintained a trend of moving forward in unison. He only moves at a fixed distance every day, and when he feels tired, he will stay on the spot and keeps parallel to nearby friendly forces. As a result, the enemy has not revealed its head, and our army has no good idea.
For more than a month, our army did not fight a single battle, just walking. The enemy has not been dragged down, but our army itself is extremely tired. Strange words began to appear in the army, and a rumor was made up:
"Commander Chen's telegram is dada, the soldier's foot board is rubbed." "Mobile and motivated, only walk but not call, always playing dragon lanterns."
Although Chen Yi and Su Yu were facing huge pressure from inside and outside, fortunately, Mao Zedong relieved them of pressure in time. Mao Zedong fully affirmed Chen Su and his two mobile tactics. He pointed out in a telegram on May 3:
"The enemy's troops are dense and difficult to fight, so they are patient and attacked, and they are handled well. As long as they are patient, there is always a chance to annihilate the enemy."
3 days later, the Central Military Commission sent another telegram to Chen and Su: "The current situation is, the enemy must be anxious, but we should not be anxious... First, don't be impatient, and second, don't divide the troops. As long as the main force is in hand, there will always be a chance to annihilate the enemy."
Mao Zedong is worthy of being Mao Zedong. At this time, he was fighting in the mountains in northern Shaanxi, facing the encirclement and interception of Hu Zongnan's 2.25 million troops, and he was facing tremendous pressure. But even so, Mao Zedong still maintained a calm mind and did not let the East China field army attack rashly, and relieve pressure on the soldiers ahead in time. He is worthy of being the great military commander and the unparalleled leader.
Originally, Su Yu planned to go south to southern Shandong with two columns and one column to north Jiangsu to threaten the enemy's rear and force the enemy to return or divide the troops. Under the spirit of Mao Zedong's instructions, Su Yu ordered the sixth column, which was already behind the enemy, to go south to the area south of Pingyi , no longer taking control of the enemy as the main task, and no action will be taken, and staying behind the enemy in southern Shandong.
This move eventually became a super trick to revitalize the overall situation in East China.
The mentality of the East China Field Army gradually stabilized, but Chiang Kai-shek's side was a little unable to sit still. Chiang Kai-shek said that he was steady and steady, but in fact he was very anxious. He wanted to achieve the effect of a quick battle and quick decision through direct command and high concentration. But contrary to his wish, because there were insurmountable factional conflicts in the army, the generals avoided decisive battles with the Chinese and wilderness in order to preserve their strength, and even refused to save troops from their own faction. Therefore, they hesitated and made slow progress.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek no longer wants to talk about anything steadily. He issued a strict order to Gu Zhutong , who was responsible for the overall command: "Within May, the main forces of Chen and Su will be destroyed."
At this time, the national army had occupied Linyi, Xintai and Laiwu, and the capital and important towns of Shandong's liberated area had been "lost clean". Chiang Kai-shek mistakenly believed that the Chinese and wilderness had been "exhausted in the offensive" and it was time to close the net.
As the commander, the most taboo thing is to be impatient. Chiang Kai-shek should have collapsed before his heart was as calm as a lake, but he made a sudden mistake and changed the tactics from "steady and steady" to "steady and fiercely". This tactical change also laid the groundwork for the complete annihilation of the 74th Division.
As a result, the Kuomintang army, which was originally as slow as a turtle, suddenly accelerated its speed, and the situation of closely moving closer to each other quickly changed. The opportunity to benefit Huaye finally came.
3. Siege the 74th Division
On May 10, the Kuomintang obtained information, and the Huaye Command was in the Tanbu area. Chiang Kai-shek's "vanguard" Tang Enbo was as if he had gained a treasure. Without waiting for the two corpses Ou Zhen and Wang Jingjiu to act together, he commanded the eight reorganized divisions of the First Corps to attack Tanbu.
and this is the best time for Su Yu to find a real prey.
The military strategy says: "Attack it without preparation."
According to Huaye's habit, under normal circumstances, we will first fight the isolated weak enemy first, and then fight the strong enemy. According to the investigation of the Huaye Command, Tang Enbo's 7th Army and the reorganized 48th Division were relatively exposed on the right wing of the enemy's army and were most easily divided and surrounded; at the same time, the 65th Division commanded by Tang's regiment was a local miscellaneous unit, a weak enemy, and an ideal target of combat.
