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Preface
In 1960, Taiwan's trains and highway cars were filled with many middle-aged men with strange behaviors. Their temperaments are surprisingly similar, and when they meet each other, they will smile familiarly, even if they didn't know each other before.
The two of them got together and whispered, "To see the master?" and the other nodded, and more people with similar looks gathered around them to greet each other.
They were all veterans of the 74th Division of the Kuomintang Army, and they were brought together because Wang Yuling, the widow of General Zhang Lingfu, had returned to Taiwan for the first time.
Zhang Lingfu has been dead for more than ten years, but these veterans have never forgotten his kindness in their hearts, and even Wang Yuling has a pivotal position in their hearts.
This just proves from the side that Chen Yi's worries back then were not groundless.
Anti-Japanese Iron Army
In August 1937, the Battle of Songhu launched by the Japanese invaders opened the prelude to the all-out war of resistance. Zhang Lingfu, who was originally imprisoned for shooting his ex-wife, was released and served as the commander of the 305th Regiment of the 74th Army and participated in the Battle of Shanghai.
We are all very clear about the progress of the war, and the Kuomintang army was not able to hold Shanghai, and fought and retreated all the way. Zhang Lingfu also retreated from Shanghai to Nanjing, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the pursuing Japanese troops in Chunhua Town, Zhang Lingfu was wounded in the left arm in the battle, and resolutely refused to get out of the line of fire.
In the end, he fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army all night, but because he was too seriously injured, he was sent to Xi'an for treatment. After returning to the army, the troops led by Zhang Lingfu only gnawed hard bones.
In May 1938, the Kuomintang carried out the Battle of Lanfeng, and Zhang Lingfu led the 51st Division to attack the Tufeiyuan Division and storm one of the enemy's most ace main divisions.
Whenever he fought, Zhang Lingfu always took the lead and rushed to the front line to personally supervise the battle. On the one hand, the troops he led were always the most seriously attritional, but on the other hand, it also made the troops he led create an iron-blooded military spirit.
After the fire in Changsha, Zhang Lingfu was promoted to brigade commander and was stationed in Changsha with the 74th Army. Unlike ordinary Kuomintang officers, Zhang Lingfu strictly controlled the discipline of his subordinates, asking them to help the common people rebuild the city of Changsha and rebuild their homes as soon as possible.
Because of such strict military discipline, the people of Changsha at that time were full of praise for Zhang Lingfu, and they had to give him a thumbs up. However, such a maverick also made Zhang Lingfu's relationship with other Kuomintang generals not harmonious. After all, a cloud of snow will make the surrounding sludge look exceptionally black.
In March 1939, Zhang Lingfu followed the 74th Army to Jiangxi and participated in the counterattack on Nanchang. This time, too, he took the lead, being shot and wounded again in the fierce battle.
In managing the army, Zhang Lingfu really did his best and treated the soldiers as his brothers and sisters. In order to achieve the strategic goal, he led the 153rd Brigade on a rapid march.
Such a high-intensity attack made the soldiers miserable, and they all started to complain. Seeing this, Zhang Lingfu immediately asked to rest on the spot, and personally went to each company and platoon to comfort the soldiers, and also took out his salary to improve the food for the soldiers.
The soldiers took his kindness to heart, and all of them had a lot of energy in their hearts, and rushed to the Jinjiang front line faster than originally planned. It is precisely because of his way of governing the army that the soldiers have always been unable to forget his friendship.
In June, Zhang Lingfu rushed to Gao'an, but injured his right knee while supervising the war on the front line, and was urgently sent to Hong Kong for treatment. However, he was always worried about the battle situation on the front line, and despite the doctor's dissuasion, he dragged his injured leg back to the team early, resulting in lifelong lameness.
This fighting spirit of not wanting to die also affected his soldiers. In the Battle of Shanggao, in order to prevent the enemy's attack, Zhang Lingfu led the 58th Division to fight with the Japanese army in a white-knuckle battle, and stubbornly withstood the Japanese attack, resulting in more than 2,000 casualties in the 58th Division.
In November of the same year, Zhang Lingfu was ordered to block the attack of the 34th and 13th divisions of the Japanese army in Changde, both of which were strong enemies of the Japanese army, and the soldiers under his command were inevitably afraid. Zhang Lingfu stood up again, boosted morale, kept the Japanese army from advancing an inch, and successfully broke the enemy's battle plan.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Lingfu graduated from the Army University, returned to the 74th Army, and married Wang Yuling under the introduction of others.
Ace of the Civil War
In 1946, Zhang Lingfu finally became the commander of the 74th Army, who had served for most of his life. This is a unit with a fine tradition of resistance against Japan, founded in the Battle of Songhu, and every page of the war history is written with the blood of the Japanese invaders.
Zhang Lingfu's admonition to the army is also integrated into the soul of this army, "saving the people from fire and water, and the joy of soldiers." In the battle, the 74th Army was not afraid of death and charged bravely. After the battle, he can also devote himself to the rescue of the victims and help the people rebuild Changsha City.
