On the evening of July 30, 1947, in the sky of Nanma and Linqu, the torrential rain that had lasted for more than ten days still had no intention of stopping. Su Yu, deputy commander of the East China Field Army, looked at the map and was very unhappy in his heart. Just 9 days ago, because of the weather, he had released the Kuomintang reorganized 11th Division. Now it seems that the 8th Division has no possibility of annihilation. He took a deep breath and gave the order to retreat.
On the other hand, Li Mi, commander of the reorganized 8th Division, who was in Linqu County, breathed a long sigh of relief. This time, I finally saved another life.
Fu Will Li Mi
Li Mi has always been a very special presence in the Kuomintang army. A native of Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, he was a graduate of the Huangpu Ivy Infantry Section, and had served as a lieutenant platoon leader under Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, returning to the Kuomintang forces before the Nanchang Uprising. Since then, he has participated in the "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army several times, each time failing, but each time he can escape to a life: in 1930, his troops encountered He Long, during the battle Li Mi was wounded in the face, but was not arrested; in the Battle of Caotaigang in February 1933, Lin Biao destroyed Chen Cheng's 11th Division, and Li Mi escaped again; in 1933, at the Battle of Deshengguan, Li Mi's 96th Division of the 36th Army was ambushed by the Red Army, but he himself was safe again. So slowly, he became known as the "Blessed General".
However, there is an essential difference between "blessed generals" and "cadre generals". Because of his average military ability, Li Mi was not appreciated by Chiang Kai-shek until 1932 for his "disarming incident" against Chen Cheng. Since then, although he has been continuously promoted, he has never had any decent military achievements. The reason why Chiang Kai-shek promoted him was because he saw his "loyalty", so he always let Li Mi act as a pawn to contain long yun, the "king of Yunnan", in the western Hubei region.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Li Mi was promoted again as the commander of the "Honorary 1st Division" and served under the commander Zheng Dongguo (then the commander of the 8th Army). Later, due to the high-level game, the commander of the 8th Army was replaced by He Shaozhou, the nephew of He Yingqin.
Although He Shaozhou is a graduate of the first phase of Huangpu, his essence is nothing more than a "Ya Nei" without any ability. He and Li Mi cooperated, and there was a feeling of "lame donkey with tattering". As a result, in the Battle of Matsuyama, Li Mi did not have any strategy to break into the field fortifications of the Japanese army, and lost 40% of his troops in just one month. Later, relying on the "tunnel blasting method" of Zhao Fabi, the leader of the 3rd Regiment, the battle was won. After that, He Shaozhou took the "Qingtian White Sun Medal" and went to serve as the deputy commander of the Yunnan Garrison. Li Mi, on the other hand, also became the commander of the 8th Army. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Eighth Army was reorganized into the 8th Division and entered the East China Battlefield. After several battles, he never showed strong combat effectiveness.
Battle of Linqu
On July 17, 1947, Su Yu, a god-level general of the People's Liberation Army, launched the Battle of Nanma, and Hu Lian, commander of the reorganized 11th Division, saw that he could not support it and could only ask Chiang Kai-shek for help. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the 8th Division to reinforce quickly, but Li Mi was not enthusiastic about the implementation of the order and moved slowly. On the 21st, the People's Liberation Army abandoned the attack on Nanma, and Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Li Mi to block Huaye's retreat and wait for other troops to come and encircle. At this time, Li Mi had just advanced from Weixian to the vicinity of Linqu, so he ordered his troops to occupy several high ground and did not have large-scale fortifications.
Fighting began on the 23rd. Su Yu ordered the second column to deploy near the highway to take on the task of blocking reinforcements, and the seventh column to serve as the flank auxiliary defense. The Sixth Column, the Ninth Column, and three regiments of the Bohai Naval Region took on the main offensive tasks.
It was not until the sound of the cannon that Li Mi suddenly discovered two problems: a part of his troops remained in Weixian County and did not come over, and the troops in his hands were not satisfied; moreover, because there were no fortifications, the troops had no basis for defense. He hurriedly ordered the front, building fortifications while fighting, hoping to make up for the dead sheep.
