After the Battle of Huaihai broke out, Huang Baitao's 7th Corps became HuaYe's primary target. Huang Baitao's vigilance was very high, and he sensed the crisis, and immediately called Liu Zhi to request a retreat to Xuzhou. However, Liu Zhi asked him to wait for the 44th Army to retreat together in Xin'an Town, and as a result, Huang Baitao delayed in Xin'an Town for two full days. At this time, Hua Ye had already caught up, and Huang Baitao asked Li Mi's 13th Corps and himself to retreat to Xuzhou, but Li Mi did not agree and ran first.
Realizing that the situation was not good, Huang Baitao hurriedly sent someone to send Li Yili, a major general in the Presidential Office, to join the army, and before leaving, Huang Baitao said to Li Yili sadly: "Please tell General Liu (Liu Zhi) to pay attention to the fact that if you want other corps to assemble quickly, you will miss a big thing if you are late." If I am surrounded, I hope that other legions will come to my rescue. The ancients said that if we win, we will raise a glass to celebrate, and if we lose, we will die and save each other, and we cannot do it. The affairs of the state are heavy, the head is thrown lightly, and the life and death of the individual are not regrettable. However, the nature of this war is different from the previous ones, it is a decisive battle of the main force, and it has a bearing on the survival of the party and the state, so please tell the boss that we must motivate commanders at all levels, otherwise we will all perish and no one will be able to leave. Please report to the president in person, I Huang Mou was known to the president, life and death were put aside early, and I will never fail to live up to the president's expectations. I am not immune to the difficulty, please write it down, be sure to go to! ”
As soon as Li Yili left, He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia led their troops to revolt at Jiawang, Huang Baitao's retreat was completely blocked, and 120,000 troops were surrounded by Huaye in the Nianzhuangwei area. Returning to Nanjing, Li Yili relayed Huang Baitao's parting words to Old Jiang, who was very touched and called Huang Baitao "the pillar of the country." In order to relieve Huang Baitao, he ordered Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi to rush to Nianzhuang with the strength of 5 armies, and sent this telegram to Qiu Qingquan: "The survival of the party-state, in this one fell swoop, my brother should carry forward the Huangpu spirit, be loyal to the country, do filial piety for the nation, and sacrifice at all costs to crush the enemy in front of him to relieve the siege of the Huang Corps." ”
The three columns of Huaye's 7th, 10th, and 11th columns were in charge of reinforcements, and the first line of reinforcements stretched from Dahuangshan in the north to Deng Lou Village in the south, with a total length of about 20 kilometers; the second line positions stretched from the Bulao River in the north to the Yellow River Gudao in the south, with a total length of about 30 kilometers. Except for a small part of the southern part of the defensive line, which is hilly, the rest of the line is a plain of the Pingchuan River, which is completely undefended. The nianzhuang is only 50 kilometers away from Xuzhou, which can be said to be close at hand, and the pressure of the reinforcements can be imagined. Since the road and railway from Xuzhou to Nianzhuang were in the northern section of the defensive line, the northern section had the heaviest task of blocking, and the 10th Column, which was the best at blocking, was responsible for defense.
The Song Shilun, who was heavily entrusted with heavy responsibilities, did not dare to be careless, and commanded the troops to build a large number of glyph-shaped and plum-shaped fortifications, with communication trenches connected between the fire points, and at the same time dug anti-tank trenches and laid out mines and obstacles in areas where enemy tanks were easy to pass. On November 13, 1948, Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi threw six divisions of troops into a full-scale onslaught against our blocking troops, and our blocking troops rose up to resist. After three days of fierce fighting, Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi advanced ten kilometers.
Du Yuming was very dissatisfied with this and personally came to the front to supervise the battle on the morning of the 17th. Qiu Qingquan was determined to fight a beautiful battle in front of Du Yuming, he took out his ace, the 45th Division of the 5th Army, and the most tragic battle of Xudong's blockade battle, Sun Zhuang, began. The enemy plane dropped five hundred pounds of heavy bombs and a large number of incendiary bombs, and the whole village turned into a sea of fire, and Guo Jiqian, commander of the 45th Division, skimmed his lips and said: Just search and you can occupy it! However, as soon as the enemy approached the village, he was subjected to fierce fire from our army! In order to seek merit in front of Qiu Qingquan and Du Yuming, the 45th Division launched one charge after another under the cover of artillery fire, but all of them were beaten back. This tug-of-war continued for more than a dozen rounds, with heavy casualties on both sides.
At noon, Song Shilun, commander of the Tenth Column, called Xing Yongsheng, commander of the 82nd Regiment, who was holding his position, and demanded that as long as there was still one person and one breath, they could not lose their position, and even if they "lost their homes and property," they should block Qiu Qingquan. Xing Yongsheng immediately gave the troops the order not to retreat from the battle and sent the reserve team up. The enemy also formed a team of overseers and death squads, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce. At the critical moment, the 82nd Regiment's messengers, cooks, and lightly wounded all went to the front, and the regimental commander Xing Yongsheng and the political commissar Long Feihu also took up rifles and participated in the battle as ordinary soldiers. The fierce battle lasted until late at night, the enemy finally could not attack, the 45th Division was Qiu Qingquan's starting force, he was no longer willing to sacrifice for Huang Baitao, so he issued the order to retreat. On this day's battle, our army killed more than 1,000 enemies, paid a heavy price, and only one squad remained in the two reinforcement battalions, and the trenches were full of the remains of martyrs. After the battle of Sun Zhuang, the enemy was greatly frustrated, and he never attacked again, until Huang Baitao's entire army was destroyed, and Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi were still a full 20 kilometers away from Nianzhuang!