The Battle of Menglianggu was a large-scale battle during the Liberation War, in which the East China Field Army concentrated all its forces and killed all the reorganized 74th Division, which was known as the head of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, and killed Lieutenant General Zhang Lingfu, commander of the reorganized 74th Division. However, after the war, the Huaye Political Department ordered that the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division should not be released.
Preferential treatment of captives
In the People's Liberation Army, there has always been a tradition of preferential treatment of prisoners, which has been going on since the Jinggangshan period. In a 1929 "Red Army Proclamation", it was clearly stated:
"The officers and men of the enemy may not ask questions about their previous behavior
。 After that, Mao Zedong added another article of "do not search the pockets of enemy soldiers", laying the foundation for the Red Army to give preferential treatment to prisoners.
However, in the later brutal anti-encirclement and suppression operations, the Kuomintang army adopted an extreme policy of killing, coupled with the influence of left-leaning adventurism at that time, the Red Army's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners was also affected, and some troops became blood for blood, for tooth.
On October 18, 1934, a telegram from the General Political Department of the Red Army marked "Ten Thousand Urgent" issued new instructions on the capture policy of the Red Army: "
Prisoners of the enemy shall be given preferential treatment, released after a short period of political agitation, and their officers and commanders at or above the company level shall be sent to the General Political Department for handling
After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, the policy of preferential treatment of prisoners became clearer.
In 1935, Zhou Enlai signed and issued the "Regulations on the White Military Expenditure", which stipulated:
(1) The two yuan of the return of the gun to the home are one yuan of the Red Army; (2) the one yuan of the dragging gun (Note: carrying the gun) is sent home in good faith, and the hair of the Red Army is three yuan.
These preferential policies of the Red Army for prisoners were later well implemented during the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation. In particular, during the War of Liberation, the PLA's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners attracted a large number of Kuomintang troops to revolt and surrender; at the end of the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang army of the whole army and the whole division revolted, and the PLA's policy of preferential treatment of prisoners greatly broke the will of the Kuomintang army and accelerated the process of victory in the war of liberation.
During the Liberation War, our army found that the military quality of the soldiers of the Kuomintang army was very good, especially in the ace units such as the reorganized 74th Division, and the tactical quality of the officers and men at the grass-roots level was very high. The predecessor of the integrated 74th Division was the 74th Army, which was formed in 1937 and was not well-known when it was first established.
Well-trained integrated 74th Division
The reason why the reorganized 74th Division is famous is mainly due to its performance during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, under the leadership of Yu Jishi, Wang Yaowu, Shi Zhongzhong and other military commanders, especially under the leadership of the second commander Wang Yaowu, this unit participated in almost all large-scale battles during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army.
In August 1945, Japan surrendered and the 74th Army was airlifted
Nanjing was surrendered
, and serve
Nanjing garrison
, hence the name "
Royal Forest Army
”。
The 74th Army was one of the first five armies of the Kuomintang army to receive Soviet armaments during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was also the first unit of the Nationalist Army in China to receive U.S. armaments.
The weapons and equipment were very sophisticated within the Kuomintang army. From the performance of the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain in 1945, it can be seen that the combat effectiveness of the 74th Army at that time was already stronger than that of the Japanese army.
Because it is the ace unit of the National Army, this unit has also received training from American military advisers, and the cultural quality of soldiers is generally very good, the individual quality is also very good, and the combat experience of grass-roots commanders is very rich.
In May 1946, the 74th Army was reorganized into the 74th Division, Zhang Lingfu served as the commander of the Division, and the division was equipped with 24 75 mm mountain guns, 34 37 mm combat defense guns, 29 82 mortars, 22 American 81 mortars, 251 American 60 mortars, 46 bazookas, 94 Type 28 grenades, 546 American gun grenades, 45 British May Five-Day War Defense Guns, 143 Browning heavy machine guns, 34 79 heavy machine guns, 992 Browning light machine guns, and 2963 American submachine guns. 14,472 American rifles.
Each brigade of the reorganized 74th Division has three regiments, as well as guard companies, special service companies, search companies, artillery command groups, engineer battalions, communication battalions, heavy battalions, teaching teams, ordnance maintenance companies, health teams, and field hospitals directly under the division.
The infantry regiment has three infantry battalions, as well as the regimental headquarters guard company, special service platoon, communication platoon, and three directly subordinate companies, one heavy machine gun company, with a total of more than 30,000 people in the division.
The principles of Zhang Lingfu, Qiu Weida and others in governing the army are very strict.
