In Chiang Kai-shek's troops, there was such a slip of the tongue that had been circulated.
"10 kings of the northwest are not worth 1 king of Kinmen."
This sentence refers to the two famous generals in Jiang's army, "Erhu": Hu Zongnan and Hu Lian.
During the War of Liberation, Hu Zongnan was appointed director of the Xi'an Pacification Office, and the number of troops that could be directly dispatched reached 400,000, becoming the existence of Ma Bufang in Qinghai and Ma Hongkui in Ningxia, and he was a well-deserved "king of the northwest".
The reason why Hu Lian is called the "King of Kinmen" is because after Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, he appointed Hu Lian as the commander of the defense of Kinmen to stop the offensive of the People's Liberation Army.
Although at that time, the total strength of Chiang's army stationed in Kinmen was only 40,000, but because the geographical location of Kinmen Island was very important and it was the key part of the Kuomintang's defense, Hu Lian, who served as the commander of Kinmen's defense, was also deeply relied on by Chiang Kai-shek, so there was a saying that "10 kings of the northwest are not worth 1 king of Kinmen".
For Hu Lian, ** once evaluated as "cunning as a fox and fierce as a tiger" without hesitation.
Looking back on his life, he did not perform brilliantly in the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan, and was only able to serve as the commander of the 18th Army of the Kuomintang near the end of the War of Resistance against Japan, while during the same period, Hu Zongnan, Chen Cheng, Gu Zhu and other generals of the Jiang Army became commanders at the theater level.
Hu Lian really shined during the Liberation War, but under the powerful offensive of the East China Field Army led by Su Yu, Hu Lian was still defeated and retreated, and even fell into a heavy siege several times and was almost captured by our army.
Because of this, Hu Lian has always regarded Su Yu as a lifelong enemy.
However, Hu Lian never mentioned Su Yu in his later years, why is this?How wonderful is the master trick between him and Su Yu?
The evaluation of him is so high, calling him "as cunning as a fox and as fierce as a tiger", how cunning is he and fierce?
Hu Lian is an authentic Huangpu general, after graduating from the fourth phase of Huangpu in 1926, he participated in the Northern Expedition War, the Jiang Gui War, the Jiang Feng War, and the Central Plains War, and then participated in the "encirclement and suppression" operation of the ** Soviet area.
Although Hu Lian's position at that time was only the commander of the 66th Regiment of the 11th Division of the Kuomintang, he was able to gain insight into the rapidly changing situation on the battlefield and urgently adjust the deployment of the army.
It was not until August 1944 that Hu Lian was able to serve as the commander of the 18th Army.
However, when Japan announced its surrender, Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the troops in order to prepare for the next civil war, and the 18th Army was renumbered as the 11th Division, and Hu Lian changed from army commander to division commander again. However, the reorganized 11th Division has about 30,000 troops, which is equivalent to the strength of the army before the reorganization, and is equipped with all American-style equipment, and its combat effectiveness is very strong.
In the "** Military Anthology", there were 7 telegrams specifically aimed at Hu Lian, such as "Measures to Deal with Hu Lian and Zhang Zhen's Northward Advance", "Do Not Let the Enemy's 18th Army Cross Kanqi County within a Week", "Clamp the Enemy's 11th Division and Other Units to Facilitate Liu Deng's Main Force to Recuperate" and so on.
It can be seen from this that the Military Commission attaches great importance to the enemy's 11th Division led by Hu Lian, so much so that it comments that he is "as cunning as a fox and as fierce as a tiger".
From the spring of 1947, Hu Lian was ordered to lead his troops to attack the liberated area of Shandong, and in July occupied Nanma County, building a tight defensive line.
Soon after, Su Yu commanded the 2nd, 6th, and 9th columns of the East China Field Army to launch an attack on Nanma County, and arranged for the 7th Column to cut off Hu Lian's contact with the 25th and 64th Divisions of the Kuomintang, and prepare to catch turtles in the urn.