At the beginning, the Huaye Command's intention was to fight the Seventh Army and the 48th Division first. However, Su Yu analyzed the information again and quickly rejected the strategy.
Su Yu believes that the 7th Army and the 48th Division are both Guangxi troops, known as the "Monkey Army", and their fighting style is tenacious and cunning. If the battle is not smooth, it may become a war of attrition; if the battle is smooth, the enemy may escape, so it is not a good deal.
On May 11, Su Yu noticed that Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division set out from Duozhuang. They launched an attack on the position of the Huaye Ninth Column through the western foot of Menglianggu and south of Tanbu, which seemed to be "slightly prominent".
and this "slightly prominent" must be paid great attention to.
In the past war history, we all thought that the 74th Division had entered the army alone and fell into the encirclement of our army, but in fact it was not. In fact, the 74th Division is just a little bit prominent. The left wing is the 25th Division of Huang Baitao , and the right wing is the 83rd Division of Li Tianxia , and the combat effectiveness is very strong. The 74th Division is only 1 to 2 days apart from the left and right wings.
It is obvious that the enemy wanted to take the 74th Division as the spearhead and make a central breakthrough at our Tanbu command post, and put our army in chaos and siege.
Su Yuyi was bold and immediately suggested not to attack the Seventh Army and the 48th Division, but to mobilize elite troops nearby to surround the 74th Division and dig it out of the enemy group.
In Su Yu's memoir, he emphasized that the 74th Division did not take the initiative to deliver it to the door, but was taken out from Wanjun through a scalpel-like operation.
Su Yu analyzed: The 74th Division is indeed powerful, and it caused a lot of trouble for our army in the previous battles. But in the Yimeng Mountains, the 74th Division is not invincible. The 74th Division mainly relies on its powerful artillery and mechanized troops in war. However, in the Yimeng Mountains, the 74th Division was forced to give up these heavy equipment that could not fight in the mountainous areas.
Secondly, although the gap between the 74th Division and other troops is not large, it is not impossible to intersperse.
Third, Su Yu analyzed the 74th Division leader Zhang Lingfu from the interpersonal relationship level. This person is more jealous than the top and cannot handle the relationship with his colleagues well.If surrounded, the rescue of other troops may not be active.
Therefore, Chen Yi immediately made the decision and took five columns as the main attacker, showing an absolute military advantage of 5:1 against the 74th Division. At the same time, four columns were arranged on the periphery to form a blocking position. The purpose of the battle was to wipe out the 74th Division above Menglianggu.
On May 12, Mao Zedong called the front line: "The Fifth Army, the 11th Division and the 74th Division are both advancing. You must concentrate on choosing a better road to fight. You will not seize the opportunity to launch an attack. What is the best way to fight? It is up to you to make the decision and implement it immediately. We will not control it from afar."
Perhaps even the resourceful Mao Zedong did not expect that Su Yu's target was the most powerful and stubborn 74th Division.
In order to completely wipe out, Su Yu of the 74th Division made the following decision.
1. The fourth and ninth columns blocked the 74th Division in the front. Secondly, the First Column and the Eighth Column respectively launched small troops to attack the 25th and 83rd Divisions on the left and right wings, making it impossible for the enemy to judge the target of our army for the time being. At the same time, the main force took the opportunity to penetrate deep into the enemy, blocking the connection between the two wings and the 74th Division.
The third and most wonderful thing is to let the 6th Column of Huaye, which was previously waiting in southern Shandong, seize Duozhuang in the southwest of Menglianggu, and cut off the retreat of the 74th Division.
This sixth column was also called "invisible flying soldiers" by later generations.
4. Invisible Flying Force
In the previous article, the author mentioned that Su Yu once asked the Sixth Column to hide and standby in southern Shandong.
6 Column is the ace force of our army, and the commander is Wang Bicheng, who is known for his bravery. In the previous self-defense war, the 6th Column and the 74th Division had a narrow road and fought against each other many times. In the second Lianshui Battle, the Sixth Column suffered a great loss in front of the 74th Division and sacrificed thousands of troops.
