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Menglianggu 1947

NRA x PLA
Complexity: 1.09 Map: 44x38
Dates: 5/10/1947-5/19/1947
Menglianggu 1947

by Nikolai Ezhov

Date: May 11th, 1947
Location: Central Shandong, China
Map Scale: 1km/hex
Time Scale: Half day/turn
Unit Scale: Reorganized brigades/divisions
Length: 12 turns

Unit colors:
White on yellow: People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
Red on Blue: National Revolutionary Army (NRA), Central Army
White on Blue: National Revolutionary Army, New Guangxi Clique
Black on Blue: National Revolutionary Army, Guangdong Clique

May 1947.

The Chinese civil war had entered the second year. On the vast plain of war-torn central China, the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), armed forces of the nationalist Republic of China regime, continued its attack on their rivalry, the communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

In the first year of the conflict, the nationalist full-scale attack strategy was proved to be disastrous, during which the NRA lost 66 brigades of 700,000 men without decisive gains. Nevertheless, the nationalists still enjoyed superiority in both quality and quantity over their communist adversary. In early 1947, the NRA officially rewrote its doctrine from “full-scale attack” to “attack with emphasis”. Its main goal in the year of 1947 was defined as:
(1) Seize the city of Yan’an, the political center of the Chinese Communist Party;
(2) Seize the Mount of Yimeng, the main operating base of PLA East China Field Army, which later became the 3rd Field Army in 1949;
(3) Seize the city of Yantai, the key node on the communist line of communications between its forces in Manchuria and Shandong.

The new plan indeed fruited some achievements: in early March 1947, the NRA managed to seize Yan’an. The communist base area in Yimeng Mounts was wiped out in August 1947 and Yantai was captured in November. However, the nationalists could never catch and destroy the main force of the People’s Liberation Army, which undermined the nationalist’s military catastrophe in 1948 and the final downfall of Chiang Kai-shek’s regime over mainland China.
Let’s just turn the clock back a bit. In late January 1947, the communists launched the Battle of Southern Shandong, which annihilated NRA 26th and 51st Reorganized Division (=Corps) and 1st Fast Column (=a division attached with motorized and armored assets) with a total of 50,000 troops. As the retaliation, the nationalist army, commanded by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek himself, concentrated 23 reorganized divisions and corps to pursue the retreating communist army, planning to conduct a decisive offensive operation in the vicinity of Linyi to crush the communist East China Field Army once and for all. After three months of fierce battle, the nationalist pushed further east with heavy losses, captured a dozen defenseless cities but didn’t destroy any main part of the communist army. Nevertheless, the NRA did push the PLA back into the Yimeng mountains where the main force of the communist field army was concentrated, and there seemed be a good chance for the nationalists to conduct the “decisive operation”. On May 10th, 1947, the NRA mobilized 16 reorganized divisions and corps to launch a new offensive operation, in order to trap the communists in the mountains and, eventually, destroy it.

This operation, which was viewed as a part of the Battle of Southern Shandong by the NRA, concentrated most of the elite nationalist forces, including three of its “five elite units” – the 11th Reorganized Division commanded by Gen. Li Mi, 5th Corps commanded by Gen. Qiu Qingquan, and 74th Reorganized Division commanded by Gen. Zhang Lingfu, along with three slightly weaker formations (25th and 83rd Reorganized Divisions and 7th Corps, also the most capable NRA troops) and two weaker divisions (48th and 65th RD). This contingency of NRA forces was tasked with the attack of Tanpu, then considered as the location of the PLA field army headquarter. Other 8 NRA RDs were also deployed in the battlefield but they were tied down by local garrison and road protection missions. To make the situation worse, the attacking NRA forces were organized from three different cliques, therefore their coordination was rather limited.

On May 10th the NRA offensive started. Among the units the 74th Reorganized Division, the Generalissimo’s army of favor, was responsible for the main attack and made a good progress in the beginning. By May 13th the division was only 6km from the town of Tanpu. But what the nationalist generals didn’t know was that the PLA 6th Column of the East China Field Army was hiding somewhere southwest of the battlefield, in the rear of attacking NRA forces. On May 13th, this PLA column force-marched 150 kilometers in one night and captured the town of Duozhuang, where the rear echelon troops of 74th RD was located. The connections between 74th RD and other NRA formations were also cut off. Aware of a potential disaster, General Zhang Lingfu ordered his division to move up to Menglianggu, a hill peaked at 575 meters that lied between Tanpu and Duozhuang.

There could be chance in the first day of the besiege for the 74th to breakthrough, but both Zhang and Chiang were making mistakes. The Generalissimo, astonished and excited after hearing the news, ordered Gen.Zhang to hold still as a fixing force, while ordering 8 other RDs to encircle the besieging communist force. Gen.Zhang, on the other hand, chose the rocky, bald and waterless hill as his stronghold. Soon the 74th found it hard to entrench or conceal on the hill and was short of water supply, and that sealed the fate of the division.

Five PLA columns surrounded Menglianggu. Another four were entrenched to defend off the outer perimeter. In the following three days the relieving NRA forces reached some 1.6km away from the 74th RD’s position, but never being able to march another inch ahead. By 1500z May 16th, the elite 74th Reorganized Division was totally wiped out. 32,000 NRA soldiers in the encirclement were either killed or captured. The aftermath of General Zhang Lingfu was never verified: some said he and his staffs committed suicide during the last stage of the battle; some said he was killed when he refused capitulation; some said he was executed by revenging PLA soldiers. But anyway, he died in the battle and was buried near the battlefield. His body was later dug out for a state funeral in Nanking.

The destruction of the most elite nationalist army unit was a bad sign for the nationalists, which then still held the initiative of the war, but not deadly. The 74th RD were quickly rebuilt and rejoined the central China theater of operations. The nationalist continued their offensive after the Menglianggu catastrophe, and the tide of the war once seemed turned into their favor. By late 1947 the nationalist army accomplished all its objectives in the year and the cost on that hill was already insignificant. But this was only a mirage. Soon later the over-strengthened, understrength, low-morale, internal-striving and financial-bankrupted National Revolution Army would face another major disaster in the year of 1948 – this time, the cost was the backbone of the nationalist army and the nationalist reign over the mainland China.