On May 16, 1947, when the nearly one-week Battle of Menglianggu ended in the victory of the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Lingfu, commander of the Nationalist 74th Division, saw that the general situation was gone, and had to leave a seven-character last word on the wall of the trapped cave, and the well-equipped 74th Division was destroyed.
When Chiang Kai-shek learned of Zhang Lingfu's death in battle, he was furious and rushed to the crown, and after learning the 7 words left by Zhang Lingfu before his death, he immediately removed a large number of Kuomintang generals from their official posts, and even Zhang Lingfu's immediate superior, Tang Enbo, was beaten by Chiang Kai-shek with blood all over his face.
Why did Zhang Lingfu, a confidant of Chiang Kai-shek, come to the end of the road? What seven words did he leave in the cave before he died?
The "most controversial" anti-Japanese general
Zhang Lingfu has been quick-thinking since childhood, so in 1923 he entered the history department of Peking University, but was forced to withdraw from school due to his family's poverty, after which he joined the army and continued to polish himself, and finally entered the 4th phase of the Whampoa Military Academy.
During his studies at the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhang Lingfu was favored by Chiang Kai-shek because he often picked up lights for night battles, and as soon as he graduated, he entered the 21st Division of the National Revolutionary Army as a platoon leader, and after experiencing the Northern Expedition, he was promoted to regimental commander, and at the age of thirty he was promoted to colonel of the Independent Brigade of the First Division.
It was also during this period that he met his second wife, Wu Hailan, and after marriage, because he doubted the identity of his wife, he shot and killed Wu Hailan, and was attacked by the women's circles and tried by the Kuomintang, and the Nanjing government initially sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but because of Chiang Kai-shek's "enlightenment", Zhang Lingfu quickly returned to the army.
When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Zhang Lingfu led the army again under Wang Yaowu's arrangement, and because of his outstanding performance, he was soon promoted to the commander of the 58th Division of the Kuomintang 74th Army.
After that, he successively experienced the Battle of Zhejiang, the Battle of Changde and the Battle of Changsha, and after the surrender of the Japanese army in 1945, Zhang Lingfu was promoted to commander of the Nanjing garrison and lieutenant general of the 74th Army.
In order to commend his merits, Chiang Kai-shek even specially arranged for him and his soldiers to be airlifted to Nanjing to be surrendered, and Zhang Lingfu's position was unparalleled for a while.
However, although Zhang Lingfu made certain contributions in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the theory of "the 7th General of the Anti-Japanese Resistance" was quite controversial, and many people said that Zhang Lingfu could not match Wang Yaowu and others in terms of military merit and seniority.
As for the so-called "first loyal martyr of the party-state" later, it is even more exaggerated, and the defeat of Meng Lianggu by the 74th Army led by Zhang Lingfu in 1946 is the best proof.
The hidden dangers buried by Zhang Lingfu
After Japan's unconditional surrender in August 1945, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party negotiated in the Chongqing area for several days, and finally signed the famous "Double Tenth Agreement" on October 10, advocating peaceful nation-building.
But in June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to realize his dictatorial ambitions, openly tore up this agreement and launched a civil war.
It was also during this period that the Kuomintang Seventy-fourth Army was reorganized into the reorganized 74th Division, with three brigades of 51st, 57th, and 58th under its command, with a total number of more than 30,000 people, and the commander of the army, Zhang Lingfu, was changed to the commander of the division and continued to command this unit to attack the liberated areas of Shandong.
In the middle of the Liberation War, the two most important battlefields were northern Shaanxi and Shandong, of which Shandong was particularly valued by Chiang Kai-shek.
Therefore, in April 1947, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Tang Enbo to serve as the commander-in-chief of the First Corps, with overall control over the Shandong War Situation, and Zhang Lingfu and his 74th Division were also under his jurisdiction.
It was only zhang Lingfu who regarded himself as a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek and looked down on Tang Enbo, who rose to power by flattery, so the two often had differences of opinion, which would lay the foundation for the defeat of the later Meng Lianggu soldiers.
In Tang Enbo's original plan, he prepared for the 65th Division to attack the Jiuzhai and Tanbu areas, with the 74th Division coordinating from the side and the 83rd Division providing support as a mobile unit.
However, Zhang Lingfu had different opinions on this, he believed that the People's Liberation Army in the Tanbu area only had three or two squadrons, at most no more than five or six, and the 74th Division he led could fight down with one division, while the 65th Division and the 83rd Division could directly advance towards the Yishui area.
Due to the large number of the 74th Division at that time and the equipment was all beautiful weapons, in addition to Zhang Lingfu, the other generals of the 74th Division also felt that it was not a big problem to attack alone, not only because they prided themselves on their strength, but also because they wanted to take the lead in the region.
