In September 1946, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the 7th Army, the most elite of the Kuomintang troops, to attack the 7th Army and the 74th Division of the Central China Liberated Area, and the People's Liberation Army of Central China fought back, and the battle to defend the two Huaihuai started.
Liberation War
It has to be admitted that in the history of our army, the battle to defend the two Huai Rivers was a rare defeat in . After more than half a month of bloody battle, our army not only failed to defend the two political and military centers of Huaiyin and Huai'an, but also paid the price of more than 6,000 casualties.
After Chairman Mao summarized the lessons of this battle, he believed that this was the result of differences in Chen Su's opinions. Finally, the Chairman ordered: the two field troops, Shandong and Central China, , were combined into East China Field Army, Su Yu , and the battle command was taken.
Where does Chen Su have any differences in opinions?
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in , the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army quickly developed major liberated areas with the help of , the strategic dividend . Among them, the liberated areas located in central China and , Shandong and are the fastest-growing areas. In just two years, they have become new liberated areas with a population of 25 million. Moreover, as liberated areas directly adjacent to Nanjing, the strategic position of the liberated areas in central China is undoubtedly extremely important.
New Fourth Army generals took a photo
Therefore, in order to remove this thorn in the eyes and the thorn in the flesh, Chiang Kai-shek specially mobilized a huge force of 3.43 million people and prepared to launch key attacks on the two major areas of central China and southern Shandong respectively.
At that time, Chen Yi was the commander of the Shandong Military Region, while Su Yu was the commander of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region. The two are in the East China region and can be said to be golden partners fighting side by side. The growth of the two liberated areas, southern Shandong and central China, is closely related to them. However, Chen Su and the other two had completely different opinions on how to deal with . Jiang Jun attacked .
Chen Yi
Chen Yi believes that the next focus of the East China Liberated Area should be to expand westward, transfer the main force of the Central China Field Army to the outside of Huainan to fight, and further enhance the strength of the liberated area. Su Yu believes that Huainan is a key place for Chiang’s army to operate and does not have the mass and material foundation. This move is too risky. The safer plan is to continue to operate the liberated area of central China and defeat the invading Chiang’s army with difficulty.
Su Yu
The enemy is in the moment, without a unified is obviously not feasible. So when there was a disagreement, Chen Yi reported the opinions of the two to Chairman Mao, hoping that the Chairman could make a ruling and point out the direction for the revolutionary situation in East China.
hard to make a judgment
When Chairman Mao received a telegram from Chen Yi, even if he was as wise as him, couldn't help but frown . With the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the situation of the War of Liberation is confusing, all the situation is extremely complicated. After careful consideration, Chairman Mao called Chen Yi back: agree with Su Yu's opinion on fighting a battle in , Su Zhong and , but the advancement of the west by the Chinese and wilderness is indeed of great significance, so Su Yu can wait until this battle in souzhong before conducting a transfer to the west.
Chairman Mao
It can be seen that Chairman Mao’s opinions on Chen Su and the other did not reject , but was mixed. The reason for this decision is mainly to consider the issue of unity - if the advance westward is temporarily frustrated, then the Soviet and Chinese sides may have complaints. Therefore, it is better to give both sides a chance to show their performance for the time being, so that they can make the next decision, so that everyone will not have much objection.
PLA soldiers in fierce battle
With the chairman's approval, Chen Yi and Su Yu each practiced according to their own strategies . Chen Yi first mobilized 240,000 Shandong Field Army to go south, fighting two battles between Chaoyangji and Sixian County, with one victory and one loss, and the results were not many; but Su Yu commanded the Central China Field Army to win consecutive battles in various parts of central Suzhou, and achieved a beautiful "Seven Victories in Central Suzhou", killing more than 50,000 enemies in total.
Seeing the difference between the two after their practice, the chairman believed that Su Yu's idea is more in line with the actual situation , so he agreed to the opinion of continuing to stay in the Central China field army in Suzhong.Chen Yi's troops stayed in Huaibei to continue to accumulate energy for future advance westward.
But in this way, Chen Su and his men's troops had a strategic separation, and the defenses in the Huaihe area in central China became quite empty, which laid the groundwork for the large-scale attack of Chiang army.
Su Yu, who commanded the operation, reflected on the failure of the defense battle between the two Huaihe Rivers
In September 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, who learned that the two Huai Rivers were empty, transferred the most elite 7th Army of the Kuomintang and the reorganized 74th Division to East China battlefield , and decided to tear open the defense line in the East China Liberated Area here.
Reorganized 74th Division, under the command of Zhang Lingfu , has extremely strong combat power. They first crossed the 9th vertical defense zone of Huaye in a powerful posture, captured Siyang , and then continued to attack Huaiyin without rest. Fortunately, Huaye 6 Column and Shandong Field Army 2 Column arrived one after another, temporarily stabilizing the Huaiyin defense line with its military advantage.
KMT reorganized the 74th Division, but the cunning Zhang Lingfu dispatched a special combat camp and asked them to change into the PLA uniforms in and sneak into the south gate of Huaiyin City. In this way, our army lost the southern gate of Huaiyin without any defense, which eventually led to the reorganized 74th Division's troops entering Huaiyin city.
After several days of bloody battles, our army organized many counterattacks were repelled by the reorganized 74th Division equipped with American equipment. In desperation, our army had to evacuate from Huaiyin.
Huaiyin and Huaian are strategically dependent on each other. One place is lost, and the other place is also difficult to defend. Therefore, after meetings and discussions by major military and political leaders in East China, they made the decision to abandon Huaian and preserve their strength. On September 23, the Kuomintang troops entered Huai'an city, and the battle to defend the two Huaihe Rivers ended with a regrettable ending.
Our army evacuated Huai'an
After the defeat in the battle, Chairman Mao conducted reflection and summary on this matter . He believes that the key to the problem lies in the emptiness of our army in the Huai River, and the fundamental reason for the emptiness of the Huai River is that the differences between Chen and Su led to the separation of the deployment of troops in East China. Therefore, the problem of the separation of our army's deployment must be fundamentally solved.
After such considerations, Chairman Mao finally decided to form the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army into a unified East China Field Army with , with Chen Yi as commander and political commissar, and Su Yu as deputy commander. The Chairman specifically emphasized:
"The East China Liberated Area is led by Chen Yi, and the military region's major policies are jointly decided by Chen Su and the two of them, but the military battle command is left to Su Yu."
Su Yu
After the formation of the East China Field Army, the problem of the division of the troops deployed by our army in this area was fundamentally solved by . In May 1947, Su Yu mobilized five columns of the East China Field Army to encircle and annihilate Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division and shot him to death in Menglianggu. At this point, our army's defeat in the defense of the two Huai Rivers was completely wiped out.
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