The 74th Division of the National Revolutionary Army was also known as the 74th Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which was known as the first army under the heavens and the head of the five main forces during the Liberation War, although this unit was later completely annihilated by HuaYe, but the combat effectiveness of this unit was not weak, and Huaye never underestimated this unit. In the several battles in which HuaYe came into contact with the reorganized 74th Division, Huaye actually did not take much advantage.
In June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 500,000 troops to launch an attack on the Suwan Liberation Army, including Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Qiu Qingquan's Fifth Army, and the Guizhou Seventh Army, which claimed to be the Steel Army. In the case of the enemy being outnumbered, Su Yu led the Central China Field Army to achieve good results in seven battles and seven victories, of which Wang Bicheng's sixth division fought five battles in one and a half months, annihilating 12,000 enemy troops. When the People's Liberation Army was victorious in the soviet-central battlefield, Zhang Lingfu led the reorganized 74th Division to directly attack Huaiyin, the capital of the Suwan People's Liberation Army, Su Yu immediately led a division and a sixth division to support, but Huaiyin was still attacked by Zhang Lingfu, and three days later, Zhang Lingfu conquered Huai'an, and the two Huai and central Soviet areas were completely occupied by the Kuomintang army, and Su Yu led the Central China Field Army to retreat to northern Jiangsu.
After the fall of Huaiyin, the focus of the battle between the two sides was on the important town of Lianshui in northern Jiangsu. At that time, the Nanjing side asked Zhang Lingfu to lead the reorganized 74th Division to retreat to the rear for repairs, but Zhang Lingfu was determined to make meritorious contributions and wanted to be promoted to general within three years, so he led the reorganized 74th Division to attack Lianshui with great momentum. At that time, lianshui was guarded by Cheng jun's fifth brigade, the Kuomintang side under the cover of aircraft tank artillery launched one attack after another on Lianshui, the fifth brigade suffered heavy losses, at a critical moment, Wang Bicheng led the sixth division arrived, just arrived and completely annihilated a battalion of the 74th division.
Although Wang Bicheng's Sixth Division was the main force of Huaye and had strong combat effectiveness, he saw the strong combat effectiveness of this unit in his first confrontation with the reorganized 74th Division. The reorganized 74th Division was different from other units, fully equipped with American weapons and equipment, well-trained officers and men, quite skilled in tactical maneuvers, particularly fierce in charging, and arrogant and unusual, which was rare among the Kuomintang troops at that time. After the war, the officers and men of the Sixth Division evaluated the combat effectiveness of this unit as stronger than that of the Japanese army.
Zhang Lingfu was not convinced after encountering the nails, and commanded the reorganized 74th Division to launch eight charges against the positions of Wang Bicheng's sixth division in one day, but all of them were repelled. On the north bank of the Yellow River, Wang Bicheng commanded his troops to annihilate two battalions of the 57th Brigade of the 74th Division in two hours. After four days of fierce fighting between the two sides, Su Yu led the Central China Field Army to Lianshui and surrounded the reorganized 74th Division, Zhang Lingfu saw that something was wrong and fled to Huaiyin with his troops.
The First Battle of Lianshui ended with Huaye's victory, and Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division lost more than 7,000 officers and men. Xie Xiangjun, commander of the Tenth Column of the Central China Field Army, led his troops to aid Lianshui, and when inspecting the terrain on the embankment of the north bank of the Zhongshan River five kilometers away from Lianshui, he was killed by the snipers of the reorganized 74th Division.