Before the outbreak of the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang had absolute superiority in both troop strength and weapons and equipment, and also controlled many large and medium-sized cities and major transportation routes, plus the support of the United States. Therefore, old Chiang Kai-shek was full of confidence and boasted that the war could be ended in just one year. However, after the outbreak of the Liberation War, in just over three years, Lao Jiang lost more than 8 million troops, and hundreds of senior generals of the Nationalist army were captured.
Among these captives, the supreme general was Tang Yao. At the end of 48, Tang Yao became the chief of staff of the Kuomintang Army General Command, and finally came to the forefront from behind the scenes, but at this time, the defeat of the Nationalist army was decided, and Tang Yao did not have much opportunity to perform. Later, Lu Han revolted in Yunnan, Tang Yao became a firefighter, and was appointed by the old Chiang Kai-shek as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army, leading his troops to attack Kunming in a vain attempt to retake Yunnan.
At this time, our army was already approaching Kunming, and Tang Yao was quickly defeated. Our army immediately launched a pursuit operation, and under the fierce pursuit of our army, the remnants of Tang Yao became birds of fright and fled along the east bank of the Yuan River. On January 24, 1950, the remnants of Tang Yao were surrounded by our army in the area of Laterite Slope and Ertang Mountain, and after nearly 8 hours of fierce fighting, our army completely annihilated the enemy, and Tang Yao himself was captured, and then sent to Gongdelin for reform.
When Tang Yao's ambitions were first revealed, our army had already launched a detailed investigation of him, and even the enemy's garrison here in the area 80 miles east of Mengzi City was also discovered by our army. On the day of our army's attack, Tang Yao was still drinking happily with his subordinates, and he did not expect that the People's Liberation Army would suddenly appear.