During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was a saying in the Kuomintang army called "three Li is not as good as one king", and the three Li were Li Xianzhou, Li Yannian, and Li Yutang, senior generals of the Kuomintang Army. During the Liberation War, there was also a saying in the People's Liberation Army called "It is better to touch the King of Yan than to touch the Old King." This so-called Lao Wang refers to Wang Yaowu, a senior general of the Kuomintang army, who is a rare general in the Kuomintang army.
Wang Yaowu was born in Tai'an, Shandong Province, and graduated from Huangpu Phase III. Wang Yaowu was also promoted quickly because of his outstanding military ability, and during the Central Plains War in 1930, Wang Yaowu was promoted to regimental commander because of his outstanding performance. In 1932, Wang Yaowu led a regiment to guard Yihuang, and the Red Army concentrated several times its strength for 24 days without conquering it, and after the war, Wang Yaowu was promoted to the commander of the supplementary brigade. In the Battle of Tanjiaqiao in 1934, Wang Yaowu led a supplementary brigade to defeat Fang Zhimin's Red Tenth Army, the commander of the regiment Fang Zhimin was captured, the commander of the Red 21st Division Hu Tiantao was captured, the commander of the Red 19th Division, Xun Huaizhou, was sacrificed, and only Su Yu successfully broke through with hundreds of people. After the war, Wang Yaowu was promoted to commander of the 51st Division.
After the July 7 Incident, Wang Yaowu led the 51st Division to Shanghai to participate in the battle, and the 51st Division and the 58th Division were merged into the 74th Army, with Yu Jishi of the Huangpu Phase I as the commander. Wang Yaowu's men can be said to be full of fierce generals, Li Tianxia, Zhang Lingfu, Qiu Weida, and Shi Zhongzhong are all his subordinates. Under the leadership of Wang Yaowu, the 51st Division performed well in the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Xuzhou, and the Battle of Wuhan. In 1939, Wang Yaowu was promoted to the commander of the 74th Army, and although Wang Yaowu was not the first commander of the 74th Army, he was the founder of this unit to glory. Two months after Wang Yaowu was promoted to commander of the 74th Army, the First Battle of Changsha broke out, and Wang Yaowu led his troops to repel the Japanese army and retake Gao'an City after three days of fierce fighting.
In the Battle of Shanggao in 1941, Wang Yaowu led the 74th Army to launch several charges against the Japanese army, and the 74th Army chased the Japanese army on the battlefield, and the commander of the Japanese 34th Division, Major General Yan Yong, was also killed. After that, Wang Yaowu led his troops to participate in the Battle of Zhejiang, the Battle of Western Hubei, and the Battle of Changde. In 1944, Wang Yaowu was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 24th Group Army, with four strong brigades under his command: the 73rd Army, the 74th Army, the 79th Army and the 100th Army. In 1945, Wang Yaowu was promoted to commander of the Second Front, commanding the 18th Army, the New Sixth Army, the 74th Army, the 100th Army, the 73rd Army, and the security forces led by Wu Qiwei, totaling more than 300,000 people to meet the Japanese attack on western Hunan Province. In this battle, the Nationalist army annihilated 30,000 Japanese troops at the cost of 20,000 casualties, captured 17 Japanese officers and more than 230 soldiers, and this year, Wang Yaowu was only 40 years old.
During the Liberation War, Wang Yaowu served as chairman of Shandong Province and commander of the Second Appeasement District. Wang Yaowu's situation during the Liberation War was relatively poor, and due to Chiang Kai-shek's blind command, Wang Yaowukong had many ideas, but none of them were adopted. During the Battle of Laiwu, Wang Yaowu watched as more than 60,000 of Li Xianzhou's corps were eaten by Hua Ye, but he could not change Chiang Kai-shek's mind. Before the Battle of Jinan, Wang Yaowu had advised Chiang Kai-shek to abandon Jinan and withdraw the main force to preserve his strength, but Chiang Kai-shek did not listen, and finally Jinan was conquered by Huaye, and Wang Yaowu was also captured.
Although Wang Yaowu made the Japanese army feel frightened during the Liberation War, his attitude toward the two wars was different, and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, even though Wang Yaowu was a division commander and a military commander, he still disregarded the danger and commanded the troops and the Japanese army to fight hard. However, during the Battle of Jinan, Wang Yaowu told his subordinates to fight if they could fight, and if they could not fight, they would surrender, and instead of fighting against foreign enemies, they did not need to fight so hard. Finally, when the city of Jinan was destroyed, Wang Yaowu also fled in disguise, but was eventually captured by the People's Liberation Army. In 1959, Wang Yaowu became one of the first war criminals to be released in Gongdelin. In 1968, Wang Yaowu died of illness in Beijing People's Hospital, and after his death, he was buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Beijing because of his significant contributions during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.