Zhou Xihan commanded two divisions and successfully repelled the attack of nine divisions of the Gui army, but Chen Geng smelled danger and immediately ordered a retreat, leaving no one behind. After the three major battles of Liaoshen, Pingjin, and Huaihai, the balance of forces between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party underwent a fundamental change.
Chiang Kai-shek's elite army was almost completely wiped out, which was undoubtedly a major blow to him who relied on military force to rule. Therefore, his old rivals, the Gui warlords, emerged at this critical moment, led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, among others.
Bai Chongxi, as the leader of the "Central China Suppression General", has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, including the Gui army. He used this to force Chiang Kai-shek to go into the wilderness and temporarily give up the position of "** to Li Zongren, although the word "generation" still needs to be added in front of this **.
The Gui army became the biggest obstacle to the liberation of the whole of China, and Bai Chongxi brought huge losses to our army with his wisdom and strong position. In the Battle of Xiangjiang, he led the Gui army to block the Red Army, causing heavy losses to our army.
In order to confront the Gui army, our army cannot apply the tactics of dealing with the ** army, and the front-line commanders need to have higher autonomy and adaptability. And General Chen Geng is such a general who is good at change.
In April 1949, the battle of crossing the river began, and General Chen Geng, as a member of the million-dollar army crossing the river, had served as the commander and political commissar of the 4th Corps of the Second Field Army, leading three armies with a total strength of more than 200,000 people.
In May, the 4th Corps followed the People's Liberation Army and conquered Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanchang and other large cities. However, Bai Chongxi's Gui army did not suffer a strong blow, and the main force was originally stationed in Wuhan, but after the battle of crossing the river, Bai Chongxi led the troops to retreat and ceded a large area of land to our army.
Bai Chongxi attempted to withdraw the main force to southern Hunan and take advantage of the complex mountainous terrain to fight a decisive battle with our army, and if victorious, he could advance the Gui forces to the Yangtze River;If the war is unfavorable, he can retreat to Guangxi or even Hainan and Vietnam.
Therefore, although the PLA liberated many cities, it was never able to catch the main force of the Gui army. At the same time, Bai Chongxi did not simply retreat, he paid close attention to the movements of our army, and once our army moved south, he would concentrate superior forces for a siege.
For example, on October 2, 1949, Bai Chongxi ambushed our 49th Army in Qingshuping, resulting in a serious defeat for our army. The Battle of Qingshuping was one of the few victories after the Battle of Crossing the River.
In May, Chen Geng almost fell for Bai Chongxi's plan. At that time, Chen Geng received an order from the ** Military Commission to lead the 4th Corps to return to ** and command, and launched the Hunan and Jiangxi Campaign.
In order to cooperate with the Fourth Field Army, Chen Geng ordered the 13th Army and the 14th Army to cross the Gan River to fight. However, as soon as Zhou Xihan's 13th Army crossed the Gan River, it was discovered by Bai Chongxi and mobilized nine divisions for a siege.
Faced with this situation, Guo Tianmin, chief of staff of the 4th Corps, was very anxious, but Chen Geng was not surprised, pointed to the map and said: "Although the enemy army has nine divisions, due to terrain restrictions, there can only be four divisions at most on the front.
According to Bai Chongxi's command habits, these four divisions are usually divided into two echelons, so that there are only two divisions on the front, that is, the eighth regiment. It is simply impossible to annihilate two divisions of the 13th Army with these eight regiments.
You must know that the 13th Army is the absolute trump card of the Second Field Army, and Zhou Xihan is also one of the most outstanding generals in the Second Field Army, and he will not be easily eliminated. Soon, a telegram from Zhou Xihan came: "We have now captured the enemy, we have captured a few hundred people, more than a dozen cannons have been captured, the enemy has been disorganized and has begun to retreat, and we are preparing for pursuit." ”
Zhou Xihan reported in the telegram that they had fought a beautiful battle, and the atmosphere in the headquarters was very warm, and the commander excitedly called Zhou Xihan, praising them for fighting well, and preparing to immediately organize backup troops to support them.
However, Chen Geng grabbed the ** at the critical moment, and said to Zhou Xihan: "Quickly withdraw and stop the pursuit!."I tell you, before dawn tomorrow, you must not leave a single soldier on the west bank of the Gan River. ”
Guo Tianmin was puzzled by this and asked Chen Geng why he let the 13th Army retreat when the enemy was retreating. Chen Geng explained that Bai Chongxi had always been cunning, and it was impossible for his 8 regiments to annihilate two divisions of our army, and our army could not annihilate his 9 divisions.
