Huang Baitao, commander of the Nationalist Reorganized 25th Division, had been alone in the division headquarters for several hours, and soon he was about to leave for Xuzhou for review and explain the defeat at the Battle of MengLianggu. He felt that a storm was coming, but he couldn't understand why it was blowing on his head.
The defeat of Meng Lianggu meant that Lao Jiang's Royal Forest Army, the trump card among the elite aces, the first of the five main forces of the Nationalist army, the reorganized 74th Division was completely destroyed, and the division commander Zhang Lingfu was killed.
Lao Jiang used 3 mobile corps and 450,000 troops to launch the Shandong Campaign, and his plan to repel the CHINESE East China Field Forces to the north of the Yellow River was completely foiled, and the strategic trend of the military confrontation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China took a strategic turn.
According to the news returned from Xuzhou, Old Jiang's anger could no longer be carried in words, and he used the crutches in his hand to knock out the head of Tang Enbo, the commander of the First Corps, on the spot.
Huang Baitao originally thought that old Chiang's anger could not burn on his head, he was one of the few miscellaneous army generals in the army who was heavily weighted by old Chiang, and he lacked foundation and connections, and he only had courage and loyalty on the battlefield.
When the 74th Division was besieged this time, he and Li Tianxia of the 83rd Division were just a few kilometers away from Zhang Lingfu. Li Tianxia saw that death was not saved, but he was holding his arms and rushing forward desperately.
In just a few days, his 25th Division had lost more than 10,000 people, but Zhang Lingfu only persisted for three days before being annihilated, and he could only withdraw his troops.
Old Jiang did not expect to deal with Huang Baitao at first, and he immediately removed Tang Enbo from his post and demanded that Li Tianxia be shot on the spot. I don't want Li Tianxia to have a magic hand to return to heaven, and by the way, I brought everyone's attention to Huang Baitao's head.
Li Tianxia was an old subordinate of Wang Yaowu, the former commander of the 74th Army (who was a soldier during the Anti-Japanese War and was reduced to a division after the Anti-Japanese War), and like Wang, he was an old fritter in the army, and his ability to manage the emotions of the leader was second only to that of the Flying General Sun Yuanliang.
Before li tianxia was tried, she threw gold bars everywhere, and insisted that Zhang Lingfu was under the jurisdiction of Huang Baitao. (Li Tianxia and Huang Baitao were the commanders of the column, and before the war Zhang Lingfu took the initiative to apply to leave Li Tianxia's column and be placed under the control of Huang Baitao's column) The wind of public opinion consciously ignored the rescue problem and turned to Huang Baitao.
Huang Baitao thought about it, this kind of thing is not within the scope of his own business ability, so he found Gu Zhutong, who he met during the Anhui Southern Incident. Gu Zhutong only gave him a word, showing the commander of the tang, protecting the living, and the dead carrying the pot.
Huang Baitao was afraid to make a muttering in his heart, just this, okay? Old Jiang is so confused?
In the subsequent trial, Huang Baitao's dead horse was used as a live horse doctor, and Zhang Lingfu's courage was commendable, but he lacked experience in actual combat, was greedy and adventurous, did not listen to the advice of his superiors, and stubbornly adhered to unfavorable terrain, destroying the favorable situation created by Commander Tang in the past month, resulting in the overall defeat of the war situation.
A few days later, Li Tianxia was awarded the Order of the Cloud of the Third Class, and not long after, served as the deputy commander of the First Appeasement District. Huang Baitao was suspended and retained, and was soon promoted to commander of the Ninth Corps. Tang Enbo's First Corps was abolished, and his men returned shortly after their dismissal and appointed commander-in-chief of the Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison.
As for Zhang Lingfu, Lao Jiang personally held a grand memorial ceremony for him and the 74th Division. At the memorial service, Zhang Lingfu, who was killed, was posthumously awarded the title of three-star general. Old Chiang also erected a monument to him at Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing, and renamed a cruiser chartered from Britain the "Lingfu".
However, what is intriguing is that Zhang's fourth wife and younger son lived in hardship after fleeing to Taiwan, but complained that they did not receive a pension from old Chiang. It is rumored that this is precisely because Zhang Lingfu's greed and light enemy's adventurism destroyed the situation in Shandong at a crucial moment.
Huang Baitao may have understood the profound intention of Gu Zhutong, a "tumbler in the army", at this time, and it turned out that the chairman of the committee was the biggest actor.
Zhang Lingfu's "suicide into benevolence" and light enemies, greed, and adventurism in special circumstances can be the political needs of the national army, but similar cognition is a simple mistake on the side of the People's Liberation Army.
