Xie Zhenhua's "Heart-to-Heart Tactics" Show Power

In May 1949, the Third Field Army of the People's Liberation Army launched the campaign to liberate Shanghai. Before the battle began, Chen Yi, commander and political commissar of the three fields, and Su Yu, deputy commander of the three fields, were determined to first divide the troops into two routes and take a pincer offensive, from Pudong and Puxi wings to the enemy's side of Shanghai. They carried out a roundabout operation, detour to Wusongkou, cut off the enemy's sea retreat, and then besieged the city to divide and annihilate the defenders.

Following the instructions of the head of the three fields and the head of the corps, as the first echelon of circuitous operations, the 30th army of the people's liberation army, led by commander Xie Zhenhua and political commissar Li Ganhui, set out from Pinghu at 4: 00 p.m. on May 13 and made rapid progress along the highway and seawall to Chuansha and Bailonggang areas.

During the rainy season, the roads were muddy and the troops were struggling to move forward. Xie Zhenhua immediately abandoned his horse and walked on foot. The majority of commanders and fighters were deeply encouraged and strengthened their confidence in victory. Regardless of fatigue, the officers and men of the army marched for more than 200 miles, wiped out the resistance Kuomintang troops along the way, and finally arrived at Jiangjialu Town, south of Chuansha, one day ahead of the time limit set by the field army headquarters.

Regardless of fatigue, Xie Zhenhua quickly inspected the terrain and deployed for combat. He learned from the prisoners of war that the 51st Army of the Kuomintang had entered the Chuansha and Bailonggang areas three days ago, and was now busy building fortifications in an attempt to prepare for long-term resistance. At this time, there were more than 1,000 Kuomintang troops and local stubborn troops stationed in Chuansha City. xie zhenhua immediately decided to take advantage of chuansha's uncertain foothold to launch an attack. Then the 265th regiment, the vanguard of the 89th Division, was ordered to attack Chuansha. The defending enemy was caught off guard and more than 700 people were wiped out. The rest gave up Chuansha County and fled in a hurry.

After the capture of Chuansha County, Xie Zhenhua ordered the 88th Division to send two regiments to march in the rain, detour north, insert behind the enemy lines, take down the town of Gujialu, and cut off the contact between the enemy's 51st army and other defending enemies. At the same time, Xie Zhenhua assembled five regiments of troops to immediately attack the Kuomintang 51st Army, the enemy in front of him. At 12 o'clock in the night, the main force of the enemy's 51st Army and the provisional 8th Division were compressed into a narrow area of 4 kilometers from east to west and 5 kilometers from north to south. Due to heavy rain, the heavy weapons of the Thirty Armies failed to reach the front line quickly. When the enemy found out, they immediately pieced together three regiments and launched a counterattack under the cover of heavy artillery in an attempt to break through the encirclement of the people's Liberation Army and reconnect with the surrounding troops.

The 663 regiment of the People's Liberation Army fought fiercely with the enemy until dawn, defeating the counterattack of the three enemy regiments. Xie Zhenhua immediately adjusted its deployment according to the changes in the enemy situation, and the artillery regiment overcame the difficulties of muddy rivers and roads and rushed to the front in time. At 7 o'clock that night, Xie Zhenhua commanded the 30th Army to launch a general offensive. The regiments successively broke through the enemy's positions, took down Qingdun Town and Linjia Wharf, and even adopted "heart-digging tactics". They went straight to Bailong Port, where the enemy's army was located, captured the enemy's 51st army lieutenant general commander Wang Bingyue and all his army personnel and a mountain artillery regiment, completely disrupted the enemy's command system, and at the same time divided the remaining enemy into two pieces to surround. In order to concentrate firepower to kill the enemy, Xie Zhenhua ordered the artillery regiment to be placed together with the 18 artillery pieces captured from the enemy's mountain artillery regiment and to blast the enemy. At dawn on the 17th, the PLA completely destroyed the resistance of the remnant enemy in the area and captured more than 8000 enemies.

The Thirty Armies captured Bailonggang and cut off the retreat of Shanghai's defending enemies to escape to the sea via Bailonggang. Immediately afterwards, with the cooperation of the Thirty-first Army, the Thirty-first Army launched a battle to encircled and annihilate the enemy in Takahashi. After the capture of Gaoqiao, Xie Zhenhua commanded the 30th Army to continue to pursue the Huangpu River Estuaries, cooperating with the West Line Corps of the East China Field Army to complete the comprehensive encirclement of the whole Shanghai, and then cooperating with the brother troops to launch a general attack. On May 27, Shanghai was liberated.