On December 5, 1948, the Central Plains was filled with gunsmoke. Under the fierce attack of the Central Plains Field Army, Huang Wei's corps finally faced the fate of collapse. In this melee, Hu Lian, deputy commander of the Corps, hurriedly jumped into a tank and wanted to break through the encirclement.
In the chaos of the battlefield, he narrowly escaped the doom of being captured, was rescued by a cavalry contingent of the Kuomintang, and moved to a safe area in the rear. Although Hu Lian escaped by luck, he was left with the wounds of the war and was sent to a Taiwan hospital with minor injuries **.
One day, an unexpected visitor suddenly appeared in his hospital room. The visitor was Huang Wei's wife, Cai Ruoshu. Cai Ruoshu walked into the ward, her eyes flashing with tears, and she sadly confided in Hu Lian: Since the Battle of Xu Beng (i.e., the Battle of Huaihai), her husband Huang Wei has not been heard from and may have died.
She is living a difficult life with her three children, and hopes to ask Hu Lian to help her fight for some pensions to improve their living conditions. Hearing this, Hu Lian's face turned blue with anger, and he responded excitedly: "The general of the defeated army, what face do you have to ask for a pension!" ”
Hu Lian's resentment towards Huang Wei is obvious, and this hatred even extends to Cai Ruoshu. This is not out of nowhere, nor is it born out of nowhere. So, why does Hu Lian have a deep hatred for Huang Wei?
And what fate will Huang Wei's wife face? Hu Lian, a Kuomintang general, had a controversial life. In the warlord melee, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, he repeatedly performed miraculous feats.
Some people commented that he had the courage of Zhang Lingfu, but he was not as proud as Zhang Lingfu; His loyalty is not inferior to Huang Baitao, but his resourcefulness is better than Huang Baitao. The 18th Army led by Hu Lian, as one of the five main forces of the Kuomintang, was known for its strong combat effectiveness and ferocious firepower, and was nicknamed the "cannibalistic force".
Hu Lian is known for his wit and cunning on the battlefield, and his face has a slumped nose, drooping beak and sharp chin, giving him the appearance of a cunning wild fox. He is suspicious and fickle on the battlefield, always seeks stability first when attacking, has an unusually keen sense of battlefield changes, and is often able to perceive the enemy's situation at the first time and respond quickly.
During the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Hu Lian was known for his firm stance. Since the time of the Red Army, he has followed Chen Cheng to participate in the invasion and suppression of the ** Soviet area, and his hands are stained with the blood of the Red Army.
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hu Lian participated in the Battle of Shipai and led the 11th Division of the 18th Army to successfully prevent the Japanese army from southeastern Shaanxi to Chongqing. After this battle, Hu Lian was awarded the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun and was promoted to the deputy commander of the 18th Army.
In 1944, he was transferred to Chiang Kai-shek's chamberlain in Chongqing, and was quickly promoted to the commander of the 18th Army, becoming one of the backbone and elites of Chen Cheng's "civil engineering department".
In the War of Liberation, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, and Hu Lian was demoted from army commander to division commander. Although the position has declined, the combat effectiveness of the integrated 11th Division is still strong.
The unit is fully equipped, has a large number of soldiers, mules, horses and vehicles, is active in the Central Plains and East China, the two major battlefields, is the main opponent of Su Yu and ***. Under the leadership of Hu Lian, the integrated 11th Division showed a tenacious fighting style, and even in the face of difficulties, it would resolutely resist and never flinch.
This force is as tough as a viper and as nimble as a loach, making it difficult for the PLA to parry. Among the five main forces of the Kuomintang, the 11th Division was the latest and longest surviving unit to be annihilated by the PLA.
In the eyes of the PLA, the integrated 11th Division is a strong enemy that is difficult to defeat, and Hu Lian's command style and the combat characteristics of the troops have enabled them to give the PLA tremendous pressure and challenges in many battles.
In the Battle of Nanma, the Huaye troops led by Su Yu besieged Hu Lian's 11th Division. Although Huaye had an overwhelming superiority in forces, it paid great sacrifices, and the offensive against the 11th Division never made decisive progress.
