Influenced by the film and television dramas, many people now believe that the Liberation War was going very smoothly, and the People's Liberation Army's fight against the Kuomintang army was as simple as the autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves. But in fact, in the early stages of the war, our side suffered a lot of losses, such as when attacking Guisui and Baotou, they encountered many disastrous situations, and the troops suffered heavy casualties. On the one hand, this is because our side was not prepared before the war, and on the other hand, it is because the command of the Kuomintang general Fu Zuoyi is relatively appropriate.
Fu Zuoyi was an early revolutionary and he unswervingly followed Mr. Sun Yat-sen. During the Revolution of 1911, he joined the revolutionary army and followed the troops to conquer the Qing army, making many military achievements. In 1918, after graduating from a military academy in Hebei, he returned to his hometown to join the army and worked as an intern officer in a certain artillery regiment. In the decades since then, he traveled across the Central Plains and North China, experienced dozens of wars, and was gradually promoted to a senior officer. By 1931, he had become the lieutenant general and promoted all government affairs in Suiyuan Province, and could be called a senior official.
After the Japanese invaders occupied the Northeast, they were eyeing North China and sent troops several times to test China's attitude. Fu Zuoyi was very angry about this, so he personally led his troops to the front line to fight the enemy and gave the Japanese invaders a major injury. In 1936, the Japanese wooed him through coercion and temptation, but he flatly refused. When he heard that the Japanese invaders wanted to support the Mongols in establishing a puppet regime, he actively carried out armed struggles, defeated the enemy's conspiracy in one fell swoop, and effectively protected our country's territory.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was active on the front lines of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, fought desperately with the Japanese aggressors, and made a great reputation. In addition, he also took the risk of making friends with the Communists, visited Yan'an several times, and met with Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. However, at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, his attitude changed and he began to be wary of the CCP.
Time came to 1945, and the Japanese were already declining. Chiang Kai-shek urgently ordered Fu Zuoyi, who was already the commander of the 12th War Zone, to take over some major cities in northern Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi as soon as possible, and prepare for the future civil war. Fu Zuoyi immediately assembled his troops and occupied many strategic areas, including Guisui, which aroused strong dissatisfaction from our side. The Kuomintang simply wanted to take over the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance!
The Party Central Committee first negotiated with Fu Zuoyi. Without achieving satisfactory results, he ordered General He and General Nie to lead more than a dozen brigades of troops to launch an attack on Guisui and other cities, vowing to give the reactionaries some color. At first, our offensive achieved good results and occupied several small cities. Seeing this, Fu Zuoyi immediately shrank his troops to big cities such as Guisui, but could not stand. Our side lacked heavy weapons to attack the city, so he was unable to break through the enemy's defense line for a long time.
After evaluating the battle situation, President He and President Nie decided to change the attack direction to Baotou. Unexpectedly, the number of defenders in Baotou far exceeded expectations, and we responded hastily without sufficient preparation, so we suffered setbacks and failed to occupy Baotou even after a long battle. Seeing that the People's Liberation Army was frustrated, Fu Zuoyi immediately ordered the Baotou defenders to turn from defense to offense and to launch a small-scale defensive counterattack in the local area, causing great casualties to our side.
Soon, the weather is getting colder, and the winter season is coming. Our army lacks winter clothing supplies. The soldiers are tired of the cold and cold, and their fighting will decline slightly. What's even more terrible is that Mr. He even suffered from a severe cold and was dizzy and could no longer command the troops. The Party Central Committee realized that it was meaningless to continue fighting, so it ordered the withdrawal of troops. Fu Zuoyi won a temporary victory, but this does not mean that he had the last laugh. At the end of 1948, hundreds of thousands of People's Liberation Army soldiers came to the city of Beiping. He felt unable to resist. In order to protect the ancient capital of Beiping, he announced a peaceful uprising and joined the communist camp.
Objectively speaking, General Fu Zuoyi made contributions to the nation. He was a patriot. When the Japanese invaded, he rose up to resist and protected a large area of land. At the end of the War of Liberation, in order to avoid the ancient city of Beiping being poisoned by war, he resolutely decided to rebel peacefully. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he worked in the water conservancy department of New China for several years and made outstanding contributions to national construction. His achievements are worthy of recognition!
