On September 24, 1948, the Battle of Jinan had reached its final stage, and the Kuomintang troops led by Wang Yaowu were still resisting stubbornly.
At dawn that day, the 73rd Regiment of the Ninth Column of the East China Field Army successfully broke through the southeast corner of the Jinan city wall and penetrated deep into the city. of the commander at the timeWang Yaowu was pacing up and down in the basement next to the Chengren Temple on the north shore of Daming Lake, his forehead covered with fine beads of sweat.
He had already expected the current situationJinan, I'm afraid I can't hold it.
But at such an urgent moment, Wang Yaowu waited left and right, and he just couldn't wait for Chiang Kai-shek's order to withdraw his troops.
At this time, he didn't care about pacing, and sat down calmly, and the experience of serving in the army in the early years gradually came to mind.
In 1904, Wang Yaowu was born in Tai'an City, at the foot of Mount Tai. He had a brother who was a fellow mother, but he died at a young age, and his father died of poverty and illness.
Since he was a child, Wang Yaowu has followed his mother for his life.
Although her mother has not read any books, she is very knowledgeable, so even if she works hard, she has to send Wang Yaowu to study in the school, and Wang Yaowu has lived a carefree life under the protection of her mother for several years.
When he was 19 years old, his family really didn't have the money to continue his education, so he came to Tianjin with his cousin to make a living.
After arriving in Tianjin, Wang Yaowu followed his cousin to the biscuit factory as an apprentice. Because of his literacy and intelligence, Wang Yaowu quickly won the favor of his master.
Although it has gradually been able to take charge of itself, the wages of the biscuit factory are pitiful. Wang Yaowu felt that there was no way to go on like this, and it happened that at this time he heard the news that the Whampoa Military Academy was recruiting students in Guangzhou, so he and his cousin went south to apply for the Huangpu exam together.
In this way, Wang Yaowu changed from an employee of a biscuit factory to a soldier who defended his family and country under the arrangement of fate, completing the transformation of his identity.
Probably because of the hard life since he was a child, Wang Yaowu is very good at dealing with interpersonal relationships, especially upward socialization, and he can quickly mingle with his classmates and superiors after entering the military academy, so his promotion is very smooth.
His successive superiors all had a good impression of him, including well-known Kuomintang generals such as Liu Zhi and He Yingqin, who also praised him when he was in the military academy.
Although Wang Yaowu later inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army on the battlefield of resistance against Japan, before that, he also brought a lot of trouble to our party.
In the summer of 1932, Chiang Kai-shek launched the fourth encirclement and suppression of the Red Army in the Soviet area of the Communist Party of China, and Liu Yi's troops, who were in charge of taking the lead, did not expect the ever-changing guerrilla tactics of the Red Army.
Chiang Kai-shek was furious when he heard this, and Liu Yi was dismissed from his post as a result. As a result, the newly appointed Bai Tianmin was not much better, and he fell into the encirclement of our army as soon as he arrived in Yihuang.
Just when Chiang Kai-shek was anxious about this, Wang Yaowu offered Bai Tianmin a plan.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek had already ordered Bai Tianmin to lead troops to break through the siege, but Wang Yaowu let Bai Tianmin defend the city, or he could win a glimmer of life.
Bai Tianmin listened to Wang Yaowu's advice with the mentality of being a dead horse and a live horse doctor, and led his troops to defend the city for 24 days, during which the Red Army fought bravely many times to attack the city, and Bai Tianmin was seriously injured.
Later, during his hospitalizationChiang Kai-shek had personally visited him.
During the conversation, Bai Tianmin mentioned that it would take a long time for him to recommend Wang Yaowu to replace the commander of the 32nd Brigade, and explained that he put forward the idea of desperately defending the city.
After hearing this, Chiang Kai-shek immediately met with Wang Yaowu and asked him why he held on and did not break through.
Although this was the first time Wang Yaowu had seen Chiang Kai-shek, there was no timidity on his face, and he said calmly:
"Huang Yi is a strategic place, once it is missed, it will be difficult to recapture it even if it costs several times the price in the future, and there is no possibility of breaking through the situation at that time, so I held the determination to die and stuck to the city with Bai Luzuo. ”
Soon after this incident, Wang Yaowu was awarded the rank of major general, and he also stood out from the miscellaneous army and became the military commander of an independent military unit.
In the autumn of the following year, Wang Yaowu's 1st Brigade was assigned to Yu Jishi's command. Yu Jishi's troops did not belong to Chiang Kai-shek's descendants, so Wang Yaowu, as his subordinate, never relied on the so-called factions in the army, but on real combat effectiveness.
It is precisely because of these fighting experiences on the battlefield in the early years that Wang Yaowu, a rare warrior of the Kuomintang, was created, and even the famous general Su Yu of our army suffered losses under him.
When it comes to the early history of the Red Army, it seems inevitable that the death of the division commander Xun Huaizhou will be mentioned. This is a division commander who was once praised and praised, but he died disgracefully under Wang Yaowu's sword.
In fact, this is the first time Wang Yaowu and Su Yu have met, and the result is clear.
After this war, Wang Yaowu won the approval of Chiang Kai-shek with his outstanding performance on the battlefield of "suppressing bandits", and soon became a division commander who could take charge of himself.
After the outbreak of the "77 Incident", the people's patriotic enthusiasm was unprecedentedly high, and Chiang Kai-shek was forced to choose to join forces to resist Japan. The 51st Division under the command of Wang Yaowu was transferred to the Shanghai battlefield and participated in the famous "August 13" Anti-Japanese War.
