In November 1948, the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army jointly launched the famous Huaihai Campaign of Double Stacking. After more than 20 days of fierce fighting, our army almost completely annihilated the famous Huang Wei Corps. According to statistics, in this battle, our army annihilated a total of about 120,000 enemy troops, including nearly 50,000 prisoners. These prisoners included a large number of officers above the regimental level, led by Huang Wei. As for this article, I would like to introduce one of the legendary captives, Wang Yuanzhi.
Wang Yuanzhi, a native of Changsha, Hunan, was born in 1909. In 1926, with lofty ambitions, he was resolutely admitted to the sixth term of the famous Whampoa Military Academy. This year, he was only 17 years old. Among his classmates, there were many anti-Japanese soldiers, such as: Liao Yaoxiang, Lü Gongliang, Luo Ying, Li Tao, Liu Jianzhang, Luo Ruiqing, Chen Bojun, Guo Tianmin, Wang Yi... After graduation, he was assigned to a unit of the local faction, and successively served as a platoon leader, battalion attached, regimental attached and other positions.
His position was promoted, but he never had any military power, so he did not live satisfactorily. In 1931, he came to Guangdong and for a time served as a staff officer in a unit under Chen Jitang, the King of the Southern Heavens. In the same year, not willing to be mediocre, he was admitted to the CSKA Engineer School. After graduation, he served as a major company commander in the Chariot Battalion of the Second Regiment of the Transportation Corps of the Ministry of Military Affairs. In 1935, he was admitted to the Army University, always eager to make a difference, but he was still not satisfied.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Yuanzhi came to the Third Theater as a lieutenant colonel's staff officer. He was both literate and martial, and he fought bravely, so he was soon promoted to chief of staff and regimental commander of the division, and participated in the famous Battle of Zhejiang and Gansu. However, the 34th Division of the Provisional 9th Army, to which he belonged, belonged to the paraphyletic department of the Central Army, and its predecessor was a local unit in Zhejiang, so its combat effectiveness was not strong, and it was difficult for him to make great achievements. But at this moment, a bad news suddenly came.
Temporary
In January 1943, the provisional 9th Army was ordered to the Sixth Theater of Operations for reorganization. Subsequently, all three divisions of this army were transferred, and the provisional 34th Division was incorporated into the 18th Army of the Civil Engineering Department. After being incorporated into the 18th Army, almost all the officers above the battalion level of this division were replaced by old men of the civil engineering department. If nothing else, Wang Yuanzhi will be forced to leave his old army and continue to live an unsatisfactory life. Maybe he will be reappointed as a major general.
Fortunately, he met Zhao Xiukun. Zhao Xiukun is both his old classmate and his old colleague, and the two have always had a close personal relationship. At this time, Zhao Xiukun was the chief of staff of the 18th Army. On the recommendation of Zhao Xiukun, Wang Yuanzhi officially joined the Department of Civil Engineering and was appointed chief of staff of the 11th Division of the 18th Army by Fang Tian, commander of the 18th Army. Under this explanation, the 11th Division of the 18th Army was one of the first-class main divisions of the Civil Engineering Department, and its commander was the famous Major General Hu Lian.
After coming to the 11th Division, he quickly gained Hu Lian's trust and appreciation, which was an important turning point in his life. In May 1943, the two joined forces to command the world-famous Stone Tablets Defense. In this battle, the 11th Division and other units did not retreat until the Nationalist army launched a full-scale counterattack. Eventually, the Japanese were forced to retreat in full and lost thousands of officers and men. As for the 18th Army, it also paid an extremely painful price, losing tens of thousands of people.
Hu Lian
After the war, Hu Lian, commander of the 11th Division, was promoted to deputy commander of the 18th Army for his merits and received a Medal of the Blue Sky and White Sun. Wang Yuanzhi, chief of staff of the 11th Division, was also highly commended and was soon promoted to deputy commander of the 11th Division. In 1944, Hu Lian was promoted to commander of the 18th Army. In 1945, Hu Lian commanded the 18th Army to participate in the famous Battle of Xiangxi. In this battle, the 11th Division was once again commended by the Central Military Commission for its outstanding performance, and Wang Yuanzhi led his troops to create brilliant achievements again!
In the Battle of Xiangxi, the 11th Division, under the command of division commander Yang Botao and deputy division commander Wang Yuanzhi, finally recaptured Shanmen after several days of fierce fighting. According to statistics, in this battle, the 11th Division annihilated hundreds of enemy troops and captured more than 300 mules and horses. Unfortunately, However, Hu Lian, commander of the 18th Army, suddenly sent an order to a regiment of the 11th Division to evacuate Shixiajiang. Eventually, a large number of Japanese troops escaped from the encirclement, and the 11th Division was unable to continue to expand its gains.
