In 1948, the Battle of Nian Zhuang fell into a crisis, and our army suffered heavy casualties, so Su Yu personally went to the field hospital to check.
After seeing the respected chief, the soldiers could no longer care about the serious injuries on their bodies, and they all stepped forward to talk to Su Yu excitedly.
At first, Su Yu only cordially comforted the wounded. As a result, the further he walked inside, the darker his face became, and finally he pushed the door away angrily.
When he returned to the headquarters, he immediately ordered: Replace Chen Shiqu!
Why is Su Yu angry? Why did he replace Chen Shiqu?
碾庄战役前夕
One day in 1948, the central government sent an urgent telegram to Su Yu, ordering him to suspend the implementation of the Huaihai Campaign.
Su Yu was shocked. Because just a month ago, he had already sent a telegram to the central government, requesting the Huaihai Campaign.
At that time, the Battle of Jinan had just ended, and Shandong except Qingdao had all been under the command of our army. So Su Yu wanted to take advantage of the victory to pursue and take Xuzhou, which was close to Shandong.
At that time, the central government also affirmed Su Yu's opinion and agreed to the implementation plan of the Huaihai Campaign.
After receiving the approval of the central leadership, Su Yu immediately took action. In the past month, he has been arranging troops and preparing for the capture of Xuzhou.
As a result, after everything was ready, the central government even wanted him to suspend the battle plan.
Su Yu believed that the plan to conquer Xuzhou was urgent, and it was necessary for him to personally go and talk to the central authorities.
Just as he was about to go to the central government, Chen Yi suddenly found him and conveyed to him the specific meaning of the central government.
It turned out that the reason why the central government asked Su Yu to suspend the capture of Xuzhou was because of one person - Huang Baitao.
This Huang Baitao is a difficult character.
In the Soviet-Chinese Campaign that year, Su Yu won seven battles and seven victories, and defeated the 120,000 Kuomintang troops led by the 83rd Division. As a result, only Huang Baitao's troops retreated.
Later, in the Battle of Menglianggu, even the vanguard of the Kuomintang, Zhang Lingfu's integrated 74th Division, was killed under the command of Su Yu. Huang Baitao's troops once again escaped from Su Yu's hands.
In the recent Battle of Eastern Henan, when Qiu Qingquan's troops were about to be disintegrated by our army, Huang Baitao actually made a move to "win by surprise" and repelled Su Yu's attack.
General Su Yu, whom the Kuomintang had always regarded as a great enemy, actually suffered a defeat at Huang Baitao. Lao Jiang was very happy and promoted Huang Baitao to lieutenant general and commander of the Seventh Corps of the Army.
This is the most important Kuomintang officer after Zhang Lingfu. Huang Baitao's department is also the only motley unit that can enjoy the treatment of the regular army.
Huang Baitao's deeds have not only won the attention of the Kuomintang, but also attracted the attention of our army.
The central government's call to halt the Huaihai campaign plan was also due to Huang Baitao's threat to the overall battle plan.
If our army goes to conquer Xuzhou, then Lao Jiang is likely to send Huang Baitao to reinforcements. At that time, our army will be attacked by the enemy on its back, and it is very likely that there will be more serious consequences than the battle in eastern Henan.
So the central government wanted Su Yu to fight a "Xiaohuaihai Campaign" first, eliminate Huang Baitao, a trouble, and then concentrate troops to deal with Xuzhou.
Su Yu also understood the true intention of the central government at this time. I have to say that among so many people who are fighting against the national army, Huang Baitao is indeed a role that should not be underestimated.
So Su Yu immediately changed the battle plan and set the combat goal on Huang Baitao.
In order to annihilate the enemy army more effectively, Su Yu decided to make a move to "attack the east and attack the west".
In order to confuse and mobilize the enemy, Su Yu pretended to continue to capture Xuzhou. When Huang Baitao went to the rescue, our army wiped him out.
Plan it, and everyone will act immediately. Tens of thousands of field troops pretended to march in the direction of Xuzhou.