The only requirement for the commanders and fighters of the Sixth Column, Wang Bi, to be the leader, is: "Don't forget our Sixth Column when fighting the 74th Division."
Seeing this, Su Yu thought that the morale of the army was available, so he encouraged him:
"Tell everyone that the 74th Division and Zhang Lingfu cannot escape, and they always have to eat them."
Later he gave Wang Bicheng a reassurance: "Fighting the 74th Division is indispensable for your Sixth Column. If you don't want to fight in the future, you have to fight." When formulating the Menglianggu Battle plan, Su Yu specifically reminded the staff of the combat order: "Don't forget the Sixth Column."
Before the launch of the Menglianggu Battle, Su Yu had been hiding this army and letting them accumulate strength. However, when the fighter plane appeared, Su Yu decisively used this "invisible" piece. And this chess piece eventually became the "god hand" that was about to die.
Duozhuang is the logistics supply of the 74th Division. It is located near the mountain pass and has a high terrain, which is its only way to retreat. In order to defend this place, Zhang Lingfu's troops sent a regiment of troops. At the same time, Li Tianxia's 83rd Division was also responsible for supporting Duozhuang. With the army of Duozhuang, even if the frontal troops of Huaye have wings, they will not be able to cross the 74th Division and occupy Duozhuang. Therefore, the national army is very relaxed in the defense here.
But the Kuomintang never expected that Su Yu actually set up an invisible column in southern Shandong, 120 kilometers away from the battlefield.
When Su Yu launched a three-sided siege on the 74th Division, the 6th Column, which had been ready for a long time, finally received the order they had been looking forward to. At 16:00 on May 12, the telegram signed by Chen Su was sent to Wang Bicheng. Wang Bicheng stood up suddenly and led tens of thousands of tiger troops to advance towards Duozhuang Kuang.
In 48 hours, the 6th vertical actually ran 120 kilometers. In the early morning of the 14th, the 6th Column arrived south of Duzhuang 8 hours in advance. In the early morning of the 15th, the Sixth Column and the One Column and the One Column met, occupying Duozhuang like a divine weapon descending from the sky. In this way, our army put the 74th Division into the bottle and stuffed the bottle mouth.
When Zhang Lingfu woke up from his dream and sent reinforcements to arrive, Duozhuang had been captured by Huaye for an hour. At this time, the 74th Division was surrounded on all sides and was unable to make a comeback. In order to save his life, Zhang Lingfu had no choice but to climb Menglianggu, which lacked water sources, and attempted to resist stubbornly, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements.
The commanders and fighters of the Sixth Column recalled Su Yu's conversation and were all impressed by his magic tricks: "Putting us in southern Shandong turns out to be a wonderful move."
Su Yu later pointed out that "using the Sixth Column hidden in southern Shandong is the key move... This time our army lured the enemy into depth, and then conquered the Sixth Column in southern Shandong. Once this move is started, the whole game will be alive. "
In just 3 days, Huaye wiped out all the 74th Division, and the arrogant Zhang Lingfu was killed. Our army's blocking aid forces fought hard, making those Kuomintang soldiers who were fully close to the 74th Division shouted.
As for the Sixth Column, it became the biggest contributor to kill Zhang Lingfu. Wang Bicheng ascended to the top of Meng Lianggu and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: "Finally take revenge. "After the
74 division was completely wiped out, the Kuomintang government and the public were shocked. The 450,000 troops collapsed without fighting, and the key attack was not resolved. Chiang Kai-shek was heartbroken and said that it was "the most heartbreaking and regretful thing since the suppression of bandits"; Wang Yaowu whined: "The loss of the 74th division is like the pain of losing his father. "
After the war, Chiang Kai-shek withdrew from Tang Enbo's position and beat him up to death; and Li Tianxia, who was desperate to save him, was handed over to the Military Court trial.
Mao Zedong was also quite excited about the complete victory of the Meng Lianggu Battle: "There were two people who had never imagined that they had completely wiped out the 74th Division, one was Chiang Kai-shek and the other was me! "
Su Yu's wonderful chess, even Chairman Mao didn't see it at the beginning.
