Menglianggu Campaign - Outcome

Outcome

Unlike most other nationalist generals killed by the communists during the Chinese Civil War,Zhang Lingfu was buried with full military honor after the campaign by his communist enemy, who had recognized his capability and contribution during Second Sino-Japanese War. Zhang Lingfu was given the same treatment as the communist commanders of equal rank, though the funeral was not as elaborate as that of nationalists due to the communists’ lack of material wealth at the time: nobody could find a new, good and clean nationalist uniform for the general and getting one from the nationalists were certainly out of the question, so Zhang Lingfu was buried with a new communist uniform instead. In an unprecedented move, the communists also allowed Zhang Lingfu’s nine subordinates captured in the campaign, including a brigade commander with the rank of major general and eight regimental colonels, to participate in Zhang Lingfu’s funeral. The nationalist commander’s funeral ceremony was held by Xie Shensheng (谢胜坤), the deputy political director of the political directorate of the 6th Column of the communist East China Field Army, who would have an equal rank had the military ranking system existed in the communist force. Zhang Lingfu’s widow eventually returned to China and settled in Shanghai after the communist revolution, where she spent rest of her life. Chiang Kai-shek personally ordered Tang Enbo to be removed from his post and Major General Li Tianxia (李天霞), the commander of the nationalist 83rd Reorganized Division court-martialled as the failure to save the nationalist 74th Reorganized Division, and Li's position was filled with his deputy, Major General Zhou Zhidao (周志道).

The result of the campaign was a serious blow to the nationalist morale and a great piece of communist propaganda. The communists met the enemy with both technical and numerical superiority head on, and the entire nationalist Reorganized 74th Division, one of the top five nationalist crack troop units, was completely lost with 12,000 of its 30,000 troops killed and the remaining 18,000 captured. The nationalist reinforcement also suffered 2,000+ fatalities averaging 500 fatalities per day in the four-day long campaign. The nationalist internal power struggle played an important role in the nationalist defeat because most nationalist commanders felt that Zhang Lingfu was too arrogant that when he asked the help from other nationalist commanders with higher rank, he acted if he was giving out orders to those ranked above him. Zhang Lingfu‘s direct superior, Tang Enbo, for example, was scolded by his subordinate Zhang Lingfu in a heated argument over the telephone and Tang was so enraged by the action of his subordinate that he withheld his troops for an entire day, providing the opportunities for the communists to regroup and strength their defense against the nationalist reinforcement. Zhang Lingfu was certainly more capable than most nationalist commanders of his time and he and his troops were proud of it, however, Zhang Lingfu and many of his troops chose not to carefully hide their feelings and openly exhibit the feeling, and others were obviously resentful, resulting in the lack of enthusiasm to help Zhang Lingfu when he needed.

The nationalist “Plan of a Decisive Campaign in Central Shandong” (Lu Zhong Jue Zhan Ji Hua, 鲁中决战计划) was in fact, a good battle strategy, as agreed even by their communist enemy, but the nationalist defeat meant that the nationalist original plan of annihilating their communist enemy in a decisive battle was impossible to reach, and the nationalist offensives against communist base in Shandong had encountered a serious setback. The effect not only affected the battlefield in Shandong, but also to a great degree, other battlefields as well, such as that of northern Shaanxi. Had the nationalist reinforcements succeeded in rescuing their besieged comrades-in-arms, they would have also succeeded in annihilating the enemy’s main force. In this campaign, the nationalist top commanders performed well in that they had correctly adjusted their strategies according to the changing situation on the battlefield, almost succeeding in achieve their strategic objective, but unfortunately, the field commanders were unable to carry out their mission to the fullest and thus resulting in failure.