It should be said that He Shuai's Zhengtai Campaign was fought quite beautifully, annihilating the 71st Division of the 33rd Army and the 46th Division of the Provisional People's Army near Shouyang in one fell swoop, with a total of five regiments totaling 20,000 people. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After that, he took the initiative to go south and north, mobilize reinforcements from the surrounding areas, and wiped out more than 20,000 people. After the first battle, more than 40,000 enemies were annihilated, which was equivalent to more than one full army of the People's Party. Not only did it make a good start to the Liberation War, but it also seriously isolated Taiyuan and controlled a vast area in eastern Jindong.

Of course, the scale of the Zhengtai campaign was relatively small and its influence was limited. The greatest significance lies in the fact that it stabilized the situation in western Hebei and avoided the containment of North China by Yan Laoxi's subordinates, so that the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei and Shanxi-Hebei-Lu-Henan field armies could wholeheartedly deal with the Kuomintang army.

In Shaanxi, the Northwest Field Army led by General Peng began to circle with Hu Zongnan in northern Shaanxi, and although Hu Zongnan won the so-called Yan'an victory, he actually fell into strategic passivity in an all-round way, and could only blindly follow the baton of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Peng Da. Although the strength of the Northwest Field Army was quite weak, it contained more than 200,000 troops of Hu Zongnan, which has to be said to be a miracle.

Of course, the key to victory or defeat in the War of Liberation is not in northern Shaanxi, but in the Central Plains and East China, and the key is whether or not the main force of the Kuomintang army can be eliminated in this region in a structured manner and the balance of forces between the enemy and us is the key.

The first major battle that broke out was the Battle of Dawenkou, which encircled and annihilated the reorganized 74th Division. As mentioned earlier, Zhang Lingfu was very proud and careless, and he didn't care if he was surrounded, and his three brigades and nine regiments were stationed around Dawenkou Town in a zigzag shape, resisting the siege of three columns and nine divisions of the Central China People's Liberation Army in the open plain. It can almost be said that General Su fought Zhang Lingfu's regiment with one division, and he had the absolute upper hand in terms of troops.

Briefly talking about Zhang Lingfu's defensive posture, the 51st Brigade was stationed in Dawenkou Town, north of the Dawen River, to face Monk Xu's Ninth Column alone (General Luo BH's Second Column was responsible for blocking reinforcements). The 57th Brigade is located south of the 51st Brigade, that is, on the south bank of the Daqing River, while the 58th Brigade is located in the triangle at the confluence of the Dawen River and the Daqing River. Such a way of deploying troops is really inexplicable. It can even be said that Zhang Lingfu was digging his own grave at the beginning, and how could General Su let go of such a good opportunity. As soon as it came up, it quickly attacked and cut off the connection between the 58th Brigade and the 51st and 57th Brigades.

And the next day, it was the turn of Monk Xu's Nine Columns to show their might, along the road, the Nine Columns conquered five villages in a row in one day, and tore a big hole two kilometers wide and three kilometers long on the enemy's position. The frightened Zhang Lingfu concentrated all the heavy firepower and carried out a three-hour firepower coverage to contain the crazy offensive of the Ninth Column, but although this solved the urgent need, it also consumed a large number of shells, and a unit like the 74th Division, once the advantage of heavy firepower was gone, it would be difficult to hold on to the PLA head-on.

After losing contact with the 51st Brigade and the 58th Brigade, the brigade commander Chen Shuyun did not want to regain contact, and once under the cover of artillery fire, the 57th Brigade recaptured part of the crossing, but soon the 6th and 7th Columns drove Chen Shuyun's troops away with more ferocious artillery suppression. Such a ferocious artillery suppression made Chen Shuyun is stunned, he could never have imagined that the T Communist Party was not a guerrilla, but a powerful force no less than the 74th Division.

For a whole day and night, the 57th Brigade put up stubborn resistance, and the two sides fired tens of thousands of shells at each other, almost leveling the entire town of Fangshan. At this time, Zhang Lingfu's failure to prepare for battle was highlighted, and the confluence of the Daqing River and the Dawen River was an alluvial plain, a flat river, which had no danger to defend at all, and was an open land that was conducive to attack but not conducive to defense. Sticking around here is a desperate affair.

If Zhang Lingfu was not so proud and indifferent to the actions of the Second Column, in fact, he not only had the opportunity to jump out of the encirclement, but was actually on the east side of the Dawen River was Culai Mountain.

