Zhang Lingfu, a well-known figure in China, has a life full of legends and complexity, honor and discredit. He is a talented man of Peking University and a leader of the Whampoa Military Academy, but he is also a murderer who shot his wife, and he is not only a heroic fighter against Japan, but also a war criminal in the civil war.
Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the US-made 74th Division, which posed a huge threat to our army in the civil war, was once the number one enemy of our army. However, Su Yu and Pi Dingjun, deputy commander of the Sixth Column, both gave him the respect he deserved.
After Zhang Lingfu's death, they spent 400 oceans to buy a Nanmu coffin for him, and found a piece of PLA officer's clothes to let him clean into the ground.
Before the Battle of Menglianggu, Zhang Lingfu's 74th Division was invincible, and his tactical cover was very rare. However, even in the face of our army, they still respected Zhang Lingfu and suffered a heavy setback in the Battle of Lianshui.
Although the Sixth Column led by Wang Bicheng struggled to resist, it was still unable to resist the powerful attack wave of the 74th Division in the end, and finally lost Lianshui. ** even almost removed Wang Bicheng from his position.
Although Zhang Lingfu is the mortal enemy of our army, while respecting the opponent, we must also persist in fighting to the end.
Wang Bicheng confidently said to ** and Su Yu: "When you fight the 74th Division, you can't forget my Wang Bicheng's six verticals." Su Yu immediately said to Chen Shiyu: "In the future, all the battles of the East China Army's attack on the 74th Division must involve the Sixth Column and Wang Bicheng, and this must be recorded in the files!" ”
Although Zhang Lingfu won many battles, the 74th Division also paid a huge price. For example, in the Battle of Lianshui, they lost more than 8,000 veterans, who were the core combat strength of the 74th Division, which could not be easily replenished in a short period of time.
In addition, the equipment of the 74th Division also suffered serious losses, because the United States imposed an embargo on the Kuomintang at that time, and one of these American-made equipment was damaged.
It can be said that the more the 74th Division wins, the weaker its combat effectiveness will be. Zhang Lingfu was faced not only with the problem of declining combat effectiveness, but also with the internal turmoil and complicated personnel relations within the Kuomintang.
In the TV series "Red Sun", Zhang Lingfu played by Li Youbin is arrogant and has no one in his eyes, so his colleagues respect him.
Zhang Lingfu, the famous anti-Japanese general, and his widow Wang Yuling explained his character from another perspective. He is not arrogant, but he is always outspoken and even directly accuses of people he doesn't like.
He was dissatisfied with Li Tianxia at a military meeting because of his messy relationship between men and women, and he also scolded Li Yannian for smoking opium in front of him. This intolerant personality made him ostracized among his colleagues.
From a tactical point of view, his 74th Division was out of step with other units, preferring to make roundabout assaults and penetrate deep behind enemy lines, while other units preferred to move step by step and fight steadily, which made it easy for the 74th Division to lose touch with friendly forces.
Coupled with bad relations with other colleagues, other friendly forces will not only not provide support to them, but may even stand idly by. After the start of the so-called key offensive, the 450,000-strong Kuomintang army launched an attack on Linyi, the capital of the liberated region of Shandong.
Gu Zhutong specially used the 74th Division as the spearhead, hoping that Zhang Lingfu could pierce Huaye's defense line like "fierce Zhang Fei". On both sides of the 74th Division happened to be Li Tianxia's 83rd Division and Huang Baitao's 25th Division.
Zhang Lingfu said in a letter before the war that he was pessimistic about the operation, because it was not a plain water network operation that the 74th Division was good at, but it was going deep into the hinterland of the Yimeng Mountains.
As a result, the 74th Division could only go into battle lightly and could not use tanks or heavy artillery. In the letter, he wrote: "Letting the 74th Division fight in the mountains is like leading a big buffalo up a stone mountain ......If someone can't get along with me, they want me to die, so I'll die to show them! ”
Zhang Lingfu wrote a letter to Yu Jishi, expressing the performance problem of ** on the battlefield: the brave are moving forward, the cowardly are hesitant, the sacrifices are sacrificed, the skilled are self-righteous, they are on the sidelines of each other, it is difficult to cooperate, and they are determined to go their own way, and they have different dreams in the same bed.
