Before the outbreak of the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang had an absolute superiority in both troop strength and weapons and equipment, and there was also the support of the Americans behind it, so the old Chiang Kai-shek was full of confidence and boldly said that the war could be ended in only one year. Under the influence of Old Chiang Kai-shek, his group of generals were also crazy one by one, and bragging and talking big abounded. However, after the liberation war began, the Nationalist army was constantly surrounded on the battlefield. In order to relieve the siege of these troops, Lao Jiang sent a batch of reinforcements, of which Hu Lian was ordered to break the siege the most times, but Hu Lian's action to break the siege was never successful.
The Battle of Subei relieved Dai Zhiqi of the siege, and as a result, Dai Zhiqi committed suicide. In December 1946, Xue Yue dispatched more than 20 brigades to attack the liberated areas of northern Jiangsu in four routes, of which the reorganized 11th Division and the reorganized 69th Division were the same way, starting from Suqian to attack Shuyang. Originally, Xue Yue's plan was to reorganize the 11th Division to attack Shuyang alone, and the task of the reorganized 69th Division was to attack xin'an town. However, Hu Lian believed that it was not enough to attack Shuyang on his own, so he requested that the 69th Division cooperate with him to fight and then join forces to attack xin'an town after capturing Shuyang, and Xue Yue finally agreed to Hu Lian's proposal.
At that time, the commander of the reorganized 69th Division was named Dai Zhiqi, who graduated from the Huangpu Fourth Phase, participated in the Northern Expedition, was a staunch admirer of the old Chiang Kai-shek, and was also a confidant cultivated by Chiang Ching-kuo in the Jiangxi Youth Cadre Training Class, and was deeply trusted by Chiang's father and son. After receiving the order to attack Shuyang, he led the 69th Division to rush all the way, while Hu Lian stopped and went, very cautious. In this way, there was a large gap between Dai Zhiqi and Hu Lian.
Dai Zhiqi stills
Su Yu keenly seized the fighter and commanded the troops to surround the integrated 69th Division. After being surrounded, Dai Zhiqi desperately resisted, and on the other hand, he sent a report to Hu Lian asking for help: "Our department is under heavy siege by the communist army, please ask Commander Hu to quickly send troops to break the siege and save his brothers from danger." Hu Lian replied, "Please commander Dai to hold on, reinforcements will arrive soon." At that time, Hu Lian was only less than ten kilometers away from Dai Zhiqi, but after a few hours, Dai Zhiqi did not even see the shadow of a reinforcement, and he realized that Hu Lian was only perfunctory.
Dai Zhiqi was angry and anxious, and hurriedly sent a report to Old Jiang: "I fell into the encirclement of the communist chen yi and Su Yu on the 16th, and last night I called for help from Hu Lian of the 11th Division, but so far I have not seen a single soldier to help me." I pleaded with the headmaster to send troops or urge Hu Bu to help him and save the situation in times of crisis. After receiving the report, Old Jiang sent a telegram ordering Hu Lian to go to the rescue, but Hu Lian did not retreat and ran back to Suqian with the reorganized 11th Division, and Dai Zhiqi committed suicide in despair.
Hu Lian's inability to save friendly troops provoked the anger of the surviving officers and men of the reorganized 69th Division. After the war, they jointly wrote a letter to Old Jiang requesting that Hu Lian be severely punished, including the following sentences: "The defeat of Subei, deducing the reason, it is obvious that the selfishness of the Eleventh Division, because it wants to preserve its strength, has betrayed the friendly army to this point!" The wolf's thief's heart is revealed! In the long run, if this wind is not removed, the military suppression of bandits in the future will be even more unmanageable. But Old Jiang did not severely punish Hu Lian, but only a few words of admonition.
The Battle of Luoyang relieved Qiu Xingxiang of the siege, and Qiu Xingxiang was captured. In early March 1948, Chen Geng commanded his troops to launch an attack on Luoyang. Before the war, Old Jiang summoned Qiu Xingxiang to Nanjing and told him in person: "Luoyang is the key point of the three provinces of Qin, Jin, and Henan, and it is the main point of the connection between the Central Plains and the northwest, and we must make plans to stick to it for a long time." It is necessary to take Luoyang as the center, organize the people, train the people, strengthen the work of armor protection, and expand the local armed forces. The success or failure of this military has a bearing on the security of the party-state. If we lose again and again, we will die without a place to die! ”
Later, Old Jiang also made Qiu Xingxiang the commander of the Luoyang garrison, and in order to firmly defend Luoyang, Qiu Xingxiang not only built a large number of fortifications, but also gathered more than 3 million catties of grain. On the evening of March 11, our army launched a general attack on Luoyang, and by the 13th, there were only more than 5,000 defenders left in Luoyang City, and Qiu Xingxiang stubbornly resisted while urgently asking for help from Old Chiang. In view of Luoyang's important strategic position, Old Jiang urgently ordered Hu Lian and others to reinforce.
