Guo Tianmin was dismissed from his post in late October 1946, and the famous general who graduated from Whampoa and served as chief of staff of the Red Ninth Army became an idler. On the surface, it seems that there was a conflict between Guo Tianmin and the principal leaders of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, but in fact this was an outbreak of contradictions accumulated over a long period of time in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.
The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region has more than a dozen military sub-districts, all of which have been established in the course of arduous guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, and their leaders include Yang Chengwu, Zhao Erlu, Guo Tianmin, and others, all of whom are senior generals with high prestige, and each military sub-region is a "small hill."
The Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Command has encountered difficulties in unifying and coordinating various military sub-divisions, and it is difficult to form a unified action.
When the Japanese puppet army launched the "May Day Sweep" against the Jizhong base area, the troops of other military regions did not cooperate, resulting in tens of thousands of Japanese puppet troops coming and going freely in the base area.
Among them, on the one hand, the communication conditions are too poor and the communication between various departments is not smooth, but the more important reason is that the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region has difficulties in coordination and organization. In order to change this status quo, military region leaders Cheng Zihua, Xiao Ke, and others put forward a proposal for merging and reorganizing various military sub-districts.
However, institutional reform is not an easy task, and once it is carried out, it will inevitably break the original pattern, and may even cause deeper contradictions, so the principal leaders of the military region feel very troubled.
In 1943, ** went to Yan'an, and Cheng Zihua, Yang Chengwu, Guo Tianmin and others stayed on the front line to command. Until the summer of 1944, according to the instructions of Yan'an, the Jin-Cha-Ji Sub-Bureau merged the original dozen or so military sub-divisions into four military regions, namely, Jicha, Jijin, Jizhong, and Jireliao, with the commanders Guo Tianmin, Zhao Erlu, Yang Chengwu, and Li Yunchang respectively.
Among them, Li Yunchang has been in Jireliao originally, so it is logical to serve as the commander of the Jireliao Military Region; Guo Tianmin and Zhao Erlu were originally the commanders and political commissars of the 2nd Division, and they had profound qualifications and high prestige, and serving as the commanders of the Jicha and Jijin Military Regions respectively was also an important use for them; As for sending Yang Chengwu to Jizhong, it is because the base area in Jizhong has been destroyed in the "May Day Sweep" and is still a occupied area, and a person like Yang Chengwu with both military and political capabilities is needed to open up the situation.
At the former site of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Headquarters, there was a period of different opinions, and Nie Shuai had unique views on how to grasp the policy of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and for a period of time, the contradictions were relatively prominent.
However, at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1945, ** was identified as the core of the leadership of Jinchaji. After going through the most difficult period on the battlefield behind enemy lines, we finally won the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, which was extremely difficult.
After that, our army transferred a large number of troops to seize the northeast, and the Jireliao Military Region was assigned to the Northeast Theater.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Jin-Cha-Ji Base Area was the earliest established by our army, and it was also the core base area for key operations, and it was also known as a model base area. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the troops of Jinchaji had an advantage over other base areas in terms of quantity and quality.
However, a large-scale disarmament has affected the strength of the Jin-Cha-Ji troops, and some people have criticized it as "self-defeating martial arts".
** In the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Command, it was said that peace is the universal yearning of mankind, and both Yan'an and Chongqing have released their sincerity for peace through disarmament, and it is also a common wish for the two sides to sit down and negotiate.
However, behind peace often lies complex and dangerous situations. For this reason, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region resolutely implemented the policy of the General Headquarters, carried out the first phase of demobilization and attrition, and disarmed 100,000 people in one go, so that when the war broke out, only 50,000 people remained in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army.
However, in contrast, the Central China Army resolutely did not reduce its strength, but increased it, because Su Yu did not believe that peace would really come. After the Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army lost the Battle of Datong Jining, Zhangjiakou was also quickly lost, which dealt a very big blow to the morale of the Jin-Cha-Ji army and people, and the contradictions quickly intensified.
Under these circumstances, on October 22, 1946, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region held a meeting in Laiyuan to review and summarize the lessons of a series of previous defeats. **In his speech, he said that Zhangjiakou was originally a burden, but now it has been thrown to the enemy, and we can better travel lightly.
Although we have not found the original on-site records, based on Guo Tianmin's past temperament, it is likely that he will object to this. After this meeting, Guo Tianmin was removed from his post.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Guo Tianmin had reservations about the issue of the major disarmament of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region. He used the method of concealment, and only demobilized the old, weak, sick and disabled, but retained more than 10,000 veterans who could fight.
As a result, his troops exceeded their strength and were the most combat-ready. In the Battle of Zhangjiakou, the 2nd Column performed best and held the Huailai Line on the Eastern Front for 14 days.
The Jicha Military Region led by Guo Tianmin occupied Zhangjiakou, one of the few large cities of our army after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Now, Zhangjiakou is occupied by enemy troops, and everyone finally "enters the city", and the result is "back to the pre-war period overnight".
Guo Tianmin's heart was full of resentment, and his accusations represented the emotions of many military and civilians. Known as "Guo Dacang", he openly criticized his superiors and exposed social contradictions.
In the group photo of the Jinchaji Field Army, from left to right, they are Pan Zili, Yang Chengwu, Yang Dezhi, ** and Guo Tianmin. As the commander of the 2nd Column, political commissar, and commander of the Jicha Military Region, Guo Tianmin's posts were all removed, and the vacancy needed to be filled.
As a result, Yang Dezhi took over as the commander of the 2nd Column, Li Zhimin took over as the political commissar of the 2nd Column, and Zheng Weishan served as the commander of the Chahar Military Region, which was reorganized from the Jicha Military Region. Guo Tianmin was a military strategist born in Whampoa, and he advocated the regularization of the military, and once proposed at a column meeting that in the future, large corps should be fought, military aircraft should be strict, and guerrilla habits should be changed.
Such a view was not accepted by many guerrilla cadres at the time, who believed that Guo Tianmin had the habit of being a warlord. However, Guo Tianmin proved to be a visionary.
After Commander-in-Chief Zhu went to Jin-Cha-Ji to guide the work, Guo Tianmin was transferred to Liu Deng and served as the deputy chief of staff of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army. Before Liu Deng's army turned out of Dabie Mountain, he asked Guo Tianmin to "be an unsung hero again", so he stayed in the Hubei-Henan Military Region and successfully completed the task of containing the enemy.
In the Huaihai Campaign, he led his troops to Lianke**, Huangchuan, Macheng and other counties to contain part of Bai Chongxi's troops. It was not until the establishment of the Erye 4th Corps that he served as the deputy commander and chief of staff of the Corps and became Chen Geng's right-hand man.
* Teach tactics to the Jin-Cha-Ji troops, but at that time, the situation in the whole country had stabilized, and there were no large-scale battles to fight except for the suppression of bandits. It is regrettable that Guo Tianmin did not have much room to play during the War of Liberation.
Zheng Weishan, who succeeded Guo Tianmin as commander of the Chahar Military Region, has always been eager to fight on the front line, and is dissatisfied with his appointment as the commander of the local military region, hoping to be transferred.
After Mr. Zhu arrived, he was transferred to the 3rd Column as the commander, and finally had the opportunity to participate in the battle. Compared with Guo Tianmin, Zheng Weishan is lucky. At all times, we need to carry forward positive energy, continue to learn the history of war, and contribute to the peace and development of the country.