Under the leadership of Zhang Lingfu, the 74th Army has always had a good relationship with the people stationed in the area and has a very good reputation. With strict military discipline and the reputation of anti-Japanese heroes, the 74th Army became the propaganda signboard of the Kuomintang army.
In order to build this strong army, Chiang Kai-shek was also not stingy. Not only did it provide a full set of American-style equipment, but it also deployed American advisers to train the army for a long time, becoming the absolute main force among the five main forces of the Kuomintang army.
The 74th Army can be regarded as Chiang Kai-shek's "Beiyang Naval Division", which is a reassuring pill for him, and often sends Soong Meiling to condole.
Later, due to financial difficulties, the 74th Army was reorganized into the 74th Division, but it still had more than 30,000 people, and it was a really strong army. At that time, when choosing the division commander, Li Tianxia wanted to compete for this position, but Zhang Lingfu continued to take charge of his old subordinates under the protection of Wang Yaowu and Yu Jishi.
Li Tianxia also held a grudge because of this, and when Zhang Lingfu was besieged in Menglianggu in the future, Li Tianxia refused to rescue, causing Zhang Lingfu to die on the battlefield.
Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the 74th Division, a heroic unit of resistance against Japan, had to raise its arms and face its compatriots after all.
In July 1946, the 74th Division was transferred to the front line in northern Jiangsu and began to attack the New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu. Zhang Lingfu is still brave in battle, and he has conquered more than ten cities. However, in the battle of Lianshui in October, Zhang Lingfu was severely attacked by the New Fourth Army of East China, suffering more than 6,000 casualties.
Things began to turn in 1947. The Kuomintang army tried to pressure the East China Field Army to retreat to the Jiaodong area, so the 74th Division crossed the river at Menglianggu to capture Tangbu.
However, this operational plan was obviously wrong, because Liu Fei, deputy director of operations of the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense, and Guo Rugui, director of the department, were both underground comrades of our party, and they had already conveyed the plan to the leaders of our army.
Even when Tang Enbo proposed to revise the plan, he blocked his communication with Chiang Kai-shek, and finally sent the 74th Division into the encirclement of our army.
The East China Field Army dispatched more than 100,000 troops to besiege Zhang Lingfu in the mountains of Menglianggu. Meng Lianggu was covered with hard boulders on the ground, and it was impossible to build fortifications, so it could only be broken by our army, and finally Zhang Lingfu's body was found in the cave.
Die-hard prisoners of war
After burying Zhang Lingfu's body, Chen Yi found that he could not match the number of soldiers of the 74th Division when he counted the number of prisoners. Roughly more than 7,000 soldiers fled.
This is a big problem, and they must be concentrated in the prisoner-of-war camp, otherwise it will cause great trouble to our army whether they will escape back to Chiang Kai-shek's command or fall into the grass.
Fortunately, under the search of our army for several days, these prisoners of war were still found. At that time, they had basically gathered together and began to build cottages in an organized manner.
After having obtained so many prisoners, the leaders of our army were actually very happy. Because of the loss of one and the other, the enemy's military strength weakened, and the strength of our army increased.
The most important thing is that only by reforming the minds of these prisoners can quickly improve the combat effectiveness of our army. After all, the 74th Division was the ace division of the Kuomintang and had been trained by American advisers.
Many leaders were vying to divide more prisoners of the 74th Army under their command. But Chen Yi is not optimistic about this situation.
According to his observations, after being captured, the prisoners of the 74 th Division did not actively submit to our party's ideological transformation, but were full of complaints, often complaining about poor food and housing, and often making things difficult for our army's grassroots officers, pointing out that their technical and tactical training level was too low.
This is only a matter of running-in on external objects, and the spiritual core of these prisoners of war is even more tricky. Zhang Lingfu's influence on them was so profound that they could never forget Zhang Lingfu's command.
In their hearts, Zhang Lingfu is the best general in the world, and he treats them like relatives. This made the prisoners of the 74th Division have a very strong cohesion even if they are dispersed into various units.
Once the two units meet, the prisoners of the 74th Division in each team will automatically gather together to communicate and exchange information.
Our army is not afraid of captives with strong technical and tactical ability, but we are afraid that they will be proud of their original identity. In this way, even if they wear the military uniform of the People's Liberation Army, they are just Kuomintang soldiers who will defect at any time. It is also more dangerous because of the weapons in hand.
Therefore, Chen Yi was very worried that these prisoners of the 74th Division who were mixed in with our army would turn against each other in the battle.
In 1960, Wang Yuling returned to Taiwan, and the amazing cohesion shown by the veterans of the 74th Division also proved that Chen Yi's fears were not unfounded.
Whenever the opportunity arises, they may gather together at any time and become a new force independent of the leadership of our army.
epilogue
A soldier's vocation is to obey orders, and fate is often predestined when people make a choice.
Because Zhang Lingfu followed the wrong leader and did not make the right choice in life when he was young, he was able to go from a hero of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to a reactionary general who died tragically at the hands of his compatriots.
Of course, the misery of the evening scene cannot erase Zhang Lingfu's heroic contribution in the anti-Japanese resistance, but it makes people sigh extremely at the impermanence of fate.
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