He foresaw his own prospects, and believed that this status quo of working in separate ways and sharing different dreams was the reason for his defeat. ** He Su Yu has long laid a net for him, the 74th Division is only slightly prominent among all the troops, and the Huaye generals are bold and bold, and they "dug out" the 74th Division from the million-dollar army with a trick.
The Huaye First Column attacked Huang Baitao's 25th Division with a small part of its forces, and the main force seized the commanding heights, while the 8th Column cut in from the middle of the 74th and 83rd Divisions with the same tactics and also seized the commanding heights.
As a result, the 74th Division was already besieged on three sides.
The victory or defeat of the Battle of Menglianggu seemed to depend on the siege on three sides, but in fact, Su Yu had already laid out a clever move. That is, the six columns were placed in Lunan far away from the battlefield, in order to paralyze the enemy army.
When the 74th Division was surrounded, Su Yu immediately telegraphed Wang Bicheng and Pi Dingjun that they must advance 200 miles within two days and occupy the only passage for the 74th Division's retreat, Duozhuang.
Wang Bicheng gladly accepted the order, led the six columns of starry nights, and finally occupied the position in front of the battlement. At the critical moment, the defenders of Duozhuang suddenly had civil strife, and the prisoners revolted in response, so that the Sixth Column quickly controlled Duozhuang, thus besieging the 74th Division on all sides.
This is the Battle of Menglianggu, a war in which the outcome of the battle was determined by both the clever chess and the counterattack.
In the Jedi Meng Lianggu, Zhang Lingfu was helplessly trapped. Menglianggu has a high terrain but a steep slope, and the hard granite ground cannot be used to build fortifications, so it is difficult to exert firepower.
What's even more fatal is that the problem of lack of water made it impossible for the officers and men of the 74th Division and the machine guns to work properly. Zhang Lingfu was trapped in a desperate situation, and finally died in Meng Lianggu, and his fate was very similar to that of Ma Jian back then.
The battle is coming to an end. ”
In a fierce battle, bullets and grenades from the secret service team entered the cave where Zhang Lingfu was. Suddenly, the people inside shouted: "Don't fight, our division commander has been killed by you." ”
It was the dispatcher who shouted. He Fengshan hurriedly ordered the fighters to cease fire. Subsequently, the deputy regiment commander He Fengshan ordered to shout to the cave, and Shao Zhihan, the instructor of the third company, shouted with the soldiers: "Zhang Lingfu, surrender quickly!"
Shoot or kill! As soon as the shouting stopped, a shuttle of bullets was fired from outside the cave, and the instructor of the third company and several soldiers were unfortunately shot and died. Enraged, our Triple Commander threw grenades and strafing machine guns and carbines into the cave.
The warriors rushed into the cave, only to see the corpses of the enemy in a mess, and the ground was covered with blood. They rummaged through the corpses of the enemy and found a senior official with double stars on his shoulders, and he checked the chest charm, which turned out to be Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the enemy's lieutenant general division.
The watch on his left wrist pointed to 5:02. According to the records of the Kuomintang military history, Zhang Lingfu committed suicide. Wei Zhenyue, who escaped from Zhang Lingfu's headquarters, was an eyewitness.
At the request of Zhang Lingfu, deputy division commander Cai Renjie, regiment commander Zhou Shaobin, and brigade commander Lu Xing all committed suicide. And Wei Zhenyue and Zhang Lingfu did not have a lifelong friendship, so he could not commit suicide.
There is also a theory that Zhang Lingfu was seriously injured and was carried out by PLA soldiers. But out of hatred for Zhang Lingfu and the 74th Division, this soldier violated discipline and shot Zhang Lingfu again.
