The 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army was a veteran unit of the Nationalist Army, and the first commander of this unit was Chen Cheng, so this unit was the starting unit of the Civil Engineering Department. Several generals of this unit, such as Chen Cheng, Luo Zhuoying, Huang Wei, Hu Lian, and others, were all relatively capable generals in the Kuomintang army, and this unit was not only relatively good in terms of equipment, but also in terms of soldiers, and it was also very brave in fighting.
After the Outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, Luo Zhuoying led the 18th Army to engage in a fierce battle with the Japanese army in the most fierce battle of Luodian Battlefield. Luodian was a very important transportation hub during the Battle of Songhu, so both sides invested heavy troops in order to compete for this area, and the 18th Army also paid a heavy casualty price in this area. The commander of the 67th Division of the 18th Army was seriously wounded in this battle, and the 67th Division was later replaced by Huang Wei, who was urgently recalled from Germany. After the war, the 67th Division, a division of the first type, fought less than one regiment. Later, in the Battle of Shipai, Hu Lian, deputy commander of the 18th Army, led the 11th Division to repel the Japanese attack and successfully defended the safety of chongqing, the capital.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, which had more than 30,000 troops and was fully equipped with American weapons, and was one of the five main forces, and the division commander Was Hu Lian. The combat effectiveness of this unit is very strong, and the division commander Hu Lian is also a rather cunning general. In 1946, during the Battle of Zhangfengji, Nakano concentrated three columns and a regiment of the 11th Division for six days, and let the regimental commander break through with his troops. In 1947, Hua Ye concentrated five more columns to fight this unit, but it was also a heavy casualty and did not return.
The Battle of Huaihai entered the second stage, the Battle of Shuangduiji broke out, the Central Plains Field Army used all its strength to surround the 12th Corps of the Kuomintang Army, at that time the 12th Corps was the most capable of fighting the 18th Army, Nakano lacked heavy weapons at that time, surrounded but could not move, and finally Huaye's two columns with heavy weapons to support only to change the predicament. During the Battle of Shuangduiji, the combat effectiveness of the 18th Army was very strong, causing very heavy casualties to Nakano and Huaye.
On the battlefield of Dawangzhuang, the 58th Regiment of the Seventh Column, the 59th Regiment, the 60th Regiment, and the 46th Regiment of the Sixth Column of Nakano launched round after round of fierce attacks against the 33rd Regiment of the 18th Army of the Kuomintang Army, which was known as the Tiger Regiment. The Tiger Regiment not only did not surrender, but also carried out a frenzied counterattack, the sound of grenades, explosive packs, bazookas, mortars and other weapons on both sides exploded one after another, both sides were red-eyed, and the Tiger Regiment of the 18th Army sent the men, service soldiers, and car soldiers up to fight desperately, and finally this regiment was finally completely wiped out under the powerful blows of Huaye and Nakano. After watching this battle, a main regiment of the 85th Army in the surrounding Xiaowangzhuang was frightened and surrendered to the People's Liberation Army.
After the fall of the Tiger Regiment, Hu Lian sent the 54th Regiment of the 118th Division of the 18th Army, which claimed to be the Mighty Regiment, to guard the Jiangudui, which was also an elite unit of the 18th Army. The Battle of Jiangudui was also a hard-hitting battle between the two sides, and it was the first time that the officers and men of Nakano and Huaye had encountered such a strong opponent in a row, and they were secretly shocked that the five main forces of the Nationalist Army were indeed worthy of the name, and the commander of the Mighty Wu Regiment also went into battle shirtless many times, and engaged in a fierce white-knife battle with the officers and men of Nakano, charging with rifles and soldiers. Although the resistance of the Weiwu Regiment was very tenacious, many positions were still broken by the People's Liberation Army, and the two regimental commanders of the Weiwu Regiment of the 18th Army of the Nationalist Army committed suicide due to the loss of positions for two consecutive days. After that, the main forces such as the Youth Regiment of the 18th Army were also crippled by the Platon Army, and Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army, gave the engineering battalion and the artillery battalion additional weapons, but the combat effectiveness of these units was relatively weak, and they quickly collapsed under the attack of the PLA.
In this battle, the 12th Corps faced the 110th Division uprising at the beginning and stabbed the knife in the back, but it was still able to stalemate with Nakano and Huaye for so long, the main reason was that the 18th Army could fight. The 18th Army, which fought more than a dozen regiments in this battle, still did not surrender, which is indeed worthy of the name of the five main forces.