In May 1947, Gu Zhutong, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Army, set up a headquarters in Xuzhou to unify the command of the Shandong battlefield troops, concentrated 24 integrated divisions into 3 mobile corps, adopted the tactics of strengthening depth, intensive approach, steady and steady fighting, and gradual advancement, and advanced from south to north to Luzhong Mountain.
Among the three mobile regiments, the most powerful is the First Corps led by Tang Enbo, with a large army of 200,000 troops, of which the reorganized 74th Division has 32,000 people, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong, known as the First Army under heaven, the Royal Forest Army, and the division commander Zhang Lingfu is a member of the Kuomintang army. However, after the battle began, the reorganized 74th Division led by Zhang Lingfu boldly broke in and created a fighter for the Huaye Siege 74th Division.
Before attacking the reorganized 74th Division, Huaye's main leaders struggled for a long time, because the reorganized 74th Division was very strong in combat, and this unit was not even an opponent of the Japanese army during the War of Resistance. Moreover, at that time, there were 400,000 and 500,000 troops of the Kuomintang army in the reorganized 74th Division, and if the 74th Division could not be quickly solved, then the entire Huaye might fall into the heavy siege of the Kuomintang army.
However, after careful consideration, Su Yu still insisted on fighting the reorganized 74th Division, believing that as long as the blocking troops could resist the reinforcements for three days, they would be sure to completely eliminate the reorganized 74th Division by a five-to-one advantage. Chen Yi was very happy after listening to Su Yu's words and said:
Good! We just want to have the courage to take the head of the general from a million troops!
”
On May 12, 1947, Chen Yi, Su Yu, and Tan Zhenlin convened a combat meeting of the heads of various columns in Huaye, at which Su Yu announced his determination to fight the reorganization of the 74th Division, and the specific deployment was: the first, fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth columns and special forces columns were the main attack, with the second, third, seventh, and tenth columns as the blockers, and the five columns that served as the main attack were all elite units of the People's Liberation Army, and their combat effectiveness was very strong. Among them, the commander of the first column, Ye Fei, the commander of the fourth column, Tao Yong, the commander of the fourth column, Wang Bicheng, the commander of the sixth column, Wang Jian'an, the commander of the eighth column, and Xu Shiyou, the commander of the ninth column, were all famous generals of our army.
Before the battle began, Su Yu handed over the independent division to the commander of the first column, Ye Fei, so that Ye Fei had the strength of four divisions in his hands, but the task of the first column was also the most arduous, not only responsible for attacking Meng Lianggu, but also blocking Huang Baitao's integrated 25th Division, as well as reinforcements from the reorganized 65th Division. At that time, Yi Zhong had just returned from Lu Southwest, and the soldiers were very tired, but Ye Fei did not say a word, and returned to the army after accepting the task.
Wang Bicheng's sixth column was hidden in Tongshi Town, Fei County, a hundred miles away from Menglianggu, and the commander of the sixth column, Wang Bicheng, was very excited after receiving the task of attacking the reorganized 74th Division, and immediately led his troops to advance towards Duozhuang, preparing to cut off the rear road of the reorganized 74th Division. Zhang Lingfu was not unaware of Huaye's dispatch of troops, but he was too arrogant, he had made a vow of promotion to general for three years, and when he saw his huaye main force surrounding him, he not only did not retreat, but instead thought it was a good opportunity to leave all the heavy weapons in Duozhuang, guarded by a regiment, and all the other troops went to Meng Lianggu.
In fact, zhang Lingfu's idea of the center blossoming is not wishful thinking, there are four or five hundred thousand Kuomintang troops around him, these troops are only a day's distance away from him, nearly ten miles, once he can hold out for two or three days, Hua Ye may really be surrounded by the main force of the nationalist army. But the factional struggle within the Kuomintang army was fierce, and not many people wanted to see him make such a great achievement.
On the evening of the 13th, the first column, the sixth column, and the eighth column of Huaye began to move, and inserted themselves into the rear of the reorganized 74th Division. Wang Jian'an led Hua Ye
The main force of the 8th Column captured Taohua Mountain, Leishi Mountain, Nose Mountain and other key points, cutting off the connection between the reorganized 74th Division and the reorganized 83rd Division, and Wang Bicheng led the sixth column to attack and occupy Duozhuang, captured the heavy weapons of the reorganized 74th Division, and cut off the rear road of the reorganized 74th Division.
The commander of the first column, Ye Fei, was the most stressed, and the 3rd Division of the First Column wanted to capture Caozhuang and the highlands north of it, approaching Mengyin, forming a frontal blockade of the reorganized 65th Division, and the main force of the 1st Column and 1st Division led by Liao Zhengguo captured the key points of Huangdoudingshan, Yaoshan, TianmaShan, and Jiepai, cutting off the connection between the reorganized 74th Division and the reorganized 25th Division, and Ye Fei led the 2nd Division and the Independent Division of the 1st Column to march towards Menglianggu and was responsible for attacking the reorganized 74th Division.
On the way to the 2nd Division, Ye Fei led the 74th Division, which was close to the reorganized 74th Division, with the 74th Division walking on the post and the 2nd Division walking below. When the scouts reported that the 74th Division of the Kuomintang Army was above, Ye Fei ordered the troops to resolutely advance, grit their teeth and move forward, and could not stop, because once they were discovered by the enemy and the firepower was pressed downwards, our army would certainly suffer heavy losses.
