In June 1948, on the battlefield of the Liberation War, the People's Liberation Army had entered the stage of strategic counteroffensive. At that time
Tan Zheng, director of the Political Department of the Northeast Field Army
And the leaders of the headquarters are very clear that if they want to liberate Changchun, it is more important to adopt the tactic of attacking the heart.
Stationed in Changchun was Zheng Dongguo, deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang's northeast "suppression general," and in Chiang Kai-shek's view, handing Changchun over to Zheng Dongguo, who could fight a hard battle, could be said to be foolproof.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the invading Japanese army had built many permanent fortifications outside Changchun, and Zheng Dongguo ordered the reinforcement of fortifications and the construction of pillboxes. Even the Kuomintang newspapers at that time used four words to describe the defense of Changchun, that is
"Strong Crown Nationwide"
。
Tan Zheng
On June 9, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to the Northeast Field Army saying:
"It was basically agreed to spend three to four months to conquer Changchun and strive to annihilate the enemy."
As soon as he arrived in Jilin, Tan Zheng attended a meeting of senior cadres at and above the divisional level of the Northeast Field Army. At the meeting, it was decided that while imposing a military blockade on Changchun, it would also carry out a political offensive and economic struggle, thus shaking the determination of the Kuomintang defenders in Changchun.
At this time, on the northeast battlefield, the strength of the enemy and us had undergone fundamental changes, and the Central Military Commission decided to attack Jinzhou first, forming a situation of "closing the door and fighting dogs," while changchun was implementing the strategy of "long-term siege and long siege."
On June 22, the Northeast Field Army began to enter the designated position, and three days later officially imposed a siege of Changchun.
In order to unify its actions, the Northeast Field Army also set up a special committee for struggle against the enemy and a command post for the siege of Changchun. Under the command of Xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua, the People's Liberation Army formed a circular blockade area within a radius of fifty miles outside Changchun City, and built an indestructible blockade line.
Northeast Field Army
That's it
The PLA's strategy of "long siege and long siege" against Changchun, an attempt to use offensive warfare to disintegrate the enemy, officially opened the curtain.
At this time, in Changchun City, the main defenders were the Kuomintang New 7th Army and the veteran 60th Army of the Dian Army, although these two armies belonged to the same battle sequence of the Kuomintang army, they were full of contradictions.
The New 7th Army and the 60th Army are bounded by Zhongzheng Avenue, the former guarding the west of Zhongzheng Avenue and the latter guarding the east of Zhongzheng Avenue. The two sides even set up sentries at the demarcation line, and neither of them entered the other's defensive position, showing a sword-rattling posture.
In addition, the New 7th Army and the 60th Army are also very different in weapons and equipment. The New 7th Army under the command of Zheng Dongguo was Chiang Kai-shek's concubine and was well fed and ammunition. The 60th Army had just fled from Jilin to Changchun, and it lacked clothing and food, and the unequal treatment of the two units caused dissatisfaction among Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 60th Army.
Jeong Dong-kook
Knowing the news that the New 7th Army of the Kuomintang Army was at odds with the 60th Army,
Tan Zheng and the Political Department decided to ideologically disintegrate the enemy and thus break them one by one.
Therefore, Tan Zheng ordered the political department of the field army to print it uniformly
"Jiang Jun Surrender Officers and Soldiers Pass"
and over a million flyers.
In printed leaflets, the People's Liberation Army called the Kuomintang troops stationed in Changchun "brothers of officers and men of Chiang Kai-shek's army" and warned them."
The poor in the world are one family, their own people do not fight their own people, and the uprising is the only way out.
”
Tan Zheng specifically instructed the besieging troops on the front line to distribute these surrender passes and leaflets to the Kuomintang soldiers in Changchun City.
Because there were no planes, the PLA had no way to airdrop, so they came up with a good idea. Some fighters made kites and tied leaflets to them; others shot leaflets at enemy positions with bows and arrows.
In addition to the leaflets, the simplest way for frontline fighters to publicize is to shout with simple local loudspeakers.
