Li Tianxia and Zhang Lingfu were both under the command of Wang Yaowu, and the 74th Army was one of the five main forces of the Kuomintang and one of the pillars of the old Chiang Yan line formed by Huangpu Sheng. Li Tianxia and Wang Yaowu have a deep personal relationship, and their promotion was also promoted by Wang Yaowu. Although Li Tianxia graduated from the third phase of Huangpu and is theoretically more qualified than Zhang Lingfu, she seems to be swimming against the current in actual promotion.
Wang Yaowu became the commander of the 74th Army because of Lao Jiang's appreciation, and Li Tianxia also became the core figure of the 74th Army system, ranking second only to Wang Yaowu. However, Li Tianxia's brilliance seems to be overshadowed by another figure, that is, Zhang Lingfu, who later became Lao Jiang's confidant.
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Lingfu showed heroism and showed a strong Whampoa spirit, and his combat principle was "if you don't succeed, you will become a benevolent". He often fought the battlefield, led his troops to charge into battle, was wounded many times and made many achievements. This made Zhang Lingfu's prestige gradually surpass Li Tianxia and became a highly regarded general in the 74th Army. More importantly, Lao Jiang personally summoned Zhang Lingfu, which is enough to show that Zhang's status at this time is already unusual.
In contrast, Li Tianxia's status gradually declined. Although he had extensive military experience, he expected to become the commander of the 74th Division after the reorganization, but he was appointed commander of the 83rd Division. In the Battle of Menglianggu, Lao Jiang ordered the 83rd Division and the 25th Division to come to the rescue, but Li Tianxia's 83rd Division was passive, and only the 25th Division risked death to save each other, and finally annihilated the 74th Division, and Zhang Lingfu was killed.
After that, Lao Jiang was greatly angered by Zhang Lingfu's death, and proposed extremely severe punishment to Li Tianxia, the commander of the 83rd Division, which eventually led to Li Tianxia's unsatisfactory death. However, a series of complicated factors eventually allowed Li Tianxia to escape the fate of being shot.