From August 10 to October 12, 1945, the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had not yet ended, and in mid-August, Yan Xishan, commander of the 2nd Theater of the Kuomintang Army, in accordance with the instructions of his high command on paying special attention to receiving the Shangdang area, led the 19th Army to temporarily organize the 37th Division, the 68th Division, and the 69th Division of the 61st Army to advance into the 2nd and 6th columns (equivalent to divisions) and other units with Shi Zebo, deputy commander-in-chief of the 8th Group Army and commander of the 19th Army.

70,000 people, taking advantage of the fact that the troops of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan Military Regions were attacking the Japanese puppet army, entered and occupied the cities of Changzhi, Changzi, Huguan, Tunliu, and Xiangyuan, and then built fortifications and strengthened the garrison. The 19th Army Headquarters led the 37th Division, the 68th Division, the 69th Division and 1 Mountain Artillery Battalion 1. 10,000 troops were stationed in Changzhi, and the rest of the troops were stationed in Xiangyuan, Changzi, Tunliu, Lucheng, Huguan and other cities, in an attempt to use this as a base to invade and occupy the entire southeastern Shanxi region, and cooperate with the 1st and 11th theater troops of the Kuomintang Army to advance along the Zhengtai and Pinghan railways to Beiping (now Beijing), Shijiazhuang and other places.

Beginning on 26 August, the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China successively instructed the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region: First, concentrate troops to annihilate the enemy in the Changzhi area, recover the Shangdang area, and eliminate the trouble in the heart of the liberated area, and then transfer troops to the Pinghan line to block the northward advance of the Kuomintang army. At the same time, he also stressed that the enemy's fortified castles were densely fortified, and that it was necessary to make full preparations for counterattacks, and that it was necessary not to be hasty, and that it was advisable to choose one or two cities when attacking, and to break through each of them.

In accordance with the above-mentioned instructions of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, Liu Bocheng, commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, and political commissar *** were determined to seize the weakness of Shi Zesheng's unit, which had invaded the party, in the deep depth of the lone army and scattered garrisons, and concentrated the three columns of the military region and the local armed forces.3 10,000 men, with the cooperation of 50,000 militiamen, will first seize the cities on the periphery of Changzhi, lure and annihilate the enemy who come to the aid, and then attack Changzhi and annihilate the Kuomintang troops that may come to the aid of Taiyuan and Pingyao.

On September 10, the campaign was officially launched, the Taihang Column first attacked Tunliu, and the Changzhi Shi Zesheng Department sent troops to help twice, but they were repelled by the Taiyue and Southern Hebei Columns that served as blockers. On the 12th, the Taihang Column conquered Tunliu. On the 17th, the southern Hebei column captured Lucheng and cut off the connection between Changzhi and Taiyuan and Pingyao. On the 19th, the troops of the Taiyue Column and the Taihang Military Region successively conquered Changzi and Huguan.

So far, the troops of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan Military Regions have connected 5 cities, annihilated more than 7,000 enemies, and isolated the defenders of Changzhi.

On the 20th, the troops of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region began to besiege Changzhi. On the 24th, it was learned that three divisions of the Kuomintang army sent by Taiyuan had arrived in the area south of Zihong Town, so they continued to besiege Changzhi with one division, and quickly moved north with the main force, seeking reinforcements in the movement. On October 2, the reinforcements of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region surrounded the enemy reinforcements in the Yulin, Laoyeling, Guanshang Village, and Mopannao areas.

At this time, our army learned that the encircled enemy was not 3 divisions with 7,000 people, but 8 divisions and 2 artillery regiments with a total of more than 20,000 people led by Peng Yubin, deputy commander-in-chief of the enemy's 7th Group Army. In order to gain an advantage over the enemy, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region immediately decided to send the southern Hebei column besieging Changzhi to the north to participate in the reinforcements. After two days of fierce fighting on the 5th and 6th, except for about 2,000 people who fled back to Qin County, all the enemy reinforcements were annihilated, and Peng Yubin was killed.

After the Kuomintang reinforcements were annihilated, the Changzhi defenders were forced to break through on the 8th. By the 12th, all of them were annihilated, and the commander of the 19th Army, Shi Zebo, was captured. This battle was the first large-scale annihilation battle carried out by the troops in the liberated areas to counterattack the offensive of the Kuomintang army after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and a total of more than 35,000 people from the Yan Xishan Division were annihilated, consolidating the rear of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan liberated areas, and strengthening the position of the CPC Central Committee in the Chongqing negotiations.