However, as one of the "five main forces" of the Kuomintang army, the integrated 11th Division had its own combat effectiveness that should not be underestimated, and when Hu Lian learned that Huaye's troops were approaching Nanma, he quickly sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek asking for help, so that the battle was extremely fierce.
In the space of 4 days, although the East China Field Army annihilated the enemy 1More than 10,000 people, but also paid the ** number of nearly 10,000 people, and was escaped by Hu Lian.
When the battle was over, Xu Shiyou, who was the commander of the 9th Column of the East China Field Army, beat his chest and beat Su Yu ** and said: "Hu Lian, a cunning fox, actually let him run away from the encirclement, next time I will call him to come and go."
In September 1948, Hu Lian's troops were merged into the 12th Corps, with Huang Wei as the commander of the corps and Hu Lian as the deputy commander.
Soon after, Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps was besieged by the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army in Nianzhuang, and Chiang Kai-shek quickly ordered Huang Wei's Corps to go to support when he learned of it.
However, when Huang Wei's corps entered the battlefield, it fell into the "bag array" set up by our army. When Huang Wei and Hu Lian came to their senses, it was too late, and they were already besieged in an area of about 7 kilometers centered on Shuangduiji.
In order not to be annihilated, Huang Wei ordered a breakthrough, but after several attempts, he was defeated. Later, he sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek asking for help, and ordered his 10th, 14th, 18th, and 85th armies to defend in four directions and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
However, Su Yu naturally did not give Huang Wei and Hu Lian a chance to delay time, and he arranged for his troops to carry out a carpet advance, capture one village, consolidate another, and then continue to attack the next village.
Until December 15, Huang Wei's corps was completely annihilated, and the commander Huang Wei was also taken prisoner. It's a pity that Hu Lian escaped again.
After the Battle of Shuangduiji, Su Yu also said to Chen Shiyu and Song Renqiang with regret: "We would rather capture one Hu Lian than ten Huang Wei."
As the People's Liberation Army advanced more and more southward, the defeat of the Kuomintang reactionaries was assured, and Chiang Kai-shek changed the Second Training Headquarters into the 12th Corps, with Hu Lian as the commander of the Corps, and withdrew to Kinmen Island to prevent the People's Liberation Army from advancing eastward into Taiwan.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek did not have many trustworthy and capable generals, so he relied on Hu Lian very much, and soon appointed him as the "commander of the Kinmen Defense Army" and awarded him the rank of army general.
In 1958, Chiang Kai-shek, who was not at ease, sent "Minister of National Defense" Yu Dawei to Kinmen to take up the town.
On the evening of August 23, Yu Dawei came to Kinmen by boat, and Hu Lian led several generals to meet him on the shore.
It was at this time that the PLA troops stationed along the coast of Fujian received an order to launch an artillery bombardment on Kinmen, and the dense shells were fired out in an instant, blowing up a large number of enemy fortifications, that is, at that moment, the communication of Kinmen Island was instantly interrupted.
Early the next morning, Chiang Kai-shek learned of the incident and hurriedly ordered the radio station to try to get in touch with the "Kinmen Defense Command," but a whole day passed, but there was no news.
Just when they thought that the defenders of Kinmen might be wiped out, they finally received a response from the telegraph.
Chiang Kai-shek, who was overjoyed, carefully identified it for a long time, and finally heard that it was Hu Lian's voice.
It turned out that at the reception banquet that night, Hu Lian, Yu Dawei and the rest of the generals were drunk, but out of the instinct of a battle-hardened soldier, he still cheered up and invited Yu Dawei to the headquarters to rest.
When the two of them arrived at the entrance of the headquarters by car, a huge roar sounded not far away, and the bright light of the fire instantly lit up the night sky.
Seeing this scene, Hu Lian, who was originally drunk, instantly sobered up, he secretly said "not good", and quickly dragged Yu Dawei into the underground air-raid shelter of the headquarters, and only then did he pick up a life.
The rest of the generals who attended the banquet were not so lucky, as they were on the road when they were shelled, two of them were killed on the spot, and another was seriously wounded and died in agony for three days in his hospital bed.
