Green mountains are closely connected, and white clouds surround the mountains. The terraces are green layer by layer, and the songs are spread with the wind. Heck, who doesn't say our hometown is good...
Elderly friends, when they hear the old artist Ren Guizhen's singing "Who Doesn't Say My Hometown Is Good", I will immediately think of the movie "Red Sun", which was popular in the 1960s. Almost all people who have watched this film have remembered the classic line that has been passed down to this day: Commander Li Jun, for the sake of the party-state, pull the brothers!
Movie "Red Sun"
The movie "Red Sun" was a great success, so Zhang Junchang and his reorganized 74th Division were on fire for half a century, but although the movie "Red Sun" was excellent, it was only a work of art after all, and could not be completely regarded as history. Then, what kind of existence was the Kuomintang reorganized 74th Division, and how did Chen Yisuyu and the two gods of war completely annihilate the ace main force of the Nationalist army in one fell swoop?
The reorganized 74th Division is one of the five main forces of the Kuomintang, although it is called "Division", it is actually an "army" level organization, his predecessor is the former 74th Army, and the level of division commander Zhang Lingfu is the same as that of the commander, all of which are lieutenant generals.
It should be said that the reorganized 74th Division had an extremely brilliant record in the War of Resistance Against Japan and was worthy of the trump card of the Nationalist army.
Stills from "Red Sun"
In August 1937, Chiang Kai-shek's Zhejiang Fenghua fellow villager yu Jishi, a first-term student of Huangpu, was ordered to form the 74th Army (the predecessor of the reorganized 74th Division). At that time, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had already begun in an all-round way, and it was at a critical juncture of national peril, so the 74th Army did not wait for the assembly to be completed, and even the army founding ceremony had not had time to be held, so it threw itself into the extremely tragic songhu defense war, and then turned to the north and south of China, participating in almost all large-scale operations against Japan, from the Battle of Songhu in the East China Battlefield to the Battle of Xuzhou in the Jianghuai Battlefield, from the Battle of Changsha in the Central China Battlefield to the Battle of Changde, always fighting in the forefront of the Anti-Japanese War, experiencing hundreds of battles and training into steel. The military song of the 74th Army is also quite well-known, and the lyricist and the lyricist of the national anthem are the same person, both are Tian Han!
The second commander of the 74th Army after Yu Jishi was Wang Yaowu, a third-term student of Huangpu, and it was in the hands of Wang Yaowu that the 74th Army really played the prestige of the Ace Army, and by virtue of its outstanding military achievements in the anti-Japanese battlefield, the 74th Army achieved the prestige of the Iron Army of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and was awarded the Flying Tiger Banner, the highest honor of the Kuomintang army, and Wang Yaowu himself was unanimously praised by all walks of life.
Yu Jishi, played by Andy Lau
The third commander of the 74th Army is Shi Zhongcheng, who is relatively unknown to people, and there are not many people who are familiar with him, but it is unknown to everyone to say that Shi Jiancheng, the legendary heroine who avenged his father and assassinated the warlord Sun Chuanfang, is known to everyone, and Shi Zhongcheng is Shi Jiancheng's cousin. Shi Zhongcheng failed to assist his cousin Shi Jianqiao in assassinating Sun Chuanfang, and the outside world has always been rumored to be cowardly, but judging from the performance of the anti-Japanese battlefield, Shi Zhongcheng is not only not cowardly, but a righteous soldier full of patriotic enthusiasm. The 74th Army remained brilliant in his hands, creating the Great Victory in Western Hunan and continuing the legend of the Anti-Japanese Iron Army.
Zhang Lingfu was the fourth commander of the 74th Army, he was the fourth stage of Huangpu, both Chiang Kai-shek's proud protégé and Wang Yaowu's favorite general. Since the establishment of the 74th Army, he has been serving in the army and has made many achievements in the anti-Japanese battlefield. But he was appointed commander of the 74th Army on April 20, 1946, when the anti-Japanese battlefield was long over. A month later, the Kuomintang Army adjusted its name, the 74th Army became the reorganized 74th Division, and Zhang Lingfu became the first division commander.
Wang Yaowu, a famous anti-Japanese general
The reorganized 74th Division was a concubine of the Kuomintang army and an ace of aces. The whole division has more than 30,000 people, Yishui American equipment, under the jurisdiction of the integrated 51st Brigade, 57th Brigade and 58th Brigade, stationed in Nanjing Xiaolingwei, Gongwei capital, Zhang Lingfu concurrently served as the commander of the Nanjing garrison, the reorganized 74th Division became a well-deserved Imperial Forest Army, the world's first division.