"Brethren, are you hungry? Stop being cannon fodder for the reactionaries, lay down your weapons and hurry up. ”
According to the recollections of the soldiers of the Kuomintang army who later surrendered:
Whenever we hear the people's liberation army shouting "brothers" and "fellow countrymen" at us, especially when we mention "home", the brothers instantly burst into tears. ”
As the siege of Changchun became longer and longer, Zheng Dongguo in the city began to be unable to sit still. He thought to himself that the main force of the Northeast Field Army had been transferred to the Jinzhou battlefield at this time, and the remaining siege strength was similar to his own.
Therefore, Zheng Dongguo immediately called out to the chief of staff and said:
Immediately send a telegram to the principal, we are going to break through.
However, the callback given by Chiang Kai-shek was:
"Changchun must be held to the death, so that the strength of the Northeast Field Army can be dispersed, and Jinzhou and Shenyang can be relatively safe."
Chiang Kai-shek
Seeing Chiang Kai-shek's call back, Zheng Dongguo had no choice but to obey the order and give up the idea of breaking through, and the first thing he had to solve at this time was the grain problem.
In order to prevent the Kuomintang planes from airdropping food to the defenders in Changchun City, the People's Liberation Army also deliberately set up anti-aircraft guns. On several occasions, when the Kuomintang planes were airdropping food, due to panic, they directly dropped the food on the positions of the People's Liberation Army outside Changchun City, which became a delicacy in the mouth of the People's Liberation Army.
Seeing that the grain of the Kuomintang army in Changchun City was getting less and less, they extended their claws to the innocent people in the city and snatched up all the grain in the homes of the common people.
In order to defend this "isolated city", Zheng Dongguo began to carry out household registration clearance and surplus grain registration, and the results of the statistics were:
"The grain in Changchun City can only last the troops for two months at most."
In desperation, Zheng Dongguo once again sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek asking for help, and Chiang Kai-shek called back and said:
"Collect all grain and materials in Changchun, distribute them uniformly by the government, and completely collect them into public ownership."
As a result of this Kuomintang policy, grain prices in Changchun soared, rising nearly seven hundredfold in the three months from June to September 1948.
In order to alleviate the pressure on grain in Changchun city and cause chaos to the People's Liberation Army outside the city, Zheng Dongguo came up with another solution.
Zheng Dongguo ordered the expulsion of the people in Changchun City, requiring every policeman to drive out at least eight people, and each village chief to take away three families.
The people of Changchun, who had been driven out, began to flock to the PEOPLE's liberation army blockade line outside the city, and Tan Zheng frowned in the war room. He thought to himself that if a gap was opened to let the common people out of the city, once the Kuomintang army suddenly went out in the chaos, it would affect the entire northeast war situation.
However, Tan Zheng was not willing to let these ordinary people die in vain, and after some thought, he made a decision:
"Open a gap and let the people out of the city."
On September 11, the Northeast Field Army, in the name of Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Tan Zheng, and others, jointly issued the "Disposition on Opening Changchun Refugees Out of the City", requiring that the people of Changchun who leave the city be released in batches within ten days and do a good job in resettling them.
On September 17, the mid-autumn festival of the 15th month of the lunar calendar, Tan Zheng's "condolence bags" prepared for the soldiers of the Kuomintang 60th Army were delivered outside Changchun City. Since most of the soldiers of the 60th Army were from Yunnan, Tan Zheng specially sent people to add the Yunnan people's favorite mooncakes to the "condolence bags", and there were all kinds of fillings.
On the night of the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the People's Liberation Army also sang the Yunnan minor tune on the position, deliberately singing to the soldiers of the 60th Army.
Listening to the familiar hometown tune, the soldiers of the 60th Army could no longer hold back their homesickness and took advantage of the night to surrender.
Tan Zheng's "offensive tactics" had already achieved results, and Zheng Dongguo, who was sitting in Changchun City, could no longer sit still. He knew that at this point, the psychological defenses of the generals had collapsed, and all he could do now was deterrence.