Sure enough, after Gu Zhutong and Liu Zhi stationed in Xuzhou received the news, they immediately ordered the national troops stationed in the surrounding area to go to Xuzhou to participate in the war, and delivered a message to Huang Baitao to ask him to come for reinforcements.
However, Liu Zhi kept an eye on it at this time.
Huang Baitao is in trouble
Liu Zhi had a 44th Army under his command, which was stationed in Haizhou, not far from Xuzhou.
It stands to reason that the 44th Army should also go to Xuzhou with other national troops to participate in the war, but Liu Zhi did not let them act immediately.
The reason is very simple, the 44th Army, as Liu Zhi's henchman, has been secretly selling illicit salt and making a lot of money in Haizhou. It can be said that a large part of Liu Zhi's net worth is in Haizhou.
So after Gu Zhutong ordered the 44th Army to go to Xuzhou to participate in the war, Liu Zhi privately sent another telegram to the 44th Army, asking them to bring all the property in Haizhou.
The 44th Army immediately packed up, and thousands of men packed up for two days and two nights before they set out.
However, just as the 44th Army was about to hit the road, Liu Zhi had a faint worry in his heart.
On the way to Xuzhou, there are homeless people and thieves, and if you are not careful, you are likely to be ransacked. The 44th Army focused its main efforts on transporting property, and it was difficult to distract itself from resisting foreign enemies.
Who should be sent to protect the Forty-Fourth Army? Liu Zhi had an idea, and instantly thought of Huang Baitao.
He called Huang Baitao and ordered him to wait for the 44th Army to join him and then go to Xuzhou together.
As everyone knows, Liu Zhi's decision indirectly caused the destruction of Huang Baitao's troops.
At first, Huang Baitao thought that Liu Zhi was kind enough to expand his army. After all, the strength and firepower of the 44th Army are very impressive.
As a result, he waited for two full days to wait for the 44th Army. When he saw a cart of silver dollars and jewelry, he also came back to his senses, and it turned out that Liu Zhi was using him as a bodyguard.
Huang Baitao was angry, but he couldn't directly express his dissatisfaction with his superiors. So he could only take the large army on the road with a calm face.
What he didn't know, however, was that in the two days he had been waiting for the 44th Army, the main force of our army had been ambushed in his inevitable path.
At first, seeing that Huang Baitao was delayed, Su Yu thought that Huang Baitao had seen through our army's strategy.
After waiting for two days, Huang Baitao's troops finally arrived late. Su Yu saw a cart of boxes pulled behind their team, and instantly understood what was going on.
As soon as Su Yu gave the order, the soldiers immediately set up machine guns and launched a fierce attack on the enemy.
Huang Baitao was already anxious because of the slow pace of the march, but now he was suddenly attacked by our army, and he panicked all of a sudden.
Before he could command, the national army was already in chaos. Those who accumulate wealth collect money, those who flee for their lives, and the national army that originally wanted to fight back was also disturbed.
Huang Baitao's troops were soon dispersed by our army. Huang Baitao saw that the situation was not right, and immediately led everyone to flee to the west.
In the west of the village is stationed Li Mi's corps, and Huang Baitao intends to join Li Mi to deal with our army together.
But things didn't go as smoothly as he expected.
Gu Zhutong suddenly became anxious after learning that the target of our army was not Xuzhou but Huang Baitao. Once Huang Baitao is dead, there will be no one available in Xuzhou.
Liu Zhi is more anxious than Gu Zhutong, the 44th Army is still with Huang Baitao!
He immediately called Huang Baitao. After learning that his silver dollars had been captured by our army, Liu Zhi was so angry that he scolded Huang Baitao.
Huang Baitao dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, only indicating that he was about to join Li Mi, and he would definitely snatch all the silver dollars back when the time came.
But Liu Zhi was unwilling to believe Huang Baitao anymore. Although Huang Baitao has always been reused by Lao Jiang, Liu Zhi has always looked down on Huang Baitao's miscellaneous army.
Liu Zhi was unwilling to let Li Mi fall into the encirclement of our army for the sake of Huang Baitao. So he sent a telegram to Li Mi and ordered him to retreat from the village immediately.
