Mao Zedong's personal evaluation of Hu Lian: as cunning as a rabbit, as fierce as a tiger.
Source: The 3rd issue of magazines from all walks of life in 2023
Photo source: Earl Jiamin, an ancient book official account
Hu Lian, formerly known as Conglu, also known as Junru, and also known as Boyu, was born in a poor farmer's family in Beihui Village, Huitong Square, Huaxian County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province in the 29th year of Guangxu's reign (1907). At the age of 12, he entered Huaxian County Higher Primary School.
After graduating from primary school in 1925, he joined Feng Ziming's brigade in the Second National Army as a clerk. In the same year, he was admitted to Peking University. Because his family was poor, he could not afford to go to school. At the age of 18, he joined the fourth class of Huangpu Military Academy, the same time as Lin Biao, Liu Zhidan, Xie Jinyuan and Zhang Lingfu.
Together with Zhang Lingfu, he was selected as a son-in-law by the high families in Xi'an, but he lost the election because he was not as handsome as Zhang.
Weinan City, located in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province, has been famous general Guo Ziyi of the Tang Dynasty since ancient times. The military and political figures of the Communist Party of China include Li Da, Pan Zili, Gao Kelin, Fan Ming, Zhang Zongxun, etc.
Hu Lian started his career as a second lieutenant platoon leader in the 18th Army of the Kuomintang. After the Northern Expedition, the Central Plains War, and the War of Resistance against Japan, he rose to the rank of general in the 18th Army because of his outstanding military achievements. At the age of 37, he was ranked among the top generals of the Kuomintang.
Jiang Jieshi said: Shaanxi people are dragons, not insects.
Hu Lian is as fierce as Zhang Lingfu, but not as arrogant. He is loyal to Huang Baitao, but his plan is actually wrong.
Hu Lian's 18 armies are the old powerful force among the "five trumps" of the Kuomintang. They became famous in the warlord scuffle, contributed to the Anti Japanese War, and were defeated in the Huaihai Campaign.
The word "Tu" in the nickname of Chen Cheng Military Group, "Civil Engineering Department", stands for 11 divisions of the backbone force of the 18th Army, and "Mu" stands for the 18th Army. Its backbone are all Whampoa Military Academy graduates, who can charge ahead in every battle and are not afraid of life and death.
In the tug of war in Luodian, Songhu, the Japanese army killed 3000 people in a month long battle for the tiny place. The whole Luodian was a river of blood, which was called "flesh and blood mill" by the Japanese army.
In 1943, Hu Lian, the commander of the 11th division of the 18th Army, wrote five farewell letters with his father, wife and son in the defense of Shipai Fortress on the Yangtze River, and then bathed and changed his clothes to worship the ancestors in heaven.
Hu Lian knew that unless he had the determination to fight against the Japanese invaders, he would never win. The whole division fought alone for six days and nights.
General Chen Cheng once called Hu Lian to ask if he was sure of holding the fort? The war was urgent, and Hu Lian only replied with one sentence: "Although success is uncertain, Chengren has determination!"
When the battlefield reached the critical moment, there was no gunfire for three hours, and all the soldiers of the 11th division rushed to the Japanese army to fight for bayonets. This was the largest hand to hand battle that the Japanese army encountered in the Second World War. What a fierce scene!
The two armies repeatedly rushed and killed here, and the sun and the moon became pale. The Japanese corpses in the front of the position piled up into a pyramid.
Shipai Pass Campaign was the most important battle of the Anti Japanese War, which completely broke the plan of the Japanese army to occupy Chongqing and enter Sichuan. It was considered by the military authorities of the National Government that Shipai Fortress was Stalingrad in China. The victory of the defense of Shipai Fortress turned the Chongqing National Government from danger to safety.
In this battle, Hu Lian's 11th Division caused heavy losses to the Japanese army, killing 20000 people, and the 18th Army also killed 15000 officers and soldiers. So far, there is still a "blood bath" on Shipai Mountain in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
In order to let the 15000 comrades go clean, the living carried the Yangtze River water to the pool at the top of the mountain to clean the blood and mud all over the dead, and put the worn but washed thin military uniforms on these loyal bones.
