On the battlefield of the Huaihai Battle in November 1948, the 12th Corps led by Kuomintang general Huang Wei was already surrounded by the People's Liberation Army. In the face of the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, Huang Wei and the 12th Corps had no way to fight effectively, and what was in front of them was how to break through and escape. Huang Wei planned to take advantage of the fact that the new encirclement fortifications of the People's Liberation Army had not been completely repaired, and let the four main divisions take the lead in tearing open the gap and break through. At this time, Liao Yunzhou said to Huang Wei, leave it to me, I will take the lead for you!
Grass snake gray line, lurking for many years
Huang Wei never imagined that the brave general in front of him, who had just returned from the front line and took the initiative to ask for help, would be a dark line member of the Communist Party who had been lurking for many years, and he was about to bring a fatal blow to himself.
Liao Yunzhou was a student of the fifth phase of Whampoa, and even participated in the Nanchang Uprising, although he left the team for various reasons, but his thoughts never left. Liao Yunzhou's close ties with the Communist Party were noticed by the Kuomintang as early as 1939.
In 1939, Liao Yunzhou was the commander of the 656th Regiment of the 110th Division, and because Liao Yunzhou's close ties with the Communist Party aroused the high vigilance of the Kuomintang that year, the Kuomintang military transferred him from the original unit and let him go to the cadre training class of the 31st Group Army to serve as the captain of the brigade.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the fighting was fierce, and the grassroots generals sacrificed many and there was a large shortage of personnel, and after a year of investigation, the Kuomintang finally believed that there was no problem with Liao Yunzhou, so he was transferred back to the 110th Division in 1941 as the deputy division commander, and officially became the commander of the 110th Division the following year.
This inspection in 1939 sounded the alarm bell for Liao Yunzhou, and he realized that the secret service organization on the Kuomintang side was not an empty ornament, and he must pay attention to his daily behavior and be more cautious, once he was caught by the enemy with real evidence, not only his fate would be difficult to protect, but the organization behind him would also be greatly implicated.
Liao Yunzhou, who had become the division commander, became an important link for our party to obtain information about the Kuomintang, and the "Summary of the 1946 Campaign and the 1947 Key Offensive Plan" that he passed to the organization was reported and became an important reference material for dealing with the civil war of the Kuomintang reactionaries.
Under the consideration of the leaders of the East China Bureau, it was decided that Liao Yunzhou would not revolt for the time being, and his main task was to collect operational intelligence on the Kuomintang army. In the summer of 1947, in order to better lead the 110th Division, the underground party committee of the 110th Division of the Communist Party of China was established, with Liao Yunzhou as secretary. After the establishment of the underground party committee of the 110th Division, it actively provided the PLA with the political and military intelligence of the Kuomintang, effectively cooperated with the actions of our army, and became a sharp sword buried behind enemy lines waiting for an opportunity.
Huaihai Fengyun
In 1948, the Huaihai Campaign began, and the armies of the People's Liberation Army's Second and Third Fields successfully divided and surrounded the Kuomintang army. Faced with this situation, Chiang Kai-shek adjusted his original plan to withdraw troops south of the Huai River and decided to fight a decisive battle with the PLA in the Xuzhou area.
At the same time, Huang Wei's corps began to march eastward, intending to reinforce the Huaihai battlefield, and at this time, Liao Yunzhou's 85th Army was subordinate to the Huang Wei corps, so it also moved from the Hubei battlefield to the Huaihai battlefield according to the order, preparing to participate in reinforcements. Although the Kuomintang troops had been defeated obviously in the Liaoshen Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek was still inexplicably confident in the Huaihai battlefield that was about to begin, so he had the classic saying: 800,000 against 600,000, the advantage is mine!
Although Chiang Kai-shek was confident, the Kuomintang's successive defeats on the battlefield still gave him a taste of the bitterness of life. Liu Zhi, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou, the tiger general who had followed him since the Eastern Expedition, now only has a tiger left, and he has even been called a pig general. Not only that, Liu Zhi's prestige in the Kuomintang army in the Huaihai Battle was basically zero, and Qiu Qingquan directly spoke disrespectfully to the commander-in-chief.
As the so-called difficult brother is difficult to brother, Liu Zhi's life is not easy, and Huang Wei, as the commander of the corps below, is not having a good time, if he is allowed to choose by himself, he will not come out to pick up this mess. However, in the factional struggle of the Kuomintang army, Hu Lian, who was supposed to be the commander of the 12th Corps, was put on the table by Chen Cheng, and Huang Wei, who had not led troops for many years, became the commander of the Corps, and Hu Lian was the deputy commander. Hu Lian couldn't stand this anger and returned to his hometown when the war was about to break out, and most of the generals of the 12th Corps were Hu Lian's old troops, and they naturally didn't have a good face for Huang Wei.
I'm breaking through for the commander?
As the commander of the corps, the generals under Huang Wei did not listen to him, which provided Liao Yunzhou with an excellent opportunity. Huang Wei's corps was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army, and he was thinking about how to break through, while Liao Yunzhou was thinking about how to revolt at the right time to give Huang Wei a fatal blow.
Huang Wei sent people to find Liao Yunzhou, who had just returned from the front line, and told him that the PLA's encirclement of the Corps had been formed, and the PLA was building fortifications, and he wanted to take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold to take the PLA by surprise. So he decided to select 4 main divisions, go hand in hand, and quickly break through.
Liao Yunzhou immediately realized that Huang Wei was already desperate, although Huang Wei's entire corps was surrounded and the troops were somewhat consumed, but Huang Wei's corps still had strong combat effectiveness, and if Huang Wei really acted according to such a strategic intention, it would really be in danger of letting it run away. At the same time, Liao Yunzhou also realized that this was also a good opportunity to take advantage of, now is the most chaotic time on the battlefield, and now carry out a battlefield uprising to break Huang Wei's breakthrough plan.
Thinking of this, Liao Yunzhou asked Huang Wei to take the lead in breaking through, and he was willing to open up a way out for the 12th Corps. Huang Wei didn't expect Liao Yunzhou to support his decision-making like this, and he was quite relieved in his heart.
However, Huang Wei never expected that Liao Yunzhou, who was going to fight for himself, would easily break through the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army with his troops, and just when he thought that a major event could be expected, the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army was closed again, and Liao Yunzhou, who had just spoken righteously, led the troops to declare an uprising.
Liao Yunzhou's uprising completely shattered Huang Wei's psychological defense, which also caused Huang Wei to be unable to reconcile with Liao Yunzhou in his later years. Yang Botao didn't forgive Huang Wei, Huang Wei couldn't forgive Liao Yunzhou, there was such an interesting chain of character relationships in the Huaihai Campaign.