(The content of this article is based on the collation of data, and there are cited sources at the end of the article.) ）
In 1947, in the Battle of Menglianggu, our side wiped out the 74th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, and even the division commander Zhang Lingfu died in this battle.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, our side won a great victory, not only annihilating most of the Kuomintang corps, but also capturing a number of advanced weapons and equipment from the United States.
The critical attack on the Kuomintang army in 1947 made an indelible contribution to the founding of New China in 1949. But after the Battle of Menglianggu, there was one thing that set off a fierce debate in China, that is, how did Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 74th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, die?
Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 74th Division, although he was a Kuomintang, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he killed many Japanese soldiers for the country and made many achievements. Therefore, in China at that time, Zhang Lingfu's influence was also very huge, and the central government did not plan to kill him hastily, so how did he die?
One. The tragedy of the Battle of Menglianggu
Zhang Lingfu was born on August 20, 1903, also known as Zong Ling, is a native of Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province, and had a special interest in joining the army when he was a child, so Zhang Lingfu went to study at the Whampoa Military Academy when he became an adult, and successfully graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou.
But Zhang Lingfu was only 44 years old when he died in battle. After Zhang Lingfu died in battle, many versions of his sacrifice circulated in China. Among them is suicide theory.
Some people say that the reason why Zhang Lingfu committed suicide was because he realized that the Kuomintang had no place to turn over, and he felt extremely desperate when he was fighting against our party, so he took out a pistol and committed suicide in a conference room of senior Kuomintang generals.
Not only that, but after Zhang Lingfu committed suicide, the deputy mayor sitting next to him also shot himself with him.
In fact, this statement is not groundless, because after Zhang Lingfu's death, two of his suicide notes were indeed published in the newspapers, one of which was for his wife.
In Zhang Lingfu's letter to his wife, it is not difficult to see that his words are full of despair and helplessness. But this statement was later disproved.
Some people say that Zhang Lingfu did not write any suicide note at all. Zhang Lingfu's two suicide notes were not written by himself, but were imitated by Li Xiaozi, then chief of the Nationalist Army's Translation and Telecommunications Section, in order to envelop politics and boost morale after Zhang Lingfu's death.
In fact, there is a reason for such a statement, because long before the Battle of Menglianggu, Section Chief Li Xiaozi liked to imitate Zhang Lingfu's handwriting very much, and imitated it very similarly. If it weren't for Zhang Lingfu's close people, it would be almost impossible to see any difference between their handwriting.
Although the theory of Zhang Lingfu's suicide was spread at that time, it eventually disappeared from the public because of many flaws.
This was followed by the POW theory.
It is said that it was rumored in the army at that time, in fact, Zhang Lingfu had already raised his hand and surrendered voluntarily in the later stage of the war. He had realized that it was useless to struggle and that it would only lead to more casualties.
Because he chose to surrender on his own initiative, but when our soldiers saw the valuable equipment on him, they suddenly had evil thoughts and wanted to covet his possessions. So they shot him where no one was around.
As we all know, our soldiers are very selfless in the hearts of the vast majority of the people, even in times of war, they will not inexplicably collect a single grass and grain from the people, let alone kill people for money.
As a result, this claim was quickly discarded as untenable.
The last statement, and the one most agreed, is in the late period of the Menglianggu Campaign. Zhang Lingfu was outnumbered, so he could only lead the team to hide in a cave.
At that time, the mountain situation was complicated, and Zhang Lingfu resisted fiercely, so he accidentally killed him. In fact, this statement was put forward mainly because it was on the second day after the end of the Battle of Menglianggu.
The central authorities published a notice of Zhang Lingfu's death in the Xinhua News Agency, and the bright headline in the newspapers and periodicals was: Killed on the spot.
In the Battle of Menglianggu in 1947, due to the fierce resistance of the enemy, Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 47th Division, was killed on the spot in the chaos. However, due to the detailed situation of the war and the fact that Zhang Lingfu's body has not been responded, this statement finally collapsed because it was not supported enough.
Two. Ge Zhaotian unravels the mystery of 57 years
In this way, Zhang Lingfu's sacrifice time has been debated for half a century, in the 57th year of social debate on this matter.
An 82-year-old man found the central government and took the initiative to mention Zhang Lingfu's sacrifice, and this old man was Ge Zhaotian, who was the squad leader of the sixth column of the East China Field Army at that time.
In that year, Ge Zhaotian also participated in the Battle of Menglianggu.
Ge Zhaotian said with emotion: "At that time, Zhang Lingfu was going to surrender, but when I saw that he came out, he also signaled to the soldiers to pick up the gun and shoot, so I directly impulsively shot him. He was holding American goods, and as soon as he opened it, my brothers and I were gone! ”
Ge Zhaotian was shocked as he spoke, and Zhang Lingfu's death had only begun at this point.
In fact, Ge Zhaotian's version is almost the same as killing on the spot, the only difference is that it is more detailed.
In the later stage of the Menglianggu Campaign, Zhang Lingfu actually knew very well in his heart that he was powerless to resist. Therefore, he hid with the only remaining troops and waited for support, but the support given by the Kuomintang to Zhang Lingfu at that time was also very interesting.
