After the failure of the all-out offensive, Lao Jiang mobilized another 450,000 troops to launch a key attack on the Liberated Areas of Shandong. In order to seize the lead, Zhang Lingfu ignored Gu Zhutong's tactic of "moving forward densely and advancing with the drum", ordered the reorganized 74th Division to advance at full speed, and soon pulled away from Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia on the left and right flanks for tens of kilometers. Huang Baitao saw that Zhang Lingfu was rushing too fiercely and was in danger of being surrounded by Hua Ye, so he called him back to Shi Tianma Ridge and moved closer to himself and Li Tianxia. However, Zhang Lingfu, believing that he was well-equipped and strong in combat, thought that Huaye did not dare to confront him, so he rejected Huang Baitao's proposal, and was eventually surrounded by Huaye in the Menglianggu area.
After three days of fierce fighting, our army completely annihilated the reorganized 74th Division, and Zhang Lingfu was defeated and killed. Some people say that the fundamental reason why the reorganized 74th Division was completely annihilated was that it was on the Jedi of Meng Lianggu. If we had not been in Meng Lianggu, but had held firm in the plains, with its strong firepower superiority, our army would not have been able to defeat him at all. So, does this idea really hold true? If Zhang Lingfu does not go to Meng Lianggu, will the 74th Division not be destroyed? To answer this question is actually very simple, we only need to look at Hu Lian's encounter to understand.
Hu Lian and Zhang Lingfu were fellow villagers in Shaanxi, and they both graduated from the Huangpu Fourth Term, and after graduating from the military academy, they both became the concubines of old Chiang Kai-shek, holding heavy troops. This kind of relationship is very rare within the national army that pays attention to faction and origin, and the two feel sorry for each other and become close friends. When Zhang Lingfu was surrounded by our army at Meng Lianggu, Hu Lian led his troops to the rescue day and night, but because he was far away from Meng Lianggu and encountered our army's resistance from time to time on the way, when he rushed to Meng Lianggu, Zhang Lingfu had already been defeated and killed. Zhang Lingfu's death deeply stimulated Hu Lian, who frantically vowed to avenge his fellow countryman.
Shortly after the end of the Battle of Menglianggu, the Nationalist army concentrated more than 300,000 troops to attack Luzhong in a big way, and Hu Lian led the reorganized 11th Division to rush all the way, successively capturing Jieshou, Wande, Pingyin and Nanma. In order to mobilize the enemy, Su Yu led Huaye's main force to directly insert the first and force Yanzhou and Xuzhou. Old Jiang saw the situation and hurriedly transferred 7 integrated divisions from Luzhong to come back to help. As a result, Luzhong's troops were empty, leaving only Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division, Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, Wang Lingyun's reorganized 9th Division, and Huang Guoliang's reorganized 64th Division, of which Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division was the most advanced.
Hu Lian quickly sensed the crisis, and immediately ordered the troops to build fortifications in Nanma, and spent nearly a month to build a dense group of bunkers, and obstacles such as barbed wire and deer were set up around each bunker group. However, even with such a complete fortification, Hu Lian could not resist on the 4th day after the outbreak of the Battle of Nanma, and if it were not for Huang Baitao's desperate rescue, he would have followed in Zhang Lingfu's footsteps. The process of the Battle of Nanma showed that even if Zhang Lingfu did not go to Meng Lianggu and chose to hold on to the plains, the 74th Division would still be unable to escape the fate of the total annihilation of the army.
There are four reasons for this: First, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division is also one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, and its equipment and combat effectiveness are not inferior to those of the reorganized 74th Division; second, Hu Lian's battlefield command and response ability is one head higher than Zhang Lingfu's; third, Hua Ye only invested 4 columns in the Battle of Nanma, and the strength of the troops was more than half that of the Menglianggu Campaign. Fourth, Zhang Lingfu was surrounded in an instant, and there was no time to build fortifications. Therefore, taking Hu Lian as a reference, even if Zhang Lingfu did not go to Meng Lianggu and chose to hold on to the plains, under the siege of Huaye's five columns, it would still be the end of the total annihilation of the army.