Text/Kingdom Building
Many people know that the Kuomintang 74th Army is one of the most capable units of the Nationalist Army. But few people know that the military commanders of this ace force have a very miserable end. This situation was unique among all the Kuomintang troops.
01. Liao Lingqi: Liao Lingqi, commander of the 58th Division at the Battle of Changsha, was killed in vain
On September 17, 1941, Liao Lingqi, commander of the 58th Division of the 74th Army, asked the commander Wang Yaowu to leave home to marry. This matter was reported to the theater command for preparation, but Xue Yue, the commander of the theater, did not know about it and did not approve the fake note. During Liao Lingqi's marriage, the Japanese army attacked, and Zhang Lingfu, deputy commander of the 58th Division, was incompetent and defeated by the Japanese army. Afterwards, the theater command pursued the responsibility and determined that Liao Lingqi had left the command post without permission, which was a fleeing from the front and should be shot according to military law. Although Wang Yaowu testified on behalf of Liao Lingqi, in order to stabilize the overall situation of the War of Resistance, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Liao Lingqi to be shot. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek regretted it and posthumously recognized Liao Lingqi as a general who died in the anti-Japanese war and entered the Shrine of the Faithful Martyrs.
02. Yu Chengwan: Yu Chengwan, commander of the 57th Division, was dismissed
From November to December 1943, Lieutenant General Yu Chengwan, commander of the 57th Division of the 74th Army, led more than 8,000 people to defend Changde. The 57th Division resisted the 30,000 elite soldiers of the Japanese 116th Division for 12 days, fighting until only 50 or 60 people were left, and broke through when the ammunition ran out of food. The next day, Yu Chengwan led reinforcements to retake the lost city of Changde. However, Yu Chengwan was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to be held accountable for the loss of Changde City and sentenced to 2 years in prison. After Yu was imprisoned for several months, Wang Yaowu released him on bail. In 1950, Lu Han revolted in Kunming, and although Yu Chengwan also signed the joint uprising book, he was reluctant to revolt and later ordered his 26th Army to attack Kunming. He went to Taiwan in January 1950 and later to Hong Kong, where his life was bleak.
03. Zhang Lingfu: Zhang Lingfu, commander of the 74th Division of the Menglianggu Campaign
In May 1947, the Kuomintang concentrated its superior forces to carry out a large-scale encirclement and suppression of our Shandong Field Army. The reorganized 74th Division (reorganized from the 74th Army, nominally a division with an actual strength of more than 30,000 troops) under the leadership of division commander Zhang Lingfu took the lead in attacking the People's Liberation Army. In order to attract the main force of the People's Liberation Army to a decisive battle, Zhang Lingfu used himself as a bait to lure the main force of the People's Liberation Army to surround him, and then let the main force of the Kuomintang eliminate the People's Liberation Army. As a result, this good play of combining inside and outside was smashed, and the reorganized 74th Division was completely destroyed in Menglianggu, and the division commander Zhang Lingfu and the deputy division commander Cai Renjie were both killed.
04. Wang Yaowu: Captured in the Battle of Jinan
In September 1948, the East China Field Army launched the Battle of Jinan. After the liberation of Jinan, Wang Yaowu, chairman of Shandong Province (the second commander of the 74th Army), fled in disguise, and was later recognized by the common people because of his use of high-grade toilet paper and toilets, and was captured and sent to the Beijing War Criminals Management Center for reform. He was pardoned in February 1959. He died in Beijing in 1968.
05. Qiu Weida: Qiu Weida, commander of the newly organized 74th Army in the Huaihai Campaign, was captured
After Zhang Lingfu's entire army was destroyed in Menglianggu, Wang Yaowu, chairman of Shandong Province, reorganized the 74th Division (soon after renamed the 74th Army) on May 17, 1947, with Qiu Weida, the former commander of the 51st Division of the 74th Army, as its commander.
On January 10, 1949, Qiu Weida's 74th Army was annihilated by the People's Liberation Army at the Battle of Huaihai, and he himself became a prisoner of the People's Liberation Army. Liu Bocheng, Su Yu, and other leading comrades took a fancy to Qiu Weida's military talent and transferred him to the East China Military and Political University of the People's Liberation Army and the Nanjing Military Academy as instructors. On March 29, 1998, Qiu Weida died in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, at the age of 95.
06. Lao Guanying: The last commander of the 74th Army, Lao Guanying, fled to Taiwan and was held accountable by a military court
In February 1949, the Kuomintang reorganized the 74th Army in Jinhua and Lanxi, Zhejiang, with Lao Guanying, commander of the 58th Division of the former 74th Army, as its commander. The newly formed 74th Army participated in the Battle of Fuzhou and the Battle of Pingtan in the same year, after which the remnants were annexed by Li Tianxia, and Lao Guanying fled to Taiwan alone. The military court pursued the five major crimes of Lao Guanying, and Lao Guanying was not satisfied, and refuted them one by one. In the end, he was not sentenced, and he was forcibly ordered to retire from active duty and find a way out. Mr. Lo and his family opened a grocery store in The town of Muzha near Taipei to make a living. He died in Taiwan in 1977.
07. Li Tianxia: Li Tianxia, former deputy commander of the 74th Army, fled to Taiwan and was sentenced to 12 years in prison
At the end of 1949, Li Tianxia, commander of the Kuomintang 73rd Army (who served as deputy commander of the 74th Army and commander of the 51st Division during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression), fled to Taiwan with the remnants of the army after the defeat at Pingtan Island. Chiang Kai-shek, annoyed by his misdeeds in the Kuomintang-Communist War, ordered Li Tianxia to be shot. Later, under the intercession of some people, the sentence was changed to 12 years in prison, and he was asked to change his name and surname to make meritorious contributions to the "anti-communist" along the coast of Zhejiang. Li Tianxia suffered such a blow and has since been devastated and died in Taiwan in 1967.
In the entire Kuomintang 74 Army system, only Yu Jishi, the first commander of the 74 Army, and Shi Zhongcheng, the third commander of the 74 Army, were good at starting and ending. Yu Jishi was the nephew of Chiang Kai-shek, and after fleeing to Taiwan, his career was smooth and high-ranking official Houlu until his death in 1990. In 1946, Shi Zhongcheng voluntarily surrendered his military power, did not get involved in right and wrong, and fled to Taiwan with his family in 1949, hanging the title of lieutenant general and deputy commander for the elderly. He died in Taipei in 1974.