Menglianggu Campaign - Intentions Revealed

Intentions Revealed

Although surprised that their 74th Reorganized Division was surrounded, the nationalists were not scared, in fact, they were joyful at first because this could present the opportunity they had been waiting for: a decisive battle in which their communist enemy would be annihilated by the numerically and technically superior nationalists attacking from both sides. The 74th Reorganized Division would be in the center surrounded by the communists, while another nine army-sized nationalist reorganized divisions would be surrounding the communists in another siege. The nationalists believed that the 74th Reorganized Division was tough enough to withstand communist assaults and hold on to the final nationalist counterassault in which they would attack from both sides of the communists and annihilate the communists. The nationalist high command therefore ordered the 74th Reorganized Division to take its position in the Menglianggu mountains and wait for reinforcement. The main peak of Menglianggu mountains extended northwestward toward Mount 540, which consisted of the eastern and western halves, and at the extreme northwestern end, there was Mount 520. The region named Eagle’s Nest (Diao Wo, 雕窝) was located in the east and Lu Mountain was located in the southeast. Wen (汶) River was to the north and Linyi – Mengfang (蒙 防) Highway was located 4 km to the south. The mountain range was around 10 km in the east – west direction and there was no trees grown. There was not much grass either and water sources were nearly nonexistent. However, the nationalists believed these would not be a problem because reinforcement would arrive soon, but little did they know that the development of battles in the latter stage of the campaign was totally different. To reinforce the besieged 74th Reorganized Division, the nationalist high ordered nearby nationalist units to rapidly closing the distance between themselves and the Menglianggu mountains, including: the 11th Reorganized Division from Xintai, the 65th Reorganized Division from Mengyin, the 25th Reorganized Division from at Peach Village, the 83rd Reorganized Division from at Green Camel Temple (Qing Tuo Si, 青驼寺), the 7th Army from at Riverine Sun (He Yang, 河阳), the 48th Reorganized Division from at Soup Head (Tang Tou, 汤头), the 5th Army from Laiwu. The 20th Reorganized Division from Dawenkou (大汶口) was order to go to Mengyin, while other nationalist units from second line were also mobilized, in the hope of annihilating the communist in a decisive campaign in the regions of Mengyin and Green Camel Temple regions.

After the failed attempt to breakout in the south, the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division withdrew to the Menglianggu mountains. The three regiments of the 58th Reorganized Brigade of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was tasked respectively to secure the main peak of the Menglianggu mountains, Eagle’s Nest and Lu Mountain. The 51st Reorganized Brigade of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was to secure Mount 520 and Mount 540, while the 57th Reorganized Brigade of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was to secure Mount 570 (also designated as Mount 600 in other historical records). Zhang Lingfu setup his headquarter of the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division was on the eastern half of Mount 540, and repeatedly asked the nationalist high command for reinforcements. Chiang Kai-shek believed that this was an excellent opportunity to annihilate the communist East China Field Army in a decisive campaign, so he ordered RoCAF to airdrop supplies to the besieged nationalists, and also ordered a total of ten army-sized nationalist reorganized divisions spearheaded by the 25th Reorganized Division and 83rd Reorganized Division to reinforce the besieged nationalists. As a result, the strategies of both sides became obvious to the opposing forces: the communists intended to destroy the besieged nationalist 74th Reorganized Division while avoiding being attacked and wiped out from both fronts, while the nationalists intended to attack their enemy from both fronts, using their besieged force as a bait, which would held out long enough for the reinforcement to arrive. However, besieged nationalists could not hold as long as they were hoped to, because of the difficult landscape: the vegetation was sparse and there was not any water source. The rugged terrain meant that it was nearly impossible for the nationalist defenders to build any fortification and thus they were directly exposed to the enemy fire, suffering huge casualties. To compound the problem, most if not all heavy weaponries had to be abandoned because they could not be carried to the mountain tops. Furthermore, due to the lack of water, the water-cool machine guns could not function properly even after they were carried up to the mountain tops. The airdrop was completely insufficient to fulfill the daily need of the besieged force either.