Winter Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China - Second Stage

Second Stage

Main article: Gongzhutun Campaign

After witnessed the separate enemy offensives and learning that the communist 1st column and the 2nd column remained at Zhangwu, Chen Cheng believed that the communist force was no longer concentrated together and thus he had an opportunity to launch a counterattack. The five nationalist armies deployed at Shenyang, Xinmin and Tieling were ordered to attack westward from Shenyang, hoping to relieve Faku (法库) by destroying the communist 1st column, 6th column, and the 10th column. The nationalist push begun on January 1, 1948 in three fronts:

• The Newly Organized 3rd Army and the Newly Organized 6th Army in the north
• The Newly Organized 1st Army and The 71st Army in the middle
• The Newly Organized 5th Army along with the 43rd division and the 195th division in the south.

Learning the news of the nationalists sending out reinforcement, the communists planned to concentrate a total of 7 columns to destroy the weakest nationalist southern front:

• The communist 1st column, 4th column, and 10th column were deployed to the north and northwest of Shenyang to prevent other nationalist fronts from reinforcing the southern front
• The communist 6th column engaged the nationalist troops in the southern front and lured the enemy to Princess Village (Gongzhutun, 公主屯) region.
• The communist 2nd column, 3rd column and the 7th column penetrated deep behind the nationalist line, surrounding the enemy.

Not willing to risk losing any territory, Chen Cheng divided his force into half: half of the force would relieve the besieged southern front, while the remaining half would continue the push to Faku (法库). The communist resistance was much greater than nationalists had expected, resulting in neither half had the enough strength needed to complete their missions. On January 5, 1948, the communist trap was completed and a full scale assault on the besieged enemy was launched. Two days later on January 7, 1948, the nationalist southern front was completely devastated, with the commander of the Newly Organized 5th Army and the commanders the 43rd division and the 195th division captured alive by the communists. Learning the news of the defeat of the southern front, the nationalist reinforcements to Faku (法库) and the southern front both withdrew back to Shenyang and Tieling.

Taking advantage of their new victory, the communist 1st column and 8th column continued to push westward, taking Xinli Village (新立屯) by destroying the nationalist 26th division of the 49th Army during its attempt to flee. The communist 9th column, meanwhile, took Panshan (盘山) by destroying the nationalist 184th division of the 60th Army. However, the continuous offensives also exhausted the communist supply and besieged Faku (法库) remained firmly in the nationalist hand. Due to the continuous defeats, Chiang Kai-shek had to personally hold a military conference to readjust the nationalist strategies on January 10, 1948 by flying to Shenyang from Nanjing, and replaced Chen Cheng with Wei Lihuang. In order to strengthen the nationalist force in Northeast China, the nationalist Reorganized 54th division was transferred from Shandong to Jinzhou. While Chen Cheng left northeast China with Chiang Kai-shek, the new nationalist commander-in-chief in northeast China Wei Lihuang was preparing for the worst: giving up Jilin City and Changchun when necessary, while hold on to Shenyang with everything he got.