Speaking of the liberation of Shandong, we have to talk about the Menglianggu Campaign. The severity of this battle was something that the commanders were unwilling to recall in the later period.
The local people, after the battle of Menglianggu, did not dare to go up the mountain again for several years. Why was the Battle of Menglianggu so tragic? What kind of achievements did it achieve, and who were the commanders of both sides?
Lao Jiang's step by step is pressing
For his Central Army, Lao Jiang has always been willing to spend his money. In the Central Army, American and German weapons abound. Relying on powerful weaponry, Lao Chiang had the upper hand at the beginning of the civil war.
Before the start of the Battle of Menglianggu, our army was extremely passive in Shandong. Shandong is at the strategic core, and its geographical location is very important.
As a gateway to the Northeast and North Korea, Shandong was an important location used by Lao Chiang to blockade the Northeast. Shandong's unique geographical location is destined to become an important hub for north-south transportation.
Once Shandong is lost, this will be extremely unfavorable to Lao Jiang. For this reason, Lao Jiang deployed heavy troops in Shandong. The chairman of Shandong is Wang Yaowu, the fierce general of Huangpu.
Although our army has been operating in Shandong for many years, it is still inferior to the national army in terms of the number of troops. Lao Chiang sent 450,000 troops to Shandong, and all the troops of our army in Shandong added up to 270,000.
In the face of a menacing army of 450,000, the situation is grim, and our army is extremely passive. In this case, whether to fight or retreat has become a difficult problem in front of Su Yu.
How to fight? Hard-hitting will definitely not work. The enemy's military strength is nearly twice that of our army, and the equipment is much better than ours.
It was not possible to fight guerrilla warfare all the time, and after the Kuomintang generals became familiar with the guerrilla tactics of our army, they held their troops together every time they marched. As a result, our army simply cannot weaken the enemy's forces by guerrilla warfare.
Retreat, Lao Chiang is pressing on our army step by step, and most of our army's base has been encroached upon by Lao Chiang. Once you quit Shandong, it will be difficult to come back.
Every time Lao Chiang's army pushed forward, it meant that our army's strategic point was one inch less. Shandong must be taken, otherwise our army's troops in the northeast will become a lone army fighting hard.
If Lao Chiang occupied Shandong, he would definitely not let our army grow in the northeast. And the blind retreat of our army is not a solution, and the problem will soon come to the door.
First of all, there is the problem of supply, and the amount of food consumed in a day by a troop of more than 200,000 people is huge. If our army continues to retreat, then it will be easy for Lao Chiang to cut off the supply line.
Once the supply line is cut off, no matter how great the ability of our army is, it can only suffer from cold and starvation. When Lao Chiang was pressing forward step by step, our army was also actively looking for ways to save itself.
The blind retreat has already made discontent in the army begin to appear. If it is withdrawn again, not only will Shandong not be able to keep it, but Huaye's military spirit will also be dispersed.
Once the morale of the army is dispersed, the combat effectiveness of Huaye's more than 200,000 troops will be sharply reduced. Therefore, Su Yu can't return no matter what.
If he chooses to continue to retreat, the loss will not be just the base area.
A good opportunity to break the enemy
Just when Su Yu was thinking about where to break the game, an excellent opportunity was sent to him. Why did it say that it was delivered to him, it was because Tang Enbo's movements were really incomprehensible.
Because of the retreat of our army, it gave Lao Chiang the illusion that our army was no longer able to fight. Therefore, Lao Chiang began to speed up the pace of the march.
After receiving the order of Lao Chiang to speed up the march, Tang Enbo made a bold choice. He immediately changed his route and let the 74th Division begin to attack Tangbu.
If Tang Enbo's plan was right, they would have been able to take Tangbu and then take the opportunity to occupy the road from Yishui to Mengyin.
Tang Enbo was anxious for quick success and tried to make a fortune with Lao Jiang. Before the rest of the corps was reorganized, the order to attack was given to the 74th Division.
Tang Enbo belonged to the 1st Corps, and his sudden action caused the 2nd and 3rd Corps, which were also on the right flank, to react. But if Tang Enbo dared to do so, he must have confidence in his troops.
The reorganized 74th Division belongs to one of the five ace armies of the Central Committee. The 74th Division is an all-American-made equipment, and all the divisions use American weapons, and there are no other miscellaneous weapons.
Their equipment is the latest weapons that Lao Chiang purchased from the United States by relying on his own connections. Every year, Lao Jiang will also send people to maintain and update their equipment.
In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the 74th Division and allow the 74th Division to exert greater power on the battlefield, Lao Jiang also specially hired US military instructors for the 74th Division to train them.
This shows how much Lao Jiang expected from the 74th Division. It was this 74th Division, which Lao Chiang had high hopes for, that was used by Tang Enbo to attack Tangbu.
In this battle, Tang Enbo was full of confidence. He was confident that the combat effectiveness of the 74th Division was no worse than that of our army, so he did not wait for the second and third corps to act together.
But it was Tang Enbo's overconfidence that caused the 74th Division to become a lone army and gave our army a fighter plane in vain. And Su Yu seized this record and successfully turned the tide of the battle in Shandong.
In Townenbo's plan to attack Tangbu, the 74th Division was the absolute main force. Even if there were the 25th Division and the 83rd Division on both sides, they were mainly used to coordinate the actions of the 74th Division.
In order to smoothly realize the plan, Tang Enbo dispatched the Seventh Army and the 46th and 65th Divisions to cover the left and right for the 74th Division to attract the attention of our army.
