After the all-out offensive failed, Lao Jiang mobilized heavy troops to carry out a key attack on the Liberated Areas of Shandong. At that time, the Nationalist army in Shandong had a total of about 450,000 people in 25 reorganized divisions, including Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division, and Qiu Qingquan's reorganized 5th Army. How many troops did Hua Ye have at this time? A total of 9 infantry columns and a special forces column, about 270,000 people, a full 180,000 fewer than the enemy. Despite occupying a clear superiority in troops, Chen Cheng, who had learned the lessons of the Battle of Laiwu, was extra careful this time, and strictly demanded that his unit "fight steadily and steadily, and advance with a drum."
Although Chen Cheng's style of play slowed down the speed of travel, the effect was not bad. Because the nationalist forces are tightly hugging each other, it is difficult for our army to find opportunities to penetrate and divide the enemy, and the room for maneuver is constantly shrinking, and the situation is extremely difficult. In mid-May 1947, Su Yu seized a fleeting fighter and decisively launched the Battle of Menglianggu, and after three days of fierce fighting, the reorganized 74th Division was completely annihilated, and Zhang Lingfu was defeated and killed. After the war, the old Chiang Kai-shek burst into tears: "The revolutionary force that I have absolute superiority in is actually framed by the bandits of the inferior union." What a loss that has never been greater, and it can not be saddening! ”
Then the old Jiang Feng turned around and talked about the reasons for the failure of the Menglianggu Campaign, and he believed that the main reason why the reorganized 74th Division was completely destroyed was two points: First, Zhang Lingfu "made a rash advance." In this key offensive, Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division was subordinate to the First Corps and was under the command of Tang Enbo. Since the outbreak of the Liberation War, the reorganized 74th Division, under the command of Zhang Lingfu, has won consecutive battles and successively captured Huainan, Huaiyin, and Lianshui, and its achievements are among the best in the Nationalist army. Zhang Lingfu was so proud of himself that he became arrogant.
However, since entering the Shandong Liberated Area, the 74th Division has not achieved any eye-catching results. Zhang Lingfu believes that the main reason for this situation is that Chen Cheng's "drum forward" style of play limits the speed of his own advancement. In order to be greedy and believe that the Plaster army simply did not have the strength to confront himself, he ordered the troops to advance at full speed, and soon pulled away from the friendly troops on both wings for tens of kilometers. After Tang Enbo found that Zhang Lingfu had broken through alone, he drove to catch up with the rear guard troops of the 74th Division and ordered them to stay in place, only to be directly pushed back: "What bullshit commander?" Without the orders of our division commander, no one can speak well! Tang Enbo touched a hard nail and was inconvenient to attack, and returned to his headquarters with a snort, and Zhang Lingfu plunged headlong into HuaYe's encirclement.
Old Chiang believes that the second reason for the collapse of the reorganization 74 is that the Nationalist army did not "fight with one heart and one mind." After hearing that Zhang Lingfu was surrounded, Old Jiang was worried at first but soon excited, and he thought that this was a perfect opportunity to fight a decisive battle with our army, because at that time the Nationalist army had an absolute superiority in troop strength. At this time, Zhang Lingfu also expressed his willingness to use himself and the reorganized 74th Division as "bait" to make a so-called "central blossom". Therefore, old Jiang hurriedly dispatched the Nationalist troops on the battlefield in Shandong to move closer to Meng Lianggu in a vain attempt to form a counter-encirclement of our army. Unexpectedly, hundreds of thousands of Nationalist troops were actually stagnant under the blockade of Huaye's four columns, and Li Tianxia, who was closest to the 74th Division, sent a company posing as a brigade to fool Zhang Lingfu, and Huang Baitao initially sent only one regiment. The nationalist generals who came to relieve the siege all wanted to preserve their strength, and none of them were willing to fight hard, and it was this mentality that eventually buried Zhang Lingfu and the reorganized 74th Division.