The most famous battle during the Liberation War was the Battle of Menglianggu, and in order to annihilate an integrated division of the Kuomintang army, HuaYe made very large preparations. The Kuomintang reorganized 74th Division is not an ordinary unit, this unit is not only one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, but also the number one main force of the Nationalist Army, the reorganized 74th Division and the other four of the five main forces are not the same, the 18th Army and the Fifth Army are the old main forces of the Nationalist Army, and there is a very strong background behind them, whether it is soldiers or weapons are given priority to supplies, the performance of the New First Army and the New Sixth Army in World War II is largely dependent on the powerful firepower of the US army, only the 74th Army, that is, the later integrated 74th Division, is fought by a hard battle.
The 74th Army was formed in the Battle of Songhu in 1937, and the reason why this unit was strong was entirely based on the blood training of the Japanese army, especially under the leadership of the second commander Wang Yaowu, it became a feared unit of the Japanese army. This unit participated in almost all the large-scale battles during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Lanfeng, the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Western Hubei, the Battle of Shanggao, the Three Battles of Changsha, the Battle of Changde, the Battle of Changheng, and the Battle of Xiangxi.
Although this unit made great achievements during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, during the Liberation War, this unit acted as a thug for the Chiang family dynasty. After Zhang Lingfu was promoted to the commander of the reorganized 74th Division, he constantly led this unit to fight decisive battles with Huaye, making Huaye very passive. Although Su Yu led Hua Ye to fight several battles with this unit and taught Zhang Lingfu some lessons, he also lost the base areas in central Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu successively, and the price paid was also very large.
In May 1947, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 450,000 troops to launch a major attack on huaye's Shandong base area, and Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division was in the forefront. Hua Ye finally couldn't bear it, and finally decided to annihilate this force. In order to encircle and annihilate Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Su Yu made long-term preparations, huaye's nine infantry columns and a special forces column were all dispatched, in addition, Huaye also mobilized 600,000 former migrant workers to be responsible for logistics and damage roads.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, Huaye sent more generals than the Battle of Huaihai, and in this battle, four of the five columns of Huaye that attacked the reorganized 74th Division were the strongest units in Huaye's offensive ability. Ye Fei, Tao Yong, Wang Bicheng, Xu Shiyou, Nie Fengzhi, Song Shilun and other later well-known generals all relied on front-line command in this battle, and since then, the East China Field Army and later the Third Field Army have never dispatched so many generals in a single battle, nor has any Kuomintang army had such a standard treatment.
Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division was indeed strong in combat, and in the case of water and food shortages, Zhang Lingfu led his troops to drink horse urine and kill war horses and eat horse meat. Even when the main positions were lost, the officers and men of the 74th Division dared to launch a large-scale counter-charge against Huaye and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with Huaye, which was rare during the Liberation War. In fact, at that time, the surrounding Kuomintang troops were only less than 10 kilometers away from the reorganized 74th Division, and the distance was only two or three days, but no one wanted to see Zhang Lingfu make such a great contribution, and they all stopped moving forward and watched Zhang Lingfu's entire army collapse. Under HuaYe's non-stop attack for three days and three nights, the number one main force of this national army was finally completely annihilated.