When it comes to factional battles within the national army, I believe many people are not strangers. The big ones, such as the Gui Army and the Jin Army, even Chiang Kai-shek's Central Army, also had the distinction between the Consort and the Collateral Clan, and there were several branches of the Consort Clan, the more famous ones being: Chen Cheng's Civil Engineering Clan, Hu Zongnan Clan, and Tang Enbo Clan. On the surface, they work together to conspire to "eliminate chaos", but secretly they all have their own small calculations.
Old Jiang was naturally very disgusted with his subordinates for making mountains. For example, during the Liberation War, he transferred the concubine of a corps commander and instead let him command other people's concubine troops. I didn't expect this, but I buried the disaster, and two months later I fought a big defeat. What's going on? Let's move on.
At that time, the Kuomintang's all-round offensive plan had gone bankrupt, and instead it was focused on attacking the liberated areas of northern Shaanxi and Shandong. In late March 1947, the Nationalist army gathered a large number of troops in the Shandong battlefield to seek a decisive battle with huaye's main force. 24 integrated divisions, totaling 450,000 men, were mobilized and formed into three mobile regiments. The first of these, the First Army, is the protagonist of the story.
The commander of the First Corps was Tang Enbo, and his starting force was the 13th Army. Logically, in order to better coordinate operations, the commander is generally allowed to command the troops he is familiar with. But this time it was an exception, and none of the 74th Division, 83rd Division, 25th Division, and 7th Army of the First Corps could be related to Commander Tang. On the contrary, the 74th and 83rd divisions belonged to the concubines brought out by Wang Yaowu during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the two division commanders were still Wang Yaowu's old subordinates.
In the ensuing battle, the problem gradually came to light. First, the 74th Division did not wait for the friendly troops to arrive, so it rushed to go deep alone, and as a result, it was besieged by Huaye in the Menglianggu area. The 74th Division was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, the core of the First Corps, and Tang Enbo was shocked to hear this, and quickly ordered reinforcements from nearby troops. The closest unit to the 74th Division was the 83rd Division, but after receiving the order, the division commander Li Tianxia was indifferent, did not give Commander Tang any face, but let the 57th Regiment closest to the 74th Division retreat at any time. Other troops, too, have been passive in their rescue in order to preserve their strength.
Commander Tang commanded the Immovable troops, and this was trouble. Although the 74th Division has strong combat effectiveness, it can also return to heaven and lack of skills when it is exhausted. After three days and three nights of fierce fighting, the 74th Division was finally completely destroyed, and the division commander Zhang Lingfu was also killed. When Chiang Kai-shek learned of this, he angrily beat Tang Enbo with his cane and removed him from his post to investigate. From March to May, the position of commander of the First Corps of Tombaugh was swept to the end before it was hot.
After the collapse of the elite 74th Division, the First Corps also disintegrated. If Wang Yaowu is allowed to be the commander of this corps, with his ability and prestige, perhaps the situation will not be so bad, I don't know what everyone thinks?