In the Liberation War, many senior generals of the Nationalist army were killed or captured on the battlefield, such as Zhang Lingfu, Qiu Qingquan, Huang Baitao, Huang Wei, Liao Yaoxiang and Du Yuming. None of these men were tough generals of the nationalist army, but once they fell into a desperate situation on the battlefield, they were either captured or killed. But there is one person who is an exception, he has escaped from death four times, and this person is Hu Lian. In his later years, a subordinate asked Hu Lian why he was able to get out of danger every time, and Hu Lian only said four words: alert and calm.
The Battle of Nanma was the first time to escape. Later in the Battle of Luzhong, Lao Jiang transferred 7 reorganized divisions from the Luzhong battlefield in order to ensure Xuzhou, and finally the great Luzhong only had Wang Lingyun's 9th Division, Hu Lian's 11th Division, Huang Baitao's 25th Division, and Huang Guoliang's 64th Division. At this time, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division was assembling in the Nanma area, and as soon as the large troops of the Nationalist army withdrew, he immediately smelled the crisis, believing that the old Chiang Kai-shek had won Hua Ye's plan to transfer the tiger away from the mountain, and his lone army was likely to have been targeted by the People's Liberation Army.
Feeling that the situation was not good, Hu Lian immediately ordered the troops to stop advancing, built fortifications on the spot, spent 15 days building a scattered Ming Fort, a dark fort, and a zimu fort, and also pulled up several barbed wire fences at the front of the position, and planted a large number of mines. On July 18, 1947, after completing the task of mobilizing the enemy, the four columns of Huaye returned to Luzhong and directly attacked Hu Lian. The 2nd, 6th and 9th columns were responsible for attacking, and the 7th column was responsible for reinforcements. However, because Hu Lian had built a solid fortification in advance, the progress of our army was extremely slow, and it took 4 days and 4 nights of fierce fighting to approach the enemy's core position.
At this time, a sudden rainstorm caused many of our army's ammunition to be damp and failed, and the offensive firepower was greatly weakened. At the same time, the reinforcements sent by Chen Cheng also broke through the defense of the 7 columns, and our attacking troops were in danger of being attacked by the enemy in the abdomen and back, and were forced to retreat. Some people say that a large part of the reason why Hu Lian was able to survive in the Battle of Nanma was because the torrential rain helped him a lot. In fact, the weather factor is only an external factor, and more importantly, Hu Lian smelled the crisis before the war and made full preparations, otherwise he would not have been able to persist for four days and four nights.
The Second Battle of Tushan Ji survived. In early September 1947, Hua Ye launched the Battle of Cao County, encircling the Nationalist reorganized 57th Division, and Hu Lian was ordered to rescue him. However, when he reached the area of Dayiji and Tushanji, the 57th Division had been annihilated by our army, and Hu Lian immediately smelled the danger, immediately stopped, occupied several villages and began to excavate fortifications. On September 24, the 3rd, 4th, and 8th columns of Huaye launched a fierce attack on the reorganized 11th Division, but failed to succeed in three days of fierce fighting, and withdrew again, with more than 3,500 enemy casualties and more than 4,400 casualties of our army. Vigilance against danger and anticipation of the battle situation made Hu Lian escape from death again.
The Third Battle of the Double Stack. In August 1948, in order to cope with the upcoming strategic decisive battle, the Nationalist Army formed the 12th Corps, under the command of the Tenth, 14th, 18th, 85th Army and the Fourth Rapid Column, of which the backbone of the 18th Army. Hu Lian had long led the 18th Army (reorganized 11th Division) in combat, and was extremely familiar with the characteristics of this unit, and it was said that he should be the commander of the corps. However, due to the strong opposition of Bai Chongxi and He Yingqin, Hu Lian was eventually defeated, and the commander of the corps was given to Huang Wei.