On 12 October, in the Shangdang area of Shanxi Province (in the territory of present-day Changzhi City), the three field columns of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, Taihang, Taiyue, and Southern Hebei, with the close cooperation of the broad masses of the people, annihilated about 35,000 people including the 19th, 23rd, and 83rd armies of the Kuomintang, including 31,000 prisoners, captured 24 mountain artillery, more than 2,000 machine guns, and more than 16,000 guns of various kinds. The campaign not only relieved the Kuomintang army of the direct threat to the liberated areas of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, but also effectively cooperated with the Chongqing negotiations and achieved the expected goal of "talking while fighting and promoting talks by fighting." When reviewing the Shangdang campaign, Liu Bocheng said: "This victory has given us a head behind us and bullets, and has created conditions for us to quickly switch to the Pinghan Line to fight." Since then, the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan regions have become increasingly stable, becoming an important base for later national victories, and laying the initial conditions for the later establishment of the North China Bureau and the capital of Beijing.

The task is understood accurately and the determination is drawn up scientifically. In August 1945, after Yan Xishan's troops occupied the towns along the Taiyuan and Tongpu railways under the response of the Japanese puppet army after surrendering, they sent Shi Zebo to lead his troops to occupy Changzhi, Xiangyuan, Changzi and Huguan, in an attempt to open up the Baijin Railway, occupy the entire southeast of Shanxi, and cooperate with the 1st and 11th theater troops of the Kuomintang Army to advance along the Zhengtai and Pinghan railways to Shijiazhuang and Beiping.

In order to defend the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and ensure the safety of the liberated areas, the Central Military Commission ordered the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region to resolutely annihilate the enemy who had entered the Shangdang area and remove the trouble of his henchmen, so that the main force could be transferred to the Pinghan Line in the future. In accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission, Liu Bocheng, commander of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, firmly grasped the principle of "subordinating strategy to political strategy and military serving politics," and accurately understood the campaign tasks from three aspects: the overall strategic situation, the operational policy, and the battlefield situation. In terms of the overall strategic situation, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region resolutely carried out the instructions of the central authorities and supported the Chongqing negotiations with military struggle, so as to enhance our side's position in the negotiations and create conditions for doing everything possible to achieve domestic peace and achieve the goal of peaceful and democratic nation-building. At the same time, it is necessary to smash the military provocations and military adventures of the Kuomintang reactionaries with resolute military struggle, defend the fruits of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and defend the liberated areas. In terms of operational principles and battlefield situation, in view of the characteristics of the historical department's lone army going deep and the garrison scattered, the commanders of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region made up their minds to fight and adopted such tactics as "besieging the city and encircling it" with the support of the people in the liberated areas with their subordinate units and local armed forces, so as to gradually recover Changzhi.

The pre-war preparations were sufficient, morale boosted and efficient. In accordance with the instructions of the central authorities and the development of the situation, Liu Bocheng ordered all units to immediately mobilize forces to form a field corps on 10 August and make full preparations before the war.

First of all, the troops adopted the method of "fighting, building, and training at the same time," organized the guerrilla regiments into three field columns, Taihang, Southern Hebei, and Taiyue, and readjusted their establishment, training, and command, thus reshaping the organizational structure of the troops, thus ensuring the change of the troops' combat mode from guerrilla warfare to mobile warfare and enhancing the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Secondly, he called on the troops to fight to defend the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and played the slogan of "fighting the battle of Shangdang and supporting the negotiations in Chongqing". The call that "the better the battle of Shangdang is fought, the more thoroughly the enemy is annihilated, the safer Chairman Mao will be, and the more powerful Chairman Mao will be at the negotiating table" has greatly boosted the morale of the troops.

Finally, actively organize and carry out the work of supporting the front, mobilize 50,000 militia at all levels to support the front or participate in the war, and actively organize military stations and transport teams to rush to produce food, ammunition and clothing. Adequate pre-war preparations ensured the supply of the front line and laid a solid foundation for the victory of the campaign.