Fortunately, the 11th Division managed to break through with the assistance of reinforcements, and Huaye suffered a heavy blow as a result. After the war, Xu Shiyou complained to Su Yu in **: "That Hu Lian is really a cunning fox, next time I will let him have nowhere to hide." ”
Hu Lian boasted after the war: "My 11th Division is different from Zhang Lingfu's 74th Division, if you want to destroy me, you must have teeth harder than an iron mouth and a better appetite." ”
When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, he couldn't help but admire: "With Hu Boyu here, I can sit back and relax." Although Hu Lian and his 11th Division showed courage and good fighting on the battlefield, they still could not change the general trend of becoming weaker and weaker and our army growing stronger.
In the Battle of Eastern Henan, the Ou Shounian Corps was skillfully encircled and annihilated by Su Yu, and this result shocked the entire Kuomintang military circle. The Kuomintang did not expect that the PLA would be able to easily annihilate the entire division and army of the Kuomintang.
As a result, the ability of the Kuomintang army to act alone was greatly weakened, and the initiative was completely lost.
In response to the threat of the PLA, the Kuomintang decided to merge several armies to form a large corps that independently accomplished strategic tasks. At a meeting, it was decided that Hu Lian's 18th Army would be the core, plus the 10th Army, the 14th Army, and the 85th Army, to form a large-scale 12th Corps, which would be under the command of Bai Chongxi in the Central China Theater.
However, Hu Lian and his 18th Army were full of expectations about who would take the post of corps commander. However, unexpectedly, Huang Wei, who rarely appeared on the battlefield, was appointed commander of the 12th Corps.
Huang Wei is a man who has been caricatured as an "elm head" and is known for his rigid and unchanging way of thinking and talking on paper. His character traits are closely related to his family background and education.
Despite his humble background, he excelled and eventually entered a normal school. After graduating, he worked as a teacher in an elementary school, where he was known for his serious attitude, but he was frequently teased and bullied by students due to his short stature.
This experience raises questions about whether Huang Wei can effectively manage a large mechanized army of 120,000 men. After all, character often determines fate, and history sometimes reveals human nature in unexpected ways.
During the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, Huang Wei gave up his teaching position at the recommendation of Fang Zhimin, joined Rong, and entered the Whampoa Military Academy. He soon discovered that his talent in the military field went far beyond teaching, and he participated in two Eastern Crusades and the Northern Expedition, during which he was quickly promoted to battalion commander.
In the process, he met his destiny mentor, Chen Cheng, the commander of the 18th Army.
Chen Cheng and Huang Wei have similar backgrounds, both are elementary school teachers, and both have been ridiculed and beaten for their short stature. Because of these common experiences, Chen Cheng had a special affection for Huang Wei and promoted him to the brigade commander of the 27th Brigade of the 18th Army.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Huang Wei was urgently recalled to China, served as the commander of the 67th Division of the 18th Army, and participated in the famous Battle of Songhu. However, for Huang Wei's performance in the 18th Army, Yang Botao, the later commander of the 18th Army, gave a negative evaluation.
Yang Botao believes that Huang Wei not only has no significant achievements, but is also stubborn, mean, and unkind, and cannot get the support of his subordinates. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, Huang Wei's leadership as the commander of the 18th Army made mistakes, and even showed favoritism when dealing with a dereliction of duty related to the commander of a close confidant, and had a serious conflict with his subordinate, Peng Shan, the commander of the 11th Division.
The dispute eventually led Huang Wei and Peng Shan to complain to their superiors, which unexpectedly ended in Huang Wei losing the case and being ousted. All this shows Huang Wei's inadequacy in military leadership.
Despite his combat experience and military achievements, his leadership style and approach to problems caused considerable controversy within the army. Huang Wei's stubbornness and lack of flexibility became his weakness in military decision-making.
These traits were even more pronounced when he was appointed commander of the 12th Corps. In the Kuomintang army at the time, Huang Wei's appointment was not an exception. Many high-ranking generals have been promoted to important positions for a variety of reasons, not necessarily because of their military prowess or combat performance.
To a certain extent, this reflected the confusion and irrational personnel arrangements within the Kuomintang army at that time. Huang Wei's experience and experience is a typical example of this phenomenon.
After leaving the front, Huang Wei was appointed as the director of education of the Guilin branch of the military academy. In this position, he demonstrated his talent in military training with outstanding abilities.
He insisted on distinguishing between senior officers and ordinary officers, and separated the officer brigade from the political work brigade. During that period, many young intellectuals put down their books and joined the military.
Huang Wei particularly stressed that verbal abuse or corporal punishment of these young soldiers with knowledge is prohibited. He often visited the training ground in person, and crawled with the soldiers, without the slightest shelf on the shelf.
