On May 16, 1947, after three days of fierce fighting, Meng Lianggu gradually quieted down, and the enemy's integrated 74th Division was annihilated by our Huaye troops, and a total of 19,676 enemy troops were captured in this battle. According to the past practice, the prisoners were willing to stay and were reluctant to stay and pay for the journey home, but the prisoners of the 74th Division were the exception. A telegram from his superiors stressed: None of the prisoners of the 74th Division are allowed to be released! The news soon spread among the prisoners, and everyone panicked: Could it be that the People's Liberation Army attacked Meng Lianggu and suffered too many casualties, and wanted to kill us to vent their anger?
【Captured officers and men of the 74th Division】
The reorganized 74th Division was formerly known as the 74th Army in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to play a famous role in the peace talks, changed a large number of troops into an integrated division, and the 74th Army was therefore changed to the reorganized 74th Division, with Zhang Lingfu as the fourth division commander. The division consisted of 3 brigades and 9 regiments (later joined a training regiment, but the training regiment did not participate in the Battle of Menglianggu), with about 32,000 people.
According to the 74th Division's book "Compilation Statistics", the 74th Division had 12 105 mm howitzers, 108 105 mm mortars, 108 81 mm mortars, 36 75 mm mountain guns, 486 60 mm mortars, 108 37 mm anti-aircraft guns, 579 fire injectors and Bazooka bazookas, and 1404 light and heavy machine guns. The garrison of the troops is The Xiaoling Wei of Nanjing, which has the position of arch guarding the Beijing Division, so it is also known as the "Royal Forest Army".
[Woodcut of the Annihilation of the 74th Division published in "Luzhong Volkswagen" that year]
The combat effectiveness of the reorganized 74th Division was indeed very strong, and in order to eat this enemy, Huaye's troops lost a total of 2,859 people and wounded more than 9,000 people, which was greater than the previous battles of Lunan, Subei and Laiwu. The final result was the killing of division commander Zhang Lingfu, the annihilation of more than 32,000 enemy troops, of whom 19,676 were taken prisoner.
What to do with these captives became a major problem at that time. Our army has always given preferential treatment to prisoners, and according to the past practice, those who are willing to stay will stay, and those who are willing to go home will be paid for the journey home, but the prisoners of the 74th Division are exceptions. The telegram from the superior particularly emphasized: no one can be put. Due to the stubborn resistance of the 74th Division, the attacking troops suffered heavy casualties, and after the war, there were many incidents of shooting prisoners to avenge them. By May 29, Chen Yi held a meeting of cadres at and above the regiment level to stress that the situation of undermining the captive policy had reached a considerable level, and cadres at all levels could not pretend to turn a blind eye.
[Zhang Lingfu killed by a 1 column warrior]
It is precisely because of this that nearly 20,000 prisoners will be worried and uneasy in their hearts, thinking that our army will come to kill prisoners en masse to vent their anger. But in fact, the real reason is not so, and there are two main reasons why our army refuses to release the prisoners of the 74th Division.
One reason is that the entire 74th Division was deeply favored and favored by Chiang, who had taught them many times, and their belief in Chiang was quite firm, and their cohesion and organization were much stronger than those of the ordinary Chiang Kai-shek troops. It is precisely because of this that in addition to the title of "Royal Forest Army", the reorganized 74th Division also has a title called "Model Army". In the words of the People's Liberation Army at that time, it was a "hardcore reactionary." If you let him go today, tomorrow he will return to Chiang Kai-shek's troops and make enemies of the people again.
[Bai Yutian, a prisoner of the wounded 74th Division, was treated by hygienists of our army]
Another reason is that the officers and men of the 74th Division have a high fighting quality, a strong will to fight (relatively speaking), a high literacy rate (about 65%), and if they can be replenished into the PLA troops, they are an excellent source of troops. Of the more than 19,000 captives, more than 7,000 were captured in the valley between Menglianggu and Diaowo. They were the reserves of the 74th Division, and seeing the defeat of the front-line troops, they hid in the valley, ready to meet the reinforcements after our army retreated. 7,000 people did not make a sound, did not shoot, did not run around, just waited quietly, after the defeat of the army is still so calm to see that the psychological quality is not ordinary, our army almost thought it was a friendly army and missed.
The individual qualities of the soldiers are also commendable, such as digging a simple lying hole immediately after lying down, and then shooting after concealment, which can reduce casualties. This move will not be done not only by other Chiang Kai-shek troops, but also by our army. There are also hidden gun positions, mobile shooting and other tactical applications, which have also benefited our army a lot.
[Political work cadres of our army visit the officers and men of the captured 74th Division]
The captured 74th Division's brigade-level officers were incorporated into the Officer Education Corps, but they did not return to the unit after completing their studies. Ordinary soldiers were reorganized into our army after being reorganized. Among them, 1 column supplemented 2500 people, 4 columns supplemented 2100 people, 6 columns supplemented 1500 people, 9 columns supplemented 3200 people, special columns supplemented 420 people, and others were supplemented to 8 columns.
In order to reform the minds of these captives, the superiors can be said to have gone to great lengths. Huaye Political Department organized personnel to screen, talk, and investigate prisoners, and compiled a 100,000-word "Investigation and Research of the 74th Division of Chiang Kai-shek's Army" and distributed it to the whole army for reference. But even so, transforming them is still quite difficult. When the 1st and 4th Columns broke through at Lunan, the prisoners of the former 74th Division who had been replenished ran away in half, and these men returned and rejoined Chiang Kai-shek's army, where they were annihilated at the Battle of Huaihai. In addition, lower-ranking officers would also instigate prisoner rebellions, which had never been done in the previous Chiang Kai-shek captives.
[Woodcut "From Laiwu Victory to Meng Lianggu Victory" on the pictorial newspaper of "Luzhong Zhongzhong"】
But many more have been ideologically rehabilitated to become qualified revolutionary fighters who know what soldiers should fight for. For example, the former 74th Division of the 6th Column and the 9th Column (27th Army) were captured, and later in the Battle of Chosin Lake in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, under extremely difficult circumstances, they played a role in national and military prestige. Wei Zhenyu, former chief of staff of the 74th Division, said after the study of the education group: "I don't understand political matters, but when I saw the scene of the people actively supporting the People's Liberation Army on stretchers, I knew that this battle would definitely not be won." "This is the back of the human heart.