The tactics are flexible and changeable, and the command is scientific and decisive. After seizing the enemy's outlying strongholds, on September 20, Liu and Deng decided to attack the city from the east, south, and west of Changzhi City at the same time, leaving a way to survive at Beiguan, and inducing Shi Zebo's troops to flee north in order to annihilate them in a field battle. In the case that Changzhi was surrounded by our army, Yan Xishan urgently ordered Peng Yubin to lead reinforcements to relieve the siege of Shi Zebo. On the 28th, after judging Peng's intentions, Liu and Deng decided to adopt the tactics of "encircling the point and sending reinforcements"; when it was determined that the enemy's reinforcements were equal to ours but their equipment was superior to ours, they tried their best to avoid "gnawing hard bones", leaving only the local troops to besiege the city and sending the main force north to send reinforcements. On October 5, the Taiyue column made a decisive attack and annihilated each of the Peng tribes. Shi Zebo, who was besieged, saw that there was no hope for reinforcements, and broke through from Changzhi on the night of the 8th. Liu and Deng urgently ordered the Taiyue column to pursue, and after several hours of fierce fighting, except for a few vanguard troops who fled westward, all the rest were annihilated, Shi Zebo was captured, and the battle of Shangdang ended victoriously.

The method of operation is the essence of warfare, and flexibility and changeability are the soul of the method of warfare. It is impossible for the whole world to "take all the tactics" into one, and victory can only be achieved by "changing because of the enemy and changing quickly with the enemy." In light of the situation of the enemy's incoming reinforcements, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region promptly adjusted its tactics, adjusted its combat methods and priorities to "encirclement points and sent reinforcements," and always held the initiative in the campaign in its own hands, so as to achieve the effect of making decisions ahead of the enemy, commanding better than the enemy, and acting faster than the enemy.

Skillfully use the hidden truth to show the false, and effectively break the enemy's tricks. When our army decided to send the main force to the north to send reinforcements, in order not to let the defenders of Changzhi find out that our main force was going to send reinforcements, on the day of evacuation, the besieging troops were organized to carry cloud ladders to carry out siege drills during the day, and at night to light lamps and blow trumpets to harass the enemy, so as to create the false impression that our main force had not withdrawn, and the main force quietly withdrew from Changzhi City on the night of the 28th.

When the attack of the reinforcement troops was blocked, Liu and Deng transferred the southern Hebei column to support, in order to deter the enemy troops who came to help, they deliberately ordered the southern Hebei column to march during the day and deliberately exposed it in order to shake the heart of the reinforcement army. After Peng Yubin realized that the reinforcement plan was bankrupt, while ordering the baggage and command organs to retreat to the north, in order to confuse our army, he ordered a large force to make a feint to the south, which was quickly detected by our Taiyue column, and it was difficult to escape the fate of being annihilated. In this campaign, the commanders of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region adopted the tactics of concealing the truth and revealing the false in light of the different situations of the enemy in front of them and the different stages of the development of the campaign, and used various and flexible means to conceal our army's intentions and distract and confuse the enemy troops, thus successfully guaranteeing the victory of the campaign.

After the Shangdang Campaign, Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army lost 11 divisions and more than 30,000 troops in nearly two months from the beginning of September to the end of October. Among them, the 19th Army belonged to the main force of the Jin Sui Army. In this battle, the 19th Army was almost completely annihilated. The Jin Sui army had only more than 100,000 troops in total, and lost nearly one-third of its troops in this battle.

In addition to more than 30,000 troops, 24 artillery pieces, more than 2,000 light and heavy machine guns, more than 16,000 rifles and pistols, as well as a large amount of ammunition and logistics were lost. In short, in this battle, the vitality of the Jin Sui army was greatly damaged. Relying on his own strength, he was no longer able to defend Shanxi Province, so he asked for external forces to be stationed in Shanxi. Let's take a closer look at this battle, the Jin Sui army relied on the superiority of troops in the hope of striking first, but was defeated by the opponent after the attack, and almost all the troops on its own front line were wiped out.

With the end of the Shangdang Campaign, the power structure in North China has undergone new changes. The area of the base area has been further expanded, the strength has been strengthened, and a large number of militia units have been formed. In the context of important negotiations between the two sides, the victory of the Shangdang battle has increased the confidence and bargaining chips on the negotiation table. As a matter of fact, after the Shangdang Campaign, the areas controlled by the Jin Sui Army Group have begun to be dominated by Taiyuan and Datong cities, and in the vast rural areas, the control of the Jin Sui Army Group is very poor. In particular, the situation in North China has been decided, the Northern Army has accepted peaceful reorganization, a large number of troops from Dongye have been transferred to Guanwai, and the Jin Sui Army is powerless to stop the wheel of history.