In January 1947, the Shandong Field Army of the People's Liberation Army and the Central China Field Army were reorganized and merged to form the East China Field Army, with Chen Yi as the commander and Su Yu as the deputy commander. The following month, chiang kai-shek, in view of his inability to continue the all-out offensive against the liberated areas, could only shrink the defensive line and carry out a key offensive against northern Shaanxi and the liberated areas of Shandong, so he set up the Xuzhou Headquarters, under the personal command of Gu Zhutong, commander-in-chief of the army, and with Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division and others as the main force, gathered 24 divisions totaling 450,000 people, launched a key attack on Shandong, in a vain attempt to crush the People's Liberation Army or force it to cross the river north, thus occupying the entire territory of Shandong.
In the face of the menacing enemy, HuaYe adopted strategic measures to avoid the enemy's sharp edge and lure the enemy to go deeper, and took the initiative to withdraw from Linyi. The Kuomintang naturally wanted to "take advantage of the victory and pursue", Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division charged in the front, Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division on the rear flanks, and the three large armies launched a frenzied attack on the liberated areas in the shape of a character.
Zhang Lingfu family portrait
At that time, the Kuomintang army put 450,000 people into the Shandong battlefield, while the Huaye troops of the People's Liberation Army only had 270,000 people, and the Nationalist army occupied a clear advantage in terms of numbers, weapons and equipment, logistical support, and the degree of training system, and zhang Lingfu and Chen Yisuyu had exchanged hands before, believing that the level of the two was not enough, and Zhang Lingfu, who was light on the enemy and eager to make meritorious achievements, marched extremely fast, charged alone, and wanted to win the first victory.
And this is exactly what Chen Su wants. Guerrilla warfare was precisely Chen Yisuyu's specialty, and they knew that if they confronted the Kuomintang army, it was not the right choice for the PLA, because the Nationalist army had an absolute superiority in numbers. But one of the characteristics of guerrilla warfare is to turn the absolute inferiority of numbers into a relative advantage, and we concentrate our forces to make a surprise attack to reorganize the 74th Division, kill your most ace main force, and beat you a ghost!
The reason why it chose to fight the reorganized 74th Division first was because it was right in front of the main force of the People's Liberation Army, and it could launch an attack without major adjustments, forming a local 5:1 comparative advantage; at the same time, the local area was in the mountainous area, and the reorganized 74th Division had advanced American equipment in the air, but it could not play it.
Chen Yi
In this way, Zhang Lingfu, who was eager to venture forward, soon tasted the evil consequences of not advancing hand in hand with friendly forces, and was surrounded by HuaYe at Meng Lianggu. At this time, Chen Su was very happy, the enemy slipped into the pocket, just waiting to tighten the exit, you can catch the turtle in the urn. Unexpectedly, Zhang Lingfu was also very proud, because in his strategic conception, chen YisuYu was planned.
Zhang Lingfu's wishful thinking is very simple, I deliberately surrounded by you in Menglianggu, I will firmly attract your main force in Huaye with tens of thousands of people, and then our friendly troops can rush up, cut melons and vegetables, and feast on them -- this is also Chiang Kai-shek's tactical concept.
Both sides are generals in the battlefield, both have their own clear strategic intentions and tactical concepts, and both sides are indeed deployed according to their own intentions. Next, it depends on their respective execution capabilities, which are superior or inferior, which is better or worse, which is better or worse, and the result is about to be revealed: Chen Su has already surrounded Zhang Lingfu in the small Meng Lianggu, and Zhang Lingfu has also "dragged" Hua Ye's more than 200,000 troops as desired.
Su Yu
If it were not for this great war, Meng Lianggu would not be well known to the world, it is one of the "Seventy-two Valleys" in the Yimeng Mountains. The so-called Gu is not very steep mountain, Menglianggu is only more than 500 meters above sea level, and this type of Gu is many in the Yimeng Mountains. The origin of the name of Meng Lianggu, the legend is that the Northern Song Dynasty and the Yang family will be the same name of the Meng Liangtun soldiers, in addition to Meng Lianggu, the famous is also the Baoligu, in May 1923, shocking The Lincheng carjacking case occurred here, the Republic of China giant bandit Sun Meiyao kidnapped 120 hostages, including 37 foreigners on the Baolianggu. Although the case was successfully negotiated and peaceful, Sun Meiyao was killed half a year later, shocking the government and the opposition.