In the same year, Japan was defeated and surrendered. When the commander of the Japanese 116th Division surrendered, he specially gave the combat knife he carried with him to Wang Yuanzhi, who had defeated him. First fighting Shipai, and then fighting in Western Hunan Province, Wang Yuanzhi can be said to have embarked on the peak of his military life. From the miscellaneous personnel of a local army to the commander of the side department of the Central Army, and then to the deputy commander of the Ace Division of the Central Army, it is completely inseparable from his own hard work and hard work, and at the same time, it is inseparable from the support of Zhao Xiukun and Hu Lian.
Huang Wei
In 1946, the 11th Division of the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Brigade of the integrated 11th Division. This unit was headed by Yang Botao and directly by Wang Yuan as deputy brigade commander. In the Liberation War, this unit successively participated in the famous Battle of Juye, the Battle of Nanma, the Battle of Caoxian, and the Battle of Huaihai... Generally speaking, before the outbreak of the Battle of Huaihai, this unit fought against our army for a long time, and won more than less. However, this unit was well defended, but it was under-aggressive, so it never seriously damaged our army.
For example, in the famous Battle of Juye, Liu Deng's army sent tens of thousands of people to surround a regiment under Wang Yuanzhi. After several days of fierce fighting, our army annihilated nearly 3,000 enemy troops, while losing more than 2,000 people ourselves, and a brigade commander died heroically. In the Battle of Nanma, our army fought fiercely for several days, annihilating nearly 10,000 enemy troops, but it was never able to annihilate Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division. At the same time, our army paid a terrible price of tens of thousands of people, and a division political commissar made a heroic sacrifice.
Although the reorganized 11th Division and its reorganized 11th Brigade were brave and good at defense, their fighting style tended to be conservative and insufficiently aggressive. Moreover, the National Government is becoming more and more corrupt, and no army can stop its decline towards its demise. Therefore, the reorganized 11th Division eventually attacked the Huaihai battlefield and was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of large regiments of our army near the Shuangduiji. After more than 20 days of fierce fighting, the Huang Wei Corps with this unit as the core was completely destroyed.
Yang Botao
In 1948, Wang Yuanzhi was promoted to brigade commander of the 11th Reorganized Brigade because of his meritorious service in combat and the promotion of brigade commander Yang Botao. In the same year, the unit was reinstated as the 11th Division of the 18th Army, and he was renamed commander of the 11th Division. In November of the same year, he led his troops to the Huaihai Battlefield. By this time, he had been promoted to deputy commander of the 18th Army and commander of the 11th Division. In the battlefield of Shuangduiji, he fought tenaciously and refused to surrender, but he was unable to return to the sky, and eventually this unit was annihilated by our army.
On December 16, 1948, Wang Yuanzhi led his troops through a bloody battle and luckily highlighted the heavy encirclement of our army. However, his troops were soon dispersed by the rout. In desperation, he swallowed a large number of sleeping pills and prepared to commit suicide. However, out of humanitarianism, our army still chose to save him. This is both his continued sinking and can also be seen as a new life he has since gained. After being captured, through the education and transformation of our army, his thinking underwent earth-shaking changes.
Our army admired his military ability and admired his military integrity, and he had always actively accepted reform, so he was appointed as a military instructor at the Senior Infantry School of the East China Military Region. In 1951, Liu Bocheng, the former commander of the Second Field Army, founded the famous Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Academy in Nanjing. Because of his outstanding performance, Wang Yuanzhi was appointed as the leader of the teaching group of the Synthetic Professors Association of the Military Academy. Chang Naichao in the TV series "Bright Sword" also has some shadows of him.
He has been working hard at the Nanjing Military Academy, teaching conscientiously, and has successively trained countless outstanding commanders for our army. In recognition of his merits, in 1958, our army specially awarded him the rank of major. In 1959, he was appointed as a lieutenant colonel researcher in our army's military academy system. In 1970, he officially retired from the army and returned to his hometown in Hunan. In 1987, he moved to the Third Dry Rest House of the Shanghai Navy. He died in Shanghai in 1994 at the age of 85.
Let's talk about his commanders: Feng Shengfa, the former commander of the Provisional 9th Army, quickly became idle and later died of illness in Taiwan; Fang Tian, the former commander of the 18th Army, who later served as the chairman of Jiangxi Province and also went to Taiwan; Hu Lian, the former commander of the 18th Army, went to Taiwan, where he once served as the commander of the Kinmen Defense; Zhao Xiukun, former chief of staff of the 18th Army, who led an uprising in 1949; Yang Botao, former commander of the 18th Army, who was also defeated and captured in the Battle of Huaihai, and was later elected as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
This article mainly refers to the following materials: Memoirs of Yang Botao, Memoirs of Chen Cheng - Anti-Japanese War, Mourning General, "Memories of The Past life in His Later Years" - Memoirs of General Zhao Xiukun, History of the Battle of Huaihai, Frontal Battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan, The Last Battle - Records of the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain between China and Japan, Personal History of the Battle of Huaihai, Full Records of the Archives of the Frontal Battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Historical Evolution of the Military Academy, Memoirs of Guo Rugui, Memoirs of Zhong Qiguang, Biography of Liu Bocheng... If there are any mistakes, please correct them!