The Kuomintang actually sent the commanders of the 25th Division, Huang Baitao, Li Tianxia's 83rd Division and the Gui Seventh Army, with a full 400,000 troops to support.
Judging from the situation at that time, if the 25th Division, Li Tianxia's 83rd Division, and the Gui Seventh Army all arrived, then our side would be in a very dangerous situation, or even defeat. But coincidentally, Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia have a personal enmity against Zhang Lingfu.
Therefore, there was originally only a 10-kilometer reinforcement route, but Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia were delayed, and they were finally ambushed by our reinforcements and suffered heavy losses.
By the time Huang Baitao and others arrived, the 47th Division had already been sacrificed.
In fact, Zhang Lingfu had already made plans to surrender without waiting for reinforcements. But he was always proud and unwilling to fail, so when he surrendered, he wanted to fight back, and was finally killed by Ge Zhaotian.
In fact, Ge Zhaotian didn't know who he was when he killed Zhang Lingfu, and as a small squad leader, he didn't have the opportunity to meet a big man like this.
Later in the battle of Menglianggu, Zhang Lingfu hid in a cave in the mountains, where the terrain was very complicated, in order to adapt to the local situation.
We divided our army into multiple columns to find Zhang Lingfu, and Ge Zhaotian was one of them. Soon, he led a small column of his team and found Zhang Lingfu in the cave.
At that time, Zhang Lingfu saw Ge Zhaotian coming, and already knew that he had no room for reversal, so he took the initiative to stand up and surrender. In fact, if Zhang Lingfu had successfully surrendered at that time, maybe he would not have sacrificed, because Ge Zhaotian did not intend to kill him.
But after Zhang Lingfu stood up, he found that Ge Zhaotian only brought a few fighters, so he moved his mind again and wanted to fight hard.
Zhang Lingfu motioned to the soldiers beside him to prepare to shoot with his eyes, Ge Zhaotian's eyes were keenly captured, he had always hated such villains, in order to prevent the sacrifice of our soldiers, Ge Zhaotian decisively shot and killed him.
He Fengshan, who learned the news, that is, the deputy head of the Sixth Column Special Service Group at that time, hurried to the scene of the incident and sent Zhang Lingfu to the hospital for treatment.
But unfortunately, Zhang Lingfu was seriously injured and finally died on the way to treatment, because the political environment at that time was still relatively sensitive, and New China was not established.
Therefore, in order to avoid causing political panic, the central government chose to conceal the incident and at the same time imposed a confinement on Ge Zhaotian.
The main reason why Ge Zhaotian was punished was because the principle implemented by the central government for prisoners of war at that time was a preferential treatment policy, in fact, for Zhang Lingfu, he had already surrendered, so he should enjoy the preferential treatment of prisoners, instead of being killed.
Coupled with Zhang Lingfu's special identity and unique beliefs among the masses, this matter has become very tricky.
However, with the passage of time, the heat of the Zhang Lingfu incident has become less and less, and the domestic political environment has become more and more stable and stable. Therefore, Ge Zhaotian took the initiative to clarify the death of Zhang Lingfu, who had been entangled for more than 50 years, and admitted that Zhang Lingfu died at his hands.
Three. Ge Zhaotian's helpless move
In fact, it was reasonable for Ge Zhaotian to kill Zhang Lingfu, although Zhang Lingfu had already shown his willingness to surrender at that time, but he only pretended to surrender.
At that time, the Kuomintang was holding high-grade weapons and equipment from the United States, and the attack power of our armaments was far lower than that of him, and under such circumstances, Ge Zhaotian would inevitably be nervous as a squad leader.
Because he didn't know what Zhang Lingfu would do, it was understandable that he decisively chose to kill. After all, if Zhang Lingfu had succeeded at that time, then the number of soldiers sacrificed by our side would have increased, which was also unacceptable to everyone.
Ge Zhaotian's confinement also taught him a lesson in the hasty killing of Zhang Lingfu. In fact, the main reason was that the domestic environment was very unstable at that time. In order to strive for peace as soon as possible, the Communist Party made a great regression, putting forgiveness in the first place in the war, and wanted to end the war as soon as possible.
In addition, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had just ended at that time, and Zhang Lingfu was a major force in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and had a very great influence in the society at that time, especially the young students and intellectuals at that time.
Therefore, the issue of Zhang Lingfu needs to be treated with caution and cannot be killed hastily. However, after the outbreak of war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, casualties caused by the confrontation between the two sides were inevitable, so in fact, the incident of Zhang Lingfu being accidentally killed was also reasonable.
Resources:
1. What kind of "highlight" is it? Linghe 2023-02-14
2. "The Visible Enemy" and Its Boundaries: On the Experience of Zhang Lingfu's Artistic Reconstruction in Red Sun Zhang Jun 2022-11-15
3. I performed an autopsy for Zhang Lingfu-Digest Daily-Guangming.com (gmw.cn) "Digest Daily" October 12, 2013 05 edition
https://epaper.gmw.cn/wzb/html/2013-10/12/nw.D110000wzb_20131012_3-05.htm
4. Commander Tao Yong ordered me to conduct an autopsy for Zhang Lingfu--Party History Channel-People's Daily (people.com.cn) Beijing Youth Daily September 26, 2013
http://dangshi.people.com.cn/GB/http:/dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2013/0926/c85037-23045736.html