Zhang Lingfu and Qiu Weida put forward that "training is the battlefield", "sweat more in peacetime, less blood in wartime", and require the troops to have "five divisions" (in addition to arrogance, inertia, hypocrisy, desire, and evil), as well as three habits (fine, sincere, diligent),
The reorganized 74th Division also implemented the policy of "making personnel open, economic open, and opinions open" within itself.
In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops and the quality of the soldiers, the reorganized 74th Division also has a teaching brigade, with Zhang Lingfu or Qiu Weida as the captain.
When the teaching brigade was first established, there were US military advisers to guide the brigade, and the military training of the teaching brigade was very strict, one run in the morning, one military subject exercise in the morning, one military exercise in the afternoon, and one military gymnastics in the evening
In the morning and afternoon, there is also a political or military class, and in the evening, a roll call to sum up the experience and shortcomings of the day.
The content of infantry training mainly includes platoon drills, physical training, tactical theory, weapon operation, individual shooting and fighting, jungle combat, night combat, reconnaissance and capture, anti-tank combat, etc. Officers' awards include platoon drills, physical training, individual shooting, tactical command, sand table drills, radio liaison, infantry and artillery coordination, ground-to-air coordination, and anti-airborne landing.
Zhang Lingfu grasped the training tasks of the troops very strictly, whether it was soldiers or officers, after a day of training, they were tired and stared at Venus. The teaching brigade of the reorganized 74th Division trained seven or eight hundred outstanding middle- and lower-ranking officers for the whole division, and these officers were the guarantee of the combat effectiveness of this unit.
Learn from your opponents
In the Battle of Menglianggu, the reorganized 74th Division showed strong combat effectiveness while throwing away heavy weapons and cutting off water sources. On May 14, 1947, the first day of the Battle of Menglianggu, the independent division with the first column had just occupied the 285th Heights, when it was counter-charged by the officers and men of the reorganized 74th Division, and the battle was very fierce.
According to the independent division's post-war summary:
"The 74th Division used a considerable number of tactics, and in the offensive, it was good at making roundabout movements with small groups of troops. On the front, a small number of troops pretended to shout to attract the main force of our army, and in addition, small groups of troops were used to infiltrate from both sides of our air raids, and if their roundabout troops succeeded, the frontal feint troops immediately launched an attack on our front, and the sense of smell of catching fighters was very keen.
”
In the Battle of Menglianggu, the grass-roots commanders of the reorganized 74th Division showed strong military qualities, especially their squad and platoon cadres, who were good at mastering the troops and could be gathered together
If we find a weak point in our army, we will immediately launch an attack, and the movements of the units will be very rapid. During the battle, the officers and men of the 74th Division did not love the battle, did not pursue exhaustively, and after occupying and consolidating one place, they would continue to attack the next position.
The offensive formation of the reorganized 74th Division was very scattered, and it was good at advancing interactively in sections and echelons, and the choice of offensive roads was also quite clever, which could well avoid the machine gun fire of our army. Other than that
The arrangement of light and heavy machine guns of the officers and men of the 74th Division can form crossfire, and they are good at finding light and heavy machine gun fire points in the front and depth of our defense, carrying out suppressed shooting, and often breaking the machine gunners of our army.
On May 15, the Kuomintang armies were getting closer and closer, and the pressure on the blocking troops was very great, and if the integrated 74th Division could not be annihilated, Huaye would be in danger of being completely annihilated.
In any case, if we take Meng Lianggu at dawn on the 16th and eliminate the reorganized 74th Division, we will all survive, no matter what the cost, even if we spell out two columns, we will have to complete the task
。 ”
From the orders issued by Chen Yi, it can be seen that the urgency of the situation at that time and the pressure caused by the reorganization of the 74th Division to Huaye. On the night of May 16, Hua Ye finally annihilated all the officers and men of the reorganized 74th Division and captured more than 10,000 officers and men of the reorganized 74th Division, but the casualties paid by our army were not small, far exceeding the casualties of the Battle of Lunan and the Battle of Laiwu.
After the battle of Menglianggu, Chen Yi and Su Yu asked Huaye's political department to issue an order: without the consent of Noji, huaye columns should not release the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division. This order frightened the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division, who thought that Hua Ye was going to do something to them.
The reason why the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division were not released this time was because many of Huaye's generals saw the combat effectiveness of this unit and believed that the tens of thousands of captives of the reorganized 74th Division were treasures, and if they were added to huaye's columns, it would greatly improve Huaye's combat effectiveness. Therefore, after the war, Hua Ye carried out ideological education for these soldiers and supplemented all the columns to improve the tactical level of each column.
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