The 18th Army of the National Revolutionary Army was a very strong fighting force in the Kuomintang army during the Republic of China period, and this unit was Chen Cheng's starting force. It is also the veteran strong brigade with the highest quality, the largest scale, the earliest army building, and the largest number of famous generals in the entire Kuomintang army, and the backbone is all Huangpu graduates, which can be called the trump card among the trump cards.
18th Army
There were many famous generals from the 18th Army, Luo Zhuoying, Fang Tian, Huang Wei, Luo Guangwen, Peng Shan, Hu Lian and others were all from the 18th Army. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this unit, as the main force of the Nationalist Army, waged a fierce battle with the Japanese army in Luodian, the transportation hub of the Songhu Battlefield, and almost all the officers at the middle and grass-roots levels were killed; Cai Bing, the commander of the 201st Brigade of the 18th Army, was killed in a fierce battle with the Japanese army, Lieutenant General Li Shusen (Huangpu I), commander of the 67th Division of the 18th Army, was seriously wounded, and the 67th Division was later replaced by Huang Wei (Huangpu I), who was urgently recalled from Germany.
General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign (Su Yu, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, Tan Zhenlin)
The 18th Army was followed by outstanding performance in the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Zaoyi, and the Battle of Western Hubei. In 1943, the Japanese army attacked Shipai, the gateway to Chongqing, the capital of China during the war, and Hu Lian, deputy commander of the 18th Army and commander of the 11th Division, led his troops to severely damage the Japanese army, and also launched the largest white-knife battle with the Japanese army since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, and the division commander was Hu Lian. The integrated 11th Division, like the reorganized 74th Division, was one of the five main forces of the Nationalist Army, but during the Liberation War, this unit was more difficult to deal with than the integrated 74th Division. In 1946, Liu Bocheng gathered three columns in Zhangfengji to try to annihilate this unit, but fought with a regiment of the integrated 11th Division for six days, but did not annihilate it, and finally had to retreat. In 1947, only one month after the end of the Battle of Menglianggu, Su Yu led four columns of Huaye to besiege him in Nanma, fighting fiercely for six days, but still making no progress, and finally had to retreat due to the arrival of reinforcements from the Kuomintang army.
Hu Lian
In the second phase of the Battle of Huaihai in 1948, in the Battle of Shuangduiji, more than 100,000 people from four corps and 12 divisions of the 12th Corps led by Huang Wei were surrounded by Nakano in Shuangduiji. Among these four armies, the most difficult to fight was the 18th Army, although Nakano surrounded it, but it could not be defeated, and finally Huaye's chief of staff Chen Shiyu came with two columns and some heavy weapons to reinforce. The 18th Army was an old rival of Nakano's officers and men, and the enemies were extremely red-eyed when they met, and the two sides fought fiercely as soon as they met.
During the entire Battle of Shuangduiji, the most tragic battle took place in Dawangzhuang. Dawangzhuang is the southern gate of the headquarters of the 12th Corps of double stacks, only a few miles away from the commander of the 12th Corps. Guarding Dawangzhuang was the 33rd Regiment of the 118th Division of the 18th Army, which was known as the Tiger Regiment, all of which were composed of veterans with rich combat experience. In order to take Dawangzhuang, Huaye shelled it fiercely, and then the three battalions of the 58th Regiment of the 20th Division of the Seventh Column of Huaye and the first batch of the 60th Regiment rushed up and drove the Tiger Regiment out before the shelling stopped, Hu Lian immediately ordered the 18th Army to concentrate all its artillery fire to bombard Dawangzhuang, and the commander of the 33rd Regiment launched a dozen attacks on Dawangzhuang.
Huang Wei, commander of the 12th Corps, was captured
Attacking a fortified battle is a very strenuous battle, generally speaking, if a unit cannot be defeated two or three times, the physical strength of the officers and men will decline very quickly, and they will retreat to rest, but this unit has launched more than a dozen attacks in a company to retake most of the area of Dawangzhuang, and only the 59th Regiment of Huaye Seven Columns that went up later defended the southwest corner of Zhuang.
The anxiety of the Battle of Dawangzhuang made the generals of Nakano Huaye's various departments very anxious, and the commander of the Sixth Column, Wang Jinshan, also sent the 46th Regiment of the Sixth Column, and this unit also suffered the loss of the reorganized 11th Division, and had long wanted to be ashamed of the snow, and then the officers and men of the 58th Regiment, the 59th Regiment, and the 60th Regiment of Huaye also rushed up. In this small village with only a few dozen families, the sound of grenades, mortar shells, grenadiers, explosive packs and other weapons exploding has not stopped, and finally under the powerful blows of all the units in Huaye Nakano, this unit was finally annihilated, and only the commander of the 33rd Regiment escaped, and after escaping back, he was shot by Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army, on the charge of escaping from the battlefield and losing his position.
After the Battle of Dawangzhuang, there was not a single complete wall in the entire village. At that time, there were two regiments in Xiaowangzhuang at the headquarters of the 23rd Division of the 85th Army, and these people were almost frightened by this fierce battle, and immediately after the battle, they surrendered to the Seventh Column of the People's Liberation Army Huaye.