At this time, Huang Wei was serving as the principal of the new military academy in Wuhan, and since he left the battlefield in 1940, he has not led the army to fight for 8 years. Now that Old Jiang had suddenly handed over a large army of more than 100,000 people to his command, Huang Wei was very worried in his heart, and he immediately told Old Jiang that "he has been away from the army for a long time, and it is difficult to lead the troops." But the old Chiang Kai-shek said: "Fighting a war is the most important task now, and without eliminating the communist army, everything cannot be done, and you cannot think about it personally." ”
Huang Wei could only take office with a hard head, and before leaving, he said to Old Jiang: "After this battle, I still go back to run a school, and the commander of the Twelfth Corps should still give it to Hu Lian." Huang Wei's sense of battlefield smell was not as good as Hu Lian's, and with the long-distance battle front, he was quickly surrounded by Nakano in the Shuangduiji area. Before the 12th Corps set out, Hu Lian was dissatisfied because he was only a deputy commander, and ran to Shanghai under the pretext of toothache. After Huang Wei was surrounded, Hu Lian took the initiative to ask for help and took a small plane to the double stack.
At this time, the double pile set had been surrounded by Nakano on all sides, and Hu Lian took the initiative to enter the encirclement circle, which was a rare courage among the generals of the Nationalist army. Although Hu Lian's arrival gave the encircled Nationalist army a shot in the arm, it could not change the war situation in the end. After our army launched a general offensive, Hu Lian and Huang Wei escaped in separate tanks, Huang Wei was eventually captured due to the failure of the tank, and Hu Lian escaped again. On the way, Hu Lian met with our troops several times. Not only did he not increase his horsepower to escape, but he also took the initiative to make way for our army, showing great composure that our army mistakenly thought that it was a captured tank. If Hu Lian had been a little flustered at this time and had increased his horsepower to escape, it would certainly arouse the suspicion of our army, and he would have run away. At the crucial moment, calm saved his life.
In the Battle of Kinmen, Hu Lian escaped from death for the fourth time. At about 5:30 p.m. on August 23, 1958, hundreds of artillery pieces of our army fired at Kinmen at the same time, and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition were dropped within two hours, mainly targeting the command post, observation post, transportation center, key fortifications and artillery positions of the Kinmen Nationalist Army. The fire raid inflicted great damage on the island's Nationalist forces, with more than 440 casualties. Among Hu Lian's three deputies, Zhao Jiajun and Zhang Jie died on the spot, and Ji Xingwen was seriously injured and died later. Hu Lian, on the other hand, miraculously escaped unharmed.
After the defeat of the Nationalist army, Hu Lian became the commander of the Kinmen Defense, and the first thing he did after taking office was to build a solid basement in Cuigu and move the headquarters into it. On the day of the artillery battle, Yu Dawei flew to Kinmen to inspect the defense and boost morale. After dinner, Hu Lian took Zhao Jiaji, Ji Xingwen and Zhang Jie, three deputy commanders, to accompany Yu Dawei on the west side of the bridge, when he suddenly saw a white pillar of smoke on the opposite hillside that exploded one after another, followed by a deafening explosion. Yu Dawei asked in surprise, "Is that what we are disposing of?" Zhao Jiaji didn't know what was going on, and hurriedly ordered the guards around him to call and inquire.
Hu Lian immediately realized the danger, why? Because Zhao Jiaji was the deputy commander in charge of artillery at that time, if the defenders on the island wanted to dispose of the waste bombs on a large scale, they would definitely have to be approved by him. Now that even he can't figure out the situation, there is only one possibility left, that is, the People's Liberation Army is firing artillery! At this time, Hu Lian made an extremely agile and very correct response, he did not panic and did not choose a path, nor did he lie down on the ground, but pulled up Yu Dawei's bow and ran into the underground bunker tens of meters away, thus escaping the disaster. Zhao Jiaji, Ji Xingwen and Zhang Jie were one step slower and eventually died. It was precisely by relying on alertness and composure that Hu Lian repeatedly escaped from the Liberation War.