In March 1947, in order to meet the Kuomintang army's attack on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Liberated Area, the Northwest Field Corps, which was dominated by the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Field Army, was formally established (renamed the Northwest Field Army in July).60,000 people, and at that time there were as many as 150,000 people in the Xi'an Pacification Office dominated by Hu Zongnan, and in order to avoid continuous attrition in the battle, our army decided to abandon Yan'an and carry out a key attack on the Kuomintang army in the form of mobile warfare.
Because the terrain of the northwest is not suitable for the extension of the large corps, so the numerical disadvantage of the Northwest Field Army has become an advantage, under the ambush of our army many times, the Northwest Field Army gradually gained a firm foothold, and on February 24, 1948, the Yichuan Campaign was launched, defeating the Kuomintang Army's proud mobile corps Liu Huan's integrated 29th Army more than 30,000 people, with the liberation of Yichuan, the Northwest Field Army successively liberated Xifu and Longdong, and destroyed the Kuomintang Army's important supply point in the Northwest Battlefield. The situation on the battlefield has changed further.
All this made He Wending's 17th division stationed in Yan'an panicked, in fact, Yan'an had become an isolated city at that time, although He Wending had a more than 20,000 people in his hands, but the soldiers were panicked, most of them were unwilling to fight again, on April 7, a guerrilla group attacked Qingliang Mountain outside Yan'an, and the defenders panicked, causing a riot in Yan'an City, all thought that their destruction was imminent, until after dawn, they did not figure out the situation.
Moreover, at that time, the reorganized 17th Division could not get any supplies from Hu Zongnan at all, so He Wending sent a special telegram to Hu Zongnan to ask for instructions, asking to evacuate the isolated city of Yan'an, but after Hu Zongnan received the telegram, he hesitated repeatedly and did not agree immediately, the reason is also very simple, Yan'an's political influence is too great, especially Chiang Kai-shek held the **National Congress in Nanjing at that time, it was at the time of the election**, in case the news of Yan'an was blocked, maybe his good luck would come to an end.
But even dragging it like this is not a way, He Wending almost can't get any supplies in Yan'an, and the whole is in a state of sitting and eating empty, and as a lone army, once our army attacks at this time, I'm afraid that this army will collapse first before the city is broken, and it has been dragged on for almost half a month, and finally Hu Zongnan finally couldn't stand it anymore and ordered He Wending to evacuate from Yan'an.
But at that time, the evacuation was basically full of dangers, after all, most of the surrounding cities have been liberated by our army, and in the Huanglong Liberated Area south of Yan'an, there is still a force of the Northwest Field Army resting, in order not to alarm our army, He Wending proposed a way, that is, to take the troops around a big circle, first to the north, then detour to Ningxia, Gansu, and then stick to the border of Longdong to withdraw to Yan'an, because all the way are under the jurisdiction of the Kuomintang army, so there should be no accidents.
Although the retreat process was very smooth at the beginning, and even gathered thousands of remnants of the 61st Brigade of the 90th Division in Luochuan, He Wending overestimated himself, when he withdrew from Yan'an, the Northwest Field Army, which was also in the northwest battlefield, had already noticed that in order to intercept this lone army, Xu Guangda of the Northwest Field Army led his troops to ambush in the middle.
By the time the troops that retreated to Pucheng and Hu Zongnan converged, the 17th Division had lost nearly 4,000 men, especially a heavy artillery regiment and countless vehicles, and He Wending fled in a hurry, which made Chiang Kai-shek very unhappy, and He Wending himself was removed from his post and investigated.