Li Mi's blessing was indeed not blown. Even if his command on the battlefield was completely unruly, the weather helped him. Since the day after the People's Liberation Army attacked Nanma, the rain in the sky has been falling, and there have been great problems with the supply and ammunition of the troops. The explosives, in particular, were already mostly soaked, and only one-tenth of the explosives package could be pulled! Moreover, the troops were too tired, and many soldiers fell asleep while eating and eating, and some fell asleep in the muddy water just after finishing a stage of fighting. But even so, the attacking fighters of the sixth and ninth columns still took many high ground outside the city and destroyed the enemy's 309th regiment.
However, on the 29th, the most tragic situation occurred. The water outside Linqu City suddenly swelled, and many PLA fighters who crossed the river were washed away. The remaining troops, although they detoured upstream and eventually crossed the river, were no longer able to continue to expand the results. At this time, the reinforcements of the Kuomintang army were getting closer and closer. After weighing the pros and cons, Su Yu decided to withdraw from the battle. Therefore, Li Mi escaped another disaster under the protection of the weather.
Battle of Huaihai
In the next battle of Linqu City, Li Mi was dead and alive and began to "swell". He wantonly recruited various puppet armies and security regiments, and his strength was further expanded. On the eve of the Battle of Huaihai, his unit had been expanded to three corps, and the formation had been upgraded to the rank of corps, the famous 13th Corps.
On the night of November 6, 1948, the East China Field Army launched a battle to annihilate Huang Baitao's Seventh Corps. Li Mi immediately led the 13th Corps and Qiu Qingquan's 2nd Corps to the rescue. Under the cover of aircraft and tanks, they marched east along the Longhai Road from November 12, but they were stubbornly blocked by the 7th, 10th, and 11th columns of Huaye, and it took 10 days to advance only 20 kilometers. At this time, Huang Baitao had died in the rebels, and the rescue was meaningless. Li Mi and Qiu Qingquan had to return to Xuzhou in ashes.
On the night of November 30, Du Yuming led the 2nd, 13th, and 16th corps to withdraw from Xuzhou and retreat south. Near Chen Guanzhuang, it was surrounded by 8 columns led by Su Yu. Nearby, there were 7 columns as reserves, and the Central Plains Field Army as the general reserve, all of which put pressure on Du Yuming's group. The entire three corps of 200,000 people were trapped in a situation where they could not go and could not retreat.
After that, the Kuomintang army began to surrender into an organization under the powerful political offensive of the People's Liberation Army. At first it was one person and one person, then one squad after another, and finally one company after another. Before Su Yu launched a general offensive, there were only more than 10,000 troops left. Li Mi's men also ran almost as fast as they could, and he was unable to stop them, so he could only run to the position and shout at the soldiers: "Brothers, I will not stop you when you want to leave, but please leave your weapons behind!" ”
Back at the command post, Li Mi felt that the general trend had gone, and he couldn't help but cry loudly. He knew that the battle was lost, and it was time to think about the way back for himself. He found some used bandages, disguised himself as a wounded medic, and fled outside the war zone. Later, he found a landlord named Gao Darong, asked him to take a sack and put himself in, and transported it back to Qingdao like a cargo. Relying on this "witty" escape, Li Mi once again picked up a life from Su Yu's hands.
Yunnan was detained
After escaping from Su Yu twice, Li Mi returned to Nanjing. Chiang Kai-shek looked at this blessed general who had been "weathered by the wind and frost" and was moved to almost cry. He ordered Li Mi to reorganize the 8th Army and continue to Yunnan to monitor Lu Han, who was somewhat out of control. Since Long Yun was expelled by Chiang Kai-shek in October 1945, Lu Han has become a new generation of "Yunnan Kings". There is information that at this time he has frequent contact with some strangers, and there seems to be signs of an uprising. Now, Chiang Kai-shek had arranged for Yu Chengwan's 26th Army overseers, and felt that the weight was not enough, so he sent Li Mi over again.