It's a pity that Zhang Lingfu has never been a wise general, this is not about stepping on General Zhang, but about General Zhang's subordinates and colleagues. Wu Yuan, who was the personnel director of the 74 th Army, commented on Zhang Lingfu and said: "It is possible for him to be an officer of a battalion or regiment, but it is difficult for him to be a commander of an army or division. Li Tianxia usually says that he is Zhang Fei, who is brave and unscrupulous. He is usually not practical, he is good at vassal elegance, likes to ride horses, practice calligraphy, buy antique calligraphy and paintings, and hang portraits of Genghis Khan, Napoleon and others indoors, as if he has the demeanor of a Confucian general...... However, at the critical juncture of the war, they could not come up with a solution, and sometimes they only knew how to 'rush'. Fully show the appearance of 'Ichijie Takeo'. ”

Wu Kite's portrayal of Zhang Lingfu can be described as three points. This was how it was done in the Battle of Huaiyin. When the siege was blocked, he was helpless, and he just wanted to personally lead the guard battalion to charge, showing the true character of a brave and unscrupulous martial artist.

Even this is an important reason why Wang Yaowu promoted Zhang Lingfu to be the commander of the 74th Army, because compared with Li Tianxia, the simple-minded Zhang Lingfu is easier to manipulate, which is conducive to him continuing to control the 74th Army behind the scenes.

Dong Qiwu, who was studying at the Army University with Zhang Lingfu back then, also felt that Zhang Lingfu was not very good, he recalled: "Trained at the Army University, the generals of the general squad can bring one staff officer per person according to the regulations, but Zhang Lingfu in our class took two staff officers to school. He only took one class a day, and let the staff officer take the rest for him. He spent 7 million yuan to buy a western-style house in the suburbs of Chongqing, where he was pampered every day, eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling. One Sunday, he invited me to his place. When I arrived, it was magnificent, dazzling, like a royal palace. It's a dance hall again, it's a restaurant, and I'm dazzled by it. I, a general on the front line outside the Saiwai, who ate potatoes and slept on the clay kang, couldn't sit still, so I hurriedly pretended to the master that I had something to say goodbye. How can such a general resist Japan, and how can he not lose the hearts of the people and the army? How can such a government not invite national calamity, and how can it not destroy the country? ”

and Zhou Gengsheng, who served in the former 74th Army, also wrote an article exposing Zhang Lingfu's old background. He said that Zhang Lingfu was strict in administering the army, using violent methods, and often killed one to set an example: "When he was a division commander, he once said to his regiment commander Liu Guangyu: 'Tomorrow anniversary week, how many officers and soldiers are there in your regiment (his usual term, that is, how many officers and soldiers are going to be shot)?'" Commander Liu said, "I don't have one in my regiment." Zhang Lingfu said, "There is always no one in your group." Be sure to find a few for me tomorrow. Liu also said, "You can only shoot me." ’”

On May 19, 1947, **** said when talking about Meng Lianggu's lesson: "Speaking of this, I want to put forward the latest lesson to tell you, this is the experience of the 74th Division's battle in Menglianggu. This time, the 74th Division attacked Tangbu, the base of the bandit army, in Luzhong, but did not capture it for two days, and found that the enemy's main force had surrounded him, so the whole division retreated to Menglianggu, a mountainous area 30 miles away from Mengyin. At that time, the division had six regiments, and if the division commander had advanced tactical cultivation in peacetime, could have chosen the appropriate terrain, deployed troops, and formed a thorough fire network, no matter how strong the enemy's forces were, he would never have been able to defeat us in a single day. However, at that time, the division did not defend the mountain pass, but only the hill, and the hill was a rocky hill, and there was no drinking water, so the enemy's artillery fire was multiplied, and the casualties of our troops were even greater, so that the whole thing was defeated. ”

It can be seen from this that Division Commander Zhang's lack of brilliance in fighting is completely based on brute force, and as for military literacy, I am afraid that this is the case, and I am afraid that governing the army is even more dependent on sticks. When such a person who can only be brave and brave is useless, there is only one way to sit and wait for death.

On the second day after Zhang Lingfu was surrounded, his mental state underwent a fundamental change, if he was proud and arrogant and full of confidence before, but at this time he was really panicked, and he kept sending telegrams to Tang Enbo and Wang Yaowu, urging reinforcements over and over again. So much so that Wang Yaowu was a little annoyed and thought that Zhang Mouren was too embarrassed to lose the face of the 74th Division, and Nima was surrounded for a day, and he still looked like an ace main force?