In daily life, Huang Wei was one of the few honest and honest Kuomintang generals. He never said to his subordinates: "If there is a **** behavior, it must be severely punished!" ”
When He Yingqin sent someone to check the accounts, Huang Wei was not afraid and said to the auditors: "If it is found that I have the slightest bit of corruption, please bring me to justice!" "Although Huang Wei has his merits in some aspects, as an army commander, he does not seem to be very qualified.
His combat style is too dull, like a nerd. When fighting, he always likes to quote classics, and often says "the art of war", which reminds people of Zhao Kuo of the ancient Zhao State, the general who was famous for "talking about soldiers on paper".
In August 1948, the Kuomintang carried out the "corps system military reform". Originally, Hu Lian was the long-awaited candidate for the commander of the 12th Corps, but at this critical moment, Huang Wei unexpectedly intervened in this competition.
The reason is that Bai Chongxi of the Gui Department has always had a bad relationship with Hu Lian of the ** Department, so he tried his best to prevent Hu Lian from serving as the commander of the 12th Corps. In order to compromise with Bai Chongxi, Chiang Kai-shek finally decided to put Huang Wei in this position.
Considering that Huang Wei had served in Guangxi and that he was close to Bai Chongxi, this decision also seems reasonable.
Chiang Kai-shek preferred obedient people in the selection of generals to generals who dared to express their opinions. After Huang Wei took over as commander of the 12th Corps, most of his staff, like himself, were people who had not been tested on the battlefield.
When he gave a lecture in Zhumadian, he declared that he was a layman fighting the People's Liberation Army, and that he was only temporarily serving as a commander and would leave in a few months. The news caused an uproar throughout the Corps.
Even the commander himself admits that he is a layman, how can he effectively lead this corps? This decision led to the dispersion of the 12th Corps and a decline in morale. Yang Botao wrote in his memoirs: "After learning the news that Huang Wei was appointed commander, I felt very heavy.
After more than two years of civil war, watching the successive defeats of friendly forces, we are already in a desperate situation. Fighting now under someone like Huang Wei will undoubtedly hasten our downfall.
The outlook is bleak, and disaster seems to be on the horizon. Originally, Chiang Kai-shek wanted Huang Wei to be officially in charge, and Hu Lian was in charge of the actual command as his deputy. But Hu Lian believed that he was the right person to be the commander of the Corps, and when he learned that he had been replaced by Huang Wei, his heart was filled with anger and disappointment.
He excused his father's serious illness and gingivitis to avoid the affairs of the corps. Hu Lian was the soul of the 18th Army, and his absence directly affected the combat effectiveness of the 12th Corps.
During his absence, the combat effectiveness of the 12 Corps declined sharply, laying the groundwork for the corps' defeat in the later Huaihai Campaign.
Huang Wei was in a desperate situation during the Battle of Huaihai. Originally, he planned to fight steadily, but Chiang Kai-shek's orders disrupted his deployment. He knew that this was a dangerous action, but out of loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek, he chose to obey the order.
As a result, he was trapped in a precarious situation surrounded by the People's Liberation Army. Although Wu Shaozhou and Yang Botao tried their best to dissuade him, he was deeply influenced by Chiang Kai-shek and was unable to make a correct judgment.
In anxiety and hesitation, he finally decided to lead his troops to retreat, but he still fell into the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army. It was a tragedy of loyalty and obedience.
At a critical moment, Liao Yunzhou, commander of the 110th Division, proposed a bold plan: he volunteered to be the vanguard of the breakthrough. He said to Huang Wei: "Commander, the situation is extremely critical now, and I am willing to lead the troops to break through the encirclement of the enemy army and fight for a glimmer of life for everyone." ”
However, Huang Wei did not know that Liao Yunzhou was actually an underground member of the Communist Party. Under Huang Wei's orders, a large amount of equipment and manpower was transferred to Liao Yunzhou's 110th Division.
However, as soon as the 110th Division attacked, Liao Yunzhou led his troops to revolt and surrender to the PLA, making Huang Wei's situation even more critical. The situation of the 12th Corps was in a desperate situation, and Chiang Kai-shek was so anxious that he hurriedly sent a telegram to Hu Lian.
Although Hu Lian was dissatisfied, he was deeply saddened to hear that the army he had worked hard for many years was facing destruction. He decided to risk his life and return to the troops. After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, Hu Lian immediately took a plane to enter the double stack.