He skillfully used night battles to attack Japanese troops, killing two Japanese wing captains one after another, and was praised by the headquarters by telegram.
After the war, Chiang Kai-shek merged his 51st Division and 58th Division into the 74th Army, with Yu Jishi as the commander at the beginning, and Wang Yaowu became the main member of the team.
In the Battle of Wuhan in July 1938, Yu Jishi led the 74th Army to kill more than 3,000 Japanese soldiers, which was only the number officially recognized by Japan. After the war, Chiang Kai-shek personally met with Wang Yaowu and promoted him to the commander of the 74th Army, and Yu Jishi also rewarded him.
The time has comeIn 1943, Wang Yaowu experienced the most fierce and thrilling battle since he joined the army.
In November of this year, Wang Yaowu led the 74th Army to join the Battle of Changde. The place is not large, but the Japanese army has gathered about 100,000 troops, and the whole of Changde was almost razed to the ground by Japanese aircraft and tanks within half a month.
Previously, it was the 57th Division under the 74th Army that held the city, and only more than 100 of the 8,000 people survived.
When Wang Yaowu heard the news, he rushed to the aid with the 51st Division, and with the help of friendly troops, fought with the Japanese army in Changde City for 6 days and 6 nights, and finally successfully recovered the lost territory.
Although this battle was dangerous, it also allowed Wang Yaowu to usher in the highlight moment of his life.
After the war, Chiang Kai-shek promoted him to commander-in-chief of the 24th Group Army, with more than 100,000 people under his command. This speed of promotion is unique among his peers.
The following year, the 24th Army was reorganized into the Fourth Front Army, and Wang Yaowu was thus crowned commander-in-chief of the Fourth Front Army.
At this time, Whampoa, who was at the same time as him, was still young in the army, but he was already able to sit on an equal footing with Lu Han and other Kuomintang veterans, and such a promotion speed was beyond the reach of his former classmates.
During his tenure, Wang Yaowu commanded the last battle against JapanBattle of Zhijiang. When he commanded this war, Wang Yaowu was only 40 years old, and this battle was also his most proud battle, and more than 20 tons of Japanese trophies were captured alone.
In September 1945, Wang Yaowu, as one of the surrendered commanders, took over the command knife from the Japanese, which can be described as the most glorious moment of his life. And the 74th Army, where he used to be, was also stained with light, and was known as the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army".
Before the Battle of Jinan, the People's Liberation Army had conquered many cities in Shandong, and Jinan, which Wang Yaowu insisted on, had become an isolated city.
In addition, the Kuomintang had already lost the support of the people at that time, although Wang Yaowu still had more than 100,000 troops under his command in name, but in fact there were less than three divisions that could really go into battle to kill the enemy.
For this reason, he went to Nanjing twice to ask for help, hoping that Chiang Kai-shek would follow his advice and concentrate his troops in Yanzhou to consolidate the defense of Xu and Yan.
However, his proposal met with strong opposition from Chen Cheng and several other Kuomintang generals, who agreed that Jinan was a military stronghold, and Chiang Kai-shek ordered him to defend it.
In order to make Wang Yaowu willingly work for him, Chiang Kai-shek also moved out the so-called "reinforcements". But until the day of the fall of Jinan, Wang Yaowu did not see the shadow of reinforcements.
On September 24, 1948, when the whole city of Jinan was liberated, the People's Liberation Army searched the city, but there was no trace of Wang Yaowu.
It turned out that Wang Yaowu saw that the general trend had gone, so he fled early with a few personal guards.
Before fleeing, in order to calm the morale of the army, he specially said such things to his subordinates.
"Now we have been here for 8 days, and we have not waited for reinforcements, which is not to live up to President Jiang's trust, this battle is different from the War of Resistance against Japan, you don't have to think of suicide. ”
After saying this, Wang Yaowu hurriedly fled with the guards. He and the guards called each other uncles and nephews, and pretended to be a vendor in a local restaurant. If he encountered a militia sentry, he lied that he was going to Qingdao to join his relatives.
Wang Yaowu is originally from Shandong, and he speaks with a Shandong accent, so although he will encounter sentry posts every once in a while along the way, they have not shown any flaws.
When they fled to the area of Shouguang County, Wang Yaowu suddenly felt anxious, and the guards handed him toilet paper. It was these few small pieces of toilet paper that made Wang Yaowu reveal his identity.
At that time, China's toilet paper had to be imported from the United States, and those who could use toilet paper were basically the most important people, but Wang Yaowu brought toilet paper to the countryside.
Seeing this, the villagers immediately reported the situation to the Shouguang County Public Security Bureau, and Wang Yaowu was immediately arrested and interrogated.
At first, Wang Yaowu's face was as usual, still speaking with a Shandong accent, and he lied that he was going to Qingdao to join his relatives. Until the villagers who took the lead found toilet paper from Wang Yaowu's pocketWang Yaowu was not calm immediately.
Later, Li Peizhi, director of the Shouguang County Public Security Bureau, personally interrogated Wang Yaowu, and he knew that the matter had been exposed, so he shouted to see ** and reported his name.
Seeing this, the director asked him about the deployment of troops in Jinan, and Wang Yaowu replied with a head. In order to prove his identity, he also directly took out a business card with his own seal.
Later, Wang Yaowu was sent to Gongdelin along with Du Yuming and other prisoners of war, and in 1959, he became the first batch of prisoners of war to be amnestied together with Du Yuming.
Soon after, he tied the knot with a female teacher under the care of ***, which was also a good story at the time.