In January 1949, the Huaihai Campaign came to an end in the complete victory of our army. Although the strength of our army is 200,000 less than that of the first army, on the Huaihai battlefield, the PLA has always maintained the initiative, skillfully surrounded the enemy layer by layer, and launched the tactics of annihilating the enemy. In this battle, it seems that it is impossible to see that ** has an obvious advantage in troops, but it makes people mistakenly think that our army is full of soldiers.
It stands to reason that Du Yuming, as a famous anti-Japanese general and a first-class commander, led by him, why did he fall into such a passive and embarrassed situation in the Huaihai Campaign?In order to solve this mystery, we might as well dig into the reasons for this.
First of all, not all of the 800,000** are directly commanded by Du Yuming. In particular, Li Yannian, Liu Ruming's southern front troops, and Huang Wei's 12th Corps, which reinforced Huaihai, were not completely included in Du Yuming's command. It is estimated that Du Yuming's main force, including Qiu Lisun's corps and directly subordinate troops, totaled about 300,000 people. And the Huaye troops of our army have reached 400,000 or even more before the war, why is this?This is thanks to the transformation of the captives. This is also one of the reasons why the PLA has gradually increased its strength in the three major battles.
Second, there are differences in the composition of the two armies and the level of combat effectiveness. Huaye's 400,000 people are all field troops, and their combat power is strong. In addition to the military regions, military sub-divisions, county brigades, district squads, militia, peasants, and other forces, it is difficult to count the specific number. In contrast, of the 300,000 troops Du Yuming has, the three major corps are about less than 250,000, and the rest are garrison troops and troops in the appeasement zone. ** Li Yannian, Liu Ruming and others did not dare to fully support, if they dared to fully support, the Huaihai battle situation may be different.
Third, the most crucial point is that the replenishment of our army's troops is far smoother than that of the first army. Our army's Zhongye troops cover seven military regions, including western Anhui, Henan, Anhui, Suzhou, western Henan, southern Shaanxi, Jianghan, Tongbai, and Hubei, and Huaye is no less than Zhongye. Many columns were reorganized from the troops of the military region, and after being reorganized into field columns, although the military region lost most of its elite, it still retained its structure and cadres, and it was able to recruit more soldiers. On the other hand, the troops in the appeasement zone were directly reorganized into field corps, and there was no reserve. Therefore, our army can not hesitate to devote all its forces in battle, and the troops of the appeasement zone of ** are powerless in front of the field army.
Overall, the reason why the PLA was able to outnumber and skillfully divide and encircle on the Huaihai battlefield is complex and profound. From the structure of the troops, to the level of combat effectiveness, to the replenishment of troops, all kinds of differences are intertwined, and constitute the reason for the success of our army's Huaihai Campaign.