Upon his arrival, he immediately began to boost morale and adjust the posture of his troops, but the situation was beyond the power of manpower. On December 15, Huang Wei and Hu Lian decided to break through together.
Before breaking out, they agreed: "If one person can break out of the encirclement, be sure to take care of the other's family." "They each drove a tank and prepared to break out of the encirclement.
They even brought a lot of sleeping pills with them, in case they chose to commit suicide if the breakout failed. However, as fate would have it, the duo's tank soon broke down due to a breakdown. Huang Wei had to abandon the car and walk, but was eventually captured by the People's Liberation Army.
And Hu Lian also encountered a tank failure on the way, he was hit by a stray bullet in his back, and was supported by the guards to escape with difficulty. Fortunately, they found a wooden boat by the river, and Hu Lian finally escaped from the predicament.
After the Huaihai Campaign, Huang Wei was evaluated extremely negatively within the Kuomintang. Many Kuomintang generals believed that Huang Wei's improper command was the main reason for the defeat of the 12th Corps.
They criticized the KMT's personnel system, arguing that it was not based on ability and merit, but on personal relationships and preferences. Chiang Kai-shek's preference for Huang Wei is seen as an important cause of this tragedy.
Huang Wei's indecision in the Huaihai Campaign caused the 12th Corps to lose its last chance of life, and as a result, it led to the total annihilation of the elite Kuomintang troops. After the war, both captured and escaped Kuomintang generals harbored a deep resentment towards Huang Wei.
Once, in a prisoner of war camp, Yang Botao met Huang Wei, and he excitedly reproached Huang Wei: "You are a sinner of the Kuomintang, but you have become a hero of the Communist Party!" And Hu Lian also failed to fulfill his agreement with Huang Wei, that is, to take care of each other's families.
When Huang Wei's wife approached him to ask for a pension, Hu Lian angrily refused: "A general who has been wiped out of the army, what kind of face does he have to ask for a pension?" The fall of the 18th Army became the most painful memory of Hu Lian's life.
Since then, the fates of the two have been very different. In the Battle of Kinmen in 1949, Hu Lian successfully led the first to resist the offensive of the People's Liberation Army and achieved a rare victory.
Since then, Hu Lian has been hovering on the edge of life and death many times, but he has miraculously survived.
In 1958, the People's Liberation Army bombarded Kinmen fiercely, Hu Lian went through a lot of tempering in the war, whenever the cannonballs whistled by, he could always quickly roll and dodge, and every time he was lucky to avoid bad luck.
In 1964, Hu Lian was sent to South Vietnam by Chiang Kai-shek, and was constantly threatened with assassination, but was lucky enough to escape each time. However, fate is always unpredictable, on June 22, 1977, Hu Lian died of myocardial infarction at the age of 70.
In contrast, Huang Wei's fate is very different. He behaved intransignantly in the prison for war criminals, not only disobeying management, but also trying to resist rehabilitation. He regarded himself as a loyal servant like Wen Tianxiang and Yu Qian, insisted on his position, and refused to give in.
He even used the excuse of researching "perpetual motion machines" to escape the transformation, but he never succeeded. As a result of this stubbornness, Huang Wei missed several opportunities for amnesty and was not released until 1975.
However, his family suffered a lot because of this, and his wife Cai Ruoshu suffered from neurosis due to long-term mental stress. After Huang Wei was released, he was still obsessed with the study of perpetual motion machines, ignoring the feelings of his family.
In the spring of 1976, Huang Wei's wife, Cai Ruoshu, chose to end her life in despair, which further highlighted Huang Wei's emotional indifference and lack of responsibility. Although Huang Wei longed to reunite with old friends in his later years, he eventually died of illness in Beijing at the age of 85.
Regarding Huang Wei's transformation in his later years, his daughter Huang Huinan refuted the outside world's doubts about Huang Wei's failure to completely transform. She quotes her father: "I'm a relatively slow person to change my mind, because I have to make judgments based on facts.
If the facts are not clearly laid out in front of me, I will not compromise easily. To some extent, this sentence reflects the change in Huang Wei's thinking in his later years, but whether it really represents his inner change may only be clear to Huang Wei himself.
The lives of these two are the epitome of that turbulent era. Hu Lian's luck and Huang Wei's persistence are in stark contrast. Their story is not only a twist and turn of personal fate, but also a vivid portrayal of the historical changes of that era.