In November 1948, the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army launched the Huaihai Campaign, and a decisive battle to determine the fate of China was staged in the ancient city of Xuzhou.
600,000 against 800,000, this battle is obviously very difficult to fight, but as it is said in the movie"Sandwich is sandwich, even if it's sandwich, you have to eat him." ”
The Huaihai Battle lasted a total of 66 days, and what everyone didn't expect was that the first stage of the battle to encircle and annihilate Huang Baitao was actually the most difficult to fight, which directly exceeded Su Zonghe's estimate.
And General Su also admitted afterwards: "In the entire Huaihai Campaign, I was nervous twice, the first time was to encircle and annihilate Huang Baitao. ”
When he could hold the news of Huang Baitao's suicide, he sighed with emotion"If it's one-on-one, I'm no match for him. ”
It can be seen from this that Huang Baitao's strength, so how difficult is this Huang Baitao to fight?So much so that Su Yu, the god of war, was so emotional.
In the second half of 1948, with the People's Liberation Army's successive victories in the Shandong battlefield, the blueprint of the Huaihai Campaign had already been presented in the eyes of Mr. Su, and it can be said that the Battle of Jinan was one"Little Huaihai".
At this time, the Battle of Jinan had not yet ended, and Mr. Su proposed to ** to expand the results of the battle"Little Huaihai". evolved"Great Huaihai".
* After discussion, it was decided to agree to President Su's suggestion to start the Huaihai Campaign.
The Huaihai Campaign was divided into three phases: the first stage was the encirclement and annihilation of Huang Baitao's corps;The second stage was to encircle and annihilate the Huang Wei Corps;The Third Corps was to encircle and annihilate Du Yuming's group.
Why did Mr. Su choose Huang Baitao's corps as the target of the first stage?
First, it is also because Huang Baitao's corps is not a descendant and is easier to fight;Second, Huang Baitao's corps also happened to be in the encirclement of our army, and it was also the most powerful against our army.
So Mr. Su chose Huang Baitao as the first target.
However, it was such an army that caused 60,000 people in Huaye.
In order to confuse the Kuomintang, in the early days of the Huaihai Campaign, our army created the illusion of attacking Xuzhou.
At that time, the closest to Xin'an Town was Huang Baitao's corps, so Lao Jiang ordered Huang Baitao's corps to rush to Xin'an Town.
And General Su decided to concentrate the strength of 10 columns to launch a surprise attack on Huang Baitao's corps, annihilate the Huang corps, and capture Huang Baitao alive.
However, Huang Baitao is a fierce general in the end, he didn't have any intelligence support at all, but he really smelled a trace of danger by him, if it weren't for Liu Zhi's commotion, Huang Baitao might even highlight the encirclement of our army.
In this way, under the siege and interception of the People's Liberation Army all the way, Huang Baitao's corps ran to Nian Zhuangwei.
Soon after, the People's Liberation Army also arrived at Cao Baji, after which the two armies engaged in a fierce battle, and then occupied Cao Baji, cutting off the connection between Nian Zhuangwei and Xuzhou, while Su ordered Song Shilun to lead three columns to stubbornly resist the corps that rescued Huang Baitao.
Originally, there was a plain area near Nian Zhuangwei, and according to the art of war, this place should be easy to attack and difficult to defend.
However, Huang Baitao was different, and he soon discovered the advantages of the terrain near Nian Zhuang Wei.
Huang Baitao was different from other generals in the Huangpu department, because Huang Baitao had no backstage at that time, so he could only rely on his military exploits if he wanted to be promoted.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Huang Baitao served as chief of staff for Gu Zhutong, and Gu Zhutong was very optimistic about Huang Baitao, so after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he supported Huang Baitao, so Huang Baitao was promoted to the position of commander of the 7th Corps.
It is precisely because of this that Huang Baitao was more dedicated than ordinary Whampoa officers at that time, although he was not from the Whampoa department, he was a favor to President Jiang and Gu Zhutong for their promotion.
