Northwest Years 西北岁月 Episode 29

After the meeting, Mao Zedong met with Xi Zhongxun alone. He was very satisfied with his report and hoped that he could summarize the experience into a booklet and distribute it to various regions to prevent similar situations from happening in the future. At this time, the news came that Li Dingming had died of cerebral hemorrhage. Mao Zedong was in a heavy mood and regretted the loss of such an enlightened gentleman with a sense of justice and support for the Communist Party.

In order to commemorate Mr. Li Dingming's past contributions, Xi Zhongxun and Lin Boqu were asked to attend the memorial service. Then the two came to see An Wenqin and conveyed Mao Zedong's words, hoping that he could attend Li Dingming's memorial service as a vice speaker and give a speech on stage, intending to protect An Wenqin.

Not long after, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting in Yangjiagou, Mizhi, northern Shaanxi, namely the "December Meeting". The meeting discussed and passed Mao Zedong's report "The Current Situation and Our Tasks", put forward ten major military principles, and the slogan of overthrowing Chiang Kai-shek and liberating all of China, and formulated an action program for winning national victory. In addition, the meeting also discussed the "left" deviation in the land reform and party rectification in the liberated areas and how to correct it. This was a meeting of great significance held at a turning point in the history of the Chinese revolution.

From the end of February to the beginning of March 1948, the Northwest Field Army launched the Yichuan Campaign and achieved an unprecedented victory in this battle, destroying more than 29,000 enemies and destroying the entire 29th Army reorganized by Hu Zongnan. This victory changed the situation in the northwest, opened the door to our army's entry to the south, and created conditions for continuing external operations to eliminate the living forces of Hu Zongnan's group.

When everyone was celebrating the victory of the Yichuan Campaign, Mao Zedong looked far and wide, considering that the battlefield in northern Shaanxi had undergone a fundamental change, and it was time for the central organs to cross the Yellow River to the east. When the central organs were about to leave northern Shaanxi, Mao Zedong had an in-depth exchange with Xi Zhongxun, reviewed the revolutionary history of Shaanxi and Gansu, and felt the contribution of the Shaanxi-Gansu revolutionary base as "two points and one survival", and completely handed over the Northwest to Xi Zhongxun and others. Subsequently, Mao Zedong led the central organs to cross the Yellow River to the east.

On the other hand, shortly after the Yichuan Campaign, Peng Dehuai discussed the next direction of the campaign with Wang Zhen and Wang Shitai. After careful deployment, they decided to lead the Northwest Field Army to attack Xifu, attack Baoji, cut off the Xilan Highway, and quickly block Ma Bufang's troops who were likely to come to reinforce.

After receiving the intelligence, Hu Zongnan ordered Division Commander Xu to defend Baoji to the death, and asked Pei Changhui and Ma Bufang to rush to the Xifu area, believing that this was a good opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Communist Army. Because the Communist Party's troops were divided into two routes, Hu Zongnan believed that Yan'an had no military and political significance, and telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek to apply for evacuation.

In April 1948, the Kuomintang reorganized the 17th Division and fled Yan'an. It was not until the 21st that Yan'an returned to the embrace of the people. Xi Zhongxun took Deputy Secretary-General Cao Liru to do follow-up work in Yan'an, giving priority to restoring production and economy. At the same time, Luo Lie, deputy director and chief of staff of the Xi'an Pacification Office, reported to Hu Zongnan and made some suggestions based on the Baoji Campaign.

For this reason, the West Field Army encountered a joint attack by Hu Zongnan's army and the Ma family army in Xifu, and the command center was almost besieged, and the main force was forced to break out. However, in order to allow Peng Dehuai's main force to evacuate quickly, Zhang Zongsun would rather disobey military orders and besiege Xiaojin Town, and he would not let the enemy join and surround him at any cost.

Huang Luobin, the commander of the Third Brigade of the West Field Army, was ordered to go to Nanzhuang Lijia, but found that the place had been occupied by the enemy, and guessed that Peng Dehuai must have evacuated. As a result, as soon as the voice fell, Peng Dehuai's guard Zhao Dezhu came on horseback with injuries to convey the task. Peng Dehuai ordered them to quickly occupy Nanzhuang Lijia, which meant that Peng Dehuai and his men were still in this place.