In order to avoid more soldiers surrendering, Jeong Dong-kook urgently promulgated it
"Sitting together"
The so-called "sitting method" means that every three soldiers are divided into groups, and if one of them surrenders, the other two are punished. If two people surrendered, the remaining one would be shot. In addition, if more than three people in each company surrendered, the company commander would be sent to the military justice department, and the soldiers would be killed if they ran out for more than 30 meters.
The "continuous sitting method" implemented by Zheng Dongguo did play a certain role, scaring off some Kuomintang soldiers who originally intended to go out of the city and surrender.
After learning this news, Tan Zheng ordered the People's Liberation Army on the front line to continue shouting, but the content of the shouting changed.
Xiao Jinguang (left)
Since the New 7th Army was Chiang Kai-shek's concubine and had sufficient food supplies, while the 60th Army was only a local unit of the Dian Army, the treatment of the two armies was also very different.
Therefore, the siege troops of the People's Liberation Army took advantage of this and shouted at them:
"The New 7th Army eats rice and white noodles, the 60th Army drinks wild vegetables and porridge, the brothers of the 60th Army suffer here, and parents, wives, and children all want you to go home!"
This shout of the People's Liberation Army deeply stung the hearts of the generals of the Kuomintang 60th Army, and Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 60th Army, had long seen through the intrigues within the Kuomintang and was even more fed up with the unfair treatment of the non-concubine units of the Kuomintang army.
On October 14, 1948, in the early morning of the day when the Northeast Field Army launched a general offensive against Jinzhou, a car slowly drove out of Changchun City and came to the Northeast Field Army office ten miles away from Changchun, and the person on the car was the negotiator sent by Zeng Zesheng to discuss the uprising with the People's Liberation Army.
After carefully analyzing the enemy situation, Liu Hao, director of liaison of the Political Department of the First Corps of the Northeast Field Army, and Pan Shuoduan, deputy chief of staff of the corps, agreed that the uprising negotiations of the Kuomintang 60th Army were credible.
Therefore, Liu Hao asked Xiao Jinguang and Xiao Hua for instructions, and at the same time sent the joint letter of Zeng Zesheng and others to Tan Zheng and Zhou Huan.
After reading the joint letter, Tan Zheng immediately reported the news to the Northeast Field Army Headquarters. Subsequently, the northeast field army command called back and said:
"Welcome to the Zengze Shengbu uprising."
On October 17, Zeng Zesheng led several senior generals of the Kuomintang 60th Army out of Changchun City and met with Xiao Jinguang, Xiao Hua and others at the headquarters of the Independent 11th Division of the People's Liberation Army in Xinglongshan, east of Changchun.
As soon as they met, Xiao Jinguang tightly held Zeng Zesheng's hand and said:
"We'll be family from now on!"
Just two days after the uprising of the 60th Army, in Changchun City
Commander of the newly formed 7th Army of the defenders
Li Hong
He led the army and the newly formed 38th Division, the provisional 56th Division, and the 61st Division to surrender one after another.
Until this time, Zheng Dongguo had become a light rod commander.
Considering that Zheng Dongguo was the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast "Suppression General" and his contributions in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that
Try to win the Zhengdongguo uprising.
Zhou Enlai, who was in Xibaipo, Hebei Province, personally wrote to Zheng Dongguo, saying:
Brother Yi recalled the original intention of the Huangpu Revolution and led all the defenders of Changchun to join the ranks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Then I can assure you that the Chinese people and their People's Liberation Army will follow the lenient policy of the Communist Party of China, not blame the past, and welcome the brotherly uprising. ”
Zheng Dongguo in his later years (1986)
However, at this time, only Zheng Dongguo and the central bank building he had been holding on to were left in Changchun City. In the basement of the central bank building, he sent a four-character telegram to Chiang Kai-shek:
"See you in the next life"
After sending the telegram, Zheng Dongguo prepared to commit suicide with a gun, but he could not find his own gun. Just then, his personal guards rushed in, hugged him, and persuaded him not to go to the end of the road.
The Battle of Changchun was the first large city peacefully liberated by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the history of the war with 100,000 defenders, and it also opened up a new way of fighting for the next battle in the Liberation War.