The Reorganized Seventy-fourth Division of the Kuomintang Army was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army and was once known as Chiang Kai-shek's Imperial Forest Army. Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to him.
In 1947, the entire 74th Division of the Menglianggu Campaign was basically annihilated, and Chiang Kai-shek was so desperate that he wanted to restore this strong brigade. The nationalist army could not swallow this breath, so at the end of 1947, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the remnants of the Seventy-Fourth Division to be gathered and reorganized into the Seventy-fourth Division.
1. Rebuild the Seventy-fourth Division
Some people can't help but ask, in the Battle of Menglianggu, didn't our huaye main force already annihilate the entire Seventy-fourth Division, and how could there still be remnants?
It turned out that at that time, all the military (division) level units of the Nationalist Army had a certain number of supplementary regiments and teaching regiments, mainly composed of newly recruited soldiers, and some officers presided over the training, and moderately accepted some veterans who had returned from injuries. Such units generally have to go through a period of rectification and training and replenishment of materials and equipment, and then join the main battle units one by one.
In the battles of Subei and Lianshui, although the reorganized Seventy-fourth Division inflicted heavy losses on the Central China Field Army, it also suffered heavy casualties, and according to the officers of the Seventy-fourth Division who were later captured, the losses of the backbone of the battle below the company of the whole division were as high as two-thirds. Division commander Zhang Lingfu quickly replenished some of his forces to attack Shandong. However, three of the instruction regiments were too large to carry out combat tasks and remained in the rear.
In addition, the Seventy-fourth Division also had a howitzer battalion, which was probably not fully equipped before the war, nor did it participate in the battle, and fortunately survived in the rear. The reconstruction of the Seventy-fourth Division of the Nationalist Army is to use these remaining units as a guide, draw some brigades and regiments from the reorganization of other military division-level units, and re-assemble the shelf of an integrated division.
Troops are easy to find, but division commanders are not easy to choose. Officers at or above the regimental level of the Seventy-fourth Division were either killed or taken prisoner, and it was impossible to find a replacement from the original unit. So who will come?
To rebuild a unit, the chief officer is very important, especially in the Kuomintang army that attaches great importance to factions and belongs, the Seventy-fourth Division, which is a royal forest army level, must not casually find a general to serve as the commander of the division.
Later, I looked around and found a suitable candidate: Qiu Weida.
This person is from the Huangpu Fourth Period, and is of the true Chiang Kai-shek lineage. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he served in the Seventy-fourth Army for a period of time. Later, he was promoted to brigade commander of the Fifty-first Brigade of the Entire Seventy-fourth Division, and could be regarded as an old man of the Seventy-fourth Division.
Originally, this brigade commander would also die in Su Yu's encirclement like Zhang Lingfu. However, tianyuan happened to be transferred to the commander of the Taizao garrison by mistake when the entire Seventy-fourth Division marched into Yimeng Mountain, thus escaping a disaster.
The Nationalist side appointed Qiu Weida as the commander of the newly reorganized Seventy-fourth Division, and within a few months completed the original structure of three brigades and nine regiments for the Seventy-fourth Division. A brand-new Seventy-fourth Division appeared.
The so-called mourning troops must be victorious, and the whole seventy-fourth division of the new whole was indignant that Zhang Lingfu's 30,000 horses were annihilated, believing that Meng Lianggu's defeat was nothing more than a trap for Su Yu, and if the real sword and real gun were dry, they might not lose to the East China Field Army. The whole division was holding its breath and wanted to take revenge on Xue. Therefore, although the proportion of new recruits in this unit is as high as 60% or 70%, its combat effectiveness is actually exaggerated.
2. The Battle of Fuyang
The newly formed Seventy-fourth Division soon came in handy.
At the beginning of 1948, our Central Plains Field Army launched the Dabie Mountains and began to run across the border area of Henan and Anhui. Chiang Kai-shek was deeply afraid that Liu Deng's army would gain a foothold in the Central Plains and mobilized heavy troops to besiege it. The Seventy-fourth Division was also on the requisition.
Qiu Weida, commander of the division, believed that the proportion of new recruits in the unit was too high, and it was feared that he would not be able to catch him if he pulled them out to fight Liu Deng's army. But Chiang Kai-shek did not care about three seven twenty-one, and the order to die must go forward to fight.