However, what is unexpected is that the phrase "one mountain does not tolerate two tigers" has once again been confirmed in the Kuomintang troops in Yunnan. When Li Mi came to Yunnan, Chiang Kai-shek did not make it clear who he and Yu Chengwan were, so neither of them obeyed each other's discipline. Instead of focusing on how to balance Luján, the two men were busy tripping the other.
On December 9, 1949, Li Mi, Yu Chengwan, and Shen Drunk, the director of the Yunnan Station of the Military Command Bureau, received an invitation from Lu Han at the same time, saying that there was an emergency meeting to be held. However, when the three arrived, they found that almost all the central military and political personnel in Yunnan had arrived, but Lu Han had not arrived. As soon as they realized something was wrong, they were detained by Luhan's men. On this day, Luján led an uprising!
However, the other military commanders of the 8th Army and the 26th Army, after receiving the news, immediately decided to attack Kunming regardless of the life and death of their commander. This hand obviously surprised Lujan, and his troops were defeated. In order to allow the two armies not to attack themselves and even to revolt with themselves, Lu Han asked Li and Yu to sign the Declaration of The Uprising, and then let them go back. This is the third time that Li Mi has escaped from the hands of the People's Liberation Army. I have to say that his luck is really good.
After Li Mi returned to the military headquarters, he originally wanted to retreat to the China-Myanmar border to wait for rescue, but was opposed by the deputy commander Cao Tiange. Just when the two were arguing, they found that Yu Chengwan had withdrawn in advance. The other commanders of the 8th Army had to agree with Li Mi and withdraw to the border. Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek sent Tang Yao, chief of staff of the Army Headquarters, to take overall charge and merge the 8th Army and the 26th Army into the 8th Army group and prepare to continue the attack on Kunming.
But this so-called 8th Army, from the very beginning, was not smooth militarily. They were attacked by a joint attack by the 17th Army of the People's Liberation Army and the rebel forces and had to retreat south again. Soon, the 4th Army of the People's Liberation Army, led by the famous general Chen Geng, marched into Yunnan and launched the Southern Yunnan Campaign. After 50 days of pursuit, the Nationalist 8th Army was defeated, tang yao, deputy commander of the corps, and Cao Tiange, deputy commander of the 8th Army, were captured, and the rest fled into Burma. Li Mi, on the other hand, was recalled to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek before the collapse of the corps and escaped the disaster again. This is the fourth time he has escaped from the Hands of the People's Liberation Army.
Self-inflicted "King of Burma"
Li Mi did not stay in Taiwan for long, and once he was ordered to "go on a campaign." At this time, the 8th Corps still had more than 2,000 remnants of the defeated army to assemble in northern Burma, and leading them became Li Mi's new task. The 8th Corps was a backhand of Chiang Kai-shek's "counter-offensive", but its position was rather awkward, and its supplies were extremely short. After Li Mi arrived, he gave full play to his eight-faced exquisite skills and allied with many local tribes, so he received a lot of help.
After gaining some combat effectiveness, Li Mi immediately took action. He led this force to attack the Border of Yunnan, capturing 4 counties at one point. However, under the strong offensive of the People's Liberation Army, they were once again driven out of the country. At this time, the Burmese government, which had long looked at them unfavorably, wanted to take this opportunity to eliminate this force, but it did not expect that its combat effectiveness was lower, but it was defeated by Li Mi. During this time, Li Mi was a little fluttery, and said a troublesome sentence in an interview: "I can't be the king of Yunnan, but the king of Burma can still be." ”
This sentence offended almost everyone. First, Chiang Kai-shek began to realize that Li Mi seemed to have a "heart of disobedience"; second, the Americans realized that the Kuomintang troops were beginning to be out of control; the burmese government was the one who offended the most, and they felt that Li Mi was going to take himself as the target of his attack. So soon, the Burmese government submitted a complaint to the United Nations.
The United Nations soon formed a resolution calling on other countries to cut off the supply of Limi's troops and strongly condemning their acts of aggression. Later, under the coordination of the United States, from 1953 onwards, Li Mi returned to Taiwan with most of his troops. After that, Li Mi was completely safe and stayed in the military until his retirement in 1964. He died of a heart attack in 1973.