On January 1, 1948, the Northeast Coalition Army was renamed the Northeast People's Liberation Army. The three-month winter offensive ended on March 15, 1948.
Within 10 months, the Northeast People's Liberation Army launched three large-scale offensives against the Kuomintang-led army, wiping out 308,800 enemy troops, seizing a large amount of American equipment, recovering 77 cities, liberating 18.6 million people, and expanding the Liberation Military Region by 307,000 square kilometers. The population of the Jiefang District accounted for 86% of the total population of the northeast, and the area of the liberated areas accounted for 97% of the total area of the northeast. The Northeast People's Liberation Army Field Army has developed into 12 columns, one artillery column, one railway column, and 17 independent divisions, totaling 53 divisions and more than 700,000 people. Including the local army, there were a total of 1.05 million people.
By the end of the winter offensive in March 1948, 570,000 people had been wiped out in the northeast battlefield. Although there were still four regiments, fourteen corps, forty-four divisions, and 550,000 local armed forces, they had been divided and compressed into three separate strongholds and regions in Changchun, Shenyang, and Jinzhou. At that time, Wei Lihuang led 2 regiments, 8 armies, 24 divisions and 3 brigades, about 300,000 people, to defend the satellite cities of Tieling, Fushun, Benxi, Liaoyang and Xinmin. Zheng Dongguo, the deputy commander-in-chief and commander of the 1st Corps, led 2 corps, 6 divisions, and 3 brigades, with about 100,000 people defending Changchun. Another deputy commander-in-chief and director of Jinzhou Command Center, Commander Fan Hanjie of the Ji-Ren-Liao Border Region, led 4 corps, 4 armies, and 14 divisions of about 150,000 people to defend Jinzhou and maintain the intermittent railway traffic between Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan.
In terms of the whole country, the Chinese People's Liberation Army had won consecutive victories in Yudong, Xiangfan, Jinzhong, Pingjinbao, Jiaoji Road, and Jinpu Road. From 1.2 million at the beginning of the war, it had grown to 2.8 million. Their equipment had been improved day by day, and their combat experience had become richer. The Jiefang District expanded, production expanded, and the fighting spirit of the army and the people was high. By the autumn of 1948, 2,640,000 people had been wiped out by the Kuomingtang army. Including fleeing and other reasons, the loss reached 3,090,000. Although 2,400,000 people were replenished, the total strength had dropped from 4,300,000 at the beginning of the war to 3,650,000. Excluding the rear, there were only 1.74 million people who could be used in the front line. The strategy of operations had to be changed from "comprehensive defense" and "regional defense" to the so-called "key defense" with the five strategic strongholds of Peiping, Xi'an, Hankou, Xuzhou, and Shenyang as the pillars. The war had been pushed from the Jiefang District to the areas under the rule of the Kuomintangs and directly threatened the center of their rule. The National Party was caught in a serious military, political, and economic crisis. Defeatism was spreading. The anti-Jiang united front was also expanding.
At the most critical moment of the war between the two sides, where would the breakthrough point be chosen? This move was especially important. After careful consideration, the Central Military and Political Bureau decided: The first battle was in the northeast.
At that time, our army in the northeast was known as a million strong army.
There were 550,000 soldiers in the northeast, of which 480,000 were regular soldiers. They were divided into three central areas: Changchun, Shenyang, and Jinzhou. In terms of military strength, the People's Liberation Army had the absolute advantage.
Moreover, the northeast Jiefang District already occupied 97% of the total area of the northeast. The rear was consolidated and the economic strength was relatively strong. The Guomindang army only occupied a few cities, which were isolated and scattered. The area was small and difficult to supply.
From a strategic point of view, at that time, Jiang had already felt that he was powerless in the northeast. If things went wrong, hundreds of thousands of troops would become "turtles in a jar." Therefore, he was considering giving up the northeast and shifting his troops to the battlefields in North China and Central China. This was the so-called strategy of "retreating from the northeast, consolidating North China, and ensuring Central China." However, he was worried that losing the northeast would shake the morale of the army, so he could only order Wei Lihuang to temporarily defend the northeast and wait for an opportunity. This strategic indecisiveness was very beneficial to the People's Liberation Army.
If the people's army could first destroy the Lihuang Group of Northeast Wei, it could not only crush Jiang's attempt to shrink his strategy, but also use the strong military power and economy of Northeast China to support the national war of liberation.
If the strategic direction of the decision was not the first battle in Northeast China but the battlefield in North China, the People's Liberation Army might be attacked by the enemy in North China and Northeast China and fall into a passive position. Turning to the battlefield in North China would most likely prompt the enemy in the northeast to retreat quickly in order to realize their strategic contraction.
It can be seen that other than the northeast battlefield, it is not beneficial for our army to engage in strategic decisive battles with the enemy on other battlefields. Choosing the northeast as the first direction of the strategic decisive battle was to establish the victory of the first battle on a stable and reliable basis. It was a decision made by the central military and government.
However, the Chinese government had already soberly seen that the climax of the Chinese revolution was about to arrive, and the conditions for a decisive battle with Jiang were ripe.
** The central military and government decided to seal the Wei Lihuang Group in the northeast and fight an unprecedented war of annihilation. ** The head of the Central Military Committee decided to first launch a large-scale battle with the Kuomingtang army in the northeast battlefield according to the national military situation. As early as February 7th, 1948, he sent a message to the commander and political commissioner of the Northeast Military Region to prepare for the winter offensive. After the end of the winter offensive, he would use the main force to go south to the Jinzhou to Tangshan section of the Beining railway to seal the Wei Lihuang Group in the northeast and wipe them out one by one.
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