Maoling Mountain, a natural barrier to Jinan's eastern gate, used a lot of manpower and material resources to turn this mountain into a series of strong defensive fortresses, and the mountain was full of Zimu Fort and mezzanine wall fortifications. On the eve of the battle of Jinan, Wang Yaowu personally inspected Maoling Mountain. Looking at the scattered fortifications, he said to Cao Zhenduo, commander of the reorganized 73rd Division, who was next to him: "If the communist army wants to take such a strong fortification as Maoling Mountain, it will not be much easier than ascending to the heavens; on the contrary, if we can't hold it, it will be useless!" ”
Cao Zhenduo straightened his chest and said firmly, "I don't dare to say anything else, but I am absolutely sure that Maoling Mountain can hold on for at least 15 days!" The facts soon proved that Cao Zhenduo had spoken too much. Around the early morning of September 16, 1948, the 74th Regiment of the 25th Division of the 9th Column of Huaye was ordered to attack Maoling Mountain, and with the support of strong artillery fire, it took only two hours to break through the enemy's forward position, and then the regimental commander Wang Jingkun personally commanded the troops to carry out continuous surprise attacks on the enemy with frontal strong attacks and flanking detours, and after several hours of onslaught, they captured Maoling Mountain in one fell swoop.
Maoling Mountain was lost, and the eastern gate of Jinan was opened, after which the Nie Fengzhi Group and the Song Shilun Group generally launched a strong attack on the defending enemy in Jinan from both the east and the west at the same time. At first, Wang Yaowu judged that HuaYe's main attack direction was west of the city, so he placed most of his defensive forces in the west. However, after the battle began, he found that the attack on the east of the city was also very fierce, so he hurriedly drew troops from the west of the city to support the east of the city. Xu Shiyou's tactics of attacking in both directions have achieved very good results, and Wang Yaowu could not judge the main direction of our army's attack for a while, and could only be tired of coping.
By dusk on the 19th, our army had cleared the outskirts of Jinan and approached the city, and Xu Shiyou threw the 13th Column of the reserve into the battlefield in order to increase the assault force. Just when Wang Yaowu was tired of coping, Wu Huawen, who was in charge of the defense of the western part of the city, led his troops to revolt and pulled away more than 20,000 people at once. Wang Yaowu cried bitterly, he knew that this was the time to ask Liu Zhi for help, and if the reinforcements did not come again, Jinan would soon fall.
Wang Yaowu, accompanied by Chief of Staff Luo Xinli, walked out of the headquarters war room, came to the telegraph machine in the basement, and personally picked up the microphone to call Liu Zhi: "Commander-in-Chief Liu?" I am Wang Yaowu. The communist offensive was fierce, and Jinan was in danger, so when exactly did the Du and Li corps pull up their camps and go north? "These two corps are rapidly assembling and will soon be reinforced from the south." Liu Zhi said unhurriedly.
Wang Yaowu was very dissatisfied with Liu Zhi's reply, in fact, he had been dissatisfied with Liu Zhi for several days. Long before the Battle of Jinan broke out, he flew to Nanjing twice to request lao Jiang to send the reorganized 83rd Division and the rebuilt reorganized 74th division to Xuzhou to help him defend the city, and Lao Jiang also agreed. However, Liu Zhi was afraid that the transfer of these two divisions would weaken Xuzhou's defensive forces, so he used various excuses not to carry out orders. Later, under the severe reprimand of Lao Jiang, he had no choice but to airlift the 7 companies of the reorganized 74th Division to Jinan.
The reinforcements of the two reorganized divisions that were agreed upon only came in the end, and Wang Yaowu knew that all this was Liu Zhi's obstruction, so he was extremely angry in his heart. At this time, Jinan was in danger and in urgent need of reinforcements, but Liu Zhi was still playing official, and Wang Yaowu could no longer suppress the anger in his heart, and directly pressed the question: "Commander-in-Chief Liu, if saving the troops is like putting out a fire, when will the Du and Li corps be able to start?" Seeing that Wang Yaowu was so disrespectful, Liu Zhi's anger also came up, and he directly yelled at Wang Yaowu: "You are not qualified to ask me like this!" Then he picked up the phone.
In terms of seniority, Wang Yaowu only graduated from the third term of huangpu, but Liu Zhi was a tactical instructor at the Huangpu Military Academy; in 1926, Wang Yaowu graduated from the Huangpu Military Academy and served as a second lieutenant platoon commander, at this time Liu Zhi was already the commander of the 2nd Division of the National Revolutionary Army, and a year later he was promoted to the commander of the First Army, becoming one of the "Eight Great Kongs" of the old Chiang Kai-shek, whose seniority was far from being comparable to Wang Yaowu; in terms of office, when the Jinan Campaign broke out, Liu Zhi was the commander-in-chief of the "Suppression General" in Xuzhou, and Wang Yaowu was the commander of the Second Appeasement District, which was under the jurisdiction of Liu Zhi.
In the national army, it has always been very particular about seniority and faction, and Wang Yaowu's qualifications are far less than Liu Zhi. Because of this, when Wang Yaowu pressed to ask when the reinforcements would start, Liu Zhi said angrily, "You are not qualified to ask me like this!" And picked up the phone. Jinan was in danger, but Liu Zhi could not be saved, and there was no cooperation between the nationalist forces for power and profit, and it was not surprising that they lost the liberation war.