After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang army had nearly 6 million people at that time, the organization was chaotic, the factions were chaotic, and in order to unify the command of the troops, the Nationalist government reorganized the national army. After the completion of the reorganization, the National Government, on the basis of the performance of these units during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, selected five units that performed best during the War of Resistance, namely, the New First Army, the New Sixth Army, the Reorganized 74th Division (74th Army), the Reorganized 11th Division (18th Army), and the Reorganized Fifth Division (Fifth Army).
These five units are the famous five main forces, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this unit gave the Japanese army a major blow, and it was the trump card of the Chinese army, and even the Japanese army was very afraid. During the Liberation War, these five major units put a lot of pressure on the PLA. In order to deal with these five units, the major field armies of the People's Liberation Army often invest several times the number of troops. During the Liaoshen Campaign, the Northeast Field Army eliminated the two ace units of the New First Army and the New Sixth Army in one fell swoop, but the combat effectiveness of the New First Army at this time was still greatly reduced, and in 1947, when Sun Liren was driven to Taiwan for military training due to factional struggle, hundreds of officers from the New First Army during the period of the Taxation Police Corps and the period of entering Burma were greatly reduced, so that the combat effectiveness of this unit was greatly reduced.
In 1947, Hua Ye had single-handedly used three of the five main forces at the same time, and this battle was the Battle of Menglianggu, in which Hua Ye simultaneously dealt with Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division, Qiu Qingquan's reorganized 83rd Division, and many other units were also elite units of the Nationalist Army.
In May 1947, Chiang Kai-shek formed three corps with Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division, and Qiu Qingquan's 83rd Division as the core, with a total of 450,000 troops, and under the leadership of Gu Zhutong, attacked the Shandong base area where the East China Field Army was located. Among these three corps, the most powerful combat effectiveness is the First Corps led by Tang Enbo, with a total of more than 200,000 troops, and in Tang Enbo's First Corps, Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division is the most powerful. However, Zhang Lingfu was arrogant and arrogant at that time, not only did he not look down on Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, who acted together with the reorganized 74th Division, but he did not even listen to the orders of his own superiors, Tang Enbo, and Gu Zhutong, and directly asked Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing for instructions on many things.
After the reorganized 74th Division arrived in Shandong, the ambitious Zhang Lingfu was very arrogant, and he had previously made a vow to be promoted to general in three years, so he attached great importance to this battle. Ignoring Gu Zhutong and Tang Enbo's obstruction, Zhang Lingfu led the reorganized 74th Division to go deep alone, and all the troops in Huaye avoided the enemy's attack and retreated one after another, but Zhang Lingfu still did not spare and fought with several ace columns in Huaye, which made many of Huaye's generals very dissatisfied, and Su Yu finally made up his mind to annihilate this unit.
During the Battle of Menglianggu, Huaye's 270,000 elite generals were all dispatched, and there were five columns that directly attacked the reorganized 74th Division, namely Ye Feiyi Column, Tao Yong Fourth Column, Wang Bicheng Sixth Column, Wang Jian'an Eighth Column, and Xu Shiyou Nine Column. However, it was also very difficult to fight reinforcements, and Hua Ye was at that time taking the first rank of general in the million army, and surrounded and annihilated Zhang Lingfu's integrated 74th Division under the encirclement of more than 400,000 troops of the Kuomintang army. Among the various reinforcements of the Kuomintang army, Qiu Qingquan's Fifth Army and Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division were the most powerful in combat effectiveness, Huaye's Tenth Column was responsible for blocking the Fifth Army, and Huaye's Third Column was responsible for blocking the reorganized 11th Division. Hua Ye's column understood the greatest pressure, not only to send troops to attack the reorganized 74th Division, but also to send troops to block Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, Hua Ye did not expect that the reorganized 25th Division led by Huang Baitao, a miscellaneous army, almost broke through the defense line of the People's Liberation Army, and this unit supported no less than any central army unit at that time. It was under such difficult circumstances that Su Yu still led the East China Field Army to completely annihilate the reorganized 74th Division, killed Zhang Lingfu, and won a major victory during the Liberation War.