Of course, annoyance is annoyance, Wang Yaowu can't watch his descendant 74th Division fall to death, and hurriedly contact Tang Enbo, hoping that Tang Enbo will immediately transfer one or two integrated divisions to relieve the siege of the 74th Division.

Tang Enbo's side is actually quite annoying, except for the 74th Division, the progress on his side is actually quite smooth, all the way is to attack the invincible, and has continuously recovered more than a dozen counties such as Tai'an, and is besieging Jinan. This is the happiest time, but the 74th Division usually blows the cowhide so loudly that it begins to strain as soon as it arrives in actual combat, and the work behind the palace is a mess, so that the communication line is cut off by ****, not to mention, it is shamefully surrounded, but he has to transfer troops to rescue, isn't this a pig teammate who pulls back his legs!

However, Tang Enbo didn't dare not really go to save the 74th Division, after all, this was the meat of the commission's heart, and if he gave it to the T Communist Party in his hand, it would definitely be eaten. So even if he was reluctant, Tang Enbo still transferred Li Tianxia's integrated 83rd Division out and turned back to join forces with the integrated 65th Division to relieve Zhang Lingfu's siege.

Probably in Tang Enbo's opinion, how can the two reorganization divisions be able to rescue Zhang Lingfu, and among them is Li Tianxia, who was born in the 74th Division, this one should not be able to see death without saving, right?

Unfortunately, Tang Enbo was really wrong at this point, the relationship between Li Tianxia and Zhang Lingfu was very bad, because Li Tianxia was older than Zhang Lingfu, and he was still Zhang Lingfu's old superior, and when Zhang Lingfu was the regiment commander, this was the deputy division commander and brigade commander. But in the end, Li Tianxia was squeezed out of the 74th Army by Zhang Lingfu, a subordinate, and could only go to the 100th Army as a commander, and when the civil war broke out, Zhang Lingfu actually climbed to the same level as Li Tianxia, and commanded the 74th Division, one of the five main forces, it can be said that Li Tianxia is angry. As mentioned earlier, this Li Tianxia is really not a good person, and it is quite a cheat to make it bad!

How could Li Tianxia save Zhang Lingfu with all her heart, after receiving Tang Enbo's order, Li Tianxia pulled out a regiment from her own 83rd Division and ordered this regiment to move forward in the direction of Tai'an, in Li Tianxia's words, it was to move forward with great fanfare.

In addition to this noisy regiment, the main force of Li Tianxia's reorganized 83rd Division either continued to stay in the northern area of Tai'an to rest, or fought grass valleys on the spot (that is, went to the surrounding villages and towns to rob, Li Tianxia's troop discipline was very bad). And all this is unknown to the Army General Headquarters and the Ministry of Defense in Nanjing, they only know that Li Tianxia went to rescue Zhang Lingfu according to the order, and the vanguard has arrived in Tai'an, but they didn't expect this so-called vanguard to be so pitiful.

Except for a few decent attacks on the second column on the first day, the next two days were heavy thunder and little rain, and each attack was at most one or two regiments, and once the second column was strongly counterattacked, it immediately stopped to rest. Anyway, it's just a stop-and-go look.

So why is that? The main reason is that Zhang Lingfu's character is poor and very arrogant, he has never taken his brother troops in his eyes, and he looks like Lao Tzu is the first in the world, and the rest of you are stupid. Moreover, since this march into northern Shandong, there have been a lot of frictions between the 65th Division and the 74th Division, such as going to the countryside to rob the 74th Division and getting the big head and not even giving the small head to the 65th Division, such as when distributing supplies, the 74th Division relied on itself to be the five trump cards. Anyway, there are a bunch of trivial in the bunch. Not only is this a matter that the two sides do not deal with, but more importantly, this 65th Division is not a descendant of the Central Committee, it comes from the Guangdong Army system, it belongs to a miscellaneous brand, the Central Army and the miscellaneous army have contradictions, and the 65th Division has the psychology of watching jokes, and now that the 74th Division is in trouble, do you think the 65th Division may go out to help?