"Old Chiang Kai-shek's military ability was at best a battalion commander, but he blindly commanded the front line." "Zhang Lingfu thought that he was really an iron fighter and did not understand the true combat effectiveness of our army" and "eventually buried his own life." In the period after the founding of the People's Republic of China, some erroneous perceptions appeared in the field of military thought.
Within the Plaster, there was contempt for the Kuomintang army and pride in itself. For the Battle of Menglianggu, many commanders also simply attributed the annihilation of the 74th Division to Zhang Lingfu's command mistakes.
General Su Yu, the commander of the Menglianggu Campaign, as a senior general honed in the practice of warfare in our army, has a clear understanding of this. He opposed the idea of complex courses and outcomes of war as the inevitable result of a confrontation between higher and lower cognitions.
Therefore, Su Yu began to write "Memoirs of Su Yu's War" in 1976. He mentioned Meng Lianggu many times and mentioned Zhang Lingfu. He held that Meng Lianggu was seeking victory in danger, and Chiang Kai-shek's war arrangements for Shandong were scientific and practical, and they also played a very good role.
Neither Jiang Nor Zhang Lingfu at the front made a major commanding mistake, and our army created a fighter plane that was released at a moment's notice, and only with perseverance, courage and great sacrifice did it win the final victory.
March 1947 was special for General Su Yu, the last calm before the Great War.
Before the Battle of Menglianggu, the Nationalist army always maintained a strategic offensive against our army by virtue of its strength, equipment and logistics system, which was determined by the hard power of the two armies.
In the past year, Su Yu has won 7 battles and 7 victories in the Soviet Union, but he still cannot reverse the strategic situation of the two armies. Su Yu retreated into Shandong to join Chen Yi to form the East China Field Army, with a military strength of 270,000 people.
General Su Yu had been thinking about it all this time: although the strength and equipment were still weak, Su Yu had the ability to fight in the Shandong Large Corps.
If we can achieve a major victory in the form of a large corps of operations and on the basis of making full use of our army's soft power such as command, mobility, will to fight, and the will of the people, it is expected that the strategic situation will be reversed when the number of troops is not enough.
Now, the opportunity has come.
Old Jiang ordered Gu Zhutong to gather 24 divisions, a total of 450,000 people, divided into 3 mobile corps, led by the elite of Tang Enbo's first corps, and slowly pressed from northern Jiangsu towards the Liberated Area of Shandong.
Either Chen Su will be defeated in Shandong, or they will be driven north of the Yellow River, further reducing the strategic living space of the PLA. Old Jiang had made full preparations, and in his opinion, this idea must be realized and will certainly be realized.
At the oath-taking meeting, Tang Enbo conveyed the strategic deployment of chairman and commander Gu to Zhang Lingfu's 74th Division, Li Tianxia's 83rd Division, and Huang Baitao's 25th Division. In view of the lessons of the defeats of the Soviet-Chinese Campaign and the previous Laiwu Campaign, the Nationalist army made great adjustments in its overall strategy.
"Don't underestimate their guerrilla tactics"! Tombaugh admonished his subordinates passionately. Although Tang Enbo's official voice and popular voice are very bad, he does not lack military acumen and strategic vision. He carefully studied Mao Zedong's guerrilla tactics and sincerely admired Chairman Mao's sixteen-character policy.
"They usually avoid our frontal attack, but instead specialize in finding timing and space in the movement, finding weaknesses, and then giving a quick blow."
Zhang Lingfu followed the rhythm of Tang Enbo's fist waving, and whispered in his mouth: "The enemy enters and retreats, the enemy stays in me to disturb, the enemy tires me to fight, and the enemy retreats and I chase." ”
Zhang Lingfu had long experienced Su Yu's flexible tactical command ability, and he appreciated from the bottom of his heart the targeted policy put forward by the Operations Department: "Intensively close together, strengthen maintenance, fight steadily and steadily, and gradually advance."
He also remembered Mao Zedong's words: "You fight yours, I fight mine," and "It's time for us to do the same, stick to our own policies, not be constrained by the enemy's actions, and win a war at our pace and demands." ”
Zhang Lingfu looked forward to the opportunity to seize Su Yu in his hands and the two armies to fight a head-on decisive battle, so that they could give full play to the advantages of the overseas army and inflict heavy losses on the common.
Both Chen Yi and Su Yu quickly noticed the change in the enemy's playing style. The enemy no longer looked imposing, but like a stone mill, slowly rolling towards us.
