In 1948, the Shandong Corps of the East China Field Army had two operations to attack Yanzhou.
In fact, the whole year of 1948 was the most critical year during the War of Liberation, which not only marked the gradual shift of our army from strategic defense to strategic offensive, but also gradually began to be overstretched by the Kuomintang army under Chiang Kai-shek's command on major battlefields, so it had to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall.
After the Shandong Corps of the East China Field Army was divided in August 1947, it was mainly responsible for fighting in the Shandong battlefield, due to Fan Hanjie leading 7 integrated divisions to advance intensively, the situation was once critical, and the entire Jiaodong region was almost lost, but with Chiang Kai-shek transferring some troops to support the Central Plains battlefield, the dilemma faced by the Shandong Corps was alleviated, and several campaigns were launched in a row, all of which yielded great results, until the summer of 1948, the Kuomintang army retreated to Jinan, Qingdao and other cities to do key defense.
In order to open up the connection with the southwestern part of Shandong, the higher authorities instructed the Shandong Corps to gradually attack from north to south along the key points of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway to threaten Xuzhou. After the main force liberated Tai'an and other surrounding areas, it wedged into the junction of the 2nd and 10th appeasement zones with a part of the army, and surrounded Yanzhou, waiting for an opportunity to attract northern reinforcements from the Kuomintang army in Xuzhou.
Yanzhou defenders for the Kuomintang Army 10th appeasement area integrated 12th Division, division commander Huo Shouyi, the department was originally subordinate to the 57th Army of the Northeast Army, in 1941 after the 57th Army number was revoked, the two divisions of the Department were reorganized with the provisional 55th Division to form the Ninth Army, until 1944 was reorganized into the 12th Army, because Chiang Kai-shek has always taken a suppressive attitude towards the non-** military lineage, the Northeast Army at that time had no leader, basically most of them were dismembered, only a few of the original Northeast Army descendant troops, and still preserved the system.
The 12th Army (reorganized 12th Division) is one of the few, in fact, in June 1948, after the Shandong Corps besieged Yanzhou, Huo Shouyi did feel panicked, and quickly asked for reinforcements from the appeasement area, but because the first Yanzhou operation, mainly to attract the northern reinforcement of the Kuomintang army in Xuzhou, so when the reinforcements in the direction of Xuzhou were dispatched, the 7th column of the Shandong Corps surrounding Yanzhou immediately withdrew and cooperated with friendly troops to send reinforcements.
In view of the emptiness of the Kuomintang army in the Yanzhou area and its special status on the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, the Shandong Corps was determined to pull out the nail of Yanzhou, and with the 7th Column led by Cheng Jun and the 13th Column of Zhou Zhijian, and a total of 45 regiments of local troops, it was responsible for attacking Yanzhou.
The 12th Division of the Yanzhou Defenders had suffered a lot of losses in the previous operations, in fact, the structure was incomplete, and there were only 12 regiments in total when it was connected to the local security regiments that cooperated with the operation in the Yanzhou areaAbout 80,000 people, of course, the most difficult place is not in the troops, but in the high walls of Yanzhou itself, when the Kuomintang army was stationed here, the city walls were repaired, and some prominent places were made of granite and cement, and Li Yutang, commander of the 10th appeasement district, called Yanzhou "the first fort in the world".
In order to overcome the situation that the high walls of Yanzhou City were thick and difficult to capture, the columns of the Shandong Corps decided to adopt the method of landing the city on one side, taking the west of Yanzhou City as the main breakthrough point, leaving only a small number of troops to monitor the north of the city. As soon as the battle began, the two sides immediately fell into a white heat, although the overall combat effectiveness of the integrated 12th Division was not the strongest, but in many miscellaneous cards, it was still considered elite, and the breakthrough opened by our army was blocked several times, and what was more serious was that the integrated 96th Army led by Wu Huawen had rushed to the aid of Yanzhou since July 1.
In order to speed up, the siege troops were covered by artillery fire, and broke through the city defense in many ways, and Huo Shouyi, the commander of the 12th Division, knew that he could not hold it, and evacuated urgently with the division headquarters, and was captured halfwayMore than 80,000 people, but also by the way to expand the results of the war, liberate the surrounding areas of Yanzhou, and achieved 5 enemy annihilationA glorious record of 30,000 people.