After arriving at the periphery of Nian Zhuang Wei, Huang Baitao found that this is a plain area and there is no commanding height, but due to the influence of the local Yellow Flood Area, the local villagers have built several high platforms to observe the surrounding situation, and some places have also built walls.
These platforms became Huang Baitao's best fortifications, and Huang Baitao made full use of these platforms to form a strong fortification.
At the same time, Huang Baitao's light and heavy ** and machine gun equipment are also very reasonable, forming a criss-crossing and powerful firepower defense system, and the PLA soldiers have been unable to break through the fortifications of Nian Zhuangwei after repeated attacks.
And Huang Baitao did everything he could to resist the PLA, there were still a large number of people in Nian Zhuang Wei at that time, Huang Baitao used these villagers as a shield, and the PLA soldiers shrank back when they attacked in order not to let the people.
The five columns besieging Huang Baitao did not go well in the battles in the previous few days, and because of the narrow area, the PLA's previous tactics of dividing, encircling and eliminating them one by one could not be effective for Huang Baitao.
A few days before the battle, I thought that the PLA soldiers fought very hard, not only exceeding the expectations of the battle, but also unable to make any further progress.
And Mr. Su was unable to rest because Huang Baitao's corps could not conquer for a long time, and for seven days and seven nights, Mr. Su always stared at the combat map to observe the movement of the front line.
On the night of November 14, 1948, in a private house 15 kilometers away from the front line of Nian Zhuangwei, Mr. Su held a meeting, in order to break through the position of Huang Baitao's corps as soon as possible, Mr. Su decided to change his tactics: replace movement warfare with positional warfare, and dig towards the enemy's position by means of earthwork imminent operation.
This tactic is able to shorten the distance of the warrior's charge, reduce the ** of the troops, and at the same time disrupt the enemy's deployment.
In order to eliminate the Yellow Corps as soon as possible, Mr. Su used tank troops to fight for the first time.
However, although our army adjusted its deployment, our army still had great difficulties in attacking fortified positions in the first two days of the campaign, and the enemy was strictly defending and fighting for every inch of land, which caused a great deal to our army.
Although our tank units took the enemy by surprise, because our army lacked experience in infantry and tank coordination tactics, the attack did not make a breakthrough.
However, as the campaign continued, our army had a clear understanding of the combat power deployment and firepower deployment of the Yellow Corps, and at the same time, after many practices, it also mastered the tactics of infantry and tan coordination.
On November 17, 1948, Huaye's troops launched an attack on Huang Baitao's corps, and due to the infiltration of many parties, the enemy's troop disposition was clearly known.
Mr. Su decided to adopt it"Attack the weak enemy first, then the strong enemy, attack its head, and disrupt its deployment."The tactics of encircling and annihilating the Yellow Corps.
By dawn on the 18th, more than 5,000 Kuomintang people had been captured, and Huang Baitao's defense system had completely collapsed.
But Huang Baitao still showed great tenacity, and he led the remaining 10,000 people to continue to resist stubbornly in the hinterland of Nian Zhuangwei.
By the night of November 19, the strength of the Yellow Corps was less than 10,000, and General Su decided to launch a general attack on all units of Huaye.
For a time, all artillery units in Huaye smashed at Huang Baitao's corps with 10,000 cannons, and the People's Liberation Army took this opportunity to break into the position of Huang Baitao's corps.
Seeing that the front line had gone, his defense system had collapsed, and the reinforcements from all walks of life who came to the rescue had not arrived for a long time, Huang Baitao finally collapsed and committed suicide with a gun in despair on November 21.
At the moment of the victory of the mill, Mr. Su's highly tense nerves finally relaxed, and at this moment he finally couldn't support it and fainted to the ground, and slept for the first time for a whole day.
When he learned that Huang Baitao committed suicide, Mr. Su sighed with emotion, "If it's one-on-one, I'm afraid I'm not his opponent."
And Huang Baitao's defeat can be regarded as the prelude to the Huaihai Campaign, which made a good start to the Huaihai Campaign, as Liu Zhi, the commander of Xuzhou's "Suppression Chief", said: "After Huang Baitao's corps was annihilated, the fate of the Battle of Xu Beng has been decided." ”