Chapter 277 Chapter 30 The Battle of Libei: Creating Experience in Plain Battles

In August 1948, at the Battle of Chenghe, most of the 36th Division reorganized by the Kuomintang Army was wiped out, killing and wounding more than 9,000 enemies, killing Major General Zhu Xia, the deputy commander of the division, and wounding Li Gui, the commander of the 28th Brigade, and Zhang Xianjue, the chief of staff of the captured division. , Senior Counselor Li Xiu, Ma Guorong, field inspector of the Kuomintang Ministry of National Defense, and Chen Ding, head of the 494th regiment, smashed Hu Zongnan's plan to block the Northwest Field Army in Huanglong Mountain, and took advantage of the victory to recover Chengcheng, Heyang, Han City, expanding and consolidating the Huanglong New Liberated Area.

After the reorganized 36th Division was wiped out again, Hu Zongnan personally led Chief of Staff Luo Lie, Deputy Chief of Staff Shen Ce, Chief of Staff, Chief of Operations, Chief of Intelligence, and Adjutant of the Xi'an Appeasement Administration on August 24 in order to boost the morale that was declining. A large group of people including the director went directly from Xi'an to Dali, the headquarters of the Peichanghui Corps, and presided over the "Feng Yuan Combat Review Conference". At the beginning of the meeting, Hu Zongnan named Li Gui, commander of the 28th Brigade of the 36th Division, to report the battle in Hutishan.Li Gui reported the battle situation due to being outnumbered and lost his position, and asked for punishment.Hu Zongnan immediately cursed loudly: "Li Gui, the commander of the 28th brigade, plotted against the law. He neither held fast to the main position of Hutishan, nor obeyed the order to relieve the siege of Liujiaao, and evacuated the troops from the main position for more than 20 miles without authorization..." Li Gui will be arrested and handed over to the military court for trial."

Then, Shen Ce spoke.As soon as he came up, he talked about the importance of the Huti Mountain position, and then pointed out that the reorganized 36th Division failed to fully implement the combat orders of the Xi'an Appeasement Administration. Destroy, wait. Before Shen Ce could finish speaking, Zhong Song, who was sitting in the audience, stood up angrily, and retorted on the spot: "The main reason for the failure of the Huti Mountain battle is that the base camp misjudged the situation." Zhong Song continued, The main force of the army had already arrived in front of our 36th Division. We reported this, but the headquarters insisted that the 36th Division was only a small number of containment troops of the Communist Army. As a result, the 36th Division was attacked by the Communist Army several times its size.At this time, "except for the division of troops to break through, the entire army was wiped out, but how convincing is it that the base camp shifted the responsibility for failure to the front-line commanders?"

Unexpectedly, Zhong Song dared to be so rude, Hu Zongnan was stunned!Immediately he overturned the table, smashed the teacup, rolled up his sleeves, rushed to a guard, grabbed his gun and shouted: "Zhong Song, I will kill you..." At the same time, Zhong Song also pulled out his pistol and glared at Hu Zongnan! The venue is in chaos!Pei Changhui, Luo Lie (who has succeeded Sheng Wen as Chief of Staff of the Sui Department), and Shen Ce (Deputy Chief of Staff of the Sui Department) went up together, snatched Hu Zongnan's pistol, and asked the guards to pull Zhong Song away, and the conflict calmed down.

This scene at the venue formed a huge shadow in Hu Zongnan's mind. This was the first time his authority had been so greatly challenged!When he returned to Xi'an, he was determined to find a chance to kill Zhong Song.But at such a critical juncture, killing a general for personal revenge may make the troops even more confused.After much deliberation, Hu Zongnan still made a compromise and kept the originally announced punishment of "dismissal and stay in post to see how it works".