In early May 1947, Zhang Lingfu led the reorganized 74th Division from Duozhuang and approached Linyi, preparing to find a decisive battle in Huaye. Who knew that Huaye was extremely secretive, Zhang Lingfu searched for a month, and did not find any trace of Huaye's main force. The entire 74th Division is known as the head of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, and all officers and men are full of pride. In order to force HuaYe to come out for a decisive battle, they decisively launched an attack on Huaiyin.
Who knew that during the attack, the entire 74th Division was 'severely beaten' by Hua Ye. It was not that the entire 74th Division was too weak in combat strength, but that the entire 83rd Division (division commander Li Tianxia), which was on a cover mission, had a problem, causing the entire 74th Division to lose its right side cover during the attack, and the losses were very heavy.
After the defeat in the battle, Zhang Lingfu led the entire 74th Division to evacuate the area around Meng Lianggu, only to be surrounded by Huaye and fell into a desperate situation. In mid-May, Hua Ye dispatched five columns of troops to launch a general attack on Meng Lianggu, and after three days of fierce fighting, the entire 74th Division was completely destroyed, and Zhang Lingfu himself committed suicide. However, the entire 74th Division was worthy of being the first of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, and in this fierce encirclement and annihilation battle, Huaye also paid a huge price of 12,000 casualties.
Zhang Lingfu
At this point, due to Zhang Lingfu's own greed and aggressiveness, plus Li Tianxia, who was in charge of covering, obstructed him, and other reasons, it led to the collapse of the entire 74th Division. After Zhang Lingfu committed suicide, two strange things happened.
First: During the encirclement of the entire 74th Division, there were several days of heat and heat, and in this case, the most needed of the entire 74th Division was water. But the area around Menglianggu was all mountainous, and the warriors could not find a drop of water with all their efforts. At this time, Hua Ye continued to attack, compressing the positions of the entire 74th Division, and they could only endure the thirst to fight, which was extremely arduous.
After the collapse of the entire 74th Division, when the Huaye warriors were clearing the battlefield, the sky was suddenly dense with dark clouds, and after a while, it began to rain heavily. It seems to be for this famous battle, to wash away the smoke and dust of the war. The thirst of these days and the heavy rain after the battle are really strange.
Second: After the battle, Hua Ye found that there were still enemy radios sending rescue signals. General Su felt a little strange, the battle was over, was there still an enemy army lurking on the mountain? Therefore, he ordered an inventory, but no result could be found. When General Su inspected the results of the various units, he found a surprising news: The number of annihilated enemies reported by the various departments was actually 6,000 less than the total number of 74 divisions.
In order to find out the situation, General Su decisively ordered a search of the mountain. This search found a big news: the warriors Meng Lianggu found 6,000 remnants of the enemy lurking in a densely forested area. In the end, the six thousand remnants of the enemy became prisoners, and the entire 74th Division was truly destroyed.