This is simply impossible, so the 65th Division, which was close at hand, worked hard for two days, and only two kilometers closer to the 74th Division was equivalent to advancing one kilometer in one day. But what's the use of that? Even if Zhang Lingfu could make a small report to the top, the 65th Division would still find an excuse to prevaricate, saying that the T Communist Party blocking reinforcements were strong and had strong firepower, and they used the "crowd tactics" to frantically counter-charge regardless of casualties, and the battle was very difficult. Li Zhen, commander of the 65th Division, said directly to Tang Enbo: "My 65th Division only has three brigades and six regiments, and there are at least two columns in the T on the opposite side, which are multiple to mine, and it is difficult to succeed without assistance." ”

Li Zhen said that there were two PLA columns opposite the 65th Division, but he was right, the second column was blocking him, and the ninth column was beating the 51st Brigade of the 74th Division, who can say that Li Zhen's statement was wrong?

Anyway, it's just a matter of, and if the miscellaneous army can't even talk about it, then it really has no way to live at all.

Of course, not all miscellaneous cards are as good at shirking responsibility and not contributing as Li Zhen, and some miscellaneous cards are also quite powerful. And this miscellaneous card is the 25th division of Huang Baitao mentioned earlier. Some comrades may have wondered, wasn't Huang Baitao's unit subordinate to the Third Corps and responsible for attacking eastern Henan? How could it be involved in the matter of the 74th Division?

The reason is very simple, after the 74th Division was surrounded, the most anxious person was Wang Yaowu except Zhang Lingfu. The 74th Division is the army that Wang Yaowu started and his biggest military capital, and the main reason why he was able to beat Tang Enbo to become the director of the Jinan Pacification Office is that he has this 74th Division. Don't say that the 74th Division was surrounded and annihilated, even if Wang Yaowu was injured, he couldn't stand it. Therefore, as soon as he heard that the 74th Division was in trouble, and the rescue of the surrounding troops was not timely, Wang Yaowu immediately had to use his brains to think of a way.

It's just that Wang Yaowu can't think of many ways, because the troops at hand are also tight, and there are only two troops left for him now, one is the Third Fast Column (that is, the Air Force Paratrooper Column) and the Second Traffic Police Corps. The addition of these two troops is also the level (division) of a strengthened and integrated brigade, not only is the strength insufficient, but most of the main forces of these two troops are still between Shangqiu and Dingtao, some distance from Tai'an. Using them to save the 74th Division is equivalent to using far water to save a near fire.

But the big living people can't let the urine suffocate to death, Wang Yaowu immediately thought of a way around the map, and soon he saw the integrated 25th Division on the map. At this time, Huang Baitao led the 25th Division to the front of the Third Corps, and the main force was located west of Yanggu County, not far from Tai'an.

Although Huang Baitao is subordinate to the Third Corps, his mission is to sweep the border areas of Shandong, Henan, and Hebei, and wait for an opportunity to capture Handan. However, at the moment of the battle, the main force of the Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan Field Army was not found at all, and the rescue of the 74th Division at this juncture was much more important than their original task. Wang Yaowu immediately sent a telegram to Gu Zhutong and put forward this suggestion, which Gu Zhutong naturally would not disagree, after all, he was the director of the North China Xingyuan, and if something really happened to the 74th Division, he would not be able to explain it to Jiang someone, so he temporarily seconded the 25th Division to relieve the siege, and then returned it to Ou Zhen's parachute regiment when it ran out.

Wang Yaowu made a request, and Gu Zhutong seconded it, and Jiang someone, who went to rescue the dignified Tianzi First Army, naturally would not disagree. Therefore, Huang Baitao, who was marching north with all his might, immediately received the latest instructions to break away from the command of the Third Corps and turn to Tai'an to rescue the 74th Army.

Huang Baitao was not ambiguous after receiving the order, and immediately gathered the main force in Yanggu County, and then divided the troops into four routes to cross the Yellow Flood Area and march eastward. As mentioned before, the Yellow Flood area at that time was quite difficult to walk, and the floating soil was too footy and the slightest wind was shady and dusty. It's soft and sandy on a sunny day, and it's muddy on a rainy day. The biggest headache for the reorganized 25th Division was that the division's mountain artillery and field artillery were all ghost-style, equipped with iron wheels instead of rubber tires, so they were often stuck in the mud and sand and could not move.

What made Huang Baitao and the officers and men of the 25th Division even more angry was that the Third Fast Column, which was responsible for going with them to rescue the 74th Division, obviously had many cars that could be used, but they just watched their jokes, even if Huang Baitao personally came forward to beg for help, these drivers did not give any face. In the end, it was the reorganization of the 25th that was established during the Anti-Japanese War that had not been used during the two camel transport companies that played a role, and these more than 100 camels deserved to be the ships of the desert, which could be regarded as solving the urgent need of the reorganization of the 25th Division...... (To be continued.) )