The Battle of Huaihai can be said to be the most critical battle among the three major battles of the Liberation War, because it determined the overall situation of the entire Liberation War, completely defeating the Kuomintang army to the south of the Yangtze River , and realizing the transformation of the status of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party on the battlefield. Even though the Communist army had no advantage in terms of strength or equipment, it was still able to defeat the greater number with less. It can be said that this battle is a myth.
Looking back at the Huaihai Battle, who commanded this battle? Everyone generally believes that it was commanded by Suyu, but some people say that it was commanded by Liu, Chen, and Deng. In his later years, Liu Bocheng was unwilling to mention the Battle of Huaihai. He said that the war was very cruel and rare in the world. How cruel was this battle? How was it formed?
Su Yu made three suggestions and insisted on fighting a war of annihilation north of the Yangtze River.
The original idea of the Huaihai Campaign was proposed by Su Yu. In January 1948, Huaye annihilated more than 70,000 enemies and expanded the scope of the Central Plains Liberated Area.
At this time, both the East China Military Region and East China Field Army launched a new type of army reorganization movement. Among them, the 1st, 4th, and 6th columns of the East China Field Army were organized together to form the 1st Corps, which was the Suyu Corps.
During the period of army reorganization, Su Yu presented his profound analysis of the war situation to the central government. He proposed the strategy of "developing strategic offensives and changing the war situation in the Central Plains", and proposed that the three armies of Liu Deng, Chen Su and Chen Xie adopt a combat method of sudden concentration and sudden division to find opportunities to completely annihilate the enemy. It can be said that these ideas are very bold.
But at this time, the central government had already made the decision to divide its troops to cross the Yangtze River to attack. According to the strategic deployment of Chairman Mao and Chen Yi, Su Yu was going to lead his men to cross the Yangtze River and look for opportunities to fight the enemy in the Jiangnan area. Therefore, after the central government saw Su Yu's call, he asked him to provide suggestions for the central government's operations after it moved south.
After careful consideration, Su Yu called the central government again to reiterate his strategic vision. Chairman Mao valued his opinions, and after discussing and studying with Chen Yi, reiterated his request to go south and asked Su Yu to rectify the army and prepare for crossing the Yangtze River and marching south.
Su Yu thought repeatedly about the central government's decision-making and the dynamics of the battlefield in the Central Plains for more than two months. In April 1948, he made a third suggestion to the central government, stating his views and hoping that the central government would allow the three columns of Huaye not to move south for the time being, but to stay in the Huanghuai area of the Central Plains to fight the annihilation war.
Due to Su Yu's repeated insistence, Chairman Mao summoned Chen Yi and Su Yu for face-to-face discussions, and Su Yu also had the opportunity to fully state his entire strategic concept.
In the end, Chairman Mao also believed that the Central Plains region had the conditions for a decisive battle with the enemy, but this opportunity was fleeting and needed to be fully grasped. The three columns of Su Yu and Huaye stayed in the Central Plains, and from June to July 1948, they annihilated more than 90,000 enemies in the Battle of East Henan, setting an impressive record.
Preliminary conception of the Huaihai Campaign
By September 1948, the Jinan Campaign was a victory, and Shandong Province was basically liberated. Through this battle, Su Yu discovered that the three Kuomintang regiments stationed in Xuzhou no longer dared to rush northward for support and deliberately avoided a head-on confrontation with our army. This showed that the military strength of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was reversing.
Based on the above considerations, Su Yu proposed the concept of the Huaihai Campaign to the central government. Chairman Mao called Su Yu back to agree with his strategy and made improvements and supplements to the Huaihai Campaign..
In late October, as Chen Yi and Deng Xiaoping led their central and field troops to conquer many places in the Central Plains, more troops were available in the Central Plains. Su Yu saw the changes in the battlefield situation. He was keenly aware that the Huaihai Campaign would be unprecedented in scale. The two armies of East China and the Central Plains would join the Huaihai Campaign, which exceeded Su Yu's command authority.
So Su Yu immediately called Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao understood his concerns and replied to Su Yu saying: The entire campaign is under the unified command of Chen and Deng .
After the problem of unified command was solved, the deployment of the Huaihai Campaign was carried out in an orderly manner.At this time, the Kuomintang army decided to abandon Lianyungang , Haizhou and other places, concentrate its forces to defend Xuzhou, thereby blocking our army's offensive across the Yangtze River south, and ordered Huang Baitao's regiment to march to Xuzhou for support.
Based on the enemy's actions, Su Yu requested that the Huaihai Campaign be launched two days in advance. The central government said it would act accordingly and not report everything to the central government. Su Yu relied on his grasp of the war situation and the trust and support given by the central government to launch the campaign two days in advance.
During the review after the war, it was found that our army launched the war 2 days in advance. In fact, it was only 4 hours ahead of the Kuomintang army. However, these 4 hours enabled our army to cut off the retreat route of Huang Baitao's regiment moving to Xuzhou, resulting in much fewer Kuomintang troops in Xuzhou.
Zhongye and Huaye fought together, and the Huaihai Campaign was unprecedented in scale.
On November 2, the Liaoshen Campaign ended successfully, which made the forces of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party reverse faster, and the People's Liberation Army also gained a numerical advantage. Affected by the Liaoshen Campaign, the Kuomintang troops stationed in Xuzhou showed signs of retreating to the Huaihe River .
After repeated studies, Su Yu and generals believed that it would be more beneficial to our army to cut off the enemy's southward retreat in Xuzhou and allow them to stick to Xuzhou.
After overnight pre-judgment, Su Yu called the Central Military Commission on November 8, stating that the goal should be to attack Xuzhou and force the Kuomintang army to engage in a decisive battle with our army in Xuzhou.
And Chiang Kai-shek also understood that after the failure of the Shenyang Battle, if Xuzhou could not be defended, the political situation would inevitably be shaken. Therefore, he made up his mind to mobilize troops to defend Xuzhou and defend the Xuzhou-Beng Railway. In addition, Huang Baitao's regiment has been divided and surrounded by our army, which also forced the Kuomintang to have no retreat and had to fight a decisive battle in Xuzhou.
On November 9, Chairman Mao called Su Yu back and agreed with his concept of decisive battle. At this time, the strength of our army gathered in the Central Plains reached more than 600,000. In the end, the enemy army invested more than 800,000 troops and the entire army was wiped out. The Huaihai Battle achieved final victory.
From the initial idea of holding on to the Central Plains, to the Little Huaihai strategy, and then to the victory of the Huaihai Battle, Su Yu constantly observed the battle situation and had a keen insight into the enemy's intentions, which finally made the decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party north of the Yangtze River a reality.
In this battle, the two field armies fought together. No one person could take the lead in this battle alone. Therefore, this battle cannot be said to be commanded by one person, but the result of the joint efforts of all generals.
Summary:
Although the Battle of Huaihai was a complete victory, both the Kuomintang and the Communist armies actually suffered heavy casualties. Liu Bocheng did not want to mention this battle in his later years, and even recalling it was sad.
Countless soldiers died in this battle. Rather than saying who commanded this battle, it is better to remember these unknown soldiers who sacrificed for peace. It was their bravery and fearlessness that brought about the founding of New China and today's prosperity.
