The reorganized 74th Division was the number one main force of the Nationalist Army during the Liberation War, the predecessor of this unit was the 74th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which made great achievements during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which made the Japanese army feel frightened, and was called the Royal Forest Army, the Tiger Army, and the head of the five main forces. However, in the Battle of Menglianggu in 1947, this force was completely annihilated by Huaye's army.
The collapse of the reorganized 74th Division had a great impact on both the People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang army at that time, and after this war, no nationalist army penetrated deep into the hinterland of the People's Liberation Army. Chiang Kai-shek was very reluctant to let his first ace unit be annihilated, and immediately asked Wang Yaowu to rebuild and reorganize the 74th Division. Wang Yaowu established the 51st Brigade on the basis of the three recruits instruction regiment of the 74th Division and a howitzer battalion that did not participate in the battle, the 2nd Shandong Garrison Brigade was reorganized into the 57th Brigade, the Guangdong Aviation Garrison Brigade was reorganized into the 58th Brigade, and some of the prisoners of the reorganized 74th Division who were released were also included. The newly appointed commander of the reorganized 74th Division was Qiu Weida, who was both Huangpu IV and Wang Yaowu's old subordinates, with certain military talents.
In January 1948, the reorganized 74th Division was rebuilt and included in the sequence of the Ministry of National Defense. Although the reorganized 74th Division cannot be compared with the previous 74th Division, it is also an elite unit of the Nationalist Army, fully equipped with American weapons. In March 1948, the Central Plains Field Army came out of Dabie Mountain, and nakano, after approaching Dabie Mountain, lost almost all of its heavy weapons in order to contain the main force of the Kuomintang army, with serious attrition, rudimentary weapons, and low morale. In order to boost morale, Nakano prepared to fight a hard battle, and they targeted the 58th Brigade of the reorganized 74th Division in Fuyang, Anhui.
Fuyang was the seat of the Nationalist 14th Appeasement Office at that time, but only the 58th Brigade of the 74th Division was stationed in Fuyang. The 58th Brigade had more than 9,000 people in its entire brigade, and when they learned that Nakano was coming to fight, they immediately fortified the fortifications and built the city defenses overnight. In order to ensure the annihilation of the 58th Brigade in World War I, the Central Plains Field Army gathered five columns of 1, 2, 3, 6, and 11, as well as six columns of the 10th column of Huaye.
On the night of March 29, 1948, the 59th Regiment of the 20th Brigade of the 1st Column launched a surprise attack and annihilated a company of the East Sanliwan Nationalist Army, but was quickly counterattacked and suffered heavy losses. On the 30th, the 58th Regiment sent a sharp knife company to carry out the interspersed mission to prepare to capture Dongguan, and finally this company was left with a squad, and the 58th Regiment sent a battalion to reinforce, and after several hours of fierce fighting, more than half of the casualties were suffered. In the end, the Nationalist army opened the way with flamethrowers and attacked the 58th Regiment, and the 58th Regiment concentrated all its forces before barely repelling it.
During the fierce battle at Dongguan, a battalion of the 222nd Regiment of the 58th Brigade, under the leadership of the regimental commander, attacked the combined headquarters of the 2nd Brigade and the 20th Brigade of the 1st Column, resulting in heavy casualties of these two units, and the 1st Brigade continued to attack on top. The progress of the 11th Column's battle at Beiguan was also unsatisfactory, and the Nationalist army took advantage of its superior firepower to directly destroy a main attack regiment of the 11th Column.
After six days of fierce fighting between the two sides, Qiu Weida came to reinforcements with the main force of the reorganized 74th Division, and a total of 20 brigades of the surrounding Nationalist army also came to support. Nakano feared being surrounded by it and was forced to retreat.