During the Liberation War, the performance of many famous generals of the Nationalist Army was out of standard, and only a few people could really compete with the PLA on the battlefield, and Huang Baitao was one of them. Whether in the Jiangsu battlefield or the Shandong battlefield, his performance was much stronger than that of other senior generals of the Nationalist army. On the battlefield, he often charged forward and retreated, and rescued friendly troops often tried their best and never slid their heads. Because of this, he pressed Hu Lian and Qiu Qingquan to become the commanders of the 7th Corps after the Battle of Eastern Henan.
Huang Baitao stills
At the same time, Huang Baitao is not a reckless man who only knows how to rush and kill, he has a clear understanding of the various bad habits within the national army and deeply resents it. After the Battle of Huaihai broke out, due to Liu Zhi's wrong command, the 7th Corps was surrounded by Huaye in the area of Nianzhuang. Huang Baitao was well aware of the bad habit of the Nationalist army not to be saved, so he did not have any hope for reinforcements, and he immediately ordered all armies to "prepare to fight independently and fulfill the duty of soldiers." For such a fierce general as Huang Baitao, Lao Jiang and Gu Zhutong naturally wanted to go all out to save each other.
The rescue mission eventually fell on Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi. But in order to protect themselves, neither of these two people was willing to fight to the death, and almost sat and watched the collapse of Huang Baitao. At the last moment of the Battle of Nianzhuang, Yang Tingyan, deputy commander of the 25th Army, persuaded Huang Baitao to break through, and he shook his head and said, "I am old, and I am sick, and I can't walk as a prisoner, and I am embarrassed." After my sacrifice, I will let others know that there are still loyal Kuomintang people, or I can make those who are drunk and dreaming of death wake up. You are still young and promising, and I hope that you will break through and do something for the party-state. ”
Huang Baitao then shot himself at the age of 48. After Huang Baitao's death, Yang Tingyan dug a pit with a bayonet in the wilderness west of Xiaohuangzhuang and wrapped Huang Baitao's body with two military blankets and buried it. Then he drew a topographic map on the cigarette box, indicating the location of the burial of Huang Baitao. After that, Yang Tingyan disguised himself as a refugee and fled south, eventually running back to Nanjing. After meeting Huang Baitao's wife, Liu Biyun, Yang Tingyan told her in detail about Huang Baitao's death in battle.
After hearing this, Liu Biyun cried and said, "My husband died on the battlefield, he was loyal to the party and the state, no matter what, he had to bring his body back." As soon as he heard that he was going to transport the body, Yang Tingyan immediately remembered that he had escaped from death, and he had worked hard to escape and come back, and he no longer had the courage to take risks. He had no choice but to lie and say, "From the skeleton of the commander, I should have been obliged, but the president wanted me to carry out emergency military affairs, and I could not be separated." Fortunately, Deputy Li was familiar with the terrain there, and I also drew a map of the location of the buried commander, which troubled Deputy Li to take a trip. ”
After saying these words, Yang Tingyan took out the cigarette box and handed it to Liu Biyun, and hurriedly resigned. Liu Biyun had no choice but to ask his adjutant Li Wenzheng and Zhang Jinye, a classmate of Huang Baitao's early years, to go to Xiaohuangzhuang to raise the remains of her husband. When Huang Baitao was still serving under Li Chun, he was trained in the Officer Education Corps, during which he became acquainted with Zhang Jinye. After that, the two had close contact with each other and were brothers and sisters. Later, Zhang Jinye left the army to start business, and his relationship with Huang Baitao was still very good.
Because of this, Liu Biyun asked Zhang Jinye and Li Wenzheng to go to Huang Baitao's remains together. At that time, the area around Nianzhuang was already a liberated area, and Zhang Jinye and Li Wenzheng dressed up in disguise, walked day and night, quietly came to Xiaohuangzhuang, and found the remains of Huang Baitao according to the location marked on the cigarette box. Then he bought a coffin at a high price and buried Huang Baitao. Then the two hired a flatbed truck, asked two farmers to help, and pushed the belt to go in the direction of Nanjing.
Huang Baitao
After crossing the Huai River, it happened that a regiment of the Nationalist army was preparing to retreat. For safety reasons, Zhang Jinye and Li Wenzheng found the regimental commander Lu Lubao, gave him a sum of money, and asked to retreat with the troops. Lü Lubao agreed to their request after learning that Li Wen was Huang Baitao's aide-de-camp. Unexpectedly, that night, Zhang Jinye and Li Wenzheng saw the intention of getting rich, stole a box of gold bars from Lu Lubao, and ran away. Finally, the two farmers who pulled the cart transported Huang Baitao's body back to Nanjing and handed it to Liu Biyun.
Li Wenzheng and Zhang Jinye, one was Huang Baitao's aide-de-camp and the other was Huang Baitao's best friend, and as a result, for a box of gold bars, the two threw away Huang Baitao's body. Instead, two peasants, who had never known each other, worked tirelessly and transported Huang Baitao's body back to Nanjing. To thank the two men, Liu Biyun took out 100 pieces of ocean, but they only took four pieces as a way home. Soon after, Lao Jiang held a solemn memorial service for Huang Baitao and posthumously awarded him the title of second-class general of the army.
So after Huang Baitao's death, how much pension did Old Jiang give Liu Biyun? The answer is 100,000 gold coupons. On August 19, 1948, the Kuomintang acquired a legal tender that was already equivalent to waste paper with gold yuan coupons, and stipulated that 3 million French yuan be exchanged for one gold yuan coupon. At the same time, it is also necessary to let the people exchange all the gold and silver in their hands into gold coupons, otherwise they will be confiscated. At the beginning of the issuance, the gold round coupon still has a strong purchasing power, and the 4 gold round coupon can be exchanged for one dollar. If you follow this ratio, 100,000 gold coupons can be exchanged for 25,000 US dollars, which is a big number at the time.
But unfortunately, when Liu Biyun got her husband's pension, she couldn't even buy two pounds of rice with 100,000 gold coupons. Originally, Lao Jiang expected to issue 2 billion gold yuan coupons, but it was far from enough to spend, and in order to make up for the deficit, the issuance was constantly increasing. Just after the New Year of 1949, the issuance of gold yuan bills exceeded 5 trillion yuan, and soon after it exceeded 130 trillion yuan. At this time, the purchasing power of the golden yuan coupon is almost zero, and a golden yuan coupon with a face value of 1 million yuan is only enough to buy a few burnt cakes.
Huang Botao fought for old Chiang Kai-shek for half his life, contributed a lot, and after the war, the pension given by old Jiang was not enough to buy two catties of rice, which was really chilling. After other generals of the National Army saw this situation, who would be willing to fight to the death? It is not surprising that Chiang Kai-shek lost the War of Liberation.