"Are these people learning to be smart, this is forcing us to duel with him, or forcing us to the yellow river north a little bit." Mr. Chen set his sights on Su Yu. The general was always the commander-in-chief, and the military was completely decided by Su Yu, who only made suggestions and solved all other problems.
"Keep running", Su Yu did not look up, pointing with a pencil to the dense situation marks on the map, "as long as here, their heavy equipment can not play a role, running and running can not run us, slowly can not stand." ”
"The chairman and our thinking are the same, not impatient, not divided into troops, the main force to maintain the opportunity, there is always a chance to annihilate the enemy." Now we fight for endurance and perseverance! The boss agreed, "Some of our comrades have become hairy, and I have criticized him fiercely." ”
Su Yu then looked up at the boss and laughed out loud in his mouth: "Shiyou's temper, it is better to release it." Xu Shiyou, commander of the 9th Column, ran for more than a thousand miles in more than ten days, and the key was not shot, and when he was angry, he actually roared Su Yu on the phone. The grassroots fighters also have depression in their hearts, where is the war, it is clear that it is endless camping and training.
Of course, although there were complaints from all over the army at that time, the final implementation of the order was not discounted, which was also one of the soft powers of our army. After years of combat experience from commanders to soldiers, we also understand that when we are not equipped with enough personnel, the opportunities on the battlefield are all run out in this way.
Only this time, the Nationalist army took targeted precautions, reduced the chance and extent of mistakes, and indeed did not create a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy, and only annihilated a miscellaneous 72nd division in Tai'an when it ran for almost a month. This victory did not change the situation on the battlefield in the slightest, and the Nationalist army was still slowly oppressing Huaye.
This back-and-forth sawing and slow cutting of flesh lasted for more than a month, and at the end of April Su Yu began to order his troops to prepare for crossing the river by the Yellow River.
Soon, the front line received information from the central authorities, and under the pressure and requirements of old Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist army changed the operational policy of "fighting steadily and steadily" to "fighting steadily and fiercely."The opportunity that Su Yu had waited for for more than a month was about to come.
After the review afterwards, the opportunity to defeat the 74th Division can be said to have arisen in an instant, from the beginning of the decision to the final total annihilation of the 74th Division is only 4 or 5 days, but once the middle is slow for half a day, it will either be unable to take the last step to encircle the encirclement, or it will not be able to fight before the rescue arrives.
On 10 May, Su Yu was mobilizing his main forces with the intention of attacking the 7th Army and the integrated 48th Division on the right side of the Nationalist front.
On the evening of the 11th, Su Yu received an important piece of information, knowing that the enemy army already knew the location of our headquarters, and was taking the entire 74th Division as the central breakthrough of the main force of the breakthrough, and with the 25th Division and the 83rd Division, with the support of the follow-up corps, they arrived at the Tanbu of the Dongye Headquarters.
Su Yu pondered for a long time in front of the topographic map, made a bold plan, with a central breakthrough against the central breakthrough, sent the 8th column, 9th column, and the 1st column and the 4th column to insert themselves from the gaps on both sides of the entire 74th Division, separating it from the entire 25th Division and the entire 83rd Division, and hurriedly dispatching the 6th Column behind the enemy to rush back to Duozhuang and block the rear road of the entire 74th Division.
Five columns surrounded them in a narrow strip of more than ten kilometers in all directions, and under the protection of the left and right wings of the 7th Column, the 2nd Column, and the 3rd Column, 10th Column, they strove to annihilate the entire 74th Division in one fell swoop in the shortest possible time.
Elder Chen was shocked by Su Yu's bold and surprising idea and slapped his thigh straight, attacking instead of defending in the instant of the enemy's attack, and knocking out the enemy's fist with his fist! (Wing Chun's Japanese character punch, haha) The boss couldn't help but sigh, except for General Su, who can come up with such a combat plan.
That night the columns were ordered to begin covert operations, and in the course of the 1st Column there was an anecdote rarely seen in military history: two teams encountered the entire 74th Division on their march, and the two teams marched toward each other on the mountain beams and in the valleys.
The 74th Division did not expect the Plathmen to dare to intersperse around itself, and mistakenly thought that it was a friendly army and greeted it. Tan Qilong, deputy political commissar of the 1st Column, later recalled: "At that time, the voices of the other side could be heard, and if someone shouted a 'password' to us, perhaps the outcome of the entire battle would be rewritten."
When the "friendly forces" had made defensive arrangements on both flanks of the entire 74th Division, and the front troops began to attack the entire 74th Division, Zhang Lingfu found that the communist army was in danger of being encircled.
