Edit the search image
▲Zhang Yunrong dressed up photo
The elites under their command do not listen to commands
In July 1948, Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, was occupied by the East China Field Army of the People's Liberation Army, and Liu Mao'en, chairman of the Kuomintang Province, escaped, but was immediately dismissed. Zhang Yi, deputy commander-in-chief of the Central China "Suppression General" and commander of the 5th Appeasement District, was appointed as the new provincial chairman of Henan Province. On the surface, Zhang Yi was in charge of the military and political power in Henan, but due to the liberation of most areas such as central Henan, western Henan, and eastern Henan, his jurisdiction was only the southernmost part of the province, Xinyang City, and more than a dozen surrounding counties.
In the 5th Appeasement Zone, there were actually three corps stationed in the 5th Appeasement Zone, namely Hu Lian's 18th Army, Wu Shaozhou's 85th Army, and Lu Daoyuan's 58th Army, but Hu Lian and Wu Shaozhou were all Huangpu generals with high eyes, and they did not pay attention to Zhang Yi, the commander of the miscellaneous army; although Lu Daoyuan was born in the Yunnan Dian Army, he had already defected to Chiang Kai-shek, and he did not even listen to the orders of his old boss and Yunnan Provincial Chairman Lu Han, and Zhang Yi naturally could not command him.
Bai Chongxi, commander-in-chief of the "Suppression General" in central China (first from the left)
Local armed forces were incorporated to form 2 armies
In order to establish an army that obeyed his orders, Zhang Yi sent more than a dozen of his loyal old subordinates to Huangchuan, Qishan, Tongbai, and other places as commissioners or county chiefs, and the main task was to absorb the local armed forces and establish a provincial security brigade as soon as possible. At that time, there were many bandits and many chaotic soldiers, so there were security regiments in all counties, and in just a few months, they were put together into 10 brigades, and Zhang Yi tried his best to rectify them, and organized these 10 brigades into the 127th Army and the 128th Army, with his close associates Zhao Zili and Xin Shaoting as commanders respectively.
After the completion of the troops, the Kuomintang authorities pushed the boat along the water, gave the name of the 19th Corps, and appointed Zhang Yi as the commander of the corps. Although he had more than 40,000 troops under his command, Zhang Yun, who had been the chief tactical instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy, was not blindly optimistic; he was very aware of the details of these subordinates; of the 10 brigades that were originally incorporated, two brigades were bandits who had been plagued by bandits in the eastern Henan region for many years, 1 brigade was armed with the homecoming regiments that ran rampant around southern Henan, and the rest were mostly patchwork scattered soldiers and brave soldiers, and they were barely able to absorb them in order to expand their strength as soon as possible.
▲ The liberation of the whole country has become unstoppable
The commander of the corps planned the uprising
It was undoubtedly a pipe dream to expect such a unit to resist the plausible attack of the People's Liberation Army, so Zhang Yi had already made up his mind to lead an uprising, and chose the location of the uprising as an important town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the "Nine Provinces Thoroughfare" City. On April 21, 1949, a million troops of the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River on a front stretching for thousands of miles from Jiujiang in the west to Jiangyin in the east, and it took only three days to solve the problem of Nanjing, the capital of the Nationalist government. Bai Chongxi, commander-in-chief of the Central China "Suppression General", who was responsible for defending the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, did indeed order that Zhang Yi's 19th Corps immediately cross the Yangtze River south to assist in the defense of Wuhan.
However, Bai Chongxi suddenly changed his mind and handed over the defense of Wuhan to Lu Daoyuan's 58th Army, and transferred two of Zhang Yi's troops to the 90-mile front from Wuchang to Jiayu upstream, but there was a road and car ferry near Jinkou Town in the defense area that communicated between the north and south of the great river, which was more convenient for the People's Liberation Army to cross the river, so Zhang Yi gladly accepted the order and actively rested the docks and controlled the ships in case of emergency. In addition, Zhang Yi also set up the corps headquarters on the Hesheng Bridge, the most important pass of the Guangdong-Han Railway, and prepared to hand over the PLA together at that time.
▲ Lu Daoyuan accepted the surrender of the Japanese Kou
The whistleblowing of the miscellaneous commanders led to the disarmament of the corps headquarters
Just at this time, Bai Chongxi issued an order to abandon the southern retreat of Wuhan, and stipulated that the 7th Army and other units of his concubines should withdraw first, then the 19th Corps, and Lu Daoyuan's 58th Army would be in the last line, and once the retreat of the troops was over, all the factories and docks that could not be withdrawn would be destroyed immediately. In order to save Wuhan, the largest city in central China, Zhang Yi decided to make a final effort, and on May 13, he approached Lu Daoyuan for the fourth time to negotiate and persuade him to lead the 85th Army to revolt together.
Unexpectedly, Lu Daoyuan "ate the scales and iron heart", not only did not agree to the uprising, but also ran to Bai Chongxi to inform. The retreating 7th Army immediately turned north, and on May 14 first surrounded and disarmed the headquarters of the 19th Corps and five directly subordinate battalions stationed at Heshengqiao, looting all public and private property; at 7:00 a.m. on May 15, together with the Hubei Provincial Security Forces, they rushed to the 127th and 128th Armies on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
▲ Zhang Yi's troops were reorganized
At this time, Zhang Yi was still holding a meeting at Bai Chongxi's "Suppression General" Headquarters, and when he found that the situation was not right, he immediately and decisively left and flew by car to Jinkou Town, where the Bao Ruli Department of the 313th Division of the 128th Army stationed in the town was the most resolute unit to participate in the uprising, and soon welcomed Zhang Yi to the town, and formed a temporary command, announcing that more than 25,000 people belonging to the 19th Corps were uprising. On the same day, the 12th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, which crossed the river from the lower reaches of Wuhan, also came from the 7th Army, and the 7th Army and other troops were panicked and retreated to Hunan territory.
▲ The three towns of Wuhan announced liberation