Li Mi was originally stepping up the fortifications, preparing to fight against the enemy army with Huang Baitao. But after receiving Liu Zhi's urgent telegram, he immediately led his troops to withdraw from Nianzhuang.
Huang Baitao arrived at the mill and found that the building had been emptied, and at this time, our army had surrounded the mill layer by layer.
Su Yu's anger
After learning that Huang Baitao had been besieged in Nian Zhuang, Su Yu knew that the time was ripe to annihilate Huang Baitao, so he immediately deployed a battle plan.
Su Yu sent Chen Shiqu to lead six columns to attack Nian Zhuang head-on and annihilate Huang Baitao's troops. Then he sent Wang Jian'an and others to lead seven columns to ambush by the Bulao River, in case there were enemy reinforcements coming to rescue Huang Baitao.
The commanders of the columns, seeing that there were more people in charge of reinforcements than those in charge of attacking, asked to stay and fight.
But Su Yu had his own arrangements for this.
According to the topography of the village, it is known that the village is full of large and small earthen platforms. The houses of the mill village are built on these earthen platforms.
In this way, there are natural fortifications in the farm. The pond between the earthen platforms is a natural water trench, and the soil ditch is a natural trench, which also makes it extremely difficult to break through the village.
Moreover, the area of the village is very small, and too many troops will not be able to exert it, and not only will they not be able to carry out flexible operations, but they may fall into the enemy's counteroffensive.
After listening to Su Yu's analysis, everyone understood and no longer insisted.
As soon as the plan was deployed, everyone went into action. Chen Shiqu also immediately launched an attack on Nian Zhuang. However, he didn't expect that he would be frustrated as soon as he started attacking.
Chen Shiqu fought bravely, and the soldiers under his command have always adhered to the combat style of fighting and rushing. The fighting spirit of the people was high, and as soon as the call to war sounded, they launched a fierce attack.
But the besieged Huang Baitao is not good at stubble, and now that he is isolated, he naturally has to resist to the death.
In this way, after the soldiers rushed for a while, they found that Huang Baitao's troops were not only not scattered, but became more and more fierce.
On the contrary, our army, because of its eagerness to win, fought too quickly, and ran out of bullets not long after the start of the war. Now, not only did the supplies not keep up, but they were fiercely attacked by the enemy.
All of a sudden, our troops suffered heavy casualties. Seeing that the situation was not good, Chen Shiqu immediately ordered a retreat.
The battle came to an end, and Huang Baitao's troops celebrated in the village. And the morale of our army has been depressed.
Su Yu listened solemnly as the commanders of the columns reported the number of casualties. Each of them reported less than a thousand people.
Su Yu's heart gradually became suspicious. He personally came to the field hospital to inspect it, and while comforting the wounded, he secretly estimated the number of people.
The results were not even halfway there, and the number of people already exceeded the number reported by several column commanders. A cloud of anger immediately rose in Su Yu's heart.
He returned to the command and immediately convened an operational meeting. He harshly criticized several commanders and asked them to report the true casualty figures.
Everyone looked at each other and hesitated to tell the number of casualties. Su Yu was shocked in place, but he didn't expect that as soon as the battle began, his troops were sharply reduced by half.
Su Yu seriously analyzed it, believing that the key reason was that the commander had been sticking to the previous combat methods.
Now that Huang Baitao's troops are tightly gathered, they can no longer adopt the tactic of "interspersing and dividing and annihilating one by one."
Therefore, Su Yu replaced Chen Shiqu with Wang Jian'an, and suggested adopting the combat method of "attacking the weak enemy first, then the strong enemy, attacking its head, and disrupting its deployment."
After the planned redeployment, the fighters launched a second attack before dawn. This time, our army learned a lesson, and no longer rushed to achieve results, but only fought steadily and slowly, slowly consuming the enemy's army.
With the tacit cooperation of everyone, Huang Baitao's troops finally revealed their flaws. After a fierce battle, the enemy army was completely annihilated by our army.
The reason why General Su Yu was able to become a "winning general" was because he did not stick to the rules and used his troops like a god, which is really admirable!