Zhang Lingfu ordered a rapid retreat on the road, but he did not expect that there was a team behind his ass. When the 74th Division rushed to the main traffic route and the resource supply point, the 6th Column Wang Bicheng had just finished cleaning the battlefield.
Wang Bicheng, known as the "King Tiger", led 6 column generals to attack 120 kilometers day and night, and took the battlements at the cost of losing one-third of the soldiers. By this time, Zhang Lingfu had been surrounded by 5 times HuaYe's troops, and the only hope was to stick to the favorable terrain and wait for reinforcements to rescue him, or wait for the 400,000 nationalist troops on the periphery to close to Meng Lianggu and counter-encircle the PEOPLE's Liberation Army. The key at this point is how much time the reinforcements can give to the 74th Division, and how much time the 74th Division can give to the reinforcements.
Li Tianxia and Huang Baitao's reactions after receiving rescue orders were indeed different. Li Tianxia's nearest troops were only a few kilometers away from the encirclement, but they had only one company.
Li Tianxia soon found that the communist army had made all the arrangements under her eyes, so she gave up the plan of the main force to attack, and only pretended to attack in the front.
Later, some people criticized Li Tianxia's character because of li tianxia's personal grudge with Zhang Lingfu, in fact, he did not necessarily take advantage of the opportunity to harm Zhang Lingfu, and most of the entire 74th Division was his old subordinate. He may also just not want to catch up with himself.
Huang Baitao was independent of various factions of the Nationalist Army, and was promoted by Lao Jiang by virtue of his strong combat effectiveness and personality. In the Anhui Incident, Gu Zhutong made a lot of efforts, and since then, the road has been smooth.
Therefore, Huang Baitao's rescue of Zhang Lingfu could be regarded as a dedication, but the 74th Division did not give him enough time.
As for the other successors, none of them played a substantial role in the rescue process for the 74th Division. The main reason is nothing more than reducing their own consumption on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are unwilling to go all out in civil war and want to leave some back roads for themselves.
In short, the Kuomintang army lacked unified willpower and centripetal force, and the internal friction of the Nationalist army was an important factor in successive military defeats. Under the unfavorable situation of support, the fate of Zhang Lingfu and the 74th Division was only determined by the determination and will of Huaye's soldiers.
Zhang Lingfu had no choice but to stick to Meng Lianggu when duozhuang was besieged, and there were many unfavorable factors. First, Zhang had to give up heavy weapons and equipment for the benefit of the terrain; secondly, Meng Lianggu was a stone mountain and could not build fortifications; finally, there was no water source on the mountain, which affected the supply of drinking water on the one hand, and the cooling of machine guns on the other hand. These unfavorable conditions greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the 74th Division.
Even under such conditions, Meng Lianggu's offensive battle was far more tragic than the periphery, because the difficulty of attacking was far greater than that of defense, especially in the case of large differences in weapons and equipment between the two sides. In the attack on the main peak of MengLianggu on the 15th, the various columns suffered heavy casualties. Some column leaders, taking into account the imminent advance of the reinforcements from the periphery, suggested that Su Yu abandon the attack and withdraw quickly.
Su Yu knew that at this time, everything was a contest of will and perseverance. The most critical moments on the battlefield are guided and cast by the spiritual power of man.
Su Yu and General Manager Chen carried out the final mobilization of the battle, and strictly ordered the troops to take Meng Lianggu at all costs and within 24 hours.
At 3 p.m. on May 16, Meng Lianggu was finally conquered, Zhang Lingfu was killed, and the Battle of Meng Lianggu ended with Huaye's victory.
The Battle of Menglianggu is a classic battle of General Su Yu, and it is also the most famous annihilation battle in the world's military history to win in the face of the enemy on the back.
In this battle, the strategic layout of the Nationalist army well considered the advantages and disadvantages of the characteristics of both sides, and there were no obvious mistakes in the command of the Nationalist army, which was a victory created by Huaye soldiers with their own wisdom, courage, will, perseverance and action.
A year later, in Xibaipo, Chairman Mao and Su Yu chatted about Meng Lianggu. The chairman said: "You destroyed the 74th Division in one fell swoop at Meng Lianggu, and two people did not expect this result. Su Yu thought for a moment: "Chiang Kai-shek certainly did not think of it." ”
"What about the other one?"
Su Yu did not understand the chairman's meaning and did not know how to answer.
The chairman laughed and said, "The second thing I didn't expect was me Mao Zedong." ”
Su Yu also smiled, this is the chairman's best evaluation of him and meng Lianggu's battle!