This experience made Hu Lian tremble, and he began to wonder if it was wise to follow Chiang Kai-shek and flee to Taiwan.
In order to save his life, he still sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek after thinking about it again and again, hoping to be transferred out of Kinmen and return to Taiwan to take up his post.
A few months later, Hu Lian finally waited for a reply, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed him deputy commander-in-chief of the army, and he was transferred to Taipei as he wished.
At the beginning of 1964, Hu Lian, who was training at the National Defense Research Institute, received an order for him to go to the Shilin Mansion as soon as possible.
It was Chiang Kai-shek's residence, and Hu Lian rushed to it after receiving the order, and as soon as they met, he learned a bombshell news: Chiang Kai-shek planned to appoint himself as "ambassador to Vietnam".
It turned out that Vietnam at that time was divided into two parts: the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) led by Ho Chi Minh and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) supported by the United States.
The two sides clashed from 1955 until 1964, when the war heated up.
Chiang Kai-shek realized that the battlefield in Vietnam was profitable, so he decided to send a general there. But after all, it is a battlefield and there are many crises, so should we send someone to "take on this heavy responsibility"?
After thinking about it, Chiang Kai-shek decided to send Hu Lian to Vietnam to "pick up the big beam". The reason is very simple, Hu Lian was born in the military, and he was able to retreat in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, which was indeed cunning enough, and Hu Lian insisted on leaving the burden of Kinmen's defense for his own safety, which more or less made Chiang Kai-shek a little dissatisfied.
Therefore, it is most appropriate to send him to Vietnam.
In the more than 8 years in Vietnam, Hu Lian can be said to have experienced nine deaths.
One day in May 1968, a North Vietnamese guerrilla disguised and quietly infiltrated the so-called "Chinese Embassy in Vietnam" and planted a bomb in Hu Lian's office.
According to the original plan, Hu Lian would enter the office in the morning to deal with official business, and at that time, the ** bomb would be enough to blow him to pieces.
But what he never expected was that Hu Lian's luck was so good, he did not enter the office that morning, but met with several ** from South Vietnam in the conference room next door.
Just when he was talking happily with a few **, there was a sudden deafening loud noise, and when the frightened people followed the sound to find it, they found that the office next door was already in a mess, and the tables and chairs had already been blown to pieces.
Such a thrilling scene made Hu Lian's heart palpitate, and he didn't dare to imagine that if he was in the office at the time, he would not have the same fate as those smashed tables and chairs.
After that, Hu Lian was assassinated many times, which made him retreat again in his heart, and he issued it to Chiang Kai-shek many times, hoping to retire.
It was not until the end of 1972 that Hu Lian was finally transferred back to Taiwan to serve as a strategic adviser to the "staff of the leader of the Taiwan authorities".
At this time, Hu Lian was already 65 years old, and in order to find something to do, he stayed all day in the Institute of History of National Taiwan University to study historical sites.
In the last five years of his life, he compiled his personal experience into a book, and wrote books such as "The Battle of Guningtou", "Memories of Kinmen", and "Experiences in Vietnam".
However, although Hu Lian liked to recall the past in his later years, he kept silent about General Su Yu, who had inflicted heavy losses on him many times.
Thinking about it, he is also the best among the generals of the Jiang army, and after encountering the East China Field Army led by Su Yu, he has been defeated repeatedly, so he is naturally reluctant to mention it.
On June 22, 1977, Hu Lian died of illness.
Before he died, he was weak and asked his family to bring pen and paper and drew a scribbled map with his trembling hands.
That is the map of Hu Lian's hometown of Huaxian County, Shaanxi, in his impression, since the defeat of Taiwan in 1949, nearly 30 years have passed, but he has never had the opportunity to return to his hometown to have a look.
As the old saying goes, fallen leaves return to their roots, and Hu Lian has too much blood on his hands, and he has committed a deep sin by insisting on going his own way, and the regret of not being able to return to his hometown can be regarded as a punishment for him.