This time, Hu Lian was very active, and arrived on the bank of the Luo River on the southern outskirts of Luoyang at dusk on March 14, and the shouts of the People's Liberation Army in the city were clearly audible. Qiu Xingxiang continued to send reports to Hu Lian for help, claiming that the situation was "as dangerous as an egg." However, Hu Lian, fearful of the fierce artillery fire of the People's Liberation Army, once again did not advance and retreat, led the reorganized 11th Division to retreat overnight, and said to his subordinates: "Heaven intends to lose Luoyang to the communist army. "This excuse was really grandiose, and in the end our army conquered Luoyang and Qiu Xingxiang was captured."
Qiu Xingxiang
The Battle of Kaifeng relieved Liu Mao'en, and Liu Mao'en fled in disguise. In mid-June 1948, the East China Liberation Army attacked Kaifeng, and Hu Lian was ordered to rescue Liu Mao'en. On June 16, he led two integrated divisions of nearly 60,000 troops from south to north to break the siege of Kaifeng. In the early morning of the 17th, Song Shilun led more than 20,000 people in ten columns to raid Hu Lian's headquarters for 90 kilometers, and Hu Lian immediately led his troops to retreat to Shangcai, "bravely" blocking the attack of Song Shilun for three days.
On June 20, Hu Lian and his troops turned 33 kilometers south to reach Runan, where they made reverse reinforcements to Kaifeng. No matter how Liu Mao'en asked for help, Hu Lian did not move in Runan, and ordered the troops to "hold on to the spot." Two days later, the People's Liberation Army conquered Kaifeng and annihilated more than 30,000 Nationalist troops, and Liu Mao'en disguised himself as a peasant and fled in a hurry, while General Hu was still "holding firm" in Runan. Kaifeng was in danger, but Hu Lian reinforced in reverse, and this siege relief operation became a laughing stock.
The Battle of Suiqi rescued Ou Shou Nian, and Ou Shou Nian was captured. After the fall of Kaifeng, the elder Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly dispatched Qiu Qingquan and Ou Shounian and others to carry out a counter-offensive, and our army took the initiative to retreat and prepare to annihilate the enemy in a mobile battle. After the Nationalist army reoccupied Kaifeng, it continued to pursue our army. Ou Shou Nian was afraid of being ambushed by our army, the march was extremely slow, and Qiu Qingquan, who was racing all the way, pulled away a lot of distance, Su Yu seized the fighter plane and surrounded Ou Shou Nian's army around the Dragon King Shop and the Iron Buddha Temple.
In order to relieve Ou Shounian of the siege, Old Jiang mobilized more than 100,000 troops including Wu Shaozhou, Yang Gancai, Zhang Yi, Hu Lian, and Huang Baitao, and issued a strict order that "if you do not advance again, you will be severely punished." Hu Lian saw that Old Jiang was angry, so he led his troops from Runan, all the way to the ant line. On July 1, Ou Shounian was captured, and Hu Lian's troops only traveled 33 kilometers to Shangcai. At the same time, Huang Baitao, whose weapons and equipment were far inferior to Hu Lian's, led his troops to reach the Iron Buddha Temple nearly a hundred kilometers and rescued the 72nd Division belonging to ou Shounian's corps.
Su Yu saw Huang Baitao's lone army advancing, and immediately led his troops to surround him. Ou Shounian had just been captured, and Huang Baitao was under siege again, and this battle was too well fought. Old Jiang was furious and said that if he could not save Huang Baitao, he would "kill his head." Qiu Qingquan, Wu Shaozhou, Zhang Zhen and others rushed to the aid of Diqiu Dian, only Hu Lian still kept walking. On July 6, Huaye took the initiative to withdraw from the siege, and Hu Lian suddenly came to the spirit at this time, personally leading the strength of two regiments to march 148 kilometers in the Guotong District to Taikang and pursue Huaye.
After the Battle of Eastern Henan, Lao Jiang rebuilt the 7th Corps, and Hu Lian moved around in order to become the commander of this corps. However, his poor performance in several siege breaks, especially against friendly troops, caused dissatisfaction among many people, and finally the position of commander of the 7th Corps was given to the miscellaneous general Huang Baitao. The reorganized 11th Division was strong and well-equipped, and was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, but none of the rescue operations in which Hu Lian participated were successful, and the fundamental reason was that he blindly avoided battle and protected himself. "Friendly troops have difficulties and do not move like mountains" were eventually annihilated by the People's Liberation Army, which was also one of the main reasons why the Nationalist army lost the liberation war.