Huaihai campaign： a miracle in the history of war [photos]

　　1948年11月6日至1949年1月10日，我华东野战军和中原野战军在地方部队的配合和广大人民群众的支援下，历时66天，在以徐州为中心，东起海州、西至商丘、北自临城、南达淮河的广大区域内，发起了伟大的淮海战役(国民党方面称为“徐蚌会战”)。战役首歼黄伯韬兵团，继歼黄维兵团，再歼杜聿明集团，解放军以伤亡13.4万余人的代价，歼灭国民党军5个兵团、22个军、56个师，共计55.5万余人，创造了战争史上以少胜多的奇迹。淮海战役是解放战争战略决战中历时最长、规模最大、歼敌数量最多的一次战役。淮海战役的伟大胜利，解放了长江以北华东和中原的大部分地区，使国民党统治中心南京和上海直接暴露在人民军队的铁拳面前，加速了解放全中国的历史进程。广大人民群众不怕牺牲，义无反顾地投入战争之中，为淮海战役的胜利做出了永不磨灭的伟大贡献。

　　大决战前夜

　　1948年初秋时节，天高云淡，金风拂面。河北省平山县西柏坡这个太行山麓、滹沱河畔的小山村更是赏心悦目。此时，中共中央正在这里召开政治局扩大会议(史称九月会议)。中国已经进入了大决战的前夜，以毛泽东为核心的中共领导集体，正酝酿着重大决策。

　　The People’s Liberation War has entered the third year, and the military, political and economic situation in China has undergone major changes that are more beneficial to the people and not conducive to the Kuomintang ruling clique. Although the total strength of the Kuomintang troops has remained at about 3.65 million by constantly "recruiting able men", most of them were rebuilt after being wiped out or severely hit by our army, with low morale and weak combat effectiveness. There are 249 brigades (divisions) with 1.7 million people in the Kuomintang regular army distributed in the front line, which are confined by the People’s Liberation Army in five battlefields: Northeast China, North China, Northwest China, Central Plains and East China. Most of them can only defend strategic points and main traffic lines, and their strategic mobile forces are already stretched. The forces in the enemy’s rear are weak in fighting capacity, and they are restrained by our guerrillas and cannot be maneuvered. With the military defeat, the political crisis of the Kuomintang government became more and more serious, and the economy of the Kuomintang-controlled areas was rapidly collapsing. Contrary to the Kuomintang army, the People’s Liberation Army has grown rapidly in the battle, with a total strength of 2.8 million (including 1.49 million field troops). The area of the liberated areas has expanded to 2.35 million square kilometers and the population has reached 168 million. Most of the liberated areas have carried out land reform, and the revolutionary and production enthusiasm of the peasants who have turned over has never been higher, and production has resumed development. Because of the stability in the rear of the liberated areas, our PLA troops can be concentrated on front-line operations, and the front-line mobile forces are already superior to the Kuomintang troops.

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　　Hua Ye Nakano Chen Bing Huaihai

　　On September 24, the spring city of Jinan, the summer heat gradually disappeared, and autumn began to flourish. As the acting commander and political commissar of Hua Ye, Su Yu has spent many sleepless nights. On this day, the guns of the general attack on Jinan have sounded, Jinan City is about to return to the people’s arms, the two liberated areas in North China and East China are completely connected, and Chiang Kai-shek’s "key defense" system with big cities as the mainstay has begun to collapse. At this moment, Su Yu’s eyes are tightly fixed on the Huaihai area with Xuzhou as the center below Jinan on the map, as if hordes were rushing in his chest, and gradually, a grand blueprint for the campaign was formed in his mind.

　　On the same day, Su Yu called the Central Military Commission and reported it to the East China Bureau and the Central Plains Bureau, suggesting that Hua Ye’s main force should leave northern Jiangsu from southern Shandong and hold the Huaihai Campaign to attack enemy groups in Xuzhou, wipe out the enemy or force the enemy to retreat, so as to create conditions for crossing the river in the future. The next day, the Central Military Commission immediately called back: "It is very necessary to hold the Huaihai Campaign". Liu Bocheng, commander of the Central Plains Field Army, and Chen Yi, deputy commander (and commander of Hua Ye and political commissar) also quickly replied, agreed to push their victory to launch the Huaihai Campaign, and prepared to lead the various ministries of Nakano to take the policy of separating operations and attack the western Henan and Longhai railway lines respectively to cooperate with Hua Ye.

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　　According to the instructions of the Central Military Commission, the two field armies began to make serious preparations in military, political and material support, and made in-depth research on operational plans. In order to do a good job in pre-support and logistics support, party organizations in relevant areas of Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and Hebei provinces mobilized the masses, mobilized a large number of manpower and material resources, and formed a pre-support army of millions of migrant workers, making comprehensive and sufficient preparations in food, ammunition, clothing, medical care, transportation, establishment of military stations and grain depots, and the management of prisoners’ reception.

　　After our army completed all preparations for the campaign, Hua Ye and Nakano Newspaper officially launched the Huaihai Campaign on the evening of November 6 with the approval of the Central Military Commission.

Editor: Li Yongchao