A Study Of Military Geography Of The Battle Of Eastern Henan During The Liberation War

During the War of Liberation,the troops of both the Chinese Nationalist Party(CNP)and the Communist Party of China(CPC)carried out a battle in the eastern region of Henan Province,Which is so-called the Battle of Eastern Henan.The Scholars also named this battle as Kaifeng battle?Suixian battle and Qixian battle for the battlefield position.The Battle of East Henan had great political and military significances in changing the confrontational situation in the Central Plains battlefield and the military strategic deployment in the whole country of the two parties.The natural environment of the Eastern Henan Plain is suitable for agricultural production,which was considered as a great Strategic value for the CNP and the CPC,became the incentives for the outbreak of war.Moreover,given by the prominent geographic value of the Central Plains,the Well-developed traffic and open terrain was convenient for large maneuvering military operation.Under the influence of the "Central Plains Orthodox" consciousness,it was politically significant of the seizure of the major cities in this region.Kaifeng city,as one of the main cities in eastern Henan,was safe on the east,south and west of the city for its defensive position,it was easy for the troops to attack but difficult to defend.Based on the reasons above,this area became an important battleground for strategists from the past.Before the Kaifeng campaign,the military forces of the CPC and CNP were intertwined in the central plain region in June 1948,both of them actively sought battlefields and suitable timing to change situation of the war.The CNP army set up outposts in Tongxu,Chenliu and so on to defend Kaifeng city,and built constructions inside and outside the Kaifeng city walls and in the favorable places to resist the attract from the CPC troop.The Longting area,as a stronghold in the city was easy to defend but difficult to attack,became the central stronghold and the headquarters of the 66 th Division of CNP.The surrounding area of Kaifeng was the main supply station for garrisons in Kaifeng City,and the roads leading from the surrounding cities to Kaifeng provided convenience for the mechanized army to gather to Kaifeng during the war.Su Yu,the deputy commander of the third field army,caught the war timing and changed the original plan of wiping out the Qiu Qingquan Corps in southwestern Shandong.He ordered the the East China Field Army,Chen Tang Corps to attack Kaifeng.With the help of Kaifeng City Defense map and guide of the town,Chen Tang Corps quickly surrounded and attacked Kaifeng,forcing the CNP army in southwestern Shandong to rescue.The areas surrounding Kaifeng provided logistics support for the CPC army to attack Kaifeng.After the Kaifeng campaign,The third field army annihilated the Qiu Niannian Corps,which was trying to rescue the CNP army in Kaifeng,and attracted Qiu Qingquan regiments and so on.After annihilating the main force of the Shounian Corps,The third field army continued to attack the Huang Baitao Corps who came to the rescue.After that,the rescuing forces of the CNP have continued to approach and solders had fought under high temperatures for a long time and consumed a lot of energy.The third field army took the lead in withdrawing from the battle and moved to southwestern in Shandong province.The Battle of East Henan was a large-scale battle in which the two parties used the same geographical environment,but adopted different tactics,and finally achieved different results.Studying the military geography of the Eastern Henan Campaign not only allowed us to understand the impact of the current geographical conditions on the civil war,but also provided reference examples for the future military commanders to rationally use the geographical conditions and emphasizing the important role of geographical environment in military operations.