In January 1948, Qiu Weida reluctantly sent his 58th Brigade to Fuyang, and the 51st Brigade assembled in Mengcheng to participate in the siege of Liu Deng's army.
Who would have thought that it was this combat operation that even Qiu Weida himself did not have self-confidence in, and actually won a rare and tragic victory for the Nationalist army in the battlefield of the Central Plains.
On March 27, 1948, Chief Liu Deng discovered that the various units of the Nationalist army were retreating one after another, and the enemy's 58th Brigade stationed in Fuyang had become a relatively prominent lone army, so he concentrated four columns of about 50,000 or 60,000 troops, and surrounded Fuyang City with lightning speed.
The Fifty-eighth Brigade has about 10,000 people (the brigade under the integrated division is equivalent to the formation of an ordinary division), and it is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength, and if it is forced to break through, it will only be a dead end. The Fifty-eighth Brigade was determined to hold out.
Many officers in the brigade came from the old Seventy-fourth Division's teaching regiment and harbored bitter hatred for the PLA, and they were also well aware of the PLA's operational characteristics, so the garrison was quite stubborn and efficient.
With extremely strong tactical execution, the Fifty-eighth Brigade overhauled fortifications on the fuyang city wall, and fully integrated with the rivers and terrain to build a defensive line with very strong firepower.
Coincidentally, after the Central Plains Field Army advanced thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, it was very short of heavy weapons, and its siege ability was far inferior to that of the East China Field Army. Between the positive and negative dissipation, the balance of victory quietly tilted.
From March 28, the four columns of the Central Plains Field Army, after approaching the city of Fuyang, began to gradually attack the city walls from four directions, east, west, south, and north.
Although the city walls of Fuyang City are not tall, there is the Yinghe River and its tributaries, the ground traffic conditions are not good, and the infantry march is blocked. After paying a heavy price, our army conquered the North Pass and the South Pass, but there was a tall ancient tower in the southeast of the city, and the Fifty-eighth Brigade set up a fire point on the tower, and there was only one reinforced platoon in the tower, but it blocked the strength of a regiment in Nakano for most of the night.
After paying a heavy price, Nakano knocked out the fire point in the ancient tower, but when he continued to attack the city, he was blocked by a lake inside the city and could not continue to advance.
At this time, the Fifty-eighth Brigade showed a fierce style no less than that of the old Seventy-fourth Division, and sent a commando team to quickly attack the combined headquarters of the two main attacking brigades in Nakano. Historically, the strength of the combined forces was relatively weak, and the Fifty-eighth Brigade actually tore open the offensive front of the Central Plains and forced the siege troops to retreat.
A small Fuyang, no one could have imagined that there was such a hard walnut in ambush. Commander Liu Deng of Nakano ordered the four columns to destroy the Fifty-eighth Brigade at any cost, and sent the First Column and One Brigade of the Birth Force to replace the Twenty Brigade, which suffered heavy casualties, and continue to attack the city.
The Nationalist side could not help but cheer when they saw that the Fifty-eighth Brigade had actually stubbornly resisted Nakano's onslaught. Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered the reorganized Tenth Division, twenty-eighth division, fifty-eighth division, eighteenth division, fifty-second division, 138th brigade, fifty-first brigade, new twenty-first brigade, Qiu Qingquan Fifth Army, and other troops around Fuyang to quickly move closer to Fuyang in an attempt to annihilate the four columns of the main force in The Middle Field under the city of Fuyang.
This situation is very similar to the menglianggu war last year. The difference was that Nakano's forces were not as strong as The Fighting Forces of Huaye at that time, and could not quickly eat the Fifty-eighth Brigade that was surrounded by the heart. If the war situation continues to drag on, the "central blossom" that Zhang Lingfu did not realize at that time will probably be fulfilled in Nakano.
Chief Liu Deng weighed the pros and cons, and this battle could not be fought, so he could only bear to order the columns to quickly leave the battlefield and transfer the main force to the southwestern Henan region.
In the Battle of Fuyang, although our army had from beginning to end restrained the Fifty-eighth Brigade in the city and was in a state of comparative superiority, the campaign goal of conquering Fuyang and annihilating the Fifty-eighth Brigade was not achieved.
