The 74th Division was destroyed for lack of water, but it rained cats and dogs after the battle. This is not an act of God, but there is a scientific explanation.
After Zhang's death, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly said that he was "heartbroken" and beat Tang kneeling on the ground with a cane. Wang, then chairman of the Kuomintang Shandong Province, wept bitterly: "The loss of the 74th Division is like the loss of his father!
How powerful is Zhang? How did Hua Ye under the command of Su Yu and Chen Yi destroy the 74th Division? Why did it suddenly rain cats and dogs and hail everywhere in Meng Lianggu after the war? Is there any reasonable explanation for this?
Zhang Yu 1903 was born in Dongda Village, Dongda Township, Chang 'an County, Shaanxi Province on August 20th. His original name was Zhang Zhonglin, and he was very clever since he was a child. 1923 was admitted to the history department of Peking University. At that time, China was in a period of warlord melee, and Zhang, who was bent on saving the country, decided to join the army and break the situation with strength. 1926, Zhang dropped out of Peking University.
After graduating from Huangpu Phase IV, Zhang joined the National Revolutionary Army and participated in the Northern Expedition. Later, he was promoted to the head of the independent regiment of the first division of the National Revolutionary Army. 1937, Zhang joined Wang's 5 1 division as the head of the division, and repeatedly made meritorious military service in the process of fighting against the Japanese army.
In the battle of Wanjialing, Zhang attacked from behind and led his troops to fight fiercely with the Japanese army 106 Division for five days and nights. Seven shrapnel were stuck in the line of fire, which finally blocked all the retreat of the Japanese army and won the opportunity for Wang's frontal troops. In the end, the 106 division was almost completely annihilated, which almost became the first battle to wipe out a Japanese division in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
194 1 March, Zhang was appointed as the teacher of the 58th division. In the Battle of Shanggao, Zhang led the 58th Division to fight hard with the Japanese army 1 1 day, and was known as the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army". 1June, 942, in the battle of Zhejiang and Jiangxi, Zhang's 58th Division fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army for three days, killing Jiro, the third brigade commander of the Japanese army. 1943 in the battle of western Hubei, the 58th division cooperated with the 5 1 division to attack the Japanese 17 brigade, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese. In June of the same year, Zhang recovered Weng 'an, and in the subsequent battles of Changde and Xuefeng Mountain, Zhang Zhangong made outstanding achievements.
1February, 945, Zhang was awarded the rank of general of the army by the Kuomintang. After the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the 74th Army and the Nanjing garrison commander, which is also the origin of the title of "Commander of Yulin Army".
If Zhang's resume ends here, he can still be regarded as a generation of anti-Japanese war heroes and deserves respect from future generations. Unfortunately, after the end of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Feng was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to join the war of liberation, which brought great losses to our army.
1947 In March, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 450,000 troops from 24 divisions and 60 brigades to surround Shandong in an attempt to destroy our troops on the battlefield in Shandong. Under Gu's command, the Kuomintang army was divided into three regiments: Tang, Ou Zhen, and deployed three trump cards of the Kuomintang: the 74th Division, 1 1 Division and the Fifth Army.
At that time, our East China Field Army in Shandong had 12 columns and 270,000 troops, which were not as good as the Kuomintang army in number and equipment. In order to prevent our army from coming and going without a trace, and to prevent it from being divided and annihilated, Gu asked all the regiments to concentrate and advance step by step, and prohibited any troops from suddenly appearing and entering.
The Kuomintang's style of play once put our army in a dilemma. Although our army under the command of Su Yu and Chen Yi, under the favorable terrain of Yimeng Mountain, took the opportunity to win a division of the Kuomintang, but it was far from bone-breaking, and the three main forces of the Kuomintang pressed our army step by step. How to break this situation is a key issue.
After many studies, Su Yu proposed to attack a little and do everything possible to eliminate the main force of the Kuomintang to boost morale. However, under Gu's "close range" tactics, the Kuomintang troops went hand in hand, just like a monolithic block, and there was no way to start. How can we lure the enemy in? Su Yu put forward a clever plan.