Now that Huaye's army was encircling Meng Lianggu and attacking day and night, Zhang Lingfu was not in a hurry, he resisted and sent a rescue signal to the friendly troops around him. Just to his left, there were no less than ten reorganized divisions of the Kuomintang army, and if they came to the rescue in unity, the outcome of the war would be difficult to predict. Fortunately, Chen Yi and Su Yu knew better about the Kuomintang generals than Zhang Lingfu, and Zhang Lingfu and his reorganized 74th Division were certainly god rivals, but it was Zhang Lingfu's pig teammates who really helped Chen Su. When Zhang Lingfu was besieged by Menglianggu, Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division were not far away, only a dozen kilometers away, and only tens of kilometers away. If they do their best to save each other, not to mention that the Platon Army will be completely passive, at least the integrated 74th Division will not be completely destroyed.
Site of the Battle of Menglianggu
Huang Baitao was quite righteous and desperately came to the rescue, but after all, his strength was limited and he was repelled by Hua Ye. Li Tianxia, on the other hand, sat with elite soldiers, but had no sense of participation in the whole process, witnessing Zhang Lingfu caught in the shocking artillery fire of Meng Lianggu. In the movie "Red Sun", Zhang Junchang pleaded on the phone, "Commander Li Jun, for the sake of the party-state, pull the brothers", which is the plot of this time, Zhang Junfu is Zhang Lingfu, and Li Junchang is Li Tianxia.
Zhang Lingfu resisted in Meng Lianggu for three days and three nights, and the fierceness of the battle was rare in the world, and when Zhang Lingfu wanted to break through, he could not break through. Gu Zhutong, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Army, and Tang Enbo, commander of the First Corps, repeatedly and strictly ordered all the departments to come to the rescue, and Li Tianxia finally "looked at the party-state" at the last moment and decided to pull Zhang Commander Zhang along, but unfortunately it was too late. Zhang Lingfu saw that the general trend had gone, and first called his old boss, Wang Yaowu, the former commander of the 74th Army, to say goodbye, and then sent a suicide note on the radio:
More than 100,000 bandits besieged me for several days, and now that they were exhausted and there was no food or water, I decided to fight with Ren jie (deputy division commander) to the end, and with a bullet, I reported it to the leader of the country and subordinates. The old father came to Beijing, did not treat him personally, Xi Shanzhi, the youngest son Xi Shanfuzhi, Yuling's wife, now forever tricky!
Battle of Menglianggu
After that, Zhang Lingfu wrote two suicide notes, one to his wife Wang Yuling and one to the leader Chiang Kai-shek. In the end, he and Cai Renjie, deputy commander of the reorganized 74th Division, and Lu Xingxing, commander of the 58th Brigade, committed suicide by drinking bullets, and the rest of the senior generals were either killed or captured in battle, and the entire army was destroyed, and no one of the entire reorganized 74th Division, from the division commander to the groom, slipped through the net, and Chen Su created a miracle in the history of war.
When Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing heard the news that the reorganized 74th Division had been completely annihilated and Zhang Lingfu had killed Meng Lianggu in battle, such as a thunderbolt on a sunny day, he lamented that this was an "irreparable loss." Wang Yaowu was so saddened that he could not help himself when he heard the news of the death of his beloved general, and Zhang Lingfu led the crowd to kill himself in the history of the Kuomintang army for later generations to study and admire...
However, there are different theories about whether Zhang Lingfu committed suicide or died in battle, and one widely circulated theory is that someone imitated Zhang Lingfu's calligraphy and forged his letters to his wives Wang Yuling and Chiang Kai-shek, in order to put a more dazzling aura on the deceased, so as to achieve the purpose of indirectly putting gold on his face in order to gain political capital. It is said that the commander after him was Wang Yaowu, and the degree of credibility is unknown, so please distinguish it yourself.
Zhang Lingfu calligraphy
Finally, let's talk about Zhang Lingfu's two teammates, Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia.
Huang Baitao, an orphan minister who claimed to have "no faction, no lineage, no foundation, and no backing" in the Kuomintang army, tried very hard to rescue Zhang Lingfu but failed to work, and at that time, he probably did not expect that he would soon follow in the footsteps of his old comrade-in-arms and be killed by Chen Su.
As for Li Tianxia, who saw death and could not be saved, she was liquidated afterwards. He was dismissed from his post and investigated, and soon after his comeback, he retired to Taiwan with the defeat of the Kuomintang, where he was tried by a military court, and was almost sentenced, but was only exempted from criminal responsibility after a high-ranking Kuomintang official chen qing. He then served in the military, did business, taught hypnosis, and went to court for fraud, spending 20 months in prison. On February 10, 1967, this Huangpu Xiao general, who had just turned 60, died, mourning and honoring, the leading figures of the Kuomintang Gu Zhutong, Yu Jishi, and Qian Dajun led the funeral committee, and Chiang Ching-kuo personally served the Lian... In fact, Li Tianxia was also a famous anti-Japanese general, and his military achievements were not under Zhang Lingfu.