After all, the 74th Division was the most effective unit of the Kuomintang army, and the two sides fought very fiercely, and the Independent Division of the First Column later concluded: "The 74th Division is quite skilled in the use of tactics, and in the course of attacking, it is good at the roundabout movements of small groups, pretending to attack and shout with a small number of troops on the front, and using small groups of troops to advance from the gap between the two sides of our army, and if its roundabout troops succeed, the frontal feint troops will immediately launch an attack on our army." The cadres of their squads and platoons are skilled in command, good at mastering the troops, and if they discover the weaknesses of our army, they can quickly carry out a surprise attack. Light and heavy machine guns can crossfire, carry out suppressed fire, and often damage our machine guns and machine gunners. ”
During the Liberation War, few Kuomintang troops dared to engage in white-knife warfare with the People's Liberation Army, but according to the recollections of Huaye veterans who participated in the Battle of Menglianggu, the experience of the reorganized 74th Division in white-knife warfare was spelled out with the Japanese army, so the ability of close combat combat was also very strong, and the combat effectiveness was extraordinary.
The reorganized 74th Division and the soldiers and officers at the bottom of the Kuomintang army had a good fighting quality, but the upper echelons were fighting in a bitter way, and Zhang Lingfu's old superior, Li Tianxia, was now the commander of the reorganized 83rd Division, responsible for covering the safety of the right side of the 74th Division. However, Li Tianxia and Zhang Lingfu had a deep personal grudge, and under the repeated requests for support from their superiors, Li Tianxia only sent the 57th Regiment, which had been completely annihilated twice in the Battle of Suzhong and was now reorganized from the puppet army, with poor equipment and low morale, and Li Tianxia thought that even if this regiment was annihilated by Huaye, his troops would have no losses.
Of course, not all the Kuomintang army units do not carry out reinforcements, even if Huang Baitao, who came from the miscellaneous army, is a special case, although he is from the miscellaneous army, he is very loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, and although the reorganized 25th Division led by him is incomparable with Zhang Lingfu and Li Tianxia in terms of equipment, it is full-day armament, but it is very tenacious in this battle.
In the early morning of the 15th, Chiang Kai-shek, Gu Zhutong, and Tang Enbo issued orders to Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, asking them to move closer to Meng Lianggu and relieve the siege of Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division. However, Li Tianxia was still yang and yin, and still sent that regiment to symbolically make an appearance.
Under the cover of aircraft artillery, Huang Baitao commanded the main force of the reorganized 25th Division to launch a dense attack on the first column and one division that we were blocking with the tactics of the sea of people, and the two sides also launched a fierce white-knife battle on the hillside. Although Liao Zhengguo, commander of the First Column and First Division, had four regiments, two regiments had just come from the superiors of local troops and had weak combat effectiveness.
Huang Baitao continued to attack the blocking positions of the 1st Column and The 1st Division at any cost, without the slightest intention of preserving its strength, and finally occupied the Capture Mountain and the Boundary Plate after paying heavy casualties, although it only advanced less than five kilometers, but it was only separated from the reorganized 74th Division by a Tianma Mountain, and it was immediately possible to break through our army's defense line.
Both Ye Fei and Liao Zhengguo were under great pressure, and Ye Fei had to command a column of the main force to attack the reorganized 74th Division on Meng Lianggu, while also watching the blocking troops. By four o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th, Tianma Mountain was in a hurry, Huang Baitao had already led his troops to attack the halfway point of Tianma Mountain, Liao Zhengguo had used up all the reserves in his hand, at this time Ye Fei was directing the battle against the reorganized 74th Division, and it was too late to mobilize troops, Chen Yi and Su Yu inhaled a cool breath in the headquarters, worried that this battle would be ruined by Huang Baitao.
At this time, Liao Zhengguo saw that there was a troop advancing along the ravine in the direction of Meng Lianggu, and Liao Zhengguo immediately stopped and inquired, only to learn that it was a battalion of the 28th Regiment of the Fourth Column. Liao Zhengguo said to the battalion commander, "I am Liao Zhengguo, the commander of the First Column and First Division, and I order you to rush to reinforce Tianma Mountain immediately." ”
The battalion commander was embarrassed and said, "My battalion was ordered to attack Meng Lianggu, and the task was urgent. Liao Zhengguo pointed to the smoke-filled Tianma Mountain and said: "The gain or loss of the Tianma Mountain position is of great importance, and if the enemy opens up the link, the overall situation will be lost." I had only a few guards left, using only all the troops that had reached the area. The battalion commander thought for a moment and said, "Well, I'll carry out your orders." ”
In this way, this force rushed to join the remaining troops of the First Division to block the attack of the integrated 25th Division, and this fresh force quickly defeated the reinforcements of the integrated 25th Division. Only a few hours later, Huang Baitao received the news that the reorganized 74th Division had been completely annihilated and Zhang Lingfu had been killed, and in order to prevent Hua Ye from hitting him in turn, he immediately led his troops to retreat, and Huang Baitao's efforts were thwarted in the last step.
After each battle, our army will adopt a policy of voluntarily staying, and the prisoners who are willing to stay will join the People's Liberation Army and will be willing to pay for the road. However, after the battle, the Huaye Political Department ordered the columns not to release the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division, which could startle the tens of thousands of officers and men of the captured 74th Division, but later the Huaye Political Department ordered these prisoners to be organized into various columns to help the Huaye columns improve their tactical level.