In November 1944, Hu Lian's 18th Army joined hands with the 74th Army, and gave a heavy blow to the Japanese army in the battle of Xuefeng Mountain in western Hunan. After 55 days of fierce fighting, more than 12400 Japanese soldiers were killed and 23300 wounded. The Japanese army exclaimed that their deadly enemies were the Huangpu soldiers.
On December 15, 1948, at the last moment of the Huaihai Campaign, Huang Wei, Hu Lian and Wu Shaozhou fled in three tanks.
Huang Wei was worried that the target of the three tanks together was too big, so he ordered the driver to turn into the path. As a result, he made a big circle and returned to the original place. Because the tank had a fault, Huang Wei was arrested. Wu Shaozhou later became a prisoner of the PLA.
Hu Lian was injured by a grenade when he was riding in a tank, but his tank drove along the road with full power. He met the tide of the People's Liberation Army and thought it was a captured chariot. In this way, Hu Lian broke out of the encirclement of millions of troops in the Huaihai battlefield and escaped alone. It was a miracle.
Later, 32 large and small shrapnel fragments were taken from the back in the hospital, several of which were separated from the heart and lungs by only one paper.
It is said that when Hu Lian died many years later, he held 32 pieces of shrapnel and sighed, "Civil engineering is not as good as a grain.". "Su" refers to Su Yu, the head of Huaye.
Hu Lian lived a simple life. He became a teacher in 1943. He was too poor to eat eggs for breakfast, so he asked his family to send him money.
It is said that the battle of Jinmen Guningtou is coming to an end, and all the officers and men of the 18th Army of the 12th Corps are so excited about this sudden victory that they burst into tears. When a reporter interviewed him, Hu Lian said, "My generation lost the mainland, so I'm embarrassed to talk about this victory.".
The Taiwanese newspaper said that his head was not feverish.
In the eighth year of Jinmen, Hu Lian spared no effort to build roads with the soldiers, dug deep holes, accumulated grain, stored more bullets, and dug holes in the mountains every day, forming a complete defense tunnel system around the island.
When he was in charge of Jinmen, he let the people on the island plant sorghum, and the soldiers exchanged rice for sorghum, which changed the ecology of Jinmen Island.
He advocated that military vehicles could pull the elderly and children to solve the hardships of the poor. When the newlyweds on the island get married, he gives up his car as a gift car to set a new example on the island.
He said to the soldiers, "We are soldiers now. We used to be civilians. After we retired, we are still civilians. Why don't we love people?"
In this regard, Jiang Jieshi sighed that "without Hu Lian, there would be no Golden Gate, and without Golden Gate, there would be no Taiwan". This is the highest evaluation of Hu Lian.
Hu Lian is not only a powerful general, but also a tough one.
When Wan bombarded Jinmen, three generals were killed on the spot. Hu Lian heard the shells and went into the air raid shelter without any damage.
In December 1972, Hu Lian was awarded the rank of first rank general of the army.
From the battle of Shipaiguan in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River to the battle of Guningtou in Jinmen Island, Hu Lian, as a soldier, participated in the war twice. Although his opponents were different, he changed the fate of the Chinese nation.
In his later years, Hu Lian was indifferent. He spoke Shaanxi dialect and entered the Institute of History of Taiwan University at the age of 68.
He read Song History and Modern History twice a week and never missed a class. Later, he wrote books such as "The Course of the Battle of Guningtou", "The Battle of Guningtou", "Remembering the Past in Jinmen", and "Vietnam News".
On June 22, 1977, 70 year old Hu Lian died of heart disease in Taipei and was buried at Jinmen at sea. This descendant of Qin people from Qinchuan, 800 miles away, ended his legendary life.
On that day, the Jinmen People's Army set up incense tables along the way to sacrifice Hu Lian, who slept in Jinmen for a long time.
Now, from the blue sky and clear water, it seems that a poem he wrote in the days of the Anti Japanese War:
Rivers and mountains are broken and wind is throwing flocs,
The life experience is shaking, the rain is beating the ping-pong,
The country is in danger and more beautiful,
When the world is in turmoil, we know our relatives.