At that time, the Kuomintang army could not grasp the whereabouts of our army. Su Yu ordered Hua Ye's middle route army to show its whereabouts in the charcoal step on purpose to attract Tang's attention. Don really fell for it. In order to win the first prize, he ordered the army to attack the middle route army in Hua Ye without asking, and won the command post in Hua Ye, liking Chiang Kai-shek. The specific plan is to take Zhang's 74th Division as the main force, and Huang's 25th Division and his 83rd Division as the two wings.
In the face of the rolling Kuomintang troops, Su Yu set the operational policy of attacking the 74th Division. For our army, our 74th Division is Zhang's old rival. During the two battles of Lianshui, the 74th Division caused heavy casualties to our army, and the phenomenon of "fear of tension" in the army was very serious. Eliminating Zhang is of great significance to boosting morale.
But eating 74 divisions of Tang's 200,000-strong army is tantamount to taking the head of a general in a million-strong army. What's more, although the 74th Division made a breakthrough, it was not too provocative, and there were also 25 divisions and 83 divisions on both sides. How to divide and surround the 74th Division is the biggest problem.
The opportunity will come soon.
When Zhang crossed Yishui, Huang's 25th Division was 30 kilometers away from the 74th Division, and his 83rd Division was even more exaggerated, with a distance of 100 kilometers. Su Yu and Chen Yi quickly assembled 1, 4, 6, 8 and 9 columns, and invested a total of 65,438+10,000 troops in 16 division, from 65,438.
Facing the siege of Hua Ye, Zhang waited for the rescue of Tang Corps while breaking through. However, after two failed breakthroughs, Zhang decided on the strategy of "sticking to aid Korea and blossoming in the center", retreated and waited for reinforcements to arrive, and attacked Hua Ye from inside and outside, and "Gaijiaozi" was besieged.
Zhang believes that it is more than 500 meters above sea level, the terrain is steep, and the mountain is granite, which is extremely hard and can be described as easy to defend but difficult to attack. As long as you occupy the Meng Lianggu Highlands, you can use the advantages of the terrain to "stick to the aid". But what Zhang didn't see was that the mountains were barren, the vegetation coverage was extremely low, animals and plants were scarce, and more importantly, there was almost no water supply. Once the army is cut off, it will be wiped out.
Under the siege of the three-way column, Zhang left heavy artillery and other trench and led the people to climb the steep. After climbing to the top of the mountain, Zhang was frightened to disgrace. Meng Lianggu is a Pingdingshan with an altitude of several hundred meters, just within the range of artillery. Tens of thousands of people are undoubtedly sitting ducks, and the rocks under their feet cannot build fortifications. More importantly, because of the strange rocks,
At this point, the 74th Division completely fell into the trap of our army.
Under the siege and repeated attacks of our army, the 74th Division soon fell into a situation of water and food shortage. Soldiers drink human urine and horse urine under hunger and thirst. In the end, no one peed and no horse peed. Many soldiers have symptoms of dehydration and syncope, and their combat effectiveness has plummeted. Browning machine guns also need water to cool down, and bullets can't be shot without water. Although Zhang called for airdrops, most of the materials fell in the war zone and mountainous areas.
After four days and four nights of hard struggle, it was finally captured by our army, and the seventy-fourth division was completely annihilated, and Zhang was killed. Strangely, after the war, it suddenly began to rain cats and dogs in Meng Lianggu, and there were hailstones everywhere, which made people stunned. Some people say that if the heavy rain had come earlier, the 74th Division would have been able to hold on for a while, perhaps until the Tang Corps arrived.
Is this rain really "fair weather"? From a scientific point of view, it is obvious that rain is raindrops formed by the combination of water vapor and dust in the air. When it is big enough, it will fall under the action of gravity. Under the artillery fire of Hua Ye, Meng Lianggu raised countless dust and sand stones, which floated in the air and easily formed raindrops. Not only the Battle of Menglianggu, but also many other battles have records of post-war rainfall, which is a normal meteorological change.
The downfall of the 74th Division could not be separated from the command of General Su Yu and General Chen Yi, from the bravery of Hua Ye soldiers, and from the terrain advantages and weather factors of Meng Lianggu, which was the result of many factors.