The 74th Army of the National Revolutionary Army was formed in 1937 during the Battle of Songhu and consisted of the 51st, 57th and 58th Divisions. Although this unit was established relatively late, it made its own reputation by virtue of one hard battle after another, especially during the tenure of the second commander Wang Yaowu, which completely pushed this unit to the throne of the number one main force of the National Army.
The 74th Army was one of the few units in the Kuomintang army that participated in almost all the large-scale battles during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, especially in the Battle of Shanggao in 1941, the Japanese army had concentrated more than 10,000 troops to storm the positions of Yuntou Mountain and Baimao mountain of the 74th Army under the cover of dozens of aircraft, and the 74th Army repeatedly fought with the Japanese army, and successively launched white-knife hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, killing Major General Yan Yong, the commander of the Japanese 34th Division, causing heavy losses to the Japanese 33rd Division, and the casualties of the 34th Division and the Independent 20th Mixed Brigade were as high as 70%. A total of 15,000 Japanese troops were killed or wounded in this battle.
He Yingqin praised it as "the most wonderful battle since the beginning of the war".
After the Battle of Shanggao, the 74th Army, with its outstanding achievements, became one of the first five armies to be equipped with Soviet equipment. In the Battle of Changde, more than 8,000 officers and men of the 57th Division of the 74th Army, under the leadership of division commander Yu Chengwan, held Changde for 16 days, almost all of which were destroyed, and the Japanese army also suffered tens of thousands of casualties. In May 1945, in the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain in western Hunan Province, the 74th Army once again showed the majesty of the anti-Japanese iron army, inflicting heavy damage on the Japanese army and obtaining two "flying tiger flags".
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the 74th Army was reorganized into the 74th Division, and Zhang Lingfu, who graduated from the Huangpu Fourth Term, served as the commander of the reorganized 74th Division. According to the performance of each unit during the War of Resistance, the military and political departments have selected the five most effective units.
They are the reorganized 74th Division (formerly the 74th Army), the reorganized 11th Division (formerly the 18th Army), the reorganized Fifth Division (formerly the Fifth Army), the New First Army, and the New Sixth Army, of which the reorganized 74th Division ranks first in the whole army because of its outstanding achievements.
Although this unit was reorganized into a division, there were still more than 30,000 people, fully equipped with American weapons and equipment, and their combat effectiveness was very fierce. In particular, many officers and men have undergone the baptism of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the training of US military advisers, and their individual combat capabilities are extremely strong.
At the beginning of the Liberation War, this unit caused great trouble to the Plaster. Under the attack of the reorganized 74th Division, Huaiyin, Lianshui and other important towns were successively conquered. In May 1947, the Kuomintang army concentrated 450,000 troops to launch an attack on huaye's shandong base area, and the reorganized 74th division rushed to the front, and Huaye retreated step by step.
Chen Yi and Su Yu could not bear it, and finally Su Yu decided to concentrate his heavy troops to annihilate the reorganized 74th Division. However, the reorganized 74th Division was not so easy to fight, and in this battle, Su Yu transferred the heavy artillery of huaye's five columns and special forces columns to attack the reorganized 74th division, of which huaye had the strongest offensive ability of the four columns.
Ye Fei's first column, Tao Yong's fourth column, Wang Bicheng's sixth column, and Xu Shiyou's nine columns all served as the main attackers
Later, in the Battle of Huaihai, Hua Ye did not dispatch such a strong lineup. Finally, after three days of bloody fighting, the integrated 74th Division was completely annihilated.
The victory in the Battle of Menglianggu caused a great shock at that time, the morale of the major field armies of the PLA was unprecedentedly high, and the Kuomintang army no longer dared to go deep into the hinterland of the PLA base area alone. The PLA has a tradition that after the war, the captives are free to choose where they want to go.
But after the Battle of Menglianggu,
Huaye Political Department issued an order: the captured 74th Division prisoners could not be released.
Because in this battle, all the units of Huaye saw the strong combat effectiveness of the 74th Division, and the quality of individual soldiers was too strong, so after the war, Huaye arranged the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division to various armies, and let the prisoners of these 74th Division spread some techniques and tactics to various armies and improve the combat effectiveness of all units in Huaye.
The collapse of the reorganized 74th Division dealt a great blow to Chiang Kai-shek, who once said: "Ten reorganized 74th divisions can unify the whole country." ”
Chiang Kai-shek was not willing to allow the reorganized 74th Division to be completely destroyed, and the first commander of the reorganized 74th Division, Yu Jishi (Chiang Kai-shek's nephew), and the second commander, Wang Yaowu, also called for the reconstruction of the reorganized 74th Division. Finally, the second commander of this unit, Wang Yaowu, was responsible for reorganizing the reorganized 74th Division.
At the time of the Battle of Menglianggu, three new corps of the reorganized 74th Division did not participate in the battle and were trained in the rear, and Wang Yaowu formed the 51st Brigade on the basis of these three regiments and a howitzer battalion, the 57th Brigade on the basis of the Shandong Garrison Brigade, the 58th Brigade on the basis of the Guangdong Aviation Garrison Brigade, and some of the casualties left in the rear of the reorganized 74th Division were also supplemented. Qiu Weida, the newly appointed commander of the reorganized 74th Division, was also a Huangpu IV and an old comrade-in-arms of Wang Yaowu's subordinate and Zhang Lingfu.
In December 1947, Liu Deng's army had already left Dabie Mountain and reached the Huaixi region. At this time, Gu Zhutong had no troops to adjust, so he asked Qiu Weida, commander of the reorganized 74th Division, whether he could participate in the battle, and got a positive reply.
