On November 5, 1948, the Nationalists and communists invested 250,000 troops in Nianzhuang, opening the curtain on the Battle of Huaihai. In this world-famous offensive and defensive battle, the 100,000 troops of the Kuomintang Seventh Corps were all destroyed, and the commander Huang Baitao was killed.
For decades, the truth of Huang Baitao's death has been shrouded in a lot of fog, and many versions circulating on the market are either catching wind and shadows, or being vague. The author collected some of the parties' memories and sorted out this article for the benefit of the reader.
On November 19, 1948, the battle of Mill Village reached a fever pitch.
But the bad news came one after another: the 59th Army and the 77th Army of the Kuomintang Third Appeasement Zone declared an uprising; the entire army of the 44th Army collapsed, and the commander Wang Zejun was captured; the 63rd Army was defeated, and the commander Chen Zhang was killed on the battlefield...
After only ten days of holding the village, the 5 armies under the command of Huang Baitao were wiped out 3, plus an integrated division, and the position was lost by more than half. The remaining 25th Army and 64th Army are still intact and have a certain combat effectiveness, but they can only be defeated and have no strength to take the initiative.
At 10 o'clock that night, the People's Liberation Army launched another onslaught, and the artillery fire lasted for 2 days, and tens of thousands of shells "crushed" the mill to the ground. Under the cover of artillery fire, the People's Liberation Army carried out tunnel operations and advanced the forward position to a position less than 100 meters away from the mill.
On the morning of the 20th, the 25th Army was annihilated by the People's Liberation Army, and the headquarters of the Seventh Corps was also captured by our army, and Huang Baitao and Yang Tingyan fled to Wuzhuang under the cover of the remnants of the army. Wuzhuang is located in the northeast of Nianzhuang, which is the headquarters of the 156th Division of the 64th Army, and the entire Seventh Corps has such a position.
Chen Qingbin, commander of the 156th Division, saw That Huang Baitao looked decadent and took out cigarettes and canned food for hospitality. At this time, Liu Zhenxiang, commander of the 64th Army, also rushed over, and he saw that Huang and Yang were taken aback, realized that Nianzhuang had been lost, and immediately held a military conference to study the next action, but it was discussed until late at night, and no agreement was reached on the breakthrough.
On the 22nd, Wuzhuang was no longer defended, and Liu Zhenxiang agreed to break through and prepare to join Li Mi's army to the west. However, there was a heavy ambush by the People's Liberation Army in the west, and this act was more vicious and less auspicious. Huang Baitao was not very sure, he had been worried, and the color of despair jumped on his face.
Chen Qingbin saw that Huang Baitao was fidgeting and full of sorrow, worried that "the suicide of the commander of the corps at the division headquarters would seriously affect morale," so he boldly made a request: "In order to ensure the safety of the general seat, please give me the pistol for safekeeping!" Huang Baitao heard that he was initially embarrassed, and after considering his defeat, he unsheathed his pistol and handed it to Chen Qingbin for safekeeping.
At dusk that day, the first commando team launched an attack, and Huang Baitao and Liu Zhenxiang rode two black horses and led the second commando team to follow. When they burst into the garrison of the former 25th Army Headquarters, they unexpectedly stumbled into the fire network of the People's Liberation Army, and the shells rained down like raindrops, and the commandos were in chaos, with countless casualties.
In the darkness of the night, the sound of artillery suddenly stopped, and there was a shout of killing around, and countless people's liberation troops poured in. Chen Qingbin saw that the breakthrough had failed, squinted his eyes and mixed in the pile of dead bodies to pretend to be dead, and saw that Wei Ao, the chief of staff of the corps, and one or two hundred people had become prisoners and were escorted past him.
A PLA soldier kicked Chen Qingbin, and he didn't dare to move, and actually mixed up. The great battle stopped, the People's Liberation Army temporarily retreated, Chen Qingbin climbed out of the corpse pile, only to see the surrounding corpses strewn all over the ground, groaning and screaming incessantly. But he had no choice but to flee from the battlefield with a sense of guilt. Huang Baitao was not so lucky, and was killed in this breakout battle.
Regarding the truth about Huang Baitao's death, there are three theories that I know at present: the first is from the witness Yang Tingyan (deputy commander of the 25th Army), who said that he committed suicide and martyrdom; the second is from Chen Qingbin, saying that he was killed by the People's Liberation Army; the third is more bizarre, and some people analyze that he was shot by black.
According to Yang Tingyan, when they broke through, they were blocked by artillery fire, and the team was scattered, leaving Huang Baitao with only one person and a few service soldiers. To be on the safe side, they changed into soldiers' clothes and wanted to get out of the mess. Unexpectedly, the group walked to a reed beach and were once again ambushed.
In the midst of the indiscriminate gunfire, the guards fell down one after another, and Huang Baitao was shot in the leg and could not move forward. He struggled to get up and tearfully said to Yang Tingyan: "My sacrifice can make others know that the party-state still has loyal people, leave me alone, you are still young, I hope you can break through..."
Yang Tingyan was about to persuade him, but Unexpectedly, Huang Baitao suddenly pulled out his pistol and pulled the trigger on his mouth. Instead of dying immediately after the gunshot, he rolled from side to side in pain. Yang Tingyan knew that he could not save him, and he could not bear to see him struggle so painfully, so he shot him in the chest. Huang Baitao "hummed" and died.
However, according to Chen Qingbin, Huang Baitao was killed by the People's Liberation Army for 2 reasons, one is that Huang Baitao's pistol was put away by him, and he temporarily committed suicide with the rifle of the service soldier, which is a bit unreasonable; second, at the beginning of the breakthrough, Huang Baitao was already injured, and in the subsequent ambush battle, the guards around him were killed, and Huang Baitao's injured body was how to be spared?
Moreover, the Kuomintang had an unwritten convention that most of the senior generals who were killed or captured were given the honorary title of "suicide martyrdom", such as Wang Yaowu, Du Yuming, etc., and even after Chen Qingbin himself surrendered, he was publicized by the Kuomintang newspapers as a "heroic sacrifice". Given that Yang Tingyan was the only witness, there is no proof of whether Huang Baitao committed suicide and was killed by the People's Liberation Army.
As for the third theory, it is related to Yang Tingyan's son. It is said that when Huang Baitao broke through, Yang Tingyan's son was the commando commander, and Yang Tingyan originally wanted his son to make a "rescue chief" and gain a good future for him. Unexpectedly, he was beaten too badly on the way, and Yang Tingyan's son was discouraged and said to Huang Baitao: "I can't fight anymore, I want to leave some seeds for the 25th Army!" The implication is to make Huang Baitao surrender.
Huang Baitao's military orders were like mountains, and he immediately enforced the military law and killed Yang Tingyan's son. Later, Huang Baitao and Yang Tingyan failed to break through, and the guards around them lost everything, Yang Tingyan saw no one around, and shot Huang Baitao behind his back, avenging the killing of his son.
There is also a saying that Huang Baitao was injured and unable to move, and knowing that his death was coming, he said to Yang Tingyan: "I killed your son, and now I will return my life to you." With that, he fired a shot in the head. Yang Tingyan saw that he had not yet swallowed his breath, and he made up two shots with tears.
For these three claims of Huang Baitao's death, each one seems to make sense, but each statement has doubts. It is difficult to verify what is right and what is wrong. The only thing that can be determined is that Huang Baitao, a tiger general of the Nationalist army generation, eventually became a funeral for chiang kai-shek's regime because of his faith.
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