During the Liberation War, among the Kuomintang troops at that time, the most capable of fighting was the five main forces of the Nationalist army. Zhang Lingfu and his reorganized 74th Division are the most famous units, claiming to be the first of the five main forces, and their combat effectiveness is very strong. However, in the Kuomintang army at that time, there was also a unit whose combat effectiveness was not inferior to that of the reorganized 74th Division, and this unit was Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division.
The reorganized 11th Division was a traditional ace unit of the Nationalist Army, and the Chen Cheng faction behind it was the faction with the most famous generals and the greatest prestige in the Kuomintang army. The predecessor of this unit was the 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and in the Battles of Songhu and the Battle of Western Hubei, the 18th Army repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army, which made the Japanese army feel frightened. Successive commanders who came out of the 18th Army, such as Chen Cheng, Luo Zhuoying, Huang Wei, Hu Lian, and others, were all quite important generals of Chiang Kai-shek and had a very high status in the Nationalist army.
After the outbreak of the Liberation War, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, and Hu Lian, who graduated from the huangpu fourth term, served as the division commander. Like Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian was from Shaanxi and fought all the way from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but Hu Lian was more verbal and more cautious in battle than Zhang Lingfu. After the outbreak of the all-out civil war in 1946, Liu Deng's army was haunted, and successively won major victories in the battles of Shangdang, Pinghan, and Dingtao, dealing a heavy blow to the Kuomintang army.
On September 29, 1946, Nakano, who had rested for more than 20 days after the Battle of Dingtao, decided to take action and eliminate the reorganized 11th Division at Zhangfengji. On the 29th, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping issued operational orders, ordering Chen Zaidao to lead the second column to block the Fifth Army, Chen Xilian's third column, Wang Jinshan's sixth column, and Yang Yong's seventh column directly into Zhang Fengji, dayi area, preparing to encircle Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division. However, Hu Lian was very cautious, and it was not until October 2 that he entered the northwest region of Zhangfengji, and only sent 32 regiments of the 11th Brigade to Zhangfengji. Nakano's three main columns pounced, preparing to first solve the 32nd Regiment of the 11th Brigade, and then annihilate the main force of the integrated 11th Division, and the three columns quickly cut off the connection between the 32nd Regiment and the troops of the integrated 11th Division.
On October 5, Nakano's three columns completed the division and encirclement of the enemy's 32nd Regiment, and Yang Yong, commander of the Seventh Column, led six main regiments to approach Zhang Fengji from different directions, preparing to quickly eliminate this force with a single blow. However, this unit was the main force of the Nationalist army after all, and more than 3,000 officers and men of the 32nd Regiment used the terrain to build a strong bunker, and also occupied a tall wall, relying on superior firepower to strike at the attacking troops in Nakano. The firepower of the 32nd Regiment was very tight, resulting in heavy losses to the attacking troops. Enemy air forces also often fly over the air to provide support, which also poses a great threat to Nakano.
The two sides fought for several days, and the 58th, 59th, and 62nd regiments of the 7th Column of Nakano once attacked Shonai, but they were quickly hit by the fire of the Nationalist army, and the two sides even fought a fierce white-knife battle in Shonai for a time. White-knife warfare was originally the strength of the People's Liberation Army, but this unit was a unit that had fought with the Japanese army with bayonets, and its ability to fight in close combat was also very strong, and in the battle with the enemy's white blade, the first three platoon leaders to rush into the village were heroically sacrificed.
After three days of fierce fighting between the two sides, Nakano's three columns compressed the 32nd Regiment into a small area and launched a general attack on it, and the commander of the 32nd Regiment finally led only more than 200 people to escape. Casualties on both sides were heavy, with more than 2,000 casualties of the reorganized 11th Division, more than 2,000 casualties in Nakano, and the death of Wu Daming, the commander of the 19th Brigade.