At that time, the two most important strongholds in Huaixi were Fuyang and Mengcheng, so the 58th Brigade of the reorganized 74th Division was stationed in Fuyang, and Qiu Weida took the headquarters of the reorganized 74th Division and the remaining two brigades to garrison Mengcheng in Anhui. The heavy weapons of the Central Plains Field Army, which had just come out of the Dabie Mountains, were all lost, the columns were seriously reduced, the morale was very low, and it was urgent to fight a victorious battle to boost morale, so Liu Bocheng set his sights on the 58th Brigade of the reorganized 74th Division stationed in Fuyang, Anhui.
At that time, the headquarters of the Fourteenth Appeasement District of the Kuomintang Army was also in Fuyang, and the commander of the Fourteenth Appeasement District was Lieutenant General Li Jue. The 58th Brigade stationed in Fuyang has more than 9,000 people, of which two-thirds are combatants, more than 6,000, and the commander of the 58th Brigade is Luo Xingli, who graduated from the Nanjing Central Military Academy and the Army University.
Although the brigade was a newly formed unit, it was also a national armament, and at that time, this unit played the slogan of avenging Zhang Lingfu and shame for the reorganization of the 74th Division, so the morale of this unit was very strong.
In late March 1948, the second, third, and sixth columns of Nakano all arrived in Huaixi, and after crossing the Yellow River in the south, Wang Bingzhang's eleventh column, which was commanded by Su Yu, was also rebuilt. Chairman Mao also instructed Nie Rongzhen to transfer 30,000 officers and men from the North China Military Region to the south and replenish them to the Central Plains Field Army, helping Nakano to recover some vitality and restore Nakano to the size of 130,000 people, which was about the same number as before advancing into Dabie Mountain.
At that time, Liu Bocheng wanted to uproot Fuyang and Mengcheng and control the entire Huaixi region, and the order of battle was to first attack Fuyang and then Mengcheng. At this time, due to Nakano's lack of heavy weapons, he also transferred The Ten Columns of Hanano to assist in the battle.
The commander-in-chief of the siege was Yang Yong, commander of the Nakano First Column, the main attacking troops were Yang Yong's first column and Wang Bingzhang's eleventh column, and The commander of the middle field, Liu Bocheng, drew three regiments with relatively strong combat effectiveness from Zhang Guohua's department and formed them into an independent brigade, and the brigade commander was Jin Shaoshan, and this unit also participated in the battle.
On the evening of March 29, the Battle of Fuyang was officially launched. The 59th Regiment of the 1st Column 20th Brigade annihilated 1 company of the defenders in East Sanli Bay outside Fuyang, after which the whole regiment rested and prepared for battle in East Sanli Bay. However, the Nationalist army sent a battalion to raid the 59th Regiment of the First Column, and the 59th Regiment withdrew from East Sanli Bay under the violent impact of the Nationalist army, and Wu Ming, the commander of the 59th Regiment's Democracy Movement Unit, was also captured in the battle, and the Nationalist prisoners in the previous battle were also taken back. Later, the officers and men of the 11th Column came to help in the battle, and only then did They take back Wu Ming, the commander of the 59th Regiment's Democracy Movement Unit.
In fact, this battle has not been fought very smoothly, and every time it attacks a key pass, it has suffered heavy losses, especially the battle against Wenfeng Pagoda and Kuixing Tower, the two commanding heights of Chengguan, with extremely heavy casualties. After two days and two nights of bloody battles on the 30th and 31st, the 2nd Brigade of dai runsheng finally occupied Wenfeng Pagoda in the early morning of April 1, and the attack on Kuixinglou was not taken until the final defeat and retreat.
On the night of March 31, the 20th Brigade of the 1st Column broke through Dongguan and led its troops into the city, but luo Xingli, commander of the 58th Brigade, immediately commanded the troops to launch a counter-charge, causing great casualties to the officers and men of Nakano who were still using flamethrowers in street battles to attack the city. A battalion of the 172nd Regiment of the enemy's 58th Brigade was also inserted into the rear of the 20th Brigade of the 1st Column, and Wu Zhong, the commander of the 20th Brigade, could not lead the troops to retreat in order to prevent the entire army from being destroyed.
Wu Zhong's 20th Brigade had to withdraw from the battlefield due to its heavy losses, and the Nakano 1st Brigade approached the attack. The 174th Regiment of Jiang Lixian's 58th Brigade stationed at Beiguan and Xiguan suddenly organized a death squad to launch a counterattack on Wang Bingzhang's eleventh column, and Wang Bingzhang was caught off guard, and many people drowned and trampled to death in the moat.
On April 1, Qiu Weida led the main force of the reorganized 74th Division to reinforcements, and on April 3, the Nationalist troops from 20 brigades around them rushed to form a siege of Nakano. In order to prevent the entire army from being destroyed, Liu Bocheng immediately ordered the troops to break through.
In the process of retreating, Liu Bocheng added 10,000 new soldiers from Zhang Guohua, so that Zhang Guohua and Jin Shaoshan continued to fight guerrillas in Huaixi, and Wang Bingzhang returned to southwest Lu. Liu Bocheng led the remaining four columns of more than 80,000 people to break through to western Henan, but they were ambushed by the Kuomintang troops along the way, and there were certain losses. When they arrived at the base area in western Henan, Nakano had more than 70,000 people left, and Chen Geng's troops who welcomed Nakano's main force were also more than 70,000 people, with more heavy weapons than the other four columns combined.