Third, the second time was annihilated
In the summer of 1948, the reorganized Seventy-fourth Division was renamed the Restoration Corps, and the brigades under its command were also changed to divisions. After the outbreak of the Battle of Huaihai, the Seventy-fourth Army was once again put on the front because of its excellent performance and was under the command of Qiu Qingquan's Second Corps.
After Su Yu commanded Hua Ye to surround Huang Baitao's corps, Xuzhou continued to send troops to attack Nianzhuang in an attempt to rescue Huang Baitao, but because Hua Ye set up a strong blocking position, the Nationalist army could not cross the Thunder Pond for many attacks.
Qiu Qingquan was anxious to be wise, and sent Qiu Weida to lead the Seventy-fourth Army, bypassing the Huaye Defense Line from the south to the Shuanggou area to attack the FLAN side of the People's Liberation Army through the Pantang Front.
Qiu Qingquan had such a quick wit, and Hua Ye Su Yu could not have it. Su Yu had already taken a fancy to the Pantang front, which was the southern end of the blocking front, from which the westward attack could reach the flank of Qiu Qingquan's corps, and he also sent three columns into Pantang in an attempt to flank the Qiu corps in order to disrupt the enemy's formation.
Both armies advanced by night, surprised each other at dawn, and the fronts of both sides were all twisted together. Hua Ye quickly launched a fierce attack on the Seventy-fourth Army, and the Seventy-fourth Army also tried its best to counterattack.
The two sides repeatedly charged and counter-charged as many as six times, and the Seventy-fourth Army withstood huaye's impact to the death, and fought hard to hold the position. Su Yu learned that the battle situation in the front was unfavorable, and felt that it was not appropriate to fight hard here, so he ordered his troops to retreat, lured the enemy to go deep and then seek opportunities to annihilate them.
This battle was a sudden encounter, Su Yu and Qiu Qingquan invariably pinched each other's pulse, so neither of them could help anyone. The only bright spot was that the Seventy-fourth Army carried forward the old Seventy-fourth Division's style of being brave and not afraid of death, and was not defeated by the People's Liberation Army.
Qiu Qingquan heard the news of ecstasy and trumpeted the "Great Victory of Xu Dong" to Nanjing, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was blinded, also issued a commendation to the Seventy-fourth Army. However, only Qiu Weida, commander of the Seventy-fourth Army, knew that although Hua Ye did not win well in front of the Seventy-fourth Army, people came when they wanted to come, and when they wanted to go, they could not catch up with or fight, and the situation was becoming more and more dangerous.
Sure enough, just when Qiu Qingquan fell into self-congratulation, Su Yu had successfully taken advantage of the opportunity of the Attention of the Xuzhou Nationalist Army being drawn to the pantang front line and launched a general attack on Nianzhuang, annihilating more than 100,000 people of Huang Baitao's corps and ferociously cutting off the left arm of the Xuzhou Nationalist Army.
Subsequently, the two major field armies of Huaye Zhongye surrounded the regiments of Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Sun Yuanliang under Du Yuming on the outskirts of Xuzhou.
On November 25, 1948, Du Yuming was anxious to break through and let the Seventy-fourth Army take the lead. Qiu Weida led his army to open the way in front, although there were aircraft cannons to cooperate, but Huaye's encirclement was like an iron wall, and the Seventy-fourth Army fought for one day and only advanced 3 kilometers.
The more the Seventy-fourth Army fought, the more frightened it became. From the commander to the soldier, this time has returned to the taste. Whether it was the battle of Fuyang to repel Nakano, or the battle of Pantang to "repulse" Huaye, at best it was a tie.
Whether it is the subjective level of combat experience, combat will, or firepower, equipment, numbers, or the planning and planning of the commanders of the two sides, the level of the seventy-fourth army company's old commanders Wang Yaowu, Yu Jishi, and Zhang Lingfu cannot catch up with the level, and how can it be compared with the East China Field Army.
The Seventy-fourth Army's left and right breakthroughs were of no avail.
On January 10, 1949, the People's Liberation Army launched a final general offensive against the besieged Kuomintang troops. Qiu Weida, commander of the Seventy-fourth Army, personally led his Fifty-first Division to attack the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, and as a result, the division commander Wang Menggeng was killed on the spot and Qiu Weida was taken prisoner. The Seventy-fourth Army was completely annihilated by the East China Field Army for the second time.