The cause of Zhang Lingfu's death has been a historical mystery, and despite decades of debate, there is still no clear answer. After his death, the resistance of the 74th Division quickly collapsed.
At this critical moment, Meng Lianggu suddenly rained heavily, cleaning the cruel battlefield in an instant. If it had rained earlier, the 74th Division might not have been wiped out.
Therefore, the local people all believe that God is going to kill Zhang Lingfu and Chiang Kai-shek. In the storm, the fighters, with the sophisticated equipment of the 74th Division, carried more than 20,000 prisoners, and calmly escaped from the enemy's encirclement.
In this mighty procession, there was a stretcher on which Zhang Lingfu's body was placed. They walked for two days in one breath and arrived at a village called Wild Boar Wang in Yishui County before putting Zhang Lingfu down.
Since it was summer, Zhang Lingfu's body had begun to decompose. According to the instructions above, they decided to bury Zhang Lingfu on the spot. Pi Dingjun, who was in charge of Zhang Lingfu's funeral, gave an order to find a good coffin for him.
Later, the soldiers spent 400 oceans to buy a half-person-high Nanmu coffin for Zhang Lingfu, which was very luxurious. Pi Dingjun believed that generals who died on the battlefield should be honored as soldiers.
Because Zhang Lingfu's clothes were in tatters, and he couldn't find the uniforms of the Kuomintang army, he had to find the clothes of the People's Liberation Army for him to put on, and wiped his face clean.
After Zhang Lingfu's death, Xie Shengkun, deputy director of the Political Department, asked Pi Dingjun a question: a major general, brigade commander and eight colonels captured by the Sixth Column asked to see their division commander for the last time.
Pi Dingjun believed that although they were enemy troops, their feelings for the division commander were worthy of respect, so he agreed to their request. In the end, Zhang Lingfu's body was buried under the auspices of Xie Shengkun, and Pi Dingjun also attended the funeral.
Nine generals formed a half-moon shape and knelt on the ground and wept. Pi Dingjun looked at their mourning, and then said: "Your division commander Zhang Lingfu was your division commander from the beginning, he carried out Chiang Kai-shek's order to eliminate the Communist Party, but he chased us all the way, from Huaiyin to Lianshui, from Lianshui to Shandong, and finally he himself was wiped out.
Do you know why you failed? It is because you represent the aggressor, and we represent the people. In this way, Zhang Lingfu was buried in the crying of the generals.
Due to the chaos of the war, Zhang Lingfu's grave has not been found until now. Our army is a division of benevolence and righteousness, and we have never thought of killing Zhang Lingfu. If we were to capture him alive, our slogan would not be "Capture Zhang Lingfu alive".
* He once said to the generals and colonels of the 74th Division who were captured: "The sacrifices of Zhang Lingfu and Cai Renjie are meaningless, you should recognize your mistakes and cherish this opportunity to start over." ”
Of course, even if Zhang Lingfu is captured alive, we will execute him, but at the same time, we will treat him well. His end will be to be imprisoned in Gongdelin for reform, and then, along with his old boss Wang Yaowu, he will be pardoned and released from prison, and then reintegrated into the people.
Wang Yuling is the widow of Zhang Lingfu, and she was treated by our side after returning to China in 1973. ** Tell her that Zhang Lingfu is a general, his student, and if he is not won over, I am also responsible.
Zhang Lingfu made great contributions to the country in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and although he died, we will still bury him. For other Kuomintang generals who were killed, our army will also treat them favorably.
On the contrary, the Kuomintang brazenly dug up the body of General Luo Binghui. Wang Yuling has been searching for Zhang Lingfu's burial place, and despite many difficulties, she finally installed a well-dressed grave for him in 2003 at the Rose Cemetery in Pudong, Shanghai, with her thoughts and love engraved on the tombstone.
Wang Yuling also participated in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and in 2007 visited the site of the Menglianggu battle. She humorously said, remember to leave me a place too.