Because Zhang Lingfu was trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, a disgruntled Tang Enbo finally agreed to his request, but both Tang Enbo and Li Tianxia, the commander of the 83rd Division, secretly had considerable opinions about Zhang Lingfu in their hearts.
Defeat of Meng Lianggu, seven words of last words
At the beginning of May 1947, the 74th Division, as the main force, began to advance towards the Tanbu area, because this unit carried a large number of mule and horse vehicles, it was very inconvenient to carry out on the mountain path, so Zhang Lingfu specially sent a cavalry unit to repair the road along the road.
Some people suggested that this was too ostentatious and easy to expose the intention prematurely, but Zhang Lingfu did not think so, but thought that even if the People's Liberation Army knew, it would not matter, and she was looking for him to fight.
On May 11, in order to compete for the first victory, Zhang Lingfu directly led the 74th Division, abandoned the two wings of the cover force, and fought with our army alone.
However, Zhang Lingfu did not expect that our army had arranged a total of 5 columns in the area at that time, and it was simply not possible for the 74th Division to fight alone.
Therefore, after a fierce battle on May 13, Zhang Linfu and his 74th Division did not get a bargain, and tang Enbole ordered to capture Tanbu before May 14, so Zhang Lingfu fought more aggressively, so that finally the entire 74 were forced to move to the nearby foothills of Menglianggu.
However, the situation was already unprecedentedly tense, but Chiang Kai-shek, instead of blaming Zhang Lingfu, felt that this was a good opportunity to win or lose a battle with the East China Field Army, so he ordered the air force to send food and ammunition to Zhang Lingfu and others trapped on the mountain, and on the other hand, ordered 10 integrated divisions such as the 25th Division and the 83rd Division to go to Menglianggu for reinforcements.
At that time, it was Marshal Chen Yi who presided over the war situation in Shandong, and in order to lay the foundation for victory for our army in one fell swoop, Marshal Chen Yi led his troops to launch a fierce attack on the 74th Division after May 13, with the intention of encircling and annihilating it.
After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's orders, although Tang Enbo and others were also forced to come to support, in the final analysis, they still had dissatisfaction with Zhang Lingfu in their hearts, and after the reinforcements were halfway through, they abruptly stopped and withdrew the same way, so that Zhang Lingfu, who was struggling to defend the foothills of Menglianggu Mountain, was finally forced to the point of running out of ammunition, and seeing that there was no hope of a breakthrough, Zhang Lingfu wrote a suicide note in the cave, "Commit suicide and be loyal to the party-state!" ”
The end of allegiance to the cool dictator
After the Battle of Menglianggu, our army basically reversed the war situation in East China, and also shattered Chiang Kai-shek's illusion of trying to occupy the Liberated Areas of Shandong, so that Chiang Kai-shek, who had failed in defeat, was furious, especially after learning of the seven-character last words left by Zhang Lingfu, his heart was full of sorrow and incomprehension.
You must know that at that time, he had already issued a death order to the surrounding troops, asking them to go to support Zhang Lingfu, and at that time, Li Tianxia's 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's 25th Division were nearby, and the distance was at most only twenty or thirty miles apart, and they could arrive in a blink of an eye, so why did such a situation eventually occur?
Later, Chiang Kai-shek learned that these two troops, including other units led by Tang Enbo, were reluctant to come to support because they were estranged from Zhang Lingfu, so they withdrew their troops only after "making a show."
In particular, Li Tianxia and Tang Enbo, in order to reduce losses, only sent a company to support, and even before leaving, they repeatedly told them that they must "preserve their strength.", as for Tang Enbo, they were even more outrageous, and after encountering our army, they did not fight and fled directly.
After learning the truth, Chiang Kai-shek angrily smashed the teacup in the office, and also smashed Tang Enbo's face with blood with a crutch, and as for the generals who did not reinforce in time, they were almost all dismissed and investigated by him.
Later, in order to show his "debt" to Zhang Lingfu, Chiang Kai-shek not only publicly praised Zhang Lingfu as "the first loyal martyr of the party and state", but also deliberately found his wife and solemnly said,
"The party-state will not forget you."
Of course, these words are just scene words, and those who have no use value for Chiang Kai-shek can mostly escape the fate of being abandoned.
When he was defeated in Taiwan in 1949, although he took Zhang Lingfu's widow with him, after arriving in Taiwan, he basically had a no-mind attitude, so that Zhang Lingfu's widow wanted to receive some government subsidies, which showed Chiang Kai-shek's coldness and hypocrisy.
Zhang Lingfu died in Meng Lianggu not only because of his own pride and arrogance, but also because of the long-standing intrigue within the Kuomintang, and how can such a political party gain the trust and support of the people? Therefore, Zhang Lingfu's military defeat and the Kuomintang's defeat and retreat are both inevitable endings, and they are not worth lamenting.