In the beginning, Town's plan was indeed a success. When they got the news that Yishui was attacked, Su Yu and Chen Yi's first thought was to annihilate the enemy who invaded Yishui.
Just when Su Yu was arranging the battle plan and planning to focus on guarding against the enemy forces in Yishui, he suddenly got the news that the 74th Division was marching.
Should the Seventh Army, which was more numerous and closer, annihilate, or reformulate the plan to encircle and annihilate the 74th Division? Su Yu quickly made a decision to focus on the 74th Division.
Fighting the 74th Division is a greater achievement than fighting the Seventh Army. First of all, the reorganized 74th Division has a great reputation within the Kuomintang, and once it is completely annihilated by our army, it will also be a blow to the morale of the national army.
In the same way, encircling and annihilating the reorganized 74th Division can also boost the morale of our army. The unfavorable situation for our army since the beginning of the Shandong War can also be completely reversed by taking advantage of this war.
Therefore, Su Yu urgently revised the plan and focused on the 74th Division. To fight the 74th Division, the most important thing is to take it by surprise.
Zhang Lingfu, commander of the 74th Division, was not very popular among the top echelons of the Kuomintang. Because he is the only American mechanic in the national army, Zhang Lingfu is usually very arrogant.
Based on this situation, Su Yu specially formulated an operational plan for the 74th Division. The position of the 74th Division was at some distance from the reinforcements on the left and right.
The terrain in the Tangbu area is complex, and there are many rocks and hills, which is suitable for our army to hide. The main thing is that the main force of Huaye is right in front of the 74th Division.
Our army does not need much movement, everything can be carried out covertly. As long as our army can cut off the connection between the 74th Division and several other troops, the 74th Division will fall into the encirclement of our army.
According to Zhang Lingfu's character, he will definitely not take our army to heart. Once Zhang Lingfu underestimates the enemy, it will be a good opportunity for our army to completely annihilate the 74th Division.
And this opportunity is equivalent to being given to our army by Tang Enbobai. Under Su Yu's arrangement, our army secretly acted. At this time, Zhang Lingfu was still advancing with his troops.
Fierce fighting
After all, Zhang Lingfu has participated in many battles, and he also has a certain sense of danger. But the trust in the 74th Division greatly reduced his perception ability.
When he arrived near Meng Lianggu, Zhang Lingfu realized that something was wrong. But at this time, Zhang Lingfu had already stepped into the encirclement of our army.
Zhang Lingfu wanted to withdraw, but how could our army let him slip away at the opportunity he had waited for? In Menglianggu, a big battle broke out between the two sides.
The reorganized 74th Division deserved the title of "trump card", and in the face of our army's attack, the 74th Division resisted particularly fiercely. In the case of the superiority of our army, the 74th Division was also undaunted.
In order to take the 74th Division, Su Yu transferred the main force of Huaye to Meng Lianggu. Even so, the 74th Division was stubbornly resisting.
The total strength of our army is inferior to that of Lao Chiang, but it is more than enough to surround the 74th Division. Despite the stubborn resistance of the 74th Division, it could not escape the fate of being completely annihilated by our army.
When the 74th Division was surrounded, Zhang Lingfu called Tang Enbo for help. Knowing that our army intended the 74th Division, Tang Enbo immediately ordered the Seventh Army and the 83rd Division to support Zhang Lingfu.
But Zhang Lingfu is usually arrogant and domineering, and no one is willing to save him in a critical moment. The Seventh Army and the integrated 83rd Division were blocked by our army under the pretext that they could not support Zhang Lingfu in time.
The 74th Division struggled to support, and Zhang Lingfu became more and more desperate the more he fought. He realized that there would be no reinforcements to support the 74th Division. Disheartened, Zhang Lingfu began his final counterattack.
Zhang Lingfu completely abandoned the defense and began to launch a fierce attack on our army. Zhang Lingfu's dying counterattack brought huge casualties to our army.
However, the PLA soldiers went forward one after another, and finally captured Meng Lianggu after Zhang Lingfu was trapped in Meng Lianggu for a day and a night. When our army began to count the number of enemies destroyed, it was found that the number and establishment of the 74th Army did not match.
It turned out that Zhang Lingfu took advantage of the fact that the 74th Division attracted the attention of our army and took the opportunity to run away with his guards.
And where Zhang Lingfu fled, there was a regiment of the 83rd Division answering him. If Zhang Lingfu is not found, our army will naturally not give up easily.
Through tracking, Zhang Lingfu's traces were finally found. At this time, Zhang Lingfu and the troops of the 83rd Division were about to converge. Seeing the chasing People's Liberation Army, Zhang Lingfu's eyes were full of despair.
In the end, the regiment that received Zhang Lingfu was completely annihilated, and Zhang Lingfu himself was killed. In fact, when Zhang Lingfu first went to Meng Lianggu, he had a chance to break through.
It's a pity that he was greedy for merit and blindly despised our army, which ultimately caused his own fiasco. The collapse of the reorganized 74th Division greatly boosted the morale of our army.
After the Battle of Menglianggu, the situation of our army in Shandong began to reverse, and the power of the national army in Shandong was gradually reduced. Whenever the People's Liberation Army captures a city, the common people spontaneously send water and food to the People's Liberation Army.
This is the treatment that the national army will never be able to enjoy when they occupy the city.
It can be seen from the attitude of the common people that our party is a political party that truly serves the country and the people.
Justice is at ease in the hearts of the people, no matter how Lao Jiang whitewashes it, the people have a scale in their hearts, and they will measure what those in power do.