Marshal, the "god of war" of the People's Liberation Army, is known for his flexible command of operations, and is known as "Liu Bowen in the army". The Battle of Longhai in 1946 is its classic.
In the battle, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to pursue the troops of the Central Plains Military Region, transferred almost all the main forces along the Longhai line, and decisively decided to assemble the main force of the field army to attack the enemy, and finally won the victory, which is the famous Longhai Campaign.
** Commanded the field army between August 5 and 10, carried out the plan for the Battle of Longhai. In order to achieve the effect of surprise, the attacking troops traveled at night, avoiding roads and villages, marching quietly in the wilderness, and boldly interspersed, traveling more than 200 miles, and successfully and quietly arrived at the starting point of the attack.
On the night of August 10, the battle began, and the left and right armies launched a fierce attack on the enemy according to the plan. The 6th Brigade of the Right Route Army, under the cover of artillery fire, attacked Lanfeng Station and the county seat, and after several hours of fierce street fighting, completely annihilated the defending enemy and captured 1 military train and 11 tanks.
The 8th Brigade of the 3rd Column, under the command of the 6th Column, conquered Sanyi Village and Luowang Station. The main force of the three columns launched attacks on civil rights and other strongholds. The Seventh Column of the Left Route Army conquered Dangshan and other strongholds, and then launched a breakthrough attack on the railway.
After two days of fighting, more than 5,000 enemies were annihilated. On the 13th, the enemy's 55th Division and the 68th Division were dispatched from Shangqiu and Kaifeng respectively to advance from east to west for reinforcements.
Chiang Kai-shek also transferred three divisions from the troops of the Central Plains Military Region to Kaifeng. Therefore, ** decided to occupy the cities of eastern Henan and force the enemy's main force of 3 divisions to deploy defense to the New Yellow River.
** On August 14, the basic order for the second phase of the operation was issued, and the columns actively carried it out, achieving remarkable results. They conquered Qixian and Tongxu and surrounded the enemy's 55th Brigade of the 181st Division.
However, just as the battle was about to be won, **'s battle order was intercepted by the enemy, which made the enemy begin to reinforce. In the face of unfavorable news, ** quickly changed the deployment, commanded the seventh column to join the battle of encircling and annihilating the 181st brigade, and at the same time dispatched the second column to the Dongming area to assemble to protect the safety of the main force.
This decision played a key role in the crisis, and finally on the 21st, the 3rd and 7th Columns successfully annihilated a regiment of the enemy's 181st Brigade and 29th Brigade. The battle was fraught with danger, but the decision and command of *** allowed our army to win in the end.
** The Battle of Longhai under the command of the marshal ended successfully, successfully annihilating a large number of enemy forces and disrupting Chiang Kai-shek's offensive plan on the southern front.