On March 24, 1949, the 97th Division of the 45th Army of the Kuomintang Army suddenly declared an uprising on the outskirts of Nanjing, and crossed the Yangtze River to defect to the People's Liberation Army. The division's total strength was only more than 8,000 people, which was not at all comparable to the 60th Army of Zheng Dongguo in the Changchun Uprising and fu Zuoyi's fu Zuoyibu in North China, the "Suppression General" of the Beiping Uprising, but its impact was very sensational, and the reason was that the division was the capital guard division and the "Yulin Army" favored by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang top brass.
In terms of composition, the division was the most likely unit to revolt.
Of the three regiments under it (289 Regiment, 290 Regiment, and 291 Regiment), the 289 Regiment was formerly the Guard Regiment of the Kuomintang Military Commission, which directly served as the guard work of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek; the 290 Regiment was formerly the Guard Regiment of Chen Cheng when he was the commander of the 6th Theater and the Minister of Military Affairs, who was directly responsible for Chen Cheng's guard work; the 291 Regiment was formerly the Guard Regiment of the Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd Theater, and after Gu Zhutong, the commander of the theater, was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Army, the regiment was changed to the Guard Regiment of the Army General Headquarters and continued to serve as Gu Zhutong's guard work.
In terms of personnel arrangements, the division was also the most unlikely unit to revolt. Wang Yanqing, the division commander, has been serving in the 18th Army since graduating from the Central Military Academy in 1928. This army is the one with the longest construction time and the greatest development strength among the "five main forces" of the Kuomintang army, and it is also the starting force of Chen Cheng's "civil engineering department", and has walked out of more than 30 officers above lieutenant general level, such as Huang Wei and Hu Lian
。 In 1947, Wang Yanqing was transferred to the deputy commander of the 208th Division of the Youth Army, which was the establishment of the Chiang family's father and son, with Chiang Ching-kuo personally serving as the director of the Political Department of the Youth Army, and all major general-level officers personally checked by him and then appointed by Chiang Kai-shek. Judging from his experience in holding office in the past, Wang Yanqing belongs to the people highly valued by the Chiang Kai-shek clique, and his future is bright, and there is no possibility of betrayal at all.
But in fact, Wang Yan had developed an early morning disgust with the corruption of the Kuomintang regime, believing that he was surrounded by scum who sang the Three People's Principles but actually betrayed the Three People's Principles. In 1947, when he was stationed in Peiping with the 208th Division, he learned that the neighboring liberated areas had carried out land reform, realizing Dr. Sun Yat-sen's proposition that "cultivators have their land", and tens of millions of poor peasants were allocated land, which greatly shocked him and aroused great doubts about the future of the Kuomintang regime.
In mid-August 1948, Wang Yanqing was transferred back to Nanjing as the commander of the 97th Division, and while walking around the home of his maternal uncle Deng Haoming, he met a fellow named Lu Ping, who was clearly remembered by the Dagang Bao but was actually an underground member of the Communist Party of China. The two men often talked about The future of China, the situation of the civil war, the inside story of the Kuomintang, and the policies of the Communist Party at the first opportunity; when talking about their personal whereabouts, Wang Yanqing immediately said: The Kuomintang is indeed hopeless and is willing to resign from the post of division commander and defect to the Liberated Areas.
Later, under the persuasion of Lu Ping and Shi Yonghui, one of the leaders of the Nanjing underground party, Wang Yanqing decided to lead the 97th Division to defect to the Liberated Areas together, but after all, the division was the guard unit of Chiang Kai-shek and others, and many people up and down were their henchmen, and he had been the commander of the division for less than a hundred days, and if he did not do the work in advance, he would probably not be able to pull away the troops, and finally he would have to carry himself. Sure enough, as soon as the preparations for the uprising began, someone reported it to Zhang Yaoming, commander-in-chief of the capital garrison.
Fortunately, this whistleblower is also hearsay, and there is no specific evidence, and Wang Yanqing was released after being detained and questioned for 1 day. Although there was no danger in this whistle-blowing, the 97th Division had already aroused the vigilance of the enemy, and after Wang Yanqing returned to the division headquarters, he immediately summoned a meeting of the backbone of the uprising. At 9:30 p.m. on March 24, 1949, Wang Yanqing transferred the division's direct subordinate units, the 289th Regiment and the 290th Regiment to the crossing of the river in Jiangning Town, a suburb of Nanjing, in the name of "guerrilla attack across the river.". There were already more than 20 ferries collected in advance by Deng Jianzhong, deputy commander of the 289th Regiment, waiting here, and the troops began to cross north at about 10 p.m.
However, the news was quickly leaked, and the commander of the 291st Regiment not only did not act immediately after receiving the order, but also called the military headquarters to verify the situation, so that the military department discovered the 97th Division's uprising attempts, and immediately sent planes to distribute leaflets, declaring that "Wang Yanqing has defected to the Communists, and all officers and men who return will be rewarded heavily" and so on. Huang Zi'an, commander of the 290th Regiment, saw the leaflet and immediately led his troops back, and most of the 289th Regiment also followed back, and finally, Wang Yanqing only led Yang Zhenzhou, commander of the 289th Regiment, and more than a hundred other people to meet with the Plakmen, but the significance of this uprising was very significant.
From then on, everyone knew that even the guard regiments of Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Cheng, and Gu Zhutong could not be relied upon, and the Kuomintang's Jiangshan could not be defended at all.