His intention was to lure the 13th Army forward, cut off the crossings along the river, and then divide and encircle, our army on the west bank of the Ganjiang River and the enemy army to fight for attrition is meaningless, it is better to quickly withdraw to the east bank for rest, waiting for the main force of the four fields to cross the river and then cooperate, so that there is a better certainty of victory.
Chen Geng's analysis was thoughtful and thoughtful, which made everyone in the command admirable. In front of Bai Chongxi, Chen Geng suffered no less. In the Battle of Wandong, Chen Geng designed to encircle and annihilate Zhang Zhen's corps, and he was about to succeed, but Bai Chongxi saw through it and let go of the 3 integrated divisions.
Now that he is facing Bai Chongxi again, Chen Geng can't let him run anymore. However, in this Hunan and Jiangxi campaign, our army still failed to seize the main force of the Gui army, and only annihilated more than 4,600 enemies.
** In the way of ultra-long-distance outflanking, instead of our army's previous close-range detour interspersed with fighting, it proposed a tactical plan to lead 100,000 white bandits to Guilin, Nanning, Liuzhou and other places in Guangxi and annihilate them, and even chase them to Kunming to annihilate them.
As early as June 4, Chen Geng described his strategic plan in his diary, that is, to concentrate all the forces of the Second Field and the Fourth Field to break through to Liangguang and Yungui from the left and right flanks respectively, cut off the retreat of the Gui army, and capture the five southwestern provinces as soon as possible.
Chen Geng's overall strategic vision allows him to make decisions with the best people"Coincidentally", even earlier than **, put forward the strategic idea of marching into Guangdong and cutting off Bai Chongxi's retreat.
* Adopted Chen Geng's suggestion and formulated a plan for the southward operation of the eastern, central, and western routes. The goal of Chen Geng's corps changed from Hunan to Guangdong, and the fourth and second fields carried out adaptive training to achieve strong soldiers and horses.
Chen Geng's suggestion was supported by ***. On September 4, Chen Geng was stationed in Ganzhou and held an operational meeting on the liberation of Guangdong with Fang Fang and others, and conveyed the operational policy of the Military Commission and the Military Commission.
After the meeting, Chen Geng submitted the deployment and combat plan for the march to Guangzhou, and approved the plan. In the southward operation, Chen Geng carried out three consecutive contingency commands, conquered Shaoguan, and Guangzhou was in no danger to defend.
* Chen Geng was advised to abandon Guangzhou and march to Guangxi, but Chen Geng found that Yu Hanmou had no intention of going west, but was ready to resist for a while on the outskirts of Guangzhou. Because the distance was too far to cut off the enemy's retreat, Chen Geng abandoned this plan.
Chen Geng's corps formulated a contingency command, and immediately did not enter the city of Guangzhou, but directly pursued the enemy army, hoping to annihilate the enemy's living forces. He ordered his troops to insert into Foshan to intercept and block the enemy's retreat to Hainan, and at the same time let the troops occupy the city west of Guangzhou and cut off the enemy's escape to Guangxi.
However, ** advised Chen Geng to stop the pursuit, fearing that he would not be able to catch up, which caused the enemy to flee to Guangxi. Chen Geng, however, believed that if the enemy troops were allowed to flee to Hainan Island, it would undoubtedly make it more difficult for our army to liberate the island.
Therefore, he decided to pursue the enemy army, and the battalions continued to speed up their attacks, catching up with the enemy army and annihilating it. After careful arrangement, Yu Han's plan soon collided with the net arranged by our army.
Our army finally succeeded in annihilating the main force of the Kuomintang in Guangdong, and Guangdong was successfully liberated, realizing the encirclement of the southeast of the Bai Chongxi group. In this battle, our army annihilated the Gui army1More than 20,000 people seized a large amount of equipment, including the special cars of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, and even the sword worn by Li Zongren was also seized.
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's decades of operation were ruined.
Before Chen Geng's corps was placed under the command of **, ** had asked to contact the division directly. However, Chen Geng refused the request of ** and only let the army be contacted. He explained: "If the divisions are contacted directly, as soon as the order to stop the pursuit is given, the divisions that are marching according to our plan will immediately be thrown into disarray.
The divisions stopped, and we gave the order to continue the pursuit, and the day passed in vain. It was easy for the enemy to buy time to flee to the Leizhou Peninsula, and the battle would not be easy to fight at that time. ”
Chen Geng's combat is based on the principle of initiative and seeking truth from facts, and he does not only rely on the top, not only books, but only the truth. He used his wisdom and courage to successfully change three times and completely eliminate Guangdong**.
Chen Geng lived up to expectations and won high praise from *** and ***.